An Ephemeral Dream: Exploring Symbols, Time, and Storytelling Through Animation and Psychology

“But what is the past? Could it be, the firmness of the past is just illusion? Could the past be a kaleidoscope, a pattern of images that shift with each disturbance of a sudden breeze, a laugh, a thought?” Alan Lightman

Stories in time shape the way we live in, plan, and remember our lives. Through the investigation of how experimental animation conveys emotive, visual narratives and a cultivated study of both our waking and sleeping dreams, we will learn to express the stories of the past and future, using art. Together we will embark on the slow and ethical ways in which experimental animation unfolds a visual narrative that reaches beyond the surface of telling a story and instead conveys the affective qualities underneath.

Surveying the theoretical foundations of expressive art therapy, positive psychology and counseling theories, students will learn practices necessary for building toward careers in public service, social work, and counseling, as well as futures in studio art or Community-Based arts. Through working in a thinking-making-incubator studio space designed to support each student's development and our collective understanding of our work together,  the direction of the program will be greatly informed by what each student brings. Please arrive ready to contribute and engage actively in community. Weekly somatic movement and ecotherapy workshops will support students’ integration of learning, as will building a relationship to nature through walks in the forest and on the beach of the Evergreen State College.

We will introduce approaches to experimental animation, building technical foundations and experimenting with several materials including ground coffee, clay, charcoal, collage, and plasticine, as well as work with process-based/mindful watercolor painting.  The program will foster a close-knit learning community with plenty of individual feedback from faculty and peer groups. Our curriculum will emphasize hands-on multimedia art, and animation studio processes supported with thematic readings, lectures, film screenings and animation analysis reports while drawing on the themes of time, archetypal symbolism, and narrative psychology.

We will attend the Evergreen Art Lecture Series via Zoom, which presents a broad range of interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary art issues by artists, writers, activists, and scholars.

This program is coordinated with Greener Foundations for first-year students. Greener Foundations is Evergreen’s in-person 2-quarter introductory student success course sequence, which provides first-year students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive at Evergreen. Students expected to take Greener Foundations will be prompted to register for a 2-credit Greener Foundations course in addition to this 14-credit program during registration. Students will be prompted to register for Greener Foundations with their new winter program to complete the 4-credits of Greener Foundations.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

4- Foundations in Animation Practices

3- Critical Visual Studies and Seminar

2- Introduction to Multimedia Art

3- Applied Psychology and Narrative Counseling Frameworks

2- Theory of Expressive Arts Therapy