FEATURE
College of Humanities and the Arts
By Julia Halprin Jackson
Stories highlighting experiential learning
An active contributor to the Silicon Valley arts community, the College of Humanities and the Arts provides a high-quality liberal arts education focused on creativity, innovation and problem-solving. Read how the college prepares students to be compassionate, informed citizens of the world through programs like dance, animation/illustration, immersive storytelling and augmented reality and hands-on creative agency experience.
How does dance communicate big ideas — and how can Spartans contribute to the conversation?
Video by Jim Gensheimer.
Dance Beyond the Briar Patch
It is a quiet afternoon in late October. The dance theater on the second floor of San José State’s Spartan Complex is backlit by wide open windows that face the Interdisciplinary Science Building. Four dancers stretch on the springy black floor while Chafin Seymour, choreographer, dancer and assistant professor of dance, describes an image of a “four-headed black tar monster.” He challenges them to contort their faces and imagine they are pushing through molasses.
Exploring the Spartan-Verse: How Immersive Storytelling Cultivates Empathy
How can virtual and augmented reality help people tell stories and support the public good? The Immersive Storytelling Lab at San José State offers unique opportunities for Spartans to create compelling stories using the latest tools and technologies.
When Jasmine Low, ’20 MA Applied Anthropology, took a course on immersive storytelling at San José State, she learned to become the master of her own virtual universe. So invested was she in creating the appropriate look and feel of her final project, which explored the psychological impact of emotionally abusive relationships, that while driving the freeway in San José on a particularly bright afternoon, her first instinct was to adjust the lighting on the road.
AI illustration created by SJSU designer.
Invention in Motion festival participant. Photo by Jim Gensheimer.
Creativity in Motion
A new stop motion animation festival organized by San José State’s Animation and Illustration program is just one example of how the university offers concrete pathways for artists of multiple disciplines to prepare for exciting industry careers.
Imagine a band led by a trumpet-playing gray opossum named Stanley whose torso appears flattened and destroyed by a passing truck. Accompanied by a disembodied deer with a plastic fork crammed between its antlers and a likewise injured muskrat setting the beat on a bass guitar fashioned out of a soda can, the zombie animals detail all the various ways creatures are struck on the road in “Roadkill Jamboree,” a short film directed by Meghan Graham, ’23 Animation/Illustration, with music the band Suburban Legends.
DBH: The Agency of Possibility
The Dwight Bentel Hall Communications agency at San José State offers Spartans the opportunity to prepare marketing, advertising and public relations campaigns for real-world clients.
When Isadora Busch, ’15 Advertising, was recruited to San José State to play tennis, she couldn’t have predicted that a decade later, she’d be spearheading digital campaigns for retail companies as an international growth consultant at Google. A native of Bauru, Brazil, Busch discovered that one of the key principles of sound marketing — discovering a product or service’s value proposition — applied to her own journey in a new country.
Photo by Robert C. Bain.
Top image: Robert C. Bain.
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