Foundation

Foundation courses are required of all first year students.

• FA-100.1, FA-100.2

  Introduction to Techniques

  An introduction to the physical aspects of working with wood, metal, plaster - and plastics, as well as an introduction to on-campus computer facilities and resources. A basic introduction to the Adobe interface, specifically Photoshop and Illustrator will be provided.

  Required for first year students. 1/2 credit. Pass/Fail.

• FA-101

  Color

  A study of the physical, perceptual, art historical and cultural aspects of color. The phenomenon of color and principles of light are explored in various media towards an understanding of color application in all of the fine art disciplines and architecture.

  Required for first year students. 2 credits.

• FA-102

  Two-Dimensional Design

  Exploration of the visual and intellectual aspects of form on the two-dimensional surface, in a variety of media. Investigations into the relationships of perception, process and presentation.

  Required for first year students. 3 credits.

• FA-104

  Basic Drawing (Analytical and Descriptive)*

  A course in freehand drawing designed to emphasize perceptual and inventive skills in all drawing media.

  *During the 2024-2025 Academic Year, FA-104 (Basic Drawing) was offered in the Spring semester. Beginning the 2025-2026 Academic Year, FA-104 (Basic Drawing) will be offered in the Fall semester.

  Required for first year students. 3 credits.

• FA-105

  Four-Dimensional Design

  This course investigates the properties of time and movement and the fundamentals of four-dimensional design. Students explore duration, condensation, expansion, interruption, simultaneity, stillness, action and situation through a wide range of materials.

  Required for first-year students. 2 credits.

• FA-108

  Foundation Studio

  A studio methods and theories course for foundation students with a focus on the development of multiple lines of visual competency helping to prepare students for advanced study. This course works in conjunction with technical labs through a set of offerings in shorter lab/studio seminars. In this sense, the technical or craft learning necessary for visual practice, and the beginning of a personal conceptual or research methodology, merge.

  Required for first year students. 3 credits.

• FA-109

  Three-Dimensional Design

  Students work on projects that explore the fundamentals of forms and space and investigate the properties of materials, structure, mass, scale, light and motion.

  Required for first year students. 3 credits.

• SE-101

  Foundation Orientation

  Foundation Orientation brings together all first-year students as an introduction to the academic life of the School of Art, as part of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. The course is designed to give students a working overview of opportunities and resources available to them.

  Required for first-year students. 1/2 credit. Pass/Fail.

• SE-150

  Foundation Project

  This course brings together all first-year students within a seminar. This course consists of a series of presentations that introduce various artistic practices, critical languages, and criticism. This aspect of the course indents to present contrasting historical and contemporary models of creating, seeing, speaking, and thinking about art.

  Required for first year students. 1/2 credit. Pass/Fail.

Audiovisual

• FA-272

  Film Workshop (16mm)

  This course is designed to foster independent student projects made using 16mm film. Alongside practical instruction into working with film, students will be exposed to the multiple and overlapping histories and practices of analog filmmaking. In-class workshops, discussions, and screenings will cover experimental, documentary, and narrative filmmaking strategies, toward providing students with a broad framework from which to make work. Students use Bolex 16mm cameras and black and white film in this course. Editing and post-production instruction includes analog and digital workflows.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: AV I. May be repeated.

• FA-275

  Audiovisual I

  Audiovisual I is the first semester of a two-semester trajectory. In semester one, students will be introduced to concepts, production techniques, and multiple histories of artists' sound and moving image work, exploring origins and evolutions of animation, film, video, and audio recording. Alongside a historical and theoretical framework, a wide range of practical tools will be introduced, including pre-cinematic image capture, 16mm film and digital cinema production, stop action animation, sound recording, and lighting. This is an assignment-driven class where students will work independently and in groups, supported by classroom instruction, screenings, workshops, and one-on-one meetings with the professor. Each of these modes will also contribute toward student development of critical thinking and language in which to conceptualize, make, and share with the class their time-based work.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• FA-276

  Audiovisual II

  Audiovisual II is the second semester of a two-semester trajectory. The course is designed for students to further their exposure to important concepts, production techniques, and histories of artists' sound and moving image work, while developing the tools to work independently in the audiovisual realm. With an emphasis on students developing longer form prompted and self-generated projects, AV2 will delve further into both conventional and experimental techniques of moving image and sound recording, assembly, editing, post-production, lighting, and installation. Through classroom instruction, screenings, guest artist visits and group critiques, students will experiment with multiple modes of making, while also evolving critical thinking and language in which to conceptualize, make, and share with the larger class and school community their time-based work.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: AV I. May not be repeated.

• FA-376

  Animation Workshop

  This class is devoted to the study and practice of frame by frame filmmaking. Alongside an examination of historic and contemporary examples of the wide and often experimental world of animation, students will engage in animation exercises and practical in-class demonstrations, ranging from traditional cartoon studies to fine art-based and experimental animation. Students create the initial artwork for their animations physically “with their own hands” and complete them digitally using the AV department’s animation facilities. Animation forms explored over the semester include direct-on-film, roto-scoping, 3D stop-motion, hand-drawn and 2D under-the-camera.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: AV I. May be repeated.

• FA-386

  AV Projects

  Students will advance their practice by producing work using a range of audiovisual tools and/or found material of their choice. Work will be discussed in group critiques as well as individual conferences with the instructor. Audiovisual strategies as forms—material and conceptual—will be the subject of readings, guest artists, and class discussions.

  Fall 2025, FA-386.1, AV Projects: Video Editing, C Fusco and J Stead: Editing isn’t just a means to an end – it’s an artform in itself. The many processes involved in editing literally sculpt your recordings and found material to yield something entirely new. In this course, we will focus on the techniques, theories and histories of editing. We will work on story building, and the strategic use of transitions, effects and compositing to create meaning and affect the emotions of viewers. We will consider the following questions: How does editing create a sense of a real or imaginary space? How does editing create dramatic tension or a sense of the poetic dimension of everyday life? Who are the key figures in the conceptualization of film and video editing and what are their most important ideas? How have certain technical innovations transformed editing practices? Students will be encouraged to develop their own projects in the course and strengthen their editing techniques so that they can take their moving image work to a higher level.

  Fall 2025, FA-386.2, AV Projects: Blender Bootcamp, J Boling and J Coombs
  This course is a hands-on introduction to Blender, a powerful and free 3D software that offers an expansive toolset for creative ideation across disciplines. Designed for artists of all backgrounds, Blender Bootcamp provides a structured immersion into the fundamentals of 3D modeling, texturing, lighting, rigging, animating, and rendering. By the end of the course, students will have a working knowledge of Blender’s core functions—and the beginnings of a personal toolkit for bringing three-dimensional thinking into their own artistic practices.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: AV I and Pre/Co-Req: AV II. May be repeated.

• FA-387

  AV Projects Topics

  This class will center around a specific audiovisual topic. Emphasis is on independent student work made in relation to the topic and related material presented by the instructor. Topics will range broadly to include thematic ideas and concepts in sound, video and installation, historic and contemporary strategies of making and installing work, and specific or esoteric zones of audiovisual interest. Student work will be discussed in group critiques and in one-on-one visits with the professor. The class will include readings, discussions, screenings, guest artists and class trips organized in relation to the class topic.

  Fall 2025, FA-387.2, AV Projects Topics: Media Burn, J Perlin: In Media Burn we will investigate and be inspired by artworks from the 1960s to the present that use moving images, space, sound, loops, performance, site-specificity, chance, repetition, and games as tools for communicating ideas. In the course, students will create collaborative and individual projects and explore ways of expanding their practices. Students are encouraged to use analog and digital media (with appropriate training in specific tools) to connect interdisciplinary interests in music, theater, dance, sculpture, painting, writing, and more. A component of the class will take place outside the classroom at museums, galleries, non-profits and alternative spaces in and around New York.

  Fall 2025, FA-387.1, AV Projects Topics: Deformers Too, L Raven: This course will be focused around viewing, discussing, and producing audio/visual works that, through experiencing them, deform you. These are works that distort the norm, disrupt convention, and disregard expectation to produce effects both physiologically and psychically altering. If Transformers are “More Than Meets the Eye,” Deformers contort the eyes and the mind, in ways both transitory and lasting, ever so slightly warping what was there before. Deformers Too will focus explicitly on these themes in comedy, material behavior, and (infra)strucutral films. Students will work independently on self-directed projects after proposing a work or set of works that directly engage with the course topic. Class time will be used for screenings and listening sessions, discussion and analysis of works and related writing, artist visits, individual presentations, and one on one visits with the professor.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: AV I and Pre/Co-Req: AV II. May be repeated.

Drawing

• FA-240

  Drawing

  The course is designed to explore the phenomena of drawing as basic to the visual language of all disciplines. The fundamental notion of observation and analysis in drawing is investigated. As preparation for work in an advanced level, the course involves further development of drawing skills and techniques, as well as an emphasis on individual aesthetic development. Assignments and group critiques are central to the course.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• FA-341

  Advanced Drawing

  This course is for students seeking further growth in drawing, either as individual studio focus or as a tool for ideation and methodolgies within other disciplines. Advanced study in drawing interogates historical notions of traditional draftmanship and the contemporary contexts of the discipline. Students are encouraged to explore and experiment with drawing as a way to further develop visual understandings of pictorial, sculptural or temporal space. The course is intended to help students use drawing as a critical and procedural tool within individual art practice. Group critiques and drawing sessions as well as individual meetings with the instructor are integral components of the course.

  Fall 2025, FA-341-1, Advanced Drawing, J Barth: Students will work independently on self-directed projects after proposing a work or set of works that directly engage with the course topic. Class time will be used for screenings and listening sessions, discussion and analysis of works and related writing, artist visits, individual presentations, and one on one visits with the professor.

  Fall 2025, FA-341-2, Advanced Drawing, W Villalongo

  Fall 2025, FA-341-3, Advanced Drawing, Y Masnyj

  3 credits. Pre-Req: Drawing. May be repeated.

Graphic Design

• FA-211

  Graphic Design I

  An introduction to the techniques and visual language of graphic design. Weekly projects explore fundamental concepts in form, composition, and typography. Presentations and readings in graphic design history will complement weekly assignments. Students will explore basic imagemaking processes as well as be instructed in digital production techniques.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• FA-212

  Graphic Design II

  The complex relationship between word and image is explored. The study of semiotics, emphasizing the philosophy of communication, provides a rich historical and intellectual base for experimental projects combining verbal and pictorial information. Weekly projects reflect a broad range of disciplines within the field of design. Computer instruction will be provided as it relates to specific projects.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: GD I. May not be repeated.

• FA-215

  Typography

  An introduction to the core principles of typography. Students will explore how typography influences language and communication, and gain a foundation for purposeful and expressive typography. This course will emphasize the formal qualities of typography, the implications of typeface selection, adapting to various contexts, visualizing concepts using only type, and attention to detail.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: GD I and Pre/Co-Req: GD II. May not be repeated.

• FA-312

  Advanced Typography

  This class will explore a range of concepts that govern typographic form, from the geometric shapes that make up an individual letterform to the way words and sentences behave in a composition. Projects will address the modular systems that generate typefaces along with the ways that principles from the physical world can influence the way letters and words look, act, and engage in space. Students are encouraged to think expansively—outside conventional typography—and to incorporate purposeful play into their experiments.

  3 credits. Pre-Reqs: GD I, GD II, and Typography. May be repeated

• FA-315

  Advanced Design

  Fall 2025, FA-315-1, Adv Design Topics: Ethics in Design, R Kanner:

  Advanced Studio: Ethics in Design is an advanced course in graphic design. Classes are a blend of conversation and creating. We’ll use a loose framework of working backwards to help us complete projects. Students are encouraged to work in whichever medium they feel most comfortable in. We’ll work together as if we were in a real studio. The teacher (that’s me) will work as a creative director and the students (that’s you) will work as designers, owning and delivering on creative work.

  Storytelling is the core theme of this course. We’ll use our time to investigate the answers to these questions: What is the story you want to tell? What do you want the audience to take from your work? What does your visual voice look like? You are encouraged to drive each other’s work through discussion and critique

  3 credits. Pre-Req: GD II and Pre/Co-Req: Typography. May be repeated.

• FA-317

  Advanced Design: Open Studio

  This class gives students an opportunity to conduct investigations of their own choosing through a series of open-ended prompts. We will look at the wide range of methods used in contemporary design practice and investigate ways they can be used to generate your own work. Projects include expanding on a past project, accumulating a series of daily acts of design, and creating a format to house
  contributions solicited from classmates. We will discuss a variety of techniques for creating self-generated work with a focus on how projects can be presented and circulated. Students will be required to share their explorations in carefully designed and clearly articulated presentations. Visiting lectures, videos, and readings will complement group critiques and one-on-one meetings.

  Fall 2025, FA-317-1, Adv Design: Open Studio, M Essl: In this course students will complete two fully realized independent projects. Emphasis will be placed on contemporary graphic design and typographic practices and on developing a personal voice and aesthetic. Students are expected to regularly present their works-in-progress and to participate actively in class discussions. Visiting lecturers, readings, and individual meetings with the instructor will complement group critiques.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: GD II and Pre/Co-Req: Typography. May be repeated.

• FA-328

  Motion Graphics

  Students will explore the conceptual and technical challenges of design for the television screen. All aspects of industry video/ broadcast production are introduced and integrated into a design core focused on strong communication. Projects include identity design, combining kinetic typography, animation, sound and video. The course includes workshops in After Effects, Final Cut Pro and Protools.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: GD II and Pre/Co-Req: Typography. May be repeated.

Painting

• FA-130A

  Painting I

  This course is centered around the material, conceptual and historical concerns of painting media within a group setting. The course is intended to give foundational technical and theoretical instruction in preparation of advanced study in painting. There is an emphasis on group learning with in-class and out of class assignments. Group critiques and instruction will enhance the development and articulation of individual ideas and build relationships with paint media. This hands on approach to painting will be supported by readings, films, lectures and field trips that expand the historical and contextual understandings in the area of painting.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• FA-130B

  Painting II

  This course is centered around the material, conceptual and historical concerns of painting media within individual studio practice. There is an emphasis on individual projects or assignments and the studio as generative space. The course is intended to clarify and evolve each student's individual relationship with paint media in preparation of advanced study in painting. Individual studio critiques and group critiques will enhance the development and articulation of each student's concerns in painting and image-making. The objectives of the course will be supported by readings, films, lectures and field trips that expand the historical and contextual understandings in the practice of painting.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: Painting I. May not be repeated.

• FA-331

  Advanced Painting

  This course offers students individual and group contexts to discuss their work and personal development as an artist. Students engage with relevant, practical, historical and contemporary discussions around painting. There is an emphasis on personal development. Clarification of interests, content, material processes center students within the context of advanced study. Individual and group critiques offer students opportunities to further locate their practice and voice as an artist. Various media and experiences such as lectures, films, reading and field trips expand classroom and individual studio space learning.

  Fall 2025, FA-331-1, Advanced Painting, J Packer

  Fall 2025, FA-331-2, Advanced Painting, N Souirgi

  3 credits. Pre-Req: Painting I and Pre/Co-Req: Painting II. May be repeated.

• FA-336

  Advanced Painting: Alex Katz Chair

  The Katz Chair is a distinguished artist working in the fields of Painting and Drawing invited to teach for one term. The style and objectives of this course vary and build in relationship to the Katz Chair, their work, research and experiences as an artist. The flexible nature of this course is for highly self-motivated students who wish to collaborate and/or work closely with a distinguished praticioner in the field. The course offers students opportunity for further growth within the context of advanced study. Individiual critiques and group critiques guide individual studio development. Media such as readings, films, lectures and field trips support
  the course objectives.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: Painting I and Pre/Co-Req: Painting II. May be repeated.

• FA-339

  Advanced Painting: Katz Guest Artist Series

  The Katz Guest Artist Series is named after and funded by Cooper Union alumni Alex Katz. This course introduces contemporary emerging and established artists in the fields of Painting & Drawing guided by a Cooper Union faculty. The course offers students opportunity for further growth within the context of advanced study through conversations around professional practices and individual development. Students interact with each guest in lectures, one-on-one studio visits and group critiques. Lectures introduce students to a wide range of practice and perspectives in Painting or Drawing within a classroom setting or field trips to guest artist studios. There is time for critical discussion about the material presented. Individual studio spaces become sites for creation, research, presentations and meetings with faculty and guest artists. In this way, the course reflects the professional space of the artist studio. Students develop a deeper connection to their personal language and practice through a rigorous studio visit and lecture schedule. Students experience the “real world” model of studio visits in which visitors not familiar with their work or immediate concerns engage them. In this way students develop the communication of their work and interests outside of the traditional classroom structure. Group critiques and media such as readings and film expand and clarify student development and course objectives.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: Painting I and Pre/Co-Req: Painting II. May be repeated.

Photography

• FA-206

  Lens/Screen/Print I

  LSP I Lens/Screen/Print I is the first section of a two-semester trajectory. This is an immersive foundation course in the practice of photography focusing on a critical engagement with lens technology, color theory/management and combined analog/digital workflows. Topics include: exploratory and technical knowledge of 35mm analog cameras, DSLR cameras, lenses and lighting conditions, fluid movement through digital black-and-white and color processes, such as digital imaging editing software, scanning analog color, and digital printing in black-and-white and color. Exposure to critical theory and major philosophical arguments central to lens, screen and print based practices will be explored. This is an assignment driven class.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• FA-207

  Lens/Screen/Print II

  Lens/Screen/Print II is the second half of a two-semester trajectory. This course builds upon the foundations of LSP I with an emphasis on post-production and a critical engagement with lens technology, color theory/management and combined analog/digital workflows. Technical knowledge of the tensions and possibilities found between "digital" and "analog" spaces in relation to critical theory and major philosophical arguments central to lens, screen and print based practices will contribute to student development. Topics include advanced digital editing and printing techniques, analog black-and-white production methods, such as shooting with black-and-white film and darkroom printing, advanced medium-format cameras and scanners, as well as introduction to new technologies and modes of display. A distinction in LSP II is a focus on experimentation, articulation and acumen. Students are encouraged to begin to develop semi-autonomous ways of working over the course of the semester, this includes supervised independent or collaborative projects. This course will afford students the opportunity to build a coherent body of work in preparation for advanced study.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: L/S/P I. May not be repeated.

• FA-362

  Photography: Studio Lighting

  The course will primarily address lighting, including the use of hot lights, flash, and strobes, with specific studio equipment such as sweeps, diffusers, backdrops, tethered shooting, Lightroom, and Capture One. Retouching and color correction in Photoshop will be covered.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: L/S/P I and Pre/Co-Req: L/S/P II. May be repeated.

• FA-364

  Advanced Photography: Open Studio

  Students will advance their practice by producing work using photographic material(s), cameras or any photographic device of their choice. Work will be discussed in group critiques as well as individual conferences with the instructor. Photographic issues and representation will be the subject of readings and class discussions.

  Fall 2025, FA-364-1, Advanced Photography: Open Studio, T Masushio

  3 credits. Pre-Req: L/S/P I and Pre/Co-Req: L/S/P II. May be repeated.

• FA-366

  Advanced Photography: Alternative Processes

  This course breaks the barriers between digital and analog photography, transforming meaning and content through various forms of manipulation. Fastpaced hands-on demos include hand-applied photographic emulsions (such as cyanotype, Van Dyke, palladium, and liquid light) and digital printing/transferring options (beyond emulating the traditional print, on surfaces such as paper, wood, metal, fabric, etc.). Eco-friendly options will be discussed and explored. The production of large-format analog and digital negatives will also be explored. Student work will be discussed in relation to contemporary art issues.

  3 credits. Pre-Req: L/S/P I and Pre/Co-Req: L/S/P II. May be repeated.

• FA-368

  Photography: Henry Wolf Chair

  This course is intended to help students clarify and further the growth of their own work through group and individual critiques, classroom presentations and discussions with a contemporary photo based artist in the position of the Wolf Chair.

  Fall 2025, FA-368-1, Advanced Photography: Henry Wolf Chair, Z Leonard

  3 credits. Pre-Req: L/S/P I and Pre/Co-Req: L/S/P II. May be repeated.

Printmaking

• FA-250

  Screen Printing

  This introductory course covers all aspects of contemporary Screen printing as a photomechanical stencil printing method. In a series of demonstrations, lectures and projects, students will become familiar with stencil making, color separation, printing, color mixing and image registration with the goal of building a broad knowledge of Screen printing. Methods for producing images by hand and by computer output are both addressed. Attention will be paid to the use of Screen printing within fine art, design and popular culture spheres as a way of discussing the history and current use of the process.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• FA-251

  Lithography

  This is a comprehensive course covering the full range of lithographic techniques. Instruction begins with hand working processes on lithographic stones and progresses through to contemporary approaches of digital image preparation for output to photographic printing plates. A series of projects and critiques are targeted to develop command of the material process and place the use of Lithography in contemporary visual practice.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• FA-252

  Etching

  This course is an introduction to the process of etching and printing from metal plates. Topics covered are the full range of platemaking techniques, from traditional wax grounds to contemporary photographic grounds, and printing techniques, including chine-collé, multi-plate color work and surface rolling. Lectures and critiques will place the practice of Etching in historical and contemporary context.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• FA-253

  Paper: Materiality and Sustainability

  This studio course explores making paper from traditional to contemporary approaches. The course incorporates specified instruction and experimentation driven by student independent projects. The exploration of the structural and historical uses of Western and Eastern methods including contemporary issues of recycled and alternative fibers will frame an understanding of the potential uses and appearances of handmade paper. From a basis in sheet forming, pigmenting, sizing, and the use of additives, the class will move into an emphasis on paper as a visual and sculptural object, covering paper casting and other three-dimensional approaches.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• FA-354

  Experimental Printmaking

  This course is focused on advanced studies across all forms of print media toward the development of individual student work. Instruction will build on the introductory level courses, covering color separations, extended techniques, experimental approaches, and additional print media forms. Student development will be driven by individual meetings and a series of group critiques.

  3 credits. Pre-Reqs: 2 of the following 5 courses - Etching, Lithography, Relief, Paper: Materiality and Sustainability, or Screen Printing. May be repeated.

• FA-355

  Relief

  This course provides an introduction to Relief printing techniques. Projects will cover hand carving wood and alternative surfaces, with specific attention to the Japanese water-based woodblock tradition and the western oil-based tradition. Instruction will cover printing by hand, as well as printing on Etching presses, hydraulic presses and Letterpresses.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

Sculpture

• FA-391

  Sculpture: Open Studio

  In this course “Sculpture” will be understood as open to an expansive and changing definition of its limits. Students may draw from its historical traditions or choose more experimental modes of production, in other media or methodologies. The course will be structured as an open studio, where students can bring in works as they progress through each individual’s studio thought and experiment. Students are expected to work independently in initiating their research, concepts, choice of mediums, and the installation/context for their projects.

  Fall 2025, FA-391-1, Sculpture: Open Studio, I Okariz

  Fall 2025, FA-391-2, Sculpture: Open Studio, L Raven

  Fall 2025, FA-391-3, Sculpture: Open Studio, C Irijalba: In this class we will focus on context responsive, site-specific art practices at the intersections between sculpture, installation, and moving image, expanding from traditional exhibition spaces like museums and galleries to public space interventions and time-based media. We will work on becoming permeable to the material and immaterial field that’s around us. The power of transformation of this object or that image is around the corner if we persevere on the relation with the material and visual environment we respond to. We will learn how to develop sensitivity to the nuances, the hidden meanings, and connotations of the material world.

  Fall 2025, FA-391-4, Sculpture: Open Studio, S Kwon

  Fall 2025, FA-391-5, Sculpture: Open Studio, A Ross

  Fall 2025, FA-391-6, Sculpture: Open Studio, D Johnson: This course will emphasize a balance between craft and concept in making sculpture as creative acts that produce physical interventions in the world. Unlike other courses, we will work closely with the 4th-floor shop facilities to explore how a combination of woodworking and metalworking, as well as other fabrication methods (plastics, casting, sewing, new technologies, etc.), can facilitate and expedite each student’s vision.

  Fall 2025, FA-391-7, Sculpture: Open Studio, D Kenny

  3 credits. May be repeated.

• FA-392

  Sculpture: Reasoning with Things

  This is a sculpture studio course that takes a concrete approach to the development of critical discourse about works of art through making and discussing objects. It exercises the student's ability to analyze the activity of making sculpture in particular - and advances the student's understanding of how to proceed in the studio. Problems of structure, materials, meaning, intention, and context are the subjects of class discussion. Together we will look at examples of artists practice which fall within these themes, visit related exhibitions, and host visiting artists.

  3 credits. May be repeated.

• FA-393

  Sculpture: Making, Craft, and Concept

  This course will emphasize a balance between craft and concept in making Sculpture as creative acts that produce physical interventions in the world. Unlike other courses, we will work closely with the 4th floor Shop facilities to explore how a combination of woodworking, metalworking, casting, as well as other fabrication methods (plastics, sewing, new technologies, etc.) can facilitate and expedite each student’s vision. Students are expected to be self-driven and self- motivated with their projects. they are interested in working on over the semester. This class will help reinforce their technical and material research in completing complex fabrication. Skills will be learned as well as built upon, and workdays will be integrated into class time to get as much hands-on experience as possible.

  3 credits. May be repeated.

• FA-394

  Sculpture: Narrative and Systems

  This is a sculpture studio course. While all media are welcome, we will approach the course with sculptural concerns. The theme of the class is Narrative and Sculpture with a focus on Relationships to Systems. This class is loosely defining a system as a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. The class is broken into three ways of exploring this theme: artists intervening within existing systems; artists reinventing or creating their own systems; artists displacing or circulating material from one system to another. Together we will look at examples of artists practice which fall within these themes, visit related exhibitions, and host visiting artists. Throughout the class, students will make their own works or projects with these themes in mind.

  3 credits. May be repeated.

Contemporary Art Issues

• SE-401

  Contemporary Art Issues

  This seminar addresses issues essential to an understanding of contemporary aesthetic thought and critical practice as explored by artists and theoreticians. Integral to this discussion is an examination of the role of art in contemporary society, the changing concept of the avant-garde and the relationship of art to culture. The format of the seminar provides for required readings, oral and written reports, guest speakers and regular museum and gallery visits.

  2 credits. May be repeated once for Art History credit.

Science

• RS-201-G

  Science: Astronomy

  The course starts with how to measure things, such as units of time, length and mass. We introduce the celestial sphere, which will help us to understand such things as days as measured by the Sun and by a star. This will also help to understand seasons. We then introduce a short history of western astronomy. We look at the universe, starting at home (Earth and Moon) and move out---solar system (Sun and planets), stars, galaxies and cosmos. Along the way, we look at how we look (light and telescopes), and how we measure things (distance, brightness and color).

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• RS-201-H

  Science: Laws of Nature

  The course will look into the history and significance of major physicals laws, such as mass and energy conservation, Newton’s laws of motion, the laws of thermodynamics etc., and explore their applications in biological and environmental sciences. The topics covered in the course will include the origins and the physical basis of life; the mechanisms of heredity, genes and the DNA; the evolution of species; Earth’s systems and climate change.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• RS-201-I

  Science: Properties of Ceramic, Metals, and Glass

  In this course students will gain an understanding of the fundamental similarities and differences between ceramics, metals and glass. Through first exploring the crystalline unit structures of each material on a microscopic level, students will learn about the related material characteristics, working properties, and ultimately manufacturing techniques on a macroscopic level. Then we will focus on causes of degradation of each material with particular attention to pollution, the life cycle of the materials, and the resulting chemical reactions from the inorganic materials and the interactions with their environments. Project based work will serve as a focal learning tool with independent research and weekly in class hands on work and discussions. Students will recreate, observe, and document degradation properties through accelerated aging of metals. Sustainability, sustainable development, and our mindsets towards changing our behaviors in favor of lower environmental impact choices will be a continual thread throughout the semester. Students will evaluate a carbon calculator at the beginning and at the end of the class, and will work on an independent assignment where they will explore material production, use, atomic structure, degradation mechanisms, how the climate crisis threatens our cultural heritage, and experimentation of artists materials as a driving force for technological advancements.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

Studio Electives

• FA-281

  Project in Sound Art

  This class will introduce strategies for understanding and participating in the aural world. The course is divided into specific weekly topics including acoustic ecology, radio transmission, and others. Screenings, readings, and discussion are supported by hands-on workshops in capturing, manipulating, and reproducing sound in unconventional ways. Grading is based on student projects and participation in class discussions.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• FA-290

  Performance I

  This course is an introductory course to performance based track. This is an immersive course in the foundations for practice in performance. Through a wide range of methods and specific techniques this course focuses on a critical engagement with concepts such as time, movement as a language, voice and vocalization, script and score, narrative, event, audience, live experience, duration, body as a tool, interaction, context, documentation. The course will address varied approaches within the field, as well as their historical and current manifestations through lectures and attending performances. Exposure to critical theory and major philosophical arguments central to performance-based practices will be explored, along with development of individual and collaborative studio work. The class aims at giving the student techniques, language, and a range of positions for developing art based performance work. This is an assignment driven class.

  3 credits. May not be repeated.

• FA-301

  Teaching as Collaborative Social Practice

  As a practicum, this course invites students to actively explore the evolving role of the artist engaged in teaching as an art practice. The aim is to support the undergraduate who is currently teaching or who has an interest in teaching in The Saturday Program. In this course, we will explore questions such as: What is [un]learning? What constitutes community? To what extent is teaching an art practice? To what extent is art itself, pedagogical? How is knowledge produced through art? How does art and art-making prompt us to build ecosystems between these emergent bits of knowledge? Introductions to an interdisciplinary set of readings, artists, collectives and institutions that hold varied approaches to the notion of community, learning, social discourse and positionality will also be essential to the class. This course is not designed as an overview or survey. This class is designed as an opportunity for collective inquiry and play. Weekly sessions will include short lectures, collaborative activities, and discussions.

  3 credits. May be repeated.

• FA-313

  Art of the Book

  In this course the book will be explored as an interdisciplinary medium, placing emphasis on integrating and experimenting with form, content, structure and ideas. During the first half of the semester, students will make a number of books, examining sequence, series and text/image relationships, using various book structures. These “sketches” will prepare students for an extended book project during the second half of the term.

  3 credits. May be repeated.

• FA-326

  Interactive Design Concepts: AI + Data Play

  An exploration of the nature of interactive design and how it informs and transforms experience. Information structures, navigational issues, design strategies and social implications of interactive experiences using traditional as well as electronic media will be examined.

  Fall 2025, FA-326-1, Interactive Design Concepts - AI+ Data Play, R Yurewitch: Over the course of the semester, students will learn how data influences how AI functions and apply the basics of game design to explore, design & prototype solutions for the issues they collectively wish to address at the intersection of contemporary culture & digital media. The goal of the class is to dive into our ideas and biases surrounding technology and humanity and create something meaningful through it. The key takeaways from this interdisciplinary course are cultivating an understanding of the AI & Data, system biases, human-centered design process and game design. Students will develop systems thinking skills and the ability to work collaboratively in an interdisciplinary environment, challenge and solve problems that they encounter. Also, learn the practice creating by iteration and explore different prototyping and testing methods within aesthetics, engineering and structural design.

  3 credits.

• FA-327

  Computational Studio: Digital Fabrication

  This course provides a comprehensive introduction to digital fabrication and is designed to augment existing practices through access to new tools, materials, and concepts for art production. Students will learn fundamental skills and will utilize a variety of digital fabrication methods including 3D printing, laser cutting, and CNC machining, along with software & capture methods such as: Rhino 3D and 3D scanning. In the first half of the course, students will learn fundamental digital fabrication skills through technical demos and technique-oriented projects. In the second half of the course, students will develop a body of work utilizing these tools. We will move between computer classrooms, the AACE lab, and individual studios to explore topics such as built environments, sculptural methods, and medium specificity. As background, we will explore the history of digital fabrication, and ask critical questions about its relevance and impact on creative industries and society more broadly.

  3 credits. May be repeated.

• FA-384

  Projects

  Students work independently on self-initiated projects under the guidance of professors and visiting artists.

  Fall 2025, FA-384-1A, Projects, D Adams

  Fall 2025, FA-384-1B, Projects: Black secret Technology, f harrington:

  This course explores the intersections of contemporary art, sonic technologies, performance, and the social responsibility of science, with a critical focus on the ethical dimensions of empiricism, genetic surveillance, and histories of quantification. We will examine how 19th-century systems of knowledge—emerging alongside industrial capitalism—produced categories of difference through accounting mechanisms that determined what counted as material reality. These theoretical assumptions continue to shape human biomonitoring and genetic sampling, where the bodies of workers have served as chemical sensing devices for polluted environments and sites of extraction. The metabolic entanglement of human populations with their surroundings reveals how biotechnologies function not only as tools of environmental assessment but also as mechanisms of control and surveillance under the guise of objectivity.

  Against these structures, we ask: What are the moral and political implications of these empirical systems? How do plantocratic logics persist within contemporary scientific and technological frameworks? Can the racializing assumptions embedded in these methodologies be interrupted by a poetics of science? Black Secret Technology, an album by A Guy Called Gerald, offers one possible counterpoint—a coded system of knowledge that, like alchemy, demands processes of decoding and distillation. This course embraces interdisciplinarity by thinking across the natural sciences, technoscience, media geologies, Black Studies, aesthetics, and bioethics. We will engage with the works of Moor Mother, Butch Morris (“Conduction”), Aki Sasamoto, mayfield brooks, and artists employing DNA and biotechnical processes. Readings will include texts by Ramon Amaro, Katherine McKittrick, Stuart Hall, Lorraine Daston, Jussi Parikka, and others.

  The course includes weekly project exercises, class discussions and a culminating project that invites students to develop an artistic practice or work informed by these ideas.

  Fall 2025, FA-384-1D, Projects: Exhibitions: Design and Practice, J Kuronen and M Caron:

  This practical studio course will design and produce exhibitions. We will explore critical theory and histories only to the extent that they enable this practice. The function and habits of the contemporary museum and its supporting partner, the commercial gallery, are under tremendous critical and social pressure. Vital interventions by artists into the appearance and function of these institutions have proved to be explosively important to what art can and could do. The course proposes that architectural space, catalogs, signage, and archives are opportunities for the public presentation of artistic invention. Students will be encouraged to approach public display beyond the containment of single practices, authors, or disciplines. Transfigured by formal arrangement, the conditions of an exhibition's ability to address consciousness, community, education, and social reality will be our subject. Students will use the exhibition spaces, archives, and histories of the Cooper Union as well as sites and contexts beyond campus, when possible.

  3 credits. May be repeated.

• FA-395

  Advanced Performance

  Advanced classes aim to deepen the practice of the student technically as well as conceptually, while bringing up current debates and questions in performance. Advanced Performance classes are offered according to themes devised by each individual instructor. Students are encouraged to develop semiautonomous ways of working over the course of the semester, this includes supervised, independent or collaborative projects. This course will afford students the opportunity to build a coherent body of work.

  3 credits. May be repeated.

• FA-399

  Special Topics

  This class will center around a specific topic in art. Emphasis will be on the students' work in relation to the topic. The specific topic will cover a range of ideas, methods, strategies, and installation of work related to the topic. Work will be discussed in group critiques and individual studio visits. The class will include readings, discussions, visitors, and class trips to exhibitions that pertain to the topic of the class.

  Fall 2025, FA-399-1, Special Topics: Institutional Therapy, F Backstrom: Do institutions need therapy? Yes, they probably do. This class explores the concept of institutional therapy in relation to art making through field trips, visitors, discussions, presentations, readings, class critiques, and a collaborative assignment. We will approach institutional therapy as a creative, nonhierarchical practice for transforming systems within institutions in order to generate change from within. Originally a term used in alternative psychiatry, we will consider its use in relation to broader societal institutions that have developed throughout history, as well as the art system. This class will ask questions such as: Which institutions are in need of remediation and what might an art practice that can do that look like? How does institutional therapy compare to institutional critique as an art practice? Can art ‘heal’ or even shift systemic issues, and if so how could desire be an important component of that practice?

  3 credits. May be repeated.

Techniques

• TE-216

  Calligraphy

  Geometry, optical balance and the stoke of the broad-edge pen are primary influences that shape the Roman alphabet. Students learn the fundamentals of “beautiful writing” through the study of historical models and the principals that are the basis of classical and modern letter forms. Exercises in ink train the hand kinaesthetically to write letters with graceful movement. Exercises in pencil train the eye to see and analyze the subtle geometry and skeletal “ideal” form of letters. Precise rhythm in letterspacing and careful line-spacing create the color and texture of the page. The class will have an emphasis on page design involving hand written compositions. Roman and Italic capitals and small letters will be the focus of first semester students.

  2 credits. May not be repeated.

• TE-217

  Painting Techniques and Materials

  This course provides training in the safe handling of painting materials, contemporary applications and techniques in oil- and acrylic-based media. Practices in color mixing, color matching, glazing, uses of supplementary media, creating textures, effects, surfaces and customizing paint from dry pigments will be covered through instructor lead demonstrations and assignments. Students will receive hands-on practice with various techniques by producing original works. In addition, students will be introduced to the origins, history and contemporary evolution of paint as a material. Relevant examples will be presented through various media and field visits.

  2 credits. May not be repeated.

• TE-372

  Steel Metalworking: Techniques and Materials

  This is a process-intensive course exploring various methods of steel forming and fabrication across a broad range of methods. A diverse range of Metalworking tools will be introduced to give students the capability of forming steel through forging, blacksmithing, gas and arc welding, and machine tooling. The material’s properties and transformation will be discussed in relationship to histories of use - both in art making and as an industrial material, expanding studio practices in concordance with the wider curriculum, and the broader field of fabrication now used in much contemporary art and design.

  2 credits. May not be repeated.

• TE-390

  Casting Techniques

  Casting Techniques is a process intensive course covering the methods of translating a wax positive into bronze or other non-ferrous metals. All associated techniques from beginning a plaster or rubber mold to casting, chasing, finishing and patination of metal sculptures will be covered. Students will explore a variety of approaches to casting, as well as engage in discussions involving the history of bronze casting, and its place in contemporary art.

  2 credits. May not be repeated.