Artistic creation is both a powerful and deeply personal act. In the process of creation, artists navigate an elusive and ineffable space—one that requires a suspension of certainty in order to welcome emerging ideas, forms, and vision. This course is dedicated to exploring the unknown as both a site of study and a catalyst for artistic discovery. Through 2D methods of investigation; drawing, mapping, collage, and photography, students will engage in semester-long research that investigates the liminal state of in-between-ness. The first half of the semester will use theory based prompts that include notions of enduring understanding and presencing for initial 2D studies. Studies will try on the suspension of known paradigms, narratives, precedents and artifacts in order to break down assumptions and boundaries and delve into a state of openness. A space of all possibilities that centers the artist and their experience in the heart of this expanse. The second half of the semester focuses on self-directed projects that build upon initial studies and deepen the exploration of the in-between. Artists, Authors, and Filmmakers include Jane Tormey, Rebecca Solnit, Marina Abramović, John Baldassari, Trinh T. Minh-ha and Shin il Kim among others.

Painting and humor are strange bedfellows, sharing many of the same conceptual structures, social pressures, and critical possibilities. From Arcimboldo, Hogarth, and Daumier to more recent figures like Jamian Juliano-Villani, Emily Mae Smith, Mark Thomas Gibson, and others, painters have employed humor to critique the status quo as well as entertain the viewer. But what is it that makes things funny? Charting a path through some influential theories of humor and some challenging, yes, funny projects, this painting class asks students to explore humor and painting in many of their various guises. Whether in the form of abjection, the grotesque, slapstick, deadpan, irony, or satire, this class asks students to take humor quite seriously, analyzing its subtle structures while exploring the materials and debates of painting and making funny work along the way.

In our era of the remix, sampling has become its own art form. This course will critically explore the material and conceptual possibilities of the mash-up. From the history of montage in the Weimar Republic to sampling from rap songs, the remix has always been a way to synthesize critical dialog—whether playful or pointed, it has been used as a strategy to embed place, context, cultural references and politically-charged content. Through collage, drawing, animation, photography, and book arts, students will mine personal and institutional archives to create works that put unlikely or unexpected source material in critical conversation. Students will explore how to synthesize deeply researched subject matter with material experimentation, hijack graphic design language to subvert content, and critically use appropriated imagery and text to tell alternative narratives. Studio projects will be supplemented by relevant demos, readings, and discussions of art historical movements such as DADA and Pattern and Decoration. All projects will be contextualized alongside discussions of contemporary artists such as Taryn Simon, Sheida Solemani, Sam Vernon, Mickalene Thomas, Catherine Lorde, Clive Murphy, Christopher Clary, Hank Willis Thomas, Guadalupe Maravilla and many more.

Inspired by the intimacy and tactility of the Artist Book, this course will provide students with the tools to deconstruct the book as we know it to reimagine it anew. We will redefine the architecture of the book while paying close attention to the meanings the forms explore. A variety of mixed-media techniques adjacent to book arts will be utilized; drawing, sewing, linocut printing, collagraph, laser-cut engraving, stamping, and cyanotype photography. Some of the key concepts we will investigate in reimagining the book form include enclosure, linearity, scale, movement, tactility, and the body. Students will develop technical skills such as folding techniques, box-making, and incorporating movement through hinging. The course is founded on iteration and process, straddling between 2D and 3D as students experiment and evolve their work- looking to Bauhaus as our model. Drawing inspiration from the language of children’s books, soft books, and performative books, we will also look to artists such as Tauba Auerbach, Es Devlin, Kara Walker, Louise Bourgeois, Sister Sylvester, Colette Fu, and Olafur Eliasson, among others. Our exploration will extend beyond the studio, as we visit local book arts institutions—from Parsons' own Special Collections Library to the Center for Book Arts, Booklyn, dieudonne, the Robert Blackburn Printshop, and Small Editions. These visits will immerse students in the world of contemporary book arts and help them push the boundaries of the book form.

Places we have never been, or even seen, are often inscribed in our imaginations and even define our sense of who we are. This class will be a semester-long student-driven investigation into a particular “unseen” site. We will triangulate the source materials including images, television shows, writings and songs that have created this place in our minds, and search for the hidden historical, social and political forces at work in this imagined site. Through a wide range of 2D research and experimentation, including drawing, photography, collage, mapping, painting and notations, this course will culminate in a final expanded 2D project that makes this unseen site visible.