Creative Arts & Technology Courses
Come alive as a dancer, singer, actor or artist in a short course where you collaborate with others, try out a new art form, develop your talents, and learn a great deal about being creative and expressive. This is a rotating series of half-courses that fulfill the Aesthetic Appreciation requirement for General Education. May be repeated for credit.
This is a studio art course that focuses onmaking things from simple materials: papier-maché, wire, clay, wood, string, paper, cloth, cardboard and everyday objects that are often thrown away. It is the ultimate recycling, green course. So, you should bring in anything that you think can be used to make art.
Explore ways to bring “real”media into your computer and how to bring your computer-generated work to life in the studio. Use scanners, digital cameras, printers, paint, clay, and found objects to push your creative envelope.
This course will provide hands-on experience recording, editing and mixing digital audio. Pro Tools and Digital Performer will be the primary software programs used on the Macintosh computer platform. The student will work with files that contain spoken work, sound effects and music files. In addition the student will be given the opportunity to work with audio files and QuickTime movie files. Students should be prepared to spend lab time out of class. For CAT majors only.
This course covers the broader aspects of the games industry such as its history, its current state and potential future evolution, and the team-based development environment. It then focuses on core game design concepts and their application as students create documentation and work in collaborative groups to develop analog games.
(Also AFS 113) Hand, heart and spirit have been an intrinsic part of the process of creativity, survival and enthusiasm in the African-American community. This studio course will draw inspiration from the rich artistic traditions in the African-American visual arts. We will engage in creative processes such as improvisation, quilting, and collage –concepts and techniques used by Betye Saar, Faith Ringgold, and Romare Bearden. We will study narrative in the works of Ringgold, Jacob Lawrence and others. With this foundation, students will create their own personal narratives.
Whether you are a scientist or a small business owner, a teacher or a journalist, you need to communicate with your target audience as effectively as possible. This course offers hands-on training in the latest new media tools including digital photography, DVD production, web design, blogging, internet radio, and podcasting.
This course explores the movement of both humans and inanimate objects through the study of Commedia Dell Arte, mime, acrobatics, stage combat and street theatre. This knowledge is used in the creation of animation and film pieces, with special attention to such advanced technologies as motion capture and green screen.
This course is an introduction to the concepts and methodologies in the field of interactivity and interdisciplinary practice. Exploring the experimental and dynamic world of interaction: people with people, people and the digital world, and people with analog or “real” environments. Images, audio, cameras, sensors (Arduino), 3D printers, laser cutters and the software that connects them (Processing) are part of our toolkit.
Learn the basics of tap dancing. Steps and routines will be taught along with some history of this American art form. Film clips of legendary tap performers will be shown in class. No dance experience necessary, beginners are welcome. Tap shoes will be needed.
This course teaches basic drawing skills. Students will develop keener powers of observation by drawing still lifes, live models and nature. By analyzing the contours, surfaces, bone structures–by measuring the curves and angles of the objects and people they draw, students will gain an appreciation of the world around them.
This is a team-taught freshman foundation class, a platform for experimentation, collaboration and networking. After meeting as a large group, the class divides into rotating sections. Each professor creates a teaching environment to broaden students' background knowledge, connect them to a personal creative path and welcome them as members of the CAT community.
A participatory class offering an introduction to beginning jazz, hip-hop and theater dance technique. The technique focuses on yoga breathing through movement as fundamentals of ballet, jazz and modern elements are combined in class to reflect dance styles ranging from the street to the Broadway stage. The art of dance develops self-confidence in a fun, supportive environment.
An intensive level class, building upon technique learned in Dance Jam I. It will include knowledge of the muscular skeletal system, student choreography and improvisation. At end of the semester, students will be required to complete a performance project for faculty and students.
Study the history of photography and explore the aesthetic opportunities of digital cameras. Practice storytelling through the development of single and sequential images. Learn about the operational functions of a digital single lens reflex (SLR) camera, digital editing, digital retouching, color management and output, and lighting for studio shots.
This hands-on studio course will emphasize the importance of drawing skills specifically used in the animation and cartooning industry. Basic construction, line of action, exaggerated perspective, force, rhythm, gravity, design, volume and physics will all be addressed along with the 12 principles of animation.
Introduces students to basic choral participation which will enable them to: find their singing voice; match pitches in specific ranges and learn to follow a score of written music. The repertoire will include music from all periods from European classical to contemporary American popular styles.
This course offers a semester-long project in one particular form of movement theatre, ranging from ballet to modern dance to stage combat to mime to physical comedy. All projects involve full participation of mind, body, and spirit and culminate in a small public performance. This course may be repeated once for credit.
Group instruction offered in the electronic piano lab for students who have had no previous piano training. The emphasis will be on playing simple pieces, reading, basic keyboard harmony and elementary keyboard technique.
A continuation of CAT 191.
A hands-on practical introduction to basic techniques and concepts of acting. Theater games, movement exercises, and character improvisations serve as a foundation for later work on scripted scenes. Attendance, participation, and energy are essential, as most of the work and grade are based on what happens in the class.
The study of sculpture begins with an understanding of three-dimensional forms in space: how to imagine, draw, construct or shape them using a range of scale and materials. We will explore the concepts of volume, shape, form, time, and light, and sound in a series of group and individual creative design projects
Learn physical skills and performance skills in this participatory crash course in basic circus technique. Skills may include juggling, unicycling, wirewalking, tumbling, rolling globe, rola-bola, object balancing and partner acrobatics. This course ends with a public performance. No experience needed, just a sound body and rugged determination.
Design is the study of how to organize the formal art elements of color, line, space, texture, time and motion into a unified whole. This course trains your eye and develops your aesthetic appreciation of excellent design in fine art and commercial art forms. Using traditional art materials and the computer, it taps your creativity and develops your ability to communicate effectively through organizing structure.
Building on the studio concepts introduced in CAT 198, Design II challenges you to develop your design sense and to build your graphics portfolio. You will learn about design theory and the history of graphics.