Visual and Studio Arts

Traditionally, we refer to the house as the structure to protect the intimacy of the family. It provides shelter and separates us from work but also supports it. The house is the space that protects the biological life of the occupants and encompasses an envelope with subdivisions into smaller spaces—what we call rooms. Such rooms present a defined hierarchy—what we call privacy, set forth by the homeowner, allowing individuals to separate from the rest of the occupants—a value directly connected to the notion of the “traditional family.” The division of rooms and their functions reiterates the nuclear-family structure. It allows for the separation of the family from the outside world and of each individual within the house. This course explicates the house, home, and housing as a space we all inhabit and sometimes take for granted. We live in times of housing scarcity, climate adjustments, new family structures, and real-estate development that hinder architects, planners, and designers from proposing spaces for non-homogenized living based on the traditional family and the work-life paradigm that fuels our current housing. This course aims to question the house, its form, sustainability, temporality, production, and reproduction, as well as how to answer, propose, and study its elements for better living not only for “one family” but for all.

In the 1970s, ideas of the commons focused on the separation of the public and private spaces through the notion of property—a capitalist tool leading to the continued commodification of land, site, and ground and furthering inequality and accessibility to resources. In the early 1980s, new positions began to envisage the city as “the commons.” This perspective conceived the city as a collection of shared resources within public spaces, where the public assembled for social interactions and decision-making guided by aspirations for a more equitable society. The architectural discourse focused less on the relational and architectural co-produced transformations promoted by “commoning” practices as a reaction to crisis and necessity. Therefore, a notion of trans-property is central to understanding how sharing in a capitalist regime can occur critically through modes of living. While the prevailing production structures are in motion and inadequate, their transformation is essential for the genuine advancement of the commons. A crucial aspect of this transformation involves identifying and situating the individual experience of “being in common” with others and redirecting society’s individualistic tendencies toward a more collective orientation. Without this initial point, the promotion of sharing structures transcends the existing ones; but this task proves to be a formidable and intricate challenge, which could result in increased division and disassociation and ultimately leading to fractured commoning practices. This course aims to reexamine the notion of housing through the lens of common practices and collective action. The current housing crisis echoes those of the past. Many solutions have been proposed to build more housing, which has led to homogenized designs in the name of efficiency, political tension, technology, and less focus on the people as a collective. Through reading, research, and designing this course, students will analyze architectural styles and movements; develop arguments; and propose new housing model understanding, buildability, aesthetics, affordability, sustainability, circularity, and collective action.

This will be a highly rigorous drawing class that pushes young artists to develop a disciplined, sustainable, and experimental drawing practice with which to explore new ways of thinking, seeing, and making art. Each week, you will make 50 to 100 small works on paper, based on varied, open-ended, unpredictable prompts. These prompts are meant to destabilize your practice and encourage you to interrogate the relationship between a work’s subject and its material process. You will learn to work quickly and flexibly, continually experimenting with mediums and processes as you probe the many possible solutions to problems posed by each prompt. As you create these daily drawings, you will simultaneously work on one large, ambitious, labor-intensive drawing that you revisit over the entire semester. That piece will evolve slowly, change incrementally, and reflect the passage of time in vastly different ways from your daily works. This dynamic exchange will allow you to develop different rhythms in your creative practice, bridging the space between an idea’s generation and its final aesthetic on paper. This course will challenge you to ambitiously redefine drawing and, in doing so, will dramatically transform your art-making practice.

This drawing class creates works on paper in watercolor, ink, and collage using the human form while considering the ways in which the body has been depicted in art of the 21st century. Feminist artists and BIPOC artists have transformed the way we see and construct the world and how the figure is used in art. Borrowing a conceptual frame, in part from an exhibition curated by Apsara Di Quinzio at Berkeley Art Museum (2022), student assignments will include the following: returning the gaze, the body in pieces, absence and presence, gender alchemy, activism, domesticity, and labor. In the first half of the class, students can draw directly with a model present in the classroom; the second half will introduce alternative substrates, including medical textbooks, fashion magazines, and collage. Artists will be introduced to the work of Louise Bourgeois, Jenny Holzer, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Luchita Hurtado, Sarah Lucas, Mary Minter, Kiki Smith, Lorna Simpson, Karen Finley, Kara Walker, Rona Pondick, Simone Leigh, Zanele Muholi, Wangechi Mutu, Mary Kelly, Janine Antoni, Carolee Schneeman, Kerry James Marshall, Lyle Ashton Harris, Bob Flanagan, and Féliz Gonzalez Torres.

In this course, students will draw from a live model using a variety of drawing materials, techniques, and artistic approaches. The purpose of this course is to help students obtain the basic skill of drawing the human form, including anatomy; observation of the human form; and fundamental exercises in gesture, contour, outline, and tonal modeling. In the shorter drawings, students will explore the fundamentals of drawing, such as measurement, mark-making, value structure, and composition. Observational drawing will be used as a point of departure to examine various strategies to construct a visual world. Students will proceed to develop technical and conceptual skills that are crucial to the drawing process. The work will fluctuate between specific in-class and homework assignments.

Why is the topic of laughter so often siloed or scorned in discussions of high art, literature, and the sciences? Why don’t we take laughter seriously as a society? How many professors does it take to teach a course on laughter? (Two more than usual!) In this lecture-seminar, students will develop a highly interdisciplinary understanding of laughter as a human behavior, cultural practice, and wide-ranging tool for creative expression. Based on the expertise of the three professors, lectures will primarily investigate laughter through the lens of psychology, film history, and visual arts. The goal of the course is to think and play across many disciplines. For class assignments, students may be asked to conduct scientific studies of audience laughter patterns, create works of art with punchlines, or write close analyses of classic cinematic gags. Over the course of the semester, we will examine the building blocks of laughter; classic devices of modern comedy; and laughter as a force of resilience, resistance, and regeneration. Topics to be discussed include the evolutionary roots of laughter as a behavior; the psychological substrates of laughter as a mode of emotional and self-regulation; humor in Dada, surrealism, performance art, and stand-up comedy; jokes and the unconscious; comic entanglements of modern bodies and machines; hysterical audiences of early cinema; and how to read funny faces, word play, spit takes, toilet humor, and sound gags.

This course is intended for seniors interested in pursuing their own art-making practice more deeply and for a prolonged period of time. Students will maintain their own studio spaces and will be expected to work independently and creatively and to challenge themselves and their peers to explore new ways of thinking and making. The course will incorporate prompts that encourage students to make art across disciplines and will culminate in a solo gallery exhibition during the spring semester, accompanied by a printed book that documents the exhibition. We will have regular critiques with visiting artists and our faculty, discuss readings and myriad artists, take trips to galleries and artist’s studios, and participate in the Visual Arts Lecture Series. Your art-making practice will be supplemented with other aspects of presenting your work—writing an artist statement, writing exhibition proposals, interviewing artists, and documenting your art—along with a series of professional-practices workshops. This is an immersive studio course meant for disciplined art students interested in making work in an interdisciplinary environment.

A “live-coding,” practice-based introduction to computational art for students with no prior experience in computer programming, the course will focus this semester on small ecosystems and simulations—including in-class code sessions covering color, shape, transformations, objects, and motion. We will also read a bit on the social, cultural, and ontological nature of software art and programming cultures. This class is taught in Processing/Java.

A live demo, practice-based introduction to the uses of artificial intelligence (AI) as an artistic medium, students will create three small skills projects and one conference work using AI processes, including prompt generation, image synthesis, and style transfer. We’ll also explore the art history of AI and discuss the critical questions surrounding AI in art and society through weekly screening meetings. No prior technical or art experience is required—just a willingness to explore new genres and their creative potential.

While sculpture adds and subtracts, folding transforms. In fact, folding is everywhere in nature, science, and especially the art studio. In this class, we'll turn to the experimental world of paper mechanisms through an exploration of folding, pleating, and crumpling, using a range of materials such as paper, fabric, and filament. We’ll dive into the world of ordered space, kinetic devices, reconfigurable objects, and auxetics, using paper to explore the new technologies of transformation important to contemporary artists and scientists.

Although amateurs often confuse the terms, abstract video is a new art form that is very different from the experimental film movement of the 1970s and ’80s. Often drawing from the digital worlds of games, signal processing, 3D modeling, and computational media, abstract video has become an important new aspect of art installation, site-specific sculpture, and gallery presentations. This small-project class is an introduction to the use of video as a material for the visual artists. Using open-source software and digital techniques, students will create several small works of video abstraction intended for gallery installation, ambient surrounds, and new media screens. Artists studied include Refik Anendol, Light Surgeons, Ryoji Ikeda, and more.

The class will examine the abilities of artificial intelligence (AI) to visualize personal and historical memory. Students are asked to find a diary fragment from their own diary or from a text donated by an individual or one found in an archive, historical diary, or public domain resource. After a brief overview of generative AI and its applications in creating visual art, students will create several visual representations of this past event using AI and note any challenges, insights, or surprises encountered during the experiment. Students will also be asked to reflect on the nature of memory and ethical witness, visual storytelling, and the impact of technology on artistic expression.

In this introduction to painting course, students will learn about color and composition through observation and imagination—exploring value, intensity, hue, temperature, vectors, edges, shapes, translating volume to a 2D surface, and more. Projects will focus on direct observation from still life, collage, the live model, and imagination. Students will learn the basics of painting: using acrylic paint and other water-soluble painting materials, mixing and desaturating paint colors on a palette, and using a variety of brushes and mediums. Demos and dynamic in-class exercises will be the pillar of this experience. Students will develop basic knowledge of art history and contemporary painting through thematic slide lectures and assignments.

Using the human form as a site of inquiry, students will build their own vocabulary, image bank and method of working with acrylic paint. Each
assignment will begin with a prompt and a PowerPoint introduction of contemporary and historical artworks. Students will then develop an
individualized response to the prompt. While realism is an option, abstraction, distortion, metaphor and other ways of manifesting the body are
welcome. The emphasis of the class is on students developing confidence in their own voice and to build a committed, highly engaged studio
practice that engages risk. This class will use acrylic paint. Each assignment will begin with a series of fast paper paintings exploring color mixing,
composition and the material properties unique to acrylic before students moving towards a larger individualized response to the prompt. The
second half of the semester will introduce gels and mediums and off the stretcher skins and substrates. This is an intermediate level class and
assumes college level pre-requisites of drawing and painting. The assignment prompts will include but are not limited to curtain, skin, five
senses, intimacy, absence, morning, and dysmorphia. As much as is possible students will cull images from life, their own photoshoots or family
archive. From these prompts, the students’ greatest strength and interests will develop and a conference project will emerge - resulting in either
10 small/ 3 medium-sized or one large painting on a topic of their own choosing. Homework assignments, individual and class crits, and building
a language to talk about painting is an important and required part of class.

In this course, students will learn about color and composition through observation and imagination, exploring value, intensity, hue, temperature, vectors, edges, shapes, translating volume to a 2D surface, and more. Projects will focus on direct observation from still life, collage, the live model, and imagination. Students will learn the basics of painting: using acrylic paint and other water-soluble painting materials, mixing and desaturating paint colors on a palette, and using a variety of brushes and mediums. Demos and dynamic in-class exercises will be the pillar of this experience. Students will develop basic knowledge of art history and contemporary painting through thematic slide lectures and assignments.

This is a project-based painting intensive. Students will be given specific prompts, which will lead to investigations and experimentations in abstraction. The prompts will result in students generating work that is theirs. Each assignment encourages visual and personal research in preparation for making. Technical exploration, perception, development of ideas, intuition, invention, representation, and communication are at the core of this class. We will have a chance to explore different ways of working with acrylic paint and expand on the idea of what painting is by integrating alternative painting materials. The paintings made in this class will consider the meaning of materials; transformation of materials through touch; and working with found, as well as repurposed, materials. Paintings may be three-dimensional and may not stay within a rectangle. Curiosity and giving yourself permission to travel to unexpected places, rather than merely relying on skills and experiences which are part of you already, is an important part of this class. This class is for people who are interested in surprising themselves! Participants will engage in critical group dialogues and individual critiques to hone the fundamental aspects of their work and deepen their understanding of contemporary art practice. This class is for people who are interested in learning to work abstractly. In the context of this class, abstraction is grounded in specificity, research, and in looking for personal, particular ways to communicate through a chosen language of abstraction. Classwork is accompanied by the creation of a separate group of conference work. This intermediate painting class is a rigorous painting environment, where you will be producing a lot of work: sketches, collages, and variations on paintings. You will also be considering how to best install work in order for the work to communicate most clearly.

In this two credit class, we will explore the process of collage as a method of creating dynamic compositions. Collage is a way to communicate complex emotions, layered ideas, and nonlinear stories. We will be learning different techniques of collage, using found materials, photographs, and craft supplies. Collage in this class will be utilized as a preparation toward making a series of paintings but will also become part of paintings. At the core of this class is openness to material experimentation, interest in learning how to communicate through paint as well as nontraditional painting materials, and learning about other artists who have used collage and assemblage in their work. The class follows a series of prompts or visual problems that are posed by the instructor. By the end of class, a series of works will be produced. Each student will investigate topics of interest to them through methods of collage and painting. Some of the visual materials that we will reference are stained-glass windows, quilts, tiles, mail art, and book art, as well as artists who have used/use collage in their paintings/drawings/sculpture today.

In this experimental studio class, we will explore how to digest, appropriate, reconfigure, and rewrite popular media using mostly, but not only, painting, drawing, and collage and also open to video, animation, sculpture, and performance. We will examine how artists operate as consumers and as catalysts, motors, and destroyers of TV, film, music, social media, and advertisement. Slideshows, readings, and presentations will exemplify the tight relationship between art and popular media throughout history, and contemporary art and will serve as inspiration for students to create their own works. Students will be encouraged to deconstruct their own spectacles of adoration and critique and celebrate images that are impactful to them. We will promote generative group conversations, studio time, experimentation, collaboration, creativity, and improvisation.

Experiment and explore contemporary performance art. Through surveying a range of important artworks and movements, we will review the histories, concepts, and practices of performance art. Born from anti-art, performance art challenges the boundaries of artistic expression through implementing, as material, the concepts of space, time, and the body. Examples of artists that we will review are John Cage, Joan Jonas, Adrian Piper, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Simone Forti, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Pope.L, Laurie Anderson, Joseph Beuys, Janine Antoni, Suzanne Lacy, Aki Sasamoto, and Anna Halprin, to name a few. We will review dialogues and movements introducing performance art, such as art interventions, sculpture, installation art, institutional critique, protest art, social media, video art, happenings, dada, comedy, sound art, graphic notation, scores, collaboration, and dance/movement. Students will be able to relate the form and function of performance art through research, workshopping ideas, experimentation, and improvisation—thereby developing the ability to confidently implement any method of the performance art genre.

Since the early 20th century, artists have explored performance art as a radical means of expression. In both form and function, performance pushes the boundaries of contemporary art. Artists use the medium for institutional critique, for social activism, and to address the personal politics of gender, sexuality, and race. This course approaches performance art as a porous, transdisciplinary medium open to students from all disciplines, including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, video, filmmaking, theatre, dance, music, creative writing, and digital art. Students learn about the legacy of performance art from the 1970s to the present and explore some of the concepts and aesthetic strategies used to create works of performance. Through texts, artists’ writings, video screenings, and slide lectures, students are introduced to a range of performance-based artists and art movements.

This introductory photography studio class provides students with essential training in camera techniques and workflows, covering topics such as lighting, editing, and printing. Friendship—a voluntary relationship—provides a fertile ground for examining the idea of community. What is friendship? Do friends have to be similar, or can they exist in difference? Can a strong friendship come to an end? Can humans and animals be friends? How do we deal with the loss of a friendship? Are we each other's storytellers? By examining artists and texts from diverse disciplines, such as Sharon Lockhart and Elena Ferrante, students will develop the skills to deeply investigate and portray the essence of “one friendship of their choice” through photography.

A photograph presented alone and without a description in words is a simple utterance. “Ooh,” “Aah,” and “Huh?” are its proper responses. When pictures are presented in groups with accompanying text (of any length) and perhaps in conjunction with political or poetic conceptual strategies, any statement becomes possible. The photographs can begin to function as a sentence, a paragraph, or an entire treatise. Whether working in fiction, nonfiction, or in a fictive space, artists such as Robert Frank, Jim Goldberg, Roni Horn, Dorothea Lange, Susan Meiselas, Alan Sekula, Taryn Simon, Larry Sultan, and numerous others have been in the process of transforming photography with their work. Or perhaps they have created a medium: the new narrative photography. In this course, students will initially study the work of these “narrative” photographers and either write about their work or make pictures in response to it. The culmination of this experience will be students’ creation of their own bodies of work. If you have a story to tell, a statement to make, or a phenomenon that you wish to study and describe, this course is open to you. No previous photographic experience or special equipment is necessary. The opportunity to forge a new medium is rare. This course aims to create the forum and the conditions necessary for all to do so in a critical and supportive workshop environment.

This is an untraditional course, as I will be offering it separately for both fall and spring; however, students are more than welcome to take both semesters in sequence for the year, as each semester will cover different material. Every week, a different photographic idea or genre will be traced from its earliest iterations to its present form through slide lectures and readings. And each week, students will respond with their own photographic work inspired by the visual presentations and readings. Topics include personal dress-up/narrative, composite photography/photographic collage, the directorial mode, fashion/art photography, new strategies in documentary practice, abstraction/“new photography,” the typology in photography, the photograph in color, and the use of words and images in combination. In the second semester, the emphasis will shift, as students choose to work on a subject and in a form that coincides with the ideas that they most urgently wish to express. No previous experience in photography is necessary nor is any special equipment. A desire to explore, to experiment, and to create a personally meaningful body of work are the only requirements.

We are interconnected in complex webs of relation. The camera is a tool of relation. This studio course introduces students to a creative practice in photography rooted in an engagement with their lives and our world. We begin by exploring our body’s relationship to our camera and materials, with an emphasis on understanding light and photographic form. Picture-making prompts will facilitate slower, thoughtful engagements with our experiences and environments. We’ll delve into the implications of social documentary (LaToya Ruby Frazier, Dorthea Lange, Robert Frank); our body’s inextricable ties to Earth and biosphere (Laura Aguilar, Jenny Calivas, Ana Mendieta); expressions of family, community, and cultural identity (Eduardo Rivera, Roy de Carava, Ka-Man Tse); and spiritual, inner, or unseen worlds (Graciela Iturbide, Keisha Scarville). Technically, this course covers exposure, light, composition, a digital post-production workflow, and inkjet printing. Through weekly discussions, the study of artworks, images, field trips, and technical workshops, students will create a series of photographs on a topic of their choice.

A photograph presented alone and without a description in words is a simple utterance. “Ooh,” “Aah,” and “Huh?” are its proper responses. When pictures are presented in groups with accompanying text (of any length) and perhaps in conjunction with political or poetic conceptual strategies, any statement becomes possible. The photographs can begin to function as a sentence, a paragraph, or an entire treatise. Whether working in fiction, nonfiction, or in a fictive space, artists such as Robert Frank, Jim Goldberg, Roni Horn, Dorothea Lange, Susan Meiselas, Alan Sekula, Taryn Simon, Larry Sultan, and numerous others have been in the process of transforming photography with their work. Or perhaps they have created a medium: the new narrative photography. In this course, students will initially study the work of these “narrative” photographers and either write about their work or make pictures in response to it. The culmination of this experience will be students’ creation of their own bodies of work. If you have a story to tell, a statement to make, or a phenomenon that you wish to study and describe, this course is open to you. No previous photographic experience or special equipment is necessary. The opportunity to forge a new medium is rare. This course aims to create the forum and the conditions necessary for all to do so in a critical and supportive workshop environment.

What does contemporary America really look like? What does it mean? Perhaps no single photograph can describe the zeitgeist, particularly now; but, cumulatively, a grouping of photographs might. This is a picture-maker’s course—whether you would like to look at the social landscape, the political landscape, the built landscape, the psychological landscape, or the poetic landscape. This is a course that will welcome such efforts. No previous photographic experience is necessary, just a willingness to work at getting to the heart of the matter—which is essential. The teaching method will be weekly discussions and critiques of student work.

In this studio course, students will learn a range of relief printmaking techniques, using linoleum cutting, jigsaw printing, collographs, and more to develop original imagery. While demonstrations will instill familiarity with fundamental carving and printing skills, meetings and critiques will challenge students to analyze their creative approaches across art historical, social, and theoretical contexts. Readings and discussions will integrate basic print history and highlight notable artists using relief media.

This course is designed to introduce students to a range of printing techniques while also assisting them in developing individual visual imagery through the language of printmaking. Students will work with intaglio, relief, monotype, and monoprint techniques. As means to explore their individual idea, students will investigate a wide range of possibilities offered by printmaking techniques and will experiment with inks and paints, stencils, multiple plates, and images altered in sequence. Students will develop drawing skills through the printmaking medium and experiment with value structure, composition, mark-making, and interaction of color. Students will begin to develop a method to investigate meaning, or content, through the techniques of printmaking. There will be an examination of various strategies that fluctuate between specific in-class assignments and individual studio work. In-class assignments will be supplemented with PowerPoint presentations, reading materials, video clips, group critiques, and homework projects. Students will explore the history of printmaking media, the evolution of subject matter and technique, and the relationship of graphic arts to the methods of mechanical reproduction.

Students in this course will be challenged to use approaches outside conventional printmaking, instead adopting experimental techniques (e.g., plaster printing, cyanotypes, and relevant monotype variations). Instructor demonstrations will emphasize practical material applications, while group critiques will broaden critical understanding in visual arts both formally and conceptually. Projects will support the development of individual artistic inquiry, analyzing how meaning changes according to media, material, and audience.

This course is designed for students to develop an individual body of work and studio practice through printmaking. Each semester, there will be an in-depth focus on two techniques, including both traditional and digital approaches. Students will use printmaking as a means to develop strategies and thought processes that expand approaches to making art in an individual studio practice. We will discuss the possibilities of the printmaking medium in the context of contemporary art. Technical demonstrations will be given throughout the semester in addition to group and individual critiques, slide lectures, discussions of reading materials, and museum visits.

Theoretical readings will complement exposure to contemporary print artists in this discussion-based course. The class will consider both established and speculative concepts in print media, developing an understanding of the field based on materiality, technology, and social dynamics. As students gain footing in these new frameworks, they will be asked to apply their learning in the form of analysis.

Taking the planning and design of an exhibition as its conceptual departure point, this class will come together to consider the role that sculpture might play in the near to long-term future. What do we, as artists, owe to a changing world? How will the structures in which we have invested change? What can we do to prepare? Working through contemporary, historical, speculative, and fantastic examples, we will explore and negotiate the roles, risks, and responsibilities of artmaking in a world that lurches endlessly and unrecognizably, with ever greater speed, from one extreme crisis to the next.

This class will explore the potential of figuration within contemporary sculptural practice. What can we achieve by incorporating a humanoid figure into our sculptural works? How far can the human form be pushed while remaining legible? Who controls and is invested in this legibility? What do histories of figuration have in common with objectification and dehumanization? And can we extract utility, today, from these dynamics? Alongside material demonstrations, lectures, readings, and critiques, we will investigate unpopular media in order to explore the work of contemporary artists alongside ideas and genres such as the uncanny valley, hHorror, science fiction, and more.

This class will explore various methods and techniques for sculptural moldmaking, ranging from the traditional to the experimental. Alongside the technical development of skills and workflows, there will be a series of lectures, readings, and discussions wherein we tease out the conceptual, poetic, and psychic implications and potential of moldmaking in a radical and expanded sense. What does the mold represent as an object? Is it a tool or a work unto itself? How far can we stretch the definition of moldmaking? How widely can we apply its processes?

This introductory course will explore the fundamentals of sculpture, with an emphasis on how objects function in space and the connections between two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms. This class will focus on the process of building and constructing and working with varied materials and tools. Students will explore various modes of making, binding, building, fastening, and molding, using wood, cardboard, plaster, and found materials. Using Richard Serra’s Verb List as inspiration, students will use verbs as a guide for building. Technical instruction will be given in the fundamentals of working with hand tools, as well as other elemental forms of building. This course will include an introduction to the critique process, as well as thematic readings with each assignment. Alongside studio work, the class will look at historical and contemporary artists, such as Jessica Stockholder, Martin Puryear, Judith Scott, Rachel Whiteread, Simone Leigh, Louise Nevelson, Alexander Calder, Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Eva Hesse, and Louise Bourgeois, among others.

This course is a comprehensive introduction to Rhino7 for Mac OS X and additive digital fabrication. 3D software and digital fabrication have a variety of uses in contemporary art and the real world. The course covers basic model manipulation, rendering operations, and 3D printing; we will also explore ways of adapting more advanced 3D modeling techniques. In the first half of the semester, students will gain the technical knowledge needed for a rigorous exploration of 3D modeling in Rhino through a series of small projects. The second half of the course will focus on working toward the student’s approved project of their choosing. By course end, students will have the opportunity to output their work via 3D printing, 2D rendered visualization, and more. This multidisciplinary digital sculpture studio is open to interdisciplinary projects. Although not required, students are welcome to pursue the digital fabrication of the whole or part/s of their final projects.

This course suits students seeking to create organic forms in 3D modeling—for free-form jewelry, furniture, architecture, sculptural objects, and more. By the time the course ends, students will have the opportunity to output their work via 3D printing. If you enjoy pull-and-push components as in clay modeling, SubD is the method for your 3D modeling. It is a new geometry type that can create editable, highly accurate shapes. In this course, students will learn SubD basic commands through small modeling projects such as simple characters, jewelry, or other organic shapes (TBA). The second half of the course will focus on working toward the student’s approved project of their choosing. Ideally, you should have basic knowledge of Rhino NURBS modeling—but it is not required.

Layered, built, found, saved, applied, collected, arranged, salvaged...Jean Dubuffet coined the term “assemblage” in 1953, referring to collages that he made using butterfly wings. Including found material in a work of art not only brings the physical object but also its embedded narrative. In this course, we will explore the various ways in which the found object can affect a work of art and its history dating back to the early 20th century. We will look at historical and contemporary artists, such as Joseph Cornell, Robert Rauschenberg, Hannah Höch, Betye Saar, Richard Tuttle, Rachel Harrison, and Leonardo Drew. This course will tackle various approaches, challenging the notions of “What is an art material?” and “How can the everyday inform the creative process?”

This course is a comprehensive introduction to Rhino7 for Mac OS X and additive digital fabrication. 3D software and digital fabrication have a variety of uses in contemporary art and the real world. The course covers basic model manipulation, rendering operations, and 3D printing; we will also explore ways of adapting more advanced 3D modeling techniques. In the first half of the semester, students will gain the technical knowledge needed for a rigorous exploration of 3D modeling in Rhino through a series of small projects. The second half of the course will focus on working toward the student’s approved project of their choosing. By course end, students will have the opportunity to output their work via 3D printing, 2D rendered visualization, and more. This multidisciplinary digital sculpture studio is open to interdisciplinary projects. Although not required, students are welcome to pursue the digital fabrication of the whole or part/s of their final projects.

This course is an open-ended exploration of the links between drawing and sculpture. Students will explore drawing as a means of communicating, brainstorming, questioning, and building. Assignments will promote experimentation and expand the ways that we use and talk about drawing by interrogating an inclusive list of materials. The course will consider unusual forms of mark making, such as lipstick left on a glass and a tire track on pavement. Each student will cultivate a unique index of marks, maintaining his/her own sketchbook throughout the course. The class will provide contemporary and historical examples of alternate means of mark making, such as John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Ana Mendieta, Robert Smithson, Fred Sandback, Gordon Matta-Clark, David Hammons, and Janine Antoni, among others.