2022 Summer Courses
Overview
Art Practice summer courses require registration and tuition payments by the deadlines listed on the Berkeley Summer Course catalog. Summer courses can be taken toward degree requirements for Art Practice majors, as well as non-degree electives. Courses are 4-units, held in a concentrated 6-week format in the campus studios, unless otherwise noted.
For more details on each Art Practice course, along with meeting times, visit the Art Practice summer course listings.
ART 8: Introduction to Visual Thinking
This course explores how we observe and interpret our visual world. We will examine material from a wide range of sources, focusing on the social, political, and cultural connections, as well as the conceptual base and formal properties that comprise a particular visual/sensory experience. Two ongoing concerns will be the exploration of how art and life intersect, and how our perceptions of what constitute the “high” and “low” in collective culture establish our beliefs about art. The course requires the completion of three projects that stress the visual, intellectual and intuitive aspects of art making.
This course fulfills an Art Practice major requirement.
ART 12: Drawing: Foundations
Students will explore a wide range of approaches to mark making, composition and materials for building a drawing practice. Students will engage with drawing from life as well as conceptual and abstract compositions. This course will feature lectures, field trips, visiting artists and demonstrations in order to expose students to a variety of applications, methods and techniques within the field of drawing. This course is a recommended prerequisite for upper division Drawing classes.
ART 13: Painting: Foundations
This course will introduce students to a broad scope of painting practices. Students will learn about and challenge conventions as well as experiment with modes of viewing, producing and engaging with painting within historical and contemporary contexts. This course will feature lectures, field trips, visiting artists and demonstrations in order to expose students to a variety of painting applications, methods and techniques. This course is a recommended prerequisite for upper division Painting classes.
ART 15: Ceramics: Foundations
This course will prepare students to use ceramics to explore and understand three-dimensional space. We will develop a practical understanding of how clay and glaze behave, while building a conceptual framework through which to apply this knowledge. Studio practice includes hand building, modeling, carving, and glazing as possibilities for turning ideas into three dimensional propositions. Assignments, critiques and class discussions will help acquaint students with the ideas artists have explored through history and in contemporary sculptural practices. This course is a recommended prerequisite for upper division Ceramics classes.
ART 21: Digital Photography: Foundations
This course introduces students to technical skills including manual functions of digital cameras, image creation and capture, file management and workflow, image adjustment and digital printing. Assignments will use primary Adobe software tools to test creative possibilities of both the camera and the computer. The course will introduce students to photography history and theory, and a range of contemporary practices. Group critiques and individual tutorials will help develop ideas and technical skills. By the end of the course, students should feel comfortable shooting digitally, editing and producing final images for print or the web. This course is a recommended prerequisite for upper division Photography classes.
ART W23AC: Data Arts
Data and logic form core interfaces for information technology. New media art requires understanding their key dynamics. Students gain experience with data generation, visualization, and their impact on real persons, environments and situations. Can we measure, count and weigh everything? Is data fair? What is the role of privacy? How do digital conditions affect human conditions? From memes to machine learning, students participate in emerging data cultures including sampling, visualization, animation, video, interactive design, and music. Assignments follow readings on media and design theory, abstraction, interactivity, archives, performance, identity, privacy, automation, aggregation, networking, diffusion, diffraction and subversion.
ART 25: Graphic Novel: Foundations
Using the format of the graphic novel as a site of investigation, this studio production class will explore graphic novels as dynamic political, societal, historical, and cultural vehicles. Using creative research methods of analysis, fabrication, and collaboration, students will create their own graphic novel elements as artistic responses to their diverse life experiences.
ART 26: Moving Image: Foundations
A practical and critical introduction to moving image media, focusing primarily on independent and experimental film and video art. Students learn video production and post-production and are introduced to key moments and concepts in moving image history and criticism. Course instruction includes basic camera operations, sound recording, and lighting, as well as basic editing, compression, and dissemination formats. Solo and group assignments are completed, and group critiques of class projects train students to recognize and discuss the formal, technical, critical and historical dimensions of their works. Weekly readings in philosophy, critical theory, artist statements and literature are assigned.
ART 103: Advanced Painting: Reconsidering the Portrait & Figure
This studio course investigates histories of portraiture, including how dominant signifiers of race, gender, class, religion, and their various intersections determine which and how individuals are depicted. The course includes working from live models, creating self-portraits that challenge conventional expectations, lectures, student lead discussions, in-class prompts, field trips, and visiting artists. We will reconsider how conventional portraiture has impacted relationships within the past and present, and consider future possibilities.
ART 118: Advanced Drawing: Remixing the Figure
This studio course investigates representations of the human body across different periods and locations to further what it means to depict the body in the 21st Century. How do dominant signifiers and various intersections of race, gender, class, religion, sexuality, and disability influence the rendering and image reception of human bodies? The studio component of the course will work from live models as well as creating full body self-portraits that challenge the parameters of the canon and conventional expectations. We will explore drawing across all mediums through art history lectures, student led discussions, in-class prompts, field trips, and visiting artists.
ART 119: Global Perspectives in Contemporary Art
This course is designed to explore a range of contemporary art movements around the globe, through a closer look at their central ideas, artists, and artworks, as well as the preconditions and broader social context in which the work is being produced. Topics covered will range from the emergence of localized avant-garde movements in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America to the implicit globalism of the international biennial circuit.
This course fulfills an Art Practice major requirement.
ART 180: Advanced Digital Photography
This course will cover a range of digital media and practices, with a view towards exploring current and future possibilities for photography. Inclusive of multiple approaches to scale, execution, and technique, the course enables students to examine and push the limits of photographic practices. This course will help students advance their digital shooting and Photoshop skills from a beginning to a more advanced level, and will cover the workflow of digital photography: camera usage, scanning, image editing, management, and printing.