Students will work within a guided research topic to develop a design investigation with defined objectives, methods, and outcomes. As a 9-credit studio, this course will also require that students design and execute a material, representational, or theoretical experiment tied to a design detail within their investigations. In this thesis studio, students will have periodic formal reviews with an advisory panel, and will use feedback from the panel to produce a book that gives a written and graphic presentation of the research context, process, and findings as well as a final assessment of the outcomes.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

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

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

Students will work within a guided research topic to develop a design investigation with defined objectives, methods, and outcomes. As a 9-credit studio, this course will also require that students design and execute a material, representational, or theoretical experiment tied to a design detail within their investigations. In this thesis studio, students will have periodic formal reviews with an advisory panel, and will use feedback from the panel to produce a book that gives a written and graphic presentation of the research context, process, and findings as well as a final assessment of the outcomes.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

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

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

This course is a fast-paced journey into designing a physical computing device. Students will gain a solid foundation in the essential technologies behind most modern electronics. Throughout the course, they will build several microcontroller-based electronics projects using devices like the Arduino series. The course prepares students to be the future generation of creatives by treating electronics like any other materials for creative practices, exploring their properties, implications, and possibilities. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and mindset to use technologies to fuel their creative decisions and expand their creative horizons. A brief introduction to the New Product Development process in the tech industry will be given as a starting point for discussions on the holistic impact of technology on humanity and society.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

Elective

In this beginning writing course, we will look at contemporary texts that push against the boundaries of traditional literary genres (fiction, poetry, theatre, creative non-fiction, graphic fiction, etc) and blur the lines between those genres as well. Together we will read some of the most exciting contemporary writers who resist our attempts to categorize them. By examining these texts and trying our own creative writing experiments, we will gain a better understanding of what traditional genres are, the techniques they employ, and ways they can be manipulated to create something new.

Elective

Previsualization is an essential tool in both animation and live action filmmaking. Whether it is a feature film or a commercial, a television show or a short film, it's critical that storyboarding is the first directorial step of translating the written word to the screen. In a medium where collaboration is the norm, a story artist inherently becomes one of the most influential figures in a film's production, as every department builds upon the foundation of their work. In this course, we will go over the building blocks of visual storytelling and traditional filmmaking, culminating in a final project at the end of the semester. Lectures and screenings will explore the tenets of story structure, visual language, film grammar, and performance, all of which will be integrated into weekly assignments that exercise tried and true techniques of storyboarding method. The lessons in this course will give you a firm understanding of the art of storyboarding as it applies to the film and animation industry, and also a greater understanding of how to visually communicate with a level of clarity that you had not known before.

The section for Fall 2025 will be remote.

The section for Spring 2026 will be in-person.

Elective

Are you interested in popular culture? Do you want to explore the contexts and histories of mass media, or otherwise distinctly “un-fine” art? Do you want to make work about your interests that come from unexpected places? Do you see yourself in work that explores and appreciates the detritus of culture? Do you want to walk the line between fine art and fanart? This class may be for you.

This course uses critical theory, creative assignments, instructor feedback, and group critique to help students interrogate popular culture as a subject matter for their work. In addition to this interrogation of subject matter, students will also be prompted to question their materials, and explore the notion of “lowbrow” art mediums. This course is designed to assist students in navigating their work in areas that may feel off-limits or against the traditional “rules” of artmaking.

Students will be given a single, short, required reading each week, with recommended texts and reading as an option for students to further explore. There will be group crit/discussion every week, for both completed assignments and in-progress feedback.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00 - $100.00

Elective

In this interdisciplinary critique-based class, advanced students take a rigorous look at the various ways time-based imagery functions in their work. With an emphasis on post-cinema, research- based, site-dependent, and performative practices, students in Meeting Points: Open Media examine their studio projects in-depth, through group critiques, a close analysis of critical concepts, and working with focus and discipline in their medium of choice. This course is required for FAV Seniors in Open Media and is well-positioned to be a critical support for senior and graduate students looking for additional insight into the development and refinement of their work in the area of cross-disciplinary media art practice. Course work includes research, readings, critique sessions, group discussions, and visiting artist lectures. Fall semester includes a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators. Spring semester includes an emphasis on curatorial exhibition strategies, a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators.

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

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

Chair design is a rite of passage for those interested in the close interplay between form, structure, and comfort. Of all furniture types, chairs most clearly reveal how design decisions affect both the human body and the integrity of construction, inviting a critical understanding of how material and structure shape experience.

During the first half of the semester, students will gain hands-on experience working with a focused material palette to investigate chair design. The studio emphasizes analog methodologies and shop-based exploration. Students will study form, proportion, and ergonomics through full-scale mockups and prototypes - developing a working understanding of structure, joinery, and connection methods along the way.

In the second half of the semester, students will turn their focus to manufacturing and repeatability, refining their designs and building jigs for producing multiples. They will navigate the trade-offs required to move a design from concept to production, learning what must be adjusted or let go to preserve what matters most, and developing a disciplined sense of balance between desired outcomes and producibility.

By the end of the semester, each student will have developed a personal process for designing, refining, and producing chairs that embody structural integrity, comfort, and a distinct form language.

Prerequisite: Wood II or Metals II (must be completed - may not be taken concurrently with this advanced studio).

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design, MID (2.5yr): Industrial Design

The course will teach lighting, modeling and animation, with an emphasis on basic principles as they relate to 3D tools. The overall goal of this course is to generalize the study of the 3D world and to give students basic problem-solving skills needed for continued use of 3D animation software. After a series of lectures covering the basics of navigating the interface, each student produces a short animation. Each student has focused, individual time with the instructor. The class will be taught in Blender, but students who demonstrate a sufficient proficiency in other suitable packages may elect to use them for some assignments. Course may be repeated once for credit.

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

Elective

In Video Practices, students will work with digital video cameras, sound recorders and microphones, and editing and color correction software. Through projects, screenings, in-class assignments, and readings, students will explore key concepts in digital moving-image making to build, expand, and deepen their time-based practice.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $60.00

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

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

In Video Practices, students will work with digital video cameras, sound recorders and microphones, and editing and color correction software. Through projects, screenings, in-class assignments, and readings, students will explore key concepts in digital moving-image making to build, expand, and deepen their time-based practice.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $60.00

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

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

This course will cover how to translate scripts into visual images with clarity and creativity.  Students will study the language of film - both animation and live action- including different kinds of shots and approaches to editing.  We will cover how to interpret and visualize both acting and actions, as well as staging shots for the dramatic content they contain.  The course will focus on developing the conceptual strengths and technical capabilities needed to visualize from the written page.

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

Elective

This course identifies core principles of digital production, to enable students to continually adapt to the ever-changing world of software. Students research and produce artworks that demonstrate their understanding of these principles. This primary knowledge includes digital film and video formats, project asset management, compression techniques, understanding program interface design, color spaces, channel mixing and filters, and the creation and use of extra channels (such as alpha and depth).

Estimated Cost of Materials: $30.00

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

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

This course identifies core principles of digital production, to enable students to continually adapt to the ever-changing world of software. Students research and produce artworks that demonstrate their understanding of these principles. This primary knowledge includes digital film and video formats, project asset management, compression techniques, understanding program interface design, color spaces, channel mixing and filters, and the creation and use of extra channels (such as alpha and depth).

Estimated Cost of Materials: $30.00

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

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

In Film Practices, students learn 16mm film processes, skills, and techniques - as a material and conceptual foundation necessary for every time-based practice. Exposure, focus, depth of field, and basic editing strategies are explored as tools for becoming fluent in the language of cinema. Students will build an understanding of the various meanings conveyed by aesthetic decisions regarding composition, movement, and editing. Through individual and group projects, screenings, in-class assignments, and readings, students will explore key concepts in material-based filmmaking to build, expand, and deepen their time-based practice.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $220.00

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

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

In Film Practices, students learn 16mm film processes, skills, and techniques - as a material and conceptual foundation necessary for every time-based practice. Exposure, focus, depth of field, and basic editing strategies are explored as tools for becoming fluent in the language of cinema. Students will build an understanding of the various meanings conveyed by aesthetic decisions regarding composition, movement, and editing. Through individual and group projects, screenings, in-class assignments, and readings, students will explore key concepts in material-based filmmaking to build, expand, and deepen their time-based practice.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $220.00

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

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

Motion can be used as a dynamic and interdisciplinary tool to communicate ideas and narratives that utilize time based media. The intention of this studio class is to equip students with understandings of the mechanics of motion, making and working through analysis and discussion of motion pieces, which they will then use to inform decisions, harnessing motion as a tool for presentation of their work and its documentation as well. Students will navigate motion through the 12 principles of animation, assess moving pictures across different media like live action films, traditional animation, stop motion animation, advertising and motion graphics through diverse screenings. They will also draw on their understanding of time, sequencing, narratives and techniques in their own creative practices. Students will begin with a solid foundational understanding of After Effects, be equipped with essential skills and techniques like working with hand-drawn animation, stop motion and motion graphics using text based-media. As a project focus for the course, students will work on a 45-second motion project of their choice, using vector graphics, kinetic type, or object stop motion. From pre-production to post-production, they will consider processes like storyboarding and sound in creating their visual sequences.

Elective

The Undergraduate Seminar works in complement with Senior Studio to provide a forum in which students assemble in discussion, analysis and reflection around a set of ideas, practices and histories that are of substantial relevance to photography, its history and its contemporary forms. The content of the seminar will vary from year to year, but students will be expected to read, research, discuss, write about and/or present on the material addressed in class. The seminar will interact with the department's Visiting Artist lecture series, with the SEI Lecture Series, and with MCM events at Brown. Attendance at those lectures is highly encouraged.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

This studio course reimagines game engine software as a critical tool for contemporary art and design practice. Moving beyond traditional gaming applications, we will use Epic Games Unreal Engine to invent unconventional approaches to digital art-making including: emergent design, speculative world building, as well as AI and physics-based processes (Note: traditional gameplay systems, player controller mechanics, and character animation will not be covered in the course). 

The course emphasizes conceptual development alongside technical experimentation. Students will focus on the fundamentals of Blueprints visual scripting, the Niagara particle system, and AI Behavior Trees. In addition, we will discuss historical, experimental film, animation, music, architecture and process-based art movements such as Situationism, Gutai, and Neoconcretismo. Students from every fine art and design department are encouraged to join. Students will learn to bring their current art and design work into Unreal as 2D, 3D and motion assets. The semester culminates in self-directed projects that align with individual creative practices.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

Elective

Crafted for advanced Jewelry + Metalsmithing inquiry, this Wintersession course provides dedicated support as senior and graduate J+M students pursue focused, self-directed research in preparation for their culminating works. Rooted in the field’s traditions of critical material study and reflective making, Fieldwork + Frameworks cultivates expansive research tactics that draw on object analysis, text sourcing, interviews, field study, and autoresearch. Students will develop clear and convincing arguments that situate their studio work within intellectual, material, and personal contexts attuned to the field of contemporary jewelry and stretch the reach of their practice.

Seniors will generate the foundational research for their Degree Project Statement.

First-year graduate students will refine their unfolding inquiries into informed assertions.

Second-year graduate students will produce a first draft of their thesis document.

Students will be supported through group discussion and one-on-one faculty mentorship. Meetings will be held in-person and hybrid as needed, leveraging Wintersession’s intensive single-course format to open space for forms of research less feasible during fall and spring terms, such as independent  fieldwork and site visits, while maintaining access to J+M studios to integrate research directly alongside making.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

Elective