In this interdisciplinary critique-based class, advanced students take a rigorous look at the various ways time-based imagery functions in their work. With an emphasis on post-cinema, research- based, site-dependent, and performative practices, students in Meeting Points: Open Media examine their studio projects in-depth, through group critiques, a close analysis of critical concepts, and working with focus and discipline in their medium of choice. This course is required for FAV Seniors in Open Media and is well-positioned to be a critical support for senior and graduate students looking for additional insight into the development and refinement of their work in the area of cross-disciplinary media art practice. Course work includes research, readings, critique sessions, group discussions, and visiting artist lectures. Fall semester includes a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators. Spring semester includes an emphasis on curatorial exhibition strategies, a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Open Media

This course examines pre-production methods for animation, including storytelling and cinematic language particular to the animation medium. Emphasizing practical approaches to research and concept development, the course will introduce structural tools including storyboards, writing, color scripts, animatics, and preliminary soundtracks. We will ask the central question "Why Animation?" as we cover topics such as point-of-view, expressive scale, use of metaphor, and transformation.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

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

Elective

This is a year-long course of study, for which the student will complete a 10-20 minute live action work to final professional screening format. Students are free to choose genres and formats in which they want to work. Students have weekly meetings for screenings, guests, and technical workshops, and weekly small-group meetings to discuss their works-in-progress. During Wintersession, the students perform production work in video and film, organize crews for filmmaking, review rushes and do initial editing and sound work on their degree projects.

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

Elective

During the senior year, students synthesize and apply what they have learned in their previous studies to the creation of a year-long project. Students develop, design, animate, direct, and produce these projects independently. Students receive weekly individual guidance from instructors and two critiques by established professionals from the world animation community. Class meetings are devoted to film screenings, group critique, and specialized technical workshops.

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

Elective

During the senior year, students synthesize and apply what they have learned in their previous studies to the creation of a year-long project. Students develop, design, animate, direct, and produce these projects independently. Students receive weekly individual guidance from instructors and two critiques by established professionals from the world animation community. Class meetings are devoted to film screenings, group critique, and specialized technical workshops.

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

Elective

This course is designed to teach students how to utilize the computer to create animation. Special emphasis is placed on exploration and experimentation as it applies to computer-generated or computer-assisted animation. The class covers hand drawn non-computer originated animation, cut out animation, computer generated drawn animation, painting under the camera, rotoscoping, and an introduction to the concepts used in 3D animation. Additionally, an introduction to sound design and editing will be explored in the final animation project.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00

Elective

Over the course of a year, senior students integrate their media skills through a cross-disciplinary approach with time-based media practice, resulting in a developed work or a series of smaller related works meant for exhibition or performance. This path is for students that wish to engage with time-based media in non-traditional ways, such as through installation, performance, public art, interactivity, intervention, networked/collaborative production, activism, etc.. Students research, develop, design, prototype, direct and produce these works independently. Students receive weekly individual guidance from the instructor and partnered peers. Class meetings are devoted to lectures, informational workshops, student presentations of related research, individual meetings and group critique. During Wintersession, students perform production work, test and analyze parameters and results. Students have weekly meetings for lectures, guests, technical workshops, and weekly small-group meetings to discuss their works-in-progress.

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

Elective

Furniture design is concerned with meeting the needs of a body in the context of its environment, but must that body and environment belong to a human? Homo sapiens compose 0.01% of the Earth’s biomass. In this class we will explore the other 99.99%, the nonhuman world. Drawing upon the concept of umwelt, the unique sensory experience of a particular organism, students will deeply interrogate the life history and sensory world of nonhuman organisms in order to explore what it means to design as an animal. Through lectures, readings, discussions, and guest speakers, topics in biology will be introduced and their relevance to design discussed and analyzed. Students will develop their own intuitive approach to making and undertake a research and design project centered around an organism of their choice, culminating in a final presentation with accompanying visuals, diagrams, and models. The concepts of design and furniture will be explored beyond the purview of humanity in order to expand our circle of consideration when making. Students will be introduced to basic biological concepts like evolution, metabolism, development, and genetics. Contact with scientific literature and guest researchers will expose students to how science works in the real world and how they can use it effectively in their own creative practice. No prior knowledge of biology is required, only curiosity.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

Elective

What happens when an object refuses to function as expected? This course explores the intersection of humor, critique, and craft through the creation of objects that resist, subvert, or challenge their intended use. Inspired by Chindogu (the art of almost-useful inventions) and speculative design, students will investigate how intentional dysfunctionality can serve as a lens for deeper design thinking, storytelling, and social commentary. 

Through hands-on experimentation, students will engage with a variety of materials and fabrication techniques to push the limits of function and form. Material play will encourage unexpected combinations, such as rigid materials behaving flexibly, or familiar materials being used in unfamiliar ways. Conceptual development will focus on questioning the role of everyday objects, exploring themes of absurdity, frustration, failure, and user interaction. 

Students will examine case studies of unconventional design, including artists, designers, and inventors who have embraced dysfunctionality as a creative tool. Readings and discussions will explore how humor and critique intersect in design and why provoking confusion or discomfort can challenge societal norms. 

By the end of the course, students will have conceptualized, prototyped, and presented a series of useful useless objects that provoke thought, humor, or frustration—redefining our relationship with the things we use (or struggle to use) in daily life. 

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

Learn the theory of Windsor Chairs and how the use of wood in tension can create a chair like no other. This class will cover techniques necessary to the Windsor system of building while working through design decisions that will culminate in a completed chair. Students are encouraged to embrace process and parameters in a direct and hands-on manner. Through small projects, students will learn how to balance wood strength, aesthetics, joint strength and ergonomic considerations. These principles will be applied to a carefully considered, finished chair. Topics covered will include: selection of wood, turning, seat carving, complex radial layout, several types of joinery, and finish techniques.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Elective

This course will focus on the art of upholstery design. It will teach the basics of traditional techniques and materials; cover historic influences; and explore methods used in mass production. The course will survey nontraditional materials and review unconventional methods. There will be an emphasis on ergonomics including shaping, angles, and scale and how upholstery impacts comfort. This is a hands-on class where students will gain experience applying the techniques of upholstery.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

This course explores advanced design processes and methods of construction. The evolution of a project through a complete design process is required including conceptual and design development phases.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

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 culminates the completion of the thesis body of works and accompanying written document.

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

Major Requirement | MFA 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 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 continues drawing and concept development techniques, sketching with three-dimensional models, mock-ups and prototypes. Working in several scales and levels of articulation, students will expand pre-visualization and detailing skills. Basics of 3-D computer simulation will also be introduced.

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 continues drawing and concept development techniques, sketching with three-dimensional models, mock-ups and prototypes. Working in several scales and levels of articulation, students will expand pre-visualization and detailing skills. Basics of 3-D computer simulation will also be introduced.

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 is an appropriate introduction to furniture design in metal. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the basic techniques of metal fabrication as they apply to furniture design. Design issues will be resolved through a series of drawings and models and welding skills will be honed through several preliminary projects. Students will be expected to complete a piece of furniture. Estimated Cost of Materials: $75.00

Elective

The junior studio expands and interprets the skills and concepts introduced in the sophomore studios. The primary focus of the semester is an experimentally based investigation of bending and forming techniques - molded plywood, bent lamination, steam bending, and vacuum-formed plastic. While focused on the use of wood and plastic materials, an experimental approach is expected in the studio. Students are encouraged to conceptually explore skills and materials to develop a personal design approach and studio practice. The semester culminates in a final design, in which students utilize learned techniques to create one-offs, objects intended for batch production or prototypes designed for production.

Prerequisite: FD-2502

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design