Creative Action Integrated Learning

Section Description: Food justice is defined by three principles: 1. Access to fresh, healthy, locally grown, and culturally appropriate food 2. Living wages and fair working conditions for all food system workers 3. Community control over food systems, through community-based agriculture, cooperatives, faith-based initiatives, etc (Los Angeles Community Garden Council). Moreover, food justice as a theoretical concept, recognizes that "food choice" is impacted by intersecting factors such as race, class, and gender at all levels: production, distribution and consumption. A food justice framework allows one to see the ways inadequate access to nutritious and whole food options leads to chronic ailments that could be prevented if people had affordable and nutritious options available in their neighborhoods. The majority of people who suffer from illnesses related to poor nutritional diets are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and those who are more likely to go hungry are women and children. These issues are not isolated; they are explainable through a historic review of ways land and food have been weaponized against BIPOC through the American legal system. Moreover, corporate control of food along with real estate practices have contributed to the development of food deserts, which further impact BIPOC women and children the right to access affordable and healthy food options. Despite historic oppression, and neighborhood divestment, people are empowered to take action and address food injustice. One way organizers and neighborhood residents address the immediate need to access food is through the development of and/or participation in community gardens. There, people not only have opportunities to learn how to grow their own vegetables, but they also meet folks of different races, cultures and experiences and with whom they learn to trade veggies, share nutritional information, swap recipes and share other resources needed. In this way, community gardens build vibrant soci

Section Description: Together we will research the history of the monument as a means to visually represent hegemonic power structures in society, and how artists and designers have historically upended this visual structure of power. This CAIL 200 course will partner with a local arts and culture organization to help study and build place-based community-centered environments open to the public.

Section Description: Moving images, and their precursors, photographs, can provide glimpses into lives past, long-ago events, and forgotten places to help shape our understanding of culture, history, and the identities of the people who appear in them. Visual storytelling, the origin story of cinema, required the foresight, invention, and ingenuity of Muybridge, La Prince, Dickson, and the Lumiere Brothers to advance the static photographic medium into another dimension – that of the moving image. Students will review the work of the innovators that married science, creativity, and the visual arts to birth the moving image, from the camera obscura to the photograph, to a new cinematic silent era boasting its inclusion of female writers and directors and the lesser known work of Black directors during a time of exclusion of artists of color. We see how the sound revolution in cinema exploded with the introduction of talkies, followed ten years later by the first color movie with sound leading the way to visually stunning Technicolor films that were the breakthrough cinematic precursors to today's well-crafted, innovative, independent, and studio films. Students experienced in streaming visual content will examine the early devices used to create and view visual content like the camera obscura, early daguerrotypes, Muybridge's zoogyroscope, the Lumiere Brothers' films, Melies special effects films, Chaplin's silent films, early documentaries, early sound films, color films as well as homage films to this early era of cinema (such as the 2013 film Hugo by Martin Scorsese).

Section Description: Trees in Paradise asks students to consider the landscaped and endemic history of California by researching both native and non-native trees and plants in local Los Angeles ecosystems. Through a series of fields trips, lectures and group research students will understand the role these plants and trees play in the current state of climate change in the state of California, and how we can manage them to help create an environmentally sustainable future for the state. Working with Friends of Ballona Wetlands, students will have the opportunity to take part in plant restoration and creek clean-up projects to protect one of LA County’s only remaining wetlands and use their knowledge and skills to create tools to assist the organization in educating and raising awareness of the environmental importance of the Ballona wetlands and the restoration and preservation of native species. Partner: Helper Foundation

Section Description: The Eames House will be the focus of the historical, aesthetic, and ecological probing into the ways in which art and design intertwine in this LA landmark. Site Partner: Eames House

Section Description: Are the multitude of UFO sightings and experiences a part of our zeitgeist, or are they simply real? In this course, we will explore the historical, cultural, and psychological contexts of these experiences through various mediums. We will read narratives and research about UFOs and aliens, hear from many informed guest speakers, view films, and explore artwork to understand these phenomena better. Students will review first-hand accounts of why people hold particular beliefs about aliens, discuss their personal stories, and consider theories about these beliefs by reviewing the literature and folklore of aliens and "others." Students will use art and story to convey the insights they gain as they conceptualize and create an alien life form. They will research UFO and human interactions and present their work as a Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) style report and podcast. If "the truth is out there," will we be able to tell if it's the truth???

Section Description: Everyone has a story to tell. Our collective history is made up from stories of individuals. All we have to do is listen. The best way to learn about history is to walk in someone else’s shoes. In small groups we interview elders in the community - which we record and directly transcribe in order to hear the voice on the page. The art of a good interview is where we start. Be unafraid, be curious, try the obvious question, words matter, strive for empathy, be informed, be simple and be gracious. By the end of the semester, each group puts together a book using the words and stories of the elders, as well as the student’s own reactions in their writing and their visual art. Partner: Culver City Senior Center

Section Description: Homelessness. It's a sad fact that both nationally and locally, we are seeing dramatic increases in the numbers of people who find themselves unhoused. The demographics of those experiencing homelessness has changed; the unhoused are not only getting younger but they are more likely to work at full-time jobs while others have college degrees. Many are families with children. Some are elderly who have aged into homelessness. Still others have just fallen on hard times and can't afford the high price of housing. Students are presented with weekly readings, lectures, a diverse group of guest speaker media professionals, two research papers and a final project. By reading and reporting on issues of poverty and individuals experiencing food and shelter insecurity, we examine how we got here and how the college, the city and the state are confronting the crisis. An artist’s work has an impact on the public. At semester’s end, students will have created powerful infographics illustrating the extent of this crisis. Site partner: SELAH Neighborhood Coalition

Section Description: Confronting the precarious balance between a growing urban space and a delicate wild one. The Ballona Wetlands occupy a largely forgotten swath of Los Angeles ground. Though representing a rare example of wilderness within LA sprawl, the wetlands endure assault and encroachment from increasingly dense surroundings. Concurrently, surrounding Los Angeles neighborhoods boast sharp increases in real estate prices, an indication of their desirability. The growth of Silicon Beach will rapidly increase the demand for housing in this area. This course will investigate issues that arise from this tenuous relationship, and explore the capacity of art and design in mitigating or highlighting those issues. Partner: Friends of Ballona Wetlands

Section Description: Working with The Regenerative Farm, part of the Will Rogers Learning Community, this class will dig, both literally and metaphorically, into the practice and planet-positive consequences of Regenerative Farming - the sustainable future of agriculture. Working directly with the stewards of the farm, students will research the background, systems and strategies of Regenerative Farming and propose and develop creative projects to support the mission and work of the farm, as well as having an opportiunty to experience life on the farm. Examples might include wayfinding and signage, educational public murals and installations, digital storytelling and content.

Section Description: In this interdisciplinary course, students from Otis College of Art and Design will engage in a transformative journey that integrates art and design principles, branding, historical education, social design, and the cultivation of a growth mindset through creative collaboration. By the end of the semester, you will refine your design skills, deepen your historical knowledge, and complete a socially impactful research project. This course offers a comprehensive educational experience, equipping you to become a socially conscious and versatile creative professional.

Section Description: An exploration of comics and their rich history of championing progressive causes, creating community, and inspiring real-life heroes. This course focuses on the power of storytelling and collaboration in the medium of comics. Working with students from different programs of study, and hearing from distinguished guest speakers with years of experience in the world of comic creation, you will learn techniques to create a compelling visual narrative–and the value of teamwork as it applies to comic production and beyond. By the end of this class, you and your team will deliver and present to the community partner a final work that will serve as a form of outreach and inspiration for LGBTQ+ youth. Community Partner: It Gets Better.

Section Description: AI PLAY Play Your Way to a more Conscious, Just and Humanized Technological World By the time you finish reading this, AI programs like Midjourney will have generated at least three hundred thousand images. It is estimated that 400 million workers could be displaced because of AI, including teachers :-( AI has little or no ethical oversight or commitment to values. This course takes place in a liminal space, a space in between, on a journey. * Going back to the beginning - to Cultural Ideas focused on Consciousness - to Analog and Sensory experience . . . in order to engage in a more meaningful way with AI, as an artist, designer and creator. PLAYMATES include guests who will engage us in conversations about topics like Drugs, Dreams (-_-) zzz, Outer Space, and Brain Activity to better understand what consciousness is. PLAYTIME includes activities like Teaching an AI machine to recognize sound and image, Playing with the meaning of programming language, Making music visible, and Understanding a computer by pretending to be one. Join us. Real, chill, experimental and unexpected. ( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛) Partners: A Brain Scholar, A Jungian Analyst, A Folklorist / AR Enthusiast, an Ayahuasca Enthusiast

Section Description: How can we build an inclusive community of creatives that thrives because of our differences, our neuro-diversity, and our unique abilities (disabled - non-disabled)? Immersed in the field of Disability Arts, Otis students and artists from ECF Art Centers will participate in inclusive, experimental and reflective processes throughout this in person studio course. The resulting art and design projects, meant to connect us across differences, will be presented to the public in an exhibition at the end of the semester. Partner: ECF Art Center https://www.artecf.org/

Section Description: Structured around an open collaboration with SHARK - a public pediatrics clinic specializing in holistic care for survivors of childhood trauma, The Art of Care will introduce students to the principles of trauma-informed care with special attention to how those principles can guide socially engaged artists’ and designers’ practices. Students will have the opportunity to learn about, engage with, and collaborate on SHARK’s trauma-informed creative programming (including existing mindfulness and meditation, art, and urban farming programs); to participate in and propose strategies for the clinic’s ongoing trauma-informed redesign; and to develop and help implement creative public events to promote resiliency and health in children and families affected by trauma. Students’ creative work will be grounded in readings, talks, and discussions addressing the role of care, trauma, and repair in socially engaged art and design practices. The course will also include site visits where students can experience trauma-informed practices and reparative methods in action, including a visit to the Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Hospital where the SHARK Clinic is housed and a visit to one of the urban farms partnering with SHARK to provide holistic programing to patients and their families.

Section Description: This course will be an adventurous engagement into what philosophers call relational ontology and will focus these engagements on the homelessness crisis, specifically examining the relationship between unhoused humans and their pets. We will utilize methods that come specifically out of surrealism to help us retool our conceptions of this world, building toward dynamic notions of gratuity, presence and relationality. All along we will be focused, together with our organizational partner PalsNPets, on the dynamic and vital relationship between homeless people and their pets and will work to solve some of the unique challenges those relationships pose.

Section Description: This course engages students in a process that looks at history, urban planning, art, design, and community organizing in order to reimagine MacArthur Park in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles (the original home of Otis College). Student work will support three planned closures of Wilshire Blvd where it bisects the park. Working with the City of Los Angeles Council District 1 as a client, Student artists will design alternative visions of the park that interrogate the park's history, reunify its 35 acres of greenspace and reimagine its place in the city.

Section Description: Student teams learn about FM, AM, and Internet radio production, producing content that reports on, engages, and rediscovers the Westchester community. Students gain hands-on experience in the audio production studios at both Otis and LMU, while learning to listen, record, and edit the sound around them. They produce a creative, fun, and informative radio show, available online at Otis and rebroadcast on the LMU radio stations. Partners: KXLU, KLMU