Category Archives: IMA Electives (Legacy Structure – Seminar/Studies)

Courses that count in IMA’s Seminar/Studies category

Communications and Technology (IMNY-UT 273)

From alphabets to virtual realities, this course will explore the development, reaction, and long term impact of various communication technologies. How have these technologies, such as writing, printing, the telegraph, television, radio, the internet and beyond, transformed society? And what changes can be observed both today and tomorrow? After students look closely at past and current future communication technologies, students will speculate on the future of communication technologies in a connected world by proposing their own transformative technology. Readings and discussion will cover communication theory, technical processes, creative applications, and critical investigation. Writing assignments will be paired with practical assignments where students will be challenged to bring their analysis and ideas to life. The web will also be utilized as a test bed for experiencing and experimenting with various forms of communication both old and new. This course will be part seminar and part lab. In the seminar portion of the class, time will be spent engaging in short lectures, critical discussions, and reviews of both reading and writing assignments. In the lab portions, students will participate in hands-on creative and technical activities and present practical assignment work. Throughout the class, students will be encouraged to learn through play, experimentation, collaboration, and exploration. Both individual and group work will be assigned.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

IMNY-UT 273-000 (12886)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Tue12:00 AM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2024

Digital Revolution: History of Media III (IDSEM-UG 1042)

We are in the midst of a revolution. Computers permeate nearly every aspect of our life, yet we understand relatively little about how they work, their historical development, and their impact on our thought and actions. As with previous technological and communications revolutions like the rise of print and the ascendency of the image, computing is transforming our economic and political landscape, bringing with it new possibilities as well as new problems. In this course, we explore this ever-changing and rapidly expanding terrain, paying special attention to how computers and the Internet are transforming how we experience and understand identity and community, control and liberation, simulation and authenticity, creation and collaboration, and the practice of politics. Authors whose works we read may include Donna Haraway, Jean Baudrillard, Jorge Luis Borges, Yochai Benkler, Nicholas Carr, the Critical Art Ensemble, Galileo, Lawrence Lessig, Sherry Turkle, Lewis Mumford, Plato, the RAND Corporation, and Ellen Ullman.

Interdisciplinary Seminars (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Fall 2024

Useless Machines (IMNY-UT 272)

“Useless Machines is about redefining “usefulness.” Through making, we will explore what it means, on an ideological, political and historical level, to create something ‘useful’ or ‘useless.’ We will play with these definitions and explore how these objects serve to be humorous, critical, disruptive and at times… useful. We will study ‘useless’ machines throughout history, which will provoke conversations and disagreements around the implications of existing and emerging technologies. The students will design ‘useless’ machines for their final project. Examples of ‘useless’ machines are drawn from Kenji Kawakami’s The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions, Dunne & Raby’s Speculative Everything, Stephanie Dinkins’ Conversations with Bina 48, https://esoteric.codes/, CW&T, Mimi Ọnụọha’s Missing Data, Jacques Carelman’s Catalogue of Impossible Objects, viral videos/objects and much more.”

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 11364
Section #: 001
Meets: MW 2-3:30p

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2025 Undergraduate
Fall 2020

Bodies in Cultural Landscapes (OART-UT 706)

This course examines the Western fascination with the moving body in different cultural environments and throughout colonial and postcolonial historical periods until the present time. It will begin by investigating early images and artistic representation of the body in motion captured by European ethnographers at the turn of the 19th century, and continue tracing it to current trends of contemporary culture. The goal of this course is to develop a critical understanding of the culture built around the body as subject as well as a marker of otherness. This course will offer students an opportunity to study and articulate, intellectually and physically, the legibility of bodies in motion within different cultural landscapes. Bodies in Cultural Landscapes will provide an open forum in which to investigate human movement within the specific aesthetic system and cultural practice of early ethnographic representation to contemporary culture’s engagement with the moving body. It will offer insight into personal and cultural identity, stimulating an expanded recognition and appreciation of difference. This course offers students the opportunity to explore simultaneously their intellect (in class viewing, readings and discussions), as well as in the presentation of their own version of ethnographic research and representation based on a topic of their choice discussed with instructor. Students will engage weekly with exercises and assignments based on course material.

Open Arts Curriculum (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Expressive Culture IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Fall 2021

Portrait of an Artist: Walter Murch (OART-UT 901)

This course examines the artistic career and creative work of Walter Murch, Oscar-winning film editor and sound designer, and the first and only artist to win Academy Awards for both film editing and sound mixing on a single film (The English Patient, 1997). The class will provide an unprecedented inside look into Mr. Murch’s processes of sound designing, editing, mixing, writing, and directing on such acclaimed and memorable films as THX 1138, American Graffiti, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Return to Oz, The English Patient, Touch of Evil, and Cold Mountain. Through interviews, articles, and materials from his private archives never before publicly available, students learn about the creative world of an artist who has brought the importance of sound and editing to a new level. In addition to his work in film and his inventions used in the filmmaking process, two additional areas of interest of Mr. Murch will be examined: translations of Curzio Malaparte’s writings and his passion for astronomy. Mr. Murch will participate on several occasions in the course as a guest lecturer by visiting the class and/or via video conferencing.

Open Arts Curriculum (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2021)

OART-UT 901-000 (15488)09/02/2021 – 12/14/2021 Tue5:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Zivkovic, Brane

IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Spring 2021

Poetics of Witnessing (OART-UT 829)

Today, many documentarians consider themselves working within a well-defined human rights framework where images and film are used to raise awareness about social injustice. On the far edge of this movement, however, there are writers, photographers and filmmakers whose work calls attention to the traditional documentary ethics of bearing witness but whose modes of representation blur the lines between fact and fiction. This body of work is more open-ended to interpretation and multiple readings, which also include more personal themes such as loss and melancholy, the ephemeral nature of time and memory, nostalgia and change. While not a production course per se, most students create short poetic films for their midterms and finals. The course is a great opportunity for students to open this door on short-form media production for the first time even if they wish to shoot on their smartphones. We will study several different kinds of visual poetics such as combining documentary photos with literature, artists working with archives and found images, the essay film, the personal diary and journal film, the performance film, ethnographic poetics, and new trans-media platforms and webdocs. Some of the writers and artists we will study include Roland Barthes, W.G. Sebald, Chris Marker, Christian Boltanski, Forough Farrokhzad, RaMell Ross, Roland Barthes, Miguel Rio Branco Charles Burnett, William Greaves, Agnes Varda, Margaret Tait, Robert Gardner, Jean Rouch, and Jonas Mekas.

Open Arts Curriculum (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2021)

OART-UT 829-000 (15164)

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Topics in Africana Studies (SCA-UA 180)

Explores specific issues dealing with the black urban experience, focusing on social and cultural institutions. Possible themes, which vary from semester to semester, include class and poverty, the police, urban development, education, sports, music, and art.

Social and Cultural Analysis (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate

Science of Movement (DANC-UT 1605)

The Science of Movement will introduce students to the multidisciplinary field of how the human brain controls movements, how we learn new movements, and the rehabilitation of various movement disorders and injuries. This course is appropriate for undergraduate students with an interest in human movement, neuroscience and behavior, physical medicine, dance and/or athletics. No prior course of study in neuroscience is necessary to successfully engage with the course material. This course will count towards general education requirements for social science for Tisch undergraduate students.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 17380
Section #: 001
Meets: TR 12:30-1:45p

Fall 2025 IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Physical Science OR Life Science Undergraduate
Fall 2022 Fall 2023 Spring 2021 Spring 2023

Social Media Strategy (MKTG-UB 45)

The course covers marketing, advertising, and communications strategies in the new media landscape where traditional media (e.g., television, print) and the online social media (i.e., Web 2.0; e.g., online social networks, user-generated content, blogs, forums) co-exist. Students are expected to have knowledge about the fundamentals of traditional advertising methods and strategies. With this background knowledge, the primary focus of the course is on understanding social media, developing social media marketing strategies, and tracking their effectiveness. This course does not look at more tactical aspects of advertising/communications such as creative, message management, and publicity.

Marketing (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 6 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2021)

MKTG-UB 45-000 (10761)02/03/2021 – 03/17/2021 Wed6:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Evening)at Washington SquareInstructed by

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

Global Media Seminar: Media Activism and Democracy (ITAL-UA 9513)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Tue

The course on “Media, Activism & Democracy” aims at, first, introducing students to the complex and fascinating topic of civil society activism; second, at illustrating them the linkages between activism and media; third, at showing them the impact of civil society’s advocacy on contemporary political systems. In a nutshell, the course aims at providing students with a closer understanding of the civil society activism-media-politics conundrums at the national and global levels.

Italian (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Fall 2023

Designing For: (GAMES-GT 310)

“Designing for” classes focus on working with a real-world client or partner, preparing students for professional collaborations with institutions, publishers and media companies beyond the game industry who partner with game developers on playable experiences. Outside partners have included museums, non-profit organizations, non-digital publishers and digital media platforms. In each version of this class, students will interact directly with representatives from one outside partner and collaborate with other students on a single semester-long project tailored to the client’s goals, developing an initial idea from conceptualization through pitching and prototyping, based on criteria and feedback provided by the partner. Students will learn to follow a structured process for ideation, collaboration and prototyping, while taking care to understand the audience, content and goals of the partner organization’s industry and the context of play. The semester culminates in a final presentation of playable prototypes to the partner.

Game Design (Graduate)
2-4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2023)

GAMES-GT 310-000 (25338)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by

GAMES-GT 310-000 (25353)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Tue4:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Corbetta, Ramiro

GAMES-GT 310-000 (25349)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Parker, Matthew

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Physical Computing & Experimental Interfaces) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies)

Intro to Curating New Media Art (ITPG-GT 3036)

Credits: 1
Duration: 1 Day
Dates:

In this course students will be introduced to the role of the curator with a very brief history of curation, followed by a focus on the particular challenges and approaches to curating new media art. The class will give an overview of practical approaches to exhibition-making both online and offline, looking at artist-led approaches to curation in particular. The class will include a hands-on practicum in which students will work towards creating a mock exhibition plan.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
1 credits – 1 Day

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026
Fall 2020 Spring 2024

Magazines, Art, and Public Culture (CEH-GA 3028)

This course examines magazines as collaborative sites for artists and writers internationally, leading the way to a global, networked cultural sphere. We will consider periodicals as both commercial and artist-driven enterprises and as material objects to be studied through the lens of the history of photography, journalism, and design.

Center for Experimental Humanities (Graduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2024)

CEH-GA 3028-000 (10923)01/22/2024 – 05/06/2024 Tue11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Cole, Lori

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies)
Fall 2023

Performance and Technology (PERF-UT 304)

On blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Ello, Tumblr, email, SoundCloud, YouTube, and more, we are constantly performing using technology. Performance Studies has long been concerned with technology, but it is only recently concerned with questions brought to the fore by new technologies and new technological practices, particularly on the Internet. This survey course requires us to consider the relationship between Performance Studies as a discipline (one that incorporates performance theory, critical theory, feminist theory, queer theory, and other theoretical genres) with technology, particularly the Internet. Open to Non-Majors.

Performance Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2023 Fall 2024 Spring 2023

Social Impact: Advertising for Social Good (MCC-UE 1051)

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of social movements like Black Lives Matter and #metoo, the field of social good advertising has rapidly expanded as brands seek social relevance, governments and nonprofits look to inform, and activists try to persuade. In this course, students will learn to plan and execute powerful social advertising campaigns, while thinking critically about the blurred lines between advertising and information, and branding and politics, in what Sarah Banet-Weiser calls “Shopping for Change.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2024)

MCC-UE 1051-000 (14065)09/03/2024 – 12/12/2024 Wed11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Railla, Jean

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