Course Search Degree Programs

This course provides an introduction to clay as a material. Participants will be introduced to a wide variety of methods and techniques to build, decorate, and glaze ceramic. Demonstrations in Hand-building, coiling, slap-building and surface application including glaze development and application, slip decoration and firing methods, will give students a proficiency in working with clay and in the ceramic department. Introductions to the rich and complex history of ceramic through readings, lectures and museum visits, will provide students with exposures to the critical discourse of contemporary ceramic. This is primarily a beginner's course but open to all levels of students.

Readings will vary but typically include, Hands in Clay by Charlotte Speight and John Toki. Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art by Clare Lilley. Ten thousand years of pottery by Emmanuel Cooper. 20th Century Ceramics By Edmund de Waal. Live Form: Women, Ceramics, and Community by Jenni Sorkin. The course will look at artist like Magdalene Odundo, George E. Ohr, Shoji Hamada, Roberto Lugo and Nicole Cherubini as well as historic ceramic from the Art Institutes of Chicago?s collection.

Students are expected to complete 3 projects by the end of the semester, Biweekly readings will be part of the course.

This research, discussion, and critique course develops a visual and verbal vocabulary by examining relationships between form and content, word and image. Study includes symbolic association and the problem of effective communication in a highly complex culture.

An attempt, a venture, an experiment, a weighing - the essayist discovers new insight into the common, the peculiar, the sacred, the profane - drawing lines between the trivial and profound, the essayist tries: while difficult to define, this genre instructs, entertains, questions and refines. Students of this course will examine this genre of literature and will practice it, too: being introduced to a wide range of authors, writing on topics familiar and foreign, from the personal to the argumentative, from the art historical to the humorous, students will practice this craft by critically analyzing the work of others and writing different types of essays in a workshop environment that emphasizes the writing process, from generating ideas, to oral presentations, to drafting and peer review, to re-seeing and revising. FYS I develops college-level writing skills, prepares one for FYS II and upper-level Liberal Arts courses, and allows one to improve expressing their ideas in writing.

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work.

The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history.

There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Digital visualization is essential to all contemporary creative communication. This class will familiarize students with the syntax, tools and methods of vector-based drawing and reinforce analogies to traditional methods of image-making covered in the First Year Program.

Students will begin with an introduction to the computer as a graphic design tool: the relationship of vector to raster graphics and the peripherals. The focus on building proficiency with industry-standard Adobe Illustrator software will be reinforced via tutorials and short design exercises which target specific topics and techniques covered during lectures.

Students apply technical competencies to formal design problems during the second half of this course and in Beginning Graphic Design class.

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

All FYS 2 students will learn to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in upper-level course work. Students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. This FYS 2 course will explore the interconnected meanings of race, horror, and monstrosity. In particular, we will focus on the presentations and representations of racial difference in the Americas. From Birth of a Nation (1915) to Get Out (2017), and from the transatlantic slave trade to contemporary #BlackLivesMatter movements, African-American struggles for dignity and inclusion have produced ¿philosophies born of struggle,¿ i.e. avenues of critical thought and activism with an eye toward social liberation and freedom from daily fear.

This is the first of two English language fluency courses for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students improve their academic English skills by reading and responding to art appreciation and art history texts. Texts are analyzed for formal as well as contextual information. Students learn how to integrate their own observations and knowledge with information gained from reading and lecture. Students also build competence and confidence in college-level writing. Topics include formal analyses and/or critical responses to works of art. Presentations and class discussions also give students practice communicating their knowledge through speaking.

This critique course is offered for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students build competence in giving critiques, participating in class discussions, and giving presentations. Students make artwork to present to the class. They learn and practice the vocabulary of visual and design elements and use these to analyze and critique their own and their classmates' works. Students practice a variety of critique formats by using formal, social-cultural, and expressive theories of art criticism. They discuss and critique works both verbally and in writing.

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

In this course students explore the principles of visual communication by creating two-dimensional printed comprehensive layouts, and three-dimensional mock-ups. Stress is placed on process and development of solutions to problems; idea and form exploration; research; image and text development; compositional structure and hierarchy; verbal, technical, and hand skills. The course also covers the technical aspects of graphic design such as printing methods, papers, and binding.

Students will produce 3?4 finished pieces exploring the use of image and type in both single page format, multi-page format, and possibly three-dimensional format. These projects are to be included in the VCD department's obligatory portfolio review for advancement into the VCD intermediate courses.

The Department of Painting and Drawing offers a wide variety of comics courses, ranging from traditional to experimental methods and techniques. Each course is designed to focus on a specific area of comics production. To learn more about the topic of a specific comics course in which you are interested, please review the course description for that particular class.

Image Studio is a course that challenges students to interpret, critically read text, conceptualize, and assess project parameters to implement design solutions. The creative process is a core focus throughout the assignments. The goal of this course is to explore the process of creating original imagery and visual information.

We utilize digital and analog means to create design solutions to projects that also require fundamental explorations with typography. We explore a diverse means of image construction from paper collage to photography and Photoshop manipulation.

Form studies examine design basics such as juxtaposition, repetition, and progression as well as the use of metaphor, analogy, and semiotics. The introduction of design context, audience awareness, and sequential narrative is also addressed.

This team-taught class is an intensive, three-week immersion in comics. The faculty consists of two SAIC faculty members and one visiting-artist-in-residence, working in a studio alongside students. Students work with faculty one-on-one, participate in group critiques, and attend lectures prepared by the faculty members.

This team-taught class is an intensive, three-week immersion in comics. The faculty consists of two SAIC faculty members and one visiting-artist-in-residence, working in a studio alongside students. Students work with faculty one-on-one, participate in group critiques, and attend lectures prepared by the faculty members.

This multilevel class is for students with or without experience in wheel throwing. Beginning students are introduced to ideas, materials and techniques for throwing vessels. They acquire the necessary skills to construct and analyze a wide range of vessel forms. Intermediate and advanced students continue their individual development of throwing, glazing and firing kilns. Course discussions focus on issues around the vessel to acquire critical understanding of containers and their functions, as well as using the wheel as a means for constructing sculptural forms.

This multilevel class is for students with or without experience in wheel throwing. Beginning students are introduced to ideas, materials and techniques for throwing vessels. They acquire the necessary skills to construct and analyze a wide range of vessel forms. Intermediate and advanced students continue their individual development of throwing, glazing and firing kilns. Course discussions focus on issues around the vessel to acquire critical understanding of containers and their functions, as well as using the wheel as a means for constructing sculptural forms.

This course develops drawing skills with an emphasis on figure gesture and proportion along with a wide range of media. Students are taught to sketch from a live model while communicating design concepts in clothing with style and expression.

This course offers instruction in various methods of casting, including simple plaster molds, hydrocal-cement casts, simple body casts, thermal-setting rubber molds, wax, terra cotta, and paper casting. Students are advised to bring objects they desire to cast. (No hot metal casting in this course.)