Summer in Florence
This 4-week program offers 6 courses taught by Columbia faculty in the heart of central Florence. Courses are taught at the facilities of Scuola Lorenzo de’ Medici (LdM), located in ten buildings (totaling 4800 square meters) in the historic city center next to the thriving San Lorenzo market and church, and close to transport facilities. Florence’s unique architectural masterpiece, il Duomo is within a few minutes’ walk. Together, the LdM buildings contain a full range of facilities including numerous classrooms and large specialized art studios, a cafeteria, a courtyard garden, a library, printing facilities and a computer center.
The main LdM building in Florence is situated on Via Faenza and dates back to the 13th century. It originated as a convent connected to a medieval church, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini. This church, now deconsecrated was founded in 1206 and for its first hundred years belonged to the Knights Templar.
All courses offered to non-majors and can fulfill Global Awareness (GA) and College Wide Elective (CWE) credits. Most courses can be taken for grad and undergrad credit, please contact the instructor for more information. Departmental permission may be required for non-majors.
Dates: July 4 – August 2, 2013
Location: Florence, Italy
Courses:
Literature and Visual Culture: Death and Desire in Italy
Interdisciplinary Strategies in Art & Design: Death and Desire in Italy
Fashion in Italy: Visual Strategies in Retail
Journal and Sketchbook
Cinematic Art in the Land of Leonardo
The Resonance of the Renaissance: A Psychological Legacy
Intro to Fashion Journalism
Cost: This program includes courses taught by Columbia faculty, local housing, on-site orientation, Welcome and Closing dinners, walking tours of Florence, a pass for admission to most local museums, use of computer labs, printing labs and the use of a cell phone while in Florence. Program costs will be paid to Columbia through the student account in Oasis. Please see the application packet for full pricing details.
General Contact: Any interested student should contact International Programs at aiipoffice@colum.edu to get information and to be put on the Summer in Florence mailing list.
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/607924112555235/
Program Deadline Extended to noon on Friday, May 3rd!
Download the Application and Information Packet
52-2751LDM Literature and Visual Culture: Death and Desire in Italy
22-2901LDM Interdisciplinary Strategies in Art & Design: Death and Desire in Italy
In this course we will use literature, art, film, and the city of Florence and Italy as a frame for an exploration of human representations of the relationship between death and desire. Walking the city and on field trips to locations such as the Galleria degli Uffizi, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, La Specola, churches, and cemeteries, students will come face to face with visual, physical and spatial representations of death. Texts explored range from the Middle Ages (such as Dante’s Inferno, and Boccaccio’s Decameron) to the Renaissance (sculpture such as Michelangelo’s Pietà, Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes, paintings such as Fra Angelico’s Deposition from the Cross, and others) and into the contemporary period (films of Fellini and graphic comics by artists such as Angela and Luciana Giussani). Students will be invited to consider textual and visual renderings with respect to historical context (i.e., shifts brought about through enlightenment, modernity and postmodernism) as well as theoretical concepts regarding myth and embodiment. Assignments build toward the eventual creation of a final multimodal composition, (employing text, video, audio, and/or visual art), that illustrates the synthesis of personal revelations and critical ideas. The course will be of value to art and design, art history, cultural studies, poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction students, as well as those interested in philosophical considerations of human experience related to
Departments: English, Art+Design
Faculty: Ames Hawkins (English) and Joan Giroux (Art+Design)
Fulfills: 52-2751LDM - (HL), Global Awareness (GA); 22-2901LDM - Global Awareness (GA)conceptions of death and desire, passion and pain. Available to graduate students as an Independent Project.
Other: For additional information check out these handouts Death and Desire in Italy, Death and Desire in Italy
Contacts: Ames Hawkins ahawkins@colum.edu, Joan Giroux jgiroux@colum.edu
27-2631LDM Fashion in Italy: Visual Strategies in Retail
This course will explore the visual strategies used by retailers in Italy. The course will look at the strategic approach retailers take to create awareness of their merchandise offerings. In an area that is highly tourist driven, retailers work to capture attention through visually appealing display and merchandising techniques. Display will be deconstructed with regard to color, balance, proportion, lighting, fixtures, and promotions.
Department: Fashion Studies
Faculty: Kate Schaefer
Credits: 3 undergrad/graduate (Fashion Studies does not have a graduate program, but if graduate students from other departments would be interested in the course, it could be completed as an independent study)
Website: http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Fashion
Meeting dates: Will meet one time on-campus prior to the departure date of the trip. Date TBD.
Contacts: Kate Schaefer kschaefer@colum.edu, mcnelson@colum.edu
55-4108LDM (undergrad) 55-5108LDM (grad) Journal and Sketchbook
Recommended for anyone interested in writing and/or visual art, travel narratives, documentation, and creative practices. Journal and Sketchbook will be team-taught by a writer and a visual artist, using interdisciplinary approaches in order to help students better see their narrative work and develop creative processes useful for all artists, writers, filmmakers, etc. Kafka, Goya, Faulkner, and others have been inspired by word and image; their journals and sketchbooks show exploration in text, image, and their intersections. Students will consider their written and visual work fully through personal observation, seeing and responding simultaneously, and seeing-in-the-mind through imagination and memory.
Faculty: Patty McNair and Philip Hartigan
Credits: 4 undergrad, 3 grad
Department: Fiction Writing
Fulfills: Global Awareness (GA) Undergrads- counted toward core requirements for Fiction Writing majors, College Wide Elective (CWE) credit for non-majors. Grads- counted toward the writing component requirement.
Program Website: www.colum.edu/fictionwriting (Study Abroad)
Meeting Dates: See Fiction Writing’s Prague website.
Contacts: Patty McNair pmcnair@colum.edu, Elizabeth Yokas eyokas@colum.edu
24-2001 Cinematic Art in the Land of Leonardo
Ang Lee’s cinema adaptation of Life of Pi features a computer-generated tiger that looks and behaves more “true to nature” than any zoo cat ever did. The filmmakers started with the animal’s skeleton then attached muscles and soft tissue before overlaying the heavy, striped coat that says “tiger”, and they crafted each layer according to its real physical characteristics. For example, the computer “knows” how the tiger’s muscles and bones interact to influence the fluidity of his movement right down to the twitch of his paws as he shifts his weight. This approach is predicated on a central principle of Renaissance art that gives works such as Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting and Michelangelo Buonarroti’s sculptures their timeless power: the surface reveals the inner life (that’s why we aren’t easily fooled by aliens and robots however human they look). Without Leonardo’s obsessive anatomical dissections there is no Mona Lisa… and probably no ‘real” tiger in a small boat with a young boy called Pi 500 years later.
In this course students investigate Florentine art as it relates to contemporary cinema. An understanding of the fundamental artistic and narrative concepts that were either discovered or reborn during the Italian Renaissance is built through film screenings, classroom discussions, and visits to museums and galleries, all in parallel with planning and filming segments from a film script. Special attention is paid to visual perspective; the impact of physical context on visual narrative; individual and collaborative approaches to art making: symbolism; and the role of patronage, apprenticeship and mentorship. Primary historical references are Dante's Inferno and Renaissance perspectival painting, sculpture, and architecture. These are cross-referenced to 20th century Italian Neo-Realist cinema through close analysis of the work of Roberto Rossellini. Each topic is approached from the point of view of performance, photography/cinematography, design, and editing. The course will be of value to film students but also to actors, photographers, set and fashion designers, and those interested in art history and art criticism.
Department: Film & Video
Faculty: Professor Bruce Sheridan, Chairperson
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/CinematicLeo?fref=ts
Contact: Margie Barrett at mbarrett@colum.edu or (312) 369-6701
50-3407 The Resonance of the Renaissance: A Psychological Legacy
This course explores the resonance of the Italian Renaissance in modern Western culture, with particular attention to its psychological legacy. The historical city of Florence will provide a backdrop for our intensive study of the many facets of this extraordinary period in human thought and achievement. Many of the lectures in this exciting survey of philosophy and psychology during the Florentine Renaissance will take place in and around Florence; we will discuss Machiavelli at his residence in Sant'Andrea, religious thought while strolling through various medieval and renaissance era churches, Plato at the actual meeting place of the Florentine academy in Villa Careggi, and Renaissance innovations in architecture and art at Alberti's Basilica of Santa Maria de Novella. Topics covered include Renaissance conceptions of the individual, rationalism, religion, and aesthetics. A focus will be placed on how this conception of human nature, and the accompanying humanist ethic, suffuses cultural, political, social, psychological, and philosophical thought in the modern era. This class will be of value as a crucial element in a liberal arts education for students in terms of social sciences (psychology, anthropology, economics), humanities (literature, poetry, philosophy, religious studies), and art history (architecture, sculpture).
Department: Humanities, History, and Social Sciences
Faculty: Rami Gabriel
Fulfills: Social Sciences (SS), Global Awareness (GA), and Writing Intensive (WI)
Other: Click here for additional course information
Contact: Rami Gabriel at rgabriel@colum.edu or 312.369.8792
53-2526 01 Intro to Fashion Journalism
Come explore a gorgeous country and its stunning history of fashion that forever influences the world. Students will develop fashion writing, reporting, multi-media, and blogging skills. Students also will analyze the industry of fashion journalism, the business of fashion and critique fashion trends and designers. After this course, a student will have portfolio ready projects and a wealth of fond memories.
Department: Journalism
Faculty: Yolanda Joe
Fulfills: College-wide Writing Intensive (WI) and Global Awareness (GA)
Contact: Yolanda Joe at yjoe@colum.edu or 312-369-8906
