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.

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.

Everything is made up of or emits energy. How can we both utilize and visualize its presence? This course expands the practice of drawing to include not only alternative materials and methods but also addresses the energy of the body itself as an instrument. The course material will include an introduction to embodied social justice practices and creative methodologies in the fields of quantum mechanics, neuroscience, education and philosophy. We will discuss the work of artists such as Adrian Piper, Joseph Bueys, Taisha Paggett, Helen Mirra, Mirko Ilic, and Marina Abramović, among others, as we utilize the energy of the body to enact an expanded drawing practice.

Painting has long sought to capture other spaces, whether they are threshold zones, fantastical landscapes, sites of difference, or hidden aspects of the everyday. This class offers students the chance to explore territories both real and imagined through discrete painting projects that connect to their unique interests. Drawing inspiration from Michel Foucault, N.K. Jemisin, J.G. Ballard, and artists like Julie Mehretu, Vilhelm Hammershøi, and those working in illustration and the popular arts, the class encourages students to both imagine and observe more keenly while learning the materials and debates of painting. Through a series of readings, studio visits, field trips and critiques, the class will explore the other spaces that painting makes legible while revealing the otherness of our own.