Courses are offered in ceramics, contemporary art issues, drawing, film theory and history, painting, photography, digital photography, printmaking, sculpture and film and video.
VIS 202 / ARC 202
Introductory Drawing
Eve Aschheim, Nathan Carter
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.
VIS 204 / ARC 328
Introductory Painting
Louis Cameron, Pamela Lins
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.
VIS 212
Introductory Photography: Black and White
Sarah Charlesworth, Jocelyn Lee, Demetrius Oliver
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. Prerequisite: application and interview.
VIS 215 / ARC 215 / CWR 215
Graphic Design
Staff
This studio course will introduce students to the essential aspects and skills of graphic design, and will analyze and discuss the increasingly vital role that non-verbal, graphic information plays in all areas of professional life, from fine art and book design to social networking and the Internet. Students in the course will explore visual organization through a series of focused, interrelated assignments dealing with composition, page layout, type design, and image. Hands on production will include an array of do-it-yourself printing and distribution technologies, from letterpress and mimeograph to photocopying and websites.
VIS 222
Introductory Sculpture
Staff
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 a variety of materials and processes.
VIS 262
Introduction to Video and Film Production
Sadie Benning, Keith Sanborn
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.
VIS 309
Introductory Printmaking
Staff
An introduction to fundamental techniques of copper plate etching, lithography, and relief printing. Assignments focus on applications of various printmaking techniques, while encouraging independent development of subject matter. Critiques will occur throughout the term. Students are encouraged to draw regularly outside of class to cultivate themes and content applicable to their prints. Field trips to the University's museum and the library's graphics collection will complement class work. Two three-hour classes.
VIS 316
Contemporary Practices in Photography
Staff
This is a project driven course for the intermediate or advanced studio student. This course explores the variety of ways contemporary artists have used photography since the 1950's, including but not limited to, documentary, conceptual, alternative processes and experimental methods, installation, narrative fiction or directional, collage and serial images, as well as traditional modernist methods. Each student will produce two independent projects that are intended to emulate the methodology and practice of a chosen contemporary artist.
THR 318 / VIS 318
Lighting Design
Jane Cox
An introduction to the art and craft of lighting design for the stage and an exploration of light as a medium for expression. Students will develop an ability to observe lighting in the world and on the stage; to learn to make lighting choices based on text, space, research, and their own responses; to practice being creative, responsive and communicative under pressure and in company; to prepare well to create under pressure using the designer's visual toolbox; and to play well with others-working creatively and communicating with directors, writers, performers, fellow designers, the crew and others.
VIS 332
Ceramic Sculpture
Staff
This course is course designed for students interested in learning the fundamentals of working with clay. A wide variety of hand building techniques will be taught, enabling students to make utilitarian vessels as well as sculptural forms. Students will learn about glazing and colored engobe application methods and how to operate electric and gas kilns. Studio work may be complemented by readings, field trips and slide presentations.
VIS 342 / COM 361
The Cinema from World War II until the Present
P. Adams Sitney
The history of sound and color film produced since World War II. Emphasis on Italian neorealism, French New Wave, American avant-garde, and the accomplishments of such major film makers as Bergman, Hitchcock, Bresson, and Antonioni. Modernism in film will be a central consideration. One three-hour class, weekly film screenings.
VIS 344 / HLS 364
Special Topics in Film History: Classical Myths, Sites, and Rites in Cinema
P. Adams Sitney
This seminar explores the ways in which the cinema has responded to classical Hellenic literature and culture, the Greek landscape, and ancient philosophy. There will be extensive readings of Greek works in translation. Because of the difficulty of obtaining some (but not all) of the films for this course, some screenings will be projected DVD or Videotape. Participants in the seminar will be invited to apply for a limited number of Hellenic Studies grants to attend the Temenos screening in Greece, June 29-July 1, 2012.
FRE 391 / VIS 347
Topics in French Cinema: The Shoah in French Film
Thomas Trezise
A study of the representation of the Holocaust in French film. Major topics of discussion include the question of French national identity, the communication of traumatic experience, and differences of genre.
ITA 313 / VIS 446
Marxism in Italian Cinema
Gaetana Marrone-Puglia
A study of the influence of Marxist ideology on major Italian directors from the Cold War to the present. Representative films include: Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, Visconti's The Leopard, Pasolini's Teorema, Wertmuller's Seven Beauties, Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers. The approach will be interdisciplinary and will combine the analysis of historical and political themes with a cinematic reading of the films.
CWR 349/THR 349/VIS 349
Screenwriting: Creating Visual and Emotional Unity
Christina Lazaridi
This class will familiarize students with the complex use of metaphorical, emotional, and visual threads in screenplay writing. Analyzing examples of international, independent, and classical structures, students will be exposed to the rhythms and demands of the process of conceiving and writing a long form narrative film.
VIS 404
Advanced Painting
Kurt Kauper
A studio course focused on advanced problems in painting practice, including pictorial structure in abstraction and representation, color in relationship to space and light, working process, and materials. This course, although structured, encourages development of independent work. Group critiques will be conducted. Students gain awareness of historical models as well as contemporary art, as they build and analyze the relationship between student work and contemporary painting culture. Two three-hour studio classes. Prerequisites: 303 or 304 and instructor's permission.
VIS 411
Advanced Questions in Photography
Sarah Charlesworth
Student- initiated projects in photography will be developed in close conjunction with the instructor. Each student will explore technical, formal and critical issues pertinent to their specific work. Emphasis will be on understanding and addressing social and historical context as well as presentation strategies.
VIS 421
Advanced Sculpture
Joe Scanlan
Through readings, field research, and studio work, this course will investigate all aspects of publicity: the forms, economics, aesthetics, and politics of engaging the public. Students will be allowed to work in a wide range of media, from sculpture, installation, and performance to posters, events, and electronic media. Students will be expected to think critically about the integral relationships between the artworks they make, the audiences they imagine for it, and the means of publicity they feel will best serve their ambitions.
VIS 462
Advanced Video and Film Production
Saddie Benning
This course will explore narrative structures, with an emphasis on experimentation, improvisation and DIY aesthetics. Through screenings, class discussions, and student assignments we will focus on video art and film that challenge the conventions of narrative constructs. Topics of interest include: performance, autobiography, abstraction/ image manipulation, and documentary.
ATL 497 / VIS 497 / ARC 497
Princeton Student Colony: Art, Ecology, and Architecture
Fritz Haeg, Dan Wood
With artist and ecologist Fritz Haeg and architect Dan Wood, students will colonize and temporarily domesticate the New South Lawn on Princeton's campus to create an evolving laboratory/stage/lounge/platform/headquarters for the presentation and performance of fundamental human activities such as cooking, composting, dancing, eating, exercising, gathering, gardening, meeting, moving, napping, performing, recycling, socializing, stretching, talking, walking, washing.
VIS 201 / ARC 201
Introductory Drawing
Eve Aschheim, Nathan Carter
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.
VIS 203 / ARC 327
Introductory Painting
Eve Aschheim, Josephine Halvorson
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.
VIS 211
Introductory Photography - B&W
Allan Macintyre, Demetrius Oliver, Jocelyn Lee
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.
VIS 215 / ARC 215 / CWR 215
Graphic Design
David Reinfurt
This studio course will introduce students to the essential aspects and skills of graphic design, and will analyze and discuss the increasingly vital role that non-verbal, graphic information plays in all areas of professional life, from fine art and book design to social networking and the Internet. Students in the course will explore visual organization through a series of focused, interrelated assignments dealing with composition, page layout, type design, and image. Hands on production will include an array of do-it-yourself printing and distribution technologies, from letterpress and mimeograph to photocopying and websites.
VIS 221
Introductory Sculpture
Martha Friedman
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.
VIS 261
Introductory Video and Film Production
Keith Sanborn
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.
VIS 300
Muscle/Memory: Sculpture
Joseph Scanlan
Performed actions inform both contemporary art and dance--this course will investigate how, since the 1960s, both fields have put pressure on the body as a "site" of aesthetic experience, and on sculpture as the body's "trace." This studio seminar is offered with DAN 300. Students in VIS 300 will address sculpture and the body, students in DAN 300 will create performed movements as visual art--these classes will meet together periodically. How can nearly identical movements and objects be considered dance in some contexts and art in others? A lecture series comprised of prominent choreographers and artists will accompany the course.
VIS 313
Intermediate Photography
Accra Shepp
Serving as a continuation of VIS 211 or 212, this course seeks to increase the usefulness of the photographic process to the student through a careful examination of photo chemistry, print-making methods, and a strong emphasis on various formats of view camera. In seminar, the connections between traditions of art, science, commerce and photography will continue to be important.
VIS 315
Digital Photography
Demetrius Oliver
CANCELED - An advanced seminar and lab which explores the aesthetic and theoretical implications of digital technology in relation to photography. The emphasis is on making the photographic print in the digital work space. Class will consist of both independent and collaborative projects. One two-hour class, one three-hour laboratory.
THR 319 / VIS 319
Scenic Design
Riccardo Hernandez
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.
VIS 331
Ceramic Sculpture
Adam Welch
This course is designed for students who are interested in learning the fundamentals of working with clay. A wide variety of hand-building will be taught, enabling students to make utilitarian vessels as well as sculptural forms. Students will learn about glazing and colored engobe application methods and how to operate electric and gas kilns. Studio work will be complemented by readings, field trips, and slide presentations.
CWR 348 / VIS 348 / THR 348
Screenwriting I: Screenwriting as a Visual Medium
Christina Lazaridi, Patricia Marx
The course will introduce students to basic screenwriting techniques and principles, using cross-cultural film examples of European/Asian and US classics. Course will examine the visual power of story movement in film and the use of visual moments/behavior in creating memorable characters Students will be asked to write one short silent film and two narrative films using cross-cultural examples of European, Middle Eastern and U.S. Cinema.
VIS 392 / ART 392
Issues in Contemporary Art
Joseph Scanlan
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.
VIS 401
Advanced Drawing
Kurt Kauper
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.
VIS 411
Advanced Questions in Photography
Benjamin Gest
Student-initiated problems in photography will be explored in close working relationship with the instructor. Emphasis will be on integrating practice and critical thought.
VIS 416
Senior Thesis Seminar
Martha Friedman
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.
VIS 442
Film Theory
P.Adams Sitney
A seminar in the theoretical writings of filmmakers. The principal texts of Vertov, Eisenstein, Deren, Tarkovsky, Brakhage, Frampton, Bresson will be discussed. Representative examples of their films will be screened.
CWR 448 / VIS 448 / THR 448
Screenwriting II: Adaptation
Christina Lazaridi
This course will introduce students to Screenwriting Adaptation techniques, focusing on adapting "true stories" pulled from historical sources or the news. Issues of documentary technique versus fiction, the ethics of adaptation, how to turn facts into dramatic structure and the questions surrounding the need to fictionalize truth for dramatic purposes will accompany the analysis of World Cinema examples of film adaptations through the 20th century. Students will be asked to write one short silent film and one 30 minute film, adapted from a story they find in the news.
VIS 471
Special Topics in Visual Arts - Painting Without Canvas
Pamela Lins
This interdisciplinary studio course encourages students to expand their definition of painting by investigating methods of painting other than the convention of stretched fabric over a wood support. Historical precedents for the class include fresco painting, polychrome sculpture, painted furniture, murals, and painted installations. Students will experiment with the effects of applied paint and color on paper, three dimensional forms, material fragments, and walls. A variety of application techniques will also be explored. The class will pay particular attention to the idea of paint and color as tangible objects with spatial properties.
VIS 472
Special Topics in Visual Arts - Art For Everyone
Fia Backstrom
This class addresses the increasing pressure on art to become more democratically produced and distributed. Since the 1960s, expanding definitions of contemporary art, fueled by a greater emphasis on the active role of viewers as participants, have encouraged an atmosphere in which anyone can claim to be an artist. Through studio work in a wide range of accessible media, supported by readings and discussions, this class will take a hands-on approach to the question of whether art produced by everyone for everyone constitutes a longed-for utopia, a universal banality, or a cultural nightmare.
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