This course is structured according the notion that artists can use what is on hand to research and craft simple solutions to the complex physical, mechanical, and technical problems that must be routinely addressed in their making practices. This material and process based, hands-on, research studio will be structured in response to the issues that the advanced fine arts student is grappling with on a regular basis. Many of the issues that arise in the process of making provide the opportunity to transcend perceived material-based boundaries and thinking. Some of the questions this course attends to include: How do you defy gravity? How do you generate the hidden components required to physicalize the thing we can see in our mind's eye? How is the magic we need to create our work scalable to the resources we have readily available? Example working processes include: mig welding, tig welding, casting for prototyping, woodworking, and mold making. This course is open to juniors, seniors and graduate-level students. Please contact the instructor directly for permission to register.

Elective

The prevalence and rapid evolution of digital fabrication technology is due in large part to open source communities of users who actively develop and contribute to new software, hardware, and publishing platforms. In this hands-on studio we will explore both the history and potential of the open source movement as it relates to art, design, and its production. Specifically, we will build upon, modify, hack, and create new open source tools, workflows, and platforms that aid in the production of original artworks. The semester will begin with a series of projects in which students gain familiarity with the norms and practices of open source collaboration, development, and publishing. From there, students will have the opportunity to devise and use an example of open hardware in the creation of an original body of work. Topics include: bootstrapping, hacking, intellectual property, licensure and attribution, speculative fiction, Cyberpunk aesthetics, Afrofuturism, Shanzhai, additive and subtractive fabrication, physical computing, motion control systems, experimental materials, digital distribution, and dissemination.

Elective

Building on technologies covered in Digital Design and Fabrication, this studio will explore relationships between digital fabrication, traditional sculptural and craft processes. Students will research and develop approaches to making that blend emerging fabrication technologies with traditional sculptural techniques including woodworking, metalworking, and casting. Students will leverage existing skillsets and departmental resources to both augment and invent methods of fabrication that complement their research and studio interests. The course will explore intermediate / advanced 3d modeling, 3d capture, robotics, and additive/subtractive fabrication techniques using both departmental and campus resources.

Through weekly slide presentations, readings and class discussions, students will be introduced to a broad range of artistic approaches, practices and communities merging technology and craft. Rhino 3D will be used as the primary CAD tool and students will need to provide their own laptop with Rhino installed.

The semester will be divided into a series of skill-building exercises, each blending digital tools with ‘traditional’ craft processes, and will culminate in a final project incorporating Digital Craft into an existing project and/or research interest. We will be utilizing the Sculpture department’s digital resources (Collaborative Robot, CNC Router, 3D Scanner, 3D Printers) in combination with woodworking, casting and metalworking* facilities.

This course, although technical in nature, is not technical in spirit. Our goal is not the mastery of any one software application or fabrication technology, but instead to gain an understanding of how to effectively leverage digital processes and tools in one’s studio. Success in this course requires resourcefulness, openness, and a willingness to collaborate. Depending on your existing skill set, it may be at times necessary to augment in-class demonstrations, with self-directed research and learning.

Prerequisite: Digital Design and Fabrication, Open Hardware, or equivalent experience with CAD / digital fabrication / physical computing.

Elective

What is the meaning of contemporary? What is the meaning of critique? What are models for sustainable and ethical artistic practice? What is the role of the artist in contemporary culture? These are but a few of the frameworks we will use to explore an array of new tools for thinking, feeling, perceiving, and analyzing the textures of our inter-subjective environment. Together, we will address the challenges implicit in the willful consideration of what exists beyond what we think we know; beyond what we have been told is true about our chosen field as artists. We take up this exploration through a selection of readings, films, lectures and class discussions. Some of the discourses we engage include the relationship between politics and aesthetics, critical race theory, myriad feminist theories, theories of institutional critique, and methods of radical practice in contemporary art.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | MFA Sculpture

Advanced Critical Issues Seminar 2 introduces a rigorous theoretical framework for thinking and writing about contemporary sculpture practice. Each seminar develops from a specific theme drawing on research from Grad Critical Issues 1, current debates in the field and contemporary events. Past seminars include: Artificial Natures, Precarious Relations, Frankenstein and Crime, Vanishing Points, as examples. Trespassing across sculpture, performance, cinema, fiction, feminist, queer, race and political theory and back again, we will address writings by Walter Benjamin, Lauren Berlant, Judith Butler, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Maggie Nelson, Claudia Rankine, Jacques Rancire (as examples) in conversation with contemporary artists writings and projects to cultivate a conceptual grammar to extend to our studio practice. Approaching issues in contemporary sculpture through these discursive perspectives generates new strategies simultaneously material, conceptual, and critical.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Sculpture

What theories and methods concerning political, historical, and artistic languages do artists rely on to inform their practices? How are you and members of your cohorts approaching aesthetic form in your own practice? What is the language being used in and around the work you are creating? How can we as a community create space to refine these messages within our work? What role does the method of critique play in this collective investigation? 

Graduate Sculpture Critique is a discussion-based, collaborative critique seminar that makes space for multiple voices and ways of being in community; foregrounding and supporting the burgeoning artistic practices represented in the grad cohorts. This course centers community building, supplemental reading, group and peer-to-peer critique, and other dialectical methods that foster an intellectual and artistic intimacy among cohort mates. Here we build a foundation that supports risk-taking, question-asking, and the reimagining of predetermined boundaries. Students are asked with great intention to expand the discussion around intersectionality, interstitially, and interdisciplinarity and how the space between things comes to bear on the method of critique.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Sculpture

Graduate Sculpture Critique II/IV builds upon topics discussed in the previous semesters during graduate critique I/III. It continues its form as a discussion-based, collaborative critique seminar that makes space for multiple voices and ways of being in community; foregrounding and supporting the burgeoning artistic practices represented in and across the grad cohorts. This course builds upon the intellectual and artistic intimacy among cohort mates and between cohorts established in the first semester of each year. The risk-taking, question-asking, and reimagining of predetermined boundaries in the second semesters yields new critique and research methodologies that in the case of first year grads supports the lead up to their summer studio intensive or residencies. In the case of second year grads, this semester of intensive critiques supports their capstone thesis presentation and the group critiques and final thesis committee meetings that characterize the end of their work at RISD. As a practice in need of continual commitment, students are asked with great intention to continue to expand the discussion around intersectionality, interstitially, and interdisciplinarity and how the space between things comes to bear on the method of critique.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Sculpture

What theories and methods concerning political, historical, and artistic languages do artists rely on to inform their practices? How are you and members of your cohorts approaching aesthetic form in your own practice? What is the language being used in and around the work you are creating? How can we as a community create space to refine these messages within our work? What role does the method of critique play in this collective investigation? 

Graduate Sculpture Critique is a discussion-based, collaborative critique seminar that makes space for multiple voices and ways of being in community; foregrounding and supporting the burgeoning artistic practices represented in the grad cohorts. This course centers community building, supplemental reading, group and peer-to-peer critique, and other dialectical methods that foster an intellectual and artistic intimacy among cohort mates. Here we build a foundation that supports risk-taking, question-asking, and the reimagining of predetermined boundaries. Students are asked with great intention to expand the discussion around intersectionality, interstitially, and interdisciplinarity and how the space between things comes to bear on the method of critique.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Sculpture

Graduate Sculpture Critique II/IV builds upon topics discussed in the previous semesters during graduate critique I/III. It continues its form as a discussion-based, collaborative critique seminar that makes space for multiple voices and ways of being in community; foregrounding and supporting the burgeoning artistic practices represented in and across the grad cohorts. This course builds upon the intellectual and artistic intimacy among cohort mates and between cohorts established in the first semester of each year. The risk-taking, question-asking, and reimagining of predetermined boundaries in the second semesters yields new critique and research methodologies that in the case of first year grads supports the lead up to their summer studio intensive or residencies. In the case of second year grads, this semester of intensive critiques supports their capstone thesis presentation and the group critiques and final thesis committee meetings that characterize the end of their work at RISD. As a practice in need of continual commitment, students are asked with great intention to continue to expand the discussion around intersectionality, interstitially, and interdisciplinarity and how the space between things comes to bear on the method of critique.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Sculpture

Building upon the independent work accomplished in Junior studio, students are expected to generate self directed work supported by in-process critiques, formal critiques, and individual meetings. Faculty and peer feedback will help students clarify their objectives, fine tune their technical abilities, and develop a strong working practice. Students are expected to hone their creative problem-solving skills and engage in a high level of dialog and work. Throughout the fall, students will practice integrating their source research into their studio practice. An increased and rigorous integration of contemporary art, critical theory, and criticism is expected. The visiting artist lecture series is a vital component of this course.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Senior Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

Building upon the independent work accomplished in Junior studio, students are expected to generate self directed work supported by in-process critiques, formal critiques, and individual meetings. Faculty and peer feedback will help students clarify their objectives, fine tune their technical abilities, and develop a strong working practice. Students are expected to hone their creative problem-solving skills and engage in a high level of dialog and work. Throughout the fall, students will practice integrating their source research into their studio practice. An increased and rigorous integration of contemporary art, critical theory, and criticism is expected. The visiting artist lecture series is a vital component of this course.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Senior Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

Students in the MFA program pursue individual work under advisement of resident faculty, visiting artists and critics. This tutorial experience has been organized to nurture student work toward a set of goals and outcomes through routine conversations with faculty and their cohort. The priority is to assist students with recognizing new objectives in their practice.  Faculty work with students to develop new or hone existing skills to set priorities and meet  goals and deadlines. At the MFA level students will experience a deeper sense of individualized mentorship.  While advising students on the material aspects of their work, faculty will simultaneously  guide students toward new conceptual, theoretical and or philosophical frameworks for their work. 

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

Major Requirement | MFA Sculpture

The Fall semester of Junior year represents a crucial pathway out of the sophomore experience and into independent, self-directed work in sculpture. Junior Sculpture Studio, together with Research Studio, is designed to support student’s individual interests and incorporate the multifaceted and highly personalized condition of artistic research with studio methodologies. The semester will consist of two major critique sessions, alongside various demos, assignments, artist talks, and work sessions that direct students’ conversation and growth within the studio. The work sessions will consist of artistic pursuits specific to individual practices, formal small and larger group critiques, and 1 on 1 and small group studio visits with faculty, teaching assistants and peers. The sculpture department’s visiting artist lecture series is a vital component of this course and allows insight into the practices and work of professional artists. Additionally, a curated selection of material, and personally collected archives, digital and physical as well as various forms of media will prompt deeper investigations into artist practice throughout the semester, exploring the very nature of how to explore, research, and investigate the world around you.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

The Fall semester of Junior year represents a crucial pathway out of the sophomore experience and into independent, self-directed work in sculpture. Junior Sculpture Studio, together with Research Studio, is designed to support student’s individual interests and incorporate the multifaceted and highly personalized condition of artistic research with studio methodologies. The semester will consist of two major critique sessions, alongside various demos, assignments, artist talks, and work sessions that direct students’ conversation and growth within the studio. The work sessions will consist of artistic pursuits specific to individual practices, formal small and larger group critiques, and 1 on 1 and small group studio visits with faculty, teaching assistants and peers. The sculpture department’s visiting artist lecture series is a vital component of this course and allows insight into the practices and work of professional artists. Additionally, a curated selection of material, and personally collected archives, digital and physical as well as various forms of media will prompt deeper investigations into artist practice throughout the semester, exploring the very nature of how to explore, research, and investigate the world around you.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

Students in the MFA program pursue individual work under advisement of resident faculty, visiting artists and critics. This tutorial experience has been organized to nurture student work toward a set of goals and outcomes through routine conversations with faculty and their cohort. The priority is to assist students with recognizing new objectives in their practice.  Faculty work with students to develop new or hone existing skills to set priorities and meet  goals and deadlines. At the MFA level students will experience a deeper sense of individualized mentorship.  While advising students on the material aspects of their work, faculty will simultaneously  guide students toward new conceptual, theoretical and or philosophical frameworks for their work.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Sculpture

This course is a continuation of the vital pathway into independent work in Sculpture. Thematically driven prompts will provide the scaffolding of three major work sessions that direct the conversation in the studio. These studio conversations will take the form of in-process critiques, formal group critiques, and scheduled individual meetings. Students may also expect intersecting projects with shorter timeframes when appropriate. The visiting artist lecture series is a vital component of this course.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

This course is a continuation of the vital pathway into independent work in Sculpture. Thematically driven prompts will provide the scaffolding of three major work sessions that direct the conversation in the studio. These studio conversations will take the form of in-process critiques, formal group critiques, and scheduled individual meetings. Students may also expect intersecting projects with shorter timeframes when appropriate. The visiting artist lecture series is a vital component of this course.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

Students in the MFA program pursue individual work under advisement of resident faculty, visiting artists and critics. This tutorial experience has been organized to nurture student work toward a set of goals and outcomes through routine conversations with faculty and their cohort. The priority is to assist students with recognizing new objectives in their practice.  Faculty work with students to develop new or hone existing skills to set priorities and meet  goals and deadlines. At the MFA level students will experience a deeper sense of individualized mentorship.  While advising students on the material aspects of their work, faculty will simultaneously  guide students toward new conceptual, theoretical and or philosophical frameworks for their work.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Sculpture

This beginning sculpture studio encounter is organized to train students to workshop their ideas and concepts with the basic materials and processes of the sculpture studio. In this department we teach visual vocabulary on the basic principle of, Thinking while making and making while thinking. The assignments in the Fall Sophomore studio parallels the exercises in technical skills taught in Wood and Metal Shop Practice I. Students will begin working in sculpture specific metal fabrication methods. Students may expect to gain proficiency in gas, TIG and MIG welding techniques, along with hot and cold forming methods. The second half of the fall semester is focused on sculpture specific wood fabrication methods. Students will acquire skills in methods of cutting and joining alongside methods of forming and lamination.

Estimated Cost of Materials: Students are required to purchase a substantial selection of tools.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

This beginning sculpture studio encounter is organized to train students to workshop their ideas and concepts with the basic materials and processes of the sculpture studio. In this department we teach visual vocabulary on the basic principle of, Thinking while making and making while thinking. The assignments in the Fall Sophomore studio parallels the exercises in technical skills taught in Wood and Metal Shop Practice I. Students will begin working in sculpture specific metal fabrication methods. Students may expect to gain proficiency in gas, TIG and MIG welding techniques, along with hot and cold forming methods. The second half of the fall semester is focused on sculpture specific wood fabrication methods. Students will acquire skills in methods of cutting and joining alongside methods of forming and lamination.

Estimated Cost of Materials: Students are required to purchase a substantial selection of tools.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture