Fall 2021 Course Descriptions

The GW Bulletin houses official program requirements for the university. You can use it to find out the courses you need to take to complete your degree. However, we want to help you navigate the course selection process, so we have provided more detailed descriptions of what each course entails that you can use as a resource while planning your course schedule. Please contact your program with any specific questions.

For a list of when these courses are being offered in the spring, please refer to our 2021 Course Offerings page. Please note that these are still subject to change and the final schedule of courses can be found through the Office of the Registrar.

Please note that some professors may put their own spin on a course, so the actual syllabus of a course may vary slightly from the below descriptions.

Courses are listed by their course code in alphabetical order under their focus subject area. Sometimes the code prefixes can be confusing - here are some clarifications:

DESIGN: The design program houses graphic design, digital media design, interaction design, and exhibition design. Exhibition design and interaction design have been given their own sections below. The rest of design can be found under the Graphic Design section, including the codes CGD and CDE.

STUDIO ARTS: The Studio Art Program has the most degrees at the Corcoran. If you are looking for studio arts courses, look under the CSA (studio art and fine art photography) or CFN (first year foundations). If you are looking for photojournalism courses, look under CPJ (photojournalism).

Art History (CAH & AH)

xxxx

Decorative Arts & Design History (CDAD)

xxxxx

Exhibition Design (CEX)

xxxxx

Interaction Design (CIXD)

CIXD 3820.80 Engagement Lab/CIXD 6080.80 Engagement Lab/CSA 6080.80 Social Practice Field Studio

This field-based collaborative studio is undertaken with a partner organization or group in the Washington, DC region or beyond. Topics include formation and development of relationships with outside partners as well as processes of creative production in a public and community setting. Artists and Designers develop an interdisciplinary collaborative work environment to mutual benefit.

Students work with faculty to gain a systemic understanding of those challenges and investigate the histories that have led to the current moment. The teams then engage community members as partners in the process of designing tools and systems that can address those challenges. Students will focus on prototyping responses while evaluating from an at-scale perspective (keeping in mind goals and metrics identified in conversation with the community partners)

Photojournalism (CPH)

CPH 2090/CSA 3091: Sophomore Studio I/Introduction to Visual Storytelling

Students explore personal sources of image making, strategies for editing/sequencing, and different ways of seeing while refining their technical abilities. Assignments provide a structure for individual expression and interpretation while developing a greater awareness of photographic traditions, including photojournalism and documentary modes, and of the current state of contemporary practices. Students develop confidence and rigor in their approaches within an atmosphere of exploration and risk-taking. Fine-art photography and photojournalism students meet together and participate in frequent group and individual critiques, which promote intensive dialogue and proficiency in critical thinking.

CPH/CPJ 4090: Senior Thesis I

In the final year of the Photojournalism and Fine Art Photography curriculum, the emphasis is on developing individual strengths and style in the context of a sophisticated understanding of how photographic media shape and reflect public opinion. Students define, propose, research and initiate a long-term project that will culminate in the Spring semester Senior Thesis exhibit. The work-in-progress critique at the end of the fall semester represents a pivotal moment in the development of the thesis exhibition and will be judged accordingly.

Studio Arts (CSA)

CSA 1502: Intro to Color (Digital)

This course is designed for students who do not have any technical understanding or previous experience with color photography using manual settings on a digital SLR camera. They are introduced to the materials and processes of digital color photography. It covers camera operations, image editing, archival inkjet printing, and presentation methods; students will expose, and edit all of their own images. The technical skills learned during the first half of the course will be the foundation upon which more complex visual communication may take place. Throughout the second half of the semester students will utilize their newly acquired skills to address issues concerned with the visual language of photography.

CSA 1601 New Media: Digital Art

This course will be structured around three components – studio work, the development of technical skills, and introduction to the broad field of new media / electronic and time-based arts.

There are many types of digital and electronic art practices – with many influences. The course will cover a series of topics that have motivated media artists over the last 30 years, as well as historical roots in other “new” medias, such as photo, film, etc. Art and design practices (whether they are visual, sonic, conceptual, formal, political, commercial) are rooted in close observation of the world. Observing the visual qualities of objects, how people behave, what something sounds like, what something feels like, what a text says– whatever the focus may be, detailed attention and observation are key starting points. We will follow those observations into the digital realm to see how digital representation and distribution affect the making and reception of art, ideas, and relationships.

There are no prerequisites for this course.

CSA 2570.10 Studio and Location Lighting on Friday 8:00 am - 12:30 pm

This course is an introduction, and exploration of studio and location lighting. An overview of lighting equipment will be followed by specific demonstrations, applications, and on going student “light testing”. Students are expected to complete light testing assignments on a weekly basis, and explore lighting techniques through still life, architectural, experimental, self-portrait and portrait sessions in the studio and on location.

The first half of the semester we will explore a variety of lighting concepts and techniques through in class demonstrations and weekly assignments with critiques at the beginning of each class. For the second half of the semester, you will each develop a conceptually cohesive portfolio of 8 self-assigned projects working with concepts and techniques learned throughout this semester.

CSA 2570.10 Studio and Location Lighting on Friday 8:00 am - 12:30 pm

CSA 3401/6401 Special topics: Meaning in Abstraction

The special topics course Meaning in Abstraction, CSA 3401/6401 explores the conceptual and technical aspects of painting through the understanding of abstraction. In this course students work on guided exercises along with individual interpretations of subject. The idea of abstraction is looked at along with the other Arts of dance, theater and music) in finding common language and meaning. (We will watch videos of dance, music and theater and see how they can also be incorporated into the paintings using cross discipline techniques.) Students will abstract from nature (figure, landscape, still life), photography, intuition and emotions as well as formal decisions based upon color and composition. Students will have the option or working in oil and/or acrylic as well as collage and non-traditional painting mediums. This course is cross listed with CSA 6401, a graduate level course. Those students working on the graduate level will have special projects and research assignments.

There will be regular painting assignments, short, written research projects and field trips to various venues around the city. Each class has a painting component, a critique component (both individual and class) and an art history/arts related lecture.

CSA 1091/Fine Art Fundamentals 1 - Foundation Painting

In this dynamic and face paced course students will explore traditional techniques of both acrylic and oil painting. We will look at paint and paint application through formal and informal exercises and demonstrations. Students will have regular, short, written assignments relating to their projects and the history of painting. This studio/hands on course will be interspersed with readings on historical and contemporary art history. These readings will be composed of eastern, western and non-dominant art world politics being addressed in painting today. There will be weekly painting assignments to be completed in class. Each class session will be divided up into a hands-on practicum, a critique component and a reading (or watching) of art historical component.

We will explore both current and historical painting practices, and investigate the concepts of observation, representation, abstraction, and conceptual thought as sources for our work. Discussion regarding scale, supports, surface preparation, color, and the manipulation of paint as materials and their impact on content and expression will be explored.

The students will look at the medium of paint as subject, material and content. Students will have the opportunity to explore options in traditional imagery, constructed ideas and nonobjective expression. Students will work from the figure, nature, still life and constructed images.

There will be regular field trips to museums, galleries and studios. Students will have the opportunity to interact with the professionals at these various venues. Instruction will be through in studio demonstration of materials, YouTube videos, readings and internet sources.

CSA 3901.82 Exchange Rate: Print as Public Practice will look at the ways artists create and deploy printed ephemera in the public world. The class will focus on diverse traditions of printed material employed by artists to build community, inform, critique, protest, reflect, and imagine new worlds. Students will focus on a range of printing techniques from screenprint to the photocopier to make artistic multiples that are exchanged in public space from posters to wearables to packaging. Much of this class will also address historic and contemporary practices that consider how art and ideas are shared in the world, particularly through gestures of radical generosity and in the spirit of mutual aid. In this course, students will be introduced to histories of the multiple by studying a range of artist books and zines, instructional and text based practices, subscription based artworks, poster campaigns, wearables, and many other ways that artists use printing techniques to engage public audiences through gifting and exchange.

CSA 6901.80 Radical Self Care

“ ANYONE WHO’S INTERESTED IN MAKING CHANGE IN THE WORLD, ALSO HAS TO LEARN HOW TO TAKE CARE OF HERSELF, HIMSELF, THEIRSELVES. ”

–Angela Davis

Radical Self Care is a philosophy and a practice that empowers us to care for ourselves,

cultivate mindfulness and acceptance of ourselves and from that place of well-being and abundance– care for the individuals arounds us, our communities and our planet. Artists, Activists and other catalysts of progressive society have proclaimed the importance of this practice. We will learn from their work.

The course is composed of a series of readings, workshops, and embodied activities that create a space to reflect and regenerate and support students in building a unique self-care regimen for a thriving creative life regardless of medium, area of specialty or field of study.

Students learn to commit to radical self-care and strategize how to take care of themselves as they balance life as a full-time student and community-engaged culture worker. The project culminates with a day of reflection on the importance and impact of self-care.

This course is open to all students.

Key terms: survival skills, acts of resistance, culture work, kindness, health, thriving