Collaboration

GFRY Design Studio: A Room with a View: Urban Data Observatory All economies are converging - natural, social, cultural and material. Detecting, measuring, augmenting and managing the flow of objects, energy, data and events within and through these economies, in order to make places for people to reside, thrive and interact, is the function of the sustainable city. The GFRY Studio will broadly interrogate observation and detection environments in order to develop the design framework for proposing new, infrastructural demo projects for Chicago - places that integrate measure and material for a sustainable city. The studio will specifically consider the challenge of new city infrastructures and informatics and will explore how participatory, embedded and ubiquitous sensing / computing can improve both the experience and persistence of a resilient Chicago.

The Industry Partners Studio is a structured collaboration between SAIC's Designed Objects program and local/ international corporate entities, especially product manufacturers, material manufacturers, and retail enterprises. This semester-long course engages select mid- and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students with the particular concerns and constraints of 'real-world' projects. Specific design problems/ opportunities are defined by Industry Partners and require students to embrace the limitations of, for example: specific manufacturing methods and materials, identified commercial trends, narrow consumer profiles, tight price points, and rigid brand identity. The studio situates itself as a valuable partner with industry, one capable of contributing to the development of fairly typical, but widely varied commercial ventures with the freshness and diversity of perspectives found in our enthusiastic student body. Students are admitted via a portfolio application reviewed by the faculty.

The event is emerging as a new arena for design experimentation. Because they are so immediate, events pose a new challenge for designers: they must create on the spot, without belaboring technique, fabrication and form. This frees them to consider, with energy, the ways that experience can be redefined and re-imagined. This course will explore these ideas through production, beginning with four one-week exercises and culminating in a final public event.

This team-taught, introductory studio course is the foundation for intermediate and advanced courses in the Art and Technology Studies department. Students are given the broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, and hands-on experiences that they will need to engage the potentials of modern technologies in digital art-making. Students are introduced to an in-depth understanding of electronics and how to integrate motors and sensors into their artistic practice. In addition, they learn how to solder basic circuits, control motors and design moving elements before integrating Arduino technology and other open source hardware and software into a final robotic and/or responsive object.

This class will be an exploration of the electric light as an art medium. Through the demonstration of various electric light technologies the student will learn both the traditional use of lighting and installation and also an experimental approach to lighting that will produce unexpected visual effects. Students may work in individual or group projects that will span the range of light use from architectural design to performance as well as merging with other media such as sound.

What are the concerns that drive one's creative practice? How does one set the terms for its future development? This course offers strategies for the evaluation and communication of students' individual practice as artists, designers and/or scholars. Through essential readings, studio projects, and writing, students will generate narratives about how and why they make art. To do so, they will investigate methods (visual, critical, written, and creative) for the reconsideration of their work and of its aims and priorities. Individual mentoring with the faculty member is a central and dedicated component of the class as a means of fostering the self-identification of goals and priorities. Students will also examine historical and contemporary precedents that relate to their own work in order to consider the ways in which their individual explorations can be brought into dialogue with other perspectives. Students participate in broad ranging discussions about the present status and future prospects of art and design through workshops, dialogues, and collaborations both in the class and in SAIC-wide conversations with other Sophomore Studio Seminars. An important function of this course is to build upon these insights in forming a practical plan that helps students effectively map the curriculum and resources of SAIC into their own needs. For more information see http://blogs.saic.edu/sophseminar/

This course explores the use of radio, light and sound as media through which an artist can create a public voice. This course takes a hands-on, do-it-yourself approach to these media, providing a basic background in electronics theory and practice, as well as in programming and use of microcontrollers. Topics covered in this course include, but are not limited to, low-power radio, locative media, hactivism and culture-jamming. Some examples of activities include the construction of AM/FM radio transmitters and receivers, laser projectors, persistence-of-vision displays and mobile audio rigs. A survey of the artistic significance of these media will be conducted throughout the course. Students are expected to research and present their findings in class, as well as to produce a personal or collaborative final project that augments their own practices.

This interdisciplinary studio course is designed for students who have a high level of art-making experience who are wishing to explore the possibilities of the medium of light, either as an enrichment to their present artistic direction or in new explorations. The illusionary aspects of light and its ability to define or distort space is investigated through models or environmental scale work. Light enhancement for both 3-D and 2-D art is included, with an emphasis on creating virtual physical spaces often incorporating aspects of motion, real or implied. The course will be tailored to individual interests. Lectures may include a variety of technical matters including air brushing, construction techniques, and electric light hardware and its control.

Students explore the activity of weaving through traditional looms (table top, back-strap), and alternatively constructed looms (constructed from found objects and architectural influences). Students develop a conceptual focus and a technical vocabulary through processes, products, tools, and histories of weaving. The intersection between weaving and the collaborative processes are explored topically by way of thematic discussions on pattern development as a form of communication, looms built in situ, implication of globalization on craft production, gifting and participation. Collaborative research, critical discussions, and readings are central to the course.

This course is a continuation of the technical vocabulary learned in Collective Weaving I with an additional focus on the tapestry loom as a collaborative effort. Students will propose and develop conceptually generated, self-directed projects concerning cooperative approaches to weaving. Experimentation with pattern, structure, and loom type is encouraged. The course is designed to allow for in depth research and intensive labor. Participation in independent and group discussions is key.

This seminar is designed to introduce the student to the language of the moving image, its history and the ways in which artists have used moving images in this century. The course will explore the idea of radical contecnt and experimental form by establishing the normative models and procedures of cinema and video, and then showing the ways artists have challenged these conventions. The course will define and differentiate the two dominant forms of mocing image: film and video, and begin a consideration of new and expanding forms for the moving image. The course is a prerequesite to both Film I and Video I and intends to introduce the student to the moving image through a series of group excercises.

This seminar is designed to introduce the student to the language of the moving image, its history and the ways in which artists have used moving images in this century. The course will explore the idea of radical contecnt and experimental form by establishing the normative models and procedures of cinema and video, and then showing the ways artists have challenged these conventions. The course will define and differentiate the two dominant forms of mocing image: film and video, and begin a consideration of new and expanding forms for the moving image. The course is a prerequesite to both Film I and Video I and intends to introduce the student to the moving image through a series of group excercises.

What is the event of time? How does slowness implicate perception? Is there a cultural politics of resistance in durational persistence? What is the difference between a work that is timed by the clock and an activity whose length is determined by the time it takes to complete? How do memory, history, and current affairs ghost the time of the event? How does ephemerality migrate and leave its mark? This course examines concepts of time in performative acts and time-based art. It explores the materiality of time and its unruly creativity. Students investigate these challenges in a workshop situation combining studio work, readings, and discussions. The class draws on diverse sources including the writings of Bergson, the ceremonies of pilgrimage, and the study of migratory gestures and its traces.

Every idea has a medium most suited to its execution, but often not the one in which the artist is working. This class considers new ways of translating ideas into other media to develop a sense of possibilities beyond the straight photograph. Conceptual art has given us an understanding of the triggers that might provoke an investigation of layers of meaning within the simplest of ideas. Assignment encourage students to think beyond the usual way they work and include the use of collaboration, installation, audio, video, live feed, the internet, performance, and performative uses of photography.

Every idea has a medium most suited to its execution, but often not the one in which the artist is working. This class considers new ways of translating ideas into other media to develop a sense of possibilities beyond the straight photograph. Conceptual art has given us an understanding of the triggers that might provoke an investigation of layers of meaning within the simplest of ideas. Assignment encourage students to think beyond the usual way they work and include the use of collaboration, installation, audio, video, live feed, the internet, performance, and performative uses of photography.

Every idea has a medium most suited to its execution, but often not the one in which the artist is working. This class considers new ways of translating ideas into other media to develop a sense of possibilities beyond the straight photograph. Conceptual art has given us an understanding of the triggers that might provoke an investigation of layers of meaning within the simplest of ideas. Assignments encourage students to think beyond the usual way they work and include the use of collaboration, installation, audio, video, live feed, the internet, performance, and performative uses of photography.

Systems are at work all around us. How we sustain ourselves throughout the year involves transportation systems, geologic and climatic processes and a delicate balance of use. Recent environmental events such as the summer drought in the Midwest or massive storms that cripple daily life remind us that we have to adapt to new systems -- if even only temporarily -- through new and old ways of living. This K-Lab class will take field trips and concentrate on studio time with a focus on sustainable, experimental systems. We will study artists' projects and visit local organizations that focus on urban farming, air and water quality, climate concerns, soil conditions and other living systems. We will investigate the nature of living environments -- both human and non-human to discover the limits and possibilities sustainable or experimental systems. Field trips, readings and class discussions will inform our own creative process.

This course explores the use of radio, light and sound as media through which an artist can create a public voice. This course takes a hands-on, do-it-yourself approach to these media, providing a basic background in electronics theory and practice, as well as in programming and use of microcontrollers. Topics covered in this course include, but are not limited to, low-power radio, locative media, hactivism and culture-jamming. Some examples of activities include the construction of AM/FM radio transmitters and receivers, laser projectors, persistence-of-vision displays and mobile audio rigs. A survey of the artistic significance of these media will be conducted throughout the course. Students are expected to research and present their findings in class, as well as to produce a personal or collaborative final project that augments their own practices.

PUBLI?ITY: A collaborative act of creativity, forging new models for public space, pocket parks and 'micro-city' environments, with/by/for city stakeholders. PUBLI?ITY harnesses interdisciplinary intelligence to design a multiuse public park that fuses municipal, educational, cultural and citizen needs, using technology and social networking as proactive tools to engage local stakeholders interests, while advancing business investment, and increasing City of Chicago's capabilities as a leading sustainable city. PUBLI?ITY will travel to international cities to study cultural commons and produce a Chicago 'manual of style' pattern book on cooperative public/private city design, using a Chicago lot as prototype.

The Industry Partners Studio is a structured collaboration between SAIC's Designed Objects program and local/ international corporate entities, especially product manufacturers, material manufacturers, and retail enterprises. This semester-long course engages select mid- and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students with the particular concerns and constraints of 'real-world' projects. Specific design problems/ opportunities are defined by Industry Partners and require students to embrace the limitations of, for example: specific manufacturing methods and materials, identified commercial trends, narrow consumer profiles, tight price points, and rigid brand identity. The studio situates itself as a valuable partner with industry, one capable of contributing to the development of fairly typical, but widely varied commercial ventures with the freshness and diversity of perspectives found in our enthusiastic student body. Students are admitted via a portfolio application reviewed by the faculty.

The Industry Partners Studio is a structured collaboration between SAIC's Designed Objects program and local/ international corporate entities, especially product manufacturers, material manufacturers, and retail enterprises. This semester-long course engages select mid- and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students with the particular concerns and constraints of 'real-world' projects. Specific design problems/ opportunities are defined by Industry Partners and require students to embrace the limitations of, for example: specific manufacturing methods and materials, identified commercial trends, narrow consumer profiles, tight price points, and rigid brand identity. The studio situates itself as a valuable partner with industry, one capable of contributing to the development of fairly typical, but widely varied commercial ventures with the freshness and diversity of perspectives found in our enthusiastic student body. Students are admitted via a portfolio application reviewed by the faculty.

This course asks the question, `How can artists cross the street without leaving their art behind?? This class hopes to raise issues of citizenship, creativity, collaboration, community, environment, and the changing roles of artists at the end of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first. Students study historical and contemporary examples of how artists have found the time, space, and resources to do and present their work, and how they make alliances with other artists and other communities to achieve professional, cultural, and political goals. Students help plan curricular innovations at SAIC and participate in related activities such as visiting artists programming. They explore the possibility, in part through on-site visits, of establishing or strengthening ties between SAIC and various communities throughout Chicago. Students further develop course themes through substantial written assignments and through applications of these ideas in their studio practice. The goal of the course is to give students the motivation, knowledge, and tools to take an active role as citizens in a multicultural democratic society.

PUBLI?ITY: A collaborative act of creativity, forging new models for public space, pocket parks and 'micro-city' environments, with/by/for city stakeholders. PUBLI?ITY harnesses interdisciplinary intelligence to design a multiuse public park that fuses municipal, educational, cultural and citizen needs, using technology and social networking as proactive tools to engage local stakeholders interests, while advancing business investment, and increasing City of Chicago's capabilities as a leading sustainable city. PUBLI?ITY will travel to international cities to study cultural commons and produce a Chicago 'manual of style' pattern book on cooperative public/private city design, using a Chicago lot as prototype.

This team-taught, introductory studio course is the foundation for intermediate and advanced courses in the Art and Technology Studies department. Students are given the broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, and hands-on experiences that they will need to engage the potentials of modern technologies in digital art-making. Students are introduced to an in-depth understanding of electronics and how to integrate motors and sensors into their artistic practice. In addition, they learn how to solder basic circuits, control motors and design moving elements before integrating Arduino technology and other open source hardware and software into a final robotic and/or responsive object.

This team-taught, introductory studio course is the foundation for intermediate and advanced courses in the Art and Technology Studies department. Students are given the broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, and hands-on experiences that they will need to engage the potentials of modern technologies in digital art-making. Students are introduced to an in-depth understanding of electronics and how to integrate motors and sensors into their artistic practice. In addition, they learn how to solder basic circuits, control motors and design moving elements before integrating Arduino technology and other open source hardware and software into a final robotic and/or responsive object.

While there has been neon animation almost as long as there has been neon, the technology has, until recently, been unchanged. Until the advent of simple microprocessors and solid state transformers, the potential remained untapped. Students learn basic programming and circuit design skills with an emphasis on time and motion studies.

Students explore the activity of weaving through traditional looms (table top, back-strap), and alternatively constructed looms (constructed from found objects and architectural influences). Students develop a conceptual focus and a technical vocabulary through processes, products, tools, and histories of weaving. The intersection between weaving and the collaborative processes are explored topically by way of thematic discussions on pattern development as a form of communication, looms built in situ, implication of globalization on craft production, gifting and participation. Collaborative research, critical discussions, and readings are central to the course.

This course is a continuation of the technical vocabulary learned in Collective Weaving I with an additional focus on the tapestry loom as a collaborative effort. Students will propose and develop conceptually generated, self-directed projects concerning cooperative approaches to weaving. Experimentation with pattern, structure, and loom type is encouraged. The course is designed to allow for in depth research and intensive labor. Participation in independent and group discussions is key.

This seminar is designed to introduce the student to the language of the moving image, its history and the ways in which artists have used moving images in this century. The course will explore the idea of radical contecnt and experimental form by establishing the normative models and procedures of cinema and video, and then showing the ways artists have challenged these conventions. The course will define and differentiate the two dominant forms of mocing image: film and video, and begin a consideration of new and expanding forms for the moving image. The course is a prerequesite to both Film I and Video I and intends to introduce the student to the moving image through a series of group excercises.

This seminar is designed to introduce the student to the language of the moving image, its history and the ways in which artists have used moving images in this century. The course will explore the idea of radical contecnt and experimental form by establishing the normative models and procedures of cinema and video, and then showing the ways artists have challenged these conventions. The course will define and differentiate the two dominant forms of mocing image: film and video, and begin a consideration of new and expanding forms for the moving image. The course is a prerequesite to both Film I and Video I and intends to introduce the student to the moving image through a series of group excercises.

This seminar is designed to introduce the student to the language of the moving image, its history and the ways in which artists have used moving images in this century. The course will explore the idea of radical contecnt and experimental form by establishing the normative models and procedures of cinema and video, and then showing the ways artists have challenged these conventions. The course will define and differentiate the two dominant forms of mocing image: film and video, and begin a consideration of new and expanding forms for the moving image. The course is a prerequesite to both Film I and Video I and intends to introduce the student to the moving image through a series of group excercises.

This seminar is designed to introduce the student to the language of the moving image, its history and the ways in which artists have used moving images in this century. The course will explore the idea of radical contecnt and experimental form by establishing the normative models and procedures of cinema and video, and then showing the ways artists have challenged these conventions. The course will define and differentiate the two dominant forms of mocing image: film and video, and begin a consideration of new and expanding forms for the moving image. The course is a prerequesite to both Film I and Video I and intends to introduce the student to the moving image through a series of group excercises.

This seminar is designed to introduce the student to the language of the moving image, its history and the ways in which artists have used moving images in this century. The course will explore the idea of radical contecnt and experimental form by establishing the normative models and procedures of cinema and video, and then showing the ways artists have challenged these conventions. The course will define and differentiate the two dominant forms of mocing image: film and video, and begin a consideration of new and expanding forms for the moving image. The course is a prerequesite to both Film I and Video I and intends to introduce the student to the moving image through a series of group excercises.

This is a Production Laboratory class for students interested in working with the ideas and techniques of directing performers for the camera. We will consider issues of scripting, pre-production, rehearsing, shooting, and editing performances. The course requires active participation in 3 roles -- as a director, performer, and camera operator -- as these constitute the primary collaborative relationships of a director. The main objective of this class is to get students to consider various methods of directing performers that both explore and elaborate on traditional theatrical schools of directing. Through hands-on experience, readings, critique and screenings, students will begin to carve out their own style of working.

Realtime explores audio-visual systems and performances of live experimental new media art. Artists create, control, effect and transform digital media in realtime using systems created by and for artists. Digital and computational systems allow improvisation, live audio-video performance, and synthesis of complex works and projects. Students learn, play and perform with artware, open source tools and systems (PureData, GEMS and dyne:bolic!) and commercially available software (Max/MSP and Jitter). This studio course includes a historical approach to realtime systems, and features use of the Sandin Image Processor, an analog patch programmable computer optimized for video processing from 1971?1973. Current praxis is discussed in relation to the earlier realtime forms from early cinema (such as Oskar Fischinger?s Lumigraph), video (such as the Dan Sandin?s Sandin Image Processor) and New Media.

This course considers ways in which objects can be literally and symbolically animated by performance contexts, and how we lend objects agency when they act as repositories of our dreams and desires, and as symbols of power. At the same time we?ll look at the various ways in which bodies are objectified, 'onstage' and in the wider social sphere, from decoys and prosthetic limbs to exercise fads, religious practices and advertising. What are the implications of these kinds of objectification for violence, devotion and performance presence? We use durational, nomadic, collaborative, and ritual formats to investigate these questions, in conjunction with an exhibition of performances and performance installations in the Sullivan Galleries. Points of reference for the course is Marcel Mauss? theory of gift economies, Georges Bataille?s notion of ritual sacrifice and Steven Connor?s Cultural History of Ventriloquism.

Every idea has a medium most suited to its execution, but often not the one in which the artist is working. This class considers new ways of translating ideas into other media to develop a sense of possibilities beyond the straight photograph. Conceptual art has given us an understanding of the triggers that might provoke an investigation of layers of meaning within the simplest of ideas. Assignment encourage students to think beyond the usual way they work and include the use of collaboration, installation, audio, video, live feed, the internet, performance, and performative uses of photography.

This class is designed for students with already developed photographic skills who transfer to SAIC from other schools, but is open to all students at the intermediate level and above. The class introduces transfer students to our facilities and allows them to acclimate to the conceptual nature of the program. Readings and lectures on contemporary artists and their practices provide a working vocabulary for understanding contemporary issues in the arts. Students are also familiarized with the vast Chicago arts community, and the class utilizes the wide variety of artists? lectures that take place at the school and throughout the city. Critique and discussion rather than technical information is the focus of the class, and students are expected to be working independently on the development of a body of work.

This class is designed for students with already developed photographic skills who transfer to SAIC from other schools, but is open to all students at the intermediate level and above. The class introduces transfer students to our facilities and allows them to acclimate to the conceptual nature of the program. Readings and lectures on contemporary artists and their practices provide a working vocabulary for understanding contemporary issues in the arts. Students are also familiarized with the vast Chicago arts community, and the class utilizes the wide variety of artists? lectures that take place at the school and throughout the city. Critique and discussion rather than technical information is the focus of the class, and students are expected to be working independently on the development of a body of work.

How do artists, designers and others generate new knowledge? How do breakthrough innovations occur? How can new knowledge come from collaborative research and trandisciplinary inquiry? In today's world of such extraordinary complexity, what are the limits of individual research and singular disciplinary practice and how can alliances outside the art world be made? What is research-based art practice and how can it generate new knowledge? Through readings, discussions, case studies, and in conversation with thinkers in other fields, students will look at knowledge, innovation, and research, both as topics and processes. This collaborative community of inquiry will identify important subjects (such as technology, energy, waste, alternative economies, and urban issues), undertake in-depth research, and formulate transdisciplinary projects aimed at the production of new knowledge which can make a meaningful contribution to the future.