Nirvana. Heaven. Bliss — Utopia. This course is informed by the unbounded concept of “Utopia”. Utopia is a term meaning a heavily idealized or imagined perfect society, most often characterized by social, political, and economic ideals that are often unrealistic. While hypothetical, the concept of Utopia is important because it allows us to explore possibilities and strive for a better future. Students will be introduced to software that aids pre and post production workflows to produce video, projection, music and sonic art. Through workshops, discussion, trips, screenings and studio work, students in Digital Utopia will provide students with a firm understanding of producing and utilizing audio/visual assets in relation to each other and site specific space.

Elective

‘Juicy Carcasses, Abundant Futures: Detritus as Nourishment’ is a course that challenges creative practitioners to listen to the wisdom of non-human detritivores, and transform that which is discarded. We will explore how those of us in the margins can reconstruct new worlds from the still active, reeking remains of (post)coloniality. Thinking through the work of scholars like Homi Bhabha and his idea of the Third Space, Fred Moten and his idea of Noise and fugitivity, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ radical lessons from marine mammals, this course calls us to cease our resisting of dominant hegemonies with the tools of their making, and instead find each other outside of the binary of oppression/resistance, within a space of our own invention. As we chew and pick at these juicy carcasses of oppressive systems, we will dream new futures, new worlds, new practices, all the while drawing inspiration from the emergent practices of non-human detritivores. The central conceptual framework of this class is that of the whale fall. When a whale dies and sinks to the ocean floor, it attracts non-human detritivores from unfathomable distances, which then give rise to multiple generations of non-human detritivores over scores of years. These detritivores have been known to collaborate rather than compete for this abundant resource. Over time, they evolve to specialize and thrive on the specific kinds of nourishment the
individual whale provides. A whale falls in this course. We gather, collaborate, revel in its abundance, build our own worlds, and emerge. ‘Juicy Carcass, Abundant Futures: Detritus as Nourishment’ invites practitioners with relationships to (post)colonial thinking, (post)human thinking, interdisciplinary thinkers, grievers, queers, worldbuilders, artists from all disciplines, writers, biologists, and those working with discarded materials, rot, non-humans, systemic decay, and abundance. Learning will be through
readings, screenings, independent assignments, interdisciplinary artmaking, writing, and critiques.

Estimated Materials Cost: $100.00

Elective

What is Glamour? Permanent pleasure seeking, polished perfection, and an intrinsically manufactured surface? Or is it simply a trap, a vulgar fetish or a scandalous word with very little substance? In this class we will explore the concept of Glamour with connections to a mixture of attributes such as surface, sex appeal, fantasy, magic, desire, exoticism, and hedonism. We will begin to look at speculative fiction through a series of lectures and in class workshops. Students will manifest projects that involve the remixing of image, sound, video and data. The result is narratives unfolding that use tactile, auditory and visual inputs to create fictional visual art. Emphasis is on how critical awareness of new technologies allows us to imagine and repurpose new futures. Students will work with tools such as 3D scanning, animation and sound in the context of their own fabricated re-imagined futures. At the end of class, the students will develop and advance artistic and cultural inquiries in the context of fictitious worlds. In this course, students begin by engaging with storytelling fundamentals, such as subject, object, site and event and then generate them into experimental video projects that may use performance art, animation, painting or even live action.

Elective

Machine Objects is a course that delves into the ever-evolving contemporary understanding of machines through the medium of physical objects in the context of design and art. With a focus on transforming technology’s conceptions from the mechanical paradigm to the realm of cybernetics, the course investigates how these influence the making of and our relationships to objects in junction with cultural, social and political contexts. Students will learn digital fabrication techniques, physical computing, and sensor-interfacing, primarily through Arduino. Weekly assignments include technical lab work, readings, and presentations on project development. Culminating the course, students will unveil a final project in form of a physical object that embodies their comprehension showcasing how technological manifestations engender diverse social and techno-political relationships. The final object can function as a catalyst that objects, resists, or counteracts to one or more factors within the contemporary society. 

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

This course explores the relationships between new media languages and physical space. Building from the history and aesthetics of installation art and relational theater and based on conceptualizations such as "Relational Architecture" by Lozano-Hemmer and the "Poetics of Augmented Space" by Lev Manovich, we will learn to leverage interactive and audiovisual elements in order to design spatial experiences that are media-rich, relational, and responsive. We will use software, video-projectors, sensors and VR equipment, and explore emergent techniques including video-mapping, computer vision and augmented reality. We will learn to deploy not only vision, but also hearing and haptics to create immersive and multi-sensory environments. Class is comprised of lectures, hands-on workshops and individual projects. Students will gain a deep understanding of topics of spatial thinking and user-generated experiences related to space, as well as a theoretical and critical understanding of the history of installation and interactive arts. Although not a prerequisite, basic coding or scripting knowledge (Processing, javascript, or MAX, Touch Designer, etc.) is recommended.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Please contact the instructor for permission to register; registration is not available in Workday. 

Elective

This seminar focuses on exploring technological textile practices to challenge and disrupt the hegemonic conceptions on art and technology, specifically on e-textile field. This seminar seeks to question the hegemonic technological tools, and the paradigms they involve, in order to create e-textile projects from a radical, critical, situated, and anticolonial perspective. Articulating textile techniques (embroidery, patchwork and sewing in general) with simple and low tech analogical electronic mechanisms (LED lights, motors, DIY loudspeakers, etc.), each student will create a e-textile piece. Electronics then will become part of the tissue: threads that conductive threads, batteries, LEDs, motors and speakers will invade the fabrics like a thread, a buttonhole or a button. The interactive and haptic aspect of the textiles, based on tactile stimuli, sonic devices, and light, will make visible political thoughts, actions and feelings. Going beyond the dominant and non-neutral narratives implies seeking into other forms of art practices to question the epistemological foundation itself. The goal of this seminar is to work from scratch in order to develop DIY, e-textile poetics, activism, techno-feminism, craftivism and social practices rooted in the territories themselves, interweaving with their own traditions, cultures and idiosyncrasies, in order to nurture resistant forms of conceiving digital and e-textile projects.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Open to Senior, Fifth-year and Graduate Students. Preference is given to Digital + Media Students.

Elective

Fungi Arts  - Mycelium As Mode is a graduate-level collaborative studio for learning and making in conversation with fungi. Research will happen through local field trips, place-based observation, hands-on experiments, readings, conversations with artists and mycologists, and participant-driven inquiry and artistic practice. We will encounter work by artists who engage with fungi, decomposition and interconnectivity across moving image, sound, text, performance, visual and digital arts. Together, we will attune to local ecosystems through identifying mushrooms in a variety of habitats and observing mycelial growth. Periodic workshops will take place at the RISD Nature Lab, and participants will have the opportunity for extended lab-based work. We will ground ourselves in creative, theoretical, cultural and activist discourses, considering texts by the likes of Anna Tsing, John Cage, Guiliana Furci, Bayo Akomolafe, Merlin Sheldrake, and Macarena Gómez-Barris. Participants will follow their own lines of experiential and critical inquiry to support creative work, sharing findings with the class and teaching one another. Final projects can be in participants’ media of choice. Individual and collaborative work is welcome throughout the semester.

Open to Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

The Radical E-Threads seminar is a space of reflection and creation around aesthetics and practices that involve technology, culture, and social and communal dynamics. This seminar will explore the intersection of these topics through practical hands-on activities, lectures, and group discussions. Through examining the main ideas of decolonial approaches, students will gain a deeper understanding of the challenges of technology and textile creation and its potential to perpetuate oppression as well as its capacity to serve as a tool for liberation and resistance. By engaging in creative projects, participants will learn to use e-textiles as a medium for de-linking technological practices, while exploring the potential of these tools to create meaningful change. 

Senti-pensar (thinking-feeling) as a working methodology will be the key concept to nurture resistant forms of conceiving digital and e-textile projects. The course will culminate in a final project, in which students will apply the skills and knowledge they have gained throughout the course using a variety of materials and technologies to create a socially engaged e-textile project.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

"Art is either plagiarism or revolution" - Paul Gauguin. This studio course explores how AI’s rapid progress is challenging artists today. As we work with these exciting, terrifying new tools, we’ll discuss how artists have responded to transformative media of the past like the camera, the television, and the internet. How can we comment on the ethical concerns of AI technology? Should we change how we think about creativity? And who will the machines replace? 

Students will experiment with new tools as they are released throughout the semester, as well as interview machine learning researchers and digital artists. Authors include: Walter Benjamin, Ray Kurzweil, Harold Cohen, N. Katherine Hayles, and Ted Chiang. No coding experience is required. 

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

Sonic Practices is a graduate-level research group focused on acoustic, electronic, and/or computer-based means of sound production and reception. Participants explore audio culture and technology while developing experimental approaches to composition, performance, recording, and/or listening. Areas of investigation include, but are not limited to: audio programming languages, embedded/mobile computing for sound and music, spatial audio, sound synthesis, audio electronics, sonification and auditory display, electroacoustic music composition and improvisation, field recording and soundscape studies, sound installation and performance, and sonic interaction design. Each semester, course content changes in response to a new unifying theme upon which students base individual and team-based research projects. Meetings consist of discussions, workshops, critiques, and collaborations that support students' individual inquiries, the exchange of ideas, and the exploration of research methodologies.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00 - $200.00

Offered as SOUND-3104 and DM-3104.

Please contact the instructor for permission to register; registration is not available in Workday. Preference is given to Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

Sonic Practices is a graduate-level research group focused on acoustic, electronic, and/or computer-based means of sound production and reception. Participants explore audio culture and technology while developing experimental approaches to composition, performance, recording, and/or listening. Areas of investigation include, but are not limited to: audio programming languages, embedded/mobile computing for sound and music, spatial audio, sound synthesis, audio electronics, sonification and auditory display, electroacoustic music composition and improvisation, field recording and soundscape studies, sound installation and performance, and sonic interaction design. Each semester, course content changes in response to a new unifying theme upon which students base individual and team-based research projects. Meetings consist of discussions, workshops, critiques, and collaborations that support students' individual inquiries, the exchange of ideas, and the exploration of research methodologies.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00 - $200.00

Offered as SOUND-3104 and DM-3104.

Please contact the instructor for permission to register; registration is not available in Workday. Preference is given to Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

This combined studio and seminar forum for Digital + Media first year students supports the exploration of theoretical, social, material, technical and contextual research and concerns in new media arts practices during the first semester of the D+M MFA program at RISD. Students are introduced to a core set of methodologies and technologies from basic electronics, programming and interaction design to installation, and are encouraged to break comfort zones through experimentation. Students conceptualize and discuss their work and ongoing practice. The course is a mix of group discussions, individual meetings, required lecture and workshop series, and group critiques. The technical workshops are opportunities for students to experiment and test out aspects of their research in order to develop a sound practice. Guest lecturers and visiting critics may join during other portions of the class time on occasion.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00 - $300.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Digital + Media Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Digital + Media

This combined studio and seminar forum supports Digital + Media first-year graduate students during their second semester as they research and develop the theoretical, social, material, technical, and contextual aspects of their emergent arts practices. Students are encouraged to break comfort zones and practice through experimentation. Students pursue and refine individual interests, as well as collaborative projects within the department. Students conceptualize and discuss their work and their ongoing practice. Readings in critical cultural theory, media art theory, philosophy, semiotics and other areas further support the contextualization and grounding of the innovative practical and conceptual approaches of students. Each student is responsible to select readings and works important as references in individual research and to co-lead a discussion on a set of self-chosen readings and artists' works during the semester. The course is a mix of group discussions, group critiques, and individual meetings. Guest lecturers and visiting critics may also become involved with this class in terms of critical/research aspects. Each student will practice articulating their art process and work towards their thesis, and will contribute to the dialogue concerning the research and work of their classmates.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00 - $300.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Digital + Media Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Digital + Media

In this historical survey, we analyze the aesthetic conventions, narratives, and formats of works in new media. We examine the impact digital technologies and new media have had on existing media, as well as the ways in which new media function as a unique system of communication. While investigating the aesthetic conventions, economic conditions and infrastructures that affect the production of new media, we address the social and political contexts in which new media are disseminated, interpreted and privileged. We make connections across decades by focusing on the recurring themes of language, futurism, simulation, hyper-reality, transnationality and information.

Open to Digital + Media Students only.
Registration by the Digital + Media Department; this course is not available via web registration. Please contact the department for permission to register.

Major Requirement | MFA Digital + Media

The course supports the exploration of theoretical, social, material, technical, and contextual research and concerns in new media arts practice during the final semester of the DM MFA program. It is a combined studio and seminar forum for Digital + Media second-year students. (Students conceptualize and discuss their work and their ongoing practice and thesis process). The course is a mix of individual meetings, group discussions and group critiques. Guest lecturers and visiting critics will also become involved with this class in terms of critical/research aspects. Each student will practice articulating their art process and work towards their thesis and will contribute to the dialogue concerning the research and work of their classmates.

Estimated Materials Cost: $100.00 - $300.00

Open to Digital + Media Students only.
Registration by the Digital + Media Department; this course is not available via web registration. Please contact the department for permission to register.

Major Requirement | MFA Digital + Media

Participants in the Technological Landscapes research group are passionate but critical observers of today's living environment in relation to ubiquitous, integrated, and emerging technologies. It is important that we draw inspiration not necessarily just from art, design, but from real-world events influenced or caused by technological advancement and/or failure. This research group will foster a dynamic, and highly collaborative environment through discussions, readings and excursions. Participants are expected to drive and determine the focus and interests of the group through conversations and consensus. In turn this will feed each participant's artistic sensibility and will form the conceptual foundations necessary for building a strong critical art work. Participants will explore research methodologies and various forms of research as material, social, and symbolic creative practice. The projects, individual or collaborative, should be thought of on a scale of landscape physical or virtual. One is encouraged to exploit the imaginative, speculate possible near futures and position them where the poetic crosses between science fiction and the built reality. Each year the group works together to locate and secure an exhibition space and or develop a site-specific work within the site/topic of study for that year. Each year the site/topic of focus changes, please contact faculty for current information.

Estimated Materials Cost: $100.00 - $200.00

Please contact the instructor for permission to register; registration is not available in Workday. 
Preference is given to Graduate Students and upper level undergraduates from the Divisions of Architecture + Design and Fine Arts.

Elective

This course supports the practical, conceptual, theoretical and historical development of the M.F.A. thesis (exhibition and written document). Students are required to work independently and in individual consultation with their thesis committee to develop and finalize the thesis exhibition and written document for presentation at the end of the year. The exhibition and written thesis should articulate one's personal studio art / design practice in an historically and theoretically informed context. Formal group critiques are required at the midterm and end of the semester. A major final critique with visiting critics is held in the context of the final MFA Exhibition. The accompanying written thesis is expected to be of publishable quality and is also placed within the public sphere through electronic publication and filing with the RISD Library. Final submissions for this course include the presentation of a final exhibition, submission of the final written thesis, and timely completion of work for preliminary deadlines throughout the semester (draft theses, exhibition plans and press materials). Please see Digital + Media Thesis Timeline for a clear sequence of required deadlines. Please refer to the DM Thesis Guidelines and Policies for clarification of the goals and expectations of the RISD DM MFA.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00 - $300.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Digital + Media Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Digital + Media

This seminar course analyzes the aesthetic conventions, narratives, and formats of works in new media. As a group, we will examine the impact digital technologies and new media have had on existing media, as well as the ways in which new media function as a unique system of communication. While investigating the aesthetic conventions, economic conditions and infrastructures that affect the production of new media, we will address the social and political contexts in which new media are disseminated, interpreted and privileged. Within this course, students will be expected to identify, analyze, and critique readings that critically inform and underwrite the foundations of their written thesis and studio practice. Students will contribute to the focus of the course through discussions and writings that contextualize their own work as it relates to critical theory. Class time will be mainly used for discussion of readings and concepts, critique of work and to introduce methods and theory.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Digital + Media Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Digital + Media