SAA 10: Arts Encounters: Exploring Arts Literacy in the Twenty-First Century
Schedule
Week 1 (January 8): Introduction
What is art? To what extent are our notions of art culturally conditioned? How do we acquire our artistic tastes? How do artists see themselves as fitting into the world?
week 1 readings
Week 2 (January 15): The String Quartet; Opera
This week affords us the opportunity to experience two dynamic aspects of traditional Western practice. First, the string quarter is one of the most venerable instituions in Western classical music. The highly acclaimed Kronos Quartet represents one way of keeping this medium vibrant in the midst of all the enormoussocial upheavals since the eighteenth century. In the case of the Kronos, what happens when one of the most traditional ensembles in so-called classical music decides to go exclusively contemporary (or even punk)?
Kronos Quartet, Saturday, January 20, 8 pm at Schoenberg Hall. We have free admission for a video feed from Schoenberg Auditorium into our regular meeting place. We will have the opportunity to take part in a post-concert discussion.
Mozart's Don Giovanni
Friday, January 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, January 21 at 3:00 p.m., Royce Hall
Opera was the central medium in Western music from shortly after its introduction around 1600 until at least the First World War. Mozart's operas have maintained a deep fascination for over two centuries, and this story of the consummate "player" still has a universal appeal.
Week 3 (January 22): Contemporary Theater
The Weir by Conor McPherson (Geffen). Four men swap ghostly tales in a remote Irish pub on a rain swept night.
Does modern life, with its short attention spans, preclude the possibility of theater in our time?
Dress Rehearsal Sunday, January 28, 6:30 p.m. at the Geffen.
Week 4 (January 29): The Visual Arts
Made in California, exhibit at LACMA
This remarkably sprawling show documents the arts in California from 1900-2000. It will raise all the issues of high and low, influence and genius, that you can imagine.
Week 5 (February 5): Traditional Music
The Kodo (the name means both "heartbeat" and "children of the drum") tradition in Japan goes back many centuries. With drums ranging from five to nine hundred pounds, how do its practitioners on a modern concert stage maintain the almost religious aura with which the practice was originally invested?
KODO (Performances: February 7-11, Royce Hall)
Week 6 (February 12): Contemporary Dance
What does stylized movement mean in an era when we have seemingly "seen" everything? To what extent is dance today driven by ethnic or regional energies as opposed to individual vision? What does it mean to be a choreographer? How do contemporary choreographers interact with their dancers? How is dramatic narrative conveyed?
Nederlands Dance Theater (Performance: Thursday, February 15; 8 pm at the Wiltern Theater)
Week 7 (February 19 -- Monday is President's weekend holiday): Digital Art
Probably no catchword has been tossed about more freely by the media over the last fifteen years than "digital art." In direct conversation with three digital artists we shall see, hear, be moved by, and otherwise experience an exploding and highly diverse frontier-one that is likely to affect our lives very directly in the future.
Professors Victoria Vesna and Bill Seaman (Feb 19) (both from the Department of Design | Media Arts) are on the cutting edge of new developments.
Week 8 (February 26): "World Music"
For roughly a century world music has meant "non-Western music." Such was the force of Western imperialism that the only adequate reaction was to develop explicitly non-Western ways of viewing the world. This week attempts to address issues of musical commonality and how all musics may be fruitfully approached.
Prof. Chris Waterman (February 28) of WAC will speak about the extraordinary recorded migration of "A-wim-a-weh" from the Zulu singers in the late '30s to the American pop scene of the '50s and '60s, and finally to The Lion King. A classic study of the embeddedness of technology in culture.
Another guest scholar/performer will appear on Monday the 26th.
Week 9 (March 5): The Club Scene
The arts are practiced everywhere there is human activity, and nowhere is this more true than in L.A.'s vibranty club scene. We will have the privilege of talking with David Sefton, UCLA's new Director of UCLA Performing Arts, whose perspective will help you place this whole phenomenon in a very bright light.
Week 10 (March 12): Architecture
Space, as architects know better than anyone, is both static and dynamic, dramatic and contemplative, abstract and culturally grounded. The Viennese-born architect R.M. Schindler was not only one of the most distinguished students of Frank Lloyd Wright but he was one of the most original modernist architects of the first half of the twentieth century. The exhibit of more than 150 drawings from the period 1910-1950 will offer a unique opportunity to explore in depth the work of one modern master.
We are still exploring opportunities for site visits with distinguished architects.