Jazz Ensemble Seminar I

In this performance-based introductory class, students will begin to develop the skills and techniques of jazz performance, including ensemble playing and improvisation. Students will study the forms and concepts of jazz composition and theory and apply them in the composition and performance of repertoire. They will learn to compose elements of jazz pieces and will present their original work in a spring concert performance. There will be assigned readings and a short, final paper.

Women's Design and Fabrication

The intent of this course is to provide a supportive space for female students to acquire hands-on fabrication shop skills. Students will be introduced to the basic tools, equipment, machinery and resources available through the Lemelson Center. We will cover basic elements of design and project planning. Students will be expected to participate in discussions of their own and each other's work.

Teaching Science Through Arts

This class is a hands-on exploration of topics in Life Science and Physical Science through the Arts. We will investigate dynamic strategies for teaching biology, earth science, magnets, electricity, weather, and animal adaptations, in public school classrooms and in the community as a means to engage, enhance and inspire learning. Participants will explore theater games and visual arts explorations from the perspective of social and academic learning skills, as well as creative and critical thinking skills, for elementary and middle school youth (2-8 grade).

Adv. Experimental Narrative

This is a production class for students interested in using narrative and fiction in experimental modes of film, video, sound, and performance. We will consider issues of scripting, acting, directing, shooting, and editing of experimental narrative work. The primary objective of this class is to get students to consider using fiction and non-fiction elements in their work in ways that are not currently supported in pop culture, and to experiment with form in a way that can transform our ideas about the world and ourselves.

Video I: Intro to Video

The goal of this class is to introduce you to the basic technical skills you need to work in the video medium, including: cameras, tripods, microphones, lights, and Final Cut Pro. You will be expected to master these skills, and demonstrate this mastery through the in-class and out-of-class assignments. Additionally, you will be exposed to an abridged history of video art - marking video as a distinct medium from film - through screenings and selected readings.

Utopia

This course is an examination of utopian plans in modern architecture and art, including the works of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, William Morris, Bruno Taut, Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, El Lissitzky, Kandinsky, Buckminster Fuller, and others. This class will consider the expression of utopia in architectural drawings, buildings, and plans in relationship to painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts.

Intro to Lighting Design

What is lighting design? How can light shape the way an audience experiences a performance? In this course we will learn how to approach a play from the perspective of a lighting designer and explore the role light plays in the overall composition of the visual world of the stage. Students will learn the principles of lighting design, including equipment and control, interpretation of technical drawings, drafting, color theory, cueing, and hands on lab projects. Students in dance, music performance, photography, visual arts, or film may also find this course useful.

Color Studies

This course is a foundational art-making course, an update of a traditional optical color theory course or section in 2D foundations. In addition to the basics of color theory, we will consider the cultural and conceptual meanings of specific colors, and other seemingly neutral design elements such as stripes and patterns. Instead of approaching these subjects from a formal angle of relations, we will investigate how colors can be approached on the level of psychology, anthropology, literature, history, and art history. Projects will consist of physical and conceptual color theory exercises.

Accident by Design

This studio art course explores the ethos of accident and planned-unplannedness in order to exploit aesthetics of damage, spontaneity, humanity, and fallibility, as opposed to perfection, order, and machine-produced elements. Questions of controlled destruction and authorial intention will be set against a backdrop of modernist practices (think Jackson Pollock) and more recent trends in taping, machining, and using fabricated elements in paintings and sculptures. Investigations into how fabrication and computational language can be corrupted or rendered imperfect will be considered.

Pol Econ of Microfinance

The lack of access of rural and urban poor to credit facilities in many parts of the developing world has meant the rapid proliferation of microfinance institutions in the last thirty to forty years. Spurred by an international movement of large institutions such as the World Bank, non-governmental organizations, government donors, foundations and private investors, microfinance promised to be a solution to the poor's lack of access to credit and consequently, an indispensable tool for poverty alleviation in the developing world.
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