2014–15 Academic Catalog

2014-15 Undergraduate Index A-Z

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Somatic Studies [clear]

Title		Offering	Standing	Credits	Credits	When	F	W	S	Su	Description	Preparatory	Faculty	Days	Multiple Standings	Start Quarters	Open Quarters
Creating Dance Here and Now Robert Esposito aesthetics art history dance somatic studies		Program	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	16	16	Day		W 15Winter			This focused, one-quarter, dance-based program, involves progressive study in modern dance composition, theory, and technique. Prior dance experience at the beginner/intermediate level is advised.Activities will include regular classes in Nikolais/Louis dance technique, theory, improvisation, composition, performance forum, critique, and seminar. Students will engage in disciplined kinetic activities while studying basic anatomy and dance kinesiology, using a Pilates-based floor barre and Laban movement analysis. Deep somatic work will be based on Feldenkrais’ “Awareness Through Movement”, theories of Gestalt psychology, and principles of creative visualization. Regular work in dance improvisation and composition will encourage personal empowerment, artistic freedom, community, and the enjoyment of beauty through the art of motion. Students will learn basic craft principles of composition: the formal design of space, time, shape and motion, drawing content from their own life experience and past interdisciplinary study to create original dance theatre work. Compositions will be performed weekly in performance forums that include faculty and student-centered critique and analysis.Theory, texts, and seminars will review the history, development, and methodology of dance and movement as fine art, draw distinctions between art and psychotherapy, cultural expression, and compare the creative process in other art forms, such as drawing, painting, and poetry. Seminar will draw on texts in psychology, art history, linguistics, color theory, poetics, and neurophysiology, to develop skills in critical analysis and discourse, as well as situating texts, art and performance in their historical and sociocultural contexts. Writing will balance creative and analytical forms and research styles. The program culminates with a recital of selected student work.		Robert Esposito	Mon Tue Wed Thu	Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Winter	Winter
The Empty Space: Performance, Movement and Theatre Walter Grodzik and Cynthia Kennedy aesthetics consciousness studies cultural studies dance education media studies queer studies somatic studies theater		Program	FR–SRFreshmen–Senior	16	16	Day	F 14 Fall	W 15Winter	S 15Spring		How does imagination respond to the emotional self, the physiology of the body and the psychology of the mind? How can we become more expressive and responsive to our inner selves? This program will explore the interior spaces where performances begin and the exterior spaces where performances are realized. Through the understanding and embodiment of somatic concepts such as awareness, intention, centering, authenticity and the interplay of mind and body, students will have the opportunity to explore the creative imagination as it expresses itself from their own life processes, rather than from externally imposed images, standards and expectations.Students will begin with movement and theatre exercises that center and focus the mind and body in order to open themselves to creative possibilities and performance. Students will also study movement and theatre as a means of physical and psychological focus and flexibility that enable them to more fully utilize their bodies and emotional selves in creating theatrical performance. Students will be invited to explore and enjoy the movement already going on inside their bodies to learn to perceive, interpret and trust the natural intelligence of intrinsic bodily sensations. The class will use experiential techniques derived from several traditions of somatic philosophy. In seminar, students will read a broad variety of texts about creativity, movement, theatre and dramatic literature.The program will include weekly seminars, workshops in movement and theatre, and film screenings of various movement/theatre and theatre productions. We welcome students of all abilities who bring their excitement, commitment and creativity to the performing arts.		Walter Grodzik Cynthia Kennedy		Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall Winter Spring
Making Meaning Matter: The Ornament of Materiality Sarah Williams and Arlen Speights computer science consciousness studies cultural studies education gender and women's studies media studies somatic studies sustainability studies writing		Program	FR–SRFreshmen–Senior	16	16	Day and Evening	F 14 Fall				What do wampum, bitcoin, quantum computing, 3D printing, community, and forgetting have in common? What does the education of women have to do with reproduction and population growth? How do these "things" differ in connecting the ethereal with the physical? Non-verbal experiences evolve into expressible thoughts and ideas, which can be crafted and manufactured into material existence, all of which may carry value. What are the stakes of each step of reification, given their carbon footprint in an ecozoic anthropocene? What are alternative, sustainable processes for learning, computation, and currency?This program investigates this connection between meaning, making, and matter using scholarly as well as contemplative inquiry, experimental writing, moving images, and 3D printing. We’ll experiment with the role of optimism both in connecting mind and body and in debugging mental habits. Students will use 3D printing to bring an idea, developed through their writing, reading, and film experience into physical being. We'll analyze the relationships between an object’s material and non-material natures and values. Students will begin this program with a meditation retreat to become more familiar with bodily, felt experiences as the materiality of, and for, thought processes.The program is designed to be self-bootstrapping and evolving using innovative pedagogy, through which all students actively participating in activity planning and community building. Possible texts include by James Marcus-Bach, by Lambros Malafouris, by Nassim Taleb, by Neal Stephenson, by Martin Seligman, by Mark Frauenfelder, by David Loy, and by Ruth Ozeki. The program will continue as a studio component of the program “The Nature of Ornament” in the winter and spring quarters.		Sarah Williams Arlen Speights		Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth Karen Gaul, Evan Blackwell and Anthony Tindill anthropology architecture art history community studies consciousness studies cultural studies somatic studies sustainability studies visual arts		Program	JR–SRJunior–Senior	16	16	Day	F 14 Fall	W 15Winter	S 15Spring		Fifty years ago, Buckminster Fuller contemplated our planetary future and our limited ability to imagine alternative futures in his book, . In this program, we will consider what it means to be astronauts on our home planet and how to creatively imagine healthy and sustainable future scenarios. Guiding questions for the program will include: What shapes cultural values and how do cultures change, adapt and form new paths? How do we weave together various branches of knowledge into a healthy system and vision for the world? What do we make with the abundance of material goods that fill our daily lives? How do we design objects and spaces to create a more sustainable and fulfilling existence? To address these questions, we will consider traditions of the past and present that demonstrate cultural responses to environmental limits and possibilities. Yogic philosophy, for example, offers critical guidelines for sustainable living and we will explore the principles and practices of this tradition. We will examine the ideologies of the Arts and Crafts movement, the modernist avant-garde, social sculpture and art as social practice. These will be connected with the environmental movement and current trends such as upcycling, cradle-to-cradle design and the resurgence in handiwork and traditions of craft.Students will research and construct their own “Operating Manuals” over the course of the three quarters. This will include a critical look at alternative and utopian models for living, as well as engage with powerful sustainability and justice movements already at work in our community. This program will challenge students to engage through readings and weekly seminar discussions, field visits and research papers, as well as visual art projects and critiques.In fall quarter, we will build vocabularies and skills for thinking about sustainability and community transformation. Studio work in two- and three-dimensional design and ceramics will emphasize redesigning, repurposing and reusing the proliferation of materials available all around us. Yoga labs will help us to integrate work in the classroom and studio with yogic thought and somatic experiences. Study and comparison of cross-cultural examples of sustainability practices will guide the development of our Operating Manuals.In winter quarter, we will work to develop community projects and/or individual visual artworks. We will work with organizations such as Sustainable South Sound and The Commons to develop applied projects. Students will research and report on local and regional alternative, intentional communities. Our critical analysis of sustainability discourses will inform all of our studio work.Spring quarter will offer opportunities to further develop and implement community projects. These may take the form of public art projects, sculptures or installations that enhance public spaces such as community or school gardens or parks. They may also involve facilitating public art processes that integrate the concepts and design principles central to this program.		Karen Gaul Evan Blackwell Anthony Tindill		Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall Winter Spring
Sacred Movement, Sacred Sound Sean Williams and Robert Esposito dance international studies music religious studies somatic studies		Program	FR–SRFreshmen–Senior	16	16	Day	F 14 Fall				This program explores the connection between spirituality and the performing arts in multiple contexts. First, we will examine the physical context of ritual spaces such as temples and landscapes in Japan, India, China, Tibet, and elsewhere. Second, we will discuss the context of the mind, in which spiritual concepts of liminality, cosmology, and mindfulness combine with both Asian and Western ways of thinking. In addition, because interdependence in community and family is an essential aspect of spiritual ways of knowing; some of our work includes collaboration through discussion, presentation, and performance. We will use sound and movement in theory and practice to better understand these connections. Each week will include lectures, workshops, seminars, films, and some type of engagement in the arts. The college owns an Indonesian gamelan, which students in this program will learn to play as part of their work in understanding community music-making from an Asian culture. Gamelan playing requires sitting on the floor, letting go of starring in the rehearsal or performance, and playing well with others. We will incorporate physical movement throughout the quarter as we come to develop our understanding of the relationship between body, mind, and spirit.Students enrolled in this program will be expected to participate fully in all program activities, including those that require some element of the unfamiliar (for example, moving the body in various ways and learning to make new vocal and instrumental sounds). In the ten weeks of fall quarter, each student is expected to write two research papers, develop one collaborative presentation, and create one solo presentation. Other writing, rehearsals, and exploratory activities will occur as well. Your contribution to this program will be most effective if you choose to take your work and your ideas as seriously as we do.		Sean Williams Robert Esposito	Mon Tue Tue Tue Wed Wed Thu Thu Thu	Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall