Visual Arts

The great thing about drawing is you can do it anywhere! This course approaches drawing as a way of thinking and seeing. We'll introduce basic techniques while also encouraging experimentation, with a focus on both drawing from life and drawing as an expressive act. Students will be introduced to the basics of line, shading, proportion, composition, texture and gesture. You'll also maintain a drawing journal, and use it as a regular space for observation and personal expression. Through exposure to a variety of mediums and techniques, you'll gain the skills and confidence necessary to develop an individual final project of your choosing.

The great thing about drawing is that you can do it anywhere! This course approaches drawing as a way of thinking and seeing. We'll learn from observation methods (still-life, plein-air, and figure drawing) while becoming adept at translating physical and lived experiences onto two-dimensional surfaces. Students will learn the basics of shading, proportion, composition, and gesture through various methods - privileging experimentation and curiosity. Lectures will be held to broaden an understanding of historical and contemporary drawing practices. By the end of the semester, you'll develop a final project of your choosing.

An introduction to the materials and methods of painting, addressing form and light, color and its interaction, composition, scale, texture and gesture. Students will experiment with subject matter including still life, landscape, architecture, self-portraiture and abstraction, while painting from a variety of sources: life, sketches, maquettes, collages, photographs and imagination. Students will progressively develop personal imagery that will inform an individual final project. Princeton will provide all materials for the painting class.

An introduction to the materials and methods of painting, addressing form and light, color and its interaction, composition, scale, texture and gesture. Students will experiment with subject matter including still life, landscape, architecture, self-portraiture and abstraction, while painting from a variety of sources: life, sketches, maquettes, collages, photographs and imagination. Students will progressively develop personal imagery that will inform an individual final project. Princeton will provide all materials for the painting class.

An introduction to the processes of photography through a series of problems directed toward lens projection, the handling of light-sensitive material, and camera operation. The processes will begin with cyanotypes and culminate with large format film exposure and processing, and printing. These processes trace the origins of photography. Final projects will examine new potentials in photographic expression including images that hybridize analog and digital interfaces. The goal of this course is to make art, and by doing so, understand the necessity for the invention of photography.

An introduction to the processes of photography through a series of problems directed toward personal expression and darkroom techniques. Weekly laboratory sessions will explore the critical issues of the medium in relation to both student work and examples of photographs curated from the history of the medium. One three-hour and fifty-minute class and two hours of independent laboratory

This studio course introduces students to the aesthetic, philosophical and theoretical implications of digital photography. Emphasis is on understanding digital equipment and protocols, print management, and familiarity with the digital workspace. The "afterlife" of analogue photography in digital media will be emphasized. Slide lectures, readings, and class discussion of texts and with student work in critique format will augment critical and conceptual understanding of recent contemporary photography and art.

This class is an introduction to sculpture with an emphasis on a wide variety of materials and processes. Weekly studio work will engage the visual properties of sculpture; regular presentations and discussions will study how form, scale, and cultural references can be combined to create meaning. Indoor and outdoor assignments will prompt students to discover an understanding of contemporary sculpture.Students will also develop basic facility with hand and bench tools, catalytic chemistry, and industrial techniques, as well as a heightened awareness of how 3D objects relate to one's own body, to architecture, and to the landscape.

This class will be a studio introduction to sculpture, with particular emphasis on the study of how form, space, and a wide variety of materials and processes influence the visual properties of sculpture and the making of meaning. A balance of indoor, outdoor, and/or transient assignments will lead to the development of an understanding of contemporary sculpture, as well as basic technical facility with found objects, common materials, natural earthworks, ergonomics, and three-dimensional design.

Global Blackness is a cross-disciplinary transnational multi-lingual survey course that will introduce students to a range of texts, including film, literature and popular culture produced by and about Black people outside of the United States. Students will learn about the legacy of European expansion in Africa and the Americas, the impact of the transatlantic slave trade beyond the United States, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in places like Haiti and Eritrea, as well as engage with a diversity of Black cultural art, identities, politics, social movements, and expressions that come from these knowledges and beyond.

A historical examination of a film genre--e.g., comedy, documentary, detective film (also called film noir). The object of the course will be the understanding of the uniquely cinematic aspects of each genre, studied against the backdrop of parallel literary genres (e.g., comedy from Aristophanes to Beckett; documentary fiction and essays; 19th- and 20th-century detective fiction). One genre will be the topic of the course each year. Two 90-minute classes, one film screening.

A film/video course introducing the techniques of shooting and editing digital video. Works of film/video art are analyzed in order to explore the development of, and innovations in, cinematic language. Production is oriented toward film/video as a visual art, including narrative, documentary, and experimental genres. Several short video projects produced during the semester. Two studio classes, five hours per week. Prerequisite: instructor's permission.

A film/video course introducing the techniques of shooting and editing digital video. Works of film/video art are analyzed in order to explore the development of, and innovations in, cinematic language. Production is oriented toward film/video as a visual art, including narrative, documentary, and experimental genres. Several short video projects produced during the semester. Two studio classes, five hours per week. Prerequisite: instructor's permission.

This course is designed to allow students to explore more deeply the process and meaning of painting. Students will complete a set of structured assignments and are encouraged to develop an independent direction. Contemporary critical theory is integrated into the course. Two studio classes, five hours per week. Prerequisite: 203, 204 and instructor's permission.

This course is designed to allow students to explore more deeply the process and meaning of painting. Students will complete a set of structured assignments and are encouraged to develop an independent direction. Contemporary critical theory is integrated into the course. One studio class, four hours per week. Prerequisite: 203, 204 and instructor's permission.

A study of major German philosophers and religious and social thinkers from the Reformation to the present. Selected works of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, or German-Jewish thinkers will be read together with contemporary interpretations. Two 90-minute seminars.

In a digital world, this course promotes hand-made printed images. Students will examine two kinds of printmaking: relief and intaglio. To make images that matter, students will learn to cut blocks, fashion stencils, plan and execute color layers, etch and drypoint copper plates, and understand the range of mark making possibilities available in printmaking. Students are encouraged to draw regularly to cultivate themes and content, and to develop a basic knowledge of print in contemporary art. Woodblocks have been around since the 8th century; etchings for 500 years. Students will make something completely new from something old.

This seminar will address two essential questions: How can the art of film advance the causes of science? How do communities use media to support their environmental activism? Based in Kenya, students will be trained in digital video production, screenwriting, and editing, and will produce a series of short and long documentaries. Filming will entail numerous trips into the field, interviewing, and recording. The seminar will help students begin to understand crucial international development issues, e.g., water, wildlife, and land use, and how to communicate memorably about them through video.

This course will examine the practice of camera-less photography. Students will work in black and white and color in the analog darkroom with a wide spectrum of processes - photograms, lumen and cliché-verre prints, chemigrams, and digitally produced negatives. The course will require independent and collaborative assignments augmented by readings in the history of camera-less and abstract photography and by visiting artists.

What is film? Is it a language? Can one speak of cinematic literacy? Does film transform perception? Is there filmic thinking? This seminar on the theory and poetics of cinema will examine the varieties of ways -- semiotic, psychoanalytic, narratological - that filmmakers, philosophers and critics have analyzed film form, the cinematic experience, the construction of cinematic subjectivity, questions of aesthetic politics and notions of medium specificity. Taught in English.

An introduction to the art and craft of lighting design for live performance 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.

Offers students the opportunity to gain a working knowledge of the ways in which dance, dance/theater, and body-based art are created and performed today. Primarily a studio course that stresses learning through doing. Students will have the opportunity to work with leading experimental creators. Topics, prerequisites, and formats will vary from year to year.

This course is designed for students who are 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 will be complemented by readings, field trips, and slide presentations.

This course is designed for students who are 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 will be complemented by readings, field trips, and slide presentations. Two studio classes, five hours per week.

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 filmmakers as Bergman, Hitchcock, Bresson, and Antonioni. Modernism in film will be a central consideration. One three-hour class, weekly film screenings.

This seminar will treat in depth the work of two or three filmmakers of major importance. Specific subjects will vary.

This seminar will deal in some detail with an aspect of film history, focusing on an important movement or exploring a significant issue. Specific topics and prerequisites will vary.

Major movements and directors in French and French-language cinema. Topics may include: early history of the cinematographe; the Golden Age of French film; Renoir, Bresson, Tati; the "New-Wave"; French women directors of the 1980s; adaptation of literary works.

Exploration of the quest for moral values in Soviet and post-Soviet Russian cinema of the 1960s to the present. Topics include, among others, the effects of Stalinism; the struggle for freedom of individual conscience under totalitarianism; the artist's moral dilemmas in Soviet and post-Soviet society; materialism versus spirituality. Films of Andrei Tarkovsky, Nikita Mikhalkov, and others. One three-hour seminar. Knowledge of Russian not required.

A second-level film/video workshop focusing on digital media production. Short works of film/video art will be analyzed in class as a guide to the issues of aesthetic choice, editing structure, and challenging one's audience. Students complete two short videos and a longer final project, and view one film each week outside of class time. Prerequisites: 261 or 262 and instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar.

A second-level film/video workshop focusing on digital media production. Short works of film/video art will be analyzed in class as a guide to the issues of aesthetic choice, editing structure, and challenging one's audience. Students complete two short videos and a longer final project, and view one film each week outside of class time. Prerequisites: 261 or 262 and instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar.

An exploration of the various aspects of costume design. Emphasis will depend to some degree on instructor's area of interest and/or student interest. Studio projects will be designed to coincide with other theater and dance courses and currently scheduled productions. Critical discussion will explore the relationship between dramatic texts and design ideas. Two three-hour seminars or studio sessions.

A required seminar for Art and Archaeology Practice of Art majors and Program in Visual Arts Minor students emphasizing contemporary art practices and ideas. The course addresses current issues in painting, drawing, sculpture, film, video, photography, performance and installation. It includes readings and discussions of current contemporary art topics, a visiting artist lecture series, critiques of students' work, and an artist book project.

This course offers an exploration of visual storytelling, research and dramaturgy, combined with a grounding in the practical, collaborative and inclusive skills necessary to create physical environments for live theater making. Students are mentored as designers, directors or project creators on realized projects in our theaters, or on advanced paper projects. Individualized class plans allow students to imagine physical environments for realized and un-realized productions, depending on their area of interest, experience and skill level. Students will see one or two shows off campus, typically in NYC, during the course of the semester.

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 studio sessions-five hours a week. Prerequisites: VIS 303 or VIS 304 and instructor's permission.

This class will focus on how contemporary painting considers the human figure. Portraits without people, the selfie, imagined figures, forgotten figures, fragmented figures, figures from our lives, abstract figures, cyborgs, crowds, and composite figures will be considered within a structure of exploratory painterly approaches. This class will NOT focus on "how to" paint the figure. No experience painting the figure is necessary. Must have taken VIS 203-204.

This class will familiarize students with the complex use of metaphorical, emotional, and visual threads in long form 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. Prerequisite: Introduction to Screenwriting and by application.

This course is designed to guide photography students toward a distinct artistic voice, and projects will be assigned to suit individuals' aesthetic trajectories. Technical components of the class will focus on how digital and analogue photography merge with other practices such as site-specific installation work and time-based media. Materialist and text-based approaches to photography will be encouraged and visiting artists and gallery and museum visits will lean in this direction. Prerequisites and Restrictions: VIS 211, 212, 213, 219, 315 or 316

This class will explore the art of storytelling through the aesthetics of film editing. By focusing on the editing process, students will not only learn how to edit their work but also how to better plan the writing, casting, sound design, and shooting of a film to better serve the editing process. Through screenings of award-winning films, informal class discussions with their directors, and exclusive access to raw scenes and footage, students will learn how to conceptualize the entire film production process as well as be introduced to accomplished professionals in the field.

A studio course in which formal problems are raised and explored through a range of materials. The central focus is on analysis and exploration of the nature of sculptural space. One four-hour studio class. Prerequisites: 221 or 222 and instructor's permission.

An examination of the central texts and abiding issues of the theory of cinema. Properties of the shot as a unit of film construction and its relationship to the space of reality are analyzed. Different kinds of film structures and their theoretical underpinnings are studied.

An introduction to Italian cinema from 1945 to the present. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the course will focus on sociopolitical and cultural issues as well as on basic concepts of film style and technique. Specific topics will change from year to year, and prerequisites will vary. No knowledge of Italian is required to enroll. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute precept, and one film showing.

A seminar examining the ways in which filmmakers have used one of the other arts as part of the self-definition of cinema as an autonomous art. One or two such interactions will be the focus of the course, and will vary by term (e.g., painting, architecture, poetry, narrative fiction).

This course, conducted in English, is a study of Fascism through selected films from World War II to the present. Topics include: the concept of Fascist normality; Racial Laws; the role of women and homosexuals; colonialism; and the opposition of the intellectual left. Films include: Bertolucci's The Conformist, Fellini's Amarcord, Rossellini's Rome Open City, and Wertmüller's Seven Beauties. The approach is interdisciplinary and combines the analysis of historical themes with an in-depth cinematic reading of the films.

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. One lecture, one two-hour preceptorial, one film screening.

A third-level film/video course to further develop video production skills. Students have the option of spending the term either creating a single long work or a series of short pieces. Short weekly shooting exercises. Students view one film each week outside of class time. Two studio classes, five hours per week. Prerequisite: 361 or 362 and instructor's permission.

Advanced work in special areas of the various visual media or in areas where the traditional media intersect (for example, typography, video, photo printmaking). Specific topics will change from year to year, and prerequisites will vary.

Advanced work in special areas of the various visual media or in areas where the traditional media intersect (for example, typography, video, photo printmaking). Specific topics will change from year to year, and prerequisites will vary.

-