Creative Process Poster

CREATIVE PROCESS - FRANCE

Four Weeks/Four Credits
May 18 - June 12, Spring 2009
Satisfies the LSA Creative Expression Requirement
Open to all undergraduates, administered through the School of Art & Design

Live in the Medieval French Abbey of Pontlevoy, France Explore the region through field trips. Pontlevoy is located in the Loire Valley, a rich chateau region; 2 1/2 hours from Paris; 1 hour from Tours. More information about Creative Process France.

Creative Process Course

A Michigan Daily video about Creative Process:
"UARTS 250: Creative Process - One of the University's Most Intriguing Classes"

What is "Creative Process"?

Creative Process, sponsored by Arts on Earth, is the first interdisciplinary course in a new category of University of Michigan courses: University Arts.

This course is supported by Multidisciplinary Learning and Team Teaching Initiative.

Specifications:

UARTS 250, Class # 29325
Team-taught by faculty from the School of Art & Design; the School of Music, Theatre & Dance; the Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning; and the College of Engineering
Open to undergraduates from all University of Michigan colleges and schools
Satisfies the LSA Creative Expression requirement
4 credits
Fridays 9:00-11:00 am and 12:00-3:00 pm
Meets in School of Art & Design studio classrooms on North Campus
No prerequisites required

What will it do for me?

Creative Process is designed to prepare you to recognize, understand, articulate, and utilize your creative abilities. Your experiences in this course, working with other students from disciplines across campus, will provide you with a conceptual and experiential foundation for the generation of creativity.

Why are you offering it?

Creativity is emerging as an essential competence for students in universities worldwide. The creative process has been a subject of study and inquiry in diverse disciplines for decades, as reflected in scholarly journals such as the Journal of Creativity Research, the Creativity Research Journal, the Journal of Creative Behavior, and Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, as well as in the proceedings of organizations such as the American Creativity Association and the International Center for Studies in Creativity. Creative Process uses the strengths of U-M's exemplary professional arts and engineering faculty not only to prepare students for particular career goals, but also to equip them to respond creatively and confidently to new and unexpected situations that will confront them throughout their lives.

Who Teaches Creative Process?

The course is taught by four teams of two faculty from the units that comprise Arts on Earth:

School of Art & Design
Associate Professor Elona Van Gent
Associate Professor David Chung

College of Engineering
Professor Herbert Winful
Associate Research Scientist and Adjunct Associate Professor John Nees

Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning
Associate Professor Sophia Psarra
Lecturer Tszyan Ng

School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Associate Professor Michael Gould
Lecturer Mark Kirschenmann

Stephen Rush, Professor, School of Music, Theatre & Dance, is the Course Coordinator

What will the class be like?

Most class time will be spent pursuing creative work in a studio environment. Guided by the interdisciplinary faculty members listed above, students will explore creative expression in four major modes: sound, motion, visual images or objects, and language. Over the course of the semester, students will rotate in groups of 20 through all of these sections, each of which will be team-taught by two faculty members.

The class day begins and ends in the studio (9 am – 11am and 1 pm – 3 pm), with four groups of 20 students meeting with two interdisciplinary faculty members to work in one of the four modes identified above. For one hour each day (noon – 1 pm) all 80 students and 8 faculty members will meet together to digest conceptual, historical, and contextual information about creative processes across a wide range of human endeavors. Readings, films, and information in other media related to creative process will be assigned each week.

More on the studio portion: process and goals

The four elemental modes – sound, motion, visual images or objects, and language – are domain-independent: that is, they do not necessarily engender expectations for results in any particular artistic domain (such as music, dance, painting, and poetry). Instead, they enable a wide range of possibilities for creative work in any field. By working with interdisciplinary faculty teams with expertise in each of these modes, students develop a sense of the vast range of options available for creative expression.

The objective of the studio/critique component of the course is to give students hands-on experience in creative work through assigned projects. Specific parameters of the projects undertaken in each section will be provided by the faculty teams, and will reflect the particular mode of each section. Each studio session will include a variety of exercises - some short, others longer. Short exercises will be carried out in class, under the close supervision of faculty. Longer exercises will be carried out outside of class and brought to class for discussion of process and critique of results. Both individual and collaborative group projects will be assigned. Faculty will guide students through specific creative assignments, helping them to understand, discuss, and develop their creative process.

Students will record their experiences in a comprehensive journal, including lecture/reading notes, project sketches, and culminating project plans. Digital documentation will be encouraged. The journal plays a key role in developing the culminating project/presentation.

During the final weeks of the semester, students will organize the documentation of their semester's work and prepare a theoretical and documentary project resulting from their overall course experience. The specifics of this assignment will be dependent upon resources and skills available to the student and the planning of the faculty.

How will grades be determined?

Criteria for student evaluation include the student's

development as a creator over the duration of the course,
engagement in class,
journal – how regularly it's maintained, how much engagement and insight it shows, and
ability to reflect on the process involved in the culminating project/presentation.

The entire faculty team evaluates each student.