EDUC-A 190
TEACHING ABOUT THE ARTS
Introduction to the importance of the arts in the elementary school curriculum. Students are given a foundation of methods and materials in art and music that will enable them to integrate the arts into the general curriculum, supplement art lessons given by school specialists, and encourage student discussion and understanding of art and music in the world today.
ENG-A 190
THE ART OF IMITATION
Contemporary literature is full of re-tellings and re-imaginings, from Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad to Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride And Prejudice and Zombies, but this isn’t a new phenomenon. Writers, including Shakespeare and Mark Twain, have always recycle plots and characters from other’s works. In this class, we’ll explore writing stories and poems by retelling, recycling and re-imagining oft-told tales. We’ll discover how writers take familiar material to make it both new and personal as we look at contemporary examples of re-tellings in fiction, poetry and graphic novels. We’ll also discuss how re-telling relates to issues of intellectual property and originality. Students will research myths and fairytales, write a brief analysis of one published reinterpretation, and write and revise a portfolio of creative work. The class will also create an online literary journal of their work.
CREATIVE WRITING: AFTER WORDS
In this class students will try different approaches to creative writing, using a variety of imitation exercises to create poems, prose poems, flash fiction, essays, and graphic narratives. One of the first practices artists learn is imitation, creating pieces “after” an established artist. Imitations are then labeled according to the work they take after: “After Picasso.” We’ll read work in a variety of forms and styles to guide us in shaping our own content and subject matter. Students will submit a portfolio of writing and keep an ongoing journal of their progress.
EXPLORING STORIES AND POEMS THROUGH IMITATION (ALSO “IMITATING STORIES AND POEMS)
One of the first practices artists learn in imitation, or the creation of an artistic work “after” that of an established artist. Imitations are then labeled according to the work they take after: “After Picasso”. In this class students will try different approaches to creative writing, using a variety of imitation exercises to create poems, prose poems, flash fiction, essays, and graphic narratives. We’ll read work in a variety of forms and styles to guide us in shaping our own content and subject matter.
“JUST” A GENRE CLASS
“Trashy” romance novels, “sensationalized” crime fiction, “bizarre” fantasy worlds—popular writing genres are often dismissed as pulp fictions that have nothing substantial to say about our world or human nature- often simply because they are so enjoyable (how could they possibly be important?). Because each genre follows specific conventions, it is commonly thought that there is no room for exploration, creativity, or true artistic excellence. But, perhaps, those same conventions allow not only for the kinds of subversive ideas that delight literary scholars, but do so in a way that reaches a larger audience. If the latter is true, then such writing is not only a delightful way to spend an afternoon, it has the potential to do incredibly important cultural work. In this class we will read novels from two to three key genres and explore the ways that they conform to/trouble their genres and do important cultural work. Students should expect to research a genre of their own choosing (and read a novel from that genre; again of their own choosing), write short fiction in a genre, and participate in group presentations.
THE MAGIC OF IMAGE
Contemporary society is a feast for the eye through the sensory details found in poetry as well as Hollywood movies. This is a course for budding aesthetes as we look at beauty in a variety of genres: poetry, print advertising, photography, and cinema. Students will explore what makes art so alluring, and learn to appreciate these genres by developing a more critical, intellectual eye. Some written assignments as well as two photography projects: self-portrait and urban/rural landscapes. Students should have access to a digital camera.
MY DAILY LIFE EXTRAORDINAIRE!
Description: This course explores artistic interventions within the fabric of everyday life. We will first start by rediscovering and reclaiming objects of our daily lives to give them a renewed sense of purpose and meaning. Literary texts, the study of graphic design, and art works will help spark our artistic launch. The second half of the semester is dedicated to the study and production of slide shows. Originally, slide shows – the old-fashioned kind using a carousel – were both a high-tech form of family entertainment and an artistic medium used by experimental artists from the 1960s onward. You may be asked to produce your own slide show using Power Point and to screen it for public viewing at IUSB.
OF (SUPER)MEN AND MYTHS: WRITING FOR COMIC BOOKS
In this course, we will be taking an intensive look at the mythology of comic books. Students will spend part of the course studying comic books with the same detail with which they would study any other literary form. They will study how comic writers create and refine their own mythologies, like Jeph Loeb does in Batman: The Long Halloween or Brian K. Vaughan does in the first collected volume of his acclaimed Y: The Last Man series. Students will also explore the ways comic writers draw from and re-imagine world mythologies and folk tales in their works, like Mike Mignola’s reworking of Russian folk tales of the Baba Yaga and Koschei the Deathless in Hellboy: Darkness Calls and Neil Gaiman’s blend of Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian and myriad other mythologies in his seminal Sandman series, along with reading some of the original stories these writers are adapting in their books. Students will also spend the semester creating their own comic book, moving from creating their own character(s) and mythologies to plotting their first story arc to scripting and drawing the first issue of their books.
POETRY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE AUTHENTICITY OF SELF IN THE LYRIC POEM
Students will examine their own lives through the prism of “autobiographical” poetry texts (as well as other art forms, including movies, the visual arts, music, etc.). We will examine the idea of poetic “persona” in contemporary poetry by reading various authors, as well as exploring film and visual art, and you will learn through various writing projects, and possibly a visual art project or two, how to determine, in your own autobiographical poems, what you need to do to get the most “truth” out of language through means of concision, music in language, exaggeration, and by eliminating cliché. The influence of class, gender, and race will all be germane to a deep understanding of how we authentically express and/or build into a complex language construct a representation of the self. You will write imitation poems as well as poems wholly your own. Additionally you will keep a journal of reader responses to the various readings and films, and write two short analytical response papers.
WORD PAINT EXPERIMENTS
This course will explore the intersections of art and literature, paint and words. We will study painters who try writing (Rothko called it “this wrestling with the typewriter”), writers who would rather paint (Virginia Woolf thought painting a higher art form than writing), writing that paints with words, and painting that communicates with and without text. We’ll cover a broad sweep of time and various artists—from seventeenth century painter Johannes Vermeer to contemporary poet Mark Doty—to study the evolving interaction and conflict between painting and writing. We’ll also experiment with our own creations in art and language, seeing what connections and tensions we find.
ADVENTURES IN IMAGERY
More than anything else, the one thing that separates poetry from prose is its use of imagery, or language meant to appeal directly to the senses. This is one of the things that makes contemporary poetry challenging to readers who aren’t that familiar with poetry—the work of image-driven poets tends to be elliptical, non-linear, non-narrative, and often times virtually impenetrable. In this class we will be taking a close look at the work of several poets whose work relies particularly heavily on image and imitate them by writing image-driven poems of our own. We will augment our reading by watching several image-rich films in order to examine the way that images can function in the place of traditional narrative. The final projects in the class will be a portfolio of revised poems and a group storyboard project.
FINA-A 190
EXPLORING THE CITY
Focuses on the forces which are shaping cities today. Students will make use of local resources, local records and historical collections in their research projects. They will make measured drawings, elevations and site plans of their research topics. Topics such as local history, industrialization, main street America, racial and ethnic segregation, organic and engineered growth, and environmental issues are considered, especially as they affected the South Bend-Mishawaka area and Chicago.
HISTORY & PRACTICE OF PRINTMAKING
This course combines a survey of the social critiques of printmakers from 15th to 21st century, technical innovations and a studio practicum of printmaking processes. The overview is intended to assist students in their appreciation and understanding of visual culture and political contexts as well as the technological changes of the media. The “studio practice” provides “hands-on” demonstrations and engagement to investigate the technical and expressive processes of printmaking (including papermaking, relief printing, etching and multi-media design).
POINT AND SHOOT: AN INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
This introductory level course will explore digital technology for capturing, enhancing, and producing still lens-based images. The course will address the visual language of camera-generated images, computer output techniques, the connoisseurship of digital image output as well as basic digital camera operations. The course assumes no prior knowledge or experience with digital imaging technologies or materials. Students must provide a digital camera. TEXT: Stone& London, A short Course in Digital Photography Prentice Hall, 2009.
RUSSIAN AND SOVIET MODERN ART FROM REALISM TO SOCIALIST REALISM
Russian and Soviet Art will introduce students to the major modern art movements of Russia and the early Soviet Union, from 19th century realism to early 20th century modern art developments and then to the post revolutionary decline of avant-garde art and the emergence of Socialist Realism. The art will be analyzed within the historical and social contexts of late Russian and early Soviet periods. The political milieu of Russian and Soviet art will be critiqued for its influence on and its influence by the development of the various modern art movements. In addition, the cultural context of the art will be examined for how it affected the production of art and how the art itself affected the larger cultural context.
SOCIAL IMPACT OF PRINTMAKING
This course combines a survey of the social critiques of printmakers from 15th to 21st century, technical innovations and a studio practicum of printmaking processes. The overview is intended to assist students in their appreciation and understanding of visual culture and political contexts as well as the technological changes of the media. The “studio practice” provides “hand-on” demonstrations and engagement to investigate the technical and expressive processes of printmaking (including papermaking, relief printing, etching and multi-media design).
THE SURREAL IN MODERN ART & LITERATURE
This course will explore the Surreal in 20th century art and literature focusing on key issues–the dream, the transformed object, the self, love/sex, and automatism—as manifested in the works of Breton, Duchamp, Kafka, Dalí, Kahlo, and others. The emphasis in the course will be on visual literacy both through looking at and interpreting works of visual art and through art projects which develop students’ creativity. Critical thinking will be used to understand and evaluate surreal writings and artworks and the issues they raise. Students will engage in creative writing as part of the projects.
VISUAL CULTURE
Study of our visual culture including photography, advertising, avatars, and video.
MUS-A 190
EXPLORING MUSICAL COMPOSITION
This course will introduce students to the materials of music – pitch, rhythm, melody, harmony – and to the notational tools used by musicians to represent these materials. Throughout the semester each student will use the tools and skills learned to compose simple musical pieces. No previous music education is required.
THTR-A 190
INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE
This introductory course examines the theatre, plays and playwriting, the actor, designers and technicians, the director, traditions of the theatre, the modern theatre, musical theatre, the future of theatre, and the critic. This is a participatory class.
INTRODUCTION TO ACTING
Beginning acting; introduction to auditioning, scene work, improvisation, and solo dialogue.
THE SECRET LIFE OF PUPPETS
This course will explore the use of puppetry in the performance arts of theatre, television and film. Topics will include exploring the history and diversity of puppetry in world culture, appreciating various puppet styles and performance methods and research master puppeteers and their contribution to the field. This is a participatory class where students perform basic techniques in puppet movement, explore storytelling devices, create dimensional characters and design and build a basic hand puppet. The combination of these efforts will be demonstrated in a final group performance.