Alan Strathmann

In this course we will focus on disciplinary and interdisciplinary art and design practices of contemporary art production. This team-taught, year-long class explores the materials and techniques of surface, space, and time (2D, 3D, and 4D), as well as the connections and interplay of these areas. Core Studio integrates the formal with the conceptual, traditional with the contemporary, and makes visible a variety of approaches in current cultural production in order to foster the development of students? emerging practices as makers and thinkers.

In this interdisciplinary studio course students will be authorized to use a variety of school shops, materials and equipment; including the woodshop, plaster studio, digital lab, sewing machine, hand tools, sound and video production, digital workflows and principles of visual fundamentals. This is a hands-on making class, faculty present artists and content related to a particular toolkit and, or project theme. Every section of Core Studio has shared learning outcomes which are uniquely realized by each Core faculty partnership.

Students should expect a fast-paced studio environment. In Core Studio students will complete short assignments as well as longer multi-week projects. Assignments are designed to help students develop their own ideas in relation to the materials, processes, and themes presented by faculty.

This studio course focuses on themes, practices, contexts, and questions undertaken by contemporary artists and designers. Research Studio I is a course that asks students to begin to develop and connect their own work and ideas with a diverse range of artists, designers, and communities. This course engages with cultural institutions including: museums, galleries, libraries and archives as resources of critical engagement.

Students will undertake various types of research activities: a) collecting and classification, b) mapping and diagramming, c) systems of measurement, d) social interaction, e) information search systems, f) recording and representation, and g) drawing and other notational systems.


Assignments in this course are faculty directed, open-media, interdisciplinary and idea based. The projects are designed to help students recognize their work habits, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Students will experience a wide range of research methods and making strategies. Critique as an evaluative process used in art and design schools, is a focus in this course. Various methods and models of critique are used in order to give students the tools to discuss their own work and the work of others.

The Punk subculture began in the 1970s as a reaction to social norms and to political systems, and to give voice to the dissatisfaction that resulted. Since then the word has been commodified, re-actualized, monetized and marginalized - but no matter - the ethos of and the distinct need for rebellion has remained.

'(Punk rock is) lunging after some glimpse of a new and better world.' - Lester Bangs.

We look inward, we look outward, we look around, and we find these actions, great and small that defy expectations and 'question anything and everything'.
What drives you to see change in the world? Change in 'art-making'? What is an act of rebellion? What is an experiment if not at its heart a questioning of the things around us?
We will be reading, watching, listening, and communicating in the service of exploring acts of rebellion and moments that defy normalcy, that break from tradition, that disturb and provoke us. Of course we will listen to some of the pioneers - to both their words and to the sound of what they do and say. And we will witness who and what is happening around you this very day, by delving deep into today's emerging art-forms and ephemeralities.

Throughout the course we will engage in ideation, discussion, and prototyping/iteration, with no less than 3 completed projects built on these ideation and research phases. What mediums you ask? What do you do? What do you want to do? What can you imagine doing? You may discover that the message dictates the medium and that what you want to say may have an impact on what you use to say it. Weekly coursework will vary but will include reading responses, listening responses, colloquium/discussion, sketching and prototyping and studio workdays followed by group critiques.

Alongside sonic and visual media that we will investigate, a few texts excerpted will give us points of departure, and these will or will not include:

Hold it Against Me - Jennifer Doyle
Monolithic Undertow - Harry Sword
Another Aesthetics is Possible - Jennifer Ponce De Leon
The Aesthetics of Noise - Torben Sangild
The Art of Noises - Luigi Russolo

For fans or investigators of: Punk, Noise, Hacking, Spoken & Written Word, Institutional Critique, No Input Mixing, Drone, Underground Comix, zines, DIY, Body Modification, Cybernetics, BioArt, Radical Care...

It probably won't be easy the whole time. I hope that you hope that it won't be easy the whole time.

'Punk rock will never die, until something more dangerous replaces it.' - Jello Biafra.