Site and Landscape

This team taught seminar explores contemporary discourses about landscape as it has developed from the unexplored, to the dominated; from picturesque agrarian to urban. Land as territory, once understood as fixed and bounded, is open, fluid, interactive, chaotic, and in constant flux with the architecture and infrastructure it is asked to support. Landscapes are physical, environmental, and virtual, existing in electronic space, within nature's cycles, and defined and mediated through interactive information and knowledge communication networks. Landscapes, Territory, Fields questions social, political and economic frameworks which inform contemporary configuration of territories and develops awareness and critical understanding of physical and social processes that define and effect changes in place over time .

This team taught seminar explores contemporary discourses about landscape as it has developed from the unexplored, to the dominated; from picturesque agrarian to urban. Land as territory, once understood as fixed and bounded, is open, fluid, interactive, chaotic, and in constant flux with the architecture and infrastructure it is asked to support. Landscapes are physical, environmental, and virtual, existing in electronic space, within nature's cycles, and defined and mediated through interactive information and knowledge communication networks. Landscapes, Territory, Fields questions social, political and economic frameworks which inform contemporary configuration of territories and develops awareness and critical understanding of physical and social processes that define and effect changes in place over time .

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.

Multi-monitor projects, live feeds, interactive environments, political interventions, meditative spaces: video installation offers artists a rich and multi-layered vocabulary with which to address a host of issues in contemporary culture. In public life, video is 'installed' everywhere as a permanent fixture - in the high-tech spectacle of Nike-town and the surveillance and security systems of parking garages, shopping malls, and prisons. This class combines studio practice, site visits, screenings, readings, and critiques of student work to examine the diverse languages and practices of video within an installation context. Students experiment with monitors, projectors, and other media while addressing concerns of site and scale, issues of narrative, identity, reception and audience, and private/public space. Students who enroll in this class should already have basic knowledge of video production; however students with backgrounds in all media?video, film, sculpture, painting, or photography?are encouraged to enroll.

This team taught seminar explores contemporary discourses about landscape as it has developed from the unexplored, to the dominated; from picturesque agrarian to urban. Land as territory, once understood as fixed and bounded, is open, fluid, interactive, chaotic, and in constant flux with the architecture and infrastructure it is asked to support. Landscapes are physical, environmental, and virtual, existing in electronic space, within nature's cycles, and defined and mediated through interactive information and knowledge communication networks. Landscapes, Territory, Fields questions social, political and economic frameworks which inform contemporary configuration of territories and develops awareness and critical understanding of physical and social processes that define and effect changes in place over time .

The objective is to build virtual environments that incorporate 3D space, ambient/reactive audio, interactivity, weather, life forms, and/or objectives. Students develop the virtual space as an art practice in support of games space. The class introduces the Unity3D authoring tool and covers content production using 3D rendering in Maya, audio in Puredata/Max/MSP as well as on-site audio and recordings. Students are introduced to programming for Unity. We review the work of artists and game designers from Marcel Duchamp, to James Tai (Saints Row 2). The course begins with introductions to possibilities in virtual environments, ultimately focusing on the skills necessary to complete individual project(s).

This advanced course focuses on the making of things through the use of drawing, garment, and sculpture and its use in lifestyle. Outings to a variety of alternative sites are the central part of this class, including thrift stores, warehouses, flea markets, and the rural surroundings. Students investigate the idea of 'Usefulness' as well as function, content, appropriate design, and audience. Emphasis is placed on challenging the narrative definition of 'The art of making things.'

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 examines the transformation and definition of space through the use of materials - including hard and soft, flexible, found and alternative - and the meanings these materials invoke. The implications of inter-dependency, rearrangement, and responsiveness to time within an environment are considered. The concept of installation includes relationships of objects, environments, and site-specific works, and will examine a range of spaces: public/private, interior/exterior, and urban/rural. Concepts are developed through research, material investigations, and developments of both two- and three-dimensional explorations. Emphasis is placed on both collaborative and individual direction.

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.

Multi-monitor projects, live feeds, interactive environments, political interventions, meditative spaces: video installation offers artists a rich and multi-layered vocabulary with which to address a host of issues in contemporary culture. In public life, video is 'installed' everywhere as a permanent fixture - in the high-tech spectacle of Nike-town and the surveillance and security systems of parking garages, shopping malls, and prisons. This class combines studio practice, site visits, screenings, readings, and critiques of student work to examine the diverse languages and practices of video within an installation context. Students experiment with monitors, projectors, and other media while addressing concerns of site and scale, issues of narrative, identity, reception and audience, and private/public space. Students who enroll in this class should already have basic knowledge of video production; however students with backgrounds in all media?video, film, sculpture, painting, or photography?are encouraged to enroll.

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 is a structural and poststructural investigation of sculptural site activation. The students explore the theory and practice of how work gets contextualized and redefined through its placement within a larger social, political, and economic sphere of meaning. Students investigate options and determinants operative in both indoor and outdoor sites, installations, and environments. Although the focus of the class is contemporary, topics of discussion range from Rodin's Burghers of Calais to the public projections of Krzysztof Wodiczko. An indoor space is available for student use and cooperative interaction is encouraged. Prerequisite: intermediate level work in any media or consent of instructor.