Thanks to grants awarded by The Rhode Island Foundation and the Champlin Foundations, Media Lab is a new CMW initiative that will teach students audio and visual media skills in order to:
document CMW activities
reflect on their learning
create new artistic work
Media Lab is inspired
in part by 08-09 season projects such as the DBR Residency Reflections and Anthem videos, as well as the CMW evaluation led by Dennie Palmer Wolf, and a recent project that I did with RISD students. Participants will
work in small group and one-on-one settings to learn to use still and video
cameras and
audio tools to produce a variety of content for multiple audiences.
1. Interested students will have the opportunity to create new
artistic work, from electronic music to videos, building on CMW supplemental courses like the weekly Music Lab, where students learn to improvise and compose music.
2. Through the addition of Media Lab, all CMW students will accumulate evidence of their learning in electronic "portfolios." Evidence could include recordings of their performances collected over the school year, photographs of their bow holds, short videos they create reflecting
on their own learning, and much more. Here's an example with a Phase I student:
The objective for generating this material is to
help CMW students better understand their growth as musicians as well as to
collect content for portfolios that will help them apply for
competitive opportunities (such as Phase II, Phase III, summer music camps, or college).
3. Several CMW teens interested in documentation can study
photography with me, with the goal of being hired to document PSQ
concerts and eventually be hired outside the organization for
similar work.
The first semester of Media Lab will begin this month with
an electronic music composition course, which I will co-teach with Brown
University Cogut Fellow Betsey Biggs. I look forward to sharing Media Lab projects with you soon!
