Site-Specifics + Socially-Engaged Media
Course Description
Students will gain an understanding of how digital media technologies can serve as tools for creative cultural practice through the production of site-specific video, sound, and new media artworks. Site-visits, meetings with community experts, and collaboration with local organizations will contribute to the development of works that will be distributed and displayed through mobile devices, projection, installation and online platforms. Lectures, readings, and discussions will provide a historical overview of the intersection of site-specificity and community-based sound and video works. Students will develop technical skills in camerawork, lighting, audio recording, and editing, and be introduced to video and sound artists whose works investigate race, class, gender, sexuality, labor, and environmental politics.
2017
Students used Fort Andross and the surrounding environs as context, material, and site to create video, sound, performance, and social practice artworks.
River Refuse
For a month and a half the artist invited the community to assist him in collecting refuse found in and around the Androscoggin River, placing the oddments in his canoe and toeing them along the river. He reminds us of the bitter truth that rivers still transport waste swept up by the winds and waters. For this site-specific piece, the Bowdoin Chamber Choir was recorded singing Ola Gjeilo's Tundra and layered with sounds of the river and water.
When Luck Turns to Privilege
Video Installation
An exploration of the complex issue of immigration, by delving into what it means to move around freely, hold a specific passport, and build a home in a new country. The piece begins as a letter to the artist's grandmother, who escaped Nazi Germany as a young girl, and subsequently delves into privilege as a United States Citizen.
