This course presents the graduate student with a series of problems intended to develop drawing as a tool for inquiry into a terrain outside the well-known beaten paths of his/her past studio practice. Expanding the role for drawing in studio experimentation is a goal. Work will be done outside class. There are critiques each week.

Major Requirement | MFA Painting

This course would address many practical issues to do with becoming a professional artist after graduation. Some of these issues are: the commercial gallery, the not-for-profit gallery, museums, graduate programs, auction houses, grants, documentation of work, archival storage of work and restoration of artwork. Professionals from the gallery, museum and other fields will be invited to the class to share their expertise with the student. Artists will be invited to talk about their professional experiences. It is a seminar class addressed particularly to the senior painting student.

Elective

This period is designed as an advanced critique course which involves visits by resident faculty, visiting artists and critics, with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art.

Major Requirement | MFA Painting

Three Critics will offer graduate students the opportunity to get inside the art critic's head and learn how writers think about the visual. Students will be exposed to a wide range of viewpoints and discourse on contemporary art issues as defined by the interests of three different, practicing critics. Each critic will become part of the RISD community for approximately one month, conducting 3 sessions on campus and one in New York or Boston. On-campus meetings will consist of lectures, reading and writing assignments, group critiques and one-on-one studio visits. Off-campus trips will include visits to museums, galleries and artist studios. Small groups of students will be expected to lead several classes. Outside coursework and full participation in class discussion required for successful completion.

Major Requirement | MFA Painting

Over the past decade, photography books have seen a resurgence within the art world, this time transcending their original use as survey or catalog to become ideal spaces and platforms to experience and disseminate work. Today image-based printed matter functions in a multitude of ways, all of which at their core are driven by the mechanics of sequence and editing. Through class discussions, using RISD's Fleet Library and Special Collections, and individual research - students will form a personal vision of what images mean in the book form. Our focus will be equally on content, concept, production & technique. The semester will culminate in each student having devised, sequenced, edited and produced a fully resolved and realized photography book.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $125.00

Elective

This is a basic course in the techniques of photographic seeing. Students will be given exercises to develop their ideas concerning the fundamental visual problems of photography. Students will also learn technical aspects of exposure, developing and printing in the darkroom as they explore and respond to the visual qualities of the medium. Students must provide their own 35mm camera with manual controls.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

The Sophomore Studio is focused on the of each student's expressive vision so that she/he can create photographs with compelling content. Through group critiques and individual meetings with the instructor, students will refine their skills as photographers and learn how to verbally articulate issues in their own work as well as the work of others. The greater part of the class will geared towards creating an open an dynamic environment where students engage in the give and take of constructive feedback on their progress. The critique schedule will be enriched by readings, multimedia lectures and class field trips throughout the semester. Attendance at all department visiting artist lectures is required.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

The Junior Studio continues the process begun in the Sophomore Studio but moves it to a more ambitious and sustained level of production and critical feedback. Students will be expected to work more autonomously and will explore their ideas with more focus and depth, with the goal of working toward the successful production of several bodies of work over the course of the year. Group and individual critiques will continue to form the basis of the course curriculum, supplemented by visiting critics, field trips and class exercises. Attendance at all departmental visiting artist lectures is required.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Enrollment is limited to Junior Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

The Senior Studio brings together the advanced skills and ideas about image-making that each student in the major has developed over the previous two years. Students are expected to work independently on their individual projects with the expectation of a culminating body of work to be presented in a public exhibition during the spring semester (Degree Project). As in Junior Studio, group and individual critiques with faculty and visiting artists will continue to form the basis of the course curriculum. Attendance at all departmental visiting artist lectures is required.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00 - $250.00

Enrollment is limited to Senior Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

This course is designed to give junior majors a thorough and deep understanding of the intermediate-level workflow for film capture and scanning and digital camera RAW file capture. Both workflows allow students to produce the highest quality inkjet prints on large-format printers. This course will touch on many topics, including advanced tonal and color correction techniques, image sharpening, digital camera exposure and Raw file processing, inkjet and Lightjet printing and automated batch file processing. While this course is primarily technical, students are expected to pursue their ongoing personal work to fulfill assignments, culminating in a final portfolio of 10 finished digital prints that demonstrate mastery of the techniques learned in the course. Students entering the course should be proficient in the use of the Macintosh platform and basic Photoshop operations and have a good understanding of processing and printing in black and white photography. Transfer majors must demonstrate these proficiencies to the satisfaction of the department before being permitted to enroll in this course.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

This course will wrestle with the mercurial and ever-evolving subject of Time-Based art. What is Time-Based art? Is it simply art with durational elements that unfold over the course of the work? Is it art that depends on time to define itself? Is it art that can only exist within the confines of regulated space? Is it art that stands firmly in the aftermath of what preceded it? Is it art that keeps time, wastes time, witnesses time, changes time, rearranges time, or records time? In this course, we will explore and welcome work being made under the broad umbrella of Time-Based work, such as: documentary photography, video art, experimental film, performance art, recorded happenings, social practice, and sculpture made with temporal dimensions. The course will operate as a studio course, with students being asked to present work for critique regularly, as well as weekly discussions of historical and contemporary investigations and demonstrations of Time-Based art.

Elective

This studio course is designed to help students slow down and become more contemplative with their photographic practice. This darkroom based course will give students ultimate compositional control as they learn to use the large format camera. Topics covered will include using the view camera's tilt, swing, shift and rise movements to control focus, perspective and image shape. Student will also learn film exposure techniques and advanced black and white printing controls. Later in the course students will be introduced to large format digital scanning and printing workflows.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $500.00

Elective

This class explores form and space through the addition of dynamic light, with particular emphasis on the importance and weight that it holds within a photographic image. Students will investigate and answer the essential question: how does light serve an image? The course encourages critical examination of how artificial light is employed in fine art, documentary, commercial, and advertising photography to emphasize concepts, emotions or illustrate objects and space, placing a strong focus on contemporary works. Throughout the semester, students will gain the necessary skills to work in a professional photography studio, helping them build a strong foundation for greater control of their own projects. Additionally, the class covers the practical skills required for professional roles related to commercial photography, such as lighting technician, digital technician, art director, creative director, and studio management.

Active participation in live demonstrations, both in studio and on location will give students crucial hands-on experience. Starting with the basics, students will learn fundamental principles of light and grow confident in handling all types. Whether hard, soft, painterly, illustrative, high-key, low-key, gelled, natural, flash, and continuous, eliminate any fear of working with light when photographing people places or objects. By the end of the class, students will feel empowered and ready to keep learning about light, gaining a new confidence in approaching lighting challenges throughout their creative journey. 

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

In this course, students will be introduced to the basic principles of digitally capturing, processing, and printing photographs that are really worth making. We'll cover all the important functions that most digital cameras have in common and we'll go through the fundamentals of using Photoshop to refine and manipulate images. Students will learn their cameras' controls well enough to use the manual settings with confidence, and how to make the automatic features work for them instead of against them. We'll consider what makes a good photograph both technically and creatively, and we'll critique prints made on the Photo department's high-quality Epson printers. Students will need to provide their own digital camera with raw capture capability (DSLR or equivalent), and a portable hard drive (formatted for Mac), both of which they should bring to the first class. (Hard drives will be needed before week 2). Students registered for the course who are in the market for a new camera are welcome to contact the professor for camera purchasing advice.

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 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

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

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

This course is open to Junior, Senior, Fifth-year or Graduate Students. Email the instructor for permission to register.

Elective

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