Ira Epstein

What I teach.
Why I teach.
How I teach.

— what?

In each class, I pursue specific, clearly mapped goals … but that’s just part of it. There is excitement to share, context, and meaning to explore. Also, there has to be room for every student to make discoveries of their own.

I've divided my classes into the following areas. Please select a subtopic:

design

• motion graphics / interactivity

  I Have Taught

  • Motion Graphics and Computer Animation
  • Motion Graphics and Interactivity
  • Interactive Motion Graphics with Video Integration

  Both motion and interactivity represent large parts of my career. Together with other fundamental subjects, I’ve taught a lot of motion-related courses at multiple levels and at several schools — including classes at BMCC, the Art Institute of NYC, and workshops at Parsons School of Design.

• video / experimental video / web-video integration

  I Have Taught

  • Integrated Video
  • Experimental Video
  • Video Editing
  

  I've taught several video classes for the Art Institute of NYC's Digital Video department, including Experimental Video, a personal favorite. But here I want to mention a class just as interesting and parallel to it; a course in experimental web/video integration – that incorporated the Experimental Video class's work. It was a wonderful collaboration between classes that yielded many surprises.

  To read more specifically about the Experimental Video class, see Experimental Video under Fine Art below.

  In the integrated course the web designers made “worlds” for the filmakers' films. It was a rare inter-departmental project where the two majors enjoyed a lively merger of means. The web component approached a newly integrated vision of how video, text, motion-graphics and interactivity, might join in a more symbiotic fashion than was available even in the recent past.

• web design and multimedia

  Currently Teaching

  • Intro to Multimedia
  • Intro to Web Design

  I Have Taught

  • Intro to Web Design 2
  • Portfolio (Interactive Media)
  • Experimental Video Integration
  • Web Internship
  • Motion Graphics
  • Interactive Motion Graphics
  • Interface Design
  • Advanced Web Scripting

  I have taught varied web related subjects from beginner-level to advanced, covering relevant practices, concepts, code, and software.

  My Intro to Web Design class allows me to establish the essentials for a classroom of students brand new to the subject. HTML5 and CSS3 quickly surprise them (on the very first day) with their combined accessibility and power. This same course also introduces the core elements of Responsive Design; and I make clear that an understanding of phones and tablets is now essential to building a site.

  This class incorporates typography, image integration, communication design and basic interactivity.

  Please read the 1st blue sidebar, "What Digital Technologies Do I Teach?" for a current list.

• illustration / vector graphics

  Currently Teaching

  • Vector Graphics
  

  I Have Taught

  • Digital Illustration

  I've taught versions ofDigital Illustration for a number of years. It's exciting to see how each group engages the opportunity of it, as their emerging understandings of image, meaning, design and text advances alongside a growing understanding of Adobe Illustrator. I go deep into Illustrator, yet always in service of the still deeper goal; to pursue communication visually via illustration. Illustra in latin means "to shed light on," so our investigation always began with this basic question: How does illustration shed light on a specific subject?

  While a Media Arts major at New York's School of Visual Arts, a primary component of my education was illustration. I studied with real masters like Marshal Arisman, Art Speigelman, Jerry Moriarty and others. You can see some of my own illustration (and other work) on this site's CREATING page. Or click here to see some of my talented STUDENTS' WORK. Or lastly, to read about a highly related class where digital and physical means were absolutely "co-essential", see INTEGRATED MEDIA under Hybrid below.

• photographic image manipulation

  I Have Taught

  • Image Manipulation
  • Advanced Image Manipulation
  • Digital Design
  

  I've taught Digital Image Manipulation from basic to advanced, at length. I know the essential role that this subject plays for every designer/artist and I make sure to prepare students to make smart use of it. An exploration of photographic principles runs right alongside a thorough exploration of the software that currently enables them.

  At the Art Institute my classes were particularly industry-driven; while at Parsons my classes used similar photographic media and techniques toward a more open-ended set of goals. In both environments, the dual pursuit of understanding and proficiency led the way.

• graphic design / digital design / integrated design

  I Have Taught

  • Page Layout
  • Digital Design
  • 2D Integrated Design

  I've taught print-specific subjects for the Graphic Design department of the Art Institute of New York City; and I've taught Digital Design, as well as 2D Integrated Design for Parsons School of Design's Foundation department. Before teaching in these degree programs, I taught similar subjects for continuing education departments, including courses in page-layout, photo manipulation, and illustration.

fine art

• experimental video

  I Have Taught

  • Experimental Video

  Teaching this class was very meaningful for me. It had a long run and was designed as a chance for Digital Video majors – in a highly commercial environment – to challenge what they saw as norms. I'm proud to say that the films produced were a mainstay of the school's film festival and represented a significant number of the movies shown.

  This was probably the most bluntly philosophical of any class that I've ever taught, although it was also a forum for advanced techniques in Final Cut (an industry standard at the time). Open assignments with titles like "Tension" would be undertaken by individual students with the assistance of class mates and others. First ideas were often entirely overturned, instead students were encouraged to see their fledgling movies as having "wills of their own" to be served faithfully.

• painting

  I Have Taught

  • Painting I and II

  Painting does magical things internal to the painter, while doing similar – although not the same – for the viewer. A real study of the process increases sensitivity in areas crucial to almost any artist's work regardless of whether an individual's ultimate calling is to become a painter. It's a path that goes deep even while blooming outward to branch wherever necessary.

• drawing

  I Have Taught

  • Drawing I and II

  Philip Guston once said that he used drawing to "locate the world." I like that. There's no doubt that drawing is a skill that helps one to see and think with increasing acuity. It is a method that then promotes communication, further exploration, and production — all while helping the artist/designer to find their way.

  I'm a proponent of drawing classes for most art majors and I believe in the value of traditional exercises typical of art studios throughout time; yet I’m driven to explore how these elements then integrate with new media and new thinking.

  To read about 2D Integrated Media at Parsons School of Design please see 2D Integrated Media under Hybrid, below.

  At this point "drawing" can mean many things, and I'm excited to see how its territory expands going forward.

hybrid

• integrated media (physical meets digital)

  I Have Taught

  • 2D Integrated Design

  2D Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design used physical materials and techniques (drawn, painted, glued, etc.) that were then altered with digital techniques via Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and the use of scanners and printers. Physical and digital means would be continually integrated (and re-integrated) in pursuit of larger goals. Assignments were decidedly design-driven, although abstractly and not commercially, and were shared amongst multiple instructors who taught the same subject. The class curriculum was developed and co-directed by Shari Diamond and Dan Hill, both of whom I was honored to work under.

  In turn the students’ works would be scanned (or re-scanned), perhaps printed out again, and again readjusted both physically and digitally. Process was featured, but in a way that emphasized how barriers between physical and digital methods could be investigated, transcended, and utilized by being directly and mutually engaged.

• survey of art

  I Have Taught

  • Survey of Media and Design

  I include this class under Hybrid only because we surveyed both commercial and fine art venues. Each week the class would meet for an introductory lecture and for directions to a local NYC exhibit. A given week's show might feature anything from illustration at the Society of Illustrators, or paintings by Anselm Kiefer at an east side gallery, an exhibit of the art of Oceania at the Met, or an installation piece installed almost anywhere.

  The students majored in Graphic Design, Multimedia, and Video Production, and were diverse in many additional ways including heritage. Their layered co-diversity echoed the panoramic nature of the class material; their sub-cultural differences served as a bond expressive of both the collective New York experience and the inter-cultural evolution of the arts around the world.

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— why?

Because teaching art is my mission. I believe that art elevates everyone who engages it. Regardless of the goal, be it career or exclusively personal, I believe art-making reaches out in every direction. It enriches the artist and in that way enriches the world at large.

Most of my classes have been required studio classes covering a variety of topics for art majors. Yet through each I've learned a similar thing – that what I love most is fanning the sparks of creativity in anyone who chooses to recognize that their sparks exist. I'm devoted to encouraging their ignition.

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— how?

I have “timed” lesson plans that I share via handouts with every student in every class. The schedules are made available online via a website maintained for the purpose. The lessons are designed to fit school-specific timelines with core material that can easily be restructured as needs evolve. But I would like to point out that I only use these super-specific Daily Schedules as a spring board; time spent is actually determined by the individual class’s needs. The pace of each group varies widely and so my schedules serve mainly as a map, a utilitarian – but malleable – guide pointing to essential outcomes.

Every class begins with appropriate fundamentals — the primary elements of the given subject. Formal elements are studied, relevant elements of communication are discussed, techniques are learned – and creative solutions to problems are sought. Along the way I'll often reference influential artwork from the particular discipline's present or history; and I may also reference the artwork of other areas, including geographic locations, cultures and timeframes.

I encourage a warm atmosphere, safe, focused, and mutually supportive. Short lectures or group critiques are generally followed by lengthy hands-on time where students join me in specific exercises. Homework assignments augment the class material. Minimal reading gets assigned. Each session incrementally mounts to fulfil the goals established in the curriculum.

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