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VIS STD 180A
INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL STUDIES: WORD AND IMAGE
SLUSKY

(4) Thirty hours lecture and 90 hours studio per semester. Prerequisites: Env Des 11A and 11B or consent of instructor. Projects in graphic form, color, and word-image relationships.

Principles of Design

Principles of Design is an elective Visual Studies course that focuses on the reverie of three-dimensional construction. This course offers the opportunity to create – build actual objects and sculptures that are fully realized and complete within themselves. This process allows us to tap into the inner journey that reveals previously unseen structures through empirical and improvisational means.

This is a course in the fundamentals of visual design; both its theory and practice. These issues will be systematically explored in a combination of lectures, studio assignments, and weekly projects. Emphasis will be placed on the connection between meaning and form. Dialogues will be explored involving three dimensional forms, two dimensional drawings, and digitally manipulated images. Topics will include issues of design and composition, relationships between color and form, and the role of order, scale, structure and proportion in visual design. A variety of techniques, materials and media will be used to illustrate these topics.

There will be two weekly assignments, one smaller which emphasizes both content and formal composition, and one larger which explores a number of design principles within a broader context. Students should anticipate intensive in-class work and outside assignments.

Projects will be reviewed and graded as they are completed. A digitally designed portfolio comprised of the courses projects will be submitted at the end of the semester.

VIS STD 185X
SPECIAL TOPICS: WORD AND IMAGE
DUBOVSKY

Canciones Criollas: Picturing Argentina

Thursdays 6:30 - 9:30 PM, 170 Wurster Hall

(4) An experimental interdisciplinary seminar/studio in which we take as our focus the folklore of Argentina—her stories, places and songs--as an inspiration for creative work to be made by each student in response—paintings, drawing, collage, new media…

A guiding theme will be our close reading of Lucio V. Mansilla’s Una Excursion a los Indios Ranqueles, an account of the meeting between European Argentines and their Native American counterparts. Published in 1870, the book offers a fascinating window into the world of 19th century Argentina—the conflicted relationship between immigrants and native peoples, city and countryside, Europe and the Americas, present and past--with the figure of the “gaucho”--and that of Mansilla himself--bridging the two worlds. A conflict over the meaning of “land.” Indeed, many of the questions raised by Mansilla are with us in today’s world as well: questions of people hood, competing ancestral identities, cultural meanings attached to the notion of place, and how we understand the past in relation to the (relentless) demands of the present.

A second important theme will be the Argentine folclore song tradition—in which many of these same questions are given musical form. By listening to the recordings of traditional singers such as Atahualpa Yupanqui, Jaime Dávalos, Jorge Cafrune, Chango Rodriguez, and José Larralde, among others, we will have an additional point of entry into world of Argentine folk culture—and its compelling musical presence.

Where possible, we will read mansilla in the original --his criollo Spanish is quite beautiful. However, the book is available in translation--and the class will be open to non-Spanish speakers with an interest in the subject. The ideal student for this class will have at least some background in Spanish, be curious about the interweavings of Argentine folklore and song, and eager to experiment with how these interweavings can be given visual form...

PREREQUISITES & ENROLLMENT. Course enrollment is limited and by application only. Please send the instructor a short statement describing your interest in the class, your background (art, Spanish language, folklore, music) along with 2-4 jpegs of your creative work. Send application before 7 May 2009. Email to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Anthony Dubovsky is a painter who chairs the Visual Studies Program in the College of Environmental Design. He lived in Argentina as a young man, receiving a bachillerato from the Colegio Nacional de la Plata. He has a keen interest in Argentine culture--folclor, visual image and song.

VIS STD 186B
PHOTOGRAPHY AS AN ART FORM
BOURDIER

(1–4) Formerly 186C.

Staged Photography

FIRST DAY OF CLASS: MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 7-10 PM, 104 WURSTER HALL
4 Units
Maximum Enrollment: 16
By Consent of Instructor

If we see our passage on earth as a theatrical play, what snapshots of our experiences would we wish to share with our contemporaries? At the core of this class is the desire to go deep within ourselves and explore how we can artistically and critically materialize the intimate relationship between our body/mind and the arts. Some of the situated questions we will raise are, for example: What aesthetic principles underlie and inform our practices? How do we see the boundaries between Design, Art, and Photography? What is our relation to light, darkness, and color? How do we acknowledge our construction of reality through our senses and lenses?

Through diverse subjects centered around Body / Mind ( self portrait,  the naked body, sex, race and gender, a mutant, remembrance of an ancestor );  and the creative gesture ( light and shadows, still life , wrapping , the unknown, portrait of an artist , dream ) , this class will focus on restructuring our experience across the fields of visual and performing arts – including painting, sculpture, design, installation and performance. We will be committed to explore photography as Conceptual or Experiential Art and NOT as a documentary practice. You will be encouraged to think of each exercise as being a (sometimes highly designed) visual poem condensing your critical position, humour, thoughts and feelings on the subjects mentioned above. Our photographic production will lean towards a “new Social Surrealism” which I could best describe as: set up or staged “portraits of our time,” photographs as paintings, advertising or (slightly) burlesque compositions, theatrical narratives or artistical essays. In short, you will be required to show, through your photographs, your critical distance vis-a-vis your sensual and intellectual understanding of each theme.

Since the class is not solely about photography and not about photographic techniques, there is no restriction as to what tools you could use: analog or digital cameras, scanning devices, stylus drawing tools and photoshop can all be put to use to enrich your aesthetic vision. Regarding your previous experience with photography, you may be in a much better position if you have already taken a photography class.

For each weekly assignment everyone is expected to produce a large-format photograph (a maximum of 18" wide) in B & W or in color. Everyone is also expected to present their work-in-progress on two other boards, showing the various stages of your creative process, including, for example: your 3 best pictures of the week, contact prints of weekly training exercises,  copies of your conceptual sketchesl, library research notes. Each weekly meeting will be centered around a pin-up of the work and a class critique in which you’ll learn to become a teacher and relate your observations to design, photography, the arts, your own field of interest, and your life in general. The group critique will be the major tool to develop our growth and understanding; please take this class only if you are planning to give your full participation during these class pin-ups. Final grade will be based on the average evaluation of all 11 projects and home work and on a final critique and show presented in the Wurster lobby.

This is a class that requires a lot of work  ( for 4 units and not 1-4 as described above by the computer format ),  time commitment and heart. It is not advised to take an architectural design studio at the same time. Final class selection will be available on Wednesday September 2, after our first class meeting on August 31, based on a short questionnaire collected the first day, and a short interview that will probably take place on Tuesday, September 1 from 5 to 7 PM in my office, 349 Wurster Hall, during which I would love to see any of your work in the visual arts. In other words, since being registered in the class is by consent of the instructor, the waiting list serves only as a temporary reference and does not imply that you’ll be included in the class, just as not being on the waiting list does not mean that you cannot get in. JUST SHOW UP THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS.

If you want to check my own work, see the book of photography Bodyscapes and website at: www.jeanpaulbourdier.com.

VIS STD 186X
SPECIAL TOPICS: PHOTOGRAPHY
DELANEY

 (1-4)  Thirty hours lecture and 75 hours studio per semester.

Extended Course Description

Introduction to Digital Photography

(4) This course will give students a firm foundation in the use of all aspects of digital photography, from camera use, to workflow, image editing, digital printing, online presentation and simple website construction.  These tools will be put to service in the exploration of the quality of light, the use of form and the sense of wonder inherent in the photographic image.  Assignments will involve the many facets of the photographic language, from simple representations of motion and focus to complex independent narratives. There will be slide lectures on historical and contemporary photographers as well as a Saturday field trip to San Francisco Fine Art Galleries, critiques of all assignments, guest artists, a research paper and a final project portfolio. We will use digital technology as a platform for serious investigation in to the world of photography.  Students should expect to spend time outside the class working independently in the digital lab.

A digital SLR camera is recommended for the course. Students will be expected to pay a lab fee for use of the computer lab and inkjet printers. There is no prerequisite for this class though admission to the class is by instructor approval only. This course is open to all majors with priority given to CED students.

VIS STD 187A
FREEHAND DRAWING
SLUSKY

Freehand Drawing 

(4) Freehand Drawing is an elective Visual Studies course that goes beyond the constraints of an Introductory Drawing class. Here we continue the experiential process of learning to see – observe, and dive into the root of of the creative process and inspiration. Drawing by hand is the most direct, immediate, and universal means of visual expression. In this course we will develop what it is we have to express while we give visual form to our thoughts. We will also use color for its vital emotive power. Experimentation, improvisation, and play are key in this course as a means of learning and connecting to our own creativity.

The emphasis in this course is on developing greater facility, awareness, and self-expression in freehand drawing. Aspects of composition will be stressed throughout the course.

We will work from a variety of subjects, including architecture still life, landscape, and the model. A variety of drawing media will be employed such as pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, pastels, grease media, felt tip, etc. The work of a variety of artists and practitioners throughout history, who have used drawing as a primary means of expression, will be shown in books and in slide presentations.

There will be weekly out of class assignments. Class critiques of work done both in class and as home work will be part of each session. A portfolio consisting of in and out-of-class assignments will be submitted for review at mid-term and at the end of the semester.

VIS STD 280
ADVANCED VISUAL STUDIES
DUBOVSKY

(1–3) Fifteen hours of lecture/seminar per unit per semester. Prerequisites: 181, 186. Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. Advanced work in visual studies and photography.

Graduate Seminar/Word and Image

This is a class about imagination and ideas. A road trip, perhaps — or a voyage. We begin each week with a theme — often a single word — as point of departure. Each person in the group does a project in response — a drawing, a painting, a collage — the medium is open. In the following class we look at the work, and a conversation ensues. And then, a new word.

The hand is important throughout: how the sense of touch can become a guide.

The endeavor here involves a kind of opening — not just in terms of skill (although skill can play a part), but more in finding the right (visual) language to give form to one’s feelings about and understanding of the surrounding world. A challenge that carries over into any of the design fields — and beyond….

Students from all departments welcome. A good place to explore your initial ideas about the Master’s Thesis. Also, for graduate students interested in teaching drawing (as GSIs in ED 11A) this course is a strongly encouraged.

VIS STD 298
SPECIAL GROUP STUDY

(1–5) No more than 5 units allowed each semester. Course may be repeated for credit. Special group studies on topics to be introduced by instructor or students.

VIS STD 299
INDIVIDUAL STUDY AND RESEARCH FOR MASTER'S STUDENTS

(1–5) One unit will be assigned for each 4 hours of student effort per week. Course may be repeated for credit. Individual studies in cluding reading and individual research under the supervision of a faculty adviser and designed to reinforce the student's background in areas related to the proposed topic.