Workshops

The Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) has a two stage enrolment process in 2021. In stage one, you will enrol via Enrolment Online into our courses for semesters one and two. Please check stage one is complete before proceeding. In stage two, you will select your semester 2 classes for  Workshop and  ART: History+Theory+Cultures via a preferencing process system.

This page will assist you with stage two of the enrolment process. Here you will find a list of potential semester 2 Workshop classes. (Note: There is a separate page for Fine Art Studio classes and a separate page for ART: History+Theory+Cultures classes.)

You will only take one Workshop class in semester 2, but you need to list two (2) preferences. These workshops will be for both first and second year students and will be offered under the following course codes:

Workshop 2 VART 3650 (1st year students)
Workshop 4 VART 3652 (2nd year students)

These are the course codes you enrolled into in stage one of the process.

Read the list below carefully and select two (2) Workshop classes you would be happy to take. The 2021 preferencing process will be communicated to you by email at a later date. Remember, these Workshop classes are 12 credit point courses and will require 3 contact hours per week plus associated learner directed hours.

Please find link to the course guide VART3650 or VART3652.

Please find the ballot forms here:

Workshops

Balloting closes at 4pm (AEST) on Friday 4^th June.

The ballot is NOT based on a ‘first in best dressed’ process – you have until the closing time to submit the form, which you can only submit ONCE. If you miss the preferencing deadline (Friday 4^th June), you will be able to allocate (or re-allocate) yourself to a class when myTimetable opens for allocation/adjustment between 7^th July and 26^th July, subject to availability.

Late preferences will not be possible - do not ask to be allocated manually.

IMPORTANT PLEASE NOTE: You must not repeat any class in your preference lists. Every effort will be made to place you in your first preference classes. Although we would like to offer all of the Workshop options below, classes are subject to viability and may not run if numbers are too low.

Course Information

Offering Studio & Studio Lead

What is sound? How do we feel and sense it? And in what ways can we creatively work with it in our visual arts practice?

In this course we will listen for answers in the different kinds of sonic practice used in visual art, performance and installation. We will experiment with sound and make sound works using our voice, found instruments together with field recordings, microphones and speakers that are available for loan. We will start to unpack various approaches to composition, sound design, performance, site responsive practices, and most importantly the practice of listening.

Whether you’re into sound already or have no idea at all about its possibilities, this course is for you!

https://art.rmit.edu.au/david-chesworth-saac

In this course you will develop practical skills across a range of processes and materials commonly used in sculptural practice in the bronze foundry. You will be introduced to methods and materials involved in lost wax casting in order to make small bronze works. This method involves the completion of a series of steps from wax modelling, plaster and sand investments, melting and pouring bronze, finishing and patination. You will undertake these steps in sequence and as a group and this will require hands-on attendance at all classes. The course is mainly practical but with appropriate tutorial presentations covering theoretical and relevant historical background.

In this course you will explore the physical properties of a range of metals and processes used in small scale casting. Processes covered will include lost wax, Mould making for multiples and metal alloying. You will experiment with creating metal alloys and consider how these alloys give colour. These processes will be used to develop strategies for the integration of cast objects into the building of new object forms and jewellery. This course will assist you to develop conceptual, perceptual, formal and aesthetic concerns related to the casting of small metal objects.

In this course you will be introduced to local and global ideas examining intersections of visual cultures and drawing practices. Linking theory to practice this course will develop your formal and conceptual understanding of drawing from the personal to the digital. You will be encouraged to reflect on this as a primary point of investigation within international contemporary art practices. The objectives of this course are to understand how knowledge and making are linked through ways of seeing and thinking, to investigate pictorial languages and approaches to communication through the making of creative works, and, to relate critical concepts, texts and practices to your studio production.

In this course offers you will be provided a structured drawing program in all facets; techniques, refinement of general drawing skills, approaches to seeing, thinking and perception. It encompasses life drawing and general drawing including aspects of the figure, perspective, pictorial composition and the investigation of self and personal vision. You will produce a folio of resolved drawings with a support folio of studies and research material that are relevant to a range of areas of study. You will examine formal conventions of drawing, historical contexts and its capacity to communicate expressively across a range of media.

In this workshop you will explore the world around you to discover ideas leading to concepts of abstraction. You will investigate the material nature of abstraction, by exploring established and experimental materials. You will locate and document a vast collection of existing abstract surfaces, patterns, colours, stains, architectural features, marks, texts, signs, symbols, gestures, and grids. You will investigate natural and urban sites and use photography, drawing, frottage (textural rubbings) and painting to record and research stimuli and materials that you will reinterpret into mixed media, paintings, drawings, prints, objects, photo works, installations or other media. A series of projects will lead to individual investigation of abstraction and resolved works based on your extensive research. You will explore ideas of abstraction and processes with a focus on chance, composition, balance, matter, colour, surface, and materiality. You will contribute to a collaborative Instagram site. Intensive studio experimentation will be encouraged, group tutorials and student presentations will be essential to the development of the research undertaken by participants in this workshop class.

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In this course, you will investigate the place of the miniature in relation to your work. You will experiment with different methodologies and explore how to create small scale work. You will research examples of historical and contemporary miniature objects to focus on the power of the miniature object to transport the viewer into an alternate space through the consideration of scale within the larger world.  The exploratory nature of this course will extend your material and process knowledge (and tool use) that responds to the miniature and your studio practice. Carving, sawing and construction methods will be will be some of the techniques demonstrated. To parallel and inform studio production, you will explore a conceptual and experimental approach to the miniature through collage and assemblage processes.

In this advanced painting workshop, you will gain knowledge and experience in established and experimental painting techniques, skills and concepts. You will experience a wide range of materials and production processes to create artworks relating to painting with an emphasis on experimentation, conceptual development and studio research. The course is structured through demonstrations & technical experimentation followed by generalised thematic projects and advanced individual self-directed projects. The technical experiments enable you to produce works that complement your own studio practice. Ideas include: the preparation and use of supports and grounds for a variety of painting methods including oil, acrylic and water colour, working from observation, colour and grisaille, tonal painting, the contemporary portrait and still-life, under-painting and glazing. Major contemporary themes include the relationship of painting to photography, hybrid painting, painting deconstruction and painting and materiality. Individual and group tutorials, discussion and feedback sessions, studio demonstrations and studio health and safety complement this painting workshop

This course will introduce you to screen-printing processes and technologies that focus on photographic and text based printing. The objectives of the course are to provide you with the skills and knowledge to: produce photographic screen-prints; reflect upon the role of photographic screen-printing in contemporary art; and expand the aesthetic and conceptual possibilities of your art practice.

In this course you will develop moulding skills and explore the mould as a basis of experimental alteration in order to develop and evolve unique objects. Conceptual, perceptual, formal and aesthetic concerns will be addressed as they relate to object making and assist you to develop an individual approach to ceramic object forming using moulding processes.

In this workshop you will explore how aspects of low, pop and everyday culture can inform a contemporary art practice and offer new ways of considering critique and making. What is meant by the definitions of trash, kitsch, and pop? and what kind of cultural hierarchies and histories do they represent? Through a range of themed projects, you will investigate strategies such as appropriation, montage, assemblage and remix, to question cultural forms, hierarchies and value systems and explore the vast and complex terrain of pop and trash culture. Lectures, collaborative workshops, technical demonstrations and individual studio work complement this course.

In this course you will explore ways in which contemporary print processes can inform traditional print production and vice versa. Sourced materials/imagery, photographs, historical references and hand drawings will be mediated through Photoshop or collage. You will generate conceptually and visually coherent working drawings, collages and proofs which will, in turn, inform the production of original prints that utilise the reduction linocut processes. Notions of appropriation, quotation, recycling and hybridity will be embedded into explorations of the unique possibilities offered by various print generations. You will also investigate the ongoing dialogues between historical and contemporary methods of print production.

This course focuses on the possibilities of making soft sculpture within a contemporary art framework. Students will undertake a series of short workshops which introduce a variety of conceptual and technical skills including basic pattern making, working with scale, hand and machine sewing, armature construction and the use of ready-mades. These skills will be contextualised by the works of a range of artists from Louise Bourgeois and Yayoi Kusama to Australian artists Brooke Andrew and Kate Just. Students will develop their own works using a range of pliable materials and are expected to develop new experimental approaches and definitions in the production of soft sculpture.

Clay is an irresistible material with endless making potential. This subject is a playful and explorative approach to clay in its many forms: liquid, plastic, hard and fired. Students will be guided through series of projects asking the material: What if? This subject has the potential of creating alternative or unimagined outcomes.