4.341 U / 4.342 G

Introduces history and contemporary practices in artistic photography through projects, lectures, artist visits, group discussions, readings, and field trips. Fosters visual literacy and aesthetic appreciation of photography/digital imaging, as well as critical awareness of how images in our culture are produced and constructed. Provides instruction in the fundamentals of different camera formats, film exposure and development, lighting, black and white darkroom printing, and digital imaging. Assignments allow for incorporation of a range of traditional and experimental techniques, development of technical skills, and personal exploration. Throughout the term, present and discuss projects in a critical forum. Additional work required of students taking the graduate version.

UG: 4.310, G: 4.311

This hands on studio class will expose students to the technical skills needed for successful screen printing. Students will produce single and multicolor prints on paper and fabric using a variety of methods. Classes will cover an introduction to preparing and reclaiming screens, creating handmade and digital cut stencils, use of screen positives and photo emulsion, mono prints and editions, registration, and more.  Lab fee required.

4.322 UG | 4.323 G

Explores three-dimensional artwork, including sculpture, installation, and fashion from concept to finished piece. Addresses design, fabrication, process, context, and relationships between objects, the body, and material culture. Lectures, screenings, field trips, readings, and class discussions supplement studio practice. Additional work required of students taking the graduate version.

4.361: UG | 4.632 G

Explores performance centered on the body as a space of resistance/action, the collective body and its powers, and performative acts that blur boundaries between art and everyday life. By acknowledging embodied experience as a container -and generator- of knowledge, students trace gestures of care and reciprocity by enacting scores and poetry, conceptually altering screens/walls that divide and separate us, reclaiming time, and undoing categories that alienate our bodies from life itself. Activities include improvisation, movement vocabulary, theater strategies, walking, reading, writing, listening, observation, screening, and discussing theoretical, historical, and contemporary examples of performance art, social art practice, procession, and artistic collaborations. Several small performance-based projects, both collective and individual, assigned throughout the semester. Additional work required of students taking graduate version.

This course investigates the interdisciplinary and generative possibilities of publication, emphasizing its role as a practice of expanding public engagement and imagination. Throughout the semester, students will explore worldmaking strategies, speculative fiction and an array of publication methods ranging from traditional techniques—leveraging ACT and MIT’s extensive resources such as riso printing, book binding and maker labs—to experimental approaches in digital media, performance, political systems, architecture, contemporary art, design and AI.Specific expectations and/or deliverable product resulting from course.

MIT Certificate Protected Syllabus

UG: 4.s30  G: 4.s35

An introduction to the tools and concepts of capturing and transitioning forms between the human scale and nanoscale. The generation of simulation-based art projects reflects these explorations and the ways they can be used in the context of art, culture, and technology. What dialogs can engage with society when operating on sub-visible scales or taking forms from the nano into the human macro scale, creating artistic simulations, motion from form, or form from motion?

Students will collaborate with MIT Nano on final projects intended for public exhibition in a gallery setting.

MIT Certificate Protected Syllabus

UG: 4.332, G: 4.333

Students create art projects that interact with participants and/or environment using a variety of code and hardware-based solutions including MAX/MSP/Jitter, a graphical object-based coding environment, and Arduino physical computing technologies. Students use sensors or generate data to control or interact with lights, speakers, video, audio, motors and much more. Students will create a Final Project that will be presented in “n/tr.ACT”, an Interactive Art show in the ACT Gallery. 

MIT Certificate Protected Syllabus