SAMPLES OF FOUNDATIONS-LEVEL STUDENT WORK

Class: Space (100-level sculpture)
Assignment: Metamorphosis in the Round
Media: Carved Polystyrene Foam and Acrylic Paint

The students were asked to create a sculpture about any relationship that they have been in with another person (family, co-worker, friend, romantic, etc.) and to depict the dynamic of that relationship without using the human figure.

Class: Space (100-level sculpture)
Assignment: Metamorphosis in the Round
Media: Carved Polystyrene Foam, Acrylic Paint, Paper, and Steel Wire

Class: Space (100-level sculpture)
Assignment: Metamorphosis in the Round
Media: Carved Polystyrene Foam, Acrylic Paint, Paper, and Steel Wire

Class: Space (100-level sculpture)
Assignment: Metamorphosis in the Round
Media: Carved Polystyrene Foam, Acrylic Paint, and Tooth Picks.

Class: Space (100-level sculpture)
Assignment: Metamorphosis in the Round
Media: Carved Polystyrene Foam and Acrylic Paint

Class: Space (100-level sculpture)
Assignment: Metamorphosis in the Round
Media: Carved Polystyrene Foam, Acrylic Paint, and Steel Wire

Class: Space (100-level sculpture)
Assignment: Metamorphosis in the Round
Media: Carved Polystyrene Foam and Acrylic Paint

Class: Amalgam (100-level mixed-media)
Assignment: The Temple of Hot Air
Media: Plastic sheeting

Divided into groups of three, the students were first asked to lay out the core principles of a new religion that was devoted to a common interest of the group (which they had to discover). Then, informed by this interest, the group had to design and build an inflatable church for their new religion.

Class: Space (100-level sculpture)
Assignment: The Long and Arduous Journey Here
Media: Plywood and Acrylic Paint

Focusing on a previous challenge that they have faced, the students used the School of Art woodshop to create a playable metaphoric game that included a game board, three obtacles, a path, and a pawn.

Class: Experience (100-level new media)
Assignment: With Your Heart on Your Sleeve, Your Foot in Your Mouth, and Your Head in the Clouds
Media: Performance Art

Addressing a formative moment in their lives, the students were asked to generate a performance that incorporated three primary elements: a costume, a metaphoric action, and a site-specific location.

Class: Experience (100-level new media)
Assignment: With Your Heart on Your Sleeve, Your Foot in Your Mouth, and Your Head in the Clouds
Media: Performance Art

Class: Experience (100-level new media)
Assignment: Genre Pirates
Media: Video Art

I divided the class into teams of four and had them choose both a genre of film and a general conceptual theme from a matrix. The student groups collectively developed storyboards and shot footage taking visual and auditory cues from the film genre they chose, while creating a video artwork that addressed their theme. For the post-production stage (editing and scoring) the students all worked individually--which meant that there would be four different cuts of each project. This enabled students to better comprehend the significance of post-production, seeing how their classmates decision making differed from their own.

Class: Experience (100-level new media)
Assignment: Genre Pirates
Media: Video Art

Class: Surface (100-level painting)
Assignment: Constructing a Societal Space
Media: Acrylic Paint

Accruing "data" from a minimum of 10 other people, students were asked to process this information and then incorporate it into a non-objective painting. The "data" varied greatly. More straightforward student approaches might have included questionnaires about physical attributes such as height or eye color. One student had their participants provide photographs of themselves as a child, from which they gleaned various nondescript shapes and colors. Another student had their participants spit their favorite beverage onto a piece of paper so that she could trace the shape of the spittle and transfer that shape into the painting.

Class: Surface (100-level painting)
Assignment: Constructing a Societal Space
Media: Acrylic Paint

Class: Experience (100-level new media)
Assignment: Minced Words
Media: Sound Art

Choosing one sentence from a novel or text that they have read, the students recorded themselves reading that passage. Using a digital audio workstation to splice, layer, distort, and transform their voices they were challenged to create a non-narrative sound experience that would relay the tone of the underlying literary source using only their recorded voice.