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. Also 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 8pm or a little before we take a short break, then
return to look at your work as a group. 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 (3) returning computer
monitor screen(s) to Joe's Office (Room 103) at end of evening and (4)
help getting everything back to my own office. Volunteers?
NOTEPAD. Important! You'll want to have/bring a small
notebook to write down names and terms as they come up. The world of
American roots music and its 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 stuff!
READER. I will have readers available in class.
The reader fee & xerox fee will be $30. Please bring $30 cash to
class--no checks. Next week!
FIRST DOWNLOADS. As discussed in class--Go to Box post for Week I and download song sets corresponding to TAN songbook (main 30 plus supplements, in italic) and GRAY songbook. Three downloads in all. Be sure to include .xml file for track info. I'll give them to you here as well:
Songs and Places CD (tan songbook)
https://berkeley.box.com/s/znpnbyxgb80hd08i1q3k
S&P Extra Songs on Main List (tan songbook, titles in italics)
https://berkeley.box.com/s/9bjw6fhsbb4qjfnp98b8
S&P Supplement Songs (gray songbook)
https://berkeley.box.com/s/t8e31fcez6jtvll14vps
LISTEN to the SONGS and LEARN THEM!!!
DIGITAL
NOTEBOOK. WE WILL DISCUSS THIS IN WEEK 2. I expect each of you to make a personal blog for the class.
This will be a week-by-week record of your work, with notes on songs,
readings and visual discoveries. Use
blogger (blogspot.com) format, not tumblr. This will allow me (and your
classmates) to make comments on your posts. And yes, you need to make a
new blog for this class...
Have your name 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
formats are much too busy.) Your first post should be a kind of self
portrait--based on FIRST
SONG / EARLY SONG, OLD SONG (I leave this open to interpretation) and
something written about your reasons for joining Songs & Places (you
can include ideas that come to you after the first night's class). When your blog is up, send me an ACTIVE LINK with the URL to your Digital Notebook homepage. Get me this BEFORE next week's class.
When I have full set, I will share with class as a whole. I'll expect
you to keep your notebook up to date for each week of the class. It
really is a notebook--showing your work and your thoughts &
responses as they develop!
CECs. These I provide in class next week, after reader purchase. You should be taking this class for the
full 4 units. If not you need to discuss with me.
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.
READING. We'll start the reader next week. For now, do some online explorations about
the background (musical, cultural, historical) about your Down in the Valley.
CREATIVE
WORK & EVIDENCE. We'll talk more about these two modes.
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 and their geo-cultural
surround--Songs & Places after all--you need to show these traces
and trails--some kind of visual evidence of your exploration which you
pin up together with your creative project. (And 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. 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!
See you next Thursday.
