“Critical Experience is an experiential journey through a research driven art practice rooted in care, community, and somatic inquiry. This class is based on the premise that there are many ways to know things and we can draw upon these ways of knowing and our desire to know in order to nurture a creative practice grounded in research, clear intention, and a critical lens. Critical here means: discerning, eager to participate differently, cast new light on, re-examine, course-correct. You will be guided through traditional research methods (library and interview techniques, citations, informal ethnographies) and experience design while also being asked to cultivate intentional awareness of your own positionalities, communities, personal strengths, emotions, and desires through experimentation, hunch following, rituals, and contemplative practices.This class was created for or artists/designers who are interested in participation/interaction and its relationship to social practice, critical design, and change-making as well as individuals curious about knowing what moves them. Why experience? The work in this class will be looked at through the lens of its ability to transform (a user, participant, audience, viewer). Interactivity is one way of doing that, but through the lens of experience design, all art is temporal and embodied.”
Category Archives: IMA Electives (Legacy Structure – Media & Entertainment)
Courses that count in IMA’s Media & Entertainment category
Collective Narrative (IMNY-UT 286)
This two-point workshop is centered on the examination and creation of collective storytelling environments. We will examine a wide-range of storytelling spaces including participatory and user-generated environments, site-specific works, community based arts practices, and transmedia storytelling. Weekly assignments, field trips, and student presentations.
Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 8 Weeks
Sections (Spring 2022)
IMNY-UT 286-000 (22301)01/24/2022 – 03/21/2022 Fri9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Petit, Marianne
Big Spaces (IMNY-UT 226)
If so much of life is circumstance, being in a certain place at a certain moment in time… Can we shape a life or at least a few brief moments of a life by designing the circumstances in which that life inhabits a space? In this course, we will treat space as a time-based medium and ask how interactive spaces can generate narratives that are lived rather than told. We will do so by interrogating four so-called “space-narrative” forms: Wandering The Desert, Processions, Circles and Territories. Through play, discussion and hands-on workshopping of both technical topics and ideas we will ask and attempt to answer some of the following questions: What constitutes a space? How do we experience a space over time? How does space shape our experience of time? How can space form a personal narrative? Media outputs we will employ include: lights, projection and sound. Interaction input sources will come from cameras and microphones. We will use p5.js, websockets and node.js for real-time interaction. Class time will be split between group improvisation exercises, playing with and critiquing examples and translating design strategies into code and logic.
Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks
Sections (Spring 2022)
IMNY-UT 226-000 (22297)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Fri12:00 AM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Yin, Yue
Immersive Arts (INTM-SHU 257)
This course aims to provide students with the means to understand immersive media experiences, and conduct experiments from both a practical and a theoretical perspective. The course consists of lectures, research, discussion and studio-based practice. Students will learn to produce stereoscopic – 3D images and photogrammetric 3D models, utilize multi-channel video and sound systems, and be introduced to the Unity game engine and VR hardware. For the final project, students produce VR environments in experimental and meaningful ways. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks
Sections (Fall 2022)
INTM-SHU 257-000 (17304)09/05/2022 – 12/16/2022 Tue9:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at ShanghaiInstructed by Her, Yun
Digital Audio Workstations: Logic (REMU-UT 1021)
During this course, students will acquire an in-depth, theoretical and practical knowledge of Digital Audio Workstations using the industry standard Logic Pro software through a weekly, lab-based workshop. Each class will be a combination of lecture and immediate application. An emphasis will be placed on getting to know Logic Pro, getting inside Logic Pro, creating sessions, working with media in sessions, audio recording, audio editing, file management techniques, MIDI recording, editing techniques, mixing techniques, backups and stereo mix-down.
3D Game Studio: Unity (GAMES-UT 325)
Unity is a practical course that introduces students to the methods, tools and principles used in developing three-dimensional games. This class builds on the foundations laid by the Intermediate Game Development course, which teaches students the 2D basics of the popular Unity game engine. Over the course of the semester, students learn all the technical and design fundamentals that are peculiar to the development of contemporary 3D games: geometry, light, materiality, the camera, use of 3D space, and ways of seeing. The focus in this class is on solo work, since it aims to build the specific set of skills that students will need to make 3D games in later classes. Only basic code skills are required, however. Unity is an industry favorite for small-to-mid sized studios. Compared to its main competitor, Unreal Engine, it is lighter-weight and more agnostic regarding a game’s design. It is better suited than Unreal for experimental, exploratory work, and for work that targets mobile platforms.
Emerging Media Studio: (PHTI-UT 1018)
Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Thu
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Thu
Photography and Imaging (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks
Introduction to Visual Effects for Animated and Live Action Films (FMTV-UT 1153)
Introduction to Visual Effects for Animated and Live Action Films provides an in-depth overview of VFX production from the director-producer perspective. This course will offer a basic understanding of how VFX are utilized and will prepare students for the visual effects industry, and its constantly evolving digital and in-camera solutions. It will also provide an historical overview of the evolution of VFX. Students will also learn how powerful visual effects have been, and will continue to be, in helping to tell stories, especially projects with limited budgets. They will gain a detailed understanding of the type of camera coverage necessary on-set to facilitate the VFX process and what communications, with their primary crew, are necessary during early stages of preproduction to optimize footage for VFX. Areas of study include rig removal, green/blue screen compositing, motion capture, shooting backdrops, matte paintings, background plates, miniatures – models – forced perspectives, match lighting, sky replacement, crowd replication, integration of 2D and 3D CGI elements, motion control and practical effects shot in-camera.
Stop Motion Animation (FMTV-UT 214)
Includes all techniques in which the animator works directly in front of the camera. Examples include: Claymation, puppet animation, paint under the camera, in-camera special effects, and pixillation. Demonstrations on character building, set construction, and design, armatures, and lighting for miniature. Several short assignments are required to introduce students to intricacies of stop-motion animation and relationship to 3-D computer animation. Each student will produce a short film with sound. This course allocates as a Craft for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES. THIS COURSE HAS PREREQUISITES. Non-majors must process a “Permission Notice for Non-Majors” form to register for the course (subject to availability).
Visual Effects and Compositing (FMTV-UT 1143)
Visual Effects and Compositing is a lecture and workshop course that covers the application and practical creation of 2D (greenscreen, color correction, morphing etc.)and integration of existing 3D (CGI, animation, virtual sets etc.) visual effects. The assignments will require students to explore how to create, manipulate and combine 2D and 3D images seamlessly.
Podcasting Workshop (FMTV-UT 1006)
The narrative non-fiction podcast is one of the most popular and creative formats in the audio space, due to the critical success of shows like Serial, 99% Invisible, Ear Hustle, and many more. Although they are challenging to produce, these shows bring a unique blend of intimacy and urgency to the media landscape. This workshop is for those who want to learn the basics of long-form, narrative audio storytelling. Students will go through the editorial steps of pitching, recording, writing and producing a completed episode in a documentary-style format. We’ll work on interview and writing techniques, developing your voice and creative ways of editing sound. Students will also create a podcast pitch deck to support their episode and explore ways to market, distribute, and monetize a narrative podcast.
Critical Manifestations of Networks and Technology in the Developing World (ITPG-GT 2350)
Course description (optional): Not all innovation starts in the West and gets exported to other parts of the world. In many places with less developed capitalist economies and infrastructures, technology is rapidly developed and adapted for hyper-local use. We’ll gain inspiration from a broad spectrum of creative uses of technology in the developing world(s) — from art and design, hacktivism, and community-oriented work that increase social good, and then conceive of and prototype our own projects. Special attention will be paid to speculative 3D fabrication tools and processes, web-based platforms, circuit bending and making them all work together! Students will experiment and research at the intersections of art and technology to develop the beginnings of work grounded in post-colonial reality and the late capitalist near-future.
Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 7 Weeks
Contemporary Techniques in Sound Art (DM-UY 3113)
This course explores sound as an art form and technical practice in its own right. Topics include contemporary techniques in composition, sound art, and interactive installation. Students will produce sound with narrative elements that evoke social, cultural & critical-thinking. Their final projects can be experimental podcasts, music (performance and/or recordings), multi-channel audio installations, or multimedia projects. | Prerequisite: DM-UY 1113 or MPATE-UE 1001
Integrated Digital Media (Undergraduate)
3 credits – 14 Weeks
Sections (Fall 2024)
DM-UY 3113-000 (12650)09/03/2024 – 12/12/2024 Tue,Thu4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by O’Keefe, Timothy
Surround & Immersive Sound Recording: A Mixed Reality (REMU-UT 1013)
This class builds upon the techniques of the recording studio and the techniques of producing recorded music begun in Engineering the Record I, IIand Producing the Record Side A and B and will explore advanced techniques used in surround and immersive sound recording and mixing. Today, surround and immersive audio can be found in all areas of popular entertainment: music, film, television, streaming, games, etc. By using the multichannel studio facilities of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, students will further learn to record and mix in surround and immersive audio formats. Assigned work will take place in Studio 1 and Studio 4.
Recorded Music (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 15 Weeks
Sections (Fall 2021)
REMU-UT 1013-000 (22415)09/02/2021 – 12/14/2021 Tue11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Anderson, Jim
Cell Phone Cinema (OART-GT 2566)
Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Wed
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Wed
Open Arts Curriculum (Graduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks
Intro to 2D Animation for Games (GAMES-UT 204)
2D Art and Animation for Games is a 1-semester, 4-credit class that builds fundamental skills around the design and production of art assets for games. Through a series of individual design assignments, critiques, and exercises, students will explore concepts like art direction, color theory, animation principles, and UI design while building a working knowledge of prominent industry tools.
Multisensory Storytelling in Virtual Reality and Original Flavor Reality (ITPG-GT 2347)
In this course, we will explore how to create narratives that leverage our lesser used senses like touch, taste and smell as well as lesser-known ones like space, time, balance and scale. We will dig into the history of experiential storytelling, starting from immersive theater and Smell-O-vision to cutting-edge haptics and mind-bending illusions of proprioception. To help center this back in practical applications, we will also explore how this evolving art is commonly used in exhibition design, experiential marketing and brick and mortar retail. The class will be a healthy mixture of game theory as well as experienced based learning (meaning there will be a couple field trips and multisensory VR projects to explore). A basic knowledge of game engines is ideal but not mandatory because we will be using predesigned templates in Unreal engine to be experienced and manipulated in real-time through virtual reality hardware.
Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 8 Weeks
Sections (Fall 2021)
ITPG-GT 2347-000 (23981)09/02/2021 – 10/26/2021 Tue12:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by
Hedonomic VR Design: Principles & Practices (ITPG-GT 2354)
To be a VR creator, it’s not enough to learn the hard skills—it’s also our responsibility to prime ourselves for the human impact of our work. As a means to design VR that is both enjoyable and accountable, this class proposes we borrow design principles from Hedonomics, a branch of ergonomic science that facilitates pleasurable human-technology interaction. Through the Hedonomic Pyramid, we’re able to section our thinking off into regions (Safety, Function, Usability, Pleasure and Individuation) and map out industry-tested VR design guidance for each. The result is a hierarchical checklist of proven principles, specifications and practices—that promote a culture of inclusive and holistic design—built to serve as a quickstart guide to designing accountable VR interfaces and systems. This class, divided into units that represent each level of the Hedonomic pyramid, will unpack both technical and conceptual strategies for creating VR, from visual interface fidelity to avoiding locomotion cybersickness to designing safer social VR spaces.
Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 7 Weeks
Sections (Fall 2021)
ITPG-GT 2354-000 (23988)10/27/2021 – 12/14/2021 Thu9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by
A Radical Thing (ITPG-GT 2357)
This course will serve as an incubator to imagine a speculative product advertisement in the year 2030. In films like Blade Runner, or Her adverts fill the world and become an important aspect of exposition for the film. And in the real world, works such as Alisha Wormlsey, Alexandra Bell, and Hank Willis Thomas begin to re-imagine advertisements as an art practice in society today. Our work will begin to speculate on near-future objects in which topics such as communication, energy storage, transportation can begin to be re-imagined in the next industrial revolution. Using 3D tools, students will gain experience in speculative design thinking, industrial design modeling, product lighting, and custom post-production methods. The final project will be a product advert that will be designed to promote a speculative design entirely made from 100% Biodegradable plastics. The course will look at the ready-made objects all around us as a launching pad. We will be starting with modeling an object in detail. Using Moi 3D, Maya, Render Engine TBD, After Effects, and premiere over the course of the semester. I will go through some of the latest tools within the VFX industry and support this course with a series of artists who have re-imaged the role of cultural production. The final will be an advertisement poster and animation.
Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 7 Weeks
Sections (Fall 2021)
ITPG-GT 2357-000 (23990)10/27/2021 – 12/14/2021 Tue12:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by
Alter Egos: Assuming New Identities Through Costume and Performance (ITPG-GT 2353)
Throughout history, musicians have channeled their creativity into outrageous fashion statements and invented personas: think MF DOOM, Sun Ra, Ghostface Killah, Daft Punk, Leikeli47 and Rammellzee. By embracing their alter egos in extreme and outlandish ways, artists have found their authentic creative voices. This course will introduce participants to the art of masquerade using their resourcefulness to create costumes from found materials, and performance as an exploration in creative expression using new media and technology. Students will be introduced to ideas surrounding abstract storytelling, experimental audio video production, and A/V performance using a combination of technical and hands-on approaches.
Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks
Sections (Fall 2021)
ITPG-GT 2353-000 (23987)09/02/2021 – 12/14/2021 Mon9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by