CCOG for ART 248A archive revision 201403

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Effective Term:
Summer 2014 through Summer 2021

Course Number:
ART 248A
Course Title:
Glass Casting
Credit Hours:
3
Lecture Hours:
0
Lecture/Lab Hours:
60
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Provides an introductory studio experience involving the mechanics and design concerns necessary to make molds for glass casting and then casting in glass. Included is an overview of related processes and techniques and concepts that address historical and contemporary issues. Students will use a variety of techniques to develop and implement creative problem solving. Critiques, discussion, and presentations establish basic critical skills necessary to evaluate glass crafting, explore artistic intent, examine structural solutions, and expand perceptual awareness. Includes demonstrations, lectures, slides and audiovisual materials. This is the first course in a three-course sequence exploring glass casting. Recommend: ART 117. Audit available.

Addendum to Course Description

All studio classes have recently petitioned to opt out of prerequisite requirements.

Intended Outcomes for the course

1. Make molds and glass casts.
2. Implement creative problem solving in glass casting.
3. Ask meaningful questions, identify ideas and issues, and develop a basic vocabulary so as to be able to actively participate in a critical dialogue about mold making and glass craft with others.
4. Identify ideas and issues and participate in critical dialogue in glass casting.
5. Experience and appreciate sculptural works from different cultures as they apply to glass casting, initiating an awareness of the diversity of perspectives on the human experience.
6. Develop, through the experience of making and studying glass casting, a heightened awareness of the physical world and of the ecological impact of art materials on the environment.

Course Activities and Design

Students will be assessed on the following: • Create molds in a range of complexity while demonstrating an understanding of the underlying logic in common with all mold design. • Work together demonstrating teamwork and concern for each other while being mindful of shared

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Competencies and Skills The successful student should be able to do the following: • Find resources for materials and tools used in glass casting. • Conduct research to develop ideas, perspectives, and influences from a variety of sources. • Employ a variety of strategies to solve problems encountered in the process of realizing an idea for a glass form. Students will be able to make models, sketches, maquettes, material tests, etc. • Use a variety of conceptual strategies to make molds and create glass castings. • Use the proper safety/health equipment and procedures in working in the studio. • Make interesting, challenging, appropriately crafted work. • Understand and apply basic vocabulary necessary to discuss the formal, conceptual, and technical aspects of these processes. • Analyze and enjoy the formal and perceptual concerns of glass. • Communicate with others on a variety of levels (i.e. formal, conceptual etc.) on the subject of glass. • Assess the ways in which art objects are affected by personal perspectives and experiences. • Make historical and cultural connections in determining meaning and understanding of art.These will be evaluated and assessed by work produced, critiques and individual and group review.

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

Concepts • Create visual ideas through experiencing and playing with materials, imagining, dreaming, visualizing, symbolizing, writing, reading, researching, studying historical and cultural examples, drawing, collaborating, scrutinizing, discussing) • Develop these ideas in glass through sketches, plans, maquettes, test pieces, models and finally casting glass objects • The relationship between Perception and Art • The relationship between Form and Content • Methodologies for interpreting art Historical and Cultural Contexts • Concepts, theories, and issues addressed by various cultures and historical periods. • Concepts, theories, and issues addressed by contemporary glass makers from different cultures. • Relationships between form and content in works of art from different cultures and historical periods. • The roles of art and artists in different cultures • Intercultural and "interhistorical" influences (e.g. the influence of historically important glass centers abroad on contemporary American glass art today.) Ceramic Forms and Perceptual Impact • Visual/physical elements used to create glass form: point, line, plane, shape, form, marks, texture, shadow, light, value, color, space, weight, volume, mass, text, etc. • Relationships of characteristics within visual/physical elements (e.g. proportion, length, thickness, position, orientation, scale, weight, interrelationship of shapes, relative value and color, movement and stillness, quality of texture, etc.) • Strategies for manipulating visual/physical elements as a means of formal composition and expression (e.g. arrange, juxtapose, relate, contrast, group, balance, unify, repeat, edit, elaborate, classify, divide, increase, decrease, maximize, minimize, dissect, separate, align, vary, diversify, alternate, reduce, connect, etc.) • The relationship between material and form and their visual/ physical impact (i.e. a hollow clear form imparts light and breath and movement as the viewers eyes move across the surface where as heavily saturated glass regardless of its form suggests imperviosity and stasis. Heavy texture on glass bounces the light around while a smooth surface draws the light into the form.) Materials and Techniques • Comprehensive understanding of plaster and its application to process. • Comprehensive understanding of the components and characteristics of investment materials. • Safety and hygiene in the studio. • Firing schedules, understanding ramps and soaks and the operations of the kilns and controllers. • Working comfortably both with clay and wax forming techniques. • Making flexible molds, mother molds in preparations for lost wax casting. Critical Analysis o Vocabulary relevant to ideas, materials, and techniques pertaining to glass casting and mold making. o Application, interpretation, and redefinition of glass casting ideas, connection of historical and cultural contexts, personal expression and creative freedom.