In this course we examine individual studio practices in depth through collecting, drawing, and writing. We approach writing as a mutable medium, one that can be built up, torn apart, cobbled together, patch-worked, polished, shined, exploded, and altogether constructed in a way that is not dissimilar to the way an object emerges in the studio. We examine the ways that writing as a part of making can spark ideas for visual work, enrich subliminal visual narratives, connect ideas that may seem disparate, collect a wide variety of sources in a small space, act as a place for reflection, and ultimately be an active and integral part of making. In the process, we will unearth themes that permeate students' artistic work in a way that forges future paths for creative exploration while protecting some of the mysteries that are particular to an embodied practice. Students will begin to develop a personal vocabulary that parallels the richly developed language of their visual work, laying the foundation for their Senior Degree Project. The primary aim of this class is for students to develop a better understanding of their own practice and its context through writing and archiving influences and inspirations, laying the conceptual foundation and establishing a specific theme for the spring semester Senior Degree Project Report.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Senior Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

Building on the methods of research and synthesis learned in Junior Sculpture: Research Studio, this is an intensive semester designed to strengthen students’ knowledge of professional practices for maintaining a creative practice past graduation. Students will develop a packet of materials which include a portfolio of work, artist statement, resume, and artist CV. This course will advance their research into a range of opportunities specific to the discipline of sculpture and their own individuated practices. 

 
Each week students will be introduced to a variety of resources and skills necessary in preparing for upcoming and future opportunities such as residencies, granting organizations, graduate schools and fellowships. Additionally, topics of exhibiting works in various spaces such as galleries (artist-run, for-profit, university, etc.), museums, alternative art organizations and public art venues will be presented. There will also be workshops for preparing project budgets, archival storage of work and formatting for digital organization. This seminar aims to give students a strong foundation for professional practices prior to their final semester at RISD so they can focus on their body of work in Senior Degree Project and feel prepared to graduate.   

Estimated Cost of Materials: $300.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Senior Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

Studio: Design promotes multidisciplinary studio experimentation across an array of media and processes. Students explore the organization of visual and other sensory elements in order to understand perceptual attributes and the production of meaning. Using various methods of expression, students may create objects, spaces, and experiences that demonstrate their analysis of composition, color, narrative, motion, systems, and cultural signification. Assignments allow for inquiries into scientific, social, cultural, historical, philosophical, technological, and political topics. Critical and experimental utilization of design principles, which underpin all of the arts, are emphasized. Students are guided through progressive investigations, in which the act of seeing is amplified by the study of physiological and cognitive factors that generate perception. Examined subjects are taken through stages of representation, abstraction, and/or symbolic interpretation to reveal essential communicative properties.

Enrollment is limited to First-Year Undergraduate Students.

Major Requirement | BFA

Studio: Design promotes multidisciplinary studio experimentation across an array of media and processes. Students explore the organization of visual and other sensory elements in order to understand perceptual attributes and the production of meaning. Using various methods of expression, students may create objects, spaces, and experiences that demonstrate their analysis of composition, color, narrative, motion, systems, and cultural signification. Assignments allow for inquiries into scientific, social, cultural, historical, philosophical, technological, and political topics. Critical and experimental utilization of design principles, which underpin all of the arts, are emphasized. Students are guided through progressive investigations, in which the act of seeing is amplified by the study of physiological and cognitive factors that generate perception. Examined subjects are taken through stages of representation, abstraction, and/or symbolic interpretation to reveal essential communicative properties.

Enrollment is limited to First-Year Undergraduate Students.

Major Requirement | BFA

Studio: Design promotes multidisciplinary studio experimentation across an array of media and processes. Students explore the organization of visual and other sensory elements in order to understand perceptual attributes and the production of meaning. Using various methods of expression, students may create objects, spaces, and experiences that demonstrate their analysis of composition, color, narrative, motion, systems, and cultural signification. Assignments allow for inquiries into scientific, social, cultural, historical, philosophical, technological, and political topics. Critical and experimental utilization of design principles, which underpin all of the arts, are emphasized. Students are guided through progressive investigations, in which the act of seeing is amplified by the study of physiological and cognitive factors that generate perception. Examined subjects are taken through stages of representation, abstraction, and/or symbolic interpretation to reveal essential communicative properties.

Enrollment is limited to first-year students.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch, MArch (3yr)

Studio: Design promotes multidisciplinary studio experimentation across an array of media and processes. Students explore the organization of visual and other sensory elements in order to understand perceptual attributes and the production of meaning. Using various methods of expression, students may create objects, spaces, and experiences that demonstrate their analysis of composition, color, narrative, motion, systems, and cultural signification. Assignments allow for inquiries into scientific, social, cultural, historical, philosophical, technological, and political topics. Critical and experimental utilization of design principles, which underpin all of the arts, are emphasized. Students are guided through progressive investigations, in which the act of seeing is amplified by the study of physiological and cognitive factors that generate perception. Examined subjects are taken through stages of representation, abstraction, and/or symbolic interpretation to reveal essential communicative properties.

Enrollment is limited to first-year students.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch, MArch (3yr)

Studio: Design promotes multidisciplinary studio experimentation across an array of media and processes. Students explore the organization of visual and other sensory elements in order to understand perceptual attributes and the production of meaning. Using various methods of expression, students may create objects, spaces, and experiences that demonstrate their analysis of composition, color, narrative, motion, systems, and cultural signification. Assignments allow for inquiries into scientific, social, cultural, historical, philosophical, technological, and political topics. Critical and experimental utilization of design principles, which underpin all of the arts, are emphasized. Students are guided through progressive investigations, in which the act of seeing is amplified by the study of physiological and cognitive factors that generate perception. Examined subjects are taken through stages of representation, abstraction, and/or symbolic interpretation to reveal essential communicative properties.

Enrollment is limited to first-year students.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch, MArch (3yr)

Studio: Design promotes multidisciplinary studio experimentation across an array of media and processes. Students explore the organization of visual and other sensory elements in order to understand perceptual attributes and the production of meaning. Using various methods of expression, students may create objects, spaces, and experiences that demonstrate their analysis of composition, color, narrative, motion, systems, and cultural signification. Assignments allow for inquiries into scientific, social, cultural, historical, philosophical, technological, and political topics. Critical and experimental utilization of design principles, which underpin all of the arts, are emphasized. Students are guided through progressive investigations, in which the act of seeing is amplified by the study of physiological and cognitive factors that generate perception. Examined subjects are taken through stages of representation, abstraction, and/or symbolic interpretation to reveal essential communicative properties.

Enrollment is limited to first-year students.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch, MArch (3yr)

This year-long video production studio focuses on the possibilities of the video medium and the development of an individualized practice within it. Students will be exposed to a wide range of forms including but not limited to single-channel production, installation, performance, documentary, and digital cinema.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $125.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Open Media

During three integrated studios, students learn professional collections from concept to presentation. Portfolio assignments are aimed at strengthening students' established styles and experimentation in new areas. Studios build on their draping, drafting and construction skills through individual instruction as they complete a collection for final presentation to the visiting critics. During studio, students explore varied means of presentation and capturing of their process.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $1,000.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Senior Apparel Design Students. 

Major Requirement | BFA Apparel Design

Studio: Spatial Dynamics is a studio-based inquiry into physical, spatial and temporal phenomena. The study of Spatial Dynamics is rooted in the necessity to consider forces and their effects on structure. Force is the consequence of energy. In Spatial Dynamics the energy and resultant forces are studied in actual motion, stability, and materiality. The structures of physical, spatial and temporal phenomena are studied through additive, subtractive, transformative, iterative, and ephemeral processes both analog and digital. Mediums and materials that are commonly explored and utilized have a broad range of characteristics due to their organic and synthetic sources. Most assignments utilize methods such as preliminary sketches and diagrams in research, planning, and experimental processes. Assignments reference the histories and theories of art and design and include areas of inquiry that extend to disciplines such as the sciences, music, dance, film, and theater.

Enrollment is limited to first-year Undergraduate Students.

Major Requirement | BFA

Studio: Spatial Dynamics is a studio-based inquiry into physical, spatial and temporal phenomena. The study of Spatial Dynamics is rooted in the necessity to consider forces and their effects on structure. Force is the consequence of energy. In Spatial Dynamics the energy and resultant forces are studied in actual motion, stability, and materiality. The structures of physical, spatial and temporal phenomena are studied through additive, subtractive, transformative, iterative, and ephemeral processes both analog and digital. Mediums and materials that are commonly explored and utilized have a broad range of characteristics due to their organic and synthetic sources. Most assignments utilize methods such as preliminary sketches and diagrams in research, planning, and experimental processes. Assignments reference the histories and theories of art and design and include areas of inquiry that extend to disciplines such as the sciences, music, dance, film, and theater.

Enrollment is limited to first-year Undergraduate Students.

Major Requirement | BFA

Studio: Spatial Dynamics is a studio-based inquiry into physical, spatial and temporal phenomena. The study of Spatial Dynamics is rooted in the necessity to consider forces and their effects on structure. Force is the consequence of energy. In Spatial Dynamics the energy and resultant forces are studied in actual motion, stability, and materiality. The structures of physical, spatial and temporal phenomena are studied through additive, subtractive, transformative, iterative, and ephemeral processes both analog and digital. Mediums and materials that are commonly explored and utilized have a broad range of characteristics due to their organic and synthetic sources. Most assignments utilize methods such as preliminary sketches and diagrams in research, planning, and experimental processes. Assignments reference the histories and theories of art and design and include areas of inquiry that extend to disciplines such as the sciences, music, dance, film, and theater.

Enrollment is limited to first-year students.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch, MArch (3yr)

Studio: Spatial Dynamics is a studio-based inquiry into physical, spatial and temporal phenomena. The study of Spatial Dynamics is rooted in the necessity to consider forces and their effects on structure. Force is the consequence of energy. In Spatial Dynamics the energy and resultant forces are studied in actual motion, stability, and materiality. The structures of physical, spatial and temporal phenomena are studied through additive, subtractive, transformative, iterative, and ephemeral processes both analog and digital. Mediums and materials that are commonly explored and utilized have a broad range of characteristics due to their organic and synthetic sources. Most assignments utilize methods such as preliminary sketches and diagrams in research, planning, and experimental processes. Assignments reference the histories and theories of art and design and include areas of inquiry that extend to disciplines such as the sciences, music, dance, film, and theater.

Enrollment is limited to first-year students.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch, MArch (3yr)

Studio: Spatial Dynamics is a studio-based inquiry into physical, spatial and temporal phenomena. The study of Spatial Dynamics is rooted in the necessity to consider forces and their effects on structure. Force is the consequence of energy. In Spatial Dynamics the energy and resultant forces are studied in actual motion, stability, and materiality. The structures of physical, spatial and temporal phenomena are studied through additive, subtractive, transformative, iterative, and ephemeral processes both analog and digital. Mediums and materials that are commonly explored and utilized have a broad range of characteristics due to their organic and synthetic sources. Most assignments utilize methods such as preliminary sketches and diagrams in research, planning, and experimental processes. Assignments reference the histories and theories of art and design and include areas of inquiry that extend to disciplines such as the sciences, music, dance, film, and theater.

Enrollment is limited to first-year students.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch, MArch (3yr)

Studio: Spatial Dynamics is a studio-based inquiry into physical, spatial and temporal phenomena. The study of Spatial Dynamics is rooted in the necessity to consider forces and their effects on structure. Force is the consequence of energy. In Spatial Dynamics the energy and resultant forces are studied in actual motion, stability, and materiality. The structures of physical, spatial and temporal phenomena are studied through additive, subtractive, transformative, iterative, and ephemeral processes both analog and digital. Mediums and materials that are commonly explored and utilized have a broad range of characteristics due to their organic and synthetic sources. Most assignments utilize methods such as preliminary sketches and diagrams in research, planning, and experimental processes. Assignments reference the histories and theories of art and design and include areas of inquiry that extend to disciplines such as the sciences, music, dance, film, and theater.

Enrollment is limited to first-year students.

Major Requirement | BFA, BArch, MArch (3yr)

This studio-elective course will follow a series of twelve lectures given at the South Kensington Museum as published in P.L. Simmonds, Animal Products. This seminal work served as a compilation of the trade exhibition collections from the 1851 Crystal Palace exposition that eventually served as the seed for the collections of the South Kensington Museum and finally the Branch Museum of the Department at Bethnal Green. These collections laid the foundation for much of the Victoria and Albert Museum collections (V&A) that in turn influenced the creation of RISD and the RISD Museum in 1877. This course will examine design and fashion, naturalist journals, and literature as a means to develop the students design vocabulary and materials palate. Students will compare the tastes and techniques of the Victorian era to contemporary design practices, with case studies of designers utilizing the natural world as a resource and source for design. Weekly lectures will introduce students to artists and designers of the 19th century and compare them to contemporary artists and designers. These introductory lectures will be paired each week with a specific material examination and hand-on exploration via materials demonstrations and a sample notebook. We will engage in readings, group discussions, critique of student Naturalist Journals, materials demonstrations, and examine historic and contemporary Museum objects within each theme material. Field trips to the RISD Museum will be augmented by visits to the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab, RISD Materials library, The Providence Athenaeum, The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University, The New Bedford Whaling Museum, and The Museum of Natural History, Roger Williams Park.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $20.00

Elective

Intermediate Film is a year-long course emphasizing technical production in sync sound film making. Theoretical concerns and cinematic techniques are stressed. We explore concepts of (and the relationships between) narrative, documentary and experimental filmmaking. The first half of the Fall semester, students work in assigned teams, completing a series of short exercises. In the second half of the term, class members individually create their own longer films for final projects. Students screen their work in class at various stages of completion: rushes, rough cuts, and fine cuts. In addition, there are weekly screenings of works by relevant filmmakers. Participation in class discussions is required.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $500.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Live Action

Miniature art is a diverse and flexible medium for complex visual storytelling. This intimately immersive art form has greatly expanded, with miniaturists working across fine art, advertising, scenography, stop-motion animation and more. Moving beyond 2D image-making, miniature art opens up new narrative possibilities through world-building, character development, spatial depth, interaction and motion. Students are encouraged to find creative applications for miniatures in their work and will be exposed to many examples that go beyond the traditional diorama: tiny galleries, forensic dioramas, public art, miniature escape rooms, "phygital" storytelling, etc. We will interpret "miniature art" very expansively and students need not be restricted to just 3D model-making. They may also combine it with other mediums such as book-making, writing, photography, film/animation, game design, etc and consider how miniatures can enrich and complicate these forms. The semester will feature short individual assignments leading to a longer final project, all anchored by storytelling. Class demos will expose students to various materials (polymer clay, paper, MDF, fabric, found objects), techniques (sculpting, laser-cutting, digital post-production), and documentation strategies to best capture their intricate storytelling. Students will leave the course with a new appreciation for miniature art as an extension of their illustration practice.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

Elective

The Core 3 Cities studio uses the lens of housing and housing policy to dissect the ways in which these architectural choices impact residents' access to dignity in their cities. In the market of the built environment, where does architecture start? You may think it is the napkin sketch or AutoCAD but think instead of something more mundane: the government official's zoning map or the development firm's financial projection. In the architectural profession, we often lament our lack of agency in the creation of space. The architect must wait for the client, the request for proposal, or the competition. We are then at the mercy of local, state, and federal policy-responding to regulations, sightlines, zoning, and more. But how can we see the mechanisms of governance and finance as inherent parts of design? The Core 3 Cities studio uses the lens of housing and housing policy to dissect the ways in which these architectural choices impact residents' access to and dignity in their cities. Through assignments, readings, and discussions we will explore what is at stake in the urban environment and endeavor to discover new forms of design intervention that respond with nuance to those stakes.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MArch: Architecture (3yr)