Art Studio

This course offers a practical study of sculpture using earth materials. It discusses traditional and innovative sculpture techniques using mud. This course also discusses carving, construction, and structural systems using stone, wood, iron, and natural fibers.

Students work on two complementary projects exploring materiality through assemblage construction and reductive working methods as a way of engaging with the current debates surrounding environmental and social sustainability in the arts.
Students are encouraged to consider the concept of sustainability in reference to specific cultural, environmental and socio-political frameworks and the implications for the production of art in the 21st century. They explore these issues through the development of a sculptural process that incorporates experimenting, presenting and reflecting. The focus for these projects is the development of relative thinking through physical experimentation and reflexive methodologies.

The course is designed from the perspective of cultivating digital art design and creative thinking abilities, and presents the basic knowledge and practical methods of digital art design, and enhances aesthetic appreciation and practical ability to adapt to the broader visual culture environment in the future.

The course is designed for upper division students who have completed at least 2 years of studio work in painting or the equivalent. Enrolment is by consent of the instructor. The course offers technical and artistic support aimed at helping students develop their talents and competencies, while at the same time, allowing them to recognize their own limits. The final objective of the course is to help students reach artistic autonomy and gain cognition of their own artistic production from a theoretical point of view, supported by technical competency. At least four main works of art are generally required per semester. The course runs in both the fall and spring semesters; this is the fall semester version of the course. The course includes lectures, seminars, and open critiques of student projects. The course is held in the Accademia di Belle Arti’s painting laboratory and includes presentations and discussions organized on the seminar model. Regular attendance and active participation in the discussions are required. Readings are assigned from the following authors: Gregory Bateson, Ernst Gombrich, James Elkins, Victor Stoichita, Clement Greenberg, and Rosalind Krauss.

This courses explores basic 2D computer graphics software widely used in design processes. Through step-by-step tutorials, in-class exercises, and assignments, students will learn to utilize relevant 2D graphic tools to create imageries and apply them to various designs. 

This course takes the form of a tour of the city and the environment near the Maison des Arts. Each session refers to two or three artists, photographers, or painters. Students learn to handle the device, exercise the gaze, and situate their work in relation to old or current references. This course alternates short exercises with visits to exhibitions and artistic places and meetings with actors of contemporary art. Topics such as device, document and fiction, photography and identity, and certain salient elements of the history of photography are discussed. Students design, produce, and present a photographic project that demonstrates a unique approach to the subject and a required minimum mastery of the photographic tool, and reflects on the place of the optical image in the field of art not as a goal to be achieved but as an exchangeable form open to the subjectivity of the spectators.

This theoretical and practical course explores the concept of character creation through costume design. It discusses techniques, processes and staging, and elements and accessories to match the wardrobe to the character.

Combining theory and practice, this course offers an introduction to sound art. Topics include: sound generation and sound object; soundscape and listening modes; recording and creative editing; installation and sound action.