Glass IIA is an intermediate studio course in which students continue their ongoing investigation of material processes. Emphasis is on developing personal concepts and imagery and visual research skills through investigations of regularly assigned topics. Students develop a substantial idea sketchbook, participate in scheduled class activities, and group critique.

Estimated Materials Cost: $200.00

Major Requirement | BFA Glass

Glass IIIA is an advanced major studio that requires intermediate glass working skills and familiarity with the material. This course stresses the continuing development of personal imagery, viewpoint, visual source research and the refinement of material processes in terms of individual artistic requirements. As preparation leading to the senior thesis project, independent studio work and individual consultation are emphasized. During this semester, each student is expected to seek out at least one professional artist outside the Glass Department and develop an artistic association with this advisor for the duration of the senior year.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $300.00

Major Requirement | BFA Glass

This beginning course introduces basic glassblowing and molten glassworking processes. It includes offhand" glassblowing, "solidworking" and glassblowing with molds. Students apply new technical skills to self-generated projects. Students maintain detailed technical notes and a project sketchbook.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $400.00

This course is a requirement for Sophomore Glass students. Non-majors may enroll pending seat availability. Email the Department Head and instructor jointly to request permission.
 

Major Requirement | BFA Glass

This seminar/studio course is centered around a series of invited artists, writers, scientists who work at the intersection of diverse identities and lived experiences to model their specific perspectives on making as a counterpoint to historically euro-centric and monolithic approaches that have burdened glass as a creative medium. Readings, discussions and class activities prioritize issues of identity, culture, gender, race, colonialism - questioning past cannons of making and proposing challenging alternatives. The participatory and collaborative work done for this class is fundamental to our thinking and making community; a willingness to share ideas and make earnest attempts to connect and support one another is central. Our lecturers and HotNights participants set a broad and challenging spectrum of topics which are built on by the research and perspectives of everyone in the class. In each case, we will strive to address topics, discussions and shop time problem solving in a manner that is respectful to all individuals.

Junior Glass Students register for GLASS-4316 (Fall) and GLASS-4318 (Spring).

Senior Glass Students register for GLASS-4320 (Fall) and GLASS-4322 (Spring).

Major Requirement | BFA Glass

This first semester of graduate study emphasizes varied experimentation, extensive visual source research, maximum productivity and conceptual growth. Students are expected to develop professional associations with artists outside the glass department in addition to the department's faculty and its scheduled roster of Visiting Artists and critics.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $500.00

Major Requirement | MFA Glass

This seminar/studio course is centered around a series of invited artists, writers, scientists who work at the intersection of diverse identities and lived experiences to model their specific perspectives on making as a counterpoint to historically euro-centric and monolithic approaches that have burdened glass as a creative medium. Readings, discussions and class activities prioritize issues of identity, culture, gender, race, colonialism - questioning past cannons of making and proposing challenging alternatives. The participatory and collaborative work done for this class is fundamental to our thinking and making community; a willingness to share ideas and make earnest attempts to connect and support one another is central. Our lecturers and HotNights participants set a broad and challenging spectrum of topics which are built on by the research and perspectives of everyone in the class. In each case, we will strive to address topics, discussions and shop time problem solving in a manner that is respectful to all individuals.

Junior Glass Students register for GLASS-4316 (Fall) and GLASS-4318 (Spring).

Senior Glass Students register for GLASS-4320 (Fall) and GLASS-4322 (Spring).

Major Requirement | BFA Glass

This beginning course will provide comprehensive technical instruction on basic glass coldworking" processes including glass polishing, sandblasting, etching, cutting, engraving, gluing, laminating, glass drilling. Students will apply new technical skills to self-generated projects. Students must maintain detailed technical notes and a project sketchbook.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

This course is a requirement for Sophomore Glass students. Non-majors may enroll pending seat availability. Email the Department Head and instructor jointly to request permission.

Major Requirement | BFA Glass

The student is expected to begin refining a personal viewpoint that incorporates glass in preparation for the graduate degree project. Studio work continues to include consultation and group critique with department faculty, its visiting artists, critics, and the student's own outside advisors.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $500.00

Major Requirement | MFA Glass

All Glass junior, senior and graduate degree program students meet together to engage both practical and theoretical issues of a glass career through: field trips, technical demonstrations, visitor presentations, and direct exchange with visiting professionals from relevant disciplines through student/professional collaborations, artist residencies, individual consultations, critique, and organized group discussion. Class will require reading, active participation in weekly discussions, and prepared student presentations.

First-year graduate students register for GLASS-435G (Fall) and GLASS-436G (Spring).

Second-year graduate students register for GLASS-437G (Fall) and GLASS-438G (Spring).

Major Requirement | MFA Glass

All Glass junior, senior and graduate degree program students meet together to engage both practical and theoretical issues of a glass career through: field trips, technical demonstrations, visitor presentations, and direct exchange with visiting professionals from relevant disciplines through student/professional collaborations, artist residencies, individual consultations, critique, and organized group discussion. Class will require reading, active participation in weekly discussions, and prepared student presentations.

First-year graduate students register for GLASS-435G (Fall) and GLASS-436G (Spring).

Second-year graduate students register for GLASS-437G (Fall) and GLASS-438G (Spring).

Major Requirement | MFA Glass

This graduate seminar provides an intensive study of current critical issues in contemporary art. Each Fall a visiting curator or critic is invited to lead the course. While the themes covered each semester will vary with the visiting instructor, the structure of the course will remain the same. The class is divided into two segments: a seminar and a studio. Each week the seminar lasts for three hours followed by studio visits with each student. This course helps students carry the dialogue of contemporary art issues into the studio more effectively.

This course is a requirement for Graduate Glass students. Non-major graduate-level students may enroll pending seat availability. Email the Department Head and instructor jointly to request permission.

Major Requirement | MFA Glass

This seminar is for graduate students who are preparing their written thesis. Within the context of this writing-intensive course, we examine the thesis form as an expressive opportunity to negotiate a meaningful integration of our visual work, how we think about it, and how we wish to communicate it to others. In support of this exploration, weekly thematic writing sessions are offered to open the imaginative process and to stimulate creative thinking as a means of discovering the underlying intelligence of our work. In addition, we also engage in individual studio visits to identify and form a coherent 'voice' for the thesis, one that parallels our actual art involvement. Literary communications generated out of artists' and designers' processes are also examined. The outcome of this intensive study is the completion of a draft of the thesis.

Elective

The course aims to create sufficient awareness of what yields life on earth, and a complementary biocentric view of the world. New ethical and critical challenges are continually presented to human society with the growth of material science and its implications for design; the course introduces sources and research references to assist with our understanding of these challenges. We explore aspects of human knowledge of living systems, providing a research-based approach to such topics as BioDesign; biomimicry in materials, processes, and structures; functional morphology and the cognitive phenomena of Biophilia. The 'affinities and aversions' we as humans have regarding natural living systems are in everything: from the spaces we inhabit to the metaphors we employ in order to understand complexity in general, including issues connected with health, recuperation and resilience. Using the recently extended facilities and resources of the Edna Lawrence Nature Lab, faculty and graduate students together create opportunities to experiment, observe, and learn about the networked aspects of living systems, materials, structures and processes. Theoretical frameworks associated with the biology of living systems, the growth and formation of natural materials including the contemporary revolutions in evolutionary theory are introduced and examples discussed with visiting specialists.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $30.00

Elective

This course frames contemporary art as a set of conversations, arguments and counterarguments that have been proposed in key exhibitions, works of art, and critical writings produced across multiple continents over the past three decades. We will identify and critique the ideas that have shaped contemporary art, discuss their impetus, and examine their assumptions. Through such conversations, the course presents contemporary art as a form of processing a present and a past in which the artwork is indivisible from the dialogues and conversations that create, define and continue to change it. The title of the class alludes not only to the idea of making and reading contemporary art as cognitive, rhetorical and dialogic activities, but also to the art world as a series of geographically dispersed and temporally promiscuous processes, deeply resistant to modernist systems of order, periodization and mapping. The course combines lectures by the instructor, as well as by visiting critics and art historians, which outline some of the key issues and historical pressures of contemporary art, alongside seminar-type discussions where we process the lectures and select readings as a group.

Elective

The poster has been an archetypal graphic design format since the late 19th century when lithographic printing technology came of age and captured the imagination of artists, bringing their vision into Paris streets. This course will invite you to explore future possibilities and contexts for the poster-as paper and as screen-building on its singular capacity to transform ideas into iconic picture planes; and examining the dynamics of typography and image, both still and in motion. Prompts will progress from individual posters, to sequences, to site-specific installations that explore the potential for interactive discourse in public space. Studio assignments will be supported with presentations and readings about poster history and contemporary poster design.

Elective

The current understanding of what constitutes design is straining at the margins of convention. The reach of design has moved beyond the materiality of objects, to biotechnological matter of chemicals and encoded genetic information, from physical space to code and data. Human beings now live lives that are immersed in design. The designer and their subject share a dialectical relationship, constantly shaping and reshaping each other. The role of the designer, thriving in the world of post-industrial and digital technologies, is thus broader today than ever before-from designing brands and creating personalities, to contriving and manipulating living organisms. Post-postmodernism, pseudo-modernism, supermodernism, digimodernism, are only a few of the many terms trying to describe our current state. Today, we occupy the digital domain as thoroughly as we do physical space. Codes and algorithms have also become signifiers of a new biotechnological paradigm shift, marking the passage into a posthuman epoch by launching us into a virtual space composed of a bright galaxy of screens and digital worlds, creating a symbiotic relationship between our technology and biological selves. As designers, we shape, clash, align, and distort this new space, elaborating a stage for the New Man and the New Woman, and perhaps even the Nonhuman. In this class, we will explore our contemporary condition through visual-research based projects around self-design, speculative design and design fiction. We will use graphic design as a medium to ask questions about ethical concerns emerging from advancements in science and technology. We will develop a new design vernacular incorporating ideas from revolutionary recent developments in genetics, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence. We will employ machine vision: microscopy, neuroimaging and NASA archives to create new fictional worlds in concert with the life forms around and inside us. This engagement with the sciences will allow us as graphic designers to acquire some fundamental tools that probe fundamental human nature, and help us navigate the posthuman epoch that lies ahead.

Elective

UI/UX design is the backbone of digital experiences. It shapes how we interact with screens, transforms innovative ideas into intuitive interfaces, guides navigation through complex systems, and creates aesthetic coherence that makes technology accessible and engaging. At its core, UI/UX design bridges creativity and usability, ensuring that digital products are not only functional but also meaningful and enjoyable to use.

This workshop introduces students to the workflow and foundational knowledge of UI/UX design for smartphone applications. Using Figma as the primary tool, students will learn methodologies and tools central to app design, including researching existing forms and functionalities, translating concepts into wireframes, and developing visual aesthetics and navigation systems. In the initial sessions, students will analyze the intuitiveness and patterns of existing apps, critically assess and redefine their functionalities, and explore alternative modes of use. Subsequent sessions focus on redesigning an app by addressing existing frustrations or repurposing its intended use, creating prototypes that challenge standard user expectations, and developing high-fidelity interactive prototypes that integrate navigation and interaction design. No prior experience in UI/UX or coding is required, and coding will not be taught in this course.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $25.00

Elective

UI/UX design is the backbone of digital experiences. It shapes how we interact with screens, transforms innovative ideas into intuitive interfaces, guides navigation through complex systems, and creates aesthetic coherence that makes technology accessible and engaging. At its core, UI/UX design bridges creativity and usability, ensuring that digital products are not only functional but also meaningful and enjoyable to use.

This workshop introduces students to the workflow and foundational knowledge of UI/UX design for smartphone applications. Using Figma as the primary tool, students will learn methodologies and tools central to app design, including researching existing forms and functionalities, translating concepts into wireframes, and developing visual aesthetics and navigation systems. In the initial sessions, students will analyze the intuitiveness and patterns of existing apps, critically assess and redefine their functionalities, and explore alternative modes of use. Subsequent sessions focus on redesigning an app by addressing existing frustrations or repurposing its intended use, creating prototypes that challenge standard user expectations, and developing high-fidelity interactive prototypes that integrate navigation and interaction design. No prior experience in UI/UX or coding is required, and coding will not be taught in this course.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $25.00

Elective

UI/UX design is the backbone of digital experiences. It shapes how we interact with screens, transforms innovative ideas into intuitive interfaces, guides navigation through complex systems, and creates aesthetic coherence that makes technology accessible and engaging. At its core, UI/UX design bridges creativity and usability, ensuring that digital products are not only functional but also meaningful and enjoyable to use.

This workshop introduces students to the workflow and foundational knowledge of UI/UX design for smartphone applications. Using Figma as the primary tool, students will learn methodologies and tools central to app design, including researching existing forms and functionalities, translating concepts into wireframes, and developing visual aesthetics and navigation systems. In the initial sessions, students will analyze the intuitiveness and patterns of existing apps, critically assess and redefine their functionalities, and explore alternative modes of use. Subsequent sessions focus on redesigning an app by addressing existing frustrations or repurposing its intended use, creating prototypes that challenge standard user expectations, and developing high-fidelity interactive prototypes that integrate navigation and interaction design. No prior experience in UI/UX or coding is required, and coding will not be taught in this course.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $25.00

Elective

Digital text is an interface for so much of our emotive, interpersonal, industrial, and political lives. Language in digital space is inseparable from the aesthetics of automation, network culture, and its origins within computational history. What is the role of a graphic designer in digital space-where language is simultaneously content and code, and exists at such scales that we begin to call it data.

This course will be a laboratory for designers to explore the relationship between computation and language. We will transform text using processes such as paper cut-up, copy paste, autocomplete, crowdsourcing, and Natural Language Processing models. Through projects, we will explore questions like, How does the addition of computational ingredients- networks, automation, randomness, etc- affect the visual form and meaning of language? Who produces digitally-based language, and how?

Students will create projects through a range of expressions, including but not limited to websites, printed objects, and readings-out-loud. Students will be supported if they want to pursue project work through HTML/CSS, p5.js, RiTa.js, Twine, Scratch, or NLP engines like GPT2. As part of this class, we will also discuss the ongoing relationships between computation, reading, and writing in a social context - transcription workers, human computers, web moderators, and so on. Basic HTML, CSS and/or programming experience is helpful but not required.

Elective