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Syllabus Overview
Digital Media, The Self, and Community:
Using Digital Media as a Cross-Cultural Tool
Overview:
The emergence of digital media has allowed us to think differently about geography, social relationships, economic opportunity,
and our relationship to people globally. The interweaving modules of this program will encourage students to explore the
issues and opportunities that arise from digital media while receiving foundational training in new media. In parallel to
the specific course modules of the program, trips to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC will introduce
students to practitioners in a variety of digital media applications – from researchers to artists to business people.
Because learning is often reinforced through teaching, FAX participants will work with local high school students through
New Urban Arts throughout the course of the program. By presenting their work from the week, FAX participants will be introducing
local youth to new forms of digital communication. By leading workshops in the media, they will also be applying their skills
in a specific community setting.
Community Project:
New Urban Arts is a nationally recognized interdisciplinary arts studio for high school students and emerging artists in Providence, Rhode
Island. Its mission is to build a vital community that empowers young people to develop a creative practice they can sustain
throughout their lives – by providing studio, exhibition space, and mentoring for young artists who explore the visual,
performing, and literary arts through yearlong free out-of-school programs. New Urban Arts’ summer program will be
focused on “correspondence.” Collaboratively our programs will explore how we represent ourselves, communicate
and exchange ideas through digital media.
On-Going and Final Projects:
This curriculum will employ a series of on-going individual and group projects, one of which will culminate in a deeper and
more fully realized final project. Given the individual interests and strengths of the group, the ultimate choice of the
final project will emerge from conversations between students and faculty. The on-going projects will include 1.) digital
postcards from Providence, 2.) a web site documenting explorations of place, 3.) digital portraiture at New Urban Arts, and
4.) digital video correspondence. In each of these projects, students will utilize technical skills and knowledge acquired
in each learning module. Three days have been reserved at the end of their Providence stay to complete the project. Our
relationship with New Urban Arts insures a venue for installation/exhibition of this project in a public setting.
Learning Rubric
Each of the learning modules has a theme that’s related to the overall theme of the program, Digital Media, The Self,
and Community: Using Digital Media as a Cross-Cultural Tool. Specifically, these themes -- a.) American culture and history,
b.) digital media and place, c.) digital media and relationships and d.) digital media and information – provide lenses
through which students can begin to develop a better understanding of themselves in relation to others and provide the tools
for deepening their capacity to communicate across cultures. Working with youth at New Urban Arts will reinforce the specific
learning rubrics of the program by asking participants to transmit their knowledge to younger learners and also by asking
them to lead an interactive learning process. Interaction and sharing across the cultures represented by the participants
will situate our local learning within a broader global framework. In particular, our rubric covers the following goals:
• Broadening and deepening one’s understanding of global cultures
• Broadening and deepening one’s capacity to utilize the potential of digital media
• Providing insight into the complexity of the American Experience
• Developing digital media skills
• Developing the capacity to integrate new knowledge and translate it through presentations and teaching.
• Developing greater capacity to work collaboratively across cultures and to learn from experience different from one’s
own.
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