Course Search Results

Introduction to history, aesthetics, and practice of photography as a fine art; includes demonstrations, workshops, critiques, final portfolio; photography time outside of class; digital camera required.

Elements of Photography will allow beginning non-major students to experience a broad range of photographic practices. This includes introduction to contemporary image culture, workshops centered on historical darkroom techniques, and the production of a fine art portfolio. Students will learn how to use digital SLR cameras in a variety of modes as well as gain experience using Adobe photo editing software and producing fine art digital prints. Digital SLR camera required; available for checkout through the Photography lab.

This course is designed for the art major, addressing the formal and conceptual bases of drawing. Beginning with problems focusing on the essentials of line and mark, it progresses to shape and form. Each of these properties is explored with reference to space and value. Color is a minor component, with tonal range in black and white stressed. The media of charcoal, pencil, and ink are employed. Serious involvement is expected and additional outside work is required. The semester is devoted to developing a visual vocabulary and working attitude that are consistent with the major in art and serves to assist students well in advanced two- and three-dimensional courses. Course format consists of group and individual critiques, perceptual (including still-life and human figure, clothed and unclothed) and conceptual drawing, and other class activities. Materials such as paper, a portfolio, and the aforementioned media are required supplies. TA's teach the course with supervision from faculty.

This course serves as an introduction to the ceramic arts and focuses on hand-building techniques and surface decoration. Students will learn to create original work through five assignments. Students load and fire electric and gas kilns, with occasional wood, soda, and raku firing as time and scheduling permit. Students mix glazes and make clay throughout the semester. There are lectures on artists relevant to the field of ceramics, basic glaze and clay formulation and preparation, along with lectures on technical information and contemporary ceramics discourse. Short papers may be assigned for research. Several critiques concerning class assignments will be conducted throughout the semester.

Introduction to filmmaking principles; how to shoot and edit short videos utilizing smartphone technology; methods to produce high-quality work without professional equipment.

Introduction to filmmaking; how to shoot and edit short works of cinematic art; exposure to various working methods including nonfiction, fiction, and experimental modes of video production.

In this introductory filmmaking class, students will learn how to shoot and edit short works of cinematic art. Projects include short exercises designed to build foundational skills, a final video project of each student’s own design and a group project. Students can expect to develop skills in visual composition, story-telling, editing and basic sound design, as well as deepen their understanding of cinema as a wide-ranging art form that includes narrative, experimental and documentary approaches. Coursework also includes reading of all required texts, and quizzes.

Exploration of creative nonfiction genres through readings, discussion, and writing exercises; introduction to workshop environment.

A course exploring genres of creative nonfiction through readings, discussions, writing exercises, and writing itself. Students experience a workshop environment in which class members read, discuss, respond to, and critique the drafts their fellow students produce. Course readings, assignments, and exercises model the many modes of nonfiction for student writers. For beginning non-English majors.

Moments of wonder, confusion, and blips in memory that can reveal deep and complicated truths in life; different kinds of personal writing with focus on strategies that writers employ to create rich and compelling stories; character, scene, voice, point of view, suspense, and timing. English majors may apply this course to the following area and/or period requirement. AREA: Nonfiction and Creative Writing.

Writing about the culture surrounding us—literature, songs, movies, magazines, television, food, concerts, theater, commercials, billboards, comic books, internet, museums, sports, architecture; readings, field trips, and multiple approaches to writing. English majors may apply this course to the following area and/or period requirement. AREA: Nonfiction and Creative Writing.

Tradition of nature writing and how it has inspired writers, artists, and activists to find more complicated and daring interpretations of what constitutes an environment; reading and writing that challenges assumptions and pushes boundaries of environmental writing and nonfiction. English majors may apply this course to the following area and/or period requirement. AREA: Nonfiction and Creative Writing.

How comedy functions as one of many tools writers have at their disposal through reading and writing. English majors may apply this course to the following area and/or period requirement. AREA: Nonfiction and Creative Writing.

How to capture a journey's details and sensations through explorations of character, scene, point of view, and timing; why a person does not need to be a world traveler to become a compelling "writer about place"; readings, field trips, multiple approaches to workshopping. English majors may apply this course to the following area and/or period requirement. AREA: Nonfiction and Creative Writing.

Sentences: how they work, what they do; how sentences can help writing, expand understanding of prose style, stretch options. English majors may apply this course to the following area and/or period requirement. AREA: Nonfiction and Creative Writing.

Overview and Goals: Just sentences (and a few paragraphs).  This is a course that will run through all the ways sentences get longer-and shorter.  Whatever we can learn about how they work, what they do, how we can think and talk about them in ways that will help both our own writing and our understanding of prose style.  Part of our concern will be with stretching our sense of options--all the things a sentence can be and/or do, and part with the notion of style itself.  In other words, this a course in which we will dance with language, not a course in which we will trudge toward remedial correctness.  And much of that dancing will depend upon your willingness-better make that eagerness-to experiment, to play with sentences.  Your initiative and imagination will be much more important than your ability to "meet" minimal assignments.

This course prepares students for “real world” writing situations and is based on seminars that I do for companies throughout the Midwest.  I also emphasize building a portfolio, resumes, cover letters, and interview skills for job searches.  The course teaches techniques for revision--both within sentences for efficiency and clarity and within whole documents for comprehension, persuasion, and coherence.  Students revise many kinds of transactional documents, from letters and memos to procedures and reports.  All examples are drawn from actual business transactions.  Students should emerge from the course with enhanced writing, editing, job search, and managerial skills.

Assignments, papers, exams, projects, special comments etc: I require one paper every week. I give no exams.  Students revise letters, memos, e-mails, reports, and other transactional documents.  They also design and/or revise other documents of their own choosing.  They work on sentence structure and they create cover letters and resumes, engage in mock interviews, and solve managerial problems.  Students draw cartoons as part of their assessment of their job search experiences. Students create Linkedin websites and make “Elevator Pitch” videos.

This course explores the idea that to learn to teach writing best, we must write and read; these acts cannot be disconnected. Students read and discuss accounts by professional writers, student writers, teachers of writing, and writing researchers. The discipline of composition studies, as well as reflections by writers on writing, is rich with interesting documentation, important theory, and vigorous dialogue. Students write for an audience to read and respond, in a broad variety of genres including the personal essay, the poem, short fiction, short nonfiction, the letter, the one-pager, and an experimental blur of genres. Writing is one tool for working out thinking. It is a link between inner speech and a frame for talk, a link between writer/speakers and reader/listeners. It is a writing teacher's responsibility to create an environment that ensures a diet of varied writing and broad reading, a community of rich, specific responders, and lots of opportunities for revising and careful editing. Along with the development of the individual writer-reader, the "social construction of knowledge" is an important concept in a writing class, and students experience it in this course. There are no actual stages, there is no specific process, but we can describe and theorize about prewriting techniques, revision strategies, conferencing models, inventories of grammatical conventions and mechanics, and publishing opportunities. Describing writing allows us to freeze the action to discover conditions under which writing takes place, and what the differences are in every writer's approach. To teach writing, you need to see that the act of writing is different with each piece you write, that you contribute to the next piece you write with each piece you read.

English majors may apply this course to the following area and/or period requirement. Area: Nonfiction and Creative Writing.

The primary goal of this course is to strengthen each writer's fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction; another goal is learning to read more like a writer. Much of the semester is spent reviewing and discussing the work of the writers in the class, but students also complete writing exercises and study work by established authors. Always, the focus is on craft and how to best negotiate the infinite number of choices that a writer faces with every word. Students may attend readings and lectures taking place on campus and at Prairie Lights Bookstore. Students are expected to attend class faithfully, bringing with them well-reasoned comments, honest work, and the belief, if for only a few hours a week, that nothing matters more than the powers of language and imagination.

Science fiction literature as an ongoing conversation about the possible; exploration of world boundaries we have by imagining worlds that we don't (yet); alien encounters that consider ways we react to beings we see as unlike ourselves; alternate histories to illuminate what might have been; transhumanist fiction to explore what we may become; issues of composition and craft that underlie all effective fiction; students write and revise works of science fiction and engage in constructive discussion of each other's work.

Solid foundation for creative and professional communication in today's modern work world; exploration of techniques, strategies, and craft of writing résumés, letters of interest, email and its related etiquette, and organization of ideas into presentable form; semester-long creative project that builds a bridge between office and the world using modern technology and social media; readings and discussions of literature to better understand issues of ethics, leadership, conflict, moral judgment, decision making, and human nature; how to navigate and succeed in business or any professional field.

This class is a laboratory in which students will experiment with forms of writing common to the workplace. Through a series of scenarios that simulate on-the-job experience, students will generate professional communications including resumes, cover letters, email correspondence, press releases, short-deadline projects, and elevator pitches. In addition, lessons in grammar, usage, and style will help students become more effective editors of their own work. At the end of the semester, each student will have produced a portfolio of polished writing samples and will be ready to write in the workplace with confidence and skill.

The course is designed to provide students an opportunity to explore interdisciplinary and foundational learning in the area of the world dance through interactions with explorations of two of the main aspects of the Brazilian popular culture (Samba and Carnival).  Through extensive literature, video presentations and practice of popular dances of Brazil, students will be exposed to one of the most important and influential expression of popular culture in the world, according to place, time and event.  This includes all aspects present in the Brazilian Carnival: dance, music, historical and social contents; production; critical theories of performance; religious backgrounds; and theatre making in the Carnival Parades – from current to centuries-old tradition. 

Robotic Art Studio investigates the essential elements behind integrating robotic systems with art & design. This course will bring together programming, electronics and mechanical fabrication. We will look at how to build autonomous agents that interact with the world.

This course will explore electricity, looking at the necessary concepts and tools of basic electronics. Demonstrations of different motors, sensors and other electronic devices will be given. The class will program Arduino micro-controllers to interface with the external world through motorized mechanisms, lights and other devices. Students will build fundamental circuits that will be necessary in the completion of projects, exploring the construction of feedback systems into art projects. The class will look at how to fabricate mechanisms and link these to the control systems. Group discussions will critique both works in progress and final projects. Throughout the semester students will be introduced to artists including: Stelarc, Bill Vorn and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer who use robotics in their work.  Projects may integrate robotics with light, sound, mechanical form, found objects, sculpture, installations, performance environments and wearable technology.

Basic concepts and principles that can be applied to all modes of contemporary visual communication.

This course focuses on basic concepts and principles of traditional and contemporary visual communication practices. Topics include fundamentals composition, color, and design thinking.

Basic metalworking techniques, including: sheet metal fabrication, hammer forming, hydraulic die forming, soldering, riveting, etching, texturing, roll printing, anodization of  aluminum and titanium, stone setting, patination; creation of jewelry, functional, and nonfunctional objects using metals and other materials. 

This course explains the basic applications of Mac-based GarageBand and requires each student to compose two pieces of music using the program.

The mid-term composition involves acoustic instruments with pre-recorded loops and the final composition will employ MIDI instruments and keyboards.

Use of editing techniques and effect processing will also be part of the final composition resulting in a CD of original compositions. Music therapy majors may be asked to write more sophisticated pieces of music than the non-majors.

The basic course structure is: 

1. How to set up the Mac and Getting Started with GarageBand.

2. Music theory basics (maj/min keys, notation, transposition, harmony)

3. Composition basics (the blues, AABA, & various basic song forms)

4. Drop-n-drag with apple loops (arranging possibilities)

5. Using the multi-track recorder (first with real instruments/microphones)

6. Using software instruments (using the MIDI keyboards/guitars)

7. Applying the variety of effects (reverb, echo, compression, EQ)

8. Using plug-ins (downloading and importing from the web)

9. Mixing process (automation, panning, volume levels, etc)

10. Exporting music and creating your own CD’s using itunes.

This course is designed to introduce students to color theory as it pertains to image making including color as conceptual/compositional tool, color as visual language, and consistency of printed color throughout a photographic series. Concepts are presented within the context of contemporary trends and practices. Through slide lectures and critiques the course emphasizes visual literacy while encouraging students to develop a critical awareness of their work.

***Please note that while Photography I and Photography II may be taken in any order, Photography II will not count as an upper-level BA course until Photography I has been completed. Contact your academic advisor with any questions.***

This course is a basic study of visual issues as they relate to pictorial space. Specific problems may involve still life, landscape, human figure (clothed and unclothed), or concept. Projects include monochromatic statements and the complexities of color. A technical understanding of oil media, a visual vocabulary, and the beginning of a personal investigation are stressed. Course format consists primarily of studio work and practice with faculty guidance through lecture and critique. Grading is based on the quality and improvement of work, participation in class critiques, and attendance. Written work may be required. A technical text may be assigned. The University Art Museum, Art Library, and School galleries are supplementary resources. Required materials include a complete list of oil painting supplies. The course is taught primarily by a faculty member with the assistance of a TA.

This class is designed to give the beginning artist an overview of basic printmaking techniques and an understanding of what a print is, its form in both unique and multiple formats, and how these function in our culture. Printmaking processes result in a rich array of pictorial possibilities and methodological approaches. Students will be exposed to the basic techniques and concepts of intaglio, lithography, relief, and basic computer applications for printmaking during the course. We will discuss the history of printmaking by looking at works by professional printmakers, both historical and contemporary, for inspiration.

This course is an introduction to basic sculptural concepts and processes. Emphasis is placed on developing personal ideas, and acquiring basic skills and knowledge of materials. Each assignment builds upon the others, creating a solid conceptual/technical foundation. Instruction includes readings, discussions, demonstrations, and slide presentations. Attendance is mandatory and grades are based on personal development and class participation. This is a fundamental 3D art course that introduces students to a wide array of hands-on fabrication techniques including, wood assemblage, plaster/wax mold-making and fabricating with wire/metal.

Materials, their formal and structural possibilities.

This is the foundation course for Product, Furniture and Interior Design and the introduction to the 3D Design discipline. Students develop conceptual and critical design thinking while solving problems to create 3D structures. Composition principles and their relation to aesthetic, structure and material are evaluated, discussed and developed through several handmade models that lead to the final design.

Communication skills and ability to strategize ideas are emphasized. Students will work on improving their ability to pitch their ideas. Participation in class discussion is mandatory.

This course should also provide the foundation for students applying for graduate programs in design, architecture and other related areas.

Course activities include lectures, demonstrations, assignments, critiques, presentations and a final digital portfolio (website).

This course is intended for students who are not theatre arts majors. The course is an introduction to the elements of performance, including exercises in concentration, imagination, observation, communication, relaxation, and sensory awareness. Classes are designed to promote toning the voice and body, freeing creative expression, and developing an understanding of the dramatic situation. This is primarily a lab class; appropriate casual clothing is necessary. Play attendance with written critiques, a journal, and a final performance project with written character and scene analyses are required. The course enhances interpersonal communication and presentation skills required for a successful career in occupations such as Engineering, Business, Medicine, Marketing, Mass Communications and Education to name a few.

This is a concentrated hands-on training course that quickly introduces students to scenery, costume, and property construction, along with lighting and sound production. Students are shown the stages, shops, tools, equipment, safety procedures, and some of the basic techniques involved in producing a live performance. The course is required for all theatre arts majors. Course requirements outside of class include a mandatory tool qualification, and the attendance at one technical rehearsal and two performances. Theatre faculty teaches the course.

This course provides an introduction to the craft of playwriting.  Students will focus on the fundamentals of writing for the stage, including playwriting structure, creating characters, writing dialogue and building plays.  Coursework includes in-class writing, regular writing assignments, and the reading of plays.

Engineering students, as well as students of other disciplines, are encouraged to enroll.

Use of theatrical exercises and improvisation techniques to help students develop their imaginations, stimulate creativity, and approach practical projects from a fresh point of view; emphasis on working in teams and using improvisational techniques to solve problems.

A hands-on introduction to the principles and mechanics of lighting design in contemporary theatre and dance.  This course is designed to further the student’s knowledge of live theatre by providing them with an opportunity to explore emerging lighting technologies.  This objective will be accomplished through demonstrations, group projects, and individual presentations.  At the conclusion of this course, the student will have a basic understanding of the tools and techniques associated with contemporary lighting design, including 3-D modeling.  In addition, the student will have acquired the skills to conceptualize and execute a lighting design for a gallery production in the Department of Theatre Arts.

An introduction to digital sound recording and live sound reinforcement techniques for a variety of entertainment venues. These include Theatre, Dance, Concerts, and Industrial projects. Assignments include the creation of soundscapes using Pro Tools software, the implementation of designs through the use of the SFX playback systems, and the complete documentation of a sound design for a theoretical or realized production.

This class counts towards the Design Requirement for Theatre Arts majors.