Dance on camera has a different impact than dance on stage - how can we explore this form that arguably has a bigger audience than live performance? How can we make and distribute dance on camera using equipment that is readily available and low cost?
Works of art are often praised for their “immediacy,” their being “of their moment.” What if our sense of the present to which we’re meant to be attentive has changed? What is the impact of Twitter, Instagram or the Selfie on making art? Join Marianne Weems of the Building Association for a one-off course that will draw upon various perspectives with guest speakers to investigate these questions of modern consciousness.
Practice in the original composition of poetry supplemented by the reading and analysis of standard works.
The curriculum allows the student to develop writing skills, provides an introduction to the possibilities of contemporary literature and offers a perspective on the place of literature among the liberal arts. Criticism by practicing writers and talented peers encourages the student's growth as both creator and reader of literature.
Practice in the translation of literary works from another language into English supplemented by the reading and analysis of standard works. Criticism by professionals and talented peers encourages the student's growth as both creator and reader of literature. Students MUST be fluent in their chosen language.
This studio course introduces students to graphic design with a particular emphasis on typography. Students learn typographic history through lectures that highlight major shifts in print technologies and through their engagement in studio design projects.
Advanced practice in the original composition of poetry for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings. The curriculum allows the student to develop writing skills, provides an introduction to the possibilities of contemporary literature and offers perspective on the places of literature among the liberal arts.
Advanced practice in the original composition of fiction for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings.
Advanced practice in the translation of literary works from another language into English supplemented by the reading and analysis of standard works.
What makes a novel? How do novels work? Most important, how do we write one?
The course will introduce students to basic screenwriting principals and techniques, using cross-cultural and cross-temporal examples. Course will examine the visual power of storytelling in film and other relative media, concentrating on the strategic use of visual elements to create a unified viewing experience and the use of visual moments/behavior in creating memorable characters.
This seminar will explore the idea of color through a wide range of scientific, philosophical and aesthetic theories. While the eyes of normally sighted human beings render color in roughly the same manner, our reactions and ability to "see" color vary. Far from being a fixed entity, color is a deeply personal and psychological component of human perception and art.
This course will introduce students to Screenwriting Adaptation techniques, focusing primarily on the challenges of adapting "true stories" pulled from various non-fiction sources. The class will address the ethics of adaptation, questions and techniques surrounding the need to fictionalize truth for dramatic purposes, as well as touching on the differences between fictional and nonfictional original materials.
From grand plié to grand jeté, Introduction to Ballet is for students with a curiosity for the study of classical ballet.
Designed for people with little or no previous training in dance, the class will be a mixture of movement techniques, improvisation, choreography, observing, writing and discussing.
A studio course introducing students to American dance aesthetics and practices, with a focus on how its evolution has been influenced by African American choreographers and dancers.
This studio course will have us travel from temples and courtyards to clubs, streets, and stages around the world to better understand the diversity of dance.
Dance technique and choreography for beginning and intermediate levels.
Intermediate dance technique and choreography, with a focus on contemporary practices. In technique, students will be challenged to increase their body's strength, coordination and alignment, and to develop awareness and range of motion in multiple spatial planes.
Students are exposed to distinct choreographers by learning and performing repertory and creating choreography. The Technique and Repertory sections of the course develop technical expertise, expressive range, and stylistic clarity. Students will dance with attention to alignment, detail, spatial clarity, and an awareness of other dancers.
Advanced students will learn and perform dances that represent diverse approaches to contemporary choreography. Technique and Repertory classes encourage rich, subtle and stylistically accurate renditions of choreography and cultivate intelligent and imaginative artistic interpretations.
Dance on camera has a different impact than dance on stage - how can we explore this form that arguably has a bigger audience than live performance? How can we make and distribute dance on camera using equipment that is readily available and low cost?
An introduction to the craft of acting through scene study monologues and, finally, a longer scene drawn from a play, to develop a method of working on a script. Emphasis will be placed on honesty, spontaneity, and establishing a personal connection with the scene's substance.
This is a workshop in the fundamentals of writing plays. Emphasis will be on solving problems of structure, dramatic action, and character. Attention will also be given to innerlife, language, atmosphere on stage, creating living dialogue, and examining the sources to be used in writing, etc.
L'Avant-Scène will offer students the opportunity to put their language skills in motion by discovering French theater in general and by acting in French, in particular. The course will introduce students to acting techniques while allowing them to discover the richness of the French dramatic canon.
A hands-on approach to this interdisciplinary field. In addition to key readings in performance theory, we will attend theatre and concerts and sporting events, visit museums, attend community celebrations, observe people's behaviors in restaurants and on the street.
A continuation of THR 201: Guide students in ways to develop a role and to explore important texts and characters in an imaginative and honest manner.
This course delves into a collaborative, ethnographic approach to making theater. We will read, watch and discuss the work of subculture theorists, theater-makers and other artists and thinkers, all of whom use staged conversations as the basis for characters, scenes and entire works. We will hash out ethics and responsibilities for those of us who engage communities outside our own.
This course will focus on the lifetime achievement of one of the nation's greatest playwrights, Christopher Durang, who will be participating in the class as the inaugural Roger S. Berlind '52 Playwright-in-Residence. We'll focus on Durang's writing and rehearsal process, the writers who have meant most to him, the joys and pains of theatrical collaboration, and the perils of writing comedy with a satiric edge.
This workshop is devoted to the development of the student's critical sensibility. Through extensive in-class analysis of their own reviews of and other kinds of writing about professional theater and dance productions, students will come to learn what makes a good critic of the performing arts.
This seminar explores how iconic pieces of theatre can be re-explored for modern audiences. The course will examine various aspects of how an artist can think out-of-the-box and the mechanisms the artist can use to do so. There will be discussions, theatre visits, possible access to theatre practitioners and assignments which will encourage the participant to explore their own imaginative approach to storytelling.
A practical class. This is a workshop based class for those interested in multi-skilled performance and in how performance skills can illuminate new forms of theatre making. Ideally participants should have musical skills and be able to bring an instrument to work with.
his course bridges the gap between students taking introductory design courses in set, costume or lighting design, and successfully designing a production on campus. The course is designed to endow students with practical skills that will enable them to actually design a production, and to support them in making technical decisions as well as in collaborating and communicating with the rest of the creative team and the technical staff.
Special directing assignments will be made for each student, whose work will be analyzed by the instructor and other members of the workshop. Students will be aided in their preparations by the instructor; they will also study the spectrum of responsibilities and forms of research involved in directing plays of different styles.
Samuel Beckett is arguably the most influential writer of the second half of the 20th century but is often misunderstood as a purveyor of bleak nihilism with a relentlessly pessimistic view of the human condition. This course explores a very different Beckett: a writer of compassion, invention and harsh beauty, responding to his Irish roots and to terrible public events with humor, playfulness and courage.
This seminar will explore the idea of color through a wide range of scientific, philosophical and aesthetic theories. While the eyes of normally sighted human beings render color in roughly the same manner, our reactions and ability to "see" color vary. Far from being a fixed entity, color is a deeply personal and psychological component of human perception and art.
The Fall Show provides students with a rigorous and challenging experience of creating theater under near-professional circumstances. A professional director, design team, and stage manager, as well as two weeks of performances in the Berlind Theatre, are key components.The Fall Show involves an extensive rehearsal period and concentrated tech week,often requiring more time and focus than a typical student-produced production might.
Works of art are often praised for their “immediacy,” their being “of their moment.” What if our sense of the present to which we’re meant to be attentive has changed? What is the impact of Twitter, Instagram or the Selfie on making art? Join Marianne Weems of the Building Association for a one-off course that will draw upon various perspectives with guest speakers to investigate these questions of modern consciousness.
An introduction to the materials and methods of painting. The areas to be covered are specifically color and its interaction, the use of form and scale, painting from a model, painting objects with a concern for their mass and its interaction with light.
An introduction to the processes of photography through a series of problems directed toward the handling of light-sensitive material, camera, and printing. Weekly laboratory sessions will explore the critical issues of the medium in relation to both student work and the work of guest photographers.
This studio course introduces students to aesthetic and theoretical implications of digital photography. Studio emphasis is on mastering digital equipment and techniques, managing print quality, and generally becoming familiar with all aspects of the digital workspace. Popular media, found photographs, and the "life" of digital images will also be investigated.
This studio course introduces students to graphic design with a particular emphasis on typography. Students learn typographic history through lectures that highlight major shifts in print technologies and through their engagement in studio design projects.
This course introduces students to techniques for decoding and creating graphic messages in a variety of media, and delves into issues related to visual literacy through the hands-on making and analysis of graphic form. Graphic design relies on mastering the subtle manipulation of abstract shapes and developing sensitivity to the relationships between them.
This studio class will address the increasing social pressure on art to become more widely distributed, immediately accessible, and democratically produced. For the past fifty years, expanding definitions of what art might be fueled by a greater emphasis on active audience participation have encouraged an atmosphere in which anyone can claim to be an artist.
A studio introduction to sculpture, particularly the study of form, space, and the influence of a wide variety of materials and processes on the visual properties of sculpture leading to the development of an understanding of contemporary sculpture and a basic technical facility in wood working, mold making, casting and metal working.
A film/video course introducing the techniques of shooting and editing digital video. Works of film/video art will be analyzed in class to explore the development of, and innovations in, cinematic language. Production will be oriented toward film/video as a visual art, including narrative, documentary, and experimental genres.
This course will give students an introduction to documentary film and video production, with a special emphasis on the practical challenges of producing films in the real world. Students will learn fundamental filmmaking techniques from a professor with thirteen years experience running her own film production company, as well as a handful of guest professionals in the fields of cinematography, casting, and editing.
This studio course seeks to broaden students' skills through a wide range of photographic media. There will be an emphasis on the relationship between analog and digital photography and how visual artists negotiate the technological changes of today. A broad range of new tools will be introduced to the class including medium and large format cameras, scanners, Photoshop, color and BW pigment printing, studio lighting and the use of high-end digital backs.
A seminar on the major films of Luchino Visconti, Robert Bresson, and Jean-Marie Straub (and Daniele Huillet) and their literary sources. All three filmmakers made important and eccentric adaptations of major literary texts.
The course will introduce students to basic screenwriting principals and techniques, using cross-cultural and cross-temporal examples. Course will examine the visual power of storytelling in film and other relative media, concentrating on the strategic use of visual elements to create a unified viewing experience and the use of visual moments/behavior in creating memorable characters.
A required seminar for Art and Archaeology Program 2 majors and Program in Visual Arts certificate students emphasizing contemporary art practices and ideas. The course addresses current issues in painting, drawing, sculpture, film, video, photography, and performance installation.
his course bridges the gap between students taking introductory design courses in set, costume or lighting design, and successfully designing a production on campus. The course is designed to endow students with practical skills that will enable them to actually design a production, and to support them in making technical decisions as well as in collaborating and communicating with the rest of the creative team and the technical staff.
Through careful observation, this class will focus exclusively on human figure and purse the development of a strong sense of bone structure, muscle contours and light. From this perceptual foundation, students will be encouraged to develop independent points of view. Assignments will loosely revolve around themes of narrative, abstraction, expression, and conceptual strategies.
This studio course builds on the skills and concepts of the 200-level Graphic Design classes. VIS 415 is structured around three studio assignments that connect graphic design to other bodies of knowledge, aesthetic experience, and scholarship. The class always takes a local concept or event as the impetus for investigations.
This seminar provides senior ART Program 2 and VIS certificate students a context for investigating and discussing contemporary art exhibition practices. Over the course of the semester, students will develop a greater understanding of their art, their influences, and their aesthetic underpinnings by considering them alongside readings, visiting artist lectures, writing assignments, and field trips to current exhibitions.
This class will explore the art of storytelling through the aesthetics of film editing. By focusing on the editing process, students will not only learn how to edit their work but also how to better plan the writing, casting, sound design, and shooting of a film to better serve the editing process. Through screenings of award-winning films, informal class discussions with their directors, and exclusive access to raw scenes and footage, students will learn how to conceptualize the entire film production process as well as be introduced to accomplished professionals in the field.
This seminar will explore the idea of color through a wide range of scientific, philosophical and aesthetic theories. While the eyes of normally sighted human beings render color in roughly the same manner, our reactions and ability to "see" color vary. Far from being a fixed entity, color is a deeply personal and psychological component of human perception and art.
This course will introduce students to Screenwriting Adaptation techniques, focusing primarily on the challenges of adapting "true stories" pulled from various non-fiction sources. The class will address the ethics of adaptation, questions and techniques surrounding the need to fictionalize truth for dramatic purposes, as well as touching on the differences between fictional and nonfictional original materials.
This course will investigate how extreme amounts of invested time and manual labor are still capable of achieving a kind of magic, that is, capable of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. For the last century, artists around the world have become more and more interested in the aesthetic value of everyday life, in part as a political gesture designed to bring art down a peg or two, in part a celebration of the surprising levels of beauty and meaning that can be mined from mundane things.
Dance on camera has a different impact than dance on stage - how can we explore this form that arguably has a bigger audience than live performance? How can we make and distribute dance on camera using equipment that is readily available and low cost?