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 | Paper, Papel, Papier, Papir, Hîrtie, Bumaga We will explore the wide and wonderful world of paper. We’ll journey beyond the traditions of newsprint and text to look at kites, origami, street dragons, postcards, place mats, puppets, graphic design, collage prints, and hand made books. This class is for the non-artist who wants to be liberated by playing in the sand box of the brain and eye. Oh yeah, and we’ll create some hand made paper, too! |
Carolina Alvarado, Barry Gabay |
| I-02 | Art Crackers 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, literature, 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, Péter Upor |
| I-03 | Taking Over the World: the Pervasiveness of Propaganda Are we being brainwashed though the arts, media, and politics? Are we manipulating others? What are the ethics of human communication? This course is about propaganda. We will compare different forms of persuasion to discover the components of propaganda, how it works, how it is used to manipulate societies, and how aspects of our own lives are influenced by it. We will also create source propaganda of our own. By the end of the course, the new “Department of Propaganda” of the Governor's School may just take over the world! |
Aniko Horvath, Katy Strand |
| I-04 | Picturing Politics For centuries artists have drawn their inspiration from political movements and events. They have framed, mediated, and negotiated the world we live in. As a result, artists have found themselves at the center of political conflict and, either by design or by accident, have inspired political changes. How would you use various art forms including dance, music, photography, poetry, literature, and visual art to express your views of a changing world and picture politics? |
Sarah Tomasewski, Barry Sharpe |
| I-05 | The Modern Muckraker’s Journey “Reporters are like men with the Muck-Rake...fixing [their] eyes on what is vile and debasing.” Thus the term muckraker was coined by Teddy Roosevelt. Today there are artists, writers, dancers, musicians, historians, journalists, and filmmakers who have assumed the role of muckrakers. We will evaluate the role of the modern muckraker and what role we have as activists to reform our society. We will explore contemporary activist movements, develop our own reform agendas, and create artistic activist actions through dance, theater, visual art, and music. Topics for explorations may include food and food culture, corporate control, environment, world conflict, sweat shops, and globalization. Be aware that a diversity of views and opinions will be presented and varying perspectives are welcome. |
Leonard Anderson, Patrick Touart |
| I-06 | One Step Beyond: Approaching the Post-Human Precise military strikes indistinguishable from video games. 9/11 footage mistaken for a movie. Senses extended around the globe by cell phones and web cams. Are such experiences changing our concepts of the human? What might it mean to be post-human? Have we already entered a post-human era? Is a post-human phase of our species’ evolution inevitable? On our journey we will explore ways these questions impact science and technology, medicine, the military, the arts, video games, comic books, and film. We will also develop our own conceptions of where we are and where we are headed through creative writing, multimedia presentations, performance, visual art, music, critical analysis, or independent research. Will our adventure take us past the point of no return? |
Grant Johnson, Cynde Snider |
| I-07 | Lights, Camera...Life! Sacred Acts and Sacred Space From Everyday to Broadway, from the Superbowl to the Vatican, performance is not for actors anymore. It is no coincidence that religious rites often feel like performance and performance often feels like ritual. We will explore the dynamic interplay between spaces, performances, and rituals in everyday life, pop culture, sports, and religion. We will ask how and why performance and ritual are related. These questions will help us journey beyond the typical interpretations of culture. |
Patrick Gendusa, Sean Purcell |
| I-08 | Inside or Outside? Making Art about Making Art Artists reveal themselves by revealing their selves. Your creative self can do the same when you toss off your inhibitions, fears, predispositions, and let it all hang out. Together, we will delve into meta-art and its usefulness in findng and develping the artist within. Subjects may include fiction about writing fiction; movies about making movies; plays about creating theatre; and visual art about visual art. By exposing ourselves to cinematic, literary and visual artists, we will initiate a journey of self-discovery using the creation of our own artworks as the vehicle. |
Michele Hinton, David Sennett |
| I-09 | 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). |
Rick Seyford, Dwayne Wasson |
| I-10 | Once Upon a Time - Finding Stories Along the Way What are the stories that shape our lives? What are the stories that become part of our collaborative history? How are these tales released and turned into various art forms? In this course we will explore the world of the storyteller as documentarian. We will make and use puppets, create collage, and conduct interviews to generate oral histories as we learn to tell our stories through theater, dance, music, film, and art. |
Mark Fitzgerald, Adrienne Klemme |
| I-11 | Journey Inside the American Mind Do you see me or my image? Does the media create the American mind? Do I become what I see? As individuals and a people we are defined by the images we project. We will focus on a critical analysis of the use and misuse of images in our culture. Through the study of music, art, and film we will explore how we form societal images, define culture, and think critically. |
Ed Motley, Alan Paterson |
| I-12 | Trolling the Unconscious: Reeling in Creative Impulse Where does creative impulse come from and why is it important? Through different applications of writing, visual images, and other forms of expression, we will examine the freedom we can experience by accessing the riches hidden in our unconscious mind. We will explore the validity of unconscious creative impulses by writers, artists, visionaries, and ourselves. Be prepared to express yourself through writing, the creation of 2-D and 3-D artworks, relaxation and acting exercises, as well as other forms of expression. |
Suzanne Faris, Mike Oehmann |
| I-13 | Creating Myth through Symbols and Leit Motifs What do Johnny Appleseed, Nazis, Australian aborigines, kabuki actors, Wagner, and St. Brenden have in common? Leit motif! Join us and experience how symbols and leit motifs transform the ordinary into the mythic; predict the conclusion of a script; identify leitmotifs in symphonic and operatic works; develop your own kabuki archetypes; and experience and aboriginal “walk about” using a “walk about” map created by your colleagues, all culminating with a dramatic performance created by you based on a Celtic myth applying principles and ideas presented in the class. |
John Countryman, Michelle Gulick |
| I-14 | Advanced Frolicology: The Taming of the Muse Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he [or she!!] grows up.” Some children grow up and seem to lose their capacity for spontaneous creative expression. Others grow up to be recognized for their creative genius while simultaneously being labeled by society as “abnormal,” “crazy,” or “mad.” Come explore the myths and realities of the tenuous link between mental illness and creative genius and the possibilities for balancing our own creative passions, mental and physical well-being, and societal constraints and responsibilities. |
Katie Goins, Crystal Wright |