An introduction to the materials and methods of painting. The areas to be covered are specifically color and its interaction, the use of form and scale, painting from a model, painting objects with a concern for their mass and its interaction with light.
Visual Arts Courses
Visual Arts
An introduction to the processes of photography through a series of problems directed toward the handling of light-sensitive material, camera, and printing. Weekly laboratory sessions will explore the critical issues of the medium in relation to both student work and the work of guest photographers.
This studio course introduces students to aesthetic and theoretical implications of digital photography. Studio emphasis is on mastering digital equipment and techniques, managing print quality, and generally becoming familiar with all aspects of the digital workspace. Popular media, found photographs, and the "life" of digital images will also be investigated.
This studio course introduces students to graphic design with a particular emphasis on typography. Students learn typographic history through lectures that highlight major shifts in print technologies and through their engagement in studio design projects.
This course introduces students to techniques for decoding and creating graphic messages in a variety of media, and delves into issues related to visual literacy through the hands-on making and analysis of graphic form. Graphic design relies on mastering the subtle manipulation of abstract shapes and developing sensitivity to the relationships between them.
This studio class will address the increasing social pressure on art to become more widely distributed, immediately accessible, and democratically produced. For the past fifty years, expanding definitions of what art might be fueled by a greater emphasis on active audience participation have encouraged an atmosphere in which anyone can claim to be an artist.
A studio introduction to sculpture, particularly the study of form, space, and the influence of a wide variety of materials and processes on the visual properties of sculpture leading to the development of an understanding of contemporary sculpture and a basic technical facility in wood working, mold making, casting and metal working.
A film/video course introducing the techniques of shooting and editing digital video. Works of film/video art will be analyzed in class to explore the development of, and innovations in, cinematic language. Production will be oriented toward film/video as a visual art, including narrative, documentary, and experimental genres.
This course will give students an introduction to documentary film and video production, with a special emphasis on the practical challenges of producing films in the real world. Students will learn fundamental filmmaking techniques from a professor with thirteen years experience running her own film production company, as well as a handful of guest professionals in the fields of cinematography, casting, and editing.
This studio course seeks to broaden students' skills through a wide range of photographic media. There will be an emphasis on the relationship between analog and digital photography and how visual artists negotiate the technological changes of today. A broad range of new tools will be introduced to the class including medium and large format cameras, scanners, Photoshop, color and BW pigment printing, studio lighting and the use of high-end digital backs.
A seminar on the major films of Luchino Visconti, Robert Bresson, and Jean-Marie Straub (and Daniele Huillet) and their literary sources. All three filmmakers made important and eccentric adaptations of major literary texts.
The course will introduce students to basic screenwriting principals and techniques, using cross-cultural and cross-temporal examples. Course will examine the visual power of storytelling in film and other relative media, concentrating on the strategic use of visual elements to create a unified viewing experience and the use of visual moments/behavior in creating memorable characters.
A required seminar for Art and Archaeology Program 2 majors and Program in Visual Arts certificate students emphasizing contemporary art practices and ideas. The course addresses current issues in painting, drawing, sculpture, film, video, photography, and performance installation.
his course bridges the gap between students taking introductory design courses in set, costume or lighting design, and successfully designing a production on campus. The course is designed to endow students with practical skills that will enable them to actually design a production, and to support them in making technical decisions as well as in collaborating and communicating with the rest of the creative team and the technical staff.
Through careful observation, this class will focus exclusively on human figure and purse the development of a strong sense of bone structure, muscle contours and light. From this perceptual foundation, students will be encouraged to develop independent points of view. Assignments will loosely revolve around themes of narrative, abstraction, expression, and conceptual strategies.
This studio course builds on the skills and concepts of the 200-level Graphic Design classes. VIS 415 is structured around three studio assignments that connect graphic design to other bodies of knowledge, aesthetic experience, and scholarship. The class always takes a local concept or event as the impetus for investigations.
This seminar provides senior ART Program 2 and VIS certificate students a context for investigating and discussing contemporary art exhibition practices. Over the course of the semester, students will develop a greater understanding of their art, their influences, and their aesthetic underpinnings by considering them alongside readings, visiting artist lectures, writing assignments, and field trips to current exhibitions.
This class will explore the art of storytelling through the aesthetics of film editing. By focusing on the editing process, students will not only learn how to edit their work but also how to better plan the writing, casting, sound design, and shooting of a film to better serve the editing process. Through screenings of award-winning films, informal class discussions with their directors, and exclusive access to raw scenes and footage, students will learn how to conceptualize the entire film production process as well as be introduced to accomplished professionals in the field.
This seminar will explore the idea of color through a wide range of scientific, philosophical and aesthetic theories. While the eyes of normally sighted human beings render color in roughly the same manner, our reactions and ability to "see" color vary. Far from being a fixed entity, color is a deeply personal and psychological component of human perception and art.
This course will introduce students to Screenwriting Adaptation techniques, focusing primarily on the challenges of adapting "true stories" pulled from various non-fiction sources. The class will address the ethics of adaptation, questions and techniques surrounding the need to fictionalize truth for dramatic purposes, as well as touching on the differences between fictional and nonfictional original materials.
This course will investigate how extreme amounts of invested time and manual labor are still capable of achieving a kind of magic, that is, capable of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. For the last century, artists around the world have become more and more interested in the aesthetic value of everyday life, in part as a political gesture designed to bring art down a peg or two, in part a celebration of the surprising levels of beauty and meaning that can be mined from mundane things.
Dance on camera has a different impact than dance on stage - how can we explore this form that arguably has a bigger audience than live performance? How can we make and distribute dance on camera using equipment that is readily available and low cost?