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Experimental Drawing Projects
Experimental Drawing Projects
DRWG320A —3 credits/6 hours
This Course provides an opportunity for students to explore advanced techniques and ideas in drawing.... More It helps students develop their own personal vision and awareness of the drawing media through independent projects and building a body of work. (This course may be repeated for credit)
Prerequisite: none.

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Advanced Topics: The History and Practice of Exhibition Making
Advanced Topics: The History and practice of Exhibition Making
FINA406A —2 credits/3 hours
This course is for students interested in curatorial practice, alternative artist spaces and in exhibition making generally.... More In a combination of lecture, on-site visits and class projects students will learn the variety of exhibition approaches curators and artists have used historically as well as the range of possibilities in most current practice.
Students will read texts and examine work by curators, art historians and artists such as Terry Smith, Lucy Lippard, Maria Lind, Anthony Huberman, Marcel Broodthaers, Wendi Yao Elena Filipovic, Judith Barry, Group Material, Lawrence Alloway, Lynne Cooke, Maurizio Cattelan, Lauren Mackler, Lia Gangitano, Reena Spaulings, and Marcia Tucker; as well as visit LA-based curatorial projects like Public Fiction, Reserve Ames, JOAN, Human Resources LA, 356 Mission, Young Art, Ooga Booga, Paradise Garage, Jenny, Thank You For Coming and MAK Center for Art and Architecture.
Kate McNamara is the Director of Galleries and Exhibitions at the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis. Prior to coming to the Ben Maltz, Kate was the Director & Chief Curator, Boston University Art Gallery. She was part of the curatorial department at MoMA PS1 as well as serving as a curator at Participant, INC ,The Bronx Museum, The New Museum of Contemporary Art and Artists Space Gallery (New York). She co-founded and co-directed Cleopatra in Brooklyn, NY.
Prerequisite: none.

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Wilderness as Myth and Metaphor
Wilderness as Myth and Metaphor
FINA406b —2 credits/3 hours
On the Experience of Nature and the Nature of Experience.... More
This blended learning course begins online, traverses the western desert, and ends amidst stalactites in a cave below Nevada. The online portion of the class uses O-Space to deliver readings and video links to students who will write and post short response papers online.
Some of the topics covered in the online section of the course will include: Kant’s Analytic of the Sublime, the Freudian Oceanic, Anton Ehrenzweig’s concept of dedifferentiation, Romanticism, the writings of Robert Smithson, the history of land art and earth works, the role of landscape in narrative cinema in particular the Western and Science fiction genres, distinctions between land and landscape and space and place, and an analysis of Nature as an ideological construct.
This class culminates in a 5 day excursion across the Basin and Range Province. Students will camp each night and participate in fireside group discussions of the readings from the online portion of the class.
Prerequisite: none.

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Post Post Internet
Post Post Internet
FINA406C —2 credits/3 hours
The course is a combination lecture/studio class that is open to students working in all media.... More
The term post internet developed in the 2000’s to describe a movement in arts and criticism that refers to society and modes of interaction following the widespread adoption of the internet.
Post post internet is a satirical term to describe what might be needed now.
The course will track the states of form of recent visual culture to imagine new and powerful models for thinking about art's circulation and currency. The hope is to connect digital technologies, mostly existent online, to one’s own creative practice through experimentation, imagination, and critical thinking/feeling. This class will take a media-theoretic perspective on digital life and communication; that is, we will approach the questions of the meaning, use, and phenomena of digital media using tools drawn from the study of other media as social and cultural forms within and exterior to the arts. We will address a range of topics including: mass communication and popular culture; tactical media, social media, and political participation; participatory culture, reuse and remix; regulation and governance; and their implications on art making post-Internet.
Prerequisite: none.

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Video Projects
Video Projects
MEDA320A —3 credits/6 hours
An advanced course in the technical and aesthetic aspects of video as an art form.... More The creative issues involved in working in a time-based, expressive medium will be emphasized through the in-class discussion of examples of contemporary video work. Students will become familiar with the cutting edge debates regarding video art, as well as receiving instruction in digital post-production procedures and advanced technology.
Open to all students.
Prerequisite: Intro to Video or equivalent.

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Fashion and Photography
Fashion and Photography
PHOT335A —2 credits/3 hours
This is an advanced creative class that focuses on the conceptual development and refinement of individual styles within the context of Fashion Photography and Film.... More
Students will learn the basics of fashion photography production, creating stories, directing models and producing short films to accompany their photo shoots.
In class shoots with models, cinematography demonstrations and guest lectures from Directors, Photographers, Photo Agents and Stylists will also be included.
Open to all students.
Prerequisite: Lighting Studio or with instructor’s permission.

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Flattened Space: Constructed Objects and Still Life in Photography
Flattened Space: Constructed Objects and Still Life in Photography
PHOT335B —2 credits/3 hours
In this course we will be "building our photographs".... More While doing so we will research how the construction of objects/sets function in the photographic plane.
We will delve into an area where photographic elements such as light and composition become sculptural and the sculptural materials transform into a flattened representation.
This way of working can not only enrich our current artistic practice but can be a way to reflect on the medium of photography and also process our current world that is saturated with product and commercial imagery where similar photographic tactics are imposed.
The course will have of a major practical section where we will be experimenting with planning, building and photographing our sets. In addition we will have classes dedicated to group critiques as well as lectures about various artists that examine these issues from different perspectives. Examples of some of those artists are: Elad Lassry, Thomas Demand, Fishcli and Weiss, Barbara Kasten, Gabriel Orozco and Robert Smithson.
Prerequisite: Lighting Studio or with instructor’s permission.

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Painting Genres: Material and Methods
Painting Genres: Material and Methods
PNTG306A —2 credits/3 hours
An intermediate and advanced studio course covering traditional and contemporary painting techniques and concepts, with an emphasis on materials.... More Students will complete a body of work consisting of five self-directed projects during the semester. Combining painting, sculpture and/or photography are welcome, and experimenta tion is highly encouraged.
Advanced techniques and materials may include, but are not limited to: encaustic, oil paint, resin, dry pigments, mixed-media methods with acrylic, egg tempera and drawing media applied to non-traditional surfaces (glass, metal, ceramic, photographs, fabric, found objects, etc.). Emphasis is on developing personal processes, the application and skillful use of materials, and strengthening the conceptual framework of each student's work.
Open to Painting and Non-Painting majors.
Prerequisite: Painting I or permission of instructor.

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Painting Genres: Representational
Painting Genres: Representational
PNTG306B —2 credits/3 hours
This is an intensive studio project course based entirely on figurative art.... More A wide variety of concepts and notions about figurative art will be discussed and explored with in class demonstrations and projects presented by the professor. Concepts that are likely to be explored include realism, allegory, narrative, story telling, symbolism, and contemporary figurative painting, and painting from the live model. This course is recommended for well-motivated students interested in figurative art.
Prerequisite: Painting I or equiviaent, Open to non Fine Arts Majors.

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Painting Genres: Maximalism - Corpus Extremus
Painting Genres: Maximalism - Corpus Extremus
PNTG307A—3 credits/6 hours
Maximalism is a “millennium-induced urge” in art, design, literature and music to decriminalize ornament.... More Characterized by layered images/patterns, intense color schemes, and a penchant for all that is ornate and extravagant, this mode of working allows artists to embrace and redefine the decorative.
Prompted by this infectious and important contemporary movement, students will explore how the tenets of Maximalism are relevant to their work. This particular incarnation of the course will explore the body.
We will examine the body through the lens of historical and cultural notions of body image/body art, science/medicine, athletics, desire/sexuality, the exquisite corpse, artworks/exhibitions that focus on the subject, etc.). These explorations will culminate in an exhibition at a site to be determined. Past shows have taken place at venues like Chuco’s Social Justice Center, Foryourart Los Angeles, and TSA LA Gallery. Although this is a course offered as part of the Fine Arts Painting Program, multi-media or multi-disciplinary approaches will be considered valuable in this context. All majors are welcome.
Prerequisite: Painting I or equiviaent

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Ceramics
Ceramics
SCNG236A —2 credits/3 hours
This class introduces students to the techniques and concepts that constitute contemporary sculptural ceramics.... More Topics covered include various hand-building, glazing and firing methods as well as conceptual development and ceramic history past and present. Students construct sculptures through the processes of coil and slab building and learn basic glaze chemistry. Individual experience, interpretation, and understanding of the material helps students experiment with the medium of clay as a fine art.
ACT Requirement.
Prerequisite: None.

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Extended Technique in Sculpture:Bronze Casting
Extended Technique in Sculpture:Bronze Casting
SCNG306A —2 credits/3 hours
Formed with Fire (An exploration in molten materials)... More
For over five thousand years, humans have been harnessing the power of fire to melt and shape materials such as metal and glass. As a society we have done this to further the production of utilitarian items, but also for the purpose of artistic expression.
This class will expose you to the world of molten art materials with a primary focus on foundry and bronze casting. We will delve into its history, cultural relevance, the current resurgence within the contemporary art world, as well as work our way through the actual process of casting metal.
By the end of the semester you will not only have finished a bronze sculpture, but you will have been exposed to wax sculpting, mold making, metal chasing, and the patination of bronze. We will visit a functioning bronze foundry which specializes in public art fabrication. While there, we will learn more about the process and we will witness the actual casting of your bronze sculptures.
Prerequisite: None.

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SCNG Genres: Robots
SCNG Genres: Robots
SCNG306B —2 credits/3 hours
We ART the Robots... More
This class is an experimental laboratory for digitally assisted sculpture making. Students will be introduced to Adobe Illustrator, 3D modeling, laser cutting, CNC cutting, and rapid prototyping to create original 3D art objects. The class will move between virtual and real spaces exploring how these tools can be used to create the next generation of art.
Prerequisite: None.
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