Fall 2025

(Please refer to the Schedule of Classes for a complete listing of courses and check Athena for course restrictions.)

ARST 4915/6915

Embodying the Selfie

Trombetta| Undergrads: CRN 57171| Grads: CRN 57171

In practice, taking a selfie is a gestural act through our bodies providing opportunities to connect with others by embodying our personal identity and physical lifeworld. This course examines an understanding of the selfie phenomenon as far more than a representational image, further generating progressive artistic development and creative conceptual growth. Students will research selfie culture and how the nature of self-portraiture, self-representation and self-stylization are rooted in the human condition. Selfie motivations and aesthetic experimentation will allow students to increase self-esteem and sensory awareness, fostering innovative and thoughtful explorations of materials and processes within one’s studio practice. Embodied collaborative reflection will cultivate a supportive studio environment activated by creative thinkers while encouraging freedom of thought, imagination and honest, open inquiry. Embodying the Selfie will allow students to reconfigure the meaning of their bodies, helping us challenge and understand human behavior within the ever-expanding field of art.

ARST 4915/6915

Artifacts of Performance

Shindelman | Undergrads: CRN 35501 | Grads: CRN 35502

“The body does not occupy space like an object or thing, but instead inhabits, animates, and even haunts space” - Maurice Merleau-Ponty

This semester will be creating artifacts of performance. This may be video, photographs or objects that act as remnants of performances.  This course will examine all aspects of performance except the live, public performance. It will focus specifically on work influenced by the body and action. We will begin with contemporary artists who utilize aspects of performance in their work, then look back at the Fluxus movement, and a history of performance art of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Techniques covered will be dependent on the students enrolled, but we may cover lighting, photographic documentation, video capture, and editing. 

ARST 4915/6915

AI Punk Lab: neural distortions, fractured algorithms and I/O chaos 

Oliveri | Undergrads: CRN 38789 | Grads: CRN 38942

The AI Punk  Lab is a hands-on, no-rules, high-voltage experiment in artificial intelligence—an underground space where technology meets rebellion. Inspired by the DIY ethos of punk rock culture, this lab is not about passively consuming AI but actively dismantling, repurposing, and misusing it in creative, disruptive ways.

What It’s About:

• Hacking the System – Learn how to tweak, jailbreak, and subvert AI tools beyond their intended use.

• AI as Protest – Use AI to challenge authority, disrupt algorithms of control, and expose biases in machine learning.

• Glitch Art & AI Creativity – Generate chaotic, raw, and rule-breaking AI art, music, and writing that rejects corporate polish.

• Automating Anarchy – Build bots, generate synthetic identities, and weaponize automation for creative mischief.

• Ghost in the Machine – Explore the philosophical side of AI—who really controls it, and what happens when the machine starts thinking for itself?

Why It’s Different:

Most AI labs focus on optimization, productivity, and corporate innovation. The AI Punk Rock Lab flips that on its head, treating AI as a tool of rebellion, a medium of self-expression, and a weapon against digital conformity. It’s about embracing the chaos, making noise, and challenging the idea that AI should only serve the interests of Big Tech.

This is not a polished, neatly structured course—it’s a raw, fast-paced, trial-and-error playground for those willing to push AI to its breaking point. If you’ve ever wanted to mess with the ghost in the machine, this is your space.