Sculpture + Expanded Media Courses

On the Body

Course No. SEM 221-321-421  Credits: 3.0

Experimental fashion, object-generated performance and costume. This course will teach pattern making and a variety of fabrication processes relevant to building three-dimensional forms from pliant and mutable materials, including but not restricted to cloth. It will also include casting methods that are useful for designing patterns to cover a body or act as the skin of an object The techniques have a wide range of applications. In the past students have applied these skills to experimental fashion, sculpture, social sculpture and performance. In addition class material will address our social and cultural understanding of the body as a source for making work. We will draw on theory and contemporary research from the fields of fashion, the hard sciences and the social sciences. 3 credits.

Installation: Light + Sound SEM

Course No. SEM 230A-330A-430A  Credits: 3.0

Sculptural installation is a condition of space that is neither object bound nor object-centric in its existence but rather presents a condition that is often identified as immersive and intentionally organized to produce a spatially dependent experience beyond that of the “Everyday�. This course will investigate various applications and approaches to subject of Installation with an emphasis on contemporary practices using light and sound as a means of constructing space and form. Primary to this course is the understanding of light (lighting) as both a material and structural element with regard to organization and presentation and the combined relationship of sound as an immersive component in the production of installation-based works. 3 credits.

Intro Sculpture + Expanded Media

Course No. SEM 231  Credits: 3.0

This course provides an introduction to Sculpture and Expanded Media by examining the methodologies, materials, history, traditions, and cultural context of sculpture and expanded media in contemporary art. The class will include wood construction and textile-based fabrication processes, moldmaking and casting relevant to a range of materials, basic metalworking techniques such as cutting and welding, and will introduce the student to the use of time-based media present in contemporary sculpture. Required for sophomore Sculpture & Expanded Media majors. 3 credits.

Intro Sculpture Fabrication

Course No. SEM 232  Credits: 3.0

The goal of this course is to expose students to the qualitative nature of materiality at a fundamental level and to provide them with a formative understanding of the various aesthetic qualities that materials possess. In other words this course introduces how materials influence the meaning of a work of art. This course addresses how the qualities of material act as determine aesthetic organization and conditions of conveyance within a work. The course focuses on both the physicality of material condition(s) of state-change, intensive material exploration and experimentation as a function of structure, and its affect on aesthetic production. Required at the sophomore level for all Sculpture majors and open to all other students. 3 credits.

Time-Based Strategies

Course No. SEM 236  Credits: 3.0

This course will provide students with an opportunity to investigate the concepts and practices of various time-based media arts. A basic introduction to the processes of video art, sound art, and media installation will serve as the basis for the production of several projects. Assignments will be grounded in the development of media literacy, media ethics, dissemination techniques, and teamwork. 3 credits.

Installation: Empire of the Senses

Course No. SEM 250-350-450  Credits: 3.0

Working with materials and methods not traditionally associated with the visual arts, installation breaks away from the singular object, the pedestal, the detached viewer. Visual lectures and presentations on recent work will include discussion on the nature of the work and its context. Studio work and additional presentations will focus on perception - how we understand the world through touch, sight, smell/taste, the sense of hearing and kinesthetic cues from muscles of the body. The information presented, student research and studio research will provide an environment of concepts and ideas to support and challenge each student’s work. Students will develop installations in line with their interests. 3 credits.

Performance Art

Course No. SEM 255-355-455  Credits: 3.0

Performance art is and has been an open genre, a place to experiment with ideas, materials and time. For this course, the working definition of “performance artâ€� is â€" a piece which uses a live body, exists in time, and is non-linear. This class is an introduction to performance art designed for students who are shy and apprehensive about performing and students who are extroverted and at ease in front of groups. Workshops include: developing a language of movement, gesture, and stance; developing a range of low-tech sound, lighting and video; juxtaposing activity, image, sound and text; structuring or building a piece; and documentation. We will consider singular actions, interventions and other strategies for generating and developing ideas for performance work. Student work for this class has been diverse and has included costume-based work, work using endurance as a central tactic, collaborative work, public intervention, interactive and site-specific work. Skills in editing video and sound, installation, animation are useful, but not required. 3 credits.

String, Felt, and Thread

Course No. SEM 267-367-467  Credits: 3.0

This is an introduction to fiber and material studies. Students will follow materials from the raw state to the finished form, learning how to manipulate them at every stage. Material and process are often bound together, so a wide variety of techniques of making form from string, thread and fiber will be covered. Students will learn to make informed material choices based on an understanding of the history and associations of each material. Students will be introduced to contemporary criticism, and questions surrounding craft and the history of art. 3 credits.