History is a powerful tool; a basic understanding of the history of design and familiarity with important design movements and designers is essential for thorough design work. By examining the work of other designers, we are better able to identify our own interests and concerns, and avoid repeating mistakes that have been navigated in the past. This lecture-based class will present the history of Industrial Design in a way that links it to today's studio work, and offers connection points to link past innovation and design activity with future design success. The lectures present a chronological overview of the profession of Industrial Design and its antecedents. Topics discussed will include major design movements, significant designers, manufacturers, and design-related companies, innovations in technology and material use, the development of sales, marketing, and user-focused designing, and the history of design process. Coursework includes extensive reading, in-class presentations based on independent research, projects, and writing.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Sophomore Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Part II of a two-semester course that will survey major topics in the Histories of Photography. Emphasis will be given to the diverse cultural uses of photography from its invention to the present day. Such uses include: the illustrated press; amateur photography; studio photography; industrial; advertising, and fashion photography; political and social propaganda; educational and documentary photography; and photography as a medium of artistic expression. Much attention will be paid to how photographs construct histories, as well as being constructed by them.

Preference given to Sophomore Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

The first course of the History + Theory track will offer an introduction to a select range of ideas, practices and systems of landscape. The seminar will begin with discussions on theory and history, their types and uses, and examine the different, and often conflicting, definitions of landscape that have emerged from within and without the field of landscape architecture. As we explore the relationship between nature and culture, we will consider the relationship of history and theory to the contexts in which they are generated, while at the same time examining their relationship to praxis. While focusing on issues that are core to a critical understanding of the discipline, this course will also begin to expand the study of landscapes beyond historical Western-centric cannons, with an explicit attempt to decolonize the ways in which we know and practice in landscape architecture. 
 
The course will examine readings taken from diverse sources that have informed landscape architecture – philosophy, geography, architecture, art history, ecology – as well as sources that have emerged from practitioners of the comparatively young discipline. The readings are grouped by themes that relate and distinguish landscape architecture from its allied fields and reflect the discourse that has influenced the character and objectives of the discipline today. 

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

Major Requirement | MLA-I Landscape Architecture

Be part of a unique ensemble of students as we work through a workshop process of producing an original or adapted work for the stage. Together the ensemble will devise, create, design, produce, and perform this production, culminating in two live public performances of our work. Students in this course will be asked to: rehearse and perform assigned roles; assist in graphic, projection, scenic, and property/costume design; and aid in stage management. Everyone is responsible for stage and backstage work and to commit to a flexible rehearsal schedule outside of class meetings. Students will also be expected to study the performance techniques, dramaturgical elements, and production requirements of the theatre as it relates to the work produced. Come ready to collaborate and make something great! Waiting list is curated by the instructor. 

Elective

This course serves as an introductory exploration into enduring legacies, cultural evolution, and critical analysis of the moving image, encompassing film, animation, and video. With an emphasis on interrogating prevailing forces, structures, and terminology historically associated with these forms, the course aims to question and deconstruct prevailing modes of thinking and making in the medium. It also fosters a space for new perspectives, counter-histories, narratives, and abstractions to emerge in the context of cinema, the moving image, and time-based media.

The course does not merely focus on formal aspects; instead, it delves into a comprehensive examination, analysis, and questioning of how the formal elements and conventions in film actively shape both the functionality of the films themselves and the themes they depict. Questions before each screening prompt active viewing and discussion.

With a significant emphasis on the intersections between cinema and contemporary art practices, we will screen films representing different styles and periods of filmmaking, video art, and animation. Students will develop a shared language by learning the meaning and appropriate usage of common film terms, as well as considering the histories and values that gave rise to them.

Through screenings, lectures, visiting artist presentations, discussions, readings, and assignments, students will expand and deepen their understanding of 'cinema' and the moving image, develop conceptual tools for analyzing time-based imagery and sound, and begin to create direct links between film history and analysis and their studio practices.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

This course explores the tangled histories, patchworked mythologies, and the global intersections and connections of textiles through the lens of INDIGO dyeing practices around the world.The textile histories covered will spiral through the centuries to the present day, and, through individual place-based case studies, will consider the narratives of identity, labor, and process they express well beyond their regionality. Rethinking the “History of” survey model, we will investigate how deep research leads to holistic perspectives as we uncover global networks of knowledge-sharing embedded within specific “regional” textile crafts.

These narratives will unfold from objects selected from the collections of the RISD Museum that will be made available for consideration and study at close range as part of every class session. The firsthand experiences will be guided and enriched by guest lectures and workshops by visiting scholars and artists whose work centers on the particular histories examined, as well as potential field trips. Through active engagement with tangible objects and exposure to a plurality of voices, students in the course not only will gain an embodied understanding of the global interconnections of textile histories, but also will find space for moving through and beyond colonial inheritances.

Textiles Students can be pre-registered by the department.

Elective

Practitioners in the Environmental Humanities (EH) engage in disciplinary and cross-disciplinary research in the humanities to think about representation, meaning, value, ethics, and power in relation to environmental questions, issues, and crises. EH offers a capacious umbrella under which to gather inquiry in anthropology, art and design, critical animal studies, cultural studies, film studies, history, literary studies, philosophy, and visual studies, among other disciplines, methodologies, and modes. In this course, Environmental Humanities Research Seminar, students will engage in independent, liberal arts-based research in the environmental humanities in order to contextualize, extend, and/or refine an existing project or to develop a new project. The work under development could be either a liberal-arts based project or a studio-based project that would be deepened through liberal-arts based research. In addition to deep curiosity about one's subject matter, receptivity to the messiness of the research process, and a willingness to support other classmates in their research, this class requires excellent time management skills. Assignments will include: an annotated bibliography, reflective writing, a final paper, and a final presentation.

Elective

Interdisciplinary by their very nature, textile traditions share a global history. Around the world textiles have found place in cultures as signifiers of social identity, from the utilitarian to the sacred, as objects of ritual meaning and as objects of great tangible wealth. The evolution of textile motifs, designs, materials and technology from around the globe will be explored in classroom lecture and utilizing the RISD Museum of Art. We will examine such topics as: the function of textiles in the survival of traditional cultures, the impact of historic trade routes and ensuing colonialism, industrialization and its subsequent effect on traditional techniques of textile manufacture. Thoughtful and scholarly consideration will be given to recent incidents of cultural appropriation in the global textile and fashion industry. Term projects utilizing the material culture approach will afford students the opportunity to gain valuable research skills and explore in-depth specific textile techniques.

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.

Textiles majors can be pre-registered by the department.

Elective

Interdisciplinary by their very nature, textile traditions share a global history. Around the world textiles have found place in cultures as signifiers of social identity, from the utilitarian to the sacred, as objects of ritual meaning and as objects of great tangible wealth. The evolution of textile motifs, designs, materials and technology from around the globe will be explored in classroom lecture and utilizing the RISD Museum of Art. We will examine such topics as: the function of textiles in the survival of traditional cultures, the impact of historic trade routes and ensuing colonialism, industrialization and its subsequent effect on traditional techniques of textile manufacture. Thoughtful and scholarly consideration will be given to recent incidents of cultural appropriation in the global textile and fashion industry. Term projects utilizing the material culture approach will afford students the opportunity to gain valuable research skills and explore in-depth specific textile techniques.

Elective

Did you know that the red signals of traffic lights are inspired by the warning colors found in red species in nature? Nature is rich with messages conveyed through visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and even chemical signals; yet humans often overlook them. This interdisciplinary course invites art and design students to explore how understanding these natural messages can inspire more regenerative creative practices.

Through discussions, readings, and observational experiments, we will investigate the evolution of communication and ecological interactions in nature and their influence on art and design. Hands-on activities at the Nature Lab and in natural environments around Providence will provide opportunities to engage directly with the world’s inherent systems of communication. Students will also explore how cultural ecological perspectives shape interpretations of nature’s signals and synthesize their learning into a final visual and written project.

This course encourages curiosity and openness to observing and interpreting nature’s messages, fostering creative practices rooted in sustainability, cultural understanding, and scientific principles. No prior science background is required. Whether you’re sketching patterns, designing systems, or crafting narratives, this course will help you bridge the gap between art, design, and the natural world.

Elective

This co-requisite interdisciplinary course qualifies for both Liberal Arts Elective credit (LAEL) and either Non-major Studio Elective credit (NMSE) or Printmaking credit, brings together Black literary and print traditions to inform our understanding of American civil society and, more broadly, democracy and its complex relationship to freedom as a cultural phenomenon. Throughout the course, we will examine a number of central questions:  What is the relationship between concepts of political power and the black archive as a blueprint for liberatory praxis? How can we use ideas of liberation found in black letters to narrate through offset and letterpress print design? What is Rhode Island’s role in these histories and stories of resistance?

Rooted in our local histories of Black resistance and offset and letterpress print craft, the first half of this course will use a lecture and group discussion format to examine the importance of the liberatory imagination in primary source documentation. A core objective is to clarify the silences surrounding oppressive ideology and its promotion of racially repressive phenomena through print culture and political counterframes.

Note: This is a co-requisite course for Juniors, Seniors, Fifth-year and Graduate Students. Enrollment includes both LAEL 3150 and PRINT 3250. Students will receive 3 studio (open studio elective, if applicable to the student's degree program), OR non-major studio elective credits AND 3 liberal arts elective credits (6 credits total).

This course is not available for registration in Workday. To register, please email the Registrar's Office at registrar@risd.edu. Registration will close once the course reaches capacity.

Elective

Why does film seem obsessed with the figure of the artist? How are art histories told through such biopics? Why do such films have such popular effect? What do these representations have to do with longstanding myths about artistic production and artists? What is the cultural role of such tellings of "making"? And, most importantly, how do these films reproduce, or maybe subvert, the colonial, patriarchal, and racialist figurations of the artist that dominate Western culture still? What happens when film, history, myth, and art intersect? This course examines the intermediality of film, historical narrative and the arts through a selection of artist biopics from feature film and documentary. Centered around questions of the representation of artistic myths (of "genius" or "bohemian suffering," for example) in relation to the construction of popular art histories, this course will ask what happens when film attempts to "tell" the story of art, how audiences receive such stories, how cinema obsesses upon the relationship of film to other media, and how these constructions of artistic "culture" tend to subvert or reproduce gendered, classist, and neo-colonial assumptions of artists, artistic process, and history itself. Various theoretical approaches on the subject will also be studied, from Panofsky to Berger (Doris and John) to theorists of historical film and theorists of popular culture and the intersection between the visual and literary arts (visual cultural theorists like WJT Mitchell and Nicholas Mirzhoeff). We'll focus upon ten films in our journey through these questions, from three films about Van Gogh (Minelli, Schnabel, Kurasawa), to the 90s Hollywood productions like Pollock and Basquiat and documentary responses to them (Hans Namuth on Pollock) to the issue of gender in the genre of artistic biopic (Seraphine, Artemesia, Camille Claudel, Frida), to the "querying" of these lines in queer artist biopics like CARRAVAGGIO (Derek Jarman), to a final decolonizing analysis of films about Gauguin and Turner. Students will explore these questions through weekly short essays and a longer final essay (10-12 pages) that asks them to explore one film from outside the syllabus (from a list provided).

Offered as THAD-C708 and LAS-C708.

Elective

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year students are pre-registered for this course by the Liberal Arts Division.

Incoming Transfer students, along with continuing Sophomore, Junior, and Senior undergraduates, enroll in their designated section(s) through Workday.

Major Requirement | BFA

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year students are pre-registered for this course by the Liberal Arts Division.

Incoming Transfer students, along with continuing Sophomore, Junior, and Senior undergraduates, enroll in their designated section(s) through Workday.

Major Requirement | BFA

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year students are pre-registered for this course by the Liberal Arts Division.

Incoming Transfer students, along with continuing Sophomore, Junior, and Senior undergraduates, enroll in their designated section(s) through Workday.

Major Requirement | BFA

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year students are pre-registered for this course by the Liberal Arts Division.

Incoming Transfer students, along with continuing Sophomore, Junior, and Senior undergraduates, enroll in their designated section(s) through Workday.

Major Requirement | BFA

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year students are pre-registered for this course by the Liberal Arts Division.

Incoming Transfer students, along with continuing Sophomore, Junior, and Senior undergraduates, enroll in their designated section(s) through Workday.

Major Requirement | BFA

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year students are pre-registered for this course by the Liberal Arts Division.

Incoming Transfer students, along with continuing Sophomore, Junior, and Senior undergraduates, enroll in their designated section(s) through Workday.

Major Requirement | BFA

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year students are pre-registered for this course by the Liberal Arts Division.

Incoming Transfer students, along with continuing Sophomore, Junior, and Senior undergraduates, enroll in their designated section(s) through Workday.

Major Requirement | BFA

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year students are pre-registered for this course by the Liberal Arts Division.

Incoming Transfer students, along with continuing Sophomore, Junior, and Senior undergraduates, enroll in their designated section(s) through Workday.

Major Requirement | BFA