Tenure-Track / Tenured Studio Position

Description

APPLICATION DUE DATE: January 5, 2009

The undergraduate and graduate programs in the School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan each offer a single major at the intersection of art and design. Free of traditional concentrations, these programs challenge students to set their own pathways and undertake robust, self-defined culminating projects in their final year.

To enhance these challenging programs, we are seeking an artist-designer whose practice is located beyond traditional disciplinarity. Applicants should have a proven record appropriate to one or more of the areas listed below, as well as a strong understanding of the history, practice, theory, and criticism of contemporary art and design.

Art-Design Technologies: an innovative practitioner with the ability to create seamless interfaces between people, digital information, and physical environments. Applicants should be able to program and prototype advanced software and engineering tools to construct complex systems. A particular emphasis on understanding the social and human dimensions of these systems is desired.

Large-Scale Sculpture/Installation: an artist-designer engaged in creating installations or large-scale sculptures. Applicants should have expertise in one or more of the following practices: site-specific concerns, the natural and/or social environment, innovative use of materials (ceramics, metals, synthetics, natural), land art or environmental issues, and the interface between digital information and the physical environment.

Painting: a bold thinker with broad definitions of painting and its role in contemporary art-design practice. Applicants should have expertise in painting, drawing, and color processes, with an understanding of how these may be used to facilitate perception and invention, as well as cultural and social inquiry.

Eco-Design: an artist-designer whose creative practice addresses the ultimate challenge of our time: the impact of human activity on the environment. Applicants should have a demonstrated record balancing pragmatic and poetic investigations of topics such as: ecology, bio-diversity, cultural sustainability, energy, consumerism, natural resources, and resource management.

Graphic Design: an artist-designer with broad definitions of how visual communication operates in both established and emerging forms. Applicants should be solidly grounded in 2D design principles with expertise in digital interactive design, kinetic typography and data visualization.

Photography: an artist-designer whose work dynamically incorporates photographic media through innovative forms. Applicants should have expertise in digital photography, and should be responsive to the cultural meaning and significance of images used within mass media, for personal expression, and for cultural critique.

DUTIES
Teaching: Teaching undergraduate studio courses generating, developing and completing complex projects in a variety of contexts, and advising graduate students and periodically teaching a graduate seminar.

A typical teaching load is two undergraduate courses per semester – nominally one course in the common core of courses required for all students and one course proposed and developed by the faculty member.

Creative Work: All tenure-track and tenured faculty in the School are expected to carry out challenging creative work and maintain a public profile with that work commensurate with the expectations of a major research university. Individual studio space is provided in the School's Faculty Studios facility.

Service: Tenure-track and tenured Art & Design faculty members must be citizens of the entire School, the University, and the regional and global culture. Leadership and teamwork are expected.