Sci-Fi & Sculpture: World-Building as Art Practice

This course is an introduction to three dimensional design and sculpture. Through a variety of projects students will analyze and apply the classic organizing principles of three dimensional design work. Elements of form, space, line, texture, light, color, scale and time (including sound, sensory perceptions, movement and natural processes) will be explored -- with attention paid to how a work functions, involves a viewer, activates a space, or impacts an environment, physically, psychically or socially. Projects in the class will progress from the creation of objects, to investigations of the sensory and objective aspects of space. Students will experiment with subtractive and constructive processes using traditional as well as contemporary materials such as found, recycled and natural objects. A diverse range of materials and techniques will be introduced and demonstrated. Discussion of historic and contemporary artists' work will augment the course. Students will be evaluated based on completion of projects, participation in class discussions and individual/group critiques.

This is a ceramics course for intermediate or advanced practitioners and requires foundational skills in hand building and/or wheel-throwing. It is designed to support students’ continued development of unique spatial and material languages grounded in the possibilities and limitations of clay. A series of technical demonstrations and open-ended conceptual prompts will initiate creative problem-solving in advanced modes of clay construction including but not limited to alternative kiln firing, glaze chemistry, and mold-making. Each student will inform and express their studio work through sustained independent research, and the collective skillsets, interests, and ambitions of the class as a whole will shape the arc of the course. Through presentations and readings, we’ll explore a selection of global, historical, and contemporary ideas and practices with direct bearing on our work as it develops. We will make at least one visit to an exhibition or site relevant to our pursuits and welcome at least one visiting artist into our studio; as always, we’ll share the joy and responsibility of running a communal studio.

Evaluation will be based on participation in class activities (hands-on exercises, presentations, readings, discussions, and occasional writing and/or drawing prompts), significant studio time outside of class, timely completion of all projects with corresponding group critique sessions, and consistent involvement with studio maintenance. A sketchbook is encouraged.

This art studio course is a continuation of the introductory course Studio Printmaking. A print mirrors the surface of its matrix and presents a reflection of the physical and/or immaterial realms of objects and ideas. Representing concepts clearly in any medium requires an artist to engage in thoughtful collaboration with materials in order to realize the potential of form as a means of expression. This advanced studio course will explore ways to address this aesthetic challenge through printmaking by experimenting with conventional and non-traditional ways of creating a range of matrices. Students will acquire skills as printmakers with an emphasis on multiple-plate, collagraph, and other advanced techniques. Students will develop a deeper understanding of the history of prints; how they have functioned to communicate, document, and transmit information through images on paper – engaging with more complex discourses of representation. Students will be evaluated on their projects, participation in critiques, level of engagement with materials, ability to work in a collaborative studio, and final project.

This survey of African American literature from its origins in the slave narrative to the present vivid prose of some of America's best writers considers the impact of slavery and race consciousness on literary form and power. Readings include letters, essays, poems, short stories, and novels of some of the following authors: Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Pauline Hopkins, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison.

In 1903, American naturalist John Burroughs triggered a fierce public debate when he accused some of his peers of writing “sham natural history.” These other naturalists, Burroughs claimed, had given in to the major temptation lying in wait for all nature writers: “the danger of making too much of what we see and describe—of putting in too much sentiment, too much literature—in short, of valuing these things more for the literary effects we can get out of them than for themselves.” The ensuing debate over the responsible depiction of nonhuman nature went on for five years in the pages of popular magazines, drawing in dozens of writers and one U.S. president. More than a century later, we remember it as the “nature faker” controversy. But though this episode has taken its place in the history books, its unresolved tensions and questions live on, occupying nature writers and filmmakers to this day: How can writers tell stories that spark human interest in the natural world while doing justice to that world’s alterity? What does it mean to value nonhuman animals “for themselves” and not for the reasons we might project onto them? Are emotion and imagination incompatible with good nature writing?

In this writing class, students will not only get to know this longstanding conversation; they will also be asked to weigh in. Students will study the strategies that help experienced writers make their own marks on existing debates: strategies for posing rich problems, analyzing texts, representing and responding to other voices, giving and using feedback, and otherwise developing a sustainable writing practice. Students will become better navigators of writing for various contexts and audiences by studying and practicing the ways in which public and scholarly writers convey their ideas to readers. Students will be evaluated on a rhetorical analysis of a single text; an analytical essay that incorporates multiple sources and makes an original argument; a reflection that analyzes their own approach to writing; participation in in-class work; and the completion of short, low-stakes assignments preparing them for class. This course will be helpful for new college students looking to establish a base of knowledge about analytical writing, as well as for students at any point in their college careers who want to dedicate some time to working on their writing.

This course explores animation as a form of creative expression, experimentation and personal vision. Various techniques, such as drawing, cut-out, painting on film, and under-the-camera collage, will be introduced. Students will create flip-books, video pencil tests and animated films. Students will be given exercises and assignments that guide them through processes for making art. Various artists' animated films will be screened and discussed. History and concepts related to animation and film will be introduced through screenings, readings and discussions.