Workshops are listed by date.

JUNE 30-JULY 4

IMAGE, SEQUENCE AND SERIES NATHAN LYONS

The workshop will explore narrative and non narrative visual structures. How the context of images can reinforce a comprehensive strategy in the development of one's own working methods will be investigated, as well as the development of project-based concerns that are to be presented in exhibition or book form. Participants should come prepared to shoot and make contact sheets on a daily basis.

Nathan Lyons, Founder and Director Emeritus of the Visual Studies Workshop, has curated and been included in numerous exhibitions over the past forty-five years. He is the author and editor of many books, including two sequences of his own photographic work, Notations in Passing and Riding First Class on the Titanic. He has recently had solo exhibitions at the Addison Museum of American Art, the George Eastman House, The Houston Center for Photography, the International Center for Photography and the Howard Greenberg Gallery in NYC. Lyons is currently working on a third book, entitled After 9/11, to be published in the Fall of this year.

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JUNE 30-JULY 4

PRINTED PRANKS AND PROTEST: ARTIST-ACTIVIST PUBLICATIONS MARSHALL WEBER

Artist/curator Marshall Weber opens his extensive archive of thirty years of innovative printed materials designed to provoke, disturb and disrupt the status quo to hands-on exploration. He provides a veritable feast of tasty tools and tactics for creative dissent of great interest to both artists working in printed matter and to activists trying to get the word out. Billboard manipulation, books, emails, forgeries, handouts, posters, public signage, simulacra, stickers, 'zines, and other forms of both creation and manipulation of printed material will be explored. Classroom presentations in numerous media will be accompanied by class and individual culturejamming projects.

Marshall Weber was a founder, in 1989, of Artists Television Access in San Francisco and of the Brooklyn Artists Alliance in 1999. As a curator, Weber designs national multi-site collaborations that bring together artists, social service organizations and the public to explore issues of social justice. He has organized projects concerning gentrification and housing rights ("Who's the Landlord?," San Francisco, New York, 1989-1991), penal reform ("Correcting Corrections," Wisconsin, 1994-1997) and is now directing "... even the birds were on fire ..." a tour of artworks by New York artists responding to the aftermath of 9/11. His work in book art, collage, poetry, performance/installation, and video focuses on creating intimate and tactile anti-spectacles as antidotes to the manipulative virtual spectacles of corporate culture. He is best known for his endurance performance work, including a solo recitation of the entire Bible in eighty hours.

JUNE 30-JULY 4

INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA USING DIRECTOR: HYPERTEXT TO VR CHRIS BURNETT 

Computer multimedia and hypermedia offer exciting possibilities as well as unsolved problems for cultural communication and art. Participants in this workshop will assess a range of multimedia authoring systems, their practical pros and cons, along with hands-on experience using the industry standard for multimedia production: Macromedia Director. The workshop covers the technical basics with an emphasis on handling text, image, sound and movie leading up to the new 3-d capabilities of version 8.5. Additionally, through informal presentations and discussions, we will probe the social history and critical issues behind multimedia technologies. This history includes encyclopedias, panoramic displays, mechanical memory, and the early visions of hypertext. The contemporary issues for discussion would range from the structure of "non-linear" narratives to the cultural status of computer games. The workshop will broaden the participants' knowledge of interactive multimedia and prepare the way for a critical understanding of virtual reality.

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Chris Burnett is the Director of the Visual Studies Workshop. His books and computer interactive works have been shown nationally and internationally in a variety of exhibitions realizing critical as well as aesthetic possibilities for computer generated artwork. Recent work, supported by a grant from Creative Capital, investigates how language can directly generate form in a virtual environment. His critical essays on photography and computer media have appeared in Afterimage. New Mexico Studies in the Fine Arts. Spot, U-Turn, Views, and Visual Resources Journal.

JUNE 30-JULY 4

MAKING MOVIES: METHODS AND MEANING IN FILM/VIDEO PRODUCTION RICH DELLA COSTA

The course is designed to give students a practical, hands-on experience with film and video production equipment. Each student will produce a short, simple video, shot on Hi 8 tape and edited to the SVHS format in the off-line edit suite. Students will also receive an introduction to Super 8 and 16mm film production with an emphasis on independent and experimental film. The course will cover pre-production (script writing, treatment writing, story-boards, shooting scripts, location scouting, shooting schedules), production (using analog and digital cameras, Super 8 and 16mm cameras, light meters, lighting design, location shoots, working with actors), and post-production (pace and rhythm in the edit, analog off-line editing, digital systems, cutting film). Examples of short films and videos from the Visual Studies Workshop archives will punctuate the course throughout the week, presenting a variety of film and video artists' styles and methods. Featured are the films of Bunuel, Dali, Man Ray, Maya Deren, Ken Jacobs, Ed Emshwiller, Stan Brackage, Michael Snow, Bill Viola, Gary Hill and many more. Equipment will be provided, but students are expected to bring Hi 8 and digital tapes with them to the workshop.

Rich Della Costa has taught film production at the Visual Studies Workshop since 1987 and currently is Media Center Coordinator there. He has been a film and video producer for twenty years, eleven of those years in Washington, DC producing training and recruitment films for the Peace Corps. He has lived in India and Guatemala and currently raises hay and chickens on the family farm outside of Rochester.

JULY 7-JULY 11

PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE KEITH JOHNSON

This workshop provides a one-week exploration into the Cultural Landscape. We will investigate the construct of landscape, from notions of the picturesque and the sublime to the sprawl and architecture of commerce, industry and leisure and how this shapes perceptions about environment and identity. We will look at the way humans mark and claim the land and how that shapes our view of nature. The subject is as much about human intervention as it is about place. Participants will select a specific area or topic for a self-directed project. You should be familiar with black & white photography, and be prepared to shoot miles of film. Some Hasselblad cameras will be on hand. This workshop will be a mix of daily shooting, field trips, making contact sheets, viewing work of other practitioners, a visit to the George Eastman House and critiques and discussions. The main goal for the week is to realize a high degree of foto-fun.

Keith Johnson received an MFA from RISD in 1975, where he studied with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. Johnson also spent a year at VSW including studies with Nathan Lyons. Ten years of teaching led to a move to the business side of the medium. He now supports his fine art making as New England District Sales Manager for Hasselblad, USA. He has shown, and is represented in collections, throughout the country. His current body of work is leading toward a book of his travels.

JULY 7-JULY 11

WEB PAGE DESIGN TRACY RUDZITIS

Designing an effective web page requires an investigation into the design and the display of visual information on the internet. How do interface and navigation effect accessibility to information? What does interactivity mean on the Web? What kind of new communities are being created? What are the current trends and issues in web design? This workshop will examine effective web sites and the tools needed to create them. It will cover the basics of HTML mark-up and the design of more complex page and site layouts that contain static graphics and images, animated graphics, Dynamic HTML and JavaScript. The goal will be to produce web pages that are low in bandwidth and display well on current browsers. Come prepared with ideas and examples of web sites you think work best. Bring text, stories, images (digitized or ready to scan), photos, an empty 100MB zip disk and a notebook to the class.

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Tracy Rudzitis has been working as a web developer and designer since the early days of the web. She has worked for Starwave, ABCNews.com, Real Networks, Microsoft, and on numerous advertising accounts as a site designer and developer. She currently teaches middle school and high school technology classes at an alternative public high school in Manhattan.

JULY 7-JULY 11

DIGITAL VIDEO KEITH McMANUS

This workshop is intended for video makers who have experience both in working with video and in using the computer. During the week-long workshop, participants will shoot and edit a short video film of their own design. The emphasis will be on using non-linear video editing software--Final Cut Pro on the Macintosh G4s--to create the final piece. Recording audio for digital video, types of microphones and their uses, techniques for shooting interviews and basic lighting for video will be discussed. Techniques for using digital video for the Web will be also be introduced. As the week progresses there will be an ongoing discussion of equipment and computers that participants might use for future projects. The class will be divided into smaller working groups, the size to be determined at workshop time. Each working group will shoot and edit a video to be screened at the final presentation on Friday afternoon.

Participants who own digital camcorders should bring them to class. A limited number of cameras will be supplied. The video format for this course will be miniDV or DVCAM. Workshop students will need to supply their own recording media.

W. Keith McManus has been producing documentary films since 1987. His first project, Mending Hearts. Living with AIDS, was for the PBS Television Network Keith was on the faculty of the RIT School of Photographic Arts and Sciences from 1989-1993 and 1997-2002. From 1993 to 1997 he was a photo editor on the editorial staff of U.S. News and World Report in Washington, D.C. Keith returned to Rochester in 1997 and rejoined the faculty of RIT. He is editor-at-large for the online magazine, Musarium, formerly Journal & and is currently completing a documentary about Spiritus Christi Church in Rochester.

JULY 7-JULY 11

THE BODY AND REPRESENTATION PIA CSERI-BRIONES

This seminar will focus on how the body is constructed and represented in the media, especially art which combines moving images, text and performance. We will investigate how the body is present in visual art and explore how the politics of representation have established and contested the body. Considering diverse theories we will discuss how the gaze may be affirmed, subverted, confounded, or refused. Our concerns will range across all forms of embodiment in visual art, including the body of the artist, the body of the viewer, and the body of the artwork in the wider culture. Participants will also undertake a self-exploration of how the body can be voiced, constructed and represented within textual or visual language.

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Pia Cseri-Briones is a film artist, curator and educator, whose alternative films explore documentary subjects within an experimental aesthetic and technique. Her films have been shown extensively in festivals and exhibitions in North America and in Europe.

JULY 14-JULY 18

LIGHT-THE LIFE OF PHOTOGRAPHY! BRIAN OGLESBEE

Photographs are built with light--it is the most fundamentally dynamic aspect of photographic image-making. In this workshop, for mid-level and advanced students, we will explore concepts and techniques of lighting in photography. Learn to construct an image from idea through execution with light in mind and unlock the power of photography and it's unique ability to "illuminate." Students will work with guidance both in the Visual Studies Workshop studio (with electronic flash and related equipment) and outside to develop a deeper personal understanding of light and its use in developing their photographic vision.

Brian Oglesbee is an artist, teacher and studio photographer, as well as a designer of studio lighting and set-building equipment. Oglesbee's large-format photographs, elaborate and dramatically lit illusionist images created in the studio, are widely exhibited. A portfolio of his work was recently published by Spectrum Gallery, Lumiere Photo.

JULY 14-18

PHOTO-MONTAGE USING PHOTOSHOP GERI McCORMICK

This workshop will emphasize multiple techniques for compositing images in Photoshop. Layers, layer properties, selection techniques, and layer masks will be utilized in developing digital montages. We will also work with image adjustment and typographic techniques. A basic understanding of the Macintosh is necessary and an elementary understanding of Photoshop is helpful but not necessary. Participants will produce an extended project of their own choosing by the end of class. Please bring images, photos, digital photos or scans to class and 100 MB zip disks or blank CDs.

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Geri McCormick has taught desktop publishing, computer graphics and Photoshop classes since 1987. She currently works as a graphic designer at the Simon School at the University of Rochester and also designs book for Boa Editions, Ltd. McCormick has won awards from the University and College Designers Association and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education for her designs and photo-illustrations.

JULY 14-JULY 18

"PLAYING" THE IMAGE JILL GUSSO

"Playing" an image the way one plays a musical instrument, understanding it's possibilities, seeing what it can do and personalizing the expression, is the analogy that guides this workshop. Using old negatives and/or images made specifically for this workshop you will examine ways to heighten or change an image after the original exposure is made. Techniques such as cliche-verre, hand coloring and toning with different substances, collaging and sewing, printing and drawing on lith film, copy camera work and various other basic yet transformative processes will be explored. You will also be creating images with light sensitive material without the use of a camera negative, working from drawings, rubbings and found material. Working with images in this way helps to understand how the combination of material and action creates meaning and is as much about content as the image itself. Physically deconstructing and reconstructing a photograph tends to bring out ideas and attitudes that were not necessarily conscious during the initial exposure. This exploration is fun and intense when you come to understand that "handwork" is an act of powerful expression. The following materials are needed for the workshop: negatives, some drawing materials, tracing paper, sewing supplies, favorite brushes, found images and materials that are significant to you.

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Jill Gussow lives in Rochester where, for the past year, she has been working on a the concept of ritual and practice in the creation of art. Using primarily found material, she is creating "antidotal wands" and fabric constructions. She has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She was awarded a residency in photography by the Constance Saltonstal Foundation, Ithaca, NY in 1997 and a residency in Oaxaca, Mexico in June, 1999. Jill currently teaches painting and extended media at the University of Rochester.

JULY 14-JULY 18

ADVANCED SPACE FROM AN ELEMENTARY STANDPOINT JACK REES

Between Isaac Newton's ideas about the nature of space in a gravitational field (objects travel in curved lines in a Cartesian expanse) and Albert Einstein's ideas about space (objects travel in straight lines in curved space-time) is a world of thinking about the nature of space that is mostly unavailable to arts students. I am committed to altering this circumstance. I think it is possible (essential even) to convey very difficult geometrical ideas by appealing to the graphic sophistication of students in visual studies.

In this seminar, I will develop a schema of geometry that introduces students to basic scientific concepts (continuity, transformation, equivalence) and draws an arc connecting conventional ideas about space, depth and motion to possibly unfamiliar ideas about space as thick, layered and curved.

Jack Rees is an architect who specializes in designing architectural modifications to existing structures. He started his career in the textile design studio of Jack Lenor Larsen. He teaches courses in the history of science at the Kansas City Art Institute. He has projects under construction in Colorado, Michigan and Missouri.

JULY 21-JULY 25

NON-TRADITIONAL BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY AMANDA MEANS

Join Amanda Means to explore non-traditional methods of imagemaking. This class will enable students to develop their own personal ways of using black-and-white printing methods and materials. The elements of printing--negative, enlarger, lens, light, paper and chemistry--will be scrutinized with the idea of inventing new and potentially more expressive visual effects. For example, what happens when one places a real object inside the enlarger instead of a negative? Suppose paper is left in Dektol for two days instead of the more traditional two minutes. What kind of results will this yield? Students will experiment with the ultimate goal of forging photographs that are stronger and more personally expressive. This class is open to students who already have an understanding of traditional printing practices.

Amanda Means, photographer and master printer, is represented in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Amanda is an educator, lecturer and a contributing editor for BOMB Magazine. She is represented by Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York.

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JULY 21-JULY 25

BOOKWORKS: FROM MEANING TO STRUCTURE DOUGLAS BEUBE

This workshop will focus on bookworks as sequences of complex ideas that employ found and unusual materials in three dimensional objects. It is designed to challenge common assumptions about the book format and to offer participants an opportunity to make artists' books which incorporate collage, installation, mixed-media, painting, photography, sculpture and writing. By exploring a variety of alternative structures, the physical properties of the book and sequential relationships, participants will create paginated works that include imagery and text as well as sculptural objects which suggest the book as metaphor. Students are encouraged to be as exploratory and as inventive as possible. There will be daily individual assignments to work on in and outside of class. Bookworks will be discussed in group critiques at the beginning of each day and slide lectures will be presented throughout the week. Although, a couple of basic bookbinding techniques will be demonstrated, this class is not about traditional bookbinding. Previous bookmaking experience is helpful but not necessary.

Doug Beube is a visual artist who works with books, collage, installation, and photography. He curates a private collection of bookworks entitled, "The Book Under Pressure," which utilizes the book form as a sculptural object. The international collection of almost two hundred bookworks, for the collector Allan Chasanoff, is a rotating exhibition in the New York City area. Doug teaches classes in mixed-media artistis books and lectures at universities and arts programs. He exhibits both nationally and internationally, and his bookworks and photographs are in numerous private and public collections.

JULY 21-JULY 25

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY FRANK PETRONIO

Frank Petronio will guide students through the myriad of options for making images using digital cameras, scanners and inkjet printers. Working primarily with Adobe Photoshop software in the VSW Macintosh computer lab, this hands-on workshop will show you how to create high-quality, consistent and Archival inkjet prints from scanned film and popular under $1000 digital cameras. He will show artists how to document and organize their digital images; help photographers adapt their technique to incorporate digital technologies; and help people master their digicams and build their own digital darkroom.

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Participants should have basic Mac skills and photography experience. If you have equipment, bring it: digital cameras, laptop, inkjet printer and images to scan. We will be photographing for a period every day. We'll car-pool to local sites for our photography. A limited amount of inkjet media and inks will be provided, but be prepared to buy an additional ink cartridge and paper.

Frank Petronio has worked as a professional photographer and graphic designer for 18 years. He became involved with digital imaging in the late 1980s and pioneered the use of Iris printers to make large format fine art prints. He also operated a studio which created digital images for national advertising campaigns and some of the first websites. A graduate of the University of Oregon, Frank has taught workshops at the Center for Creative Imaging, the International Center for Photography and the Palm Beach Photo Workshops.

JULY 21-JULY 25

FORMING FEMINISMS: TEXT/IMAGE/OBJECT SARAH WEBB

In the thirty years since Linda Nochlin asked why have there been no great women artists, feminists have successfully sought to reverse traditional modes of art-historical thinking. This workshop is intended to renew the dialogue between artist and scholar, and thus promote a continued exploration of the work made by the woman artist. How are her notations, her works, recorded, valued, made visible, qualified, or erased? Class time will be divided between seminar discussions, slide lectures and studio production. We will work on a series of exercises concerned with different approaches to mark making in order to create a space for the convergence of authors' and artists' voices. Bring images, objects, writing and other materials you may wish to incorporate into your work.

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Sarah Webb is a nationally exhibiting artist working in installation and performance-based media. Her process-based work incorporates ephemeral traces of domesticity with feminist art practice. Webb is co-editor of the anthology, Singular Women: Writing the Artist, University of California Press, which investigates how the woman artist has been written in to and out of Art History. She has curated several national exhibitions of the work of women: Stories from Her and The Female Gaze: Women Look at Men. In addition to lecturing and teaching workshops, Webb is Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Rochester, Department of Art and Art History.

JULY 28-AUGUST 1

MAKING/MEANING JUDY NATAL

The principal objective of this intensive, hands-on workshop is to generate an ongoing dialogue based upon relationships between photographic process and content. We will go beyond the initial impulses of basic photography to clarify your own voice and personalize your own vision, broadening your vocabulary of visual imaging. We will map the origins and development of ideas, explore a diverse range of art making methods while expanding critical language through in-depth critiques, slide lectures, photographic assignments and supplementary readings. Prerequisites are a willingness to experiment, a desire to play, and a hankering to shake up preconceived notions about your art and photography. Open to participants with basic camera and darkroom skills.

Judy Natal received her MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She has exhibited and lectured on her work internationally, including the Sao Paolo Bienal in Brazil and the Museo Da [TM]Electrografia in Cuenca, Spain. Her current project, "Earthwords," was exhibited in 2002 at the Museum of Photography in Riverside, California. Judy has received numerous grants and, most recently, she has been an artist in residence at Joshua Tree National Park in California and at Light Work in Syracuse, New York. Her work is in many permanent collections including the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France and the Polaroid Collection, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

JULY 28-AUGUST 1

STRUCTURE OF THE VISUAL BOOK SCOTT MCCARNEY

The style and techniques of traditional binding are being closely considered by contemporary bookmakers resulting in new ideas and approaches to book structures. A book's binding is complimentary to the content, supportive conceptually as well as physically, not a mere convenience or afterthought. This workshop will introduce participants to basic techniques and materials of bookbinding with an emphasis on how the process informs the product. Simple pamphlet bindings utilizing unusual folds and inventive sewings provide an introduction to thematic variations on traditional forms. Multiple section bindings sewn directly into covers, onto concertina pleats and strap supports will extend ideas beyond the pamphlet. Participants will be encouraged to work with visual ideas as well as constructing blank books as models for reference. Slides and support materials emphasizing the use of structure by artists and binders in concert with visual ideas will be presented.

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Scott McCarney is an artist and designer whose artwork has found its form in books for over twenty years. His approach to binding integrates visual concepts with the physicality of the book. His one-of-a-kind, small editions, offset multiples, and installations incorporating print materials are exhibited and collected internationally

JULY 28-AUGUST 1

MAKING A DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOK DOUGLAS HOLLELEY

This workshop is designed for those photographers who already have a collection of images and who would like to further amplify and extend the expressive content of their work. From a conceptual standpoint, the workshop will address the particular ability of the book (through the juxtaposition of images and text) to clarify content and extend meaning, and subsequently present this as a coherent and self-contextualizing object.

All of the stages involved in book production will be addressed. Participants will apply principles of sequencing, and image and text editing, to create a working maquette. They will then learn how to assemble and print their photographic book using Adobe Photoshop and QuarkXPress. No prior knowledge of either QuarkXPress or Photoshop is necessary, however, you should have basic computer skills. More important is to have as many images as possible (and ideally some text) and the desire to present your work in a way that amplifies and clarifies your intentions, not just to others, but also to yourself. Participants may be asked to provide some paper and inkjet ink.

Douglas Holleley, a native of Sydney, Australia, completed his Ph.D, at the University of Sydney in 1997. His thesis, Luna Park: the Image of a Funfair, is an extensive book which examines a major amusement park in Sydney through historical research and photographs as well as the author's own images. Holleley works extensively with Macintosh computers and digital cameras and has completed a score of digitally-produced books combining photographs and text. He is the author and publisher of Digital Book Design and Publishing, a comprehensive textbook on computer bookmaking.

Visual Studies Workshop is supported, in part, by grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Andrea Frank Foundation, the JP Morgan Chase Arts and Cultural Program, the County of Monroe and by individual contributions.

The Visual Studies Workshop is an internationally recognized center for media studies:photography, visual books, film, video, digital imaging. Located in two historic buildings, comprising 44,000 feet of space in Rochester's museum and cultural district, VSW serves visual artists and the general public with diversified programming in education and exhibitions. Its publications include Afterimage, the journal of media arts and cultural criticism, and artists' books from VSW Press. Residencies, access programs, and internships make the facilities available for the production of artworks and for scholarly research in VSW's extensive archives and library. Educational programs include an MFA program in Visual Studies in association with SUNY College at Brockport, and evening and weekend workshops throughout the school year. More information at www.vsw.org