ARTS4180 Senior Studio 1

Credit Hours: 3 semester hours
Prerequisites: Senior Status and with Instructor Permission

Course Description

Students will examine, in detail, a selected topic of the student’s specialty. A formal proposal is required. A major project reflecting a minimum of 100 hours of work must be completed.

Goals and Objectives

The goals of this course are as follows:

• To thoroughly examine a topic within the student’s subject area

• To produce a work that represents a culminating experience with the student’s subject area.

Students who complete this course will be able to:

• Present a body of work that is representative of their ability within their subject area

• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of their work

• Create a formal proposal identifying the goals and objectives of an extensive project

• Present and defend a project representing a culminating experience

Student Responsibilities

Grading and evaluation

Students will receive grades reflective of thorough research, technical execution and aesthetic considerations. Students will receive ongoing feedback on their work as a result of critiques throughout the term. Students will be expected to respond accordingly to critique with defense or adoption.

Grades will be assigned on the following criteria:

10% Project Proposal

20% Documentation and faculty meetings

60% Final project presentation

10% Project debriefing

Project proposal

You must provide a clearly defined project proposal that defines:

• The goals of the project

• The final form the project will take including specifics about dimensions, quantity, media and materials used, etc.

• How the goals and project will serve to prepare you for what will come after SSU

• Planned resources for research and inspiration

Documentation

You must provide a digital document of your final project that will be left with the university. For digital projects, a series of JPG files or a PDF should be relatively easy to create. For analog media, you should take digital images of your work in the various stages of production to be turned in on a USB drive at the final presentation. While documentation photographs will not be graded for photographic merit, you should make the best images possible. Remove or hide distractions that are not part of the project where it is reasonable.

Meetings

You are required to meet with me a minimum of 10 times during the semester. During each meeting, you should bring work in progress in a format that is most conducive to viewing and discussion. For digital work, this will mean pdf, jpg, or other format that does not require installation of supporting files. Other media will be on a project-by-project basis.

Final presentation

The final project presentation should represent a minimum of 100 hours of hands-on work time. You should bring the project to the furthest, reasonably possible conclusion. The final form of the project should be discussed and negotiated with the professor.

Debriefing

The project debriefing is a 1 to 2-page document that defines:

• The goals of the project

• Challenges the project presented

• How the project changed and evolved over the semester

• How the final project meets the stated goals

• What you learned from the project