Contacts | Program of Study | Program Requirements | Summary of Requirements for Majors | Grading | Honors | Summary of Requirements for Honors Track Majors | Minor Program in the Department of Visual Arts | Courses
Department Website: http://dova.uchicago.edu
Program of Study
The Department of Visual Arts (DOVA) is concerned with the making of art 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. ARTV 10100 Visual Language: On Images, ARTV 10200 Visual Language: On Objects, and ARTV 10300 Visual Language: On Time and Space are intended for students with no studio background and meet the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. More advanced courses presume that students have taken at least one of these three courses. (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 and also include readings and visits to local museums and galleries. These courses engage principles of visual language stressing the relationship of form and meaning.
| ARTV 10100 | Visual Language: On Images | 100 |
| ARTV 10200 | Visual Language: On Objects | 100 |
| ARTV 10300 | Visual Language: On Time and Space | 100 |
ARTV 15000 Art Practice and Theory, which is primarily intended for students majoring or minoring in visual arts, examines the place of artistic practice in contemporary culture.
ARTV courses numbered 20000 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, selected nonstudio courses in the theory and criticism of art, and courses in theater and set design.
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. Because of the diversity of student interests and the department's interdisciplinary orientation, requirements for the major are flexible.
All students take ARTV 10100 Visual Language: On Images, ARTV 10200 Visual Language: On Objects, or ARTV 10300 Visual Language: On Time and Space, and ARTV 15000 Art Practice and Theory in the first two years of their studies. (NOTE: Students majoring in visual arts cannot use an ARTV course to meet the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts.) After completing these core courses but no later than Winter Quarter of their third year, students meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies to plan the rest of their program. At least five of the courses beyond the core must be drawn from the second level of predominantly studio-oriented offerings (studio art courses numbered 20000 and above). The remaining three courses may be any intellectually consistent combination of visual arts studio courses, visual arts critical and theory courses, and any other relevant offerings in the College. Up to two independent study courses that are relevant to the major may be counted toward these three electives. (For more information, consult the sample programs of study that follow.)
Students take ARTV 29600 Junior Seminar in Spring Quarter of their third year. This studio seminar examines approaches to independent studio projects. At the end of the Junior Seminar, students may choose to apply for the visual arts honors track. Places in the honors track are limited. Applicants will be reviewed by a faculty committee at the end of their third year, and honors track decisions will be announced before the start of the Autumn Quarter of fourth year. Students in the honors track present their work in a thesis exhibition and may be eligible to receive shared studio space in their senior year; studio space and the exhibition are limited to students in the honors track. (See “Honors” section below for more details.)
All visual arts majors must take ARTV 29850 Senior Seminar in the Autumn Quarter of their fourth year. Students in the honors track take an additional course, ARTV 29900 Senior Project, which serves as a forum to prepare for the thesis exhibition in the spring. (See “Honors” section below for more details.)
Summary of Requirements for Majors
| GENERAL EDUCATION | ||
| Introductory art history, drama, or music course * | 100 | |
| Total Units | 100 | |
| MAJOR | ||
| One of the following: | 100 | |
| Visual Language: On Images | ||
| Visual Language: On Objects | ||
| Visual Language: On Time and Space | ||
| ARTV 15000 | Art Practice and Theory | 100 |
| ARTV 29600 | Junior Seminar | 100 |
| ARTV 29850 | Senior Seminar | 100 |
| 5 studio art courses numbered 20000 and above | 500 | |
| 3 Electives relevant to the major | 300 | |
| Total Units | 1200 | |
| * | Students majoring in visual arts cannot use an ARTV course to meet the general education requirement in the dramatic, music, and visual arts. |
Sample Programs
The Department of Visual Arts encourages its students either to focus their major in the studio or to construct interdisciplinary major programs combining studio and nonstudio courses that focus on a particular theme. The following examples are not prescriptive, only suggestive:
- A program that explores relationships of image and text in the construction of narratives, combining courses in drawing and graphics with courses in creative writing, literature, and art history.
- A program that explores issues of identity construction through image making, and combines courses in painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography with courses in anthropology, art history, and gender studies.
- A program in the practice of painting exploring aesthetic form as a vehicle for individual expression, including art history and philosophy courses.
- A studio-based program in photography that concentrates on black-and-white silver-gelatin processes, and includes a thorough investigation of the history and conceptual framework of the medium.
- A program that investigates issues surrounding representations of the body (including an engagement with contemporary and historic practices in visual art and film, as well as feminist, gender, race, and class theory) and concludes in an installation of a series of photographs.
- A studio-based program in sculpture that examines how our sensory or kinesthetic knowledge of our bodies differs greatly from how we are seen as objects in space by others (possibly including additional courses in the history of art and in anatomy).
Grading
Students majoring in visual arts must receive quality grades for the thirteen 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.
Honors
Visual arts majors may apply for the honors track at the end of their third year.Places in the honors track are limited. Applicants will be reviewed by a faculty committee at the end of the third year, and honors track decisions will be announced before the start of the Autumn Quarter of fourth year. Honors track students work in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the visual arts faculty to mount a thesis exhibition at the end of their senior year. Honors track students may also be awarded shared studio space during the senior year, based on merit and need, and contingent upon space being available.
Additionally, honors track students take ARTV 29900 Senior Project in the Winter Quarter of their final year, in preparation for their thesis exhibition. The grade for ARTV 29900 Senior Project is recorded at the end of the Spring Quarter of the fourth year, after completion of the exhibition.
Students must have a portfolio of exceptional quality to be recommended to graduate with honors in Visual Arts. 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.
Summary of Requirements for Honors Track Majors
| GENERAL EDUCATION | ||
| Introductory art history, drama, or music course * | 100 | |
| Total Units | 100 | |
| MAJOR | ||
| One of the following: | 100 | |
| Visual Language: On Images | ||
| Visual Language: On Objects | ||
| Visual Language: On Time and Space | ||
| ARTV 15000 | Art Practice and Theory | 100 |
| ARTV 29600 | Junior Seminar | 100 |
| ARTV 29850 | Senior Seminar | 100 |
| ARTV 29900 | Senior Project | 100 |
| 5 studio art courses numbered 20000 and above | 500 | |
| 3 Electives relevant to the major | 300 | |
| Total Units | 1300 | |
| * |
Students majoring in visual arts cannot use an ARTV course to meet the general education requirement in the dramatic, music, and visual arts. |
Minor Program in the Department of Visual Arts
The minor in visual arts requires six courses: two are 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 ARTV 15000 Art Practice and Theory) and four are drawn from visual arts studio courses chosen in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies. (NOTE: Students minoring in visual arts cannot use an ARTV course to meet the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts.)
Students who elect the minor program in visual arts must meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies before the end of Spring Quarter of their third year to declare their intention to complete the minor. Students choose courses in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies. The Director's approval for the minor program should be submitted to a student's College adviser by the deadline above on a form obtained from the 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.
The following group of courses would comprise a minor in visual arts:
Requirements for the Visual Arts Minor
| GENERAL EDUCATION | ||
| Introductory art history, drama, or music course * | 100 | |
| Total Units | 100 | |
| MINOR | ||
| One of the following: | 100 | |
| Visual Language: On Images | ||
| Visual Language: On Objects | ||
| Visual Language: On Time and Space | ||
| ARTV 15000 | Art Practice and Theory | 100 |
| 4 studio art courses numbered 20000 and above | 400 | |
| Total Units | 600 | |
| * | Students minoring in visual arts cannot use an ARTV course to meet the general education requirement in the dramatic, music, and visual arts. |
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. Students must attend class for the full first week to confirm enrollment. Pink slip/wait list requests are due several weeks before the quarter begins. Sign up for the wait list at dova.uchicago.edu/content/wait-list-core-courses-0.
Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Note(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, and 10300 may be taken in sequence or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. Previous experience in media-based studio courses not accepted as a substitute for this course.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28444
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. Students must attend class for the full first week to confirm enrollment. Pink slip/wait list requests are due several weeks before the quarter begins. Sign up for the wait list at dova.uchicago.edu/content/wait-list-core-courses-0.
Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Note(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, and 10300 may be taken in sequence or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. Previous experience in media-based studio courses not accepted as a substitute for this course.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28445
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 the time schedule for details. Visits to museums and other fieldwork required, as is participation in studio exercises and group critiques. Students must attend class for the full first week in order to confirm enrollment. Pink slip/wait list requests are due several weeks before the quarter begins. Sign up for the wait list at dova.uchicago.edu/content/wait-list-core-courses-0.
Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Note(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, and 10300 may be taken in sequence or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. Previous experience in media-based studio courses not accepted as a substitute for this course.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 10300,TAPS 23400
ARTV 15000. Art Practice and Theory. 100 Units.
This course examines the place of artistic practice in contemporary culture and the rhetoric of images. Emphasis is placed on the visual arts, examining discourses such as the assignment of value to works, the formation of taste, the relationship between individual production and institutional practices, the role of authorship (intentionality) in the construction of meaning, the gate-keeping functions of curatorial and critical practice, the function and maintenance of categorical distinctions constituting "otherness" (high/low, naive, primitive, outside), the relationship between truth and authenticity, and the uses of art (e.g., transcendence, decoration, activism, therapy, play). Visits to museums, galleries, and other cultural and commercial sites required, as is attendance at designated events.
Instructor(s): Z. Cahill, S. Huffman. Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter
Note(s): It is recommended that students who are majoring in visual arts enroll in this required course before their fourth year. Open to nonmajors with consent of instructor. This course does not meet the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts.
ARTV 21001. Figure Drawing: Trans/Figuration. 100 Units.
Figure drawing is an experience that engages us visually, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. This many-faceted relationship is examined through the use of a variety of traditional and experimental materials, set-ups, and drawing methods. Assignments and class critiques investigate different models of stylistic invention, ranging from realism to comic expression. This studio class includes readings, field trips, and class projects that address the human form as source for developing your own visual responses to related issues—such as identity, narrative, and social critique.
Instructor(s): K. Desjardins Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 31001
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: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 31501
ARTV 21700. Drawing as Process. 100 Units.
Drawing is often understood as a means to an end. The drawing, since the early Renaissance, has stood as an iconic representation for how thinking works: In preparation lines are forged to flesh out form, strike propositions, or experiment in possibilities. What this has come to mean historically is that drawing is a stage looking to an inevitable greater focus in another medium. Drawings will lead to final paintings, sculptures, or moving images. But, sometimes too, drawings believe in themselves to be their own economy, to be succinct, and to be in their own right a finished statement. Sometimes a drawing is the only way a set of criteria can be made clear. In this course, we will analyze the nature of drawing’s history and embrace the notion of process as a questionable thing. If drawing is a form of vitality, then why not consider it as an end? Through exercises and problems posed, drawing will be a process of understanding and a making known, while at once being a venture into a seeing through, to drawing, its primordial function, and the making of a finite work as a statement in itself.
Instructor(s): D. Schutter Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 31700
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): ARTV 31900
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.
Instructor(s): K. Desjardins Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 32200
ARTV 22002. Introduction to Painting II. 100 Units.
Instructor(s): K. Desjardins Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 32202
ARTV 22306. Hybridity and the Multiple: A Course on Moldmaking. 100 Units.
Hybridity is the commingling of two or more entities, the mash-up, the crossover, the mutation, and the reformulation. Thinking of objects as tools for collage, this course will begin with the art of casting. Once you have acquired the skill of multiple production, you will be free to reproduce, alter, and reformulate objects to create hybrid forms. Questioning the multiple, the serial, and the unique, this course will use the positive and negative space of object production as an experimental tool to explore material, installation, and production.
Instructor(s): A. Ginsburg Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 32306
ARTV 22308. Build a Building Fit for a Kiln. 100 Units.
Take up the hammer, the saw, and the trowel in an exploration of hands-on architecture and design. In this course, the class will work collaboratively to build a freestanding structure adjacent to the Logan Center for the Arts. You will have the opportunity to create a lasting sculpture that will house kilns for the Department of Visual Arts. The building is the result of the winning design from a previous student driven design course entitled How to House a Kiln. Rather than simply following directions, you will be privy to the design process and intentions of the building. This course is an opportunity to work at an unusually ambitious scale.
Instructor(s): A. Ginsburg Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300
Note(s): No prior building experience necessary.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 32308
ARTV 22500. Digital Imaging. 100 Units.
This studio course introduces fundamental tools and concepts used in the production of computer-mediated artwork. Instruction includes a survey of standard digital imaging software and hardware (i.e., Photoshop, scanners, storage, printing, etc), as well as exposure to more sophisticated methods. We also view and discuss the historical precedents and current practice of media art. Using input and output hardware, students complete conceptually driven projects emphasizing personal direction while gaining core digital knowledge.
Instructor(s): J. Salavon Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 32500,CMST 28801,CMST 38801
ARTV 22502. Data and Algorithm in Art. 100 Units.
An introduction to the use of data sources and algorithmic methods in visual art, this course explores the aesthetic and theoretical possibilities of computational art-making. Focusing on the diverse and ever expanding global data-feed, we will craft custom software processes to create works investigating the visual transformation of information. Additionally, software programming may be deployed independently, without a connection to source material. While placing an emphasis on creating new work, we will also survey the history of this type of art practice.
Instructor(s): J. Salavon Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Note(s): No prior experience with programming is necessary.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 32502
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: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 33801,CMST 28903
ARTV 23804. Experimental Animation. 100 Units.
Individually directed video shorts will be produced in this intensive studio course. Experimental and improvised approaches to stop-animation and motion picture art will combine digital production and post-production with analog and material methods of picture making. Early and experimental cinema, puppetry and contemporary low-tech animation strategies will be presented as formal and technical examples.
Instructor(s): S. Wolniak Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 33804
ARTV 23848. Grain. 100 Units.
Grain is an elemental property of film, wood, and the human voice. This production seminar investigates the essential structure of these three materials through screenings, discussions, and studio work in 16mm film production, sculpture, and performance. Emphasis will be on direct manipulation of material—hand processing and editing black and white 16mm film and woodworking with hand tools. Texts by Bergson, Deleuze, Barthes, and Sennet will inform our engagement with matter and perception as will a 16mm film series including works by Griffith, Frampton, Snow, and Andersen, and sound works by Beuys, Cage, and others.
Instructor(s): K. Pandian Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 33848,CMST 28005
ARTV 23900. Drawing. 100 Units.
This intensive multilevel studio course is dedicated to investigations of genre, technique, and format in relation to subject matter and individual expression. Guided and self-directed experiments are used to develop visual work within conceptual and thematic frameworks. Art historical examples and contemporary strategies in two-dimensional art are presented as models. Students are expected to produce a body of work consisting of studies, sketches, and finished projects in a range of scales and materials. Classes are dedicated to studio work, lectures, critiques, and field trips.
Instructor(s): S. Wolniak Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 33900
ARTV 23904. Senior Creative Thesis Workshop. 100 Units.
This seminar will focus on how to craft a creative thesis in film or video. Works-in-progress will be screened each week, and technical and structural issues relating to the work will be explored. The workshop will also develop the written portion of the creative thesis. The class is limited to seniors from CMS and DOVA, and MAPH students working on a creative thesis.
Instructor(s): J. Hoffman Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): CMST 23930; CMST 23931; departmental approval of senior creative thesis project.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 23904,ARTV 33904
ARTV 23905. Creative Thesis Workshop. 100 Units.
This seminar will focus on how to craft a creative thesis in film or video. Works-in-progress will be screened each week, and technical and structural issues relating to the work will be explored. The workshop will also develop the written portion of the creative thesis. The class is limited to seniors from CMS and DOVA, and MAPH students working on a creative thesis.
Instructor(s): Judy Hoffman Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter
Prerequisite(s): CMST 23930; CMST 23931 or 27600; departmental approval of senior creative thesis project.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 33905,ARTV 33905
ARTV 23920. Drawing II: Exploded Drawing. 100 Units.
This intensive studio course will explore wide-ranging strategies in drawing and two-dimensional composition. Interrogating conventions of representation and pictorial space, students will develop new formal and conceptual possibilities that relate to the complexities and changing perspectives of contemporary life. Drawing will be addressed as an expansive, open-ended outlet for thought and action. Emphasis will be on innovation within the fundamental structures of the medium, including its history, materials, and techniques.
Instructor(s): S. Wolniak Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 33920
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 class, 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): S. Huffman, L. Letinsky Terms Offered: Autumn, Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Note(s): Camera and light meter required.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34000,CMST 27600,CMST 37600
ARTV 24112. Advanced Problems in Sculpture. 100 Units.
Advanced problems in sculpture is class that is open to all manifestation of sculptural practice broadly defined, including performance and film/video. A particular focus of the class will be spent considering issues of presence/the index, material histories, economic determination and societal legibility. Readings on sculptural history from the 19th through the 21st century will be used to illuminate contemporary concerns and issues. Prerequisites of at least introduction to sculpture will be required or instructors permission.
Instructor(s): G. Oppenheimer Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300 and ARTV 22200 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34112
ARTV 24113. The Body in Medicine and the Performing Arts. 100 Units.
The Body in Medicine and the Performing Arts is a multidisciplinary course designed to explore the human body through the unique combination of medical science and the performing arts. Drawing broadly from medicine, anthropology, and the performing arts, this course seeks to understand the human body by comparing and contrasting the medicalized body with the animated or performing body. With an emphasis on experiential learning, the primary pedagogy will be interactive activities that allow students to learn about the human body through interactions with other bodies as well as their own. The medical sequence of the course will examine how medicine uses the body as an educational tool, views the body through radiographic imaging, utilizes the dead body to make diagnoses, and endeavors to prolong life. Activities associated with this sequence will include exploration of the dissected cadaver in the anatomy lab, viewing of radiographic images, use of the ultrasound on oneself, a visit to the morgue, and interactions with individuals who received organ transplants. The performing arts sequence will explore the mind and body as a continuous system through somatic pedagogies at the intersection of theater, dance, physical and psychotherapy. Students will use their own bodies as instruments of inquiry into somatic pedagogies such as Feldenkreis technique in physical and occupational therapies, methodologies drawn from Biomechanics in the theater, from Contact Improvisation in dance, and Bioenergetics in psychotherapy. These two distinct sequences will be explored within the larger cultural context of the human body and more specifically through the deliberate tension created by interactions with the dead/inanimate body and the living/animated body. Taken as a whole, The Body in Medicine and the Performing Arts will provide students with the unique opportunity to explore the human body through an engaging multi-disciplinary experience.
Instructor(s): B. Callender, C. Sullivan Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Maximum enrollment of 20 students. Mixed enrollment limited to third- and fourth-year undergraduate students and graduate students or consent of instructors.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 25103,ANTH 35103,ARTV 34113
ARTV 24210. Multi-media Studio: The Aleatoric. 100 Units.
ale·a·tor·ic: adj \ˌā-lē-ə-ˈtȯr-ik: characterized by chance or indeterminate elements. This studio course addresses how artists throughout time and across cultures have embraced chance and “randomness” as an integral part of the creative process. Through a series of studio projects, you will be challenged to explore how “official” Western aesthetic canons of taste (such as artistic skill, control, and “genius”) were brought into question through chance and aleatoric strategies, particularly during the 20th century. This opened doors to experimentation with unorthodox methodologies, exploration of the unconscious, re-consideration of so-called “outsider” art—and more. Readings, discussions, and field trips put these practices into cultural and theoretical context. Although this course employs drawing-based tools for developing ideas, you will be afforded ample room to expand beyond 2D—into sculpture, video, installation, photography, performance, and/or hybrids forms—in order to realize a clear and contemporary response to our theme as a final project.
Instructor(s): K. Desjardins Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Note(s): All media and levels welcome.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34210
ARTV 24301. Writing for Performance. 100 Units.
This course is an exploration of select texts for performance written by performance artists primarily but not entirely operating within the context of art. Via historical context and literary technique, students read, discuss, and analyze texts by various authors spanning the history of performance art: Hugo Ball, John Cage, Richard Foreman, Carolee Schneeman, Joseph Beuys, Karen Finley, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, John Leguizamo, and create and perform their own writing. Field trips and attendance at first class are required.
Instructor(s): W. Pope.L Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34301,TAPS 28414
ARTV 24405. Color Photography. 100 Units.
Light, space-time, movement, and color; these are the mediums of photography which the student is encouraged to question and work with throughout this course. What is color? What does it do? We will analyze the nature of photography, “writing with light,” through the specific exploration and use of color by working hands-on in its control, distribution, and manipulation. Techniques in non-traditional color printing, as well as experimentation, working against popular conventions and methodologies in photography are introduced and encouraged. Being grounded in the mechanical and technical basis of photography leads us to pursue understanding of the mediums of light, space-time, and movement, all inseparable from knowledge of the physics of our world. The goal is to experiment, investigate, and share how these core phenomena, the foundation of photography, shape the way one makes and takes a photographic image, how one sees the world.
Instructor(s): S. Huffman Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300; ARTV 24000
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34405
ARTV 24406. Un-suspending Disbelief: The Subject of Pictures. 100 Units.
We will address questions regarding what the photograph pictures as opposed to what the photograph “means,” giving close attention to sussing out a more precise ontological mapping of the relationship between pictures and photography. Despite our long-standing knowledge that what we see, how we see, and how we “picture” is not natural but rather a complex negotiation of physiological, psychological, historical, and social factors, the photograph’s ubiquity naturalizes its ways of describing. What is “pictured” in a photograph is regularly taken as evidentiary, and in identity discourse, what is pictured matters. However, like ink squiggles on a white page that form letters and words—creating a whole complex of signification subject to interpretation—what the photograph actually means is in fact rarely self-evident and equally relative. This course builds on the symposium of the same name to be held in November 2014 in conjunction with an exhibition at the Logan Center, The Faculty of Belief, co-curated by Letinsky and Monika Szewczyk. Through a variety of perspectives including readings and students' art production, we will examine the lamination of content and subject within photography.
Instructor(s): L. Letinsky Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): This course is considered to be the equivalent of the Photography Workshop; that is, an advanced photography course for students with basic darkroom and/or computer skills.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34406
ARTV 24550. Shopcraft: Methods and Materials. 100 Units.
Designed as a complementary course to the DOVA sculpture sequence, Shopcraft explores the tools and techniques available to students in the wood shop. Topics covered include shop safety; the properties of woods; the planning and material selection process for sculpture, furniture, and other woodworking applications; the care and use of hand tools; and interpreting and creating scale drawings and conceptual plans. A series of small projects designed to challenge and expand students' design, drafting, and woodworking skills are assigned. In addition, students are invited to incorporate projects from sculpture classes or their individual studio practice into the course.
Instructor(s): D. Wolf Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34550,TAPS 27900
ARTV 24553. Vibrant Materialism: Studies in Wood and Metal. 100 Units.
Taking place in the Logan Center Shop, this class is equally dedicated to making and theorizing around thingness, multiplicity, and material ecology. We will begin by establishing a foundation of wood/metal skills and joinery methods. Then, treating the shop as a space for experimentation, we will investigate the living and dynamic properties of wood and metal—this is where the vibrant part comes in—and consider their respective places in a larger system of materials and practices related to visual art production. Prior shop experience is not required.
Instructor(s): H. Givler Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 34553
ARTV 25300. Introduction to Film Analysis. 100 Units.
This course introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Films discussed include works by Hitchcock, Porter, Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Renoir, Sternberg, and Welles.
Instructor(s): Y. Tsivian, Staff Terms Offered: Autumn, Spring
Note(s): Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 10100,ARTH 20000,ENGL 10800
ARTV 26000. Introduction to Stage Design. 100 Units.
This course explores the application of the visual and aural arts to the varied forms of design for the stage (i.e., scenic, lighting, costume, sound). We pay particular attention to the development of a cogent and well-reasoned analysis of text and an articulate use of the elements of design through a set of guided practical projects.
Instructor(s): T. Burch Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Lab fee required. This course is offered in alternate years.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 36300
ARTV 26201. Architectural History and Critical Media Practice. 100 Units.
This advanced studio course is offered in conjunction with a Gray Center collaboration between D. N. Rodowick and Victor Burgin. We will investigate how creative practice can engage specific architectural sites and explore the erased or disappeared cultural histories, real and/or imagined, inscribed in those spaces. Our focus will be the history of “The Mecca” apartment building. Despite great protest, The Mecca was demolished in 1952 as part of the expansion of the Illinois Institute of Design under the plan of Mies van der Rohe. This site and its Bronzeville environs thus present a variety of opportunities for exploring themes of displaced architectures, competing visions of modernism and utopia, and conflicts in popular and cultural memory. Students are expected to propose and pursue individual projects around this theme and to work experimentally with strategies of research and writing together with still and/or moving image production. Field trips required.
Instructor(s): D. N. Rodowick, V. Burgin Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Prior coursework and/or experience with a camera-based practice (photography, film, video, 3D modelling) is required. Admission to this course is by application and with consent of the instructors. Please contact Sophia Rhee sophiar@uchicago.edu to apply for consent.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 26201,ARTH 36201,ARTV 36201,CMST 29004,CMST 39004
ARTV 26214. On Art and Life. 100 Units.
This class is an 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 artists studio? Visual art is a communicative form that requires subject matter and this class 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: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 36214
ARTV 26500-26600. History of International Cinema I-II.
This sequence is required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies. Taking these courses in sequence is strongly recommended but not required.
ARTV 26500. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era. 100 Units.
This course introduces what was singular about the art and craft of silent film. Its general outline is chronological. We also discuss main national schools and international trends of filmmaking.
Instructor(s): T. Gunning Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent registration in CMST 10100 required. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): This is the first part of a two-quarter course.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 28500,ARTH 28500,ARTH 38500,ARTV 36500,CMLT 22400,CMLT 32400,CMST 48500,ENGL 29300,ENGL 48700,MAPH 36000
ARTV 26600. 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): T. Gunning Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent registration in CMST 10100 required. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): CMST 28500/48500 strongly recommended
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 28600,ARTH 28600,ARTH 38600,CMLT 22500,CMLT 32500,CMST 48600,ENGL 29600,ENGL 48900,MAPH 33700
ARTV 26750. Chicago Film History. 100 Units.
Students in this course screen and discuss films to consider whether there is a Chicago style of filmmaking. We trace how the city informs documentary, educational, industrial, narrative feature, and avant-garde films. If there is a Chicago style of filmmaking, one must look at the landscape of the city; and the design, politics, cultures, and labor of its people, as well as how they live their lives. The protagonists and villains in these films are the politicians and community organizers, our locations are the neighborhoods, and the set designers are Mies van der Rohe and the Chicago Housing Authority.
Instructor(s): J. Hoffman Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 21801,ARTV 36750,CMST 31801,HMRT 25104,HMRT 35104
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): K. Desjardins, D. Schutter Terms Offered: Autumn, Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300; and 22000 or 22002
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 37200
ARTV 29600. Junior Seminar. 100 Units.
Students in the Junior Seminar 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. Toward the end of the quarter, students who wish to apply for the Honors Track may submit their applications to the Department. Visits to museums, galleries, and other cultural and commercial sites required, as is attendance at designated events.
Instructor(s): S. Wolniak, A. Ginsburg Terms Offered: Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): For Visual Arts majors only
Note(s): It is recommended that students who are majoring in visual arts enroll in this required course in Spring Quarter of their third year
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, Winter, Spring
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. Senior Seminar. 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 Junior Seminar. Readings and written responses required. In addition to studio work, visits to museums and galleries required.
Instructor(s): K. Desjardins Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Consent of Director of Undergraduate Studies
Note(s): Required of students who are majoring in visual arts
ARTV 29900. Senior Project. 100 Units.
For Visual Arts majors in the Honors 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): L. Letinsky Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of Director of Undergraduate Studies
Note(s): Required of students who are majoring in visual arts. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.
Contacts
Undergraduate Primary Contact
Director of Undergraduate Studies:
Laura Letinsky
M 107
753.4821
Email
Administrative Contact
Assoc. Director, Student Affairs:
Alison LaTendresse
M 107
753.4821
Email