Sculpture, Digital Fabrication Students Display Art on Campus

Students enrolled in Sculpture I and Studies in Computer-Based Modeling and Digital Fabrication displayed their art around the Center for the Art’s public spaces Dec. 12-16.

Sculpture I, taught by Professor of Art Jeffrey Schiff, is an introduction to seeing, thinking and working in three dimensions. Throughout the semester, the class examined three-dimensional space, form, materials and the associations they elicit. Through the sculptural processes of casting, carving and construction in a variety of media, students developed and communicated a personal vision in response to class assignments. Projects included janitorial supplies hanging in suspension, plastic color shapes making a stain-glass window, electronic components and wires in a complex network, hanging funereal urns with flowers, large sewn mice, mirrored boxes covered with artificial turf, lint filling the air holes in the cement, and more.

Studies in Computer-Based Modeling, taught by Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Andrew Ruff, operates at the intersection of design and production, introducing students to digital tools critical to contemporary architecture and design. Throughout the semester, students developed a series of projects which fluidly transition between design, representation, and fabrication with an emphasis on understanding how conceptual design interfaces with material properties. The course offered a platform for students to research, experiment and ultimately leverage the potential of digital tools towards a wide array of fields and disciplines. Students used the new Digital Design Studio’s resources, including 3-D printers and a laser cutter, as well a selection of fabrication equipment housed in the school’s metal and wood shops in order to represent, model and realize a series of design projects.

For the exhibit, students created a beaded rope that was strung between Art Studio North and the Art Studio South courtyard, underneath the passageway between the music buildings, outside of the west-facing window of the World Music Hall, adjacent to the benches and trees on the west side of the Digital Design Studio, along the wall that separates the music building from the soccer field and in the grass field between the CFA Hall and the art workshops.