ARST131 Drawing I

This introduction to drawing gives special attention to the articulation of line, shape, volume, light, gesture, and composition. A variety of media and subjects will be used, including the live model. This course is suitable for both beginners and students with some experience. Individual progress is an important factor in grading. The graded option is recommended. Full classroom attendance is expected.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST171 Design Lab

Design Lab is an introduction to design representation and production methods, focused on the integration of design software, model-making, and portfolio instruction with the introductory design studios. This course is to be taken concurrently with ARST 220, ARST235, or ARST270.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST190 Digital Foundations

This course introduces the foundations of digital art through contemporary artistic practice. Students will research the history of digital art and examine relationships of digital media and contemporary art. The class has a theoretical focus on machine use within the process of art making while building foundational digital skills. Projects will focus on four key areas including: Digital Imaging, 3D Modeling and Virtual Design, Time Based Media, and Digital Fabrication. Building on these four areas the course will culminate in an individualized research based final project and presentation. Through experimentation, critical analysis, critique and peer review; students will generate a unique portfolio of digital art works.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA190
Prereq: None

ARST190Z Digital Foundations

This introduction to the digital studio engages software and electronic media as an expanded field of creative production in contemporary art and design. Through a sequence of workshops, exercises, and hands-on digital projects, students will develop their critical and creative toolkits and learn to conceive, refine, and present original work. Open to all skill levels, this course prioritizes sustained and rigorous engagement with digital practice as well as conceptual and formal problem-solving.



Workshops in image manipulation, compositing, motion graphics, and visual communication will be led synchronously online by the instructor. This will be complemented with weekly online studio sessions, discussions, screenings, and reviews. Students will be provided access to all course materials using Google Drive and other digital platforms. Access to Adobe Creative Cloud software will be provided by Wesleyan, but individual licensing is also encouraged. Course assistants will offer peer mentoring and technical support in person through the DDS and online through Zoom.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA190Z
Prereq: None

ARST220 Ecological Design I: Being at Home in the World

Being at Home in the World is an introduction to the skills and thinking involved in the ecologically responsible creation of objects. This course is intended to provide a foundational understanding of the language of design, sources of materials, and energy systems. The studio encourages students to develop a rigorous, iterative working method to deeply analyze the nature of land and resources, explore options, and test ideas. This process of making is complemented and supported by an introduction to the history and theory of design, training with techniques and equipment, and active practice in keeping a sketchbook. Early exercises and projects in the course build familiarity and confidence with analytical drawing, making, and modeling techniques, which build toward the creation of a novel piece of design work presented at the final review.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: ENVS232, IDEA120
Prereq: None

ARST221 A Thousand Years of Iteration: Design for an Uncertain Future

The climate emergency is a product of design. Centuries worth of aesthetic and industrial innovation have created extractive infrastructure, efficient machines, and disposable products that make it increasingly easy to consume energy and resources on a global scale. As new conversations about just transitions, a circular economy, and a Green New Deal have begun to proliferate among designers, the discipline's troubled relationship to notions of "progress" remains largely unquestioned.



This reading- and research-intensive studio asks students to examine this history of technology and to critically evaluate shifting theoretical perspectives on nature and human development as they relate to design. Topics will include the lifespan of buildings and products, relationships with and obligations to materials and resources, and strategies for de-growth in indigenous and vernacular design precedents. These will be studied through assigned readings and in-class discussion, a series of design exercises, and the production of a final project from materials immediately at hand in Middletown.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA221, ENVS227
Prereq: None

ARST229 Community-Based Public Art: Mosaics on Main

In this course, students will have the opportunity to work directly with an ongoing major community art project in Middletown called "Mosaics on Main/Tunnel Vision." The course will include an overview of this project as well as research into other public art installations. Technical skills introduced in the course will include mold making, mosaic tile setting, and design strategies for large scale works. There will be field trips to local public art installations as well as Middletown City Hall to meet with members of the Middletown Commission on the Arts. Students will learn about finding funding sources and will review existing grants and grant opportunities. This is a hands-on course that will involve working with members of the Middletown community.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST233 Studies in Computer-based Modelling and Digital Fabrication

This course operates at the intersection of design and production, introducing students to digital tools critical to contemporary architecture and design. Throughout the semester, students will develop a series of projects that fluidly transition between design, representation, and fabrication with an emphasis on understanding how conceptual design interfaces with material properties. The course will offer a platform for students to research, experiment, and, ultimately, leverage the potential of digital tools toward a wide array of fields and disciplines. Students will be expected to utilize the Digital Design Studio's resources, including 3D printers, laser cutter, and 4-Axis CNC mill, as well a selection of fabrication equipment housed in the school's metal and wood shops to represent, model, and realize a series of design projects.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA233
Prereq: None

ARST235 Architecture I

This course is a synthesis of fundamentals of design principles and introduction to design vocabulary, process methodologies, and craft. Emphasis is placed on developing students' ability to examine the relationship between production (the process of creating things) and expression (the conveying of ideas and meaning) involved in the making of architecture. The intent of the course is to develop students' awareness and understanding of the built environment as a result of the investigations, observations, and inquiries generated in the studio.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA234
Prereq: None

ARST236 Fast & Furious

Fast and Furious is a class which explores the power of the multiple through the production of zines, posters, t-shirts, tote bags, pins and more. Beginning in the 1930s, the production of zines mainly in the sci-fi fan world became popular after the advent of the mimeograph--the first widely available duplicating machine. This way of making content was able to circumvent mainstream and institutional publishing models creating channels for more creatives to distribute their work. Today, there are even more technologies that can be used in the production of zeitgeist material. In this class, we will learn how to create with a Xerox machine, silkscreen, letterpress, polymer, and more. In each assignment we will contend with the power of quantity. What does it mean to make five of something? Ten? Fifty? One hundred? We will also experiment with format. How can a message be told through a wearable garment? How does the narrative change when it's a tote bag? And finally, we will explore the poetics of distribution. What are the artistic possibilities of a zine when it can be sent through the mail or left in a pile for the public?
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA236
Prereq: None

ARST237 Printmaking I

This course is an introduction to the practice and art of printmaking. Through technical instruction and personal exploration, students learn the rudiments of relief and intaglio printmaking media. Students learn to develop a print through a series of proofs with critical consideration as an important input in this progression from idea sketch to final edition.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST131

ARST238 Print Culture 101

Print Culture 101 is an introductory course about the vast medium of printmaking: its techniques, its traditions, and its possibilities. Throughout the semester, students will learn how to use each area of the printshop, and the fundamentals of relief, recessed, planographic, stencil, and photographic processes of printmaking. Additionally, students will gain some elemental skills in working with paper, ink, and adhesives. These skills will also equip students with useful knowledge to experiment with unconventional materials.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST131

ARST239 Painting I

This introductory-level course in painting (oils) emphasizes work from observation and stresses the fundamentals of formal structure: color, paint manipulation, composition, and scale towards artistic expression. Students will address conceptual problems that will allow them to begin developing an understanding of the power of visual images to convey ideas and expressions. The course will include lectures and individual and group critiques.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST131

ARST242 Typography

The fundamentals of fonts, letter forms, typographic design, elements of the book, and an introduction to contemporary graphic design are considered through a progression of theoretical exercises. Once working knowledge of the typeshop and InDesign (software for book design) is acquired, each student conceives, designs, and prints: first, a broadside, then a book. Use is made of the collection in the Davison Rare Book Room at Olin Library. While NOT a required sequence, this course is strongly recommended before taking ARST243.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST243 Introduction to Graphic Design

Introduction to Graphic Design is a course that aims to open a window of understanding and communication through the visual language. It will serve as a beginner's guide to an abundant artistic tool box, while attempting to expand your perceptions of graphic design and offering innovative outlooks to convey your ideas visually. The course will guide students through the fundamentals of designing programs as well as traditional art methods. This will be an active making and researching time for students to be exposed to the potential of the medium, as well as broadening its boundary.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA243
Prereq: None

ARST245 Sculpture I

An introduction to seeing, thinking, and working in three dimensions, the class will examine three-dimensional space, form, materials, and the associations they elicit. Through the sculptural processes of casting, carving, and construction in a variety of media, students will develop and communicate a personal vision in response to class assignments.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST251 Photography I

This is a comprehensive introductory course to the methods and aesthetics of film-based and digital photography. The topics of study will include evaluating negatives and darkroom prints, developing film, Lightroom and Photoshop software, inkjet printing, reading light, visualization, photographic design, and history of photography.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST252 Photography I

This class is only intended for first year students. This is an introductory course to the methods and aesthetics of film-based and digital photography. The class is designed for students with no prior formal experience in photography, though it will still challenge those that are already versed in film and digital. The first few weeks of class will be devoted to comprehensive technical instruction including exposure, film processing, and darkroom enlargement. Subsequently, class time will be split between weekly critiques and lectures covering topics including visualization, reading and evaluating light, and photographic history. The shooting assignments are open ended and conceived to push each student to define their own visual interests as they continue to immerse themselves in the language of the medium. After fall break, we will switch to working digitally. Software instruction will include Lightroom and Photoshop, with significant time devoted to inkjet printing. The course will culminate in a final portfolio that will reflect the formal, technical, and conceptual experimentation that the students will engage in throughout the course.



***Please note that this is an intensive course with a significant work load. Students should expect to spend at least 15 hours outside of class on weekly shooting and production. Please feel free to reach out to the instructor at arudensky@wesleyan.edu if you have any questions.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST253 Digital Photography I

This course is an extensive examination into the methods and aesthetics of digital photography. The topics of study will include DSLR camera operation, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Bridge, and printing as well as, most importantly, a focus on photography as a fine art through both a historical and contemporary viewpoint.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST260 Introduction to Sumi-e Painting

We will learn basic technique and composition of traditional Japanese sumi-e painting. Sumi-e is a style of black-and-white calligraphic ink painting that originated in China and was introduced into Japan by Zen monks around 1333. We will concentrate on the four basic compositions of sumi-e: bamboo, chrysanthemum, orchid, and plum blossom. We will also study the works of the more famous schools, such as Kano. Students will create a portfolio of class exercises and their own creative pieces.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: CEAS460
Prereq: None

ARST261 Alternative Printmaking: Beginning Japanese Woodblock Technique

Students are taught traditional Japanese techniques for conceptualizing a design in terms of woodcut, carving the blocks, and printing them, first in trial proofs and editions. After understanding how both of these methods were originally used and then seeing how contemporary artists have adapted them to their own purposes, both for themselves and in collaboration with printers, students will use them to fulfill their own artistic vision. Considerable use is made of the Davison Art Center collection of traditional and contemporary Japanese prints as well as many European and American woodcuts.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: CEAS461
Prereq: ARST131

ARST265 Action: Art, Politics, Counterpublics

In this interdisciplinary studio course, we explore action as a category of art practice. What does it mean to take action, either individually or collectively? What does it mean to refuse to take action? Through a series of projects, assignments, and discussions, we work through various possibilities, drawing on methods from public interventions, performance, institutional critique, social practice, experimental film, and work by non-art practitioners. The course is organized around the production of student projects and research, culminating in a self-directed capstone work. In the initial stages, students will be asked to work through three distinct modalities (performance, site-specific intervention, and collaborative practice) while developing their ideas. Time will be devoted to discussion of historic and contemporary examples, including European avant-gardes (Dada, Productivism), feminist film and performance, Happenings, Indigenous performance art, and work connected to political organizing, such as the Black Panther Party, United Farm Workers, Young Lords, ACT-UP, Art Workers' Coalition, and EZLN, among others. Students will be exposed to a variety of techniques and will gain access a range of facilities, including the woodshop, digital technologies through the Digital Design Studio, etc. Depending on Covid restrictions, trips to contemporary exhibitions will provide a theoretical framework. Work in this class can be created individually or collaboratively. Depending on interest, we may also organize an end-of-semester exhibit.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: CSPL275
Prereq: None

ARST270 Product Design I

In this introductory product design course, students will experience basic design processes such as problem identification and possible resolutions; the use of design development and communication skills via design observation and research; iterative process and prototyping; and representation and presentation in two and three-dimensional forms. Students will explore how design can play a role in our community and how it can impact our society. Students will work both individually and collaboratively in a studio environment. Field trips to New York City fabricators, galleries, and workshops may be expected as part of this course.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA160
Prereq: None

ARST271 Biodegradable Design: Soft and Hairy

In this course, we will develop an understanding of soft materials and how softness is explored in design. We will explore the notion of softness in design with particular focus on how soft, biodegradable materials can form our experience of a product. We will study how soft materials, plants, and living organisms can be utilized as a living material to form a built ecology. In particular, we will learn how mycelium used in novel ways can produce experiential affect in spaces, especially in relation to the human body. We will study how to design for impermanence--sometimes using waste materials--and develop an understanding for material recovery. The goal of the course is to introduce students to bio and living materials used in design as well as zero-waste design methodology, and develop digital and physical skills associated with the making of soft products. Students will work both individually and collaboratively in a studio environment. Field trips to New York City museums, fabricators, and galleries may be expected as part of this course.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA271, ENVS271
Prereq: ARST131 OR IDEA110 OR IDEA180

ARST286 Introduction to Time-Based Media

This course will serve as a comprehensive introduction to time-based media in the expanded field. We will explore the ways video can transform our relationship with ourselves, others, and the material world. Through regular technical exercises, readings, and group discussions, students will gain technical facility and a critical eye for time-based art and culture.



What sorts of videos do we consider "art"? In an era of selfies, live-streaming, and state-sanctioned violence (and its digital record), how might we use video as a tool of empathy and accountability? We will pursue answers to these questions through the act of making.



Students will be introduced to camera operation, sound recording, and lighting, as well as video and sound editing. Screenings of historical and contemporary video art will contextualize each assignment. We will also investigate vernacular applications of video, and the medium's role beyond the studio.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: DDC286
Prereq: None

ARST308 Composition in the Arts

Composition, the manner in which elements are combined or related to form a whole in space and time, is a basic practice in all the arts. This course brings together practitioners from diverse art forms and traditions to address the basic issue of composition.



In this seminar, we will explore the compositional process through assignments that address the interacting concepts of site and information. By "site," we mean a semantic field extending through corporeal, environmental, and social dimensions. By "information," we mean representations abstracted from sites, "meaningless" when independent of any specific semantic interpretation. Participants will compose individual and collaborative interventions in a wide range of sites--public, private, physical, and electronic--in response to the problems posed.



This course is permission-of-instructor, and is intended for upper-level majors in Art, Dance, Film, Music, and Theatre, and others with sustained compositional practices suitable to the course.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-MUSC
Identical With: MUSC308, THEA308
Prereq: None

ARST320 Ecological Design II: Worn Out/Broken In

This course will function as a design studio that examines the afterlife of material production. While designers have traditionally focused their attention on the creation, distribution, and consumption of new products, this course asks students to carefully consider everything that follows those acts. By scrutinizing the use, care, maintenance, repair, and eventual demise of designed objects, students come to understand the intended and unintended consequences of making. Rigorous observation and research lead to the creation of analytic drawings and models for presentation at project reviews.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA320, ENVS321
Prereq: ARST270 OR ARST235 OR ARST220

ARST321 Wood: Building with the Forest

This studio introduces students to full-scale design and construction through the production of a single, collaborative project over the course of the semester. Working from land-based research and precedent analysis, students develop a detailed design for a structure on a specific site in Middletown, then build it together in the field. Materials will be sourced from the northern hardwood forest and the design crafted to suit its ecosystem.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: ENVS324, IDEA321
Prereq: ARST270 OR ARST235 OR ARST220

ARST323 Topics in Studio Art: Information

Artists in all media have historically responded to common, formal, and ideological motivations. These motivations encompass the very fabric of a liberal arts education. This course is intended to develop such a conversation among the various studio art disciplines as the foundation for making art. The course centers on a topic determined by the instructor. The class will function as a study group (of painters, sculptors, photographers, drawers, printmakers, architects and so on) that tackles the topic through the act of art-making. The topic will be introduced through readings and visual precedents, and through discussion we will determine means to respond as artists, each student in his or her own medium. These individual responses will then be analyzed in group critiques. Later in the semester, students will expand their investigations to include studio disciplines other than their own.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST131 OR ARST235 OR ARST244 OR ARST245 OR ARST251 OR ARST253 OR ARST260 OR ARST285 OR ARST190 OR ARST233 OR ARST237 OR ARST239 OR ARST243 OR ARST261

ARST332 Drawing II

This class builds upon the course content covered in Drawing I (ARST131). As we continue to draw from observation, topics will include an in-depth exploration of the human figure and an introduction to color. This course also introduces a concept-based approach to drawing that explores narrative and content. While using brainstorming and ideation techniques, we will experiment with various marking systems, found imagery, processes, and spatial solutions. Further, the development of individual style and studio methodology is an aim in this course.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST131

ARST335 Interdisciplinary Project Lab

Interdisciplinary Project Lab fosters a holistic approach to engineering and design. Inviting students to reconcile vision with precision, hands-on coursework will involve a broad range of fabrication techniques, integration of systems, prototyping, and iterative design methods, culminating in a final project. The theme of this semester will be designing with light.



The first half of the semester will focus on developing facility in both modeling and prototyping through digital and analog fabrication practices through a series of short, intensive design and engineering projects. Students will expand their knowledge of materials and fabrication, develop skills for effective communication through visualizations and physical objects, and evaluate the efficacy of their designs. The second half of the semester will focus on a single project, developed in groups, planned in consultation with the instructors, and developed with feedback from all-lab reviews and individual desk crits. Complementing each of the lab projects, presentations and workshops will introduce the conceptual underpinnings of the course and develop requisite technical skills.



IDEA292: Interdisciplinary Project Lab is a required course for all IDEAS linked major tracks in the College of Design & Engineering Studies. It may also be counted towards the IDEAS minor as an elective in most minor concentrations (see https://www.wesleyan.edu/codes/ for more information).
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: NSM-IDEA
Identical With: IDEA292
Prereq: IDEA170 OR ARST190 OR IDEA285 OR IDEA175 OR ARST235

ARST336 Architecture II

This course is a second-level architecture studio whose focus will be a single, intensive research and design project. As the semester progresses, additional design, representation, and production tools will be introduced and used for developing work for the project, from graphics software to the laser cutter. Additional information about the architecture studio at Wesleyan and its past projects may be found at: http://www.facebook.com/wesnorthstudio
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA336
Prereq: ARST235

ARST337 Codex Unbound

Codex Unbound is a course that investigates the art of the book. It asks: What is a book? And what are the expansive possibilities of this form? Students will explore these large questions through the process of making books in a variety of binding and printing techniques that range in cultural and historical origin. In learning such techniques, students will also be tasked with intervening with forms and creating their own innovations, which can incorporate their own intellectual interests.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST131

ARST338 Printmaking II

This upper-level printmaking course focuses on the application of various printmaking methods in response to conceptual prompts. There will be instructional units on lithography, the Vandercook letterpress, and digital technologies. In addition to learning these new techniques, students are expected to build on previous printmaking experience to hone their skills and sharpen their creative vision. Routine print assignments and a final substantial project will task students with the development and presentation of professional, finished work.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST237 OR ARST261 OR ARST361

ARST339 Surface Tension

Bumpy, smooth, fuzzy, and sharp. These are all surfaces we are familiar with through our experience of the world. In art, the surface of an object, whether it is a sculpture or painting or anything else, is a port of entry into the experience, subject, and appreciation of the work. Tension in visual art can be thought of as the push and pull form has to provoke and/or engage the viewer. These points of strain could appear at the intersection of opposing marks, contrasting color, disharmonious imagery and much, much more. "Surface tension" refers to qualities in visual art related to the superficial veneer of an art object which can support the expression of content more deeply. In printmaking, surface tension can be literally created or optically suggested through a variety of techniques. In this class, we will learn advanced methodologies in intaglio, lithography, relief, letterpress, digital printing and more. Each assignment will task students to combine these mediums in surprising ways that encourage contrast, opposition, and traction. We will explore the possibilities of mixing water and oil based printing techniques, utilize digital medium in tandem with analog processes, apply dry and wet techniques together, and learn to gild metals on a variety of substrates. This class is open to any advanced student of art who wants to experiment with their practice in the arena of printmaking.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST261 OR ARST337 OR ARST238 OR ARST361

ARST340 Painting II

This course is intended for students with a solid foundation in painting or a related media concentration.



In this class, students will develop an artistic vision and studio practice while exploring open-ended prompts and engaging in conversations that unpack approaches and methods toward achieving artistic goals. Each individual will work uniquely in both concept and technique in order to become fluent and make conceptual and aesthetic choices that best convey their singular creative concerns. The knowledge and skills gained in ARST239 and/or other studio art courses will serve as the foundation for a deeper inquiry into how formal decisions about process inevitably impact expression and the reading of artworks. While analyzing differing approaches to solving the same problem, students will discover how their own practice can transform their relationship with others and the world.



Lectures and discussions will provide information and feedback on historical and contemporary issues, project proposals, goals for the work with respect to identifying an ideal audience, and the development of an artist's vision and statement.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: (ARST131 AND ARST239)

ARST341 Developing a Studio Practice Based in Painting

This course is intended for students with a solid foundation in painting or a related media concentration.



In this class, students will develop an artistic vision and studio practice while exploring open-ended prompts and engaging in conversations that unpack approaches and methods toward achieving artistic goals. Each individual will work uniquely in both concept and technique in order to become fluent and make conceptual and aesthetic choices that best convey their singular creative concerns. The knowledge and skills gained in ARST239 and/or other studio art courses will serve as the foundation for a deeper inquiry into how formal decisions about process inevitably impact expression and the reading of artworks. While analyzing differing approaches to solving the same problem, students will discover how their own practice can transform their relationship with others and the world.



Lectures and discussions will provide information and feedback on historical and contemporary issues, project proposals, goals for the work with respect to identifying an ideal audience, and the development of an artist's vision and statement.



Prerequisite: You must have taken any second level Art Studio course in any concentration.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST345 FAN FICTIONS: Alternative Universes, Gender Swaps, Ship-ping

In the vernacular, a "fan fiction" is a type of writing that reimagines a piece of popular media such as a book, TV show, or movie. This happens without consent and is used to explore alternative narratives or taboos.



Artists such as Kara Walker have reimagined the Antebellum south as an erotic horror, Mike Kelly created installations based on the cities of Krypton from the comic book Superman.



In our class we will utilize printmaking methodologies to explore strategies of fan fiction, by creating artworks that reconfigure both historical and fictional canons that have historically been entrenched in ideas of authenticity and devotional labor. Students will create etchings, silk screens, and zines.



Students should have print media experience though the class is not strictly restricted to printmaking.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST131

ARST346 Sculpture II

This is an intermediate-level course. Projects focus on the associative nature of three-dimensional form--how issues intrinsic to sculpture reflect concerns extrinsic to the art form. The class will emphasize the development of personal expressions of students' visions in response to class assignments.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST245 OR [ARST235 or IDEA234]

ARST350 Senior Seminar

This is an interdisciplinary critique-based course designed for advanced Art Studio majors. Our primary aim is to provide a structure for the development of each student's thesis work, research, and thinking as it evolves over the course of the semester. Through extensive in-class discussions and reviews, we devote a substantial portion of time to the presentation and discussion of student work. We devote time to the discussion of installation strategies, readings in contemporary criticism, visiting artist lectures and presentations, and, if possible, visits to contemporary exhibitions in the area. The course is also an interdisciplinary workshop, an opportunity to share your work with your fellow students, and to participate in a structured response to one another's work across different types of media. Participation in the class will include leading discussions of readings, attending visiting department lectures, sharing work in class, and responding to/giving feedback to classmates' work. The course is designed as a complement to the Art Studio Senior Thesis process and is an elective for Art Studio majors.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: ARST332 OR ARST338 OR ARST346 OR ARST344 OR ARST340 OR ARST352 OR ARST336 OR ARST243 OR ARST285 OR ARST320 OR ARST339 OR ARST386 OR ARST337 ARST353

ARST352 Photography II

This is an intensive course intended for students with a solid foundation in photography. Students can choose to work in either film-based or digital media while developing their own unique voice. Topics will include medium-format film cameras, fiber paper, virtual drum scanning, large-format digital printing, and editing and sequencing images. The second part of the course will be devoted to developing a body of work that will result in a photo book project. Lectures and class discussions will provide a historical context, while presentations by visiting artists will introduce students to contemporary work in the medium. Emphasis will be placed on the weekly discussion of students' work.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST353 Photography III - Documentary Practices

This is an intensive course that will provide students with a historical, theoretical, and ethical overview associated with documentary photographic practice. It is intended for advanced students that have taken Photography I (ARST 251) or Photography II (ARST 352). Assignments, readings, and discussions will be geared toward the development of a cohesive body of work with focus on research and development of a concept, editing and sequencing of photographs, and fine printing. This course will serve as preparation for thesis work undertaken during the senior year and is recommended for prospective or current majors.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST251 OR ARST352

ARST355 Concepts in Contemporary Art

In this interdisciplinary seminar and studio course, we explore key concepts in contemporary discourse across a range of forms, genres, and disciplines. How do works of art respond to and reframe central debates in the wider culture? In what ways do the theory and practice of art supplement or contradict each other? How does research function within the context of art historical study and contemporary artistic practice?



To contend with these questions, students develop a series of projects over the course of the term in response to specific conceptual prompts. These investigations may take the form of studio-based work or written scholarship depending on student interest and will culminate either in a final research paper (for those registering for Art History credit) or a final project in any medium (for those registering for Art Studio credit). Along the way, we study artworks, literary texts, works of social theory, art historical scholarship, films, popular culture, and other objects to ground our research. Parallel activities may include conversations with artists and art historians, methodological workshops, site-visits, trips to museums, and archival research.



Since the course's aim is to cultivate unexpected collaborations, cross-disciplinary encounters, and new ways of conjugating the history, theory, and practice of art, the final portion of the semester will focus on the organization of a collective exhibition, event series, symposium, publication, or other expanded curatorial endeavor. The course meets Fridays 12:30 pm-5:30 pm, with a break during that interval. Class time may on occasion include individual meetings and independent work.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: ARHA355
Prereq: None

ARST358 Video in Context

We live in a world where screens are often taken for granted. How has the omnipresence of video transformed visual perception? This course will focus on video installation and the ways video can shift our relationship to objects, space, and each other. Students will experiment with lighting and environment building, paying particular attention to how surfaces are transformed by the lens. We will explore projection mapping, live-streaming, installation, and the peculiarities of the screen. We will look at works by artists who have emphasized the physicality or immateriality of video through installation and web-based art. We will read a variety of texts, charting the shifting role video has played in contemporary society. Through weekly exercises and regular group critiques, we will begin to unpack how the videos we make contact with daily shift our relationship with both our own bodies and the material world.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST361 Monotype Printmaking

The monotype print is a free form of printmaking more akin to painting or drawing than to traditional printmaking. It is also a process in which the artist encounters fewer technical difficulties than in other traditional printmaking methods. Students in this course will create images using various mediums and methods. We are going to use different material like wood, plexiglass, paper, and textiles. Also, we may use laser cutting or digital printing, to combine with drawing or painting.



The goal of this course is not perfection of technique, but rather students experimenting with material and technique, to produce their own visual images.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST131 OR ARST190 OR ARST233 OR ARST235 OR ARST237 OR ARST242 OR ARST243 OR ARST244 OR ARST245 OR ARST251 OR ARST253 OR ARST260 OR ARST261

ARST362 Sumi-e Painting II

Sumi-e Painting II is an advanced class for which Introduction to Sumi-e Painting (ARST 260) is a prerequisite. In this course, foundation techniques will be expanded upon. We will re-examine traditional techniques and composition, and there will be exploration of new contemporary techniques. There will also be experimentation with tools beyond the brush. This course will introduce a concept based approach to narrative and content. Students will be encouraged to develop a personal style and method.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: CEAS362
Prereq: ARST260

ARST370 Product Design II

This course builds on the exploration and knowledge learned in Product Design I to discover opportunities for systems thinking in product design. Students will study systemic challenges related to aging, education, food, and mobility to investigate potential opportunities through the lens of product design. The course will support students in developing digital modeling skills as well as rapid prototyping and fabrication techniques. Students will work both individually and collaboratively in a studio environment. Field trips to New York City design ateliers, fabricators, and workshops may be expected as part of this course.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: IDEA370
Prereq: ARST270 OR ARST235 OR ARST220

ARST380 Interdisciplinary Studio: Politics of Land and Place

Notions of "place" are particularly fraught in North America, where legacies of development and dispossession have etched enduring power relationships onto the land. Contemporary spatial experience is marked by what Mindy Fullilove has called root shock: the reverberating effects of losing one's place and the collective struggle to reclaim it. In this interdisciplinary studio course, we develop artistic responses to the ways in which power shapes the natural and built environment. We look at a range of sites--the home, the city, the border, the wilderness, the commons--as spaces of memory and belonging, sociality and resistance. We explore the ways in which people have engaged with place through a range of forms, including roadside monuments, site-specific sculptures, landscape films, community-based performances, situationist dérives, plein air painting, collective rituals, and political protests. Over the course of the term, students will identify a site in the Lower Connecticut River Valley and develop their own aesthetic language in response to it. These works may take the shape of installations, performances, digital media, or texts, and will draw on our discussions of land art, institutional critique, social practice, and experimental film. While the course is geared primarily toward the development of student projects, our work will be informed by a series of site visits, readings, screenings, and discussions of contemporary land struggles, anticolonial movements, and feminist and indigenous geographies.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST381 Intermediate Public Practice

What are the possibilities and challenges of making work in the public domain? This intermediate studio course provides students with the framework, conceptual language, and technical means to develop ambitious projects in public space. Over the course of the semester, students will be introduced to a range of working methods, including new genre public art, research-based practices, site-specific projects, and collaborative practices. While the course focuses on contemporary issues and debates, it situates these topics within a set of broader global and historical traditions. Through group discussions, critiques, site visits, and presentations, the course will assist students in developing a series of works that build towards a self-directed final project. We look thematically at a range of sites as spaces of memory and belonging, sociality and resistance. We explore the manifold ways in which people have engaged with place through a range of forms, including roadside monuments, site-specific sculptures, landscape films, community-based performances, architectural interventions, collective rituals, and political protests. Attention will be placed on sites around Middletown in order to situate our research and practice. These may include Harbor Park, Middlesex Historical Society, Beman Triangle, Connecticut Valley Hospital, Colt Armory, Portland Brownstone Quarries, among others. Support will be provided to students along the way in negotiating relationships with local institutions and stakeholders. Supplementary readings will introduce students to questions related to spatial theory and practice, agonism and democracy, monuments and counter-monuments. Successful completion of the course will prepare students for advanced work in the public domain. Course is open to all students. Preference given to students who have taken ARST131 and ARST235 or ARST238 or ARST239 or ARST245 or ARST 251 or ARST286 or other course in a related discipline.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: CSPL381
Prereq: None

ARST382 Intermediate New Genres

In this interdisciplinary studio course, we make work that traverses traditional disciplinary boundaries in order to develop a methodology that prioritizes questions of context, material, and theme. Building on the history of experimental and avant-garde practices of the 20th and 21st centuries, work in this course may take the form of installations, performances, videos, texts, participatory and collaborative projects, site- and context-specific works, and other as-yet undefined forms.



Our work will not be defined by adherence to any specific discipline or genre. In this way, the course serves as a springboard for each student to develop a relationship to contemporary interdisciplinary practice as well as an opportunity to explore, collectively and individually, pivotal theoretical frameworks that have shaped the field. Successful completion of the course will provide students with a solid foundation for experimentation in the expanded field of contemporary artistic practice.



Prerequisite: Students must have successfully completed an Introductory- or Intermediate-level Studio Arts course.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST384 Special Topic: Between Forms: Intermedia Arts Workshop

This advanced project-based workshop is for poets and artists interested in interdisciplinary practices crossing over between poetry, visual art, and performance. It is taught in conversation with the Fall 2021 exhibition, The Language in Common, in Zilkha Gallery including the work of Cecilia Vicuña, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Julien Creuzet, Jasper Marsalis, and Alice Notley.



Facilitated by Professors Benjamin Chaffee and Danielle Vogel, with modules taught by visiting artists from across the arts, this workshop is designed for students interested in working outside of--or between--their primary mediums. Professors will guide students as they choose "companion mediums" to work in for the semester while employing interdisciplinary approaches to writing and art-making in order to discover their own unique and hybrid forms.



We will divide our time between intensive laboratory-like spaces for composing work, conversations with visiting artists, student presentations and workshops, and studying the works of artists working between forms, all in an attempt to root ourselves more dynamically in our individual practices. The course will culminate in a reflective essay or artist statement, as well as an exhibit of poems, objects, installations, and performances created during our time together.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ENGL
Identical With: ENGL384
Prereq: None

ARST385 Introduction to Social Practice

This studio seminar will serve as an introduction to contemporary issues in socially engaged art practice, with the goal to familiarize students with the history, theory, and practice of socially and politically engaged art. This course is intended for students with significant prior experience in studio art or related coursework in other disciplines. Interviews for the course will be held during the first class meeting.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: ARST131 OR ARST190 OR ARST237 OR ARST239 OR ARST242 OR ARST243 OR ARST245 OR ARST253 OR ARST260 OR ARST261 OR ARST285 OR ARST352 OR ARST353 OR ARST361

ARST386 Intermediate Time-Based Media

In this interdisciplinary studio course, we make work that traverses traditional disciplinary boundaries in order to develop a methodology that prioritizes questions of context, material, and theme. Building on the history of experimental and avant-garde practices of the 20th and 21st centuries, work in this course may take the form of installations, performances, videos, texts, participatory and collaborative projects, site- and context-specific works, and other as-yet undefined forms.



Our work will not be defined by adherence to any specific discipline or genre. In this way, the course serves as a springboard for each student to develop a relationship to contemporary interdisciplinary practice as well as an opportunity to explore, collectively and individually, pivotal theoretical frameworks that have shaped the field. Successful completion of the course will provide students with a solid foundation for experimentation in the expanded field of contemporary artistic practice.



Prerequisite: Students must have successfully completed an Introductory or Intermediate level Studio Arts course.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Prereq: None

ARST401 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARST402 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARST403 Department/Program Project or Essay

Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

ARST404 Department/Program Project or Essay

Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

ARST407 Senior Tutorial (downgraded thesis)

Downgraded Senior Thesis Tutorial - Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor. Only enrolled in through the Honors Coordinator.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

ARST408 Senior Tutorial (downgraded thesis)

Downgraded Senior Thesis Tutorial - Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor. Only enrolled in through the Honors Coordinator.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

ARST409 Senior Thesis Tutorial

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

ARST410 Senior Thesis Tutorial

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

ARST411 Group Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARST412 Group Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARST419 Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U

ARST420 Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U

ARST465 Education in the Field, Undergraduate

Students must consult with the department and class dean in advance of undertaking education in the field for approval of the nature of the responsibilities and method of evaluation.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARST466 Education in the Field, Undergraduate

Students must consult with the department and class dean in advance of undertaking education in the field for approval of the nature of the responsibilities and method of evaluation.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARST467 Independent Study, Undergraduate

Credit may be earned for an independent study during a summer or authorized leave of absence provided that (1) plans have been approved in advance, and (2) all specified requirements have been satisfied.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARST468 Independent Study, Undergraduate

Credit may be earned for an independent study during a summer or authorized leave of absence provided that (1) plans have been approved in advance, and (2) all specified requirements have been satisfied.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARST469 Education in the Field, Undergraduate

Students must consult with the department and class dean in advance of undertaking education in the field for approval of the nature of the responsibilities and method of evaluation.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

ARST470 Independent Study, Undergraduate

Credit may be earned for an independent study during a summer or authorized leave of absence provided that (1) plans have been approved in advance, and (2) all specified requirements have been satisfied.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

ARST484 Data, Art, and Visual Communication

This course looks at the ways the digital arts--broadly defined--can be used to explore the intersections of research, data, design, and art. Following a creative software "bootcamp," students will execute projects intended to help them generate, manipulate, and remix data for the purposes of visual communication and art. Students will use Adobe Creative Suite and Processing, an open source programming language, and integrated development environment (IDE) built for electronic arts, new media, and visual design. In addition to working in the studio, seminars, readings, and student presentations will explore the role of data visualization, "big data," and the web in culture and society today. No prior software knowledge or coding skills are required. Students working in STEM, humanities, and social sciences are encouraged to enroll.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: CIS284
Prereq: None

ARST491 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARST492 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARST495 Research Apprentice, Undergraduate

Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARST496 Research Apprentice, Undergraduate

Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U