The Arts in London students are scurrying about buying tickets, attending performances, and engaging in galleries… and doing homework in the computer lab. Today is the day that four of our Focused Response Assignments (FRAs) are due as well as our proposal for our Independent Project. The FRAs are reflective essays about different mandatory arts events that our whole group experiences. Our most recent event was attending the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time last evening.
The show challenged us not only through the staging and acting, but also through visual and auditory stimulation. The set was electronic and had minimal props, but it created an intimate space where we felt like we were experiencing the world through the protagonist’s perspective. Christopher, the protagonist, shows characteristics of someone on the Autism spectrum, particularly Asperger’s Syndrome, so it was an interesting perspective to experience. Sometimes, we saw the world like a puzzle and something to investigate, and other times, we experienced sensory overload that caused excruciating anxiety. We saw the complexities of his life, but it also challenged us to examine the things that we face in our own lives as well like honesty, love, death, and bravery.
We also will be going out and exploring specific themes in Independent Projects including topics like arts outreach at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, arts education and culture, British Sign Language interpreting in the arts, jewelry design, LGBTQ representation in the arts, food label and store layout, and types of dance.
This blog also includes a couple more pictures of St. Paul’s cathedral and our adventures in London.
Think of us as we go out; learning about the arts and how they affect human experiences including our own.
