Schwanze-Beast (S-B) Performance Composition--Animals and the Future
COL 264
Spring 2016
| Section:
01
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| Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory |
| Course Cluster: Animal Studies |
This interdisciplinary course led by writer and performance artist Carmelita Tropicana explores the meaning and role of animals in our lives and problematizes neat categories and distinctions between humans and other animals. The course also examines the use of sci-fi as a genre for social and political critique. Tropicana will be joined by longtime collaborator filmmaker Ela Troyano, along with guest faculty from different disciplines.
The studio course will provide students the opportunity to share in the collaborative process and create content based on Schwanze-Beast (S-B), a sci-fi project by Tropicana and Troyano. This hands on practical course aims to strengthen creative writing for interdisciplinary work. Students are given writing exercises developed by playwright Maria Irene Fornes to create original material; they will view/read works that use animals and the sci-fi genre examining the work for themes, character, plot, and the use of other elements in performance to break up the narrative, e.g., lectures and interviews. Participants will use the Liz Lerman critical response process for performance. Students will also work as research assistants for Tropicana.
Schwanze-Beast (S-B) is a (work in progress) full-length performance with video/set installation by Carmelita Tropicana and Ela Troyano. A futuristic interspecies narrative, part performance, part scientific lecture, in S-B the future becomes the lens through which to look at our current cultural landscape. An interspecies woman/hyena and an android question what separates the human from the Beast (or the Other).
The course requires written report(s) based on artists covered in class and/or work with guest faculty. The course culminates in a student-written epilogue for S-B, with a handout for the audience envisioning the future and possible actions to be taken to create a more equitable and just world. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA COL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 - 4th Quarter |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Una Chaudhuri & Holly Hughes, ANIMAL ACTS: PERFORMING SPECIES TODAY
Octavia Butler, LILLITH'S BROOD
Suzanne Collins, THE HUNGER GAMES
George Orwell, ANIMAL FARM
Kari Weil, THINKING ANIMALS, WHY ANIMAL STUDIES NOW
Lori Gruen, ENTANGLED EMPATHY
Charles Siebert, "Watching Whales Watching Us" THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto, Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century" in SIMIANS, CYBORGS AND WOMEN: THE REINVENTION OF NATURE
Benjamin Kilham: OUT ON A LIMB
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This is a Creative Campus Initiative course. Students will be requested to submit a statement of interest. Interested students should contact Carmelita Tropicana at ctropicana@wesleyan.edu for details about the class and the POI questions.
The course will meet on the following days. Sunday classes will run from 2-5pm and Monday classes from 7-10pm.
March 27-28
April 3-4
April 10-11
April 17-18
April 24-25
May 1-2 |
| Instructor(s): Tropicana,Carmelita Times: S...... 02:00PM-05:00PM; .M..... 07:00PM-10:00PM; Location: DWNY200; DWNY200; |
Permission of Instructor Required
Enrollment capacity: 19 | Permission of instructor will be granted during the drop/add period. Students must submit either a ranked or unranked drop/add request for this course. |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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