Press Releases

CCA Launches New Interaction Design Program

Posted on Tuesday, September 7, 2010, by Chris Bliss

Graduate Program in Interation Design chair Dr. Kristian Simsarian (left) cofounded IDEO's Software Experiences Practice

Who will create the future mobile experience, invent the next breakthrough in gaming, change the way we listen to music, and reinvent social networks? A new breed of specialists⎯interaction designers⎯who are taking technology and human interaction to the next level.

In fall 2011, California College of the Arts (CCA), an international leader in art and design education for more than a century, will launch a groundbreaking undergraduate program in this emerging field. “By designing tools, experiences, and products, interaction designers can have a tremendous impact on the world. CCA’s core institutional values of community engagement, innovation, and sustainability will infuse this new program and produce highly trained, socially aware designers with tremendous capacity for creativity,” commented Provost Mark Breitenberg. “Simply put, we’re looking for talented students who want to change the world.”

About the Interaction Design Program
CCA’s Interaction Design Program will prepare students to create meaningful and innovative designed experiences in the realms of work, lifestyle, and play—from computers and mobile devices to interactive physical spaces, games, and social networks.

By learning investigative research, systemic thinking, creative prototyping, and hands-on building, Interaction Design students will be prepared to succeed and lead in this exciting field. Students develop technical skills (wireframes, flows, visuals, motion) for interactive canvases such as mobile, desktop, car, game console, film, sculpture, clothes, and buildings. The possible applications extend to numerous industries, from business to entertainment, education, and health.

Program Leadership
Dr. Kristian Simsarian, cofounder of the Software Experiences Practice at IDEO and adjunct professor in CCA’s Graduate Program in Design, has been tapped to chair the new program. He commented, “Surprisingly, there is not yet a consistent source for talent in this field. CCA, with its interdisciplinary environment, impressive facilities, and great location at the hub of the digital world, is the ideal place to build a world-class interaction design program. I am thrilled to be leading this effort. My passion in education is to be a guide for students to create the future from their own insightful, well-informed, and personally inspired visions.”

Silicon Valley Connections
CCA’s Interaction Design Program was created with input from thinkers at Google, YouTube, Apple, Intel, Nokia, and IDEO. Such companies, as well as nonprofit organizations, will take part in vibrant exchanges with students through sponsored studios and other project-based courses. Students will also have internship opportunities, enabling them to gain professional work experience and contacts, and to define their individual pathways to their future careers.

For more information about CCA’s Interaction Design Program, visit www.cca.edu/interaction or call 800.447.1ART.

About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts is noted for the interdisciplinary and breadth of its programs. It offers studies in 20 undergraduate and seven graduate majors in the areas of fine arts, architecture, design, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of fine arts, and master of business administration degrees. With campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, CCA currently enrolls 1,800 full-time students. Noted alumni include the painters Nathan Oliveira and Raymond Saunders; the ceramicists Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos; the filmmaker Wayne Wang; the conceptual artists David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; and the designers Lucille Tenazas and Michael Vanderbyl. For more information about CCA, visit www.cca.edu.

Press Contacts:
Sarah Owens, 415.703.9549 or sowens@cca.edu
Brenda Tucker, 415.703.9548 or btucker@cca.edu

Categories: Faculty Featured Interaction Design Press Releases Undergraduate Admissions

Jennifer Stein Appointed Vice President for Operations

Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2010, by Chris Bliss

Jennifer Stein has been appointed to the newly created position of vice president for operations at California College of the Arts (CCA), it was announced today by CCA President Stephen Beal. She will be responsible for the supervision of collegewide operations, including facilities management, space planning, academic program resource development, and long-range operational planning. Currently she is vice president of academic planning and operations at the San Francisco Art Institute. Stein will begin at CCA on August 15.

Beal commented, “CCA has grown tremendously in the last 10 years, adding several new academic programs and increasing enrollment by nearly 500 students. We have expanded and improved facilities in both Oakland and San Francisco to accommodate the increase in students and faculty. We are now at a critical juncture where strategic leadership is needed to develop and implement initiatives that will help us meet the operational needs of our growing and evolving institution. Jennifer is the right person to lead this effort and will be a great addition to the management team. Her extensive experience in academic development and administration will no doubt serve CCA well. We are very fortunate to have her join our community at this time.”

Stein stated, “I am very pleased to join CCA. I have long admired and deeply value the institution’s commitment to creating the culture and conditions for making innovation a way of working. I feel uniquely matched to CCA’s ambitions for educational advancement and institutional growth, and I am eager to begin working with the senior management team, the academic leadership, and the staff. I look forward to the exciting challenges and opportunities of our collective work ahead.”

About Jennifer Stein
Jennifer Stein has been vice president of academic planning and operations at the San Francisco Art Institute since 2004, where, among her many responsibilities, she has led a campus master planning effort. Prior to her move to the West Coast she held a number of positions at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), including executive director and director of the graduate division, director of admissions, and associate director of graduate admissions. Under her leadership, SAIC’s graduate program came to be ranked first among visual arts institutions by US News & World Report, and enrollment increased by nearly 60 percent. Stein has extensive experience in new academic program development, having launched numerous programs from concept to implementation, assessment, and accreditation. She holds an MFA in painting from SAIC and a BFA from the University of Michigan. She currently resides in San Francisco.

Categories: Featured Press Releases

Architectural Association Global Visiting School and CCA Offer Biodynamic Structures Workshop July 12–21

Posted on Thursday, May 27, 2010, by Brenda Tucker

Xeromax Envelope by Future Cities Lab (Jason K Johnson and Nataly Gattegno)

C_Wall by Matsys (Andrew Kudless)

The Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA) San Francisco Global School: Biodynamic Structures is a 10-day intensive Global Visiting School workshop, hosted by California College of the Arts (CCA) from July 12–21, 2010, on CCA’s San Francisco campus.

Students in the course will explore active systems in nature, extracting logics of organization, geometry, structure, and mathematics. They will investigate biomimetic principles, then analyze, design, and fabricate prototypes that respond to electronic and environmental stimuli.

The course will be cotaught by AA and CCA faculty members and distinguished architects from around the world; it will also feature a dynamic roster of guest lecturers. Enrollment is open to the entire Bay Area community; to enroll, visit sanfrancisco.aaschool.ac.uk or mlab.cca.edu, the CCA MEDIAlab website.

Biodynamics is the study of the force and energy of dynamic processes on living organisms. Through simple mechanisms embedded within the material logic of natural systems, specific stimuli can activate particular responses.

Jason Kelly Johnson, CCA assistant professor and workshop leader, says, “The CCA/AA collaboration emerged out of a mutual interest in pushing the boundaries of architecture through cutting-edge technology and inventive design research. The workshop this year will focus on extracting design principles from biological systems and applying them to real-world design problems.”

Andrew Kudless, also a CCA assistant professor and workshop leader, adds, “The Biodynamic Structures workshop is an incredible opportunity for participants to work one-on-one with some of the most innovative and experimental architects and educators in the world. It will bring together designers from around the globe for intensive workshops, lectures, and hands-on training.”

Faculty
Michael Weinstock (academic head and director of the Emergent Technologies Programme, Architectural Association, London), Christina Doumpioti, Evan Greenberg (tutors, Architectural Association Emergent Technologies Programme); Jason Kelly Johnson, Andrew Kudless (CCA MEDIAlab cocoordinators); George Jeronimidis (director of Center for Biomimetics, University of Reading UK); Andrew Payne (LIFT Architects, Harvard University); Daniel Segraves(ASGG Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, Chicago); and Daniel Piker (Kangaroo Project Live Physics, London)

About CCA Architecture
CCA’s Architecture programs take place on the San Francisco campus—the hub for design innovation and experimental architecture in the Bay Area—and currently have an enrollment of 250 students. The five-year Bachelor of Architecture Program was established in 1986, and the Master of Architecture Program was launched in 2004. Both programs are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB).

Most recently the CCA Architecture Program placed third overall in the 2009 Solar Decathlon, competing with Santa Clara University as Team California. The team placed first in the Design category and second in Engineering.

Public Contacts (and to enroll):
sanfrancisco.aaschool.ac.uk
mlab.cca.edu

Press Contacts:
Sarah Owens, 415.703.9549 or sowens@cca.edu
Brenda Tucker, 415.703.9548 or btucker@cca.edu

Categories: Architecture Faculty Featured Press Releases

Cinthia Wen Appointed Chair of Graphic Design Program

Posted on Thursday, May 27, 2010, by Chris Bliss

Cinthia Wen has been appointed chair of the Graphic Design Program at California College of the Arts (CCA), it was announced today by Provost Mark Breitenberg.

"After conducting an extensive national search, we are very pleased that Cinthia Wen will be our new chair,” stated Breitenberg. “She brings an exciting and compelling vision for the future of graphic design at CCA.

“A dedicated educator who also maintains a thriving practice, she represents exactly the kind of balance we were looking for. She has served as interim chair for the past three years, and has proven to be a talented and effective administrator.”

Wen commented, “I am honored to have this opportunity to serve the college and lead the program to its brightest possible future as an integral part of contemporary culture—current, informed, and participatory. My involvement in the culture of the Graphic Design Program and CCA has grown deeper over the past several years. I now feel that I am more than just a product of my education at CCA⎯I am a true part of the community.”

About Cinthia Wen
CCA alumna Cinthia Wen has taught at the college since 1997. She is the founder and creative director of Noon, a San Francisco design firm specializing in corporate branding and programs for arts, education, and cultural institutions. Recent work includes projects with Bocadillos, Girl Scouts of the USA, Nokia, Restoration Hardware, ODC San Francisco, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Wen was named one of the “People to Watch” by Graphic Design USA in 2004. She has received many awards and honors from such organizations as the West Coast Art Director’s Club and the Type Director’s Club. Her work has been published in Graphis, Communication Arts, Creative UK, Print, How, and Step.

In addition, her work was included in the retrospective exhibition California College of the Arts: 100 Years at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2007 and in the San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design exhibition San Francisco Graphic Design in 2009.

About CCA’s Graphic Design Program
The Graphic Design Program is one of the college’s largest undergraduate programs, with more than 185 students currently enrolled. Founded in 1941 by noted designer and illustrator Wolfgang Lederer, the program has enjoyed a rich history and highly regarded reputation. Lederer and former faculty member Walter Landor were driving forces of the California design movement, which hit its stride in the 1980s and early 1990s with faculty and alumni such as Michael Vanderbyl, Michael Cronan, and Lucille Tenazas. Current faculty members Vanderbyl, Doug Akagi, Jennifer Morla, and Martin Venezky have had a significant impact on contemporary American graphic arts.

CCA Graphic Design Program alumni work for some of the country's leading firms and in many cases have established notable practices of their own. Prominent alumni include Erik Adigard, Andre Andreev and Dan Covert, Lawrence Azerrad, Giorgio Baravalle, Heidi Berg, Patrick Coyne, Gaby Brink, Carlo Flores, Eric Heiman, Jennifer Jerde, Joan Raspo, and Patricia McShane.

Categories: Faculty Featured Graphic Design Press Releases

CCA Presents the 2010 Master of Architecture Thesis Exhibition

Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2010, by Sarah Owens

A Silent Hand of Comfort: Architecture’s Role in Grief by Monica Ty, 2010

Representative works from 32 California College of the Arts graduates of the Master of Architecture Program will be showcased during the Master of Architecture Thesis Exhibition, which runs May 6–15, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the Carmen M. Christensen Production Stage on the San Francisco campus. An opening reception is scheduled for May 6, from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.

The Master of Architecture Thesis Exhibition is part of the college’s 2010 Graduate Thesis Exhibition, which presents thesis work from graduates in all seven of the college's graduate programs.

This year’s Master of Architecture Thesis Exhibition projects are based on a diverse set of ideas, such as considering the urban effects global production has had on cities that are no longer industrial and understanding how a building can be recognized as a type of archive.

Monica Ty's A Silent Hand of Comfort: Architecture’s Role in Grief addresses how built forms can facilitate recovery from loss. According to her artist statement: “In fusing together psychology and architecture, the project proposes an architectural response to the dual process model, a psychological model of grief work in which architecture allows for both confrontation and avoidance.”

Leah Marthinsen’s project, Dissonant Utopias, aims to explain “the urban impacts of global production on formerly industrial cities.” She explains, “The project proposes a new model of urban redevelopment that incorporates both production and consumption, both local and global scales, in order to reconcile broad utopian visions with the ambiguity, flexibility, and dissonance that characterize lived urban experience.”

These students and others have been developing their thesis projects during a two-semester course sequence that is introduced in the third year of the program. Students are required to devise an advanced thesis through research, analysis, and design.

Prior to the exhibition, students present their projects to a juried panel for critique as part of the Master of Architecture Thesis Project Reviews, which take place April 23 and 24, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., in the Nave on the San Francisco campus.

See a complete list of 2010 Graduate Thesis Exhibition events.

Master of Architecture Thesis Exhibition
May 6–15
Carmen M. Christensen Production Stage, SF campus
10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Opening Reception: May 6, 6–9 p.m.
Free and open to the public

Participating Architecture graduates:

Acosta, Jon-Christopher
Aldrich, Annelise
Barlow, Dylan
DeLeon, Ripon
der Bedrossian, Laurice
Diaz, Anthony
Dunham, Sarah
Gardini, Christopher
Gibson, Jessica
Greer, Noah
Gregory, Geoffrey
Hobstetter, Sarah
Hofstetter, Charlotte
Jackson, Elizabeth
Jenkins, Brandon
Khakpour, Pouya
Lee, Ryan
Ma, Charles
Marthinsen, Leah
Marugan, Pedro
Mates, Ariane
Perez-Green, Joseph
Renaker, Pearl
Schwartz, Zohar
Shimada, Yukihisa
Stuenkel, Jessica
Ty, Monica
Wallack, Elizabeth
West, Megan
Wolkoff, Jessica
Wongkalasin, Ravadee
Yu, Rachael

About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) is noted for the interdisciplinarity and breadth of its programs. It offers studies in 20 undergraduate and seven graduate majors in the areas of fine arts, architecture, design, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of fine arts, and master of business administration degrees. With campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, CCA currently enrolls 1,800 full-time students. Noted alumni include the painters Nathan Oliveira and Raymond Saunders; the ceramicists Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos; the filmmaker Wayne Wang; the conceptual artists David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; and the designers Lucille Tenazas and Michael Vanderbyl.

Categories: Architecture Featured Press Releases

CCA Furniture Program Presents Furniture-ish, the 2010 Senior Exhibition

Posted on Thursday, April 8, 2010, by Sarah Owens

Work by Jeff Weathers

The Furniture Program at California College of the Arts proudly announces Furniture-ish, an end-of-year exhibition of senior-level work, which is expected to break ground with new and inventive furniture forms.

The exhibition dates are April 30 through May 9 at Swarm Gallery in downtown Oakland, with an opening reception scheduled for Friday, April 30, from 6 to 9 p.m.

The Furniture program at CCA has a rich history of studio furniture making that focuses on the fertile intersection of art, craft, and design. Often, completed student works based in furniture design and making reflect a unique interdisciplinary quality due to the conflation of industrial design, sculpture, architecture, interior design, and even fashion elements.

Furniture-ish will feature works that investigate a wide array of topics such as the dynamics of social interaction, the joy and freedom of play, dark fairy tales and fantasy, and optical illusion.

Furniture student Chris Orr created a furniture design that supports the human body, while referencing the body structure of insects. Another student, Dorothy Bell, attempts to create movement with still objects, creating forms reminiscent of geological formations.

Furniture-ish celebrates the commendable craftsmanship of each of the six 2010 Furniture Program graduating seniors: Dorothy Bell, Noah Brezel, Greg Johnson, Chris Orr, Joy Umali, and Jeff Weathers.

April 30–May 9

Swarm Gallery
560 Second Street
Oakland CA 94607

Opening Reception: Friday, April 30, 6–9 p.m.
First Friday: Friday, May 7, 6–9 p.m.
Gallery Hours: Thursday–Sunday, noon–6 p.m. (and by appointment)
Info: 510.839.2787

More Information

Visit the CCA Furniture Program online.

Categories: Featured Furniture Press Releases

CCA Presents the  Graduate Program in Design 2010 Thesis Events

Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2010, by Sarah Owens

The Graduate Program in Design at California College of the Arts will hold its year-end thesis events May 4–6, 2010, on its San Francisco campus, located at 1111 Eighth Street (at 16th and Wisconsin).

A reception party to celebrate the program’s newest graduates is planned for May 5 at 5:30 p.m., which will feature food, drink, and a guest DJ. (Visit the graduate thesis events website for a schedule of each day’s events. All events are free and open to the public.)

Each of the college’s Design graduates finishes his or her MFA with a final project that involves extensive research, design, and making, culminating in a written thesis, a salon-style exhibition, and a gallery talk or a formal presentation. Each student also contributes to a programwide group exhibition.

This year CCA's students have been conceiving new ways for designers to work, critiquing material culture, and extruding present-day trends into future objects, systems, and messages. Their work crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries and draws from a diverse range of topics, including entomophagy (insects as a sustainable protein source), rethinking exchange and social spaces, and “reading” songs as visual stories from a collective mind.

Some students have chosen to take on real-world challenges such as the nonrecyclability of a task chair, sedentary lifestyles, and poor dental health in rural Alaska, while others have taken on formal investigations through typography and the printed page.

In addition to the thesis events, visitors can view thesis books and video pieces in the special reading and screening rooms in the Graduate Design offices during the thesis exhibition open hours: May 4–9, from noon–9 p.m. daily).

About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts is noted for the interdisciplinary and breadth of its programs. It offers studies in 20 undergraduate and seven graduate majors in the areas of fine arts, architecture, design, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of fine arts, and master of business administration degrees. With campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, CCA currently enrolls 1,740 full-time students. Noted alumni include the painters Nathan Oliveira and Raymond Saunders; the ceramicists Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos; the filmmaker Wayne Wang; the conceptual artists David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; and the designers Lucille Tenazas and Michael Vanderbyl. For more information about CCA, visit www.cca.edu.

Categories: Design Featured Press Releases

 CCA Presents the  Graduate Program in Design 2010 Thesis Events

Posted on Monday, March 29, 2010, by Brenda Tucker

About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts is noted for the interdisciplinary and breadth of its programs. It offers studies in 20 undergraduate and seven graduate majors in the areas of fine arts, architecture, design, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of fine arts, and master of business administration degrees. With campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, CCA currently enrolls 1,740 full-time students. Noted alumni include the painters Nathan Oliveira and Raymond Saunders; the ceramicists Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos; the filmmaker Wayne Wang; the conceptual artists David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; and the designers Lucille Tenazas and Michael Vanderbyl. For more information about CCA, visit www.cca.edu.

Categories: Design Press Releases

CCA Presents Its MFA Exhibition, Curatorial Practice Thesis Exhibition, and Baccalaureate Exhibition

Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2010, by Brenda Tucker

Slideshow »

California College of the Arts will host opening receptions for three major year-end exhibitions on Thursday, May 6, from 6–9 p.m.: the MFA Exhibition, We have as much time as it takes, and the Baccalaureate Exhibition. We have as much time as it takes is the thesis exhibition of CCA's Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice, being presented in the galleries of the CCA Wattis Institute for the first time in the program's seven-year history.

All of these events are free and open to the public and take place on CCA's San Francisco campus. The MFA Exhibition will remain on view through May 15, We have as much time as it takes will remain on view through July 31, and the Baccalaureate Exhibition will remain on view through May 11.

The MFA Exhibition

The MFA Exhibition is organized by Fine Arts faculty member and critic Glen Helfand, who says, "With a particularly large group of students this year—66 in all—the show will express the dynamic, interdisciplinary identity of CCA's diverse artistic community."

The works address a wide range of subjects and issues stemming from a world in transition; they expand the boundaries of photography, painting, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, video, installation, animation, digital media, and various combinations thereof. Vibrant abstract paintings will share space with faux-museum projects exploring issues of identity, land use, and the act of finding. All of the artists demonstrate a deft handling of materials, from the industrial and machine made to the obsessively hand crafted.

One photographic project tracks the social and psychic condition of Merced, California, a Central Valley town hit hard by the economic downturn. A group of watercolors evokes the difficult history of People's Park in Berkeley. An interactive, theatrical installation allows viewers to insert themselves into an open coffin. And there is a daily, participatory acknowledgment of the moment of sunset.

The show will be accompanied by a cell phone audio tour featuring interviews with artists and an introduction by Lawrence Rinder (former Wattis Institute director, and now director of the Berkeley Art Museum).

We have as much time as it takes

We have as much time as it takes, the thesis exhibition of CCA's Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice, reflects the experimental and ambitious spirit of both the program and the CCA Wattis Institute (whose galleries it occupies this year). The show features works by a range of contemporary artists and collectives: Nina Beier and Marie Lund, David Horvitz, Jason Mena, Sandra Nakamura, Roman Ondák, Red76, Zachary Royer Scholz, Tercerunquinto, Lawrence Weiner, and Christine Wong Yap.

The curatorial intent derives from a questioning of academic and art-world processes. Productivity, expectations for achievement, and bureaucratic systems are highlighted, questioned, and critiqued through works that embody circular processes, resist completion, and refute the demand for definable results or resolution. The majority of the works are site-responsive commissions or existing projects that have been recontextualized for the exhibition and the Wattis galleries.

An accompanying 112-page catalog includes interviews with each of the artists, a project by current Visual and Critical Studies graduate student Matthew Rana, and texts by the local poet Jasper Bernes and the writers Erica Levin and Daniel Marcus. A robust series of public programs will take place over the course of the three-month exhibition, both inside and outside the gallery.

Images and interviews with the artists or organizers are available upon request.

About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts is noted for the interdisciplinarity and breadth of its programs. It offers studies in 20 undergraduate and seven graduate majors in the areas of fine arts, architecture, design, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of fine arts, and master of business administration degrees. With campuses in Oakland and San Francisco, CCA currently enrolls more than 1,600 full-time students. Noted alumni include the painters Nathan Oliveira and Raymond Saunders; the ceramicists Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos; the filmmaker Wayne Wang; the conceptual artists David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; and the designers Lucille Tenazas and Michael Vanderbyl. For more information about CCA, visit www.cca.edu.

Categories: Curatorial Practice Featured Fine Arts Press Releases