Integrated Learning

Fall 2011 Sophomore ILML 200 and Senior ILML 400 courses for the Liberal Arts & Sciences Department

Go to Integrated Learning for more information

Beasts of Myth and Fancy
Arabic, Chinese and Medieval bestiaries populated the world and the imagination with creatures composed from parts and ideas in the natural world. Some of these creatures still populate our imagination and their influence can be felt in all aspects of culture. This course will further explore the theme of creativity.

Contact Instructor Ysamur Flores-Pena for more information at ypena@otis.edu.

Chinese American Museum
In this LAS integrated learning course we will work closely work with the Chinese American Museum in downtown Los Angeles in both research and collaboration. Students will explore the history and present realities of LA old and new Chinatown, and will generate projects that will encompass the collective and private experiences of the community through an open design concept that will focus on the interplay between the real and the imaginary. The course will include media related outcomes such as podcasts, pamphlets and video clips and their import on actual and imaginary sites.

Contact Instructor Adam Berg for more information at aberg@otis.edu.

Comic Books and Social Issues
Students will be introduced to the comic book plot structure and will learn how comic book creators use the comic book story to focus on socially relevant issues. Students will develop their own social conscientiousness by creating their own original comic book story and script.

Contact Instructor Candace Lavin for more information at clavin@otis.edu.

Designing the Political
Site partner: Center for the Study of the Political Graphics

Can design stop a war? Can it topple political structures? Can design conquer social injustice? This course investigates the role of artists and designers as powerful agents of protest and progress. Emphasis will be placed on a historical contextualization of political graphics to learn more about the role of propaganda, the face of the enemy, and the power of the visual text to shape the perception of the “other” for better or worse. This course will be offered as an ILML 200 and ILML 400.

Contact Instructor Kerri Steinberg for more information at ksteinberg@otis.edu.

Human Ecology (Sustainability Minor)
An interdisciplinary course that introduces students to the current critical sustainability perspectives and
challenges confronting the 21st century as well as their historical origins. The course provides an introduction to the relationship between cultural, social and ecological systems. A course goal is to advance awareness of how artists and designers can problem solve the issues collaboratively, beyond the confines of any one discipline. The course is designed to engage students in the practice of collaborative, integrative and multidisciplinary research needed for creating sustainable futures.

Contact Instructor Nathan Westbrook for more information at nwestbrook@otis.edu.
 

LA Legacy: Pacific Standard Time
Mentor: Sue Maberry
Site partner: Pacific Standard Time

The LA Legacy Project focuses on the Getty‐sponsored initiative, Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945‐1980, which includes more than fifty exhibitions that tell the story of the birth of the LA art scene. Students develop a web based publication.

Contact Instructor Joan Takayama-Ogawa for more information at takayama@otis.edu.

Life Stages: Creating Portraits with Words
Students will learn interviewing techniques, which they will put to use partnering with the Culver City Senior center. Students are then guided through a process in which they work individually and collectively to create an original script that explores personal identity, family history and various compelling intergenerational issues. This course improves writing, self‐expression, communication and collaborative skills. The course will culminate in a performance/reading at the Senior center for the seniors and their families. Projections of photographs from the subjects and historical news clippings may be integrated with the readings. The course will culminate in a performance/reading at the Senior center for the seniors and their families - to be performed by professional actors.

Contact Instructor Luarel Ollstein for more information at (email TBA).

Reel Docs

This course presents nonfiction cinema about real people and critical issues that shape our lives and the world in which we live. Nonfiction films will be viewed as agents of change, critically and aesthetically and we will examine the power of the medium to educate, enrich and even change lives. Films are examined through a historical perspective which is vital to understand the present and necessary to visualize the future.  As budding artists and global citizens, Otis students have a responsibility to the greater good and need to understand that art can inspire and educate as well as entertain.

Contact Instructor Perri Chasin for more information at pchasin@otis.edu.

Urban Farming In Los Angeles
Food and access to land are fundamental human concerns across cultures and throughout history. In Los Angeles, the growing population, disputes with the Owens Valley over water rights, and food security are but a few of the concerns that people are currently trying to address through sustainable models. At the center of these conversations stand the urban farmers and the community gardens they develop and maintain all over the city. In this class we will learn ethnographic theories and methods (e.g., fieldwork, participant‐observation, interviews, documentation) that we will apply to deepening our understanding of the ways urban farming and community gardens affect people's lives, as well as the ways these endeavors connect to larger concerns in society and more importantly, how the work of the artist can and does contribute. Our academic work will be complimented by hands‐on experience visiting a garden, engaging in the activities there and also hearing from key members.

Contact Instructor Claudia Hernandez for more information at chernandez@otis.edu.

Examining the Civil Rights Movement
Course Mentor: Robert Johnson
Site Partner: California African American Museum

The Civil Rights movement made far reaching strides during 1956–1968. Using the upcoming exhibit “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement 1956‐ 1968” at the Skirball Cultural Center as a focal point, students will discuss how this era reshaped American history, society, and culture from a multi‐disciplinary perspective. This course will also examine the events, figures, and issues central to the Civil Rights movement.

Contact Instructor Carol Branch for more information at ananse@otis.edu.

Festival
Site partner: Loyola/LA planning group and Bill Rosendahl’s office

Through readings and presentations by community organizers, business and fundraising professionals, students will learn what goes into building and promoting a successful community festival. They will create a business plan, a marketing plan, and a fundraising/development plan that can be used by the college and the local community in creating an annual festival that celebrates this area of the city in a partnership between Otis College and local government agencies and businesses.

Contact Instructor Andy Davis for more information at adavis@otis.edu.

“Homeboy” Histories and Culture
Site partner: Homeboy Industries

This course explores personal experience narratives and how they are expressed in the visual arts by their narrators. In addition, this course focuses on identity and the way in which it is expressed: political, ethnic, and social identities serve as markers for social mobility and control.

Student Projects from Fall 2007 - Spring 2008

Contact Instructor Ysamur Flores-Pena for more information at ypena@otis.edu.

LA Past Lives: A Virtual Architecture
Site partner: Richard Riordan Central Library

This course will challenge students to reconstruct past physical and social nexuses of neighborhoods/communities in LA combining both architectural and design components with art, cinema and private histories of present and past community members. Students will generate an online archival display of LA’s past communities as part of this course.

Contact Instructor Adam Berg for more information at aberg@otis.edu.

Modern Mysticism and the Afterlife
Site partner: Hollywood Forever Cemetary

This class explores the concept of the soul/spirit as viewed through modern mysticism, mystic individuals and social movements. Students will look into cross-cultural perspectives regarding death, life after death, and the eternal search by individuals and cultures for meaning within these concepts. They will also explore rites of intensification that allow people to bring death into the life cycle. Students will read about and discuss various forms of analysis regarding these ideas and attend field trips designed to give students first-hand experience into these concepts so that they may formulate their own analytical perspective. Students will also experiment with and attempt to use or perform some of these practices and concepts in class and hear from guest speakers such as ghost hunters and mediums.

Hollywood Forever Cemetery is the site partner and students will participate in their annual Dia de los Muertos Festival on October 24th and create a festival altar and research the function of the festival for the participants.

Contact Instructor Heather Joseph-Witham for more information at hwitham@otis.edu.
 

Movies That Matter
Mentor: Judy Arthur
Site partner: FilmAid International