Countdown
Course Descriptions
All students (humanities and visual & performing arts) take one of the following classes which meet weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings.
| ID # | Course Title | Instructor(s) |
| I-01 | Act Up! Contemporary Protest and You If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be? If you have ever asked yourself this question, then this course is for you. If you haven’t, then this course is definitely for you! By analyzing the topics of war, the environment, race, and corporate culture, we will attempt to define the issues that shape contemporary protest. By choreographing protest dances, organizing student movements, and investigating historical protest, we will determine our own role in the mosaic of modern protest. |
Patrick Touart, Leonard Anderson |
| I-02 | Art Crackers: The Mosaic Falling to Pieces Is there a method to this madness we call Modern Art? Do you know what “kitsch” is? Are there any rules for defining them? This course will examine popular and high art in the 20th century. We will analyze art from a variety of sources including the movie “Gladiator,” the paintings of Jackson Pollock, avant garde theatre, modern dance from Merce Cunningham to hip-hop, and all kinds of music. We will also formulate our own theories about high/popular art and modern movements, creating our own original pieces utilizing all genres of art. If you like challenging ideas, are more interested in questions than in concrete answers, and love experimenting and creating art, this course is for you! |
Jolie Long, Peter Upor |
| I-03 | Wool Socks, Denim Jeans, Cotton T-Shirts:
The Fabric of Our Lives Sometimes they’re articles of clothing, sometimes they’re quilts. Sometimes they’re disconnected chunks of colored plastic, and sometimes they’re fantastic cities of LEGOs. This is a class about crafts, process, and story. The metamorphosis that takes ordinary socks and creates a troupe of puppets requires more than just a few buttons or a tangle of yarn or hot glue. It starts with a story, a story remembered, a story shared, or a story created. Spend your afternoon making puppets, studying quilt making, playing with LEGOs, and telling lots and lots of stories. From Sesame Street to Gee’s Bend to Denmark, come discover the creative spirits around and within that tell the stories which shape the Mosaics of our lives. |
Adrienne Klemme, Lori Bucco |
| I-04 | The Play’s the Thing Tired of being a loser? Sick of always being the last one picked? Wish you could play “the game” better? We will explore the components that make up games and the dynamics that allow some people to win and force others to lose. We’ll investigate toys and games from past and present, create our own games based on the “new games” construct, and play as we’ve never played before. Learn strategies for winning, from outsmarting opponents to constructive cheating. Are you game? |
Michele Hinton, David Sennett |
| I-05 | The Fables of Labels Fable: n. (fa' bel) A deliberately false or improbable account. Label: n. (la' bel) A description to identify someone or something. Parts of the same mosaic? Maybe. We constantly make hasty judgments in our information packed, fast-paced world. Let’s explore the who, what, where, when, why, and how of labeling through fable writing, mask making, role playing, and discussion. We’ll activate the “Five D” method to approach labels: Discover, Define, Debate, Decide and, potentially, Detonate. Our journey will arm us with the knowledge to rise above unnecessary stereotyping and to become citizens of the universe. |
Ted Boelt, Laura Higday |
| I-06 | Mosaics of Meaning: Variation on a Theme If a picture is worth a thousand words, can a word be worth a thousand pictures? How can an event, image, word, or sound have one meaning for you, and a completely different meaning for me? Can it ever have the same meaning for both of us? In this hands-on course, we will explore the ways meaning is generated through a variety of thoughtful activities oriented around a touchstone topic selected by the group. These activities may include creative writing, digital video production, dance, visual art, performance, music composition, and other investigations, looking forward to a cumulative “mosaic” that will stitch together all of your efforts in a single piece. The forms your mosaic takes may invite direct audience interaction, or perhaps even require it. It may be located in multiple sites, including those on the world wide web. |
Dave McTier, Grant Johnson |
| I-07 | To Tell the Truth One of the most persistent quests in the history of humanity is the pursuit of truth. What is truth and what are the different types of truth? Who is right and who is wrong? Is there such a thing as an absolute truth? We will strive to answer these questions and formulate others by investigating and interpreting plays, films, music, literature, reality TV, the media, and visual art. A moot court exercise will reveal the relativity of truth in legal settings. |
John Countryman, Carolina Alvarado |
| I-08 | The Advanced Voyeur: An Intrusive Study Do you sometimes feel like you are being watched? Should there be a limit to surveillance? What does privacy mean to you? In Richmond, we might get put off by someone standing too close to us in the line at the dining hall, but in India, where living on top of each other is a way of life, get used to it! Through our study of voyeurism, we’ll explore spatial awareness and comfort levels that relate to our bodies and question the boundaries and origins of personal space. From Alfred Hitchcock to reality TV, from J.Lo to war reporting, we will look at the role of the voyeur in popular culture. Through video, photography, role playing, gender awareness, social surveillance exercises, and our own “reality TV” show, we will elevate the study of voyeurism to a fine art. This course may sound designed for the extrovert, but the introvert is strongly encouraged to take part! |
Erin Devine, Suzanne Faris |
| I-09 | Can You Show That in Public? It’s in your face and you don’t pay for it. It’s public art. You can take unadorned nature, put it on a pedestal, elevate it, and call it art. You can create an event or object, offer it to the public, and call it art. How much choice do we have in viewing this stuff? Are we manipulated by the mosaic of art around us? We will look at public presentation from Diego Rivera to Andy Kaufman to Christo; from tombstones to monuments to graffiti. Through literature, photography, film, music, field trips, and our own eyes, we will experience the art around us. Let’s recognize, discuss, argue, and finally create our own public art. |
Barry Gabay, Katy Strand |
| I-10 | Balancing the Mosaic: Going to the Edge But
Not Falling Off How and why are labels like “abnormal,” “creative,” “mad,” and “genius” assigned to certain types of thought and perception? Is there a link between mania and creativity? Do mildly and clinically depressed individuals’ perceptions of the world more closely resemble “reality” than those of non-depressed individuals? And to what extent do non-depressed individuals live in an unrealistic world of positive illusions? In this course, we will explore the myths and realities of depression and bipolar (manic-depressive) disorder through case studies of both everyday and famous individuals and, in some cases, their art, music, or writing. We will progress from more objective analysis of these conditions and individuals to more subjective reflections on personal balance and management of mood, stress, and creativity. |
Katie Goins, Crystal Wright |
| I-11 | Corrupting Youth What do Socrates, madrigals, hoop skirts, and Burkas have in common? They are all symbols of a society’s attempt to protect its youth from corruption. In this course, we will examine the multiple meanings of corruption in four distinct periods of history. Case studies include ancient Athens, Renaissance Europe, nineteenth century America, and contemporary Islamic societies. Examples will be drawn from music, literature, history, and fashion. Be prepared to dance, sing, debate, and risk being corrupted. |
Sarah Tomasewski, Barry Sharpe |
| I-12 | Passion for Political Pop Yankee Doodle during the American Revolution. Crosby, Stills & Nash as a countercultural cry for peace. Pearl Jam expressing modern social angst. In this course we’ll explore how, throughout time, music has reflected political conflict, effected social change, and served as a tool for propaganda. We’ll break the music of our history into its elements - lyrics, instrumentation, tempo, and rhythm - and explore how each of these creates passion, anger, understanding or a sense of calm in order to develop a political idea. We’ll look at film clips and documents to see how the music forms from and affects the tone of our time. We’ll close the course by expressing our own political ideologies using the elements of music we’ve studied. |
Michelle Gulick, Allison Kopkau |
| I-13 | Free Reelin’ Movies and music share a happy relationship. They grab hold of shapes and tones, shadows and rhythms, seducing us into dreaming dreams together. We will study films which excel at visual and musical expression, using them as inspiration to create our own short videos. Students will learn the crafts of camera acting, cinematography, screenwriting, and editing as we embrace the motto: “e pluribus unum” (many hands, one beautiful thing). |
Dwayne Wasson, Rick Seyford |
| I-14 | Images Through the Lens of Emotion The primal feelings of joy, sorrow, fear, and love greatly define the image of self and the notion of reality. We’ll explore how our basic emotions focus or distort how we see others and ourselves. Through the study of music, art, and film we will determine how these emotions alter the images that have come together to identify our culture. Activities will include conducting market research, participating in field trips, analyzing media materials, and creating a self-portrait by organizing the images in our lives. We will examine how emotions are shaped and deliberately modified by outside influences such as marketing techniques and mass media. |
Ed Motley, Alan Paterson |