A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
A photo of SAIC faculty member Tom Burtonwood

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Tom Burtonwood

Associate Professor

Contact

Professional Site

Bio

Tom Burtonwood (b. United Kingdom) is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist, curator, and educator. He/they are Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He/they hold an MFA from Southern Illinois University (USA) and a BA from Loughborough College of Art (UK). Burtonwood is a member of the international art collective videokaffe, and a board member/co-organizer of Terrain Exhibitions, an Oak Park-based not-for-profit arts organization. Terrain makes private space public through sculpture, installation, performance, and interventions. Apart from Terrain, he/they have curated over 20 exhibitions of contemporary art working with Chicago-based, artist-run galleries GARDENfresh (2002–2009) and What It Is (2010–2015). In his "spare time" Burtonwood likes to DJ making soundscapes from an eclectic mix of musical genres and audio sources. 

Personal Statement

Like the critical theorist Deleuze, Burtonwood maintains a Baroque sensibility, a fascination with complexity, multiplicity, and the infinite play of forms. Deleuze’s description of the Baroque fold as a "fold within a fold" resonates with his layered sculptures and intricate drawings. These works reveal their complexity through a series of folds, each layer adding depth and richness to the overall structure. This complexity invites viewers to engage with the artwork on multiple levels, uncovering new layers of meaning with each interaction.

Burtonwood's work further intersects with Deleuze’s philosophical ideas through its emphasis on movement, pattern, repetition, and cognition. His unfolding sculptures and drawings are dynamic processes that embody continuous variation and complexity. Through their intricate patterns and transformative movements, they invite viewers to explore the fluid boundaries of space and time, engaging in a cognitive journey that mirrors the philosophical exploration of the fold.

Work

 

Vimeo:

Double Dutch (New Buffalo)

Double Dutch

Double Dutch (White Cube)

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

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.

Class Number

1208

Credits

3

Description

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.

Class Number

1231

Credits

3

Description

In this course we will focus on the development of artistic research skills for students already engaged in a practice. Students take this required course in order to experience and develop a variety of research methodologies, both conventional and alternative, which include utilizing collections and archives in the School and the extended community.

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.

Faculty directed, open-media, interdisciplinary, idea based assignments are designed to help students recognize work habits, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Through this course work students will be able to identify the most productive research methods and making strategies to bolster their emerging studio practice. 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.

Class Number

1254

Credits

3

Description

In this course we will focus on the development of artistic research skills for students already engaged in a practice. Students take this required course in order to experience and develop a variety of research methodologies, both conventional and alternative, which include utilizing collections and archives in the School and the extended community.

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.

Faculty directed, open-media, interdisciplinary, idea based assignments are designed to help students recognize work habits, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Through this course work students will be able to identify the most productive research methods and making strategies to bolster their emerging studio practice. 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.

Class Number

1275

Credits

3

Description

Everyday habits produce rhythms and patterns that artists and designers use in their work. Swedish songwriter Björn Ulvaeus built the melody and vocals for Abba¿s 1977 hit song ¿Take a Chance on Me¿ on a 'tck-a-ch' rhythm he would repeat in his head to pace himself whilst running. Over the course of the semester we will explore and research many generative methods for producing creative outcomes in a variety of media. Course activities will center on your own personal research and consider ways to pull systems thinking out of it. In 1969 professor Sonia Landy founded Generative Systems here at SAIC which went on to become what is known today as the Art and Technology / Sound Practices Department. Through this lens we will take a long look back to Dada games, Surrealist strategies, Fluxus Poetry, early Computer made art, New Media Practices, Sports and everyday routines. The course will be divided into three modules. The first will introduce historical systems and games in art. The second will introduce coding, AI and algorithmic practices. The final module will ask students to develop their own generative works from research interests. Each module will culminate with a final outcome presentation and critique.

Class Number

1187

Credits

3