Syllabus
The Arts in New York City: Awakenings
Professor Roslyn Bernstein
Office Hours: Tuesday, 1 PM to 3:00 PM (By Appointment)
Room 7-270, Vertical Campus (1 Bernard Baruch Way)
Phone: 1-646-312-3930 email: roz_bernstein@baruch.cuny.edu
Tech Fellow
Craig Willse (cwillse@gmail.com)
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 12 noon to 3:00 PM
Room 320 (Honors College lounge), 137. E. 25th Street
This class will explore the theme of awakenings. How do works of art in theater, opera, film photography, and visual art explore the theme of awakenings? What is illusion and what is reality? How do we define ourselves and how do we evolve? How do diverse artistic genres, by relying on acting, singing, stage directions, editing, and visual techniques, engage audiences? Supported by the Macaulay Honors College/CUNY Cultural Passport, we will look at major artistic works, studying their components and reflecting on the ways that the arts contribute to the rich cultural landscape of New York City.
How does an artistic work define and illuminate an awakening? How does a playwright, a composer, an artist mold materials to expose an audience to new and challenging ideas? How do different texts and media illuminate the human condition –the twisting and turning, the metamorphosis, which we all experience as we struggle to understand who we are and why we exist? How do artists bring together disparate elements to create magical creative collages?
Texts: Spring’s Awakening by Frank Wedekind
Libretto for Aida
Who She Was by Samuel Freedman
A Feather on the Breath of God by Sigrid Nunez
Arts Section New York Times (daily and weekends)
Additional materials will be distributed in the course of the semester, including articles and background material on Aida and background reading on photography and the visual arts. Please read The Arts section of The New York Times daily.
Assignments in the syllabus are always due on the date for which they are listed.
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August 23rd 2006: Performance of Spring Awakening 7: 45 PM
UNIT 1: Theater in the city: The Audience as Critic.
Tuesday, 28. Aug. Introduction to the course theme: Awakenings
Group Oral Reports
In-class writing sample: About Faces Theme
Assignment: Five words with definitions for theatrical vocabulary
Thursday, 30. Aug. Theatrical Genres: Building a theatrical vocabulary.
Bring in New York Times Theater Review for Discussion
The ingredients of a review
Thursday, 30 Meet the Artists Graduate Center Proshansky Audit. 5 PM – 9 PM 365 Fifth Avenue
Tuesday, 4. Sept. Contemporary Theater: Spring Awakening
Thursday 6 Sept. Theater: Tings Dey Happen (script)
Tuesday, 11 Sept. Theater: Tings Dey Happen (script)
Tuesday, 11 Sept. Tings Dey Happen
The Culture Project: 55 Mercer Street Meet at 7:45 PM
Thursday, 13 Sept. No Classes
Tuesday, 18 Sept. Friday Classes
Thursday, 20 Sept. Blind Mouth Singing (script)
Thursday, 20 Sept. BAM: Blind Mouth Singing: Baruch Performing Arts Center
7 PM
Tuesday 25 Sept. Discussion of Collage Assignment: Design a one page (8 ½ x 11) collage on the theme of an awakening. You may use any materials—paper, cloth, found objects. Give the collage a name and write a paragraph or paragraphs describing your creation. (Text and collage must be input and scanned in by Nov. 21 for our weblog.)
Assignment: Paragraph Describing your Collage Theme. Due Oct. 2nd.
Thursday, 27 Sept. Class Visit: Blind Mouth Singing
UNIT 2: Opera in the City: Aida
Tuesday, 2 Oct. Discussion of Collage Theme
Libretto: Aida
Thursday, 4 Oct. Libretto: Aida
Tuesday, 9 Oct. Aida Tapes and/or Screenings
Reading: Samuel Freedman, Who She Was
Due: Oct. 11
Thursday, 11. Oct. Samuel Freedman, Who She Was
Thursday 11 Oct. Talk by Samuel Freedman, Who She Was
Club Hours Room: VC 11-155 12:45 -2:15 PM
Tuesday, 16, Oct. In Class Discussion: Samuel Freedman Talk
Tuesday, 16 Oct. Technology Fair Graduate Center Proshansky
Thursday, 18 Oct. Sigrid Nunez, A Feather on the Breath of God, pp. 3-94.
Tuesday, 23 Oct. Sigrid Nunez, A Feather on the Breath of God pp .97-180.
Tuesday, 23 Oct. Sigrid Nunez, Harman Writer-in-Residence Reading
5:45 PM 12:50 PM Newman Conference Center 151 East 25th Street/7th floor.
Reception from 5:00 to 5:45 PM. Reading at 5:45 PM.
Writing Assignment: 250-500 word mini-review of event, 10/31.
UNIT 3 Photography in New York City
Thursday, 25 Oct. Establishing a critical vocabulary: photography
Open City: Street Photographers Since 1950
The Street Photography Project
Tuesday, 30 October Reading Assignment: Photography Articles
Thursday, 1 Nov. Photo Gallery Visit: International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street 11:45 AM
War Photography Exhibit
Monday, 5 Nov. MET OPERA: AIDA MEET AT 7 PM
( PERFORMANCE AT 7:30 PM)
Tuesday, 6 Nov. New York: Capital of Photography
Team Oral PowerPoint Presentations on Five New York Photographers:
(6-8 minutes maximum)
Walker Evans
Berenice Abbott
Lewis Hine
James Van Der Zee
Diane Arbus
Philip-Lorca DiCorcia
Thursday, 8 Nov. Class Visit by Photographer Jeff Mermelstein
Street Photography: Conveying Social History
Tuesday, 13 Nov. Assignment # 3 Due: Street Photography Project
Show and Tell: Present your album/CD of street images (approx. 12)
Do include a one-line photo caption for each image.
Writing Component: A journalistic /1st person account
describing your theme and the challenges you faced in shooting this street photography project (750 Words).
Thursday, 15 Nov. Street Photography Project Presentations Continued
UNIT 4. The Visual Arts in the City
Tuesday, 20 Nov. Abstract Expressionism in the mid-1950s
Willem de Kooning
Franz Kline
Robert Motherwell
Jackson Pollock
Mark Rothko
Thursday, 22 Nov. Thanksgiving: No class
Tuesday, 27. Nov. Abstract Expressionism in the 1960s
Morris Louis
Kenneth Noland
Claes Oldenburg
Thursday, 29 Nov. Visit to MET MUSEUM: Meet at Entrance 11:45 AM SHARP
Fifth Avenue and 83rd Street
Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works
Joyce & Robert Menschel Hall for Modern Photography
(Extra credit)
Tuesday, Dec. 4 Critical Discussion of MET Exhibits
Thursday, Dec. 6 Who She Was/Who He Was? Presentations
Read excerpts from your papers (1000-1500 words)
How and What You Found Out and Why?
Thursday, Dec. 6 Snapshot NYC (Place to be Confirmed) 5-9 PM
Tuesday, Dec. 11 Who He Was/ Who She Was Presentations II
Looking Forward and Backward: Evaluating the CHC/IDC course
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND PERCENTAGES OF FINAL GRADES:
*ORAL PRESENTATIONS, CLASS PARTICIPATION, AND BLACKBOARD DISCUSSION /BLOG: (10% of your grade)
CULTURAL PASSPORT/ REVIEWS/WRITING ASSIGNMENTS: (40 %)
Reviews of Aida, Tings Dey Happen, Blind Mouth Singing, ICP Exhibit, MET Abstract Expressionism Exhibit, and talks by Nunez and Freedman
[All reviews are to be included in your Cultural Passport Portfolio due 12/11]
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT: 15 %
COLLAGE PROJECT: 15 %
WHO SHE WAS/WHO HE WAS PAPER: 20 %
Baruch Policy on Academic Integrity:
I fully support Baruch College’s policy on Academic Honesty which states, in part:
“Academic dishonesty is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Cheating, forgery, plagiarism and collusion in dishonest acts undermine the college’s educational mission and the students’ personal and intellectual growth. Baruch students are expected to bear individual responsibility for their work, to learn the rules and definitions that underlie the practice of academic integrity, and to uphold its ideals. Ignorance of the rules is not an acceptable excuse for disobeying them. Any student who attempts to compromise or devalue the academic process will be sanctioned.”
Academic sanctions in this class will range from an F on the assignment to an F in this course. A report of suspected academic dishonesty will be sent to the Office of the Dean of Students. Additional information and definitions can be found at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.html
Please see the discussion of this subject The Little Brown Handbook, 10th Edition (Longman/Person) See Chapter 45, Avoiding Plagiarism and Documenting Sources, pp. 629-638.