This is a course demonstrating and exploring the basic techniques of Stop-Motion Animation, with the intent to provide students with hands-on creative experience in learning the potentials of the medium, and an introduction to filmic language. Conceptual skills are exercised through exploring intent, storytelling, storyboarding, editorial concepts, material manipulation, character performance, art direction, lighting and basic sound design. This class is based on process and experimentation. It is meant to provide a strong foundation in the basics of stop-motion animation filmmaking, as well as the confidence to experiment further in one's future work. The idea is to enjoy the process by understanding it; control is born of experimentation and experience.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00

Elective

A video production course designed to supplement / stimulate / reinforce ideas and concepts learned in other media production courses. We will achieve this by focusing on how artists meditate on (or consider the process of) media creation, and how drawing attention to the fabrication and making of a work can manifest itself in a finished work. The only prerequisite is familiarity with some video editing software. Students will produce video projects to explore how reflecting on the process of filming and producing can offer a deeper understanding of media and our role as artists. Reflecting on the process of making has been explored by artists for hundreds of years. Film/Video is no exception. Through introductory exercises, as well as group and individual projects, students will explore and engage with the concept of the self-reflexivity in their artwork. In-class screenings of examples from the early cinema and video to the present will allow us to examine how makers have introduced an element of self- reflexivity in works of narrative, documentary and experimental media. Open to sophomore and above; permission of instructor required. Contact fav@risd.edu to register.

In this interdisciplinary critique-based class, advanced students take a rigorous look at the various ways time-based imagery functions in their work. With an emphasis on post-cinema, research- based, site-dependent, and performative practices, students in Meeting Points: Open Media examine their studio projects in-depth, through group critiques, a close analysis of critical concepts, and working with focus and discipline in their medium of choice. This course is required for FAV seniors in Open Media and is well-positioned to be a critical support for senior and graduate students looking for additional insight into the development and refinement of their work in the area of cross-disciplinary media art practice. Course work includes research, readings, critique sessions, group discussions, and visiting artist lectures. Fall semester includes a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators. Spring semester includes an emphasis on curatorial exhibition strategies, a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators.

Offered as FAV-5291 and IDISC-5291

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Open Media

In this interdisciplinary critique-based class, advanced students take a rigorous look at the various ways time-based imagery functions in their work. With an emphasis on post-cinema, research- based, site-dependent, and performative practices, students in Meeting Points: Open Media examine their studio projects in-depth, through group critiques, a close analysis of critical concepts, and working with focus and discipline in their medium of choice. This course is required for FAV seniors in Open Media and is well-positioned to be a critical support for senior and graduate students looking for additional insight into the development and refinement of their work in the area of cross-disciplinary media art practice. Course work includes research, readings, critique sessions, group discussions, and visiting artist lectures. Fall semester includes a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators. Spring semester includes an emphasis on curatorial exhibition strategies, a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators.

Offered as FAV-5292 and IDISC-5292.

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register. Open non-major Senior or Graduate Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Open Media

This course examines pre-production methods for animation, including storytelling and cinematic language particular to the animation medium. Emphasizing practical approaches to research and concept development, the course will introduce structural tools including storyboards, writing, color scripts, animatics, and preliminary soundtracks. We will ask the central question "Why Animation?" as we cover topics such as point-of-view, expressive scale, use of metaphor, and transformation.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

Deposit: $150.00

Elective

This course is designed to explore different animation techniques and materials, including working directly on film, drawing on paper, painting under the camera, object animation, cut-outs, and pixilation. It also teaches the fundamentals of animated movement and timing. Students in this course each make six short animations, with separate, synchronized sound tracks. At the end of the course, students create a DVD compilation of all their projects. A wide range of independent animated films are screened to demonstrate different techniques and approaches to animation.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $65.00

Elective

This is a year-long course of study, for which the student will complete a 10-20 minute live action work to final professional screening format. Students are free to choose genres and formats in which they want to work. Students have weekly meetings for screenings, guests, and technical workshops, and weekly small-group meetings to discuss their works-in-progress. During Wintersession, the students perform production work in video and film, organize crews for filmmaking, review rushes and do initial editing and sound work on their degree projects.

Deposit: $150.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Live Action

During the senior year, students synthesize and apply what they have learned in their previous studies to the creation of a year-long project. Students develop, design, animate, direct, and produce these projects independently. Students receive weekly individual guidance from instructors and two critiques by established professionals from the world animation community. Class meetings are devoted to film screenings, group critique, and specialized technical workshops.

Deposit: $150.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Animation

During the senior year, students synthesize and apply what they have learned in their previous studies to the creation of a year-long project. Students develop, design, animate, direct, and produce these projects independently. Students receive weekly individual guidance from instructors and two critiques by established professionals from the world animation community. Class meetings are devoted to film screenings, group critique, and specialized technical workshops.

Deposit: $150.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Animation

During the senior year, students synthesize and apply what they have learned in their previous studies to the creation of a year-long project. Students develop, design, animate, direct, and produce these projects independently. Students receive weekly individual guidance from instructors and two critiques by established professionals from the world animation community. Class meetings are devoted to film screenings, group critique, and specialized technical workshops.

Deposit: $150.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Animation

This course is designed to teach students how to utilize the computer to create animation. Special emphasis is placed on exploration and experimentation as it applies to computer-generated or computer-assisted animation. The class covers hand drawn non-computer originated animation, cut out animation, computer generated drawn animation, painting under the camera, rotoscoping, and an introduction to the concepts used in 3D animation. Additionally, an introduction to sound design and editing will be explored in the final animation project.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00

Elective

Over the course of a year, senior students integrate their media skills through a cross-disciplinary approach with time-based media practice, resulting in a developed work or a series of smaller related works meant for exhibition or performance. This path is for students that wish to engage with time-based media in non-traditional ways, such as through installation, performance, public art, interactivity, intervention, networked/collaborative production, activism, etc.. Students research, develop, design, prototype, direct and produce these works independently. Students receive weekly individual guidance from the instructor and partnered peers. Class meetings are devoted to lectures, informational workshops, student presentations of related research, individual meetings and group critique. During Wintersession, students perform production work, test and analyze parameters and results. Students have weekly meetings for lectures, guests, technical workshops, and weekly small-group meetings to discuss their works-in-progress.

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Open Media

”Maximalism welcomes the world into the studio, rather than barring the door. It embraces minimalism’s exclusions.” This small abstract from Jen Porter’s essay about Maximalism speaks volumes about its potential in design.

Designers work with multiple contexts at the same time. This course will examine maximalism in design today, its historical and cultural influences, and designers that follow the philosophy, thereby creating unique furniture and objects, not limited to functionality. Through research, mapping and material investigations students have the opportunity to examine their personal interests and apply them to the objects from the lens of their interpretation of maximalism. Students can explore the connections between people and objects, and deconstruct these broad contexts while developing narratives. Transformation of found objects by playing with color, texture and patterns is pivotal to this course.

Students can use any material of their choice like fabric, wood, silicone, resin and found material of any kind. They will be encouraged to explore experimental processes while working with material. The final project will be a reflection of their experiments, readings and assignments during the course.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00 - $200.00

Elective

In this course, we will consider the importance of context in relation to the design of objects. We will focus on how designed objects respond to the larger context of spatial design and placemaking. Through case studies and discussions, we will consider how objects are markers of their context, whether atmospheric, historical, regional, or fictional. We will explore these themes using common sheet goods like paper, fabric, acrylic, and plywood and transform them into a series of three dimensional projects. Self-directed projects will respond to varying contexts and experimental, hands-on making processes are encouraged. In-class demos will cover paper construction, laser cutting sheet materials, sewing techniques, and using vector-based processes via Adobe Illustrator. These explorations will ultimately reveal strategies for form creation. 

Additionally, we will closely examine the dynamic interplay between color, finish, and form, emphasizing how these decisions profoundly influence our perceptions of objects. In Situ: Designed Objects in Context combines elements of design, spatial awareness, material exploration, and contextualization to provide a holistic understanding of object-spatial interactions.

Learn the theory of Windsor Chairs and how the use of wood in tension can create a chair like no other. This class will cover techniques necessary to the Windsor system of building while working through design decisions that will culminate in a completed chair. Students are encouraged to embrace process and parameters in a direct and hands-on manner. Through small projects, students will learn how to balance wood strength, aesthetics, joint strength and ergonomic considerations. These principles will be applied to a carefully considered, finished chair. Topics covered will include: selection of wood, turning, seat carving, complex radial layout, several types of joinery, and finish techniques.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Elective

This research elective class will focus on the myriad opportunities for the sustainable practice of design. The somewhat humbling point of departure is the fact that many, if not all, of the problems we currently face are the direct result of previous design solutions. There are numerous topics to cover under each of the following domains. Our aim is to expose students to meaningful comprehensive and anticipatory sustainability thinking. The focus of the class will be on the development of a comprehensive, operationally useful "sustainability lens" through which to evaluate design decisions as they are being made in hopes of avoiding the Law of Unintended Consequences on the front end, rather than seeking to simply design without regard for the potentially negative outcomes that require fixing on the back end.

• Material: The 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics, Material choice, material sourcing, life cycle analysis, the containment of entropy.

• Economic: Full Spectrum Accounting. Bring all externalities back onto the balance sheet

• Life: Creating conditions conducive to life.

• Biomimetics: Learning from Nature not just about Nature. The preservation of biodiversity.

• Social: How does your object contribute to the quality of life for maker and user, and other organisms as well? Appropriate human behavior in the biosphere.

• Spiritual: An exploration of how students' work contributes to the "Great Work", embracing uncertainty and cultivating wonder.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00

Championed by utopian thinkers of the 20th century like Buckminster Fuller and Frei Otto, the idea of doing more with less has become ingrained in the development of new building systems. Design for vehicles, extreme environments, and sports have pushed the field of lightweight structures along, creating a vast array of new materials and building techniques. This course will examine lightweight structures through the lens of material research and exploration. Emphasis will be placed on developing assembly systems that are integral to the particular materials being explored. Topics introduced in this course will include but not be limited to tensile structures, space frames, pneumatic structures, tensegrity, frozen fabrics and the various form finding strategies associated with each. This course will also examine the various ways that this topic can be approached through both physical and digital model making. Computer modeling experience is preferred, but not required.

Elective

This course focuses on material and process investigations that lead to a higher degree of technical proficiency providing students with an expanded foundation on which to carry out their ideas. The content of the course emphasizes how exploration and application operate in both pragmatic and unorthodox ways and reinforces ideas of how critical making and material investigation can lead to innovation. The technical aspects of production and outsourcing will also be examined.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This course concentrates on the exploration of personal design aesthetics and the development of furniture projects that exhibit a high degree of technical proficiency.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This course explores advanced design processes and methods of construction. The evolution of a project through a complete design process is required including conceptual and design development phases.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design