This course will introduce students to the core principles of photography through analog, digital, and alternative techniques. Methods introduced in this course include eco-conscious photographic techniques, double exposure, light painting, camera-less photography, motion blur, scanning, timelapse, and other experimental methods. Composing an image that is engaging, thoughtful, and experimental will be taught in this course, alongside the critical history of photography with a focus on abstraction and alternative processes.

This course will introduce students to the concepts, techniques, and media of contemporary abstract and non-representational drawing. Experimental drawing approaches will form the basis for developing personal and imaginative expression. Projects in this course will investigate collage, mapping, and other types of experimental mark-making processes and design approaches. This course will also give students a critical perspective on abstraction in drawing through readings and lectures.

Artist multiples are small, limited edition artworks that include sculptures, artist books, mass-produced ephemera such as posters, postcards and small objects. Students will explore the production and history of 2D and 3D works using a variety of media and approaches. This course is about both making and concepts.

This course is designed to offer students direct encounters with artists and curators through studio and gallery visits. Field encounters, written assignments, readings and research focus on contemporary art and curatorial practices. The course will provide skills in composing critical views, artist statements, and writing proposals for art projects.

This course will introduce students to the concepts, techniques, and media of contemporary observational drawing. Representational drawing will form the basis for developing personal and imaginative expression. Still lives, portraiture, and figure drawing will form the basis for learning to draw what students see using a range of mark-making techniques and design elements. This course will also give students a critical perspective on representation in drawing through readings and lectures.

This course explores advanced camera and editing techniques as well as presentation strategies using installation, projection, and multiple screens. Students will make projects using both linear and non-linear narratives while exploring moving image influences from online culture, popular media, surveillance culture, cinema, photography, performance, and sculpture.

This course covers the history and practice of performance art. Students will employ contemporary performance strategies such as duration, ritual, repetition, intervention, tableau vivant, endurance and excess of materials in their projects. We will also study the relationship of performance to other art disciplines and practices such as theatre and sculpture.

Through lectures, demonstrations, and exercises that incorporate the use of Illustrator and other software, students will create 3D printed and augmented reality artworks. With an emphasis on developing skills when working in vector digital spaces, this course will help students develop the ability to articulate ideas related to contemporary digital art-based practice. An overview of expanded 3D digital media will be covered, and project themes will be drawn from a critical analysis of digital technology as an art form.

This course will teach students basic programming skills for creating computational and interactive digital artworks. This course will explore interaction and visualization in contemporary art using fundamental principles of design, AI technology, generative strategies, motion graphics and animation techniques. Students will learn independent concept development through lectures, demonstrations, exercises, and art projects. No prior coding experience is required.

This course looks at how visual artists employ words in their art. Students will be introduced to the experimental use of text in contemporary art: how typography has influenced artists and the role of language in conceptual art by completing projects in various media. 

This course will introduce students to digital processes and materials for creating three-dimensional and kinetic art objects. Students will learn computer-aided design (CAD), fabrication techniques such as 3D printing and laser cutting, and physical computing basics with an introduction to microcontrollers and ready-made circuits. This course will also examine the history and use of technology in contemporary sculpture through readings and lectures.

Students will be introduced to sound as a medium for art making. Listening, recording, mapping, editing, and contextualizing sounds will be the focus of this course. Sound investigations will be explored within both contemporary art and experimental sound/music contexts.

This course will introduce students to the basics of digital animation using still and moving images and a variety of software to produce time-based digital art projects. Students will learn animation techniques, storytelling, sound mixing, and sequence editing with a focus on experimental practices. Through lectures, screenings, demonstrations, in-class exercises, assignments, presentations, and group critiques, students will gain an understanding of a wide range of experimental and conceptual skills to use animation as a visual art form.

A project based course, building upon concepts developed in VPSB89H3 Introduction to Digital Animation. Students will refine their control of sound, movement, and image quality. This course will also introduce three-dimensional wire frame and ray-tracing techniques for constructing convincing 3-D animated objects and scenes as they apply to contemporary artistic practices.

"Live!" investigates interdisciplinary modes of contemporary performance. Within a studio context, this course serves as an advanced exploration of 21st century Live Art. This interactive course reviews the dynamics of time, space and existence, and asks fundamental questions about the body and performance.

This course focuses on the finer details of curating and/or collecting contemporary art. Students will delve into the work of selected artists and curators with an emphasis on the conceptual and philosophical underpinnings of their projects. Term work will lead to a professionally curated exhibition, or the acquisition of an artwork.

Students will produce time-based three-dimensional artworks. Students will be encouraged to use altered machines, simple electronic components and a wide range of materials.

An advanced course for students who are able to pursue individual projects in painting, with a focus on contemporary practice and theory.

A supervised course focused specifically on the development of the student's work from initial concept through to the final presentation. Students may work in their choice of media with the prior written permission of the instructor.

This course will extend digital art practice into a range of other Studio Art media, allowing students to explore the creation of hybrid works that fuse traditional mediums with new technologies. Students will have the opportunity to work on projects that utilize networking, kinetics, GPS, data mining, sound installation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and interactivity.

This course investigates the relationship of the body to the camera. Using both still and video cameras and live performance students will create works that unite the performative and the mediated image. The course will cover how the body is framed and represented in contemporary art, advertising and the media.

Interdisciplinary Drawing Concepts will extend drawing into a range of other media, allowing students to explore the sculptural, temporal and performative potential of mark-making.

Advanced Sculpture will provide students with an opportunity for a deeper investigation into various materials and fabrication techniques. This course will focus on the theory and practice of object making through studio assignments that develop a critical and technical literacy towards both traditional and non-traditional sculpture materials.

Lens-based art forms such as photography and video have a rich tradition as a documentary practice. These media have engendered their own techniques, aesthetic, and cultural context. This course is designed to introduce students to the role of the documentary image in contemporary art practice, through personal, conceptual, and photo-journalistic projects accomplished outside of the studio.

This course will expand photographic practice into a range of other media. Students will explore the sculptural, temporal, performative, and painterly potential of the photograph and photographic technologies.

A course for students interested in designing and publishing artworks using digital tools. The emphasis will be on short-run printed catalogues, along with some exploration of e-books and blogs. Lessons will identify common editorial and image preparation concerns while introducing software for assembling images, videos, sounds, graphics, and texts into coherent and intelligently-designed digital publications. Creative solutions are expected.

The studio-seminar course will provide students with discipline-specific historical, theoretical, professional, and practical knowledge for maintaining a sustainable art practice. Students will gain an understanding of how to navigate the cultural, social, political, and financial demands of the professional art world. Topics will include professional ethics, equity and diversity in the art world, understanding career paths, developing writing and presentation skills relevant to the artist, familiarity with grants, contracts and copyright, and acquiring hands-on skills related to the physical handling and maintenance of art objects.

This open-media studio-seminar will examine the relationship between contemporary art and globalizing and decolonizing forces, focusing on key topics such as migration, diaspora, colonialism, indigeneity, nationalism, borders, language, translation, and global systems of trade, media, and cultural production. Students will explore current art practices shaped by globalization and will conceive, research, and develop art projects that draw from their experiences of a globalizing world.

This open-media studio seminar will examine the relationship between art and the body, focusing on key topics such as identity (gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation), intersectionality, subjectivity, representation, and the gaze. Students will explore artistic methods that are performative, experiential, sensory, and interactive. This course will also examine approaches to the body that consider accessibility, aging, healing, and care. Students will conceive, research, and develop art projects that address contemporary issues related to the body.

This open-media studio-seminar will focus on material-based art practices and critical approaches to the material world. This course will explore topics such as sustainability and Indigenous reciprocity, feminist understanding of materials, the politics of labour, and the role of technology. This course will also examine key concepts such as craft, form, process, time, and dematerialization and consider the role that technique, touch, and participation play in the transformation of material. Students will conceive, research, and develop art projects that address contemporary approaches to material-based art making.