Notes on Class

Class organization.  Basic plan: bring your projects at 6pm to pin up in 170. Arrange the room with down lights, cleared floor, tables in place for campfire lamp. I provide pushpins and basic tools from my cart. Pin up projects. Discuss: I may ask you to pin up a comment sheet so that you can respond directly to each others work (6:10-6:30). Then some songs. Followed by Tony's introduction (visuals, music, videos) to current week. At 7:45 pm or so we take a short break, then return to look at your work as a group. Remind me about this! Also--I'll want everyone to join in on discussion, both during my presentation, and also during the review of new work.  We end with some more songs...  We'll try to get done by 10pm, but if class runs over, I expect you to stay on.
   
Monitors. I'll need some help from you on (1) arranging room with lights, tables and lamp (2) getting my cart setup working with sony monitor screen and (3) help getting everything back to my own office. Volunteers?
 
A small note-pad. Important! You'll want to have/bring a small notebook to write down names and terms as they come up. The world of roots music and cultural sources is vast--like a big weaving, all inter-connected. So picking up on names and places and related ideas--and beginning to make sense of them as they're mentioned--is an important part what the class is about. I want you to know this material! It's a key part oft he course. I may quiz you as to who's who. If I mention a new name--write it down and look up.
 
Readers.  As of this semester, no reader for SPI. However, I've listed some key books in the course bibliography. I will expect you to read one of them and to write a synopsis/reflection. Ask about this in class. For the current term, astute internet searches will be best way to look into sources/background/history and context of the songs we listen to.

SONGS. To be presented week by week. We'll have a main song to focus, with variants and background material. I may pit this together as a course playlist, but at the outset, the musical material will be presented week by week.

Digital notebook.  I expect each of you to make  a personal blog for the class. Your digital notebook. A week-by-week record of your work, with notes on songs, readings and visual discoveries. Use a blogger (blogspot.com) format, not tumblr. This will allow me (and your classmates) to easily navigate and make comments on your posts. And yes, you need to make a new blog for this class...
 
Have your name (or nickname) in the title or description. The class is Songs & Places (Visual Studies 185X).   Go to google's www.blogspot.com   Use a simple template so that your work stands out. (Some of the blogger template formats are much too busy.)

Your first post should be a kind of self-portrait--based on A SONG FROM HOME. A first song, an early song an old song, a song sung to a child. I'll leave this open to interpretation. And write something about your reasons for joining Songs & Places (you can include ideas that come to you after the first night's class). Send me an ACTIVE LINK  to your homepage, BEFORE next week's class. Make that the night before--not at the last minute!  When I have full set, I will share list of URL's with class as a whole. 

I'll expect you to keep your blog notebook up to date for each week of the course. Post an image of each new project. IAnd remember, it really is a notebook--showing your work and your thoughts & responses as they develop! However, also remember that attendance remains primary. Your notebook posts are not a substitute for being in class.

Course enrollment codes. These I provide in class next week. You should be taking this class for the full 4 units. I will expect 4 units of work. I consider this a 4-unit class.

Grades. You can ask me to discuss in class. I'm fair, and I expect good attendance and good work. However, I'm also encouraging as to the leaps you take--where you grow...

First project. See post for Week 1 on my class blogsite:  https://anthonydubovsky53.blogspot.com/
 
Creative work and evidence.  We'll talk more about these two modes in class. Creative work--a painting drawing, collage, montage (music, film...)--something you've made from your own creative being. However, since I want you to base your work on the songs in their geo-cultural surround (sources, background, history and context)--this is Songs & Places after all--you need to show these traces and trails--the visual evidence of your exploration which you pin up together with your creative project. (And/or post on your Digital Notebook.) I have no idea what form this should take, but I want to see it on the wall--we'll see what you come up with... Layers and overlaps are good. Evidence--like a detective. Ask in class...

Openness. Finally, let me encourage you to do work that's open. Where your discovery of the form and the meaning is part of the way a work develops. We'll be talking a lot about this!