Thesis: All art uses technology. Technology is not art. Whether a work of art is created to bridge the supernatural, convey experience, thought, or a world view, or something more, art is a three letter verb representing the result of an individual’s desire to create difference. This course is an exploration in technological literacy for all NYU students. Students will create a website, capture, edit, and publish digital media to their sites, use software to create objects through subtractive (laser cutting) and additive (3D printing) machining processes, build circuits, learn to program a microcomputer, and build a functioning computer-controlled object.Open Arts Curriculum (Undergraduate) 4 credits – 15 Weeks
This course explores the ways in which popular film, TV, and video cultures construct the historical past, the battles that arise among historians and the public over film versions of history, and how such films can be utilized as historical documents themselves. We consider films, TV, and video as products of the culture industry; as visions of popular history and national mythology; as evidence for how social conflicts have been depicted; and as evidence for how interpretations of the past have been revised from earlier eras to the present.
In numerical analysis one explores how mathematical problems can be analyzed and solved with a computer. As such, numerical analysis has very broad applications in mathematics, physics, engineering, finance, and the life sciences. This course gives an introduction to this subject for mathematics majors. Theory and practical examples using Matlab will be combined to study a range of topics ranging from simple root-finding procedures to differential equations and the finite element method. | Prerequisites: A grade of C or better in (MA-UY 2114 or MA-UY 2514) and (MA-UY 1044 or MA-UY 3034 or MA-UY 3054 or MA-UY 3113) | Anti-Requisite: MA-UY 4524Mathematics (Undergraduate) 4 credits – 15 Weeks
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.
How does someone go about changing the world? What does social change theory suggest are the most effective tactics to change hearts and minds? What can we learn from the past about what it means to be an effective agent of change? How have social entrepreneurs created organizations that become engines of change? How has technology, social media and trends in mainstream media changed the rules of the game? This course will focus on social change theory and explore social movements in post-WWII America, including: the movement for Black civil rights, the LGBTQ Movement, Environment/Climate Activism, the Women’s Movement; the Conservative Movement, Corporate Social Responsibility and social entrepreneurship, Immigration, Healthcare, Journalism, Whistleblowing & Hacktivism, and the Free Speech movement.
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.
We are inundated by data, but data alone do not translate into useful information. Statistics provides the means for organizing, summarizing, and therefore better analyzing data so that we can understand what the data tell us about critical questions. If one collects data then understanding how to use statistical methods is critical, but it is also necessary to understand and interpret all the information we consume on a daily basis. This course provides these basic statistical approaches and techniques. This course may not be acceptable as a substitute for any other Probability and Statistics course. For Sustainable Urban Environments (SUE) students, please see your advisor. Note: Not open to math majors or students who have taken or will take MA-UY 2054 or MA-UY 2224 or MA-UY 3014 or MA-UY 3514 or ECE-UY 2233 or equivalent.
We know that for children play is more than just fun; it is the work through which they develop. But what about when adults play? Through play we find our freedom, spontaneity, and our aesthetic. What is there in human beings that enables us to play? Why is play considered an innate capacity of people from the beginning of recorded history? What qualifies as play? When does play become art? In this course, everyone plays and in doing so examines the historic and contemporary uses of play as a potentially universal impulse of humans, across generations, time and space. Play’s capacity to create and sustain community will be considered. We will examine play as it is reflected through theories of child development, dramatic improvisation, fine art, politics, social construction and identities, music, religion and spirituality, literature and social media. Students will examine the necessity of play in their own child and adult lives—the creative spirit, the adventurer, the empathic connection with humanity, and laughter, too. Books may include: Nachmanovitch’s Free Play, Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment, Huizinga’s Homo Ludens, and selected readings from Lorca, Nietzche, Piaget, Postman, Solomon.
This course examines filmic representations of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and corresponding political, cultural, and social ideologies. Our aim will be to understand dominant and subversive storytelling techniques in films that focus on racialized subjects, sexual identity and class privilege in the US. The goal is to illuminate how meanings of race are constructed and can be read through filmic aspects. We will focus on contemporary films by diverse filmmakers paying particular attention to matters of film authorship, narrative and rhetorical strategy, and technologies of cinema. Our analysis will illuminate how operations of power function filmically to produce both conventional and transgressive gazes. Screenings include work by and about people of color in both historical and contemporary contexts.
14 sessions will be devoted to a history of the genre, screening essential films both inside and outside the canon, with a focus on the changes in style, technique, and subject matter which influenced the form from its earliest beginnings to the present. Undergraduates who take the course for three points are required to keep journals in which they respond to each session and compare observations with those made when viewing at least one documentary of their choice seen outside class, as well as in response to critical essays provided at each session and references in the text.
This introductory course is targeted to all students who have a strong sense of their individual purpose and are motivated to change the world through music. In this course, students learn about social entrepreneurs, how they think, the problems they address, the business tools they leverage and the strategies they employ to create social change. Through readings, participatory class discussion, class activities, self-reflection and occasional guest speakers, students examine current issues, opportunities and challenges that social entrepreneurs and their ventures face. In addition, they acquire skills, actionable tools, and practical approaches to help advance their social change agenda now and in the future. Ultimately, the aim is to inspire and empower students to put their ideas for social change in to action and to start manifesting the change they wish to see in the world.
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.
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.
Through a series of lectures and weekly prompts, this hands-on course introduces a methodology that facilitates the process from thinking to making. Softness is used as both a theoretical and material framework that asks students to rethink the edges of the real and to to engage with structures, organizations, materials and relationships as malleable, fluid, and open to transformation. Students are introduced to foundational concepts through a wide range of examples and readings, and are invited to critically reflect on how these concepts inform and guide their own practice and creative journey. The weekly assignments are meant to help students become comfortable with a variety of techniques and making practices, and in a rapid, playful and experimental manner engage with ideas in an embodied and enacted way. Given that they have a week to complete each assignment, the goal is to help students delve into the core and essential properties of each concept and find ways to express and explore them in their work. The cadence of the lectures and survey of a wide range of artistic practices aims to expose students to different approaches to making, and importantly help them understand how theory and practice are not separate realms but indeed intertwined.
Children and adolescents suffer worldwide from significant mental health stressors, but how mental health and illness are perceived and addressed varies greatly around the world. The first part of the course will provide a brief overview of human rights, child development, social determinants of mental health, trauma and resilience, and the global public health significance of mental illness. Using this framework, the impact of selected salient cross-cultural factors affecting mental health (i.e. poverty, war and conflict, and gender-based exploitation) on children’s development and wellbeing will be studied. Throughout the course, various perspectives will be considered, while dominant paradigms will be recognized and critically examined. Lastly, the course will conclude on a pragmatic level—deliberating specific settings, available resources, barriers, and preventative proposals. Selected case studies from the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East will be used to illustrate key concepts. Through lectures, readings, documentaries, and active discussion this course will provide an engaging forum to consider and debate child and adolescent mental health issues globally.
This course is designed to work in three ways. First, it is an opportunity to learn about London’s architecture and history by physically exploring the city’s historic and modern built environment. Second, this class is an introduction to sketching and keeping a travel notebook, a fulfilling skill that any liberal arts student should experience. Third, and perhaps most important, this course teaches students how to ‘read’ a building and a town or city. The ability to visually make sense of the built environment of this major capital should help in understanding the architecture of New York City and other towns and cities throughout the world. Our course is formed of a series of site visits through London’s extraordinary and diverse environment, considering significant architectural developments from many periods, while learning to record and describe what we see. We will study the architectural vocabulary of London and learn how to accurately and elegantly depict buildings and places in both word and image. Please note that it is very important that students attend the first class, which covers the introductory information, lecture and drawing session.
Cities have long been viewed as the crucible of citizenship. “But over the last few decades, the rapid urbanization of the global South has recalibrated Western derived models of cities and citizenship. “This course draws on interdisciplinary readings from urban studies, geography, anthropology, and history to grapple with this global “urban revolution.” Rejecting the language of crisis, chaos, and exception that is so often used to characterize cities in the global South, it will provide theoretically informed perspectives on social, cultural, and political life in rapidly urbanizing places throughout the postcolonial world. Attention will be paid to histories and legacies of colonialism alongside novel forms of governance and claims to the city. “Though focused primarily on cities in the global South, the class is intended to probe how these cities reconfigure conventional understandings of being a citizen in the city (anywhere), and will also examine the global South within the “North”. “Topics may include the rights to the city, infrastructure and planning, gentrification, political ecologies, technologies of rule, informality and slum upgrading, and urban social movements. “”Selected authors may include Ananya Roy, James Holston, Mamadou Diouf, Nikhil Anand, and AbdouMaliq Simone.
How do ants or bees organize on a mass scale when their individual brains are incapable of understanding the bigger systems they’re creating together? How did a Twitch hive-mind of 1.2 million people beat Pokémon one collective move at a time? How do we make art that makes us and our audience feel more connected, more alive, more powerful? This hands-on project studio course is about making art where participants are the medium, and the masterpiece created exists inside and between them. Let’s explore community and its connection to transformational, radical joy — not complacent happiness, but a joy that is the feeling of power, agency, and capacity growing within us and within the people around us as we cooperate to overcome shared challenges. Which systems and forms of art, play, and expression foster that kind of joy? This course is heavy on imagination, vulnerability, reading, discussion, experimentation, playtesting, and interactive group activities. Each week explores the relationship of the individual to the group under various lenses and spheres of life (i.e. politics, religion, activism, evolutionary biology, sociology, pleasure, the universe, sports, games, childhood, etc.). Then together, we break down the relationships, dynamics, and effects those systems have, and create multi-media prototypes and performance experiments inspired by these themes and ideas. The early assignments are solo, and then almost all assignments are in groups. The core process of the class uses iterative game design as a structure for ideating, creating, playtesting, and refining, though students are welcome to work in any medium they choose, so long as the goal is to explore themes of collective joy.
This is a course that explores the relationship between ideas, the body and the way that fashion can be understood to mediate between the two. Through a range of disciplines and media this course considers the body as an aspect of not only medical and scientific exploration, but crucially as a vital element of culture and society. Bodies affect the ways in which the social world and power relations are organized, and they even arguably condition the way that we understand reality itself. Our physical form is constantly shaped according to both philosophies and fashions. Body ideals and broader ideals often interrelate strongly through bodily practices and with what we wear. There are meanings and fashions in all bodily forms (skinny, buxom, muscular, ideas of ’whiteness’) and body practices (dieting, hair management, cleansing rituals, plastic surgery and genital cutting). Over the sessions, we will take a conceptual approach to fashion, as a strident condition of modern life, that incorporates politics, science and aesthetics and we will closely read a number of cultural texts against a number of theoretical models. Attitudes towards the body can vary widely according to historical period, and this course will explore how, in different moments, and via different media, we have been preoccupied with the aesthetics of different body zones, with displaying identity (gender, class and ethnicity), and also with power. Different cultural forms (literary, visual, material etc) will provide the focus of our discussions as they all engage with the different ways that we make meaning out of our bodies. Students will be invited to investigate in their written work set texts from class in addition to primary material of their own choice.
THIS COURSE TAKES PLACE AT NYU-LONDON: The Global Fashion Industry and British Fashion aims to introduce fashion history and theory in its contemporary social and cultural context. The course will examine various aspects of the fashion industry and offer an understanding of critical concepts such as social identity, consumer culture and globalization. Students will explore aspects of the British fashion industry, including fashion media, retail environments, fashion exhibitions and the impact of sub and counter culture.
Prerequisite: Photography II or permission from the Department. This class teaches lighting as a series of the most common lighting problems encountered in professional photography and cinematography. The course philosophy is that the most complex and difficult lighting problems are really just combinations of small, easily resolved, problems. Starting with basic three-point lighting for portraiture using simple continuous source lighting, the course will progress quickly to extremely complex set ups using electronic flash as well as lighting for the new generation of hybrid Dslr’s (video/still camera) as it moves through multiple environments. Subjects covered include: Lighting for portraits, still life, fashion, interiors, documentary, and exterior location lighting using battery powered flash. Location scouting and planning according to location limitations. Color temperature and color control. Light shaping and control. Students will learn how to use: Digital SLR’s, medium format cameras, Leaf Aptus electronic capture, direct tethered capture using Adobe Lightroom, continuous lighting, electronic flash, color temperature meters and custom white balance profiles as well as the basics of video/sound capture. Lighting equipment is provided. A lab fee is charged for this course.
This is a hands-on course designed to introduce the student to narrative and documentary editing techniques, and to the role of the editor in shaping the final form of film and video productions. Good editing is crucial to the success of every film and video. This class is recommended to students pursuing directing or producing who want a better understanding of how the post-production workflow functions, as well as to any student, from sophomore to senior, who would like to gain a clearer understanding of the role of the editor as an artist, a technician and a collaborator. To achieve this, the class will delve into the methods, objectives, and technical aspects of post-production. It will thoroughly explore two major editing programs (Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro) used in today’s professional post-production environment, and acquaint the student with every stage of the editing workflow from capture to final output. Students will learn to approach these and other non-linear programs as variations on common themes rather than as completely new and foreign tools. In addition, the class will present examples of edited sequences from both narrative and documentary films for discussion, and have invited guests who will share their experiences in bringing films to completion. There will also be a course pack of assigned readings. This course allocates as a Craft for Film & TV majors.
This is a specialized EMT course, designed in coordination with the Tribeca Film Festival Board, that provides students with a framework for understanding the dynamics of the global film industry including the complete film production process from crafting the idea for a script, hiring or becoming a producer, financing the project, selling it to a studio or independent production company, building a team, production elements, post-production including music acquisition, and the selling or distribution to a global marketplace. The course includes learning about distribution and exhibition, marketing and building audience awareness, research applications, international licensing, and preparation for careers in the industry. Students attend and fully participate in the panels offered during the two week period of the Tribeca Film Festival.
Traces of time passing, ruins are time that has turned into space, duration ossified and broken up into fragments. Fragments are things we carry out of ruins, relics rescued from the abyss of lost time. We create archives to organize the rescued and the abandoned, compiling catalogs and designing systems that are often ruins themselves. Drawing on literature, painting, film, and installation art, this class will explore the entanglement of nature and history and of the recent and deep past in representations of architectural and social decay in stories and images of ruined cottages, “picturesque” abbeys and castles, partially buried woodsheds. We will examine representations of objects redeemed from the ruins of history as well as the ruined sites in which such objects find refuge (arcades, museums, libraries). And we will consider what it means for something to outlive its usefulness, to survive itself and live on in its own afterlife. Students will write several analytic essays, building toward a research project in which they will explore and interpret a ruin of their choice. Texts may include essays by Uvedale Price, Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault, Douglas Crimp, Robert Smithson, Marguerite Yourcenar, and Hal Foster; engravings, films, and installations by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Jacques Tourneur, Chantal Akerman, Ilya Kabakov, Tacita Dean, and Pat O’Neill; poetry and prose by William Cowper, William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia Woolf, H.D., Louis Aragon, Susan Howe, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha.
Offered only at NYU Paris. An overview of important developments in French philosophy from the 16th century to the 1950s. We will look at the epistemological and metaphysical debates that followed the rediscovery of Ancient philosophy and the Copernican revolution, with Montaigne’s skepticism, Descartes’ rationalist theory of knowledge, and Condillac’s empiricism. We will then focus on developments in French political philosophy in the 18th and 19th centuries, closely intertwined with political events. We will read Rousseau, an important influence on the French revolutionaries, before turning to 19th-century debates about equality, with Proudhon’s anarchist criticism of property rights, and Tocqueville’s cautious liberal perspective on the political consequences of equality. Finally, we will look at two key movements in French philosophy in the first half of the 20th century, Bergson’s attempt at understanding the temporal duration conscious beings inhabit, and Sartre and de Beauvoir’s distinctive development of existentialism, a philosophy that grapples with the consequences of human freedom.
To provide the student with an awareness and appreciation of gardens and landscapes of Tuscany from early Roman precedents to the 21st century. The design of the Italian landscape and garden is studied as a means of cultural communication–an expression of a society’s values, philosophy and understanding of the environment. Emphasis is placed on historic precedent, sustainable design techniques utilized in Italian gardens and classic Renaissance design concepts. The format includes lectures, class presentations and field trips.
From Casablanca and A Clockwork Orange to Sophie’s Choice and The Matrix, popular films offer surprisingly perceptive insights into complex philosophical concepts. This course begins by exploring the nature of philosophical analysis, argument, and the relevance of thought experiments. “It will then draw on a wide range of films ” along with a diverse selection of historical and contemporary thinkers ” in order to explore many of the central areas of philosophy. “Some of the areas under consideration will include perception (the nature of perceptual experience and the status of perceptual data, in particular how they relate to beliefs about, or knowledge of, the world), philosophy of mind (the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness, and their relationship to the physical body), determinism (the philosophical idea that every event or state of affairs, including every human decision and action, is the inevitable and necessary consequence of antecedent states of affairs), and the philosophy of religion (the area of philosophy which considers questions about the existence of God and the nature of evil). By merging the cinematic and philosophical worlds, debates will also arise around ethics, free will, and the nature of time. “Readings will be drawn from Aristotle, Anselm, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Locke, Nagel, Pascal, Putnam, and Williams, among others.
In this class, we will use AI as a writing and editing tool and study the history and philosophy of augmented and automated writing. Through a combination of lectures and hands-on workshops, we will explore the theoretical aspects of AI and writing with case studies and examples, as well as experiment with different AI tools and techniques. Prerequisite: None.
“””Portraiture stands apart from other genres of art as it marks the intersection between portrait, biography, and history. They are more than artworks; when people look at portraits, they think they are encountering that person,”””” says Alison Smith, chief curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London. For thousands of years, artists have used cutting-edge tools and resources to create portraiture, giving viewers a glimpse into the subject’s life. A successful portrait embraces technology to bring the viewer closer to the subject but is not overshadowed by it. In this course, we will delve into portraiture through the lens of volumetric capture using the Depth Kit system. Through hands-on assignments, students will learn the entire pipeline of volumetric capture, from configuring the system to capturing our subjects and final output. Simultaneously, we will focus on fundamental aspects of portraiture, such as lighting, storytelling, production techniques, and historical foundations. The course will explain the techniques and considerations involved in creating volumetric portraits. We will explore various approaches to capturing subjects, employing advanced technologies to record their presence in 3D. Students will gain proficiency in the Depth Kit system to produce high-quality volumetric portraits that can be integrated into different mediums, including game engines, augmented reality (AR), or traditional 2D outputs.”
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.
This two-credit course is about key legal aspects of the entertainment industry. Entertainment law is not a separate legal discipline. There is really no such thing as entertainment law. Instead, it lies at the intersection of several areas of law and applies those disciplines to the diverse entertainment industry of products and services. The course will involve a foundational coverage of the following areas: contract, advertising, protection of ideas by contract, copyright and trademark (including the concepts of parody and fair use), rights of publicity and privacy, defamation, and artist representation. This course should prepare you to analyze a wide variety of entertainment law issues at a general level. Entertainment law does not tend towards an orderly system because it lacks overriding organizational principles that would tie together its myriad facets. As such, this course will appear to lack a logical outline in its progression and instead, will examine this corner of law in separate pieces, which will cover doctrine, analytical problem-solving, practical skills related to law (e.g., analytical writing, reasoning skills, argument structure, etc.), and the particular contexts in which issues arise in the entertainment industry. Dealing with more narrow topics, such as constitutional concerns or union representation, or obtaining a much deeper knowledge of specific topics discussed in class, will require additional, specialized study. This class also helps students further develop their reasoning, communication, and listening skills.
Through a series of lectures and weekly prompts, this hands-on course introduces a methodology that facilitates the process from thinking to making. Softness is used as both a theoretical and material framework that asks students to rethink the edges of the real and to to engage with structures, organizations, materials and relationships as malleable, fluid, and open to transformation. Students are introduced to foundational concepts through a wide range of examples and readings, and are invited to critically reflect on how these concepts inform and guide their own practice and creative journey. The weekly assignments are meant to help students become comfortable with a variety of techniques and making practices, and in a rapid, playful and experimental manner engage with ideas in an embodied and enacted way. Given that they have a week to complete each assignment, the goal is to help students delve into the core and essential properties of each concept and find ways to express and explore them in their work. The cadence of the lectures and survey of a wide range of artistic practices aims to expose students to different approaches to making, and importantly help them understand how theory and practice are not separate realms but indeed intertwined.
This course is designed to hone the student journalist?s ability to research and report deeply and to be able to imagine and develop fresh ideas, test their ideas with the strength of their reporting and research, and then present them in story form.
How do we make things move, produce sounds, or maybe even emit light without batteries? Through this course, each student will design their own purely mechanical automaton. We will learn how to use simple materials and tools to hand prototype mechanisms in their early stages. CAD software will be used to refine the designs and then a series of traditional and digital fabrication tools (various wood shop tools, laser cutter, CNC, 3D printers, etc.) will be used to produce the final pieces. We will learn how to work iteratively in the shop through weekly exercises, and a midterm and final project.
Our users have senses that they use to perceive information in different ways. Some perceive best through sight, some through hearing, others through touch. Designers often prioritize visual information, excluding those who benefit from other sensory modalities. In this class, we’ll take a multisensory approach to design that makes interfaces more accessible to disabled and nondisabled users. Students will learn how to design for the senses (think tactile controls combined with atmospheric sounds and olfactory or taste experiences), while gaining an understanding of the assumptions we make about our users’ sensory preferences. Students should come with prior experience with physical computing and fabrication techniques and can expect to learn technical processes for the user research, usability testing, and iterative design of multisensory interfaces. Over the course of 14 weeks, students will design an interface for the 5 senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell), culminating in one final project that includes at least 3 sensory modalities.
To be a VR creator, it’s not enough to learn the hard skills—it’s also our responsibility to prime ourselves for the human impact of our work. As a means to design VR that is both enjoyable and accountable, this class proposes we borrow design principles from Hedonomics, a branch of ergonomic science that facilitates pleasurable human-technology interaction. Through the Hedonomic Pyramid, we’re able to section our thinking off into regions (Safety, Function, Usability, Pleasure and Individuation) and map out industry-tested VR design guidance for each. The result is a hierarchical checklist of proven principles, specifications and practices—that promote a culture of inclusive and holistic design—built to serve as a quickstart guide to designing accountable VR interfaces and systems. This class, divided into units that represent each level of the Hedonomic pyramid, will unpack both technical and conceptual strategies for creating VR, from visual interface fidelity to avoiding locomotion cybersickness to designing safer social VR spaces.
“In this course, we will explore how to create narratives that leverage our lesser used senses like touch, taste and smell as well as lesser-known ones like space, time, balance and scale. We will dig into the history of experiential storytelling, starting from immersive theater and Smell-O-vision to cutting-edge haptics and mind-bending illusions of proprioception. To help center this back in practical applications, we will also explore how this evolving art is commonly used in exhibition design, experiential marketing and brick and mortar retail. The class will be a healthy mixture of game theory as well as experienced based learning (meaning there will be a couple field trips and multisensory VR projects to explore). A basic knowledge of game engines is ideal but not mandatory because we will be using predesigned templates in Unreal engine to be experienced and manipulated in real-time through virtual reality hardware.”
Your web browser is a digital canvas for 21st-century artists. While being one of the most common mediums today, web space has infinite possibilities for new aesthetics. This course covers Three.js fundamentals, providing students with the skills and insights to create arts in web 3D. This course requires ICM or equivalent coding experience. Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media (ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048)
With recent advances in hardware and software, millions of us now carry unprecedented spatial computing and world sensing technologies in our pockets. With these technologies in hand, how do we design AR experiences that are contextual at the core – that are sensitive to the spaces we inhabit and the behaviors of people in those spaces? How do we augment this better understanding of reality? This course will be a hands-on workshop where we create spatially aware, contextually driven AR applications unique to particular situations. We will examine the opportunities and challenges when designing for site-specific experiences – museums, live events, retail, medical settings, industrial environments, schools, and others. Topics will include image and object recognition, world mapping, people tracking, location anchors, the ARKit “depth api” (LiDAR enabled features), spatial audio, scene understanding and semantics, and more. For design and development, we’ll primarily use Apple technologies – ARKit, RealityKit and RealityComposer. We’ll also tap a variety of cloud services to store, move, process, and bring intelligence to the data generated and consumed in our experiences. 3D modeling skills are helpful but not required. While we’ll cover the basics, students should expect to spend additional time outside of class learning Swift and other related programming concepts. Full-time access to an iOS device (LiDAR-enabled is ideal but not required) and a Mac laptop running the latest operating systems are required. As part of the design process, we’ll host workshops and guest critiques with designers from top studios around New York City as well as directly interfacing with various teams at Apple.
Introduction to the fundamental principles of psychology, emphasizing both the unity & the diversity of a field that spans major theoretical & research areas, including biological bases of human behavior, learning, development, motivation, & social and abnormal behavior. Links between theory & classic as well as contemporary research are a recurrent theme. Liberal Arts Core/MAP Equivalent – satisfies the requirement for Society & the Social Sciences
The theory and practice of editing, from Griffith to Kubrick. The emphasis will be on experiments in narrative clarity and dramatic emphasis in storytelling. For many, editing is the unique source of the art of filmmaking. This course addresses this point of view. This course allocates as History & Criticism for Film & TV majors.
This course will analyze the possibility of pursuing the ideals of an “author cinema” – a personal way of expressing ideas that can deal with Hollywood mainstream and also with the independents, but will never be considered an integral part of either one. The “author cinema” would be a cinema of personal expression that refuses the mainstream’s prison of “three acts, happy ending, stars, etc.”; and at the same time, refuses the trends and the limited scope of most of the independents: a cinema that shows not only how to make a film, but why. Films from all over the world will be analyzed, focusing in particular on the authors that are able to keep alive their personal vision while dealing with the studios (i.e. Stone, Lee, Scorsese, Kubrick), the ones that dared to fight Hollywood (i.e. Welles, Peckinpah, Cimino, von Stroheim) and the loose cannons independent at heart (Altman, P.T. Anderson, Coen brothers). A series of guests to the class will be comprised of critics, curators and cultural organizers, filmmakers and producers. This course allocates as History & Criticism for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES. Non-majors must process a “Permission Notice for Non-Majors” form to register for the course (subject to availability).
This Praxis course is an exploration of contemporary and traditional artistic printmaking practices, with an emphasis on expanding notions of conventional printmaking techniques and forms. Students will be introduced to various printmaking techniques, and experiment with traditional and non-traditional forms, in conjunction with their histories and consider what constitutes a hand-made print in an artistic framework. Students will gain an understanding of printmaking – its history based in China, development across the globe and inventive contemporary practices which include sculptural forms. They will learn techniques, modes, forms, and applications of printmaking – with an emphasis on relief prints (stamps and wood cuts) – in a conceptual framework of contemporary printmaking practices and global visual culture. Note: attendance in the first class meeting is mandatory, otherwise you will be dropped from the course. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: This course satisfies IMA/IMB elective.
Introduces students to the skills and concepts they will need in order to develop a meaningful engagement with the visual arts and art history as a global discipline. Rather than providing a chronological survey of great works, it covers examples and perspectives from a wide array of regions, periods, and societies. Topics include materials and techniques of production; formal analysis; subject matter and iconography; historical and cultural contexts; the social role and formation of artists; and the history of art history as a discipline. Pitched for students who have little or no background in the study of art and architecture, this course provides a rigorous introduction to the foundations of the discipline. It is required of all art history majors.
Innovative solutions in education are emerging from the private sector every day. Business ventures from Teach for America to Khan Academy are changing the way teachers are prepared, the way students learn, and the way institutions use data. These ideas are started by “social entrepreneurs,” people who try to improve lives through solutions that have a market and customers. Students in this course learn about social entrepreneurship, how to identify critical issues in the education-related space, and how to develop their own entrepreneurial solutions accordingly.
“Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the touchscreen has become the dominant manner for navigating Mobile devices. UX pattern best practices are enshrined in documents such as Apple’s ‘HIG’ (Human Interface Guidelines) or Google’s more recent Material Design. ‘No Screens Allowed’ is a class that challenges this ’Touchscreen first’ interaction approach. Taught in the Kotlin language, students will prototype solutions in response to Instructor directed assignments. The various projects structured to interrogate mobile device capabilities such as: Voice Recognition, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, and built in sensors. Students will be provided with identical hardware: Pixel 3 phones running Android, the chosen development platform for the class. Successful completion of Introduction to Computational Media and Introduction to Physical Computing are required for entry into class. “
In an era of remote everything, how can we create artwork that brings us back together IRL? This course explores our connection to physical objects within the context of community. How can sculpture, installation, immersive, and public art nurture our neighborhoods via collaboration, play, ritual, self-expression, and awe? Students will work collaboratively to radically imagine bold, sculptural, immersive works using innovative and lo-if techniques integrated with technology. Hands-on workshops include experiments creating found sculptures, AR prototypes, projection mapping, real-time interactive multimedia content, and more. We’ll reference ancient monuments, sacred objects, NYC relics, street art and contemporary works to envision new artifacts that create awareness by reflecting the needs of our communities. Prerequisite: Comm Lab: Hypercinema About Ali Santana: http://www.alisantana.com/bio
The use of digital technology in mental health treatment, recovery, support, and prevention is rapidly gaining acceptance. For instance: The FDA recently approved the VR therapeutic EaseVRx to treat pain. Researchers recently found that exposure to natural environments in VR can provide emotional well-being benefits for people who cannot access the outdoors. Strobing lights can be tuned to stimulate temporary harmonic brain wave patterns usually only found in people who have been meditating for decades. Apps which help you track your mood could facilitate gaining knowledge and awareness of one’s mood patterns and thus help maintain emotional well-being. ASMR videos are reported to be effective in inducing sleep for those susceptible to insomnia, and assuaging a range of symptoms, including those associated with depression, anxiety and panic attacks. This class will focus on the use of technology to activate any and all of our senses to aid in mindfulness and meditation, distraction therapy, body awareness and acceptance, and more, via the use of tools and techniques shown to have a direct impact on our physiology as well as supportive and accessible user experience design with broad applications in other areas. Prerequisite: Basic coding and physical computing About Brian Lobser: http://light.clinic
In this special format studio class, students will investigate techniques and frameworks to challenge the socioeconomics of planned obsolescence. We will research, design, and develop projects that rethink our strained relationship with smartphones and re-imagine the future of “old” devices. This is a production-heavy, four-credit course, where students will contribute to original research, and develop projects that combine HCI, design, and critical theory. Prerequisites include an open mind, the drive to make, and graduate-level Physical Computing.
In this course, students will explore the fundamentals of augmented reality by dissecting the interaction between camera, computer, and user. Each week we will focus on a different AR modality: image, face, body, environment, and object, and consider their real-world applications. Through weekly explorations, we will examine the existing affordances of AR as well as their impact. This course will culminate in a final project, and our tool of choice will be Lens Studio. Course syllabus: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wMWVnDdzgz2bbsCNp7jRAiCe1job4glq61o67sWAP00/edit?usp=sharing
This course will explore the history and meaning of the ubiquitous concept of “cursed” media, and provide students with a survey of digital art tools for the creation of their own cursed animation, video, photography, music, and web art. Many people were first introduced to the concept of cursed media when it exploded into mainstream internet discourse in 2016 with the @cursedimages Twitter account, which posted found photos bound by their unsettling effect on the viewer. Cursed media predates this account, however, stretching back to medieval notions of cursed objects. We will demonstrate how throughout time, cursed media has functioned like a slip of the tongue that provides a window into the cultural unconscious, where we encounter uncensored thoughts and feelings about race, gender, class, and what it means to be human. From Amazon Muzak generators to Artbreeder’s GAN tools for image creation, from machine learning text generators to robots who work at Walmart, cursed media and tools for its creation bring into view the ways that that culture reacts to tension between the increasingly precarious position of human beings in the capitalist 21st century and the threat of human erasure by the powerful forces of nature. Students will be introduced to digital art tools for creating music, manipulating photography and video, working with 3d animation, and building web art. Students will attempt to create their own cursed media, and in the process will gain a deeper understanding of the unconscious biases and ethical implications of contemporary digital creation tools.
Computational simulation and videogame engines offer thinkers and makers a new way to reflect on the question “If I can make a world, what would it be like?” In Worldmaking with Unity, students will be exposed to various theories and approaches of worldmaking, and realize their own creative visions by constructing an original, conceptual, and playfully simulated world with indie game development engine Unity. This seven-week seminar/studio course will include a gentle introduction to computer programming, 3D modeling, character and scene design, and rendering techniques with Unity, as well as related production tools such as Blender. Projects may address system, agency, narrative, generative design, critical computing, and more. Student projects created in Unity can be compatible with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). This course is designed as an intro-level game design and development course. There is no prerequisite. More advanced production techniques such as shader language and AI might be introduced as optional topics only. More information at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UppRjSyFlMpGPNLMowqKmP7wwq29s5Oexnpvrj4Gubs/edit?usp=sharing
On October 8th, 2015, a team in Ecuador identified 431 species of birds – the world record for number counted in a single day. Earlier that year in Myanmar, a scientist counted one Jerdon’s babbler, the first in nearly eight decades. In December of 2019, eBird announced that its database held over 737 million bird observations. This morning, in Brooklyn Bridge park, I counted 38 house sparrows, 4 black-and-white warblers and an ovenbird. This course will consider birding as a practice, and will dive deep into the processes by which observations become data. As a collective, we will investigate how crowd-sourced data is transforming ornithology, and will explore ways to tell stories about the natural world through visualization and more radical forms of data representation.
This seminar addresses global media developments in the context of key theoretical frameworks. Topics include: the disruption of information flows; challenges to democracy; distrust in journalism; the rise of social platforms; gender and diversity biases; ethics and regulation; fake news and deep fakes; the erosion of privacy; citizen journalism; cancel culture; hacktivism and digital activism; #metoo and #blacklivesmatter; the metaverse and VR/AR; Web 3.0 and blockchain; and generative AI. The focus is international, with an emphasis on Australia.
The class will focus on the many overlooked aspects of paper, and how it can be used as a three-dimensional material. We will learn the disciplines of making Pop-Ups, Origami, Paper Crafting, and Visual Design. Using these methods as a starting point, students will build prototypes to explore new ways to tell stories, inform, interact, play with, engage, and challenge a younger audience. Most classes are hands – on. The rest, dedicated to criticism (including from children), analysis, and refinement, technical and conceptual. We will discuss how they could be mass produced and distributed. Students will build three prototypes, during the semester. From these, each student will select a favorite to fully develop as the final.
Language is more than just words and meanings: it’s paper and ink, pixels and screens, fingertips on keyboards, voices speaking out loud. Language is, in a word, material. In this course, students will gain an understanding of how the material of language is represented digitally, and learn computational techniques for manipulating this material in order to create speculative technologies that challenge conventional reading and writing practices. Topics include asemic writing, concrete poetry, markup languages, keyboard layouts, interactive and generative typography, printing technologies and bots (alongside other forms of radical publishing). Students will complete a series of weekly readings and production-oriented assignments leading up to a final project. In addition to critique, sessions will feature lectures, class discussions and technical tutorials. Prerequisites: Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience.
This course explores the disruptions and creative possibilities that realtime emerging media provides through the lens of learning how to design, create, produce and perform in realtime. Students will be learning how to design and produce for realtime interactive audiences, understand the modern streaming media pipeline, the fundamentals of virtual production, digital content creation and the basics of game engines and other software – all in the service of delivering a more engaging and intimate connection between audience and performer. Students will design and perform 2 distinct realtime performances as well as work together with peers to conceptualize, design and produce a short realtime ‘pilot’ using the tools and techniques you’ve learned in the first two projects. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Interactive Media Business Elective ; Interactive Media Arts Elective
This is an introductory course to the fundamentals of 3D computer animation. Through in-depth discussions and hands-on assignments, students will gain a thorough beginner’s understanding of the 3D production process. Using industry-leading Autodesk Maya running on high-end Mac Pro workstations, students will learn the basics of modeling and proceed through UV layout, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting and final render. At the end of the class students will have completed a series of exercises that will culminate in a final scene that showcases all they learned.This course allocates as a Craft for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES.
Dance reflects cultural heritage and is a key to understanding diverse societies. In this arts workshop, students explore dance as it appears on several continents. Dance can be seen as encoded forms of a society’s religious, artistic, political, economic, and familial values. Readings cover issues of globalization, fusion and authenticity. Migration, missionaries, trade routes and the diaspora have led to the creation of new dance forms like “Bollywood” and “Tribal” that are a synthesis of earlier forms. Students are introduced to different dance forms through selected readings, rich collection of video footage and studio practice often lead by various guest artists. After a brief warm-up, the class learns simple steps, floor plans and rhythms from the music and dance cultures being studied. Students choose a dance form as their project and themselves become researchers, performers and creators of new forms.
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.
This course covers combinational and sequential digital circuits. Topics: Introduction to digital systems. Number systems and binary arithmetic. Switching algebra and logic design. Error detection and correction. Combinational integrated circuits, including adders. Timing hazards. Sequential circuits, flipflops, state diagrams and synchronous machine synthesis. Programmable Logic Devices, PLA, PAL and FPGA. Finite-state machine design. Memory elements. A grade of C or better is required of undergraduate computer-engineering majors. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: CS-UY 1114 (C- or better) or CS-UY 1133 (C- or better) | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: CS-UH 1001 (C- or better) or ENGR-UH 1000 (C- or better) | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: CSCI-SHU 101 (C- or better)
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 architecture workshop introduces the basic principles of design. It begins with an analysis of a house by an important architect that examines the design concept or parti of the building, historical and environmental issues, as well as function, circulation, spatial organization, site, zoning, light, proportions, structure, and materials. In developing this project, students are also introduced to a vocabulary of design terms and the process of creating an architectural concept. In the projects that follow, students create their own designs for various types of structures. The assignments might include a New York loft space, a house in the country, or a small public or commercial building. These exercises provide the experience of creating designs by applying the concepts learned in the analysis. The basic techniques of drafting, rendering, and using Sketchup or similar software are also discussed. Films, lectures and texts on architectural theory provide additional insight. Design experience is useful, but not required.
The principal aim of this course is to familiarize students with the history of British art from the Stuarts to the early Victorian era. Teaching will be conducted entirely on sites in London or its immediate vicinity. The course will begin with the elite patronage of the Stuart court and end with the development of public institutions of art from the mid-eighteenth century. The social significance of portraiture, the cult of antiquity, the art market and the rise of landscape will all be studied as themes. There will be a strong emphasis on the European sources of British visual culture and the emergence of a distinctive national tradition of painting from Hogarth through to Turner.
This course provides an overview of the key components of the global sports management ecosystem. Managing the myriad moving parts that make up the sports industry requires an understanding of general management principles and their special applications to the sports industry. From technology and marketing innovations to improved delivery systems, sports and sports-related content are one of the key drivers of the changing media landscape. The course will explore the critical elements of delivering sports content to viewers in the U.S. and abroad, taking into account constituencies which include the rights holders (e.g. leagues, conferences, teams, national governing bodies) the performers or talent (e.g. players, coaches, general managers) the media the sponsors and the consumer. For each component the course will examine the strategies, history and management perspectives that have informed this massive and evolving sector of media industries.
This course provides students with working knowledge of the publishing industry comprising newspapers, magazines, and books. It explores traditional business models and how disruptive forces including digitalization, consumer generated content, low barriers to entry, and changing media consumption patterns are reshaping the industry. By the end of the course, students understand the operations of media companies, and can speak to the opportunities and challenges facing the industry, engage in discussions on the economics, terms, and metrics, and explain emerging business models.
A specialized EMT course within the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies designed to provide students with a framework for understanding the dynamics of producing (as a business profession) a finished creative product in the entertainment and media industries, developing a business model, and generating an income stream to repay and provide investors with a profit. Educates the student in the process of feature film and long-form television production from the initial concept of the story, through script development, to completion of the project. Covers the most important steps in the production of an independent film, a studio project, a network TV or cable show, a radio program, a Broadway production, and an advertising television commercial. Explores all the elements a producer must know, understand, and eventually become skilled with through mastery of development, including script selection, finance, budgeting, timetable development, team building, talent selection, sales, contract and union negotiation, regulations, technology, and other relevant core competencies.
This course covers the television industry, focusing on network television, cable, and satellite. It primarily surveys the American market and investigates new technology including digitization and HDTV, while providing some comparison with the international broadcast market. Students explore the organization, programming, and revenue strategies, as well as marketing innovations and competition in the newly configured broadcast landscape. Important legislation including the Telecommunications Act of 1996 are also examined. The recent volume of mergers and acquisitions in the broadcast industry are studied for their impact on the domestic entertainment landscape.
Provides the background necessary to make decisions about computer-based information systems and to be an “end-user”. Two major parts of the course are hands-on experience with personal computers and information systems management. Group and individual computer assignments expose students to electronic spreadsheet analysis and database management on a personal computer. Management aspects focus on understanding computer technology, systems analysis and design, and control of information processing by managers.
Modern art has been a balancing act between control and letting go. This course focuses on the psychological interface between the two, the “liminal” zone. We will survey modern artists’ techniques for tapping sources of creativity, including Dada collagists’ free-associations; Surrealists’ automatic writing, doodles, and “cadavres exquises”; and Abstract Expressionists’ embrace of chaos. We will engage in simple exercises: doodling, speed drawing, painting an abstract mural as a group, keeping a liminal journal, collaging, and exploring ritualistic techniques. We will follow up with discussions, take a trip to the Met to dialogue with an African oracle sculpture,and conclude the course reexamining modern art in light of the inner journey threshold drama each of us has taken during the course. Readings include van Gennep’s Rites of Passage, Chipp’s Theories of Modern Art, R.D. Laing, Federico Garcia Lorca on duende, Victor Turner on liminal, Mircea Eliade on Shamanism Techniques of Ecstasy, James Elkins on alchemy and art, and Frida Kahlo’s journal.
In Jorge Luis Borges’s 1941 short story, The Garden of Forking Paths, a character named Ts’ Ui Pen seeks to build a labyrinth in which all men will lose their way. Borges reveals that labyrinth to be a sprawling book in which all moments in time are followed by every possible subsequent moment. Multiple futures and timelines exist as one in this garden of forking paths. Fast forward to today, where we find that Ts” Ui Pen”s seemingly incomprehensible vision has come to fruition via video games and interactive fiction. Both often eschew linearity and instead offer users the opportunity to drive the story and shape their own narrative experience. “In this course, we will first explore the trajectory of interactive fiction, from its early overtures in works by Borges and Italo Calvino, forward through Agusto Boal”s Forum Theatre, early computer text adventures, Choose Your Own Adventure books, non-linear film, and into the various digital interactive fictions of today, such as hypertext literature, adventure games, and visual novels. “From there, students will embark on their own adventure through interactive creative writing. The journey will begin with students taking apart and diagraming existing interactive works, and using digital tools to craft and share their own short interactive scenes and dialogs. We will confront the challenges and limitations of writing interactive story and establish some key critical theories governing non-linearity. The course will culminate in students designing and writing a complete short work of interactive fiction in a medium of their choice.
Offered in the fall semester only. A chronological survey of the art and commerce of the animated film internationally over the last 100 years. Designed to expand students’ awareness of the origins of a significant 20th-century art form and to acquaint them with a wide variety of practical techniques and styles, from pre-film influences to computer-generated images; from “Golden Age” studio cartoon factories to today’s independent avant-garde animator-filmmakers. Designed to expand student aesthetic sensibilities and sharpen critical perceptions about this unique genre. This course allocates as History & Criticism for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES. Non-majors must process a “Permission Notice for Non-Majors” form to register for the course (subject to availability).
This course explores the art and craft of mixing records, with special attention to “mixing in the box” (via a digital audio workstation). Focus on methodology and technique, with particular emphasis on establishing balances, using such tools as compression and automation to enhance dynamics and develop unique coloration. Examines intersection of technology, budgets, and the marketplace. Students execute their own mixes, with guidance and critique from the instructor. Basic level of DAW proficiency required.
This is a multidisciplinary course in which students with previous experience with analog and digital electronics create a novel hardware–based electronic musical instrument, controller, effects unit, or other device related to their interests in music and audio. Student projects may be analog, digital, or a hybrid, and should be unique in some way from devices currently in the commercial marketplace. Students present their designs and functioning physical prototypes with the class as they evolve throughout the semester for feedback.
A general introduction to the fundamental concepts of music technology, including: MIDI and sequencing, the basics of digital audio, sound recording, mixing and sound synthesis,. The course will also briefly overview advanced topics and applications in the field.
Introduction to the concepts of live concert recording. Microphone selection, characteristics & placement as well as acoustic problems encountered in concert halls will be discussed. Students will have the opportunity to apply the lecture material by recording undergraduate rehearsals & recitals.
Communication sits at the core of all human interactions and is highly valued in workplaces. Beyond the minimal goal of articulating and presenting one’s ideas effectively, communication also involves building empathy, cultivating an eye for detail, developing awareness of goals and contexts, and integrating critical and reflective thinking. How can we communicate our own projects to different audiences? Why should other people care? What types of media can we use and how do we know they are effective? How can collaborative and participatory elements help to improve engagement levels? This course aims to guide students to review and create their own learning profiles as they learn to engage a diverse range of targeted audience. Prerequisite: Not open to freshman. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
This course explores the disruptions and creative possibilities that realtime emerging media provides through the lens of learning how to design, create, produce and perform in realtime. Students will be learning how to design and produce for realtime interactive audiences, understand the modern streaming media pipeline, the fundamentals of virtual production, digital content creation and the basics of game engines and other software – all in the service of delivering a more engaging and intimate connection between audience and performer. Students will design and perform 2 distinct realtime performances as well as work together with peers to conceptualize, design and produce a short realtime ‘pilot’ using the tools and techniques you’ve learned in the first two projects. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Interactive Media Business Elective ; Interactive Media Arts Elective
Design seems to be omnipresent, but what is it? This course (whose title is Latin for usage, beauty, and stability) explores how design influences our life and investigates the fundamentals of “good design.” It takes a look at the status quo of the use of design in media, objects, and architecture, and observe its influence on art and technology from past to present. Design tools and processes will be highlighted. Based on the fusion of readings, study, discussion, and experiences, over the course of the semester students will develop an understanding of how mutually reinforcing and beneficiary a mix of Arts, Design, and Technology can be. Lecture and discussion will help develop the design of a bricolage: Every student will realize a product prototype to be displayed in an exhibition and a personal philosophy of about Arts, Design, and Technology.
This course examines the major trends in digital marketing using tools from business analytics and data science. While there will be sufficient attention given to top level strategy used by companies adopting digital marketing, the focus of the course is also on business analytics: how to make firms more intelligent in how they conduct business in the digital age. Measurement plays a big role in this space. The course is complemented by cutting-edge projects and various business consulting assignments that the Professor has been involved in with various companies over the last few years. Prof Ghose has consulted in various capacities for Apple, AMD, Berkeley Corporation, Bank of Khartoum, CBS, Dataxu, Facebook, Intel, NBC Universal, Samsung, Showtime, 3TI China, and collaborated with Alibaba, China Mobile, Google, IBM, Indiegogo, Microsoft, Recobell, Travelocity and many other leading Fortune 500 firms on realizing business value from IT investments, internet marketing, business analytics, mobile marketing, digital analytics and other topics.We will learn about statistical issues in data analyses such as selection problem, omitted variables problem, endogeneity, and simultaneity problems, autocorrelation, multi-collinearity, assessing the predictive power of a regression and interpreting various numbers from the output of a statistical package, various econometrics-based tools such as simple and multivariate regressions, linear and non-linear probability models (Logit and Probit), estimating discrete and continuous dependent variables, count data models (Poisson and Negative Binomial), cross-sectional models vs. panel data models (Fixed Effects and Random Effects), and various experimental techniques that help can tease out correlation from causality such as randomized field experiments.
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.
This course has three goals. First, the mastering of a modern object-oriented programming language, enough to allow students to tackle real-world problems of important significance. Second, gaining an appreciation of computational thinking, a process that provides the foundations for solving real-world problems. Finally, providing an overview of the very diverse and exciting field of computer science – a field which, arguably more than any other, impacts how we work, live, and play today. Prerequisite: Introduction to Computer Programming or placement exam. Equivalency: This course counts for CSCI-UA 101. Fulfillment: Core Curriculum Requirement Algorithmic Thinking; Computer Science Major Required Courses; Computer Systems Engineering Major Required Courses; Data Science Major Foundational Courses; Electrical and Systems Engineering Major Required Major Courses.
What does it mean to become a “temporary expert?” How does one develop one’s own creative research-based practice? This course will address these questions by engaging with Abu Dhabi’s environmental and social dimensions as a subject for research, context and imaginative art and design opportunities. Students will adopt a wide variety of tools and strategies in order to lay the foundations for a research-based art practice that considers materials, media, context, and audience, as well as one’s personal strengths and desires. Over the course of the semester, students will develop art and design projects that interface with a multiplicity of other disciplines, and engage in idea exchange with experts in the field. Through hands-on practice, case studies, and readings on systems thinking, communication, and the idea of “the public,” we will explore method, documentation and presentation of research, as well as the merits of both success and failure.
This course explores the possibilities and challenges of designing alternate physical network interfaces. Through weekly readings, class discussions, and a series of projects, students will create physical objects that talk to each other over distance. Various wireless communication mechanisms such as radio (Bluetooth, Zigbee, WiFi, and raw), infrared, and ultrasonic are used in the context of creating novel “smart” devices. Topics of discussion in this course include networking protocols and network topologies; network time versus physical time; mobile objects; and wireless networks. Opportunities to build collaborative and creative campus-wide networked projects and systems will also be explored.
There are many cognitive tasks that people can do easily and almost unconsciously but that have proven extremely difficult to program on a computer. Artificial intelligence is the problem of developing computer systems that can carry out these tasks. We will focus on three central areas in AI: representation and reasoning, machine learning, and natural language processing.
Introduces theories, methods, and political trajectories central to the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis (SCA). SCA 101 addresses how individuals and populations structure their worlds and navigate the resulting social, cultural, and political terrain. It privileges scholarly work with an intersectional approach, drawing on theoretical insights from such fields as social geography, feminism and queer studies, ethnic studies, urban and metropolitan studies, critical race theory, labor studies, and cultural studies.
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.
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 year. 4 points. Theories of political strategy with emphasis on the theory of games. Uses of strategy in defense and deterrence policies of nations, guerrilla warfare of revolutionaries and terrorists, bargaining and negotiation processes, coalitions and the enforcement of collective action, and voting in committees and elections. Secrecy and deception as political strategies and uses of power, with some applications outside political science.
New research is the most exciting and important aspect of political science: we are able to pose novel questions, construct fresh theories, and provide new evidence about the way the world works. But before we start doing research, we have to learn how it is done. With this in mind, this class will introduce students to quantitative techniques used for research in the study of politics. Part of this task is conceptual: helping students to think sensibly and systematically about research design. To this end, students will learn how data and theory fit together, and how to measure the quantities we care about. But part of the task is practical too: students will learn a `toolbox’ of methods–including statistical software–that enable them to execute their plans.
Introduces students to social choice theory applied to political science. It focuses on (1) individual choice, (2) group choice, (3) collective action, and (4) institutions. It looks at models of individuals’ voting behavior, the incentive structures of interest groups, and the role of institutions. The emphasis is analytical, though students are not expected to have a background in formal mathematics.
Offered every semester. 4 points. Analysis of state behavior and international political relations; how things happen in the international state system and why. Emphasizes the issue of war and how and in what circumstances states engage in violence. Topics include different historical and possible future systems of international relations, imperialism, the Cold War, game theory and deterrents, national interests, and world organization.
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 computational physics, with an emphasis on fields of current research interest where numerical techniques provide unique physical insight. Topics are chosen from various branches of physics, including numerical solution of ordinary and partial differential equations, eigenvalue problems, Monte Carlo methods in statistical mechanics, field theory, dynamical systems, and chaos.
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 the characteristic method, positions, and themes of the existentialist and phenomenological movements and traces their development through study of such thinkers as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre.
We will investigate different approaches to understanding space and time, and how the account of space-time structure has evolved in physics. One of the main objectives is to have a clear and accurate understanding of the Special Theory of Relativity, detailed enough to allow the student to solve some physics problems. This will require a bit of mathematics, but not more than algebra. We will discuss the General Theory of Relativity in a more qualitative way, including an account of the structure of black holes. Philosophy students do not need any further background in physics or mathematics, and physics students will not benefit from greater mathematical sophistication. We will also study the relevant history of physics and philosophy, particularly the debate between Newton and Leibniz about the nature of space and time. There will be two lectures each week and a recitation section.
Examines some of the most important philosophical ideas and developments in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. Covers some of the major writings of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, and Hume, and concludes with a brief examination of some aspects of Kant’s philosophy. (Kant is examined in more detail in PHIL-UA 30.) May also include writings of Hobbes, Malebranche, Elisabeth of Bohemia, Conway, Berkeley, and Shepherd, among others.
This course aims to accomplish two things. The first is to introduce three broad traditions of normative thinking about social issues from around the globe: a Confucian tradition, one based in Islamic legal traditions, and one derived from European liberalism. The second is to address three current areas of normative debate: about global economic inequality, about gender justice and human rights. We shall explore these first-order questions against the background of the three broad traditions. Our aim will be to understand some of differences of approach that shape the global conversation about these issues that concern people around the world.
Lecture and laboratory course that provides students with broad exposure to current questions and experimental approaches in cellular neuroscience. Lectures and laboratories are organized into three areas: cell structure aLecture and laboratory course that provides students with broad exposure to current questions and experimental approaches in cellular neuroscience. Lectures and laboratories are organized into three areas: cell structure and organization of the vertebrate central nervous system, mechanisms underlying neural signaling and plasticity, and control of cell form and its developmental determinants. Laboratory instruction in anatomical, physiological, and biochemical methods for investigating the biology of nerve cells.
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.
Any one of the following: a score of 670 or higher on the mathematics portion of the SAT, a score of 650 or higher on the SAT Subject Test in Mathematics 1, a score of 650 or higher on the SAT Subject Test in Mathematics 2, an ACT mathematics score of 30 or higher, a score of 3 or higher on the AP Calculus AB exam, an AB subscore of 3 or higher on the AP Calculus BC exam, a score of 3 or higher on the AP Calculus BC exam, a grade of C or higher in Algebra and Calculus (MATH-UA 9), or a passing score on a departmental placement exam. Derivatives, antiderivatives, and integrals of functions of one variable. Applications include graphing, maximizing, and minimizing functions. Definite integrals and the fundamental theorem of calculus. Areas and volumes.
Introduces the field of cognitive science through an examination of language behavior. Begins with interactive discussions of how best to characterize and study the mind. These principles are then illustrated through an examination of research and theories related to language representation and use. Draws from research in both formal linguistics and psycholinguistics.
What determines the sequencing of words in a given language? How can we explain word-order variation within and across languages? Are there universal syntactic properties common to the grammar of all languages? Presents the modern generative approach to the scientific study of language and systematically develops a model that will account for the most basic syntactic constructions of natural language.
Language is a social phenomenon, but languages share elaborate and specific structural properties. Speech communities exist, exhibit variation, and change within the strict confines of universal grammar, part of our biological endowment. Universal grammar is discovered through the careful study of the structures of individual languages, by cross-linguistic investigations, and the investigation of the brain. Introduces fundamental properties of the sound system and of the structure and interpretation of words and sentences against this larger context.
This class is a guide through the works of choreographers who can teach us the elements of making dance and enable us to create our own movement identity. The psychological storytelling of Martha Graham, George Balanchine’s blazing neo-classicism, the chance field dances of Merce Cunningham, Twyla Tharp’s humorous inversions, the deconstructions of William Forsythe, Mathew Bourne’s gay Swan Lake, and the powerful Black gospel songs of Alvin Ailey are observed through video and readings. After a warmup of technique and improvisation, the student begins with small movement studies, leading to group studies of increasing complexity, with teacher and students responding with supportive feedback. New this semester will be a section, “Dance as Protest,” which explores texts such as Hot Feet and Social Change: African Dance and Diaspora Communities. We will study the movie In the Heights, where Afro-Caribbean dance, ballet, contemporary and hip hop convey ideas about community and representation. Texts include The Intimate Art of Choreography and “Dance in the Age of Black Lives Matter.” Students can have studied dance or simply wish to move and compose using their body and imagination. Student works in a final performance in the theater will be recorded.
This course introduces contemporary Italy in all its complexity and fascination. Reviewing politics, economics, society, and culture over the past two centuries, the course has a primary goal — to consider how developments since the 1800s have influenced the lives and formed the outlook of today’s Italians. In other words, we are engaged in the historical search for something quite elusive: Italian “identity”. Topics will include the unification of the country, national identity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the First World War, and Italian fascism, World War Two and the resistance, the post-war Italian Republic, the economic “miracle”, the South, the Mafia, terrorism, popular culture, and the most recent political and social developments, including Italy and the European Union. Lectures combine with readings and films (taking advantage of Italy’s magnificent post-war cinema).
This course offers a broad survey of American cinema from its beginnings (and even its pre-history) up to 1960. While the emphasis will be on the dominant, narrative fiction film, there will be attention to other modes of American cinema such as experimental film, animation, shorts, and non-fiction film. The course will look closely at films themselves — how do their styles and narrative structures change over time? — but also at contexts: how do films reflect their times? how does the film industry develop? what are the key institutions that had impact on American film over its history? We will also attend to the role of key figures in film’s history: from creative personnel (for example, the director or the screenwriter) to industrialists and administrators, to censors to critics and to audiences themselves. The goal will be to provide an overall understanding of one of the most consequential of modern popular art forms and of its particular contributions to the art and culture of our modernity.
Video games are now a mainstream form of entertainment. In economic terms, this industry has experienced tremendous growth, despite a grueling recession, growing to an estimated $60 billion worldwide. A key development that has changed the playing field for both the producers and consumers of interactive entertainment is a shift away from physical retail to digital and online game distribution. The audience for games has also shifted—no longer the exclusive practice of hardcore gamers, video games have gained mass appeal in the form of social and casual gaming, on the internet, on consoles, and smartphones. At the same time, the development and publishing of games has become far more accessible. The game behind the game, in a manner of speaking, has changed. In this class, we explore the basic components of the current video game industry. Every week, we review major current events, will hear from people currently working in the industry, examine case studies, and discuss the overall business landscape. Central to each class is the notion that practical business considerations and the design-driven creative process do not have to be in opposition.
This course provides students with a comprehensive framework and tools to understand the advertising process and to appreciate managerial and theoretical perspectives in advertising. It tackles the stages in developing an advertising plan- from analyzing the situation and defining clear advertising objectives to execution. Students learn tools related to various skill areas in advertising, including account planning, media planning and buying, and copywriting/art direction, while developing a broader appreciation of how each skill area fits into the overall structure of the advertising process. Coursework involves a comprehensive group project that utilizes learning in all functional areas of advertising, while simulating the development of an advertising campaign.
Examines the array of environmental problems facing modern society, including global pollution and the impact of human population growth on land-use patterns, earth resources, energy supply and use, water, agriculture, and ecosystems.
Readings from major modern American, British, and Irish poets from the middle of the 19th century to the 1920s?specifically, from Whitman?s Leaves of Grass (1855) to T. S. Eliot?s The Waste Land (1922). Poets considered generally include Whitman, Dickinson, Hardy, Hopkins, Yeats, Pound, Stevens, Frost, Williams, and Eliot.
Application of statistics and economic theory to problems of formulating and estimating models of economic behavior. Matrix algebra is developed as the main tool of analysis in regression. Acquaints students with basic estimation theory and techniques in the regression framework and covers extensions such as specification error tests, heteroskedasticity, errors in variables, and simple time series models. An introduction to simultaneous equation modes and the concept of identification is provided.
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.
This course constitutes an introduction to the 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 basic techniques of the organic chemistry laboratory, including crystallization, distillation, extraction, and other separation techniques, such as column chromatography. Experiments involving the synthesis of organic compounds are introduced, as well as qualitative organic analysis.
This course constitutes an introduction to inorganic and physical chemistry for science majors, engineers, and the prehealth professions. Emphasizes the fundamental principles and theories of chemistry. Topics include the theories of atomic structure; stoichiometry; properties of gases, liquids, solids, and solutions; periodicity of the properties of elements; chemical bonding; equilibrium; kinetics, thermodynamics; acid-base reactions; electrochemistry, coordination chemistry, and nuclear chemistry. The underlying unity of chemistry is a basic theme. Laboratories provide an introduction to basic techniques used in experimental chemistry. Many experiments use a computer interface to provide experience in modern methods of data collection and to allow thorough analysis of experimental results. Proper laboratory procedures, chemical safety rules, and environmentally sound methods of chemical disposal and waste minimization are important components of the course. Experiments are selected to provide illustration and reinforcement of course topics, including manual and automated titrations, basic chromatography, stoichiometry, thermodynamics, and colorimetry.
An introduction to quantum mechanics–general principles and applications to important model systems. Covers electronic structure of one- and many-electron atoms, theory of chemical bonding in diatomic and polyatomic molecules. Includes principles and applications of molecular spectroscopy–rotational, vibrational, electronic, and nuclear magnetic resonance. Elements of photochemistry are also included.
The study of African American dramatic traditions from early minstrelsy to turn-of-the-century musical extravaganzas; from the Harlem Renaissance folk plays to realistic drama of the 1950s; from the militant protest drama of the 1960s to the historical and experimental works of the present. Issues of race, gender, class; of oppression and empowerment; of marginality and assimilation are explored in the works of such playwrights as Langston Hughes, Alice Childress, Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, Adrienne Kennedy, Charles Fuller, George C. Wolfe, Ntozake Shange, August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Anna Deavere Smith. The sociohistorical context of each author is also briefly explored.
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.
How do humans and other animals learn, and how do we study this in the laboratory? What is the neurobiological basis of learning and memory? What are the genetic and environmental factors that have shaped the learning process throughout evolution? What other cognitive processes influence learning, and how can we apply this knowledge to our own studies? In trying to address these questions, this seminar gives an overview of modern neuroscience and psychology research on learning and memory, and illustrates how cognitive science can be used to develop strategies for effective learning, while also discussing implications for societal issues, disorders, and artificial intelligence.
Lecture and laboratory course that focuses on how the brain uses both sensory and stored information to generate behavior. Lectures and laboratories cover four main areas: sensory process, learning and memory, motivational and attentional mechanisms, and the motor system. Laboratories employ a range of electrophysiological techniques, lesions and pharmacological manipulations, and various behavioral techniques to examine the integrative processes by which the brain governs behavior.
This laboratory course applies concepts learned in the Molecular and Cell Biology course (BIOL-UA 21) to a molecular biology research project. The research project will introduce students to standard genetic and biochemical techniques common in a molecular biology lab, such as DNA isolation, agarose-gel electrophoresis, and transformation. The project also will provide students with a hands-on understanding of how modern DNA-sequencing technology, along with bioinformatic tools, can be used to discover genetic differences and understand cellular function.
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.
How do different cultures view mental health and illness? Why do some ethnic groups readily accept mental health care while others generally avoid the psychiatrist or psychologist at all costs? How does bicultural or multicultural identity and minority status affect one’s psychological development? This course seeks to explore what we know about how culture, ethnicity, race and minority status affect the mental health of children, adolescents, and young adults in modern America. We will start by studying the process of acculturation and mental health issues specific to immigrant youth and children of immigrants. We will delve into the cultural aspects of identity development, family dynamics, parenting, stigma, and mental health disparities and then segue into stereotypes and intergroup bias. Readings will draw from the growing body of research literature, and examples from popular arts, media and entertainment will be incorporated as supplemental material for class discussion. Students will review current treatments and participate in class discussions. Students of all backgrounds will be encouraged to explore mental health and illness with a broadened cultural perspective.
How do children learn right from wrong? Today’s youth face an onslaught of mixed messages about morality. Parents and teachers champion honesty, integrity and empathy, while sports stars use steroids, music and video games glorify sexual violence, and politicians pander for votes based on prejudice and fear. At the same time, children are confronted with uniquely modern moral challenges, as they navigate bullying and privacy invasion on the Internet, easily accessible drugs of abuse, and gang and relationship violence. This course will examine how children negotiate these challenges and learn moral principles, using perspectives from developmental neurobiology, evolutionary biology, philosophy, and multiple theoretical frameworks within cognitive and social psychology. Topics will include gender, culture, socioeconomic status, education, and parenting and their influence on moral development from infancy through adolescence.
After spending our early lives with our parents, what can we say about how they influenced our personalities and development? How have our parents affected what we learn, how we act, and how we manage our health? Just as you have wondered about these questions, so have scientists and professionals. We study parenting styles in detail to identify qualities that foster healthy child development. The course reviews research on the importance of parenting practices within a family context. Students also learn how to interact effectively with parents, how to mobilize parents, and what efforts have been successful in changing detrimental parenting actions. This course is for the curious and those interested in careers in education, health, and mental health.
Clinical practice and public policy in child mental health is too often driven by the media, conventional wisdom, and prejudice rather than by scientific data. Evidence-based clinical care seeks to guide practitioners in the critical appraisal of data on risk factors, prevention, and treatment. This course is designed for those who wish to read the health research literature and draw their own conclusions. It provides a practical means to learn and apply research methods and focuses on the knowledge and skills needed to design, carry out, and evaluate a research study. Discussion of topical “hot-button” issues, such as the apparent “epidemic” of certain diagnoses, the influence of the environment or culture on child mental health, and the risks/benefits of widely prescribed medications, are combined with a systematic review of the existing evidence base on current empirically supported treatment for child mental health problems.
Major traditions in painting, sculpture, and architecture of the native peoples of North America, Mexico, Central America, and Andean South America. Material from pre-contact times through the 20th century. Deals with questions of theory and differences between indigenous and Western world views; the relationship of the arts to shamanism, priesthoods, guardian spirits, deities, and beliefs regarding fauna and flora; impact of European contact on indigenous arts and civilization.
Introduces contemporary archaeology, its theories, practices, and early societies and cultures. Examines current methodological and theoretical viewpoints of archaeological scholarship within the discipline of anthropology. Focuses on key transformations in cultural evolution, such as the origins of modern humans, the emergence of food production, and the development of complex societies, urbanism, and early states. Explores gender roles, landscapes and settlements, technologies, art, cognitive systems, urbanism, and state formation.
What does it mean to think anthropologically? This course considers historically foundational practices of anthropological thought, its core method, fieldwork, and its most influential product, the ethnography, in order to think practically and creatively along the lines of what constitutes cultures, societies, translation, and difference. A central goal is to advance the concept of culture, with its attendant solidarities, hierarchies, and exclusions, in order to better understand continually changing systems of collective identifications.
This course surveys the history and development of jazz music in America from the mid 1800s to current trends in popular music. Through a historical timeline, student will study jazz music’s range of styles as informed by social, regional, cultural, technological, and political trends. Realizing that all music is a reflection of historical events and the cultures they are informed by, students will analyze the close connection between jazz music and why it is known as America’s true original artform.
The main goal of this course is to provide students with ways how to enhance traditional storytelling by new technologies without diminishing the role of the written word. We will examine every aspect of the craft of traditional fiction writing: plot, structure, point of view, narrative voice, dialogue, building of individual scenes, etc as well as the new techniques of the digital age: hypertext, visual and audio images, social media. We will learn how to balance the traditional with the new without overwhelming the written text with gadgets. The class will become a creative lab studying ideas by others, coming up with their own, presenting their fiction, responding to the writing of others, and discussing questions about literature, editing, and publishing in the digital age.Each student will create and present to class a work of fiction based on some of the ideas we will be discussing.The works don’t have to be in the electronic form, but the students will need to explain how they would work. Each student will create a basic website with a writer’s profile and portfolio of her works. Readings will include fiction by: Borges, Nabokov, Michael Joyce, Margaret Atwood, Jennifer Egan.
The course will tackle questions of sexuality in the Middle East from a historical perspective. Applying methodologies of queer theory, it will discuss the complex history of sexuality in the Middle East, and sketch the genealogy of Western attitudes towards both Arab and Jewish sexuality. Relying on theorists and historians like Michel Foucault, Robert Aldrich, Khaled El-Rouayheb, Samar Habib, and Joseph Massad, we will explore the essential role that the queer issue plays in the contemporary politics of the region.
THIS COURSE TAKES PLACE AT NYU-FLORENCE. The aim of this course is to explore the history of Italian fashion with an interdisciplinary approach focused on social, cultural, economic and political aspects. By focusing on select topics of key interest students will acquire a basic knowledge of the history of Italian fashion from the Renaissance to the present, understand the complex and multivalent clothing codes that help to order social interaction and learn to decode it. These abilities will provide students with a useful basis for understanding the capital role of the fashion of the past both as the origin of a ‘language’ of clothes still in use and as a boundless source of inspiration for contemporary designers. Conducted in English.
Since the terms Realism and Naturalism were first applied to plays by writers like Ibsen or Strindberg, the attempt to create a semblance of everyday life on stage has defined and sometimes dominated Western drama, even by inspiring other styles and movements in reaction. This course will explore the forms and purposes – the how and the why – of these “realistic” approaches to theater, both from a literary and a performance perspective. With the 19th Century movement in visual arts and literature as background, and contemporary equivalents in other media as context, we will ask what is particular about Realism as a way of seeing or defining the “real”? What perspectives and assumptions does it use to recreate the details of lived experience, and what does a theater audience experience? We will look at some classic 20th Century English-language theatrical examples (e.g. Miller, Hansberry), alongside contemporary pieces that draw from them (Baker, Hudes, Lee). Acting and directing texts from Uta Hagen and Harold Clurman, as well as writing about associated acting styles (such as “The Method”), will guide our work. Through rehearsing scenes and critical analysis, students will interrogate the techniques and their assumptions, asking what they now might offer us, in a culture suffused in “reality TV” and filmed recreations of the “real”. The class will then create and perform their own scenes inspired by and/or critiquing this tradition.
This course explores the pictorial articulation of individual human likeness and its fiction in the public forum. The art of portraiture has survived its own origins in myth making and archetype building. The human image, or icon, forever landmarks the voices, textures, physicality, spirituality, symbols, politics, aesthetic concerns and military contexts, religious rituals, government, calendar ceremonies, daily functions, heroic acts and social disorders of diverse cultures throughout recorded history. It is the history of creation, the story of romance, the mark of progress, the record of royalty and the profile of democracy. It is the revolution of fine art and a catalyst of discipline. Imaging the individual in the public eye is the story of humankind. This course bridges the worlds of the oral and written mythologies which inhabit and empower us and the creative manifestation (conscious and unconscious) of these ancient archetypes into contemporary art, media and design. Students will critically rethink the implied and material presence of portraiture in everyday life. Students will gain practical knowledge and insight into the origins and potential power of the archetypes which permeate our collective unconscious.
Whether you are a filmmaker looking to better understand how to build a cohesive and productive film crew; a theatre maker excited about building a performance project or theatre company; a multi-media artist looking for ways to innovate your ideas for artistic work in collaboration with others; an artist looking for tools for building an artistic ensemble, or a multi-disciplinary artist looking to take your creative work out into communities as social practice, this combination lecture/activity-based class provides you with tools for better understanding how to enter into and engage others in collective creative work of purpose. Multi-Disciplinary Arts Practice with Community Groups: Theories and Practice explores the challenges and benefits of making artistic work with others and the tools needed to create meaningful collaborative projects. In this class we interrogate definitions of community and group, explore the balance between group process and producing an artistically excellent project, and examine the processes of creating artistic work with others to strengthen our own artistic voices while helping raise the creative voices of others. With its focus on social practice, this course provides a foundation for working with small group structures in a variety of community settings and professional creative work environments. The course satisfies a CA major requirement as well as a social science requirement for all other Tisch students.
Language of Film is an introduction to the craft, history and theory of filmmaking and film-watching. The main challenge facing all filmmakers is to show the story: in other words, to visualize the drama. Over the past century, narrative, experimental and documentary filmmakers have developed a variety of creative strategies and techniques designed to give their audiences compelling, multi-sensorial experiences. The goal of this class is to explore how filmmakers in different historical and cultural settings have contributed to the evolution of film as a powerful, complex and captivating art form.. This course allocates as History & Criticism for Film & TV majors.
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.
This class focuses on the art of computer graphics and image processing. We explore the concepts of pixilation, image representation and granularity and the tension between reality and image. Students are introduced to the tools and techniques of creating dynamic and interactive computer images from scratch, manipulating and processing existing images and videos, compositing and transitioning multiple images, tracking and masking live video, compositing and manipulating live video as well as manipulating depth information from Kinect. The class uses Processing and the Java language and also introduces students to shaders and the glsl language.
This is an interactive media art class for people who want to develop creative experiences that are about something specific with a specific point of view! This sounds vague, but your projects won’t be! You’ll be provided with a step-by-step methodology for making research-driven creative and critical projects with a focus on experience design. For the first part of the semester, you’ll make a low-tech guide to a somewhat wacky random topic you’ve been assigned to. For the second part you’ll choose a topic you are passionate about and make an interactive experience that engages deeply with that topic. Skills touched upon: research methods, ideation, critique, experience design, intro-level Unity3d. Class time will consist of: creative exercises; discussion of readings, methodologies, and artworks; student presentations; critique sessions; guest artists and researchers; and a handful of demos. Why critical? In this class, critical means: discerning, eager to participate differently, cast new light on, re-examine, course-correct. Why experience? The work in this class will be looked at through the lens of its ability to change a user, participant, audience, viewer. Interactivity is one way of doing that, but through the lens of experience design, all art is temporal and embodied. A research-based art practice brings together an eccentric mixture of skills, including traditional forms of research (library and interview techniques, informal ethnographies) and experimental hands-on research (hunch-following, experimentation, systems thinking, prototyping, daily practice, user experience design, and user-testing). We’ll try ’em all!
Electronic Textiles spans the worlds of craft, electronics, and computing. We will build skills in the often surprising world of using soft, stretchy or low tech materials where one might have expected hard, dimensionally stable, or high tech materials and vice versa. Weekly projects will have requirements for craftsmanship and design, and will build skills in integrating electronics and computing with soft items and wearables, making sensors and displays, tailoring and costuming, and creating your own materials. You will gain familiarity with materials and with hand and machine crafting skills. Weekly readings for discussion will be required, and presentations and guest speakers will offer you ideas and critical challenges. Pre-req: None. Fulfillment: IMA/B Elective
In this course we combine both analytic and embodied learning about human movement practices. We will learn selected computational and physical movement sensing techniques (webcam-based, wearable-based, and commercial motion capture technologies). We will combine guest and student-led presentations and activities that involve us in movement while learning structures and history of selected movement practices such as dance and circus arts. We will do four sprint projects of approximately one week in length (each semester projects differ, but may include examples such as PoseNet/MoveNet, Creating a Fitness Tracker, Rhythm Game, Non-humanoid MoCap avatars), alternating with work on a class choreographic project and individual research and writing of a paper on a movement practice. Prerequisite: Creative Coding Lab or equivalent programming experience. Fulfillment: IMA/B Elective.
Technology products and services are increasingly a huge part of how businesses reach their end-customer and Product Managers (PMs) are the ones to lead teams to build software that solve real problems. This course is designed as an introduction course of how PMs do this across a variety of contexts to evaluate customer needs, translate needs into functional requirements, prioritize different aspects of development, work with cross-functional teams, launch a product and create a holistic vision of how customers experience the product. This course will focus on lectures, discussions, case-studies and hands-on exercises that replicate a typical product process at a startup, tech or non-tech company. This course equips students with the mindset, tools, frameworks to mindfully discover, design and build things that make an impact and meet the needs of real humans. We will cover both core product thinking, and also how to translate that into practical ways to make decisions and build great products. Prerequisite: None Fulfillment: Interactive Media Business Elective ; Interactive Media Arts Elective
Intermediate Game Studies provides students with an overview of the different methodological approaches used in game studies, in order to lay the foundations for advanced work in games research. Given the interdisciplinarity of the field, each section of the class will deal with the main areas of research that are included in games, from the humanities, to social sciences and computer science. Each section will analyze the approach of pre-existing research, alongside readings that will allow students to understand and critique how they followed specific methods.
This course explores the intersection of UI UX thinking and game experience/interface design. Students will be introduced to UI UX concepts and methods, and then supported in adapting them for game specific contexts. Game design – in fact all interactive design – is a conversational undertaking. Students will become better conversationalists both by adding to their store of experience design knowledge and by learning to focus on, empathize with, and draw out their conversation partners – the players.
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.
Includes all techniques in which the animator works directly in front of the camera. Examples include: Claymation, puppet animation, paint under the camera, in-camera special effects, and pixillation. Demonstrations on character building, set construction, and design, armatures, and lighting for miniature. Several short assignments are required to introduce students to intricacies of stop-motion animation and relationship to 3-D computer animation. Each student will produce a short film with sound. This course allocates as a Craft for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES. THIS COURSE HAS PREREQUISITES. Non-majors must process a “Permission Notice for Non-Majors” form to register for the course (subject to availability).
Innovation is the process by which an organization generates creative new ideas and converts them into viable commercial products. Branding, on the other hand, is the process of creating a unique image for the product in the consumers’ mind. This perception reflects on the organization as a whole. Moreover, branding aims to establish a differentiated presence in the marketplace to attract and retain loyal customers. Thus, innovation and branding are inextricably linked for organizational success, or survival, in today’s hyper-competitive business landscape. This course aims to equip students with knowledge in both the innovation and branding processes. By participating in the International L’Oreal Brandstorm Competition, students will gain practical experience in formulating an idea, develop branding around said idea, and then pitching said idea (innovation and branding) in a competitive forum. Students will also develop an understanding of the role of design and innovation as a collaborative, multidisciplinary group activity; and improve writing and presentation skills. The course incorporates multiple ways of learning including: lectures, case studies, ethnographic research, industry expert feedback on projects and guest presentations, and design activities in the interactive media lab. In essence, the course integrates a project-based learning approach. (No Pre-requisites; satisfies IMB Major, and Business Major – Marketing Elective if Intro to Marketing has been taken, otherwise Non-finance/Non-marketing Elective)
A comprehensive survey of critical issues in environmental systems science, focusing on: human population; the global chemical cycles; ecosystems and biodiversity; endangered species and wildlife; nature preserves; energy flows in nature; agriculture and the environment; energy systems from fossil fuels to renewable forms; Earth?s waters; Earth?s atmosphere; carbon dioxide and global warming; urban environments; wastes; and paths to a sustainable future.
A continuing exploration of graphic design to help students refine their skills & develop more personally expressive ways to solving problems through visual communication. Assignments, readings, & research projects will allow students to consider the complex nature of graphic design. Both traditional & digital approaches to typography & layout will be incorporated with a wide range of assignment. A priority is placed on the use of concepts to dictate design techniques & on the pursuit of a genuinely creative vision.
This course equips students with the skills and tools necessary to address applied data science problems with a specific emphasis on urban data. Building on top of the Principles of Urban Informatics (prerequisite for the class) it further introduces a wide variety of more advanced analytic techniques used in urban data science, including advanced regression analysis, time-series analysis, Bayesian inference, foundations of deep learning and network science. The course will also contain a team data analytics project practice. After this class the students should be able to formulate a question relevant to urban data science, find and curate an appropriate data set, identify and apply analytic approaches to answer the question, obtain the answer and interpret it with respect to its certainty level as well as the limitations of the approach and the data.
Majors Only:This course will introduce incoming Master’s students to some of the concepts, terms, and theoretical genealogies that they can expect to encounter in Performance Studies. What makes performance studies performance studies, and why do it? In considering this question we will consider the specificity of performance as an object of study, a mode of inquiry, a practice of self-hood and sociality, and as an aesthetic practice; we will also focus on the specific challenges and potentialities in writing about/as performance.
To be a VR creator, it’s not enough to learn the hard skills—it’s also our responsibility to prime ourselves for the human impact of our work. As a means to design VR that is both enjoyable and accountable, this class proposes we borrow design principles from Hedonomics, a branch of ergonomic science that facilitates pleasurable human-technology interaction. Through the Hedonomic Pyramid, we’re able to section our thinking off into regions (Safety, Function, Usability, Pleasure and Individuation) and map out industry-tested VR design guidance for each. The result is a hierarchical checklist of proven principles, specifications and practices—that promote a culture of inclusive and holistic design—built to serve as a quickstart guide to designing accountable VR interfaces and systems. This class, divided into units that represent each level of the Hedonomic pyramid, will unpack both technical and conceptual strategies for creating VR, from visual interface fidelity to avoiding locomotion cybersickness to designing safer social VR spaces.
If social change begins in the imagination, how then can creators better envision and render the more just and beautiful worlds we want to make? Storytelling has the power to be an alchemical force for revolutionary change. Together, we seek to interrogate and apply interactive storytelling as a technology we can deploy in service of our collective liberation. In this course, we pair a study of story as liberatory praxis with a hands-on grounding in emerging tech tools that allow viewers/players to take an active role. Interactive storytelling technology in video, audio, and text powerfully situates viewers inside constructed narrative worlds. Creators in these emerging media gain the capacity to design choices and respond accordingly, propelling imagination toward agency and enhancing empathic connections between viewers/players and characters. What will it mean to use these tools to tell deeper stories that ask urgent questions about how we want to live in the world? “Part of being a revolutionary is creating a vision that is more humane. That is more fun, too. That is more loving. It’s really working to create something beautiful.” —Assata Shakur
Not all innovation starts in the West and gets exported to other parts of the world. In many places with less developed capitalist economies and infrastructures, technology is rapidly developed and adapted for hyper-local use. We’ll gain inspiration from a broad spectrum of creative uses of technology in the developing world(s) — from art and design, hacktivism, and community-oriented work that increase social good, and then conceive of and prototype our own projects. Special attention will be paid to circuit-bending and designing custom PCB boards using open-source software like CircuitMaker and EAGLE.
Narrative holds a place in discourses of health, illness, caregiving, and disability, carrying and conveying the densely detailed, nuanced, and complex threads of personal emotion, social experience, and cultural meaning that accompany all instances of these subjects. Narrative also plays a growing role in clinical practice, research, and health education, as increasingly registered in the burgeoning field of Medical Humanities. This course introduces students to texts, practices and major works in the emergent fields of Graphic Medicine and Narrative Medicine, using traditional humanities methods of critical reading and analysis as well as experimental and creative methods including field observation and art-making in a variety of media. Building upon a series of practice-based assignments throughout the semester, students will complete a final project that exemplifies some of the ways narrative and graphic design foster understanding and knowledge in contexts of illness.
This course explores the disruptions and creative possibilities that realtime emerging media provides through the lens of learning how to design, create, produce and perform in realtime. Students will be learning how to design and produce for realtime interactive audiences, understand the modern streaming media pipeline, the fundamentals of virtual production, digital content creation and the basics of game engines and other software – all in the service of delivering a more engaging and intimate connection between audience and performer. Students will design and perform 2 distinct realtime performances as well as work together with peers to conceptualize, design and produce a short realtime ‘pilot’ using the tools and techniques you’ve learned in the first two projects. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Interactive Media Business Elective ; Interactive Media Arts Elective
50 Days of Making is a 1.0 unit online course that offers students the opportunity to pursue a creative passion and develop or refine a skill over a 50-day period. Students choose a topic of interest and produce an expression of that topic every day for 50 days. For examples of past projects from the 100-days version of the class see here: https://itp.nyu.edu/classes/100days/. This course will meet four times on a bi-weekly basis over the course of the 1st 7-weeks of the term (every other week). Class time is spent discussing student progress and reflecting on students’ creative journey. Note that this class is a heavy lift for 1.0 unit, so only committed students should consider registering for it. Failure to complete the 50-day challenge may result in an incomplete grade for the course.
La Belle Époque, that period in the life of France’s pre-World War I Third Republic (1871-1914) associated with extraordinary artistic achievement, saw Paris emerge as the undisputed Western capital of painting and sculpture; it also was the most important production site for new works of musical theatre and, arguably, literature. It was during these decades that Impressionism launched its assault on the academic establishment, only itself to be superseded by an ever-changing avant-garde associated first with the nabis, then with fauvism and cubism; that the operas of Bizet, Saint-Saëns, and Massenet and the plays of Sardou and Rostand filled the world’s theatres; and that the novels of Zola and stories of Maupassant were translated into dozens of languages. Finally, this was the society that gave birth to one of the greatest literary works of all time, Marcel Proust’s Remembrances of Things Past, the first volume of which appeared just as the First World War was about to bring the Belle Époque to a violent end. Sources include reproductions of paintings, recordings of chamber music, opera and mélodies, and several of the most significant novels of the period.
Hands-on lab accompanying Digital Electronics. Lab sessions will contain hands-on experience with logic circuits & microcontrollers. The course culminates with a student developed final project.
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.
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.
An important goal of artificial intelligence (AI) is to equip computers with the capability of interpreting visual inputs. Computer vision is an area in AI that deals with the construction of explicit, meaningful descriptions of physical objects from images. It includes as parts many techniques from image processing, pattern recognition, geometric modeling, and cognitive processing. This course introduces students to the fundamental concepts and techniques in computer vision. | Knowledge of Data Structures and Algorithms, proficiency in programming, and familiarity with matrix arithmetic. Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
The first wave of data science focused on accuracy and efficiency: on what we can do with data. The second wave is about responsibility: what we should and should not do. Accordingly, this technical course tackles the issues of ethics and responsibility in data science, including legal compliance, data quality, algorithmic fairness and diversity, transparency of data and algorithms, privacy, and data protection. An important feature of this course is its holistic treatment of the data science lifecycle, beginning with data discovery and acquisition, through data cleaning, integration, querying, analysis, and result interpretation.
This course will explore the basic tools of digital imaging. We will cover the three main Adobe products for creative imaging – Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. Through a series of short assignments we will look at various graphic design and layout ideas using Illustrator and InDesign and will touch on the wealth of image enhancement techniques afforded by Photoshop. The short assignments introduce the basics of design, typography and compositing images. Students have the opportunity to complete a small project of their own for the end of the term. Class time will be divided between lectures, critiques, and work in class sessions. This course is not intended to completely cover the software listed, but will give students a fundamental understanding of the possibilities of digital imaging. While the majority of the class focuses on print media (images, books and magazines), we discuss the growing importance of screen output. We do not have time to cover specific web or media projects, but will address transferable skills and understanding. We will incorporate some Adobe apps to augment the desktop applications. Additional reading materials will be distributed during the semester. Students should have access to the Adobe Creative Suite through the NYU license.
Juxtaposed to traditional comics, Experiential Comics combines emergent tech, unconventional comic book art/structure, and game engines to offer users a more immersive, continuous storyworld experience. Challenging the status quo of classic and contemporary digital comics, students will explore new technologies/world-building techniques better suited to craft innovative comic book narratives and formats –worthy of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Students will ingest a brief history of classic and digital comics formats, collaborate with comic book artists to design engrossing characters, engage in world-building sessions, play with Unity/Unreal engines to generate avatars/ virtual environments, work with actors in motion capture/volumetric capture studios, learn the latest iteration of the Experiential Comics format, and share their unique expressions of Experiential Comics in a final presentation. Throughout a 7-week period, the course will be divided into 7 themes 1) The Disconnection of Digital Comics 2) Classic and Unconventional Comics Continuity 3) Marvel vs DC vs Insert Your Universe Here 4) Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies 5) Capture & Creation 6) Infinite Engagement and Unlocking Immersive Format 7) Experiential Comics Presentations. Each weekly class will be divided into two halves 1) Exploration of Theme/Discussion 2) Process, Practices, & Play. This course requires CL: Hypercinema or equivalent experience.
How can light, sound and design transform the human experience within a given space? How can psycho-geography be manipulated through audio-visual techniques? In what ways have and will technology allow spaces for sonic entertainment to be more immersive and experimental? Through an exploration of audio-visual techniques (i.e. VJing, MIDI-ing devices, sound synthesis, projection mapping, experiments with spatial sonic composition) along with discussions on how counterculture movements have used music and design as a vehicle for political dissent and community building, students will be invited to imagine new club spaces for social contexts beyond pure aesthetics. Assignments will include the development of different forms of interactive spaces for expression. Ableton (and free DAWs), MaxMSP, Isadora, and Unity will be used within this course.
Time is at once fundamental and mysterious. From the 2000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism to modern cesium-fountain clocks, humans have long sought to understand temporal patterns in nature, and build mechanisms to measure, reflect and predict those patterns. We’re at a unique moment, one in which we’ve developed the ability to perceive relativistic effects on time at the smallest scales, while struggling to think and plan across generations. In this course, we’ll reflect on the deep mysteries of time while also gaining hands-on skills applicable to temporal media and technologies. Topics will range from historical clock and orrery design through modern computer architecture (“A computer is a clock with benefits” writes Paul Ford in Bloomberg’s issue dedicated to code). Practically, we’ll build mechanical and software clocks; experiment with time-series data and time protocols; and survey techniques for digital signal processing and real-time operating systems. Students will execute several short assignments and a final project. Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media (ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048) & Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)
In an age of pressing and complex problems like climate change, extreme inequality, and surveillance capitalism, “problem solving” is a central feature of innovation, design, and planning. But can these wicked problems actually be “solved”? And why does the cutting edge of problem solving look so limited? Machine learning. Predictive analytics. Algorithmic decision-making…Is planning for the future being outsourced to machines? In this class, we’ll take back control of the future by learning how it has historically been predicted, planned, and produced in board meetings, think tanks, writers’ rooms, and policy circles, and how those methods are being impacted by new technologies. During a series of discussions and hands-on workshops, we will learn specific, tangible, and collaborative practices for prediction and planning that can augment and transcend computational capabilities, making for marketable future-proof skills that can help redefine the future for humanity.
Computers are able to understand human speech better than ever before, but voice technology is still mostly used for practical (and boring!) purposes, like playing music, smart home control, or customer service phone trees. What else can we experience in the very weird, yet intuitive act of talking out loud to machines? The goal of this course is to give students the technical ability to imagine and build more creative uses of voice technology. Students will be encouraged to examine and play with the ways in which this emerging field is still broken and strange. We will develop interactions, performances, artworks or apps exploring the unique experience of human and computer conversation. Students will learn how to use text-to-speech and speech-to-text technologies, voice assistant devices, generative text techniques, open speech APIs, Node.js, and conversational UI design. There will be weekly assignments leading up to a final project. ICM or comparable programming experience required.
This studio and seminar course explores the basic principles of food biochemistry, enzymology and food processing and how they relate to memory, the senses and the processing of information. Students will also learn basic principles of molecular gastronomy and modernist cuisine as framing devices for understanding how food also functions in the context of bodily health, environmental health as well as cultural and political narratives. Our food system consists of more than food production and consumption and this class will address how science and food science plays a more integral role in this system and how this knowledge can be mined for work that creatively and functionally contributes to this emerging field. Assignments for the class will be based on the incorporation of food science into design and technology projects that uses food as a substrate to explore and illuminate information within the food system. Workshops involve using liquid nitrogen hydrocolloids as well as creating performative food objects and a Futurist meal.
This course allows students to harness the power of visual language in order to convey messages and meaning. The elements of visual foundation that will be covered include components (color, texture, image and typography), composition, and concept. Although the class takes place in the Game Design department, we will be less concerned with visuals as they are applied to games and instead will look at visual communication across a wide range of disciplines, from visual art to graphic design to web and interface design. Although non-digital mediums will be addressed, the understanding and use of industry-standard software is also a primary goal. The class is about the importance of visual design, how it shapes our culture. The students will learn about and discuss widely-practiced methods of visual communication, and then find their own voice through developing their own works, driven by a clearer understanding of their own tastes and interested fields.
This course will examine the relationship between planetary-scale computation and the development of planetarity. We take as starting points that (1) the very notion of climate change is an epistemological accomplishment of planetary-scale sensing, modeling and computation systems and (2) the ecological costs of computation are on an unsustainable trajectory. The seminar will ask: what are alternative futures for computation as human and ecological infrastructure? The primary subject of research is the transition from computation as a digital media object to computation as continental scale infrastructure. The scope and significance of this shift are fundamental for the development of interactive art and design that seeks to explore critical alternatives to extant models for this. What we call planetary-scale computation takes different forms at different scales—from energy and mineral sourcing and subterranean cloud infrastructure to urban software and massive universal addressing systems; from interfaces drawn by the augmentation of the hand and eye to users identified by self—quantification and the arrival of legions of sensors, algorithms, and robots. Each of these may represent a direct harm upon effected ecosystems and/or a means for and informed viable administration of those same systems. The course is primarily geared to advanced IMA students but is open to students from any major who are interested in engaging with contemporary issues of computation, society and ecology. Final projects will combine original written work and speculative design that can draw on diverse student core skill sets. Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
We will explore a range of programming languages, systems, and activities designed to help learners acquire computational skills and become creative problem solvers and project designers, including arts and interactive projects. We will create projects in turtle geometry, animation, and programmable embroidery (Snap!, Turtle Geometry, TurtleArt, and TurtleStitch), and in simulation systems which model complex systems in the life and social sciences in order to acquire a deeper understanding of their underlying phenomena (NetLogo). 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, acquire a deeper understanding of social and scientific phenomena, and become a self-directed learner. We will identify these ideas and actively engage with the pedagogical theories that underlie embodying them by creating with systems designed for children, beginners, or people coming from disciplines which traditionally had less emphasis on computing-based tools. We will emphasize reflection on our own learning within the course.”
“The practice of using light and motion as artistic media traces its roots back to the architectural design of spiritual structures in ancient cultures and the use of fire and shadow in religious ceremonies. However, not until the invention of electricity, the incandescent bulb, and electric motors did light and motion really become artistic media themselves. The current availability of cheap and abundant sources of motion and light have opened up new possibilities for the creation of sculptural objects which compose structures in light and movement. Drawing upon the combined histories of lumia, kinetic sculpture, and op art, we will be investigating the historical and current developments of kinetic art and light art. Students will create kinetic light sculptures of their own design, building upon and expanding their knowledge of digital fabrication, physical computing, and generative software systems. They will learn how to compose in color, light, rhythm, movement, and space and how to install and present their work in a public setting.”
What is the place of human creativity, agency and intelligence in complex technical networks? This class aims to build a foundation for studying how automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, digital image production, predictive software, and eco-technologies signal the ascent of a posthuman society. It provides a selection of texts and case studies that introduce basic philosophical and sociological questions about posthuman technologies and support creators, writers and thinkers in conceptualizing the posthuman nature of new media. The class is a combination of lectures and writing workshops. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
Architecture has always been considered as an immediate extension of the human civilization, and its connection with state-of-the-art technologies has always been essential. In our current highly mediated and augmented environments, architecture shifts from static, solid, and predefined, to a fluid, interactive, and ever-changing. Computational, interactive, and media technologies challenge our understanding of what architecture is, redefining our engagement with exterior and interior spaces. The course investigates the area of media architecture from a contextual and critical perspective, examining and implementing in theoretical and practical scenarios current emerging trends. Students are expected to develop a comprehensive understanding of media architecture, to thoroughly investigate the media cityscape (including motivations, social implications, technological requirements), and to develop installation work that utilizes contemporary media development practices and demonstrates artistic, technological, and scientific rigor. Prerequisite: None
“How would you like to pay?” A simple question may provoke diversified answers in the digital age. The financial applications of digital technologies, or so-called fintechs have engendered many alternative forms such as QR codes, mobile apps, and Bitcoin for financial activities including payment, loans, and investment. What technologies make these innovations possible? What are the aesthetic norms embedded in fin-tech app designs? How do the fin-tech companies interact with banks, policy-makers, and regulators? While Ant Financial and Tencent Finance make China the leader of fin-tech innovation, how does the global map of fin-tech innovation look like? After all, how have fin-techs re-shaped people’s everyday life, and perhaps will reform human being? Through a weekly three-hour meeting, this course is to make sense of fin-techs from a wide variety of perspectives. Integrating lectures with workshops and company visits, this course will equip students with critical thinking and practical skills that allow them to dialogue with various actors, such as computer programmers, project managers, investors, as well as academic intellectuals. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Business Elective/Interactive Media Elective; Business and Finance Major Non-Finance Electives; Business and Marketing Major Non-Marketing Electives.
Techniques for counting and enumeration including generating functions, the principle of inclusion and exclusion, and Polya counting. Graph theory. Modern algorithms and data structures for graph-theoretic problems. | Prerequisite: C or better in MA-UY 1124 or MA-UY 1424.
Introduction to the mathematics of finance. Topics include: Linear programming with application pricing and quadratic. Interest rates and present value. Basic probability: random walks, central limit theorem, Brownian motion, lognormal model of stock prices. Black-Scholes theory of options. Dynamic programming with application to portfolio optimization. | Prerequisites: A grade of C or better in (MA-UY 2114 or MA-UY 2514) and a grade of C or better in (MA-UY 2054 or MA-UY 2224 or MA-UY 2414 or MA-UY 3014 or MA-UY 3022 or MA-UY 3514 or MA-UY 4114).
Systems of linear equations, Gaussian elimination, matrices, determinants, Cramer’s rule. Vectors, vector spaces, basis and dimension, linear transformations. Eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and quadratic forms. Restricted to Tandon math and CS majors and students with a permission code from the math department. Fulfills linear algebra requirement for the BS Math and BS CS degrees. Note: Not open to students who have already taken MA-UY 1533, MA-UY 2034, MA-UY 3113 or MA-UY 3054. | Prerequisite: A grade of C or better in MA-UY 1022 or MA-UY 1024 or MA-UY 1324 or MATH-UH 1012Q or MATH-UH 1013Q or MATH-SHU 121 or MATH-SHU 201
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
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: completion of all junior-level technical courses. ABET competencies: a, b, c, e, f, g, k.
Electromagnetic wave propagation in free space and in dielectrics, starting from a consideration of distributed inductance and capacitance on transmission lines. Electromagnetic plane waves are obtained as a special case. Reflection and transmission at discontinuities are discussed for pulsed sources, while impedance transformation and matching are presented for harmonic time dependence. Snell’s law and the reflection and transmission coefficients at dielectric interfaces are derived for obliquely propagation plane waves. Guiding of waves by dielectrics and by metal waveguides is demonstrated. Alternate-week laboratory. Objectives: Establish foundations of electromagnetic wave theory applicable to antennas, transmissions lines and materials; increase appreciation for properties of materials through physical experiments. | Prerequisites for Brooklyn Engineering Students: EE-UY 2024 or EE-UY 2004 (C- or better). | Prerequisites for Abu Dhabi Students: ENGR-AD 214. | Prerequisites for Shanghai Students: EENG-SHU 251 (C- or better). ABET competencies: a, b, c, e, k.
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
This course covers combinational and sequential digital circuits. Topics: Introduction to digital systems. Number systems and binary arithmetic. Switching algebra and logic design. Error detection and correction. Combinational integrated circuits, including adders. Timing hazards. Sequential circuits, flipflops, state diagrams and synchronous machine synthesis. Programmable Logic Devices, PLA, PAL and FPGA. Finite-state machine design. Memory elements. A grade of C or better is required of undergraduate computer-engineering majors. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: CS-UY 1114 (C- or better) or CS-UY 1133 (C- or better) | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: CS-UH 1001 (C- or better) or ENGR-UH 1000 (C- or better) | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: CSCI-SHU 101 (C- or better)
This laboratory accompanies the lecture course BMS-UY 1003 Introduction to Cell and Molecular Biology. This laboratory course is required for BMS and CBE majors taking BMS-UY 1003, but is optional for other majors. | Co-requisite: BMS-UY 1003
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 unique course introduces students to innovative and cutting-edge technologies sound, video, and interfaces that are changing the way music is performed, produced and received. Music and creative technologies have shifted in the last years from preset-focused black-box devices to open and hackable hard- and software. Examples are MaxMSP (Ableton), the Kinect Motion sensor, VR Platforms or open source music instruments like Korg’s Mono series, little bits or bastl. This shift enables artists today to understand the inner workings of instruments better and engage a very different working process: these days, devices can more easily be created and manipulated, forming future tools and creating a rich variety of different media. The course consists of both a theoretical and a hands-on part, and has a workshop component. No special knowledge like programming or electronic skills is presupposed. As this course is intended for students from different disciplines, the content will flexibly be adapted to the level of knowledge of the students, especially for students with little or no technical background.
Can you listen to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” without envisioning the zombie transformation? What about Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” without seeing the accompanying choreography? Both of those songs, along with countless others, have benefited from the groundbreaking visuals that have accompanied them. From the Classic Rock films of the 1960’s to the MTV revolution of the 1980’s and 1990’s to the innovations of YouTube and Virtual Reality, this class will examine how the convergence of visual and auditory mediums has created some of the most impactful art. We’ll extract the great lessons from the pieces we study and utilize our production skills to create videos, on-stage visuals, and songs of our own. We’ll also investigate how the creation of videos alongside songs has disrupted the marketing and sales fates for the music industry multiple times. The weekly class structure will alternate between one 90min lecture/discussion course and one 90min production course where we will be collaborating on creating new content for each assignment together.
Prerequisite: Photography & Imaging II, or permission of the department. This course considers the creative possibilities of a variety of documentary strategies. The editing of images, their structuring into an essay form, the interpretation of their various meanings, and the impact of the documentary essay on the world are all discussed. Students are assigned a range of problems that explore visual description and interpretation ranging from the photojournalistic to the autobiographical. In addition each student devotes a significant amount of time to producing a single-subject documentary project. Classes are lecture-demonstration with critiques of student work and regular presentations of documentary photographs made throughout history, in different cultures and for different reasons, including the personal and the societal. Each student must have a still camera or a video camera. This course requires a nonrefundable lab fee.
Intro to Visual Communication builds a foundation for visual literacy and visual design thinking. The class focuses on the fundamentals of visual communication – line, color, composition, typography – as well as their application in a variety of contexts. You may or may not end up being a visual designer or artist, but all kinds of game design and development involves visual thinking. The philosophy of the class is learning by doing. Each week, in class and out of class, you will be creating visual projects on and off the computer. Sometimes you will be drawing in a sketchbook or making paper collages. Other times you will be using visual design software, such as Illustrator and Photoshop. The goal of the course is to connect the visual exercises to skills and issues related to directly to games. Sometimes we will be working on fundamental skills. Other times, we will be applying those skills to game-related problems.
With platforms like Steam and Itch.io making independent games more accessible to the public, we’re starting to see a movement toward physical installations of indie games as well. The New Arcade pays tribute to arcade cabinet designs of the 80’s and 90’s, but infuses them with new interfaces and digitally fabricated components. In this class, students will learn how to use the Unity game engine to design a simple arcade game. They’ll learn about aspects that separate an arcade game from other types of games, and interface their game with different kinds of hardware using microcontrollers. In the second half of the class, students will use Fusion360 to construct a new arcade experience using digital fabrication tools like laser cutters, and CNC machines. The class will culminate in a physical installation that showcases their game in a public gallery. Prerequisites: Physical Computing About Mark Kleback: https://wonderville.nyc
This class is an overview of the field of games that approaches them from several theoretical and critical perspectives. No special theoretical background or prior training is needed to take the course, but to have had a broad practical experience with and basic knowledge of games is a distinct advantage. Also, an interest in theoretical and analytical issues will help. You are expected to actively participate in the lectures, which are dialogic in form, with ample room for discussion. The course will prepare the student to: Understand and discuss games from a theoretical perspective, as well as the components of a game; Apply new theories and evaluate them critically; Assess and discuss game concepts and the use of games in various contexts; Analyze games, and understand and apply a range of analytical methods.
Performance Studies — An Introduction explores the wide world of performance – from theatre, dance, and music to ritual, play, political campaigns, social media, and the performances of everyday life. Performance studies also ranges across cultures — Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, the Americas. And it spans historical periods from the art of the paleolithic caves to YouTube and the avant-garde. This course is devised by Richard Schechner, one of the pioneers of performance studies, in dialogue with more than a dozen expert scholars and artists. Performance Studies — An Introduction puts students in dialogue with the most important ideas, approaches, theories, and questions of this dynamic, new academic field. Performance Studies — An Introduction is a “flipped” course: students will read and watch lessons online, blog about the material, and participate in a weekly interactive seminar guided by Professor Erin B. Mee — a theatre director and scholar — who has worked with Schechner for years.
This course introduces students to the complex relationship between interactivity and storytelling. Students analyze how an interactive structure creates narrative. Works explored in this course range from nonlinear novels, experimental literature, audio narratives, theater/performance to film as narrative databases and games. The study of the structural properties of narratives that experiment with digression, multiple points of view, disruptions of time, space, and storyline is complemented by theoretical texts about authorship/readership, plot/story, and characteristics of interactive media. | Prerequisite: EXPOS-UA 2, EXPOS-UA 9, EXPOS-UA 22, ASPP-UT 2 or WRCI-UF 102. Note: Satisfies HuSS elective.
3D Modeling with Rhino is an introduction to 3D modeling using the Rhino computer program for Mac OS X. Students gain the technical knowledge needed to push rigorous exploration of 3D modeling, both in the physical and digital realm. The course covers basic model manipulation and rendering operations. The course also reviews the history of 3D printing and an examination of how modeling for 2D differs from modeling for physical output. By course end, students will have the opportunity to output their work via CNC milling, 3D printing, or 2D rendered visualization.
In this class students will learn math tools to boost their digital practice, fix common problems, and understand the math behind our human perception of the physical world. This course spans different branches of math including geometry, linear algebra, logarithmic thinking, and statistics as they relate to a programmer making digital art with our contemporary media ecosystem. The aim of this course isn’t to become calculators, rather strengthen our intuition through historical and ethnomathematics perspectives and foster a new relationship to math. The prerequisites to this class are basic arithmetic skills and an introduction to programming. We will create applications using free and open-source software, including Python and p5.js.
As demographics in consumer markets and the global labor forces shift rapidly, diverse, equitable and inclusive (DEI) designers are necessary in all facets of business, from product and service design, to organizational and business design. In this multimedia and interactive Intro to Design for Diversity™(D4D), students will be provided with critical thinking skills to begin viewing diversity, equity and inclusion as design processes necessary for the future wellbeing of humans. D4D is a design framework that marries design thinking with diversity, equity and inclusion best practices and frameworks to illuminate cultural and racial biases. D4D is not only a means to harm reduction, but also a way-finding tool for better business. Students will be provided with historical context and case studies of racially biased practices that are now prevalent in biased algorithms in tech, as well as the lineage of culturally biased media narratives and how that plays a central part in today’s design practices, as well as their negative impacts. Students will be provided with a shared language and the outline of the D4D framework’s 5 Key Areas to enable them to design away from dominant culture, and instead, design for all people.
This class will introduce the basic skills and resources required to pursue a career as an artist. Students will learn the day to day tasks of working artists, such as writing critically about their own work, drafting grant proposals, and planning the business administration of their studios. They will also learn how to balance commercial and experimental projects, collaboration and community work, and teaching and studio practice. They will engage in the critical text about ethical dilemmas of working with art institutions, corporations and academia. By the end of class, students will write a personal statement, update an art portfolio, and apply for an artist residency. While the class will focus on contemporary art and artists, students who are interested in other disciplines may benefit from learning about entrepreneurship, authorship and cultural industry.
Inspired by the Japanese art of Chindōgu, this class will introduce a playful and whimsical approach to learn industrial design. In this 14-week studio format class, students will develop gadgets, inventions, and electronic devices that present absurd solutions to problems, while learning concepts and techniques of design ideation, prototyping, model making, CMF (color, material, and finishes), and manufacturing. This is a production heavy four-credit course, where students will learn about industrial design and tangible interactions. Prerequisite: Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)
Art, design and experimental electronics can be great tools for inciting discussions of complex issues such as privacy, sexism, racism, economic inequality and climate change. This course aims to provoke thoughtful discussions of pressing issues through the combination of Art, Industrial Design and Embedded Electronics (sensors, actuators, wifi enabled microcontrollers – ESP32, raspberry pis). Topics will include technological disobedience, adversarial design and critical engineering. In this 14 week class, students will combine technology, design, and critical theory to build Art Objects / Interactive Sculptures that are aesthetically intriguing while socially relevant. This is a production heavy four-credit course, where students will learn about new-media critical theory, design and electronics. Prerequisites include an open mind, the drive to make, and physical computing.
Light Emitting Diodes or LEDs are used creatively all around us. They have the ability to emit light at different colors and intensities instantly and from very tiny points. How can we make creative visual works out of these amazing devices? What construction methods can we use to make those works reliable? Big LEDs will cover the process of designing large LED systems. We will cover LED array hardware and how to map pixels from computer generated media onto them. We will go through every major part of the hardware – different styles of LED arrays, drivers and gateways, cables, data protocols, and how to safely power all of them. We will learn to use the pixel mapping softwares Enttec ELM and Madmapper. We will also cover the paperwork needed to furnish a professional LED installation, including drafting riser diagrams, plan, section, and elevation views, creating a bill of materials, and writing instructions for users and installers. This year’s final project will be a site-specific LED sculpture installed in a public space at 375 Jay St. The installations will be able to display student chosen media that can be viewed for one minute. Students will work either in groups or alone and can choose from one of four installation options to present on: – A prepared square section of 2.0mm pitch LED video tiles (approx 256px x 256px, 2’-6” x 2’-6”) – A prepared low-resolution sculpture with diffused linear elements (approx 500px, 2’-6” x 5’-0” overall) – A student conceptualized LED video tile project – A student conceptualized low-resolution project Because of this year’s pandemic, unprecedented changes have come to the professional world of LED installations. As a result, we will be using remote tools such as networked-based cameras, remote desktop applications, and virtual private network connections to watch and operate the final projects. We will spend class time setting these tools up together. The two prepared options for the final project will be installed and maintained by the instructor.
In this course, students will learn the process of developing products that address user needs. Students will go through the process of identifying a user need, developing a product prototype, evaluating the product with the target user, and outlining the next development steps. Topics will include such elements as need finding, archetype development, user journey maps, ideation, prototyping, user evaluation and validation.
How do you process data from connected devices? This class examines how to build systems to collect, process, store, and visualize data from connected devices. The class will review and discuss real world IoT systems using case studies and actual projects. We will build system using Arduino hardware and open source software. We will discuss how to IoT systems are built on commercial cloud infrastructure. Students will learn about IoT devices and the data pipelines for processing data. They will build an Arduino based device to send and receive data over WiFi via MQTT. Students will write code to move data from MQTT into a database. Students will learn how to query the database and present data as tabular data and graphs. To gain an understanding of an entire IoT system from device to application, we will start at a high level and then drill into each of the pieces — we will: * Discuss sensor hardware and wireless options (WiFi, Cellular, LoRaWAN, LTE-M, etc) for moving data to the server * Discuss transport options MQTT, CoAP, AMQP, HTTPS, etc. * Examine SQL, NoSQL, and Time Series Database * Look at tools and techniques for querying and visualizing data. Prerequisite: * Introduction to Physical Computing * Introduction to Computational Media (suggested) The class will be a mix of lecture, discussion, and building IoT systems. Real world examples and case studies will be used to demonstrate how IoT can be built.
Forget the screen. People want to be part of the action. They don’t want to watch detectives and control superhero avatars. They want to solve the mystery and be the hero. They want to experience it. We see this craving for playful experience in everything from immersive theater to escape rooms to the Tough Mudder to gamified vacation packages. Designing live experiences for large audiences that demand agency offers a distinct set of challenges, from how much choice you give each participant to how many people you can through the experience. We’ll look at examples from pervasive games to amusement parks to immersive theater, examining both the design choices and technology that make the experiences possible. Along the way we’ll create large, playful experiences that put the participant at the center of the action.
One of the most transformative consumer products in history, the iPhone remains the standard bearer for great design and user experience. With the latest version of iOS and the introduction of the iPhone X, Apple puts depth sensing and augmented reality in our pockets. How do we take advantage of this incredible platform to produce our own compelling experiences? This course will be a hands-on workshop where we explore the world beyond generic apps and push the boundaries of what’s possible on iOS hardware. We will cover both the design and technical elements that pertain to end-to-end mobile app development. Topics will include augmented reality, the Internet of Things, new interfaces for musical expression, voice interaction, wearables, and others… While the class will involve iOS programming instruction, the instructors will help facilitate coding using an established code base to ensure technical skills are not a bottleneck to implementation. Students should expect to spend additional time outside of class learning Swift and other related programming concepts. Full-time access to an iOS device and a Mac laptop running the latest operating systems are required. As part of the design process, we’ll host workshops and guest critiques with designers from top studios around New York City. At the end of the class, students will have a working app to add to their portfolios and a strong basis for future mobile application work.
Magic windows that allow us to peek into different realities without leaving our physical space, lenses that reveal hidden layers of objects or navigating new universes within the same room. More than ever, mobile devices are getting a human-scale understanding of space and motion allowing us to create more intimate interactions with our surrounding spaces, leveraging them as a canvas to experience other realities. We now have the potential to give life to inanimate objects, tell stories through space, customizing private views of public spaces and recognize places we’ve never been. We’ll question what it means and how can we blend reality exploring themes such as: augmented space and new paradigms in social interaction, public space and privacy; storytelling and navigating the physical space like turning pages in a book; tangible interfaces, mixed objects and animism; Magic windows, x-ray vision, time-machines and impossible universes; Far away so close: telepresence and remote collaboration. The course will survey the past, current and up and coming technologies and experiences in Mixed Reality including environmental augmented reality and interactive projection mapping, handheld devices while fostering a strong user experience perspective on the affordances and constraints of each. We’ll research and discuss the design principles and guidelines for creating mixed reality experiences focusing on the links between real and virtual objects, interaction space and asymmetries between physical and digital worlds, environmental semantics and multimodal and tangible interaction. Technologies explored will be focusing on mobile platforms (phones, tablets) including Vuforia, SLAM, image and object recognition, depth sensing, projection mapping. Unity3D will be the development platform: students must have previous working knowledge of Unity3D and feel comfortable with independently developing using this platform. A working knowledge of Unity3D may be gained by going through the Unity 5 3D Essential Training Lynda Course prior to the course (log in to Lynda for free via https://www.nyu.edu/lynda).
Subtractive fabrication is a common manufacturing process that produces durable and functional objects. This class will cover multiple techniques on machining and milling raw material into custom parts. We will focus on both traditional and digital fabrication tools: lathe, CNC router, 4 axis mill, etc. We will cover CAD, CAM, and machine setups as well as research affordable desktop milling solutions for personal shops. The class will be hands on and fabrication heavy, paying close attention to precision, accuracy, and craftsmanship. There will be weekly fabrication exercises, a midterm, and a final project. It’s mill-er time.
Video art has become one of the most widely used media art forms because it allows both the artistic concentration of photography & the free flowing imagery of movement. Students acquire rudimentary skills in shooting & editing while working toward a personal statement in video.
Assignments, critiques & demonstrations for the more advanced digital art student. The use of the computer to augment and expand conceptualization and 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 and its specific applications in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional art.
The contemporary art world is a convoluted interplay of aesthetics & economics; ego & idealism. How can an emerging artist navigate its layers & idiosyncrasies? Through readings of theory & criticism, lectures, discussions, site visits, guest speakers, & student responses in the form of multimedia projects and art writing, this course explores contemporary art’s mechanisms & current discourse, always keeping Berlin’s local context in mind.
This course is designed to provide students with hands-on experience working with computational media (programming, creative coding, etc.) and data. The forms and uses of computational media and its application are explored in a laboratory context of experimentation and discussion.
This course will provide a foundation for understanding modern web development with a focus on front end technologies and accessing public data. The forms and uses of these technologies are explored in a laboratory context of experimentation and discussion.
Students will create two well-designed single-page web applications, including one that leverages public APIs and digital services from a wide range of existing web products. The goal of the course is for students to learn how to think holistically about an application, both by designing a clear user experience and understanding the algorithmic steps required to build it.
We live in a world where we have more data, computational power, and access to digital connectivity than ever before. But how do we make sense of the promise inherent in this reality while holding space for the challenges that it presents for different groups and communities? How do we situate the technologies that we have come to take for granted? And more importantly, how do we leverage an artist’s perspective to creating active responses that interrogate and hint at the potential for different futures? This course examines emergent technological fields, spanning topics like data collection/representation, digital archives, artificial intelligence, social algorithms, and automation and asks how the technologies inherent to each can be leveraged for artistic response, creation, and critique. While this course is primarily conceptual and art theory-based, the content covered will be technical in nature and students will be tasked with making three creative responses to the content in the tradition of the new media, digital, and conceptual art worlds.
This course will introduce students to the design and development of Virtual Reality experiences. We will examine these increasingly popular means of delivering content and social interactions and identify their unique affordances over existing platforms. Students will be challenged to harness the specific advantages of VR from conception through functional prototype. The class will also cover case studies of effective use of VR in information delivery, as well as social and artistic experiences.
We live in an era of information where the information can be written, accessed, shared, and also eliminated with a single stroke. As a result, the objective “truth” is brought to a question. In the last decade, artists have been experimenting with the fakeness of the truth and the truthfulness of the fake by creating fake documents, staged marriages, an arguably authentic artifact, imaginary advertisements both historical and contemporary. What does it mean to tell the truth in the context of art? How does art cross the boundaries between the real and the fake, truthfulness and misrepresentation? This course will examine social engagement of art and how “truth” is treated, interpreted, and presented. The class will take a field trip to a propaganda museum, have readings and discussions, and analyze artists working with fiction as a medium in art making. Students will work on projects to construct believable reality through object making (3D fabrication) and narrative construction (audiovisual material). Prerequisites: Interaction Lab or Communication Lab or Application Lab
In this course students will learn the fundamentals of computation, software design, and web technologies, through a series of creative projects. The course is intended to equip students with the skills to develop artistic and business projects that include a significant computational component. Topics such as variables, functions, components, and functional and reactive programming will be brought together to create interactive applications, generative art, data visualization, and other domains. Within the framework of these creative projects students will develop a greater understanding of how computer programs operate, be exposed to various concepts used to create experiences and interactions, and become more familiar with some of the technologies that constitute the internet. This course is intended for students with no prior programming background. Prerequisites: None
In this foundation course students will explore the possibilities of emerging media by successively producing projects that make use of digital images, graphics, audio, and video. The course is designed to provide students with a framework to effectively communicate and tell stories through digital means. Students learn through hands-on experimentation in a laboratory context and the principles of interpersonal communication, media theory, and human factors will be introduced in readings and investigated through discussion. Adobe Creative Cloud and other relevant software applications will be examined to establish a diverse digital toolkit. Both traditional and experimental outputs will be explored. Weekly assignments, group and independent projects, as well as documentation of projects will be assigned in each of the core areas of study. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Other Foundation; IMB Major Emerging Media Foundation.
An overview of the development of visual storytelling throughout history. From the first creation of early hand drawn cave paintings to modern film production, all the essential elements of visual representation, visual imagery, visual grammar, and visual storytelling are explored. Lectures introduce and explain a variety of methods used to capture a visual image and how visual imagery, both with and without words, is used to convey meaning. Assignments are given for students to create their own visual imagery using these several different artistic formats. In class discussions then analyze the audience reception of the student’s work. The essential nature of visual storytelling is examined by analyzing how images collide to create new meaning, how a multiplicity of visual images are organized into a grammatical system, and how this system is managed in order to tell a visual story. The course examines how the basic tools of traditional narrative storytelling are also used in purely visual storytelling – to create a secondary world and to maintain a suspension of disbelief in order to inform, entertain, and affect the audience.
The role of the creative producer in the entertainment industry is integral to bringing a project to fruition. This introductory course covers both the creative and physical production time-line and provides students with an understanding of the producer’s role through a semester-long team-based pitch project, which culminates in written and verbal pitch presentations. Students are encouraged to work on a project that best suits their area of interest: feature film, episodic/streaming, theatre, performance, podcasts, VR/AR or individualized multi-media. The course focuses on the dynamics of producing, including producer skill sets, tasks and responsibilities necessary to effectively and efficiently develop a project.
This course introduces students to the fundamental skills and professional practices vital to pursuing a career within a range of creative fields and industries. Students will explore strategies for effective documentation and presentation of their creative work, the art of self-promotion and exhibiting work publicly in various forms and environments, as well as networking and career preparation. | Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing
This course explores the scientific foundations of current environmental issues and their implications for public policy. The syllabus is divided into sections that each examines a current environmental theme in depth. The first sections investigate the composition of the atmosphere and the chemical processes that cause air pollution, ozone depletion, and global warming. Moving to the study of water, the course explores the properties of this unique solvent and the effect of various aqueous pollutants. The course also includes an investigation of energy from chemical reactions, our continuing reliance on fossil fuels, and the potential of alternative energy sources. The laboratory experiments are closely integrated with the lecture topics and provide hands-on explorations of central course themes. Throughout the course we also will examine how scientific studies of the environment are intimately connected with political, economic and policy concerns.
This is an introductory course to the fundamentals of 3D computer animation. Through in-depth discussions and hands-on assignments, students will gain a thorough beginner’s understanding of the 3D production process. Using industry-leading Autodesk Maya running on high-end Mac Pro workstations, students will learn the basics of modeling and proceed through UV layout, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting and final render. At the end of the class students will have completed a series of exercises that will culminate in a final scene that showcases all they learned.This course allocates as a Craft for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES.
This course is an introduction to the field of performance studies. In this course, performance will be broadly construed to include aesthetic performance (performance art, theater, music, dance, and visual culture) and everyday presentations of self. We will study the history of the field and its relation to other fields (anthropology, theatre studies, philosophy, dance studies, feminism, political science, critical race theory, legal studies, etc.) and ask questions of how the study of performance can help us to understand contemporary questions of aesthetics, politics, and social culture. We will study the theory and history of the field as grounded in documented performances in addition to attending live performances in New York City. This course will place particular emphasis on political performance (in the US and abroad), queer, and minority performance.
Survey a broad spectrum of visual art resources through guided lecture-tour visits to current exhibitions at leading museums, galleries and alternative art spaces located throughout New York City. Onsite meetings with art administrators affiliated with various organizations shed light on a wide range of career and management issues pertaining to the field and add to an understanding of the development and continued growth of New York’s exciting art world.
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.
This course is a technical but elementary introduction to the modern understanding of cosmology, intended for non-science students. Proficiency with algebra is required. We will cover advances in cosmology over the last 100 years, with special emphasis on more recent developments in the field. We will cover topics ranging from the early universe to galaxy formation in the present day universe, through the lens of the theory of relativity and the expanding universe. We will cover the Big Bang, the Cosmic Microwave Background, dark matter, dark energy and the associated evidence for these phenomena. This class is mathematically-based; most topics will be explored both qualitatively and quantitatively. Homework and exams will require calculations.
Rules of play shape competitive games from checkers to football. But how do the rules of interaction shape non-competitive play? In this course, we will explore, code and test design strategies for playful group interactions while at the same time interrogating both what it means to play and how individual identities and group behaviors. Some of the questions we will ask and attempt to answer: What motivates participation? What hinders it? When does participation become oppressive? What’s the difference between self-consciousness and self-awareness? Who has power? Who doesn’t? Are leaders necessary? What’s the difference between taking turns and engaging in conversation? What happens when the slowest person sets the pace? Interaction inputs we will play with will include: mouse, keyboard, mobile device sensors, and microphone. Outputs will include, visuals, text and sound. We will use p5, websockets and node.js for real-time interaction. Class time will be split between playing with and critiquing examples and translating design strategies into code and logic.
3D environments and objects are powerful prototyping tools. This class will introduce the basics of 3D modeling techniques in Rhino and students will learn to create assets for prototyping and 3D printing. The class will take an industrial design approach to design and build with specifications and materials in mind. Students will learn to think, plan, design, and produce well thought out objects to fit their specific needs. (examples: motor mounts, enclosures, wearables etc.)
From the history of visual music and abstract film to the contemporary notion of live cinema, this course will be an exploration of the synesthetic relationship between sound and visuals in a realtime performance setting. Dating back as far as the 18th century, systems have been invented to produce images alongside music linking the two through formalized arrangements. Current media technologies make developing such systems both more approachable and more expansive in their scope. Through readings, viewings, and case studies students will gain an understanding of the history and theory of live audiovisuals. During the course students will team up to develop and master a realtime audiovisual system of their own invention. The class will culminate in a show in which they will present their work through a live performance. Prerequisite: None.
This course will be like the two previous ones (http://ima.nyu.sh/vr-ar-fundamentals/), with the first half-semester as seminar and the second half semester as production. For Fall 2019, production will be something in complement with Zaanheh: A Natural History of Shanghai (https://zaanheh.research.shanghai.nyu.edu/), a new NYU Shanghai interdisciplinary project. Prerequisite: None
This course provides an overview of the scientific study of the human language faculty, focusing on the cognitive & neural processing mechanisms that underlie linguistic knowledge & use. We describe contemporary approaches to delineating levels of language structure & review various scientific methodologies used to study language. Topics include language knowledge & use as well as language change & variation. Liberal Arts Core/CORE Equivalent – satisfies the requirement for Natural Science for non-CSCD majors
The relationship of the brain to behavior, beginning with the basic elements that make up the nervous system and how electrical and chemical signals in the brain work to effect behavior. Using this foundation, we examine how the brain learns and how it creates new behaviors, together with the brain mechanisms that are involved in sensory experience, movement, hunger and thirst, sexual behaviors, the experience of emotions, perception and cognition, memory and the brain’s plasticity. Other key topics include whether certain behavioral disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can be accounted for by changes in the function of the brain, and how drugs can alter behavior and brain function.
Contemporary Art in Britian. Contemporary art raises vigorous debate and criticism. But what is contemporary about contemporary art? We consider some key issues in dealing critically with contemporary art with a focus on work on display in exhibitions in London, both major national collections and private galleries, exploring art produced since the late 1950s through case studies of the work of individual artists and through themes which include photography, representations of the body, gallery display, video practice, and installation art. Topics include how contemporary art came to look as it does, with a focus on British art; the different forms of material and presentation artists have employed; why and how diverse audiences are addressed; and how markets, national prizes, and private collections shape the kinds of art produced and inform public taste. We also look at the collection and display of contemporary art, on a private and a public scale; dealer galleries, and issues of curation. Critical and historical writings by artists and theorists will be considered.
This course covers the internal structure of computers, machine (assembly) language programming, and the use of pointers in high-level languages. Topics include the logical design of computers, computer architecture, the internal representation of data, instruction sets, and addressing logic, as well as pointers, structures, and other features of high-level languages that relate to assembly language. Programming assignments will be both in assembly language and other languages.
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.
This course serves to familiarize the student with the fundamentals of typography. Typography forms the basis of our contemporary communication. Students will gain design abilities based on analogue techniques as well as digital software. The class explores letterform design & moves subsequently to typesetting exercises performed using the letterpress printer & computer. Compositions exploring typography as color, form, & image will be examined for visual impact as well as meaning. The history of typography is incorporated beginning with Guttenberg in the 1400’s through the classic designers of the 17th & 18th centuries, type-design through Russian Constructivism, the Bauhaus, & Modernism to contemporary digital type design.
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.
Collaborative Arts Lab engages students across disciplines and schools in a layered process of inquiry, dialogue, and creative research in response to different issues of urgency in our community. Each semester, a theme is chosen for the course which serves as both the introduction to the frame for research and the introduction to the class group. This semester, the course will be rooted in performance as a frame to examine what culture is built around the body as subject and explore perceptions of art based on the body and different physicalities. You will work individually and in groups in movement-based exercises, as well as in other artistic mediums, to explore social, historical, and cultural contexts, analyze existing research, develop questions for creative inquiry, and experiment with new ways of thinking about the body as subject and as inspiration for the creative process. This course has no prerequisites and welcomes students from all schools and from all/any creative backgrounds – writers, dancers, actors, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, designers, photographers, etc. Students will be expected to create works together, and each student will have the opportunity to integrate different creative forms into their class projects.
This class is an overview of the field of video games that approaches them from several theoretical and critical perspectives. No special theoretical background or prior training is needed to take the course, but to have had a broad practical experience with and basic knowledge of games is a distinct advantage. Also, an interest in theoretical and analytical issues will help. You are expected to actively participate in the lectures, which are dialogic in form, with ample room for discussion. The course will prepare the student to: – Understand and discuss games from a theoretical perspective – what are the components of a game? – Apply new theories and evaluate them critically. – Assess and discuss game concepts and the use of games in various contexts. – Analyze games, and understand and apply a range of analytical methods.
This course will explore the basic tools of digital imaging. We will cover the three main Adobe products for creative imaging – Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. Through a series of short assignments we will look at various graphic design and layout ideas using Illustrator and InDesign and will touch on the wealth of image enhancement techniques afforded by Photoshop. The short assignments introduce the basics of design, typography and compositing images. Students have the opportunity to complete a small project of their own for the end of the term. Class time will be divided between lectures, critiques, and work in class sessions. This course is not intended to completely cover the software listed, but will give students a fundamental understanding of the possibilities of digital imaging. While the majority of the class focuses on print media (images, books and magazines), we discuss the growing importance of screen output. We do not have time to cover specific web or media projects, but will address transferable skills and understanding. We will incorporate some Adobe apps to augment the desktop applications. Additional reading materials will be distributed during the semester. Students should have access to the Adobe Creative Suite through the NYU license.
This course will examine “social media” from a cultural perspective, with a focus on how media technologies figure in practices of everyday life & in the construction of social relationships & identities. We will work from an expansive definition of what constitutes “social media,” considering social network sites, smartphone apps, & online games, among other technologies. The course itself will involve communication in social media channels in addition to the traditional seminar format, thus we will be actively participating in the phenomena under study as we go.
Analysis of the problems of speaking to groups and practice in preparing and presenting speeches for various purposes and occasions. Hours are arranged for student evaluation and practice.
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.
An examination of the art of debate using current issues of public policy & social justice. Students will learn the skills of critical thinking, evidence evaluation & persuasion. Hours are arranged for fieldwork & student evaluation.
This course focuses on the essentially communicative aspects of American government, including the preparation of candidates, the electoral process, political advertising and public relations. It also includes the use of strategic communication to influence political agendas, the formation of public policy, and the process of political debate.
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: