Fall 2013
CWR 348/VIS 348Screenwriting I: Screenwriting as a Visual Medium(LA)The course will introduce students to basic screenwriting principals and techniques, using cross-cultural and cross-temporal examples. Course will examine the visual power of storytelling in film and other relative media, concentrating on the strategic use of visual elements to create a unified viewing experience and the use of visual moments/behavior in creating memorable characters. Students will complete the course with a strong working sense of the core elements used in visual storytelling as applied in film, tv, or new media. Final portfolio will include one silent short film and two narrative shorts.Christina Lazaridi
CWR 448/VIS 448Screenwriting II: Adaptation(LA)This course will introduce students to Screenwriting Adaptation techniques, focusing primarily on the challenges of adapting "true stories" pulled from various non-fiction sources. The class will address the ethics of adaptation, questions and techniques surrounding the need to fictionalize truth for dramatic purposes, as well as touching on the differences between fictional and nonfictional original materials. Students will be exposed to various contemporary non-fiction adaptations, and will write a short film (under 15 pages) and one longer project (30 pages).Christina Lazaridi
FRE 391/VIS 347Topics in French Cinema: Representations of the Holocaust in French Cinema(LA)A study of the Shoah and its representation in French film from the 1950s to the 1980s. Topics to be discussed include the relation between history and memory, the communication of trauma, the crisis in French national identity, and the effect of technical and formal devices.Thomas A. Trezise
THR 319/VIS 319Scenic Design(LA)An introduction to the art and craft of scenic design for the stage and and exploration of the use of space as a medium of textual interpretation. Students will develop an ability to think about scenography as a way deepening and reinforcing an interpretation of a play or other form of performance event. While no experience in scenic design is anticipated, students will learn to create model renderings in order to acquire the creative, theatrical vocabulary needed to work with collaborators to turn a vision of text into a fully articulated visual world.Riccardo J. Hernández
VIS 201/ARC 201Introductory Drawing(LA)This course approaches drawing as a way of thinking and seeing. Students will be introduced to a range of drawing issues, as well as a variety of media, including charcoal, graphite, ink and oil stick. Subject matter includes still life, the figure, landscape and architecture. Representation, abstraction and working from imagination will be explored. A structured independent project will be given at the end of the semester.Eve M. AschheimNathan A. Carter
VIS 203/ARC 327Introductory Painting(LA)An introduction to the materials and methods of painting. The areas to be covered are specifically color and its interaction, the use of form and scale, painting from a model, painting objects with a concern for their mass and its interaction with light.Eve M. Aschheim
VIS 211Introductory Photography(LA)An introduction to the processes of photography through a series of problems directed toward the handling of light-sensitive material, camera, and printing. Weekly laboratory sessions will explore the critical issues of the medium in relation to both student work and the work of guest photographers. One three-hour class and approximately three hours of independent laboratory.Deana LawsonDemetrius D. OliverSofie Backström
VIS 214Graphic Design: Visual Form(LA)This course introduces students to techniques for decoding and creating graphic messages in a variety of media, and delves into issues related to visual literacy through the hands-on making and analysis of graphic form. Graphic design relies on mastering the subtle manipulation of abstract shapes and developing sensitivity to the relationships between them. Students are exposed to graphics from the late 19th-century to the present in slide lectures. Studio assignments and group critique will foster an individual ability to realize sophisticated forms and motivate these towards carrying specific meanings.Danielle Aubert
VIS 215/ARC 215/CWR 215Graphic Design(LA)This studio course introduces students to graphic design with a particular emphasis on typography. Students engage typographic history through readings highlighting major shifts in print technologies. The readings provide the substance of studio assignments: students begin in the typography studio with letterpress printing and metal type, proceed to photo-typsetting and mechanical paste-up, finish in the computer lab using industry-standard typesetting and page-layout softwares. This course develops a synthesis of hands-on graphic design skills with a vocabulary and critical framework for speaking about them.David W. Reinfurt
VIS 219Art for Everyone(LA)This studio class will address the increasing social pressure on art to become more widely distributed, immediately accessible, and democratically produced. For the past fifty years, expanding definitions of what art might be fueled by a greater emphasis on active audience participation have encouraged an atmosphere in which anyone can claim to be an artist. Through studio work in a wide range of graphic and digital media, supported by readings and discussions, this class will take a hands-on approach to the question of whether art by everyone for everyone constitutes a dreamed-of utopia, a universal banality, or a cultural nightmare.Sofie Backström
VIS 221Introductory Sculpture(LA)A studio introduction to sculpture, particularly the study of form, space, and the influence of a wide variety of materials and processes on the visual properties of sculpture leading to the development of an understanding of contemporary sculpture and a basic technical facility in wood working, mold making, coasting and metal working.Nathan A. Carter
VIS 241The Language of Cinema(LA)This course will familiarize students with the categories of the artistic achievements of the cinema of the 20th Century. It will show 35mm and 16mm film prints ion their original aspect ratios (whenever possible). Thus viewers will see why digital widescreen does not accommodate CinemaScope; how depth of field the color palates are different in film and digital media, etc. Lectures will focus on the aesthetic functions of framing, the world views implicit in long takes, how different lenses (especially the telephoto and the zoom) have had dramatic effects on the evolution of film forms, etcP. Adams Sitney
VIS 261Introductory Video and Film Production(LA)A film/video course introducing the techniques of shooting and editing digital video. Works of film/video art will be analyzed in class to explore the development of, and innovations in, cinematic language. Production will be oriented toward film/video as a visual art, including narrative, documentary, and experimental genres. Several short video projects will be produced during the semester.Keith J. Sanborn
VIS 263Documentary Filmmaking(LA)This course will give students an introduction to documentary film and video production, with a special emphasis on the practical challenges of producing films in the real world. Students will learn fundamental filmmaking techniques from a professor with thirteen years experience running her own film production company, as well as a handful of guest professionals in the fields of cinematography, casting, and editing. Production and critique of student work will be augmented by film screenings, readings, and discussion of the effects that practical realities can have on the creative process.Emily P. Abt
VIS 300Muscle/Memory: Sculpture(LA)Students in VIS 300 will create sculptures that relate directly to the body and compel performance, interaction, and movement. Students in the associated DAN 300 will create dances that are informed by garments, portable objects and props. The two classes will come together periodically to compare notes and consider how context informs perceptions of sculpture as performance and the body as object. A lecture series of prominent choreographers and artists will accompany the courses.Martha Friedman
VIS 313Intermediate Photography(LA)This studio course seeks to broaden students' skills through a wide range of photographic media. There will be an emphasis on the relationship between analog and digital photography and how visual artists negotiate the technological changes of today. A broad range of new tools will be introduced to the class including medium and large format cameras, scanners, Photoshop, color and BW pigment printing, studio lighting and the use of high-end digital backs. The class will consist of indepenent and collaborative assignments augmented by field trips, readings and discussion of contemporary issues. Prerequisite Course: Introductory Photo.Allan G. Macintyre
VIS 340Experimental Film(LA)A seminar in the experimental or avant-garde film. This course will focus on the role of abstraction dreams, and self-reflexivity in the evolution of the non-commercial, modernist cinema. It will incorporate aspects of painting, poetry, sculpture that have influenced filmmakers working on the edges of the Surrealist, Cubist, Constructivist, Abstract Expressionist, and Minimalist moments in modern art. The reading will be drawn from the theoretical texts of filmmakers, such as Vertov, Leger, Einstein, Deren, Brakhage, Kubelka and Frampton.P. Adams Sitney
VIS 370Painting Without Canvas(LA)This course investigates painting as a medium in the widest possible sense; as pictorial representation, assemblage, concrete color, spatial intervention; installation, performance and multimedia. Students will look at an array of objects, practices, and techniques that challenge conventional definitions of painting throughout, an underlying question of "what counts" as painting will be examined. However, this class is neither a historical narrative nor a deductive reasoning of what painting is or might mean. Rather, these questions will evolve through the studio processes of experimentation, contemplation and making.Pamela E. Lins
VIS 392/ART 392Issues in Contemporary Art(LA)A required seminar for Art and Archaeology Program 2 majors and Program in Visual Arts certificate students emphasizing contemporary art practices and ideas. The course addresses current issues in painting, drawing, sculpture, film, video, photography, and performance installation. It includes a visiting artist lecture series, critiques of students' work, and excursions to galleries, museums and/or artists' studios.Martha Friedman
VIS 401Advanced Drawing: The Figure(LA)Through careful observation, this class will focus exclusively on human figure and purse the development of a strong sense of bone structure, muscle contours and light. From this perceptual foundation, students will be encouraged to develop independent points of view. Assignments will loosely revolve around themes of narrative, abstraction, expression, and conceptual strategies. Primary source material will be live models in class, but photography, video and collage may also be utilized. Study of figurative issues in contemporary art will complement the course projects.Kurt Kauper
VIS 415Advanced Graphic Design(LA)This studio course builds on the skills and concepts of VIS 215 Graphic Design. Advanced Graphic Design is structured around three studio assignments that connect graphic design to other bodies of scientific knowledge, aesthetic experience, and scholarship. Studio work is supplemented by critiques, readings and lectures. Motivated students will refine their approaches to information design and visual problem solving, as well as develop the critical acumen for decoding and producing graphic design in a variety of traditional and electronic media.David W. Reinfurt
VIS 416Senior Thesis Seminar(LA)This seminar will give senior Program 2 concentrators in Art and Archaeology and certificate students in the Visual Arts a more structured and collegial environment for developing their thesis exhibitions. Over the course of the semester students will research and develop their art, their influences, and their aesthetic underpinnings to be presented as a formal proposal for their thesis project for group discussion. Material choices, exhibition design, and publicity strategies also will be addressed. Assigned readings will support and challenge received ideas of what art is and what the form and content of an art exhibition might entail.Pamela E. Lins
