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/Courses for Non-Majors
*Open to all students - no prerequisites, no art background necessary.
FA 101a Drawing (4u) This course teaches you how to draw -- how to render spatial relationships, light, texture and forms. It will develop your ability to see and transpose what one sees onto a two-dimensional drawing surface. Topics covered in class include rendering objects, light, drawing materials, the illusion of space, introduction to figure drawing, expressive qualities and serial drawing. Subject matter may vary from still life to landscape to the human figure itself. A wide variety of media, including charcoal and pastels, will be practiced. In addition, you learn how to communicate powerfully through visual means: how to organize and compose your ideas and experiences and visually present them with emotional impact. In a world that communicates increasingly through pictures, these are essential skills. This is a foundation class. No art background or prerequisites are necessary.
FA 102 Design Fundamentals (4u) Design Fundamentals is an introduction to the basic elements and processes of visual communications. The goal of this course is to provide students with a working understanding of perception relevant to the visual arts and the production of visual art products. Coursework will explore design elements and vocabulary for critical purposes, through exercises that improve visual and manual dexterity. These exercises will encompass tone, color and properties of color, design elements (format, line, pattern, proportion, scale, shape, texture), interpretation of space (edge, perspective, dimension), and conceptualization. Students will use a variety of media: gouache and brush, collage, basic photography, computer and Xerox manipulation and printouts. Instruction consists of lectures and outside readings, studio projects, quizzes and a short paper. There are no prerequisites for this class, and no art background is necessary.
FA 105 Painting I (4u)This course teaches you how to paint with oils, emphasizing both the mastery of skills and also an understanding of the conceptual basis behind painting. We cover the basics of color theory and composition, paint mixing, medium, and clean up. Students will be exposed to and learn techniques, styles and methods/processes, relative to representational images and abstract painting. You will learn to convey the illusion of visual experience by describing form, light/value, color, texture and spatial depth. You will learn to create images with both representational and emotive content. Additionally, you will develop analytical skills and critical awareness in relation to your own and others' paintings, and a vocabulary related to the discussion of critical issues. Finally, you will develop of a personal voice or style, through the selection and manipulation of personal imagery and content. Discussion and use of various critical processes and positions pertaining to the appreciative and aesthetic problems of being both painter and observer. The student will be shown some historical and aesthetic aspects of painting through slides presentations, as well as museum and gallery field trips. Paint applications used include: glaze, layering, alla prima to scumble, preparing grounds for paint, gesso, building and stretching canvasses, the craft of painting with oil, rendering with paint, surface concerns, finish, markmaking, contemporary critical writing on painting, historical views of oil painting in Western culture. No art background or prerequisites are necessary.
FA 106 Sculpture (4u) Practical and theoretical introduction to sculpture as dimensional manipulation. This course will guide you through an exploration of form, mass, gravity, surface, structure and associative recognition in three-dimensional art. Primary materials and their attendant techniques used will be clay, paper, plaster, cardboard, found objects (including found material) and wood. Includes basic material manipulation and an introduction to the wood shop.
FA 112 Ceramics (4u) This course gives a basic yet broad understanding of ceramics techniques and aesthetics, through demonstrations and visual aids. Topics include handbuilding techniques, an introduction to the wheel, the basic theories of clay and glazes, and exploration of a variety of firing techniques. In addition to the technical processes, there will be a strong emphasis on the development of a personal artistic vision or viewpoint as the course unfolds.
FA 136 Modeling & Moldmaking (2u) Introduction to plaster mold-making using clay and wax for both ceramics and sculpture. Includes impression molds, single-part molds, two-part molds, and multiple-part molds using various casting materials. Learn the history of mold-making from Egyptian times to the present day, the different materials used to make molds and about the purposes to which artists and industry have put molds. Emphasis will be accuracy and craftsmanship in mold-making to ensure a better cast; however, theory is also a component of the course.
FA 140x A Cultural Guide to Los Angeles (2u) This course explores Los Angeles' rich--if somewhat eclectic--cultural past and present in the various branches of the fine arts and the popular arts. Through lectures, discussion, slide shows, and field trips, an overview of some of L.A.'s art resources will be presented, including its visual arts scene and its wealth of architecture, as well as popular culture expressions: film, improv and comedy, and the cuisine scene--restaurants, marketplaces, etc. Finally, we will discuss how the city's development as a geographical, historical, and socio-political entity has contributed significantly to the current cultural scene.
FA 150 Visual Culture & Literacy (4u) Read images and understand the types of mechanisms that are used by visual producers to create meaning and learning how to use those particular mechanics. Learn about yourself as a receiver and conveyor of cultural information. Are we robots who go along with the established norm or paradigm, or are we able to think for ourselves in order to discover whether or not some of those paradigms have outlasted their use and need to be rethought or eliminated? There are cinematic, photographic, painted, hand-crafted, digital images, theatrical, written, musical and sound-based imagery. These are representations, sensory information which has been encoded and which allows us to communicate. Great visual thinkers in all reality have been paradigm breakers. They create situations that cause us to re-look at and re-think what we're so used to seeing. Through them we learn to see in a new and more comprehensive light and discern whether or not our familiar ideas are still applicable. Required for all Fine Arts majors and most FA minors.
FA 207AX Two Dimensional Art Workshop (2u) Drawing for Animators
The focus of this course is to improve fundamental drawing skills by way of classically drawing the figure.
FA 207AX Two Dimensional Art Workshop (2u) Japanese Brush Painting
Introduction and exploration of sumi-e painting, characterized by its artistic use of brush strokes that are based on simple lines and dots. The techniques are centuries old and have been handed down from one Japanese master to another.
FA 208AX Three Dimensional Art Workshop (2u) Ceramics Workshop
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of hand-building techniques including coil and slab as well as developing greater appreciation for ceramic art, its history and relationship to culture. Surface treatments will include textured clay, slip, and glaze painting. Not available for credit to studio majors.
FA 208AX Three Dimensional Art Workshop (2u) Perceptual and Carving Skills
Studio practice designed to help the student recognize and sharpen their visualization, carving, manual dexterity, visual judgement and eye-hand coordination skills.
FA 209A Photography I (4u) FA 209 introduces several broad areas of concentration within the medium of photography. Within each of these areas, the student will gain an understanding of the range of technical approaches possible. Photography introduces and expands your understanding of historical and contemporary works, issues and concerns. Through each area, the student develops an individual/independent relationship between themselves as artists and the medium of photography in a fine arts context.
FA 210 Intermedia Studio 1: Intro to Digital Photography and Imaging (4u) This course will acquaint students with the computer, the digital camera and with digital printing. Awareness of the computer as tool and the ability to use that tool for image-creation is crucial in Photography today. The theoretical lessons and readings will help establish a strong fine-art platform from which the students approach this otherwise commercial environment and help them to consider how and in what way they can progress and experiment in this area of art making. As well the class reaches beyond the printed image to the digital presentation of the image online and on screen-based works.
FA 212 Wheel Throwing (2u) FA 212 is an introductory ceramics course that uses wheel throwing techniques to pursue visual results in several 3-dimensional exercises. Students will learn how to use these techniques to realize their own creativity and artistic vision. Traditionally, the end result of throwing has been pottery; cups, bowls, plates, etc. These things are shapes or forms that have content and structure of their own. By logical extension, the wheel can also be a tool to produce shapes independent of function. Your use of the wheel will include the exploration of both of these potential uses when facilitating your ideas, and executing assignments.
FA 215 Introduction to Digital Viedo and Interactivity (4u) This class will acquaint the students with the computer, the digital video camera, motion-based software and interactivity as well as the process of production, reproduction and presentation that help define and disseminate this media into culture. The theoretical lessons and readings will help establish a strong fine-art platform to encourage them to consider how and in what way they can progress and experiment in this area of art making. Lab classes will provide an introduction to Digital video capture, Editing and post production via Final Cut Pro, Basic authoring and interactivity via DVD Studio Pro and Motion and interactivity via Macromedia Flash. No Prereqs.
39027R 9-11:50 MW 39026R 2-4:50 MW 39025R 2-4:50 TTH
FA 311 Printmaking (4u) In this class, you will learn a variety of printmaking techniques such as monoprints, linoleum block printing, wood block printing, etching, photo-etching, and water etching. Related topics of Artists' Books, papermaking, paper, presentation of work, and care for works on paper will be explored in conjunction with intaglio and monoprinting. Other printmaking techniques such as Xerox transfer, Polaroid transfer, blueprints, rubbings and relief will be presented. Students will become involved in all aspects of printmaking--mark; making; the gathering and transformation of images; linear, tonal and textural techniques, issues of color, paper, inking, printing, and presentation. Students will explore personal imagery and issues of sequence, contrast, and surprise. Class will consist of lectures, critiques, and printmaking demonstrations.
FA 336 Arts and Technology (4u) A cross-disciplinary course between USC's Roski School of Fine Arts and School of Engineering that addresses creative thinking in the manipulation of media and the communication of ideas. This course focuses on creating visual imagery in three-dimensions as well as in virtual reality via the use of traditional sculptural means as well as interactive projects created by virtual reality software programs such as MAYA and BLUI and also the use of IMSC s digital 360 video camera. In creating this type of visual imagery the students are exposed to critical and intuitive approaches to visualization and their synthesis in the final art product.
PAS 371 Art in the Public Realm (4u) This academic undergraduate course introduces the underpinnings of contemporary public art with artist profiles, case studies, public art projects, collaborative designers and architects all poised in the forefront of the public realm. Discussion sessions include student inquiry and critical dialogue surrounding contemporary public art issues. Discussions are augmented through site visits to Los Angeles public art projects and guest artist presentations.
FA 499 Special Topics, Ideas in Intermedia (4u)
<Fall 2005: From Problematic to Popular> An overview of experimentalism, technology and popular appeal in film, video and digital media, from Scorpio Rising to Window Licker. This class will examine the contemporary music videos and films of popular filmmakers such as Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham, the motion graphics innovations of collectives such as Shynola and Brand New School, and the video and film work of artists such as Pipilotti Rist and Matthew Barney. To consider these individual artists and filmmakers, the class will study the radical and subversive work of earlier avant-garde film and video artists from the 1940s forward, much of which was defiantly political and cheerfully problematic. Considering work by artists such as Kenneth Anger, Bruce Conner, Jan Svankmajer, Bruce Nauman, Andy Warhol, Carolee Schneemann, George Kuchar, Hannah Wilke and Yoko Ono, the class will map a period of rigorous investigation that forced us to rethink the very idea of art, as well as the possibilities of technology and the line between fine art and mass media. Mapping a particular history of film, video and multimedia, the class will draw connections and consider differences between fringe, popular, mass audience and subversive expression, with the hope of creating a larger context for understanding contemporary media practices.
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