Deborah Oakley, UNLV School of Architecture
Original Plan
The initial sabbatical plan was to:
- Immerse in music study (guitar) and learn from great UNLV Music faculty and have extended time with fellow students
- Lay the groundwork for an elective class combining architecture and music students. Students from each academic program will have opportunity to teach those outside of their own program area, and reciprocally learn from their peers.
- Develop animated graphics tied into concepts linking music, engineering principles of structures, and architecture that will be taught in the collaborative course.
- Further develop learning experience tactics with music for classroom use
The anticipated outcomes were:
- A elective combining music with architecture students. Architecture students will learn the basics of musical composition and music students will be exposed to architecture and the principles of structures. Each group of students can inform the other from their respective disciplines. An envisioned outcome of the class is the collaborative development a presentation that demonstrates examples of structural types and functions with musical accompaniment.
- A creative effort involving guitar, structures and architecture as a multimedia performance that can be presented at multiple venues. It is as much a creative presentation as is intended to be a learning experience for the audience.
- Conference presentations and journal articles developed from the research. Possible publishing outlets including the Lilly Conference on Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning, who also sponsor the Journal of Excellence in College Teaching. Articles may be of interest to journals of music education as well as journals in architecture.
Outcome
As noted in the final comments below, exigent family matters became my first priority just as the sabbatical was beginning. Many of the original plans were thus unfortunately not able to be undertaken. Nevertheless, the following goals were achieved:
- A complete outline for the new Music and Architecture class was developed. A proposal has been created on Curriculog, which is planned for the spring semester, 2025. Toward the end of the Current fall semester (2024) I will seek to recruit six students each from the architecture and music programs. 12 students would be an ideal number for the elective so there could be three groups of two students from each discipline for the collaborative projects.
- A deeper learning experience of the 3D computer software Blender was conducted. From that study, specialized tutorial videos will be created to facilitate student learning in the new elective class. This is a highly complex and capable piece of software that will be narrowly focussed to the essentials that can be taught to students unfamiliar with 3D.
- Most unfortunately I was unable to take the opportunity to study with the School of Music as I had planned and outlined. I did, however, have the flexibility to practice my instrument a great deal and study with an online teacher. Honing both my understanding and abilities was definitely an objective of the sabbatical, which would not have been possible without this time away.
- The past year has allowed me time to reflect on the past 26 years of my teaching, and helped me develop a focus direction for future work building on the original objectives of the sabbatical.
For Senate Web Site
One of the Strategic Plan goals in the College of Fine Arts as well as UNLV as a whole is interdisciplinary collaboration. The work undertaken during this sabbatical period will contribute to that objective by bringing students in the architecture and music programs together in an integrated class. The outline structure of this class has been developed for offering in the spring 2025 semester as an experimental elective.
The intended outcome is for architecture students (who may have no musical background whatsoever) to learn the essentials of music theory in a manner not requiring significant memorization, and for music students (who may have no background in computer graphics) to learn the basics of 3D animation software. The collaboration will bring the two cohorts of students together in mixed groups. They will develop musically narrated 3D presentations of building structural principles encountered in architecture as dynamic visualizations. All students will learn essentials of the acclaimed open source program Blender to create the 3D audio visual interpretations. A series of graduated video tutorials prepared specifically for the class will facilitate the learning experience. The resultant projects can then be documented in video format, including the possibility for a live performance at a future Art Walk event.
Other Comments
In many ways this sabbatical has enabled focus on work that has been elusive for years due to time constraints. Owing to family circumstances, however, this was not at all the sabbatical I had planned and looked forward to. As the sole remaining family member, for the past decade the care of my elderly handicapped father was my first priority, and this simply took precedence over my professional goals.
Briefly, in the spring my father was recovering from a late winter hospitalization and I had moved in to care for him full time. At first he was getting stronger but then suffered complications. At the end of the summer I contacted Dave Nourse and informed him it had become clear that much of my plan would need to be scrapped (especially taking UNLV music classes) as caring for him by then was 24/7. It was discussed that if I could at least develop the joint course then that would be okay given the circumstances, which I was thankful to hear.
My father continued to weaken and he passed in the late fall. I’m at peace with his death and that he no longer suffers. But, despite prior planning, there were unanticipated estate issues which took considerable time and attention. The December shooting also hit deep, knowing several faculty there as well as appreciating that building as an architect. I wasn’t directly impacted but indirect was enough on top of everything else. It took through April just to have some physical and emotional down time from all that had transpired in the preceding months and address most of the estate issues.
So it has been a bumpy sabbatical year. I am, however, deeply grateful for this time away from school to deal with these challenging personal circumstances. Although the result was not what I had planned, the opportunity to care for my father in the final months of his life and keep him out of a facility is greatly appreciated. There has at least been a solid start in some of the projects planned, and I still look forward to other future outcomes as outlined in the application…it just may take a little longer now. Thank you for your time and consideration.
