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ARTS 462

ARTS 462
Alternative Process

1. Catalog Entry

ARTS 462
Alternative Process

Credit hours (3)
Prerequisites: ARTS 362 or ARTS 363, with a grade of “C” or better.

This advanced photography course explores 19th century photographic printing processes through the contemporary use of the digital negative.  Mediums can include: cyanotype, van Dyke brown, gum bichromate, salted-paper, carbon, and platinum/palladium.

Note(s): May be taken multiple times for credit.
 
2. Detailed Description of Course

This course addresses historical, procedural and interdisciplinary connections from the beginnings of photography to the present. It is designed to be a marriage of 19th & 20th century science and handcraft with 21st century technologies and concepts. Students are exposed to the methods and the combinations of various chemicals used in the creation of light sensitive papers that can be used for photographic printing.

A modern approach of printing digital negatives from either analog or digital originals, prepared through image editing software, is used with these historical processes.  Students learn how to refine their process from negative printing, to emulsion preparation, to exposure options, to developing techniques.

3. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course

The course is conducted as an informal lecture with individual studio exercises. Assignments include creating developed bodies of work based on particular Alternative Processes, research journals, and written exercises.

Students are required to create small bodies of work with each alternative process as well as create a technical journal with multiple examples of each process. Graduate students are required to create larger bodies of work and explore the use of multiple processes together to create a cohesive body of work. For example, incorporating both cyanotype and Van Dyke layered together in a single print.
 

4. Goals and Objectives of the Course

Students will:
    1) Develop an understanding of historical and contemporary trends in alternative
       photographic processes through instructor lectures and student presentations.
    2) Acquire technical skills in a variety of alternative photographic processes through
       instructor demonstrations and individual student studio exercises.
    3) Gain experience in creating a body of work with a coherent theme utilizing a
       variety of processes such as pinhole, cyanotype, van Dyke brown, gum bichromate,
       salted-paper, carbon, and platinum/palladium printing.
    4) Learn to engage in verbal dialogues regarding the interpretation and evaluation of
       photographic works through written reports, group evaluations, discussions and
       creative critiques. Each student will gain experience in learning to analyze work
       orally in a clear, correct, coherent and persuasive language appropriate to art
       discourse.
 

5. Assessment Measures

Students will be assessed by class participation, written exercises, technical proficiency with regard to studio practice, a process notebook, and creative development in their work.

6. Other Course Information

May be taken multiple times for credit.

Review and Approval

March 27, 2012