Prerequisite: Graduate standing in a School of Architecture program.

Specifically for new Landscape Architecture students, but because of anticipated low enrollment, also open to graduate students in Architecture and Planning Programs under a variety of course numbers including Independent Study (see Rosemin Gopaul for possible numbers that might fit your own plan worked out with your Graduate Adviser). With relatively small numbers I am very willing to tailor assignments to meet individual needs. Please contact me and tell me what you think you need, or want out of the course.

OVERVIEW

This is a studio course without written examinations but with extensive exercises in drawing both freehand, mechanical, and computer, along with photography as a tool of analysis and composition. The goal is to enable mature students, who are skilled in thinking and expressing themselves in words, to reupholster their minds and think visually. Think graphically, in pictures, and contemplate and interact with your own creations as perceived, imagined, and as revealed through your own action of making marks on paper and study the meaning of their relationships whether obvious, ambiguous, or subliminal. It may be a "new-to-you" kind of vocabulary, semantics, syntax, morphology, and text.

Thus the first "communication" is with thyself and then later it is through this graphic language, a "telling" to others hopefully eliciting a response and dialogue. It requires the acquisition of some skill in controlling the hand or "eye-hand-mind coordination". This will come with practice, confidence building achievements, and discussions with peers and instructors, even friends and relatives, although the latter group may be the hardest to reach. Then it is Joy of Design Drawing Time - pure delight in seeing images flow out of your fingertips.

Because you all come with different life experiences the Instructor will, with your help and as the semester proceeds, try to identify each individual's needs and address them through specifically tailored exercises. continued

SHORT OUTLINE with 18 - SUBDIVISIONS

(each topic will be briefly discussed by instructor and accompanied by in-class exercises for the students)

Note: Only one of many authors per heading is referenced here, and headings are not the titles of their books.

Communications in General - Ruesch & Kees - Sounds, Body Language, Pictographs, Ideogram, Writing, Codes, Animation, Telegraph, Telephone, Radio, Film, TV, Microwave, Radar, Sonar, Digital, etc.; games: "Pictionary", "Charades".

History of writing - Robinson - Chinese, Roman, Duerer, Haiku, Arial, Prose, Outline.

Perception - Arnheim - Visual Illusions, Figure/Ground, Hierarchy, Proxemics, Yourself and Senses as Reference for Size, Shape, Feel, Taste, Sound, Time, Distance, etc.

Different Ways - Tufte - Illustrating concepts in a variety of formal languages.

Thinking Visually - Arnheim - How do we do it? Blind Contour Drawing, Body Parts, Faces, Objects, Spaces, Buildings, Plants.

Meaning - Oldenburg - Shape, Action, Change, Shape, Action, Change, etc.; Chinese Puzzle: "Tangram".

Rhythm and Harmony - Alexander - Kinetic, Repetitive Stroking, natural and geometric patterns; Computer: reiteration; "kerning"; "splining"; "Photoshop painting", etc..

Depth & Tonal Studies - Adams (see in HRC) - B & W Landscape Photo Repro and analysis; "Chiaroscuro".

Physiography - Hunt - Geomorphology, Landforms, Aerial Photos, Landscape History, The Plan Oblique Tradition of Egypt, Persia, Renaissance, Contemporary, Ground Section Oblique, Slopes, Patterns, Textures, Grain, Watershed, Meander, North Slope.

Open Air Drawing - Rembrant - Blind & Freehand Perspective Drawing of Landscape and Space on Campus.

Mid-term Pin-up and Review with Design Work - Ching - Design the Presentation.

Site and Program analysis - Lynch, Pena, McHarg, Tufte - Layering, Organizing, Ordering, Communicating Information and Ideas.

Cultural Landscape Color - Van Gogh, Albers - Impressionists, What Color Is This Place? Landscape & Building Colors, Color Proportions, Harmonies, Depth, Vibration, etc..

Thanksgiving Holidays - Pocahontas - Eat, Rest, Travel, Photograph, Sketch, Notate.

Moment Study - Ching - Physical Model & Isometric Drawing.

Human Figure - Dreyfuss - Human & Animal Proportions, Action Figures, Scale Figures in Drawings.

Sequential Perspectives - Cullen - Yourself as measure, Depiction of one's movement through a series of populated spaces.

Presentation Design - Solomon; Pelli - Well-Ordered & Creative Graphic Communications; Incisive Key Words, Logically Organized Oral Presentation, What you say should be what we see.

Final Pin-up & Review

SKETCHBOOK/JOURNAL/JOB-RECORD/LOG/TIME-SHEET/or WHAT-EVER-YOU-WANT-TO-CALL-IT

way of keeping track of your experiences and ideas, timing activities including natural cyclical systems; establishing your own filing and retrieval system(s): look at computer, library, animal/plant classification systems. My own files are American standard paper size (8 1/2 x 11") in manila folders filed alphabetically by last names or key words. Some other file drawers are wholly devoted to a single topic or place, as are some flat files for large drawings. I have many rolled up maps, drawings, and posters but find this very unsatisfactory in terms of efficient use of space, not quickly retrievable, and will not lie flat when unrolled. They should be in flat files.

GRADING

Beginning Fall 2005, graduate students (only) may have the extra indication of the value of their work by having "pluses and minuses" attached to their letter grades as per instructor's judgment.

As in the past "A" is an indication of outstanding work and progress; "B" is very good work and progress and the level expected for good standing in the Graduate School (see Graduate School Catalog); "C" hours, although passing, must be off-set by "A" hours to maintain "good standing"; "D" or "F" is failing and no credit is earned, and they have an enormous negative effect your GPA. If you believe you cannot complete this course for any reason be sure to drop it by telling either Rosemin Gopaul or myself. Do not just disappear because a failing grade, as you already know, will follow you around forever. An "X" may be awarded upon consultation with instructor if there is a valid emergency that prevents you from completing a course, usually near the end of a semester. "X's" do not affect your GPA nor do they actually have to be completed, but they do affect your eligibility to be a T.A. (see Graduate School Catalog for exact details).

UNIVERSITY POLICIES

(see UT's General Catalog)

CLASS POLICY

A studio course by definition is "heuristic", that is, learning by doing. This is especially true in visual communications where you, yourself, must make the graphic product.

The act of drawing is the primary tool for seeing carefully, developing a keen perception or understanding of what you are looking at, delineating, creating similar images from your mind, and being able to make critical judgments of your own graphic work and that of others.

This takes concentration, as does any serious activity, such as writing and mathematics. Therefore, the studio environment must be one of quiet activity, without distractions, if we want to make progress.

We also work on similar projects in the same space with others, your peers, in order to learn together which is much faster and more productive than being in an isolated situation where you struggle alone trying to discover everything on your own.

Thus the main "class policy" I encourage is working in studio alongside others in a supportive quiet environment. Hopefully, most of the assignments can be completed during the class period. Extra practice, reading, looking for and collecting examples, reproducing images, doing required photography assignments, travel to and from field studies, computation (unless studio is equipped with suitable computers), etc., are to be accomplished outside of class time.

Looking forward to a great semester together.