Ginger Krebs

In this course we will focus on the development of artistic research skills for students already engaged in a practice. Students take this required course in order to experience and develop a variety of research methodologies, both conventional and alternative, which include utilizing collections and archives in the School and the extended community.

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.

Faculty directed, open-media, interdisciplinary, idea based assignments are designed to help students recognize work habits, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Through this course work students will be able to identify the most productive research methods and making strategies to bolster their emerging studio practice. 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.

The course Research Studio II builds on the learning outcomes from Research Studio I, asking students to continue to develop and connect their own work and ideas with a diverse range of artists, designers, and communities.

This spring the entire Contemporary Practice department will have a shared umbrella topic for our RSII courses: Contemporary Now. All RSII classes will engage with the present and what is happening right now. With the world moving so fast - a pandemic, fires burning across the US west, people marching in the streets across the globe, and the storms that seem to keep coming, it is critical we ask questions of ourselves as artists, designers, educators and cultural producers: What responsibility do we have at any moment in history? How can the diversity of our practices: research, study, making and actions, address the present and design the future we want to see?

In RSII courses students will investigate this shared departmental thematic through the intersection of their own practice and the pedagogical practices of their faculty. All RSII classes are interdisciplinary, faculty have provided a subtitle, and a short description to describe the lens through which their class will explore the theme of Contemporary Now.

Artists have interacted privately and publicly in a variety of performative forms with 'stuff' such as food, sculptures, costumes, found objects, natural materials and mass-produced objects. This course investigates the ways in which material can be at the center of performance works. Through a series of assignments, students research materials from scientific, historical, phenomenological, metaphoric, symbolic, sociological and political perspectives; and produce personal and collaborative pieces in a variety of sites and settings.

This course will examine the miraculous and menacing faces of fantasy: from proms, propaganda, internet romance scams, science fiction and Caffeine Free Diet Coke, to transformative and even healing collective rituals. The body¿s vulnerability to awkwardness and fatigue often seem to contrast air brushed visions of the spectacular and miraculous. Art works that use live presence to address the imaginary can therefore encourage critical reflection about the nature of longing, even as they sweep us away. How does fantasy function for human beings? Discussions about belief, desire, nostalgia, fetishism and the sacred will be guided by readings from Slavoj Zizek, Byung-Chul Han and Hito Steyerl, and artwork by Frances Stark, Miranda July, Ligia Lewis and Jacolby Satterwhite. In this class a broad range of methods for performance practice will be considered, including those that incorporate media to access the fantastic, and those that re-invent the long history of art-as- ritual. Vocal and movement improvisation games, creative writing exercises, creative responses and small-scale assignments will support students to generate three, more substantial, projects that further their individual interests and goals.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.