This class is taught by me, James Spahr. The following is some information that you will find useful since you are currently a student in one of my classes.

Contact

If you need to speak to me outside of class I can be reached via email at james @ spahr.org and via telephone during normal business hours at 212.979.0300.

If you ever need a copy of an assignment, all assignments will be posted online here:

http://www.spahr.org/pratt/

Attendence

Pratt’s attendance policy is 3 absences is an automatic failure, and 3 late arrivals is equivalent to an absence. There are no excused absences. I take attendance during every class and consider you to be late if you show up 10 minutes after I start the class. I will never start the class before the official start time, and generally start the class after most of the students arrive.

Failing someone because they can not get their ass out of bed in the morning is not something I like to do, but I have no problem doing it if your work is not spectacular. If your work is stellar and you have a marginal attendance problem — I will most probably assign you a barely passing grade, or fail you anyway.

Bottom line, if you are not in class to talk about your work, talk about your classmate’s work and listen to everyone’s crit — I can not claim that you have learned the material, and therefore can not let you receive credit for the class.

Grading

• An ‘A’ is spectacular. To get this you have to demonstrate ability above that of your classmates.
• A ‘B’ is above average. I consider the typical Pratt student to someone who produces ‘B’ work
• A ‘C’ is average. This means your work is as good as the large quantity of crap that somehow manages to actually get printed now-a-days. If you are at Pratt, you should not be doing ‘C’ work.
• A ‘D’ means that you completely missed boat, and should really start thinking about why. If you work hard and put in an effort — and I see this effort — you will not receive a ‘D’
• An ‘F’ is a failure. Not only didn’t you try, you were really lousy at not trying.

I give multiple grades per assignment. If I do not say how the grading will be broken up, I will give each assignment 3 or 4 grades:

• [A-F] for production. How well your work is presented and put together.
• [A-F] for concept. How brilliant is the idea behind your work.
• [A-F] for aesthetics. How visually appealing and functional your work is.
• [NG, C ,F] for deadlines. If you make a good faith effort to make every deadline you will not receive a grade. If you miss one deadline you will receive a C. If you miss 2 deadlines, or miss the deadline for the final due date, you will receive an F.

You have until the end of the semester to re-work most assignments. Your re-worked assignment will receive the same ‘deadline’ grade as your original.

The final grade for the assignment will be an average of these 3 or 4 grades. Each assignment grade will be weighted by the number of weeks we spend on it when I calculate your final grade. This means a 2 week assignment will count twice as much as a one week assignment. In addition to the grade you receive on assignments, twenty percent of your final grade (the equivalent of a 3 week assignment) will be based on your effort and class participation.

Expectations

I expect every student to work hard and to think about their work. They should be able to talk about what they have done and be knowledgeable about where they have failed and succeeded. The phases ‘I think it looks nice’ and ‘I like it’ are the equivalent of ‘I don’t know’.

If you disagree with something I say, please say something — preferably during class. Who knows — I might actually be wrong, or I might be testing you.

Sketches mean that you have explored 5 or more ideas, and have visual proof of these explorations. Two doodles on a piece of paper do not qualify as sketches for an assignment. Verbally communicating ideas to me in leu of hanging sketches will not be tolerated.

The more materials you hang during class, the more opportunities I have to help and educate you. I guarantee that my idea of ‘too much work on the wall’ is at least 5 times larger than your idea of what ‘too much work on the wall’ is.

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