The proseminar will meet two full (9:30 am-3:30pm) Saturdays, September 23 and October 14, and then three shorter meetings, for concerts and museum visits and review. One major purpose of the proseminar is to acquaint new students with each other, with the entire faculty of the department, and with some of the advanced students. Faculty and advanced students introduce themselves by each making a brief presentation about some current or recently completed work in communication, computing and technology and then discussing it with the proseminar participants. New students also become acquainted with each other, through jointly considering the role of music and visual art as communication, including the changing way in which various technologies are employed in specific examples of music and visual art. The other major purpose of the proseminar to to consider together the power of music and art as communication, some of the roles technology has played in each, and the possible place of each in multimedia and other new technology creations.
The class meetings of TU5000 are accordingly taken up with: (1) meetings and discussions with the faculty and advanced students and (2) preparation for, and discussion of, art and music experiences. The major art experience will be a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to cover 8000 years of the development of the visual image and a visit to the Museum of Modern Art to assess particularly the state of images in art of the last hundred and fifty years. The major music experience will be a performance of J. S. Bach's Magnificat and Singet den Herrn and Britten's Ceremony of Carols, all with orchestra and chorus, at Riverside Church, on December 3. Detailed suggestions for each portion of the seminar are provided in separate brief documents called Details and assignment specifics.
The course is Pass / Fail and all work must be completed to receive a mark. Because, despite the technology-supported rise in importance of alternative representations such as graphics and sound, writing clearly in ordinary prose remains essential to success in this field, several written assignments are required by any one completing the proseminar. They are: (1) a brief summary of the presentations by each faculty member and advanced student, and two reflections: (2) one on the art experience, and (3) one on the music experience. More specific details about the format and length of these writings are described in Details and assignment specifics mentioned above.