This section will explore various approaches to visual journalism. Topics will include oral history, local news, longform graphic narrative, among others. Special attention will be paid to the ethics and responsibilities of journalism and what it means to be a visual artist working as a reporter. Topics discussed will include objectivity (is it possible? or even desirable?), the “fiction of non-fiction,” the creation of an audience, the many ways words and images can interact to convey information and meaning, and stock imagery vs hand made vs photographed images and their uses in creating authenticity. Different forms of investigation will be considered; this may include the different use of images for forensic, environmental, digital, and personal investigation. Students should choose this section if: They want to think about the making and transfer of meaning in media culture They want to think in depth about ethical and appropriate approaches to sharing knowledge

This section will focus on the animated documentary. Students will work on developing sophisticated form and content as they move through exercises and assignments investigating modes of animated documentary. Animated documentary tends to resist the idea of a single truth or clear relationship with reality, instead creating a space where artists can embrace abstraction and explore highly individualistic points of view. Notions of ‘truth’ will be investigated through the examination of the broad swathe of animated documentary, with subjects ranging from war to sexuality, city to play. Students should choose this section if: They want to use animation to explore documentary. They want to develop their animation practice and broaden their understanding of the possibilities of animation, both technically and conceptually.

This section will explore and engage with the many ways in which illustration, animation, and music can be transformed into performative media. The relationships and interactions between visual and auditory media are relevant to diverse performative forms including live storytelling, action-painting, performative lectures, projection mapping, puppetry, drag, performance art, live web performance, installation, dance, theater, and opera. This class may also explore illustration as ephemera and performance/music as a generative practice for creating experimental illustration. Students should choose this section if: They are interested in combining their illustration or animation practice with performance They are interested in using music and performance as prisms through which they might organise or contemplate 2D work

This section will be a space for students to explore the aesthetic and political possibilities of utopias and dystopias. It will consider the way in which sci-fi and fantasy are used to comment on contemporary life or to propose alternative ways of living. Issues to discuss include the feminist implications of the cyborg and the play space of digital games, as well as changing visions of dystopia/utopia and how to draw utopian practice into everyday life. Utopian design will be considered (fonts of the Bauhaus), as will the movement of dystopian imagery (the red cloaks from Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale) into contemporary protest. Students should take this section if: They want to explore sci-fi or fantasy narratives and aesthetics They are interested in world building They want to explore the uses of speculative fiction to make space for marginalised voices and or explore scientific hypotheses

This section will examine cute and kitsch. It will consider the origins of cute--including both cultural and biological understandings of cuteness--and look at the history of Kawaii and its increasing global dominance. Students will be encouraged to think about their visual guilty pleasures and to examine the value of kitsch and its relationship to folk art, and may discuss camp and the re-use of aesthetic in non-normative gender roles. We will also look at sentimentality and notions of worth and value associated with particular images. Students should take this section if: They want to explore the origins and contemporary meaning(s) of cuteness They want to make work exploring appeal and the affect of objects .

Urban interventions will look at illustration in the built environment, this might be printed matter found in a subway station, murals, or protest banners. What does it mean to design communications in these contexts? How is illustration functioning? Projects may consider the illustrator as Flaneuse or Psychogeographer, as well as learn about culture jamming and the use of images in direct action. How can illustration be used to change our relationship with a city and with its citizens? New Media will also consider how technology informs our use of illustration: what are the illustrative possibilities of advanced and progressive media such as GIFs, AR (Augmented Reality), Instagram face filter masks, virtual backgrounds, and digital 3d work. Students should choose this section if: They are interested in illustration outside the screen and page, especially in activist or culture jamming contexts They want to expand their illustration/animation skills through experimental or cutting edge practice including digital 3D .

Topics are a unique type of studio course focusing on various facets of the Illustration industry, conceptual scenarios or techniques associated with the curriculum. These studios are a more intense and focused environment immersing the student in a deeper look at the subject matter and are a logical precursor to the upcoming Thesis in Senior year.

Topics are a unique type of studio course focusing on various facets of the Illustration industry, conceptual scenarios or techniques associated with the curriculum. These studios are a more intense and focused environment immersing the student in a deeper look at the subject matter and are a logical precursor to the upcoming Thesis in Senior year.

Topics are a unique type of studio course focusing on various facets of the Illustration industry, conceptual scenarios or techniques associated with the curriculum. These studios are a more intense and focused environment immersing the student in a deeper look at the subject matter and are a logical precursor to the upcoming Thesis in Senior year.

In this intermediate-level animation course students will explore a wide range of approaches to animation including hand-drawn images, digital 2D and 3D images, and stop-motion. Emphasis will be placed on cultivating a unique authorial voice and sensibility as a director/writer/animator. In a series of projects students will experience the creative process from conception to realization. Questions of visual style and sound design will be studied. Students will gain skills in both storytelling and animation techniques to enable them to produce complete short animated videos.

In this intermediate-level course students will explore graphic storytelling in a variety of forms: picture-books, comics and illustrated texts designed for distribution via print and online. Working with traditional and/or digital media, students will build upon the technical skills learned in Core 2D to produce self-initiated work in the field of graphic narrative. Through critiques. lectures and writing assignments, students will learn to situate their own work within the history of graphic narrative as well as reflect upon the aesthetic decisions that go into the development of a unique authorial voice and sophisticated approach to text and image based storytelling.

In this intermediate-level animation course students will explore a wide range of approaches to animation including hand-drawn images, digital 2D and 3D images, and stop-motion. Emphasis will be placed on cultivating a unique authorial voice and sensibility as a director/writer/animator. In a series of projects students will experience the creative process from conception to realization. Questions of visual style and sound design will be studied. Students will gain skills in both storytelling and animation techniques to enable them to produce complete short animated videos.