This is the first of four studio courses you will take during this 2-year design program. As we begin, consider everything you read, write, make and present from this point forward as additions to a new body of work that will manifest as your thesis.
Rather than assignments, prompts will be used throughout this course. By definition, prompts move you to act and/or assist through the suggestion of cues. Try to engage with each prompt as the development of new methods, skills, and interests. All of your courses will help you engage in an iterative process to help jumpstart and connect your new works in unpredictable ways.
Design Studio is the primary locus for researching, sketching, and developing visual work. Readings, precedents and class discussion will inform a greater understanding of established design structures; independent studio work and critiques will develop your creative response to those structures. Class meetings will consist of primarily three activities: (1) presentation and discussion of relevant works, or precedents, of design, art and media, (2) presentation and discussion of class members’ work at various stages of development, (3) independent sessions.
As a class, we will create a group agreement that addresses respect and etiquette in the classroom. Students will be responsible for maintaining this standard throughout the semester. Rutgers is very lucky to have a representative group of students with different backgrounds and cultures. With this comes varying amounts of privilege and awareness, so it is important that we practice patience and empathy in the classroom. We must all continuously learn, be open to criticism, develop a consciousness about these discrepancies, and actively seek equity and allyship in the classroom and beyond.
View Fall 2019 Design Studio 1's group agreement
Making leads to making. Rather than thinking of three distinct projects, consider the cues below as ways to push your body of work down unexpected paths. Free association and rapid iteration is encouraged. The terms below will situate your work, but it is up to you to push the constraints of what the output could be. Rather than presenting distinct design methodologies, this course will provide an opportunity for you to create your own model of working. Throughout this process, you’ll need varied mechanical and technological means to execute your projects, but these will be context-specific and workshops and tutorials will be implemented as needed.
Concurrent with and supporting your studio work, you will start to create your Research Index, a repository for all your research both within and outside of design. This evolving document catalogs your research throughout the MFA in Design program to actively support the development of your thesis and to feed your design practice beyond graduation. In this class, you’ll begin to develop the taxonomy for the Index and to populate it with: research on your realm of interest; research on the social, cultural, economic and technological issues related to your realm of interest; design and art precedents; annotations for the above items.
As you begin to create your index, consider how this might become a self-documenting system. How does this differ when the subject changes? For example, I am self-documenting; a book is self-documenting; a city is self-documenting... On one hand, this could be a form of automation that builds notations around your movements. If part of a larger system, you may have little control of this representation. Finally, it could highlight process rather than the final form.
In this course, we will consider every activity in the class as a design project. In this way, you will need to consider novel and compelling ways of presenting your final projects and works in process.
Each project will include a selection of readings and references that will be assigned on a weekly basis. You will be required to write a response, to be completed by midnight before class. These responses will be reviewed and discussed but not graded. Your writing will contribute to your Research Index. For class readings and google-docs for reading responses, please see the class site.
— Define interest area(s) in response to supplied prompts
— Create distinct self-initiated works exploring indicated design tools and methods
— Articulate connections among works in informal writings and class discussions
— Demonstrate ability to examine and describe own and others’ creative work;
— Demonstrate ability to experiment conceptually and formally in pursuit of design objectives;
— Demonstrate ability to use familiar and new design tools, materials and methods as dictated; by specific projects and goals;
— Demonstrate ability to investigate and analyze existing and new interest areas for creative work
Each meeting will include one or more of the following:
The various endeavors of the course will demonstrate your abilities in the areas below. You’ll be evaluated for demonstrated growth over the semester in your ability to: examine and describe own and others’ creative work; experiment conceptually and formally in pursuit of design objectives; use familiar and new design tools, materials and methods dictated by individual projects; investigate and analyze existing and new interest areas for creative work.
Grades will be assigned according to the rubric below and will factor into the course grade as follows:
— P1: List, + presentation (25%)
— P2: Package, with documented process + presentation (25%)
— P3: Site, with documented process + presentation (25%)
— Research Index (15%)
— Class attendance, reading discussion, and participation in class critiques (10%)
At the end of the semester, you'll send me an archive of your projects in the form of written descriptions and documentation. View instructions
Greyory Blake, greyory.blake@rutgers.edu
There is a range of services offered through Rutgers Office of Disability Services, including Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS), career services, and classroom accessibility. Please visit ods.rutgers.edu for more information
Rutgers University welcomes students with disabilities into all of the University's educational programs. In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, a student with a disability must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation: ods.rutgers.edu/students/documentation-guidelines. If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus’s disability services office will provide you with a Letter of Accommodations. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. To begin this process, please complete the Registration form on the ODS web site at: ods.rutgers.edu/students/registration-form.
Principles of academic integrity require that every Rutgers University student:
— properly acknowledge and cite all use of the ideas, results, or words of others.
— properly acknowledge all contributors to a given piece of work.
— make sure that all work submitted as his or her own in a course or other academic activity is produced without the aid of unsanctioned materials or unsanctioned collaboration.
— obtain all data or results by ethical means and report them accurately without suppressing any results inconsistent with his or her interpretation or conclusions
— treat all other students in an ethical manner, respecting their integrity and right to pursue their educational goals without interference. This requires that a student neither facilitate academic dishonesty by others nor obstruct their academic progress.
— uphold the canons of the ethical or professional code of the profession for which he or she is preparing.
Adherence to these principles is necessary in order to insure that:
— everyone is given proper credit for his or her ideas, words, results, and other scholarly accomplishments.
— all student work is fairly evaluated and no student has an inappropriate advantage over others.
— the academic and ethical development of all students is fostered.
— the reputation of the University for integrity in its teaching, research, and scholarship is maintained and enhanced.
Failure to uphold these principles of academic integrity threatens both the reputation of the University and the value of the degrees awarded to its students. Every member of the University community therefore bears a responsibility for ensuring that the highest standards of academic integrity are upheld.