Spring Quarter Studies for Intimate Nature

Greetings! We are very excited about our collective upcoming work in spring quarter; your faculty have developed part of the spring quarter schedule with books, seminars, and all-program yoga intact. BUT this represents only about half of your program work. The other half of your work includes further development in a workshop area of your choice, complemented by an independent study project. In other words, your independent work should build on the skills and themes of the workshop(s). But there’s more to it than that: we’re building six weeks of the program (rather than ten) around book-related themes, with the remaining weeks involving work outside the normal classroom schedule and the strong possibility of a return two-night fieldtrip to Sol Duc Hotsprings. Spring quarter is a chance for us all to do something different. Note: Although we are not including work in the Grass Lake Refuge as a formal or scheduled credit-bearing activity in spring, all students have the option of incorporating continued Grass Lake work into their spring plan. (Please notify Laurie if you are interested in participating in a Grass Lake work group during spring quarter).

The credit breakdown for the quarter is as follows:

3 – Lectures/seminars (choosing among Environmental Literature, Cross-Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Visual Studies, Ethnomusicology)

2 – all program yoga (Yoga as Self-Inquiry)

2 – Journal Writing (Creative Writing, Nature Writing, Self-Inquiry)

4 – Workshop topics (as before; see below)

4 – Independent Study Project by mutual agreement of student and faculty

1 – Performance Practice: Procession of the Species

Students choosing to do work abroad or outside of the Olympia area must still read all the program texts for Spring Quarter, and send us your journal excerpts by e-mail. The program texts are as follows: Cultivating Inner Peace (Fleischman), Accordion Crimes (Proulx), Picturing Culture (Ruby), The Spell of the Sensuous (Abram), Woman Who Watches Over the World (Hogan), Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey (Wilbur and McCormick), and Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde (Nichols). The program schedule will remain the same for each week as it has been in fall and winter quarters. Mondays 9-11:30 (lectures) and 1-3 (workshops); Tuesdays 9 – 11 (Sarah’s workshop), 9:30-11:30 (Sean and Laurie seminars), 11:30-1:30 (Sarah’s seminars), 2:30-4:30 (all-program yoga); Thursdays 10-12 (group meetings, independent project work) and 1-3 or 4 (Sean and Laurie’s workshops).

On Saturday, April 26, our program will participate in the annual Procession of the Species in downtown Olympia. Each year in April, all of downtown comes alive with thousands of people dressed as aspects of nature: birds, fire, trees, salmon, rain, whales, bugs, coyotes, you name it. There are three rules for the procession: no advertising, no printed words, and no motorized vehicles. The Procession is divided into four categories: earth, air, fire, and water. We will appear in the “air” section because our group will include angklung (moving columns of musical air). The rich implications for our program are obvious. Our plan is for Sean to lead about 20 students playing angklung with a phalanx of wild geese in V-formation. This requires those of you not playing angklung to create wild geese costumes and to acquire (or borrow) yellow rain boots. Sean has costumes for angklung players. We will be discussing the creation of costumes later in winter quarter, and we will supply you all with detailed instructions. We have scheduled two formal rehearsals (including a full dress rehearsal) on Thursday mornings early in April.

Spring Quarter Workshops:

Spring photo/film with Laurie Meeker: Students interested in photography and filmmaking as an emphasis can continue to develop their skills in this area through additional workshops and smaller support/critique groups. Students should develop a proposal that builds on skills we learned in the workshop and the program. Issues of representation, feminism, gender, re-engaging the senses, vision and perception, connections to our intimate natures, connections to the environment, wildlife and nature photography, etc., can be explored through visual media like still photography and filmmaking. Experimental and documentary work groups are also possible, with further reading in history and theory. Further skill development may be possible in the following areas: slide presentation, black and white darkroom work, Super-8 editing, 16mm cinematography and editing, digital camcorders and DV linear editing. We will choose from among these skills and approaches based on student needs in relation to specific projects. Since the independent study project represents 4 credits (on top of workshop skill development and the rest of the program elements) projects must be limited in scope. Motion picture production in film or video needs to be conceptualized as 7-10 minutes in length due to the complexity of the production process (pre-production, shooting, editing). Please note: we will not be learning digital non-linear editing programs (like Final Cut Pro) due to their complexity and because the editing suites are heavily booked by Mediaworks and other advanced students. New students coming into the program must demonstrate some basic proficiency with photography, film or video (indicate academic experience with media on your proposal).

The Breathing Bodies: Yoga and Engenderment workshop will continue to offer students a venue for exploring and practicing yoga in relationship to breath and engenderment. We will work with two new texts. Alex Grey’s Sacred Mirrors contains gorgeous visualizations of the energetic body and will be used to inspire revisions of student body maps. Daniel Odier’s Desire describes a Tantric understanding of our intimate nature, including a critique of dominant western perceptions of pleasure and an introduction to a non-dualisticand sensual approach to embodiment. Monday yoga classes, which will be lead by Judith and assisted by Sarah, will focus on asana within the ashtanga tradition. Tuesday morning class, which will be led by Sarah and assisted by Judith, will focus on the restoration of the senses through movement, discussion, and extended sessions of yoga nidra.

The music workshop has several performances scheduled (including at the Northwest Folklife Festival over Memorial Day weekend), so students must be prepared to practice outside the regularly-scheduled gamelan session times, and come to gamelan class ready to play. [Sean will expect documentation of practice time as well as real-life musical proof that you have been working on your playing.] Students who do not plan to work seriously and intensively on their musicianship (both as instrumentalists and as singers) should not be a part of this workshop. Sean’s expectation of you is that you learn more about ethnomusicology theory and practice, that you read a handful of articles and be able to comment on them in seminar, and that you use your independent study project as an opportunity to enhance or expand on a particular musical interest. For example, students who already specialize in one musical style (classical, rock, blues, folk) should consider expanding into a different genre (e.g., classical piano to blues, violin to Cajun or Irish fiddle; rock guitar to classical guitar, etc.). If you can’t play an instrument, consider using spring quarter as a chance to dive intensively into the one you’ve always wanted to study. All of you will be expected to document and discuss your learning process.

Regarding the Independent Study Project:

Fill out an independent study contract as an in-house document. You can pick up a copy of the contract form from Academic Advising. DO NOT turn this form in to academic advising; it is a binding contract between you and the faculty member among the three of us who is most closely tied to that kind of work. This is the basis of articulation for what you will be learning; it also determines what we will be awarding credit for. If your contract involves independent study abroad, you must also fill out a Travel Waiver. Note: If you are planning to do your project out of town, you must still meet with us at the beginning and the end of the quarter.

The Independent Study Project must meet the following criteria:

· It must have a research component, which will inform your independent work

· It must build on workshop skills from fall, winter and spring (in music, film/photography, and yoga/bodywork).

Your independent study project contract form is due on Monday morning, February 24 at the all-program lecture.