Visual Arts (ARTV)

ARTV 101 | INTRODUCTION TO DRAWING

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

Introduction to the fundamental elements and principles of drawing. Exploration of a variety of dry and wet media. Primary emphasis on developing the student’s perceptual capabilities and representational skills. Every semester.

ARTV 102 | INTRODUCTION TO COLOR

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

In this studio course, students create color-based art projects in a variety of media through directed assignments. Studio projects are supplemented by lectures, readings, and discussions on the theory and history of color and its applied uses in contemporary art and design. Topics may include the science of color and its industrial production; cultural connotations of color; strategies and color techniques used by artists.

ARTV 103 | INTRODUCTION TO GRAPHIC DESIGN

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

Study of two-dimensional design principles stressing the dynamics of line, shape, value, texture, color, spatial relationships, and composition. This course introduces students to the basics of graphic design. Every semester.

ARTV 104 | INTRODUCTION TO ANIMATION

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

This introductory course provides a technical and conceptual framework for strategies of animation. Operating as both a lecture and production course, students critically examine essential theory and mechanics of the discipline of animation through discussion of contemporary examples, texts, guest lectures and journals. Students bring to life a series of projects which offer a foundation in a range of methodologies within traditional, object-based as well as computer animation.

ARTV 105 | INTRODUCTION TO SCULPTURE

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: First Yr Integration (LC Only), Artistic Inquiry area

This studio course is an introductory exploration of the media and methods (traditional and experimental) that form the basis of an ongoing dialogue between object and artist. Students will investigate sculptural form as a means of cultural production through technical exercises, studio projects, critiques, slide lectures, readings, and discussions. Every semester.

ARTV 107 | INTRODUCTION TO PHOTOGRAPHY

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: First Yr Integration (LC Only), Artistic Inquiry area

This course guides students to discover the way they see and establishes core relationships to formal and conceptual photographic principles through lectures and studio practice. Students develop bodies of work using department equipment and the analog black and white lab, and must purchase materials as required. Lab fee required.

ARTV 108 | INTRODUCTION TO VIDEO ART

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

In this course, students experiment with time as a creative medium, using department equipment to capture and edit sound and moving images. Film and artwork examples are screened and discussed with related texts, as students respond to assignment prompts with both collaborative and individual video projects. Every semester.

ARTV 294 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN VISUAL ARTS

Units: 0.5-4 Repeatability: Yes (Repeatable if topic differs)

An investigation in a studio setting of select issues in the visual arts. May be repeated when topic changes. Students may enroll concurrently if topic differs.

ARTV 300 | INTERMEDIATE GRAPHIC DESIGN

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Prerequisites: ARTV 103

Study of design concepts, form analysis, and development of visual thinking for creative problem solving. Lectures, discussions, and class presentations explore historical, cultural and contemporary issues and practices in graphic design. May be repeated for credit. Fall semester.

ARTV 302 | INTERMEDIATE DRAWING

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Prerequisites: ARTV 101

The primary objective of this course is to investigate the intimate relationship between form and content in the creation of images. Drawing projects, lectures, and critiques will stress the organization of the pictorial field and the technical manipulation of the material as means for identifying and articulating the artist’s intentions. Students will be guided through the process of developing visually compelling drawings that are technically and conceptually sophisticated. Required for art majors selecting a specialization in drawing or painting. Spring semester.

ARTV 304 | PRINTMAKING

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

Prerequisites: ARTV 101

Basic techniques and expressive possibilities of intaglio and relief printmaking including etching, drypoint, aquatint, soft ground, and woodcut. Various methods of printmaking will be introduced. Equal emphasis will be placed on creative image making and craftsmanship. May be repeated for credit.

ARTV 306 | BOOK ARTS

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

Terminology, tools, materials, and reproduction processes related to the making of books; multi cultural, historical, and contemporary book structures; and development of content in the form of image and text. This course is designed as an interdisciplinary exploration for students in graphic, fine, and applied art disciplines, and students from other departments such as creative writing, history, and the sciences. Each artist will be encouraged to apply her/his own particular skills to this time-based, interactive, and multifaceted form. In this context, we will converse about issues and techniques that expand our current knowledge and expressive concerns.

ARTV 308 | VIRTUAL REALITY AND 3D STUDIO

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

In this course, students use cameras, lighting equipment, digital rendering, animation software and video game development tools to produce projects working with 3D modeling, scanning, visualization, animation and interaction design, as well as interactive Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality experiences. Students respond to critical texts and screenings in class discussions to gain a foundational introduction to the use of these technologies and their conceptual strategies.

ARTV 320 | TOPICS IN VIDEO ART

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

Prerequisites: ARTV 104 or ARTV 108 or ARTV 308 or ARTV 324 or ARTV 355

This topics course is designed for the intermediate to advanced film/video student. Highlighting specific techniques in camerawork and editing, assignments ask students create individual video projects using cinematic strategies of the moving image that are explored in class screenings, texts and discussions.

ARTV 323 | FILM AND THE FEMALE GENDER

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Advanced Integration, Artistic Inquiry area, Domestic Diversity level 1

This studio praxis course examines representations of female gender in cinema and artists’ films. Screenings, readings and discusssions demonstrate how films are not neutral in presentation of gender--in neither form nor content. Cinema, using specific techniques to produce a dynamic of power through vision and image, has historically privileged a position of heteronormative male desire. In the studio production portion of the course, these techniques are examined as strategies that can be deconstructed, revised and reimagined in individual projects to challenge and question these dynamics. Along with examples of films that are alternatives to this model, readings and discussions help students understand femininity and gender as constructs, and provide cultural and societal contexts to screened works. Text discussions, screenings and individual art projects delineate the framing of the female gender within a cinematic context—and ultimately, explore the relationship between cinema, subjectivity, identity and the body.

ARTV 324 | INTERMEDIATE / ADVANCED VIDEO ART

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

Prerequisites: ARTV 104 or ARTV 108 or ARTV 308 or ARTV 320 or ARTV 355

This course is designed for the student with intermediate or advanced technical, conceptual and aesthetic grasp of time-based media. Students create individual film or video projects in a group workshop setting and also are provided one-on-one guidance from the instructor. May be repeated for credit.

ARTV 325 | PRACTICUM IN VISUAL ARTS

Units: 1 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

A practical course of limited hours or short duration, focusing on a specific project in the visual arts.

ARTV 329 | FUNDAMENTALS OF PAINTING

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Prerequisites: ARTV 101

Introduction to the fundamental principles, tools, and techniques necessary for successful expression through the language of painting. The primary emphasis throughout the semester will be on developing the student’s technical proficiency with the medium of painting and enhancing eye/hand coordination. The majority of paintings will be developed from direct observation, with a few projects exploring the artist’s subjective interests. May be repeated for credit when ARTV 429 is not offered.

ARTV 333 | INTERDISCIPLINARY 2D STUDIO

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Advanced Integration, Artistic Inquiry area

In this studio course, students experiment with a wide range of materials, processes and strategies to create individual two-dimensional compositions. Students are prompted to explore material, conceptual, and disciplinary boundaries of the two-dimensional visual field through class exercises, and individual assignments. Choice of media can include a range of traditional painting, drawing or printmaking materials, as well as those photographic and digital in nature. Image presentations, discussions, field trips, readings and critiques will provide a framework for contextualizing students’ studio-based projects.

ARTV 344 | FIGURE DRAWING

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Prerequisites: ARTV 101

A studio course emphasizing the structure and anatomy of the human figure. A variety of drawing techniques and media will be utilized to depict the live model. May be repeated for credit.

ARTV 350 | ART FUNDAMENTALS

Units: 3 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

This course will investigate the function and practice of art education in various contexts: schools, museums, and community arts organizations. Students will explore how art education functions in these environments to foster constructivist learning, visual literacy, community-building, and/or social transformation. In addition to classroom projects, readings, slide presentations, and discussions, we will be using local resources for field-learning and exploration. Art fundamentals is for liberal studies majors only and should not be taken by ARTV majors or minors.

ARTV 353 | COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Prerequisites: ARTV 107

An introduction to the aesthetic and technical considerations of color photography. The course covers basic camera operations, appropriate exposure and processing strategies, and the development of critical issues of color photography. The class includes an introduction to digital imaging, including image scanning and storage strategies, image manipulation, color correction, and digital photographic printing. All prints will be made digitally in the computer lab. Materials not included.

ARTV 354 | INTERMEDIATE PHOTOGRAPHY

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

Prerequisites: ARTV 107

In this course photographs are made in an attempt to discover the student’s singular voice by building upon the foundation laid by exemplary photographers. The study of artists selected by the student is encouraged through assigned readings, discussions, lectures, and writing assignments. Photographs are made in color and black and white, with both digital and traditional media. Materials not included.

ARTV 355 | ARCHITECTURE, FILM & MEDIA: THE SPACE OF THE SCREEN

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Advanced Integration, Artistic Inquiry area

Prerequisites: ARCH 101 or ARTV 108

From the perspectives of art, architecture, film and media, this studio course explores the aesthetic techniques of how film renders physical space on a two-dimensional screen. Reading discussions, screenings and projects delineate the architectural and cinematic framing of space and time, and how mediation shapes our perception of the world. Projects consider the screen as object, surface, interface using a variety of methods and media, including architectural montage, match editing, mobile framing and flythroughs. ARCH 355 and ARTV 355 are cross-listed.

ARTV 356 | BETWEEN ME AND YOU: REPRESENTING THE SELF AND THE OTHER

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area, Global Diversity level 2

A major question of early 21st century artmaking and its display has been the privileges and responsibilities that come of representation. Who is enabled to depict whom, or who is engaged in the process of deciding what gets shown where are often invisible hierarchies. Informed practice in this field begins with an awareness of oneself and one’s relationship to those outside of oneself, as well as of the context in which one brings a project. This course guides students to consider issues in representing the self, the other, and communities with which an author does or doesn’t identify. Studio practice is grounded in photography and supported by reading and viewership. The items viewed and considered will be interdisciplinary and both local and global in scope, including film, literature, and social media.

ARTV 357 | LINE IN THE SAND

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Advanced Integration, Artistic Inquiry area, Global Diversity level 2

A boundary is a question. What is it? Who put it there? How does it influence those who exist on either side of it? Is one side privileged over the other because of the origin story of the boundary? Is that privilege visible or neutralized? Is oppression a necessary condition of boundaries? Where does the boundary end in real space or in imagined identities? How does it change over time? Importantly for this class, how do photographic and literary depictions reflect and influence stasis and change, privilege and oppression, and the very capacity to describe one’s own condition? This class will use literature and lens-based mediums to trace depictions of boundaries and borders, and will provide students the opportunity to both analyze existing representations and create their own. We will initially focus on the U.S./Mexico border on which we live and work, but we will also complicate the notion of the “boundary” by examining borders present in situations that go beyond notions of the nation-state. Students will work on an integrated project that describes the border most relevant to their own identities and imaginations, drawing on resources from the disciplines of literature and photography.

ARTV 361 | ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Prerequisites: ARTV 354

Studio course for students’ advanced photographic practice in the context of group critique and individualized research. Students have access to department equipment and labs, must purchase materials as per the needs of their projects, and are encouraged to purchase equipment as well.

ARTV 362 | STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Prerequisites: ARTV 107

This course introduces the use of advanced studio equipment to create photographic work in controlled environments. Lighting techniques are demonstrated and applied in a series of photographic exercises of both tabletop and portraiture. Digital cameras and electronic flash are used to attain control of design, composition, contrast and color temperature. The course covers the history of studio practices as well as aspects of perception and content with an emphasis on technical mastery of photography studio equipment.

ARTV 369 | INTERMEDIATE / ADVANCED SCULPTURE

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

Prerequisites: ARTV 104 or ARTV 105

A multi-level studio course designed to advance students’ technical and conceptual skills through a series of sculptural problems beyond the introductory level. Studio projects, technical demonstrations, lectures, readings and field trips create context within the history and practice of contemporary sculpture, expanding students’ knowledge of traditional and experimental approaches to sculpture, while aiding the development (particularly at the advanced level) of a personal body of work.

ARTV 370 | DESIGNING FOR SOCIAL SPACE

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Advanced Integration, Artistic Inquiry area

This studio seminar considers a constellation of artistic developments of the last 40 years that employ social space and activity as important artistic venues or materials. The class will examine the impulse towards social engagement in art: the desire to make art beyond the gallery, to facilitate collective change, to practice a form of creativity beyond individual authorship, or to avoid the market’s hold on art. Through experiments, exercises and art projects, readings and lectures students will explore site-specific sculpture and installation, social sculpture, collaborations and artistic interactivity.

ARTV 371 | SCULPTURE / LANDSCAPE

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

A studio seminar course organized around the overlapping topics of landscape, sculpture and land art, Sculpture/Landscape is designed to offer intermediate and advanced Visual Arts students an opportunity to continue developing technical and conceptual skills in sculpture while also providing motivated students without experience an exciting entry to the discipline. Through technical exercises, studio projects, field trips, lectures, readings and discussions we will explore contemporary sculpture and installation practice in relation to the land and historical and contemporary ideas about land, all while taking advantage of San Diego’s year-round growing season, diverse micro-climates and post-modern botanical vocabulary.

ARTV 373 | CERAMICS

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area

This course will introduce ceramics techniques, including wheel throwing, coil building, slab building, texture, electric kiln firing, and glazing. Assignment-driven work will be balanced with independent projects encouraging students to pursue independent research and coursework built upon demonstrated techniques. Student will research a ceramics tradition within a chosen culture and present their research verbally and in writing. Lectures and required readings may explore the Japanese way of tea, phenomenology, the hand, the uncanny, and other contexts chosen to investigate the role of ceramics in enriching or destabilizing everyday life. Emphasis will be placed on creating a classroom environment where students engage in independent and collaborative learning. Class time will be divided between lectures, independent research, student presentations and demonstrations, discussion, and work time.

ARTV 382 | PUBLIC ART STUDIO

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

This course focuses on the role of the artist outside of the gallery/museum context. Tangential to this investigation will be discussions that engage social, political, and urban issues relevant to this expanded public context. Traditional approaches of enhancement and commemoration will be examined in light of more temporal and critical methodologies. Historical examples will be studied and discussed, including the Soviet Constructivist experiments, the Situationists, Conceptual art and more recent interventionist strategies.

ARTV 395 | JUNIOR SEMINAR

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Junior Seminar is an association (or blending) of methods and discourse to further the advancing art major's understanding of how research and ‘making things’ are key components to a working discipline. Further, the course material will be used to help develop work in their chosen areas, or to help establish a work ethic as an enrichment of their personal “voice” and potential growth in their conceptual awareness. This course may be considered as a perspective in their ongoing development and research with a deep emphasis on experimentation. Using a mixture of art historical research, cross-disciplinary investigation, a deeper understanding of what our department of art offers and a wide range of experimental exercises in various mediums we will focus on theme development, research techniques, and studio practice.

ARTV 400 | ADVANCED GRAPHIC DESIGN

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Prerequisites: ARTV 103 and ARTV 300

Advanced problem-solving, further analysis of form and meaning, and continued exploration of the historical and cultural issues in contemporary graphic design. Projects emphasize creative thinking and require the students to place greater emphasis on research, exploration, and preparation of work for final presentation. May be repeated for credit. Spring semester.

ARTV 403 | ADVANCED DRAWING/PAINTING SEMINAR

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Prerequisites: ARTV 101 and ARTV 302

This course is designed to challenge students who have already demonstrated an intermediate level of proficiency in drawing. Lectures, reading discussions, and drawing projects will unfold throughout the semester around a single unified topic, resulting in a cohesive portfolio for the student. The course’s central topic will change every semester, enabling students to repeat the course without repeating its content. The following is a partial list of the topics that will be explored: representation, identity, and the narrative portrait; informed by nature: The landscape from the panoramic to the microscopic; the expressionist voice; techniques of the old masters; drawing the artists’ book. May be repeated for credit. (fall semester).

ARTV 410 | BLACK MIRROR: SELF-REPRESENTATION IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Artistic Inquiry area, Global Diversity level 2

Prerequisites: ARTV 100 or ARTH 100 or ARCH 100 or AFST 100

This class takes African diasporic creative production since the onset of photography in three phases. First we look at publications made by black authors for black audiences to guide the fabrication of our own journal construct. The content of this first phase is guided by the question framing W.E.B. Du Bois’ and Alain Locke’s argument regarding art and propaganda. Next, we look at Pan-African Surrealist practices, try out some of these practices; this phase is guided by questions of identity and exoticisation begged by the Nardal sisters, Suzanne Cesaire, and Egypt’s Art + Liberty group. Third, we ask the question framed by Frederick Douglass and bell hooks regarding why a community might represent itself, and look at and make portraiture informed by examples from multiple 19th-21st century black studios, stars, and collectives. We will work on creative assignments to process and take as canon what historical black diasporic practices have to teach. This is a studio course that relies on your engagement with reading and research. No prior formal experience with photography is necessary, but a willingness to make, critique, and be critiqued is required. This course satisfies an upper level visual arts requirement towards the major or minor.

ARTV 420 | DIGITAL AUDIO COMPOSITION

Units: 3 Repeatability: No

Prerequisites: ARTH 109

Analysis of historical and contemporary experimental music and sound provides the foundation for structured and creative composition using digitized sound. Includes an introduction to sampling, recording techniques, digital audio editing, effects processing, and mixing using Ableton Live and related software. Workshop format includes critique of work-in-progress and opportunities for public performance. Cross-listed as MUSC 420.

ARTV 421 | INTERACTIVE DIGITAL MUSIC AND ARTS

Units: 3

Prerequisites: ARTV 420 or MUSC 420

A workshop on the creation of interactive digital works of sound art or music using state-of-the-art hardware and software, focusing on Mas/MSP/Jitter. Includes study of the theoretical, aesthetic, philosophical and historical background in computer-human interaction and the arts, basic tenets of programming, and practical exercises in programming interactive computer multimedia art. Cross-listed as MUSC 421.

ARTV 424 | ART AND THE SOUNDSCAPE

Units: 3 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Advanced Integration

Prerequisites: ARTH 109 or MUSC 109

Artistic and scholarly investigation into the soundscape — the totality of the sonic environment invested with significance by human imagination. Creative work in media of the students choice, including new and cross-disciplinary media such as sound art, installation art, electronic music, phonography, instrument construction and the internet. Critical writing about creative work and its social and historical situation. Cross listed as MUSC 424.

ARTV 429 | INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED PAINTING

Units: 4 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Prerequisites: ARTV 329

A multi-level course designed to refine the technical skills of intermediate and advanced students, while developing their individual concerns through a cohesive series of paintings. Assignments, presentations, and readings will challenge the student to consider a variety of thematic and stylistic approaches to the art of painting. May be repeated for credit.

ARTV 490 | SENIOR THESIS STUDIO SEMINAR

Units: 4 Repeatability: No

Core Attributes: Oral communication competency

A studio-seminar course designed for Visual Art majors in their senior year to help prepare them for ARTV 496 – Senior Exhibition Project. Students will develop a mature body of work in their selected discipline(s) and formulate critical positions on their work through readings, lectures and cross-disciplinary discussions pertaining to a range of creative practices. Required for all Visual Art majors in their senior year. Fall semester.

ARTV 494 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN VISUAL ARTS

Units: 0.5-4 Repeatability: Yes (Repeatable if topic differs)

An in-depth investigation in a studio setting of selected topics in the visual arts. Issues of current and historical interests, methods, and techniques are addressed. May be repeated when topic changes. Two sections may be enrolled in concurrently if topic differs.

ARTV 495 | SENIOR THESIS

Units: 1 Repeatability: No

This course requires the student to mount an exhibition of his or her most significant art work carried out during undergraduate education; present a written thesis that analyzes the development of, and influences on, his/her work; and participate in an oral defense of that thesis with the art faculty and their peers. Senior Exhibition Project should be taken in the final semester of the senior year. Every semester.

ARTV 496 | SENIOR THESIS

Units: 1

ARTV 498 | STUDIO INTERNSHIP

Units: 1-3 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

Non-Core Attributes: Experiential

The practice of the specialized skills, tools, basic materials and production techniques at local professional art and design studios under the direct supervision of their senior staff. Students will present a written report to the faculty.

ARTV 499 | INDEPENDENT STUDY

Units: 1-3 Repeatability: Yes (Can be repeated for Credit)

A project developed by the student in coordination with an instructor. The project should investigate in-depth a field of interest to the student not covered by established visual arts courses.