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

Courses that count in IMA’s Seminar/Studies category

Fall 2019 Fall 2020 Fall 2021 Fall 2022 Spring 2020

Games 101 (GAMES-UT 101)

Games 101 is the foundational course for the NYU Game Center. The focus of Games 101 is game literacy – a shared understanding of games as complex cultural and aesthetic objects. The class incorporates lectures, discussion, readings, and writing assignments, but the primary activity of the class is critical play – playing games in order to better understand and appreciate them. The class covers games on and off the computer, including classic and contemporary board and card games, sports, and games on the PC, internet, and consoles.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 17393
Section #: 001
Meets: M 2-3:40p


Class #: 17348
Section #: 011
Meets: W 8-10:45a


Class #: 17349
Section #: 012
Meets: W 11a-1:45p


Class #: 17350
Section #: 013
Meets: W 2-4:45p


Class #: 17351
Section #: 014
Meets: F 8-10:45a


Class #: 17352
Section #: 015
Meets: F 11a-1:45p


Class #: 17353
Section #: 016
Meets: F 2-4:45p


Class #: 17354
Section #: 017
Meets: F 4:55-7:40p

Fall 2026 General Elective IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2020 Fall 2022

The Planetary: Computation in the Anthropocene (INTM-SHU 296)

This course will examine the relationship between planetary-scale computation and the development of planetarity. We take as starting points that (1) the very notion of climate change is an epistemological accomplishment of planetary-scale sensing, modeling and computation systems and (2) the ecological costs of computation are on an unsustainable trajectory. The seminar will ask: what are alternative futures for computation as human and ecological infrastructure? The primary subject of research is the transition from computation as a digital media object to computation as continental scale infrastructure. The scope and significance of this shift are fundamental for the development of interactive art and design that seeks to explore critical alternatives to extant models for this. What we call planetary-scale computation takes different forms at different scales—from energy and mineral sourcing and subterranean cloud infrastructure to urban software and massive universal addressing systems; from interfaces drawn by the augmentation of the hand and eye to users identified by self—quantification and the arrival of legions of sensors, algorithms, and robots. Each of these may represent a direct harm upon effected ecosystems and/or a means for and informed viable administration of those same systems. The course is primarily geared to advanced IMA students but is open to students from any major who are interested in engaging with contemporary issues of computation, society and ecology. Final projects will combine original written work and speculative design that can draw on diverse student core skill sets. Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

INTM-SHU 296-000 (17305)09/05/2022 – 12/16/2022 Thu9:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at ShanghaiInstructed by Bratton, Benjamin Hugh

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

Global Media Cultures (INTM-SHU 194T)

This course surveys the implications of globalization for the production, circulation, and consumption of media. In this course, we will look across both analog and digital media (radio, TV, film, video, pop music, podcast, etc) in relation to a series of questions: How do media (and media industry) represents localities for a global audience? How can media practices create a feeling of belonging to the world/community? How may global media tell us about different material infrastructure, social imagination, and political desires? Students will explore media phenomena and critically examine media texts often beyond North American experiences. By the end of the class, students will be able to articulate how media connects to global flow of finance, cultural product, labor, and social aspirations.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 13 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2020 Spring 2020 Spring 2022

After Us: Post-human Media (INTM-SHU 195)

What is the place of human creativity, agency and intelligence in complex technical networks? This class aims to build a foundation for studying how automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, digital image production, predictive software, and eco-technologies signal the ascent of a posthuman society. It provides a selection of texts and case studies that introduce basic philosophical and sociological questions about posthuman technologies and support creators, writers and thinkers in conceptualizing the posthuman nature of new media. The class is a combination of lectures and writing workshops. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 16 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

INTM-SHU 195-000 (19665)01/24/2022 – 05/13/2022 Thu9:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at ShanghaiInstructed by Konior, Bogna

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2020 Spring 2022

Understanding Financial Technology (IMBX-SHU 103)

“How would you like to pay?” A simple question may provoke diversified answers in the digital age. The financial applications of digital technologies, or so-called fintechs have engendered many alternative forms such as QR codes, mobile apps, and Bitcoin for financial activities including payment, loans, and investment. What technologies make these innovations possible? What are the aesthetic norms embedded in fin-tech app designs? How do the fin-tech companies interact with banks, policy-makers, and regulators? While Ant Financial and Tencent Finance make China the leader of fin-tech innovation, how does the global map of fin-tech innovation look like? After all, how have fin-techs re-shaped people’s everyday life, and perhaps will reform human being? Through a weekly three-hour meeting, this course is to make sense of fin-techs from a wide variety of perspectives. Integrating lectures with workshops and company visits, this course will equip students with critical thinking and practical skills that allow them to dialogue with various actors, such as computer programmers, project managers, investors, as well as academic intellectuals. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Business Elective/Interactive Media Elective; Business and Finance Major Non-Finance Electives; Business and Marketing Major Non-Marketing Electives.

Interactive Media and Business (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 16 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

IMBX-SHU 103-000 (23454)01/24/2022 – 05/13/2022 Thu9:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at ShanghaiInstructed by Wang, Jing

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

Business of Media (MCC-UE 1020)

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

This course provides an in-depth examination of the core economic conditions and various business models and practices that characterize the media industries. Special attention is paid to video and audio streaming, gaming, and social media platforms. This course is designed to track and assess current business trends and strategies in the US, as well as major markets and regions around the world.

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

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

The Culture Industries (MCC-UE 1005)

This course is for students who intend to seek employment in the media industry. Its focus is the modern history of those industries — film, TV, radio, newspapers, music, magazines, book publishing — with special emphasis on the pressures that affect them now. Student are required to do extensive background reading, and we will hear from various professionals with long experience in the industries under consideration.

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

Sections (Fall 2025)

MCC-UE 1005-000 (8032)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Mon,Wed3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Parmer, Amanda

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2020 Spring 2021 Spring 2022

Language and Culture (MCC-UE 5)

This course examines the role of language in media, culture, and communication. Topics will include language ideologies, register-formation, language politics, standardization, raciolinguistics, code-switching, voicing, speech and text genres, orthographies, fonts, and more. Students will learn to analyze interpersonal and mediated communication-in-context, with attention to pragmatics, performativity and participation frameworks, using key analytics and methods from the fields of socio-linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and semiotics.

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

Sections (Spring 2022)

MCC-UE 5-000 (13033)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Chumley, Lily

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2020 Spring 2021 Spring 2022

Contemporary Art (ARTCR-UE 52)

New art and new definitions of art and artist are discussed. Major attention is paid to the New York scene with guest lectures by artists and visits to galleries, museums, and other major sites in the current art system.

Art Theory & Critical Studies (Undergraduate)
3 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

ARTCR-UE 52-000 (12940)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Mon9:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Graves, Anthony

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

Expanding Cinema New Media/The Movies & Bynd (FMTV-UT 1208)

Atari. Computer Generated Imagery. YouTube. What is new media and will it change the world? In this course we will explore diverse examples of ?old? and ?new? media including interactive web work, gaming, installations, and movies. We will use blogs, online forums, and YouTube to discuss new media?s roots in older popular media including film and literature. We will question how new media have impacted traditional narrative forms and the structure of the film industry, as well as the broader contexts of new media in a changing world culture. This course allocates as History & Criticism for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES. Non-majors must process a “Permission Notice for Non-Majors” form to register for the course (subject to availability).

Undergrad Film & TV (Undergraduate)
3 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2020)

FMTV-UT 1208-000 (15796)09/02/2020 – 12/13/2020 Tue9:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by

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

Global Media Flows (MCC-UE 1306)

This class examines the intersecting dynamics of media genres and geo-linguistic cultural markets in the configuration of global and regional media flows. It looks in particular at the way media genres travel and how their circulation raises issues about the cultural power of certain media narratives in specific historical, political and social conditions of consumption. We will examine the battle for national, regional, and global media markets as a struggle for the ’Slegitimate’ cultural and political view of the world expressed through information (news), scientific discourse (documentaries), and popular culture (films, tele novels, reality television, music) to understand the complex global flow of television programs and films.

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

Sections (Fall 2025)

MCC-UE 1306-000 (8089)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Pinon, Juan

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Fall 2019 Fall 2020 Fall 2021 Fall 2022 Spring 2020 Spring 2022

Intro to Game Studies (GAMES-UT 110)

This class is an overview of the field of games that approaches them from several theoretical and critical perspectives. No special theoretical background or prior training is needed to take the course, but to have had a broad practical experience with and basic knowledge of games is a distinct advantage. Also, an interest in theoretical and analytical issues will help. You are expected to actively participate in the lectures, which are dialogic in form, with ample room for discussion. The course will prepare the student to: Understand and discuss games from a theoretical perspective, as well as the components of a game; Apply new theories and evaluate them critically; Assess and discuss game concepts and the use of games in various contexts; Analyze games, and understand and apply a range of analytical methods.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 17695
Section #: 001
Meets: M 2-3:15p


Class #: 17696
Section #: 002
Meets: W 9:30-10:45a


Class #: 17697
Section #: 003
Meets: R 11a-12:15p

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

Interactive Narrative (MD-UY 2314)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Tue,Thu
Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Tue,Thu
Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Tue,Thu,Thu

This course introduces students to the complex relationship between interactivity and storytelling. Students analyze how an interactive structure creates narrative. Works explored in this course range from nonlinear novels, experimental literature, audio narratives, theater/performance to film as narrative databases and games. The study of the structural properties of narratives that experiment with digression, multiple points of view, disruptions of time, space, and storyline is complemented by theoretical texts about authorship/readership, plot/story, and characteristics of interactive media. | Prerequisite: EXPOS-UA 2, EXPOS-UA 9, EXPOS-UA 22, ASPP-UT 2 or WRCI-UF 102. Note: Satisfies HuSS elective.

Media Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 General Elective IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2020

The Revolution Will Be Digitized (ITPG-GT 2064)

What is the relationship between American musician and poet, Gill Scott-Heron and cybernetics? Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not be Televised” was created in hopes to wake-up 1970’s America from complicity in societal oppression to then realize the revolution begins in your mind and something created through active participation, not passive media consumption. While, iterated forms of cybernetics also challenge the notion that “technology [or society] is self-correcting”, through fostering design thinking and systems theory through a meta-scale analysis of computational practices, essentially promoting being an observer of systems through conversation with process and feedback loops. Both ideologies center intention and holistic design within innovation — concepts vital to the equitable well-being of society in a technocratic era. In this course, students will explore the origins and history of the internet and HCI technologies as stemming from hippie communes, counterculture and warfare; survey historical and current social relations in the U.S.; study how these social relations have been replicated and embedded into everyday technologies; and consider potential futures in tandem with rapid technological advancements. We will study the works of pioneering designers and thought-leaders from Norbert Wiener, Stewart Brand, and Victor Papanek to Alondra Nelson and Ruha Benjamin. Phenomena discussed throughout the course range from the power of Black Twitter, the social media revolution of Egypt’s Tahrir Square, to cryptocurrency being used in bail reform. After in-depth historical analysis of societal structures, geo-political dissent, and algorithmic patterns, students will engage with futurism and speculative practices, techno-culture manifestos, and design and systems theory to develop a variety of research-driven projects. We will conclude with using both second-wave cybernetics as a design framework, and an anthropological lens to imagine, innovate and design more equitable technocratic futures. Topics heavily examined throughout the course include: surveillance, race, socioeconomics, carceral capitalism and technoscience, algorithmic bias and oppression, and post-work societal structures.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 8 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2020)

ITPG-GT 2064-000 (23447)01/27/2020 – 03/23/2020 Mon12:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Melenciano, Ari

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Art & Design) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies)
Spring 2020

Resist! Intro to Technology Political Activism [A Product Design Perspective] (ITPG-GT 2483)

This class will apply a product and service design lens to the rapidly evolving role of technology in politics, government services, and human rights, with a dual focus on the use of technology to advance the public good, and the threats that technology can pose to various aspects of civil society. On the one hand, there has been an explosion of technology tools that aim to promote healthy and peaceful democracies, provide more efficient government services, and promote human rights. This course will survey those efforts and the product design methodologies that guide them. On the other hand, 2018 has been a reckoning year for technology all over the world. The post-mortem of the 2016 US Presidential election shined a light on technology’s role in a promulgating a deeply polarized electorate, enabling election-meddling from foreign actors, and profiligating fake news, while also raising deep concerns about data privacy and security for everyday citizens. Meanwhile, new technologies like AI and Blockchain are poised to have deeply transformative effects on multiple aspects of society – from policing to education to financial services. This course will also explore the risks various technologies can pose to privacy, safety, liberty, and well-being. The course will feature guest speakers from leading practitioners in the space. Potentially including the ACLU, Higher Ground Labs, Elucd (YC17), NYU Better Policing Initiative, Microsoft, and more.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 6 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2020)

ITPG-GT 2483-000 (23099)01/29/2020 – 03/11/2020 Wed6:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Evening)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Resner, Lyel

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

Veillance (ITPG-GT 2469)

he course title, “Veillance” is a reference to the root of “surveillance” and “sousveillance”, watching from above and watching from below respectively. As digital media becomes a greater part of our everyday lives, it is important to understand the new forms of surveillance that it enables as well as to harness these capabilities and perhaps to create systems of sousveillance. Through the course, we’ll critically examine technologies that have become integral part of our lives; the technologies that drive the internet, the capabilities of web browsers, mobile phones, and the emerging class of networked devices such as IP cameras and Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home. Through the course of this examination, we’ll look at how this technology works, the policies that govern their use, what their benefits are, and finally look at what we are giving up by embracing them. This will be a hands-on endeavor; we’ll develop software to illustrate their use and misuse as well as looking for ways that we can harness their “veillance” capabilities for creative, educational, and possibly subversive purposes. Of course, in this process, we’ll pay particular attention to ethical and moral concerns. The course will have weekly reading and technical assignments, encompasses group work, and will culminate final projects.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2020)

ITPG-GT 2469-000 (23068)01/29/2020 – 05/06/2020 Wed12:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Van Every, Shawn

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies)

Technology, Media and Democracy: Addressing the Threats to an Informed Electorate (ITPG-GT 2184)

Credits: 3
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates:

Across the City’s universities, the Technology, Media and Democracy program will bring together journalism, design, and technical disciplines to understand the various threats to journalism and media, and attempt to address these challenges using technical and computational methods and techniques. The free press, journalism and the media are some of the most critical elements of our democracy, but have been increasingly under attack by political and market forces. These challenges include: dwindling resources and support for deep investigative journalism; smear, law and technical and even physical assaults of media organizations and journalists; challenges to credibility and reliability including fake news and discrediting campaigns; and shifting business models and income sources that threaten both local and national news organizations and coverage. This course will include various elements that will help frame the problem and build/prototype solutions.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
3 credits – 15 Weeks

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

Recurring Concepts in Art (ITPG-GT 2586)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 5 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2020)

ITPG-GT 2586-000 (23425)01/31/2020 – 03/06/2020 Fri9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Krantz, Georgia

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