Category Archives: IMA Electives

All courses that count as IMA Major Electives

Fall 2022

Advanced Seminar: Seminar in Media Studies: Media’s Material and Environmental Relations (INTM-SHU 350)

In response to the popular conception of the “immaterial” Internet, and “datafication” of all aspects of life, how might we rethink the materiality and environmentality of media in our research? This upper-level seminar will introduce students to various theoretical frameworks in media studies including new materialism, media archaeology, studies of media infrastructures and ecologies, cultural geographies, and elemental media. Students are expected to critically assess the (geo)politics of material/environmental media and to adopt a mix of these frameworks to develop a research project and essay. Prerequisite: Junior standing OR What is New Media. Fulfillment: IMA/B Elective, Advanced IMA Elective.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

INTM-SHU 350-000 (17319)09/05/2022 – 12/16/2022 Wed1:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Pan, Weixian

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2022

Hello Metaverse (INTM-SHU 305)

The aim of this course is to explore the relationship between the virtual self and environment and to assess both as a space for learning and collaboration using virtual reality. This course takes place entirely in virtual, immersive environments. Students will be provided Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headsets and specialized software. See the principles above for further details. Prerequisite: IMA Major with junior or senior standing. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 7 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

INTM-SHU 305-000 (17306)10/31/2022 – 12/16/2022 Wed9:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at ShanghaiInstructed by Grewell, Christian

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment) Undergraduate
Fall 2022 Spring 2021

Digital Arts and New Media (INTM-SHU 125)

This course investigates digital art and new media from creative, theoretical, and historical perspectives. We will examine the paradigm shift resulting from the rise of digital art and its expansion as well as explore current ideas, creative strategies, and issues surrounding digital media. The topics of study will include digital image, digital sound, net art, systems, robotics, telematics, data art, and virtual/augmented reality. The course provides students with the means to understand what digital media is, and establish their own vision of what it can become, from both a practical and a theoretical perspective. The course consists of lectures, field trips, and small studio-based practices. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

INTM-SHU 125-000 (17296)09/05/2022 – 12/16/2022 Tue1:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Lee, Inmi

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2022

Advanced Lab: Web Page to Web Space (INTM-SHU 304)

Web Page to Web Space is a course that explores virtual interactive experience in the context of Virtual Embodiment, Virtual Space, Telepresence, and Metaverse. Students will investigate new possible ways of using the Web to create new immersive environments in a web platform, by utilizing algorithmic 3D animation and server-side programming. This is an advanced course with technically challenging concepts with three.js and node.js and suitable for students with prior knowledge in visual programming. Prerequisite: Nature of Code or Machine Learning for New Interfaces or Critical Data and Visualization or ABC Browser Circus or Kinetic Interfaces or Machine Learning for Artists and Designers or Expanded Web or Movement Practices and Computing. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective, Advanced IMA Elective.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

INTM-SHU 304-000 (17318)09/05/2022 – 12/16/2022 Tue4:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Late afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Moon, Jung Hyun

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) Undergraduate
Fall 2020 Fall 2022

Learning with Turtles (INTM-SHU 151)

Learning with Turtles explores programming languages, systems, and activities designed to help learners in computational environments. Starting from a constructionist principle that systems designed for beginners must be able to embody the most powerful ideas in computing, we master some of those systems, explore how those have been designed, and engage in contemporary debates. The environments we learn with include Turtle Geometry, Craft Computing withTextiles, Modelling, and other interactive projects using programming and modelling systems such as Snap!, TurtleArt, Turtlestitch and NetLogo. Individual and group projects involve students in advancing their computational knowledge and skills and provide opportunities to design for others, to teach, to study learning and expertise, and present projects in community and public forums. The course is fundamentally about ideas, and how some powerful ideas from computation can empower a learner to be a better creator and problem solver. Writing, presentations, and discussions will emphasize reflection on our own learning within the course. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

INTM-SHU 151-000 (17299)09/05/2022 – 12/16/2022 Mon1:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Minsky, Margaret

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) Undergraduate
Fall 2020 Fall 2022

ABC Browser Circus (INTM-SHU 227)

Welcome to the ABC Browser Circus (ABC), where acrobats juggle with hyperlinks, dance across scrolling grids, and jump through open server ports. This course introduces the students to the history of the internet, the World Wide Web, and specifically to the browser as a cultural object and its role in (net)art; in parallel, it teaches web development and guides the students to create three web-based projects. Theory and practice-based components are each conducted during one of two 75 minute classes per week. Prerequisite: Creative Coding Lab. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

INTM-SHU 227-000 (17302)09/05/2022 – 12/16/2022 Tue,Thu1:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Eckert, Leon

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) Undergraduate

Queer and Trans Game Studies (MCC-UE 1043)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Wed

This course examines the political movement of queer and transgender artists and programmers who are creating games and computational media. Throughout the semester, we read work by queer, trans, and feminist scholars and designers and play the games they created in order to situate today’s queer and trans games movement within the histories, contributions, and politics of queer and trans people and people of color. How might we re-imagine the radical potentiality of video games and software by centering game studies on queer and trans life, history, and politics?

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Revolution and Media (MCC-UE 1352)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Mon,Wed

This course examines the role of media in the history of empires and revolutions and the history of media empires. It focuses on the investment in media forces by both empires and revolutions, and the tendency of media to form empires that are subject to periodic ’revolution’ in the marketplace with the contexts of colonization, decolonization and globalization.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Human Computer Interaction (CS-UY 4543)

Credits: 3
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Wed
Credits: 3
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Wed

Designing a successful interactive experience or software system takes more than technical savvy and vision–it also requires a deep understanding of how to serve people’s needs and desires through the experience of the system, and knowledge about how to weave this understanding into the development process. This course introduces key topics and methods for creating and evaluating human-computer interfaces/digital user experiences. Students apply these practices to a system of their choosing (I encourage application to prototype systems that students are currently working on in other contexts, at any stage of development). The course builds toward a final write-up and presentation in which students detail how they tackled HCI/user experience design and evaluation of their system, and results from their investigations. Some experience creating/participating in the production of interactive experiences/software is recommended.

Computer Science (Undergraduate)
3 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Art & Design) Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Fall 2022 Fall 2023 Spring 2022

Singing With Everybody (OART-UT 25)

Your voice is the most exquisite musical instrument known to humankind. Its infinite potential is multiplied and magnified through shared vibration with other voices. In Singing With Everybody, we will sing together and compose new vocal works that expand the range of our voices as spiritual-artistic-analytical tools.Students will study music composition in a two-pronged approach: through embodied singing practice, as both choral ensemble members and choral conductors, and through the study of musical forms including songwriting, folk, pop, classical, and experimental traditions. Throughout the semester, students will develop fundamental skills in music theory, digital audio processing, and creative organization in weekly composition etudes. This work will culminate in choral compositions to be performed by the class in a final concert open to the public. This final composition must take the form of a “score,” through which students develop a personal method for communicating their musical ideas to a performing ensemble of diverse skill levels. Class participation will often involve making loud, ridiculous sounds together as we dive into sonic discovery and musical mess-making. Students of all or no musical backgrounds are encouraged to join. Singing will become an everyday part of our lives as we explore the power and versatility of vibrating together.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 13558
Section #: 001
Meets: T 5-8p

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) Spring 2027 Undergraduate
Fall 2022

The Ethics of Big Tech & Social Media: Technoethics (DANC-UT 701)

This course offers a look at the lack of ethics and affects and effects upon humanity in the development of big tech, social media and the internet. Kicking off with the viewing of the number one doc on this topic “The Social Dilemma”, we begin a conversation around the impact of social media and technology on our lives and how to address it. Students will view documentaries, read books and engage in conversations in break out think tank groups in order to come up with solutions in a midterm one page manifesto for the greater good of humanity. Required readings include from “Understanding New Media Extending Marshall McLuhan” by Robert K Logan to set a framework of what technology is, followed by reading Jaron Lanier, “10 arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now”, and dipping into the spirituality side with “igods” by Craig Detweiler, ending with “Irresistible” by our very own NYU Professor Adam Alter. In partnership with the center for Humane Technology and their curricula support for academics, this course seeks to ask hard questions, dispel mistruths, host constructive conversations, test experiments and create a dialogue around how we must change the ways we develop and interact with tech for our survival. A willingness to take part in class experiments and experience based learning around topics of social media and technology is required. Final culmination of work from the course is a utopian project pitch deck that students design with the task of creating seedlings for new sustainable and humane business models for social media, big tech, and entrepreneurial situations, in hopes that some may go on to grow, bloom and fruit necessary change for the greater good of all. Students at the end of the semester will ethically assess their work and assign their own grade based on their self evaluation.

Dance (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

DANC-UT 701-000 (14794)at Washington SquareInstructed by

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate

Auto Fictions (ITPG-GT 2066)

Auto Fictions is a studio class focusing on the creation of immersive, multi-path and interactive experiences based on personal narrative. Documentary art has included the art of installation for decades, but new technologies have given artists affordable tools that allow them to rapidly prototype and then refine immersive media experiences. Auto Fictions is an interdepartmental course that may include students from Film, ITP and Theater disciplines. Students will create production teams. Each team will make a project and each student will help the other create their work through intensive collaboration. The intention here is to practice collaboration across disciplines, methods, values, and artistic cultures to create a work of immersive fiction based on materials gathered from the past, captured or created in the present and/or imagined for the future. We will look at several possible approaches to the creation of immersive media works. Including multiplexing software programs. Students with the requisite knowledge in these tools or gaming engines with similar capabilities may use them for the creation of their works. But it is not required. There may be an opportunity for building intuitive interactivity into some of the experiences. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic we will be exploring how to adapt our working methods and our work itself to these conditions as they develop. The goal of the course will be to physically realize the works but to do that we will go through a detailed comprehensive design, planning and budgeting process so that if conditions permit all aspects of the work will be fully created or planned and ready to build. If conditions permit, we will meet one day at the beginning of the semester to install and introduce the platform, create teams, and review the assignment. Otherwise we will meet online and begin work there. Students will be provided with access to online tutorials for relevant software and systems.

Graduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 22245
Section #: 001
Meets: M 9:30a-12p

Fall 2026 Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment) Spring 2026
Spring 2022

Electronics for Artists (OART-UT 22)

This hands-on entry level electronics course is for students who want to invent, test, break, imagine, burn, surprise and build unusual interactive objects and devices that have never existed before. You don’t have to be an electrical engineer to be able to hack power and twist it for your own wild experiments. No matter what art/performance mediums you use in your creative practice, there are so many playful and cutting-edge ways to augment your craft with connected devices and computer-assisted fabrication. Some example projects include: interactive installations, moving sculptures, wearable devices for fashion, dynamic lighting, and DIY music devices. The course goes over the basics of electronic circuits and coding for Arduino — programmable micro-computers that process inputs from buttons, biofeedback sensors, and microphones and translate them into outputs expressed through LED lights, sounds, motors, and relays. We use laser cutters, 3D printers, woodworking tools, and sewing machines to assist us, and learn the best practices of creating robust circuits through soldering, component selection, and power supply. Each week we look to contemporary hardware artists for inspiration and use our classmates to test and analyze our prototypes, getting feedback on not just the practical design of the circuits and mechanisms, but the feelings, ideas, and creative effects our connected art elicits. No prior coding, hardware, or fabrication experience necessary, but time and dedication is — most projects will require out-of-class time spent in the shop. Students will need a laptop, but basic hardware and materials will be provided.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 13544
Section #: 001
Meets: F 1:30-4:30p

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Physical Computing & Experimental Interfaces) Spring 2027 Undergraduate

Multi-disciplinary Arts Practice with Community Groups: Theories and Practice of Group Work in Arts (OART-UT 1017)

Whether you are a filmmaker looking to better understand how to build a cohesive and productive film crew; a theatre maker excited about building a performance project or theatre company; a multi-media artist looking for ways to innovate your ideas for artistic work in collaboration with others; an artist looking for tools for building an artistic ensemble, or a multi-disciplinary artist looking to take your creative work out into communities as social practice, this combination lecture/activity-based class provides you with tools for better understanding how to enter into and engage others in collective creative work of purpose. Multi-Disciplinary Arts Practice with Community Groups: Theories and Practice explores the challenges and benefits of making artistic work with others and the tools needed to create meaningful collaborative projects. In this class we interrogate definitions of community and group, explore the balance between group process and producing an artistically excellent project, and examine the processes of creating artistic work with others to strengthen our own artistic voices while helping raise the creative voices of others. With its focus on social practice, this course provides a foundation for working with small group structures in a variety of community settings and professional creative work environments. The course satisfies a CA major requirement as well as a social science requirement for all other Tisch students.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 13466
Section #: 001
Meets: TR 5-6:30p

Fall 2025 Fall 2026 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Interaction as Art Medium (IMNY-UT 249)

While traditional forms of art such as painting and sculpture only expect intellectual communication with the spectator, interactive arts consider the audience as active participants and directly involve their physical bodies and actions. Interactive art invites its audience to have a conversation with the artwork or even be part of it. Well designed interactions add new meanings to the artwork and enhance effective and memorable communication with the viewer through their magical quality. Artists have achieved interactivity in their art through different strategies based on various technologies. For example, some projects have physical interfaces such as buttons and knobs, some projects react to the audience’s presence or specific body movements, and yet others require collaborations between the audience as part of the interaction process. Some artwork involves interactions that require a long period of time for the engagement. In many of these interactive art projects, interaction methods are deeply embedded into the soul and voice of the work itself. In this class, we will explore interaction as an artistic medium. We will be looking at interactive media art history through the lens of interaction and technology to explore their potential as art making tools. Every 1-2 weeks, you will be introduced to a new interaction strategy along with a group of artists and projects. You will learn about relevant technologies and skills for the interaction strategies and build your own project to be in conversation with the artists and projects. You will also explore and discuss the future of interactions and how interactive art can contribute to innovations in interactions, and vice versa. You will also learn about how to contextualize and articulate your project in an artistic way. The assignments include reading, short writing, hands-on labs, and production assignments. Technical topics covered in class include but are not limited to: physical computing, sensing, and interaction design.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 7 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

IMNY-UT 249-000 (22306)03/22/2022 – 05/09/2022 Tue9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Song, Yeseul

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Physical Computing & Experimental Interfaces) Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Introduction to Digital Fabrication (IMNY-UT 252)

Do you want to MAKE THINGS with your computer? Are you an artist, engineer, designer, sculptor or architect? Are you a few of those things? How are 3D scanning and 3D modeling different? What materials should I be using? Should I be 3D printing or CNC-ing this CAD file? What is a Boolean operation and why is it my new best friend? This class will answer all of your questions. Don’t know what any of these things are? This class will answer those questions also. By the end of this course, you will be familiar with all that digital fabrication has to offer. We will cover everything from laser to 3D to CNC. You will learn how to identify which digital fabrication technique works best for your projects. But more than that, you will learn what kinds of questions you should be asking in order to complete a project from start to finish. As technology advances at rapid speeds, digital making machines and software are changing just as fast. So instead of just being taught about the machines of today, you will also be given the tools to teach yourself the machines of tomorrow. Emphasis will be put on learning how to ask the right kind of questions to successfully finish a project. What do you want to make? Let’s make it.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 21955
Section #: 001
Meets: M 3:40-6:40p

Fall 2026 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Physical Computing & Experimental Interfaces) Spring 2025 Spring 2027 Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Pixel by Pixel (IMNY-UT 231)

This class focuses on the art of computer graphics and image processing. We explore the concepts of pixilation, image representation and granularity and the tension between reality and image. Students are introduced to the tools and techniques of creating dynamic and interactive computer images from scratch, manipulating and processing existing images and videos, compositing and transitioning multiple images, tracking and masking live video, compositing and manipulating live video as well as manipulating depth information from Kinect. The class uses Processing and the Java language and also introduces students to shaders and the glsl language.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

IMNY-UT 231-000 (22308)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Tue,Thu3:00 PM – 5:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Rozin, Daniel

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Experimental Photography (IMNY-UT 232)

What are all the ways that you saw or made a photograph this week? How are those ways similar and different? How do those pictures function in your life and in society? What is a photograph? This course repeatedly asks these questions by using emerging computational tools to design alternative forms of making and interacting with photographs. The forms and applications of these tools, such as those for creative coding, physical computing, and machine learning, are explored weekly in technical tutorials and hands-on workshops. These are informed by discussions of critical debates in photography and various practitioners working with photographs, past and present. The homework includes readings, short writing responses, and photography assignments. Prerequisites: Comm Lab: HyperCinema (or similar coursework exploring communication and storytelling with digital tools) and New York’s IMA Creative Computing (or similar coursework with creative coding using the p5.js JavaScript library and programming for physical computing using Arduino microcontrollers). Note that prior experience with physical computing using the Arduino platform is required for this course. Please feel free to contact the instructor if you have any questions about the course.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 14732
Section #: 001
Meets: T 12:20-3:20p

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) Spring 2025 Spring 2027 Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Critical Experiences (IMNY-UT 206)

“​​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.”

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 13752
Section #: 001
Meets: W 9a-12p

Fall 2026 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2025 Spring 2027 Undergraduate
Spring 2022

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. Coursework consists of weekly multimedia assignments to reflect on storytelling in our own lives and the lives of others, field trips, and student presentations. By the end of this course, students will have experienced and experimented with alternative, collaborative, and site-specific storytelling methods.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 14725
Section #: 001
Meets: M 3:40-6:40p

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment) Spring 2027 Undergraduate