Courses
ART 133 - Monuments, Movements, and Manifestos
A course exploring Monuments, Movements, and Manifestos throughout time where students will discover, design, and develop their own. Readings will focus on histories in which these contexts are noteworthy and contemporary instances in which artists work with these ideas. Each project will explore one of these three methods of human expression as well as how they overlap and/or are in conflict with one another. Students will delve deeply into their own thoughts and ideas about the world, how they live, and how they see themselves in community. We will study basic methods of construction including drawings on paper, printmaking, hand lettering, as well as wood rod and cardboard supported paper mache. Students are required to do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 137 - Introduction to Socially Engaged Art
This course focuses on the world of socially engaged art through participatory and interactive creative processes within the classroom and beyond. Students will work together to learn basic principles of social art by discussing ideas in pairs, small groups, and the entire class. Projects will be dialogical, collaborative, and embodied. Students will perform social projects with their own communities outside of class. While the class may use basic craft materials in a limited capacity, the emphasis will be on socio-cultural human exchange. The class does NOT have an emphasis on tools, physical material sculpture, or image making in a traditional way. Students are required to do social artwork work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 151 - Introduction to Visual Narrative
Introduces students to the use of images to tell stories. Explores different image-making strategies through print and drawing media as well as simple animation and performative images. Explores narrative structure, traditional storytelling, and presentation strategies. Stories bind us. Using a small set of folk tales and myths, this class will examine how storytelling can shape community and public dialogue and create agency. The class will work through oral storytelling and drawing. We learn how to shape existing stories, how to work with improvisation and apply old stories to current situations. We will discuss story structure, audience, and performance as well as visual storytelling. The course will explore myriad forms, including printmaking technologies, illustration, shadow puppets, stop-motion animation, and scrolls.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 168 - The Artist Book
This studio course focuses on the book as a vehicle for artistic voice. We will explore the intrinsic nature of books: that they are physical objects operating in one moment as sculpture, in the next moment as a piece of interactive time art; that they are understood in the hands of a reader who performs the book's content; and that they speak to us not only through words and images but through the weight, texture, and body language of the object itself. Students will learn techniques of ideation, model making, material manipulation, print/binding processes, and more as they create two-to-three artist book projects. The course will also delve into the history of artist books in their many iterations, from unique objects to hand-printed editions to zines and other forms of artist publications. Visits to Reed's artist book collection as well as other field trips and artist talks supplement this course. Four to six hours of outside studio time is required for this course.
Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.). Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts. Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 171 - The Figure
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
ART 172 - Painting I - Imaginary Worlds
This studio art class illuminates foundational painting techniques through the study of real and imagined lifeworlds. We will draw inspiration from our multispecies community to observe form and color and to create future ecological imaginaries. We will learn introductory painting strategies for creating 2D compositions and for integrating color theory. We will develop the skills needed to conjure illusions of movement and to communicate emotion through abstraction, composition, and mark making. This class will include field trips, microscopic work, and repeated observations of a location on the Reed campus. Through this work, we will consider how an art practice can help us to imagine new futures for ecological and equitable living. Students will create multimedia paintings in the studio and the field, and thoughtfully discuss their own and each other's work.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 174 - Critical Natural History Illustration
This introductory drawing and printmaking class takes a decolonial approach to natural history illustration and printmaking. We will consider how the visual histories of power and empire are embedded within natural history illustration and how we can attempt to repair those stories through a visual arts practice. Together, we will draw from our unique histories and relationships to the natural world in an attempt to rewild the archive through our art practices and illuminate new multispecies relationships. To do this work, we will consult the illuminated manuscripts and monoprints held in the Reed special collections. We will learn about the rich history of printmaking as a form of resistance to oppression. Students will use charcoal, colored pencils, and inks to make multimedia works on paper in the studio and in the field. Students will be able to articulate the relationship of these visual works to the conceptual foundations of the class.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 176 - Beginning Bookbinding
This hands-on course offers an introduction to the techniques, tools, materials, and processes used in bookbinding. We begin with basic box construction in order to build eye/hand skills, then follow with a variety of sewn book structures that have evolved in different cultures around the world. We end with a multisection hardcover binding. Along the way are field trips, artist lectures, and two self-directed assignments that allow students to express their own ideas within the realm of book and box structure. Four hours of additional studio time is required to complete each week's binding.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 177 - Drawing in Many Forms
Drawing is a basic building block for visual art and other creative practices. It is important to develop the skill of producing an image on a page. It is also important to think about how to apply the practice of drawing to other methods of making. In this class students will learn some basic methods of drafting an image and begin to apply those methods to other media, platforms, and social contexts. Students will lean on their own intuition in regards to subject matter and styles of representation. The class will begin with making drawings in felt tip pen and over time include watercolor, collage, digital arrangement with Google drawings, risograph printing, and sewing.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 181 - Architectonic Structures
This course introduces students to the structural principles and communicative possibilities of sculpture and architecture. Each project addresses one of the three scales: the architectural, into which the body fits; the human, to which the body relates or which the body physically inhabits; and the intimate, which relates to the hand or head. We will study the fundamentals of wood and aluminum fabrication, including handcrafted joinery, lamination, steam bending, wall construction laser cutting, and 3D printing. Readings will focus on the application of craft-based architectural construction and the direct impact this has on society through communal projects, new types of housing, and personal agency. Students will be exposed to diverse, international contemporary artists and architects. Students are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
ART 182 - Material Objects
A crafts-based course that focuses on the form, function, and concept of handmade objects in our society. The class will learn skills in hand-built and thrown clay forms, casting and fabricating with ceramics, wax, paper, cloth, and glass. The assignments will explore the poetic language of each material, fusing the analog and the digital, and will focus on cooperative and community-based works that can emerge from these mediums. Readings will focus on social practices and culturally significant, politically motivated works made for and with communities. Students will have technical workshops with studio assistant in glass and ceramics weekly. Students are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 183 - Art and the Printed Word
This course explores text and its relationship to image as the focus of a fine art practice. Technically, the course covers page design, typography, letterpress printing, simple bookbinding, and some low-tech image-making processes. Projects explore the space of the calling card, the poster, and the book through three main assignments. We will read Robert Macfarlane's Landmarks to connect language to the natural world, and other texts that explore the social and political significance that text-based works have in society. Requirements beyond assigned studio projects include written responses to writings and videos, one research presentation, and attendance at organized field trips. Students need four to six additional hours per week in the studio to complete assigned work.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 188 - Object and Social Context
Objectness is the nature of a tangible material or thing. Every object has a number of social contexts surrounding it. It is important to consider the social relationships within the materials we use for artworks to truly express the intention of the maker. In this class we will explore the meanings behind the materials we work with in our practices, and how teasing out and understanding the underlying contexts within those media can be used to make more visually striking and conceptually compelling artwork. To do this we will take mini-field trips around campus to harvest objects, perform white elephant gift exchanges with material, and play with different sculptural techniques with an emphasis on conceptual underpinnings in the work. Technically we will cover the fundamentals of wood and aluminum fabrication, wall construction, and laser cutting. Students are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 190 - Art and Photography I
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of photography through both analog and digital photographic processes and investigates the use of photography in the context of contemporary art. The class will cover camera operation, principles of exposure, basic understanding of light, film development, and darkroom/digital manipulation of photographic images. Technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities of photography are explored through assignments, readings, slide presentations, and critiques.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 191 - Between the Mirror and the Window
This course seeks to question the history of photography and its identity as a medium. The class explores the ontological nature of the photographic medium, its relationship to the concept of the window of reality vs the concept of a mirror of the artist, to expand on the conceptual possibilities and materialities of the photographic. The central questions in this class will explore the identity of the medium within and beyond the frame. Students will explore through diverse photographic processes, scanning and printing mechanisms to investigate the use of photography in the context of contemporary art. Technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities of photography are explored through assignments, readings, lectures, slide presentations, lab work and group critiques. Students are required to do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 192 - Black and White Analogue Photography
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of 35 mm photography, through black-and-white analog processes in the darkroom, and investigates the use of photography in the context of contemporary art. The class will cover camera operation, principles of exposure, basic understanding of light, film development, and darkroom printing. Technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities of photography are explored through assignments, readings, slide presentations and group critiques. Students are required to do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 196 - Digital Video and Coding Interactivity
We will explore the use of the moving image, digital video, and interactivity as related to art. Students will be exposed to the concepts and visual strategies surrounding digital media, and techniques of nonlinear, nondestructive video editing and interactivity. We will look at the various ways in which artists employ these technologies and tools in their works through readings, class discussions, and slide presentations. First, students will deal with moving image as a medium as practiced in art and will be exposed to media software such as Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. Then, we will take apart and reexamine the moving image and the tools artist use to edit the moving image in an attempt to expand our understanding of the medium through a graphical programming environment for video, music, and data called Max/MSP/Jitter. Students will be expected to respond to assignments with technical competence and critical clarity.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 201 - Introduction to the History of Art
Basic art-historical methods and examples of recent scholarship are examined in relationship to a chronologically, geographically, or thematically defined body of art.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 251 - Making Graphic Novels
This course will examine the history of comics as well as contemporary trends. Students will study the mechanics and structure of the medium. We will also refer to other forms of visual storytelling, such as serial television, film, and art-historical references. Students will apply these directly to their own work. Each student will create a self-published comic. Discussions and lectures will cover topics such as character studies, format, size, material choice, etc. Occasional field trips to printers, comic shops, and comic companies will give students a sense of professional resources. The class will produce an anthology based on a selection of work produced in class.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 270 - Experiments in Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking
We will develop and articulate individual research approaches to an art-making practice. By working with traditional art mediums while also creating our own experimental inks, paints, and stains, we will consider how to give form to narrative through composition, color, and materiality. The first part of the course will involve exploratory mark making and technical skill development towards a research-based project to be proposed and executed over the rest of the semester. The project might involve continued work in drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, or experimental mixed media. In a weekly studio section that will include lectures, videos, discussions, and field trips, we will encounter and learn terms and concepts common to contemporary visual culture, ecology, design, and activism. Students will create multimedia works in the studio and the field, and thoughtfully discuss their own and each other's work.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 274 - Painting II - Naturecultures
In this painting class, we will create work that is in conversation with the broader questions: Can we identify and follow specific naturecultures from our current surroundings as well as our ancestral lineages? How might we paint, map, and story such specificities as we engage with these environments as sites of knowledge production? In this class we will use a contemporary painting approach to create alternative mapping narratives, trace our diasporic human and ecological relationships, and question what a decolonial painting approach could look like. We will develop our personal relationships to the more-than-human world. This class will include lectures, readings, technical skill demos, discussions, field trips, and microscopic work. Students will create multimedia paintings in the studio and the field, and thoughtfully discuss their own and each other's work.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 282 - Sculpture in the Expanded Field
A studio sculpture course exploring the human body as a site for transformation through clothing, performance, and architectural construction. We will explore wearable works as well as spatially dynamic and temporal art form, directly related to the human form and phenomenological experience. Readings and discussions will focus on feminist theory, queer theory, and critical race theory, and the representation of the body throughout art history, fashion, and performance art. Technically, we will focus on metal fabrication, welding, and sewing.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 284 - Craft and Culture
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 291 - Art and Photography II
The course will introduce advanced topics such as color, large-format, and medium-format photography. Technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities of photography are explored through projects, readings, slide presentations, lab work, and critiques. Class time will be spent in lecture, slide presentations, lab work, critique, and occasional field trips. Students will be expected to respond to assignments with technical competence and critical clarity.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 293 - Internet Literacy, Culture, and Practice
Students will develop an understanding of the technology and the issues surrounding the internet and the web through studio activities, readings, and online and/or physical fieldwork. Students will gain literacy in web development languages (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). We will cover the history of the use of computers and networks as a tool for empowerment and for creating art. We will explore topics such as hypertextuality, nonlinearity, interactivity, authorship, web as archive, net neutrality, and the open-source movement. With the newly acquired literacy in hand we will investigate how the convergence of the web/social media with social practice/activism reconfigures the ways in which artists and citizens view, participate in, understand, and narrate real-world issues.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 296 - Photography in the Expanded Field
This course will invite students to question the limits of the photographic medium through its history and its ever-changing definition. This class is a space to experiment and expand the notions of photography as a medium in relation to other practices like drawing, paintin, and installation art. Challenging the technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities of photography through projects, readings, slide presentations, lab work, and critiques. Basic photography knowledge is expected. Students must be highly self-motivated and are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 298 - Laboratory for Experimental Photography
This course will invite students to investigate the possibilities of art and photography as an experimental medium. This class is a space to problematize, dislocate, question, expand, collaborate, share, detonate and produce in new and unexpected ways. Students will experiment diverse processes in order to articulate their work beyond the frame and expand the notions of art and photography as a medium. Technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities of photography are explored through assignments, readings, lectures, slide presentations, lab work and group critiques. Students must be self-motivated and are required to do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 301 - Ecocritical Art Histories
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 314 - Indian Cinema Between Media
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 320 - Early Modern Art Beyond the Visual
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 332 - Art and Archaeology in Early China
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 334 - Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 335 - (Trans)Nationalism and Indian Cinema
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 336 - Art and Cartography
This course explores the intersections of art and cartography across a variety of time periods and geographic regions. Rather than being organized chronologically or geographically, the course will proceed in thematic units that transcend the disciplinary boundaries that often divide the study of art and maps, such as landscape, travel, urban planning, diagrams, and grids. While the course will not provide the technical skills of mapmaking with modern technologies such as GIS, it is nonetheless especially interested in how attention paid to the processes involved in mapmaking reveals different ways of visualizing data that are commensurate with the more common forms of artmaking in art history. The goal of the course is to use cartography as an entry point for further exploration into the relationships between art and science more broadly.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
ART 337 - Queer Arts After Stonewall
What did queer art become when the closet was no longer the dominant structure of queer life? In this class, we will study how queer art practices reimagined artistic modernity as well as the social and political values that structured heteronormativity. In this framing, we will think together about technology and modes of production; race and racialization; public spheres, counterpublics and other models of collective life; sex and sexual practices; and other experiments with sex, gender, embodiment, and personhood. Some of the artists and writers we discuss include Douglas Crimp, John Paul Ricco, Andy Warhol, Isaac Julien, Glenn Ligon, Zach Blas, Susan Stryker, Jonathan Flatley, Homay King, Sadie Benning, Cheryl Dunye, David Wojnarowicz, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Samuel Delaney, Sharon Hayes, Tavia Nyong'o, Vaginal Davis, Jacolby Satterwhite.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 350 - Oceans, Rains, Rivers, Pools: Histories of Water
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 351 - Making Space
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 354 - Performing Mediation (Video Art, 1960-2000)
Video art began with artists turning the camera on their own bodies and their own studios. But far from being a privatized art form, the video medium implicates various popular media, including home video, cinema, television, and, more recently, webcams and online video. We will study the aesthetic precursors of video art as well as the histories of the popular media with which video art is historically and technologically enmeshed. Central to our discussions will be questions of media as well as questionings of embodiment, focusing particularly on gender and race. We will look at a wide range of video practices (analog, digital, closed-channel, broadcast, networked). We will watch videos together in class, but students should also expect to spend time each week watching videos outside of class.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 355 - South Asia and the British Empire
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 358 - Engenderings
This course sets out to learn from specific challenges that art and artists have posed to a system of gender that values some forms of life over others. Each iteration of the course will start with a specific challenge and then read within the history of gender politics and practice to see what changes in light of that challenge. For instance, what has to change in understandings and readings of the feminist relationship between sex and gender in light of the work of trans artists? What has to change in understandings and readings of gender-based oppression in light of the work of black feminists? In the Fall of 2025, we will take the Cooley Gallery exhibition of textile artist Freddie Robins as a prompt to study the long relationship between labor and gender.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 365 - Intersection: Architecture, Landscape Sculpture
This advanced studio sculpture course explores architectural and landscape-based works. Reading and research will focus on artists and architects from the 1970s to the present who use public process and sustainable materials to design and build innovative forms within urban spaces. The class will create a set of potential design solutions for a site in Portland. Studio training will include drafting, drawing, and planning strategies and building scale models in wood and metal. Knowledge of Google SketchUp and or Photoshop desired. Students are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 368 - Image and Text: The Book as a Sculptural Object
This course explores the significant role artists' books have played among the avant-garde of eastern and western Europe and the United States from the turn of the twentieth century to the present. The structural format book works take and their social and political functions will be viewed, discussed, and fabricated. The course will cover binding both codex and accordion books, reproducing images using palmer plates, and setting and printing type and images using a Reprex letterpress. Reed's special collections will provide a spectrum of professional artists' books, including magazine works, anthologies, diaries, manifestos, visual poetry, word works, documentation, albums, comic books, and mail art. We will read and discuss essays relating to each studio problem. Students are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 370 - Environmental Art
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- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 372 - Intermediate Experiments in Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking
We will develop and articulate individual research approaches to an art-making practice. By working with traditional art mediums while also creating our own experimental inks, paints, and stains, we will consider how to give form to narrative through composition, color, and materiality. The first part of the course will involve exploratory mark making towards a research-based project to be proposed and executed over the rest of the semester. The project might involve continued work in drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, or experimental mixed media. In a weekly studio section that will include lectures, videos, discussions, and field trips, we will encounter and learn terms and concepts common to contemporary visual culture, ecology, design, and activism. Students will create multimedia works in the studio and the field, and thoughtfully discuss their own and each other's work.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 374 - New Media/Old Media-Experiments in Optical Media and Computation
The course will examine and experiment with various forms of old and analog media combined with new and speculative twenty-first-century media technology to see if they can be productively remade and integrated into contemporary art practices. Our goal is to defamiliarize photography and new/digital media by finding alternative uses, or by revisiting a time when they had not separated themselves into distinct and different discourses looking at historical devices, methods, and tools that shared common aspirations and limitations. Technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities are explored through studio workshops, projects, readings, slide presentations, lab work, and critiques. Students must be highly self-motivated and will be expected to design independent projects.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 376 - Photography as Daily Practice
Photography as Daily Practice builds upon the foundational engagements with photography, emphasizing independent work alongside structured exploration of photo books, narrative, and serial photography. Through independent projects, students will deepen their practice, exploring the daily act of photography as a medium for expression and social engagement. This course fosters a critical and creative environment, encouraging students to develop a significant body of work that showcases their individual perspective, supported by regular critiques, workshops, and discussions.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 382 - Installation/Participation
An advanced sculpture/multimedia course investigating research-based and social art practices including the intersection of art, science, and society. Students may make work in any 2D, 3D, or time-based medium they are comfortable with, including performance and electronic media, to create installation-based works that inform and immerse the viewer. All sculpture construction shops and tools are available, including laser cutting, 3D printing, and casting. Weekly readings will include contemporary art theory, feminist theory, and critical race theory, and will center on artists working directly with social and political issues at the intersection of art, science, and society.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 388 - Socially Engaged Art Forms
Socially engaged art forms, also referred to as social practice, are rapidly developing areas of the contemporary art world. Much of this work is embedded within the contexts from which the works are derived-a distinctive component of how this work functions. This can also be described as the creation of space for conversation, sharing of experiences and information, or connections to people and places for specific and/or exploratory purposes. This is all conducted with consideration for each of the underlying elements as individual artistic and creative decisions. In this course we will explore projects that center specific people and communities as well as places, things, and events. Students who are excited to engage with other classmates and collaborate to do work in the Reed community and beyond using an equitable and social justice-informed lens make strong candidates for this class.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 390 - Realism and Its Discontents in Contemporary Chinese Visual Media
See CHIN 390 for description.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 392 - Intermediate Art, Photography, & Digital Media
This studio course provides a forum for more advanced and independent work for students. Designed for self-directed students seeking an interdisciplinary critique course. This class is a space to experiment and expand your practice, and to gain insight and feedback into the work you are making. Readings and lab work will respond directly to individual and group interests. Technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities of photography are explored through assignments, readings, lectures, slide presentations, lab work and group critiques. Students must be highly self-motivated and will be expected to respond to assignments with technical competence and critical clarity. Students must be highly self-motivated and will be expected to design independent projects.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 393 - Art of Writing
This course is a survey of the history and aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BCE) through the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). In addition to familiarizing students to the calligraphy of this period, this course also seeks to bring into conversation early Chinese theories on writing and contemporary art historical literature on the relationship between words and images. Some questions that will guide the general theoretical arc of the course include how the origins and development of the Chinese writing systems inform its later incarnations as an inextricable part of literati art; what it might mean to emphasize the look of writing more than its linguistic characteristics; and how an everyday skill (writing for the sake of communication) and medium (brush and ink) become an art.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 470 - Thesis
ART 481 - Independent Projects or Independent Reading
Independent courses are usually offered only to students already admitted to the division as art majors.