FIRST YEAR COURSES

AHD-1030 / AHD-1035
Visuality and Modern Art I and II
Two semesters: 3 art history credits per semester
The interconnections among modern art, modernity and visuality will be the focus of these courses. Topics will include the historical development of “modern” vision, the impact of photography and film on visualization, and the decline of realism and the emergence of abstraction. The goal of the courses is to bring together historical, philosophical, scientific and technological studies of visuality and relate them directly to “modern” artistic practice.

FDD-1030 / FDD-1035
Drawing I and II
Two semesters: 3 studio credits per semester
Focusing on the perceptual skills involved in image-making, these courses will examine drawing as an act of producing independent works of art and as a preparatory process in organizing a finished work. Assigned projects will explore the formal elements of art, such as line, space, scale and texture. Materials will include pencil, charcoal, pen-and-ink and wash, among others. Projects range from the figure and still life, for example, to mapping and storyboarding.

VHD-1010
Reading, Thinking, Writing I
One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits
This is the first part of a two-semester required course that emphasizes writing and critical thinking through the study of literature. The first goal is for students to express themselves clearly, critically and thoughtfully, using language. The second goal is for students to explore writing as a personal process and as an artist’s tool. We will study works from authors such as Mary Shelley, Zora Neale Hurston, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges.

VHD-1015
Reading, Thinking, Writing II
One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits
This is the second part of a two-semester course that emphasizes writing and critical thinking. Students will further develop their writing and critical thinking skills. Texts include premodern works from the Western canon, along with more contemporary, experimental and non-Western literature.

PHD-1003
Lens Arts
One semester: 3 studio credits
From the invention of photography to the growing potential of interactive and online photographic work, the lens-based arts have played a central role in defining our culture. This multidisciplinary course will examine the dramatic changes in lens-based technologies and their evolving nature, and explore a variety of imaging devices in studio projects.

PHD-1080
Introduction to Digital Imaging
Spring semester: 3 studio credits
Gaining a fundamental understanding of Adobe Photoshop, Bridge and Lightroom applications will be the focus of this course. Topics covered include image size and resolution, flatbed and film scanning, color modes, file formats, painting and editing tools, file management, image adjustments, working with layers and layer masks, and output options. By the end of the semester, students will have a basic understanding of how to work with photographs in a digital environment.

VCD-1030
The Nature, History and Practices of the Image I
One semester: 3 art history credits
Serving as an introduction to the place of the image in art, society, history and philosophy, this course will begin by examining the relation of the art image to the image in magic, science and religion. The distinction between image, idol, statue and reproduction will be investigated. We will see that both priests and philosophers have struggled to distinguish “true” from “false” images. The commercial image, the sexual image, the image of the human body, as well as self-image and the world as image will be explored.

VCD-1035
The Nature, History and Practices of the Image II
One semester: 3 art history credits
This course is a comparative study and critical introduction to the image in dance, film, photography, literature, music, and the plastic arts. We will begin with modern materials and work our way back through the centuries both historically and cross-culturally.

UPPER-LEVEL COURSES

AHD-2010
Art of the Premodernist World
One semester: 3 art history credits
The history of art serves as a visual record of the history of ideas. This course will trace the changing nature of representation in painting, sculpture and architecture from the Paleolithic to the early 19th century. Focus will be placed on the rise of civilizations in the Greco-Roman world as well as their roots in non-Western cultures such as those in Asia and Africa. Discussion, slide presentations and museum visits are a part of the course. Topics include art and ritual, idealism and beauty, iconoclasm and theories of God.

GDD-2020
Basic Graphic Design I
One semester: 2 studio credits
This course is an introduction to the various aspects of graphic communication and will cover concepts, typography, layout and general graphic techniques.

VCD-2020
Theories of Vision and Color
One semester: 3 art history credits
How do we perceive color? What role does color play in art, science, language and philosophy? How has our understanding of color changed over time? In this course, students will be introduced to theories of vision and color through observation, experimentation, reading and discussion. Readings will be drawn from a range of sources, including Aristotle, Newton, Goethe, Chevreul, Wittgenstein, Itten, Albers, and others. In addition, we will experiment with color refraction, additive and subtractive color mixing, observed color phenomena, after-images and color interaction. Students will be encouraged to consider the role of color in historical and contemporary art practices as well as in relation to their own artistic development and personal work. We will attempt to arrive at an understanding of color as an evolving historical, scientific and cultural phenomenon.

VCD-2030
The History and Practices of Perspective
One semester: 3 art history credits
This course challenges students to understand and to analyze the phenomenon of perspective as a cultural invention. Central topics will include infinite space and illusion, the fixed eye and the gaze, and the relationship between vision and power. The history of perspective will be encountered as it relates to scientific, religious, and philosophical movements by way of readings and visual presentations. Texts by Leon Batista Alberti, Erwin Panofsky, Jacques Lacan, Norman Bryson and Martin Jay, among others, will be discussed.

VHD-2060
Visuality in Poetry
One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits
How are words made into images? What is the science of figurative language? What are opportunities for music, image and language to complement as opposed to contrast with one another? This course will address these fundamental questions by engaging with poetic works drawn from diverse periods. In this effort to understand poetry’s relationship with the visual world, we will read closely and critically. We will study the mechanics of poetry and work on writing, listen to writers and attend readings to arrive at a practical understanding of writing and prepare for tackling the larger questions of ekphrasis in poetry.

VHD-2070
Visual Poetics
One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits
This course will investigate how the visual world intersects with the abstraction of language in canonical texts by poets. We will read Donne, Blake, Wordsworth, Whitman, Dickinson, Hopkins, Yeats, Stevens, Pound, Eliot, Auden and Ashbery, among others, and trace how poetry has struggled to capture through language what “seeing feels like.” We will explore artistic devices for making the invisible visible, the abstract concrete, the mute vocal and the small magnificent. Studying theories of mimesis, modes of representation and aesthetic frameworks will complement the reading and writing of poems.

GDD-2090
Computers in the Studio I
One semester: no credit
This introduction to design on the Macintosh desktop publishing system will begin with the basics of the Macintosh operating system, and continue with software packages (including Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Bridge) as tools for visual creation.

VSD-2102
The Artist’s Journal I
One semester: 3 studio credits
The goal of this course is to create a visual journal through paintings and works on paper that record the artist’s interests and concerns. Experimentation with various materials and techniques, as well as investigating ideas of personal iconography, symbolism and narrative will be emphasized. Using painting, drawing, basic printmaking and collage, students will be helped in developing weekly journal pieces and a collaborative publication for the semester. Students will be required to keep a sketchbook, review exhibitions and take their own photos for reference and documentation.

VSD-2103
The Artist’s Journal II
One semester: 3 studio credits
This is the second part of a two-semester course. This semester will focus on using pre-determined systems and instructions to create works, and explore the journal approach to art-making in other cultures. Students will be required to keep a sketchbook, review exhibitions and take their own photos for reference and documentation.

VSD-2120
Sculpture
One semester: 3 studio credits
Serving as an introduction to sculptural materials, ideas and techniques, the primary goal of this course is to broaden the ways in which students understand sculpture and interpret the three-dimensional world. With this focus in mind, the emphasis will be on the physical shaping of ideas. A range of materials will be introduced, including clay, paper, wood and plaster. By utilizing basic skills and materials, students can begin the process of creating meaning from material..

VSD-2126
Making as Painting
One semester: 3 studio credits
This practical art-making course is a continuation of the insights presented by Philip Armstrong, Laura Lisbon and Stephen Melville in their 2001 exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts, “As Painting: Division and Displacement.” Students will explore non-traditional materials and techniques to make works that question the boundaries of painting and attempt to re-imagine its possibilities. As well as discussions of each student’s paintings, this course will include reading and discussion of pertinent texts and exhibitions in town. The primary goal is to produce a body of paintings in response to class activities and personal studio practice.

VCD-2129
The Audiovisual: Theory and Material
One semester: 3 art history credits
Combining critical readings on film/video with screenings and discussions, this course will engage students on theoretical and practical levels. Readings such as Robert Bresson’s On Cinematography and Michel Chion’s Audio-Vision provide a versatile framework for students to consider material, form and process in their own work. Assignments will include screenings at venues such as Anthology Film Archives and Electronic Arts Intermix.

VSD-2256
Painting as Sorcery
One semester: 3 studio credits
Painting is magic. In this course, students will discover an alchemical approach to painting by actively combining traditional techniques with alternative methods of building an image (photo, digital, 3D construction) and breathing new life into their work. Through combinations of controlled experiments and critical thinking, students will examine how perceptions of images can be altered through material manipulation.

VSD-2271
Painting as Process: From the Conception to Intuitive
One semester: 3 studio credits
Our studio practice will include investigating various forms of painting from the conception to the intuitive and from no mind to all mind, in order to become aware of our conditioning. Our meditation practice will inform. As a group, we will discuss the emotional tangles of our painting practice. Students will also have the opportunity to meet one-on-on with the instructor. Painting is in the moment; painting is a practice; painting is process; painting is subject; painting is paint; painting is mind; painting is no mind; painting is heart; painting is subject again; painting is abstract; painting is shadow; painting is insecurity; painting is making a darn fool of yourself; painting is who is painting; painting is fear; painting is freedom.

VSD-2302
Obsessive Painting
One semester: 3 studio credits
Is making art just a socially acceptable way of channeling obsessive behavior? Look at Agnes Martin’s grid paintings; Morandi’s bottles; Henry Darger’s 15,145 pages of hand-typed, hand-painted manuscript; Paul Noble fantasy worlds; Vija Celmin’s waves and rocks, and James Hampton’s thrones. It appears that each artist had no “off” switch. This course will address the artist’s never-ending pursuit of ideas, subjects, motifs or materials. Class time will be dedicated to painting and both group and individual critiques.

FID-2310
Looking into Music
One semester: 3 studio credits
Many artists approach their own work by way of ideas and properties that are primarily associated with another form of expression. Music, abstract and non-material by nature, has often served as a means of exploring the visual arts. This studio course will consider the interrelationship of the visual arts and music by first examining historic examples through lectures and individual research, then applying some of those principles to student projects and presentations. Beginning with the ancient belief in universal connectedness (such as the Harmony of the Spheres), topics will include: structural comparisons of visual and aural creativity; the nature of abstraction; phenomenological similarities and paradoxes of visual and aural perception; sociological and political activism; artistic and legal implications of appropriation in art and music; the interdependency of visual and sound elements in multi-disciplinary art forms such as theater, film, animation, music video and Web-based art.

FGD-2376
Printmaking: Etching and Woodcut
One semester: 3 studio credits
This course offers a thorough introduction to different image-making possibilities available in two major areas of printmaking. Etching will be explored through the introduction of line etching, soft ground, aquatint and photoetching. The second half of the semester will focus on monoprint, linoleum and woodcut. Starting from a direct application of color in monoprint, students will then explore the use of color separations and overlays to create color linoleum and woodcut prints.

VSD-2434
Capturing Life with the Camera Obscura
One semester: 3 studio credits
The Latin words “camera” and “obscura” used together describe a darkened vaulted chamber or room. A camera obscura is a darkened space where a small beam of reflected light from the outside world projects that light as an image in the space. The principle of the camera obscura dates to about 450 BCE when Mozi, a Chinese philosopher, referred to the device as a “locked treasure room.” This course is designed to unlock those treasures. Students will learn to build their own camera obscura using a variety of materials and objects to view and capture these images through drawing and various photographic means. Through experimentation and the referencing of the historical works of Caravaggio, Vermeer, and others, students will develop an understanding of the camera obscura and its possibilities. Using their own device and a combination of photographic papers and films, digital capture and hand drawing, students will develop a portfolio of images unique to the camera obscura.

VCD-3020
Theories of Imitation
One semester: 3 art history credits
A historical and philosophical examination of various ways in which theories of imitation have considered visual and textual imitations is the focus of this course. Readings will include: Plato, The Republic (excerpts); Denis Diderot, The Paradox of Acting; J. J. Winckelmann, Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works; Erich Auerbach, “Figura”; David Summers, The Judgment of Sense (excerpt); Oscar Wilde, “Decay of Lying”; Harold Bloom, “Necessity of Misreading”; Rene Girard, To Double Business Bound (excerpt); Paul Ricoeur, “Mimesis and Representation”; Jacques Derrida, “Economimesis.”

VCD-3040
Aesthetic Theory
One semester: 3 art history credits
Lacking in the long history of aesthetics and the philosophy of art is the case study approach of applying a theory directly to an artwork to see how effective it is. Does it define what art is or is not? Does it help us decide the sensory value of an artwork? Are there judgments of taste and sensory discriminations? Is there an aesthetic pleasure, a feeling of the ‘sublime,’ or is it all in the eye of the beholder? Is beauty a property of things or something we attribute to them? Ultimately, can theories of art provide a framework for critically responding to our art, our culture and nature? We intend to answer these questions by lining up some of the greatest theoreticians of the Western canon: Kant, Hegel, Croce, Adorno, Danto, Derrida, Goodman, Greenberg and Arnheim, with some of the most provocative art of our times.

VCD-3050
Art in Theory: 1648-1900
One semester: 3 art history credits
Centered on the first two volumes of Art in Theory: An Anthology of Changing Ideas (1648-1815 and 1815-1900, respectively), this course will focus on what became the central ideas that informed the European tradition of art theory and criticism. The goal is to acquaint students with the writings and ideas of these times and which were considered to be the foundation of what constitutes art and the art experience.

VCD-3052
Art in Theory: 1900-1990
One semester: 3 art history credits
This course will consider the most important articles, manifestoes, and artists’ statements of the 20th century. Lectures will connect the artwork produced during that time to these texts and offer a comprehensive understanding of both images and ideas.

VSD-3063
Artist as Curator
One semester: 3 studio credits
This course will examine the expanding role of the curator in terms of overlaps, complements and conflicts with the role of the artist. The thinning categorical divide between artist and curator will be explored through contemporary curatorial practices as a form of cultural production that expands into more experimental and collaborative models. The new artist/curator has the potential to conceptually develop the specific content of exhibitions in a similarly generative way as making art in the studio. Sessions will take place at several sites: Denniston Hill, a not-for-profit agricultural/arts center in the Catskills, working artists’ studios in New York City, and an SVA Gallery or specific site determined by the class. At each of these sites we will investigate the intricacies of an artist/curator approach to thinking in diverse modalities—i.e., rural/domestic/communal, urban/commercial/individual and didactic/collaborative. There will guest lectures by artists and curators, discussions and curatorial project proposals/models. The course will culminate in an artist-directed curatorial project with specificities chosen by the class: an avant-garde action reflecting the ideas posited during class discourse.

VSD-3066
Make Your Own Art World: Independent Exhibitions, Projects and Spaces
One semester: 3 studio credits
How do you envision your role as an artist in the world of contemporary art? The commercial gallery system presents one possibility, but what are the other options for participating in the current conversation around art? Independent and artist-run spaces offer an alternative to the traditional, market-driven, private gallery system. In this course, we will trace the history of alternative spaces in New York and also look at contemporary artist-run and independent galleries. In addition to readings, screenings and discussion, we will visit and meet the directors of exhibition spaces such as Artist’s Space, Art in General, Canada, Momenta, Participant, Rex Regina, and Soloway. Students will collaborate to curate and produce an exhibition at Soloway Gallery.

VSD-3083
Watercolor Bootcamp
One semester: 3 studio credits
For students who have experience in watercolor and want to take it much further, this course will offer the opportunity to do just that. The first half of the semester will be spent completing a series of intense and rigorous exercises meant to ground students in the basics of not only watercolor, but also color theory, perspective and composition. Once students have mastered those principles and gained the confidence that comes with doing so, the rest of the semester will be spent working on a series of finished watercolor pieces of individual choosing.

VSD-3121
Digital Video
One semester: 3 studio credits
The focus of this course is on the individual as videomaker. Students will work in several genres, including documentary, narrative, poetry, abstract and diary forms. There will be screenings of a variety of works from video art to pieces made for television. Analytical and critical skills will be developed and exercised in written work. Technical subjects covered will include the basics of video, camera operations, lighting, sound and editing. Students will work on a semester-long project, and ideas, rushes and rough drafts will be presented and critiqued. Readings on aesthetics, as well as technical material will complement course projects.

FID-3387
Video Installation: When Light Becomes Form
One semester: 3 studio credits
From low-tech projection to high-tech immersive environments, video installation has become a dominant medium for contemporary artists. Drawing from the history of film and video art, the students will explore some of the different techniques of analog and digital media in their work in the digital lab. This course will focus on developing students’ knowledge of video installation and encourage experimentation with a variety of approaches to the projected image. Students will generate four projects throughout the semester. We will meet regularly as a group and on a one-on-one basis to discuss current exhibitions, readings and student projects, and screen film/video work by some of the major figures in the field. The remaining time will be spent in the studio/lab. Students are encouraged to incorporate their personal interests and perspectives into their work. Projects will relate to ideas and forms of light projection from conception and production to display and distribution; creative relationships between visual and audio; the physicality of light; narrative and non-narrative structure; original and appropriated material; public and private exhibition; interaction with performance and objects/sculpture. The class will touch on issues of gender, social and political activism, and the history of media communication.

VSD-3402
Advanced Projects in Mixed Media
One semester: 3 studio credits
Advanced Projects in Mixed Media is a studio course with an emphasis on materiality and experimentation. Materials are suggested for assignments but ultimately can take any form—photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. The course embraces the wide-reaching methods of contemporary art, which also includes the potential use of performance and video as well as considerations of context and technology. Students are expected to achieve a greater understanding of themselves as artists and begin to construct their own artistic voice. The course is divided into three sections: The Four Elements, The Five Senses and The Four Temperaments—with focuses on physical matter, experience/interpretation and emotion. Weekly projects will be discussed in a group critique; reading assignments, screenings and field trips are included.

VSD-3807
Fiber Arts
One semester: 3 studio credits
This course will introduce students to the basics of working within several classic American fiber arts traditions, including spinning, weaving, dyeing, appliqué, quilt-making, embroidery, and basic fabric design. While traditional ways of working and basic techniques will be demonstrated and stressed in the first half of the semester, students will use their skills to create individualized artistic projects during the second half of the course. In the end, this course is a hybrid of new and old techniques, combining craft and fine art.

FID-3821
Embroidery and the Digital Sewing Machine
One semester: 3 studio credits
Digital embroidery transforms a hand-crafted couture into a fine arts media. Just like a tattoo where an image is created with color and needles, the embroidered fabric or paper is needle-stitched in colored threads. The image is a file that can be saved and repeated as a multiple or repeat pattern. The course will cover digital sewing using registration applications. Techniques related to fashion and the fine arts will be explored. A visit to a commercial embroidery atelier will be at the conclusion of the course.

AHD-3994
Introduction to Visual Culture
One semester: 3 art history credits
Tired of hearing about art versus design versus advertising versus the comic book? This course is designed to explore the issues of what constitutes culture—who said so, why, and what we can learn from and change about it. Our “society of the spectacle” engages case studies from sports, the mall, Madonna, James Bond, drag balls, Disneyland, Spike Lee, television, comic books and, yes, the fine arts, for their role in the construction of cultural values. Subtopics range from contemporary myth, the hero and heroine, the use of stereotypes and icons, attitudes toward gender and ethnicity and their consequences for the meaning and understanding of “culture.” Critical approaches are introduced to explore how cultural norms are established and to develop your own position in the current debates. Readings are from the German Frankfurt and British Birmingham schools of social thought, film and visual theory, studies in popular culture, feminism and cultural theory.

VHD-4010
Essay Workshop
One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits
The essay is a literary form perfect for grappling with complex ideas in a direct and personal manner. Less rigid than the scholarly treatise, its openness allows a writer tremendous flexibility in considering a chosen topic from numerous angles. In this course, we will examine the uses and particular strengths of the essay by reading and discussing a wide range of examples, as well as writing short essays in a variety of styles. Our reading will range from the invention of the modern essay in the 16th century by Montaigne to opinion pieces in current magazines. Writing assignments will explore uses of the essay for diverse purposes, including satire, humor, advocacy, art criticism and the investigation of contemporary issues. The goal throughout will be to help students identify different means of writing available to them as they begin to conceive of and develop the written component of their thesis projects.

VSD-4010 / VSD-4015
Thesis Studio I and II
Two semesters: 3 studio credits per semester
Consisting of weekly critiques by faculty and visiting artists, these courses will provide the anchor by which the final thesis project is undertaken.

HSD-4026
Art, Science and the Spiritual
One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits
What is our place in the universe? How do we perceive the world? Students will learn how modern science has profoundly transformed modern art. The theories of Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein forever changed how artists understand reality. The rise of science also entailed the decline of organized religion, causing traditional spiritual questions to be reformulated in secular terms. At the same time, the theories proposed by psychologists—the new doctors of the soul—revolutionized modern society’s understanding of the human psyche. Artists responded to the challenges posed by science and psychology by creating new metaphors for the human condition during the first secular, scientific age in human history. We will explore the interplay between art, science and the spiritual by evaluating major scientific and religious trends of the 20th century in relation to the representative artistic movements and works of the time.

VSD-4050
Thesis Workshop
One semester: 3 studio credits
Intended to hone the skills necessary for the undertaking of the thesis project, this course will examine the material and intellectual contexts in which the thesis is pursued.

The first year provides you with a solid foundation curriculum, allowing you to develop basic skills.  Using a broad range of tools, you will explore a variety of media and experience the opportunity to develop your artistic voice.

Required Courses
AHD-1030 Visuality and Modern Art I
AHD-1035 Visuality and Modern Art II
FDD-1030 Drawing I
FDD-1035 Drawing II
VHD-1010 Reading, Thinking, Writing I
VHD-1015 Reading, Thinking, Writing II
PHD-1003 Lens Arts
PHD-1080 Introduction to Digital Imaging
VCD-1030 The Nature, History and Practice of the Image I
VCD-1035 The Nature, History and Practice of the Image II

In the second year, you will continue with a foundation studio program, further exploring the course offerings in the many studio disciplines.  Additionally, you will delve deeper into critical reading and writing.

Required Courses

REQUIREMENT A
AHD-2010 Art of the Premodernist World
VSD-2120 Sculpture
FID-2310 Looking Into Music
FGD-2376 Printmaking: Etching and Woodcut
GDD-2020 Basic Graphic Design I
and GDD-2090 Computers in the Studio I
or VSD-2102 The Artist's Journal I
or VSD-2103 The Artist's Journal II
VCD-2020 Theories of Vision and Color
or VCD-2030 The History and Practices of Perspective
VHD-2060 Visuality in Poetry
or VHD-2070 Visual Poetics 

REQUIREMENT B
In addition to Requirement A, students must take three elective credits in studio and six elective credits in art history or humanities

The third year curriculum allows you greater flexibility to explore studio electives in a broader range of subjects.  At the same time, the academic focus is expanding into the realms of philosophy, history and theory.

Required Courses

REQUIREMENT A
One semester each of 
VCD-3020 Theories of Imitation
VCD-3040 Aesthetic Theory
VSD-3121 Digital Video
or FID-3821 Embroidery and the Digital Sewing Machine
or FID-3822 Embroidery and the Digital Sewiing Machine
or FID-3387 Video Installation: When Light Becomes Form
VCD-3050 Art in Theory: 1648-1900
or VCD-3052 Art in Theory: 1900-1990
AHD-3994 Introduction to Visual Culture
or HSD-4026 Art, Science and the Spiritual
VSD-3066 Make Your Own Art World: Independent Exhibitions, Projects & Spaces
or VSD-3402 Advanced Projects in Mixed Media
or VSD-3807 Fiber Arts

REQUIREMENT B
In addition to Requirement A, students must take nine elective credits in studio and three elective credits in art history or humanities.

The Visual and Critical Studies program is brought to conclusion by means of a thesis project, which takes the form of a studio project together with a written component.

Required Courses

REQUIREMENT A
One semester each of
VHD-4010 Essay Workshop
VSD-4010 Thesis Studio I
VSD-4015 Thesis Studio II
VSD-4050 Thesis Workshop
AHD-4140 Senior Workshop

REQUIREMENT B
Nine additional credits in studio and three additional credits in art history or humanities.