ARTS 280 Transdisciplinary Studio: Oxy and the Art Center

General Course Description: A Team-Taught course pairing an Occidental and an Art Center College of Design Faculty member in project-based work integrating the history theory and practice of the visual arts. Topic for Spring 2016: Maker Communities: From Arts and Crafts to DIY along the Arroyo Seco. In the early twentieth century a cultural blossoming that came to be known as the "Arroyo Culture" emerged along the Arroyo Seco river from the Hahamong'na Watershed above Pasadena through Eagle Rock Highland Park and the diverse communities of Northeast Los Angeles down to the Confluence with the LA River in Cypress Park. This Arroyo Culture sprung from the international Arts and Crafts Movement's emphasis on the handmade seeking to fuse the material and the spiritual and thereby make everyday objects and architecture the expression of individuality and artistic purpose. This course a collaboration between Occidental College and the Art Center College of Design will trace this rich and innovative Arroyo Culture through the community's many demographic and cultural transformations and particularly the revolutionary reinvention of the tradition by Latino artists and intellectuals up through today's resurgent "maker" culture. In the process students from the two institutions will engage with both the rich cultural and geographical history of the area and the work of present day designers and artists. That engagement will culminate in a final project and presentation reflecting (either at students' individual option through research-driven writing or in physical form through a work of art/design) the cultural production flourishing along the watershed of the Arroyo Seco.