ARTST-120FR Drawing I: 'Form, Structure, and Space'
Drawing I is an introductory course designed for all students, regardless of their previous experience in art. The course emphasizes creative, expressive, and analytical approaches to translating visual experience. Students will work with a variety of traditional and experimental materials, and will hone their skills through guided in-class exercises, independent homework assignments, and regular feedback. Upon completion of the course, students will have a strong command of the fundamental language of drawing, a deeper understanding of visual perception, and an ability to use the medium in imaginative, expressive, and conceptually engaged ways.
ARTST-131 Studio Art Foundations
ARTST-131MM Studio Art Foundations: 'Making and Meaning'
Making and Meaning is an interdisciplinary course exploring the processes, ideas, and variety of materials in the visual arts. The course addresses thematic concepts that are central to the nature of art making including the principles of art and design, approaches to color, light, and environment, and issues of identity and community. Assignments in drawing, installation, collaboration, and basic three-dimensional construction will be combined with slide lectures, assigned readings, and short written reflections. Visual problem solving, critical thinking, and experimentation will be emphasized throughout the course, in addition to an in-depth exploration of basic materials and tools.
ARTST-142 Digital Art Foundations
ARTST-142AT Digital Art Foundations: 'Art and 'Technology'
A hands-on introduction to digital art making using computers and related technologies. We will think creatively, work digitally and explore techno-centric art making as a new form and medium, engaging both technical and conceptual considerations. Through readings, discussion, demonstrations, viewing sessions, technical tutorials and hands-on projects, we will explore the techniques, practices and aesthetics of a broad range of current and emerging digital art practices.
ARTST-220 Drawing II
Further exploration and investigation into the techniques and conceptual issues of drawing. The human figure is used as a departure point for developing perceptual skills and personal expression.
ARTST-220NT Drawing II: 'Drawing as Installation'
How do we draw in three-dimensional space? This course will examine how artists have brought techniques of two-dimensional drawing and reimaged their application to three-dimensional space. Drawing as Installation explores drawing as a conceptual and formal tool that is designed to have a particular relationship with spatial environments such as architectural site-specific locations, with time, and with conceptual and/or social level. In this course we will engage with identity, audience relationship, immersive display, site, time, and space through readings, writing, various exploration of materials, and research topics pertinent to students' individual investigations.
ARTST-226 Topics in Studio Art
Topics courses are offered each semester which are outside the realm of the usual course offerings, focusing on contemporary issues.
ARTST-226DF Topics in Studio Art: 'Costume Design for Stage and Film'
This course introduces students to the history, art, and techniques of designing costumes for stage and narrative film. Students will learn how a designer approaches a script, how the designer's work supports the actors' and the director's vision and how it illuminates a production for the audience. Students will have the opportunity to develop their visual imaginations through the creation of designs for stage and film scripts. They will engage in play analysis, research, collaborative discussion, sketching, drawing, rendering, and other related techniques and methodologies.
ARTST-226DH Topics in Studio Art: 'Print/Digital Hybrid'
This course will explore how to integrate digital processes with traditional printmaking techniques. Students will learn the basics of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and develop and create imagery through those programs. They will then use digital devices such as laser cutter, router and plotter to turn a digital file into a physical printing block. The final art form will be hand-printed work, utilizing relief printing, engraving on wood, collographs, and monoprinting. This course also covers print-based digital animation.
ARTST-226PD Topics in Studio Art: 'Portable Printmaking and 2D Design'
This class is designed to give the beginning student an overview of basic printmaking techniques and an understanding of what a print is, its form in both unique and multiple formats, and how these techniques function in our culture. The focus of this course will be on developing methods students can take with them when they graduate, whether or not they have access to a traditional studio space and equipment, using nontoxic, water-based materials. Projects will emphasize principles of two-dimensional design and composition, including layout, typography, and color theory, using printmaking techniques like stenciling and relief, as well as digital design software.
ARTST-226PM Topics in Studio Art: 'Expanded Print Media'
This course asks students to explore the sculptural possibilities of printmaking while examining ideas of the multiple. Both traditional printmaking (relief printmaking and screenprinting) and various digital methods are employed to push the boundaries of "print media" as a contemporary art practice. Class projects will include print installation and print media driven social interventions. Students will work both collaboratively and independently to explore ideas of space, scale, and the multiple, while creating interactive three-dimensional print media work.
ARTST-236 Painting I
Painting I is an introduction to the fundamentals of the discipline and practice of acrylic painting. We will investigate both historical and contemporary strategies of painting and engage in observational and imaginative uses of materials and subject matter. This course promotes and includes a wide variety of opportunities to enhance our educational experience including guest artists, an emphasis on sketchbook habits and critique skills, writing exercises, material experiments, and student presentations on contemporary painters. We will undergo a deep study of lights and darks, color, paint application and composition as we develop distinct visual languages of painting.
ARTST-242 Topics in Digital Art
ARTST-242DM Topics in Digital Art: 'Digital Media Art'
This intermediate digital arts course explores diverse contemporary methods of digital production and engages conceptual and aesthetic issues that arise in this new medium. Possible topics may draw from creative coding and algorithm art, computer animation, and interactive/immersive environments on platforms ranging from computer monitors to projections, to VR headsets and to portable electronic devices. We will explore emerging digital art practices and the role that digital media art plays within contemporary art.
ARTST-242PE Topics in Digital Art: 'The Open Artwork'
This intermediate digital arts course explores how open-source movements and contemporary art have cleared the way for play as a powerful metaphor for cultural participation. We will explore interactive tools, technologies which reframe our senses, and professional practices in environmental installation. We will consider the role of historical and social knowledge in the creation of interactive experiences and audio-visual environments, looking at work which tends to be discursive, which argues for a story or sets out a case, or which operates as a metaphor for our own digital realities.
ARTST-246 Sculpture I
In Sculpture I, demonstrations and introductory projects will familiarize students with the tools and processes used to form and manipulate materials such as wood, metal, plaster, paper, wax, and glass. Students will also be asked to explore the potential of combining new technologies in media and fabrication with traditional approaches into immersive sculptural experiences. Each project will present students with a series of conceptual problems to solve. In this way, art-making is positioned as a process of finding individual and independent solutions to three-dimensional problems.
ARTST-256 Printmaking I
This course is an introduction to the four basic areas of printmaking: relief, intaglio, screen printing and lithography. Students will begin the semester learning the basics of each technique through attending demonstrations and working on small projects in each area. Students will then choose to focus on one of the four processes, spending the remainder of the semester learning more advanced methods within their chosen area and completing a series of in-depth projects.
ARTST-263 Topics in Paper and Book Arts
ARTST-263ZP Topics in Studio Art: 'Zines, Prints & Ephemera'
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of traditional bookbinding, contemporary artists' books and digital book design. A variety of book structures and skills will be demonstrated, discussed and used throughout the semester. Students will develop a basic understanding of what an artist's book is, where it fits in contemporary art practice as well as its historical context. This course will focus on both editioned and one-of-a-kind zines and ephemera for exchange and intervention throughout campus.
ARTST-280 Topics in Studio Art
Topics courses are offered each semester which are outside the realm of the usual course offerings, focusing on contemporary issues.
ARTST-280AB Topics in Studio Art: 'Artist's Books'
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of bookbinding and artist's books. A variety of sculptural book structures as well as basic hand papermaking will be demonstrated, discussed and used throughout the semester. Throughout the course students will develop a basic understanding of what a book is, where it fits in contemporary art practice, as well as its historical context. Students will use the technical bookmaking and papermaking skills discussed to create a series of one-of-a-kind books throughout the semester.
ARTST-280CK Topics in Studio Art: 'Collective Making'
This interdisciplinary course investigates collaborative modes of making through a sequence of projects: creating works in chorus with objects in the MHC Art Museum, engaging with biological/chosen family members, and interacting with the campus community. Individual and group projects (including object-oriented and performative production), in-class exercises, critiques, readings, and discussions will introduce students to conceptual, practical, and ethical aspects of collective art making.
ARTST-280CM Topics in Studio Art: 'Casting, the Multiple, and Installation'
This course will introduce basic mold-making practices in relief casting, multi-part plaster mold building, life casting, vacuum forming, and more. These molds will then be used to mass produce objects in wax, plaster, concrete, pewter, and glass, as well as non-traditional materials like candy. Throughout this initial skill-building portion of the course, students will work closely with partnering institutions on campus (such as the Botanical Gardens and the Williston Library) to propose, fabricate, and ultimately install large-scale installations of their cast objects.
ARTST-280CP Topics in Studio Art: 'Creative Process'
This is a space where students can explore their own creative impulses, develop ideas, and generate material. Here, we will stretch beyond the boundaries of any particular creative practice as it may be defined within disciplinary limits. We will engage in contemplative practices while using writing, movement, theater games, and time-based media in order to germinate seeds for projects -- projects we might explore further and possibly complete either within or beyond the bounds of the class itself. More importantly, we will begin to identify our own inner rhythms as makers, create patterns that support our creative process, and develop the capacity to listen deeply to what speaks to us. We will turn to makers and writers of all kinds for inspiration and guidance as we develop a vocabulary for process, including but not limited to: Judi Bari, Lynda Barry, CA Conrad, Louise Erdrich, Jozen Tamori Gibson, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Bernadette Mayer, Dori Midnight, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono & Rainer Maria Rilke.
ARTST-280EP Topics in Studio Art: 'Experimental Painting'
Through a studio-based, interdisciplinary approach, this course explores diverse methods and practices within contemporary painting. We will discuss both traditional and experimental definitions of painting and exercise connections between painting and other disciplines, including performance and sculpture. Topics include painting as a byproduct of movement, unconventional materials in abstraction, and creative responses to current events. Upon completion of this course, students will gain a broad understanding of contemporary painting, build a distinct visual vocabulary, and develop an interdisciplinary mindset in thinking about what a painting is and can be.
ARTST-280PS Topics in Studio Art: 'Post-Studio Sculpture'
Since the 1970s, artists have been exploring ways to leave their studios in order to engage in the act of making art directly in the world. Through research, readings, discussions, writing assignments, and creative projects this course will investigate the artists and artworks that have moved beyond traditional studio practice to interrupt, intervene, and engage with site, community, and environment. Students will work with a wide range of everyday materials to generate projects that address issues particular to contemporary sculpture while solving a set of conceptual problems.
ARTST-280PT Topics in Studio Art: 'Painting the Series'
Painting the Series is a rigorous course that expands skills that students have gathered prior to this semester. Students will engage deeply with the practice of painting in water or oil-based paint on variety of substrates, and create multiple series of works. The semester includes presentations, research, critiques, and discussions. Throughout history, artists have actively approached the strategy of creating a series in order to transform, distill, unpack, and otherwise evolve an original idea. Throughout our course, students will do the same through creating multiple series of works that respond to initial prompts and efforts.
ARTST-280SJ Topics in Studio Art: 'Art, Public Space, and Social Justice Activism'
What are some ways that art can disrupt oppressive structures of power? This course explores the ways in which contemporary artists centuries have responded to the call for political change and social justice, particularly with regards to issues of race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability. Drawing from interdisciplinary and intersectional perspectives, we will examine the role of visual and performance art within public spaces in shaping and furthering social movements and protest. Some possible themes and issues include public memory, artistic citizenship, counterpublics, "material" and "immaterial" artistic forms, and the collective impact of art activism on the social imagination.
ARTST-280VN Topics in Studio Art: 'Visual Narrative'
This course will focus on visual storytelling and will explore how artists have communicated narrative in a multitude of ways throughout history. The creative assignments will be divided into thematic units including: Myths and Fairytales, Superheroes, Familial Relationships, and Historical Narratives. Students will be free to tackle these assignments in any medium they feel most appropriately reflects their ideas. Additionally, all students will create a narrative-based sketchbook that will be archived in The Sketchbook Project at the Brooklyn Art Library. Our critical readings and discussions will focus on contemporary art, film, and media as well as comic books and literature.
ARTST-280VP Topics in Studio Art: 'Video, Performance, Object'
This course will explore how history, culture, and our ever-increasing access to technology has influenced the development of video as a medium in contemporary art. Lectures and readings will introduce artists who work in video, sound, performance, installation, surveillance, live streaming, and YouTube. The course will include workshops and demonstrations with digital video cameras, lighting, and sound recording, as well as editing in Adobe Premiere and After Effects. Student projects will focus on time, duration, memory, and identity through single-channel video pieces, as well as installations and the creation of interactive performance objects.
ARTST-295 Independent Study
ARTST-330 Junior Studio
The primary goal of this course is to provide strategies for each student to develop an individual studio art practice. Through experimentation, thematic development, strong sketchbook skills, and research, students will begin the process of developing and articulating a conceptual focus in their own art production. Students will be asked to draw on technical skills acquired in 200-level medium-specific courses to create independently generated projects. Simultaneously, students will be required to reflect clearly upon their work in short writing assignments towards the creation of a coherent artist statement. Our discussions will center on critical texts that help students position their work in larger contemporary art and cultural contexts.
ARTST-380 Advanced Topics in Studio Art
ARTST-380AE Advanced Topics in Studio Art: 'Race, Gender and Sexual Aesthetics in the Global Era' Justice'
Reading across a spectrum of disciplinary focuses (e.g. philosophies of aesthetics, post-structural feminisms, Black cultural studies, and queer of color critique) this course asks the question what is the nature of aesthetics when it negotiates modes of difference? This course explores the history and debates on aesthetics as it relates to race, gender, and sexuality with particular emphasis on Black diaspora theory and cultural production. Drawing on sensation, exhibitions, active discussion, observation, and experimentation, emphasis will be placed on developing a fine-tuned approach to aesthetic inquiry and appreciation.
ARTST-390 Advanced Studio
Concentration on individual artistic development. Emphasis will be placed on experimentation, thematic development, and critical review. Students may elect to take this course more than once.
ARTST-392 Five College Advanced Studio Seminar
ARTST-395 Independent Study
ARTST-395SS Senior Studio
