2011-12 Catalog

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2011-12 Undergraduate Index A-Z

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Title   Offering Standing Credits Credits When F W S Su Description Preparatory Faculty Days Multiple Standings Start Quarters Open Quarters
Advanced Recording and Production I, II
Robert Schwenkler
Signature Required: Fall  Winter 
  Course SO–SRSophomore - Senior 4 04 Evening F 11 Fall W 12Winter This continuing course is designed to support students who are interested in recording music for various media and contexts.  Making use of the college's 16-track recording facility, students will be taken on a path through contemporary practice in studio recording.  Studio technology and artistry, song and mix composition, and fundamentals of audio electronics will all be covered.  There will be a focus on both magnetic tape and analog mixing as well as computer-based digital recording and mixing.  Processing fundamentals such as equalization, compression, and reverb will be treated alongside an overview of the many other signal processing options available in the modern recording studio.  Audio electronics will be covered as it relates to general studio signal flow, troubleshooting, and DIY equipment construction. Time will be spent in the studios creating recorded pieces including pieces for the annual Evergreen Student Album project.  Critical listening activities will accompany this process, using student work as well as work from outside sources.  Both the techniques and the artistry of recording, mixing, and song composition will be examined and developed via the process of creation, analysis, and discussion.  Work in the digital realm will focus on use of Pro Tools software and plugin effects while analog work will be based around the college’s 24-channel mixing console, 16-track tape machine, and a variety of outboard processing equipment. Robert Schwenkler Thu Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall Winter
Against All Odds: The Black Woman's Experience
Kabby Mitchell and Joye Hardiman
  Program SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day S 12Spring How did Black women, of many different cultures and ages, succeed against all odds? How did they move from victim to victors? Where did they find the insurmountable courage to deconstruct and reconstruct their lives? In this program, students will participate in an inquiry-base exploration of the efficacy, resiliency and longevity of the lives and legacies of selected Black women from Ancient Egypt to contemporary Seattle. Our exploration will use the lenses of Ancient Egyptian studies, African, African-American and Afro-Disaporic history, dance history and popular culture to investigate these womens' lives and cultural contexts.The class will have a variety of learning environments, including lectures and films, workshops, seminars and research groups. All students will demonstrate their acquired knowledge, skill and insight by: creating an annotated bibliography; giving a final performance based on the life of a chosen black woman; and an end-of-the-quarter "lessons learned presentation" demonstrating how our collective studies applied to each individual student's life and legacy. Kabby Mitchell Joye Hardiman Tue Tue Tue Wed Wed Wed Thu Thu Thu Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Arts In New York
Ariel Goldberger
Signature Required: Spring 
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 16 16 Day and Evening S 12Spring This program will immerse students in studying the intense and lively cultural life of New York City, the most active arts production center in the United States, and perhaps the world. Sessions will meet weekly in different cultural institutions to participate in art events as active audience members, to develop an educated and critical appreciation of the richness, complexity and current trends of artistic production in New York.We will spend two weeks on campus doing preparatory research in areas of each student's interest in order to create the structure for an individual project or practicum. Students may choose to create a project by engaging in artistic work, research, or both. Students will be responsible for making all necessary arrangements for room and board, as well as budgeting for individual event tickets. All students will be expected to present a final report of their experience and project.After the initial two weeks of research and preparation, participants in the program will fly to New York City for six or seven weeks, where they will engage in group and individual activities, depending on each student practicum or project. Students will attend some events as a group and some related to their own projects. We will attend events in a wide range of sites, from established world-renowned institutions to emergent art spaces.Depending on the season, performance events may include events in places such as PS 122, La MAMA, The Kitchen, HERE Art Center, off-off-Broadway small theaters, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Broadway productions and Lincoln Center. Regular dance events may include modern dance performances, experimental works, festivals at the Joyce Theater, and more traditional ballet events in venues such as the New York City Ballet. Specific visual arts events may consist of trips to the gallery "scene" in Chelsea, PS1, MOMA, DIA Arts Center, The Met, under the radar spaces and other sites. We may attend poetry readings at places such as The Bowery Poetry Club, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The St. Marks Poetry Project, The Academy of American Poets and The New York Public Library. The class will also endeavor to attend other culturally relevant institutions such as the Japan Society, the Asia Society, The Jewish Museum, The Schomburg Center, The Dwyer Cultural Center and El Museo del Barrio to experience a wide range of cultural diversity. Most weekly group activities will be followed by a discussion or seminar.We will spend the final week of the quarter back on campus in Olympia, completing final report presentations for the whole class. architecture, community studies, consciousness studies, cultural studies, dance, field studies, language studies, literature, media studies, moving image, music, queer studies, somatic studies, theater, visual arts, and writing. Ariel Goldberger Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Digital Audio and Music Composition
Arun Chandra
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 8 08 Day Su 12Summer Session I This course will focus on using the computer to create and manipulate waveforms.  Students will learn how to use the "C" programming  language to synthesize waveforms, while learning about their mathematics.  Students will create short compositions using FM, AM, granular, and other synthesis techniques.  We will listen to contemporary and historical experiments in sound synthesis and composition, and students will be asked to write a  short paper on synthesis techniques.  Students will learn how to program in "C" under a Linux or OS X system. The overall emphasis of the class will be in learning how to address the computer in a spirit of play and experiment and find out what composition can become.  There will be weekly readings in aesthetics, along with readings in synthesis techniques and programming.  Students of all levels of experience are welcome. Arun Chandra Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Summer Summer
Equatorial Studies: Sound, Science and the Western Imagination
Sean Williams, Heather Heying and Eric Stein
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 16 16 Day F 11 Fall W 12Winter In addition to the landscape of the map, there are also landscapes of the mind. How humans conceptualize where and how they (and others) live is an elemental process that has started wars, led to new forms of cross-cultural communication, and given rise to hybridization of both populations and ideas. Our focus in this two-quarter program is to take a particular area of the world -- the equator -- and explore how various groups of people (local and foreign) have come to understand it over time. Through our work in science, the performing arts and anthropology, we will collectively engage the ways in which people connect to the natural world, the arts, and each other.Each quarter divides into sections in which we highlight a particular lens through which to view our work, or focus on ways in which our lenses overlap. For example, we will examine how anthropology and medicine have grappled with "The Tropics" as a space believed to be essentially different from "The West," raising questions about the construction of race, the body, and the category of the "primitive." We will also work with sound: playing and creating musical instruments, singing and listening to music. In an attempt to understand the relationship between humans and the world around them, we will investigate evolutionary processes that apply to plants and animals near the equator. While our studies are contextualized in regions such as Brazil and Indonesia and other equatorial locations, we will also work briefly with a few regions outside the equator by way of comparison.Weekly activities feature lectures, films and seminars. Other planned activities include field trips, workshops, collaborative presentations and guest lectures. Students are expected to focus on enhancing their college-level writing skills throughout the program; each quarter's major writing assignments will require students to revise their work and understand the process of revision. In fall quarter students will be introduced to important concepts about how to approach this material: issues of race, class and gender in a colonial context are important factors in deepening our understanding. As we move into winter quarter, students will have more chances to develop individual projects focusing on a particular area of interest. anthropology, science and ethnomusicology. Sean Williams Heather Heying Eric Stein Mon Tue Wed Thu Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall
The Evergreen Singers
Marla Elliott
  Course FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 2 02 Evening S 12Spring The Evergreen Singers is a continuing choral ensemble of The Evergreen State College community. No auditions are required. We will learn the basics of good voice production, and rehearse and perform songs from a range of musical idioms. Members of the Evergreen Singers need to be able to carry a tune, learn their parts, and sing their parts with their section. This class requires excellent attendance and basic musicianship skills.  Marla Elliott Tue Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
The Evergreen Singers
Marla Elliott
  Course FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 2 02 Evening F 11 Fall The Evergreen Singers is a continuing choral ensemble of The Evergreen State College community. No auditions are required. We will learn the basics of good voice production, and rehearse and perform songs from a range of musical idioms. Members of the Evergreen Singers need to be able to carry a tune, learn their parts, and sing their parts with their section. This class requires excellent attendance and basic musicianship skills.  Marla Elliott Tue Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall
The Evergreen Singers
Marla Elliott
  Course FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 2 02 Evening W 12Winter The Evergreen Singers is a continuing choral ensemble of The Evergreen State College community. No auditions are required. We will learn the basics of good voice production, and rehearse and perform songs from a range of musical idioms. Members of the Evergreen Singers need to be able to carry a tune, learn their parts, and sing their parts with their section. This class requires excellent attendance and basic musicianship skills.  In winter quarter, we will learn shape-note singing, an American folk choral tradition. Marla Elliott Tue Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Winter Winter
Experimental Music
Ben Kamen
  Program SO–SRSophomore - Senior 8 08 Day F 11 Fall W 12Winter The aesthetic and technological experiments of 20th century American composers and performers opened the door to new modes of thinking about music. Their explorations into silence, noise, extended techniques, and electronics contributed to a fertile area of research within the musical lexicon that continues among composers and performers to this day. In the fall quarter, students will examine the music and writing of experimental composers, perform their works, and respond through composition, performance, and writing. Students will explore the boundaries of musical materials through musicianship exercises and the investigation of notational systems. In the winter quarter, students will shift their attention to the history and application of electronics in experimental music. Students will explore sound collage, algorithmic composition, sound synthesis, and interactive music through the use of MaxMSP, a visual programming language. Composers considered will include John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, James Tenney, Alvin Lucier, Morton Feldman, Steve Reich, and David Tudor. Classes will feature in-house performances, listening, seminars, and workshops on electronic and experimental music practices. Students of all levels of musical experience are welcome. Students from fall and winter are encouraged to apply for the 16-credit interdisciplinary program "Projects in Experimental Media and Music" in the spring. Ben Kamen Thu Fri Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall Winter
Gateways: Utopias and Prisons
Arun Chandra
Signature Required: Fall  Winter 
  Program SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day F 11 Fall W 12Winter This program offers Evergreen students the opportunity to be peer learners with incarcerated young men in a maximum-security institution. Each week the Evergreen students will visit one juvenile prison for a cultural diversity and equality workshop, and a workshop/seminar on experimental poetry and music.A fundamental principle of Gateways for Incarcerated Youth is that people have talents given to them at birth; our job is to encourage each other to search out and find our passions and gifts. Our work is guided by ideas of popular education that recognizes and values the knowledge and experience of each participant. The program works to strengthen notions of self and community through cultural awareness and empowerment. In connecting and building with people from other cultures and class backgrounds, each person becomes empowered to share knowledge, creativity, values and goals. The class will create responses to the texts, artworks, music and poetry that we discuss. We will approach the reading and creation of art with an eye towards arts' ability to project utopian possibilities and to name and resist current societal constraints. We will explore the history of both arts and prisons: how artists of the past and of today have portrayed social constraints and utopian ideals in art.The Evergreen students and the incarcerated youth will share readings, writings, music projects, and performance projects. In addition to the classes in the prison, Evergreen students will attend classes and workshops on campus.A central theme for our work will be the implementation of experimental ideas in art and in the social world: evaluating their consequences, and building on their failures. Our emphasis will be on the arts of the written word, music, and theater. Among the authors we will read will be George Jackson, Eugene Debs, Martin Luther King, M.K. Gandhi, Paulo Friere, Bertolt Brecht, Luis Valdez, Silvia Federici, Susan Parenti, and Michel Foucault. In the fall quarter, we will emphasize learning about social constraints in our society and others.  In the winter quarter, we will read and discuss utopias and envisioned societies.Since part of the class will take place in a state prison for juveniles, each student must submit an application and be interviewed by the faculty to ensure compliance with the Washington State Department of Corrections. music composition, poetry, education, and criminal justice. Arun Chandra Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall Winter
Hybrid Music I, II, III
Peter Randlette
Signature Required: Fall  Winter  Spring 
  Course SO–SRSophomore - Senior 4 04 Evening F 11 Fall W 12Winter S 12Spring This year-long series of courses is intended for the musician interested in exploring compositional experimentation with analog and digital synthesis technology and computer applications.  In fall, the course will focus on analog synthesis techniques, studio production, and the creation of musical pieces with a focus on new options presented by this compositional environment.  Winter will focus on building pieces from techniques of synthesis introduced in fall quarter and learning new digital synthesis techniques, different controllers and sequencers, signal processing, and surround 5.1 production skills.  Techniques will include use of percussion controllers, synthesizer voice editing, sample based applications, and plug-in signal processing.  In spring, students will develop pieces based on design problems using combinations of computer-based and analog resources covered in prior quarters.  New material will include acoustic/electronic sound source integration, mastering techniques, object-oriented voice construction, and advanced production methods.  Each quarter, students will complete projects, attend weekly seminar/lecture/critique sessions, use weekly studio times, and maintain production journals. Peter Randlette Tue Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall Winter Spring
I Hear America Singing: 19th Century American Literature and Culture
Susan Preciso and Marla Elliott
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 8 08 Evening and Weekend S 12Spring In this one-quarter program, students will read classics in American literature, learn about American music, and explore American culture as it was shaped in the vibrant, chaotic years that frame the Civil War.  Herman Melville, Stephen Foster, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman,  Harriet Beecher Stowe, and B.F. White are some of the authors and composers we will study.  Students will learn and participate in our exploration of American music by learning shape note singing, an American folk choral tradition.  Exploring ante and post-bellum beliefs about race and the politics of slavery will be central to our study.  Students should expect to be active participants in all program activities, which will include seminar, workshops, lectures, and films.  We will also meet for one full Saturday this quarter, which may be a field trip or other program enrichment. teaching, American studies Susan Preciso Marla Elliott Mon Wed Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
In the Presence of Beauty
Robert Knapp, Suzanne Simons and Helena Meyer-Knapp
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 12, 16 12 16 Day, Evening and Weekend S 12Spring This program will explore the idea and the experience of beauty. Our thesis is that the sense of beauty has many facets, which different cultures recognize and value differently. Individual preferences also differ, always under the influence of powerful, shared traditions of beauty. We will dramatize and investigate this by paying extensive attention to three traditions in which the faculty have professional expertise—Iran, Japan and Britain. Significant differences between these traditions and between individual student and faculty experiences in the American context will be a major occasion of collaborative and individual learning.Most class meetings will put students in the presence of beautiful art, writing, film, architecture or music; readings and seminars in criticism and cultural history and analytical and expressive writing assignments will help students develop authentic ways to articulate their descriptions and judgments. The work will lead to a major concluding project on an individually chosen instance of beauty. Students will acquire both a fuller understanding of the variety of ways one can encounter beauty, and of ways to document, appreciate and evaluate the experiences of beauty that occur.The program has two levels of enrollment: all students will meet one night per week and every Saturday for a coordinated program of lectures, seminars, films and workshops. 16-unit students will also prepare for and take two two-day visits to cultural cultural resources in Northwest cities, to be in the immediate presence of beautiful things which can come only second-hand to campus. design, art history, cultural studies, education, world history, architecture and visual arts. Robert Knapp Suzanne Simons Helena Meyer-Knapp Wed Sat Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Individual Study : Experimental and Electronic Music
Ben Kamen
Signature Required: Spring 
  Contract SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day S 12Spring Students interested in advanced independent work in experimental music, electronic music, interactive/mechatronic art, and music composition may contact the faculty with proposals for spring contracts.  Students should have prior college level experience in the area they wish to explore. Contract proposals should include both creative and research components. Ben Kamen Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Individual Study: Expressive Arts
Andrew Buchman
Signature Required: Winter 
  Contract SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day W 12Winter Please send me a preliminary proposal via email and I'll help you shape it.  I often recommend projects that combine some research (on an artist or style) with some creative work (a thematic portfolio or series of songs), with some technical practice (on an instrument or in a medium or style). Internships and travel/study projects are also welcome.  I'm especially interested in students who work in more than one artistic discipline intensively; for instance, music and visual art.  Drafting academic statements and investigating careers--vital parts of designing your own education--can also be credit-bearing activities. Andrew Buchman Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Winter Winter
Individual Study: Queer Studies, Performance
Walter Grodzik
Signature Required: Winter 
  Contract SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day W 12Winter Individual study offers individual and groups of students the opportunity to develop self-direction, to learn how to manage a personal project, to focus on unique combinations of subjects, and to pursue original interdisciplinary projects without the constraints of an external structure. Individual and groups of students interested in a self-directed project, research or internships in Queer Studies or the Performing and Visual Arts should contact the faculty by email at Walter Grodzik Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Winter Winter
Interactive Sound and Video
Ben Kamen
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 8 08 Day Su 12Summer Session I In this program, students will learn to use the Max/MSP/Jitter visual programming environment to examine the control and expression of sound and video through numbers, simple mathematics, and logic. Students will learn to operate audio and video recording equipment and develop techniques for playing back and modifying materials through algorithmic processes. Students will develop strategies for interacting with source materials in real time, using sensory data from the Arduino micro-controller platform. Creative projects, guided by reading and collaborative activities, will the be primary goal of the technical work. Ben Kamen Mon Wed Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Summer Summer
Introduction to Electronic Music I, II
Ben Kamen
Signature Required: Winter 
  Course SO–SRSophomore - Senior 4 04 Evening F 11 Fall W 12Winter In this two quarter sequence, students will explore the creative use of the music technology labs.  Original compositions will be the primary goal of the course work, with clear technical learning objectives for each assignment.  Reading and listening will provide a historical and theoretical context for the creative work.   Fall quarter will focus on the operation of mixers, tape machines, and analog synthesizers, looking to the work of early electroacoustic composers for inspiration.  In the winter, students will begin working with the computer as a compositional tool, creating sound collages and compositions using MIDI to control hardware and software instruments.  Ben Kamen Tue Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall Winter
Irish Language and Song
Sean Williams
  Course FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 4 04 Day Su 12Summer Session I Sean Williams Tue Thu Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Summer Summer
Jazz Dance
Kabby Mitchell
  Course FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 2, 4 02 04 Evening Su 12Summer Full In this course, students will learn jazz dance basics by exploring the historical aspects of the African Diaspora through movement and lectures. Students will gain greater physical flexibility and coordination. In addition, we will do fun yet challenging combinations, and students will write a synthesis paper at the end of the quarter. No previous experience needed. Kabby Mitchell Wed Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Summer Summer
Jazz: Music, History, and Culture
Chico Herbison
  Course FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 4 04 Day Su 12Summer Session II This course will provide an introduction to jazz music, an overview of its history and styles, and an assessment of its impact on American culture. Students will explore the musical elements of jazz; its aesthetic, cultural, and historical roots; its evolution through a variety of styles, including New Orleans, Swing, Bebop, Cool, and Avant-Garde; and the ways in which the music, its players, and its history have helped shape American culture. A musical background is not required; rather, a willingness to listen carefully will enable students to feel and appreciate what Robert G. O'Meally has called "the jazz cadence of American culture." Chico Herbison Mon Tue Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Summer Summer
Multitrack Audio Production
Terry Setter
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 16 16 Day Su 12Summer Full This program provides instruction in the use of digital and analog recording studio equipment, microphone design and placement techniques, mixing console design, signal flow, monitoring techniques, room acoustics, and signal processing.  There will be written assignments based upon readings in Huber's , and students will present research on topics related to audio production.  Students will do at least 40 hours of recording and familiarization work in teams of two in addition to the in-class activities. We will record local musicians and produce finished mixes of the sessions. Terry Setter Tue Wed Thu Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Summer Summer
Musicianship
Marla Elliott
  Course FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 2 02 Evening S 12Spring This class will help students develop free, healthy singing voices and learn fundamentals of music literacy and piano technique.  Students will develop musical skills through the use of self-paced interactive software as well as classroom instruction.  At the end of each quarter, students will perform both vocally and on piano for other class participants and invited family and friends.  This class requires excellent attendance and a commitment to practice every day; credit will be awarded in musicianship. Marla Elliott Thu Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Musicianship
Marla Elliott
  Course FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 2 02 Evening F 11 Fall This class will help students develop free, healthy singing voices and learn fundamentals of music literacy and piano technique.  Students will develop musical skills through the use of self-paced interactive software as well as classroom instruction.  At the end of each quarter, students will perform both vocally and on piano for other class participants and invited family and friends.  This class requires excellent attendance and a commitment to practice every day; credit will be awarded in musicianship. Marla Elliott Thu Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall
Performance in Process: Examining Performance as an Opportunity for Personal and Social Change
Andrea Gullickson
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 16 16 Day S 12Spring Martha Graham What role do performances play for the performer? For the audience?Performances are often structured as culminating events to an intensive period of study with a primary purpose of offering an opportunity for individuals or groups to publicly demonstrate skills developed and knowledge attained. This program is designed to provide students an opportunity to challenge the notion of performance being solely a public display of skill and knowledge. We will explore the role of performance as part of the learning process. We will consider the many opportunities for personal growth as well as the possibilities for significant social impact that performance opportunities provide.Performances types to be explored will include speeches, presentations and stage productions of all kinds but our main focus will be on music recitals and concerts. We will examine the process of performance from its preparatory stages to its aftermath, and will address the psychological and physiological components that are present. We will consider the paradoxical role of ego throughout the process, the importance of mastery of craft, the physical and mental stamina demands, and the critical role of intentionality. We will also examine performance as a powerful tool for social change as well as personal growth. As a central component to our work, students will be asked to regularly consider and deconstruct the social pressures and human tendencies to seek qualities and find measures for the purpose of identifying ourselves or our group as superior to others. We will contrast this perspective with an examination of powerful performances that emphasize connections across perceived boundaries. We will explore how these performances communicated ideas that significantly impacted the direction of social and political movements throughout the 20 and into the 21 century. Our work throughout the quarter will include exploration of a variety of learning theories, skill building workshops, academic/reflective/reflexive writing activities, examination of approaches to physical and mental conditioning, ensemble coaching and performance workshops. Regular performance opportunities throughout the program will give students the opportunity to experience all of this from the inside as we continue to emphasize the value of considering each performance as an important step in the learning process rather than as the end game. Through each of the course activities as well as course readings, students will be offered the opportunity to (further) develop their awareness of the possibilities for personal growth through regular and thoughtful consideration of what connects us as humans. Andrea Gullickson Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Producing and Sequencing Music
Peter Randlette
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 8 08 Day Su 12Summer Session I Computers are a common tool for creative arts and music. This 5-week program will familiarize members with the use of sequencing and audio production software and synthesizers and will cover some of the technical 'mysteries' which are critical to comprehending use. This program is mostly about exploring the musical production process and finding ways to explore personal musical experimentation. The only prerequisites are interest in music, some keyboard and/or guitar skill, and curiosity. The class structure will consist of lecture/workshop sessions, individual studio times for trying the different functions of the software, and playback times to share work with other classmates. Members will be expected to spend a minimum of two 4-hour blocks in the studio per week. Consulting times will be scheduled to permit members to meet for individual or small group assistance in the studio. Peter Randlette Tue Wed Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Summer Summer
Projects in Experimental Media and Music
Naima Lowe and Ben Kamen
Signature Required: Spring 
  Program SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day S 12Spring As an extension of the , and Programs (taught in Fall and Winter 2011 by Naima Lowe and Ben Kamen), students will have the opportunity to explore the shared histories, theories and practices of post-modern, conceptual, and experimental media and music. Our work will complicate the commonly perceived relationships between music and moving image (the music video or the movie soundtrack) by focusing on collaboration, interactivity, installation and performance. Thematically, we will also address issues of the how the development of particular technologies have influenced experimental media and music. The program will have three key components: 1) The execution of weekly collaborative group assignments that enhance and develop skills in media and music production, performance, installation, and interactivity. 2) The development of a quarter long independent project that combines concepts and practices from experimental media and music. This project will also include a research paper on an artist or art practice that relates to the creative work. 3) A weekly seminar will include readings and screenings oriented towards approaches to contemporary experimental music and media including performance, installation, collaboration, collectivism, and abstraction, while also studying the histories of media and musical technologies that have influenced work in these fields. We will also take occasional short field trips to local and regional venues showcasing experimental music and media.  Program Applications will be available by February 2012.  Media production, electronic music, visual arts. Naima Lowe Ben Kamen Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Roots of China: Culture, Art and Poetics
Andrew Buchman, Wenhong Wang, Rose Jang and Mingxia Li
Signature Required: Winter 
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 16 16 Day F 11 Fall W 12Winter S 12Spring We'll study Chinese history, poetry, visual art, theatre and music in fall and winter, then spend an optional month at the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Beijing in the spring. Extra financial aid is available for this study abroad program for qualified students. We'll study Chinese civilization from ancient to contemporary times, comparing it with Western cultural models. As Ai Weiwei's case demonstrates, artists continue to be agents of social change in Chinese society today. We'll look at artists' lives as well as their work throughout China's history. To appreciate the central Chinese artistic tradition of depictions of and meditations on nature, we'll study the natural history of China, a country the size of the U.S. with remaining wilderness, despite its large population and burgeoning economy.Workshops on mythology, poetry, folk songs, martial arts, theatrical movement, ritual and secular music, and calligraphy will bring cultural legacies alive for us. In lively, interactive Chinese language lessons, students will create new works of poetry, music, and theatre inspired by Chinese model. We will study Chinese language in order to approach the Chinese world, since, as Heidegger put it, it is from language that "we receive the soundness of our roots" – that is, become intimate with the linguistic idioms, shapes, and sounds that color Chinese culture. Students will study language at their own levels and their own pace, as part of a holistic, supportive, inspiring curriculum.Although there are no prerequisites in performance, arts, Chinese language or aesthetics, interests or previous study in any of these fields will be useful. Expect plenty of reading and writing, creative workshops featuring small group work, and independent research and creative projects that will increase in size as the year progresses. Students will have ample opportunities to develop their individual artistic and academic interests.During fall quarter, we will survey the poetry and art of pre-modern China, from ancient texts and excavated musical instruments to recurrent images in Chinese folklore. We'll address the mythological and philosophical subtexts of these works as well, such as aspect of gender and class. We'll focus on works that continue to be enacted and reinterpreted by contemporary poets, performers and artists. We'll examine vital controversies around competing approaches to the tradition.Winter quarter will take us into the modern era. We will study important writers, poets, musicians, performers, visual artists and filmmakers from the late 19th and 20th centuries, including some from the Chinese global diaspora who helped to create and shape a new vision of China as a republic. We will analyze how processes of cultural transformation and modernization within the last century are reflected in departures, in content and form, from classical models and traditions. Students will finish a research paper and teach the rest of the program what they've learned through individual or group presentations.In spring quarter, we'll get to know some prominent contemporary Chinese artists and literary figures, and explore the blossoming artistic scenes in many Chinese cities. During the second half of the quarter, interested students will have the opportunity to go to Beijing to study Chinese language and culture first-hand. These students will also study and practice the beauty of Chinese theatre arts with professional teachers in small, intimate workshops. Students who elect not to study abroad will pursue a major research project, and/or ethnographic fieldwork in an Asian community in the United States, and/or pursue internship opportunities. Update on Scholarships for Study in China: Students who receive the Federal Pell Grant should apply for a Gilman Scholarship by the October 4, 2011 deadline. For more information, go to "http://www.iie.org/en/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program", or contact Michael Clifthorne on campus at 360-867-6421. Chinese-American joint ventures, arts-related fields, English teaching in Asia, travel and tourism, and cultural studies. Andrew Buchman Wenhong Wang Rose Jang Mingxia Li Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall Winter
Singing Rounds
Marla Elliott
  Course FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 2 02 Evening Su 12Summer Session I “Summer is a-coming in, loudly sing!”  is the opening lyric to the oldest known round in English, from a manuscript dated 1260.  We’ll start simple and work our way up to that one and beyond.  Singing rounds is a wonderful way to enjoy group singing while improving your music literacy and confidence.  Students will also develop their vocal tone and blending skills.  All voices and skill levels are welcome. Repertoire will be assembled from a wide variety of sources and distributed in class. At the end of the term, we will perform the songs we’ve learned for an invited audience of family and friends.  Marla Elliott Tue Thu Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Summer Summer
Slavic and Celtic Folklore: Heroic, Spiritual, Practical
Sean Williams and Patricia Krafcik
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 16 16 Day S 12Spring This program will explore the folklore of the Slavic and Celtic peoples from epic times to the present in a cross-cultural study of two of Eurasia's oldest ethnic groups. Both groups are dispersed: the Slavic regions across eastern and southeastern Europe and into Eurasia, and the Celtic regions across the islands and peninsulas of the West. Both are renowned for their abundant folklore traditions, which have deep roots in a remote past and have served as a valuable source of inspiration for writers, composers and dramatists from the 19th century through the present. What characteristics do both traditions share? What distinguishes the two cultural traditions? What essential historical, linguistic and spiritual elements permeate the hearts and minds of local people in these regions? What do their folklore practices reveal?We begin the quarter with regional epic narratives and explore the histories and belief systems of the two regions. We follow this foundational work with an exploration of folklore practices (customs, rituals, beliefs), examine 19th-century cultural nationalist movements in music and literature, and conclude with how it all plays out in contemporary life, both rural and urban. This program may serve as a springboard for further study of the Celtic and Slavic peoples, of folklore, and of the material elements of culture.Each week includes lectures, films, seminars, and possible workshops, collaborative presentations, and guest performers or presenters. Students will be expected to write short essays, as requested, and to complete a significant essay at the end of the quarter that examines the role, use and appropriation of folklore materials in a particular Slavic or Celtic region. folklore, anthropology, ethnomusicology, history and literature. Sean Williams Patricia Krafcik Mon Tue Wed Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Student-Originated Studies: Individual Music Instruction
Arun Chandra
Signature Required: Fall  Winter  Spring 
  SOS FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 2 02 Day F 11 Fall W 12Winter S 12Spring This is an opportunity for individual instruction on a musical instrument with a qualified instructor from the Olympia area. I can help you find an appropriate instructor, assuming one is available.Each student will be expected to bear the cost of the individual lessons. Lessons will most likely occur off-campus, at the instructor's discretion. The instructor will provide a 1-paragraph evaluation of the student's work at the end of the quarter.Each student will be expected to have one lesson a week, of a duration to be determined by the student and the instructor. At the end of the quarter, each student will be expected to perform one or two pieces (demonstrating what they have learned) in a collective, public recital on the Evergreen campus. From observing the performance, I will add my evaluation to the instructor's evaluation.The level of the instruction (beginner, intermediate, advanced) is dependent on the entry level of the student. Intermediate and advanced students will be given preference. performing on a musical instrument is helpful for the mental discipline of many professions. Arun Chandra Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall Winter Spring
Student-Originated Studies: Performing Arts
Kabby Mitchell
  SOS SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day F 11 Fall W 12Winter This is an opportunity for well-prepared students to do authentic, significant, independent work in dance, theatre, music or film production. Students enrolling in this program should have one or more potential project ideas before the start of fall quarter. Please contact the faculty with any questions regarding your specific ideas. Participants will meet weekly to discuss their projects and to collaboratively work in small groups. Students will be expected to give progress updates, outline challenges, and share ideas for increasing the quality of the work that they are doing throughout the quarter. Specific descriptions of learning goals and activities will be developed individually between the student and faculty to insure quality work. At the end of the quarter students will present their projects to their peers in the most suitable manner for their particular project. performance art, dance, theater, music, and cultural studies. Kabby Mitchell Wed Wed Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall Winter