Introduction to basic electronics and microcontrollers for studio artists. Students will program chips to control sensors, switches, motors, and lights to create responsive objects and performative tools. Readings and critical discussion will situate our circuits in histories of interactive art, electronics-based and otherwise. Students will create studio-based art for critique. No prior experience with electronics or programming is required, but ARHA 278: Art + Code is recommended.

Limited to 10 students. Fall semester. Professor House.

Pending Faculty Approval

(Offered as ARHA 285, CLAS 285, EUST 285) From its legendary origins in the eighth century BCE, through its political framing as a republic, to its global dominion as an empire and its subsequent Renaissance revival as the center of a Christian empire, Rome was a seat of unmistakable political and cultural power. Its art and architecture, the literature and oratory of its leaders, its devotion to protective deities, and its styles of governance became the model for countless nations who sought to imitate, adopt and surpass Rome’s authority.

(Offered as ARHA 280 and ASLC 280) Over recent decades, museums have made their collections increasingly accessible online. Curators, in turn, have expanded the limits of museum display and interpretation through experimentation with online exhibitions, onsite digital presentations, 3-D holographic projections, interactive mapping and storytelling, and network graphing. Others have made use of these and other digital tools for their own research, including to track the dispersal of looted and illegally exported objects. But what are the ramifications of this turn towards the digital?

(Offered as ARHA 278 and FAMS 311) Introduction to computer programming for studio artists. By writing code to generate text and graphics, students will explore the qualities intrinsic to artistic expression with computers such as nonlinearity, indeterminacy, glitch, and emergence. Accompanying critical discussion will consider key practitioners in the field. Through progressive weekly projects, students will gain a foundation for working with code in art. Designed for students with little to no programming experience.

Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Professor House.

Public Art and Collaborative Practices is a studio art course that is based on the premise that art is a form of care. It will focus on art in public space, collaborative art making practices, and activist art that addresses social and political issues. We will learn about artist collectives, socially engaged art, and practice working together in group projects. We will also analyze temporary and permanent public artworks and then make art with specific sites and communities in mind.

A course appropriate for students with prior experience in basic principles of visual organization, who wish to investigate further aspects of pictorial construction abstracting from forms including the figure, landscape and organic still life. There will be weekly drawing assignments and critiques, in addition to a final project of a life size self portrait. 

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Fall & Spring semesters. Fall: Professor Sweeney. Spring: Senior Resident Artist Gloman.

An introduction to black-and-white still photography. The basic elements of photographic technique will be taught as a means to explore both general pictorial structure and photography’s own unique visual language. Emphasis will be centered less on technical concerns and more on investigating how images can become vessels for both ideas and deeply human emotions. Weekly assignments, weekly critiques, readings, and slide lectures about the work of artist-photographers, one short paper, and a final portfolio involving an independent project of choice. Two three-hour meetings per week.

An introduction to the fundamentals of the pictorial organization of painting. Form, space, color, and pattern, abstracted from nature, are explored through the discipline of drawing by means of paint manipulation. Slide lectures, demonstrations, individual and group critiques are regular components of the studio sessions. Two three-hour meetings per week.

Fall semester. Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Fall: Senior Resident Artist Gloman. Spring: Visiting Lecturer Gabe Phipps.

An exploration of three-dimensional concepts, form, expression and aesthetics. In a series of directed projects students will encounter a range of materials and technical processes including construction, modeling and carving. Projects will include conceptual and critical strategies integrated with material concerns. By the end of the course students will have developed a strong understanding of basic principles of contemporary sculpture and acquired the skills and technical knowledge of materials to create accomplished works of three-dimensional expression.

An introduction to intaglio and relief processes including drypoint, engraving, etching, aquatint, monoprints, woodcut and linocut. The development of imagery incorporating conceptual concerns in conjunction with specific techniques will be a crucial element in the progression of prints. Historical and contemporary references will be discussed to further enhance understanding of various techniques. Critiques will be held regularly with each assignment; critical analysis of prints utilizing correct printmaking terminology is expected.