Psychology, Art, and Music

This program explores how artists, musicians, and social scientists reflect on the human condition. Students will develop a deeper understanding of people’s behavior and mental processes by combining social science methods with close study of artists at work. Along the way, they will learn to separate fact from fiction about the mind, emotion, and human behavior.

Through the lens of Indigenous arts with a focus on Coast Salish Wool Weaving, we will explore how handwork, land-based knowledge, and cultural continuity are forms of embodied memory. Through the lens of pop music we will explore how sound and song give shape to memory, identity, resistance, and joy. Through the lens of psychology, we will examine how humans think, feel, and act—individually and in community. Across all disciplines, students will explore the connections between hand, eye, ear, and brain by practicing fundamental creative skills in a supportive and inclusive environment.

Throughout the two quarters, we will ask:

• How do today’s psychologists, Indigenous Northwest artists, and North American musicians reflect on the human condition, life experiences, and divergent worldviews?
• Where do these disciplines overlap, and where do they diverge?
• What approaches to creativity and understanding ourselves and others feel most true to you?

In fall quarter we will examine how people learn, think, and remember as well as the biological bases of human behavior in an overview of the field of psychology. We will explore what motivates people and how emotions, personality, and social interactions affect us. We'll examine vital social issues of the day and critique how advertisers and other media professionals try to change people's minds via psychologically informed slogans, images, and sounds. Visits to indigenous art exhibitions and performances and talks with working artists and scholars will illuminate and deepen our studies.

In winter quarter we will focus on human development and developmental psychology: how people change and, surprisingly, stay the same over the course of a lifetime. We'll dig deep, analyzing and interpreting songs that reveal the inner life of a character on stage or screen and exploring what people’s artistic and musical preferences can reveal about our own minds and emotions from childhood to old age. Hands-on, low-pressure workshops will introduce students to visual and fiber arts materials and methods, songwriting, and basic video and audio recording techniques.  Students will also pursue research and deliver presentations on the life and work of an artist or musician of their choice in small groups, practicing collaboration and public speaking while developing college-level research and writing skills.

Course activities will include lectures, seminars, hands-on workshops, and field trips to museums, cultural centers, and live performances on and off campus. Weaving will be practiced as both a creative discipline and a way of knowing—connecting hands, heart, mind, and ancestral teachings. Students will be introduced to the worldview embedded in Coast Salish weaving, including relationships to land, language, materials, and the responsibilities of carrying forward a living art form. Students will also analyze and critique contemporary movies, media, and music as part of building media literacy.

This program is coordinated with Greener Foundations for first-year students in fall quarter. Greener Foundations is Evergreen’s in-person introductory student success course, which provides first-year students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive at Evergreen. 

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies

Fall Quarter

5 - Psychology: Introduction to Psychology

5 - Cultural Studies: Introduction to Indigenous Visual Art

4 - Music: Introduction to Popular Music Studies

Winter Quarter 

6 - Psychology: Lifespan Development

5 - Art: Indigenous Visual Art Theory and Practice

5 - Art or Music: Biographical Research Projects