Alex Cohen

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.

1) In this course we will look into the ways that play shapes our everyday lives and it's use in language development. Play is self chosen and self directed. Students will be encouraged to turn the classroom into a place of experimentation where they will engage in self-directed acts where they will be asked; ''can we foster new forms of play that will lead us to develop new structures of belonging?''. 2) We will look at the bodies of work by artists Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold, Chris Johnson, Thomas Hirschorn, Louise Bourgeois, Diane Thater among others and how they have used art to construct and develop imaginative worlds that represent community through experimentation and exploration of form. We will also engage with the play theories of Peter Gray, Brian Sutton Smith, Johan Huzinga, and Michael J Ellis. As well as ''belonging'' by bell hooks. We will bring as many things together to look at the ways that play shapes us and is essential for the development of ''worlds''. 3) True in Play form students will engage in self-directed projects where I as Faculty will serve as Facilitator of all experimentations in the name of Play and Learning. There will be three prompts throughout the semester where students will be asked to generate self directed projects that address these specific issues. The three prompts are: How Do You Move, Whats the best way to organize that?, and These are my intentions.

This fall section of Sophomore Seminar is for second-semester Sophomores. Students must have 39 credits or more to enroll in this course.

What are the concerns that drive one¿s creative practice? How does one set the terms for its future development? Sophomore Seminar offers strategies for students to explore, reflect upon, and connect common themes and interests in the development of an emerging creative practice that will serve as the basis of their ongoing studies at SAIC and beyond. Students will examine historical and contemporary influences and contextualize their work in relation to the diverse art-worlds of the 21st Century.

Readings, screenings, and field trips will vary each semester. Presentations by visiting artists and guest speakers will provide the opportunity for students to hear unique perspectives on sustaining a creative practice.

One-on-one meetings with faculty will provide students with individualized mentorship throughout the semester. During interdisciplinary critiques, students will explore a variety of formats and tools to analyze work and provide peer feedback. The class mid-term project asks students to imagine a plan for their creative life and devise a self-directed course of study for their time at school. The course concludes with an assignment asking students to develop and document a project or body of work demonstrating how the interplay of ideas, technical skills, and formal concerns evolve through iteration, experimentation and revision.

This is a team-taught, three-week intensive Summer studio class for students who want to investigate painting issues and explore formal and conceptual interests in detail. The faculty consists of two SAIC faculty members and one visiting-artist-in-residence, working in a studio alongside students. The faculty and visiting-artist-in-residence meet with the students individually and conduct rigorous group critiques. Activities include: visiting artists' studios, galleries and museum collections. Individual studios are provided to each student enrolled this course.