PHG-5010

Bases of Critique

Thursday 3:00-5:50

Fall semester: 3 credits

This group critique provides a stimulus for creative exchange and a forum for students to focus their individual growth and activities during the first year. Guided by prominent figures in the visual arts, the structure and content of meetings is determined largely by student needs.

PHG-5025

Studio: Related Media

Fall or spring semester: 3 credits

This course will introduce students to a variety of tools and platforms at the forefront of lens-based imaging. The class will explore the following topics: 3D capture and printing, UV and vinyl printing, laser cutting and coding for artists. Students will be encouraged to explore and think critically about new imaging technologies. Hands-on technical assignments will be supplemented with critiques and discussion of technology and its relation to art practice.

PHG-5030 through PHG-5039

Critique

Two semesters: 3 credits per semester

Critique seminars are a focal point of any given semester. Guided by prominent figures in the visual arts, and assisted by their peers, students will concentrate on producing a coherent body of work that best reflects their individual talents and challenges the current boundaries of their media. The program is designed to expose students to divergent points of view.

PHG-5041

The Social History of Photography

Fall semester: 3 credits

Photography manifests a distinct desire to capture and represent the entire world. Through a thematic survey of photography from its invention to the mid-20th century, this course examines its early practitioners and uses of photography as it spreads from private to public spheres. The rapidity with which photography spread will be discussed in relation to nascent consumer culture, myriad applications in the sciences and industry, colonial expansion, and snapshots and candid imagery, among other topics.

PHG-5042

The Aesthetic History of Photography

Spring semester: 3 credits

This course examines the history of photography from the perspective of aesthetic theory and networks of crossovers with fine arts, particularly with respect to avant-garde painting of the 19th century and experimental art practices throughout the 20th century. We also consider the historiography of photography, with an eye toward revisionist texts that valorize women’s practices and colonial usages, as well as key exhibitions and collections that facilitate the canonization of photography as bona fide fine art. What criteria apply when photographs function or are designated as fine art? This and other questions that arise will point us to an exploration of present-day issues.

PHG-5046

Modern Art I

Fall semester: 3 credits

The emergence of the avant-garde as it develops in Europe and morphs into international modernism is the focus of this course. We begin with the Academic tradition, and work from neo-classicism to romanticism and realism with an eye to political revolution and tumultuous social change. From impressionism to post-impressionism to Fauve, we take measure of art’s engagement with the issues of the day: new urbanism, questions about class, consumerism and mass culture, and the rise of entertainment culture, among others. By the end of the 19th century, emphasis in symbolism on personal experience opens new doors concerning art’s narrative and expressive capacity. Assigned museum visits and writings will complement in-class work.

PHG-5047

Modern Art II

Spring semester: 3 credits

This course surveys modern art of the 20th century, beginning with the influences that underwrite the developments of the historical avant-garde and culminate in cubism, Dada, expressionism, surrealism, suprematism and constructivism, De Stijl and the Bauhaus. Throughout these congruent movements we find scattered the seeds of the present in the form of performance art, installation and social sculpture, as well as conceptual practices that include the mobilization of identity as artistic material. We also undertake an examination of art at mid-century, including abstract expressionism, pop, minimalism and conceptual art, which takes us into the 1960s. Assigned museum visits and writings will complement in-class work.

PHG-5051

Historical Perspectives: Past Tense, Present Tense

Fall semester: 3 credits

An exploration of photography’s shifting relationship with several key topics that have played a central role in the history of the medium is the focus of this course. These topics will provide a lens with which we can explore our continued, and often complicated, engagement with the past. Issues to be addressed will include: photographic abstraction, the role of creative communities (e.g., Black Mountain College), the road as subject and metaphor, Africa as photographic subject and creator, the archive and modern consciousness and the artist as curator. In addition to readings and discussions, distinguished guests will help us to consider subjects from their professional perspectives.

PHG-5053

Historical Perspectives: Non-Western Practice

Fall semester: 3 credits

The significance of non-Western perspectives in the history of photography is the focus of this course. Beginning with an overview of Western history we will examine how the non-Western perspective is determined, and its contemporary status within the practice of photography. To this end, a range of discourses will be considered, including historical context, politics and identity, as well as individual artists and their work.

PHG-5054

Historical Perspectives: Issues in the Moving Image—A History of Hybrids

Spring semester: 3 credits

“Cinema is truth 24 frames per second,” remarked Jean-Luc Godard, begging the question of whether truth is an attribute of fiction or documentary. Throughout his 45-years-thus-far career, Godard—more rigorously and prolifically than any other filmmaker—blurred the presumed boundaries between so-called “fiction,” documentary, ethnographic, pornographic and avant-garde films. His work will be central to this course, as will the films of Andy Warhol. We’ll also look at work by Chris Marker, Orson Welles, Harun Farocki, Alan Clarke, Nick Broomfield, Jonas Mekas, Yvonne Rainer, Alain Resnais, Guy Debord, Werner Herzog, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Chantal Akerman, Robert Frank and Craig Baldwin. Weekly screenings and reading assignments will be required. A 1,000-word paper at mid-semester, and a longer paper at the end of the semester, will be required.

PHG-5056

Historical Perspectives: The Lens and Visual Arts, 1950s to the 1980s

Fall semester: 3 credits

This course will map a history of contemporary art via the medium of photography. Since 1960, photography and photo-based media—including video and film—have been central to the practice and theory of art. We will track the various ways that photographic images have been incorporated into contemporary art, as well as examine the discourse around photographic reproduction that has been integral to postmodernism and poststructuralist theory. Artists to be discussed include: Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Yves Klein, Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Sherrie Levine, Mel Bochner, Robert Smithson, Vito Acconci, Martha Rosler, Hans Haacke, Jeff Wall, Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Barbara Kruger, Mary Kelly, Annette Messager, Christian Boltanski, Sophie Calle, Adrian Piper, Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin, Bernd and Hilla Becher. Each session will consist of a lecture and discussion about critical readings that illuminate the work of a specific group of artists. Presentations on topics related to the subject of the course are required.

PHG-5071

Criticism and Theory: Contemporary Criticism

Fall semester: 3 credits

This course is designed to examine both general and specific areas of critical discourse. The first project is to examine the distinctions between commonly used terms such as “history,” “analysis,” “theory,” “criticism” and “critical theory” in broad, but grounded, terms. The second project is to delineate the concepts of modernism and postmodernism by tracing the development of specific methodologies such as formalism, Marxism, semiotics, literary theory, structuralism and poststructuralism, deconstruction, feminism and psychoanalysis. This mix also provides location of emerging discourses in cultural studies, and issues of imaging and representation. Understanding the issues as an interrelated history of ideas will be emphasized.

PHG-5073

Criticism and Theory: Critical Reading

Fall semester: 3 credits

This course will combine a format of reading and classroom discussions aimed at providing critical perspectives on the issues that inform the practice of contemporary art and photography. Readings include texts by artists, writers and theorists of the past three decades that bear upon the practice of the students’ art-making today. Students will be required to develop a framework from these readings that is relevant to their own objectives. Discussion will be based on interdisciplinary study, screenings and exhibitions.

PHG-5074

Criticism and Theory: Aesthetics of The Machine

Spring semester: 3 credits

Though we tend only to think of ‘technology’ as relating to tools and advancements, the term is defined as a systematic practice or knowledge of an art. This clarification is the basis of this course, in which we will closely examine the range of possibilities that various technical tools afford creativity, as well as their often-overlooked limitations and impediments, to continuously shape and push how we perceive, experience and interpret the world around us through myriad outputs. This course will cover the major historical, theoretical and practical issues of emerging technologies and artistic production that ultimately yield new aesthetics. We will consider the effects of mechanical reproduction, speed and immediacy; conditions of cliché; the influence of database organization and computational thinking; the character of immaterial objects; the promotion of fantasy, subversion, alterity, and so on. Weekly readings will frame our discussions and critical analyses; assignments will be open-ended, allowing for both creative and analytical works and writing that use and/or respond to the techniques and theories studied.

PHG-5078

Criticism and Theory: Global Issues and Strategies

Spring semester: 3 credits

The course is designed to examine changing currents in a world understood as complex, variant and global, with no specific path or set of standards for the creation of images. We will identify themes, issues and artists from global and comparative perspectives. The issues may derive from art, art history and sources such as cultural and commercial practices, geopolitics, topical events and current intellectual trends. The purpose is to explore contemporary issues, images, contexts and challenges in relation to image-making in any media. Readings will be discussed for context, and to broaden personal orientations and strategies. Students will help select topics and direct reading sessions, and will produce a paper (print, hypertext, or image essay) that explores a theme relevant to their own interests and uses strategies different from their previous orientation to image production.

PHG-5093

Contemporary Issues: Video Culture

Spring semester: 3 credits

This course will immerse students in the modalities of video practice that have shaped currents in our contemporary cultures. This includes video’s dominant role in documentary and public dialogue, its antecedents in film histories, and its emergence as an art/installation and multimedia performance medium. Drawing on screenings of video works and on artists’ writings, we will examine the many issues surrounding the act of contemporary video-making. Questions to be raised include: Why make video? What is at stake in a particular video? Why make it this way? Where is it made to be shown? Where will it, in fact, be shown? What are the expectations of the audience and what then is the strategy of the maker?

PHG-5094

Contemporary Issues: Right Here, Right Now

Spring semester: 3 credits

This course offers a forum to research, debate and unravel some of the pressing issues that affect contemporary photographers. Each week, we will concentrate

on a question or a theme that is crucial to contemporary practitioners. Subjects include: does size matter?; contemporary print aesthetics; the return of black-

and-white; the new color: where has editorial gone?; the power of the edit; roles of nostalgia in a digital era. Through lectures and readings, we will connect contemporary photography with historical precedents, and through discussions explore these connections to each student’s photographic practice.

PHG-5096

Contemporary Issues: Past and Future Looking

Spring semester: 3 credits

Marshall McLuhan proposed that the true subject of any medium are the mediums preceding it. More recently, software and the shift to digital have profoundly shaped how we understand the lens-based arts as a medium and what it can do. This course will chart the evolving nature of this art form with an emphasis on contemporary work in computational photography, 3D-CGI, and other new imaging techniques. Our discussions will draw from artists and thinkers as diverse as Cory Arcangel, Paul Chan, Jeff Desom, Mary Ann Doane, Harun Farocki, Ryoji Ikeda, Friedrich Kittler, Takashi Makino, Lev Manovich, Christian Marclay, James Nares, Trevor Paglen, Deb Roy, Thomas Ruff, Joachim Sauter and Dirk Lüsebrink, Jennifer Steinkamp, Hito Steyerl, Jordan Wolfson, Xu Yong and The Yes Men. Additionally, computational workflows will be discussed, demonstrated and workshopped using iPhone apps and Adobe Creative Cloud. There will be short-form studio projects incorporated into the class that will explore a range of representative computational workflows. This low difficulty research will approach emerging optical tech as an art-making activity.

AHG-5302

History of Video Art: 1965 to 1985

Fall semester: 3 credits

What is referred to as “video art” has become a ubiquitous feature of 21st-century art practice, yet it is an art form whose emergence is still a relatively fresh aspect of contemporary art history. This course will explore the origins of video art, examining its sources in film, photography and performance art. Through screenings of key works; discussion with artists, critics and curators, and in directed readings, students will be exposed to important works and individuals associated with the first two decades of video. Special attention will be paid to an understanding of the cultural and social context that supported the emergence of video art. We will focus upon the evolution of video art from both a technological perspective as well as the development of a video’s critical and institutional framework. Artists whose works will be viewed and discussed include Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, Bruce Nauman, Yoko Ono, Peter Campus, Vito Acconci, Frank Gillette, Juan Downey, Joan Jonas, Chris Burden, Lynda Benglis, Ira Schneider, Andy Mann, Martha Rosler, Allan Sekula, Shigeko Kubota, Bill Viola, Gary Hill, Mary Lucier, Woody and Steina Vasulka, Ilene Segalove, William Wegman, Tony Oursler, Antoni Muntadas, Keith Sonnier, Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Dara Birnbaum, Ant Farm, Videofreex, TVTV, Marcel Odenbach, Dan Graham, Doug Hall, Richard Serra, Howard Fried, Terry Fox, Paul Kos, Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley and Ernie Kovacs.

AHG-5303

History of Video Art: 1985 to Present

Spring semester: 3 credits

As video art became more widely accepted and the tools became increasingly affordable and available, the medium quickly emerged as a primary site for the global dialogue that characterizes contemporary art practice. Among the topics to be addressed in this screening, lecture and discussion course will be the emergence of Asian, Latin American and European Video Art, the continued development of sculptural video installation work and the emergence of the market for video art. The blurring of the lines among video art digital art forms, digital cinema and art made for the Internet will also be addressed. Artists whose works will be viewed and discussed include Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, Bruce Nauman, Yoko Ono, Peter Campus, Vito Acconci, Frank Gillette, Juan Downey, Joan Jonas, Chris Burden, Lynda Benglis, Ira Schneider, Andy Mann, Martha Rosler, Allan Sekula, Shigeko Kubota, Bill Viola, Gary Hill, Mary Lucier, Woody and Steina Vasulka, Ilene Segalove, William Wegman, Tony Oursler, Antoni Muntadas, Keith Sonnier, Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Dara Birnbaum, Ant Farm, Videofreex, TVTV, Marcel Odenbach, Dan Graham, Doug Hall, Richard Serra, Terry Fox, Howard Fried, Paul Kos, Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley and Ernie Kovacs.

PHG-5402

Studio: Imaging I

Fall semester: 3 credits

The theory and practice of digital imaging, production and postproduction will be explored in this course. It will concentrate on specific applications, including Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, SpeedGrade, Audition, After Effects and Lightroom, as well as the use of digital cameras (still and moving), flatbed and film scanners, large format printers, monitors and displays. The enhancement of imagery for various output options, color and management, video editing and animating will all be addressed as well traditional and web-based distribution strategies. Emphasis will be placed on refining and maximizing existing workflow techniques to create a body of work that is well-executed from concept to presentation.

PHG-5406

Studio: Imaging II

Spring semester: 3 credits

Building on the material covered in PHG-5402, Studio: Imaging I, this course will explore Adobe Photoshop as an image-editing tool, but delve much deeper. The emphasis will be upon refining and developing the skills you have learned, as well as new techniques. Topics covered include advanced color correction, blend modes, channels and masks, advanced layering techniques, photo restoration and retouching, smart objects, using multiple images, color management, advanced sharpening and output techniques, 3D, and more. Technical assignments will be supplemented with creative assignments.

PHG-5411

Studio: Introduction to Video

Spring semester: 3 credits

While photography and video share many basic traits, they also differ in a variety of ways. For example, video is a time-based medium, and an electronic technology; composition includes movement of the frame and within the frame; and the editing of images is central to the process. This course explores such considerations through assigned exercises, and culminates in the production of two video projects during the semester. It also prepares students for advanced video and multimedia courses.

PHG-5413

Studio: The Laws of Light and How to Break Them

Fall semester: 3 credits

This course is an opportunity to learn the laws of light and to gain an appreciation of how important an understanding of light is to a photographer’s process. We begin with an exploration of the physics of light in order to explain its behavior. Sessions and assignments will teach students to approach every lighting experience with confidence. The purpose is to master these concepts and to ensure effective application of this knowledge. The ability to problem solve is a crucial element when faced with challenging lighting situations. Without this understanding it is very difficult to move beyond obvious limitations. The ultimate goal is to be able to apply these concepts and then to see all the possibilities.

PHG-5414

Studio: Solving the Mysteries of Light

Spring semester: 3 credits

The goal of this course is for each student to develop a unique style. This will be achieved through discussions on photographs that students bring to class, along with an evaluation of how the lighting was achieved. Each session will include a lighting demonstration, based on student concerns. Students will also bring in photographs for which they want to emulate the lighting, along with sketches showing their best assessment of how the lighting was achieved. Through class discussion, new sketches will be developed. Assignments are based on the photographs brought to class and the revised lighting sketches that evolve. Each student will submit a notebook at the end of the semester.

PHG-5416

Studio: Photo Books—Past, Present and Future

Fall semester: 3 credits

This course aims to expand each student’s sense of the possibilities of the photo book, from its 20th-century history to recent ebooks and book apps. Students will produce their own printed books and iBooks.

PHG-5610 / PHG-5615

Studio: Video Projects I and II

Two semesters: 3 credits per semester

Craft is the combination of picture, movement, sound, sequence and texts that we use to communicate in the moving image. It is also in itself content. These project-driven courses will delve into video production and help prepare students for advanced video and multimedia courses. We will examine the foundations of video-making and explore working in a time-based medium. In the fall semester, editing, lighting and sequencing will be focal points. The spring semester will emphasize advanced workflows, equipment and techniques through practical demonstrations, exercises and assignments.

PHG-5813-A

Writing Critically

Fall semester: no credit

The ability to write effectively about one’s own work and the visual arts in general is an essential skill for artists. This course will help students to develop and refine their writing skills through a series of writing exercises (coupled with feedback) aimed at producing written texts, including a bio and artist or project statement, an exhibition review and an expository essay. By the end of the course, students will be able to communicate more effectively in a variety of contexts.

PHG-6030

Master Critique

Friday 10:00-12:50

Fall semester: 6 credits

Group critique seminars are the focal point of student activity in any given semester. Assisted by their peers, and guided by prominent figures in the visual arts, students will concentrate on producing a coherent body of work that best reflects their individual talents and challenges the current boundaries of their media.

PHG-6040

Contemporary Issues: Photography and Film—A Practical Relationship

Spring semester: 3 credits

The integral and increasingly fluid relationship between the photograph and the moving image in contemporary arts practice will be explored in this course. Special attention will be paid to the critical and historical discourses that have shaped cinematic and photographic practice and tradition. One stream of discussion will focus around the differences and similarities between pertinent construction and production issues in duration and non-duration based media, e.g., image composition, the significance of editing and the treatment of time. The relevancy of these issues to each student’s work and artistic practice will also be addressed.

PHG-6050 / PHG-6055

Thesis Forms I and II

Two semesters: 3 credits per semester

These courses are required as a preparation for the second-year thesis. Students will finalize the central ideas for their thesis projects, and consider appropriate strategies for the form, presentation and distribution of these ideas. In a highly practical way, these courses consider the history and features of various visual solutions available to photographic artists, depending on their audiences and goals. Books, exhibitions, installations and interactive presentations—the course helps students identify the questions each form raises, and work through them to find appropriate answers for their own projects. Thesis Forms II will provide instruction and critique, enabling students to complete their written thesis proposal and accompanying work.

PHG-6200

Thesis Project

Spring semester: 6 credits

The thesis project represents a unique and original vision that furthers an understanding of creative visual expression. It is the culmination of the student’s matriculation, suitable for public viewing, accompanied by written documentation that explains the historical precedents, evolution and generation of the project. Each student works in an integrated set of relationships with the Thesis Forms instructor, fourth-semester critique class and an outside advisor chosen from the community at large.

PHG-6210

Thesis Project: Presentation

Spring semester: 3 credits

The culmination of the thesis year and the final stage of a student’s matriculation is the formal presentation of the thesis project to a panel of faculty members. In addition to successfully passing the oral presentation, each student must submit all required written and visual documentation for the thesis project. The department chair will review all evaluations from the panel, the thesis advisor and thesis faculty. The successful completion of all components of the thesis is required for degree conferral. This course will help students move their work out of the classroom and into the world by addressing issues such as documenting your work, applying for grants and residencies, writing artist proposals, and more.

PHG-6211

Thesis Extension

Fall or spring semester: 3 credits

This course is designed for students whose thesis projects have not met the unanimous approval of the Thesis Committee, or who need an additional semester to complete their projects. Students will have full access to all facilities, participate in an appropriate critique class and continue to work with their thesis advisor.

PHG-6428

Studio: Moving Image—Postproduction Strategies

Fall semester: 3 credits

A fundamental issue of time-based works is structure: the temporal shape and flow of a work are major determinants of its impact and meaning. What principles determine a work’s shape-in-time, its temporal architecture? What binds image and sound components into a comprehensible unit? This course will examine, in detail, specific topics that emerge during the postproduction phase of a moving-image project. It will focus on the organization of materials and workflow strategies, as well as sound, color, special effects and installation issues. Students will use their current projects as material in a series of exercises and assignments addressing macro- and micro-movie structures, including sound-picture relationships, multichannel and installation architectures, and image manipulations and compositing. Student presentations will be balanced by examples drawn from movies, documentary, television, online sources and artists’ cinema works for the white cube, the black box and public space.

Curriculum