I’m looking to assemble a team of creative thinkers from a wide variety of majors, including yours. I need people who see the world a bit differently, who can pull multiple, and at times, odd things together and make meaning from them, who are good communicators, rich thinkers, and goal oriented. As a participant in this seminar you will develop and utilize a range of skills including:
RESEARCH
· You will research the art in the permanent collection of the Owsley Museum, the culture from which it comes, the broader historical background, literary, philosophical and religious connections, and fine arts connections. You’ll be researching issues and ideas in aesthetics, epistemology, phenomenology, and the practice of art history. You’ll also research museum practice, museum education practice and theory, and you’ll be researching a wide range of disciplines (via library research and personal interviews) to bring insights from those disciplines into our project design. Given the wide cultural and historical range of the David Owsley Museum, the project has a large global humanities focus and will encourage research and insight into the connections between cultures across space and time.
THINKING
· You will gain practical experience in disjunctive, critical, and creative thinking, putting two or more things or ideas together that don’t seem to go together to see what new insights emerge. You’ll learn to look deeply at visual art, to read texts deeply, to analyze and create meaning from disparate information sources. You’ll practice the art of integration and expression of ideas and will develop skills in visual and written information organization.
DESIGN
· As a group you will be designing dozens of interactive experiences and testing them out. You’ll design a web-based interface (most likely a website but possibly a mobile app) that accomplishes our project goals while keeping the user experience paramount. You’ll design printed visual materials and contribute to the design of a book. You’ll also be translating ideas from one medium to another (what does painting do that poetry does not, for example?) and expressing those insights in the design of our project experiences. You will also be thinking about designing educational experiences and the particular pedagogical needs of those experiences.
WRITING
· You'll write a range of short and more in-depth pieces that guide visitors through the designed experiences. Some of this work will appear on our web-based application but you’ll also contribute essays and other material to a book we’ll write examining our approach to the museum visitor experience. I hope this book will be a major contribution to museum education practice. You’ll also be thinking about the way writing intersects with visual forms of communication. Finally, you’ll be honing your editing skills.
COMMUNICATION
· You'll learn valuable skills and gain experience in small group communication and formation, in public speaking and presenting, interpersonal communication (including conflict management and group decision-making) and in interviewing and oral research. You’ll be involved in thinking about the communication issues involved in curation. You’ll also practice these skills working with our clients at the Owsley Museum. Some students may have the further option of participating in post-seminar conferences talking about their work with other colleagues and students.
TECHNOLOGICAL SKILLS
· You will use skills from computer science to design and publish a website and also write scripts, design lighting and sound and work on video editing as you create videos related to individual experiences we design. We may also make a film about our experience as a companion piece to our book.
DIVERSITY AWARENESS AND EMPATHY DEVELOPMENT
· In all of these tasks outlined above, you'll be in constant contact with issues of diversity as you think deeply about different ways of experiencing art, different cultural approaches to art, and this contact and engagement with different ways of being will (consciously or unconsciously) develop your skills of openness and empathy that are at the heart of all real learning.
PLUS....
Beyond all of this, you'll have have practical, project-oriented experience to take to future employers. You'll be able to not just say you've developed these skills but you'll be able to show them just what you can do. Employers are looking for creative people who can think in new ways, to innovate with new ideas, people who can come up with cool ideas and make them reality. You'll be doing just this in this seminar.
FINALLY....
Beyond the future benefits to your job prospects, you'll be transforming yourself, enlarging yourself, extending yourself in new, creative ways that will challenge what you know and what you think. This process is at the heart of what we call education.
RESEARCH
· You will research the art in the permanent collection of the Owsley Museum, the culture from which it comes, the broader historical background, literary, philosophical and religious connections, and fine arts connections. You’ll be researching issues and ideas in aesthetics, epistemology, phenomenology, and the practice of art history. You’ll also research museum practice, museum education practice and theory, and you’ll be researching a wide range of disciplines (via library research and personal interviews) to bring insights from those disciplines into our project design. Given the wide cultural and historical range of the David Owsley Museum, the project has a large global humanities focus and will encourage research and insight into the connections between cultures across space and time.
THINKING
· You will gain practical experience in disjunctive, critical, and creative thinking, putting two or more things or ideas together that don’t seem to go together to see what new insights emerge. You’ll learn to look deeply at visual art, to read texts deeply, to analyze and create meaning from disparate information sources. You’ll practice the art of integration and expression of ideas and will develop skills in visual and written information organization.
DESIGN
· As a group you will be designing dozens of interactive experiences and testing them out. You’ll design a web-based interface (most likely a website but possibly a mobile app) that accomplishes our project goals while keeping the user experience paramount. You’ll design printed visual materials and contribute to the design of a book. You’ll also be translating ideas from one medium to another (what does painting do that poetry does not, for example?) and expressing those insights in the design of our project experiences. You will also be thinking about designing educational experiences and the particular pedagogical needs of those experiences.
WRITING
· You'll write a range of short and more in-depth pieces that guide visitors through the designed experiences. Some of this work will appear on our web-based application but you’ll also contribute essays and other material to a book we’ll write examining our approach to the museum visitor experience. I hope this book will be a major contribution to museum education practice. You’ll also be thinking about the way writing intersects with visual forms of communication. Finally, you’ll be honing your editing skills.
COMMUNICATION
· You'll learn valuable skills and gain experience in small group communication and formation, in public speaking and presenting, interpersonal communication (including conflict management and group decision-making) and in interviewing and oral research. You’ll be involved in thinking about the communication issues involved in curation. You’ll also practice these skills working with our clients at the Owsley Museum. Some students may have the further option of participating in post-seminar conferences talking about their work with other colleagues and students.
TECHNOLOGICAL SKILLS
· You will use skills from computer science to design and publish a website and also write scripts, design lighting and sound and work on video editing as you create videos related to individual experiences we design. We may also make a film about our experience as a companion piece to our book.
DIVERSITY AWARENESS AND EMPATHY DEVELOPMENT
· In all of these tasks outlined above, you'll be in constant contact with issues of diversity as you think deeply about different ways of experiencing art, different cultural approaches to art, and this contact and engagement with different ways of being will (consciously or unconsciously) develop your skills of openness and empathy that are at the heart of all real learning.
PLUS....
Beyond all of this, you'll have have practical, project-oriented experience to take to future employers. You'll be able to not just say you've developed these skills but you'll be able to show them just what you can do. Employers are looking for creative people who can think in new ways, to innovate with new ideas, people who can come up with cool ideas and make them reality. You'll be doing just this in this seminar.
FINALLY....
Beyond the future benefits to your job prospects, you'll be transforming yourself, enlarging yourself, extending yourself in new, creative ways that will challenge what you know and what you think. This process is at the heart of what we call education.