Courses

Mixed Media Animation is a contemporary survey of stop-motion animation concepts and techniques. Students use digital SLR cameras, scanners and digital compositing software to produce works in hand-drawn animation, puppet and clay animation, sand animation, and multiplane collage animation. Screenings and discussions in the course introduce key historical examples of animation demonstrating how these techniques have been used in meaningful ways. Students then learn how to composite two or more of these methods with matte painting, computer animation or video.

Using software tools designed for hand-drawn animation, students will develop animation skills applicable to all forms of animation. In this course students will learn to draw with a sense of urgency and purpose as they represent motion and drama in a series of frames. Through careful study of natural movements, precedents in the history of animation, and through the completion of a series of animation projects students will develop strategies for representing naturalistic movement, inventing meaningful transformations of form, and storytelling

Animation can be disarming and effective when used for climate communication. The animation toolkit includes the implementation of metaphor within stories, alluring hand-drawn visualizations, illustrative views, dynamic transformations of visual forms, and cinematic sequences that reveal the cause and effect of human action. As the instructors of this studio have discovered in their own work, it is crucial that animators collaborate with climate scientists and that research be a component throughout the whole process, from script-writing and storyboarding to the animatic and the final product. This collaboration guarantees accuracy, relevance, and effective audience-targeting. What scientists value is the ability of animation to convey complex information in engaging and comprehensible ways. In this course, we will form small production teams that will partner with climate researchers at Penn and other centers and institutions to produce animated videos that meet their communication needs. Students in the course will use hand-drawn and collage animation to produce persuasive videos that communicate emerging risks and obstacles to climate action as well as solutions and new perspectives. *Course fulfills Integrative Design Studio requirement.

Through a series of studio projects this course introduces techniques of 2D and 3D computer animation. Emphasis is placed on time-based design and storytelling through animation performance and montage. Students will develop new sensitivities to movement, composition, cinematography, editing, sound, color and lighting

This course is designed to develop visual awareness and perceptual acuity through the process of drawing. Students learn to sharpen perceptual skills through observational drawing, and to explore the expressive potential of drawing. A variety of problems and media will be presented in order to familiarize students with various methods of working and ways of communicating ideas visually. Subject matter will include object study, still life, interior and exterior space, self-portrait and the figure. Different techniques and materials (charcoal, graphite, ink, collage) are explored in order to understand the relationship between means, material and concept. Critical thinking skills are developed through frequent class critiques and through the presentation of and research into historical and contemporary precedent in drawing.

Students work directly from the nude model and focus on its articulation through an understanding of anatomical structure and function. Students will investigate a broad variety of drawing techniques and materials. The model will be used as the sole element in a composition and as a contextualized element.

Painting practices is an introduction to the methods and materials of oil painting. This course begins with an investigation of color and color relationships. The beginning of the semester will cover technical issues and develop the student's ability to create a convincing sense of form in space using mass, color, light and composition. The majority of work is from direct observation including object study, still life, landscape, interior and exterior space and the self-portrait. Class problems advance sequentially with attention paid to perceptual clarity, the selection and development of imagery, the process of synthesis and translation, color, structure and composition, content and personal expression. Students will become familiar with contemporary and art historical precedent in order to familiarize them with the history of visual ideas and find appropriate solutions to their painting problems.

Drawing is a fundamental means of visualization and a hub for thinking, constructing, and engaging in a wide variety of creative activities and problem solving. This studio class explores drawing in both its traditional and contemporary forms. The projects are designed to help students in all disciplines find ways express and clarify their ideas through the process of drawing. The semester begins with the refinement of perceptual skills acquired in Drawing I, while encouraging experimentation through the introduction of color, abstract agendas, conceptual problem solving, and collaborative exercises, as well as new materials, techniques and large format drawings. Particular attention is given to ways to conduct visual research in the development of personal imagery. Assignments are thematic or conceptually based with ample opportunity for individual approaches to media, subject, scale and process. The goal is to strengthen facility, develop clarity in intent and expand expression. Attention is paid to the development of perceptual sensitivity, methods of image construction, and the processes of synthesis and transformation in order to communicate ideas through visual means. Recommended for students in all areas.

This course will concentrate on techniques and strategies that will help us approach the human figure. The aim of the course tack- les not only the classical painting atelier style of work but, also, dwells into impressionism and the school of realism for those interested in rendering the figure from life with or without experience. During the fifteen weeks working strictly from life and the model, we will learn to unlearn, improvise and solve the problems ahead in a very personal fashion. This learning process will bring forth a type of painting that can be evaluated from what we see, as we translate into the surface through size relationships, contrast in values and composition.

Painting Studio presents an ongoing exploration of the techniques, problems and poetics of painting, the nuances of the painting language, and the development of a personal direction. A wide variety of problems will address such issues as color, composition, and the development of imagery, process, and content. Students are expected to improve in technical handling of paints and move towards developing personal modes of seeing, interpreting, and thinking for themselves. This course introduces different topics, strategies and individual challenges each semester, so it may be repeated with advanced course numbers: FNAR 333 and FNAR 334.

This course is an introduction to the basic processes and techniques of black
& white photography. Students will learn how to expose and process 35mm film,
SLR camera operation, darkroom procedures & printing, basic lighting and
controlled applications. It begins with an emphasis on understanding and
mastering technical procedures and evolves into an investigation of the
creative and expressive possibilities of making images. This is a
project-based course, where students will begin to develop their personal
vision, their understanding of aesthetic issues and photographic history.
Assignments, ideas and important examples of contemporary art will be
presented via a series of slide lectures, critiques and discussion. No
previous experience necessary. 35mm SLR cameras will be available throughout
the semester for reservation and checkout from the photography equipment room.

This class offers an in-depth technical and conceptual foundation in digital imagery and the opportunity to explore the creative, expressive possibilities of photography. Students will become proficient with the basic use of the camera, techniques of digital capture, color management and color correction. They will also develop competency in scanning, retouching, printing and a variety of manipulation techniques in Photoshop. Through weekly lectures and critiques, students will become familiar with some of the most critical issues of representation, consider examples from photo history, analyze the impact of new technologies and social media. With an emphasis on structured shooting assignments, students are encouraged to experiment, expand their visual vocabulary while refining their technical skills. No previous experience is necessary. Although it is beneficial for students to have their own Digital SLR camera, registered students may reserve and checkout Digital SLR cameras and other high-end equipment from the department.

In this course students will continue to develop conceptual, technical, aesthetic and formal strategies in digital photography, expanding their artistic process while refining their critical approach to researched subject matter. The class will be driven initially by a series of assignments formulated to further expose students to broad possibilities related to the medium and then they will be guided towards the evolution of a personalized body of work that is culturally, theoretically and historically informed. We will be examining key issues surrounding the digital image in contemporary society, led through a combination of class lectures, readings, group discussions, film screenings, gallery visits and class critiques. Students will further their knowledge of image control and manipulation, retouching and collage, advanced color management; become familiar with high-end camera and lighting equipment and develop professional printing skills. In addition to learning these advanced imaging practices, this course will also emphasize an investigation of critical thought surrounding contemporary visual culture and the role of digital media in the creation of art.

As methods of representation are constantly shifting, one thing is clear - the photographic portrait is not what is used to be. Exploring both traditional and contemporary methods of portraiture, this class will uncover and discuss the ways in which we perceive each other in imagery, both as individuals and as groups. Throughout the semester, we will consider how portraits deal with truth, physical absence, the gaze, cultural embodiment, voyeurism and the digital persona. This course will build on the combination of perception, technology, and practice. Throughout the semester, students will advance by learning lighting techniques and strategies of presentation - as these core skills will become tools in the execution of project concepts. In tandem with each project, students will encounter and discuss a wide array of photography and writings from the past to the present, in an effort to understand the meanings and psychological effects of freezing the human image in time.

Starting with the representation of landscape in painting in the early 1800s, the course will then move through Pictorialism and the Modernist movement in photography. Revisiting the latter half of the 20th century, we will begin to consider the shifting practices of landscape and the ways it has been photographically depicted up to the present. Collaborating with the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, students will begin their photographic exploration with the work of Andrea Wyeth and the landscape of the Brandywine Valley. As we consider Wyeth, the images of James Welling will also be introduced. Credited for pioneering new forms of representation in photography in the 1970s, Welling also revisited the work of Wyeth from 2010-2015, and committed to a fresh (and challenging) look at tradition.

Queer is a fluid, unfixed and undefinable space offering endless utopian possibilities & potentials concerning gender, sexuality, personal autonomy and agency. Queer Imaginings is a forum for the reimagining of Queer representation/s. This course provides a safe space to mine, critique and analyze Queer imagery, both historical & contemporary. We will explore the ways in which Queerness is approached, represented & manipulated in pop culture, politics, society and the media. Students enrolled in this studio/seminar course will partake in discussions and research pertaining to Queer images and their intersections with race, trans/non-binary-equity, feminism, disability & class structure. These complex subjects will inspire respectful debate throughout the course, and most importantly, generate robust discussion about the work students create. Prompted through select readings and visual presentations, students will be guided to research, analyze and create artworks, which are inspired by various topics related to Queerness. A special emphasis will be placed upon issues arising around visibility, erasure & inclusivity. This forum offers a space to reexamine, research and propose new representations of Queerness. This is primarily a lens-based course with expansive possibilities (interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, multidisciplinary).

The course offers an introduction to several forms of printmaking including: intaglio, screen printing, relief, and monoprinting. Through in-class demonstrations students are introduced to various approaches to making and printing in each medium. The course enhances a student's capacity for developing images through two-dimensional design and conceptual processes. Technical and conceptual skills are developed through discussions and critiques.

This course is an introduction to technical skills and investigative processes in screen printing and relief and examines methods for combining digital technology with traditional print media. The course introduces students to several contemporary applications of silkscreen and relief printmaking including techniques in multi-color printing, photo-based silk-screening, digital printing, woodcut, linocut, and letterpress. Demonstrations include photo and image manipulation, color separating and output techniques, hand carving and printing, as well as drawing and collage. Both traditional and experimental approaches are explored and encouraged and technical and conceptual skills are developed through discussions and critiques.

As an introduction to traditional and contemporary three-dimensional practice, this course is concerned with the concepts and methodologies surrounding three-dimensional art making in our time. Students experiment with a variety of modes of production, and develop some of the fundamental techniques used in sculpture. In addition to these investigations, assignments relative to the history and social impact of these practices are reinforced through readings and group discussion. Processes covered include use of the Fab Lab, wood construction, clay, paper, mixed media, and more.

This course introduces clay as a sculptural medium through fundamental clay-building techniques, mold making, model making, and casting. Through experimentation with these methods, this course promotes an understanding of materials, processes, visual concepts and techniques for creating three-dimensional forms in space. In addition to using different water-based clays and plaster, other materials such as wax, plastiline, paper pulp, and cardboard will be explored. Students will explore the full range of clay s capabilities and its role in contemporary art through lectures, readings, demonstrations, and assignments that incorporate conceptual and technical issues.

In the contemporary moment, to make sculpture is to deal with all things: microscopic and monumental, subtle and blunt, real and imagined - it is an attempt at understanding three-dimensionality and dealing with questions of space. As a practice, sculptural approaches can be applied to all means of making, ranging from drawing to performance to video. In Sculpture II, students will develop and expand upon a technical fabrication skillset - woodworking, metalworking, mold making, casting, armature construction, surfacing, and assemblage - while also developing and expanding upon a conceptual framework and language surrounding sculpture through readings, group discussions, writings, film screenings, gallery visits, and group critiques. The course will begin with guided assignments to expose students to the expanded field of sculpture; as the semester progresses, the curriculum will shift towards supporting each student’s development of a self-directed and comprehensive body of work. The methodology of the ‘jig’/‘kludge’/’jury rig’ will be our guiding tactic through this course. As a sculptural practice, these approaches value process over product, they forefront curiosity and experimentation, and they render failure and success entirely subjective. The goal of this course is to leave not only with a comprehensive technical and conceptual skillset, but also with a sensitivity towards three-dimensionality and a cohort of peers with whom a critical language surrounding sculpture has been developed.

In this course students will examine and explore the sculptural foundations of clay in the world of contemporary art and design, by experimenting with its sculptural materiality, as a means to develop ideas in large-scale and unconventional ways. Through investigative and conceptually driven projects, students will use clay and other non-traditional materials to make modular structures that incorporate advanced mold-making, casting, and advanced building techniques to develop their own artistic voice through the expansive medium of clay.

In this studio-based course, students are introduced to video production and postproduction as well as to selected historical and theoretical texts addressing the medium of video. Students will be taught basic camera operation, sound recording and lighting, as well as basic video and sound editing and exporting using various screening and installation formats. In addition to a range of short assignment-based exercises, students will be expected to complete three short projects over the course of the semester. Critiques of these projects are crucial to the course as students are expected to speak at length about the formal, technical, critical and historical dimensions of their works. Weekly readings in philosophy, critical theory, artist statements and literature are assigned. The course will also include weekly screenings of films and videos, introducing students to the history of video art as well as to other contemporary practices.

This course is structured to create a focused environment and support for individual inquiries and projects. Students will present and discuss their work in one to one meetings with the instructor and in group critiques. Readings, screenings, and technical demonstrations will vary depending on students' past history as well as technical, theoretical, and aesthetic interests.

This course focuses on the practices and theory of producing narrative based cinema. Members of the course will become the film crew and produce a short digital film. Workshops on producing, directing, lighting, camera, sound and editing will build skills necessary for the hands-on production shoots. Visiting lecturers will critically discuss the individual roles of production in the context of the history of film.

Advanced Lens Based Projects (ALBP) is structured to create an open environment for students to develop a series of self-determined projects using any variety of image capture technologies. Mobile devices and DSLRs have blended the function of moving and still image capture while computers have become ubiquitous as instruments of display and dissemination. This has consequently led to the increasingly collapsed boundaries of artistic mediums. ALBP is a studio class where students will explore different modes of production and address the expanding field of exhibition strategies. Additionally, the class will foster a transdisciplinary approach to critiquing work and emphasize the shared context of the works reception.

In this course, we’ll delve into a survey and practice of making performance. This course is intended to introduce students of various disciplines to the central components of Performance art. Following a hybridized module, the class will present students with a cursory introduction to a history of performance art; its theoretical framings and critical inquiries and various approaches to making, through lecture, seminar, and in-class performance workshops. This introduction will invite students to make their own performance work using a variety of techniques and frameworks discovered through workshops, readings, and viewings of work by feminist, queer, anti-capitalist, and anti-colonial artists and theorists.

This intermediate course will explore the wide and expansive territories of art-making that exist between live performance and mediated image making-both still and moving. For much of the 21st century, the mediums of performance, video and photography have been weaving in and out of contact. Performance is known and understood largely through its documentation: sometimes voluminous and sometimes little more than a single photograph. On the other side, video, film and photography each developed through widespread explorations that were deeply entwined with the "capturing" of bodies on film. Using photography, video and performance in equal parts, the course is a hands-on exploration of this capacious terrain. The course will be structured by a series of bi-weekly assignments that allow for individual and collective production. The course will also include a regular schedule of short readings and presentations/screenings of existing works.

This course supports the individual and collaborative production of performance works. As the medium of performance consists of diverse forms, actions, activities, practices and methodologies, the course allows for an open exploration in terms of material and form. Students are invited to utilize technologies, materials and methodologies from other mediums and/or disciplines such as video, photography, writing and sound. In addition to the production component, the course will examine multiple histories of performance through readings, screenings and directed research.

This course offers an introduction to studio-based practices aimed at synthesizing the expansive potentialities of art through exposure to a diverse set of approaches, their histories, and contemporary applications. A wide range of multi-disciplinary projects will provide students with skills to conceptualize and visualize material investigations. Lectures, readings, films, visiting lectures, field trips, and critiques, will provide a historic and theoretical foundation for critical inquiry.

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples’ step by step analysis of the process of designing with painting a mural. In addition, students will learn to see mural art as a tool for social change. This course combines theory with practice. Students will design and paint a large outdoor mural in West Philadelphia in collaboration with Philadelphia high school students and community groups. The class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

This is a primarily an art and planning course that centers on the representation of the oriental, specifically the Chinese, in both its historical and present contexts. The localization of the Chinese throughout the Americas within Chinatown precincts was also subject to representational imaginings that were negotiated through the lens of civic planning. This course will study the often-fraught negotiation between representation and planning. The hyper-urbanization of China over the past several decades has radically altered traditional conceptions of public space in China. Mass migration from rural to urban areas has meant very high population densities in Chinese cities.

What if a poem spoke from inside a photograph? What if a sculpture unfurled a political manifesto? What if a story wasn't just like a dance, but was a dance-or a key component of a video, drawing, performance, or painting? In this course, artists and writers will develop new works that integrate the forms, materials, and concerns of both art and writing. Many artists employ writing in their practices, but may not look at the texts they create as writing. And many writers have practices that go beyond the page and deserve attention as art. This course will employ critique and workshop, pedagogic methodologies from art and writing respectively, to support and interrogate cross- pollination between writing and art practices. Additionally, the course will examine a field of artists and writers who are working with intersections between art and writing to create dynamic new ways of seeing, reading, and experiencing.

How can the arts help us build a more just society? How can the arts transform social structures and systems? Public health crises involving clean water (Flint), police violence (Baltimore), and a lack of economic and educational opportunity following reentry (Philadelphia) make legible the need for a new visual language that critiques these conditions and challenges entrenched structural inequalities. We will engage the work of creative practitioners who are mapping new relationships between art and social justice and directly impacting individual and communal well-being. In so doing, the course seeks to challenge traditional constructions of public health, which often isolate individual histories from their social life and their relation to families, communities, and geographies. Readings will build upon disciplinary perspectives in the arts, humanities, and social policy. Requirements include weekly readings, class participation, and a collaborative final project. The course will meet in the Health Ecologies Lab at Slought Foundation, an arts organization on campus.

The French social philosopher Michel de Certeau upset the common understanding of the relationship between space and place by elevating space as practice place. By this, he meant that place is but a set of geo-physical particularities that has no dynamic meaning unless activated through social engagement so that space is produced. Spatial practice is a key concept in the modern understanding of the city as a society of abstract space, one in which the problem of human alienation is riven with the logic of spatial spectacularization. Public Art is often employed to address or mollify such urban problems through concepts of historical reconstruction or institutional critique, including possibly testing the limits of public expression. Historical markers play a somewhat different role by calling attention to lost or negative histories, albeit most often vetted through the language of tourism factoids. This course will examine the discursive issues at play in respect to art and markers, particularly for Philadelphia. Additionally, important public art works from around the world will be examined. The course will also include the occasional visit of several key works downtown in which the question of what can and cannot said will be pondered.

As a pioneer of abstraction in the early 1900’s, Hilma Af Klint channeled a complex and highly original body of abstract symbolic work in secrecy. Using the upcoming Hilma Af Klint exhibition at the Guggenheim as a focus and departure point, this course will explore the ways in which artists have accessed alternative ways of seeing, knowing, and embodying non-visible realities as a source for their work. Accessing spiritual realms has been the subject of early European Modernisms investigations into Theosophy and Anthroposophy, as well as the primary intention of Tibetan Thangkas and Indian Tantra paintings. Postmodernism’s crisis of belief and skepticism generated a cultural situation wherein the subject of spirituality was marginalized, ridiculed as anti-intellectual, and in disgrace. The Hilma Af Klint exhibition and surge of interest in her work signifies a new moment, where questions about consciousness and the nature of reality are being addressed with renewed vigor. How do we create space in a technology driven world for experiences that attempt to align the viewer/maker with the contemplative realm, heightened states of consciousness, or transcendence? We will examine a wide field of artists in an attempt to understand the possibilities of the “spiritual” in art and contemporary culture. This seminar will engage in readings, lectures, discussions, projects, and field trips. This course is appropriate for both grad and undergrad, art majors and non-majors alike.

How does matter transform into material, and back again? What hidden labor, sites, social and ecological costs and processes go into the production of a “blank” canvas and other “raw” materials? And why-- for artists, designers, architects, preservationists, creative educators, builders, and anyone working with materials-- do these realities matter? This course connects arts and design learners to considerations, sites, and cycles around production and disposal of the defining materials of their creative fields (ex. paper, wood, glass, pigment, "the internet"), laying groundwork for creative practice rooted in social and ecological awareness, repair and care. A hybrid research seminar, field exploration, and studio investigation, the structure of this course alternates between reading/response/research, field trips and guest visitors (including a partnership affiliation with RAIR Philly), and time for responsive “making” and material experimentation/synthesis. In this course, students will collaboratively define key terms and concerns around material sustainability, discard studies, land and labor relations vis-a-vis creative work. Students will experience local sites of material extraction, production and disposal (through approx 5 field trips taking place during class time). Students will formulate individual or group questions around a specific material, leading to a final independent project, and class exhibition. This course will engage students in forming a material ethics to guide future creative work.

This rigorous pair of courses, one offered in the Fall and one offered in the Spring semester, are designed as the capstone of the Fine Arts major and are required for all graduating fine arts seniors. They can only be taken in the senior year.

Students will develop a comprehensive knowledge of how virtual worlds are constructed using contemporary computer graphics technique with a fine arts perspective. The course will offer the opportunity to explore the construction, texturing, and rendering of forms, environments, and mechanisms while conforming to modeling specifications required for animation, real-time simulations or gaming environments, and rapid prototyping.

"Procedural Design Systems for Virtual Environments" challenges students to reconceptualize 3D design within digital and virtual ecosystems, not just as production but as concept creation. Embracing system-based workflows, the course delves into procedural modeling, shader creation, and optimization, all set within a software-agnostic framework. Central to this studio course is the concept of assets as "units of language" within larger digital narratives, driven by the use of design systems to ensure these assets are contextually coherent and resource-efficient. Through hands-on workshops, discussions, and tutorials, participants will master procedural workflows, preparing them to craft assets that are both technically robust and culturally relevant. *Fulfills Integrative Studio requirement.

This course introduces methods of modeling, texturing, and rendering human and animal figures. Students will study anatomical bone and muscle structures, and then employ this knowledge as they develop polygonal models for real-time 3D simulations or gaming environments, high-resolution renderings, and rapid prototyping.

Advanced 3-D Modeling will give students the opportunity to refine skills in modeling, texturing, lighting and rendering with an emphasis on the evolution of ideas through constant revision based on class critique. Students will use a variety of industry standard software packages, including, but not limited to Maya and Mudbox to compose complex environments. Projects are designed to give students the opportunity to work with original content within a simulated production environment.

This course is a research-based design studio that introduces new materials, fabrication, and prototyping techniques to develop a series of design proposals in response to the theme: Biological Design. The studio introduces life sciences and biotechnologies to designers, artists, and non-specialists to develop creative and critical propositions that address the social, cultural, and environmental needs of the 21st century.
*Course fulfills Integrative Design Studio requirement.

This studio course will introduce methods of material selection and fabrication with the goal of developing evocative and effective designs. We will learn parametric modeling techniques that allow visualization to begin before all of the requirements of a design are known. We will implement techniques that allow us to test and optimize forms to be stronger, lighter, or to fail or perform more predictably. The class will work to identify materials with properties that introduce new structural or conceptual possibilities for our designs. For each project, we will use a broad range of fabrication techniques for metals, natural and synthetic materials. The goal of the course is to develop a creative approach towards learning to work with unfamiliar tools and materials.
*Course fulfills Integrative Design Studio requirement.

This course will focus on visual communication of information. It will address two methods of inquiry and the corresponding means of visual representation: the objective, well-structured research of facts and images, and the creative process of their subjective evaluation and restatement. Students will propose a topic based on their area of interest and engage in a focused, semester-long exploration, which they will present in the form of a designed and printed book.

The study and practice of typography spans the history of individual letterforms through the typesetting of full texts. It is a complete immersion into type as an integral part of visual communication. Typesetting conventions and variables including legibility, readability, texture, color and hierarchy will be stressed, as well as a form for organizing information and expressing visual ideas. Studio work will include collecting and analyzing type, designing an original typeface, researching type history and experimenting with typographic forms.

This studio course introduces students to the world of printmaking and circulation through techniques in letterpress and Risograph (a high-speed digital printing system developed in Japan in the 1980s), in addition to Xerox, laser, inkjet, and off-set printing, focusing particularly on the format of prints, artists' ephemera, and the role of ephemera in understanding culture. Students will create their own broadsides, flyers, announcement cards, and independent publications throughout the course, exploring ways in which artists, designers, musicians, and activists make or have made use of the print to disseminate information; initiate happenings; advertise events; or format change. Students will learn about some of the most significant producers working within this realm - from Conceptualists to punk bands - and develop skills in page layout, typography, and design; mechanized and hand-pulled press operations; and digital to analog pre-press and post-print production methods.
*Course fulfills Integrative Design Studio requirement.

Book and Publication Design will focus on the theory and professional practice of designing multi-page publications. Students will analyze formal structures of different types of books-literature and poetry, fiction and non-fiction compilations, illustrated volumes such as art catalogues, monographs and textbooks, and serial editions-discussing both traditional and experimental approaches. The format of the course will be split between theoretical and historical evaluations of book formats by drawing on the Van Pelt Rare Book Collection-and studio time where students will design books with attention to the format's conceptual relationship to the material at hand with a focus on typography and page layout, as well as on understanding production methods of printing and binding. In addition to the conventions of page layout students will examine paratextual elements (title page, practices of pagination and other internal structuring, content lists and indexes, colophons, notes and marginalia, end-leaves, binding, etc.).

This course is an introduction to the fundamental perception, representation, aesthetics, and design that shape today's visual culture. It addresses the way artists and designers create images; design with analog and digital tools; communicate, exchange, and express meaning over broad range of media; and find their voices within the fabric of contemporary art, design, and visual culture. Emphasis is placed on building an extended form of visual literacy by studying and making images using a variety of representation techniques; learning to organize and structure two-dimensional and three-dimensional space, and designing with time-based and procedural media. Students learn to develop an individual style of idea-generation, experimentation, iteration, and critique as part of their creative and critical responses to visual culture.

Art of the Web: Interactive concepts for art and design is a first step in learning how to create, analyze and discuss interactive content, as a visual creator. It is an exploration of the culture of the internet, the ideas behind its quirks, the dreams and freedoms it encapsulates, and the creative power it gives to us. Students will be assigned projects that will challenge their current understanding of the web, and the ways it shapes human connectivity and interaction. Upon completion of this course, students will possess a working knowledge how to organize and design websites and learn to critique web-content including navigation, UX design and information architecture. The course will require analytical and conceptual skills and foster creative thinking.
*Course fulfills Integrative Design Studio requirement.

The aim of this course is to introduce student's to creative ways to use color, typography, and layout across new materials and media, ranging from print to physical objects. Students will explore visual design through a set of assignments and projects that are geared towards exploring the role of design in visual arts, interaction design, media design and architecture. The course introduces a number of design concepts such as content organization, navigation, interaction and data-driven design and show ways to develop new design metaphors, presentation techniques, and imagery using old and new technologies. course is structured as a combination of lectures and hands on workshops where students will have the chance to work both individually and collaboratively to realize their projects.
*Course fulfills Integrative Design Studio requirement.

This advanced studio re-focuses design as a means for system change and cultural progress. It explores how individual designers can balance the tension between their idiosyncratic creations and the larger audiences that receive their designs. The course asks students to re-examine the role of the designer and challenges them to question and propose new modes of practice—as maker, entrepreneur, curator, activist and collaborator—across disciplines and in the spaces between art and design. It challenges designers to go beyond the creation of ‘closed-loop’ design objects to find new frameworks for dialogue. The assigned design and writing projects address a variety of criteria and environments. The final work is an independent research project.

This immersive media course explores the design and application of virtual, augmented, and mixed realities. It combines project-based learning with an understanding of the historical and cultural impacts of these technologies. Focused on immersive design principles and user experience, the course equips students with the necessary technical and artistic skills for creating interactive virtual environments. Through practical exercises and discussions, students will master immersive tools and techniques. The course culminates in a significant project that demonstrates students' critical perspective on immersive media and their ability to produce work with an artistic or design function relevant to their wider practice. *Fulfills Integrative Studio requirement.

In the era of artificial intelligence, artists, designers, and creators confront a transformative shift that challenges their roles within their professional fields. With the introduction of AI visual tools like DALL·E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, alongside the emergence of language model-based chatbots such as ChatGPT, the creative landscape has undergone profound changes in recent years. Now, anyone can step into the role of a creator with a simple act: typing a prompt to generate visually stunning images, compose music across all genres, and write original poetry within a minute. The journey began in 2016 with AlphaGo's historic victory over the professional Go player Lee Sedol, which continued with the remarkable sale of an AI-created painting at Christie’s in 2018, and the recognition of the first AI-generated illustrative photography to win an art prize in 2022. These events sparked an ongoing debate with questions about the evolving dynamics between Machine vs. Human creativity. We find ourselves in the midst of the artificial intelligence era, a period reshaping our daily lives and challenging conventional notions of creativity and artistry. This studio class will be a combination of lectures, in-class exercises utilizing AI-generated visual and sound tools, group discussions on the societal and ethical dimensions of AI-generated content, and independent research for project creation. The goal is to explore limitless possibilities of AI tools, pushing boundaries of artistic practice, and participating in a collaborative group exhibition at the end of the course. *Fulfills Integrative Studio requirement.

This course introduces advanced topics related to contemporary media technologies, ranging from social media to mobile phones applications and urban interfaces. Students learn how to use new methods from interaction design, service design, and social media and work towards prototyping their ideas using new platforms and media. The class will cover a range of topics such as such as online-gaming, viral communication, interface culture, networked environments, internet of things and discuss their artistic, social, and cultural implications to the public domain.

*User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Design (DSGN240)
Great user experience and user interface design are essential for creating digital products that people love. In this course, we'll cover a range of topics from user research through designing visual interfaces, as well as principles of human-centered design and the design process. We'll study existing products to understand the problems they solve and the elements that make them succeed. Lectures and coursework will include practical exercises with user journeys, flowcharts, style sheets, and prototyping tools. No design experience necessary.
*Course fulfills Integrative Design Studio requirement.

Last century, the digital revolution transformed every aspect of our lives. It shaped every design discipline and defined the ways we imagine and fabricate anything from images to everyday products to clothing, cars, buildings and megacities. Today, design is going through other technical and conceptual revolutions. We design with biotechnologies, fall in love in Virtual Reality with AI bots, rent our cognitive labor through cryptocurrencies. Our creative capabilities, on the other hand, are bounded by a polluted, over-crowded, and resource-constrained planet that is suffering major income and educational inequality. Design After the Digital interrogates the role of design for this century. The seminar surveys the conceptual and technical developments in the past decade to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of design, science and technology. We will study how new design and fabrication methods shape what eat, what we wear, how we form opinions and express ourselves. The goal will be to develop new literacies of design that will help us acclimate better to the new century as creative and critical citizens that can shape its products and values.

The course will explore the changing relationship during the modern era between design (structure, model, plan of a work of art) and language (metaphor for a system of communication; speech, writing, literature). Our readings and visual presentations will focus on topics in the decorative arts, painting, architecture, typography and visual communication. We will focus on primary sources in order to situate our inquiry in a larger historical context. The discussion will center on claims about the inherent meaning of form, discuss different roles for design -as an ideological statement, as an agent of social change, and as an idiosyncratic expression. Topics will also include the search for a universal visual language, attempts at bridging the perceived gap between spoken and written language, and the impact of visual form on the meaning of literary texts (particularly when the author has been involved in the publication process). Students can suggest additional topics related to their field of study.

How can art become a form of activism? How does design shape social equality? This course investigates how technological media shape culture and society, and how artists and designers can actively reshape these dynamics through art and design. We will engage in the practice of "speculative design", and "tactical design" using various digital tools to envision different futures, reflecting on social, political, and ethical implications of various technologies. Exploring the relationship between digital and physical realities, students will utilize their skills in art and design while applying them to critical social discourse and activism. Students will also develop skills in active reading, critical analysis, and scholarly writing.

How does scientific research produce and reinforce concepts of gender? How is sexism propagated through technological media? This course investigates how scientific and technological media shape culture and society, particularly through the lens of gender and sexuality. Engaging in interdisciplinary art making, students will use various technological media to reflect on the social, political, and ethical domains of technoscientific feminism. Exploring the relationship between digital and physical realities, students will engage art and design with critical social discourse and gender theory. Students will also develop skills in active reading, critical analysis, and scholarly writing. By the end of the course, students will have created a unique work of art that imagines more empowered, equitable futures.

In the exploitative cycles of production and consumption fueled by late stage capitalism, are there alternative ways to reimagine systems of support and mutual care? Through the lens of socially engaged art and design, students will look at a range of primary sources from artists and designers who have created participatory works that challenge traditional structures of power and integrate practices of care into their local communities. With a focus on decommodified labor and care work, students will analyze why and how certain types of labor have been devalued historically. Students will read and analyze historical and current texts related to femnist economics, art as social action, and socially engaged design. Through a scholarly lens, we will evaluate the radical nature of acts of care as a critical framework through which we can imagine more equitable futures. At the end of the semester, students will present their own unique works that contribute to this discourse.

How does matter transform into material, and back again? What hidden labor, sites, social and ecological costs and processes go into the production of a “blank” canvas and other “raw” materials? And why-- for artists, designers, architects, preservationists, creative educators, builders, and anyone working with materials-- do these realities matter? This course connects arts and design learners to considerations, sites, and cycles around production and disposal of the defining materials of their creative fields (ex. paper, wood, glass, pigment, "the internet"), laying groundwork for creative practice rooted in social and ecological awareness, repair and care. A hybrid research seminar, field exploration, and studio investigation, the structure of this course alternates between reading/response/research, field trips and guest visitors (including a partnership affiliation with RAIR Philly), and time for responsive “making” and material experimentation/synthesis. In this course, students will collaboratively define key terms and concerns around material sustainability, discard studies, land and labor relations vis-a-vis creative work. Students will experience local sites of material extraction, production and disposal (through approx 5 field trips taking place during class time). Students will formulate individual or group questions around a specific material, leading to a final independent project, and class exhibition. This course will engage students in forming a material ethics to guide future creative work.

This rigorous pair of courses, one offered in the Fall and one offered in the Spring semester, are designed as the capstone of the Design major and are required for all graduating Design seniors. They can only be taken in the senior year.