Shir Ende

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 class we will look into the relationship between the body and architecture. Through different exercises, readings and field trips we will explore those relationships from the intimacy of the room to the public realm of the city. We will experiment in collecting observations on the built environment and will use them as research. Students will engage with different artistic practices and will use the city of Chicago as their field of operation. Students will work on weekly exercises that will be used as research for 3 assignments: intervene and respond, translate, and reimagine architecture through different modes of making. We will look at artists such as Amanda Williams, Edra Soto, Julia Fish, Do Ho Suh, Rachel Whiteread, Deb Sokolow, Valie Export, Francesca Woodman, James Turrell.