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The Text and Image Arts area teaches visual communication through graphic design, artists’ books, interactive Web, and multimedia while encouraging students to develop a personal voice. Beginning classes teach typography skills, various computer software programs, and a range of bookmaking strategies. At an intermediate level, classes focus on text and image integration, interactivity, and the creation of book and Web narratives. Advanced students work on more complex projects through critical analysis, instruction, and directed studies.
Our facilities include Mac and PC computer labs that are fully equipped with high resolution color monitors; the latest version of desktop publishing and Web publishing software; scanners; laser, thermal-wax, and large-format inkjet printers; and complete equipment for any type of hand bookbinding. Previous Course Offerings
Below are previous course offerings for the
Text & Image Arts area. Students must visit mySMFA to see current offerings and register. Students in the undergraduate, graduate, Studio, and
Post-Baccalaureate certificate programs may also take Continuing Education
courses for credit.
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| Pictograph and Symbol Drawing / TIA 1005 01 |
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| Pictographic symbols of animals and other natural subjects are as old as art history. In our time, the task of creating such symbols often falls to graphic designers. The ability to create pictographs and abstract symbols is one of the fundamental skills of the graphic designer, a skill that is not always covered in a specialized way by traditional drawing classes. This course functions as a drawing course in expressive abstraction with weekly drawing assignments during class. Many of the finest pictograph and symbol drawings-as diverse as Egyptian hieroglyphics and Inuit prints-were designed before the European convention of perceptual realism, or by artists not exposed to this tradition. The MFA is, of course, a treasure house of such art. Along with class work, this new course utilizes this extraordinary resource with additional weekly (nonclass time) Museum study and drawing assignments. These include drawing from such abstracted pictorial subjects as Japanese sword guard decoration and ancient Iranian seals. Students work in the class with traditional tools to create final pieces and/or work to be scanned for further development in Adobe Illustrator. |
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| Letterform Anatomy / TIA 1201 01 |
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| Develop an understanding of how the structure and expression of present-day typefaces, in all their variety, evolved. This workshop enables students who work with type on the Mac to do so with confidence. Students retrace the history of letterforms with the flat brush, Roman-carved letter, hand-carved reed pen, flexible steel pen, and modern drawing tools to understand how evolving writing technologies influenced the evolution of written and drawn letterforms. We study milestones in the history of type. As a final course assignment, students develop a concept for an original typeface design. Students acquire a basic comprehension of letterform construction and voice, and a logical theory of letterform evolution leading to computer type design. |
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| Illustration / TIA 1301 |
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| This intensive course in pictorial communication emphasizes idea and visual metaphor development, and the development of personal style through weekly homework assignments and in-class critiques. Slide lectures on idea generation, design and color theory, and the work of illustrators as well as painters and sculptors of interest to illustrators, are a regular part of the course. Class projects include theoretical assignments and the illustration of editorials, short stories, book jackets, posters, and a children's book. Students may also bring their personal projects to the course. |
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| Remade, Recycled, Reconfigured / TIA 1302 01 |
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| This mixed-media studio class will explore collage in its many potential configurations: as visual poetry, as conjunction/disjunction, as narrative, as social commentary, as recycling (a perfect vehicle for combining text, image, and object). Whether generated digitally in Photoshop, in a traditional studio space with glue, brushes, and paper, or some combination of the two, collage has endless applications and enduring fascination for today's artists. Workshops and assigned problems will expand collage options working with hands-on techniques, digital imaging, and myriad potential interfaces between the two. Generating and maintaining an active dialogue between the hand-made and the digital image/object will be key to this course. Slide lectures, books and catalogues, videos, plus a relevant field trip or visiting artist, will expose students to art historical antecedents as well as to exciting examples of contemporary collage, both digital and hand-made. |
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| Print Matters / TIA 1401 |
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| This intensive introduction to contemporary techniques of book publication ranges from electronic pre-press to offset printing. Students create images on the computer using Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator and Freehand. You will learn how to scan, work in various color spaces (RGB, CMYK, grayscale, duotone), and how to use the many tools available for refining, manipulating, and altering images. Projects may include postcards, posters, and small books. As a class, we will decide upon how we will spend our resources, either by buying printing services from local printers and/or working with other output options. We will look at work that uses the computer and offset printing as creative media within the context of artists' books and contemporary publications. |
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| Artist's Books: An Introduction / TIA 1402 01 |
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| An in-depth introduction to one-of-a-kind artists' books. This course is for artists of any discipline who want to work in the book format. Students learn many book structures, including portfolios pamphlets, multi-signature, concertinas, Coptic and clamshell boxes. We also explore a variety of image and text-making techniques. During open studio time students develop ideas and complete "a book a week," which may include edible books, altered books, books made of natural materials, visual books or books that tell stories. Field trips are planned to visit artist book collections, quirky libraries, and a bindery. |
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| Publish! / TIA 1403 01 |
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In the tradition of many activist artists we will infiltrate the publishing industry with ads, personal narratives and artists' books. This class begins by introducing students to the basics of publication design and progresses into helping students develop a personal voice using the medium. Various short assignments will help students learn technical skills in, image/text relationship on a page, sequencing of the pages, and designing for the offset press. We will discuss various strategies on how to use found text, personal text, rewriting old text, editing, photographing and illustrating. Artists who photograph, paint, or draw, and who are interested in adding text to their work are encouraged to join us. Students are encouraged to concurrently enroll in Print Matters offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays and/or a Photo I course.
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| Flash Bang Boom / TIA 1505 01 |
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Media theorist Lev Manovich claims we are living in "Generation Flash". Low bandwidth Internet connections created a demand for lightweight
vector graphics software spurring a new aesthetic sensibility. Flash is an authoring environment that allows artists to weave together traditional linear animation, user interactivity, object-oriented programming and multimedia (video, sound, etc) blurring the lines between art, design and computer programming. In this class we introduce the fundamental principles of Flash animation and basic Action Script. Readings and discussions will address issues of interactivity, identity, temporal typography, open vs. closed narrative, collaboration and game design. Attendance and completion of weekly assignments is crucial. Prior computer experience is required.
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| art.net / TIA 1506 |
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| art.net is an introduction to making art on the internet. The course emphasizes the development of a creative and critical artistic practice along with the mastery of software such as basic HTML and Dreamweaver. Class discussions will engage students in the theoretical/critical discourse around new media. Students will be required to complete several small projects along with a longer web narrative. Performance is evaluated on class participation (readings, critiques, and attendance) and the successful completion of assignments and a self-initiated final project. Basic Photoshop is recommended. |
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| Sign, Symbols & Logos / TIA 2001 01 |
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The meaning of a sign is something collective. Each one of us has acquired a set of conventions, as early as our childhood. Graphic structures rely upon conventions like this to form meanings. This class will re-think the process of creating signs in a social sense. In the first project students will design a pictogram to communicate an idea. The project will later expand into designing more similar symbols in a matrix. We will then explore corporate logos and study the history and development of some of the logos and advertisements. Students will be encouraged to design responses within an activists spirit. The final part of the class will study patriotic symbols such as flags, national symbols and war graphics.
Intermediate level graphic design students who have had some computer experience and want to learn more about using applications to produce design work should take this class. demos will include Freehand and Photoshop. |
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| chART / TIA 2002 |
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| This course explores charts, diagrams and maps as a mode of conceptual artistic expression. We will go beyond the traditional information design aspect of these tools and experiment by making charts to show whatever "data" we choose, whether it be real, imagined or implied. Particular emphasis is placed on how we can use this vehicle to reveal hidden truths, comment on social or natural patterns, validate our own theories, tell non-linear or multi-linear narratives, and explain processes or phenomena. Although the computer offers us the most flexibility in this multimedia discipline, students whose interests lie in other areas (such as photography, drawing or sound art) are encouraged to bring an information design angle to their favorite medium. |
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| Art from Ephemera / TIA 2005 |
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In this multi-media studio class we will explore the distribution of images and text through network systems, creating art from ephemera in the form of hand-made mail art, as mass-produced printed material, and in digital format as e-mail art and blogs. Students will be introduced to strategies of visual communication traditionally associated with Dada, Fluxus, and Mail Art movements, initially looking at a range of artists from Marcel Duchamp to Henrik Drescher. Our investigation will progress towards more recent approaches to these strategies that utilize digital technology and the Internet, both as a broadcast medium (one to many), as well as a system that enables new forms of emergent content (many to many). In this way, we will consider the medium of the Internet from both aesthetic and conceptual perspectives. Students will have the opportunity to develop their personal voice through several short individual assignments. We will pay particular attention to the interface of art and technology, as well as contemporary theory around access, public and social spaces, interaction, audience, and community during class critiques, slide lectures, readings, films, and special presentations.
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| Absence of Body: Performance in Digital Media / TIA 2006 01 |
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| In this studio course, students will explore conceptual ideas surrounding identity, ethics and social community structures intertwined with the technology of the Internet by developing web-based performances. Students will explore web-based communities such as Second Life, Blogs, iVisit, other text-based means of group communication, and look at how the Internet has become a primary site of interaction within certain groups. Second Life and iVisit software will be taught to students allowing them to produce solo and group performances within the virtual space. They will also learn how to alter digital images in Photoshop for the web to use in still image performances on personal ads and Blogs. The course will provide students with a cross-disciplinary approach to both performance and digital media and look at the combination of these mediums by other artists. Work within class as well as outside of it will be required of students to fulfill assignment requirements. 24-hour access to the TIA advanced lab will be given to students to work on their projects. Readings will be assigned to students based on class topics. The course will end with students presenting final projects based on the knowledge and skills they have learned from the course. Prerequisites of art.net or equivalent experience working on the net and a beginning level performance class are required. |
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| Intermediate Graphic Design / TIA 2066 01 |
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This course, for students intending to enter the professional graphic design field, presents the subject as the art of designing for clients. The course operates as a small professional, free-lance design studio, with realistic graphic design assignments, and actual design projects, when available. Students will build their portfolios by following professional design procedure and business practice, learning how sound professional practice facilitates successful design. The course will include field trips to design studios. Portfolio presentation, and prospecting for free-lance work and studio employment will be discussed. Prerequisites: A beginning graphic design, or Mac-based TIA course, and comfortable Mac operating skills.
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| History of Artist's Books / TIA 2102 01 |
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| Book artist and scholar Johanna Drucker states in The Century of Artists' Books, "Books have demonstrated their capacity to play a flexible role in more forms of artistic thought than any other single medium or genre." We examine, decade by decade, the multitude of guises in which the artists' book has presented itself-from the finely printed and bound livres d'artists of the early 1900s to potent, innovative, contemporary book-related works that successfully embrace painting, printmaking, photography, graphic arts, sculpture, digital arts, papermaking, etc. Through slides, videotapes, field trips, "book reports," and visiting artists we'll explore the journey of the artists' book over the last one hundred years. We'll also touch on the history of writing, printing, and bookbinding. You will work on a semester-long visual project related to book arts. |
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| Digital Bookworks / TIA 2401 |
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| In this course we focus on all aspects of digital bookmaking. In addition to concept, sequence, and content ideas, we discuss graphic design and the use of type, illustration, and photography. Discussions will include historic as well as contemporary approaches to artists' and photography books. Technical emphasis is on learning how to publish books using Macintosh computers and readily available digital output options such as Epson inkjet printers. We cover scanning, correct file format and resolution, as well as the preparation of InDesign documents optimized for printing. Various bookbinding approaches are explored including accordion, sewn, and hardbound. We will make field trips to local libraries and binderys. |
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| Artist's Books: A Hybrid / TIA 2402 01 |
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| This intermediate-level course provides an opportunity to continue and elaborate on the structures and processes explored in Artists' Books: An Introduction. Emphasis is on the pursuit and completion of individual book projects that focus on developing a distinct, personal voice through the use of nontraditional book formats and materials. Participants are encouraged to integrate and cross-pollinate their book work with material covered in other areas of study. Content, sequencing, craft, and the use of appropriate media and form in relation to subject matter are stressed. Classes consist of demonstrations, slides, studio time for generating imagery, discussions of works in progress, field trips and/or visiting artists. Prerequisites: Artists' Books: An Introduction. |
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| Fanzine: Digital Books with Passion and Looks / TIA 2403 |
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The modern day zine in alternative bookstores across the country with their slick covers, color printing, tight binding, and sharp design have come a long way from their humble origins. The word "zine" evolved not from the word "magazine," but from the word "fanzine," a term that dates back to the science fiction fanzines of the '30s and '40s. Today, the fanzine can take almost any form, from explanations and diagrams of how to get into restricted access areas such as closed subway tunnels(to Dishwasher Pete's zine "Dishwasher" where he uses his transient life as an excuse to write and tell his stories to those people who want to hear.
This class will be an in depth study of technical skills including Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Illustrator, scanning, digital output, and bookbinding techniques. Final projects may take many forms: from a Xeroxed pamphlet to the traditionally bound fine art object. This class will focus on story telling and developing a personal voice in art work designed for public distribution.
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| TIA Directed Study / TIA 3702 01 |
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| For students fluent in technical skills related to book arts, graphic design, web art and who wish to develop a self-generated project. Students will meet with faculty individually and three times as a group. Participants are expected to evolve their ciritcal practice, expand their ideas and complete work by the end of the semester. Faculty signature is required to enroll in this class. |
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| Core TIA Seminar: The Written Word in Contemporary Art / TIA 4020 |
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This beginning level course will introduce you to contemporary artists (starting with the early modernists) who use text in their work. The aim of the course is to help you position your own artistic voice and use of text within the context of contemporary word-based art.
Through slide presentations, readings and videos we will examine the relationship of text and image in a book format, a gallery space, public space and in virtual space. We will discuss the ideology in the work, the narrative strategies and the various methodologies. We will examine the influence of popular and commercial culture in the fine arts and examine the works of graphic designers who work in both realms.
Students will be asked to talk about their own work in relationship to some of the artists we will discuss: Ed Ruscha, Glenn Ligon, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, the Guerrilla Girls, Chris Ware, Xu Bing, Sophie Calle, FutureFarmers... Regular attendance and participation in class discussions is required. Painters, photographers, sculptors, printmakers, animators and performance artists using text are encouraged to take this course. |
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| Text and Image Arts Directed Study / TIA 4098 02 |
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| Students may opt to register for an independent studio period which represents work done outside of class during the academic year. Independent Studio periods should be linked to a course for which you are registered. Students may enroll in up to one block of independent studio per term, and must be registered as a full time studio student. A faculty signature is not required in order to register for the course. If you take more than one independent studio, it must be linked directly to a course and a signature is then required. |
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| Type as Image / TIA 4201 01 |
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| This workshop is designed for artists from various disciplines who use text in their work. We will explore the use of type in art making and challenge you to look at typography as mark making. Slide lectures will be part of the workshop, and you will work on project assignments and several short ideas. Themes to be explored include type in the vernacular, historical development of typographic styles, architectural type, type and the body, and type as sound. Project assignments will provide a structure for your approach to typography and text-based artwork. The computer will be our primary tool, but not the only one. You will be encouraged to work with self-generated expressive text and use calligraphy, photography, drawing, painting, and any special skills you have developed as an artist. Class demonstrationss will include Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Freehand, and Fontographer. This workshop is a beginning-level typography class for students at various levels of their education. Some previous experience with the computer is necessary. |
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| Urban Politics of Type / TIA 4310 01 |
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| The city is a living medium of communication. When typography joins this flow, the outcome is a language with visual and semantic wealth. In this intermediate-level course, we will use the city as our source of inspiration to create new typographic forms. From billboards to tickets to books to electronic displays, every extent of typography that contributes to the urban environment will be our subject. We will discuss their formal design criteria, relationships, and organization. We also will examine type in its social context and see how it communicates, examining the past forms as well as the contemporary trends. Through design problems that you will determine individually, we will experiment with type and widen its boundaries in search of creative possibilities. Students are expected to be familiar with the basics of typography and the use of vector-based software. Class demonstrations will include Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Freehand, and Fontographer. |
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| Table of Contents / TIA 4401 01 |
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Emphasizing history, theory, and meaning rather than the craft of artists' books, this class is partly hands-on and mostly critiques. We produce collaborative and individual books on specific themes determined by the instructor and the class members, learn about sequencing (how pages influence each other and impact on a viewer/reader's comprehension of the book work), pacing, and word-image relationships. We go over simple bookbinding methods, including a session on paper mechanics (pop-up structures), but the emphasis will be on how the format enhances the concept. Readings, field trips, books from the instructor's extensive collection, slides, and visiting artists augment the class.
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