Integrative Studio 2
The Elevator Pitch
Integrative Studio 2 is a unique experience in first year as it allows students time to develop, from an initial inquiry, an independent and very much self driven project. At the same time they are engaging in seminar research that allows students to understand its connection to a larger context as well as their role and influence as makers.
Official Course Description
From the Course Catalogue
Integrative Studio 2 builds on the exploratory skills introduced in Integrative Studio 1. This time a greater emphasis is placed on research as the tool for forming connections between studio and seminar. In the first half of the semester you will be given quick assignments to introduce a variety of studio based methods for generating questions, integrating research, and documenting discoveries in your art and design work. We focus on embracing failure and trial and error as core elements of the creative process. In the second half of the semester you will define and pursue your own research based project connected to seminar.
Once again, studio and seminar will come together through a series of bridge projects that highlight the components of the research process: inquiry, context, investigation, interpretation, argument, connections and reflection. Bridge projects are the basis of the collaborative relationship of ideas between the two courses. They ask you to engage with making as a form of thinking, and writing as a form of making, in order to explicitly and productively blur the boundaries between studio and seminar.
How One Instructor Describes This Course
“Integrative 2 encourages students to begin from a point of open curiosity to focus down on a particular topic, while still keeping in view the larger contexts in which their ideas, research and practice play out. Thoughout both semesters the methods and tools students learn as part of their seminar research practice are translated into studio practice and vice versa. For example, students learn to annotate both texts and drawings, or they may learn to edit and collage writing with a pair of scissors (IS1). In IS2 they negotiate primary and secondary sources in both textual form and by way of material objects. In its focus on independent research IS2 also engages to promote research practice as a skill the students can use moving forward, as well as gaining foundational skills in certain institutional practices such as writing proposals and making presentations.”
-Jen Mazza
The Uniqueness of Integrative 2
Like Integrative 1, the class is designed with key moments where students connect the content between the two classes, these are bridge moments specifically designed to provide students an expansive and interdisciplinary perspective allowing them to connect the relevance and importance between the multiplicity of types of research that artists + designers employ, as well as inventing new ones.
The examples below are just a sampling of project ideas. Visit the First Year Faculty Resources Site’s “Courses Folders” for the Integrative 2, Studio Faculty Guide for more examples
The Learning Portfolio & The First Year
Integrative 2 and the Learning Portfolio were made for one another. One of the main purposes of IS2 is teaching a variety of modalities and types of research (both primary and secondary). The LP is an excellent place for students to record and document their discoveries and findings, including secondary sources, materials investigations, prototyping and connections being made between Studio and Seminar.
*This online digital platform is encouraged and also used extensively across the entire First Year. In their classes, students learn what others think about their work, whereas the LP is the place they get to discover what they think about their work. It is an excellent platform enabling students to record making / thinking processes and reflection, evidencing growth and learning along with comprehension of learning outcomes.
Week by Week Layout and Project Examples
For Bridge 1, we focused on the kitchen, reflecting the design, habits, memory and history it evokes. 
We were asked to make a zine based on our experience in the kitchen, including text and images. 
The inspirations of this zine come from the coupon or advertisement that I get, and I saw my American friends put the coupon on their refrigerator. 
I want to create an advertisement where I can use on my friends, when I call their number and they can eat with me. Because, I think who I eat with is more important than what I eat. 
I use procreate to design all the little advertisement, I used the picture of my family and friends and the picture of the food that we ate together. 
I printed out the advertisements and find some Polaroid that I took before and is related to food. I brought some magnets because I want to make it like I’m decorating the surface of a refrigerator. Also I add a weekly shopping list and one of my favorite cookie recipe.
Yuchen He
Bridge 1: INQUIRY – Zine
Weeks 1-3
Using both memory, daily experience and observation students reflect on the space of the kitchen and the design, habits, memory and history it evokes, students will create a zine combining images with selections of your seminar texts.
Studio Resources include Martha Rosler’s Semiotics of the Kitchen, Eflux “The critical cooking show,” Haruki Murikami “The Year of Spaghetti.” and various online zine libraries
Jiayi Lin
*Click on images to expand; hover over image to stop slide advancement
Bridge 2: CONTEXT + INVESTIGATION — Gifts
Weeks 4 -6
As students work towards developing an original research question in Seminar, in studio they are encountering diverse materials; including visits to The Museum of the City of New York exhibit “Food in New York, Bigger than the Plate,” visiting artists, and other artworks and exhibitions. In response to these diverse materials they propose, prototype, make and document a creative work inspired by what they have encountered
Helen Wu
*Click on images to expand; hover over image to stop slide advancement
Bridge 3: INTERPRETATION + ARGUMENT
Weeks 7 – 11
As students work towards developing an original research question in Seminar, in studio they are encountering diverse materials; including visits to The Museum of the City of New York exhibit “Food in New York, Bigger than the Plate,” visiting artists, and other artworks and exhibitions. In response to these diverse materials they propose, prototype, make and document a creative work inspired by what they have encountered
Helen Wu
Bridge 4: CONNECTIONS — Essay Film
Weeks 12 – 14
Bridge 4 takes up the documentation of Bridge 3 and culminates in an essay film which uses their seminar essay as the script. The goal is to strategically juxtapose image, text, and sound to develop, extend or intervene in the narrative of the written essay in new ways.
Jiaohan (Joann) Lin
*Click on images to expand; hover over image to stop slide advancement
Bridge 5: REFLECTION + PRESENTATION
Weeks 14 – 15
The Bridge 5 in-class Self-Assessment asks students to respond to directed reflection questions on their growth over the course of the semester and through connections made between Seminar and Studio, especially in regard to research. Bridge 5 also involves presentation and reflection on Bridge 4 films.
What Students Take With Them When They Leave
“Both semesters of Integratives offer a unique experience to both learn about and incorporate traditional research practices into their skillset and tools to expand upon these practices, drawing clear links between research practice and studio practice. These courses also offer the space to make deep connections between studio work and verbal communication..”
-Jen Mazza