VJ-U/VJ-U High School class

Here's my first draft of the VJ-U high school curriculum. It's kind of thin at the moment so please add to it or re-organize it as you see fit. :)

VJ-U @ UAMA Fall 2007 Curriculum
purpose of vj-u: What is the point of art? It makes you think. It presents something different, something out of context that makes your brain wake up and try to fit it into the world. Sometimes that breaks your world for the better. Now perhaps more than ever it is hard to get people's attention except through entertainment. Art is a process of speaking entertainingly.

goals:


 * a primer on the art of the VJ
 * to teach a set of broadly useful media skills
 * to teach collaborative play as a way of working
 * to teach media literacy and criticism

Incentives:
 * get free tickets for students to see VJ concerts
 * see relevant Eyebeam events
 * visit IDMI

(hoped for) Prerequisites: _for the fall these will have to be built into the curriculum._
 * basic computer literacy
 * basic video production

Potential tie-ins to academic classes:
 * math
 * science
 * social studies
 * English (citation and research skills)

Connections to Eyebeam and other external organizations:
 * visit Open Lab
 * a critique session with Eyebeam artists for midterm and finals
 * for grade, must attend 5 of 8 outside events
 * performance at some venue (The Tank, Monkeytown) for just VJs and DJs

Class norms:
 * during presentations, give your full attention to the person who is speaking.
 * Everyone helps set up and break down the equipment at the beginning and end of class.
 * respond to one medium through another (blog, video...)

First day:

 * What is art's purpose?  Who/what/where/when/why
 * bring in examples of what art is
 * where can it take place?
 * talk about norms
 * write expectations, goals, norms on class blog (on http://uama.tiged.org/VJ-U)

What's a VJ? Who's a VJ?
Investigate the phenomenon of live visual performance through video footage and web searches. Activities: Do now: Quick search challenge: search for "VJ" and "visualist" on different search engines and show interesting results to class. Who I am: write words on the board in a word-painting style.

Video breakdown
Break down video to its fundamental elements: light, color, motion, ....

Body movin'
Dance control, motion capture

...

Camera exercises

 * Exquisite Corpse Videos
 * 2 person shooter
 * Cubist Portraiture
 * Obstacle Course/Paparrazzi
 * 1-shot Words
 * Repetition Exercise (from Meisner)

Music breakdown
Break down music/audio to its constituent elements and apply them to visual performance.
 * beats
 * structure
 * dynamics
 * timbre

Compositing (math class crossover)
Look at blend modes (addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc)

jam session
...

video walks
...

notes from first meeting with Liz
Eyebeam events :


 * street/interventionist art: new show opens Sept 27 - ~Nov 22
 * Conflux collab: Eyebeam will launch eco-visualization challenge
 * Performa festival collaboration: maybe the first of these A/V jams/parties


 * 3rd show opens end of December: sustainability and green design
 * possible design class collab

= other events
 * Roulette's Saturday performances for kids (director might welcome collab)