In this product design studio, we will dissect an existing product, analyze a market segment, and redesign the product to fit the described market. The methodology used to complete this task will be accelerated, giving students an overview of a typical industrial design process. Students will be exposed to design drawing techniques, foam modeling methods, and the concept of designing for consumers.

Elective

This studio course introduces materials commonly used in furniture making and the foundation skills necessary to integrate them into furniture. Emphasis is on techniques, structures and materials properties. These are integrated with theoretical exercises that focus on design.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

This studio course introduces materials commonly used in furniture making and the foundation skills necessary to integrate them into furniture. Emphasis is on techniques, structures and materials properties. These are integrated with theoretical exercises that focus on design.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

Make you own paper for printing or three-dimensional constructions in this hand on experimental studio course in making paper. Curriculum will include: paper specifications, basic sheet formation, Japanese Plant fibers, recycled materials, paper modules and screens, along with paper structures for installation based work.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $175.00

Elective

Make you own paper for printing or three-dimensional constructions in this hand on experimental studio course in making paper. Curriculum will include: paper specifications, basic sheet formation, Japanese Plant fibers, recycled materials, paper modules and screens, along with paper structures for installation based work.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $175.00

Elective

This sophomore studio expands basic principles of furniture design and material skills, exploring how the made objects interact with the human body. Intermediate skills will be demonstrated and practiced as students further explore materials and their applications in design.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

This sophomore studio expands basic principles of furniture design and material skills, exploring how the made objects interact with the human body. Intermediate skills will be demonstrated and practiced as students further explore materials and their applications in design.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

This course explores the principles of construction and design detailing. The student will detail the construction of a previously designed studio project. Finish materials, window treatments, light fixtures, and furniture will be selected. Construction methods and materials will be examined as well as the performance and appearance retention of finishes. Individual presentations will be made on a variety of traditional and nontraditional materials.

Major Requirement | BFA Interior Studies

Strategies for analysis and documentation are presented and discussed as students combine their research and reflections on their own evolving production into an illustrated, written thesis that organizes, focuses, and articulates their ideas. Artist's books, online publications and other formats will be explored. Intensive support for development and production of the thesis in relation to studio practice will be given.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Printmaking Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Printmaking

This 3-credit elective centers around the Sustainability Lab, an initiative between LDAR and INTAR departments to explore creative material approaches to sustainability. Looking specifically at materials common to New England, this skill-building seminar will explore one selected material each year and expose students to different techniques and methods of researching and working with the region's intrinsic materials.

In tandem with the co-requisite studio, students will collaborate with expert scientists, artists, craftspeople, and designers to refine their material literacy and develop multiple hands-on explorations that go beyond our disciplinary conventions to generate innovative fabrication techniques and applications for the built environment. This process includes becoming familiar with a material's inherent characteristics and behaviors, its composition and connection to vernacular and craft, and finally, developing novel research methods for design that rely on physical experimentation. 

This is a co-requisite course. Students must register for LDAR/INTAR-500G - Sustainability Lab: Advanced Research Studio and LDAR/INTAR-501G - Sustainability Lab: Material Explorations.

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

Elective

The graduate seminar is a forum for discussion and research outside of the studio setting. Through a series of topical investigations, lectures and presentations, students will explore current design issues, professional practices, directions, and developments within the field, and other topics that will help to formulate the basis of the graduate thesis work.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. First preference is given to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This course is a continuation of the ideas presented in GRAPH-3252 Photo/Graphics, but it is not a prerequisite. This course will explore how video design and sound design can be utilized to convey visual narratives. Students in this studio will design a visible language of video-graphic expression. It involves two-dimensional design, three dimensional design, lighting design, and sound design. As a final project, each student will make a short video utilizing techniques learned.

Elective

The final semester in the MFA Sculpture Program is structured around the development of a written thesis and culminating in a body of work, components of which may be exhibited as part of the school-wide MFA Thesis Exhibition. This work is nurtured by tutorial studio visits with faculty, visiting artists, and thesis committee members during the run of the semester.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Sculpture

This hands-on studio turns fieldwork into art. Each session starts with a demo in the classroom, then heads out to a study site: gardens, parks, the museum, the plant conservatory, the herbarium, nurseries, and wild places around Providence. There you'll capture plants, fungi, lichens, mosses, insects, soil, and terrain, from tiny macro details to whole landscapes, using macro photography, focus stacking, photogrammetry, 3D scanning, and video. Back in the studio, you'll use machine vision and AI coding tools to build systems that sort, tag, combine, and transform your captures into new work. Documentation becomes both a way of studying the living world and an art form in its own right. We'll look at historical and contemporary artists working with nature and ecology, and the semester builds through weekly capture exercises and group critiques to a site-derived body of work in a final form of your choosing.

This course is open to all students. Much of the class takes place off campus and outdoors, with travel between sites. Students with access needs are encouraged to contact the instructor. Students will need a laptop and will check out equipment from CTC.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Elective

Our eyes are nearly always drawn towards something moving over something inert. What innovative strategies can be employed to incorporate video, sculpture, and physical space into a single work, without one medium dominating the other? How can an artist resolve the fundamental differences between two-dimensional moving images and three-dimensional objects or space? This intensive studio elective will explore methods and issues of assimilating video, photography, sound, performance, objects, and space through studying and constructing multimedia sculpture and installations. Throughout the semester we will be presented with assignments that examine these different possibilities from multiple perspectives, including studio projects that deploy video in a sculptural context, and sculpture that is only activated through a video work. We will study the recent history of artists and designers who engage multimedia techniques and experiment with new formats and technologies. Students will learn the basics of DSLR camera technique, digital video editing, audio production, audio/video display technology, and installation techniques. Students in the course should have an understanding of sculptural materials and fabrication techniques, and should be ready to experiment with the fundamental structure of the presentation of media.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

Elective

While introducing students to the principal concepts of structural design and mechanical systems, the course will attempt to provide a direct link to the built environment with focus on the rehabilitation, preservation and adaptive reuse of existing structures, both historical and contemporary. The presentation of case studies, focus on the structural and mechanical aspects of students' individual studio projects and the excursion to a construction site will bridge the gap between class room and the world of building.

Major Requirement | BFA Interior Studies

In this studio, first-year graduates begin to recognize and develop personal areas of interest. Direction is given to bring structure to the exploration of various processes, materials, concepts, and formats. Weekly individual meetings focus on student's progress and response to assignments, as well as independent research.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Jewelry + Metalsmithing Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

In this collaborative studio between furniture design and architecture, students will create furnishings that respond to and engage with the body of work of a significant architectural practice. Students will study the history, cultural influence, and works of a creative practice that encompasses both architecture and furniture. Upon completion of a coordinated field trip to visit the built work of the selected practice, a regional building will be selected as the architectural context for students to respond to. Although the emphasis of the class will be on designing and making furniture, it will operate as an interdisciplinary collaboration between furniture design and architecture students, with each discipline contributing its distinct expertise, skills, techniques, and knowledge. The studio is offered in partnership with Form Portfolios, a local design business that works with the estates of renowned designers to steward their legacies. Representatives from Form Portfolios will contribute their knowledge and expertise in the selected practices and the design industry more generally to support the development of student projects.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16O-yKq_vjwfiPuPCrJhXfykpiuflUQE5/view?usp=sharing to access the syllabus

Elective

The artifacts of Japanese material culture, ranging in scale from ephemeral objects to monuments, will be considered for an interrogation into what it means for design to be a cultural product. We will travel to Kyoto, the historic cultural center and imperial capital of Japan for over a thousand years. Kyoto remains a premier hub for traditional Japanese culture, arts, and crafts. We will experience the wholistic art form of Japanese tea culture that blends architecture, calligraphy, painting, ceramics, textiles, lacquerware, metalwork, and woodwork. In Tokyo, we will visit design innovators and discuss the remarkable transnational influence of contemporary Japanese material culture.

Registration is not available in Workday. All students are required to remain in good academic standing in order to participate in the Wintersession travel course/studio. A minimum GPA of 2.50 is required. Failure to remain in good academic standing can lead to removal from the course, either before or during the course. Also in cases where Wintersession travel courses and studios do not reach student capacity, the course may be cancelled after the last day of Wintersession travel course registration. As such, all students are advised not to purchase flights for participation in Wintersession travel courses until the course is confirmed to run, which happens within the week after the final Wintersession travel course registration period.

Photography plays an important role in the field of graphic design -- within publications, posters, electronic media, etc. Because of the camera's availability and fairly inexpensive cost, photography has become one of the most popular hobbies in the world. Although he/she is in possession of such a device, the average person is not entirely aware of certain image manipulations and other concepts used by the graphic designer. This four-week workshop introduces designers to the lighting studio and the many uses of the camera in creating design artifacts.

Elective