Elena Ailes

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.

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.

In this course, we will ground our creative research and production through the very broad lens of `the night¿. Nighttime and darkness will be approached both metaphorically and literally and will be used as the starting point for collective and individual inquiry, contemplation, and creative work. Some of the themes this class will explore include: the night sky, vision and lack thereof, dreams and hallucinations, stories you tell in the dark, horror, surveillance, secrecy, night work, night parties, grief (personal and ecological), and `the unknown¿. Through writing exercises, readings, site visits, group discussions, long form research processes, and critique, members of this class will be supported in the production their own work alongside the production of new, hopefully generative, questions. Some of the writers included in the course syllabus are the poets CA Conrad and their (Som)atic Rituals for a Future Wilderness, Can Xue and Layli Long Solider, as well as essays by Eugene Thacker, Hanif Abdurraquib and Ursula Le Guin. We will look at many artists from around the world that span multiple generations of thinking and making, including Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Wu Tsang, Louise Bourgeois, Pierre Huyghe, Lygia Clark, Vaginal Davis and many, many more. This course is non-medium specific, and open to students working in all media. Though coursework will vary, students can expect to create 3 projects for critique, as well as one semester-long, practice-based research project.

This course is an introduction to the materials, methods, and concepts of sculpture. We will investigate making in relation to material, time and space. We will consider aspects of sculpture such as meaning, scale, process, social engagement, ephemera and site; and explore the formal properties and expressive potential of materials including mold making and casting, wood, metal and experimental media. We will combine the use of materials and methods with ideas that reflect the history of contemporary sculpture. Demonstrations and authorizations will provide students with experience and technical proficiency in sculptural production while readings and slide lectures venture into the critical discourses of sculpture.

Students who enroll in Capstone 4900: Senior Exhibition must have been assigned the Spring exhibition at SAIC Galleries. The Spring exhibition assignment takes place in the preceding term (Fall). Enrollment in this course will only be permitted for students eligible for the Spring exhibition. Students who fail to subsequently complete the Spring exhibition registration process may not ultimately participate in this exhibition-focused course.


This interdisciplinary capstone class is designed to help students recognize patterns of inquiry within their practice and to help contextualize their work in preparation for their Senior Exhibition. The class will collaboratively organize a group curated section of the exhibition. Students will tackle both critical and practical aspects of exhibition planning from writing conceptual supporting texts to the nuts-and-bolts methods of installation and preparator work. An assessment of previous work will be the starting point for ongoing critical inquiry into your creative professional practice, and how you might position and locate your own work in the art-worlds of the 21st Century. Readings, screenings, and field trips will vary. Class visits by local artists will provide the opportunity to have a conversation about their lived experience sustaining a creative practice. With an emphasis on faculty mentorship, class meetings will support the development of a body of work or project for the Senior Exhibition, building a strong portfolio, and planning for post-SAIC life.

Prerequisite: To enroll, students must be assigned to the Spring exhibition at SAIC Galleries. Assignments take place in the preceding term (Fall). Students who fail to complete the registration process may not ultimately take this course.