Interdisciplinary Expressive Arts refers to a specific set of educational activities, goals and strategies. Based on innovative pedagogy and integrative approaches to learning, interdisciplinary studies involve the synthesis and synergy of various disciplines toward a cohesive, unified educational experience. Interdisciplinarity is much more than enrollment in courses from more than a single discipline. Authentic interdisciplinarity emphasizes the linkages between disciplines by focusing on contrasting and complementary aspects of diverse educational domains.
Interdisciplinary studies encourage students to develop broader intellectual skills, greater facility for critical thinking, and greater awareness of the social relevance of their education. Interdisciplinary students have the opportunity to develop exemplary skills in problem solving, insight, team-building, lateral thinking, and multi-modal learning styles. Interdisciplinary strategies involve approaching an issue or problem from various perspectives. This typically entails intellectual inquiries that range beyond the borders of any single discipline or domain. While still respecting the function of the boundaries between domains, interdisciplinary approaches recognize that those boundaries are essentially arbitrary and do not always serve the goals of learning. Global warming and the AIDS pandemic are two examples of contemporary issues that require interdisciplinary approaches.
This course is about creativity, about making a claim for the fundamental right of intentional creative action. Within that context, we will explore the ancient and modern practices of creative endeavor (particularly as regards family and culture), the hurdles of creativity (as they involve craft and precision and clarity) and the great gifts we might receive from others of our creative kin (that is to say, the long tradition of writers, poets, sculptors, dancers, craftspeople of all stripes, musicians, myth-makers, and so on). Throughout this process, our guiding archetype will be that of the trickster.
In this course we stake out the territory of the creative, inspecting the geology of its forms and ideals, finding our own individual places to homestead. Creativity involves the search for truth, yet also an awareness that truth and fact are often provisional, and mythological; they are shapeshifters on the wide-open plain of creativity. We will explore what this means, and what to do about it.
And, finally, the goal of the course (from my point of view, at least), is to have fun: to preserve and nurture the creative and imaginative spirit that is the foundation of all the arts and sciences. The course will include a variety of learning experiences contingent upon regular attendance and dedicated participation. Because creativity is an interactive process, much of the class time will be devoted to group experiential exercises, individual reflective tasks, collaborative endeavors, and practical assignments.
We will create a collaborative environment in this class. We are not going to cobble together the type of group one often hears about in the arts: competitive, cut-throat, critical. Repeat: we are not creating such a group. Instead, we will direct our efforts toward building upon the individual strengths of each participant, finding ways for each of us to be self-reflective in terms of assessing our creative work, discovering a means of protecting the quality and integrity of our writing. The creative spirit is remarkably persistent, yet it is also fragile, especially at its inception, and we must be conscious of this fragility. Think about it: did you not experience, as a child, the strangulation of your creativity in school, by way of a culture of insensitive peers or teachers? Why do you think hardly anyone feels comfortable singing in public, or dancing, or drawing, or reading their written work to others? We have, most of us, been the victims of inappropriate feedback and judgment. We have to be careful about this, in our course, so that we do not harm one another.
Required Readings
Suggested Readings
Books on Creativity and Associated Philosophies
Mythological Fiction
Definitions and principles. Clarifications of common misunderstandings about interdisciplinary approaches and practices. An introduction to interdisciplinarity as a mode of inquiry in the arts and sciences.
Consideration of interdisciplinary practices as effective vehicles for the transmission of sacred, social, political, artistic, and scientific information. Examination of interdisciplinarity as a fundamental and necessary function of human nature and inquiry.
Consideration of the development of interdisciplinarity and its role in the contemporary world. Examination of the relationship between interdisciplinary practices and traditional, faculty-based inquiry in the academic environment.
Introduction to the historical background of interdisciplinary philosophy and practice in science and literature. Explication of ancient world views, with particular emphasis on spirituality, science, mythological concepts, and approaches to the imagination.
Reading of excerpts from core Egyptian, alchemical, and early scientific texts, with particular emphasis on foundational interdisciplinary ideas. Examination of the ways in which the sciences and the arts were entwined in the practices and perspectives of all peoples until the twentieth century. Exploration of the transmission of interdisciplinary ideas into the contemporary world.
Exploration of the transmission of interdisciplinary philosophies and practices by way of the expressive arts. Examination of practices and structures within the interdisciplinary expressive arts (writing, storytelling, dance, movement, ritual, religious practice, music, philosophy, etc.), with emphasis on the traditions of psychology and mythology. Reading of selected texts within the interdisciplinary expressive arts. Examination of the ways in which texts within the interdisciplinary expressive arts have influenced the development of the arts and sciences.
Introduction to the interdisciplinary contributions made by Asian mythology, literature, and science. Explication of ancient Asian world views, with particular emphasis on interdisciplinary spirituality, mythological concepts, and approaches to knowledge. Reading of excerpts from Asian texts, with particular emphasis on the synthesis of interdisciplinary expressive arts within those traditions.
Much of the course content will be generated by students.
Three individual assignments are required for this course: a research project and two creative projects. The research project involves you choosing a specific theme or thread and exploring it in some depth (in whatever medium). We will discuss this project at length in class. The creative projects are opportunities for you to discover and explore creativity in your own life. Again, we will discuss these projects in class.
For philosophical reasons, I do not prescribe a particular length or structure for the projects: a great essay can be a few pages long (as we’ll see), and a great image can be once centimeter wide. Yet it is difficult to craft small projects of excellence without committing many hours of work. So, I offer two recommendations: make the projects as long or as large as they need to be; and make the projects longer and larger than you think they need to be. There is no upper limit on the length or complexity of the projects.
In terms of the research project (an essay, if you like) I’m not interested in how much you can write but rather in the quality of your writing. Perhaps you write like Hemingway, perhaps like Melville or Tolstoy. I don’t know, and maybe you don’t know either. But I can tell you this: writing a shorter piece of great precision is more difficult than writing a longer, more relaxed and wandering work. In the context of smaller projects every word is on display and under scrutiny, whereas in longer works the sheer bulk of the material tends to hide various flaws. Melville, in fact, is a good example of this.
You may write short narratives in this course, but please do not write short form as a means of avoiding work. You will know, I will notice, and neither of us will be happy. Instead, make your work as long as it needs to be. If you compose a lovely, resonant, short piece, you will receive an excellent evaluation. But as I said, writing shorter pieces
is actually more difficult.
The research essay is worth 30 per cent of your grade. The two creative compositions (projects) are worth 20 per cent each.
Each participant will help develop, with two or three other class members, one or two group presentations. The schedule for presentations will be determined in class. Selecting a topic, and with prior instructor approval, each group will present for between 20 and 40 minutes. The presentations must provide an experiential component, a group discussion component, and an informational component. Additionally, each group must provide approximately equal presentation time to each of its members. Each group will also prepare a handout summary of their topic (with short reference bibliography, as required) to present to each member of the class as a professional resource.
Assessment criteria for the group presentations are as follows:
The central idea of the presentations for this course is to give you opportunities to practice interdisciplinary thinking, collaboration, and expression. As such, the group presentations should be interdisciplinary. Essentially, this means that you should try to use multiple presentation strategies and modalities. These might include (but are certainly not limited to) any of the following:
Whenever possible (and workable), try to mix together multiple modalities into a single presentation. For example, you might ask the group to do some individual reflection using the modality of poetry, then create a series of movements based on the poetry, then work in small groups to talk about and share the process. Many configurations are possible. The trick is to choose an activity that you enjoy, then find a way to apply it to the content (suggested presentation topics will be discussed in class). Please do not create your group presentations using only written and/or spoken materials. In other words, don't just stand up at the front of the class and talk about the presentation topic. Utilize the energy of the group. Feel free to experiment with activities and modalities that may not seem, on the surface, to be related to the topic at hand but which might, upon experiment, yield surprising connections and results. Be playful. Allow yourself to laugh at yourself, to be embarrassed, to engage with the process in novel and interesting ways.
The presentations should (ideally) not be complete explanations or presentations of material. Feel free to play with challenging exercises, with impossible scenarios, and other conundra. The best presentations offer more questions than answers. They, are essentially, gateways into the mysterious–which, as Einstein will tell you, is an important place to be:
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."
The group projects are replicas, in miniature, of your involvement in the entire class. They are worth a total of 30 per cent of your grade.
The expectation is that you will attend all sessions and involve yourself in the class process. Your willingness to engage creatively with the learning process, to take appropriate personal risks, and to participate in group activities are all central to your involvement in this class. Developing a sense of personal, academic, and professional direction is very much a process of blending your own personal awareness with abilities and practical techniques. Therefore, your own emotional involvement in the class is as important as your academic knowledge of the material.
You will be expected to attend lectures, participate actively, and complete all course assignments. While attendance is voluntary (as it is in most post-secondary courses), the key to success in any course involves taking time to integrate material from lectures, discussions, activities, and your own reflections. If you miss class, it is your responsibility to catch up. Please ask your instructor if you are unsure about how to do this.
The following (not exhaustive) list of considerations will be used in determining the quality of your attendance and participation:
Effective participation in this class has multiple dimensions, some of which may be measured objectively (such as effective writing) and some of which are signals of interpersonal ability and self-awareness. Interpersonal abilities are subtle, difficult to quantify, complex beyond any measurement scheme, and are the single most important predictor of life success. Accordingly, we pay great attention to interpersonal ability in this class, and we offer the following guidelines for assessing your own development in this area:
Those who possess exemplary personal abilities are relaxed, open, responsive, and kind. Often they exhibit abilities that we tend to assign to the social sphere: personal warmth, consideration of others, hesitancy to judge, sensitivity to emotions. To some extent, these features – which are aspects of temperament more than they are learned skills – can be evaluated using rating scales based on observation. Empathy rating scales are often used for this purpose in counselling training programs. Such scales, or other, similar assessment measures, are useful as baselines, or starting points; but they cannot replace the interpretations of peers and colleagues – of regular people, in other words – in assessing the quality of interpersonal ability. There are simply far too many factors in interpersonal communication for any standardized evaluation procedure to measure.
On the other hand, many details of interpersonal ability are well-known, and may be summarized as follows:
Please pay attention to these qualities and abilities as we move forward.