Blaine Whisenhunt, M.F.A.

Assistant Professor of Art & Art History, Sculpture

Office: Pool Art Center, Room 111
Phone: (417) 873-7484
E-Mail: jwhisenhunt@drury.edu
 

Biography:
Assistant Professor Blaine Whisenhunt joined the Drury Art and Art History Department in 2004 to develop the Sculpture studio and curriculum. Since that time he has taught Drawing, Foundations of Studio and Design, and all levels of Sculpture and served as Coordinator of Foundations. He is currently developing selected topics courses for the Art and Art History Department as well as the Honors College and will co-teach an upcoming course in Video Art.

Blaine is both an accomplished musician and visual artist. His music, which can be associated with the emerging New Weird America or Post-Punk Blues indie music genres, has been reviewed in various music publications including Dirty Linen and Sing Out! Though trained as a sculptor, Blaine considers himself to be a post-media artist who's work is not reliant on a specific medium, discipline or style. He sees his work as a vehicle for socio-political and cultural criticism, underpinned by a nexus of timeless and emerging philosophical inquiries. Blaine's work has been shown nationally and internationally in both group and solo exhibitions including New York City, San Francisco, and Glasgow, Scotland.

Scholarly Research Interests/Projects
Current - The Praxis Approach: Art Foundations in the Information Age A synthesis of theory and practice in introductory art education implemented via the integration of paradigmatic shifts in culture, theory, and science crucial/vital to the Information Age. 2007--present Thesis: A re-examination and repudiation of The Bauhausian bias/dominance (Vorkurs Approach) in our K-12 (discipline-based) art education and foundations programs at many of our university art departments and its appropriateness in a post-Internet era. Questions raised: What is "foundational" after modernism? In our contemporary postmodern information age of complexity, pluralism, virtualism, globalism, etc. how can machine age fundamentals (Bauhaus 1919-1933) and late-enlightenment "truths" remain fundamental, foundational and germane to a 21st Century Art and Design ideation process? What role, if any, should the Bauhaus Vorkurs approach play in context to the integration of subsequent theory in contemporary art and design curricula?

Research/Art Topics:

emergence, memetics, critical pedagogy, biomimicry, the AI singularity, fanaticism, folkloristics, conspiracism, autonomism, epigenetics, alchemy, folk magic, evolutionary psychology, nanotech, swarm intelligence, cellular automata, chaos theory, fractal dimensional theory, dogma, social constructivism, myopia, ephemeralism, ritual and myth

Portfolio:
Small Portfolio

Interests/Associations/Conferences:

The Space Collective, Music Maker Relief Foundation, TED Conference, Santa Fe Institute, The Old Weird America, Church of the SubGenius, UCCPC, Design and the Elastic Mind, Harry Smith Archives, FolkStreams, Buckminster Fuller Institute

A.K.A.:

dystopic futurist, strong emergentist, cognitive memetician, epistemologal constructivist, free biocentrist

Exhibitions/Galleries:

Indoctri-N A T I O N Pool Art Center Gallery, Springfield, Missouri
Marching Orders University of Arkansas Fine Art Gallery, Fayetteville, Arkansas
Sinkholes and Reflection Pools Murphy Foster Gallery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Solving for X Murphy Foster Gallery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
MOAK 4-State Regional Exhibit 2008 Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri
Home of the Brave: Politics, Propaganda, and Patriotism FGCU Art Gallery, Fort Myers, Florida
Playing for Keeps Atlantic Gallery, New York City
WHYGTS? 2007 Atlantic Gallery, New York City
MOAK 4-State Regional Exhibit 2006 Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri
Terror? Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, California
America on the Brink: A Political Exegesis Under the Aegis of the US DAT ATHICA: Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Inc., Athens, Georgia
What Have U Got 2 Say? 2006 Mana Fine Arts Gallery, Jersey City, New Jersey
Liberty and Security in a Post 9/11 World Pool Art Center Gallery, Springfield, Missouri
Art Not Oil Mono Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.
Works on Paper LSU Union Art Gallery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
No Dead Artists Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana

Education
M.F.A., Sculpture, Louisiana State University, 2000
B.F.A., University of Central Arkansas, 1997