Practices

Public Practices / Social Practice

Courses in Public Practice focus on short-term, temporary projects that engage publics, foster critical discourse, and focus on participatory art making strategies. Past course themes have included: placemaking, radical archives, publications and zines, food ecologies, social justice, goods and services, and alternative pedagogies. Also referred to as social practice, this field is interdisciplinary in nature and promotes research, investigation, and collective inquiry.

Sculpture

The Sculpture Labs offer a superb range of possibilities for learning about fabrication in a variety of materials and processes. UC Berkeley supports traditional techniques in a facility equipped to handle metal fabrication, gas/arc/MIG & TIG welding, wood construction, mold-making and casting, laser cutting, sewing, and alternative materials. Advanced students participate in courses that allow them to pursue individual interests—including mixed-media formats, installation, and public art—with an emphasis on development of concepts, skills, and techniques.

Drawing & Painting

Drawing and Painting courses at UC Berkeley's Department of Art Practice foster the bridge between helping students to develop and enhance their technical skills with conceptual and critical thinking, in relationship to image making in the 21st Century. Students are encouraged to conduct explorations within traditional conventions of painting and drawing as well as exploring, examining and challenging those conventions, in order to create experimental and contemporary methodologies.

Printmaking

The Printmaking program at UC Berkeley has an illustrious history. Originally designed by Karl Kasten, the studios have developed over the years from the remarkable teachings of George Miyasaki, Shane Weare, Sylvia Lark, Don Farnsworth, Barbara Foster and Randy Hussong.

Digital Photography

Digital photography is approached through a broad range of histories, ideas, and practices that encourage students to develop a rigorous photographic practice. Photography is also taught as a vital contemporary tool and medium for all artists and designers, enabling students to adapt photographs with other media, including but not limited to printmaking, painting, video, performance and installation.

Ceramics

The Ceramics Labs provide a site to engage contemporary art and culture as it interfaces with ceramic media. Students are challenged to experiment with form and meaning in traditional and experimental genres, expanding definitions of ceramics and mixed media, and by including ceramic elements in performance, installation, and social practice projects.

Digital Media & Video

In courses including Data Arts, Game Design Methods, and Video Art, UC Berkeley students study the history of media innovations, methods for pursuing and realizing ideas collaboratively, and methods for critically understanding the impacts of new media on humans, communities, systems, environments, cats, and other living things.