Eliza Fernand

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.

This course looks at ghosts and monuments as parters in remembering. Students will research ghostly traditions from their own lineages and delve into the history of their immediate surroundings in Chicago by finding local ghosts and public monuments. We will consider ghosts as possibilities beyond the paranormal by exploring eco grief, nostalgia, and broken communication. Monuments will be questioned and queered in a search for transparency around public art and field research on graffiti. Through studying various hauntologies, students will generate their own research topics that will be the basis for a proposed monument. We will develop a routine of field trips and individual research with regular opportunities to share progress with the group as interests overlap. Artists and scholars studied in this course include Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Michael Rakowitz, Heidi Lau, Tania Bruguera, Killjoy's Kastle, Félix González-Torres, and Monument Lab. Don't worry, this class is not spooky, unless you want it to be!