Contacts | Program of Study | Range of Course Offerings | Program Requirements | Summary of Requirements for Majors | Studio Track | Summary of Requirements for Studio Track Majors | Honors | Grading | Minor Program in the Department of Visual Arts | Summary of Requirements for the Minor in Visual Arts | Course Attendance | Visual Arts Courses

Department Website: http://dova.uchicago.edu

Program of Study

The Department of Visual Arts (DoVA) is concerned with art making as a vehicle for exploring creativity, expression, perception, and the constructed world. Whether students take courses listed under ARTV to meet a general education requirement or as part of a major in visual arts, the goal is that they will develop communicative, analytical, and expressive skills through the process of artistic production. The following three courses meet the general education requirement in the arts: ARTV 10100 Visual Language: On Images, ARTV 10200 Visual Language: On Objects, and ARTV 10300 Visual Language: On Time and Space. Most advanced courses require one of these as a prerequisite. (See individual course listings for specific prerequisites.) 

Range of Course Offerings

The following courses introduce visual communication through the manipulation of various traditional and nonart materials, engaging principles of visual language while stressing the relationship between form and meaning. Readings and visits to local museums and galleries are required. 

ARTV 10100Visual Language: On Images100
ARTV 10200Visual Language: On Objects100
ARTV 10300Visual Language: On Time and Space100

ARTV courses numbered 21000 to 29700 include media specific courses that teach technical skills and provide a conceptual framework for working in these media (e.g., painting, photography, sculpture, video). Also included are more advanced studio courses designed to investigate the vast array of objects, spaces, and ideas embedded in the contemporary artistic landscape. ARTV courses numbered 20000 to 20999 are not studio-based and are generally not counted toward studio requirements for the major or minor. ARTV courses in the 20000 to 20999 range may be counted toward the two electives relevant to the major. (See Program Requirements for more information.)

Students in other fields of study may also complete a minor in visual arts. Information follows the description of the major.

Program Requirements

The BA program in the Department of Visual Arts is intended for students interested in the practice and study of art. DoVA's faculty consists of a core of artists and other humanists interested in making and thinking about art. Students who major in visual arts take an individually arranged program of studio, lecture, and seminar courses that may include some courses outside the Humanities Collegiate Division. The program seeks to foster understanding of art from several perspectives: the practice and intention of the creator, the visual conventions employed, and the perception and critical reception of the audience. In addition to work in the studio, these aims may require study of many other subjects, including but not limited to art history, intellectual history, criticism, and aesthetics. 

All students take ARTV 10100 Visual Language: On Images, ARTV 10200 Visual Language: On Objects, or ARTV 10300 Visual Language: On Time and Space in the first two years of their studies. At least six of the courses beyond the general education requirement in the arts must be drawn from the second level of studio-based offerings (studio art courses numbered 21000 and above). Please note that only courses that are primarily focused on art making can be applied toward this requirement. Students may take up to two studio-based independent study courses (ARTV 29700 Independent Study in Visual Arts) toward their six studio requirements. Two of the remaining three electives may include any intellectually consistent combination of visual arts studio courses, visual arts critical and theory courses, and any other relevant offerings in the College. One elective must be a 20000-level (not meeting the general education requirement in the arts) course in Art History (ARTH). 

Students should take ARTV 29600 Studio Project - I early in their program, ideally in the second or third year. ARTV 29850 Studio Project - II is often taken in the fourth year, but may be taken earlier. Students in the studio track are required to take an additional course, ARTV 29900 Studio Project - III, which serves as a critical forum to prepare for the thesis exhibition in the spring. ARTV 29900 Studio Project - III is only offered in Winter Quarter. The Studio Project series must be taken in sequence; students who are planning to study abroad should plan ahead so that they can complete the sequence in order prior to graduation.

Summary of Requirements for Majors

MAJOR
One of the following:*100
Visual Language: On Images
Visual Language: On Objects
Visual Language: On Time and Space
ARTV 29600Studio Project - I100
ARTV 29850Studio Project - II100
Six studio ARTV courses numbered 21000 and above**600
Two electives relevant to the major200
One 20000-level course in Art History 100
Total Units1200

Studio Track

Students may choose to apply for the visual arts studio track. Places in the studio track are limited. Applications will be accepted in May of each year for participation in the studio track the following year. Most students apply for the studio track at the end of their third year so that they may enter the studio track in their fourth year, but the studio track may also be completed in the third year, provided that students are able to complete the Studio Project series in order. Students should contact the department well in advance of the May deadline to request an application. Applicants will be reviewed by a faculty committee at the end of each academic year, and studio track decisions will be announced before the start of the Autumn Quarter. Students in the studio track present their work in a thesis exhibition and may be eligible to receive shared studio space in their senior year.

Additionally, studio track students must take ARTV 29900 Studio Project - III in the Winter Quarter of their exhibition year, in preparation for their thesis exhibition. 

Summary of Requirements for Studio Track Majors

MAJOR
One of the following:*100
Visual Language: On Images
Visual Language: On Objects
Visual Language: On Time and Space
ARTV 29600Studio Project - I100
ARTV 29850Studio Project - II100
ARTV 29900Studio Project - III100
Six studio ARTV courses numbered 21000 and above**600
Two electives relevant to the major200
One 20000-level course in Art History 100
Total Units1300

Honors

Only students in the studio track are eligible for honors in visual arts. Students must have a portfolio of exceptional quality to be recommended to graduate with honors. Visual arts faculty make final honors decisions at the end of the student's fourth year, based on performance in visual arts courses, the quality of participation in critiques, and the thesis exhibition.

Grading

Students majoring in visual arts must receive quality grades for the 12 or 13 courses that constitute the major. With consent of their College adviser and the instructor, nonmajors may take visual arts courses for P/F grades if the courses are not used to meet a general education requirement.

Minor Program in the Department of Visual Arts

The minor in visual arts requires six courses: one is from the 10000-level sequence (ARTV 10100 Visual Language: On Images, ARTV 10200 Visual Language: On Objects, or ARTV 10300 Visual Language: On Time and Space), and five are drawn from visual arts studio courses numbered 21000 to 29700, chosen in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies. ARTV courses numbered 20000 to 20999 are not studio-based and are generally not counted toward studio requirements for the minor. 

Students choose courses in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies using the Consent to Complete a Minor Program form, available from the student’s College adviser or online. Once the Director has signed the form, the student should submit the signed form to the College adviser.

Courses in the minor (1) may not be double counted with the student's major(s) or with other minors; and (2) may not be counted toward general education requirements. Courses in the minor must be taken for quality grades, and more than half of the requirements for the minor must be met by registering for courses bearing University of Chicago course numbers.

Summary of Requirements for the Minor in Visual Arts

MINOR
One of the following:*100
Visual Language: On Images
Visual Language: On Objects
Visual Language: On Time and Space
Five studio art courses numbered 21000 and above**500
Total Units600

Course Attendance

Students must attend the first and second classes to confirm enrollment. No exceptions will be made unless the student notifies the instructor before the first class.

Visual Arts Courses

ARTV 10100. Visual Language: On Images. 100 Units.

Through studio work and critical discussions on 2D form, this course is designed to reveal the conventions of images and image-making. Basic formal elements and principles of art are presented, but they are also put into practice to reveal perennial issues in a visual field. Form is studied as a means to communicate content. Topics as varied as, but not limited to, illusion, analogy, metaphor, time and memory, nature and culture, abstraction, the role of the author, and universal systems can be illuminated through these primary investigations. Visits to museums and other fieldwork required, as is participation in studio exercises and group critiques. During the Academic Year (autumn, winter, spring) students must attend the first two class sessions to confirm enrollment and wait list requests are due several weeks before the quarter begins. Sign up for the Academic Year wait list at https://dova.uchicago.edu/waitlist.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Note(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, and 10300 may be taken in sequence or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. Previous experience in media-based studio courses not accepted as a substitute for this course. During the Academic Year (autumn, winter, spring) students must attend the first two class sessions to confirm enrollment and wait list requests are due several weeks before the quarter begins. Sign up for the Academic Year wait list at https://dova.uchicago.edu/waitlist.

ARTV 10200. Visual Language: On Objects. 100 Units.

Through studio work and critical discussions on 3D form, this course is intended to reveal the conventions of sculpture while investigating its modes of production. Basic formal elements and principles of art are presented, but also put into practice to reveal perennial issues in a visual field. Form is studied as a means to communicate content. Topics as varied as, but not limited to, platonic form, analogy, metaphor, verisimilitude, abstraction, nature and culture, and the body politic can be illuminated through these primary investigations. Visits to museums and other fieldwork required, as is participation in studio exercises and group critiques. ARTV 10100, 10200, and 10300 may be taken in sequence or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. Previous experience in media-based studio courses not accepted as a substitute for this course. During the Academic Year (autumn, winter, spring) students must attend the first two class sessions to confirm enrollment and wait list requests are due several weeks before the quarter begins. Sign up for the Academic Year wait list at https://dova.uchicago.edu/waitlist.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Note(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, and 10300 may be taken in sequence or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. Previous experience in media-based studio courses not accepted as a substitute for this course. During the Academic Year (autumn, winter, spring) students must attend the first two class sessions to confirm enrollment and wait list requests are due several weeks before the quarter begins. Sign up for the Academic Year wait list at https://dova.uchicago.edu/waitlist.

ARTV 10300. Visual Language: On Time and Space. 100 Units.

Through studio work and critical discussion on four-dimensional form, this course is designed to reveal the conventions of the moving image, performance, and/or the production of digital-based media. Basic formal elements and principles of art are presented, but also put into practice to reveal perennial issues in a visual field. Form is studied as a means to communicate content. Topics as varied as but not limited to narrative, mechanical reproduction, verisimilitude, historical tableaux, time and memory, the body politic, and the role of the author can be illuminated through these primary investigations. Some sections focus solely on performance; others incorporate moving image technology. Please check Class Search at registrar.uchicago.edu/classes for details. Visits to museums and other fieldwork required, as is participation in studio exercises and group critiques. ARTV 10100, 10200, and 10300 may be taken in sequence or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. Previous experience in media-based studio courses not accepted as a substitute for this course. During the Academic Year (autumn, winter, spring) students must attend the first two class sessions to confirm enrollment and wait list requests are due several weeks before the quarter begins. Sign up for the Academic Year wait list at https://dova.uchicago.edu/waitlist. Students may be required to purchase a hard drive for this class; more details will be provided in class.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Note(s): Students may be required to purchase a hard drive for this class; more details will be provided on the first day. ARTV 10100, 10200, and 10300 may be taken in sequence or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. Previous experience in media-based studio courses not accepted as a substitute for this course. Students must attend the first two class sessions to confirm enrollment. During the Academic Year (autumn, winter, spring) students must attend the first two class sessions to confirm enrollment and wait list requests are due several weeks before the quarter begins. Sign up for the Academic Year wait list at https://dova.uchicago.edu/waitlist.

ARTV 16210. Media Art and Design Practice. 100 Units.

This studio-based course explores the practice, conventions, and boundaries of contemporary media art and design. This can encompass areas as diverse as interactive installation, app design, and the Internet meme. Through projects and critical discussion, students engage with the problems and opportunities of digitally driven content creation. Fundamental elements of digital production are introduced, including basic properties of image, video, and the global network. Further topics as varied as--though not limited to--web production, digital fabrication, interfaces, the glitch, and gaming may be considered. Sections will vary based on the instructor's fields of expertise. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. This course may not double count for general education requirements and the Media Arts and Design minor. However, it is a great way for students to explore a potential interest in these areas.

Instructor(s): N. Briz, C. Beiersdorfer, C. Mankin     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): MAAD 26210 Media Art and Design Practice is affiliated with HUMA 16000-16100-16200 Media Aesthetics: Image, Text, Sound I-II-III. It is offered in Spring Quarter, simultaneous with the third course in the humanities sequence. First-year students satisfying the general education requirement in the humanities will have priority in enrollment for Media Arts and Design Practice.
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 26210

ARTV 20002-20003. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era; History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960.

This sequence is required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies. Taking these courses in sequence is strongly recommended but not required.

ARTV 20002. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era. 100 Units.

This course provides a survey of the history of cinema from its emergence in the mid-1890s to the transition to sound in the late 1920s. We will examine the cinema as a set of aesthetic, social, technological, national, cultural, and industrial practices as they were exercised and developed during this 30-year span. Especially important for our examination will be the exchange of film techniques, practices, and cultures in an international context. We will also pursue questions related to the historiography of the cinema, and examine early attempts to theorize and account for the cinema as an artistic and social phenomenon.

Instructor(s): Allyson Field     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent registration in CMST 10100 is required. Course is required for students majoring or minoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): For students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies, the entire History of International Cinema three-course sequence must be taken.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 32400, MAAD 18500, ARTH 38500, ARTH 28500, MAPH 33600, CMST 48500, CMST 28500, CMLT 22400, ENGL 29300, ENGL 48700

ARTV 20003. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960. 100 Units.

The center of this course is film style, from the classical scene breakdown to the introduction of deep focus, stylistic experimentation, and technical innovation (sound, wide screen, location shooting). The development of a film culture is also discussed. Texts include Thompson and Bordwell's Film History: An Introduction; and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, and Godard. Screenings include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir.

Instructor(s): James Lastra     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent registration in CMST 10100 required. Required of students majoring or minoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): CMST 28500/48500 strongly recommended
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 48600, CMLT 22500, CMLT 32500, ENGL 29600, REES 45005, ARTH 38600, REES 25005, CMST 28600, MAAD 18600, ENGL 48900, ARTH 28600, MAPH 33700

ARTV 20006. Contemporary Art. 100 Units.

This course will consider the practice and theory of visual art in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Among the subjects that will drive our narrative will be the rise of postmodernism, pop art, the aesthetics of the social movements of the 1960s, institutional critique, the relationship between reproductive media and Feminism, the concept of spectacle, conceptual art, the appearance of a global art industry after 1989, the connections between art school and art-making, "relational aesthetics," the fate of art in the age of the Internet, the art of the post-studio moment, and what happens to art when it engages with *everything*.

Instructor(s): M. Jackson     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts.
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 10006, ARTH 15800

ARTV 20010. Contemporary Art in Paris. 100 Units.

In this course, we will explore important institutions and contexts for exhibiting contemporary international art in the city of Paris. Our approach will be ethnographic as well as aesthetic and take place at various scales: from national museums to arts foundations, galleries, artist studios, and alternative spaces and artists' "squats." Of special interest will be how different architectures and spaces of installation affect our reception and understanding of art. Video and moving image installation will be a special emphasis where possible. Course work will include presentations and weekly contributions to a public blog. Possible field trips could include the Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, la Cinémathèque Française, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Galerie Marion Goodman, Les Frigos, and the Paris Art Fair at the Grand Palais.

ARTV 20017. Art and the Archive in Greater Latin America. 100 Units.

How and why do artists engage records of the past in their work? What are the politics of both creating archives and culling from them to visually render or represent the past? Focusing on artists, art-making, and archives in Greater Latin America (including the United States), this course will consider the process of collecting and creating in artistic production from the perspectives of both theory and practice. Students in the course will work directly with archival materials in Chicago and collaborate on contemporary artistic projects that consider issues of relevance to people and places of the Western Hemisphere.

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz-Francisco     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 26384, HIST 26319, ARTH 26384, LACS 26384, CHST 26384

ARTV 20018. Death Panels: Exploring dying and death through comics. 100 Units.

What do comics add to the discourse on dying and death? What insights do comics provide about the experience of dying, death, caregiving, grieving, and memorialization? Can comics help us better understand our own wishes about the end of life? This is an interactive course designed to introduce students to the field of graphic medicine and explore how comics can be used as a mode of scholarly investigation into issues related to dying, death, and the end of life. The framework for this course intends to balance readings and discussion with creative drawing and comics-making assignments. The work will provoke personal inquiry and self-reflection and promote understanding of a range of topics relating to the end of life, including examining how we die, defining death, euthanasia, rituals around dying and death, and grieving. The readings will primarily be drawn from a wide variety of graphic memoirs and comics, but will be supplemented with materials from a variety of multimedia sources including the biomedical literature, philosophy, cinema, podcasts, and the visual arts. Guest participants in the course may include a funeral director, chaplain, hospice and palliative care specialists, cartoonists, and authors. The course will be taught by a nurse cartoonist and a physician, both of whom are active in the graphic medicine community and scholars of the health humanities.

Instructor(s): Brian Callendar     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIPS 26230, KNOW 36230, ENGL 26230, HLTH 26230, ENGL 36230

ARTV 20025. Scene Painting. 100 Units.

This course is designed to introduce students to the theatrical art of scenic painting for the stage and film. A scenic artist is the hand of the theatrical designer, translating the small scale of the designer's rendering into full size theatrical environments. In this course, students will explore the unique tools and techniques used by scenic artists to create scenery. The end result of this class will be a basic mastery of painting "faux" surfaces and an understanding of how a scenic artist transforms the designer's ideas into realized pieces of theatrical art.

Instructor(s): K. Boetcher     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Attendance for first class meeting is mandatory. This course is offered in alternate years. Please note a $30 fee for supplies and materials applies to this course.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 27100

ARTV 20026. How Design Thinks. 100 Units.

This course seeks to develop an iterative design process by visiting locations on the university campus as well as in the city of Chicago to inform and inspire world building in an array of performance modalities from theater to gaming. Student projects will involve observation, research, illustration, and scale modelling. Individual as well as collaborative projects are possible. Returnable model-making kits containing basic supplies will be provided by the instructor for the duration of the course.

Instructor(s): K. Boetcher     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 27450

ARTV 20027. Site-Based Practice: Choreographing The Smart Museum. 100 Units.

This course gives students the unique opportunity to create a collaborative, site-based work that culminates in a final performance at UChicago's Smart Museum of Art. Using embodied research methods that respond to site through moving, sensing, and listening, we'll explore the relationship between the ephemerality of movement and the materiality of bodies and place, and consider how the site-based contexts for dance shift how it is perceived, experienced, and valued. Our quarter-long creation process will begin with a tour of the Smart Museum, guided by curators and members of the Public Practice team, that will provide context to the museum's exhibitions, programming, and its relationship to geography and community. Assigned readings, viewings, and conversations with guest artists will delve into the relationship between dance and the sites where it happens, including museums-from the material relationship between bodies, objects, and architecture to the digital flows of choreography online.

Instructor(s): J. Rhoads     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 36280, ARTV 30027, CHST 26280, TAPS 26280, ARCH 26280

ARTV 20029. Children & Architecture. 100 Units.

Many who pursue architecture do so initially out of a childlike fascination with buildings, places and worlds. Curiosity and limited understanding naturally provide children with an exploratory relationship to the built environments they traverse, and children also often show a heightened sense of wonder -- heightened emotions of all kinds -- as that relationship plays out. (This can be positive and formative, or scary and traumatic.) And yet, many of the adults who make choices about the worlds we inhabit think mostly of adults, and as adults, in doing so. This architecture studio course investigates the built world through a child's eyes, across different moments in history, including our own. Readings and seminar discussions will range from playgrounds to blocks, preschools to family relations, swimming pools and sandcastles to the very construction of childhood as an idea. We will explore Chicago, and meet with builders of all ages, likely culminating in designing (and potentially building) a real playground space. While previous experience with architectural skills is not necessary to excel in this course, childlike curiosity is required.

Instructor(s): L. Joyner     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting February 12, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.)
Note(s): The course is visiting the City Museum in St. Louis (a multi-story, artist-built playground for children and adults that defies description) for one day in advance of the course.
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 24270, ARCH 24270, ARTH 24270, ENST 24270, MAAD 24270

ARTV 20032. Chris Marker. 100 Units.

Chris Marker (1921-2012) is one of the most influential and important filmmakers to emerge in the post-war era in France, yet he remains relatively unknown to a wider audience. Marker's multifaceted work encompasses writing, photography, filmmaking, videography, gallery installation, television, and digital multimedia. He directed over 60 films and is known foremost for his "essay films," a hybrid of documentary and personal reflection, which he invigorated if not invented with films like Lettre de Sibérie (Letter from Siberia, 1958) or Sans Soleil (Sunless, 1983). His most famous film, La Jetée (1962), his only (science) fiction film made up almost entirely of black-and-white still photographs, was the inspiration for Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys (1995). In 1990, he created his first multi-media installation, Zapping Zone, and in 1997 he experimented with the format of the CD-Rom to create a multi-layered, multimedia memoir (Immemory). In 2008, he continued his venture into digital spaces with Ouvroir, realized on the platform of Second Life. Marker was a passionate traveler who documented the journeys he took, the people he met, and revolutionary upheavals at home and afar. We will follow Marker's travels through time, space, and media, during which we will also encounter artists with whom he crossed paths, with whom he collaborated, or who were inspired by his work.

Instructor(s): Dominique Bluher     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 26303, FNDL 26102, MAAD 13303, CMST 36303

ARTV 20033. Iconology East and West. 100 Units.

Iconology is the study of images across media and cultures. It is also associated with philosophical reflections on the nature of images and their relation to language-the interplay between the "icon" and the "logos." A plausible translation of this compound word into Chinese would describe it as "Words in Pictures, Pictures in Words":  诗中有画,画中有诗. This seminar will explore the relations of word and image in poetics, semiotics, and aesthetics with a particular emphasis on how texts and pictures have been understood in the Anglo-European-American and Chinese theoretical traditions. The interplay of painting and poetry, speech and spectacle, audition and vision will be considered across a variety of media, particularly the textual and graphic arts. The aims of the course will be 1) to critique the simplistic oppositions between "East" and "West" that have bedevilled intercultural and intermedial comparative studies; 2) to identify common principles, zones of interaction and translation that make this a vital area of study. (Theory; 20th/21st)

Instructor(s): WJT Mitchell     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Enrollment in the course will be with the consent of instructor; it is open to students at all levels, but enrollment will be limited to 15. Students should send a one page statement of their interest to W. J. T. Mitchell (wjtm@uchicago.edu)
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 20230, CMLT 20230, ARTV 30033, CMLT 30230, ARTH 20033, ARTH 30033, ENGL 30230

ARTV 20035. Animation: Practices & Principles. 100 Units.

Sitting at the intersection of fine arts and filmmaking, animation has held a unique place in visual culture since its inception and has more recently become a ubiquitous presence in our society. Through a combination of workshops, screenings, and discussions, this course will examine the advantages and particularities that come with the art form as well as the diverse range of technologies and techniques that it can include. Students learn both analog and digital animation methods-including cut-out, hand-drawn, and stop motion, among others-to explore their own artistic voice through moving image, culminating with a final project in the medium of their choice. Works screened for discussion will range from the traditional and studio-based to the experimental and alternative. No previous drawing experience required.

Instructor(s): Elizabeth Rogers     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 20602, CMST 25602, CMST 35602

ARTV 20205. City Imagined, City Observed. 100 Units.

This urban design studio course takes two distinct notions of the city as its starting point: grand, imaginative plans -- utopian, unbuilt, semi-realized, real... both as aesthetic objects, and as ideas -- and how the minute flows of day-to-day life, up from the smallest scale, enter into dialogue with little built and lived details, intended or not. Drawing on both Chicago and other places (not just urban) that individual students know well, we will dream both big and small, search both present and past, and tap precisely into both what we dream and what we experience... seeking not to dictate what the city will be, but to use these different modes of understanding to expand our sense of what a city can be. Necessarily, we'll grapple with difficult contradictions cities pose, our most central personal assumptions about spaces and places, and with questions of how, especially in present-day capitalism, cities change. We take as given the inevitable gap between how places actually evolve and how, perhaps, they could, and use that gap as a site for the imagination to step in, while also confronting the hubris of imagining cities real. The studio work will proceed in three stages: individually developing an alternate vision for a place you know well, at a historical moment of your choice... then breaking each others' plans... and finally using real observations and factors (and even spontaneous impulse) to complicate and rebuild your vision into something lovelier.

Instructor(s): L. Joyner     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Consent is required to enroll in this class. Priority will be given to students who have completed ARTH 24190.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 24191, CEGU 24191, AMER 24191, ENST 24191, CHST 24191, GEOG 24191, ARCH 24191

ARTV 20206. Second Nature: New Models for the Chicago Park District. 100 Units.

The Chicago Park District seems to preserve "first nature" within the metropolitan field. But the motive for establishing this sovereign territory was hardly natural. Today, cultural change raises questions about the significance and operation of this immense network of civic spaces. What opportunities emerge as we rethink them? While this design studio focuses on the development of new model parks for Chicago, it can support students coming from a broad range of disciplines. Texts, seminar discussions, and field trips will complement and nourish the development of architectural proposals.

Instructor(s): A. Schachman     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Consent only
Note(s): Students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. Please also note that architecture studio courses comprise one 80-minute meeting and one 170-minute meeting per week. Scroll down to see timing.
Equivalent Course(s): GEOG 24196, ENST 24196, ARCH 24196, CEGU 24196, ARTH 24196

ARTV 20210. Imagining Chicago's Common Buildings. 100 Units.

This course is an architectural studio based in the common residential buildings of Chicago and the city's built environment. While design projects and architectural skills will be the focus of the course, it will also incorporate readings, a small amount of writing, some social and geographical history, and several explorations around Chicago. The studio will: (1) give students interested in pursuing architecture or the study of cities experience with a studio course and some skills related to architectural thinking, (2) acquaint students intimately with Chicago's common residential buildings and built fabric, and (3) situate all this within a context of social thought about residential architecture, common buildings, housing, and the city. This course is part of the College Course Cluster program: Urban Design.

Instructor(s): L. Joyner     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting July 31, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.) Please also note that this course will include several field trips around Chicago during class time; if you have any questions or concerns about that, please share them in the consent form when you complete it.
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 24190, ARTH 24190, ENST 24190, CHST 24190, ARCH 24190, GEOG 24190, AMER 24190

ARTV 20215. Adaptation: Text and Image. 100 Units.

A course concerned with the marriage of image and text that explores films, illuminated manuscripts, comic books/graphic novels, children's picture books and present day (perhaps local) theater productions that deal at their core with the balance and dance between story and picture. Examples of work studied would be Chris Marker's La jetée, Alice in Wonderland and its many adaptations, the comics of Winsor McCay, Seth, Chris Ware, etc, and William Blake's engraved poems and images. The theatrical collaborations between the instructors themselves ("The Cabinet" and "Cape and Squiggle," both produced by Chicago's Redmoon Theatre) will be discussed as well.

Instructor(s): M. Maher, F. Maugeri     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28465, MAAD 14865

ARTV 20216. Spectacle in Miniature. 100 Units.

This course explores how the grand theatrical event can be 'miniaturized'. Students will investigate forms of spectacle and contemporary puppetry, toy theater, performance installation, and designed environments, along with artists who work in intimate and miniature scale. Students will create works experimenting with how large dramatic stories can be told with detailed and intimate sets, puppets, transforming objects, mechanical contraptions, and text. Sources for narrative will include but not be limited to dream and myth.

Instructor(s): F. Maugeri     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 27080, MAAD 25080

ARTV 20217. Scenic Design. 100 Units.

This course is an exploration of various forms and processes of designing sets for theatrical performance. We pay particular attention to a cohesive reading of a text, contextual and historical exploration, and visual and thematic research, as well as the documentation needed to complete a show (e.g., model, drafting, paint elevations). We also explore, nominally, the history of stage design and look at major trends in modern stage design.

Instructor(s): K. Boetcher     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28000

ARTV 20300. Introduction to Film Analysis. 100 Units.

This course introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which students will discuss through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. We will consider film as an art form, medium, and industry, and cover all the major film types: silent, classical, and contemporary narrative cinema, art cinema, animation, documentary, and experimental film. We will study the cinematic techniques: mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound, and learn how filmmakers design their works. Films discussed will include works Orson Welles, Sergei Eisenstein, Shirin Neshat, Lucrecia Martel, and Wong Kar Wai.

Instructor(s): James Chandler, James Lastra, staff     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Note(s): Required of students taking a major or minor in Cinema and Media Studies.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 10800, CMST 10100

ARTV 20663. Urban Studies: Placemaking. 100 Units.

This course considers the values that drive neighborhood transformation, how policy is shaped and implemented, and the role that arts and culture can play in mindful city-building. Classroom hours will be spent with Theaster Gates, professor, Department of Visual Art, in addition to other UChicago faculty, discussing key principles in guiding city redevelopment in mindful and equitable ways. Students will gain field experience working with Place Lab, Gates's multidisciplinary team that documents and demonstrates urban ethical redevelopment strategies initiated through arts and culture. Working across a variety of projects, students will be exposed to programming, data collection, development, community building, strategy, and documentation. Weekly site visits will give students the opportunity to see analogous projects and meet practitioners throughout Chicago.

Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 25663

ARTV 20665. Introduction to Critical Spatial Media: Visualizing Urban, Environmental, and Planetary Change. 100 Units.

This course introduces critical theories and techniques for visualizing interconnected transformations of urban, environmental, and planetary systems amidst the pressures of climate change, urbanization, and global economies of capitalism. Weekly lectures will introduce major themes and theoretical debates, paired with hands-on lab tutorials exploring a selection of methods in conventional and experimental geographic visualization. Thematically, the course will be organized around critical interpretations of the Anthropocene, a concept designating the epoch in which anthropogenic activities are recognized as the dominant force of planetary climatic and ecological change. We will present these interpretations through modules structured around different conceptual paradigms and alternative epochal designations (e.g. the Urbanocene, the Capitalocene, the Plantationocene). Through weekly lab exercises and a final, synthetic project, the course will move from critically analyzing prevalent theoretical frameworks, geospatial data, and associated visualization techniques to creatively visualizing critical alternatives. Students will learn how to construct visual narratives through a variety of spatial media (e.g. maps, diagrams, visual timelines), scales (e.g. bodies, neighborhoods, landscapes, the planetary), and techniques/platforms (e.g. GIS, web mapping, basic programming language tools, and vector/raster visualization programs).

Instructor(s): Alexander Arroyo, Grga Basic, Sol Kim     Terms Offered: Autumn Winter
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 13517, CEGU 23517, ARCH 23517, ENST 23517

ARTV 20701. Body and the Digital. 100 Units.

As digital technology advances, the separation between IRL and URL blurs. Participants enrolled in this course will explore techniques that will help them create thought-provoking work, strengthen their ability to give critique, and build an understanding of how the corporeal interacts with the digital. Throughout this course, students will offer and receive constructive feedback during instructor-led critiques on peers' works. By the end of this course, students will feel comfortable utilizing different processes of development to create digital artwork.

Instructor(s): Crystal Beiersdofer     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 23645, MAAD 23645

ARTV 20805. Framing, Re-framing, and Un-framing Cinema. 100 Units.

By cinema, we mean the art of the moving image, which is not limited to the material support of a flexible band called film. This art reaches back to early devices to trick the eye into seeing motion and looks forward to new media and new modes of presentation. With the technological possibility of breaking images into tiny pixels and reassembling them and of viewing them in new way that this computerized image allows, we now face the most radical transformation of the moving image since the very beginnings of cinema. A collaboration between the OpenEndedGroup (Marc Downie and Paul Kaiser), artists who have created new modes of the moving image for more than decade, and film scholar Tom Gunning, this course will use this moment of new technologies to explore and expand the moving image before it becomes too rigidly determined by the powerful industrial forces now propelling it forward. This course will be intensely experimental as we see how we might use new computer algorithms to take apart and re-experience classic films of the past. By using new tools, developed for and during this class, students will make new experiences inside virtual reality environments for watching, analyzing, and recombining films and that are unlike any other. These tools will enable students, regardless of previous programming experience, to participate in this crucial technological and cultural juncture.

Equivalent Course(s): CMST 27805, CMST 37805, ARTV 30805

ARTV 20944. Painting with Light in Space. 100 Units.

This course explores projected imagery as a medium to paint ephemeral ideas in the real world through installation and theatrical design. Utilizing visual iconography, architectural forms, objects, and cinema, this course will explore the practical and theoretical applications of video on unorthodox objects and spaces. Using software as an instrument, students will investigate the visceral extents of images both historical and generative to create living light. The course will culminate in student presentations that illustrate and illuminate the ideas and techniques presented throughout the course.

Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 30944, MAAD 20420, TAPS 27420

ARTV 20945. Performance Art Installation: Imagining the End. 100 Units.

Perhaps the most important American play dealing with the prospect of the end of the world is Thorton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). This class will use this strange and remarkable play that moves through human and geological time to explore contemporary concerns about the end of life as we know it. Our work will culminate in a site-specific performance piece making use of the skills, talents, and experience of the members of the group.

Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 30945, TAPS 32315, TAPS 22315

ARTV 21501. Introduction to Printmaking. 100 Units.

An introduction to basic printmaking techniques, including monoprint, intaglio (drypoint), planographic, and relief printing. Printmaking will be explored as a "bridge medium": a conduit between drawing, painting, and sculpture. Emphasis will be placed upon investigating visual structures through "calculated spontaneity" and "controlled accidents," as well as on the serial potential inherent in printmaking, as opposed to the strictly technical aspects of this medium.

Instructor(s): K. Desjardins     Terms Offered: Autumn Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 31501

ARTV 21702. Drawing Concepts. 100 Units.

This course will focus on expanding the definition and practice of drawing. Studio work will engage traditional, spatial and process-oriented mark making in order to materialize thematically driven projects. Emphasis will be placed equally on the formal concerns of subject, material, and technique as well as the ability to effectively convey one's concept. Projects will include weekly and longer-term assignments, in addition to critique. Participation in field trips is required.

Instructor(s): B. Collins     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 31702

ARTV 21800. Studio Practice. 100 Units.

This course considers a variety of methods, processes and media to explore conceptual issues pertinent to a contemporary art practice. Through research, material investigation, experimentation and revision, students will develop their own approach to a daily self-directed practice. Projects will include weekly and longer-term assignments, individual and collaborative work. We will also look at the practices of established artists for possible models. Participation in several field trips is required.

Instructor(s): B. Collins     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 31800

ARTV 21900. Color Theory and Practice. 100 Units.

This course will introduce students to practical aspects of color mixing and the visual impacts of specific color combinations through a series of studio exercises and projects. Conceptual and theoretical investigations into optics, the science of color, and psychological and symbolic effects will contribute to an overall understanding of color in relation to visual culture and perception.

Instructor(s): S. Wolniak     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 22900, ARTV 31900

ARTV 21903. Art Exploration in Washington DC. 100 Units.

This three week summer intensive Arts Core course in Washington DC will involve a dynamic mix of art viewing, discussion and making. The class will focus on direct art viewing within the rich ecosystem of DC's museums and monuments, accompanied by creative responses in the form of hands-on studio art projects. The class will meet each Wednesday for two hours and each Saturday for five hours (subject to change), during which time we will explore a dynamic and varied itinerary of sites, including the Smithsonian, the National Gallery, the Hirschhorn, the Vietnam Memorial, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, among others. At each location students will encounter and study works representing a wide range of subject matter and concepts, historical time periods, techniques and aesthetic forms. The work seen will provide the basis for group discourse as well as individual drawing and collage exercises, culminating in a final art project to be presented on the last day of the class. Guided drawing exercises on site at these locations will be part of the itinerary, along with sketchbook prompts to be completed independently.

ARTV 22000-22002. Introduction to Painting I-II.

This studio course introduces students to the fundamental elements of painting (its language and methodologies) as they learn how to initiate and develop an individualized investigation into subject matter and meaning. This course emphasizes group critiques and discussion. Courses taught concurrently.

ARTV 22000. Introduction to Painting I. 100 Units.

This studio course introduces students to the fundamental elements of painting (its language and methodologies) as they learn how to initiate and develop an individualized investigation into subject matter and meaning. This course emphasizes group critiques and discussion.

Instructor(s): D. Schutter     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 32200

ARTV 22002. Introduction to Painting II. 100 Units.

No description available

Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 32202

ARTV 22200. Introduction to Sculpture. 100 Units.

This course introduces the technical fundamentals of sculptural practice. Using basic introductions to welding, basic woodworking and metal fabrication students will undertake assignments designed to deploy these new skills conceptually in their projects. Lectures and reading introduce the technical focus of the class in various historical, social and economic contexts. Discussions and gallery visits help engender an understanding of sculpture within a larger societal and historical context.

Instructor(s): C. Bradley     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 32000

ARTV 22305. Performing Tableware. 100 Units.

Performing Tableware takes the actions and objects of the table as a site of research. Through demonstrations, readings and production, tableware will be considered in the context of contemporary practices in design, sculpture, installation and performance. Materially rooted in ceramics, this course gives students the opportunity to highlight, interrupt or subvert the patterns associated with sitting around table. Developing projects through a process of questioning behavior and the intimate functions of objects of the table, students will extend and challenge their material knowledge and engage in a range of ceramic processes including using raw clay, slip casting, hand building, slab building and multi-fire glaze processes.

Instructor(s): A. Ginsburg     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 32305

ARTV 22314. Ceramics: Adaptive Practices. 100 Units.

Ceramics has accompanied long the adaptive dance of human survival for at least 30,000 years. Sitting in proximity to food, architecture, death rights and more, this course will think forward with the material. What forms of adaptivity are currently required? This is a course in speculative fiction with the material of clay in all its forms, fix and unfixed, working through wet, dry, fired, and glazed.

Instructor(s): A. Ginsburg     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 32314

ARTV 22501. Art & Machine Intelligence. 100 Units.

Artists have long used autonomous processes to aid in the creation of their work. From 18th century parlor games to contemporary visual culture, creators have applied stochastic methods, automation, and simulation to generate music, text, and imagery. In the last five years, as machine learning has matured into broadly applicable artificial intelligence, artists have turned towards neural networks as a new frontier for creative practice. This studio course will explore the history and uses of autonomous creative tools and focus, more specifically, on leading edge artistic applications of AI. Students will receive exposure to a breadth of methods in this domain and produce multiple projects engaged with these topics. Software development experience is not required, though it may be useful.

Instructor(s): J. Salavon     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 25201, ARTV 32501

ARTV 23801. Video. 100 Units.

This is a production course geared towards short experimental works and video within a studio art context.

Instructor(s): S. Wolniak     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 23801, ARTV 33801

ARTV 23804. Experimental Animation: Exploring Manual Techniques. 100 Units.

Individually directed video shorts will be produced in this intensive studio course. Experimental and improvised approaches to animation and motion picture art will focus on analog and material techniques, with basic digital post-production also being introduced. Early and experimental cinema, puppetry and contemporary low-tech animation will be presented as formal and technical examples.

Instructor(s): S. Wolniak     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 23804, ARTV 33804

ARTV 23808. Introduction to 16mm Filmmaking. 100 Units.

The goal of this intensive laboratory course is to give its students a working knowledge of film production using the 16mm gauge. The course will emphasize how students can use 16mm technology towards successful cinematography and image design (for use in both analog and digital postproduction scenarios) and how to develop their ideas towards constructing meaning through moving pictures. Through a series of group exercises, students will put their hands on equipment and solve technical and aesthetic problems, learning to operate and care for the 16mm Bolex film camera; prime lenses; Sekonic light meter; Sachtler tripod; and Arri light kit and accessories. For a final project, students will plan and produce footage for an individual or small group short film. The first half the course will be highly structured, with demonstrations, in-class shoots, and lectures. As the semester continues, class time will open up to more of a workshop format to address the specific concerns and issues that arise in the production of the final projects. This course is made possible by the Charles Roven Fund for Cinema and Media Studies. Students will need written permission to enroll in the course. To bid for entry into the class, please email the instructor with your name, major and year -- and please list any other media production or photography experience.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Students will need written permission to enroll in the course. To bid for entry into the class, please email the instructor with your name, major and year -- and please list any other media production or photography experience. Enrollment priority will be given to graduate and undergraduate CMS students, beginning with seniors, then to DoVA graduates and undergraduates, then to students in other departments.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 38921, ARTV 33808, MAAD 23808, CMST 28921

ARTV 23861. Expanded Cinema. 100 Units.

Though often overlooked, the act of projection is at the heart of cinema (the act or process of causing a picture to appear on a surface). This studio course focuses on the creation of moving image-based work, exploring how time and space are used as materials to create form and inspire content within the contemporary film genre known as expanded cinema. The technical, historical and political aspects of the projected image will be studied in order to re-think cinema as a group and investigate how the projected image can find meaning outside the black box of theaters or the white cube of galleries. Two personal experimental video projects will lead to a third final collective video installation that will use the environment within the vicinity of UChicago's campus to inspire the work while also become the location of the final outdoor projection event. Note(s): Students will need written permission to enroll in the course. To bid for entry into the class, please email the instructor with your name, major, year, and list any other media production experience. Enrollment priority will be given to graduate and undergraduate CMS students, beginning with seniors, then to students in other departments.

Instructor(s): Marco Ferrari     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 33861, CMST 28925, CHST 28925, CMST 38925

ARTV 23930. Documentary Production I. 100 Units.

Documentary Video Production focuses on the making of independent documentary video. Examples of various modes of documentary production will be screened and discussed. Issues embedded in the genre, such as the ethics, the politics of representation, and the shifting lines between "the real" and "fiction" will be explored. Story development, pre-production strategies, and production techniques will be our focus, in particular-research, relationships, the camera, interviews and sound recording, shooting in available light, working in crews, and post-production editing. Students will work in crews and be expected to purchase a portable hard drive. A five-minute string-out/rough-cut will be screened at the end of the quarter. Students are strongly encouraged to take CMST 23931 Documentary Production II to complete their work. Consent of instructor is required to enroll.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Prior or concurrent enrollment in CMST 10100 recommended for undergraduate students.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 23930, HMRT 35106, HMRT 25106, CHST 23930, ARTV 33930, CMST 33930, MAAD 23930

ARTV 23931. Documentary Production II. 100 Units.

Documentary Production II focuses on the shaping and crafting of a non-fiction video. Enrollment will be limited to those students who have taken CMST 23930 Documentary Production I. The class will discuss issues of ethics, power, and representation in this most philosophical and problematic of genres. Students will be expected to write a treatment outline detailing their project and learn about granting agencies and budgeting. Production techniques will concentrate on the language of handheld camera versus tripod, interview methodologies, microphone placement including working with wireless systems and mixers, and lighting for the interview. Post-production will cover editing techniques including color correction and audio sweetening, how to prepare for exhibition, and distribution strategies. Consent of instructor is required to enroll.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): CMST 23930, HMRT 25106, or ARTV 23930
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 25107, CHST 23931, CMST 23931, CMST 33931, MAAD 23931, HMRT 35107, ARTV 33931

ARTV 24000. Introduction to Black and White Film Photography. 100 Units.

Photography is a familiar medium due to its ubiquitous presence in our visual world, including popular culture and personal usage. In this course, students learn technical procedures and basic skills related to the 35mm camera, black and white film, and print development. They also begin to establish criteria for artistic expression. We investigate photography in relation to its historical and social context in order to more consciously engage the photograph's communicative and expressive possibilities. Course work culminates in a portfolio of works exemplary of the student's understanding of the medium. Field trips required.

Instructor(s): E. Hogeman     Terms Offered: Autumn Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300.
Note(s): Students need their own 35mm film camera. Some film and paper are provided, but students need to purchase additional supplies. More details will be provided on the first day of class and on Canvas.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34000

ARTV 24004. Introduction to Color Photography. 100 Units.

Photography is a familiar medium due to its ubiquitous presence in our visual world, including popular culture and personal usage. We all have photographic habits and ample experience taking and consuming images. In this course, we will use photography as a means toward developing an aesthetic and theoretical language for creating art. Through readings, slideshows, and discussions, we will investigate color photography in relation to its historical and social context in order to more consciously engage the contemporary photograph's communicative and expressive possibilities. Students will be given constraint-driven assignments to help them unpack their habits and develop an understanding of the principles of photography and color editing workflows. Students are recommended to have their own DSLR camera with manual settings, but all camera formats are welcome.

Instructor(s): E. Hogeman     Terms Offered: Spring Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34004

ARTV 24007. Thinking About and Making Pictures. 100 Units.

With the advent of the digital smart phone, we are all photographers. Just as we all use words, photography, like language, carries meaning that has and gives rise to a myriad of purposes, possibilities, and limitations. The goal of this course is to develop students' investigations and explorations in photography, building on beginning level techniques and ideas to explore technical and conceptual image-making strategies to refine students' visual eloquence. Students will make photographs in response to prompts that interrogate various photographic processes, readings and artists' work (gallery visits, books and image presentations), Critiques and discussions will hone students' critical and evaluative capabilities. Processes will range from silver gelatin black-and-white or color printing, small, medium and/or large format cameras usage, as well as experimenting with alternative light-sensitive materials and digital negatives and printing.

Instructor(s): L. Letinsky     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 24000 or ARTV 24004
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 24007, ARTV 34007

ARTV 24124. Beyond Subject Past Object. 100 Units.

In this course we will interrogate the history of the fights of nature, and work to observe and even 'model' an expanded political subject that is not just human, but human-in-relation to other-than-human beings. If we are, in fact, entangled beings, and the "individual" subject is a kind of friction, could we cast a wider net and protect this entangled being that is both us and Other? We will explore the "expanded field" in sculpture and relational art as parallel to contemporary political theory, eco-criticism, and environmental justice. This is a site based course, in the Untidy Object sculpture on the south side of the Logan Center for the Arts. Students will engage in terra responce to the plants and animals ready inhabiting the space, daily field observations of plant and animal communities, horticultural design, creative writing excercises, discussions, reflective summaries and produce one site-specific temporary sculptural and/or relational form in collaboration or individually.

Instructor(s): A. Ginsburg     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 24124, ARTV 34124

ARTV 24201. Collage. 100 Units.

This studio course explores collage as a means for developing content and examining complex cultural and material relationships. Projects and assigned texts outline the history of collage as a dynamic art form with a strong political dimension, as well as critically addressing how it is being used today.

Instructor(s): S. Wolniak     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34201

ARTV 24554. Costume Design and Technology for the Stage. 100 Units.

In this course, students will learn the basics of designing costumes for theatrical productions, encompassing the skills of theatrical rendering and sketching, as well as the implementation of the design and basic sewing techniques. Students will learn to adopt a vocabulary using the elements and principles of design, understand and experience the process intrinsic to producing costumes for the theater, analyze the production needs related to costumes, and prepare a finalized costume design for a theatrical production.

Instructor(s): N. Rohrer     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 27550

ARTV 24703. Mixed-Media Drawing: From Object to Concept. 100 Units.

An object of your choice will serve as a departure point for this process-oriented studio course that takes you through a sequenced exploration of a variety of mixed media drawing materials, methods, and approaches: from observation to abstraction-to the purely conceptual. Readings, critical writing, and discussion are intended to reinforce fluidity between theory, your ideas, and your art practice. This course is augmented by an image bank and gallery visits. Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300 Note(s): Open to all levels of experience.

Instructor(s): K. Desjardins     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Note(s): Open to all levels of experience.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34703

ARTV 24706. Drawing Through the World: Relational Ways of Seeing. 100 Units.

This studio drawing course proposes an examination of the relationship between drawing and seeing, knowing, and revealing connections in our experience of the world. Our departure point is the human figure. Rather than moving inward (anatomy), we move outward from the figure in to space, drawing diagrammatically through the visual field, intent on expanding our ability to make visual and conceptual connections as we sharpen our observational drawing skills. A wide range of ideas--including Klee, Piaget, and Bourriaud-will be considered alongside our efforts in class. Guest speakers, field trips, and seminar discussions augment this studio drawing course. No prior drawing experience required. Students from across disciplines/working with any art media welcome.

Instructor(s): K. Desjardins     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300
Note(s): This is a 3-week intensive class that meets the first three weeks of the quarter.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34706

ARTV 24709. Experimental Drawing. 100 Units.

This course takes an expansive view of drawing. We will begin with traditional techniques and materials, while moving beyond observational frameworks to examine the relationship between drawing and other disciplines, including performance and sculpture. Our focus will be non-objective drawing, non-traditional materials, and process-based works. Lectures, slide presentations, readings and dedicated studio time will familiarize students with contemporary drawing practices through less traditional means and a wide variety of drawing media. Critiques will follow each of the four longer-duration projects.

Instructor(s): B. Collins     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34709

ARTV 24711. In the Service of Ideas: Conceptual Art. 100 Units.

What constitutes a "good idea" for an artwork, and how are ideas brought into material existence? How does the form of artwork communicate meaning? Can an idea be heavier and longer lasting than a block of stone? Questions of medium and form persist in conversations about and approaches to visual art. In this multidisciplinary studio class, students will be challenged to develop projects from conceptual origins- manifesting works from the ether of thought, and locating the best possible medium for a given idea. Traditional visual art principles such as observation, composition, process, representation and visual language will be considered through the prism of concept. A wide variety of mediums including drawing, sculpture, installation, and video will be introduced as possible outcomes for student work, with the expectation that new forms, hybrid "intermedia" and entirely non-material outcomes may also result. Art historical models such as text art, land art, site-specific installation, video, social practice and institutional critique will be presented in support of studio assignments and projects.

Instructor(s): S. Wolniak     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34711

ARTV 25119. Mingei: Origins and Futures - A Seminar Studio on Crafting Things. 100 Units.

This course will approach the question of sculpture, design, and architecture from the position of Mingei. Paying particular attention to the ideologies associated with Japanese Mingei and to consider craft and the built environment made by common folk, who have over time with their imaginations created technical marvels, beauty, unbelievable cultural traditions, and idioms. Mingei in the sense, is a celebration of the hand as much as it is a political ideology that aided in the maintenance of Japanese folk craft at the height of westernization. This class on Mingei will explore other great craft histories around the world and the ways in which contemporary art might beg itself for an adjacency to the great makers of this world.

Instructor(s): T. Gates     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Consent only. Students who would like to register for the class are invited to send a brief (2-3 sentence) request to theaster@uchicago.edu expressing their interest.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 35119

ARTV 25403. ARTGAMES. 100 Units.

This studio course playfully explores the methods, tools, and poetics of video games as art. Develop interactive new media art, machinima, and experimental 3D environments by using (and misusing) contemporary game engines. Projects will include hypertext adventures, walking simulators, abstract platformers, and metagames. By hacking, modding, and recontextualizing existing game assets, we will challenge the rules, mechanics, and interfaces of video games. This course counts towards the Media Practice and Design requirement for the MAAD program.

Instructor(s): Chris Collins     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 20500

ARTV 26214. On Art and Life. 100 Units.

This course is a multidisciplinary intensive into the ways in which artistic production is dependent on and part of larger cultural tropes. Utilizing contemporary culture as a framework, how does art form connective tissues with the worlds that happen outside of the artist's studio? Visual art is a communicative form that requires subject matter, and this course will investigate the myriad of ways that artists mine culturally meaningful materials, forms, and images as both subjects and as palette. Participation in several field trips and out-of-class film screenings is required. Reference materials are drawn from a variety of disciplines.

Instructor(s): G. Oppenheimer     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Note(s): Participation in several field trips and out-of-class film screenings is required.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 36214

ARTV 26220. Paraäcademia- art, spirituality, and social healing. 100 Units.

Paraäcedemia is a set of knowledge bases that typically exist outside of officially recognized institutions of higher learning. It is the space where new, heretofore unknown forms of art may come into being and underrecognized traditions thrive. Coinciding with visiting artist vanessa german's 2023- 24 residency at the Gray Center, this experimental and interdisciplinary seminar will explore various schools of mysticism, art as a form of social healing, the political histories and methodologies of witchcraft, the aesthetics of the occult, and the technics of the supernatural A number of guest speakers from various backgrounds will lecture, join discussions and participate in class critiques. Assignments include weekly readings and an updated Google doc of class notes, two short writing assignments, one on a para-academic thinker, and a creative writing assignment based on your own para-academic practice/interest/experience, along with dedicated weekly studio time in class. A final project of the student's choice may be a research paper (10-12 pages) or a creative project with a choice of medium. All work in the course will culminate in an elective student exhibition in the Summer of 2024. Readings will include excerpts from Maria Tatar's The Heroine with a Thousand Faces, Ytasha Womak's Afrofuturism, Lauren Berlant's The Female Complaint, Mona Cholett's In Defense of Witches, as well as texts by Jan Verwoert, Fred Moten, Rebecca Solnit, and others.

Instructor(s): Z. Cahill     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): 2023-24 Gray Center Colloquium
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 36220

ARTV 27200. Painting. 100 Units.

Presuming fundamental considerations, this studio course emphasizes the purposeful and sustained development of a student's visual investigation through painting, accentuating both invention and clarity of image. Requirements include group critiques and discussion.

Instructor(s): D. Schutter     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300; and 22000 or 22002
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 37200

ARTV 27204. Painting Matters. 100 Units.

Some prior painting experience is required. This studio aims to support the development of a student's personal visual investigation through painting while also challenging habits of thought and making. We will ask questions about form, content, and context with words and with paint. Participation in group critiques, and discussion will take place regularly throughout. It is likely that two classes will take place outside. (If this is not possible given individual circumstances, accommodations will be made.)

Instructor(s): J. Stockholder     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): PQ: ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300 and some prior experience in painting. Basic supplies for the class will be provided, but students may wish to purchase additional supplies. More information will be provided on the first day of class.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 37204

ARTV 27212. Around Concepts and Material Arrangements. 100 Units.

This interdisciplinary and conversation-oriented studio course pairs casual conceptual exercises with formal projects, focusing less on drafting and building skills than on a discursive investigation of art, art history, and contemporaneity. Critical elements that inform studio assignments include but are not limited to time/episode, site/institution, and self-image/identity. Routine examinations on context and demonstrations on means, both in the "Western" and "Eastern" traditions, will underpin individual chats, progress discussions, and group critiques. We will host at least one session in an on-campus arts space, and students are strongly encouraged to participate in city-wide events. Ultimately, balancing thinking and making is key, and the final project, in the most ideal sense, will introduce students to an organic commitment to a creative life.

Instructor(s): T. P. Qian     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 37212

ARTV 27213. Painting from Observation and Imagination. 100 Units.

This is an intermediate painting course. This course will begin with observational painting (painting from life) and move into different modes of image making. Painting from memory, narrative, photography as well as abstraction will be explored. We will look at the work of representational painters and abstract painters whose work was informed by observational painting. Students will develop their own themes and technique through writing, iterative and generative processes, sketching, and other methods. The class will culminate in an individual project. Analyzing paintings will be developed through critiques, discussions, and readings. There will be a field trip to a museum or artist studio. Students are expected to work on their paintings outside of class hours for four to six hours a week.

Instructor(s): M. Eastman     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 37213

ARTV 27314. Writing Art Criticism. 100 Units.

This course is a practicum in writing art criticism. Unlike art historians, art critics primarily respond to the art of their time and to developments in the contemporary art world. They write reviews of Chicago exhibitions that may be on view in galleries or museums and that may focus on single artists or broad themes. Importantly, art critics often produce the very first discourse on a given art, shaping subsequent thinking and historiography. Accordingly, art criticism is a genre that requires particular skills, for example, identifying why and how artworks matter, taking a fresh look at something familiar or developing a set of ideas even if unfamiliar with a subject, expressing strong yet sound opinions, and writing in impeccable and engaging ways. Students will develop these skills by reading and writing art criticism. We will examine the work of modern art critics ranging from Denis Diderot to Peter Schjeldahl and of artists active as critics ranging from Donald Judd to Barbara Kruger. Class discussions will be as much about the craft of writing as about the art reviewed. We will deliberate the style and rhetoric of exhibition reviews, including details such as first and last sentences, order of paragraphs, word choices, and the like. This seminar is writing intensive with a total of six exhibition reviews, four of which will be rewritten substantially based on instructor, visitor, and peer feedback and general class discussion. Off-campus field trips also required.

Instructor(s): C. Mehring     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Enrollment is limited and permission of instructor is required. Preference will be given to students with a background in the visual arts or writing about the arts. Please email the instructor (mehring@uchicago.edu) explaining relevant background.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 37314, ARTV 37314, ARTH 27314

ARTV 27700. Introduction to Puppetry. 100 Units.

Introduction to Puppetry invites students to explore the vast and dynamic world of the history of Puppet Theater and expertly trains students in multiple forms of the medium. From Bun Ra Ku to hand puppetry, Mask Performance to Shadow Puppetry, Toy Theater to banners and contastorias, students will be exposed to the form through real examples of sophisticated objects and expert direction. Students will be immersed in the history, literature, and philosophy of the ritual and performance of the puppet, and will be provided the opportunity to build their own draft of a short production.

Instructor(s): F. Maugeri     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 27700

ARTV 27920. Virtual Reality Production. 100 Units.

Focusing on experimental moving-image approaches at a crucial moment in the emerging medium of virtual reality, this class will explore and interrogate each stage of production for VR. By hacking their way around the barriers and conventions of current software and hardware to create new optical experiences, students will design, construct and deploy new ways of capturing the world with cameras and develop new strategies and interactive logics for placing images into virtual spaces. Underpinning these explorations will be a careful discussion, dissection and reconstruction of techniques found in the emerging VR "canon" that spans new modes of journalism and documentary, computer games, and narrative "VR cinema." Film production and computer programming experience is welcome but not a prerequisite for the course. Students will be expected to complete short "sketches" of approaches in VR towards a final short VR experience.

Instructor(s): Marc Downie     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Film production and computer programming experience is welcome but not a prerequisite for the course. Students will be expected to complete short "sketches" of approaches in VR towards a final short VR experience.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 37920, MAAD 24920, CMST 27920, CMST 37920

ARTV 27921. Augmented Reality Production. 100 Units.

Focusing on experimental moving-image approaches at a crucial moment in the emerging medium of augmented reality, this class will explore and interrogate each stage of production of AR works. Students in this production-based class will examine the techniques and opportunities of this new kind of moving image. During this class we'll study the construction of examples across a gamut from locative media, journalism, and gameplay-based works to museum installations. Students will complete a series of critical essays and sketches towards a final augmented reality project using a custom set of software tools developed in and for the class.

Instructor(s): Marc Downie     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Not offered in 2023-24.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 37921, CMST 27911, MAAD 22911, CMST 37911

ARTV 27922. Sound / Image Mapping. 100 Units.

This class will examine the history and production of "hard" sound-image relationships through the lens of computational form. Through studying the range of digital and mechanical tools that have sought to couple the senses - from 19th century color organs and dreams of synesthesia, through music videos and contemporary new media installations, to recent advances in "machine listening" - students will complete a series of critical essays and sketches leading towards a final project using custom software developed in and for the class.

Instructor(s): M. Downie     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 28010, MAAD 20810

ARTV 27923. Experimental Captures. 100 Units.

This production-based class will explore the possibilities and limits of capturing the world with imaging approaches that go beyond the conventional camera. What new and experimental image-based artworks can be created with technologies such as laser scanning, structured light projection, time of flight cameras, photogrammetry, stereography, motion capture, sensor augmented cameras or light field photography? This hands-on course welcomes students with production experience while being designed to keep established tools and commercial practices off-kilter and constantly in question.

Instructor(s): M. Downie     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Not offered in 2022-23.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 37011, ARTV 37923, MAAD 21011, CMST 27011

ARTV 28100. Art/World in Practice. 100 Units.

As an attempt to experience art making as a profession and as a practice we will spend the majority of class time off campus. We will visit exhibitions, meet people behind the scenes (curators / artists / collectors / gallerists / fabricators), if the heath condition allows visit a screening / lecture and allow for informal time together to give space to questions that arise from our shared experiences. Participants will be asked to prepare reports on our various planned activities. There will also be a tight selection of readings that will be in relation to our activities. Participants should be prepared to gather in various places throughout the city of Chicago, and for class time to end with a bit of flexibility towards the end. Depending on the mode of transportation, commute times might be up to 30-45 min, and ride sharing is strongly encouraged.

Instructor(s): J. Phillips     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 28100, ARTV 38100

ARTV 29600. Studio Project - I. 100 Units.

Students in Studio Project - 1 engage in two main activities: (1) a series of studio projects challenging the imagination and enlarging formal skills; and (2) an introduction to the contemporary art world through selected readings, lectures, careful analysis of art objects/events, and critical writing. Studio skills are developed while contending with the central task of articulating ideas through a resistant medium. Students should take at least two studio classes numbered ARTV 21000 or higher prior to registering for Studio Project - 1.

Instructor(s): A. Ginsburg, S. Wolniak     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring
Prerequisite(s): PQ: at least two studio classes numbered ARTV 21000 and above. For Visual Arts majors only.

ARTV 29700. Independent Study in Visual Arts. 100 Units.

Students in this reading course should have already done fundamental course work and be ready to explore a particular area of interest much more closely.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300 and consent of instructor
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.

ARTV 29850. Studio Project - II. 100 Units.

This is a critique-based course utilizing group discussion and individual guidance in the service of advancing the art practice of students who are majoring in visual arts. Emphasis is placed on the continued development of student's artistic production that began in the preceding Studio Project - 1. Readings and written responses required. In addition to studio work, visits to museums and galleries required.

Instructor(s): K. Desjardins, G. Oppenheimer     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 29600
Note(s): Required of students who are majoring in Visual Arts.

ARTV 29900. Studio Project - III. 100 Units.

Required of Visual Arts majors in the Studio Track. This course provides an opportunity for students to engage in a sustained and intense development of their art practice in weekly critiques throughout the Winter Quarter.

Instructor(s): C. Sullivan     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Only students who are in the Studio Track may register for this class.


Contacts

Undergraduate Primary Contact

Director of Undergraduate Studies
Geof Oppenheimer
LC 238

Email

Administrative Contact

Associate Director, Student Affairs
Alison LaTendresse
LC 236
773.753.4821
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Listhost

visual-arts@lists.uchicago.edu