On a Wednesday afternoon in Design Lab 1 at the Duderstadt Center, students craft sculptures from balls of flexible wire, a scene reminiscent of kids at play.

The prompt is to “create something that would be found in water.” Some work alone, clipping and cutting away with needle-nose pliers as they mold their copper crafts. Others gather in groups to discuss the concepts for their final projects, which include subjects such as weightlessness and rhythm. How they structure these projects is completely up to them: They could perform an original dance, make a painting or sing a song. As the title of UARTS 250, “Creative Process,” suggests, the end-goal is not what matters. It’s the steps in between that count.

A student approaches Stephen Rush, a professor in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the coordinator for the course, and asks to be given a project. Rush extends a plastic bag filled to the brim with pieces of paper, each one bearing a potential topic. The student chooses a scrap and reads aloud: “crystalline.” After seeing the confused look on the student’s face, Rush laughs and explains to him just how awesome that topic is: The possibilities are endless.

Now in its fourth year, the interdisciplinary course was initiated when Theresa Reid, executive director of the University's ArtsEngine program, contacted Rush and asked him to gather together a group of interesting people for an experimental class.

After receiving $300,000 from the Multidisciplinary Learning and Team Teaching grant through the Office of the Provost, Rush’s next task was to manipulate the teaching schedules of professors from four different departments: architecture, engineering, dance and Art & Design.

During the first half of the semester, students rotate among two-week workshops pertaining to the four areas of study. While one-fourth of the class dives into the world of visual image in the Duderstadt, another group is across the street in the architecture lab. Studying abstract architects such as Gaudi and Gehry, these students use X-Acto knives to shape pieces of cardboard, testing out the basics of light, form, shape and space. In one project, the cardboard has been fashioned to form a two-foot-tall open-air tunnel, with tiny windows allowing light to fill the structure.

Though two weeks may not be enough time to develop a strong grasp of one discipline, Rush explained that it is enough time to deeply affect the way a student views a concept.

“Two weeks isn’t enough time to see the Grand Canyon either,” Rush said. “But do you not go? You see this transformation over the course of these four two-week sessions. It’s stunning.

He added: “These guys end up learning to talk about things they don’t know about in an inquisitive, honoring kind of way.”

In the second half of the course, students devote time to their final projects, using each other and the professors as sounding boards for ideas. Students also keep a journal in which they record thoughts and observations for each week. While the journal is a big part of their final grade, the aim is simply to get them thinking.

Additionally, each department has a mini-project for students to complete. Projects vary from the ephemeral (a two-to-three-minute movement piece) to the concrete; the engineering section has students use electric Legos to create a machine of their own. As Rush explained, students in this section have produced paint machines, banana peelers and electric catapults (based on designs by Leonardo da Vinci).

Optional meditation sessions are held on Mondays, and Rush gives a lecture to the entire class every Wednesday. Lectures cover influential creative thinkers from history, such as Meister Eckhart, a German philosopher, and Lao Tzu, the father of Taoism.

As Rush makes the rounds from one classroom to the next and greets students from each separate cohort, he describes the class with a combination of idealism and serious fortitude.