University of
Minnesota
The Program
for the Collaborative Arts
The Art of Collaboration
ARTS 1905, COLA 1001
Thursday 1:25-4:25 pm.
Regis Center W 217
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
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ArtOfColaSlyabus.pdf
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