ILLUS-3104  

VISIBLE CITIES

Faculty: Jean Blackburn

Course Level: Junior, Senior, 5th Year

3 CREDITS

CONCEPTS ELECTIVE REQUIREMENT: This course fulfills the additional concepts elective requirement for Illustration majors.

A society’s history is written in its stones. From the dystopia of Gotham City or Grand Theft Auto, the hive mind of the Borg and the ecstatic asceticism of the Shakers, to the suburban conformity of Levittown and the Sphinx half buried in sand, every city, every society, is an embodiment of ideas, history, geography, and beliefs. Each built environment has its own logic, both architectural and cultural. With some provocative writings about the phenomenon of the city as inspiration, you will be asked to conceptualize a place and bring it to life visually. The essence of a city – its buildings, pathways, public and private spaces – depends on how you define the character of its people, its government, its history, its geographic siting and even its language.

After defining a back-story in broad strokes, you will begin researching the implications of those choices visually. Working from thumbnails and sketches to finished conceptualization, students will explore compelling physical and conceptual viewpoints with a variety of possibilities in the use of media and technique. Rather than limiting ourselves to purely pragmatic architecture, the class will be searching for imaginative visualizations, where form becomes poetic metaphor suggestive of narrative.

Capacity: 15

Registration Restriction: Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. 

Semester Offered: Spring