60-432 Advanced SIS: Special Topic
10 units, Carnegie Mellon University
This studio course introduces students to the creative potential of engaging with natural history and botanical collections as a foundation for their artistic practice. The class centers on direct encounters with specimens, archives, and displays from neighboring institutions and museums, using these experiences to inspire research-driven projects that merge observation with experimentation. Through iterative assignments, students will investigate how methods of classification, collection, and display shape our understanding of the natural world, and how artistic practice can reimagine these systems through sculpture, installation, and digital processes. Emphasis is placed on experimentation with form, material, and narrative, encouraging students to critically consider how collections can be reframed, questioned, or transformed into alternative systems of meaning. Alongside project development, students will connect their own work to broader conversations about ecology, taxonomy, and representation, examining how collections embody cultural, historical, and environmental significance. The course integrates research, studio practice, and multiple site visits to collections off campus to build a framework for developing original works that reflect on the layered relationships between art, museums, and the natural world.
Prerequisites: none listed
Offered: Spring 2026
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