Is there such a thing as "objective" or "absolute" truth? Or is everything "relative" - to a particular individual, culture, language, or conceptual scheme? What is truth, anyway? In this course, we will examine the nature of truth, knowledge, and value and consider a range of challenges to the idea of "objective" or "absolute" truth.

The Bible is the foundational book of Western civilization and a classic of world literature. Biblical stories form the bedrock of the scriptural traditions of Christians and Jews, and in a different form, of Muslims as well. Biblical literature has also been foundational to Western art and literature from the medieval period to the present day. For many in the English-speaking world, including poets and artists, the most influential translation of the Bible has been the Authorized Version of 1611, otherwise known as the King James Version, together with its more recent descendants.

Translation is a common practice in poetry and literature, and adaptation is common in narrative film, but both of these practices are rare in photography. This class asks, "What does it look like to use photography to translate or adapt a text?" Together, we will review artists who use texts as starting points for making images, films or videos. Each student will embark on a semester-long project that adapts a book, poem, manuscript or manifesto into a series of still photographs.

Making Dances 1 will provide a foundational experience with the art of dance-making. The studio will be our laboratory as students engage in a series of improvisational and choreographic experiments designed to open up different dimensions of the medium: kinesthesia; time and rhythm; shape, space and the visual design of movement; energy, qualities of motion and the embodiment of emotional and character states. Each experiment will provide insight into how compositional choices/strategies lend themselves to meaning making and uniquely serves to frame each student's creative impulse.

Home is where we live in every sense, but "Home" is more than the physical structure we reside in: it is also the psychological, societal, emotional, and even the mythical. In this course we will read a variety of fiction and non-fiction and explore the importance of these spaces, be they physical or metaphysical, to the construction of "home" and more importantly, how these terms, whether we accept them wholly, shun them entirely, or experience via travel and immigration, dictate to us and others a sense of self and identity via our own writing.

Images dominate our cultural imaginations with such intensity some cultural theorists describe their affect in pathological terms: "the hypertrophy of visual stimulation" (Martin Jay), "a topographical amnesia" (Paul Virilio), "excremental culture" (Arthur and Mary Louise Kroker), "our narcotic modernity" (Avital Ronell). Other critics say the explosion of visual cultures is so influential that it represents a paradigm shift-that is, a shift from the domination of language to the domination of images over our lives.

This course is a rigorous research project in the possibilities, meanings, histories, practices and contemporary meanings of drawing. It functions as an introduction to different ways drawing is used in contemporary art making. As such, we will be doing different types of investigations weekly. Through investigations into the history of drawing practices- with particular focus on its role in the liberal arts- students will develop a facility with materials, methods, concepts, and critique. Collaboration and shared findings are highly encouraged.

The Chorus is a performing ensemble in which students will learn skills of choral singing and sight-singing. They will be exposed to a wide variety of choral literature through rehearsal and performance, including a cappella and accompanied music, medieval through 20th century, ethnic, world music and folk. Several performances are given throughout the year. While this course is open to all and the ability to read music is not required, students are expected to have reasonable proficiency in aural learning (e.g. ability to sing on pitch).

In this advanced seminar, we will explore the location, use and changing nature of media in places like houses, automobiles, airports, schools and stores. Some of this investigation will be historical - say, where and how the radio was used in 1930s homes - and some will focus on the present day, when media are increasingly mobile, personal and infrastructural. Students will specialize in media in a particular place and conduct a semester-long study of that site. Our investigations will take a variety of forms, drawing on students' larger interests and experience.

Our brains underlie our ability to perform complex tasks, but exactly how neural activity enables behavior is not well understood. To gain insight into this question, neuroscientists have developed a variety of technologies to record neural activity, however to turn these recorded signals into meaningful insights data analysis methods are needed. In this class students will learn how to analyze neural data by researching how information is coded in neural activity.