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

Since it's creation over 100 years ago, landscape architecture has expanded beyond horticultural preoccupations to a discipline that engages natural, political and cultural systems to build ecological and social resilience. This professional practice seminar explores contemporary practices of landscape architecture through the exploration of six current trends in practice: operating, researching, engaging, constructing, programming, and sustaining. These topics are explored and discussed through student research initiatives, in-class lectures, readings, case study presentations from a wide range of practitioners, office visits, and site visits. The goal of the course is to expose students to the variety of ways to practice landscape architecture today. Students are encouraged to ask questions, bring their own experiences to class, and be open to new ideas and perspectives.

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

Since it's creation over 100 years ago, landscape architecture has expanded beyond horticultural preoccupations to a discipline that engages natural, political and cultural systems to build ecological and social resilience. This professional practice seminar explores contemporary practices of landscape architecture through the exploration of six current trends in practice: operating, researching, engaging, constructing, programming, and sustaining. These topics are explored and discussed through student research initiatives, in-class lectures, readings, case study presentations from a wide range of practitioners, office visits, and site visits. The goal of the course is to expose students to the variety of ways to practice landscape architecture today. Students are encouraged to ask questions, bring their own experiences to class, and be open to new ideas and perspectives.

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

Rivers are layered landscapes that reflect how different societies have related to the land, natural resources and to one another. Shifting values about stewardship, control, extraction, and restoration have become physically manifested in the landscape through the intentional and unintentional shaping of the river landscapes. In this interdisciplinary studio, students will be asked to consider the relationship between textiles and landscape architecture practices to address, reconcile and interpret the complex ecological and cultural histories of rivers. Weaving and other structural textile techniques will be explored as both a metaphor and a physical strategy to weave together the multiple cultural narratives of a river as well as consider how to support the diverse river ecologies and the unique experiential qualities of being at the water's edge. The Blackstone River will provide the geographical, cultural and ecological lens for the studio. Some of the overarching material, formal and performative questions we may ask in the studio are: How can fibers be used to stabilize the water's edge, direct flows and provide habitat for riparian plant and animal species? Can the woven materials become unglued from the ground plane to shape the human aesthetic experience of the water's edge? Can textiles be used to interpret or reveal the multiple stories, histories and layers of the landscape? How can basket weaving traditions inform the way we manage the landscape? How can woven materials be integrated with living plant material, mycelium, and soil? How can the density of a textile aggregate and disperse to respond to different site conditions or to shape the pattern of plant growth? How long should the materials persist? Could they be designed to degrade overtime? What is the relationship between traditional craft practices and digital fabrication or scripting? Can community groups be involved in the construction and installation of the textiles as a way of rebuilding a connection between people and place?

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday.

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

All Landscape Architecture graduate students at RISD are required to submit a Thesis Book that is the culmination of the work undertaken in the Advanced Design Research Studio (Thesis). The Thesis Book class is designed to support the written and graphic component of the Thesis Book. The course will provide resources to support the framing and reflection of the thesis work through writing. In addition, the graphic layout of the book will be used as a tool to help structure the inquiry into student's thesis topics.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

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

All Landscape Architecture graduate students at RISD are required to submit a Thesis Book that is the culmination of the work undertaken in the Advanced Design Research Studio (Thesis). The Thesis Book class is designed to support the written and graphic component of the Thesis Book. The course will provide resources to support the framing and reflection of the thesis work through writing. In addition, the graphic layout of the book will be used as a tool to help structure the inquiry into student's thesis topics.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

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

Landscape Architecture is a discipline that is defined by an environment that is constantly changing, and yet our tools for drawing and dimensioning landscape typically focus on elements that are static. This course will explore ways to engage the subtle and fleeting elements of nature that define our experience of being outside, through techniques for directly observing and visualizing how things change. This course will be a practical and conceptual exploration of time-based observation and both hand and digital drawing workflows. Students will be introduced to methods for observing motion and change using time lapse photo, video, and high-speed cameras, as well as techniques for extracting information from images using motion-interpretation software, grasshopper, and runway, and simple animation techniques using Adobe Premiere. 

Elective

Autumn Site works is a grounded, creative space for a more attentive and reciprocal relationship between people and local biodiversity. Our weekly classroom will be an outdoor test plot at RISD’s Tillinghast Farm, where we will listen to visiting speakers, tend to plants and soil with our hands, and draw our close attention to the many life forms, forces, and surprises in the landscape. Each student will have the creative freedom to design an experimental land-based practice, installation, or event within the plot. Our work will be respectful of diverse ethics, from climate resilience to symbiosis and beauty. However, our learning direction will be focused on topics like the labor of caring for a landscape rich with relationships, local material sourcing for habitat creation, and community stewardship building.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

Spring Site works is a grounded, creative space for a more attentive and reciprocal relationship between people and local biodiversity. Our weekly classroom will be an outdoor test plot at RISD’s Tillinghast Farm, where we will listen to visiting speakers, tend to plants and soil with our hands, and draw our close attention to the many life forms, forces, and surprises in the landscape. Each student will have the creative freedom to design an experimental land-based practice, installation, or event within the plot. Our work will be respectful of diverse ethics, from climate resilience to symbiosis and beauty. However, our learning direction will be focused on topics like the labor of caring for a landscape rich with relationships, local material sourcing for habitat creation, and community stewardship building.

Elective

It is estimated that since the early 1600’s, colonists and immigrants to the portion of North America known as the United States, had filled in half of all wetland habitat by the mid-1800’s, and had hunted wetland creating beavers nearly to extinction by the early 1900’s. The land bears witness to that legacy today. In this field-oriented seminar we will spend class time within these important and varied habitats, learning to see the legacy and agency beavers and plants have had in forming wetlands and supporting their biological diversity.

Wetlands are a broad habitat type that hold water on the land, hydrate soils, provide essential areas for wildlife, and support unique vegetative communities. However, the cultural legacy of viewing marshes and swamps as wasteland has, and continues, to result in the degradation and destruction of many freshwater wetlands. 

Through field immersion, students will learn to see the landscape for the evidence it holds of what wetland habitat once was. They will identify wetland plant species and become intimately familiar with the water and soil that support these plant species. Extensive reading will support field observations, lectures, and conversation. The policies that brought about wetland destruction as well as more recent protections, will be topics covered. We will also look at the science behind the ability of wetlands to store carbon and water with the potential of ameliorating on-going climate changes.

Final projects for this class will offer students an opportunity to explore how their studio work can inform others of the salient aspects of these watery worlds. 

Estimated Cost of Materials: $75.00

Elective

This seminar explores the parallels between designing and constructing the ground. It's focus is on landform - analyzing it as part of a larger natural system; understanding its inherent opportunities and limitations; altering it for human use & occupation; and building it with varying construction methodologies. The means for this exploration will primarily be through three-dimensional representations with two dimensional contour plans; however, diagrams, sketches, sections, and narratives will be necessary throughout the semester.

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

As the scope and objectives of the design disciplines expand and diversify, the ability to implement effective research methodologies has become increasingly critical to position designers to generate and validate new knowledge. This course will survey research methods relevant to the design disciplines that have emerged from the sciences, the social sciences and the arts with special focus on those utilized by landscape architects. Methods we will examine include case studies, descriptive strategies, classification schemes, interpretive strategies, evaluation and diagnosis, engaged action research, projective design and arts-based practices. Students will work individually and in teams to analyze and compare different research strategies, understand their procedures and sequences, the types of data required, projected outcomes, and value by examining a set of projects of diverse scales. Visiting lecturers will present research based design projects. The goal of the course is to provide students with a framework of research methodologies with which they can begin to build their own research based practices.

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 will challenge students to develop their unique visual language through a process-based exploration of painting. Through course activities, including demonstrations and presentations, students will embrace chance and failure as integral parts of their studio practice. Students will explore processes such as additive and reductive methods, intuitive mark making, and monotypes, among others. This approach will emphasize process as a method to investigate meaning, or content.

Students will leave this course with an extensive body of work including paintings, works on paper, monotypes, and writings. This includes the completion of ten smaller paintings of varying size that will be used to generate a final painting sized at least 36” x 48”. Through this body of work, students will engage with diverse historical methods of painting while also practicing their ability to discuss research and interest in a subject or idea.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $375.00

Elective

 Gardens, symbolic realms of pleasure and contemplation, serve as the focal point of this hybrid studio and seminar course. As winter arrives in Providence, we will immerse ourselves in the leafy landscapes of South Asia, seeking respite and inspiration. Our exploration will span centuries, examining garden and landscape paintings by South Asian artists from the 1500s to the present day. Works by miniaturist Mansur, Arpita Singh, Mithu Sen, T Venkanna, Sosa Joseph and Sagarika Sundaram will be studied alongside paintings by Hieronymous  Bosch, Henri Rousseau, Georgia O’Keefe, and others. 

 Students will be encouraged to look at gardens conceptually, drawing from personal narratives, cultural concepts, and artistic inclinations. Through a series of exercises emphasizing formal elements like color, light, and texture, students will equip themselves with the tools to render these envisioned gardens. Reflective assignments and thought exercises will prompt them to contemplate their personal connections with gardens and outdoor spaces, fostering a deeper understanding of themes such as intimacy, memory, community, and belonging within the realm of landscape painting. 

Through slideshows and collective analysis, students will deconstruct themes, intentions, and formal strategies embedded within the works shown to them. Projects will challenge each person to formulate a working definition of a garden and articulate the relevance of the landscape painting genre in today’s context. 

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

Artists throughout history have used avatars and alter-egos as a way to question the construction of identity, disrupt dominant narratives, and critically engage with stereotypes and representation.  In this studio-based painting course, students will explore their own conceptually grounded avatar or alter ego through the development and execution of 3 series of paintings.

Beginning with an examination of the historical and theoretical foundations of self-representation in art, students will explore the concept of the "self" as a fluid and mutable construct, considering how identity is shaped by social, cultural, and technological factors.

Looking at artists like Tschabalala Self, Kent Monkman, Cindy Sherman, Didier Williams, Byron Kim, and Andy Warhol and engaging with texts by José Esteban Muñoz, Sara Ahmed, and Adrian Piper, students will gain an understanding of how artists have used avatars and alter egos as tools of investigation, empowerment and disruption.  

Through critical discussions, slide lectures, videos, and readings, alongside the making of sketches, studies, and painting assignments, students will create their own personal alter ego or avatar that will inform a final series of paintings.  Students will use this series as a way to deepen and explore formal, conceptual, narrative and material themes in their work.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

Drawing is foundational. Most of us begin to draw during our early years, often before we are even capable of naming the subjects we depict. Fundamental as it may be, drawing remains far from straightforward, especially when we abandon the anchoring impulses of depiction and representation for the unmoored territory of abstraction, expression, and pure gesture. This class will delve into the limitless potential of drawing practices that are untethered from the defining, categorizing constraints of the civilized eye. We will engage all our senses in an attempt to expand our notion of what constitutes a drawing practice as broadly as we are able. Our class work will be oriented toward process, discovery, and experimentation. The work will be collective, collaborative, embodied, and interdisciplinary. We will make contact with various non-traditional approaches to drawing-making through forbears such as spiritualist automatism, Gutai, and the Happenings of the 1960's, among others. As a class, we will explore the value of rule-making and rule-breaking in the process of drawing. Notions of authorship will be opened to question as we work collaboratively to use drawing as a tool for self-knowledge and conviviality. Relationships between drawing and our immediate physical surroundings will especially be emphasized through an investigation into the phenomenological and performative possibilities of drawing—there will be opportunities to develop performance projects in hybridity with our drawing work. Class time will be used primarily for drawing experiments, generative games, collaborative exercises, and critiques. The material requirements for this course are very open-ended, and students can expect to spend less than $100 if they so choose. Students will be encouraged to find ways to integrate our class work with their personal, preexisting practices.

This course explores friendship as a critical framework for creative practice. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of “friendship as a way of life,” the course expands the notion of friendship to encompass personal, intellectual, and artistic collaboration. Through case studies of friendships between artists, such as Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat, Agnes Martin and Ellsworth Kelly, Betye Saar and Allison Saar, Peter Hujar and David Wojnarowicz, Nancy Grossman and Romare Bearden, Darrel Ellis and Miguel Ferrando, and Roni Horn and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, students will learn how these relationships blurred the lines between personal and artistic lives, producing some of the most influential works of the 20th century. Students will engage in group exercises and collaborative projects in response to the RISD Museum collection and program. They will select works from the museum’s collection that resonate with the course theme to create dialogues with their own projects, culminating in an exhibition proposal that manifests friendship as a way of art. This exhibition proposal will be considered to be part of exhibition taught and hosted in the Memorial hall painting dept gallery that will occur during the last two weeks of wintersession. The  gallery will be transformed into a queer social space for use by the whole  RISD community. Students will have the opportunity to collectively present their proposal to the artist, engage in discussion, and receive feedback. In an art world where we are often made to feel like we have to be in competition with each other, this seminar will highlight the importance of friendship in artistic production, revealing the cross-pollination of ideas and the emotional and intellectual support systems that allows artists to flourish.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $75.00

Elective

This studio course is an exploration of the basic techniques of oil painting from observation. We will push paint in color and form to wildly varying ends, drawing upon subjects that range from microscopic objects in the Nature Lab to the depth of the sky. Each student will be encouraged to develop a personal relationship to the materials that guides their process of translation from life to painting. We begin with color theory: students will learn to identify, feel, and modulate value, chroma, and temperature to describe an observed environment in oils. Students will hone their skills in drawing, color mixing, and oil paint application. They will build painterly range through explorations of scale, mark, and composition. Our guiding force will be close looking–the emotional and conceptual core of observational painting, as we discuss and experience its possibilities and implications. We will also cover the basics of stretching canvas, priming surfaces, and using mediums.

The class will move from up close objects painted in the controlled studio environment towards plein-air painting in the landscape. Throughout the term, there will be presentations and readings that introduce students to the breadth of modern and contemporary observational painting, and stimulate discussions on observational painting’s potential narratives and hierarchies. In group critiques, students will challenge their conceptual understanding of the subjects they paint and the spaces they witness. The course will culminate in an ambitious, observational painting project of the student’s choosing. Students will have many opportunities to choose subjects that relate to their current practice and interests; the primary focus will be on the translation of in-class studio time into a thriving personal studio practice. This course is open to all levels of painting experience and beginning students will be encouraged.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Elective

Clayful Portraits: Modeling Faces, Sketching Expressions is designed to introduce students to the art of portraiture primarily using charcoal and clay. Incorporating two and three dimensional understanding to build the necessary technical skills to approach the portrait from observation and imagination. Through various exercises students will learn unique modes of representation, expression and will be encouraged to develop their distinctive voice as we focus on developing perception and sensitivity to capture a sense of life and emotion from our live models.

We will alternate between using charcoal and clay, providing a comprehensive exploration of dimensionality in drawing while deepening our understanding of both mediums. By the end of this course, you will have the skills to construct a proper armature, sculpt a portrait in clay, and model with your personal vision. and confidently mold and cast your sculpture in plaster.

Regular demonstrations and individual critiques will guide students through basic and advanced concepts of the portrait, light, form, and anatomical and proportional canons to support a visual understanding, analyze depth, and understand contour movement in space.We'll also embark on a captivating exploration of portrait history, delving into the stories of renowned artists past and present. From ancient masters to contemporary visionaries, we'll uncover the rich tapestry of human expression that lies within the portrait genre, alongside studying contemporary critical frameworks involving portraits.

This course delves into the fascinating world of dollhouses—not merely as children's toys but as intricate art forms that reflect the idealized notions of domestic spaces through history and across cultures. This studio-based class takes students on a comprehensive journey through the evolution of dollhouses, from their origins in ancient Egyptian tombs to the elaborate Victorian models, and onto today's mass-produced designs, including the iconic plastic Barbie homes

Students will engage with a rich curriculum that includes lectures, in-depth readings, and hands-on research, providing them with a broad understanding of the cultural and historical significance of these miniature dwellings. They will explore dollhouses from different corners of the globe, uncovering the diverse narratives and artistic expressions encapsulated within these diminutive spaces. Throughout the course, participants will apply their learning to create their own miniature rooms, incorporating a mix of traditional and contemporary techniques. This project-based approach will enhance students' skills in realistic oil painting, woodworking, and fabric manipulation, ensuring a tactile, immersive experience in art making. The studio class emphasizes the intersection of craft and design, encouraging students to think critically about space, scale, and storytelling through the lens of dollhouse construction.