A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

Benjamin Melamed Pearson

Associate Professor, Adjunct

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, students in this advanced course explore a range of creative strategies used by contemporary artists in order to develop new ideas and create strong, portfolio-quality work. This course is designed to introduce students to a number of new media, materials, and methods to expand skills in areas such as drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video, sound, and performance. With extensive faculty guidance and peer support, students will develop individual projects, learn to clearly articulate their ideas, and produce work that fully represent them as artists. Artist presentations, critiques, and field trips supplement studio coursework. This course is intended for students that have previous experience and a deep interest in the visual arts, want to add new work to their portfolio, and are comfortable working independently from specific assignments using interdisciplinary practices. Artwork and performances that are temporary in nature or that cannot be easily transported will be properly documented through photography and video. *NOTE* Previous experience in art/design and the ability to work independent of specific assignments required. SAIC provides basic equipment for this course, but students are encouraged to bring their own digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.*NOTE* Previous experience in art/design and the ability to work independent of specific assignments required. SAIC provides basic equipment for this course, but students are encouraged to bring their own digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Class Number

1011

Credits

1

Description

This course serves as a foundation for students interested in video production, motion graphics, and animation. Students explore the language and history of moving images and how artists work with and challenge these processes. The course begins with several demos and exercises combined with research and discussion to develop a final project that reflects individual interests. Students may work with traditional processes such as sketchbooking alongside digital applications such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere. Visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, access to SAIC's video resources, and discussion of influential time-based artists such as Tony Oursler, Shirin Neshat, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jennifer Steinkamp support the studio experience. No experience is needed for this course, but computer familiarity is very helpful.

Class Number

1163

Credits

1

Description

In this hands-on course, students will not only develop new works of art to round out their portfolios for upcoming college applications but they will also select, revise, and edit their existing works. Through dynamic workshops with SAIC faculty and admissions staff, students will discover the most effective way to document and organize their work and represent their unique points-of-views as artists to the colleges of their choice. This course also places emphasis on studio time and support from faculty to create one final project that will enhance the student's overall portfolio presentation.

Class Number

1007

Credits

1

Description

In this course we will focus on disciplinary and interdisciplinary art and design practices of contemporary art production. This team-taught, year-long class explores the materials and techniques of surface, space, and time (2D, 3D, and 4D), as well as the connections and interplay of these areas. Core Studio integrates the formal with the conceptual, traditional with the contemporary, and makes visible a variety of approaches in current cultural production in order to foster the development of students? emerging practices as makers and thinkers. In this interdisciplinary studio course students will be authorized to use a variety of school shops, materials and equipment; including the woodshop, plaster studio, digital lab, sewing machine, hand tools, sound and video production, digital workflows and principles of visual fundamentals. This is a hands-on making class, faculty present artists and content related to a particular toolkit and, or project theme. Every section of Core Studio has shared learning outcomes which are uniquely realized by each Core faculty partnership. Students should expect a fast-paced studio environment. In Core Studio students will complete short assignments as well as longer multi-week projects. Assignments are designed to help students develop their own ideas in relation to the materials, processes, and themes presented by faculty.

Class Number

1300

Credits

3

Description

In this course we will focus on disciplinary and interdisciplinary art and design practices of contemporary art production. This team-taught, year-long class explores the materials and techniques of surface, space, and time (2D, 3D, and 4D), as well as the connections and interplay of these areas. Core Studio integrates the formal with the conceptual, traditional with the contemporary, and makes visible a variety of approaches in current cultural production in order to foster the development of students? emerging practices as makers and thinkers. In this interdisciplinary studio course students will be authorized to use a variety of school shops, materials and equipment; including the woodshop, plaster studio, digital lab, sewing machine, hand tools, sound and video production, digital workflows and principles of visual fundamentals. This is a hands-on making class, faculty present artists and content related to a particular toolkit and, or project theme. Every section of Core Studio has shared learning outcomes which are uniquely realized by each Core faculty partnership. Students should expect a fast-paced studio environment. In Core Studio students will complete short assignments as well as longer multi-week projects. Assignments are designed to help students develop their own ideas in relation to the materials, processes, and themes presented by faculty.

Class Number

1696

Credits

3

Description

In this course we will focus on disciplinary and interdisciplinary art and design practices of contemporary art production. This team-taught, year-long class explores the materials and techniques of surface, space, and time (2D, 3D, and 4D), as well as the connections and interplay of these areas. Core Studio integrates the formal with the conceptual, traditional with the contemporary, and makes visible a variety of approaches in current cultural production in order to foster the development of students? emerging practices as makers and thinkers. In this interdisciplinary studio course students will be authorized to use a variety of school shops, materials and equipment; including the woodshop, plaster studio, digital lab, sewing machine, hand tools, sound and video production, digital workflows and principles of visual fundamentals. This is a hands-on making class, faculty present artists and content related to a particular toolkit and, or project theme. Every section of Core Studio has shared learning outcomes which are uniquely realized by each Core faculty partnership. Students should expect a fast-paced studio environment. In Core Studio students will complete short assignments as well as longer multi-week projects. Assignments are designed to help students develop their own ideas in relation to the materials, processes, and themes presented by faculty.

Class Number

1708

Credits

3

Description

This studio course focuses on themes, practices, contexts, and questions undertaken by contemporary artists and designers. Research Studio I is a course that asks students to begin to develop and connect their own work and ideas with a diverse range of artists, designers, and communities. This course engages with cultural institutions including: museums, galleries, libraries and archives as resources of critical engagement. Students will undertake various types of research activities: a) collecting and classification, b) mapping and diagramming, c) systems of measurement, d) social interaction, e) information search systems, f) recording and representation, and g) drawing and other notational systems. Assignments in this course are faculty directed, open-media, interdisciplinary and idea based. The projects are designed to help students recognize their work habits, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Students will experience a wide range of research methods and making strategies. Critique as an evaluative process used in art and design schools, is a focus in this course. Various methods and models of critique are used in order to give students the tools to discuss their own work and the work of others.

Class Number

1317

Credits

3

Description

This studio course focuses on themes, practices, contexts, and questions undertaken by contemporary artists and designers. Research Studio I is a course that asks students to begin to develop and connect their own work and ideas with a diverse range of artists, designers, and communities. This course engages with cultural institutions including: museums, galleries, libraries and archives as resources of critical engagement. Students will undertake various types of research activities: a) collecting and classification, b) mapping and diagramming, c) systems of measurement, d) social interaction, e) information search systems, f) recording and representation, and g) drawing and other notational systems. Assignments in this course are faculty directed, open-media, interdisciplinary and idea based. The projects are designed to help students recognize their work habits, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Students will experience a wide range of research methods and making strategies. Critique as an evaluative process used in art and design schools, is a focus in this course. Various methods and models of critique are used in order to give students the tools to discuss their own work and the work of others.

Class Number

1319

Credits

3

Description

This studio course focuses on themes, practices, contexts, and questions undertaken by contemporary artists and designers. Research Studio I is a course that asks students to begin to develop and connect their own work and ideas with a diverse range of artists, designers, and communities. This course engages with cultural institutions including: museums, galleries, libraries and archives as resources of critical engagement. Students will undertake various types of research activities: a) collecting and classification, b) mapping and diagramming, c) systems of measurement, d) social interaction, e) information search systems, f) recording and representation, and g) drawing and other notational systems. Assignments in this course are faculty directed, open-media, interdisciplinary and idea based. The projects are designed to help students recognize their work habits, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Students will experience a wide range of research methods and making strategies. Critique as an evaluative process used in art and design schools, is a focus in this course. Various methods and models of critique are used in order to give students the tools to discuss their own work and the work of others.

Class Number

1336

Credits

3

Description

There's something funny about Humor, but what is it, really? Humor has served as an indispensable lens through which to view (and laugh at) Modern life. This class aims to look very seriously at unseriousness. If humor is something that was previously used to set the boundaries between Human and Non-Human, what would humor mean in a Modern world where the binaries of Human/Machine, Human/Other and Human/Animal, are always in crisis? This class looks at artists who use humor in their work and asks why they use it, what does it do, what are its limits and possibilities? As points of departure and inspiration, we look to the critical irreverence of Fluxus, the anxious object-ness of Concrete Comedy, the subversive refusal of Carrie Mae Weems and the Queer kitsch of Tom Rubnitz (just a very small sampling of artists covered) as an invitation to laugh towards liberation. Course work consists of readings, screenings, guest speakers and discussions, centered around 3 major projects. The body of art work a student produces in this class encourages a diversity of approaches, mediums and interests, rooted in an attuned sens(es) of humor. Readings include: Henri Bergson, Simon Critchley, Paul Gilroy, Sigmund Freud, Sylvia Wynter, Sianne Ngai, Lauren Berlant, Ann Peligirini.

Class Number

1669

Credits

3