Final exam requires students to perform in the nude

A parent is upset that a professor at UC San Diego is reportedly requiring students perform their final exam in the nude.

The course, Visual Arts 104A: Performing the Self, has been taught at the university by Ricardo Dominguez for 11 years. The performance requires he be nude as well, ABC 10 News reported.

The class “focuses on the history of body art and performance art in relation to the question of the self or subjectivity,” Dominguez said.

A mother of a student in the course said her daughter is required to perform nude, or faces failing the class. The performance is done in a dark room only lit by candlelight, Dominguez confirmed.

“At the very end of the class, we’ve done several gestures, they have to nude gesture,” he said. “The prompt is to speak about or do a gesture or create an installation that says, ‘what is more you than you are.’”

He said the performance is scheduled at the beginning of the course, and that it is “very controlled.”

The mother, who was not identified, said nothing was explained the students, but Dominguez said he has not received a complaint about the course or assignment in his 11 years of teaching it.

In a statement, the university said the course does not require nudity, nor is it a requirement for graduation.

Contact Kristen DeSilva at 702-477-3895 or kdesilva@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva