Open Courses/Course Cancellations/
All ITP Announce Messages are archived here – http://itp.nyu.edu/help/announce/
This weekend is the time for checking your registration to ensure
you’re enrolled for the proper number of credits.
The following courses are still open, and available to all students:
Visual Communication CALL NUMBER 76886
H79.2724 (Katherine Dillon) Friday 12:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
We see information before we read it – and often we see instead of
read. Effective technologists and storytellers embrace the importance
of visual design and understand the many tools available to convey
and manipulate the user experience. These tools include everything
from the layout and packaging of the written word to photo editing,
information graphics, illustration, typography, animation, color and
spatial modeling. This course provides an overview of the tools
available and, through a series of practical exercises, enables
students to understand the implications of their use. The goal of
the course is to provide students with the practical knowledge and
critical skills necessary to effectively consider visual design as an
important and inevitable component of their work.
Game Design CALL NUMBER 76884
H79.2272 (Kevin Cancienne) Monday 3:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
This class begins with the premise that game design is a discipline
that transcends the media or tools with which any particular game is
created. In this hands-on workshop students learn techniques and
approaches they can apply to solve design problems in games of any
format — from board games to digital games to real world games.
Students analyze existing games to understand how they work as
interactive systems; create a number of non-digital games in order to
master the basic design principles that apply to all games regardless
of format; critique each other’s work, developing the communication
skills necessary for thriving in this often multi-disciplinary,
collaborative field; develop techniques for rapid prototyping and
iterative design; and explore the creative possibilities of this
emerging field from formal, social, and cultural perspectives.
Recurring Concepts in Art CALL NUMBER 71169
H79.2586 (Georgia Krantz) Thursday 3:30
p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
As a response to developing technologies, artists working in areas of
new/digital media are continually inventing new concepts for self-
expression – interactivity, the passage of time and resolution, just
to name a few. Yet these concepts are new only in the sense that they
are being adapted to new media. For example, the notion of
interactivity, frequently observed as original and specific to the
user-interaction component of computer-mediated works, was equally,
if differently, specific to Gianlorenzo Bernini’s 17th-century
Baroque sculpture and architecture. Indeed the very concept of new
media, and the concomitant implication of critically significant
artistic development, applies throughout history. Oil revolutionized
painting in the Renaissance, as did house-paint (on canvas) in the
1950s; in the 1910s, the found object indelibly altered definitions
of art, the importance of the object being subsumed by that of the
concept in the 1960s. This course examines how artists working before
the boom of digital technology utilized other media, techniques and
approaches to effect formal, conceptual and experiential dynamics
comparable to those being investigated by new media artists today.
The objective of the course is to provide students with not only
knowledge of the immensely rich history of artistic creativity, but
also a platform through which that knowledge might be utilized to
reconsider new media strategies of artistic expression. It is the
goal that through observation, discussion, reading and projects (both
written and hands-on), students acquire mental tools to approach
their own work with an expanded understanding of artistic
possibility. Organized thematically, each class focuses on a
different concept derived from the field of new media production and
examined with regard to artistic precedents. The course focus
primarily, though not exclusively, is on 20th/21st-century art. It is
conducted as a combination lecture/discussion class. Critical theory
is incorporated into the readings and discussions, but this is not
strictly a theory course. The course has been conceptualized and
designed to enhance understanding through a variety of means, from
basic observation, to exploratory conversations, to more rigorous
thinking informed by lectures, readings and focused discussions.
2X2 CALL NUMBER 71187
H79.2652 (Nancy Hechinger) Thursday 3:30
p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Form follows format. The first movies were filmed plays; it took
decades for the vocabulary of film & a new kind of storytelling to
emerge. Now film is viewable on handheld devices: phones, palms,
ipods, MP3 players—and people are watching movies meant for the big
screen and a communal experience (theater) or short format forms,
such as commercials and music videos, meant for TV and whose purpose
is selling stuff. Will a new art form emerge? Will there be a new
vocabulary? Will visuals become less important? Sound more important?
Can you be moved to action, to tears, to laughter in a short time and
small space? Can you possibly feel immersed? I don’t know. 2X2 is an
experiment—a creative storytelling/narrative course to explore a
potential new art form, specifically designed to be seen on a small
(+/- 2 inch) screen for a short time (+/- 2 minute). Emphasis on
story, not production., not interaction. No theory. We explore
narrative possibilities in both non-fiction (e.g. essay forms, mini-
docs,) and fiction (e.g. stories, poetry, performance). In some
assignments, students work with ‘other people’s stories”; in others
they create their own. and stories created by students. In a
collaboration for this class only, students will have access and
permission to use the Magnum Photo archive (www.magnumphotos.com) The
class follows an almost traditional ‘creative writing’ format. Each
week there are two assignments. These are quick sketches/rough
drafts. 1) A specific exercise, given at the end of each class, which
has 2 aspects: a topic/theme (e.g. confess to an emotional crime,
TK), and a form restriction (e.g. use no words). In each class,
students present their work for critique. 2) Dickens meets Dada:
Story Collaborative. Dickens published his work in monthly serial
installments. The Dadaists played Exquisite Corpse. We combine the
two. Every week, each student adds an episode, randomly assigned, to
someone else’s story created the previous week. Thus, if there are 14
people in the class, we end up with 14 12 part stories. Students post
their contribution by Tuesday night (2 days before class), so that
everyone has time to view them before class. We may also post them to
a public site to get viewer feedback as we go. For a final project,
each student picks 2 of their individual assignments (one fiction,
one non-fiction) to take to a more finished level. The last class is
a film festival with outside reviewers.
Show and Tell Studio CALL NUMBER 76623
H79.2588 (Nancy Hechinger) Tuesday 3:30 p.m. –
6:00 p.m.
There is no shortage of great ideas and projects at ITP. But there is
often a shortage of class time to thoroughly develop the concept for
a project and to communicate effectively about it in writing or
orally in presentations. At some point you are going to have to pitch
your projects to people outside ITP and this studio will help you
gain the skills you will need. This studio is a complement to a
production class — each student brings a project from another class
– we take the time, often lacking in class, to learn how to focus an
idea into a workable concept, and to practice and experiment with
ways to present it. Writing is critical to thinking and design. So
the writing you do helps you hone and clarify your concept and lay
the basis for a smoother more effective design and development
process. We work on the structure of presentations, public speaking
techniques; how to write and design engaging and memorable
presentations. We also work on written communication, which may
include: grant writing, artist’s statements and proposals.
Crafting with Data: Revelations, Illusions, Truth and the Future
CALL NUMBER 76628
H79.2710 (Robert Faludi) Monday 12:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Contemporary interaction designers and artists often manipulate
scientific, historical, commercial and social information. Literacy
in design, art or engineering requires the complement of literacy in
data. This class makes a powerful additions to your skill set of
programming, visual design and electronics. Students become
conversant in the tools available for extracting insightful
information from real-world samples. In this class we learn about the
“lies, damn lies and statistics” that are encountered in our daily
information feeds. Basic training is provided in a variety of handy
methods for interpretation and manipulation of data, yet no math
beyond some simple arithmetic is required for completing this course.
Materials are visually oriented, and the focus is on concepts rather
than on mechanics. Exercises include analyzing maps, building
physical models and exploring information via accessible computer
simulations. Short projects teach how to understand where data comes
from, what it looks like and what it means. Students learn how to
transform data in ways that avoid distortions, reveal truths and
grandly illuminate their ideas. (Note: The class is carefully
structured to support your other production classes. There are a
variety of weekly assignments but no final project or paper, allowing
you time to apply your newfound skills.)
Design for One CALL NUMBER 76629
H79.2712 (Marianne Petit /John Schimmel) Monday 6:30 p.m.
- 9:00 p.m.
This course focuses on designing and prototyping for an individual
who requires the infamous ‘one-off’ product that does not fit into
the everyday design category. Student groups are matched with outside
organizations and introduced to a person with a need that serves as
the focus of the semester’s project. The students work closely with
the organizations and individuals to assess the problem, research
possible solutions and build various prototypes for user testing.
During the course, students research the social issues related to
their design challenge; why does this problem exist, how common is
this situation, and how does individual design differ from inclusive
or universal design? As projects progress students are asked to
generalize their solutions and define how a larger population might
use their designs. The goal of the class is to bring student
designers together with people in the community who need a specific
‘one-off’ working solution that is used by the individual and
documented to share with similar organizations. The class requires
introduction to physical computing and introduction to computational
media.
We have canceled the following courses:
H79.2524-001 Algorithmic Composition
H79.2742-001 Moving Image Project Development Studio
H79.2744-001 Service Design for Public Space
Please feel to contact me if you have any questions.
Have a great weekend!
Gordie
—————————————————–
Edward J. Gordon
Faculty & Student Services Coordinator
Interactive Telecommunications Program
Tisch School of the Arts
New York University
721 Broadway, 4th floor
New York, NY 10003
phone: (212) 998-1889
fax: (212) 998-1898
e-mail: edward.gordon@nyu.edu
http://www.itp.nyu.edu