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Welcome Wednesdays: How Art Helps Us Understand The World

Elmira, NY (05/11/2022) — This is the third of five weekly articles that serve as guides to incoming students as they make their First Year Seminar and Living Learning Community selections. Incoming students interested in any of these courses should indicate their choice by May 30th using this form.*

How can art help us better understand the challenges and complexities of the world? What can we learn from the voices of our ancestors? Can art play a role in generating solutions for social and environmental issues? These are some of the questions explored in three First Year Seminar courses focused on different forms of artistic expression. All three courses will help students find their own voice and inspire them to find new ways to express themselves.

Animating the World of Myth

Available to students in the EC Honors Program, this course is taught by Aaron Kather, Assistant Professor of Fine Art, and will explore and compare the traditional stories of cultures from around the world as they are retold by modern storytellers and artists. Kather will pay particular attention to foreign films, animations, paintings, sculptures, and other modes of artistic interpretation.

"Stories and creativity are core aspects of being human no matter who you are or where you are from," said Aaron Kather. "Myths and folklore persist because they ask the big questions of who we are, where we come from, how we should live, and what it all means. By exploring modern retellings of these old stories, we can talk about contemporary issues and timeless issues in the same breath."

Mashups & Other Collisions

Students in Media Artist Jan Kather's FYS course will read, discuss, and write, as well as create artwork in various media, in order to analyze and understand various types of conflict, ranging from the perennial collisions found in family and community structures to discrimination by race, gender, religion, and cultural identity.

"When we recognize how literature and art can reflect our everyday life, we begin to make sense of the world around us, both past and present," Jan Kather said. "Our readings, discussions, and fine arts projects will help to guide us through a process of self-discovery and cooperative learning. As part of our coursework, our own illustrations of the amendments to the U.S. Constitution will be displayed in the lobby of the Gannett-Tripp library in celebration of Constitution Day on September 17, 2022."

Other design projects (informed by the class readings) will involve poetry, collage, video, staged readings, and other forms of expression.

Art Design and Ecology

Exploring the role art and design plays in ecological and environmental challenges is Derek Chalfant, Associate Professor of Art. In this FYS course, students will develop a broad understanding of ecological issues and their relationship to the social, political, cultural, and economic systems that impact the future of humanity, other species, and our shared planet.

"Never before have ecological and environmental issues been more pressing and creative solutions needed," said Chalfant. "We will explore artistic responses to environmental sustainability and related social issues, looking at artists, designers, and architects that work across disciplines and within communities to focus attention on the web of interrelationships in our environment, to the physical, biological, cultural, political, and historical aspects of ecological systems."

"Students will understand how their own work as an individual, an artist, or a designer can comment on, interact with, and impact the world," said Chalfant.