New year, new classes

Liberty University adds new residential courses for the spring 2017 semester

New classes offered in spring 2017 include virtual reality (VR) and printmaking, reaching back to historical processes and forward to cutting-edge technology to give students a niche in the job market.

Digital Arts 327 virtual reality design and production, one of the more than 15 new classes listed by the Registrar’s Office, is a pilot course that will explore both virtual reality and augmented reality, according to Professor John Rost.

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Virtual reality is a completely produced world, either artificial or filmed.

Augmented reality functions like glasses, where a person sees the real world as well as virtual elements, like in the game Pokémon GO, Rost said.

“Some people view this as a huge next step, perhaps as big of an impact on our society as the internet was in the early ‘90s,” Rost said.

In the class taught by visiting instructor Kam Diba, students will use just-released 360 cameras, with a ratio of 10 cameras for 20 students, Rost said. They will then edit the footage.

“The core function of the class is to figure out how to tell a story in the virtual reality space,” Rost said.

He said storytelling in 360 degrees is different from traditional visual storytelling because the cameras are shooting in all directions at all times.

Challenges arise because set equipment and film crews cannot be anywhere in the camera’s line of sight.

VR also allows the audience to choose what part of the scene to view at any given time, so students have to learn to creatively direct the audience’s attention through visual and auditory cues.

“You have to leave little breadcrumbs along the way to say, ‘Look here, pay attention to this, and ignore the other stuff,’” Rost said.

While some industries use the immersive experience to promote negative content, Rost said the class will discuss ethics and how to use the technology for redemptive storytelling.

“When you are trying to raise money using traditional means for, say, an orphanage in the developing world, you show pictures of what people are dealing with in that space,” Rost said. “Now, if you take a virtual reality camera into that same village — and suddenly you’re looking in every direction and you’re seeing what it really looks like? The audience is no longer just looking at pictures, they are now immersed in that world.”

Liberty University is trying to be at the forefront of the developing technology to prepare students for the future of the industry, according to Rost.

“Everybody knows how to work with a lot of the popular software,” Rost said. “Being able to edit video on Adobe Premiere no longer separates you out from any of the other thousands of graduates that are coming out next spring, but not very many schools will be able to offer a virtual reality course.”

Another class, listed as ARTS 497 special topics studio/digital, goes back to the historical process of printmaking by examining three methods and giving students hands-on experience with them, according to Todd Smith, chair of studio and digital arts.

“It gets back to what I call the hand-to-eye approach to seeing things, and the creative thinking side of it really comes into play there,” Smith said.

Class instructor Sandra Slayton said students will learn the history of relief printing, etching and screen printing.

They will also be able to print using these processes as well.

In relief printing, students will carve wood blocks to create a relief image that will carry the ink to the paper, Slayton said.

Etching, on the other hand, involves cutting into a coating on metal and soaking it in an acid bath which eats crevices into the exposed metal, Slayton said.

Ink applied to the crevices is absorbed up by paper.

Screen printing relies on an emulsion that degrades in light, according to Slayton.

If an image covers parts of the emulsion, those parts will remain and block ink from going through the screen and onto the printing surface.

Screen printing has been used to make T-shirts, but one student used the technique in poster design, Slayton said.

“There’s a niche out there for all sorts of things like that, and if you like hands-on, woodcutting, you can make your artwork, or your services to people, more diverse,” Slayton said.

Smith said the printmaking skillset can be used in a variety of applications, including package design, product design and graphic design — in book covers and illustrations, for example.

Printmaking is one of the historical techniques that has recently become popular in modern design, according to Smith, including techniques such as hand-lettering and calligraphy.

“Students get a hands-on approach to a process that gave birth to the computer and digital design processes – going back to Gutenburg,” Smith said. “So the students are given the opportunity to further develop practical skills for art and design. … Plus, to do everything on a computer limits a student’s ability to understand ‘big picture’ processes that inform their skillsets.”

But beyond classes of the historical or the futuristic, new aviation classes look to the skies.

In Aviation 236 small UAS flight, one of five new aviation classes, students will learn command and control of small unmanned aerial systems, also known as drones.

According to Liberty’s course catalogue, by the end of the class students will be able to perform small flights for commercial purposes.

Several of the other classes explore safety-management systems and biblical organizational ethics in the aviation industry, according to the course description.

The creative arts department has also gained new courses, including two music classes exploring the people and processes involved in feature-film production and the fundamentals of documentary producing and directing, according to the course description.

Also in the creative arts, Music 369 principles of audio mixing and producing will allow students to study music production, audio engineering, critical listening and studio workflow, according to the description.

Lastly, in Christian Leadership 310 foundations of christian leadership, students will study biblical leadership examples, evaluate social science theory and explore their own aptitude for leadership, according to the catalogue.

A full list of new courses offered in the spring can be found in the sidebar.


PORS is a news reporter.

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