RISD : Rhode Island School of Design : COURSES

GRADUATE STUDIES: COURSE LISTINGS

The following information, provided by RISD’s Registrar’s Office, is indicative of courses offered at RISD and is not to be used for registering. Prospective students interested in browsing the most recent course updates should go to wa.risd.edu and click on “guest + prospective students.”

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>> RISD faculty: contact registrar@risd.edu to update course data

Course Listings in Graduate Studies

GRAD 059G	Brooks Walter Hagan	ART a DESIGN: INTERDISCIPLINARYCOLLABORATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
This is a studio-based course that calls upon graduate students from different disciplines to collaborate, conceive, make studio projects, and prepare a fully realized strategy for their appearance in the world. Students are given a rigorous series of tasks designed to spur collaborative work. Examples include an assignment that challenges students to pursue failure, rather than resolution, in their work. Another asks students to develop an individual concept - then merge their ideas into a single, unified proposition. Visits to New York City and elsewhere introduce students to practitioners collaborating as well as creating, distributing, and writing about work that falls between disciplines. Substantial readings, ranging from the Frankfurt School to contemporary theorists, supplement our visits and provide focus for in-class discussion. As at most art schools, Rhode Island School of Design's individual departments, and particularly its art and design wings, traditionally are kept at arm?s length from each other. While the focus on a single discipline is effective at creating specialists in each field, the complexities of contemporary cultural practice - people working in fluid groups, jumping from one field to another, dealing with projects that involve multiple disciplines ? creates a great demand for cross-disciplinary training. This is particularly true among graduate students, many of who are returning to school from working precisely in these kinds of complex situations. Working across fields allows students not only to work across skill-sets, but also to become accustom to the different ways of thinking that accompany different disciplines. For designers, the possibility of looking for questions, so typical of art practice, opens up new exploratory pursuits; while for artists, the challenge of working towards solving problems is often surprisingly fruitful. Open to Graduate students
Semester: Fall

GRAD 119G	Catherine D'Ignazio	MEDIA, PERFORMANCE,EXPERIENCE
This course is a production seminar for graduate students who want to explore performative and experiential elements in their work, including live art, participatory aesthetics, theatrical spaces and objects, interaction design and networked performance. It is structured as a series of short lectures, in-class collaborative projects, and workshops that cover contemporary practices in performance, with a focus on the distribution of the work through its various media representations. The main production emphasis of the course is the realization of a performance project completed independently or in collaboration with other students. Discussions focus on the role of spectacle, participation, and interactivity with special consideration given to the role of the body and the site of the work. This seminar is useful both for students who consider themselves "performers" and also for those who are creating experiential objects, environments or systems, and who need to think about movement, gesture, and the subtleties of timing, body and interaction. Course Level: Graduate
Semester: Fall

GRAD 029G	Patricia Phillips	THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF THE NEWECONOMY
With the emergence of Conceptual Art and a semantic expansion of the roles of artists and designers, the practice, labor, and character of creative work has become a significant critical and cultural preoccupation. This coupled with an expanding interest in the geographies of a global economy and the conditions of the ?new economy? has encouraged artists and designers to examine the function, relevance, and ethics of contemporary practices within economies and markets. As curator and theorist Maria Lind speculated in Art and Economy, a symposium she organized in 2005, ?Everything we do seems entangled, if not subsumed, in the globalized capitalist economy, regardless of how much we represent dissenting ideological positions?The knowledge and experience economies seem to blend and definitions of labour and professionalism, self-organization and amateurism get muddled up.? Artists and designers explore and enact contemporary economic ? and work ? conditions through a range of strategies, including the development of fictitious, ironic, and real businesses; the projection of critical perspectives on markets, economies, and ideas of labor and value; the creation of new or alternative forms of currency and exchange; the representations of the globalization of capital, micro-economies, wealth, and poverty; the exploration of ideas of ?critical entrepreneurism?; and the examination of the performative and daily character of the work, labor, tasks, and transactions of cultural workers. Throughout the semester, we will explore and examine together the realm of the economic ? and as Andrea Frazer queries, ?what do I, as an artist, provide?? ? and the exceedingly complex and endlessly fascinating relationship of these questions and issues to art and design, use and value, and production and practice.
Semester: Fall

GRAD 098G	Gabriel Carlos Feld	READING THE CITY
Cities are complex artifacts shaped by powerful forces such as history, geography, culture, building and landscape. In turn, they become a stage for human drama, shaping the very life of people connected with them. This course understands cities as both physical and cultural constructions that can be subject to a variety of readings. Lectures, presentations, assignments and discussions will focus on individual cities--such as Havana, Vienna, Lisbon, Istanbul and Beijing--looking at their physical form and history, as well as some of their major cultural figures, materials, including maps, aerials, historic documents, fiction and non-fiction readings, theatre, film, visual arts, music, dance and food. Restricted to Graduate Level students ARCH Majors must register via by Department of Architecture to satisfy the prerequisite for Degree Project
Semester: Fall

GRAD 109G	Marie Elena Cieri	SOCIAL GEOGRAPHIES AND THEIRREPRESENTATION
Social geography is the study of social relations within specific spaces and places. This course will introduce students to basic concepts of social geography and will survey the complex ways that elements of human diversity such as race, class, gender, sexuality, age, education, and culture of origin interact with and within built and natural environments. Through a number of case studies set in various locations, we will explore not only how human difference is expressed in space but also how it is affirmed and reinforced by spatial structuring. Particular emphasis will be given to various methods of geographic representation and how they are used by governments, planners, the media, law enforcement, marketers, tourism promoters, community activists, academics, and artists to produce competing visions of how to think about and act upon space and place. Students will study and critique these techniques and employ some of them in producing their own representations of social geographies in the Providence area. Basic concepts of social geography will be drawn from the text Social Geographies: Space and Society by Gill Valentine. Additional course readings will address how issues in social geography play out in specific spatial contexts. Ideas about representations of social geographies will be introduced and elaborated in a number of readings as well as through examination of alternative mapping projects, public art works, and articles from the popular press. Students will be expected to discuss readings in class and make short oral and written reports. Assignments will include observing and reporting on social interactions in a specific area or site within greater Providence, mapping students' own social geographies, writing about filmed and other mass media representations of social geographies, and a final project where students will produce informed and substantive representations of particular social geographies within the local area. Restricted to Graduate Level Students
Semester: Spring

GRAD 055G	Nancy Marlene Friese	COLLEGIATE TEACHING: STUDIO-BASEDTEACHING AND LEARNING
This course uses RISD as a research site for the exploration of a pedagogy for studio-based teaching a learning. It is designed for students who will be teaching during the course of study at RISD as well as for those who plan to teach after receiving their degree. The course draws upon the varying expertise and teaching methodologies of RISD faculty from all disciplines providing graduate students in this course with models of practice that can inform the development as future faculty of their own teaching philosophy and practice. In addition to RISD faculty, students will have the opportunity to engage in dialog concerning a pedagogy for art teaching and learning with faculty from other institutions of higher education. The course is based on the premise that learning to teach in a generative and attentive manner can bring teaching closer to one's studio practice and therefore make the teaching and learning experience more authentic. The course is composed of readings, reviews, discussion, research assignments, lectures, and peer presentations.
Semester: Spring

GRAD 112G	TBD	ORIGIN POINT: GRADUATE THESISIDEATION WORKSHOP
This seminar is for first-year graduates who wish to unearth a direction - an origin point - for their graduate thesis and to jumpstart the writing process for the Master's written document. Organized as a series of intensive writing workshops, this forum will enable you to explore relevant ideas, themes, and core values, and to conduct research in support of the inquiry process. This is essentially an introspective probing of what you have experienced, are interested in and may wish to question, investigate, and make. At the conclusion of the seminar, you will have a conceptual focus for your thesis that is clearly formulated - both visually and verbally. With this in place, the summer months can then be used productively to further the breadth and depth of this initial idea through open-ended exploration and self-generated work. Restricted to First-year Graduate Level Students
Semester: Spring

GRAD 102G	Peter Craig Hocking	INTERDISCIPLINARY SEMINAR: FROM STUDIOTO SITUATION
Discursive, relational and community-based art practices invite a dialogue between those making meaning and their context. They require an investigation into the nature of place and question traditional notions of audience - pushing the boundaries of what art might be in the public sphere and establishing a new relationship between the makers and consumers of meaning. Using downtown Providence as a site for investigation and collaboration, this course will provide insight into the research methods, collaborative processes, modes of documentation, ethics and implementation of such work. In addition to looking at the work of established artists, such as Allan Kaprow, Guy Debord, Suzanne Lacy, Nayland Blake, and Pam Hall, we will also review the work of arts collectives, and community collaborations, both locally and internationally. Over the course of the semester, each student (either individually or as part of a team) will develop one site-specific project or body of work.
Semester: Spring

GRAD 093G	TBD	CONTEMPORARY PRODUCTION PRACTICES
In this course, we examine the multitude of models for the manufacturing of goods, from products to projects. What is the relationship between the designer/artist and the factory? What defines a factory and what constitutes an "industrial process?" How do things get made? Who makes them? These are some of the questions that guide us through the complex world of small to high volume production of consumer goods and the global marketplace. We also look at artists who manufacture and examples of creative projects where making multiples through outsourcing of labor is the means by which large pieces, collections, editions, and bodies of work are realized. Each week we focus on a particular aspect of manufacturing and production, with lectures by the instructor and guests, discussions, student research presentations, and field trips. Topics such as the designer/technician relationship, global trade, the supply chain, and the artist as laborer are touchstones for our in-depth conversations and study of this multifaceted concept. Alongside of weekly readings, written work and research, students are asked to develop a component of their studio work that addresses the idea of a manufactured object. Course Level: Graduate
Semester: Spring

GRAD 078G	TBD	FULL SCALE
This course is an inquiry of wood and metal construction techniques at the graduate level. Graduate students will develop a multi-lateral skill set applicable to their area of study. Thesis concepts are often explored and enhanced within this class. Students concentrate, in sequence, six weeks of production woodworking techniques in the Center for Integrative Technologies wood facility, and six weeks of metal fabrication methods in the Metcalf Building facilities. The woodworking section includes contemporary and traditional: joinery, shaping, and construction techniques. The second half of the semester is devoted to the skills required for metal fabrication. In the Metcalf Foundry, students will develop the essential skills for cutting, bending, forming, and welding metal. Surface treatments and finishing methods for wood and metal will also be covered throughout this class. Course Level: Graduate
Semester: Spring

GRAD 575G	Jennifer Lee Prewitt-Freilino	GRAD SEMINAR IN HPSS
Each section of this course covers a different topic in History, Philosophy, or Social Science, and the topics may change each term. For course descriptions and instructor names, refer to the course listing in the Liberal Arts section. Limited seats in each section are available to graduate students. The topics for this year are listed here. This course satisfies the Graduate Seminar degree requirement. It may be repeated for credit as long as a different topic is chosen. Fall classes -- 2009 <br> Section 02: SEMINAR: PSYCHOLOGY OF EVIL <br> Jennifer Prewitt-Freilino <br> Also offered as HPSS S705 <br><br> Spring classes -- 2010 <br> Section 01: SEMINAR: PSYCHOLOGY OF GENDER <br> Jennifer Prewitt-Freilino <br> Also offered as HPSS S677
Semester: Spring

GRAD 550G	Jonathan B. Highfield	GRAD SEMINAR IN ENGLISH
Each section of this course covers a different topic in English, and the topics may change each term. For course descriptions, refer to the course listing in the Liberal Arts section. Limited seats in each section are available to graduate students. The topics for this year are listed here. This course satisfies the Graduate Seminar degree requirement. It may be repeated for credit as long as a different topic is chosen.<br> Fall classes-2009 <br> Section 01 SEMINAR: JOYCE, SYNGE, YEATS AND THEIR ANTECEDENTS <br> Jonathan Highfield<br> Also offered as ENGL E782 <br><br>
Semester: Winter

GRAD 031G	TBD	MAPPING THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUR WORK
This seminar is for graduate students who are preparing their written thesis. Within the context of this writing-intensive course, we examine the thesis form as an expressive opportunity to negotiate a meaningful integration of our visual work, how we think about it, and how we wish to communicate it to others. In support of this exploration, weekly thematic writing sessions are offered to open the imaginative process and to stimulate creative thinking as a means of discovering the underlying intelligence of our work. In addition, we also engage in individual studio visits to identify and form a coherent 'voice' for the thesis, one that parallels our actual art involvement. Literary communications generated out of artists' process are also examined. The outcome of this intensive study is the completion of a draft of the thesis.<BR> <BR> Restricted to graduate level students
Semester: Winter

GRAD 032G	TBD	CRITICAL ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY ART
This seminar draws on a number of critical texts from the past three decades by writers such as Rosalind Krauss, Douglas Crimp, bell hooks, Dave Hickey, and Arthur C. Danto while probing their linkages to key debates in contemporary culture. By considering issues that relate to the viability of the expression of the artist's subjectivity in the post-modern era as well topics pertaining to race, gender, sexuality, the marketplace, mass media and popular culture, a broad view of the subjects, themes and discourses of contemporary art emerges. The course is structured around in-class discussion of assigned articles, slide lectures, and presentations. The seminar aims to extend the range of critical texts currently read by each student especially as they develop their graduate thesis. Each student is responsible for one 30-minute class presentation with a follow-up paper of 10-12 pages due the last day of class, or before. Participation in class discussion is a requirement of the course, constituting a part of the final grade. Restricted to Graduate Level Students
Semester: Winter

GRAD 044G	Nancy Marlene Friese	COLLEGIATE TEACHING REFLECTION ANDPREPARATION
How can we add to the future enrichment of our disciplines? How do we make our future teaching a more meaningful practice? This is a professional practice course for artists, designers, architects, and educators who want to enhance their Teaching Assistantships at RISD and who are interested in future collegiate teaching within their expertise. The goal of this seminar is to introduce graduate students to reflective teaching principles, and to provide an orientation to the collegiate teaching and learning experience. The course meets partially in Fall, Wintersession and Spring semesters with the credit applied only to the spring term. A key component of this course is development of a reflective Teaching Portfolio, including a curriculum vitae, a proposed course syllabus, class projects, teaching reflections, and an artist/designer statement. Brown University's Sheridan Center of Teaching and Learning's Certificate I is incorporated into the seminar and includes 5 lectures, 5 workshops, a micro-teaching session, and an Individualized Teaching Consultation. The Sheridan Center's Certificate I is only available to RISD graduate students enrolled in this seminar. Open to graduate students; Elective Sections (01 a 02) Open to all grads Section (03) Open to incoming grads Permission of instructor required Fee: one- time fee of $180.00, non-refundable, and applied to Fall Term registration. Attendance starts in Fall 2009 only The first required meeting to continue in all sections occurs at 5:30pm on Monday, September 14 (before classes begin) at Brown University's Salomon Hall, Room 001. Also offered as ARTE 044G.Register into the course for which credit is desired. (FALL/WINTERSESSION/SPRING)
Semester: Winter

GRAD 500G	TBD	GRAD SEMINAR IN ART HISTORY
Each section of this course covers a different topic in Art History, and the topics may change each term. For course descriptions and instructor names, refer to the course listing in the Liberal Arts section. Limited seats in each section are available to graduate students. This course satisfies the Graduate Seminar degree requirement. It may be repeated for credit as long as a different topic is chosen. The topics for this year are listed here: <br> Spring classes --2010 <br> Section 02 SEMINAR: INSIDE THE MUSEUM <br> Paola Dematte/Deborah Wilde <br> Also offered as ARTH H540<br><br> Section 04 SEMINAR:AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CONSERATION OF WORKS OF ART <br> Mimi Leveque <br> Also offered as ARTH H555 Spring classes Section 02: SEMINAR: INSIDE THE MUSEUM Mary Bergstein/Deborah Wilde Also offered as ARTH H540 Section 04: SEMINAR: CONSERVATION WORKS OF ART Margaret Leveque Also offered as ARTH H555
Semester: Winter

GRAD 052G	Jennifer A Liese	PERMISSION TO WRITE: A THESIS PREPSEMINAR
In "On Permission to Write," essayist Cynthia Ozick distinguishes between the "good-citizen writer" and the "shaman-writer." The first, she says, writes dutifully; the second, "obsessively," "torrentially," and most crucially, with self-given permission. For artists and designers who have, by and large, favored visual over written expression, obsession and torrent probably come more naturally in the studio than on the page. This course seeks to bring that same uninhibited, exploratory, and illuminating sensibility to the thesis, to suggest that writing is not a duty, but rather can be integral to studio practice. We will look at writing about one's work its art-historical, theoretical, and personal sources; its form and process; its motivation; its interpretation as a kind of translation from form to language (one that can be as individual and authentic as our chosen materials). The course will include in-class writing exercises designed to help us think more deeply and coherently about our work and ideas, as well as discussion of assigned readings. The readings are exclusively written by artists and designersmanifestos, interviews, scripts, criticism, and journal entries selected to suggest that in permitting themselves to write, artists and designers establish artistic agency, lineage, and history itself through that writing. The class will culminate with the presentation of a thesis abstract, outline, and working draft. Restricted to Graduate Level Students
Semester: Winter

GRAD 046G	David Louis Gersten	A MATERIAL IMAGINATION OF THE SOCIALCONTRACT
The principal cultural contribution of the spatial arts is found in their ethical dimension. They are empathetic disciplines sharing the capacity to mediate an exchange of life and space. Globalization is the clearest expression of the desire of capital to author, temporalize, and construct a singular contained world of actors, authors and spectators; it constitutes our current temporal orthodoxy. The creative spatial arts hold a unique position in our time; they offer an alternative spatial exchange to the dominant temporal structure of capital. Disciplines that mediate an exchange between our lives and our spaces are making a promise to construct shelter and sanctuary, not only for our bodies, but for our mental and emotional lives as well - a promise to construct sanctuary for our humanity. The seminar addresses the many links between capital, technology, media, authority and/or authorship, and the potential of creative works to expand the ethical dimensions of space. Selected readings: Paul Auster, Maurice Blanchot, Harold Bloom, Jorge Luis Borges, Anne Carson, Gilles Deleuze, Jay Fellows, Michel Foucault, Vaclav Havel, John Hejduk, Emmanuel Levinas, Andre Malraux, Charles Olson, Alberto Perez-Gomez, Arundhati Roy, Dr Richard Selzer, Amartya Sen Restricted to Graduate Level students
Semester: Winter