Adult r(ED), Winter 2020

Ceramics — Shauna Finn, High School 3-D Arts

This class is an opportunity to discover one feature of the high school 3D-Art class experience: Ceramics. Learn some traditional hand-building techniques, such as pinching, coil and slab construction, and create a few functional pottery and/or sculptural art pieces.

1984, The Hunger Games, The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror — Ann Carroll, High School Humanities 

Not so long ago these were understood to be speculative dystopias. Now we sometimes struggle to identify where fiction ends and current events begin.  As our culture grapples with the issues of the extinction of “truth”, the transformation of language, privacy, technology, and the rise of global autocracy, questions emerge much faster than we are able to answer them.  In these five sessions, participants will encounter news and journal articles, philosophical writings, popular media, and cultural criticism to define the nature of dystopia, as we explore current events that range from the LAPD’s use of algorithmic  “predictive policing”, to shapeshifting identity on VR Chat, to China’s new Social Credit System. All course discussions will be recorded by Alexa, pitched on TikTok, and sold to Netflix.

Survey In Studio Art — James French, High School Art

Each week this course will explore a new topic, media or technique from the 2D studio art world. Students will experiment with drawing, painting, printmaking and mixed media. Both contemporary and art historical works will be examined as a means to promote discussion and excite our creative energies. Be ready to get your hands dirty!

Interreligious Dialogue: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Us — Pat Higgiston, High School Mathematics 

“If we traverse the world it is possible to find cities without walls, without letters, without kings, without wealth, without coin, without schools and theatres; but a city without a temple or that practices no worship, prayers and the like, no one ever saw.”– Plutarch

How can a secular community understand and describe religious practice? What can we learn from religious traditions? Is there space to engage in reciprocal dialogue with religions? This class will discuss the major monotheistic traditions (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity), and how their beliefs influence their practitioners’ commitments to peace, justice, and the Earth. Participants will explore the dialogue that can take place between these traditions and their own identities and community values. Buddhism and Hinduism will be considering if time allows. Readings will be taken from Huston Smith’s The World’s Religions and Philip Novak’s The World’s Wisdom, as well as a variety of other sources, to accompany the class discussion.  

Dante’s Inferno — Michel deKonkoly Thege, High School Humanities 

Have you ever felt that you were in “a dark wood” where “the straight way was lost”? Have you wondered about the consequences of evil and the need to expiate sin? What is hell like, in the imagination of a great poet? Dante’s Inferno, the first part of his three-part Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy), explores these issues and many more, such as political exile, the evils of banking, and the attractions of sin. In Dante’s long poem of astonishing sweep and drama, we encounter cruelty, tragedy, personal fidelity, passionate love, and heartbreaking betrayal in equal measure. We will read and discuss selected cantos from Inferno and explore the historical setting in which Dante worked. This class will demand a close reading of the poem itself and will draw on the many references to Dante’s great poem in music, visual arts, and literature.

Music Class — Nick Wright, High School Instrumental Music 

The Adult r(ED) music class is a fun and engaging opportunity for the novice to intermediate musicians to collaborate, receive guidance and inspire one another in a condensed, yet similar method to high school instrumental music classes at LREI. We will first share our musical interests, instrument (or voice), and respective experience to best decide what song or arrangement can be adapted to the instrumentation and skill level of the group. From there, each class serves as a rehearsal to facilitate the artistic process and nurture individual progress. This includes everything from learning the basic elements of the song (melody, harmony, and rhythm), to building the arrangement (intro/outro, verse, chorus, bridge) and refining the subtleties (dynamics, embellishment). During the last class, the music suite will be converted into a recording studio to record the song as it had been rehearsed. The recording will be mixed and its final result will be returned via a file-sharing platform.