Global Arc

This course studies contemporary representations of Black Europeans in film, music, and popular culture in dialogue with critical works about diaspora, citizenship, and transnational blackness. We will read critical works by scholars who focus on Black Europe including,Tiffany Florvil (Germany), Grada Kilomba (Portugal), SA Smythe (Italy) among others as we explore different ways in which Black European artists engage with questions of national and transnational belonging. Students will write, conduct research, and engage in hands-on creative film and media projects as they think critically along with the various cultural and critical texts.

This course approaches drawing as a way of thinking and seeing. Students will be introduced to a range of drawing issues, as well as a variety of media, including charcoal, graphite, ink, and oil stick. Subject matter includes still life, the figure, landscape, and architecture. Representation, abstraction, and working from imagination will be explored. A structured independent project will be completed at the end of the term. Two studio classes, five hours total per week.

This course approaches drawing as a way of thinking and seeing. Students will be introduced to a range of drawing issues, as well as a variety of media, including charcoal, graphite, ink, and oil stick. Subject matter includes still life, the figure, landscape, and architecture. Representation, abstraction, and working from imagination will be explored. A structured independent project will be completed at the end of the term. Two studio classes, five hours total per week.

An introduction to the materials and methods of painting. The areas to be covered are color and its interaction, the use of form and scale, painting from a model, painting objects with a concern for their mass, and interaction with light. Two three-hour studio classes, five hours a week.

An introduction to the materials and methods of painting. The areas to be covered are color and its interaction, the use of form and scale, painting from a model, painting objects with a concern for their mass, and interaction with light. Two studio classes, five hours total per week.

How can art become a form of activism? This course investigates how technological media shape culture and society, and how we can actively reshape these dynamics through art and design. We will engage in the practice of "speculative", and "tactical" design using various digital tools to envision different futures, reflecting on social, political, and ethical implications of various technologies. Traversing digital and physical realities, students will develop skills in the Adobe suite, 3d modeling, rendering, AR/VR. The final project will be a technology-based artwork that actively engages with critical social discourse and activism.

How does scientific research produce and reinforce concepts of gender? How is sexism propagated through technological media? This course investigates how scientific and technological media shape culture and society, particularly through the lens of gender and sexuality. Through interdisciplinary art making, students will use various technological media to reflect on the social, political, and ethical aspects of technoscientific feminism. Students will develop skills in 3d modeling, rendering, augmented reality, Illustrator, and Photoshop, creating art works in critical social discourse and gender theory.

Black Queer BDSM material culture resists contextualization in relationship to biographical narratives because of the underground elements of the community. This course will explore the material culture of this community from three perspectives: Architecture + Location, Visual Artists and Exhibitions, and Black Queer BDSM communities with a significant research focus on finding and presenting new materials. We will consider the fragility of archival engagement with these communities by surveying existing BDSM archives in research libraries, community groups, and individuals and their personal ephemera.

In this introductory studio course, participants explore the world wide web as an opportunity for self-publishing. We'll understand the web's history and original design as a decentralized system for publishing on one's own terms. But it's easy to forget this, as today the corporate and platformed web captures and sells our data and attention. Through hands-on exercises and projects, this course aims to demystify the web, removing barriers to basic web coding and publishing by focusing on the foundational skills in making websites with HTML and CSS. We'll remember what makes a web a web: links made by humans.

Operating at the intersection of art, science and technology, this course investigates how scientific theories shape aspects of culture and society. We will engage in the practice of "speculative design", creating sculptures, wearables, and objects that envision different futures, while reflecting on social, political, and ethical implications of various technologies. Students will develop skills in industrial design, physical computing, and fabrication, as well as sensing and responsive technologies (including hardware/software integration, sensors, micro-projection, biometric sensing, etc), while applying them to critical social discourse.