Spring seminar focuses on research, writing, and presentation as essential skills for both studio and professional practices. Emphasis is placed on the students' ability to locate, examine, and discuss their work within contemporary and historical contexts. Jewelry, along with objects of our discipline, will be considered through a variety of theoretical frameworks and cross-cultural and historical perspectives. Research, and the language that evidences it, is the foundation of this seminar. Various modes of writing are employed to mine, develop, and articulate ideas, and to further refine this information into artist statements, grant proposals, and presentations. Reflective writing will be practiced throughout the term in order to make sense of past work, clarify current work, and to formulate questions and ideas for work in the future. The term builds towards and culminates with a formal artist presentation. This is an opportunity to carefully consider and craft the language and the photographic representation that supports your work. The goal is to bring all of these things into alignment and to explore the symbiotic and poetic relationships between them.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Jewelry + Metalsmithing Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

This course is devoted to developing one's abilities to write and speak with precision and complexity, about one's own work and the work of others. We will examine trends and movements in contemporary art through the lens of critical theory. We will investigate what contemporary art can tell us about the relationships between history, images, and visual culture, subsequently developing the skills necessary to write about your work, what it articulates and argues, and the ideas and traditions from which it emerges. Each term will identify and address a new set of themes relevant to course content.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Jewelry + Metalsmithing Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

The fall seminar concentrates on critical reading as an opportunity to locate, examine, and discuss your work within a broader field of inquiry. The additional objectives are to increase critical thinking, hone reading and writing skills, expand vocabulary, and build presentation skills. Woven into all of this is the understanding that research can be a valuable, if not essential, component of making - each informing and enriching the other. The focus of the spring seminar shifts to writing and presentation as an integral part of both studio and professional practice. Each spring brings a new team of guest instructors who introduce various modes of writing as a means to mine, develop and articulate ideas in a concise and authentic manner, and, to further hone that information into artist statements, written theses, and public presentations. Throughout the term writing will be the vehicle in which to move between private and public realms. This journey will begin with 'automatic writings' and culminate with your public artist presentations.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Jewelry + Metalsmithing Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

In this studio, first-year graduates begin to recognize and develop personal areas of interest. Direction is given to bring structure to the exploration of various processes, materials, concepts, and formats. Weekly individual meetings focus on student's progress and response to assignments, as well as independent research.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Jewelry + Metalsmithing Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

In Graduate Jewelry 2, first-year graduates hone in on recognized personal areas of interest specific to jewelry from the Fall semester. Students are encouraged to embrace new studio habits in order for individualized working methodologies to become apparent. Faculty, work with students, to foster the strengths of their natural proclivities and problem-solve areas of personal sabotage. Critical to the success of this course, it is essential that first year students demonstrate a high level of self-direction, curiosity, and drive reflected through their bench work and independent research. Course content continues to focus around jewelry's power and potential as a platform and catalyst for dialogue.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Jewelry + Metalsmithing Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

In this studio course, second-year students identify and pursue personally driven research. Weekly individual meetings and studio visits take place with the instructor, and also with scheduled first-year and second-year group critiques. Students are required to maintain a continuous record of their research and development through drawings, writings, samples, models, etc. Active participation in group discussions and critiques is mandatory.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department; registration is not available in Workday. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Jewelry + Metalsmithing Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

This course provides a cultural history of landscape and landscape architecture through various voices, lenses, and built examples. Following a loose chronology, this seminar will trace the shifting trajectory of landscapes at multiple scales, including lawns, gardens, and suburbs; roads and sanitary infrastructure; agricultural and energy landscapes; rivers and waterfronts, among others. As the second history-theory course in the sequence, we will continue to build upon key concepts explored in History-Theory 1, such as the relationship between Nature and culture, land ethics, systems thinking and ecology, and how landscape architecture has operated as a site for unequal, racialized distributions of power. To that end, we will study, define, critique, and attempt to make sense of the multiplicity of actors that shape environments, including the role of the Designer and the inextricably intertwined forces of colonization and capitalism, federal policies, non-humans, shifting attitudes about Nature, etc. 
 
To provoke critical thinking about the development of landscape form and ideas, readings will be drawn from various perspectives, including landscape architecture, social and environmental history, anthropology, science and technology studies, queer and feminist studies, and geography. These fields will help us understand history as a foundation for thinking about the landscape’s relationship between past and present and center and margin. By critically probing landscape architecture’s canon and its counter-narratives, we will consider how we can be better poised to understand and articulate our own contributions to the field as future practitioners.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I Landscape Architecture

This course provides a cultural history of landscape and landscape architecture through various voices, lenses, and built examples. Following a loose chronology, this seminar will trace the shifting trajectory of landscapes at multiple scales, including lawns, gardens, and suburbs; roads and sanitary infrastructure; agricultural and energy landscapes; rivers and waterfronts, among others. As the second history-theory course in the sequence, we will continue to build upon key concepts explored in History-Theory 1, such as the relationship between Nature and culture, land ethics, systems thinking and ecology, and how landscape architecture has operated as a site for unequal, racialized distributions of power. To that end, we will study, define, critique, and attempt to make sense of the multiplicity of actors that shape environments, including the role of the Designer and the inextricably intertwined forces of colonization and capitalism, federal policies, non-humans, shifting attitudes about Nature, etc. 
 
To provoke critical thinking about the development of landscape form and ideas, readings will be drawn from various perspectives, including landscape architecture, social and environmental history, anthropology, science and technology studies, queer and feminist studies, and geography. These fields will help us understand history as a foundation for thinking about the landscape’s relationship between past and present and center and margin. By critically probing landscape architecture’s canon and its counter-narratives, we will consider how we can be better poised to understand and articulate our own contributions to the field as future practitioners.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I Landscape Architecture

The first course of the History + Theory track will offer an introduction to a select range of ideas, practices and systems of landscape. The seminar will begin with discussions on theory and history, their types and uses, and examine the different, and often conflicting, definitions of landscape that have emerged from within and without the field of landscape architecture. As we explore the relationship between nature and culture, we will consider the relationship of history and theory to the contexts in which they are generated, while at the same time examining their relationship to praxis. While focusing on issues that are core to a critical understanding of the discipline, this course will also begin to expand the study of landscapes beyond historical Western-centric cannons, with an explicit attempt to decolonize the ways in which we know and practice in landscape architecture. 
 
The course will examine readings taken from diverse sources that have informed landscape architecture – philosophy, geography, architecture, art history, ecology – as well as sources that have emerged from practitioners of the comparatively young discipline. The readings are grouped by themes that relate and distinguish landscape architecture from its allied fields and reflect the discourse that has influenced the character and objectives of the discipline today. 

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I Landscape Architecture

The first course of the History + Theory track will offer an introduction to a select range of ideas, practices and systems of landscape. The seminar will begin with discussions on theory and history, their types and uses, and examine the different, and often conflicting, definitions of landscape that have emerged from within and without the field of landscape architecture. As we explore the relationship between nature and culture, we will consider the relationship of history and theory to the contexts in which they are generated, while at the same time examining their relationship to praxis. While focusing on issues that are core to a critical understanding of the discipline, this course will also begin to expand the study of landscapes beyond historical Western-centric cannons, with an explicit attempt to decolonize the ways in which we know and practice in landscape architecture. 
 
The course will examine readings taken from diverse sources that have informed landscape architecture – philosophy, geography, architecture, art history, ecology – as well as sources that have emerged from practitioners of the comparatively young discipline. The readings are grouped by themes that relate and distinguish landscape architecture from its allied fields and reflect the discourse that has influenced the character and objectives of the discipline today. 

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I Landscape Architecture

This class will introduce students to computational tools in R to help them analyze data and unearth new relationships. Working in small teams, students will conduct their own ecological research in Providence incorporating quantitative data (e.g. sensor data) and warm data (e.g. stories, observations, poetry, art). They will learn how to incorporate data science techniques in their research process, such as data acquisition, data cleaning, data transformation, statistical analysis, and visualization using R Studio. The applications of these tools will help students better understand and interpret complex information, as they uncover new patterns, affinities, and stories in the data, which can directly support their own design and artistic practice. Participants will then communicate and translate their analytical findings through an expressive artistic form.

Elective

This course explores design principles central to landscape architecture. Three interrelated aspects of design are pursued:

1) the elements of composition and their formal, spatial, and tectonic manipulation

2) meanings conveyed by formal choices and transformations

3) interactions of cultural and ecological forces in the landscape.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

This course explores design principles central to landscape architecture. Three interrelated aspects of design are pursued:

1) the elements of composition and their formal, spatial, and tectonic manipulation

2) meanings conveyed by formal choices and transformations

3) interactions of cultural and ecological forces in the landscape.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

What do these words mean and what is their relationship to each other in the architectural design disciplines? Each word is packed with complex and evolving meanings that reflect the state of human knowledge about the environments in which we live and in which we intervene. Each word reflects our understanding of systems, physical, cultural and social, biotic and abiotic, as well as our aspirations to conserve, restore, or reshape those systems. Each word is ubiquitous in the contemporary quest to construct a sustainable, resilient future. But do we really understand what they mean? Are they critically interdependent or can they be considered separately? This studio will examine these questions with the twin objectives of establishing an evolving and dynamic understanding of the terms and generating working methods that respond to the complexities of scale encountered in the landscape.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

What do these words mean and what is their relationship to each other in the architectural design disciplines? Each word is packed with complex and evolving meanings that reflect the state of human knowledge about the environments in which we live and in which we intervene. Each word reflects our understanding of systems, physical, cultural and social, biotic and abiotic, as well as our aspirations to conserve, restore, or reshape those systems. Each word is ubiquitous in the contemporary quest to construct a sustainable, resilient future. But do we really understand what they mean? Are they critically interdependent or can they be considered separately? This studio will examine these questions with the twin objectives of establishing an evolving and dynamic understanding of the terms and generating working methods that respond to the complexities of scale encountered in the landscape.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

This core studio stresses middle scale landscape architectural design. A series of studio problems will explore urban public spaces. Students will endeavor to represent contemporary cultural and ecological ideas in land form. There will be an emphasis on constructive strategies, the use of plants in design and methods of representation.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

This core studio stresses middle scale landscape architectural design. A series of studio problems will explore urban public spaces. Students will endeavor to represent contemporary cultural and ecological ideas in land form. There will be an emphasis on constructive strategies, the use of plants in design and methods of representation.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

This final core studio stresses large-scale and planning issues, complex sites, and urban conditions. The city is a living organism which evolves in a particular locale with a particular form due to a combination of environmental and cultural factors. These factors, the forces they represent and the material results of their interaction form, in their interrelated state, what can be called urban systems. The many forces at play within cities-social, cultural, economic, ideological, ecological, infra structural, morphological and visual-combine in various ways to created both an identifiable urban realm and the many sub zones within this. Yet, none of these factors is static and unchanging; and, as a result, urban systems, urban dynamics, and urban identity are likewise in a continuous state of flux. This studio will explore these systems and the complex issues at play in our urban areas and the potential for positive change. Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

This final core studio stresses large-scale and planning issues, complex sites, and urban conditions. The city is a living organism which evolves in a particular locale with a particular form due to a combination of environmental and cultural factors. These factors, the forces they represent and the material results of their interaction form, in their interrelated state, what can be called urban systems. The many forces at play within cities-social, cultural, economic, ideological, ecological, infra structural, morphological and visual-combine in various ways to created both an identifiable urban realm and the many sub zones within this. Yet, none of these factors is static and unchanging; and, as a result, urban systems, urban dynamics, and urban identity are likewise in a continuous state of flux. This studio will explore these systems and the complex issues at play in our urban areas and the potential for positive change. Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

As the scope and objectives of the design disciplines expand and diversify, the ability to implement effective research methodologies has become increasingly critical to position designers to generate and validate new knowledge. This course will survey research methods relevant to the design disciplines that have emerged from the sciences, the social sciences and the arts with special focus on those utilized by landscape architects. Methods we will examine include case studies, descriptive strategies, classification schemes, interpretive strategies, evaluation and diagnosis, engaged action research, projective design and arts-based practices. Students will work individually and in teams to analyze and compare different research strategies, understand their procedures and sequences, the types of data required, projected outcomes, and value by examining a set of projects of diverse scales. Visiting lecturers will present research based design projects. The goal of the course is to provide students with a framework of research methodologies with which they can begin to build their own research based practices.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture