Studio course that emphasizes individual creative problems in painting. Class projects, discussions, and critiques focus on intention, subject matter, and context issues. Prerequisite for enrollment in this course is Vis 80.
Students create artworks and performances within virtual environments using digital electronic construction, interfacing, and computer interface techniques for interactive sound control, lighting, electromechanical, and data visualization. There is a two-production course limit open to media and studio majors.
Painting
Painting is an expressive visual language that utilizes color, line, shape, and form to communicate effectively. Painting can represent natural or supernatural phenomena, interpret narrative themes, or even create abstract visual relationships.
Students in studio classes gain expertise with various painting techniques that produce distinct results. Artistry emerges when choosing and applying these fundamentals creatively, creating fresh perspectives.
Painting allows for exploring new ideas and developing an authentic creative voice, which can take many forms. Painting requires patience and persistence as well as an openness to risking failure or being amazed at oneself; yet, ultimately, it brings freedom and healing; image may even serve as an exercise in non-knowing, providing innocence, compassion, and accurate completion – an act which brings true fulfillment.
Sculpture
Sculpture is an art form in which hard or plastic materials are transformed into three-dimensional works of art through carving or shaping techniques. It belongs to the plastic arts group, including painting, drawing, photography, and more.
Sculpture has traditionally been defined by its three-dimensionality and volume, surface, and space use. Durable sculpture processes initially employed subtractive techniques like carving and modeling in stone, metals, clay, and wood, while Modernism expanded upon these options with various materials being used as sources.
Sculptors combine artistic creativity with technical abilities to craft works that inspire. Their designs consider factors like height, depth, and volume when planning their sculptures – these considerations guide when planning how the pieces should look. Their sculptures may serve as aesthetic focal points or represent nature mythology, social issues, or abstract concepts of interest to them – working in studios often helps sculptors develop and realize their artistic ideas and bring them to life.
Drawing
Drawing is a fundamental creative skill, providing an essential basis for other art forms. Drawing allows a draftsperson to express his or her artistic intentions spontaneously through flowing lines, making this one of the most direct ways for artists to express themselves as individuals.
Many drawings are figurative, depicting physical objects with high degrees of clarity. Other pictures may be symbolic or expressive.
Some drawings use linear perspective to give the illusion of depth and dimension on two-dimensional surfaces by drawing parallel lines that meet at what’s known as a vanishing point. Other methods use masking fluid to protect specific composition parts from unwanted marks until they can be erased later.
Photography
Studio photography appeals to photographers who seek total control over their images without worrying about strangers in the background, bad weather, or distractions interfering with getting their shots. Studio lighting can be adjusted precisely to achieve specific results – harsh shadows, backlighting, or soft diffused lighting.
This course will guide students through experimentation, failure, breakthroughs, and inspiration as they explore new creative directions within specific photographic restrictions. Students will explore different studio and composed photography approaches, such as portraiture and still life; program or materials fees may apply. There is a two production-course limit. Open to art history/criticism majors/minors and photography minors; prerequisite: VIS 60 for intensive study of advanced topics that may be repeated up to twice for credit, with instructor approval required.
Digital Electronics
Digital electronics differ from analog electronic circuits in that they use binary values of 0 and 1. As digital electronics have become a more crucial aspect of modern technology, their use is growing steadily across various devices such as computers, cell phones, and other products.
Understanding circuitry fundamentals is indispensable, with components essential for digital circuits, including transistors, diodes, and resistors forming digital systems. Diodes made out of semiconductor material allow current to flow in specific directions, while resistors enable current to pass between adjacent sections of a circuit.
Develops a project utilizing programmable microcontroller systems to adapt artworks to viewer participation, space activation, and machine intelligence conditions. Program or materials fees may apply. Two production courses maximum per semester allowed. Open to media, studio art majors, and ICAM majors who wish to explore this subject area.
Speculative Design in a Planetary Context
As humanity struggles with global crises, designers must imagine new futures by prioritizing “what if?” design questions ahead of market and industry imperatives. This imaginative process is known as Speculative Design or, more broadly, Speculative Critical Design.
Speculative designs present potential futures as narratives or objects to explore how things could differ. According to Cameron Tonkinwise, Speculative Design attempts to bridge the gap between “the possible and plausible,” exploring better futures that any single designer cannot control.
However, bringing speculative work into contexts that are reluctant to critique can present significant obstacles. This thesis investigates how participants can engage with Speculative Design while upholding its critical aspects. It relies on eight semi-structured interviews as source data to create a provisional framework for participation and Speculative Design. The Double Diamond Model is an orientation device throughout its twisty trajectory.
Computer Arts & Design
Computer arts teach students to create art using digital software within an exploratory studio environment. This enables them to navigate multiple art disciplines, such as animation and film while developing perspectives shaped by networks of interrelated practices.
At the dawn of computer art history, computers were only readily accessible through university or corporate labs. However, pioneering artists such as Manfred Mohr began forming relationships with mathematicians to gain access to these early computer-generated works like P-62 (pictured above) that now belong to the V&A’s collection.
Computer graphics experts work in various industries today. From producing 3D animation for video games and movies to working with Pixar and Cartoon Network on high-end computer-generated special effects for films and television shows – computer graphics experts play an invaluable role.
Virtual Environments
Virtual environments give you a convenient space for each project and its dependencies, enabling you to work on multiple simultaneously without incurring dependency conflicts between projects. Python offers this capability with the VV tool; additional arguments allow for customization of your environment.
Once a Python virtual environment is activated, its name will appear in parentheses in your command prompt to indicate its activation. From there, you can install additional dependencies like Django.
Your virtual environment offers the same way to access Python as you would expect a standard installation, where typing “python” launches its interpreter and allows access to its standard library and modules. However, this disconnection from base Python may not always be suitable.
Practice Diagrams
Practice diagrams allow team members to collaborate more efficiently by drawing what they know rather than what they don’t, creating an effective means of brainstorming by supplementing one another in terms of drawing what they know rather than what they don’t. They also establish a shared vocabulary for business-oriented modeling projects, while good modeling practices include effectively naming and using consistent-sized pictograms and avoiding intersecting lines that may confuse viewers and any oblique or diagonal lines that may be mistakenly taken as curves or angles.
Studies indicate that diagrams facilitate deeper learning; however, these investigations did not look into students’ spontaneous self-explanations of charts they have been taught to use; this area requires further research. Furthermore, educators need to allocate more time for students to use diagrams this way to help them comprehend phenomena across contexts more fully.
Calligraphy & Installation
Calligraphy has long been revered in East Asia as an art form on par with sculpture and painting. Calligraphy takes functional writing beyond simple scriptwriting by giving writers the power to convey their thoughts through brushstrokes while crafting beautiful compositions.
Calligrapher Xu Bing explores writing systems’ historical, aesthetic, and linguistic dimensions through his calligraphic work in Corridor of Water and Clouds. His square word forms reflect traditional landscape motifs found throughout China.
Huntington’s upcoming exhibition of Chinese calligraphy will showcase five conventional script types–seal, clerical, regular, and running. Tools will also be displayed, and demonstrations will be offered inside the Flowery Brush Library. For more information regarding this exhibition, please visit its website.
