This course is an introduction to visual methodologies and critical theory as well as contemporary practices in art and culture. Students use media and materials of their own choosing to explore and respond to the issues raised through readings, presentations, class discussions, writing assignments, and group critiques.
The course will provide a background study of all related areas of the multibillion-dollar music industry, including the evolution and operations of the record company, music publishing, artist management, live entertainment, copyright, business-to-business and consumer-facing digital services.
An introductory course to probability and statistics. It affords the student some acquaintance with both probability and statistics in a single term. Topics in Probability include mathematical treatment of chance; combinatorics; binomial, Poisson, and Gaussian distributions; the Central Limit Theorem and the normal approximation. Topics in Statistics include sampling distributions of sample mean and sample variance; normal, t-, and Chi-square distributions; confidence intervals; testing of hypotheses; least squares regression model. Applications to scientific, industrial, and financial data are integrated into the course.NOTE: Not open to math majors or students who have taken or will take MA-UY 2054 or MA-UY 3014 or MA-UY 3514 or ECE-UY 2233. | Prerequisite: MA-UY 1124, MA-UY1424, or MA-UY 1132 or MATH-UH 1020 or MATH-UH 1021 or MATH-SHU 151
Data Science for Everyone is a foundational course that prepares students to participate in the data-driven world that we are all experiencing. It develops programming skills in Python so that students can write programs to summarize and compare real-world datasets. Building on these data analysis skills, students will learn how to draw conclusions and make predictions about the data. Students will also explore related ethical, legal, and privacy issues.
Power and culture are intimately interwoven in the social history and the material substance of modern Berlin. This interdisciplinary course explores the changing historical contours of the keywords of Kultur (culture), Geist (spirit), Technik (technology), Bildung (education), Arbeit (work) and Macht (power) and contestations over their meanings. Through applying an interdisciplinary approach that integrates literature, film, art, architecture, and philosophy, we interrogate how meaning is made individually and collectively. We will look at how relationships between individual identities, state power, and social norms were shaped in the context of recurrent political and economic crisis and rupture and ask how changing local, national, supranational, and global contexts influence how meanings are made. Paying attention to possibilities and constraints for negotiating the terms of everyday life and for conforming or resisting, we will trace how Berliners made and make sense of their lives and the world they participate in shaping.
This course explores the origins of Islam and the development of its rituals and doctrines to the 21st century. It assumes no previous background in Islamic studies. Students will learn about topics such as the Koran and the Prophet, Islamic law, the encounter of East and West during the Crusades, and Islam in Britain. They will find out how Muslims in different regions have interpreted and lived their religion in past and present. Readings will include not only scholarly works but also material from primary sources, for example the Koran, biographies and chronicles. The course consists of a combination of lectures, seminar discussions, field trips and includes other media, such as film.
This course examines the long-standing and constitutive relationships between theatre and medicine. From the classical Greek plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, through Shakespearean drama to Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, the stage has offered a platform for the expression of illness, disability and trauma, both individual and collective. Throughout its history the stage has also offered the medical discourses metaphorical ways of conceptualizing ideas of deformity, normality, deviance and disability. At the same time, it teaches us empathy and affect and contributes to our physical and mental wellbeing. This course will examine this intertwined relationship between theatre and medicine from the Greeks to the contemporary stage, by looking at plays by, among others, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides,mWilliam Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Larry Kramer and Tony Kushner.
Examples of complex organizations include hospitals, schools, places of employment, the government, the military, churches, and prisons. Where do those organizations come from? What accounts for organizational success and failure? How can we make organizations better for individuals and society? This course examines different types of organizations, organizational goals and outcomes, institutional authority and structure, organizational change, and organizational fields. Most importantly, the goal of this course is to expand your knowledge and understanding of the relationships between organizations and society. You will learn to develop a critical lens and an analytical framework that can apply to understand specific complex organizations. This course will help you to think about how you might better survive and thrive in our organizational world! Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing. Fulfillment: Social Science core or Sociology focus 300 level.
This course introduces urbanization in China in the context of the East Asian region and globalization. By examination of the development of selected cities and discussion of experimental urban themes, this course aims to depict prevalent patterns of urbanization at appropriate levels, such as neighborhood types, metropolitan areas, and regional urban agglomeration. We examine traditional forms of settlement and place more recent urban phenomena in a broader historical perspective. We explore relevant political traditions and forms of planning administration to reveal underlying social, economic, cultural and environmental circumstances at work, while learning tools and methods of spatial analysis that can be applied to the study of cities all over the world. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC; Social Science Foundational course or Urban Studies 200 level; Humanities 18-19 Critical Concepts; GCS The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China.
This four credit course explores how the dynamics of migration have shaped identity and citizenship. By providing students with a range of theoretical approaches, the course will address questions of migration, national identity and belonging from a multidisciplinary perspective drawing from (amongst other fields): Sociology, History, Geo-Politics, Gender Studies, Black European Studies, and Cultural Studies. Taking the so called “refugee crisis” as a starting point, the course will pay particular attention to the figure and representation of the “migrant” going from Italian mass migration in the late 19th century to the migrants crossing every day the waters of the Mediterranean in order to reach Fortress Europe. Yet, a course on migration processes undertaken in 2017 Italy cannot limit itself to a purely theoretical framework. Migration means movements of people bringing along personal histories, families and cultural backgrounds. Furthermore the presence of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers reaching Europe is having a significant impact on the current social and political agenda of European government, as in the case of Italy. Therefore the course will include a series of fieldtrips aimed at showing students how immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers insert themselves into the labor market and society in Italy.
This course, aimed at second semester sophomores, is the launch pad of Television Writing in the department. Before taking any other TV writing courses, students must take Introduction To Television Writing. The course will introduce sophomores interested in TV writing to all aspects of what goes into the creation of a script for a TV program. It is also recommended for non-writers who wish to learn the fundamentals of TV writing as preparation for creating shows and working with writers. The course will also prepare students for other TV-writing courses in the departmental Television Progression. The course is also open to seniors with an interest in television writing who haven’t taken other TV writing courses. This course allocates as Film & TV, Scriptwriting for Film & TV majors.
In this course, we will explore different types and aspects of love and relationships and examine how our lived experiences, identities, worldviews, and sense of curiosity influence how we encounter, make sense of, and respond to love. While there is no greater determinant of happiness and health than our access to and engagement in loving and healthy relationships, our questions and dilemmas about how to define what love is, how to choose the “right” people to experience it with, and how to develop and maintain satisfying relationships persist. Though these core questions and challenges are undoubtedly centuries-old, the nature and complexity of them continue to evolve over time and many of their “answers” and “solutions” remain elusive. The primary objective of this course is to engage you in a process of inquiry and self-examination, critical dialogue, and reflection about your own ideas, beliefs, values, and experiences with love and relationships. Together, through your engagement with the course materials and our group discussions, we will wrestle with the following questions, share ideas, and generate possible answers (and likely more questions!): * Where do our ideas, beliefs and assumptions about love come from? How have they changed over time? * What determines or influences one’s capacity to give and receive love? Are these capacities different and/or related? * How do societal and cultural influences help or hinder our freedom and ability to love well and be loved? * What happens to us biologically, emotionally, and psychologically, when we are in love? * What determines satisfaction, resiliency, and longevity in relationships? How does this change across the lifespan? * What enables some to heal and move on after heartbreak, loss, or betrayal? * How do you want to show up differently in your relationships? What/Who might help you do so?
This course will cover a variety of academic topics within the field of Interactive Telecommunications. For further details, please refer to the individual class section notes and topic subtitle.
Focusing on motion capture (ak. MoCap), this class introduces basic performance skills alongside 3d graphic manipulation to create real-time virtual experiences. In this class we will have the opportunity to build sets, produce interactive props, and design unique characters to tell stories or engage with audiences. Utilizing Optitrack Motion Capture system, Blender, Motionbuilder, and Unreal Gaming Engine; we will create, rig, animate, and perform as avatars.
Over the past 3 years, we have seen many aspects of our lives thrust online. Increasingly, we are working, learning, socializing with family and friends, attending live performances and more through 2D grids of video feeds on platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet. These communication tools have become essential for remote communities to connect, yet fail to replicate many of the most engaging, messy and human aspects of our in-person experience. What happens when we break out of this grid and explore new forms of real-time social interactions online using webcam video and audio? Recent explorations in this realm have shown the promise of spatial metaphors in creating engaging real-time social interactions online. In this course, students will create their own series of experimental social spaces that explore these questions: how does the shape and nature of our environment affect the way we communicate? What unique forms of real-time expression and sharing might be possible online (and only online)? How might we design experiences for the unique social dynamics we want to support? Students will be exposed to principles of spatial design as well as a series of open source Javascript tools for arranging live webcam video and audio in 2D and 3D space in the browser. They will use WebGL (through the three.js library) to build 2D and 3D environments, and will be exposed to WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) and Node.js to add interactivity to those environments.
In study after study, people lying on their deathbeds overwhelmingly say they regret five things at their end of their life: 1. Not living a life of authenticity 2. Working too hard at the expense of their relationships 3. Not having the courage to express their feelings 4. Not staying in touch with friends. 5. Not letting themselves be happier. For leaders, it’s not any different. This course unpacks each of these “regrets” with readings, exercises, meditation, deep listening, skill development and leadership theory, examining historical and contemporary answers to the question of what really matters in life, and providing the space for students to grapple with the question themselves.
This course investigates current transformations in the food systems and cultures of London under conditions of globalization. A people’s diet is dependent on their geography, although no people on earth eat everything edible in their environment, and they seek distant stimulants that their locales cannot support. Through lectures, readings, field trips students will master established facts and concepts about contemporary urban food cultures and produce new knowledge of the same.
The ever-inventive world of arts publications encompasses a dazzling range of subjects, mediums, materials, and methods: from ancient illuminated manuscripts, political manifestos, and one-of-a-kind artists books to high-end glossies, handmade zines, posters and print multiples to the infinite possibilities of the digital realm. This workshop will introduce and explore many of these forms through guest lecturers, field trips to specialized collections and museums, directed readings, and hands-on work, which will culminate in final group and individual projects. Readings may include Posters: A Global History; Action Time Vision; and Design: the Invention of Desire.
Data is the means by which we turn experience into something that can be published, compared, and analyzed. Data can facilitate the production of new knowledge about the world—but it can also be used as a method of control and exploitation. As such, the ability to understand and work with data is indispensable both for those who want to uncover truth, and those who want to hold power to account. This intensive course serves as an introduction to essential computational tools and techniques for working with data. The course is designed for artists, designers, and researchers in the humanities who have no previous programming experience. Covered topics include: the Python programming language, Jupyter Notebook, data formats, regular expressions, Pandas, web scraping, relational database concepts, simple data visualization and data-driven text generation. Weekly technical tutorials and short readings culminate in a self-directed final project.
This course explores the ways that we perform on and for the Internet. We’ll take a look at how artists have used social media, live-streaming, and multi-user online spaces as a site for performance. Students will conduct their own interventions with the web as a virtual stage. Note: Performance is a broad and amorphous term! You are encouraged to take this course even if you do not consider yourself a performer or someone who wants to be in front of a camera.
This course covers the next several years of evolution in technology, culture, and other trends. It uses scenario planning, a technique for considering complex interrelationships that can’t be predicted, distinguishing predetermined elements from critical uncertainties, and exploring the underlying patterns that influence events. Students will conduct original research on significant trends, use those trends to develop compelling, sophisticated, plausible stories about possible futures, and present the futures – and the strategies they suggest – to a public audience. The course will take place at a pivotal moment of historical uncertainty: recovering from a global pandemic, with AI and other digital technologies crossing a threshold, and dramatic political and economic tensions. All of these, and more, affect media development – and are deeply affected by them. The goal of the course is to enable you to make more robust decisions now in the face of uncertainty — applicable to planning for technological change, starting a business, plotting a career or making major life decisions. This class has developed a longstanding following at ITP because it helps us make sense of complex issues without oversimplifying them. In a climate of candid, respectful discussion and debate, the class explores theories about system dynamics, long-wave organizational and societal change, and economic and technological development.
The course traces the documentary film from its origins to the present day. Pioneer documentarians like Dziga Vertov and Robert Flaherty saw in documentary film the ability to portray life with a kind of truthfulness never before possible. Early Polish filmmaker Boleslaw Matuszewski wrote that while “the cinematograph does not give the whole truth at least what it gives is unquestionable and of an absolute truth.” Since those heady days, it has become all too clear that documentaries have no special access to the truth. Nevertheless, as this still-young art evolved, documentarians of different schools constantly sought new means to tell the human story. Documentary filmmaking has always been a blend of artistry and technical means and we will also explore this critical relationship. The course explores the development of the documentary and the shifting intentions of documentary filmmakers through the evolution of narrative approach and structure paying special attention to the documentary tradition’s relationship to journalism. Students examine how different filmmakers have gone about trying to convey “reality” on screen both through the use and avoidance of narration, through interviews, editing and dramatizations. Throughout the semester, students investigate how image-driven medium attempts to report stories and the ways an emotion-driven art can be problematic for journalistic objectivity. Finally, the ethical and journalistic responsibilities the documentary filmmaker are discussed. Special attention is given to dramatic re-creations, the filmmaker’s relationship to his/her subjects and the construction of narrative through editing.
The ways in which writers, artists, musicians, and filmmakers have used food as a theme or symbol for reasons of aesthetic, social, cultural, or political commentary.
Students will create a storyboard from an assigned literary property (i.e., fairy tales, folk tales, famous short stories, etc.) and research the chosen material visually in picture libraries, print and photo archives, museum/gallery libraries and online. From this basic research, the student will create and develop all the visual elements that lead to a final production storyboard; these elements include character model drawings; styling sketches for costumes and sets; experimental “inspirational” sketches exploring mood, color, and character relationships and experiments in animation and color test footage. Each week, students will “pitch,” (i.e. present material) as it is being developed. Through weekly critiques from the instructor and students, elements and shape of the production storyboard is refined to its final form. The approved storyboard at the end of the semester should be ready to go into production, and must reflect character ,attitude, design, entertainment, mood, expressions, feeling and type of action. It must use dialogue, music/sound effects, and tell the story in the best possible way. This course allocates as a Craft for Film & TV majors.
The Italian Cinema is a good way to study the whole Italian history, society, ideology and behaviours. The students will have the opportunity to know such authors as Rossellini, De Sica, Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti, Pasolini, Bertolucci, who are well known in the US. The course will also focus on the difference between auteur films and genre films (comedy, roman-mythological, western, melodrama); it will stress the gender point of view, the problem of a national identity, the role of the film industry. Strong attention will be paid to the relationship between Italian film and literature, art history, television and other disciplines.
This course introduces to the many villas surrounding the city of Florence. It aims at illustrating their origins, their history from the Middle-Age to the twentieth century, as well as their economic and ideological factors in the relationship with the city of Florence. The course draws on many disciplines, such as architecture, history, economy, social history, history of art, and landscape art.
This course is designed for students whose levels of Japanese are EAST-UA 248 and EAST-UA 249. The overall goal of this course is to help students build reading speed, reading fluency, and vocabularies and expressions through experiencing the pleasure of reading in Japanese. The focus of the class will be individual reading activity and consultations with the instructor.
Course Description: In this 14-week course, students will explore sound design fundamentals through modular synthesizers, leveraging the capabilities of microcontrollers. Modular synthesizers are a type of electronic musical instrument used to generate, manipulate, and shape sound through the interconnection of individual modules, or components. This course is designed to equip students with the skills and creative prowess required to craft their own unique devices that adhere to the Eurorack design format; a popular modular synthesizer standard. The curriculum blends the art of sound design with the technical aspects of hardware synthesizer architecture, building skills so that by the end of this course students will have the competence to bring their sonic visions to life in physical form through thoughtful interaction. By harnessing the modular nature of these components, students will work independently, taking into consideration the designs of their peers to ensure seamless compatibility between their devices, resulting in a distinct ‘voice’; a term used to describe a collection of components that define the signal path of a synthesizer. The first half of the course will focus on sound design coding techniques utilizing the Teensy microcontroller, with the second half dedicated to developing tangible hardware design skills. Prerequisites: Intro to Physical Computing No sound design/musical experience is required.
“How can we create services – digital or otherwise – that scratch psychological itches in ways that take into consideration the uncontrollable nature of users? In this course, we marry the art of design with the science of psychology. The offspring of this match is complicated, unexpected and never predictable – but indelibly informed by both its binary and analogue parentage. Leaning on a variety of international case studies that tickle our human passion for enquiry, for storytelling, for sensation, and for sense-making, plus short philosophical readings about the nature of the indefinable, each class will dissect what we know about something inherently human (from beauty to joy to elegance), and how technologists and machine-makers have tried to predict it. We will spend time in this course reverse engineering black boxes and imagining how they could have been designed otherwise. The final project will be an “”””engine”””” or machine – mock-up, paper design or working prototype – that proposes to produce the solution to a messy human question every single time. The course will be divided into three thematic sections of three classes each: a theory week, an analysis week, and a prototyping week. Each thematic section will examine single-topic human “needs” frequently designed for in apps and tech. Students will be expected to take part in group discussions, and brainstorming sessions that will imagine systems that could achieve that topic. Latterly, the last session will be workshops, in which students will work together or alone on their own projects based on one topic of their choice.”
Seminar for students who have been approved by the department to pursue honors in the major. Extended primary research in Communication Studies, focusing on the development and sharing of individual research projects. Students will enroll concurrently in two points of independent study under the director of a faculty honors sponsor, as outlined in departmental guidelines.
MCC Research Inquiry Seminars, taken early in the major, expose students to the department’s culture of scholarly inquiry. Course topics reflect faculty research interests, offering students a chance to explore emerging issues in the field of media studies.
This course evaluates marketing as a system for the satisfaction of human wants and a catalyst of business activity. It presents a comprehensive framework that includes a) researching and analyzing customers, company, competition, and the marketing environment, b) identifying and targeting attractive segments with strategic positioning, and c) making product, pricing, communication, and distribution decisions. Cases and examples are utilized to develop problem-solving abilities.
Artists often explore powerful issues of mental health through literature and film. “No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.” (Ingmar Bergmann 1918-2007) In this course, we will draw on classic examples from literature and film to highlight and understand aspects of mental health in ways that are more vivid and visceral than any text book can illustrate. Materials will be chosen from novels, poems, and films to illustrate various mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), dissociative identity disorder (DID), and schizophrenia. We will look at how some of the disorders fare in psychological treatments that either succeed or fail. Guest speakers may be invited to highlight some topics.
This course introduces students to modalities for creating site-specific and immersive art and performance. Assignments will examine the work of artists who challenge the limitations of the physical, psychological and transactional spaces that have come to define conventional production models. Students will regularly receive prompts from which collaborative work will be workshopped, generated and presented. The sites and practices explored will de-center script/text as spine, institutional space as gathering place, linear storytelling as narrative, and separation between audience and artist as social contract. Through group performance projects and presentations, students will investigate how Site evokes Narrative and Event differently in brick & mortar, virtual, historic, liminal, dead, found, contested, democratized and community spaces. Our work will unpack the challenges and opportunities presented when we relinquish creative control of such unfixed elements as serendipity, impermanence, improvisation, audience agency, public space, weather, and pandemic.
A programming course where we’ll explore various techniques and solutions for tracking and sensing people or objects in space. Students will get familiar with the terminology and algorithms behind many sensing topics such as computer vision, depth cameras, positional tracking, and coordinate mapping. As these subjects are explored, we will also dig into communication, and how this information can be transmitted from one tool to another, for example using OSC, Spout/Syphon, MIDI, DMX/ArtNet. The goal being to use the right tool for the job and not limit ourselves to a particular piece of software.
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. This course requires CL: Hypercinema or equivalent experience. Prerequisite: CL: Hypercinema (ITPG-GT 2004)
“In even the tiniest fragment of digital sound (especially music) there lies a multiplicity of information hidden within. Using audio analysis techniques, this data can be distilled into a vast array of characteristics that describe various different features of the sound. These include things like the loudness, pitch, or the spectrum of frequencies being detected. Through additional analysis, these data points can be used to detect higher level musical features representing things like tempo, rhythm, or melody. Furthermore, the sound and music information can be used to train deep learning models that can then make accurate predictions (eg. what a sound is, what genre a song is, what mood a song evokes). Or, we can use machine learning for generative purposes using the data to guide the creation of new sounds, synthesizers, or even entire songs. The preceding are activities that fall under the areas of digital signal processing, music information retrieval, and machine learning, a trifecta that form the technological foundation for the research area known as machine listening. With a focus on ambient sound and music, this class will explore how tools and techniques from the field of machine listening can become a powerful aspect, or even strategy, in the realm of creative applications. This course will not cover, nor will it assume knowledge of, the underlying technical aspects of machine listening, or music theory. Resources for further pursuance of each week’s topics will be provided but will not be required for class. Instead, our aim will be on understanding what these techniques are doing, when and where to apply them, and how to access and apply them effectively through powerful software libraries. This high level approach will allow us to keep our efforts directed towards creative experimentation without becoming bogged down. Ultimately, students will synthesize the semester’s work into their own creative application involving sound. Here are some examples of the types of projects this class could support: An app that visualizes audio through graphics or DMX/LED lighting to create synesthesia-like effects An automatic system for transcribing music based off of a recording or real-time input A music remixing system where tracks are automatically selected, spliced, processed, and rearranged A musical instrument that adapts to its player based on real-time analysis of the played sound A synthesizer that uses machine learning to optimize and tune its parameters A music education software that visualizes rhythm and melody for the purpose of instruction A rhythm game that derives its gameplay from music information (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, DDR) A tool that analyzes the health of a machine based on its sound through a contact microphone The course will be taught in JavaScript with ICM-level programming experience recommended. No formal training in sound or music is expected or required. This course will be a great fit for any student that is interested in sound and wants to explore it more deeply. Please feel free to reach out to me via email with any questions about the class.”
We live in an age of digital production where so much of today’s music is produced with comparatively few tools, and at the heart of the modern production set up, whether in the bedroom of the studio, is software that uses MIDI. One of the most versatile of today’s platforms which can be used in production, live performance, and even as a visual tool is Ableton Live. Ableton is unique amongst the contemporary software programs making music in that it is the only one that was created by working musicians who were looking for a tool that allowed for both the seamless creation of ideas and could also serve as a performance instrument. In the past 15 years, Ableton has played an important role in creating countless tracks and records in numerous genres and the go-to software for live performance, whether for vocalists and bands or for massive spectacles like Cirque du Soleil. In this course, we will cover Ableton’s unique abilities to manipulate audio which make it the preferred platform for remixing and mash-ups. We will cover the fundamentals of the software, explore techniques to program beats, chordal and melodic ideas, as well as cover creative workflow – how to use Ableton to quickly generate ideas for producers and songwriters. Finally, we will discuss its use as a live performance tool for use with live instrumentalists and vocalists, as a DJ tool and even as a VJing tool.
During this course, students will acquire an in-depth, theoretical and practical knowledge of Digital Audio Workstations using the industry standard Pro Tools 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 Pro Tools, getting inside Pro Tools, 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.
This course covers the next several years of evolution in technology, culture, and other trends. It uses scenario planning, a technique for considering complex interrelationships that can’t be predicted, distinguishing predetermined elements from critical uncertainties, and exploring the underlying patterns that influence events. Students will conduct original research on significant trends, use those trends to develop compelling, sophisticated, plausible stories about possible futures, and present the futures – and the strategies they suggest – to a public audience. The course will take place at a pivotal moment of historical uncertainty: recovering from a global pandemic, with AI and other digital technologies crossing a threshold, and dramatic political and economic tensions. All of these, and more, affect media development – and are deeply affected by them. The goal of the course is to enable you to make more robust decisions now in the face of uncertainty — applicable to planning for technological change, starting a business, plotting a career or making major life decisions. This class has developed a longstanding following at ITP because it helps us make sense of complex issues without oversimplifying them. In a climate of candid, respectful discussion and debate, the class explores theories about system dynamics, long-wave organizational and societal change, and economic and technological development.
Offered in the spring semester only. Course level: Intermediate. 4 points. No prerequisite. Over the last 50 years the American Cinema has produced a remarkably rich abundance of entertaining, exciting, and challenging films. This course is designed to provide a survey of the wealth of styles, forms, purposes, and approaches to filmmaking that developed and emerged in this era. While Hollywood has obviously served as the dominant mode of filmmaking in this country, a significant of other filmmaking practices have continued to operate and sometimes thrive outside of it. Beyond the attention paid to Hollywood narrative cinema as it has changed and evolved over this half-century, we will also consider documentaries, avant-garde and experimental works, independent narraive cinema, and “cult” films. Consequently, we will be screening a variety of films, including works by such notable American filmmakers as Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, George Romero, John Singleton, and Michael Moore.
Feminist Filmmakers examines gender constructs in narrative film and episodic work. We will explore how gender constructs in film and television influence societal views of gender roles, as well as contextualize gender in the era and cultures specific films were made. The vehicle through which this course will examine gender will be the history and work of female directors around the world. Screenings, critical reading in film and gender studies, articles and interviews on current debates regarding gender and diversity inclusion in the film industry, make this class valuable for everyone.
This course examines the artistic, aesthetic, and technical aspects in composing and creating music for film and television. It provides an inside look into the relationship between composer, director, and music editor, exploring music as a creative tool. Through lectures, analysis, demonstrations, and presentations by guest speakers, students learn and deal with the specifics of the film composer’s job, duties, and responsibilities, including the basics of film scoring. As a result, students develop the listening and production skills necessary for creative use of music in films, television, and media. In addition to creative and technical considerations, the business and personal relationship between composer and director/producer will be discussed. This course allocates as History & Criticism for Film & TV majors.
A rival reportedly asked Walt Disney why Disney’s films were so much better. Disney replied, “I analyze.” His rival said, “So do I.” Disney answered, “I analyze better.” Film Analysis is an advanced course in film criticism taught by practitioners. We build upon the analytical skills developed in Language of Film, Storytelling Strategies and the various production courses in order to strengthen the students’ ability to critically assess the weave of narrative content, mise-en-scene, cinematic technique and structures. Through this in-depth examination of a wide range of films, students deepen their understanding of how filmmakers over the years and in various cultures have created meaningful experiences for their audiences.This course counts as History & Criticism for Film Majors.
Art and War: Battle Lines of the Graphic Novel This course explores storytelling about war through the use of the graphic novel. Students will be introduced to both recent and historically significant comics about war. Our goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the interplay between image and text in sequential art, and the ability to critically analyze graphic novels that deal with challenging subject matter. What are the methodological and ethical issues that arise when constructing sequential narratives of war? What are the varying strengths between war narratives that are autobiographical, documentary or fictional? Is there something unique about the format of graphic novels that enables artists to tell a different kind of war story than filmmakers, musicians or performers? How do comic books circulate culturally, and how might this expand or limit their ability to inform our understandings of war? We will explore these questions through close readings, robust discussions and careful written analysis of well-known works by Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi and Joe Sacco, as well as graphic novels by Keiji Nakazawa, Jason Lutes, Gipi, Emmanuel Guibert and others.
According to anthropologists Filip de Boeck and René Devisch, divination “constitutes a space in which cognitive structures are transformed and new relations are generated in and between the human body, the social body and the cosmos.” In this class, students will learn the history of divination, engage in the practice of divination, and speculate on what forms divination might take in a world where the human body, the social body, and even the cosmos(!) are digitally mediated. Starting with an understanding of ritual and folk culture, we will track the history of fortune-telling from the casting of lots to computer-generated randomness to the contemporary revival of Tarot; from reading entrails to astrology to data science; from glossolalia to surrealist writing practices to the “ghost in the machine” of artificial intelligence. Weekly readings and assignments culminate in a final project.
This introductory course will focus on giving students a practical understanding of how to make ‘serious’ video games. That is, games that challenge the player to think and learn. This is a class where we will be ideating and producing playable games each week over 7 weeks using the open-source Godot game engine. By the end of the course, you’ll have a small portfolio of ‘serious’ games to show and build upon. Throughout the course, students will become familiar with concepts such as iterative design, play testing, object-oriented programming, user-interface design, animation and basic art for 2D games. They will take a design-based approach to content creation, developing a proficiency in the Godot game engine and the overall indie-game development pipeline.
This course provides students an opportunity to sharpen their coding skills in several ways: by reviewing fundamental programming concepts, acquiring techniques to systematically develop code-driven projects, and then implementing those to develop an independent project with the structure and support of a classroom learning community. The first part of the semester consists of weekly exercises to practice strategies for learning new algorithms, writing pseudocode, pair programming, debugging, refactoring, version control, and more. Screen-based code examples for the activities and assignments draw inspiration from the history of creative coding. The second part of the semester shifts to a project development studio format for students to apply these strategies to a self-directed project. This could be an existing idea or one devised during the course. Ultimately this course aims to empower students to reflect on their process and teach themselves how to program with greater efficiency and independence. It is a direct follow-up to Introduction to Computational Media (ICM) or for anyone interested in advancing their coding practice. Examples and exercises will be provided in JavaScript using the p5.js library. However, students are welcome to consult the instructor about working with another programming library, framework, or language with which they have interest or prior experience. Prerequisite: ICM or equivalent experience
Quantum technologies are the next frontier of electronics and computing. Quantum Computers, Quantum Sensors, Quantum Materials are just beginning to emerge from laboratories and enter the realm of practical application. The course introduces the underlying principles of quantum physics, and reviews emerging capabilities of quantum computers and related technologies. Coursework will include programming quantum algorithms on a simulator, and running programs on actual cloud-based quantum computing hardware. The topics will be highly technical and will require the study of scientific principles and experimental apparatus. We will cover some basic mathematical operations in linear algebra, and we’ll be encountering some equations from physics and computer science.
The goal of this class is to gain an understanding and proficiency with Computer Aided Design (CAD). We will become familiar with CAD software, mechanical design, and simulation. The class will cover common CAD modeling techniques. We will use our designs to get physical parts made as well as use them in virtual projects. We will create parts both real and impossible.
This course will use the open source COVID-19 Impact Dashboard as a basis to explore ways to humanize the unfolding data on the coronavirus pandemic. Students are invited to collaborate on the COVID-19 Impact Project. Students will discover how data flows from public github repositories and tools needed to visualize the data. We will review other data-centric open source projects related to COVID-19 and discuss the questions they are trying to answer or problems they are trying to solve. We will examine historical and contemporary data visualizations. Using data visualization as a scaffold, we will explore ways to support community driven mourning and memorialization. Students can choose to participate as javascript coders, p5js explorers, UI/UX designers, citizen journalists, or data science explorers.
Cooking programs with an image based language is a fundamental skill in the production and design of modern digital processes. Visual programming is not only an alternative way to code, but a solution to approach generative and interactive media. This class reviews the past, present and future of visual programming languages used to procedurally generate and manipulate media such as Max/MSP(Nato.0 55 3d), Isadora, Quartz composer, Touch designer, Houdini, cables.gl and Unreal Engine among others. The core of this course is the study of Unreal Engine’s Blueprint Visual Scripting system as a way to produce an interactive program in an executable form using only Visual Programing. We will study how to create actors, functions, interfaces and how they communicate with each other. We will also take a look into 2 other visual editors, The material/shader editor for the creation of HLSL like shaders and visuals and the new Metasound editor for the manipulation, generation and sequence of sound within the engine. A general understanding of Unreal Engine is a prerequisite for this class. Students will learn how to use blueprints to produce an interactive program that can be a video game, an installation or a Real Time digital Performance.
This course provides critical and curatorial insight into global art practices and interactive technologies from a post colonial perspective. Designed to provide a critique of imperialism the course is underpinned by ideas pertaining to the rise of the Global South, decoupling, indigenous knowledge and ancient and contemporary innovation through contemporary art, emergent technologies, new media and exhibition practices. Students will also investigate the role of shifting digital landscapes and conservation of new media coupled with museum collecting practices, from both a deconstructive and ethical lens, providing regular opportunities to reflect upon their own respective practices. Presented as a combination of presentations/ critiques, seminars, readings, virtual field trips as well as special guest visits with noted experts, the course presents a compact and timely overview of globalization, and the effects of rapid interactive and technological innovative, in lieu with ideating towards a more equitable and diverse art and technological ecosystem.
Over the past 3 years, we have seen many aspects of our lives thrust online. Increasingly, we are working, learning, socializing with family and friends, attending live performances and more through 2D grids of video feeds on platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet. These communication tools have become essential for remote communities to connect, yet fail to replicate many of the most engaging, messy and human aspects of our in-person experience. What happens when we break out of this grid and explore new forms of real-time social interactions online using webcam video and audio? Recent explorations in this realm have shown the promise of spatial metaphors in creating engaging real-time social interactions online. In this course, students will create their own series of experimental social spaces that explore these questions: how does the shape and nature of our environment affect the way we communicate? What unique forms of real-time expression and sharing might be possible online (and only online)? How might we design experiences for the unique social dynamics we want to support? Students will be exposed to principles of spatial design as well as a series of open source Javascript tools for arranging live webcam video and audio in 2D and 3D space in the browser. They will use WebGL (through the three.js library) to build 2D and 3D environments, and will be exposed to WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) and Node.js to add interactivity to those environments.
Public relations means different things to different things to different people but it has one undeniable element: communication. This course is concerned with arranging, handling, and evaluating public relations programs. Students work with actual case histories and deal with contemporary topics such as the use of the computer in public relations.
Machine learning is an exciting and fast-moving field of computer science with many recent consumer applications (e.g., Microsoft Kinect, Google Translate, Iphone’s Siri, digital camera face detection, Netflix recommendations, Google news) and applications within the sciences and medicine (e.g., predicting protein-protein interactions, species modeling, detecting tumors, personalized medicine). This course introduces undergraduate computer science students to the field of machine learning. Students learn about the theoretical foundations of machine learning and how to apply machine learning to solve new problems. Assuming no prior knowledge in machine learning, the course focuses on two major paradigms in machine learning which are supervised and unsupervised learning. In supervised learning, we learn various methods for classification and regression. Dimensionality reduction and clustering are discussed in the case of unsupervised learning
This course introduces selected aspects of the history, philosophy, methodology, tools, and contemporary topics in engineering. Also included are basic engineering experimentation, data analysis, and a team-design project. This course will provide an understanding of what professional engineers do. In this context, an emphasis will be placed on developing oral and written communication skills. EG1004 is a survey course that introduces students to NYU Tandon academic opportunities, professional and career development, and teamwork skills. Design and project management skills are developed throughout a semester-long design project. Disciplines within engineering will be introduced during lecture, and explored through practice in laboratory assignments.
Data structures are fundamental programming constructs which organize information in computer memory to solve challenging real-world problems. Data structures such as stacks, queues, linked lists, and binary trees, therefore constitute building blocks that can be reused, extended, and combined in order to make powerful programs. This course teaches how to implement them in a high-level language, how to analyze their effect on algorithm efficiency, and how to modify them to write computer programs that solve complex problems in a most efficient way. Programming assignments. Prerequisite: ICS or A- in ICP. Equivalency: This course counts for CSCI-UA 102 Data Structures (NY). Fulfillment: CS Required, Data Science Required, CE Required.
This introductory-level course is needed to provide students with a firm understanding of distinctively philosophical approaches to issues concerning race and racism. This course has two themes. The first is an exploration of the concept of race. This is a question in social ontology, which is the philosophical study of the nature of social entities. The second is an examination of some of the normative and conceptual issues surrounding the most morally significant of the ways in which “race” has mattered for social life, namely as the concept that defines the object of the attitudes, practices, institutions and beliefs we call “racist.” We shall ask what racism is, what sorts of things can be racist, and what makes racism wrong.
Students will learn how technology impacts the development and changed the experiences of children and young adults. Students will respond critically and explore the relationship between children, young adults, and the environment they navigate and explore the relationship between social media and development in relation to advancing technology. Additionally, students will explore ethical theory in relation to society and innovation. Through readings, discussions and presentations, students will develop analyzed solutions for problems experienced via interactions with technology and social media. In this online learning collaborative course, students will create evidence – based solutions to solving society’s predicament with the evolution of social media.
Introduction to basic analog and digital electronics used in physics experiments. Concepts and devices presented in lecture are studied in the laboratory. Topics include DC and AC circuits, filters, power supplies, transistors, operational amplifiers, analog to digital converters, and digital logic.
The course covers sketching, drawing and computer-aided drafting. Topics: Projection theory—multiview, axonometric, oblique. Auxiliaries, sections, isometrics, dimensions, fasteners, detail and assembly drawings. Introduction to blueprint reading. Overview of CIM and CAD integration with other CIM concepts. A design project incorporates developed skills in visualization, drawing techniques, standards and CAD.
This course examines the lifecycle of high-growth new ventures (i.e. startups), with a focus on how they are funded. We will follow a successful startup’s path from founding through the stages of new venture finance. These include developing a business plan and its financials, the core skills of valuation, the venture capital industry, and how entrepreneurs and investors realize returns. Through examples of specific companies and technologies, we will also learn about the emerging landscape of financial technology (fintech) startups. We will consider the following subsectors, where startups are either seeking to displace incumbents or sell them their services: personal finance, blockchain, equity crowdfunding, lending (peer-to-peer and AI-augmented), payments, insurance, institutional investment, and money transfer.
Provides an overview of sports marketing as a component of a fully integrated marketing communication strategy. Studies the history and contemporary application of sports marketing as a method to achieve goals. Considers corporate as well as sporting property use of sports marketing strategies to achieve business objectives. Examines strategies that address critical business constituencies, including consumers, trade factors, employees, and the financial community. Covers sports marketing within the context of special sporting event sponsorships and professional sports teams as well as governing organizations, sports media (broadcast, print, and the Internet), licensing, hospitality, etc.
This is a specialty marketing course designed to provide students with a framework for understanding the dynamics of marketing several leading sectors within the leisure industry. The focus is on understanding the development and application of marketing strategies and tactics for leisure companies competing for a share of the consumers discretionary spending. Key marketing concepts such as segmentation, branding, life-time value, and CRM are examined in the context of leisure industries. The course will also cover recent activities including mergers, acquisitions in those key sectors of the leisure industry: casinos, cruise ships, theme parks, eco-tourism, themed restaurants, resorts, leisure hotels, time shares. The course will explore marketing techniques that apply across the leisure companies, including licensing, sponsorships, line extensions and promotion. Discussion of evolution, and current status in these sectors through lectures, case studies, text and article readings and project work will be included.
This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the deal-making and business affairs process in the entertainment space, using film and television content as the primary example for what goes into cutting a deal. The course will explore the deal process from the perspective of the different players in entertainment and media, focusing on how each player looks to maximize value. Students will learn the process of striking a deal, from its inception, to the term sheet phase, to the negotiation process and contractual agreements, through to deal implementation. The process will be evaluated in the context of the factors that play into reaching an agreement, such as exclusivity, windowing, multi-platform rights and timing. Students will learn about negotiations strategies for maximizing value in content deals, identifying common issues in the deal process and effective paths to reaching resolution and striking a deal. The course is designed to help students: –Understand the basics of the process for making a deal in the entertainment industry –Appreciate the factors that play into maximizing value through the deal process, including understanding the relative position of the players in the entertainment industry –Learn and understand negotiating strategies and how to navigate the business affairs and deal-making process
This is a specialty marketing course designed to provide students with a framework for understanding the dynamics of Broadway and live theater, as an important business enterprise within the entertainment industry. The focus is on understanding the development and application of the economics, finance, structure, implementation and staging of performances, as well as the marketing strategies and tactics for gaining audience awareness and decision to purchase. The course will examine funding, marketing, branding, product positioning and the global distribution of live theatrical entertainment. The course will cover the history, venues, vocabulary, players, business and creative structures, budget development, supplementary revenue streams, successes and failures, relationship with the movie and music industries, the important figures and support systems that make the system work, global reach, and other topics. Lecture, discussions, site visits, and project work will be included.
Provides a framework for understanding the global expansion of media and entertainment companies. Examines the impact that the significant export growth of American leisure products and services has on the U.S economy. Analyzes the strategies of several leading entertainment and media multinational companies and the development of their entertainment businesses within the major world economic zones. International speakers, cases and readings are used in this course.
This course gives students a basic understanding of key business issues relating to producing, distributing, marketing, and exploiting feature films. The course examines key aspects of the movie business, including managing a creative enterprise, deal making, acquiring rights, building a library, branding, and all aspects of effective marketing. The concepts developed in the course are applied in a group project presentation.
With sales of more than 1.3 billion, the German recorded music market is the third largest in the world: it is larger than the UK music market and behind only the USA and Japan. Beyond just numbers, the Berlin music business is unique: it’s home to hundreds of powerful independent and D.I.Y. record labels; it’s historically been ground zero for innovative electronic and dance music; and it’s a burgeoning tech hub for innovative software/hardware companies like Native Instruments, Ableton and Soundcloud. In this colloquium series, students will meet and hear each week from key creative entrepreneurial figures and innovators in the German and European music business. This course has several purposes. First, students will consider how ongoing economic and technological changes might be impacting the worldwide music business, as speakers discuss controversial trends like the rise of cryptocurrency, block chain and cashless systems, customization technologies like 3D printing and developments in robotics, and radical, disruptive approaches to copyright. Second, students will develop a greater understanding of the chief similarities and differences between the traditional European and US music business operations, particularly with regard to label operations, publishing and copyright, touring and festivals, and nightlife promotion. Third, students will become more informed about the D.I.Y. music business in Berlin itself, as they hear from speakers about the promises and challenges one faces in launching innovative music start ups in Germany. And finally, students will get to meet and network with key movers and shakers in the Berlin scene, past and present. In anticipation for a guest class visit, students may be required to investigate websites, read biographical or contextual material, or attend events outside of class time. Students will be expected to ask informed questions of the guests and to develop responses throughout the course of the class. Students should leave the class with a greater understanding of how the European and German music businesses work and how they themselves might make a business or sales impact on a global scale.
An introduction to the fundamentals of computer programming. Students design, write, and debug computer programs. No prior knowledge of programming is assumed. Students will learn programming using Python, a general purpose, cross-platform programming language with a clear, readable syntax. Most class periods will be part lecture, part lab as you explore ideas and put them into practice. This course is suitable for students not intending in majoring in computer science as well as for students intending to major in computer science but having no programming experience. Students with previous programming experience should instead take Introduction to Computer Science. Prerequisite: Either placed into Calculus or at least a C in Pre-Calculus Fulfillment: Core Curriculum Requirement Algorithmic Thinking; EE Required Major Courses. Note: Students who have taken ICS in NY, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai cannot take ICP.
The course will start off with an in-depth review of the exploitation mitigations introduced in modern operating systems. The instructors will demonstrate their limitations through simple examples and gradually develop the basic exploitation techniques into more complicated methods applicable to real-world exploitation. Unlike most other exploitation courses, we will focus on approaching exploitation as a creative problem-solving process rather than an exercise of applying cookbook techniques to common types of vulnerabilities. Most of the course will focus on the hands-on application of the material through exercises and leading the students through the development of reliable exploits for recently patched vulnerabilities in widely used software. | Prerequisites for Brooklyn Engineering Students: CS-UY 3933 and (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better). | Prerequisites for CAS Students: CS-UY 3933 and CSCI-UA 201. | Prerequisites for Abu Dhabi Students: CS-UY 3933 and CS-AD 103
Prerequisite: Photography & Imaging: Multimedia or permission by the department. This is an intense design class for the crossover creature who yearns to design their own exhibit, create a street poster, develop an ad campaign, design titles for a film, invent a visual identity for a musical score, etc. This will be a hands-on process-driven class that will push you to imagine, create, and produce. Students must know InDesign.
A historical and political inquiry into the French system of relations with Francophone Africa from the ‘race to Empire’ in the 19th century to the current day. The main goals of the course are: to describe the historical development of French-African relations from the colonial to the post-independence era; to investigate the political, economic and cultural mechanisms of French influence in contemporary Francophone Africa; to understand the consequences for France of complex developments subsequent to colonialism, such as African immigration in France. Conducted in French.
Historically, education has been the most accessible and effective means for groups to achieve social mobility in American society. However, access to public education has never been equal for all segments of society, and there continues to be considerable variability in the quality of education provided to students. As a result of both explicit and subtle discrimination, racialized minority groups have at various times been denied access to education or been relegated to inferior schools or classrooms. Yet education has also been the arena where the greatest advances in social justice and racial equality have been achieved. Understanding the contradictions created by the hope and unfulfilled promise of American education is a central theme of this course.
Personal, social, and environmental factors related to people?s attitudes and performance in industry and other organizations. Topics include personnel selection and evaluation, training and development, attitudes and motivation, leadership, group dynamics, organizational structure and climate, and job design and working conditions.
Gollwitzer, Trope, Uleman. Offered every semester. 4 points. Introduction to theories and research about the social behavior of individuals, such as perception of others and the self, attraction, affiliation, altruism and helping, aggression, moral thought and action, attitudes, influence, conformity, social exchange and bargaining, group decision making, leadership and power, and environmental psychology.
AndersenAndersen. Offered every semester. 4 points. Introduction to research in personality, including such topics as the self-concept; unconscious processes; how we relate to others; and stress, anxiety, and depression.
Curtis, Davachi. Offered every semester. 4 points. Provides students with a broad understanding of the foundations of cognitive neuroscience, including dominant theories of the neural underpinnings of a variety of cognitive processes and the research that has led to those theories. In doing so, students also learn about the goals of cognitive neuroscience research and the methods that are being employed to reach these goals.
McElree, Murphy, Rehder. Offered every semester. 4 points. Introduction to theories and research in some major areas of cognitive psychology, including human memory, attention, language production and comprehension, thinking, and reasoning.
Offered every semester. 4 points. Major concepts, approaches, problems, and literature in the field of comparative politics. Methodology of comparative politics, the classical theories, and the more recent behavioral revolution. Reviews personality, social structure, socialization, political culture, and political parties. Major approaches such as group theory, structural-functionalism, systems analysis, and communications theory and evaluation of the relevance of political ideology; national character; elite and class analysis; and problems of conflict, violence, and internal war.
A survey of national political institutions and behavior in the United States, which introduces students to a variety of analytical concepts and approaches useful for the study of domestic politics. Concepts typically covered include public goods and collective action; preference aggregation and the median voter theorem; delegation, representation, and accountability; agenda control; inter-branch bargaining; and the mechanisms of private influence on public policy.
Offered every semester. 4 points. Introduces students to some outstanding theories of politics. The theories treated offer alternative conceptions of political life, and they are examined from both theoretical and historical perspectives. Among the theorists included are Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Mill, and Marx.
Introduction to modern astrophysical problems with an emphasis on the physical concepts involved?radio, optical, and X-ray astronomy; stellar structure and evolution; white dwarfs, pulsars, and black holes; and galaxies, quasars, and cosmology.
Introduction to Maxwell’s equations with applications to physical problems. Topics include electrostatics, magnetostatics, the solution of the Laplace and Poisson equations, dielectrics and magnetic materials, electromagnetic waves and radiation, Fresnel equations, transmission lines, wave guides, and special relativity.
Topics include conservation laws, central force motion, Lagrange’s and Hamilton’s equations, non-inertial frames, inertia tensor, rigid body dynamics, coupled oscillators and particles, eigenvalues, eigenvectors and normal modes.
Continuation of PHYS-UA 11. Topics include electric charge, field, and potential; magnetic forces and fields; resistive, capacitive, and inductive circuits; electromagnetic induction; wave motion; electromagnetic waves; geometrical optics; interference, diffraction, and polarization of light; relativity; atomic and nuclear structure; elementary particle physics.
Examines some of the most important philosophical ideas and developments in Ancient Greece and Rome. Covers major writings by Plato and Aristotle, and a selection of writings by such thinkers as the Presocratics, Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics.
Examines conceptual and empirical issues about consciousness. Issues covered may include the explanatory gap, the hard and harder problems of consciousness, concepts of consciousness, phenomenal concepts, the mind-body problem and neural correlates of consciousness, higher-order thought theories of consciousness, the inverted spectrum, views of phenomenality as representation, and arguments for dualism.
Analysis of music of the late 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, and the creation of imitative compositional models based on works studied as well as on principles acquired earlier in the sequence. Additional topics will include whole-tone and octatonic scale systems, atonality, serialism, and an introduction to post-modern and spectral techniques. Weekly lab sections are devoted to skills in musicianship and are required throughout the sequence.
Music Major Distribution Requirement. Chromatic harmony as developed and practiced by composers of the 19th century and beyond. Introduction to score reading and principles of musical analysis applied to larger musical structures. Continuation of species counterpoint and an introduction to invertible counterpoint and fugue.
Explores the underlying principles and inner workings of the tonal system, a system that has guided all of Western music from the years 1600 to 1900. It includes a discussion of historical background and evolution. Focuses on concepts and notation of key, scale, tonality, and rhythm. Related skills in sight-singing, dictation, and keyboard harmony are stressed in the recitation sections.
Students study principles of tonal music composition including 18th and 19th century harmonic, formal, and contrapuntal practices. Exercises in four-part voice-leading and species counterpoint are supplemented by analyses of music from around the world and from a variety of genres, including concert and popular music. Weekly lab sections are devoted to skills in musicianship and are required throughout the sequence.
Historical-political background of the Middle East and its contemporary social and political problems, including the impact of the West; religious and liberal reactions; conflict of nationalisms (Arab, Iranian, Turkish, and Zionist); and revolutionary socialism. Specific social, political, and economic problems?using a few selected countries for comparison and analysis?including the role of the military, the intelligentsia, the religious classes, the legitimization of power, urban-rural cleavages, bureaucracy, and political parties.
Prerequisite: A grade of C or higher in Calculus III (MATH-UA 123) or Math for Economics III (MATH-UA 213) (for economics majors). Recommended: Mathematical Physics (PHYS-UA 106). Fluid dynamics is the branch of physics that can describe the flow of blood in the human body, the flight of an insect, or the motions of weather systems. Key concepts include: the formalism of continuum mechanics; the conservation of mass, energy, and momentum in a fluid; the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations; and viscosity and vorticity. These concepts are applied to such classic problems in fluid dynamics as potential flow around a cylinder, the propagation of sound and gravity waves, and the onset of instability in shear flow.
Phonetic and phonological theory at an elementary level. Topics include the description and analysis of speech sounds, the anatomy and physiology of speech, speech acoustics, and phonological processes. Students develop skills to distinguish and produce sounds used in the languages of the world and to transcribe them using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
How and why American varieties of Spanish and Portuguese differ from European varieties, as well as the distribution and nature of dialect differences throughout the Americas. Examines sociolinguistic issues: class and ethnic differences in language, the origin and development of standard and nonstandard varieties, and the effects of contact with Amerindian and African languages. Considers Spanish- and Portuguese-based creoles and the question of prior creolization.
This course aims to bring together diverse issues and perspectives in the rapidly evolving and changing area of international/global communication. Through a historical perspective, a framework will be established for the appreciation of the development of the immense scope, disparity, and complexity of this rapidly evolving field. Students will be encouraged to critically assess shifts in national, regional, and international media patterns of production, distribution, and consumption over time, leading to a critical analysis of the tumultuous contemporary global communication environment. Essential concepts of international communication will be examined, including trends in national and global media consolidation, cultural implications of globalization, international broadcasting, information flows, international communication law and regulation, and trends in communication and information technologies. The focus of the course will be international, with attention being paid both to Western-based multimedia conglomerates, as well as to the increasing global prominence of media corporations based in other regions, contributing to the reversal of international media flows and challenging the global hegemony of the Western media producers. Particular emphasis will be on the Czech Republic, as an empirical example of a national media system affected by global media flows.
This course examines the growth and importance of London from the Roman invasion of 43 AD to the present day. Students will learn about London’s changing economic and political role, and will understand how London grew to dominate the commerce, industry and culture of England. They will find out how London became the biggest city the world had ever known, and how it coped (or failed to cope) with the social and environmental problems created by its enormous size. The classroom sessions will be divided between a lecture and a class discussion. From week two onwards the class will begin with a discussion of the topic or period covered in the previous week‚s lecture, in which students will be expected to use knowledge and ideas gathered from lectures and from their weekly reading. There will also be four walking tours of parts of London which relate to the period we are studying at a particular time.
This course will introduce students to social media marketing. Through case studies, interactive sessions, and class exercises, students will learn best practices and develop the skills to connect business objectives with social media strategy, platforms and tactics. We will study how to develop a strategy for a product or service in social media, how to execute that strategy and how to assess the results. Topics will include choosing appropriate platforms, creating effective and engaging social media content, content management, social listening and creating a social media plan. The course also has a practical component, for which students work in small groups and individually.
This course covers the digital technology industry (e.g. consumer electronics, software) from a strategic and marketing perspective. The objectives are to understand how these industries function, the unique challenges they face, and how digital technology companies can leverage their strengths to achieve success in the marketplace. The focus is on understanding the interactions between competition, technology evolution, and firm capabilities.
Designed to improve the student’s written French and to provide advanced training in French and comparative grammar. Students are trained to express themselves in a variety of writing situations (for example, diaries, transcriptions, narrations, letters). Focuses on the distinction between spoken and written styles and the problem of contrastive grammar. Emphasis on accuracy and fluency of usage in the written language.
This is an intermediate Environmental Studies elective about how societies understand and respond to climate change. We will analyze the values, assumptions, and perceptions that contribute to our understanding of climate change. The main topics are ethics, justice, and responsibility; definitions of nature; cost-benefit analysis and the precautionary principle; geo-engineering; contrarianism; framing and communication; social engagement; and education. Central questions include: Is climate change a technical or social problem? What makes climate change uniquely challenging to understand and respond to? Which ethical and perceptual frameworks are best suited for both understanding and responding to climate change? Who is responsible, and what moral implications does this have? What assumptions about values, behavior, economics, and nature do we make when discussing climate change? How does climate change challenge our conceptions of nature, morality, society, and economics? Does climate change pose a special challenge to society, or does it simply amplify existing challenges?
Study of aggregate economic analysis with special attention paid to the determination of the level of income, employment, and inflation. Critically examines both the theories and the policies associated with them.
This is a course on a new field of research, which has been growing exponentially since the start of the twenty first century. The field deals primarily with the control of molecular structure on the nanometer scale through programming it by means of DNA secondary structures. The course will consist of a series of lectures by the instructor and then a series of presentations of recent papers in the field. A nascent textbook will be used as appropriate.
This course constitutes a continuation of the study of chemistry of organic compounds. The material is presented in the functional group framework, incorporating reaction mechanisms. Topics include structure and bonding of organic materials, nomenclature, conformational analysis, stereochemistry, spectroscopy, and reactions of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, ethers, amines, and carbonyl compounds. Multifunctional organic compounds are covered, including topics of relevance to biochemistry, such as carbohydrates, amino acids, peptides, and nucleic acids. Laboratories provide training in the syntheses of organic precursors in high yields and high purity needed for multistep procedures. An extensive research project involving unknown compounds is conducted. The use of IR and NMR spectroscopy is explored.
See General Chemistry I and Laboratory (CHEM-UA 125), above. Laboratories are a continuation of CHEM-UA 125, with emphasis on the analysis of quantitative data rather than its collection. Experiments are selected to provide illustration and reinforcement of the topics covered in the course, including solution chemistry, kinetics, equilibrium, buffers, solubility, and electrochemistry.
Continuation of V25.0651. Develops the close connection between the microscopic world of quantum mechanics and the macroscopic world of thermodynamics. Topics include properties of gases, elementary statistical thermodynamics, and thermodynamics of single and multicomponent systems.
A basic black-and-white photography course designed for those with little or no experience in photography. Emphasis is placed on the application of technique in terms of personal expression through the selection and composition of subject matter. Class size is limited, providing for a greater degree of individual critique and classroom participation. The course comprises technical lectures, readings and discussions about critical issues in photography, slide lectures on historical and contemporary work as well as class critiques. Each student must have a camera with manually adjustable aperture and shutter speeds.
The intermediate workshops offer budding fiction writers and poets an opportunity to continue their pursuit of writing through workshops that focus on a specific genre. The workshops also integrate in-depth craft discussions and extensive outside reading to deepen students’ understanding of the genre and broaden their knowledge of the evolution of literary forms and techniques.
The intermediate workshops offer budding fiction writers and poets an opportunity to continue their pursuit of writing through workshops that focus on a specific genre. The workshops also integrate in-depth craft discussions and extensive outside reading to deepen students’ understanding of the genre and broaden their knowledge of the evolution of literary forms and techniques.
This class is an introduction to the craft of directing. We will take a step-by-step look at the director’s process and responsibilities in this most collaborative of arts. Our focus will include script, character and scene analysis; performance, casting and rehearsal; design and visual style; assembling the final form. We’ll talk about what an actor wants from a director, how to talk to the cinematographer and production/costume designers and why we look at editing as the final rewrite. Through lectures, screenings, assignments and discussions with working professionals, the class will offer a comprehensive foundation for the director on which to build a rich creative experience at Tisch and a long and satisfying professional career thereafter.
In-depth study of cell biology, with an emphasis on the molecular aspects of cell function. Topics include protein structure and synthesis, gene expression and its regulation, cell replication, and specialized cell structure and function. The course provides an introduction to genomics and bioinformatics and examines developmental biology, evolution, and systems biology.
Introductory course mainly for science majors, designed to acquaint the student with the fundamental principles and processes of biological systems. Subjects include the basics of chemistry pertinent to biology, biochemistry and cell biology, genetics and molecular biology, anatomy and physiology, neurobiology, ecology, population genetics, and history and classification of life forms and evolution. Laboratory exercises illustrate the basics of experimental biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics, as well as the diversity of life forms and organ systems.
This course offers an introduction to some of the classical and current issues in the anthropology of Indigenous Australia. The role of anthropology in the representation and governance of Indigenous life is itself an important subject for anthropological inquiry, considering that Indigenous people of Australia have long been the objects of interest and imagination by outsiders for their cultural formulations of kinship, ritual, art, gender, and politics. These representations—in feature films about them (such as Rabbit-Proof Fence and Australia), New Age Literature (such as Mutant Message Down Under), or museum exhibitions (such as in the Museum of Sydney or the Australian Museum)—are now also in dialogue with Indigenous forms of cultural production, in genres as diverse as film, television, drama, dance, art and writing. The course will explore how Aboriginal people have struggled to reproduce themselves and their traditions on their own terms, asserting their right to forms of cultural autonomy and self-determination. Through the examination of ethnographic and historical texts, films, archives and Indigenous life-writing accounts, we will consider the ways in which Aboriginalities are being challenged and constructed in contemporary Australia. The course will consist of lectures interspersed with discussions, student presentations, and films/other media; we may also have guest presenters.
Examines how primates communicate and why their communication takes the forms it does. Discusses general issues associated with the study of animal communication: potential functions of communication, different modalities by which communicative signals can be transmitted, types of information that can be conveyed via each of these modalities, and ways in which researchers go about studying animal communication systems. Examines ways environmental and sociological factors influence the evolution of forms of communication.
Industrial Design in Action is a course that will help you bridge the gap between your ideas and their physical form. From initial research to conception, you will practice and apply different design methodologies that lead to creative and innovative ideas; acquire a fundamental understanding of form, function and design language; and utilize sketching and visual storytelling to communicate a message and features of a compelling product. In addition, you will become familiar with various Computer Aided Design (CAD) softwares; explore different types of materials for different uses and applications; and experiment with a myriad of fabrication techniques, from basic hand tools to advanced digital fabrication, you will learn to use the right tool for the job. Altogether these skills will enable you to go from prototype to a finished product. In a nutshell, this course is about designing and fabricating things we love. Prerequisite: Interaction Lab or Communications Lab or Application Lab. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective.
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.
How do fiction writers imagine the creative process, life and world of an artist? How do we write about the artistic process? What, if any, parallels may exist between writing and the creative process of a painter, composer, musician, dancer or actor? This course will explore these questions as students read and write fiction focused on artists working in different artistic mediums. We will read fictional portraits of artists both real and imagined, paying attention to the particulars of language associated with each art form and how the writers have incorporated elements of the art form into their work. Writing workshop will include a critique of the writing and story development as well as a critique of how well the world of the artist has been built within the bounds of the fictional realm. We will also delve into research—artist interviews, online performances and exhibitions—using the art and performance worlds of New York City as a resource, culminating in a final research portfolio and presentation to be submitted alongside the final work of fiction. Readings may include works by Baldwin, Bernhard, Bolaño, Hustvedt, Maugham, McCann, Ondaatje, Rushdie and Woolf. Readings will also include essays by artists, artist interviews and profiles, and art and performance criticism.
In this course, students will create writing that traverses identities, borders and cultures, as well as genres, as they explore and deepen their understanding of issues of form, craft and ethics. The class will read and discuss a variety of texts that center around various modes of culture crossing, such as travel and study abroad; third culture and diaspora identities; immigration and escape, and historical and/or political clashes and conflicts. Through an ongoing examination of structural and craft issues in the exemplary texts, students will make creative decisions to help write three main assignments dealing with themes of Memory, Identity and Conflict. We’ll use our discussions of Memory to help focus on expository and reflective rhetorical strategies, Identity as a way to experiment with point of view and character development, and Conflict as a method for exploring structure and dramatic tension. In order to write cross-culturally about personal experiences, students will be encouraged to create texts along the spectrum between creative nonfiction and autobiographical fiction. Theoretical essays will help inform how we ethically position ourselves as writers observing cultures not (necessarily) our own in order to inform audiences and to challenge our own prejudices. Through it all, we’ll consider how formal experiments across genres may help illuminate experiences and confront perceptions. Authors to be read include Gloria Anzaldua, Edwidge Danticat, Randa Jarrar, Salman Rushdie, Amy Tan, and Ocean Vuong.
The past century of exponential population growth, infrastructure development, and inequitable resource uses has stressed nature”s systems to dangerous levels. We are losing cultural and biological diversity at unprecedented rates, and these threats are compounded by the associated challenges from severely disrupted climate systems. This Gallatin practicum will provide students with a forum to develop a cross-disciplinary 21st Century nature conservation toolkit – one that can create cutting-edge strategies to reduce the risks to species and ecosystem, adapt to a changing climate, and produce a healthier relationship to nature. Students will work in teams to select a site-based project from a menu of real-world options, and then design practical and achievable solutions to these risks and challenges.We will use tools from biology, earth sciences, anthropology, social psychology, economics, and business to determine the cause, magnitude, and urgency of risks. Each student team will then combine the results from these scientific and financial assessments with the skills, power, and insights from the arts and communication media to plan and implement practical conservation solutions, tell the story of conservation needs, and build commitment to get the work done.
Intended to introduce policy, this course includes an internship at a policy and/or advocacy organization. Community building, family well-being, early childhood education, health, juvenile justice reform, service integration and child welfare are featured in readings, discussion, and internships. Through examples such as ethnic-matching placements in foster care, zero-tolerance approaches to drug abuse, or public financing of political campaigns, students come to understand how government, schools, gangs, religious institutions and families can, with varying degrees of explicitness and formality, all make policy. Students at the course conclusion are able to: identify policies within their lives; argue all sides of a policy question; appreciate the importance of qualitative and quantitative evidence; and distinguish implementation from formulation. Readings include Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam, The Lost Children of Wilder, by Nina Bernstein; The Oath and the Office; by Corey Brettschneider (Donated Copies) and Not a Crime to Be Poor by Peter Edelman . Students will be helped to connect meetings they attend and the policy concepts taught and discussed in class. The goal is to leave no student unaware of the importance of policy in their own and their community’s life. Policies that are empowering are emphasized, techniques doe for oral and written advocacy, persuasion and attitude change are embedded in a final project that r e quires using existing skills and talents and learning new ones. Assignments include an internship journal. “Films include Ethics in America and Waiting for Superman.
How are environmental racism and environmental injustice related to belonging in”and exclusion from”local, national, and international communities? “How do questions about citizenship, rights, and rightlessness relate to environmental racism and environmental injustice? This course addresses questions about how numerous forms of environmental racism and environmental injustice impact people”s access to their human rights”universally guaranteed in principle but so frequently inaccessible in reality. These questions have newfound urgency amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as marginalized communities already subjected to environmental repression have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Drawing on works from the realms of political theory, international law, literature, activism, and others, we will address relationships between race, class, gender, and environmental injustice. We will discuss fence-line communities. There are powerful connections between so-called “local” environmental injustice and the climate crisis”how are these connections overlooked by international law? We will focus on how communities of color, Indigenous communities, and stateless people are affected by and resist pollution inequity and differential access to healthcare. Historical and contemporary cases include denial of water access (e.g. Flint and Detroit, Michigan; the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza; and Cape Town, South Africa); forced exposure to toxins in armed conflict zones (ranging from the WWII bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War); poisoning from industrial pollution (such as in Minamata, Japan in the 20th century); and international examples of lead poisoning. Scholars, novelists, poets, theorists, and practitioners whose work will be read and discussed may include: Robert D. Bullard, Rachel Carson, Steve Lerner, Harriet A. Washington, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Seyla Benhabib, Benedict Anderson, Antony Anghie, Tōge Sankichi, Ghassan Kanafani, and Yoko Tawada.
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.
Berlin is a unique modern Metropolis. Its alternating history with often drastic changes offers a comprehensive background to explore and investigate the nature of architecture in correlation to the various developmental processes of urban life and culture. Architecture is embedded in the urban fabric in which place and time serve as the main threads, constantly changing their multifaceted and layered relationships. This urban fabric provides the fertile soil for urban life and culture, which literally takes place in various scales between the public and the private realm, two further threads intertwined in the urban fabric. Experiencing the city through walking is essential for learning how to observe, see and read “Place, Building and Time” in Berlin. Tours will alternate with classroom discussions and workshops.
This course attempts to track the American entertainment industry from its plebian origins through its rise to becoming the predominant mass entertainment culture in the world. Students discover the origins of the production practices that are employed in the entertainment industry today by following the legendary characters, movie moguls, and media titans of the early 20th century and the companies they built. The emphasis is on the way the visionaries of the time impacted seemingly risk-averse systems to invigorate and sometimes completely revolutionize them. These innovative men and women include, but are not limited, to Louis B. Mayer, George Lucas, Maya Deren, Shirley Clark, Nam Jun Paik, Lucille Ball, Russell Simmons, Clive Davis, Julie Taymor, and Steve Jobs.
Painting is an incredibly versatile medium and its dynamic evolution across cultures and through millennia continues up until the present. The medium’s relevance and capacity for reinvention are evidenced in the work of a number of contemporary painters who have incorporated inventive materials and/or methods into their practice to both push its limits and explore contemporary concerns. In this class, students will get an introduction to the fundamental technical, formal, and conceptual principles of painting. Using watercolor, gouache, and acrylic, students will explore color theory, composition, texture, form, and surface using a wide range of techniques. Through selected readings, students will also examine the theoretical questions and historical precedents that have informed painting’s development, see how they relate to or have been challenged by the work of contemporary painters and be able to connect select concerns to their own practice. In addition to acquiring basic technical skills and conceptual know-how, students will also gain competency in art critiques and writing artist statements. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: general elective
This class used to be called History of Dance. This course explores why and how dance acts as a vital participant in cultural practices around the world. Looking back through the perspective of present research, we will examine how dance is inherently a reflection of the culture it represents. A wide overview of dance and its myriad purposes will be covered, from a means of worship in India, Turkey, and Haiti; its inclusion in the rituals of Bali; noh and kabuki theatrical traditions of Japan; fertility and death ceremonies of the Wodaabe, Yoruba, and Dogon tribes of Africa; the healing zar dances of North Africa, and the rituals/activism of Native American tribes. The presentation of court dance as a symbol of power will be examined in Hawai’i, Java, and Cambodia, as well as in Catherine de Medici’s Renaissance pageants and in the French Baroque spectacles of Louis XIV’s Versailles and the Paris Opera. The inevitable impact of politics on dance will be examined in viewing the bloody genocide of Cambodia’s Royal Dancers; the propagandist works of China’s Cultural Revolution; the French Revolution’s influence upon Romantic ballets such as La Sylphide and Giselle; and how the repression of a Gitano culture led to the emergence of flamenco in Spain. In addition to written texts and video documentation, we will review examples of related art forms (visual arts, music, and drama).
Introduction to the foods of various world regions and the techniques used to prepare them through hand-on food preparation, demonstrations, lectures and field trips.
Carrasco, Heeger, Landy, Pelli. Offered every semester. 4 points. How do we construct a conception of physical reality based on sensory experience? Survey of basic facts, theories, and methods of studying sensation and perception. The major emphasis is on vision and audition, although other modalities may be covered. Represen-tative topics include receptor function and physiology; color; motion; depth; psychophysics of detection, discrimination, and appearance; perceptual constancies; adaptation, pattern recognition, and the interaction of knowledge and perception.
Investigates the evolutionary origins of humans. The study of human evolution is a multidisciplinary endeavor involving a synthesis of concepts, techniques, and research findings from a variety of different scientific fields, including evolutionary biology, paleontology, primatology, comparative anatomy, genetics, molecular biology, geology, and archaeology. Explores the different contributions that scientists have made toward understanding human origins and provides a detailed survey of the evidence used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of our own species.
Increasing possibilities brought about by emerging forms of technology and decreasing costs of connecting people to things have not only enabled technological innovations, but have also opened the door to new applications, business models, products and services. Experimentation and calculated risk taking are keys to successfully harnessing the possibilities of today’s most cutting-edge technologies and innovative methods to first build, understand and then redefine how humans and products interact. In this course, student ‘co-founders’ will conceive of and market a new media, physical or technology product designed to fit a market while also allowing them to accelerate and validate a sustainable business model. Students will ‘get out of the classroom’ and put these products into potential customers’ minds. The course will touch upon topics such as how to design a minimum viable product, design a business model, talk and work with customers, and develop a product community. Prerequisite: None.
In this course, students focus on the study and development of responsive environments, framed within a contextual and critical exploration of the architectural space as a cultural, social and technological phenomenon, and also on the application of practical scenarios for interaction, sentience, and intelligence. Through the making of creative media designs and physical prototypes, students aim to demonstrate how our habitats/spaces/architectures can facilitate novel frameworks for experiencing and living. Prereq for INTM-SHU 138 is Creative Coding Lab OR Interaction Lab OR Application Lab OR Media Architecture Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective
The traditional understanding of media industries reminds us of mass media such as TV, radio, newspaper etc. Digital technologies, however have reshaped how media is made, consumed, and comprehended by increasingly fragmented audience groups. Self-made public accounts, search-based video streaming platforms, and social media apps refreshed our vision of media and challenged the existing ways of running a successful media. How to develop a thorough understanding of the rapidly changing market? This course is an introduction to the media industries, with a particular focus on the institutional forces (i.e., market structures, law and regulation, technological advancement, and audience dynamics) that shape the content and forms of emerging media. Combining lectures and guest talks, this class will make sense of the key concepts, professional terms, and business logics embedded in the production and operation of the global media industries. Furthermore, we will take case studies approach to examining the economic and social influences of media companies in specific contexts, particularly China, U.S., and U.K. These knowledge, together with the analytical skills that the students will acquire through in-class discussions, will allow them to comprehend and cope with the interplay among technology, market forces, and regulators in a wide array of media companies, including television, film, news, social media, video streaming, and the media-related tech businesses. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMB major Emerging Media Foundation course or IMB major IMA/IMB elective.
This practical course will introduce students with knowledge and tools to quickly iterate, validate and gauge business ideas. The course will explore questions such as: How can we validate an opportunity? What is a “value proposition” and how critical is it? What are the most popular business models and can new ones be invented? Why are investors constantly looking for “Product Market Fit”? Why do “Customer Cost of Acquisition” and “Lifetime Value” matter? The course will also provide an opportunity to apply these newly learned methodologies with two projects during the term of the class. The fourteen weeks classes will be divided into two projects where students will work in teams. One project will be focusing on the Chinese market, whereas the second one will be targeting the North American market. For both projects, teams will be experimenting with customers’ feedback, iterating business propositions and identifying key traction factors. At the end of each project, students will present and demo their business idea to their peers and an external audience of entrepreneurs/ business managers in Shanghai. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Is healthy media use possible? What does that look like? Most of us use our electronic devices more than we had planned, and a quarter of US college students are estimated to experience internet overuse. Electronic device overuse is associated with an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and loneliness, along with a host of neuropsychological changes. In this course, we will discuss the rise of internet overuse, its associated negative consequences and possible strategies to reduce excessive use.Specifically, the course covers: 1) the definition of internet and phone overuse, 2) the brain mechanisms and behavioral patterns which lead to excessive use, 3) how brain/behavioral mechanisms are exploited to make video-games, television programs, and websites as addictive as possible, and 4) what we can do to regain our balance at the personal and societal levels. Department of History Medieval France.
Introduction to nutrition science and its role in health and society: nutrient characteristics, requirements, and food sources, energy balance, weight control, dietary guides and food planning, and social and economic factors that affect food production and consumption. Liberal Arts CORE equivalent – satisfies the requirement for Natural Sciences for non-majors on an individual department basis-students should confirm with their Academic Advisor
Examines the state of college-student mental health and wellness on a personal and systems level. As undergraduate university students approach the end of adolescence, they often reevaluate the beliefs, values, and assumptions with which they left home. Young adulthood is a time of great promise, but the transition from child to adult is never easy. We look at how individuals can create positive change by reinterpreting their goals and identifying steps toward a successful college experience. Key findings from the fields of neuroscience and positive psychology are referenced to inform our study of the biopsychosocial underpinnings of success and happiness. Through lectures and discussions, students learn about a variety of wellness topics that include mindfulness, relationships, and self-esteem. The final project requires students to promote an area of mental wellness on campus.
In this course, the theoretical bases and applications, of haptics technologies with a particular focus on medical applications (specifically surgical, and neurorehabilitative) are taught. Basic technological aspects, such as instrumentation, actuation, control and mechanisms, are introduced. Also, some theoretical aspects related to telerobotic systems are discussed. Students are expected to have basic knowledge of programming. As part of this course, students will participate in experimental and simulation labs to acquire hands-on expertise in haptics implementation and programming. | Prerequisite: CS-UY 1114 and MA-UY 2034 and PH-UY 1013 or equivalents (see Minor in Robotics)
An introduction to the peoples, cultures, and histories of the Middle East from the rise of Islam to the 20th century, surveying the development of political and social institutions and exploring the emergence of key intellectual currents, political and religious varieties, and cultural trends within what is often wrongly construed as a monolithic regional culture. We explore a range of literary, architectural, artistic, and scientific sources from pre-modern and modern Islamicate societies and study of the daily lives and contributions of Muslims and non-Muslims alike, highlighting a multi-layered representation of complex and vibrant Middle Eastern societies.
Buildings produce a large percentage of the carbon emissions threatening the planet and multi-family residential buildings make up a significant portion of it. With Covid-19 changing the way we live and work, and the increasing amount of data available from buildings, a key to fighting the climate crisis will be turning this data into action. In this course, learn how to analyze interval data and explore visualizing data to motivate tenants and building operators to change their behavior to reduce energy usage at the optimal times. This will involve analyzing the data streams coming from installed sensors and building equipment, understanding how usage varies over time, and transforming raw data into visual interfaces that mobilize us all in the fight to save the planet. This course will teach basics of how time series data can be stored, how to query time series data, and how to understand energy usage from a data set. With these new skills students will design a project using time series data and their JavaScript skills to visualize this data.
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.
Project-based development studio incorporating dramaturgy techniques, user/audience planning, and social/contextual awareness. You bring in a project. We explore how to make it more engaging through paying close attention to medium, context, and details. Students bring existing project ideas and we investigate various methods and ways to make and direct experience within the infinite combinations of contexts of the present moment together. This particular studio is just as appropriate for projects in the areas of interactive art, programming, physical computing, XR as it is in the areas of performance, sculpture, and sound walks (everything). Everything you make is time-based the moment a user interacts with it (even a painting). All time-based work can be thought of in terms of how a user is led (or not led) through it. I call this directing. We will apply various techniques of story-telling and world-building equally to seemingly “non-narrative” projects as we do to traditional-narratively structured projects. No matter what you are working on, I believe that you are a maker / director of experience. You are making / directing with intent (whether you know it or not). Your user (audience, tester, public, patron) brings with them the entirety of their life’s experience. Your intent cannot possibly meet every user’s lived experience. It is your job as the maker / director to draw a circle that encompasses both. This is the studio’s lens. Students will be directed to make using placeholders instead of waiting for perfection to manifest. Step one will tell you what step two is. We will pay rigorous attention to detail, while holding close to the notion that art-making thrives in adaptability. We will critique using various, structured, co-facilitated methods. Let’s pay close attention. Let’s learn through failure. Let’s listen to what we are making. And let’s listen to each other. Here we go.
This course aims to provide students with the analytical skills to interpret current trends, policies and problems into futuristic (5 years) product proposals and the thought leadership and communication skills to clearly articulate and pitch those ideas. Projects can range from how prolonged quarantine will impact home exercise to the future of entertainment in self driving cars. Students will research and explore an opportunity space of their choosing where they will infer future problems from current trends then create a speculative solution. They will package their product thinking into a pitch deck and present back to the class. The class format will include lecture, in-class and out-of-class design exercises that apply the concepts covered in the class lecture and a final presentation and critique.
The course focus is on the design and creation of digital musical instruments. Music in performance is the primary subject of this class. We approach questions such as “What is performance?” “What makes a musical interface intuitive and emotionally immediate?” and “How do we create meaningful correlations between performance gestures and their musical consequences?” Over the semester, we look at many examples of current work by creators of musical interfaces, and discuss a wide range of issues facing technology-enabled performance – such as novice versus virtuoso performers, discrete versus continuous data control, the importance of haptic responsiveness as well as the relationship between musical performance and visual display. Extensive readings and case studies provide background for class discussions on the theory and practice of designing gestural controllers for musical performance. Students design and prototype a musical instrument – a complete system encompassing musical controller, algorithm for mapping input to sound, and the sound output itself. A technical framework for prototyping performance controllers is made available. Students focus on musical composition and improvisation techniques as they prepare their prototypes for live performance. The class culminates in a musical performance where students (or invited musicians) will demonstrate their instruments. Prerequisites: H79.2233 (Introduction to Computational Media) and H79.2301 (Physical Computing). Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media (ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048) & Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)
Designed for BFA (Studio Art) students, this course is an introduction to the global history of art, exploring the meanings associated with “art.” The class is a series of linked test cases involving specific art objects & the context of their creation. By working closely with a range of materials –– art history & theory, artist’s writings, & documentary film –– we will survey how artists have contributed to the history of art and question how this history matters for contemporary artists.
This course offers students the opportunity to develop a self-initiated project with close mentorship from a faculty member. Projects undertaken can span the areas of conceptual research, business development, creative practice, and media production. The course includes structured weekly workshop and critique times with peers and special guests. It is expected that students will embrace open-source and open-content ideals in their work, be invested in the work of their peers by providing feedback, and consider the feedback they receive during critique. In addition to weekly meeting times, students are expected to also participate in regular one-on-one meetings with faculty, peers, and guests. A formal project proposal, weekly assessments and documentation, a final project presentation, and participation in the IMA End of Semester show are all required. Although students are encouraged to continue work they may have initiated in a prior class, they may not combine or in any way double count work from this class in another class taken in the same semester. Group work is allowed assuming all group members are enrolled in this class. Students may take this course in either the first or second 7 weeks for 2 credits or repeated across 14 weeks for 4 credits. It is open to anyone in any major assuming they have satisfied the prerequisites. Prerequisites: None
Hands-on lab accompanying Analog Electronics. Lab sessions will contain hands-on experience with analog audio circuitry. The course culminates with a student developed final project.
Introduction for teachers, composers, and performers to explore potentials of computer music synthesis. Basic concepts of music synthesis presented through the use of a microcomputer, keyboard, and appropriate software. System may be used as a real-time performance instrument or as a studio composition instrument. Educators may explore potentials for classroom application.
Through weekly performing, readings and discussions, students study the conceptualization and production of live electronics ensemble performance. Students create new works, improvisations, and rehearse compositions from a growing repertoire of electronic ensemble compositions, to be performed at a semester’s end public concert.
This course takes a top-down approach to computer networking. After an overview of computer networks and the Internet, the course covers the application layer, transport layer, network layer and link layers. Topics at the application layer include client-server architectures, P2P architectures, DNS and HTTP and Web applications. Topics at the transport layer include multiplexing, connectionless transport and UDP, principles or reliable data transfer, connection-oriented transport and TCP and TCP congestion control. Topics at the network layer include forwarding, router architecture, the IP protocol and routing protocols including OSPF and BGP. Topics at the link layer include multiple-access protocols, ALOHA, CSMA/CD, Ethernet, CSMA/CA, wireless 802.11 networks and linklayer switches. The course includes simple quantitative delay and throughput modeling, socket programming and network application development and Ethereal labs. | Knowledge of Python and/or C. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Identity and representation are two of the most pressing and complex issues for contemporary video games, that without recognizing them an artist or critic would be missing a large part of how games are important in culture. With growing art and activist communities, video games are diversifying and grappling with a wide range of topics rarely seen before in the genre, and with it a greater need for informed perspectives on the topic of how marginalized people are depicted in media. This course discusses foundational theories of identity and encourages students to contribute their own ideas towards the design and interpretation of representation in games.
The purpose of this course is to enable the student to gain a heightened awareness, appreciation, and knowledge of dance through movement and performance. We focus on the foundations of dance such as control, aesthetics, alignment, dynamics, athleticism, musicality, use of space, development of learning strategies within a group context, and personal, artistic expression. The students exploration of their creativity, expression and concepts, as well as their work on other dancer’s bodies is part of the work of this course. Through individual and collective kinesthetic participation in unfamiliar patterns, the student is physically and conceptually challenged and informed. Students will be asked to problem solve as homework assignment and in-class composition exercises. Dance experience is recommended, but formal dance training is not required.
We have all played and enjoyed games, but how do people actually design and develop them? How to describe a game from a professional standpoint? What are the basic elements and structure in video game development? How do game designers create an interactive experience for the player? What about prototyping and iterating in development? This course explores these questions and others through playing, analyzing and making games over 14 weeks. Students will understand game not only as an entertaining production and business model but a form of interactive media impacting current life and future. Students will be introduced to game design concepts, emphasizing the development: paper and digital prototyping, develop iteration, interactive narratives design and embedment, object-oriented programming, 2D/3D game art design, sound effects composition and user testing. For the course project, students will work in teams and create games in multiple projects, from board game focusing on gameplay prototype to digital playable experience with creative game art designs. This course leverages Unity, a game engine that uses C# based programming language. Basic knowledge of any programming language will come in handy. Prerequisite: Creative Coding Lab, Interaction Lab or equivalent programming experience. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
This course is about how to tell stories with your projects. Like a classic linear story, we’ll start at the beginning with the question of how good stories are told. We’ll learn about classical storytelling techniques and conventions from a variety of cultures, genres, and media. Next, we’ll explore what various tech and media can and can’t do in the context of story. We’ll end the semester throwing linearity out the window to create narrative work that engages with the tropes and conventions of non-linear storytelling. Chaos may ensue, as the defining feature of non-linear storytelling is that the author cedes some control of the narrative to the audience. There is no creative writing involved. Students will not be asked to invent new stories for this course—non-writers are welcome! The work of the class will involve reading, reading responses, active class discussion, and group work/play with projects riffing on assigned existing stories and narratives. For example, we might ask students to use a specific canonical story, poem, myth, parable, or film plot as a narrative jumping off point for assignments. The course is co-taught by Kio Stark, a researcher/writer of both fiction and nonfiction and Mia Rovegno, a theater writer/director who focuses on site-specific and immersive work. The semester is divided into three units. Unit 1: Narrative structures. In this unit, we dig into what it means to tell a story. Some of our major themes include: • What are the most commonly used story structures in media such as the novel, graphic novel, film, TV, and theater—and what expectations do they set up for the audience? • What are the techniques, tropes, and conventions of both western and nonwestern storytelling traditions? • What are some approaches that are in dialogue with or rebel against these traditions? • How do we understand and manipulate the audience’s narrative expectations? • What makes a story ‘work’ / how do we define a good or successful story? Unit 2: Using tech to tell a story. In this unit, we will do something that in other contexts is a terrible idea—we will start with the technology. We’ll explore briefly what counts as technology in our conversation, and then play with what specific technologies make possible, complicate, and make impossible when it comes to exploring narrative work. • What can and can’t we do with sensors, motion, projection, AR/VR, paper, film, light, voice etc in the context of the storytelling knowledge we’ve gained in Unit 1? • What unique storytelling conventions might be available to us as makers? • What kinds of objects, interfaces, situations, and places can be experienced as narrative? Unit 3: Non-linear storytelling. In this unit, we will play with situations in which the creators do not have total control over how the narrative is experienced and in what order it unfolds. • How do we use the viewer’s relationship/familiarity with conventions of linear storytelling to engage them in a non-linear narrative? • What are the storytelling conventions we see used in media beyond the page, big screen, and stage, where non-linearity is a common feature? For example, AR/VR, video games, social media, site specific performance, and museum design. • How do we make a story that works in more than one direction? • How do we play with the audience’s expectations? • How can we experiment with the temporal to establish duration and clear beginnings and endings for audience entry and exit? • How can we creatively engage both facility and innovation in a user journey? • How can we explore engagement of the audience’s “role” when the work demands a virtual, immersive or interactive experience? • How can we prime audiences for fluency in our storytelling modalities, without depending on cumbersome directions, real time interceptions or demonstrations of technology? In other words: how do we hide the man behind the curtain?!
What can cybernetics, the study of how we shape and are shaped by systems, teach us about the sexual and social reproduction of gender and sexism? How does sex become gender and what are the politics surrounding who gets reproduced? We will explore how social regulatory systems are encoded into technological platforms and disentangle how they produce social pressure and govern behavior through somatic exercises, discussion, and project making. In this class, we will not shy away from difficult conversations and work closely together to cultivate a space of openness and mutual support. Discussion and project-making is core to this class. Together we will read the work of scholars such as Donna Haraway, Ruha Benjamin, Paul Preciado, Silvia Federici, & Audre Lorde. Along with lecture, discussion, and in class activities, students will be encouraged to explore their own research interests and personal histories. When projects are discussed, we will practice communicating ideas through presentation as a medium and will co-create a culture of constructive feedback.
This course will provide students with an introduction to the area of machine listening. Machine listening is the general field studying algorithms and systems for audio understanding by machine. It deals exclusively with general audio as opposed to speech recognition. The most basic goal of all machine listening systems is to reliably recognize and react to very specific sounds. Over the course of the semester, we will create our own unique machine listening systems that provide us with new and interesting ways to interact with our projects. We will use live coding and real-time data visualization to demystify some of the more daunting underlying topics like digital signal analysis, music information retrieval, and machine learning.
As game and interaction designers we create systems and choices that can either prey upon our psychological foibles or help us avoid decision pitfalls. It is our responsibility to understand how we decide, to consider the ethics of the systems we create and to practice designing systems in a purposeful manner. Game Design & The Psychology of Choice will provide interaction and game designers with an understanding of the factors that influence behavior and decision-making by looking at the intertwining of cognitive psychology and economics through the development of behavioral economics. These disciplines study behavior on the individual and group level, often revealing some of the why behind the rules of thumb and folk wisdom that game designers come to intuitively. But understanding the why—why we fall into decision traps; why certain tradeoffs tax our brain more than others; why we are overconfident about our abilities; why certain decisions make us uncomfortable—allows us to more purposefully apply our design craft, both in and out of games. Finally, as a class, we will take what we learn about how we think and create series of game experiences based around key cognitive science concepts. Assignments may include: •Mod a cognitive science experiment into a game or experience •Analyze and present a game through the lens of cognitive science and behavioral economics •Create game or experience based around a particular insight from cognitive science or behavioral economics
“Lies. Hoaxes. Conspiracies. Rumors. Propaganda. Fake news is an age-old phenomenon—but the internet is making targeted misinformation cheap and scalable. That is affecting politics, public opinion, and the everyday experience of the internet. In this 6-week class, we will explore the cutting edge of “fake news” by engaging in ethical research and fabrication. Participants will manufacture and observe a controlled “fake news” event. We will experiment with command-line tools for doctoring video, neural nets and deepfakes to fabricate reality, Twitter bots, behavioral psychology, and the dark underbelly of the ad economy.”
The World Wide Web has grown up to be a great platform for asynchronous communication such as email and message boards. More recently this has extended into media posting and sharing. With the rise of broadband, more powerful computers and the prevalence networked media devices, synchronous communications have become more viable. Streaming media, audio and video conference rooms and text based chat give us the ability to create content and services tailored to a live audience. During this course, we focus on the types of content and interaction that can be supported through these technologies as well as explore new concepts around participation with a live distributed audience. In this course, we look at new and existing platforms for live communication on the web. We leverage existing services and use Flash, PHP, AJAX and possibly Processing/Java to develop our own solutions. Experience with ActionScript/Flash, PHP/MySQL and HTML/ JavaScript are helpful but not required.
Introduction to Programming for Games is a course that introduces students to the concepts, problems, and methods of computer programming, and how these apply to the creation of video games. The course assumes no prior programming knowledge, and is designed to touch on the basic principles of digital design in the form of computer code. There will be an emphasis on programming fundamentals; they will be motivated through the lens of designing and producing video games.
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 will incorporate 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 will cover games on and off the computer, including classic and contemporary board and card games, sports, and games on the PC, internet, and consoles.
Many of us have played and enjoyed games. Have you ever wondered how people actually design and develop them? Can a games as a profession and practice be described? What are the basic theories, structures and skills involved in game development? How do game designers create compelling interactive experiences for the player? How do they respond to feedback, prototype and improve these experiences? This course explores these questions and others through playing, analyzing and making games over 14 weeks. Students will understand games not only as entertainment, production and business models, but as a form of mass interactive media and culture. Students will be introduced to game design concepts, emphasizing all stages of game development: paper and digital prototyping, iteration, interactive narrative design, object-oriented game programming, 3D/2D game art creation, sound effects composition and user testing. For the course project, students will work in teams and create games in multiple projects, from simple board games to a digital game with original game art, mechanics and other design elements. This course leverages multiple tools for game prototyping and design, but will focus on Unity, a game engine that uses C# based programming language, for game build-up.
This course is about designing your life. What if you used the same innovation principles that startups use and applied them to your own lives? Students are introduced to design thinking as a framework to process their college experience and explore life after graduation. This course will use rapid prototyping methods to test out career interests, engage in behavior design, and ideate on multiple futures. The course will be delivered in a studio setup with in-class design workshops, group discussions, personal reflection, individual coaching and field trips. 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.
This course is about designing your global experiences. Students are introduced to design thinking as a practical tool to make the most out of their NYUSH experience and prototype opportunities offered by NYU’s Global Network. This course will use rapid prototyping methods to test out academic and career interests, visit global organizations in Shanghai, and meet with leaders with multinational experience. The course will be delivered in a studio setup with in-class design workshops that explore topics such as the purpose of college, educational wayfinding, global perspectives, and innovating on career paradigms.
A hands-on introduction to the technical & creative uses of digital photography. The class will explore the use of digital technologies to compose, shoot, scan, alter, & print images, as well as considering the ways in which photographic meaning has been changed by the use of the computer. Student provides their own camera & paper.
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.
The required design project consists of two three-credit courses. The first course, EE DP1, is one of a number of specialty lab/project courses offered by the department in various subdisciplines such as electronics, machinery, robotics, imaging, communications, etc. (EE-UY 4113-4183, below). DP1 provides significant background laboratory experience in the student’s area of concentration. Students begin independent projects by finding an adviser and initiating the project work, and exercising oral presentation and written communication skills. | Prerequisite: ECE-UY 3054 and Senior Level
This course includes hands-on experience with a combination of laboratory experiments, lectures and projects relating to basic and advanced topics in wireless communications. Specific topics include mixers, IQ modulation, phase locked loops, receiver design, PN code acquisition, smart antennas and RFID. | Prerequisite: EE-UY 4183
An introduction to the field of computer graphics: displays, image formation, visual perception, images, transformations (viewing and projection), programmable pipelines (vertex and fragment programs), modeling (primitives, polygon meshes, smooth curves and surfaces), animation (keyframing, procedural), rendering and realism (visibility, lighting, shading, shadows, texturing, ray tracing). | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better) and (MA-UY 2034 or MA-UY 3044 or MA-UY 3054) | Prerequisites for CAS Students: CSCI-UA 201 (C- or better) and (MATH-UA 140 or MATH-UA 148) | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: (ENGR-UH 3510 or CS-UH 1050) (C- or better) and (MATH-UH 1022 or MATH-UH 1023) | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: CSCI-SHU 210 (C- or better) AND (MATH-SHU 140 or MATH-SHU 141)
The course covers the genetics of bacteria, viruses and high organisms. Emphasis is on both the genetic and biochemical analyses of gene replication, heredity, mutation, recombination and gene expression. Included are comparisons of prokaryotic and eukaryotic genetics and regulation. Laboratory techniques are used to study genetic phenomena in prokaryotes, eukaryotes and viruses. The course emphasizes modern approaches to genetic research. A lab fee is required. | Prerequisite: BMS-UY 1004. Co-requisite: CM-UY 2213 or CM-UY 2214.
This is a one-semester introductory course in general chemistry. It covers chemical equations, stoichiometry, thermodynamics, gases, atomic and molecular structure, periodic table, chemical bonding, states of matter, chemical equilibrium, organic, inorganic and polymeric materials and electrochemistry. | Corequisite: EX-UY 1
This course covers states of matter, chemical thermodynamics and equilibria, kinetics, acid-base chemistry, electrochemistry, introduction to organic chemistry, natural and synthetic polymers. The course is required for students in the Biomolecular Science Program. | Prerequisite: CM-UY 1004 or CM-UY 1014. Corequisite: EX-UY 1.
We live in an age of digital production where so much of today’s music is produced with comparatively few tools, and at the heart of the modern production set up, whether in the bedroom of the studio, is software that uses MIDI. One of the most versatile of today’s platforms which can be used in production, live performance, and even as a visual tool is Ableton Live. Ableton is unique amongst the contemporary software programs making music in that it is the only one that was created by working musicians who were looking for a tool that allowed for both the seamless creation of ideas and could also serve as a performance instrument. In the past 15 years, Ableton has played an important role in creating countless tracks and records in numerous genres and the go-to software for live performance, whether for vocalists and bands or for massive spectacles like Cirque du Soleil. In this course, we will cover Ableton’s unique abilities to manipulate audio which make it the preferred platform for remixing and mash-ups. We will cover the fundamentals of the software, explore techniques to program beats, chordal and melodic ideas, as well as cover creative workflow – how to use Ableton to quickly generate ideas for producers and songwriters. Finally, we will discuss its use as a live performance tool for use with live instrumentalists and vocalists, as a DJ tool and even as a VJing tool.
This interdisciplinary course examines the works of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, three German-speaking writers who pioneered radically different and influential interpretations of modern life, which continue to shape our contemporary understanding of society and individuality. The seminar not only delves into the origins of these prominent traditions of modern Western thought, but also underscores their relevance in modern social theories and poetics. Hence, the course will also include references to the writings of their contemporaries, as well as explications of the direct and indirect influences of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud on other writers.
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.
The ways in which we communicate has changed radically in the last 100 years. As the communication systems we use have increased in complexity, so has the effort it takes to understand how they work. Most of us use protocols like LTE, HTTP, TCP/IP, and BLE every day. We take them for granted, almost like we do the laws of nature. But there are more than the laws of physics, more than techniques of engineering, embedded in the design and implementation of our protocols of communication. To understand their role in our lives, we need to look into the societal and economic contexts in which they came to be. In this class, we will examine communication protocols using Raspberry Pi’s, Arduinos, Software Defined Radios, and other connected devices. We will look closer at organizations like iSOC, ICANN and IEEE to better understand how protocol designs are implemented and standardized. Through readings, research and hands-on work we will build an understanding of how these protocols work, how their designs incorporate the physical, technical, cultural, corporate and political assumptions of the actors behind them. In the first half of the class readings and assignments will help familiarize students with some of the different protocols we rely on every day. In the second half, students will work in groups to investigate a communications protocol and consider its impact from a technical, societal and environmental perspective. Final projects will communicate their findings in whatever form students deem appropriate – explanatory blog posts, physical or digital installations, or even videos and podcasts.
Introduction to Critical Mapping and Open Source Geospatial Web Analysis and Visualization is an introduction to critical perspectives in cartography and geospatial information systems and web technologies. This course will introduce students to the foundations of geographic data analysis and visualization, grounding practical studio based exercises and projects with critical readings and theory. Students taking this course will gain an appreciation for geographic thinking, learn to ask geographic questions, and apply basic methodologies to “make sense” of geographic data. The course will be conducted with open source geographic information systems and web technologies. Students are not expected to enter the class with knowledge of these tools, but will be expected to learn and apply them through studio exercises and project briefings.
Is augmented reality technology about to enter the mainstream? AR platforms have finally become widely accessible to artists, designers, and technologists thanks to recent advances in mobile performance and a new collection of powerful computer vision techniques. As such, the medium offers rich possibilities for experimentation and a chance to rethink how we experience the intersection of the physical and digital. In this course, students will acquire an understanding of basic concepts and techniques necessary to prototype and build simple AR experiences – with a consideration of not just visual but also aural AR. We’ll supplement practical exercises with an overview of the history of AR, and discuss the ethical, legal, and societal considerations cropping up around this topic. Our tool of choice will be Unity, but we will go over prototyping techniques outside of the platform to speed up the design process. If there is interest, we will cover how to get started building projects in openFrameworks, mobile, or web AR – and discuss why or when you might want to work within other platforms. Even though code samples will be provided, students are highly encouraged to have a basic understanding of Unity or at least have taken an introductory programming course. A working knowledge of Unity can be gained through Unity tutorials (https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials) or Lynda (https://www.nyu.edu/lynda).
Autonomous Artificial Artists (AAA) is a class to explore ways of making artworks “autonomous.” In this context, “autonomy” brings together three independent but related criteria: 1) artificial intelligence being a primary determinant in an artwork’s aesthetics 2) autonomous software principles culled from peer-to-peer network design, blockchain and decentralization technology, serverless and federated machine learning, cryptoeconomics, and agent-based multiplayer simulation. 3) crowd-sourced art where mass, unbounded cooperation of many participants creates novel artworks which represent the “hive mind” or collective input. The goal of this class is to learn a little bit about each of these seemingly disparate fields, and see how they may interact in interesting new ways. The idea of autonomous artworks is very new, and is being actively discussed by a small group of interdisciplinary researchers and artists since 2016/2017. Although the topic is highly experimental, it is nevertheless based on concrete technologies, making simultaneous use of several techniques which are under active development and have potentially far-reaching ramifications well outside the domain of art. The time is ripe for people within more design-oriented fields to begin thinking about how they might be used in a broader context. The class has both a theoretical component (learning about each of the individual technologies and their interplay) as well as a practical component: training and deploying generative models on computational environments that are as close to decentralized or autonomous as possible. In addition, we will explore prior notions of crowd-sourced or mass-collaborative art, touching on older principles and strategies such as Oulipo, exquisite corpse, and crowd-sourced computational artworks like Electric Sheep, Exhausting a Crowd, and others.
Stereo (2-speaker) sound is the default way we produce and distribute most audio. This class challenges the stereophonic-centricity of digital sound and instead focuses on the context of listening, interfacing and interacting with audio beyond 2 speakers. We will take a novel approach to spatialization by interfacing web technologies (Javascript, Web Audio, WebRTC) with multichannel audio to create room-scale interactive music and sonic spaces, and then make our findings publicly available through musical artifacts, open source tools, and documentation. We will explore conventional and unconventional loudspeaker arrangements ranging from 3 to 40 channels and how distribution and context affects music. Together, we will participate in a semester-long project examining the affordances of spatial and multichannel sound, designing and build open source tools to interface Tone.js, Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA) and other multichannel techniques. Students will perform/install their final on the 40-channel speaker array at Dave&Gabe’s studio in Bushwick. Topics include 3D sound, open source, space and listening. Prerequisites: willingness to listen critically, some programming experience. No formal music training required.
What do WhatsApp and Nelson Mandela have in common? How about Mr. Robot and the UN Council for Human Rights? When most people think “digital security”, they rarely think of these connections; but the connections are there. Digital security is much more than an industry buzzword— it encompasses techno-social idealism, open source development, and symbiotic coordination between sectors in tech, the humanities, and civic society. Certainly, we’re going to talk about Signal, Tor, VPNs, and OTR. But let’s dig even deeper. In this course, students will learn the principals of digital security; from end-to-end encryption, to circumvention technology, resilient communications, and beyond. Part lab exploration, part oral history, and part prototyping workshop, students will come away with the tools they need to undertake development projects with end-user security in mind; and foster an appreciation for digital security’s integral, timely, and often life-saving role in human rights struggles across the globe.
You live with illusions. The nature of these illusions has long been described in mystical practices but is now increasing corroborated by modern research such as neuroscience, behavioral economics, social psychology, embodied cognition, and evolutionary psychology. What does this have to do with computational media? With technology, we have the ability to revisit some of these vestigial illusions that made sense in ancient environments but that might limit our personal happiness or the overall functioning of modern society. Will the computer’s ability to run more objective statistical analysis on data gathered tirelessly over time, across individuals and locations allow us to more accurately see ourselves and the world as it is. Can we build computer interfaces that give a fuller expression of our experience when we are not limited by an illusory view of ourselves? The insights into how into how to reach people more fully comes with a responsibility to then ask what should say to them. As the computers are able to understand us better than we understand ourselves will we relinquish control to them? At a practical level, the class looks at interfaces for digitizing signals from the less consciously controlled parts of your body using things like biosensors and cameras. It then moves on to opportunities for finding insights in from patterns in the mounds of already digitized expression you have produced every day for years, for instance in your email. Then we look at the possibility of bypassing consciousness with techniques like subliminal priming to affect behavior. Finally, we will look at how we can use things like browser extensions to manipulate shared media in an attempt to counter some filter bubble effects that emerge at a group level based on the illusions discussed in this class. This class will use skills from Physical Computing and ICM.
Exhibition design is the art of marrying experience and information. The best do so seamlessly; the very best surprise and delight you along the way. In this class you will explore the craft of interactive exhibition design through practice. Working in small groups, you will select an NYU researcher whose work is of interest to you and create an interactive experience that presents this research to a broader, public audience. In the process, you will learn to interrogate content and form, audience and environment, medium and message to create a meaningful and playful exhibit experience.
From the most ephemeral thought to the rise and fall of civilizations, every aspect of your life, and indeed the universe, involves energy. Energy has been called the “universal currency”by prolific science author Vaclav Smil, but also “a very subtle concept… very, very difficult to get right” by Noble physicist Richard Feynman. It is precisely this combination of importance and subtlety that motivates the Energy class at ITP. Maybe you fear the existential threat of anthropogenic climate change, or maybe you just want your pcomp projects to work better. Either way, the class will help you understand energy quantitatively and intuitively, and incorporate that knowledge in your projects (and perhaps your life). How? Building on skills introduced in Physical Computing, we will generate and measure electricity in order to see and feel energy in its various forms. We will turn kinetic and solar energy into electrical energy, store that in batteries and capacitors, and use it to power projects. We will develop knowledge useful in a variety of areas, from citizen-science to art installations, and address topics such as climate change and infrastructure access through the lens of energy. Students will build a final project using skills learned in the class. To accommodate pandemic restrictions, students will have the option to do more or less hands-on work or research as their situation allows, and support material such as an annotated supply list will help students tailor material expenses to their interests. Prior Physical Computing or equivalent experience required.
’Art: Practice and Ideas’ examines key developments in the visual arts from modernity to the present. Focusing on the ways in which representations both create and reflect the values of a society, the course introduces students to the full range of expressive possibilities within the visual arts, covering painting and sculpture, as well as photography, film, video, conceptual art, and computer media. Topics to be covered include classical, modern, and postmodern relationships to politics, vision, the mind, the body, psychology, gender, difference, and technological innovation. Students will see and understand how artists have integrated perceptions of their historical moment, as well as physical and social space, into creative practices that have, in turn, had a significant impact on the culture of the time. Liberal Arts Core/MAP Equivalent – satisfies the requirement for Expressive Cultures
The interactive project will illustrate students’ unique interests as well as evidence of competency within the field of interactive media production. Students are encouraged to develop their project around a theme previously explored in their work. Projects will be presented and critiqued repeatedly throughout the capstone process to peers, faculty, and industry professionals. A final presentation of the interactive project will be delivered late in the semester. The research paper (4000-5000 words) will focus on at least one aspect of the interactive project: e.g. culture, theory, philosophy, or history, the project context, and/or production methods. For example, students may write about their project’s reception by a set of specific users, or by users who are part of a larger culture, society, or market. It is important that students think beyond the project itself and situate it in a broader context accessible through research. The research paper will include an annotated bibliography of the books and other resources they used for their research. Students will also be guided in the production of an online portfolio to showcase their work and accomplishments to the outside world. Graduates will be evaluated by their portfolio when applying for jobs, graduate school, artist residencies, grants, and the like. Portfolios will be tailored to the demands of each student’s future goals and target audience.
This course explores the elements of music through the lenses of computation and interactive design. Each of the five course units focuses on one element of music (rhythm, melody, timbre, harmony, and structure), approaching it from the perspective of music theory, computation, and design. For each element, students listen to examples from different periods and styles, represent and manipulate the element in code, and create an interactive study around it. As students work toward their final projects, the class takes a more self-directed approach. Final projects can take the form of digital applications, spatial installations, or physical devices. In-class coding and assignments will be done in P5.js, but students will be free to use other languages and frameworks for their final projects. Creative Computing or equivalent programming experience is required.
Causal Inference provides students with the tools for understanding causation, i.e., the relationship between cause and effect. We will start with the situation in which you are able to design and implement the data gathering process, called the experiment. We will then define causation, identify preconditions required for A to cause B, show how to design perfect experiments, and discuss how to understand threats to the validity of less-than-perfect experiments. In this course, we will cover experimental design and then turn to those careful approaches, where we will consider such approaches as quasi-experiments, regression discontinuities, differences in differences, and contemporary advanced approaches.
Utilizing technological and scientific research / case studies / artifacts, this class introduces students to the topic of enhanced / extended perception and how technological augmentation allow us to sense and perceive alternative layers of our surrounding world, reconfiguring our understanding of what reality really is. Students will be asked to develop their own prototypes that demonstrate a conceptual or functional outcome on how perception can be extended, enhanced, or even hacked.
Ours is a time of unceasing image production. CCTV cameras wrap around the planet, machines make visual learning sets for other machines, hundreds of billions of hours of video material is livestreamed online every year, artists speculate about the possibility of making virtual reality for animals, and seemingly natural phenomena such as climate change can only be apprehended through risk simulations and data visualisations. Simultaneously, from deep fakes to computergenerated influencers and webcam models, digital images without real-life referents are set to become a part of social life, posing questions about the agency of media makers and consumers in an increasingly simulated world. Contemporary visual culture is not made by humans alone and sometimes not even meant for human eyes. What are we to make of aesthetics when they become automated? How can human collectives be thought from the perspective, or collaborate with, the semi-autonomous technological systems around us? What kind of conceptual capacities do we need to be able to think about the future of such media globally, and in specific geographical locations? In this class, we will explore the shi< that media theory and philosophy of technology have made towards the inhuman. From biometrics, insect media, and eco-media to so<ware art, augmented reality, and satellite imagery, we are witnessing a paradigm change in how we think about the relationship between human, animal, and machine agency in visual culture. Looking at a variety of contemporary media objects, we will read state-of-the-art theory, write a research paper, and collaborate on a post-human media studies syllabus spanning texts and objects from across the globe.
Fame, notoriety, renown – the desire to be recognized and immortalized — is the most enduring and perhaps most desirable form of power. Culture, commerce, politics, and religion all proffer promises of fame – whether for fifteen minutes or fifteen centuries. What is fame? Why do people want it? How do they get it? What can they do with it? Drawing on texts from history, ethnography, theory, literature, philosophy, and contemporary media, this course reflects on the ethics, erotics, pragmatics and pathologies of fame.
This course examines fashion both from its diffusion in a globalized society, and as a form of communication and culture. We will examine how fashion has been valued through social sciences – history and sociology on the one hand, and economy on the other hand, from its production to its consumption. The course will address fashion in terms of issues of consumerism and sustainability in a post-industrialized society.
This course examines the significance of technology to the definition and experience of disability; the relationship between disability and new media; the politics of representation; and debates between disability studies and media studies. Topics include biomedical technology; “assistive technology”; cyborgs and prostheses as fact and metaphor; inclusive architecture and design; visual rhetorics of disability in film and photography; staring and other practices of looking; medical and counter-medical performance; media advocacy, tactical media, and direct action.
This course will cover both traditional and non-traditional financing and fundraising in the worlds of entertainment and the arts. Although our focus will be on the film world (with an emphasis on feature films), we will take occasional forays into the worlds of television, theatre, and music. We will also look at product financing. The goal of the course is to provide students with a framework for understanding the dynamics (as well as the specific routes) to raising funds for artistic endeavors. Many entertainment projects require significant capital before they can be realized. The negotiation and structuring of these deals may be a humbling experience, fraught with compromises that affect creative control over the final product. Producers need knowledge of financing tools and structures, an understanding of current economics driving the business, and skills in understanding new technologies and trends in funding. At its core, the course will help students develop a general understanding of fundraising and financing in the world of entertainment and refine the skills necessary to develop proposals that allow them to one day realize a creative vision.
The Emerging Media Studio courses explore methods to creatively think through and hybridize artistic photographic practice with emerging media technologies from medicine, the military, archaeology, urban planning, environmental science and other industries. Projects may take open-ended forms such as video, virtual reality environments, site-based performance, spatial imaging, 3D fabrication and photographic documentation. Critical readings and ideas drawn from artists as well as professionals in other fields are discussed. Our practice is learning how to adapt to and position ourselves as artists making unique contributions to the social dynamics of culture and a constantly shifting universe of media.
Course Repeatable for Credit. Prerequisite: Photography & Imaging: Digital, Analog, and Multimedia (can be taken concurrently) or permission of the Department. Interested non-majors should complete the non-major request form: https://goo.gl/forms/oaRPT3aeCeMT7KYL2The paradigm of the indexical photographic image has come into a new era – a computer generated one. Maya 3D software, typically used to create commercial games and animations, will be used to introduce experimental computer imaging as a visual art form. Students will solve a series of formal problems, introduced in increasing levels of complexity, and examine the broad cultural, philosophical, and theoretical implications of CG imaging. Moving from the 2-dimensional to 3-dimensional and ultimately to the four-dimensional or time-based, students will evolve their abilities to utilize aspects of light and dark, form, rhythm, color, proportion and volume but in terms of a post photographic discourse.
An introduction to philosophy through the study of issues in cognitive science. Topics may include the conflict between computational and biological approaches to the mind; whether a machine could think; the reduction of the mind to the brain; connectionism and neural nets. Gives training in philosophical argument and writing.
Prerequisite: Algebra and Calculus (MATH-UA 9) or equivalent. Focuses on individual economic decision-makers—households, business firms, and government agencies—and how they are linked together. The emphasis is on decision making by households and firms and how these decisions shape our economic life. Explores the different environments in which businesses sell their products, hire workers, and raise funds to expand their operations; the economic effects of trade between nations; and the effects of various government policies, such as minimum-wage legislation, rent controls, antitrust laws, and more.
Amodio, Coons, Marcus, Phelps. Offered every semester. 4 points. Fundamental principles of psychology, with emphasis on basic research and applications in psychology’s major theoretical areas of study: thought, memory, learning, perception, personality, social processes, development, and the physiological bases of psychology. Included in the class is direct observation of methods of investigation through laboratory demonstrations and by student participation in current research projects.
Whether it’s through photo realistic scans found in current-gen video games or the cartoonish and low-fi aesthetic of Bitmoji there is no limit to ways in which the body and the self are represented in digital spaces. This 2-credit class will look at how avatars have been historically used in the realm of art, commerce, and entertainment and utilize existing avatar creation tools to develop projects that examine identity, body politics, and contemporary performance. In class, we will cover the basics of Unreal Engine, photogrammetry, 3D scanning, and model rigging although students will be encouraged to use existing skill sets and creative thinking to complete some of the smaller week-by-week assignments. The class will culminate with a short performance, small installation or single/multi-channel video piece using one or more of the techniques covered in class. This can be a solo project or a group project. In this class students will: – Explore how avatars can be utilized in your creative practice – Gain an introductory understanding of Unreal Engine, photogrammetry, model rigging, and 3D scanning. – Learn how to recontextualize digital spaces for the purposes of art, installation, and performance. – Broaden your thinking of what performance can be, both in a physical setting and digital setting. – Think critically about how physical bodies inhabit digital spaces and how the hardware and software we use reinforces the acceptance and value of certain kinds of bodies.
Data is at the heart of the increasing role technology has in our lives. Data collection and algorithmic processing are not only central to recent technical breakthroughs such as in AI and automation but have created new economic paradigms where data equals value and shape political approaches to power and control. Decisions based on algorithms affect society at large whether it’s changing the way we transport and distribute goods, or influencing the things we buy, the news we read or even the people we date. The *world* that algorithms *see* is data. For the average person, however, data is seldom more than an abstract idea. So what exactly is data? How is value extracted from it? And why should we care? How can we ethically balance the positive uses of data-driven systems with the threats they pose to discriminate and infringe basic human rights? This class seeks to untangle some of these issues practically and theoretically. Each week will include a lecture introducing contemporary theorists, artists, groups, and in-class discussions or exercises. Potentially there will be a guest speaker, too. Topic sections may include surveillance and privacy, data journalism and activism or automation and machine bias. What we cover will be complemented by reading and research assignments. The other half of the week is a programming lab in which you will learn the fundamentals of web-based data visualization using JavaScript. Programming assignments will allow you to further practice what we learn. Throughout the semester, you will work on three main visualization projects that are inspired by the theoretical subjects that we cover. The form of these projects will usually be a website. Successful projects feature data visualizations that are both playful as well as effective in conveying information and a reflection that links the practical work to the theoretical learnings. Prerequisite: Interaction Lab, Communications Lab or Application Lab
We live in a world immersed in sound yet we rarely attend to how sound can reflect our social structure or reveal cultural meaning. This course introduces students to acoustic ethnography, soundscape studies and narrative, non-narrative audio storytelling. We will gather and analyze the acoustic environment of China, using recorded sounds to create ethnography through text and sound. Ethnography (literally, “culture-writing”) is both the act of gathering data about culture through observation and interviews as well as the practice of writing analytically about cultural difference. Visual ethnography incorporates the analysis of visual and material aspects of our social environment into creative, multimedia rich projects. With an ethnographic approach to sound, we will document the rich tapestry of sounds around us in the context of the Yangtze River Delta region and think about how this conveys China’s culture, society and history. Through lectures, discussion, readings, listening assignments, field studies and projects, we will re-learn how to listen, observe and record the sounds in our environment. We will study Chinese sound art and Chinese cultural productions in music, film, television and multimedia installation. We will contextualize Chinese sound art against major theoretical approaches to sound including archives and preservation, form versus content, and social studies of science. Students will work collaboratively or individually on a final project that combines sound recording and production, to create an ethnographic analysis of an aspect of social and cultural life in the Yangtze River Delta region. Students will gain experience in gathering ethnographic data and they will transform it into an analytical or creative project integrating sound art and text. Prior knowledge of sound editing and Chinese language is not required. Prerequisite: None
Programming Design Systems is a course focused on the intersection between graphic design and code. Class time is divided between design topics like form, color, grid systems, and typography, and more computational topics like randomization, repetition, transformation and generative form. The students work to write software that abstract design theories into the code, and show the work in class for design critique. Weekly readings include relevant writings from the history of graphic design, articles from the history of computation, and everything in between. The class aims not only to teach the students how to create designs via code, but also to have something interesting to say about it. The course is based on the Programming Design Systems book, and more background info can be found in the book’s introduction. Prerequisite:Communications Lab
In this course, students will work in teams to design digital learning resources and experience designs at the intersection of music, coding, arts, and technology. The course will begin with an introduction to emerging trends in learner engagement and design-based research, especially related to web- and mobile-based musical experiences and principles of making music with new media. Innovations in and applications of musical creativity, interactive technologies, user-centered design & engagement, scaffolded learning, creative learning, pedagogies of play and making, and educational entrepreneurship in Chinese contexts will also be explored. The market for creative educational experiences in afterschool settings for youth in China is exploding. For-profit educational service companies are competing and searching for differentiated, learning experiences in music, coding, and creative project based learning that will attract high-paying parents looking for the best supplemental education for their children. This practical, hands-on course will explore questions such as: How can we design engaging, creative learning experiences that are relevant to the cultural goals and needs of today’s youth in China, while laying the foundation for creative learning for the workforce of tomorrow? What are engaging, effective creative learning resources, and how are they best implemented in Chinese learning settings? How can we take advantage of young people’s near ubiquitous love of music and technology to facilitate creative learning? Students will work together in teams and paired with a partner audience of learners and teachers in Shanghai drawn from local and regional international schools (e.g. Alibaba’s Cloud Valley), local afterschool programs (e.g., Music Lab), and cultural partners (e.g., Shanghai Symphony). Together they will assess the needs and opportunities of partner students and teachers, and engage in a two-stage iterative and reflective co-design process prototyping custom learning resources and experience designs with their partner end users. At the end of the course, students will present and demo their learning resources as part of a public showcase to an external audience of partners, educators, technologists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and experience designers in Shanghai. Prerequisites: None.
Considers contemporary issues in the interaction of language and society, particularly work on speech variation and social structure. How social factors affect language. Topics: language as a social and political entity; regional, social, and ethnic speech varieties; bilingualism; and pidgin and creole languages.
Today’s technology enables us to collect massive amounts of data, such as images of distant planets, the ups and downs of the economy, and the patterns of our tweets and online behavior. How do we use data to discover new insights about our world? This course introduces ideas and techniques in modern data analysis, including statistical inference, machine learning models, and computer programming. The course is hands-on and data-centric; students will analyze a variety of datasets, including those from the internet and New York City. By the end of the course, students will be able to (1) apply quantitative thinking to data sets; (2) critically evaluate the conclusions of data analyses; and (3) use computing tools to explore, analyze, and visualize data. Throughout the course, we will also examine issues such as data privacy and ethics
Prerequisites: Data Structures (CSCI-UA 102); Discrete Mathematics (MATH-UA 120); and either Calculus I (MATH-UA 121) OR Math for Economics I (MATH-UA 211). An introduction to the study of algorithms. Two main themes are presented: designing appropriate data structures, and analyzing the efficiency of the algorithms which use them. Algorithms for basic problems are studied. These include sorting, searching, graph algorithms and maintaining dynamic data structures. Homework assignments, not necessarily involving programming.
The use and design of data structures, which organize information in computer memory. Stacks, queues, linked lists, binary trees: how to implement them in a high level language, how to analyze their effect on algorithm efficiency, and how to modify them. Programming assignments.
Data Science for Everyone is a foundational course that prepares students to participate in the data-driven world that we are all experiencing. It develops programming skills in Python so that students can write programs to summarize and compare real-world datasets. Building on these data analysis skills, students will learn how draw conclusions and make predictions about the data. Students will also explore related ethical, legal, and privacy issues.
Assignments, critiques, & demonstrations related to the specific level on which the course is being given. The use of the computer to augment & expand conceptualization & expression has provided the artist with some of the most important new means for visual thinking since the Renaissance invention of perspective. Students learn how to use the computer as an extension of the visualization process & its specific applications in both two-dimensional & three-dimensional art.
Introduction to Programming for Games is a course that introduces students to the concepts, problems, and methods of computer programming, and how these apply to the creation of video games. Throughout the semester, students will have weekly programming assignments, first using Processing with the Java programming language, then the Unity3D Game Engine with C#. There will be a midterm game in Processing and a final game in Unity. The course assumes no prior programming knowledge, and is designed to touch on the basic principles of digital design in form of computer code. There will be an emphasis on programming fundamentals; they will be motivated through the lens of designing and producing video games.
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 will incorporate 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 will cover games on and off the computer, including classic and contemporary board and card games, sports, and games on the PC, internet, and consoles.
Understanding Story is a class composed of lectures, discussions, screenings, readings, critical and creative writing, group critiques and presentations. The course is designed to expose the student to the fundamental principles of storytelling across a spectrum of mediums, including the written story, playwriting, film, poetry, dance, games, photography, fine art and music. How do all these different art forms tell stories? How can the student apply what is learned to their own creative work? History and theory of story will be studied and used to inspire personal and creative work in order to better understand how story can most successfully be expressed in different mediums and reach its audience.
The course addresses issues and perspectives in global communication, a rapidly evolving field. Students critically assess shifts in national, regional, and international media patterns of production, distribution, and consumption over time, and critically analyze the tumultuous contemporary global communication environment. Topics include national and global media consolidation, cultural implications of globalization, international broadcasting, information flows, law and regulation, and emerging technologies. The focus of the course is international.
The course introduces students to the basic structures and practices of media in Europe and their relationship to everyday social life. Specific case studies highlight current trends in the production, distribution, consumption, and regulation of media. Topics include: national and regional idioms in a range of media genres, from entertainment to advertising and publicity, to news and information; legal norms regarding content and freedom of expression; pirate and independent media; and innovations and emerging practices in digital media.
This course provides an overview of critical thinking on contemporary media production, media outcomes and media systems. Introduce theoretical approaches and practice used to analyze the content, structure, and context of media in society. We will explore factors shaping media texts, including: politics, economics, technology, and cultural traditions. The dominant critical perspectives that contribute to our understanding of media will be read, discussed, and employed. The course has three broad objectives: 1. Develop a critical awareness of media environments, 2. develop a familiarity with concepts, themes and theoretical approaches of media criticism, and the terms associated with these approaches and 3. develop an ability to adopt and adapt these frameworks in your own analyses of mediated communication.
This course examines the emergence of the Internet as a commercial business. It pays particular attention to the various business models and practices employed in media-related enterprises, tracing their development from the late 1990s to the most recent strategies and trends. Case studies include the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), portals, search engines, early game platforms, the Internet presence of traditional media organizations, and social network platforms.
This course focuses on the principles and practices of successful interviewing techniques. Students are provided with background on the structure of an interview and learn how to analyze success and/or potential problems. Review of case studies and practice in holding interviews enables students to gain experience and to improve their own abilities.
This course focuses on techniques of communication in public relations including creation of press releases, press packets and kits, and developing public relations campaigns.
This course examines the proposition that contemporary war should be understood as media. War has become mediatized and media has been militarized. This course treats war and political violence as communicative acts and technologies and focuses on how they shape our understanding and experience of landscape, vision, body, time and memory.
Explores the various political and philosophical debates within western Marxism. Pays particular attention to the influence of the cultural turn in twentieth century Marxist thought on feminism, postcolonialism, and theories of mediation. Themes include: the commodity, alienation and reification, surplus value, culture, ideology, hegemony and subjectivity.
An exploration of film as a medium of information, conveyor and creator of culture and a form of aesthetic expression. Course examines the historical development of film as both a cultural product and industry.
A site to help IMA NY students find equivalent courses
For students joining IMA in Fall 2022 and beyond, our new program structure affects the categorization of courses on this site.
Classes listed in the “IMA Major Electives” categories refer to the old IMA program structure. If you’re under the new IMA program structure, these courses count as general IMA Electives for you. Your program structure is noted on your academic advising spreadsheet.
Students on the new program structure can search the Interchange for courses. If you’re looking for “IMA Major Distribution” courses, you'll find them listed here: