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This course provides an introduction to clay as a material. Participants will be introduced to a wide variety of methods and techniques to build, decorate, and glaze ceramic. Demonstrations in Hand-building, coiling, slap-building and surface application including glaze development and application, slip decoration and firing methods, will give students a proficiency in working with clay and in the ceramic department. Introductions to the rich and complex history of ceramic through readings, lectures and museum visits, will provide students with exposures to the critical discourse of contemporary ceramic. This is primarily a beginner's course but open to all levels of students. Readings will vary but typically include, Hands in Clay by Charlotte Speight and John Toki. Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art by Clare Lilley. Ten thousand years of pottery by Emmanuel Cooper. 20th Century Ceramics By Edmund de Waal. Live Form: Women, Ceramics, and Community by Jenni Sorkin. The course will look at artist like Magdalene Odundo, George E. Ohr, Shoji Hamada, Roberto Lugo and Nicole Cherubini as well as historic ceramic from the Art Institutes of Chicago?s collection. Students are expected to complete 3 projects by the end of the semester, Biweekly readings will be part of the course.

In this writing course, students will consider different perspectives of art and of the artist—including the process of artistic creation, artistic standards and criteria, interpreting art, and the life of the artist—and students will also express their own perspective in discussions, written assignments, and informal presentations, too. The reading list will consist (mostly) of personal essays from a wide range of writers, including (among others) W.E.B. Dubois, T.S. Eliot, bell hooks, Jeannette Winterson, and Susan Sontag—all of whom, along with each other, will help challenge, strengthen, and refine our own perspectives about art and our artistic identities. Students will write about what it means to be an artist as well as develop their perspective about the power and purpose of art. The process of writing will be practiced throughout this course, from brainstorming, to drafting, to peer review and revising. FYS I develops college-level writing skills, prepares one for FYS II and upper level Liberal Arts courses, and allows one to improve expressing their ideas in writing.

This basic class, required for entry into all other photo classes, introduces contemporary technologies for producing photographic images. This course also introduces seeing, thinking and creating with a critical mind and eye to provide greater understanding of the construction and manipulation of photographic form and meaning. Approaching the medium in its current complex and pluralistic state, students explore a variety of photographic concepts and techniques. While various physical cameras are still in use today the fundamentals of using digital cameras, including manual exposure and lighting are stressed. Eclectic forms of output are explored in order to discover methods of presentation most suited to a particular idea. 'Knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterate of the future will be a person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen.' Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). This course will address the complex and continual shifting nature of photography; what influences our understanding of how a photograph functions while exploring a diverse array of photographic genres and applications. Assignments will provide technical skills to use cameras, compose images and print digital photographs. Readings, screenings and discussions will provide a framework for critically analyzing the photographs we encounter every day, as well as our own photographs.

This course will focus on developing beginning and continuing skills on the wheel. Students will be introduced to fundamental methods for using the wheel as a tool to create vessels with consideration of their meaning and consequence and stretch the boundaries of utility. In addition to the design and structure of functional objects, this course will familiarize students with the working properties of ceramic material, firing methods, and glazes. We will look at artists working both in traditional and non-traditional methods. Artists will vary, but some we will look at include: Edmund de Waal, Alleghany Meadows, Gerrit Grimm, Mike Helke, Steve Lee, and more. Readings will include articles covering topics about the convergence of fine art and craft, how objects affect our daily life and rituals, the place of craft within contemporary society. Specific authors may be : Chris Staley, Glenn Adamson, Jenni Sorkin, Okakura Kakuzo and Edmund de Waal Projects vary, but typically there are 5-6 assignments in the course with each assignment consisting of 3-20 pieces of finished work with additional research in glaze and firing processes. Students will also have readings and responsibilities with firing work.

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work. The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history. There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

This research, discussion, and critique course develops a visual and verbal vocabulary by examining relationships between form and content, word and image. Study includes symbolic association and the problem of effective communication in a highly complex culture.

Reading Art is a seminar that orients students to college studies and emphasizes students' advancement of college-level critical reading and thinking skills. Students learn how to read and analyze artworks using the formal vocabulary of art and design, as well as how to read about art in art history textbooks, scholarly journals, and other sources. Students improve their ability to process, retain, and apply information by using active learning strategies and graphic organizers, including a schematic note-taking system. In addition to weekly readings and exercises, students complete an in-depth synthesis project on an artwork of their choosing. Regular museum visits complement class work.

This course introduces students to the creative scope of the Designed Objects program, and the ideas, skills, and methods used in the process of designing objects. Students will learn about the design of objects by studying their form, function, assembly, materiality, use, value and significance (both subjective and objective). Emphasizing thinking through making; students students build their visual vocabulary and develop an understanding of the design process. The goal of this class is to help students imagine the possibilities of the object design field and identify their aptitude for becoming an object designer. The course will explore the intentionality of object design, exploring the works of a ranging from James Dyson to Ron Arad to Zaha Hadid. Readings and screenings will vary but typically include Mu-Ming Tsai's Design Thinking and Gary Hustwit's Objectified. Students should expect to produce a body of work consisting of several minor exploratory projects and two fully fleshed out finished Objects (mid-term and final). This course requires students to have a laptop that meets SAIC's minimum hardware specs and runs the AIADO template.

Introduces the meaning and making of architecture and interior architecture through individual and group design projects. Students learn design processes by experimenting with materials and exploring architectural and interior architecture representation, and measure the implications of their work on broader cultural contexts. Students work on design projects using the latest software and digital tools, and develop techniques for integrating analog and digital design and fabrication processes. Students research historic precedents and contemporary culture and design to inform their work. This course requires students to have a laptop that meets SAIC's minimum hardware specs and runs the AIADO template.

At the heart of the writing project is the writing process: from sketching to planning, free writing to drafting, envisioning to revisioning. Writing requires both the creative and critical mind; it asks for patience with not knowing and provides us with the means--if we allow ourselves to follow where it may lead--to get from nowhere to somewhere, from not having the words to finding our voice. Process is primary in this writing seminar: students will explore their own and others' ways of making, read artists' writings about art, write in a variety of short forms, including the essay, and pursue a longer, multi-part writing project.

This basic class, required for entry into all other photo classes, introduces contemporary technologies for producing photographic images. This course also introduces seeing, thinking and creating with a critical mind and eye to provide greater understanding of the construction and manipulation of photographic form and meaning. Approaching the medium in its current complex and pluralistic state, students explore a variety of photographic concepts and techniques. While various physical cameras are still in use today the fundamentals of using digital cameras, including manual exposure and lighting are stressed. Eclectic forms of output are explored in order to discover methods of presentation most suited to a particular idea. 'Knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterate of the future will be a person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen.' Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). This course will address the complex and continual shifting nature of photography; what influences our understanding of how a photograph functions while exploring a diverse array of photographic genres and applications. Assignments will provide technical skills to use cameras, compose images and print digital photographs. Readings, screenings and discussions will provide a framework for critically analyzing the photographs we encounter every day, as well as our own photographs.

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work. The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history. There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

This research, discussion, and critique course develops a visual and verbal vocabulary by examining relationships between form and content, word and image. Study includes symbolic association and the problem of effective communication in a highly complex culture.

This course introduces students to the creative scope of the Designed Objects program, and the ideas, skills, and methods used in the process of designing objects. Students will learn about the design of objects by studying their form, function, assembly, materiality, use, value and significance (both subjective and objective). Emphasizing thinking through making; students students build their visual vocabulary and develop an understanding of the design process. The goal of this class is to help students imagine the possibilities of the object design field and identify their aptitude for becoming an object designer. The course will explore the intentionality of object design, exploring the works of a ranging from James Dyson to Ron Arad to Zaha Hadid. Readings and screenings will vary but typically include Mu-Ming Tsai's Design Thinking and Gary Hustwit's Objectified. Students should expect to produce a body of work consisting of several minor exploratory projects and two fully fleshed out finished Objects (mid-term and final). This course requires students to have a laptop that meets SAIC's minimum hardware specs and runs the AIADO template.

This basic class, required for entry into all other photo classes, introduces contemporary technologies for producing photographic images. This course also introduces seeing, thinking and creating with a critical mind and eye to provide greater understanding of the construction and manipulation of photographic form and meaning. Approaching the medium in its current complex and pluralistic state, students explore a variety of photographic concepts and techniques. While various physical cameras are still in use today the fundamentals of using digital cameras, including manual exposure and lighting are stressed. Eclectic forms of output are explored in order to discover methods of presentation most suited to a particular idea. 'Knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterate of the future will be a person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen.' Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). This course will address the complex and continual shifting nature of photography; what influences our understanding of how a photograph functions while exploring a diverse array of photographic genres and applications. Assignments will provide technical skills to use cameras, compose images and print digital photographs. Readings, screenings and discussions will provide a framework for critically analyzing the photographs we encounter every day, as well as our own photographs.

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work. The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history. There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

This research, discussion, and critique course develops a visual and verbal vocabulary by examining relationships between form and content, word and image. Study includes symbolic association and the problem of effective communication in a highly complex culture.

In this writing-intensive course, we will explore the line between originality and plagiarism in a variety of fields including art, media, technology, music, business, entertainment, and medicine. In what contexts is copying an art? A science? A crime? How much should we be allowed to borrow from the work of artists and writers who have come before us? Do we owe them anything when we do? What are the economic, social, and political implications of copying? Readings will cover a range of subtopics such as genetic cloning, music sampling, artistic forgery, cultural appropriation, film adaptations, drug patents, fan fiction, body modification, and fair use. We will also analyze the work of artists and writers whose work speaks to some of these issues, including Kenneth Goldsmith, Fred Wilson, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, DJ Dangermouse, and Jen Bervin. Writing assignments ? totaling 15-20 pages over the course of the semester ? will emphasize analysis, argument, research, revision, and other academic writing skills.

This basic class, required for entry into all other photo classes, introduces contemporary technologies for producing photographic images. This course also introduces seeing, thinking and creating with a critical mind and eye to provide greater understanding of the construction and manipulation of photographic form and meaning. Approaching the medium in its current complex and pluralistic state, students explore a variety of photographic concepts and techniques. While various physical cameras are still in use today the fundamentals of using digital cameras, including manual exposure and lighting are stressed. Eclectic forms of output are explored in order to discover methods of presentation most suited to a particular idea. 'Knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterate of the future will be a person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen.' Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). This course will address the complex and continual shifting nature of photography; what influences our understanding of how a photograph functions while exploring a diverse array of photographic genres and applications. Assignments will provide technical skills to use cameras, compose images and print digital photographs. Readings, screenings and discussions will provide a framework for critically analyzing the photographs we encounter every day, as well as our own photographs.

This seminar introduces students to the anthropological study of the senses. Through close examination of ethnographic texts and films, students will explore how cultures 'make sense' of the everyday and increasingly globalized world. With a heavy emphasis on written assignments, we approach the notion of perception as more than a purely physical act, and through structured participation and deliberate observation, students will learn how sensory experiences are deeply related to our own histories and cultural identities. Course activities center around developing analytic skills in the genre of ethnographic writing, and critically engaging with cross-cultural examples of sensual mediations of reality. Topics range from how the senses shape the aesthetics of daily life through color, odor, and flavor, to the significance of communication and information of technologies in the era of virtual reality, slime videos, and the online autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) community.