This class is an introduction to the fundamentals of photography. The emphasis is on how to make a better picture and how to understand and talk about photographs more coherently. The workflow will be digital.

Technical matters will be thoroughly taught. How to use your camera for those with no photography experience (or how to use it more deeply for those who already have some experience). How to understand the digital workflow, such things as the available camera settings and basics of post production (Photoshop and InDesign, in particular). We will even have one darkroom class, where students can see how old school/analog photography works. Also, we will look at the history of photography from 1839 (and before) until now.

Assignments will include three projects, where students will produce specific bodies of work. Also included will be presentations by each student on photographers they are particularly impressed/influenced by.

Required: Access to a digital camera with raw capability, as well as a 1TB (min) portable hard drive.

Elective

This course is an ongoing discussion of individual work with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art. Each student will be required to show and discuss work. Grades by participation.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Photography Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

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 course is an ongoing discussion of individual work with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art. Each student will be required to show and discuss work. Grades by participation.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Photography Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

This course is an ongoing discussion of individual work with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art. Each student will be required to show and discuss work. Grades by participation.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Photography Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

This six-credit course is designed to provide the necessary production time for the realization of the Degree Project, culminating in a well-organized and installed public exhibition of a project or body of work in the department's Red Eye Gallery. The Degree Project must be approved by photography faculty and accompanied by a written Degree Project Thesis. Attendance at all departmental visiting artist lectures is required.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

In this continuation of the graduate thesis sequence, students complete the research and writing outlined in their approved thesis proposal. Under faculty supervision, they analyze findings, draft and revise chapters, and prepare the final thesis for submission and defense.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

This period is dedicated to the development and presentation of a body of work supported by a written thesis in consultation with the student's Thesis Committee. The final exhibition and written thesis will be evaluated by the Thesis Committee which will submit a final grade to the Graduate Coordinator.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

The Graduate Seminar works in complement with Graduate Critique 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 recommended.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Photography Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Photography

Expanding on the fundamentals of Intaglio, this course will explore the Mezzotint technique that was developed in the mid- seventeenth century. This technique is unique because it achieves tonality by roughening a metal plate with thousands of little dots made by a metal tool with small teeth, called a "rocker". The plate will print with a strong and even velvety black. At this point, the burs created by the rocker are then scraped and burnished away to create arrange of tonality. Students will learn how to rock a plate, develop their drawings, transfer their designs on a copper plate, use a rocker, sharpen a rocker and printing methods. Mixed Media etching methods with mezzotint images will be explored as additional mark making possibilities and color layering. Emphasis will be placed on sound technical execution, image making, and the development of students’ personal artistic language.  Technical demonstrations, individual and group critiques will be used throughout the semester to encourage students’ artistic practice. Let’s “Rock” and “Roll”!

Estimated Cost of Materials: $120.00

Elective

Expanding on the fundamentals of Intaglio, this course will explore the Mezzotint technique that was developed in the mid- seventeenth century. This technique is unique because it achieves tonality by roughening a metal plate with thousands of little dots made by a metal tool with small teeth, called a "rocker". The plate will print with a strong and even velvety black. At this point, the burs created by the rocker are then scraped and burnished away to create arrange of tonality. Students will learn how to rock a plate, develop their drawings, transfer their designs on a copper plate, use a rocker, sharpen a rocker and printing methods. Mixed Media etching methods with mezzotint images will be explored as additional mark making possibilities and color layering. Emphasis will be placed on sound technical execution, image making, and the development of students’ personal artistic language.  Technical demonstrations, individual and group critiques will be used throughout the semester to encourage students’ artistic practice. Let’s “Rock” and “Roll”!

Estimated Cost of Materials: $120.00

Elective

This course explores queerness as material, method, and lens for making art. Together, we will look at how queer printed media and art movements have challenged dominant traditions, positioning queerness as a source of resistance, joy, community, and transformation. Students will experiment with techniques and methods such as papier-mâché, Screen Printing, Riso Graphs/Zine making and temporary tattoos, engaging them through queer theory and lived experience. Making becomes a way to ask: how does queerness take shape in our lives and practices?

Readings will include José Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia, and Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology. We will also study artists such as Allyson Mitchell, Deirdre Logue, Jim Hodges, Juliana Huxtable, and Jesse Harrod, along with films like Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and Grey Gardens. Students are encouraged to take risks, embrace failure, and push the boundaries of printed media and performance. Projects will include individual works as well as collaborative sculptures, zines and performances, drawing inspiration from the collective nature of a print studio as a metaphor for queer collectivity.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

Ceramics and printmaking have a shared ethos in the production of multiples and process-driven technical methods. This is reflected in industry but is not often explored in an academic context. This course would be the first at RISD to explore the rich resources of the Ceramics and Printmaking Departments to promote research into innovative ways to combine the disciplines. For almost three centuries ceramics have been enhanced by printed elements. The combination of ceramic and print technologies have tremendous potential for new applications in functional and sculptural approaches to ceramic multiples and printed editions. RISD has all the facilities in ceramics and printmaking required to pursue research in this field. Students will learn ceramic techniques such as hand-building and slip casting to create forms to hold screen printed, intaglio, relief, and digital images. Historical techniques will be presented and new methods and combinations will be developed.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Elective

The Sculptural Print looks to the multiple as a material (rather than a form) for the construction of one-of-a-kind works. The primary technical focuses will be in photo-emulsion based screenprinting, polymer-plate etching/intaglio, and basic relief printing. Students will be asked to design unique image vocabularies, transform and translate them to various matrices, and then to alter, manipulate, reimagine, and finally to build structural pieces using the printed matter. In the first half of the term, class sessions will begin with a presentation of artist precedents and technical demonstrations. In the second half, classes will still begin with a short presentation, and will then focus largely on in-progress critique and technical troubleshooting/consultation. Works completed for midterm will be based on provided prompts with detailed parameters and require students to work in series and at a large-scale. The final will be fully self-directed.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $125.00

Please contact the instructor for permission to register. Preference is given to Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

Intaglio: Alternative Practices builds bridges from experience in the medium of intaglio by presenting advanced and innovative platemaking and printing processes using copper, plexiglass, and polymer plate types. Coursework will cover topics such as: custom stop-outs, extended etches, ink interfacing, toner transfers, and extensions into the digital realm utilizing the Benson Hall “Tech Lab” resources. Demonstrations and assignments will focus on the virtues of plating material, not solely as printable matrices, or carriers of transferrable visual information, but also as finished objects. The semester will be driven by demonstration, guided in-class work, independent work focused on experimentation, and conversation geared toward alternatives to substrate (paper), matrix (copper, polymer, plexi), and medium (ink). The semester will culminate in a self-directed final project that requires students to generate a grouping of works that successfully combine a selection of the processes covered which includes a substantial set of proofs, studies, plating tests, and pertinent supplementary visual/technical research.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $125.00

Elective

Pattern and print have been closely linked since the development of printing techniques in East Asia in the 600s. Since then, printed patterns have enriched pictorial art, textiles and wallcoverings - any surface that can take a print. All printmaking methods have been used to create patterns, from the earliest woodblocks to digital printing today.

 This course explores a handmade approach to pattern through drafting on graph paper, working with gouache, carving wood blocks in relief and printing with distemper paints. Emphasis will be placed on developing structures that exploit the fixed size of a block to make patterns that are satisfying when spread over a large area. The potential of the carved and printed mark and impact of layering with a small number of colors will be explored in individual and group projects. Students with prior printmaking experience will be free to execute designs in a range of media such as screenprint, intaglio and letterpress.

The hands-on approach will provide a foundation for exploration of design and printing methods introduced in the second half of the course. Students will work through a series of self-directed projects and apply appropriate computer programs as needed.

 A final portfolio/collection of patterns will employ and potentially combine techniques and methods learned in class. Readings about the history and theory of pattern design will be presented throughout the class and RISD Museum and Fleet Library collections will be consulted for historical background and inspiration.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $120.00

Elective

Performance and printmaking share qualities that can generate innovative and hybrid artistic forms, despite their seemingly unrelated disciplines. This intersection is increasingly seen in contemporary artistic practice but is not often explored in an academic context. This course will focus on the bridges and dynamic potential between theatrical performance, performance art, animation, and printmaking. Throughout the semester, students will learn conceptual and technical aspects of prints and printmaking that relate to and inform multimedia works, ranging from seriality, layering, and duration, to imprinting, documentation, and artifact. 

Students will be introduced to the relationship between prints, theater, and performance in the early- to late-20th century, and will examine recent works that define and explore critical issues of our time. Using RISD’s vast printmaking facilities, and equipment and materials for animation, sound, and performance, students will develop their own methods and combinations using topics such as the body, motion, and time.  

Course format will include lectures, readings, discussion groups, and visits to the RISD Museum’s collection. Students will develop three individual or collaborative studio projects in response to prompts, as well as a self-directed final assignment. Individual and group critiques will help sharpen students’ ideas, skills, and knowledge of prints.

Artists discussed during this course will include, but not be limited to, Marina Abramović, John Cage, David Hammons, William Kentridge, Kakyoung Lee, Poli Marichal, Jason Moran, Bruce Nauman, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Audra Wolowiec, and Yukinori Yanagi.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Elective

Technical fundamentals related to each of the basic intaglio processes will be demonstrated throughout the semester. Traditional and contemporary intaglio applications will also be presented and experimentation will be encouraged. A series of monotypes, small editions in each process and a larger technical combination plate will comprise the final portfolio assignment. Imagery, concept and content will represent a primary course element as technical facility is mastered. Individual critiques will be the standard throughout and two group critiques at the midpoint and end of the semester will also be scheduled. This course is not available to Sophomore Printmaking Students.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Major Requirement | BFA Printmaking

This course offers basic black and white lithographic technical applications on lithostone and lithoplate to those students who are at the beginning level. Contemporary techniques, and technical short-cuts will elaborate on traditional processing. Experimentation is encouraged throughout the semester while emphasis is placed on the development of personally innovative imagery and concept. Informal group and individual critiques are conducted in conjunction with group mid-semester and final critiques. A professionally portfolio of assigned prints is due at the end of the course. This course may be repeated for credit.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Major Requirement | BFA Printmaking

Students will stretch their own screens and will be introduced to a wide range of stencil techniques (cut film, paper stencil, crayon and glue, tusche and glue, and photo). Students are urged to experiment with stencil and printing techniques to produce a portfolio of editioned prints.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $175.00

Major Requirement | BFA Printmaking