This is a list of graduate courses
of particular interest to students who are interested in film, video and related
areas. All of these have been offered one or more times during the last three
years. For our current course offerings you should click `Courses' on the main
page navigation bar.
Click here for Digital, VR,
Robotics and realted courses.
DMS 501
Film Workshop I An intermediate film production course, reviewing and expanding upon
concepts of film production learned in Basic Film. This course, however, is
exclusively devoted to the technical concerns and aesthetic possibilities of
16mm film production. A variety of approaches to these issues will be explored
through 5 structured projects focusing on camera-less films, exposure techniques,
film editing, sound recording and editing, and the development of individual
artistic "style." Materials for the first four projects will be pre-packaged
by the department for required purchased by class participants. Students will
be responsible for all materials for the final project as well as film processing
throughout the semester. Students can expect to spend a total of approx. $350
for materials and processing for the course, including the cost of pre-packaged
materials. Lab fee: $75. This class is strictly limited in size.
DMS
501
Advanced Film Production
Vincenzo Mistretta
MW 12-1:50
Reg.#268397
CFA 286
This is an advanced film production
course designed for students who have successfully completed the intermediate
film production class and have produced at least one short 16mm film. This course
will explore the key components of independent production. Students will develop
a major project from pre-production through the initial stages of post-production.
Students are required to come to the class with an initial concept for a substantive
project to be completed during the spring semester. Students will maintain a
journal, produce a pre-production package, produce a production book and a fine
cut of their final film project. In Addition, students will make a short autobiographical
film and explore Narrative, Documentary, and Experimental elements in filmmaking.
Students can expect to spend $450 for materials and processing for the course.
Students will receive some assistance with supplies and film stock. Lab Fee
$75.
DMS
504 CON
Advanced Video Production
Conrad
MW 3-4:50
CFA 286
Reg.# 408966
This course is a very hands-on introduction
to the real world of the producing and exhibiting video maker. It focuses on
some of our most central and troubling creative problems: What kind of project
should I make, and why? How do I organize my project? How important is our cultural
environment for our work? Is it important to create as individuals or in groups?
And what do I do with my work when it's “done”? In this course each individual
will develop their own approach to the production of video projects; some will
do work that can be completed quickly (preferred!), others will work on longer
projects. Some will work alone, others in groups. Much of the class time will
be devoted to observing one another's working processes and progress. Each student
will be responsible for discussing or showing their work or ideas, or presenting
a summary of an assigned topic, during a four-minute time slot each week. In
addition, there will be lectures, workshops, and discussions of technical and
aesthetic issues including advanced editing, audio, and special effects. Other
course activities (productions, showings, field trips) are also an option. Students
will use both studio and field production equipment, and will work on nonlinear
editing facilities. There is a $100 lab fee for Advanced Video, in addition
to which the student should plan for up to $100 in additional costs, including
a standard video production text for reference. Regular and punctual attendance
at course meetings is mandatory. Grades are based on the number of classroom
presentations made (60%), personal progress in work completed (25%), participatory
attendance (7.5%), and periodic quizzes on course topics (7.5%).
DMS
510 ELD
Problems in Documentary
Sarah Elder
TR 3-4:50
CFA 235
Reg.#235525
This course is an advanced workshop
in which students create an original documentary project in video (or film,
still photography, audio or web-based formats with the permission of instructor).
Creativity and originality will be stressed with exercises to encourage "seeing",
"listening" and artistic risk taking. Individual projects may go in
many creative directions including the experimental, political, personal, humorous,
conventional, transgressive, ethnographic, client-based or activist. Students
will gain a solid understanding of contemporary non-fiction forms and the particular
problems which non-fiction makers face. Films by contemporary artists will be
shown on a regular basis including many experimental documentaries. We will
look at dramatic structure, story telling, and narrative/non-narrative forms
of editing. Emphasis will be given to production techniques which bring access
and intimacy to the video subject and integrity to the documentary. The course
will explore ethical issues and problems of privacy and intrusion. Students
will develop production skills in research, fieldwork, collaboration, interviewing,
location sound recording, camera skills, and production management. Each student
will produce one short documentary piece, with supporting assignments in shooting,
sound, and digital editing on the Media 100. A written production book will
be required. A class film festival ends the semester. Previous knowledge of
video production is required. Materials and text approximately $50. Lab Fee
$100.
DMS 512 HEN
Film Theory
Brian Henderson
MW 9-10:50
CFA 235
Reg.#117395
This course is an exploration of the
principal theories of film through a critical reading of texts and a close examination
of films. The texts to be perused comprise several groups. Classical film theory
includes Munsterburg, Kuleshov, Pudovkin, Eisenstein, Balasz, Arnheim, Bazin,
and Godard. The critique of classical film theory includes Burch, Perkins, and
Henderson. The course will also explore semiotics, psychoanalysis, and poststructuralism,
in Barthes, Eco, Metz , Pasolini, Baudry, Heath, and in feminist film theory,
including Gledhill, Mulvey, Silverman, Modleski, Doane, and Studlar. A section
on avant-garde theory will include Vertov, Epstein, Deren, Brakhage, Sitney,
and Michelson. These topic areas will be set in interaction throughout: e.g.,
Soviet editing and antirealism are continued in the avant-garde; rhetorical
figures such as metaphor, metonymy, ellipsis, condensation, and displacement,
can be traced in very different theoretical contexts and in close readings of
individual films.
DMS 513
The Filmic Text
Steven Eastwood
Reg.#257656
M W, 9-10:50
CFA 232
Memory and direct images of time in the moving image.
This is an advanced course and requires students to have an existing
knowledge of film theory. As a group we will analyse pre and post-war cinematic
advancements in film time and space and of moving-image readership. We will
give close readings of World cinema, American avant-garde, personal-independent
cinema, including a view to its European counterpart. We will use Deleuze's
Cinema Books as the basis for an inquiry into the recollection-image and its
relation to present perception and also as a means to examine the dominant film
theory paradigm (Politics/Semiotics/Psychoanalysis). We will view a variety
of film/video works that deal with duration and can be seen to problematise
both identification and sensory-motor modes of cognition. Our discussions will
take in a number of historical and contemporary counter-critical models for
examining film and its unique capacity for advancing ideas about time and memory.
We may well advance new theories of our own. Full attendance is mandatory. Students
are required to deliver x2 ten mins seminar presentations and to expand one
of these to a longer paper of 10 pages.
Reading List:
Film Form, Eisenstein
Cinema and Reality, Artaud
Cinema 1: The Movement Image, Deleuze
Narrative Comprehension and Film, Branigan
Questions of Cinema, Heath
Cinema 2: The Time-Image, Deleuze
Matter and Memory, Bergson
Gilles Deleuze¹s Time Machine, Rodowick
Sculpting in Time, Tarkovsky
Stargazer, Stephen Koch
Godard on Godard
Bazin
Mulvey
Ricouer
Bohm
Virilio
Kristeva
Film Viewing List: Sherlock Jnr (Buster Keaton)
Intolerance (D.W. Griffith)
Napoleon (Abel Gance)
Strike and Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
The Clergyman (Artaud)
Last Year at Marienbad (Resnais)
Tokyo Story (Ozu)
The Red Desert (Antonioni)
Stromboli (Rosselini)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (Resnais)
San Soleil (Chris Marker)
Mirror (Tarkovsky)
Vertigo (Hitchcock)
Sleep and Empire (Andy Warhol)
Incidence of Catastrophe (Gary Hill)
Taking on a Name (Beban/Horvatic)
DMS 516 REI Survey of Independent Film From 1990
Linda Reisman
Reg.#368081
R 9-12:50
CFA 232 The course will explore a selection of critically acclaimed independent
films made from 1990. Among other topics we will examine what makes these films
unique, what defines 'independent,' how the movies function within and out of
the Hollywood mainstream, what effect they have had on other filmmakers and
current trends in contemporary filmmaking.
DMS 517 WEG
The Advertising Media
Bernadette Wegenstein
Reg.#287027
MW 11-12:50pm
CFA 232 This course analyses the different enunciations within the discourse
of advertisement, the text, its creation/production, and its reception/destination,
which are theorized from various perspectives (e.g. semiotic, psychoanalytical,
gender-theoretical, intercultural). Students will write essay exams on the readings,
which will be provided through a website, in connection with an analysis of
a concrete advertisement campaign. A conference with advertisement theorists
from Italy is planned.
DMS 517
Nonfiction Film
Elder
TR 12-1:50
CFA 112
Reg.#282157
This course examines popular American
documentary films looking at diverse representations of American culture. We
explore independent award-winning contemporary works with themes of gender,
ethnicity, popular music, sexual orientation, murder, justice, rock stars, racism,
disability and history. Particular focus is on the curious relationship between
the images of reality and reality itself, and on America 's love affair with
reality media. Emphasis is placed on understanding the thin shifting line between
fiction and non-fiction and challenging the notion of documentary “truth.” Students
develop in this class analytical and interpretive media skills that are applicable
to all film and video. Students learn non-fiction critical theory including
Nichols, Winston, Ruby, and Renov and analyze artistic elements of non-fiction
film and video including visual narrativity, storytelling, spontaneous camera
work, editing, audio, and common elements for artistic and commercial success.
The class explores different documentary styles including experimental docs,
cinema verite, fake docs, diary and reflexive docs, collaborative making and
cutting edge contemporary work. We address the ethical and artistic considerations
of filming real people and real communities. Works of Wiseman, Pennebaker, Kopple,
Maysles, Freidrich, O'Rourke, Riggs, Morris, and more. Attendance is required
as well as two papers and on take-home exam. Be prepared to see a lot of great
films!
DMS 517 REI
Film Speaker Series
Linda Reisman
Reg.#340192
R, 1-4:50
CFA 112 This course will introduce students to a range of professionals involved
in the scope of developing, making and distributing feature films. We will have
weekly speakers ranging from creative collaborators to those involved in the
business aspects of making feature films.
DMS 518 ELD
Advanced Editing
Sarah Elder
Reg.#266157
Tr 3-4:50
CFA 235
Permission of Instructor Why do cuts work or not work? This production seminar looks at essential
principals of editing and explores the theoretical, practical, and creative
editing concerns of film and video artists. The class is designed for anyone
working in narrative or alternative fiction, documentary, or experimental media
either in video or film. Students will study advanced editing techniques learning
how to fine cut their own work with some practice in creative editing design
assignments. We will explore the nature of an edit, and examples of good cutting.
Students will read essential editing theory including classics by Murch, Eisenstein,
Cancyger, and Hollyn. The class will study and practice pacing, time cuts, rhythm,
dramatic arch, multiple audio tracts, continuity and discontinuity, match cuts,
story building, layering sound FX, editing room management, dialogue editing,
anti-narrative, and the influence of dreaming. Guest editors will also visit
and lecture on their work. Students must have previous editing experience and
preferably bring raw footage or an edited rough cut project on which they would
like to work during the semester. Each student will have different challenges
depending on his/her genre-fiction, experimental, or documentary. Students will
work on the Media 100, and students who wish to can also work on the 8 plate
film Steenbeck. Class size is limited. Lab fee $75.
DMS
518
PUBLIC ACTION / PRIVATE PRACTICE: (media) art beyond the (media) mainstream
Ron Ehmke
TR 1-2:50 pm
CFA 235
Reg# 353404
This course will examine forms of artmaking
which unfold for the most part outside the world of museums, multiplexes, theaters,
and other conventional venues. These include both actions with a potentially
large if sometimes unwitting viewership (political protests, street theater,
mass-media pranks & hoaxes) and those on a far more intimate/private scale
(zines, blogs, live/work spaces, private performances). We will also consider
such phenomena as public access television, internet activism, video witnessing,
independent ("sub-corporate") record labels, low-power radio, graffiti,
and other instances of "peripheral art." The threads which unite these
practices are many: they present a challenge to cultural monopolies, they often
encourage active participation, they're generally inexpensive to produce, and
their creators are usually less interested in career-building than in direct
engagement with the world around them. The course will incorporate examples
of the practices covered, presentations by guest speakers, and readings, among
other resources. By its very nature, the course will also take into account
cultural developments occurring on campus and/or in the world at large throughout
the semester.Lab fee $100.
DMS 529 LAB
Italian Cinema
Staff ***
Reg.#431034
W, 4:10-6:50
CFA 235 Enrolling in the lab will also place you into the seminar. The seminar
portion of the course is on MondaA study of various important directors from
the post-war period to the present. We shall start from the achievement of Neo-Realism
of “making the stone ‘stony'” (V. Shklowvsky, A. Bazin) through subject matter
and camera work and then proceed to view its fantastic and surreal dimension
in De Sica; its political urge in Rossellini and De Santis; its psychological
interest in Fellini; and its operatic, melodramatic color in Visconti. We continue
with a discussion of the artist's effort to grasp an unstable reality in Antonioni's
Blow Up; of the pessimistic worldview in Pasolini's The Decameron; and of the
philosophical and ethical compromise in Bertolucci's The Spider Stratagem. We
shall conclude with the comicity and intertextuality (uni- and inter-mediality)
of Nichetti's wonderful pastiche The Icicle Thief. Films will be shown on Wednesdays
and analyzed on Mondays. Attendance is required. Students are also required
to keep a journal of their own reactions to each film. The final grade will
be based on the journal, a midterm, and a last exam. Graduate students are required
also to write a 15-20-page essay or two 10-page essays.
DMS 535 HEN
Narrative Scriptwriting
Brian Henderson
Reg.#280304
MW 9-10:50
CFA 235
This course brings together students interested in dramatic writing in general
and writing for the screen in particular. Aristotle‚s Poetics will be
read and discussed by all, as will two of the many books on the writing of scripts:
Screenwriting by Richard Walter and Writing the Character-Centered Screenplay
by Andrew Horton˜one Hollywood oriented, the other oriented to European
films, respectively. The class will also read Five Screenplays by Preston Sturges,
in order to trace the writing of screenplays from first notes to final script
to revisions during filming and editing. Students will be encouraged to bring
to the class‚s attention other materials of interest they may discover
in the course of their studies. There will be several short exercises, and the
stages of scriptwriting, from draft to final project.
DMS 534 WEG
Bodyworks
Bernadette Wegenstein
MW 1-2:50
Reg.#496133
CFA 232
Bodyworks: Medicine, Technology and
the Body at the Turn of the Millennium takes the late twentieth century
as its historical timeframe for an analysis of concepts and representations
of the human body under the influence of new technologies. In an interdisciplinary
framework, evidence from both scientific and artistic “discourse universes”
will be under analysis. The aim of this course is to examine the thesis that
the dramatic new ways of imaging, controlling, intervening, remaking, possibly
even choosing bodies have participated in a complete reshaping of the notion
of the body in the cultural imaginary, and a transformation of our experience
of actual human bodies. An extensive course website will serve as a resource
and archive for students. The website will consist of a databank of digitized
film clips, readings (links to the online reserves at the undergraduate library),
weblinks, and additional research material on Bodyworks related issues.
DMS 540
Women Directors
Caroline Koebel
R 12-3:20
Reg.#272677
CFA 232
In this course, students will gain a
critical understanding of women as feature film directors. We will look in particular
at English-language productions from the 1990's by a cross-generation of emerging
and
established filmmakers, including Jane
Campion, Julie Dash, and Mary Harron. Each seminar will focus on one movie and
attendant readings. In considering specific instances of women's presence in
feature film
directing, we will also face "uncomfortable
truths" (Manohla Dargis) regarding the underrepresentation of women directing
both studio and independent productions. Course work includes weekly screenings
and readings, response papers, a class presentation, and a term project in the
form of a research paper, screenplay, zine, or a
web site.
DMS 547 CON Sound Design
Tony Conrad
Reg.#360049
MW 11-12:50
CFA 286 The visual media˜film and video˜ are powerfully inflected
by their accompanying audio tracks, which frequently convey the work's preponderant
sensibility, or even its core meaning. This course aims to prepare media students
technically, conceptually, and musically to work with audio. Topics introduced
will include sound design for media, field and studio recording methods, foley
recording and editing, audio mixing strategies, signal modification and effects,
multitrack audio reproduction, the basic physics of sound and audio signal electronics,
the technological principles and specifications of microphones and sound recording
systems, midi, music composition and improvisational approaches and practices,
world music, and the qualities of song and speech production. This is not a
course in audio software or CD burning.
The textbooks are David Sonnenschein‚s Sound Design: The Expressive Power
of Music, Voice, and Sound Effects in Cinema (Studio City CA: Michael Wiese
Productions, 2001) and Tomlinson Holman and Gerald Millerson‚s Sound for
Film and Television (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1997). The grade will be based on
successful completion of a series of short production exercises, brief quizzes
on the reading assignments, and regular attendance. There is no final exam.
Lab fee $75. Prerequisites: Intermediate Film Workshop, Intermediate Video
Workshop, or permission of the instructor.
DMS 598 (1-6 cr. Variable)
Project Supervision
Permission of Instructor A student may enroll for this course after completing course requirements
and while working on the thesis project. This course is for non-written projects
only. One to six credits of the „project supervision‰ may be applied
toward the MAH degree. Course syllabus form should be prepared prior to semester
start and one copy should be on file in the Media Study office. Lab fee: $75.
For registration information, see Nancy King in 231 CFA.
DMS 599 (4 cr. Variable)
Supervised Teaching
Permission of Instructor
See Nancy King in 231 CFA.
DMS 600 (1-8 cr. Variable)
Independent Study
Permission of Instructor Students may arrange for special courses of study with faculty through
independent study. The instructor will set the guideline for the course on an
individual basis. It permits the student to study independently in an area where
no course is given. Course syllabus form should be prepared prior too semester
start and one copy should be on file in the Media Study office. For registration
info, see Nancy King in 231 CFA. Lab Fee: $75 For registration information,
see Nancy King in 231 CFA.
DMS
602
Theory of Film Narrative
Brian Henderson
MW 3-4:50
Reg.#023325
CFA 235
Students in this course will read several
books and articles in the field of narrative theory. These include Gerard Genette's
Narrative Discourse, and Sarah Kozloff's Invisible Narrators, a study of voice-over
narration. Other materials include selections from David Bordwell's Narration
in Fiction Film, Leonard Loff's article on the undecidability of Citizen Kane.
etc. A wide variety of films will be considered in relation to the categories
of these and other texts. These include classic texts like The Story of G.I
Joe, All About Eve, and How Green Was My Valley "The Dutch Master."
The explosion of voice-over in contemporary films includes the work of Martin
Scorsese, Terrence Malick, and many others. Students will analyze a film in
the light of one or more narrative theories.
DMS 602 WEG
Europe's Postmodern Auteurs
Bernadette Wegenstein
Reg.#260388
R, 9-11:50
CFA 235 The loss of master-narratives (François Lyotard) facilitated
the erosion of the distinction between high art and popular culture in the post-industrial/post-colonial/post-modern
capitalist Western society(Frederic Jameson). This seminar examines the historically
and culturally different patterns four European postmodern auteurs developed
within the cinematic code: Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders
and Pedro Almodóvar. Starting with the end of Italian New Realism
and the French New Wave we will analyze how Fellini and Godard worked through
particular themes of their times, presenting a counter-cinema to the standardized
narratives of the 1940s and 1950s Hollywood tradition. From the desire
for things as expressed through Wim Wenders's camera to the "desire unlimited"
(Paul Julian Smith) in the cinema of Pedro Almódovar we will relate questions
and themes pertinent to these European auteurs to critical and philosophical
readings on postmodernism.
DMS 603
Film & Development of Contemporary Art: Art Practicing the Body
Caroline Koebel
Reg.#351946
T 3-6:50
CFA 232 This interdisciplinary studio course takes "the body"˜in
its myriad senses, significations and interpretations˜as the basis for
aesthetic and critical inquiry. Course requirements will center on three major
projects realized in the form/media of the student's choice, including performance,
digital/cyberart, installation, video, audio, and text/writing. We will consider
how artists and others position the turn-of-the-millennium body, and the influence
of previous investigations on recent approaches to the corporeal self. A plethora
of art works and writings by the likes of Samuel R. Delaney, Carolee Schneemann,
Bob Flanagan, Lygia Clark, Orlan, and Gina Pane will act as a catalyst for a
discourse and praxis of engagement and vitality. Lab fee: $75.
DMS 604 KNO
Principles in Media Production
Meg Knowles
Reg.#451696
F, 11-3:00pm
CFA 286 In this course, students will explore and experiment with the film
& video media through a series of short projects. Improvement of technical
knowledge and skills will be emphasized, and creativity encouraged. Topics to
be explored will include: understanding the film & video lenses, cameras
and stocks, advanced shooting techniques, sound gathering techniques, microphone
placement and selection, digital multi-track sound editing (Pro-Tools), lighting
techniques for studio and location, time-code, non-linear editing (/Final
Cut Pro), special effects (After Effects), and/or DVD authoring.
DMS 607
ENG
American Film History
Alan Spiegel
W 15:30-18:10
, Clemens 538
Screening: M 5-6:50, Capen 10
Reg.# 295969
Clemens 538
This cross listed course from the English
Department. We will attempt a short history of the American Film—movements,
trends, artists, studios: the works—easily a year's material (or more) telescoped
into a semester. We'll start with a month of film texhniques, etc., drawing
examples from the work of the silent masters: Griffith 's Broken Blossoms
; Stroheim's Greed ; Keaton's Sherlock Jr. And then the
transition to sound: Chaplin's Modern Times (resistance to the word);
Hawks' His Girl Friday (word triumphant); Sternberg's Scarlet Express
(image triumphant); Welles' Citizen Kane (integration of word
and image). Next a brief look at the Studio system (late ‘30s—early ‘50s): Wilder's
Double Indemnity (the genre film); Tourneur's The Cat People (the
B-film); Kazan 's A Streetcar Named Desire (acting). We'll end with
an overview of major trends in serious contemporary filmmaking: Altman's The
Long Goodbye, Kubrick's 2001 , Peckinpah's Straw Dogs ,
Lynch's Blue Velvet , taped excerpts from other films; the relevant
chapters in David Cook's A History of the Narrative Film ; handouts,
etc. (N.B. the above film list is tentative and subject to changes.)
My goals are simply to 1) help students
think through their eyes; get a lot of practice in reading movies seriously;
that is closely ; in translating images into words, and 2) see each
film as representative of various trends and problems in film history, theory,
and critical methodology. Perhaps not so simple after all, but I trust everyone
will have a good time.
A number of short analytic papers and
oral presentations will probably be required. Films will be shown on Monday
at 5:00 p.m. and discussed on Wednesday at 3:30 . While the Wednesday class
is of course mandatory, the Monday screening is flexible; the student may see
the required film by any means available to her or him (e.g., video rental)
as long as the viewing takes place before the Wednesday meeting. Media
and MAH students are urged to sign on; a background in film is not a prerequisite.
DMS 610 CON
Special Topics: Media Art Production Today
Tony Conrad
Reg.#379302
M W, 11-12:50
CFA 286 In this symposium the participants will explore contemporary premises
for making media art works, through readings, discussions, viewing media work,
and producing their own works to test their ideas. Central topics examined will
include (1) the move of experimental/independent media art from alternative
spaces into the gallery during the 1990s and the way that this move has changed
the forms and understanding of media art work, (2) the changing social and cultural
roles of media artists, and (3) recent European and New York gallery installations.
Readings will include current reports in the art press and writings by curators
(Obrist, Bourriaud, i.a.). Efforts will be made to have direct contact with
artists and curators in the field. This is a production course, with a
requirement to produce collective or individual work that explores contemporary
ideas and idioms. In addition, each student will be assigned an in-class presentation
on one contemporary artist's work. Each student should expect to spend approx.
$75 on reading materials and $50 to $5000 on projects. Lab fee: $100.
612 REI Novels to Film: Contemporary Authors
Linda Reisman
Reg.#248622
T 9-11:50am
CFA 232 This course will closely examine the screen adaptations of approximately
seven contemporary novels. The authors will include writers such as Russell
Banks, Rick Moody, Scott Spencer and A.S. Byatt -- with a range of filmmakers
from Paul Schrader to Ang Lee adapting the books. We will read and discuss the
novels, screenplays (where available) and screen the final films. This is a
3.0 credit hour course.
DMS 700 (1-3 cr. Variable)
Thesis Guidance
Permission of Instructor
A student may enroll in this course after completing course requirements and
while writing the thesis. This course is for the written thesis only. One to
six credits of „Thesis Guidance‰ may be applied toward an MAH degree.
Permission of the instructor is required. Course syllabus form should be completed
before the semester‚s start, and one copy should be on file with the department.
For registration info, see Nancy King in 231 CFA.
DIGITAL,
VIRTUAL REALITY, ROBOTICS AND RELATED COURSES
This is a list of graduate
courses of particular interest to students who are interested in Digital, Virtual
Reality, Robotics and related areas. All of these have been offered one or more
times during the last three years. For our current course offerings you should
click `Courses' on the main page navigation bar.
DMS 515 ANS
Analysis of Interactive Environments in Art and Entertainment
Josephine Anstey
Reg.#444448
MW 1-2:50
CFA 232 Electronic gaming is pervasive, but not the only locus of interactive
environments. In this course we will analyze not only popular games but the
wilder reaches of interactive installations and virtual reality constructed
by artists and researchers. We will discuss the interdisciplinary nature of
a media which depends on art, artificial intelligence, computer graphics, interface
design, human-computer interaction, psychology, narrative, networking and technical
innovation. We will ask why interactive experiences are popular, and try to
understand the social and cultural implications of this new media. Games studied
will include Black and White, Seaman, and Deus Ex. Artists/researchers studied
will include Brenda Laurel, Char Davies and Jeffrey Shaw. http://www.ccr.buffalo.edu/anstey
DMS 515 SCH
Digital Theory: Net
Cultures: Art, Politics and the Everyday
Trebor Scholz
MW 11-12:50
Reg.#322963
CFA 232 M, CFA 244 W
First please read: http://www.molodiez.org/net/syllabus.html
Net cultures have changed the landscape
of cultural production over the past few years. For artists, employing new empowering
tools such as hacking, communication became more important than representation.
Networked collaborations often caused
the downfall of traditional object making. The objective of this survey-like
course is to provide a social framework for the Internet and to point to transient
places of resistance within it. Approaching net cultures with both, the due
optimism and the necessary doubt, we will then join the love of thinking with
the joy of making.
We will discuss key issues such as access,
privacy, e-letism, history of net art, commodification, identity, creation and
eradication of public spaces, community building, narration online, sound, and
biotechnology. We will study a large variety of critical art practices online,
read core texts of net culture and discuss. With questions e.mail Trebor Scholz
at rtscholz@buffalo.edu
DMS 515 BOH
Information Theories, ROBOT:
Science & Myth
Bohlen
Reg.#408444
TR 11-12:50
CFA 232
This survey style seminar will introduce
students to the culture of robotics. It will begin with a brief history of the
field, followed by investigations into some of the key issues in robotics: artificial
intelligence, perception, autonomous behavior, emergent properties and Alife
based on papers by authors such as Marr, Brooks, Minsky, Steels, Moravec and
others. The course will include a survey of unorthodox fringe robotics, including
Killer Robots, Contemplative Robots, and Contestional Robots and conclude with
the question of the Final Robot. The presented material will be, in some cases,
quite technical, in some cases quite sensational and speculative. Students will
be expected to deliver a 20-page seminar paper in addition to active participation
in discussions. Reading material: Copies of relevant papers will be made available
to students at the beginning of the semester. **Students who have taken
Information Theories should not enroll in this course.**
DMS 516 BOH
Media Philosophy
Marc Böhlen
Reg.#178901
T, 5-8:50
CFA 235 Media Philosophy: all sound bites and zero content? This course
will help you evaluate whether Media Philosophy is just another fad or a new
thought vector worthy of attention. The seminar begins with an overview of early
ideas on mediating technologies as formulated by Heidegger, Peirce, Benjamin,
and MuLuhan, followed by newer texts by Hartmann, Hansen, Flusser and many others. Students
will be required to formulate a formal paper on a topic of their choice. Students
in Media and Art may opt to formulate and propose an idea for an international
media arts event in their field of interest (film, video, electronic arts
or other). Open to all graduate students. Preliminary Reading List: Noah
Wardrip-Fruin, Nick Montfort, eds: The New Media Reader; Mark Hansen: New
Philosophy for New Media; Frank Hartmann: MedienPhilosophie
DMS 516 FAB
Advanced Modeling in Maya: Modeling
for Consumer Devices
Jesse Fabian
M 18-21:50
Reg.# 210640
CFA 242
PR: Permission of Instructor
Design visual models targeting consumer
electronics platforms including cellphones BREW(Qualcomm), WAP(Nokia), console
games: Playstation, and Xbox, and the web. Measure and model information, manipulate
modeled information to form patterns that appeal to consumers and can be implemented
in the targeted platform. Build a series of models, from real world data, for
embodiment in a cellphone, DVD, computer, web application, or games hardware.
Schedule: Measure people, process,
patterns, motion, image, transaction, database, network, sensor, and controller
information. Model information regenerated from measurements as a static model,
field, procedure, database, or another structure. Manipulate modeled information
to form triggering and execution devices. Select one idealized form of the manipulated
information for implementation into a product at the expense of all others.
Encapsulate one idealized form in a system with a formal instruction set; cellphone,
DVD, computer, web application, or games hardware. Embody a process in the selected
system. Design a production pipeline. Implement a product or series of products
through a production pipeline.
DMS 517 DEN
Usability Testing
Dennen
Reg.#394641
M 15-17:50
****This is an on-line course****
Why do computer-based products succeed
or fail? Many factors play into this equation, but one critical factor is interface
of interaction design. Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study of how
humans use computers. Knowledge in this area is essential to producing successful
computer programs. This class will explore current topics in HCI and interface
design while developing computer-based products in a group environment with
a focus on developing a user-friendly interface. Students in this course should
have Basic Digital Arts or the equivalent and be familiar with either Web production
or Macromedia Director. $75 lab fee
DMS 518
PUBLIC ACTION / PRIVATE PRACTICE: (media) art beyond the (media) mainstream
Ron Ehmke
TR 1-2:50 pm
CFA 235
Reg# 353404
This course will examine forms of artmaking which unfold for the most part outside
the world of museums, multiplexes, theaters, and other conventional venues. These
include both actions with a potentially large if sometimes unwitting viewership
(political protests, street theater, mass-media pranks & hoaxes) and those
on a far more intimate/private scale (zines, blogs, live/work spaces, private
performances). We will also consider such phenomena as public access television,
internet activism, video witnessing, independent ("sub-corporate") record
labels, low-power radio, graffiti, and other instances of "peripheral art."
The threads which unite these practices are many: they present a challenge to
cultural monopolies, they often encourage active participation, they're generally
inexpensive to produce, and their creators are usually less interested in career-building
than in direct engagement with the world around them. The course will incorporate
examples of the practices covered, presentations by guest speakers, and readings,
among other resources. By its very nature, the course will also take into account
cultural developments occurring on campus and/or in the world at large throughout
the semester.Lab fee $100.
DMS 523
Programming Graphics I
Dave Pape
Reg.#026737
TR 10-11:50am
CFA 242 This production course will introduce students to the concepts and
practice of programming 3D computer graphics and audio using OpenGL and other
libraries. The major focus will be on creating interactive art or games experiences
by programming both graphics and sound. The course has three goals: to demystify
computer code - we get behind the Graphic User Interface to the machine below;
to explore the potential of programming - writing our own code means we can
create customized computer tools as well as customized visuals; and to teach
the fundamentals of graphics programming. Prerequisites are experience in a
programming language such as Python, C, C++, or Java. Lab fee $75. Contact:
dave.pape@acm.org
DMS 531
Seminar in the Image: Screen-Based Culture
Trebor Scholz
Reg.#273043
M 3-5:50
CFA 235
Understanding today's tools is not enough. Content is often tragically ignored
in the face of the corporate technology hype. In this course we will strive
for a self-reflective, creative setting that allows for critique and well-informed
debate of your work. We will investigate net cultures with both, the due euphoria
and the necessary criticism. The group will examine the potential for creative,
innovative and surprising uses of emerging networked media. The course offers
you a specter of role models that artists using emerging networked media inhabit:
from the virtual intellectual to the net.artist, from HTML slave to online guerilla.
"Screen-Based Culture" will draw from net criticism, art (history),
cultural studies, anthropology, critical theory, poetry, and the news.
DMS 533 BOH
Advanced Digital: Machine Vision in the Arts
Marc Bohlen
Reg.# 363122
TR 11-12:50pm
CFA 246
PR: Permission of Instructor
This advanced undergraduate ˆ graduate course is designed as a first exposure
to the possibilities and problems of machine vision for media artists. Students
will be exposed to the theoretical, philosophical and mathematical details that
make real time image processing possible. This course is an attempt to place
the techniques and the implications of machine vision into a cultural context
and to show how machine vision redefines the role of the image in the arts.
DMS Lab246 is equipped with 3 color video cameras, frame grabber cards and an
industry grade machine vision library. You will write code in C++ and investigate
basic and composite operations on single and sequential images. Three assignments
and a semester project build the basis for a final grade. Group projects are
encouraged. Programming experience is required. Class size is limited to 10
students. Lab fee $75. Contact marcbohlen@lycos.com www.buffalo.edu/~mrbohlen
DMS 533 B
Advanced Digital Arts Production:
Beyond the Box
Bohlen
Reg.#113959
MW 15-16:50
CFA 246
This introduction course section will
focus on computation issues surrounding peripheral devices and their use for
installation artwork. We will investigate concepts in the programming language
C++ and build object-oriented code to control remote devices such as sensors
and motors. This course will be both a traditional programming course as well
as a studio course in using computation in art practice. Students will be expected
to bring in or acquire programming skills and apply them in the design of installation
artwork. Proper programming will be just as important as diligent craft and
design. Lab fee $75
DMS 533 C
Advanced Digital Arts Production: Netcultures
Trebor Scholz
Reg.#080868
MW 11-12:50pm
CFA 244
PR: DMS 121, 155, or Permission of Instructor
The objective of this survey-like course is to provide a social framework for
the Internet and to point to transient places of resistance within it. Approaching
net cultures with both, the due optimism and the necessary doubt, we will then
join the love of thinking with the joy of making. We will discuss key issues
such as access, privacy, e-letism, history of net art, commodification, identity,
Internet standards/ broadband, creation and eradication of public spaces, community
building, narration online, and sound. Please note that this is not a web design
class. Lab fee $75. Contact: treborscholz@earthlink.net
DMS 534 B
Advanced Digital Arts Production
Marc Böhlen
TR 1-2:50
Reg.#405736
CFA 246
CompArtsII stresses the relationship
between the abstraction of the computational process and subjectivity of human
perception. CompArtsII is the second of a multi-part series introducing media,
computer science and art students to the possibilities of using computational
processes as forms of artistic expression and art-based research. In particular,
CompArtsII is interested in computation issues surrounding Computer Vision,
biometrically acquired data and its consequent analysis. The course explores
various notions of biometrics, intrusive and non-intrusive and investigates
both conceptual as well as technical approaches in dealing with sensitive data.
A large part of the course is dedicated to computer vision as it applies to
new medias investigation. A variety of additional sensors such as heat, light,
pressure, tilt and bend sensors as well as noise canceling microphones will
be available for experimentation. Students are expected to be proficient in
a high level programming language such as C++ and Matlab. Prerequisites :
Programming for Multimedia and DMS419 or equivalent courses, & approval
of Instructor.
DMS 534 W
Bodyworks: Medicine, Technology
and the Body at the Turn of the Millennium
Bernadette Wegenstein
W 11-14:50
Reg.# 076522
CFA 235
Bodyworks takes the late twentieth century
as its historical timeframe for an analysis of concepts and representations
of the human body under the influence of new technologies. In an interdisciplinary
framework, evidence from both scientific and artistic “discourse universes”
will be under analysis. The aim of this course is to examine the thesis that
the dramatic new ways of imaging, controlling, intervening, remaking, possibly
even choosing bodies have participated in a complete reshaping of the notion
of the body in the cultural imaginary, and a transformation of our experience
of actual human bodies. An extensive course website will serve as a resource
and archive for students. The website will consist of a databank of digitized
film clips, readings (links to the online reserves at the undergraduate library),
weblinks, and additional research material on Bodyworks related issues.
This undergraduate and graduate seminar will be crosslisted with the departments
of English and Comparative Literature.
Weekly topics: Machines and Bodies,
Spare Parts, Computer Assisted Surgery, Posthuman Bodies, Bodies, Inscriptions,
Replicants, Body Worlds, Body Sculpting, The Matrix, Designer Babies, Transgender,
Getting Under the Skin, Postmodern Fictional/Realities, Cyberpunk Film and Fiction,
Digital Anatomy
DMS 537
New Media I
Rich Cherry
Reg.#xxxxxxx
Lecture
T 6-7:50pm
DMS 537 A1
Lab
Reg.#143604
Thursday 5-6:50pm
DMS 537 A2
Lab
Reg.#375717
Thursday 7-8:50pm
This course provides an introduction to design and the production of interactive
multimedia. The content of the class will focus on the theoretical and practical
aspects of creating and integrating digital media with authoring/presentation
tools. This class will lay the foundation for creating interactive projects
for the web and CD-ROMS, and will integrate art, journalism, and music through
hands-on developmental projects in our Mac lab. Students will learn the process
and skills necessary to create a web site and an interactive CD-ROM which integrates
animation, graphic design, sound, and text, working in Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia
Dreamweaver, and Flash animation. Lab fee $75.
DMS 546 DEN
Interface Design
Vanessa Dennen
ARR-ARR
Reg.# 215338
CFA ARR
****This is an on-line course****
Why do computer-based products succeed or fail? Many factors play into this
equation, but one critical factor is interface of interaction design. Human-computer
interaction (HCI) is the study of how humans use computers. Knowledge in this
area is essential to producing successful computer programs. This class will
explore current topics in HCI and interface design while developing computer-based
products in a group environment with a focus on developing a user-friendly interface.
Students in this course should have Basic Digital Arts or the equivalent and
be familiar with either Web production or Macromedia Director. $75 lab fee.
Contact vdennen@mail.sdsu.edu
DMS 547 CON Sound Design
Tony Conrad
Reg.#360049
MW 11-12:50
CFA 286 The visual media˜film and video˜ are powerfully inflected
by their accompanying audio tracks, which frequently convey the work's preponderant
sensibility, or even its core meaning. This course aims to prepare media students
technically, conceptually, and musically to work with audio. Topics introduced
will include sound design for media, field and studio recording methods, foley
recording and editing, audio mixing strategies, signal modification and effects,
multitrack audio reproduction, the basic physics of sound and audio signal electronics,
the technological principles and specifications of microphones and sound recording
systems, midi, music composition and improvisational approaches and practices,
world music, and the qualities of song and speech production. This is not a
course in audio software or CD burning.
The textbooks are David Sonnenschein‚s
Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice, and Sound Effects in Cinema
(Studio City CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 2001) and Tomlinson Holman and Gerald
Millerson‚s Sound for Film and Television (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1997).
The grade will be based on successful completion of a series of short production
exercises, brief quizzes on the reading assignments, and regular attendance.
There is no final exam. Lab fee $75. Prerequisites: Intermediate Film Workshop,
Intermediate Video Workshop, or permission of the instructor.
DMS 553 VR Art Project I
Dave Pape
Reg.#257349
T 1-4pm
CFA 266 This course is designed for students with graphics programming experience
and/or experience with 3D modeling packages. Teams of modelers and programmers
will collaborate to build immersive virtual reality art experiences over the
course of 2 semesters. The course introduces students to Ygdrasil, a high-level
VR authoring toolkit and Performer a graphics library. Ygdrasil handles a number
of activities common to VR environments, such as assembling 3D models into a
world, collision detection, navigation, and detecting events and passing messages
in response to them. Modellers will face the challenge of modeling for a real
time environment. Prerequisites are graphics programming (DMS 424 or equivalent)
and/or advanced experience with 3D modeling packages. Lab fee $75. Contact:
dave.pape@acm.org.
DMS 598 (1-6 cr. Variable)
Project Supervision
Permission of Instructor A student may enroll for this course after completing course requirements
and while working on the thesis project. This course is for non-written projects
only. One to six credits of the „project supervision‰ may be applied
toward the MAH degree. Course syllabus form should be prepared prior to semester
start and one copy should be on file in the Media Study office. Lab fee: $75.
For registration information, see Nancy King in 231 CFA.
DMS 599 (4 cr. Variable)
Supervised Teaching
Permission of Instructor
See Nancy King in 231 CFA.
DMS 600 (1-8 cr. Variable)
Independent Study
Permission of Instructor Students may arrange for special courses of study with faculty through
independent study. The instructor will set the guideline for the course on an
individual basis. It permits the student to study independently in an area where
no course is given. Course syllabus form should be prepared prior too semester
start and one copy should be on file in the Media Study office. For registration
info, see Nancy King in 231 CFA. Lab Fee: $75 For registration information,
see Nancy King in 231 CFA.
DMS 606/ENG 706
Poetics of Programmable Literature
Loss Glazier
Reg.#289074/Reg.#214235
T 12:30-3:10
CFA232 Programmable literature can be defined as new media writing that uses
programming and/or interactivity to generate varying content for different readings.
This emerging discipline is a truly dynamic field of digital media poetics.
This is a graduate-level course about reading programmable literature and about
relevant literary/digital theory. It will provide detailed examination of works
by programmable medium artists such as John Cayley, Philippe Bootz, Neil Hennessey,
Judd Morrissey/Lori Talley, Simon Biggs and/or others. The concept of "literature"
will extend to other implementations of programmability, including diverse types
of textual art machines. We will consider the grammar of programming languages
and will differentiate programming code from scripting languages and simple
mark-up. A survey of programming languages, algorithmic thinking, and text manipulation
programs will be included, depending on student interest. We will look at some
Language Poetry practices as relating to programmability. We will consider the
relation between programmed variance and scholarly textual criticism. Theories
of programmability will be central to the course and will include a look at
foundational writings, including Turing, Babbage, Kittler, and others. Questions
that will be raised include how meaning is made when texts have multiple content,
how such multiple content can be tracked, how the scope of a work is determined,
and how you read between the variants to locate issues at the core of such works.
Course requirements: reading, oral presentation, final project, digital or paper.
If digital, final project may be a programming project, text manipulation project,
or variance analysis, digital or traditional; if paper, given the newness of
the field, it is hoped that paper can be publishable. No programming/technical
experience is required.
DMS 606 FER
Concepts in Animation Graphics
Fertig
Reg.#006539
TR 15-16:50
CFA 244
This course is split into two parts
- the first half focuses on Macromedia Flash 5, while the second half concentrates
Macromedia Director 8. Students are encouraged to have prior basic experience
with at least one or the other, and will have the ability to learn each in depth.
Both programs will be taught from the intermediate (to advanced) level, and
will cover such topics as special effects in animation, creating complex animations
for the web, and the creation of CD-Rom games and similar kiosk platforms. Light
Action Scripting and/or Lingo knowledge is preferred. Students will be required
to produce two mini-projects, one in Flash mid-semester, and one in Director
at the end of the semester (in addition to weekly assignments in each). This
course will be somewhat fast-paced and diligence is expected. Students
will come away from this course with a comprehensive understanding and appreciation
of animation (motion) graphics. Lab fee $75.
DMS 612 Web & WLB (linked)
Programming for Web Design
Chris Egert
MW 4-5:50
Reg.# 193104
CFA 244
This course is intended to provide students
with an introduction to web-based script programming. The course will start
by providing students with an understanding of the architecture of modern web
browsers and web servers. Students will be presented with a structural overview
of the HyperText Markup Language (HTML), concentrating on advanced features
such as Dynamic HTML (DHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Over the course
of the semester, students will learn basic programming skills for both the web
server (using PHP) and the web browser (using JavaScript), with an emphasis
on script programming for the web server.
General programming topics will include
variables, assignment, expressions, page-based input and output, functions,
iteration, selection, and aggregate data types such as arrays and objects. Web
browser programming topics will include manipulating the Document Object Model
(DOM), forms handling, client-side cookie handling, and event handling. Web
server programming topics will include processing information gathered from
web page requests, dynamic page generation, session management/information scoping,
server-side cookie processing, and server-based extension libraries.
Although no prior programming experience
is required for this course, students should have exposure to web design, including
the use of modern hypertext layout systems such as Macromedia Dreamweaver™ or
Microsoft FrontPage™. As this is a production-oriented class, students will
be required to perform a substantial amount of work outside class . Lab fee
$75.
DMS 700 (1-3 cr. Variable)
Thesis Guidance
Permission of Instructor
A student may enroll in this course after completing course requirements and
while writing the thesis. This course is for the written thesis only. One to
six credits of „Thesis Guidance‰ may be applied toward an MAH degree.
Permission of the instructor is required. Course syllabus form should be completed
before the semester‚s start, and one copy should be on file with the department.
For registration info, see Nancy King in 231 CFA.
