Note: elective course offerings change each semester. The sample list below are elective courses offered in the fall semester of 2006. A list of available electives for the upcoming semester is distributed before the registration period each semester.
TVR 25.2 Advanced Radio Production
Take as PIMA 704
Meets: Mondays 1:40PM-6:00PM Room: 302 A
Note: Other 600 and 700 level CIS courses are available with the Chairperson and Instructor’s permissions. Contact me if you see a course which interests you in the bulletin.
CIS 601X Intensive Introduction to Computing Using C
60 hours; 4 credits
See table below for sections & schedule
Algorithms, programs, and computers. Writing, debugging, and verifying programs. Data representation and control structures. Arrays, pointers, and structures. Loops, functions, and other control structures. Programming applications selected from the areas of statistics, business, science, and social science. History and basic concepts of computer science. Substantial programming required.
ART 777 The Aesthetics of Information (a PIMA elective favorite)
Code: 3063 Section: ERQ6 Meets: Thursday 6:20PM-9:50PM Room: 5207 B
As computers and other electronic tools become available and widespread in artistic practice, it becomes more and more necessary for artists to think critically about technology related issues. This course introduces simple techniques of electronic art-making and then examines the resulting projects through the lens of contemporary critical and cultural theory. Recent digital media and internet projects will also be examined. Readings will include theoretical, literary, philosophical, psychoanalytic, technological, cinematic, and architectural texts. Issues of visual culture including digital studies, mass culture, and representation will be addressed. The course will enable students to understand the origins and nature of current ideological debates about the cultural, social, political and economic significance of the new media technologies and will identify ways of applying these diverse analytical frameworks to practical work.
ART 48.11 Electronic Image I (Skill level: Basic)
1 hour recitation, 1 hour lecture, 2 hours laboratory, a minimum of 4 hours independent work; 3 credits
See table below for sections & schedule
Take as PIMA 704
Introduction to computer-imaging techniques. The methods by which a computer looks at an image and conveys it into conventional graphical formats. Exploration of the role of computer-imaging techniques in the creative process.
ART 48.12 Electronic Image II (Skill level: Intermediate)
1 hour recitation, 1 hour lecture, 2 hours laboratory, a minimum of 4 hours independent work; 3 credits
See table below for sections & schedule
Take as PIMA 704
Continuation of Art 48.11, with focus on complexities of black- and-white techniques in producing images, line art, and gray scale. Screen technology.
ART 48.14 Advanced Media I (Intensive 3D graphics course)
1 hour lecture, 1 hour recitation, a minimum of 4 hours independent work; 3 credits
See table below for sections & schedule
Take as PIMA 704
Studio techniques of modeling and rendering computer design-media into formats for file exchange among existing applications. Storyboards, timeline, modeling, and rendering along a production ladder. Perception and theory of visual structures as applied to culturally accepted values studied as aesthetic values.
*Music 737.1 Computer Music I (a PIMA elective favorite, soon to be a GC and Hunter favorite, too!)
Code: 2405 Section: W4 Meets: Wed 4:55PM-7:25PM Room: 251 G
**Music 760.6 Seminar in Music History; John Cage: Music and Aesthetics (Highly Recommended; not open to students taking PIMA 703, as they meet at the same time…)
Code: 2969 Section: ETV6 Meets: Tuesday 6:40PM-9:10PM Room: 249 G
Instructor: David Grubbs
*open to Hunter College IMA M.F.A. and Graduate Center Composition D.M.A. students by e-permit with permission of the program director. Open to Brooklyn College graduate students in the arts with permission of the instructor.
**open to Hunter College IMA M.F.A. and Graduate Center Composition D.M.A. students by e-permit after June 1.
THE 703 Development of Dramatic Structure I (Permission Required)
Code: 2532 Section: WZ3 Meets: W 3:30PM-6:00PM Room: 406 Whtehead
Instructor: Lynn Thomson
Analysis of dramatic structure in representative major plays of Greek, Roman, medieval, Renaissance playwrights.
THE 771.5 Scene Design (Multiple Permissions Required, students must attend a preparatory workshop in the week prior to classes)
Code: 2546 Section: RZ9 Meets: Thursday 9:25AM-12:05PM Room: 407 Whitehead
Instructor: Kip Marsh
THE 30.1 Directing I (Permission Required)
Take as PIMA 704
Code: 1495 Section: WZ9 Meets: Wednesday 9:25AM-12:05PM Room: 022 W
Instructor: Thomas Bullard
Investigation of the fundamental techniques in bringing a text and an acting group into performance. Working with the actor and the environment.
Register via E-Permit. For instructions, see: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu - click “registrar,” click “permit and e-permit.” If you plan to take one of these courses please contact me ASAP so I can inform Hunter!
Yes, I am teaching in the Hunter program in the fall: SOUND ENVIRONMENTS (IMA 780.81) – this course will be similar in some respects to my Music 737.1/737.2 sequence, but with less of a programming and performance emphasis and more attention to the broader field of sound art, including site-specific works, single-listener pieces, and radiophonic work. Bring a boombox.
68th Street between Park & Lexington Avenues
Department of Film and Media Studies
Integrated Media Arts (IMA) program
Director: Professor Andrea Polli
Note: Unfamiliar terms such as “the ANALYTICAL SEMINAR requirement’ relate to Hunter College’s M.F.A. requirements only. These courses count as standard PIMA Certificate or M.F.A. electives for Brooklyn College students.
Analytical seminar: Social and historical roots of Mass Culture (IMA 701)
Prof. Stuart Ewen
Wednesday, 6:30-8:30, The Graduate Center
Description: The seminar explores the historical triangle linking the rise of the mass media, the development of a modern, global commercial society, and the emergence of a consumer economy and culture. Relations between visual media, language and social power will be an ongoing concern, as will changes in the meaning of truth, the physics of perception, and the character of public life and public interaction that have evolved alongside the rise of a modern media system. Throughout the course we will examine media artifacts and aesthetic currents in relation to distinct cultural outlooks and important social and/or historical changes. Historical junctures linking art, science, popular culture and the mass media will be explored as well. Areas of concern include the history, influence and meanings of visual language, the changing consequence of words in print and speech, the relationship between social structure, classification systems, social psychology, and modernity.
Students will produce three illustrated essays or other media projects in response to issues raised by readings and discussions. They will also make presentations to the seminar. Work coming out of this seminar will be submitted to the MFA/IMA student publication, Eat and Run. This course counts toward the Analytical Seminar credit.
ANALYTICAL SEMINAR: COMMUNICATION AND THE CITY (IMA 704)
Prof. Mary Flanagan
Tuesday, 5:30-7:30, Room 543 HN
Description: Exploring the history of cities and media practice from historical, geographical, and practice-based research approaches, this course focuses on the way the space of the city and media intersect, with a particular emphasis on the emerging field of locative media. The first half of the course introduces a selection of the key and historical texts of social theory which study cities, spatiality and urban form and the way in which bodies, culture, and images are produced. Readings will include Lefebvre, de Certeau, Calvino, Massey, etc. Class discussions will cover a range of critical perspectives on media practice with a focus on Surrealist, Situationist, performative, and contemporary media art works which have reassessed the ways of representing, relating to and encountering the city. The second half of the class will investigate locative media, a new art form that explores the ways in which data, location, and media technology alters how we can understand issues of place and environment; locative media projects can include smart mobs, urban gaming, and other ways in which the "real world" can be interactively explored and mapped. The course also includes discussions of the work of contemporary media practitioners (including visiting practitioners) whose work includes user-led mapping and artistic interventions. Students will write one research paper, lead discussions, and have the option of a solo/group practice project or paper for the final work. This course counts towards the ANALYTICAL SEMINAR requirement.
ANALYTICAL SEMINAR: HISTORY AND CRITICISM OF THE DOCUMENTARY: ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM (IMA 709)
Prof. Carolyn Strachan
Day and time Monday, 5:30-8:30, Room 436 HN
Description: The course focuses primarily on ethnographic film. We will work through the broad range of genres, from realism to experimental, as attempts at dealing with the presentation of the Other and its interrelated issues of Eurocentrism, racism, multiculteralism, and postcolonialism. This course counts towards the ANALYTICAL SEMINAR requirement.
CHANNELS/VISIONS WORKSHOP: Tools and Techniques of Digital Production (IMA 760)
Prof. Mary Flanagan
Monday, 5:30-8:30, Room 544 HN
Description: This course is a hands-on workshop that offers a graduate level foundation in digital media production. Image acquisition, creation and editing; video editing and encoding; simple HTML and Flash are technologies and delivery platforms explored through short conceptual exercises. The curriculum in this class emphasizes problem solving and an integrated and creative approach to digital media production where concepts are integral to the work. Course assignments are scaffolded so that students can work to their own skill level. The course is designed to give students a basic introduction to begin working fluidly across the tools and techniques used in the Integrated Media Graduate program. This workshop may be counted towards the CHANNELS or VISIONS clusters.
VISIONS WORKSHOP: DOCUMENTARY EXPRESSIONS (IMA 740)
Instructor: Prof. Kelly Anderson
Tuesday, 5:30-8:30, Room 544 HN
Description: What is meant by documentary film and video? What is nonfiction? Any attempt at a definition leads into a terrain of complicated formal and conceptual questions. What is the boundary between fiction and nonfiction? Who is telling the story and whose story is being told? What is included in the frame and what gets excluded? Through practical instruction of technical skills and critique of students’ work, through critical readings, and by examining the ways makers have approached non-fiction storytelling over the past several decades, we will attempt to work our way across this contested territory. We will make, look at, and talk about work that ranges from the subjective essay to the assertion of fact. This is a production workshop in which students will learn shooting, lighting, sound and editing skills, and are expected to produce a number of short works. Working knowledge of Final Cut Pro is a prerequisite. This workshop counts toward the VISIONS cluster.
WORDS WORKSHOP: STORY STRATEGIES (IMA 780.52)
Prof. Mick Hurbis-Cherrier
Tuesday, 5:30-9:00, Room 507 HN
Description: The objective of this class is to challenge and broaden the students' understanding of how movies can tell stories. Just as the title suggests, this course examines a broad range of approaches to storytelling in the fictional narrative feature film. We will closely examine various tactics for using dramatic story elements, such as dramatic structure, character/voice, time, tone and genre, starting with conventional three act hero based films and ending with radically alternative narratives which successfully break all of the so-called rules. The analytical dimension of this class is dedicated to developing a method for looking at movies specific to screenwriters. We will not be looking at films theoretically or watching movies for entertainment, rather we will be exploring films as highly specific textbooks of dramatic technique, narrative style and cinematic expression. Students have the option of writing three analytical papers or writing a good chunk (complete treatment and first 30 pages) of an original screenplay. This workshop counts towards the WORDS cluster.
WORDS WORKSHOP: NON-LINEAR STORYTELLING (IMA 780.51)
Prof. Rachel Stevens
Tuesday, 6:00-9:00, Room 432HN
Description: How do narratives or stories - fictional, documentary and those that fall somewhere in between - unfold in ways that are nonlinear? This class is a workshop that examines different forms of nonlinear narrative while providing a space for students to practice their own writing for nonlinear forms. Through readings, multiple media examples, class discussions and writing exercises students will develop skills and ideas culminating in a nonlinear writing project. There will be brief technical demos to facilitate time-based and interactive projects, but they will not be the emphasis of the class. Students are encouraged to bring material (sketches, research, writing, footage) to the class that they may already be working with. The course will examine several different forms of narrative that address the following questions: How are memory and time represented in documentary media, creative non-fiction, fiction film, the novel, or short story? How does postmodern writing make relationships between texts or use self-referential devices to challenge canonical forms? How can the relationship between the author(s) and the subject(s) be illuminated or developed? How do ‘new media’ enable multiple forms of storytelling and writing through hypertext, collaborative and networked environments, web-documentary, DVD-ROMs, blogs, video games, generative software, and fan fiction? In what ways can play and collaboration inform writing and the development of a project? How do structures such as branching and the database come into play? What are the tensions between the Author’s point of view and the User/Player/Audience’s choice in navigating or even generating content, between determinacy and indeterminacy, or the open text? This workshop counts towards the WORDS cluster.
CHANNELS/VISIONS WORKSHOP: 3D VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS (IMA 780.45)
Prof. Tim Portlock
Thursday, 5:30-8:30, Room 432 HN
Description: As 3D computer games become more ubiquitous so do the tools available to customize their content. Game modification and level editing have been developed, primarily, to extend the life of commercial games. However these tools have also enabled the customization of games by users for more artistic, educational and socially engaged purposes. This class will examine the narrative strategies used to develop virtual environments and will particularly focus on how non-linear stories are expressed through the construction of time and space. This production course will introduce a number of processes for creating and customizing the content of a major 3D computer game title as well as develop critical perspectives for what it means to modify these ‘pre-authored’ commercially produced narratives. This class will also examine relevant sociological aspects of gaming culture and the artistic and educational uses of the technology. This workshop may be counted towards the VISIONS or CHANNELS cluster.
VISIONS WORKSHOP: CULTURE JAMMING: SUBVERTING POPULAR MEDIA STRATEGIES (IMA 780.48)
Instructor: Heidi Cody
Friday, 5:30-8:30, Room 544 HN
Description: How can one publicly communicate a fresh, content-driven idea, in a culture oversaturated with mind-numbing consumer culture? Culture Jamming: Subverting Popular Media Strategies investigates culture jamming, art and design strategies that beat marketing methods at their own game, and the legal implications of these strategies. Learning by example, this class employs graphic, visual and other communication skills to best express one’s intended message. Non-traditional approaches and presentation methods, which circumvent or critique mass media communication, are emphasized. Design, print, web, objects, drawings, paintings, photography, performance and guerilla-style intervention all may be used. Students are encouraged to incorporate existing projects or agendas into an adventurous, idea-driven project. This workshop counts towards the VISIONS cluster.
CHANNELS WORKSHOP: SOUND ENVIRONMENTS (IMA 780.81)
Instructor: John Jannone
Thursday, 5:30-8:30, Room 544 HN
Description: The sound environments course will consist of three parallel and interconnected explorations of sound art:
1. theory: students will develop a complex understanding of the artistic and social issues surrounding sound, noise, silence, and the field of sound art (as distinct from music) through readings, research, analysis, and discussion.
2. process: students will use tools developed in the Max/MSP programming environment to implement and explore sound processes. These tools will be dissected in class to demonstrate methods for realization of sonic processes in software, and to provide an introduction to Max/MSP.
3. realization: sound artworks will be conceptualized, developed, and presented to listeners through installation, performance, single-listener, and other sound art presentation formats, using readily available low-tech and consumer equipment.
The course will require attendance of events outside of class time, independent and group studio work outside of class time, and possibly presentation of student work outside of class time. Each student in the class will be responsible to have access to a personal high-fidelity sound player (iPod, CD walkman, &c...), a public sound player/receiver (CD boom box with FM stereo), and a portable sound recorder with line output (video camera, minidisc recorder, flash audio recorder, microcassette recorder, some digital cameras, etc...). This workshop counts towards the CHANNELS cluster.
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