AS110 - Art Studio Foundations: Topics:

Survey of the fundamental concepts, practices and techniques of a specific topic or medium in studio art. Emphasizes composition, technical skill and visual literacy as related to a specific topic or techniques. Prepares students for advanced classes in studio art. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement.

Degree requirement — Critical Learning: CP

1 unit — Leonard, Scheiner

Previously Featured Offering

In AS110, we explore Afrofuturism as a multi-generational project of Afrocentric world-building; investigating Afro-diasporic cultural production in the long duree of African contact with (and forced existence within) settler-colonial nations. Students respond to three themes: Afro-Cosmology, Afro-Modernity, and Afrofuturism.
Book Arts and Letterpress provides an introduction to the basic hand skills and problems of designing, printing, binding and publishing books & bookish things. The class will be structured like an "art laboratory", in which all students will work on projects, share ideas, and learn from one another.
Photo of letterpress equipment and tools
This course provides an introduction to the basic hand skills and problems of designing, printing, binding and publishing books & bookish things. The class is structured on a sequence of technical, formal and conceptual units: Letter, Text / Ephemera and Space-Time / Book. On the technical side we will be learning the foundational elements of letterpress printing: typography, hand typesetting, page composition, and how to set up and print on a Vandercook proofing press. We will also learn a variety of bookbinding techniques, ranging from very simple books made by cutting and folding a single sheet of paper, to completely hand sewn and bound hardcover books. You will be learning a great many new techniques and approaches, but you are also encouraged to incorporate any other materials that you have experience with into the work that you do. That’s one of the great things about books—they can contain just about anything. On the conceptual side we will be reading about and discussing the histories of artists’ books and independent publishing, and the particular challenges and opportunities that come with the acts of printing and publishing. How does making artwork in multiple, specifically for some kind of distribution, change our approach? A constant theme in our work and conversations will be the productive tension between the “private” work of the artist in her studio, and the various “public” spaces that printed work can exist in. This is an informal, experienced-based course. How much you get out of it depends on how much you put into it. Ideally the class will function like an “art laboratory” where everyone is working, sharing ideas and learning together. You will learn how to design, print and publish, and to use these skills as active practices to ponder, interpret and intervene in the public space of books and other text / time-based media. This class is about individual and collective agency, critical thinking, empowerment & responsibility.

Offerings

Term Block Title Instructor Location Student Limit/Available Updated
Spring 2025 Block 6 Art Studio Foundations: Topics: Text and Texture Topic Details Kate Leonard, Corinne Scheiner TBA 16 / 16 11/04/2024
Summer 2025 Block A Book Arts and Letter Press Jillian Sico TBA 25 / 25 11/04/2024
Report an issue - Last updated: 11/04/2024