University of Minnesota
The Art of Collaboration
ARTS 1905, COLA 1001, TH 1905
Thursday 1:25-4:25 pm.
Regis Center W 257
3 Credits
Instructor Information
Guerino Mazzola
Office 164 Ferguson
Office: 612 624 4487
Home: 651 222 3601
Email: mazzola@umn.edu
Office hours: by appointment
Michael Sommers
Office 572 Rarig
612.625.7013 (University office)
612.823.5162 (Studio, Open Eye Figure Theatre)
Email: somme034@umn.edu
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 11:3o-12: 30 or by appointment. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.
Prerequisites
None
Course Description
This introductory course presents the characteristics and the challenges of collaboration through representative approaches from the visual arts, music, literature, media and theater. The course content is designed upon three pillars: the collaborative space, flow and gesture. Through concrete problematic situations, in class discussion, readings and proposed themes students will work collaboratively to create a series of events/works to be presented in class. The Art of Collaboration is a laboratory, a place to play, inspire, question and fail. It is a platform to unlock personal images, and to cross boundaries. The class includes lectures by guest artists as well as exploration of the cultural landscape of the Twin Cities.
Goals and Objectives
The course objective is to make the students acquainted with the characteristics and challenge of collaboration, to teach them the intellectual and behavioral instruments of performing this art, specifically the installation and handling of a collaborative space, the flow performance of a distributed identity, and the communicative tools set forth by interdisciplinary exchange of ideas.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1: Active Participation: A willingness and readiness to participate, ask questions, respond to idea, take a critical stance, to take risks, work collaboratively and respect and support the thinking of others.
2: Attendance: is mandatory for full participation. You must notify the instructor if you are going to miss a class or expect to be late. For each unexcused absence (after the allotted 2, please do not use them) your grade will be lowered ½ letter grade.
3: Reading assignments will be given periodically. It is expected you will read and be prepared to discuss the reading at the next class.
4: There will be three in-class performance projects exploring the forms and techniques as discussed in the the lab. You will be given time inside class for project development and creation but outside time may be expected.
-The work should demonstrate: preparation, application of techniques and vocabulary explored in the class, with strong specific choices, artistic focus and commitment.
-A short written self-evaluation will be due after each performance; criteria for this will be discussed after each assignment.
5: Each student will be required to keep a written record THE DOCUMENT; the criteria fort his will be discussed in class.
6: The Final Project:
A team will work to create and develop a final project that will be presented the last day of class. Through the course of the semester the students will develop and propose their idea.
EVALUATION AND GRADING CRITERIA
30% Participation and Attendance
30% In Class Projects
20% Growth
15% Final Project
5% The Document
Grading A-F
0-100 steps: 95-100 = A, 90-94 = A-, 85-89 = B+, 76-84 = B, 70-75 = B-, 65-69 = C; 60-64 = C-, 50-59 = D, 0-49 = F.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will lead to failure.
Calender
Weeks 1-5:Survey of Creative Collaboration
The Gesture: Playing and Making
Weeks 5-13: Practice and Critique of Collaboration
The Collaborative Space and Flow
Weeks 14-15: Final Project
Pillar of Guerino Mazzola
The embodied pulsation between the gesture of making, the processs, and the resulting facts.
Collaboration is spanned between the agents, which jointly make the labor, the processes they instanciate in so doing, and the resulting objects, facts, and works. We focus on the conceptual and technical devices needed in order to control these three layers of embodiment of knowledge production and their interplay. Collaboration must therefore transcend the merely interdisciplinary objectives, it has to deal with a different behavior in the making, in the communication between the agents, and in the critique of the resulting works, which bounce back to their creators. We shall typically exemplify this philosphy by examples from the world of jazz.
Pillar of Michael Sommers
The Body in Performance.
Students will explore the boundaries and intersections where multiple art forms and practices converge. Students will collaborate to co-author and co-create a series of works for in-class and public performance. Emphasis will be on exploring the collaborative process and the possibilities of integrating visual art, music, theatre and dance to create interdisciplinary and collaborative thinking, art, and performance.
Selected Original References
(1) Anne Bogart: A Director Prepares 2001
(2) Guerino Mazzola and Paul B. Cherlin: Flow, Gesture and Spaces in Free Jazz--Towards a Theory of Collaboration. Springer, Heidelberg 2009
(3) Keith Sawyer: Group Creativity: Music, Theatre, Collaboration 2003
Is this where I'm supposed to comment? I don't fully understand these computer things.
Ok. I think this is where I would leave comments. I don't know how to check that I'm an author though...
I have no thought whatsoever
personal definition of the Art of Collaboration:
The method of achieving one final thesis made of shared knowledge of assorted subjects. This is known as "collaborating."
Jody, great, you also did it!
I observed that it can take some minutes until the comments shows up in the system. That was the case yesterday when I made my example "I have no thougt whatsoever". Best
Defintion: art as a community. Working together to create a flow of art, especially in the use of gestures.
Definition: Many different styles, backgrounds, and arts flowing together to work for a single purpose or toward a single solution.
Definition: Different things working together simultaneously to create something.
My personal definition of the art of collaboration:
Not the product, but the process by which various forms of art flow together with a shared intention.
Definition: Working towards a destination in which multiply roads will lead you and others, but will eventually merge together at that final point.
Definition: a series of actions and reactions to create.
My personal definition of the art of collaboration is when you have multiple minds, not only artistic minds but anyone with an interest in what your doing, working together and forming new ideas to create something that will inspire other people.
Collaboration to me means different people coming together with a shared goal and achieving that goal, to whatever extent, by using their dissimilarities and finding common ground on which to relate and thus, collaborate.
The art of collaboration to me means bringing together multiple people with specific talents to create a broader and deeper whole.
The definition for the art of collaboration is any combination of things coming together with harmony. It seems simple, but i think that the best definitions are so i tried to keep it short and sweet.
http://vimeo.com/17663052