Arts and Cultural Heritage Community Arts Learning Grant

1) Participants are exposed to examples of art and music that challenge prior conceptions and expand awareness. 2) The technology underlying musical robots is demystified. 3) Concepts such as instrument acoustics, electronics, microcontrollers, electromechanical actuators, the MIDI protocol, rhythm, melody, harmony, polyphony, etc. are imparted and utilized in the creative process. 4) Skills development, including soldering; schematic reading; microcontroller programming; design and fabrication of functional instruments; musical motive generation, development, encoding, and performance. 5) Students work collaboratively to realize a complex creative project in a short time period. The measurement of this project's educational success will include student self-assessment, instructor assessment of individual students and the group, and a subsequent review with Lyric center staff. An intake survey will serve to assess the prior experiences, skills, and interests of students, which will serve as a basis for a final evaluations by both the student and the instructor. The instructor will evaluate each student's development over the course of the summer camp, using the National Core Arts Standards (http://nationalartsstandards.org/), particularly within the music composition and music technology strands, to help guide the assessment.