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COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is designed to broaden students’ Italian experience through a wide range of cultural activities and lectures on a variety of subjects that have shaped historic and contemporary Italian culture. The course will include lectures on such topics as the art and architecture of Florence, the history of Italian cinema, the ancient roots of Italian civilization and contemporary Italian art. Central to our lectures and discussions will be the ways in which these various subjects are visible in contemporary Italian life and continue to inform Italian culture. Lectures and discussions will be augmented by a series of readings and by many field trips to museums, artists' studios, and sites of historic or cultural importance. Students will record and respond to these experiences by creating an original journal in which they will write, sketch, paint, record photographs, and create collages of collected materials. INTRODUCTION This course is an introduction to a broad array of topics that inform historic and contemporary Italian culture, and it guides students in the creation of a unique artistic journal in which and through which their thoughts and experiences are recorded and given aesthetic form. The Italian Journal course broadens and deepens students' understanding of the culture and physical surroundings they encounter during their period of study in Italy, and it provides a general framework into which their experiences may be contextualized. Finally, it aids students in the development of creative visual and verbal means of recording, analyzing and reflecting upon their interaction with Italy. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES By the completion of this course students should: 1) have a basic mental framework of Italian, and more particularly Florentine, culture and society, in order to better place their experiences and other courses within an informed context. 2) be better-equipped theoretically and practically to produce a sustained project of communicative art. 3) be conversant with several elements of Florentine and Italian society and culture, having a sound basis for future study and investigation in these fields. 4) Have an improved awareness of cultural differences and sensitivity towards these differences so as to be better equipped in the future to operate in a foreign environment. COURSE REQUIREMENTS 1) Attendance: This is an experiential, classroom-based course, and attendance is mandatory. Missing class means missing important content for which the student will be responsible. More than two absences will affect your grade and missing five class sessions will result in failure of the course. Students must have a doctor’s note or a note from the school's director for an absence to be considered excused. Out of respect for your fellow students, please be on time to all class meetings and fieldtrips. 2) Discussions/Class Participation: Since this is an experiential course, it will rely heavily on give-and-take among students and between students and instructor. Therefore, it is extremely important to the quality of your experience that students participate fully in discussions and come to class having done the readings and prepared to discuss them and ask questions. 3) Course Assignments: In addition to readings, discussions and field trips, there will be several Assignments that students will work on both in and out of class. These include but may not be limited to: a) Individual Student Presentation on a topic to be assigned by the instructor. b) Midterm Exam: For the mid-term students must present a digital collage of work completed on the journal. The collage will be in poster format A1. Details will be given on handout. c) Short Research Paper on a topic to be chosen by the student and instructor. d) Journal: This is the central element of the course, and replaces the final exam. It may take many forms, and may be as wide-ranging or as narrowly defined as you wish. You may make it from scratch, use adapted materials or use purchased materials; and the journal may involve collages, drawings, paintings, photographs, diagrams, writing, video or even sculptural elements. For this semester, students will also be introduced to diverse media in communication and design. Students may also choose to design their journal as web pages, magazines, newspapers or other packaging designs. Your goal is to consider the content of your experiences of Italy both in and out of class and to use the journal to give a considered and expressive aesthetic form to those experiences or some selected theme(s) among them. Content and form should be consciously related, and the resulting journal should be conceived as a creative work that communicates through its physical and visual qualities as well as through its verbal ones. Your journal will be presented for instructor and peer review at the critiques and displayed in the Student Show at the end of the term, so please remember that it is not merely a private diary.
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