Creative Expression and Interpretation

Essential goals include:

• Develop skills in creative thinking and expression.
• Have direct experience in the process of creating original works of art in some genre.
• Learn to articulate a vision through art and seek to share that vision with others.
• Learn and be able to apply basic artistic techniques and aesthetic principles relevant to the art form.
• Incorporate understanding of social, political, economic, and historical context of artistic movements into creative expression.
• Learn and be able to apply simple principles to evaluate and interpret works of art.
• Study important and relevant works of art and examples of the form of art on which the class is focused.
• Reflect on and analyze the creative process and works of art, orally and in writing.

Sample Sections

Digital Photography

Faculty: Alexander Mouton

As a Core course, Digital Photography will involve equal parts making images, reading, writing, and analyzing/discussing. Assignments progress on a formal level from B&W to color and then to working with images in time, whether stop-motion or sequenced as short experimental films. The ideas students bring to the projects will be emphasized and the readings, films, image presentations, and discussions will provide direction to explore themes such as consumerism, the environment, gender, social diversity, imagination and dreams. The photographic medium has undergone changes in the last decade at a rate unparalleled since photography's invention during the latter part of the 19th Century. What does digital photography hold for the 21st Century? How is it different from working with film -or is it? What are artists doing within the medium today and what are their influences? These and other questions will be addressed over the course of the quarter as the technical, conceptual and formal properties of the medium are introduced.

Creating with Sound

Faculty: Dominic CodyKramers

Put your headphones on and delve deeply into the power of sound in and as art! Experience installations and performances on the cutting edge of music and aural creativity.  Learn the basic skills and techniques of generating and manipulating sound to touch the senses and impart emotion, ideas, and meaning.  Then integrate what you've learned and experienced by expressing your own ideas through a unique piece of multi-media, sound-focused art. 

Introduction to Creative Writing

Faculty: Serena Chopra

This course introduces students to creative inquiry and expression through the study and practice of key genres in creative writing: poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Students' principal work in the class will consist of the production of original works in each of these three genres. In support of this work, students will respond to model poems, stories, and essays, and they will engage in artistic discussions about the areas where genres overlap. Assignments will include both written and oral components. This course introduces students to creative inquiry and expression through the study and practice of key genres in creative writing: poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Students' principal work in the class will consist of the production of original works in each of these three genres. In support of this work, students will respond to model poems, stories, and essays, and they will engage in artistic discussions about the areas where genres overlap. Assignments will include both written and oral components.

Virtual Reality Filmmaking

Faculty: Gavin Reub

This course introduces students to creative inquiry and expression through the study and practice of key genres in creative writing: poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Students' principal work in the class will consist of the production of original works in each of these three genres. In support of this work, students will respond to model poems, stories, and essays, and they will engage in artistic discussions about the areas where genres overlap. Assignments will include both written and oral components. This course introduces students to creative inquiry and expression through the study and practice of key genres in creative writing: poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Students' principal work in the class will consist of the production of original works in each of these three genres. In support of this work, students will respond to model poems, stories, and essays, and they will engage in artistic discussions about the areas where genres overlap. Assignments will include both written and oral components.

Painting I

Faculty: Miha Sarani

This is an introductory studio course designed to introduce students to painting. The course will develop skills to begin investigating painting as an artistic medium and method of individual expression.