Course Syllabus

Subject_Object Fall 2025

Course Overview

SUBJECT_OBJECT will explore the tectonic and poetic potential of materials to express the histories and futures of disparate found objects/ agents / environments by creating a new object through fabrication methodologies that are new, site specific and sustainable. Amplifying the latent sensory and emotional power of materiality will be the focus of the course.

Participants will choose a SUBJECT of Interest and explore this subject through study and possible connection of two disparate objects/agents/environments. The result will be a new OBJECT. The course will encourage research into sculptural fabrication techniques and will progress from documentation and ideation through design and detailing to fabrication of the newly found object. Connective fabrication typologies will be explored to express unexploited adjacencies and create a new unified form, based on the materials identified by each participant. The neuroaesthetic effects of material assemblies will
underpin all discussions.

The course will be designed as a combination of lectures, guest lectures and site visits that explore artistic and sculptural practices that highlight fabrication as a poetic and intellectual process. Each week we will discuss concepts and fabrication techniques through sculptural installations, their associated materials, and their properties. We will visit fabrication studios around the city to learn about multimodal fabrication possibilities including digital fabrication techniques. Students will be asked to present documentation of sites and objects chosen through writing, drawing, and detail studies, followed by a presentation of connective strategies considered along with examples of precedents. Design of the connective
tissue creating the newly found object, will be explored and discussed in drawings, including 2D and 3D detail drawings, models and prototypes. The fabrication process will be documented either as video or as a text. Exploring the logic of difference and unity through material connection, the resulting works will be assembled for exhibition.

Deliverables

• Documentation of sites and objects chosen
• Presentation of connective strategies considered along with examples of precedents.
• Design of new object
• 2D detail drawings
• 3D detail drawings
• Fabrication process documentation
• Class compiled book

Prerequisites

• Students enrolling in this course should be familiar with basic shop equipment and safety protocols.
• Students should complete any shop safety course prior to the first day of class.
• Students may be required to work in groups of 2.

SCHEDULE

Week 1: Friday, September 5th

No Class

Week 2: Friday, September 12th make up course
Discussion of Subjects of Interest and objects whose connection might serve as a new lens of expiration of the chosen Subject

Week 3: Friday, September 19th

Visit to Eventscape NYC

Week 4: Friday, September 26th
Discussion of development of concepts:
50-100 description of Subject of interest and methodology of exploration,
Identify precedents for Subjects of Interest and objects whose connection might serve as a new lens of expiration of the
chosen Subject
Continued class discussion

Week 5: Friday, October 3rd

Guest Lecture Luam Melake

Individual review of student projects

Week 6: Friday, October 10th
Guest Lecture Norman Teague
Individual review of student projects

Week 7: Friday, October 17th midterm
Pre-mid-term presentation of 3 dimensional studies/prototypes of connective Object
Scale of object to be established

Week 8: Friday, October 24th midterm
Deliverables: PDF file of concepts and sketches as well as hard copy
50-word concept of Subject explored through an object.
Precedents (min. two pages 11 x 17” format)
Sketches of new object in development (min two pages 11x 17” format)
Detail sketches (min. 1 page 11 x 17 format”)
Maquette/Prototypes

Week 9: Friday, October 31st
Continued development of Object from midterm review feedback

Site visit to Bednark Studios (TBC)

Week 10: Friday, November 7th
Continued development of Object
Updated physical object / prototypes/model
Site visit to CARA

Week 11: Friday, November 14th
Detail review and work session

Week 12: Friday, November 21st
Class combined assemblage
Construct review + work session

Last day of architecture classes Wednesday November 26th

Thanksgiving Break Wednesday, November 26 – Friday, November 28

Deliverables: PDF file of concepts and sketches as well as hard copy
50-word concept of Subject explored through an object.
Precedents (min. two pages 11 x 17” format)
Sketches of new object in development (min two pages 11x 17” format)
Detail sketches (min. 1 page 11 x 17 format”)
OBJECT
Exhibition prep and discussion

December 12th
Monday December 15th last work due

December 5th Final Review Week