Sculptural Practices I will take students through three major practices that are essential to the study of Sculpture -- metal fabrication, woodworking and photography/videography. This course is designed to work in tandem with ‘Sophomore Sculpture Studio’ and ‘Sophomore Seminar’. Each section will serve as an introduction to the fundamental ideas within each practice, including artist references, relevant material resources, vocabulary, tools/equipment, and general safety protocol. Students are expected to investigate each skill-set by way of experimentation and research, extending their practice beyond scheduled class time in order to develop familiarity with the processes taught in class. Students can expect to learn proficiency in these skills as well as gain a deeper understanding of the contents of the Sculpture toolkit. They will be encouraged to revisit these processes and tools over and over again throughout their own development. Additionally, they can expand their knowledge through focused studio electives offered in Spring of Sophomore year and in their Junior and Senior years.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

Sculptural Practices I and II consists of a yearlong introduction to major skill sets that are essential to creating sculpture in a contemporary context. These sets include metal fabrication, woodworking, photography & videography, Plaster Fabrication, Casting & Mold Making, and Digital Modeling & Fabrication. Over the course of the year, students will learn proficiency and safety in all of these technical areas.

Sculptural Practices II focuses on plaster fabrication, casting & mold making and digital fabrication and is designed to work in tandem with Sophomore Sculpture Studio II. While gaining technical and material knowledge specific to each of these areas, students will also consider how they operate in dialogue with broader ways of making and conceptualizing sculptural projects. Each section will serve as an in-depth introduction to the fundamental ideas within each practice, including artist references, relevant literature, vocabulary, tools and equipment, and general safety protocol.

Students are expected to investigate each skill set through experimentation and research, extending their practice well beyond scheduled class time. It is crucial that students make time outside of scheduled meetings to develop familiarity and confidence with the processes introduced in class. Students will then expand the knowledge from this introductory year into their advanced studio electives throughout their Junior and Senior years.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

This seminar connects sophomore Sculpture majors to significant parts of the ever-expanding discipline of contemporary sculpture. Over the semester the class will explore how methods of artistic production, materials of artistic transformation, and practices of makers participating in various artistic movements have created and sustained the conversations so integral to contemporary sculptural practice. Through a series of film screenings, assigned readings, slide talks, and discussions, students will gain a familiarity with the historic events and trajectories that continue to produce associative canons and relational movements, forming the foundation of their chosen discipline. The course trajectory is coordinated with topics covered in Sculptural Practices I and II and Sophomore Sculpture: Studio I.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

This seminar connects sophomore Sculpture majors to significant parts of the ever-expanding discipline of contemporary sculpture. Over the semester the class will explore how methods of artistic production, materials of artistic transformation, and practices of makers participating in various artistic movements have created and sustained the conversations so integral to contemporary sculptural practice. Through a series of film screenings, assigned readings, slide talks, and discussions, students will gain a familiarity with the historic events and trajectories that continue to produce associative canons and relational movements, forming the foundation of their chosen discipline. The course trajectory is coordinated with topics covered in Sculptural Practices I and II and Sophomore Sculpture: Studio I.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

In Junior Research Studio students will be guided through a series of experiences and encounters in the community, at large that help them understand the local manifestations of larger systems. Along the way, we will ask questions and learn inquiry methods that enable an understanding of how these encounters, the conversations they spawn, and assigned readings we take on help anchor, shape, and guide the aesthetic, material, and media choices we make in our artwork. A continuation of the use of research methods in the context of a studio setting is exercised individually and in groups. Reflection is used as a tool for development. Students are challenged to explore relationships between chosen materials, subject matter, processes, and display in order to establish research practices that help them make the work they want to make.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Junior Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

In Junior Research Studio students will be guided through a series of experiences and encounters in the community, at large that help them understand the local manifestations of larger systems. Along the way, we will ask questions and learn inquiry methods that enable an understanding of how these encounters, the conversations they spawn, and assigned readings we take on help anchor, shape, and guide the aesthetic, material, and media choices we make in our artwork. A continuation of the use of research methods in the context of a studio setting is exercised individually and in groups. Reflection is used as a tool for development. Students are challenged to explore relationships between chosen materials, subject matter, processes, and display in order to establish research practices that help them make the work they want to make.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Junior Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

Sculpture Seminar II: Visual and Critical Literacies is the third sequential course in the Sculpture curriculum centered on research and coordinated with the content of the major studio courses. These research courses are designed to excite student learning through the practice of critical and engaged pedagogy in art history, material histories, research methods, representation, and what “counts” as artist research. Course content has been selected precisely to support the understanding of how critical literacy impacts a creative practice. De-material practices like reading, thinking, moving, and speaking can merge with, bend around, and twist through material practices.

Sculpture Seminar II: Visual and Critical Literacies is an intermediary level course which follows Junior Research Studio where students have learned about field research and the local manifestations of larger systems. The design of this seminar is to facilitate and support the study of themes relevant to art practices and conversations today. Through a series of readings, films, classroom discussion, group, and independent work, students learn to contextualize myriad discourses using the frames of art history, critical theory, philosophy, ethics, and politics. In this studio-centered seminar, students will develop critical literacy that is applicable to their working practices and the attendant process of using materials to make meaning. This course supports discourse around the formation of the artist in an effort to figure out meaningful strategies for the development and maintenance of sustainable artistic and intellectual practices.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Junior Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

Sculpture Seminar II: Visual and Critical Literacies is the third sequential course in the Sculpture curriculum centered on research and coordinated with the content of the major studio courses. These research courses are designed to excite student learning through the practice of critical and engaged pedagogy in art history, material histories, research methods, representation, and what “counts” as artist research. Course content has been selected precisely to support the understanding of how critical literacy impacts a creative practice. De-material practices like reading, thinking, moving, and speaking can merge with, bend around, and twist through material practices.

Sculpture Seminar II: Visual and Critical Literacies is an intermediary level course which follows Junior Research Studio where students have learned about field research and the local manifestations of larger systems. The design of this seminar is to facilitate and support the study of themes relevant to art practices and conversations today. Through a series of readings, films, classroom discussion, group, and independent work, students learn to contextualize myriad discourses using the frames of art history, critical theory, philosophy, ethics, and politics. In this studio-centered seminar, students will develop critical literacy that is applicable to their working practices and the attendant process of using materials to make meaning. This course supports discourse around the formation of the artist in an effort to figure out meaningful strategies for the development and maintenance of sustainable artistic and intellectual practices.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Junior Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

Building on the methods of research and synthesis learned in Junior Sculpture: Research Studio, this is an intensive semester designed to strengthen students’ knowledge of professional practices for maintaining a creative practice past graduation. Students will develop a packet of materials which include a portfolio of work, artist statement, resume, and artist CV. This course will advance their research into a range of opportunities specific to the discipline of sculpture and their own individuated practices. 

 
Each week students will be introduced to a variety of resources and skills necessary in preparing for upcoming and future opportunities such as residencies, granting organizations, graduate schools and fellowships. Additionally, topics of exhibiting works in various spaces such as galleries (artist-run, for-profit, university, etc.), museums, alternative art organizations and public art venues will be presented. There will also be workshops for preparing project budgets, archival storage of work and formatting for digital organization. This seminar aims to give students a strong foundation for professional practices prior to their final semester at RISD so they can focus on their body of work in Senior Degree Project and feel prepared to graduate.   

Estimated Cost of Materials: $300.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Senior Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

The primary focus of the Senior Sculpture Degree Project is to cultivate and hone a cohesive body of work for your FINAL degree thesis exhibition. Building upon your existing professional practices foundation begun in the fall, and establishing greater autonomy around production timelines and critical discourse, this semester features an emphasis on open studio time and individual meetings that honor your individual tempos and creative workflow. Also implemented this semester is the In-Process Critique format. This critique schedule is in place for you to self-identify key moments for strategic feedback leading up to your exhibition. The first half of the semester will prioritize the Woods Gerry Senior Exhibition and time for studio work/studio visits alongside In-Process Critiques. The second half of the semester will be structured by a range of projects to prepare you for post-graduation artistic and professional practice. You will have the choice of either an artist talk or skill share to build context and guide deeper conversations around your work. These moments of the course are intended to give students the chance to present their work and research to the wider community.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

The primary focus of the Senior Sculpture Degree Project is to cultivate and hone a cohesive body of work for your FINAL degree thesis exhibition. Building upon your existing professional practices foundation begun in the fall, and establishing greater autonomy around production timelines and critical discourse, this semester features an emphasis on open studio time and individual meetings that honor your individual tempos and creative workflow. Also implemented this semester is the In-Process Critique format. This critique schedule is in place for you to self-identify key moments for strategic feedback leading up to your exhibition. The first half of the semester will prioritize the Woods Gerry Senior Exhibition and time for studio work/studio visits alongside In-Process Critiques. The second half of the semester will be structured by a range of projects to prepare you for post-graduation artistic and professional practice. You will have the choice of either an artist talk or skill share to build context and guide deeper conversations around your work. These moments of the course are intended to give students the chance to present their work and research to the wider community.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

This interdisciplinary studio-seminar explores artistic practice beyond traditional exhibition spaces, focusing on public art as a collaborative, site-responsive, and audience-driven form. Drawing from socially engaged practices and ambitious public commissions, students will examine how artists, designers, and curators build careers that engage broad publics, with an emphasis on imagining and shaping more just, sustainable, and future-oriented civic spaces.

Developed in partnership with the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the course invites students to develop public art projects that may be realized on the Greenway at the culmination of the semester. Students will draw inspiration from local contexts, case studies, historical precedents, and dialogue with guest artists and curators. These projects provide hands-on experience with the full lifecycle of public work—from concept through fabrication and presentation.

Course topics include proposal development, artist selection processes, fabrication, project management, stakeholder engagement, and public art administration, with attention to working with civic partners, navigating approvals, and designing for durability, safety, and public interaction. Using Providence and Boston as living laboratories, students will engage with sites, institutions, and collaborators, including the Greenway’s curatorial and production teams.

Co-taught by Katherine Cooper (Director of Academic and Creative Partnerships at RISD) and Audrey Lopez, Director & Curator of Public Art at the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the course emphasizes contextually grounded, socially engaged work and offers an alternative to the commercial gallery pathway, encouraging students to develop practices aligned with their own values.

Note: While the course focuses on proposal development and prototyping, a select group of students will be invited to further develop and realize their projects for potential installation on the Greenway in 2027.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

This course is open to graduate students only. Please contact the instructor for permission to register.

Elective

Programming Sound: Performance Systems focuses on programming and designing computer-based systems for sound art and music performance. Centered on the dataflow programming language, Max, the course will be of substantial benefit to students who desire a rigorous and fast-moving foundation in algorithmic approaches to sound design. The course simultaneously facilitates explorations in sound synthesis, audio signal processing, electronics, gesture-based human computer interaction, and instrument building with microcontrollers and sensors. Coursework involves weekly homework in the form of online lectures and exercises with class sessions reserved for demonstrations, workshops, and project assistance. The course emphasizes modularity and reuse of code. Students will present their work in a public concert during the last week of the semester.

Additional Notes: In order to conduct work in this course, students will need a laptop computer running a recent OS: Mac or Windows. Previous programming experience is recommended, but not required.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

This project-based course explores the role of sound in storytelling, research, and artistic expression. Students will engage in hands-on field recording, critical listening, and curating thematic sound archives, using these collections to create narrative-driven audio projects. Through readings and discussions, students will explore key theories in sonic arts, sound design, and sound studies, integrating these concepts into their work. The course encourages interdisciplinary collaboration, connecting sound with visual arts, literature, and digital media. Dialogues on contemporary issues in sound, such as its social and cultural impact, will be central to the learning process. By the end of the course, students will have developed a body of work that demonstrates technical skill and proficiency in creative storytelling using sound.

Elective

Spatial Audio focuses on the creation of immersive 3-D sound experiences. In this course, students analyze and explore how the sensation of space is activated in the listener by making works using spatial audio techniques. These methods include high order ambisonics, vector-based amplitude panning, multichannel surround, and binaural audio, among others. Throughout the semester, a series of exercises addressing technical and theoretical issues provide students with the necessary experience to produce midterm and final projects. Coursework involves computational approaches to sound design and composition with instruction in the audio programming language Max and digital audio workstation Reaper. Students have recurring access to a 25-channel loudspeaker array for the development of works. Readings from psychology, philosophy, the arts, and sound studies support class discussions and critiques. Students will need a laptop computer (Mac or Windows). Previous experience with digital audio software recommended.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

This intensive studio course investigates computational approaches to generating sound and image in real time. Precedents from experimental film and video, as well as sound installation and performance art will be examined in relationship both to human perception and the, students' artistic practice. The course will include discussion of key historical works and texts, hands-on demonstrations and in-class projects, as well as critical engagement with new works by class members. Students will use programming environments such as Max and its object libraries for sound and video, MSP and Jitter to explore the creative and expressive potentials of an intermedia production practice culminating in the development of a larger work that incorporates knowledge gained throughout the course.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

In A Hands-On History of Electronic Music, we will study the development of electronic music from a tactile approach using historical studio techniques. While learning about pioneering and underrepresented artists within the genre, students will use reel-to-reel tape machines, tube signal generators, modular synthesizers, and early computer music concepts to recreate key compositions within the field. Critical listening and analysis skills will be cultivated through guided exercises and projects. The hands-on approach this course takes will support a foundational understanding of electronic music history through methodologies as they evolved into current practice.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

Intro to Sonic Arts provides a foundation in the creative and technical practices of using sound as an artistic medium. Students will be guided through the creation of original work while learning about recording and editing techniques, custom instrument building, and spatial audio design. Special attention will be given to cultivating critical listening skills, composition and improvisation techniques, as well as collaborative performance practices. No prior background is required, and the course is open to students from all disciplines. Students will need access to a laptop computer and headphones.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

Intro to Sonic Arts provides a foundation in the creative and technical practices of using sound as an artistic medium. Students will be guided through the creation of original work while learning about recording and editing techniques, custom instrument building, and spatial audio design. Special attention will be given to cultivating critical listening skills, composition and improvisation techniques, as well as collaborative performance practices. No prior background is required, and the course is open to students from all disciplines. Students will need access to a laptop computer and headphones.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

Modular synthesizers offer a tactile approach to sound production that is consistently inventive by design. Emerging from the 1960s counterculture, they are a product of expansive thinking that challenged conventions in both instrument design and creative practice. Six decades later, the limits of possibility only increased. In Modular Synthesis Studio, we will learn and apply concepts of voltage controlled synthesizers to creative coding and embedded computing platforms. Imbued with the spirit of community, together we will design and build a one-of-a-kind RISD modular synthesizer by semester end, while also creating new sound-based works with the system. Assignments in this studio course will involve creative projects, class presentations, readings, and module fabrication. The class will provide students with a strong foundation in modular synthesis, audio programming languages, and the skills to develop physical and software instruments relating to their personal creative practices.

Students should bring a laptop computer and wired headphones to class.
Experience with programming and/or modular synthesizers recommended but not required.

Elective