This capstone course is required for all senior ARS majors. Students use the framework of the course to focus, challenge and re-conceptualize their studio work in media of their choice. Critiques, readings, written assignments, presentations and discussions support the development of an inventive and rigorous independent art practice. The semester culminates in a group exhibition. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to Smith College Senior ARS majors.

Advanced exploration of contemporary photographic techniques and concepts. Students work on assigned and self-directed projects using various analog and digital techniques, studio lighting, large-format printing, and interdisciplinary approaches. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisite: ARS 282. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission required.

This research-based architectural design studio utilizes digital processes to analyze and reinterpret canonical architectural precedents, linking the digital to fluid conceptual ideas which are both historic and contemporary. In particular, the studio probes the spatial qualities of the moving body—as a site of both deep interiority and hyper-connectivity.

This course is an opportunity for students to expand upon their existing printmaking knowledge and learn how to combine multiple processes such as intaglio, relief, monotype and lithography. The class explores printmaking as a transformative process that creates rich, layered color relationships, builds and responds to texture and converts information into multiples. Students have the chance to work at ambitious scales, including using print media to create installations, three-dimensional forms or distributable public projects. Hand-drawn, digital and photographic approaches are available.

Advanced problems in painting. Emphasis on thematic self-direction and group critical analysis. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 12. Prerequisite: ARS 362. Instructor permission required.

An introduction to visual experience through a study of the basic elements of photography as an expressive medium. Each section involves either black and white or a combination of darkroom and digital processes. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 15. Prerequisite: ARS 162 or ARS 172 or equivalent. Instructor permission required.

In nurturing architecture’s foundational principles of visual, material and conceptual experimentation, this course lays the foundation for subsequent studios, lifelong learning and curiosity for architectural design processes. It probes the material, organizational and spatial qualities of the ground, a shared horizontal territory inhabited by plants, people and buildings--one that is as much cultural as it is natural. Through iterative and analog processes, students integrate drawing and making to construct and reconstruct lines in the ground.

Relief printing from carved woodblocks can create images that range from precise and delicate to raw and expressionistic. It is a direct and flexible process that allows for printing on a variety of materials at large and small scales. Students use both ancient and contemporary technologies to produce black and white and color prints from single and multiple blocks. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisite: ARS 163 or ARS 172, or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 15.

(1) Investigates the structure of the book as a form; (2) provides a brief history of the Latin alphabet and how it is shaped calligraphically and constructed geometrically; (3) studies traditional and non-traditional typography; and (4) practices the composition of metal type by hand and the printing of composed type on the SP-15 printing presses. A voluntary introduction to digital typography is also offered outside class. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 12.

This course introduces students to different installation strategies (e.g., working with multiples, found objects, light and site-specificity, among others). Coursework includes a series of projects, critiques, readings and short writing assignments. Students may require additional supplies and are responsible for purchasing them directly. Enrollment limited to 12. Prerequisite: ARS 172 or equivalent. Instructor permission required.