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.
An introductory course to probability and statistics. It affords the student some acquaintance with both probability and statistics in a single term. Topics in Probability include mathematical treatment of chance; combinatorics; binomial, Poisson, and Gaussian distributions; the Central Limit Theorem and the normal approximation. Topics in Statistics include sampling distributions of sample mean and sample variance; normal, t-, and Chi-square distributions; confidence intervals; testing of hypotheses; least squares regression model. Applications to scientific, industrial, and financial data are integrated into the course.NOTE: Not open to math majors or students who have taken or will take MA-UY 2054 or MA-UY 3014 or MA-UY 3514 or ECE-UY 2233. | Prerequisite: MA-UY 1124, MA-UY1424, or MA-UY 1132 or MATH-UH 1020 or MATH-UH 1021 or MATH-SHU 151
Data Science for Everyone is a foundational course that prepares students to participate in the data-driven world that we are all experiencing. It develops programming skills in Python so that students can write programs to summarize and compare real-world datasets. Building on these data analysis skills, students will learn how to draw conclusions and make predictions about the data. Students will also explore related ethical, legal, and privacy issues.
This course examines the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable urban development. Some of the major themes explored include indicators of sustainability, urban demographic trends, environmental justice, green building, urban sprawl, sustainable energy and transportation, and global climate change. In addition, the role of information technology (IT) and social networks is discussed in the context of promoting ideas globally about sustainable development.
In the context of a growing number of intersecting local, national, and global crises, each warranting political strategy, operational responses, and humanitarian planning across a range of states, agencies, movements, technical and political actors, this course focuses on exploring: the relationships between and among decision-makers and affected populations; the political economy of resource mobilization and distribution; the practical tools, frameworks, and blueprints used for response; questions of power in the context of emergency, and; historical determinants of humanitarian need, responsibility, and intervention. This course digs deeply into the political economy, politics, infrastructure, design, incentives, and dilemmas related to the current development and emergency paradigms, with specific exploration of what constitutes humanitarian action, aid, response, and ethics. Blending both practitioner and theoretical perspectives, this course takes a critical approach to the evolution of development concepts, slow and fast emergency, and structural inequality as they are shaped by historical events and processes, institutions, and ideologies – while simultaneously exploring the role of contemporary aid systems, political and social responses in perpetuating and remedying each. There is special emphasis on the perspectives and vantage points of people most directly affected by perpetual emergency. While not centered on or around the COVID-19 pandemic that has shaped our lives for the last three years, we will incorporate its context and reference it as an embodied case for better understanding the realities and power dynamics affecting “local populations” that we often speak about in this work, as well as a growing field of policy research and practice surrounding compounding crises, or “polycrises.” Throughout the course, which will utilize active learning modalities such as simulations, large and small group discussion, mapping and platform analysis, analysis of films, discussion of readings, guest speakers from other geographies, and individual reflection, we will engage (and often struggle with) fundamental (and technical) questions such as: • What are the political, social and economic underpinnings of contemporary development, emergency, and humanitarian discourse? • How does the design of development and humanitarian infrastructure and technical systems contribute to or alleviate structural inequality within and across societies as part of long-term development paradigms or short-term emergency response? • What does it mean to be an individual engaged in humanitarian, emergency, and development work as an affected population, as a decision-maker, as an insider or outsider? As an individual or as part of an institution? What are the historical and contemporary sources of these roles, norms, and practices? • What are the origins and starting points of an emergency? When can we say an emergency has ended? • How does a focus on underlying causes and power relations change our analysis of the problems and solutions? Should politics be removed from practice & intervention or amplified? • As people affected by an emergency are not a monolith, how can we define “local” and “sovereign” in mapping competing interests and power dynamics within communities affected by emergency? • Should we reform or abandon the current humanitarian/development aid system toward alternatives?
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 course, aimed at second semester sophomores, is the launch pad of Television Writing in the department. Before taking any other TV writing courses, students must take Introduction To Television Writing. The course will introduce sophomores interested in TV writing to all aspects of what goes into the creation of a script for a TV program. It is also recommended for non-writers who wish to learn the fundamentals of TV writing as preparation for creating shows and working with writers. The course will also prepare students for other TV-writing courses in the departmental Television Progression. The course is also open to seniors with an interest in television writing who haven’t taken other TV writing courses. This course allocates as Film & TV, Scriptwriting for Film & TV majors.
Topics in Interactive Media Arts courses are courses within the broader field of emerging media, covering a wide range of topics depending on the expertise of the current course instructor. This course will cover a specific emerging media topic from a practical and/or theoretical perspective. Students will learn about the topic from readings, discussions, and writings, as well as through hands-on assignments and projects. Students can enroll in multiple “Topics in IMA” courses simultaneously in one semester and receive full credits for each course. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA elective; IMB IMA/IMB elective.
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.
Over the past 3 years, we have seen many aspects of our lives thrust online. Increasingly, we are working, learning, socializing with family and friends, attending live performances and more through 2D grids of video feeds on platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet. These communication tools have become essential for remote communities to connect, yet fail to replicate many of the most engaging, messy and human aspects of our in-person experience. What happens when we break out of this grid and explore new forms of real-time social interactions online using webcam video and audio? Recent explorations in this realm have shown the promise of spatial metaphors in creating engaging real-time social interactions online. In this course, students will create their own series of experimental social spaces that explore these questions: how does the shape and nature of our environment affect the way we communicate? What unique forms of real-time expression and sharing might be possible online (and only online)? How might we design experiences for the unique social dynamics we want to support? Students will be exposed to principles of spatial design as well as a series of open source Javascript tools for arranging live webcam video and audio in 2D and 3D space in the browser. They will use WebGL (through the three.js library) to build 2D and 3D environments, and will be exposed to WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) and Node.js to add interactivity to those environments.
Data is the means by which we turn experience into something that can be published, compared, and analyzed. Data can facilitate the production of new knowledge about the world—but it can also be used as a method of control and exploitation. As such, the ability to understand and work with data is indispensable both for those who want to uncover truth, and those who want to hold power to account. This intensive course serves as an introduction to essential computational tools and techniques for working with data. The course is designed for artists, designers, and researchers in the humanities who have no previous programming experience. Covered topics include: the Python programming language, Jupyter Notebook, data formats, regular expressions, Pandas, web scraping, relational database concepts, simple data visualization and data-driven text generation. Weekly technical tutorials and short readings culminate in a self-directed final project.
This 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.
The course traces the documentary film from its origins to the present day. Pioneer documentarians like Dziga Vertov and Robert Flaherty saw in documentary film the ability to portray life with a kind of truthfulness never before possible. Early Polish filmmaker Boleslaw Matuszewski wrote that while “the cinematograph does not give the whole truth at least what it gives is unquestionable and of an absolute truth.” Since those heady days, it has become all too clear that documentaries have no special access to the truth. Nevertheless, as this still-young art evolved, documentarians of different schools constantly sought new means to tell the human story. Documentary filmmaking has always been a blend of artistry and technical means and we will also explore this critical relationship. The course explores the development of the documentary and the shifting intentions of documentary filmmakers through the evolution of narrative approach and structure paying special attention to the documentary tradition’s relationship to journalism. Students examine how different filmmakers have gone about trying to convey “reality” on screen both through the use and avoidance of narration, through interviews, editing and dramatizations. Throughout the semester, students investigate how image-driven medium attempts to report stories and the ways an emotion-driven art can be problematic for journalistic objectivity. Finally, the ethical and journalistic responsibilities the documentary filmmaker are discussed. Special attention is given to dramatic re-creations, the filmmaker’s relationship to his/her subjects and the construction of narrative through editing.
The course covers marketing, advertising, and communications strategies in the new media landscape where traditional media (e.g., television, print) and the online social media (i.e., Web 2.0; e.g., online social networks, user-generated content, blogs, forums) co-exist. Students are expected to have knowledge about the fundamentals of traditional advertising methods and strategies. With this background knowledge, the primary focus of the course is on understanding social media, developing social media marketing strategies, and tracking their effectiveness. This course does not look at more tactical aspects of advertising/communications such as creative, message management, and publicity.
Today, the food industry is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for up to 30% of emissions. A poor diet is now the leading cause of mortality in the U.S. As part of these huge global problems, animal production is arguably the biggest culprit. In recognition of this, consumers are dramatically altering diet patterns, and food entrepreneurs are rushing to solve the problem with desirable solutions. Vegetarianism and veganism are exploding and new alternative meat and dairy offerings are being launched at a frenetic pace. This undergraduate course—the first of its kind—is designed to put the idea of teaching entrepreneurship to its ultimate test—with the objective of incubating a series of ventures through the course of the semester that have the potential to be viable businesses and reverse negative externalities that arise from animal production. The course will start by exploring the chemistry of protein, the nutritional role of protein, the history of animal production and its environmental consequences. It will then take students through a series of frameworks to identify and implement solutions using entrepreneurship as the vehicle. These frameworks will include: (1) design thinking to identify opportunities, (2) sector / industry analysis models to identify need-gaps and validate the opportunity, (3) design thinking to prototype solutions and (4) business modeling in order to commercialize solutions. At the beginning of the semester, “start-up” teams of five to six students each will be formed and tasked with building a “blue-print” for a startup in the sustainable protein sector.
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.
The Italian Cinema is a good way to study the whole Italian history, society, ideology and behaviours. The students will have the opportunity to know such authors as Rossellini, De Sica, Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti, Pasolini, Bertolucci, who are well known in the US. The course will also focus on the difference between auteur films and genre films (comedy, roman-mythological, western, melodrama); it will stress the gender point of view, the problem of a national identity, the role of the film industry. Strong attention will be paid to the relationship between Italian film and literature, art history, television and other disciplines.
“””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.”
This course focuses on designing, developing and delivering multimedia live performances via a virtual platform. The class will have an emphasis on experimenting with different possibilities of virtual performances, pushing the boundaries of the performative medium, and using emerging technologies to create experiences that allow for the unfolding of engaging narratives, and/or generate compelling visuals in real time. We will look at various examples of both online and offline performances, explore how we can apply the technologies we have learned to design performative systems, and discuss methods we can use to make our performances more engaging. Students will practice quickly coming up with ideas and performing in class. A few weeks into the course, students will propose final project ideas and then develop the performances in the following weeks with support from the instructor. The class will culminate in a virtual event featuring solo and/or group performances by the students.
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
This course provides an introduction to the dramatic work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Students read and attend representative comedies, tragedies, and histories, their selection to be determined by the plays actually in production in and around London, particularly at the Barbican, New Globe, and Stratford to which at least one excursion will be made. Special attention will be given to the playhouses and the influence they had on the art of the theatre, actors’ companies, and modes of production and performance. Lectures and discussions will focus on the aesthetic quality of the plays, their relationship with the audiences (then and now), the application of the diverse attitudes and assumptions of modern critical theory to the Elizabethan stage, the contrasting structures of Shakespearean and non-Shakespearean drama, the new emphasis on selfhood and individuality, and the major themes of hierarchy, order, and justice, the conflict of Nature and Fortune, the role of Providence, the ideals of love, and the norms of social accord. Opportunities will be given to investigate the interrelations of the plays and other arts, including film, opera, and ballet.
TV Nation: Inside and Out of the Box gives students the opportunity to experience, first hand, how the world of network television works from two points of view: business and creative. Students will gain an understanding of the business aspect through the vantage point of the network executives and programmers. They will also learn the creative process from development to pitching, from the vantage point of writers and producers in the industry. In TV Nation, students will role play the entire process as the key players who put together a season for broadcast and cable networks. This course allocates as a Craft for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES.
Advanced work in studio repair and maintenance focusing on digital equipment. Students will develop practical skills tracing schematics, using test equipment, and replacing components as required daily in the studio environment.
A continuation of MPATE-UE 1010. This is an advanced & detailed study of the audio-visual production & post-production process including digital recording techniques, with special emphasis on synchronization & the interfacing of SMPTE time code. Sound design, advanced Foley topics, * creative workflow in audio post production will also be discussed.
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.
“As game and interaction designers we create systems and choices that can either prey upon our psychological foibles or help us avoid decision pitfalls. It is our responsibility to understand how we decide, to consider the ethics of the systems we create and to practice designing systems in a purposeful manner. Game Design & The Psychology of Choice will provide interaction and game designers with an understanding of the factors that influence behavior and decision-making by looking at the intertwining of cognitive psychology and economics through the development of behavioral economics. These disciplines study behavior on the individual and group level, often revealing some of the why behind the rules of thumb and folk wisdom that game designers come to intuitively. But understanding the why—why we fall into decision traps; why certain tradeoffs tax our brain more than others; why we are overconfident about our abilities; why certain decisions make us uncomfortable—allows us to more purposefully apply our design craft, both in and out of games. Finally, as a class, we will take what we learn about how we think and create series of game experiences based around key cognitive science concepts. Assignments may include: •Mod a cognitive science experiment into a game or experience •Analyze and present a game through the lens of cognitive science and behavioral economics •Create game or experience based around a particular insight from cognitive science or behavioral economics”
This course introduces students to modalities for creating site-specific and immersive art and performance. Assignments will examine the work of artists who challenge the limitations of the physical, psychological and transactional spaces that have come to define conventional production models. Students will regularly receive prompts from which collaborative work will be workshopped, generated and presented. The sites and practices explored will de-center script/text as spine, institutional space as gathering place, linear storytelling as narrative, and separation between audience and artist as social contract. Through group performance projects and presentations, students will investigate how Site evokes Narrative and Event differently in brick & mortar, virtual, historic, liminal, dead, found, contested, democratized and community spaces. Our work will unpack the challenges and opportunities presented when we relinquish creative control of such unfixed elements as serendipity, impermanence, improvisation, audience agency, public space, weather, and pandemic.
A programming course where we’ll explore various techniques and solutions for tracking and sensing people or objects in space. Students will get familiar with the terminology and algorithms behind many sensing topics such as computer vision, depth cameras, positional tracking, and coordinate mapping. As these subjects are explored, we will also dig into communication, and how this information can be transmitted from one tool to another, for example using OSC, Spout/Syphon, MIDI, DMX/ArtNet. The goal being to use the right tool for the job and not limit ourselves to a particular piece of software.
“How can motion capture (MoCap) be used to archive, preserve, and share intangible heritage forms, such as performing arts, rituals, and other social practices and traditions? This course approaches motion capture through the lens of ethnography — drawing on techniques of observation, participation, and qualitative design research. This class will offer an overview of different motion capture technologies, such as 2D-3D pose estimation and depth mapping, with a practical focus on learning the OptiTrack system at ITP. We will start by covering the basics of OptiTrack and build up to other workflows and techniques used across animation, game design, and virtual production (e.g. OptiTrack to Unreal Engine or Unity).” Prerequisite: CL: Hypercinema (ITPG-GT 2004)
“In even the tiniest fragment of digital sound (especially music) there lies a multiplicity of information hidden within. Using audio analysis techniques, this data can be distilled into a vast array of characteristics that describe various different features of the sound. These include things like the loudness, pitch, or the spectrum of frequencies being detected. Through additional analysis, these data points can be used to detect higher level musical features representing things like tempo, rhythm, or melody. Furthermore, the sound and music information can be used to train deep learning models that can then make accurate predictions (eg. what a sound is, what genre a song is, what mood a song evokes). Or, we can use machine learning for generative purposes using the data to guide the creation of new sounds, synthesizers, or even entire songs. The preceding are activities that fall under the areas of digital signal processing, music information retrieval, and machine learning, a trifecta that form the technological foundation for the research area known as machine listening. With a focus on ambient sound and music, this class will explore how tools and techniques from the field of machine listening can become a powerful aspect, or even strategy, in the realm of creative applications. This course will not cover, nor will it assume knowledge of, the underlying technical aspects of machine listening, or music theory. Resources for further pursuance of each week’s topics will be provided but will not be required for class. Instead, our aim will be on understanding what these techniques are doing, when and where to apply them, and how to access and apply them effectively through powerful software libraries. This high level approach will allow us to keep our efforts directed towards creative experimentation without becoming bogged down. Ultimately, students will synthesize the semester’s work into their own creative application involving sound. Here are some examples of the types of projects this class could support: An app that visualizes audio through graphics or DMX/LED lighting to create synesthesia-like effects An automatic system for transcribing music based off of a recording or real-time input A music remixing system where tracks are automatically selected, spliced, processed, and rearranged A musical instrument that adapts to its player based on real-time analysis of the played sound A synthesizer that uses machine learning to optimize and tune its parameters A music education software that visualizes rhythm and melody for the purpose of instruction A rhythm game that derives its gameplay from music information (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, DDR) A tool that analyzes the health of a machine based on its sound through a contact microphone The course will be taught in JavaScript with ICM-level programming experience recommended. No formal training in sound or music is expected or required. This course will be a great fit for any student that is interested in sound and wants to explore it more deeply. Please feel free to reach out to me via email with any questions about the class.”
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)
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
Offered in the spring semester only. Course level: Intermediate. 4 points. No prerequisite. Over the last 50 years the American Cinema has produced a remarkably rich abundance of entertaining, exciting, and challenging films. This course is designed to provide a survey of the wealth of styles, forms, purposes, and approaches to filmmaking that developed and emerged in this era. While Hollywood has obviously served as the dominant mode of filmmaking in this country, a significant of other filmmaking practices have continued to operate and sometimes thrive outside of it. Beyond the attention paid to Hollywood narrative cinema as it has changed and evolved over this half-century, we will also consider documentaries, avant-garde and experimental works, independent narraive cinema, and “cult” films. Consequently, we will be screening a variety of films, including works by such notable American filmmakers as Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, George Romero, John Singleton, and Michael Moore.
Feminist Filmmakers examines gender constructs in narrative film and episodic work. We will explore how gender constructs in film and television influence societal views of gender roles, as well as contextualize gender in the era and cultures specific films were made. The vehicle through which this course will examine gender will be the history and work of female directors around the world. Screenings, critical reading in film and gender studies, articles and interviews on current debates regarding gender and diversity inclusion in the film industry, make this class valuable for everyone.
The history of comedy in 20th century America is the history of America itself. Comedians from all walks of life have provided a funhouse mirror as well as a perceptive lens for American society and culture. This course will examine significant periods and players of the 20th century comedic genre and analyze them against their historic context and legacy. Humor will be used as a platform to discuss how comedy was governed by and ultimately responded to the influence of American society. This course will observe how comedians in turn shaped American life, running the gamut from silent movies to Vaudeville; screwball comedies of the 1930s and ‘40s to the Golden Age of Television; from the sitcom to the political comedies of present day. Equally important, this course will analyze the genesis and evolution of the comedic persona in performance: what worked, what did not work, and why. Comprehensive analysis of performances will help this course determine how performers did what they did and why they made the choices they made. This course will assess how the work of the comedian has evolved and grown over the course of a career, what methods have withstood the test of time, and why.
This course examines the artistic, aesthetic, and technical aspects in composing and creating music for film and television. It provides an inside look into the relationship between composer, director, and music editor, exploring music as a creative tool. Through lectures, analysis, demonstrations, and presentations by guest speakers, students learn and deal with the specifics of the film composer’s job, duties, and responsibilities, including the basics of film scoring. As a result, students develop the listening and production skills necessary for creative use of music in films, television, and media. In addition to creative and technical considerations, the business and personal relationship between composer and director/producer will be discussed. This course allocates as History & Criticism for Film & TV majors.
This seminar examines the causes and consequences of poverty and rising inequality around the globe. Students will study the ways in which poverty and inequality are shaped by multifaceted contexts; understand the theories underlying strategies and programs which address key poverty and inequality issues faced by many developed, developing and least developed countries; and learn about different countries’ experiences addressing their own poverty and inequality issues. We consider philosophies of global justice and the ethics of global citizenship, and students are expected to critically reflect upon their own engagements with poverty relief activities and aspirations for social changes. Students should be prepared to tackle advanced social science readings, analysis, and writing. Open to seniors, and to other students with instructor’s permission. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. Fulfillment: Social Science Focus Political Economy/Sociology 300 level.
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. “
Quantum technologies are the next frontier of electronics and computing. Quantum Computers, Quantum Sensors, Quantum Materials are just beginning to emerge from laboratories and enter the realm of practical application. The course introduces the underlying principles of quantum physics, and reviews emerging capabilities of quantum computers and related technologies. Coursework will include programming quantum algorithms on a simulator, and running programs on actual cloud-based quantum computing hardware. The topics will be highly technical and will require the study of scientific principles and experimental apparatus. We will cover some basic mathematical operations in linear algebra, and we’ll be encountering some equations from physics and computer science.
The 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 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
Over the past 3 years, we have seen many aspects of our lives thrust online. Increasingly, we are working, learning, socializing with family and friends, attending live performances and more through 2D grids of video feeds on platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet. These communication tools have become essential for remote communities to connect, yet fail to replicate many of the most engaging, messy and human aspects of our in-person experience. What happens when we break out of this grid and explore new forms of real-time social interactions online using webcam video and audio? Recent explorations in this realm have shown the promise of spatial metaphors in creating engaging real-time social interactions online. In this course, students will create their own series of experimental social spaces that explore these questions: how does the shape and nature of our environment affect the way we communicate? What unique forms of real-time expression and sharing might be possible online (and only online)? How might we design experiences for the unique social dynamics we want to support? Students will be exposed to principles of spatial design as well as a series of open source Javascript tools for arranging live webcam video and audio in 2D and 3D space in the browser. They will use WebGL (through the three.js library) to build 2D and 3D environments, and will be exposed to WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) and Node.js to add interactivity to those environments.
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 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.
Information visualization is the graphical representation of data to aid understanding, and is the key to analyzing massive amounts of data for fields such as science, engineering, medicine, and the humanities. This is an introductory undergraduate course on Information Visualization based on a modern and cohesive view of the area. Topics include techniques such as visual design principles, layout algorithms, and interactions as well as their applications of representing various types of data such as networks and documents. Overviews and examples from state-of-the-art research will be provided. The course is designed as a first course in information visualization for students both intending to specialize in visualization as well as students who are interested in understanding and applying visualization principles and existing techniques. Fulfillment: CS Electives, Data Science Data Analysis Required; Data Science Courses for Concentration in Artificial Intelligence. Prerequisite or Co-requisite: Data Structures. Students must be CS or DS major and have junior or senior standing.
Students will learn how technology impacts the development and changed the experiences of children and young adults. Students will respond critically and explore the relationship between children, young adults, and the environment they navigate and explore the relationship between social media and development in relation to advancing technology. Additionally, students will explore ethical theory in relation to society and innovation. Through readings, discussions and presentations, students will develop analyzed solutions for problems experienced via interactions with technology and social media. In this online learning collaborative course, students will create evidence – based solutions to solving society’s predicament with the evolution of social media.
This course examines the lifecycle of high-growth new ventures (i.e. startups), with a focus on how they are funded. We will follow a successful startup’s path from founding through the stages of new venture finance. These include developing a business plan and its financials, the core skills of valuation, the venture capital industry, and how entrepreneurs and investors realize returns. Through examples of specific companies and technologies, we will also learn about the emerging landscape of financial technology (fintech) startups. We will consider the following subsectors, where startups are either seeking to displace incumbents or sell them their services: personal finance, blockchain, equity crowdfunding, lending (peer-to-peer and AI-augmented), payments, insurance, institutional investment, and money transfer.
Provides an overview of sports marketing as a component of a fully integrated marketing communication strategy. Studies the history and contemporary application of sports marketing as a method to achieve goals. Considers corporate as well as sporting property use of sports marketing strategies to achieve business objectives. Examines strategies that address critical business constituencies, including consumers, trade factors, employees, and the financial community. Covers sports marketing within the context of special sporting event sponsorships and professional sports teams as well as governing organizations, sports media (broadcast, print, and the Internet), licensing, hospitality, etc.
This 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.
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 a framework for understanding the global expansion of media and entertainment companies. Examines the impact that the significant export growth of American leisure products and services has on the U.S economy. Analyzes the strategies of several leading entertainment and media multinational companies and the development of their entertainment businesses within the major world economic zones. International speakers, cases and readings are used in this course.
The financial services industry is being transformed by regulation, competition, consolidation, technology and globalization. These forces will be explored, focusing on how technology is both a driver of change as well as the vehicle for their implementation. The course focuses on payment products and financial markets, their key systems, how they evolved and where might they be going, algorithmic trading, market structure dark, liquidity and electronic markets. Straight through processing, risk management and industry consolidation and convergence will be viewed in light of current events. The course objective is to bring both the business practitioner and technologist closer together. Topics will be covered through a combination of lectures, readings, news, case studies and projects.
Taught by NYC-based movement-based, interdisciplinary artist Eiko Otake, this course contemplates metaphorical nakedness and human and bodily experiences of time and space. Through movement study, reading, writing, and discussion the class will be a place of both collective and individual learning. Students will examine how being or becoming a mover reflects and alters each person’s relationships with challenges of the current world, with history, and with other beings. Topics of study include atomic bomb literature and Fukushima nuclear disaster. We will acknowledge how distance is malleable and how going to places is an act of choreography and self-curation. Questions we will explore include: How do various art works deal with witnessing and archiving history? How does art help humans to survive massive violence and understand other people’s experiences? How does art-making help people to deal with historical and personal trauma? How does honing one’s aesthetic contribute to constructing own thoughts and critical views? Reading, movement reviews and journal entries are required every week. Journals are graded by how they reflect homework assignments. Students will work on final projects, which would complement the syllabus. The instructor is available for individual consultation throughout the course. Students are strongly encouraged to nurture their own rigor. No previous dance training or movement study is necessary to take this course.
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.
With sales of more than 1.3 billion, the German recorded music market is the third largest in the world: it is larger than the UK music market and behind only the USA and Japan. Beyond just numbers, the Berlin music business is unique: it’s home to hundreds of powerful independent and D.I.Y. record labels; it’s historically been ground zero for innovative electronic and dance music; and it’s a burgeoning tech hub for innovative software/hardware companies like Native Instruments, Ableton and Soundcloud. In this colloquium series, students will meet and hear each week from key creative entrepreneurial figures and innovators in the German and European music business. This course has several purposes. First, students will consider how ongoing economic and technological changes might be impacting the worldwide music business, as speakers discuss controversial trends like the rise of cryptocurrency, block chain and cashless systems, customization technologies like 3D printing and developments in robotics, and radical, disruptive approaches to copyright. Second, students will develop a greater understanding of the chief similarities and differences between the traditional European and US music business operations, particularly with regard to label operations, publishing and copyright, touring and festivals, and nightlife promotion. Third, students will become more informed about the D.I.Y. music business in Berlin itself, as they hear from speakers about the promises and challenges one faces in launching innovative music start ups in Germany. And finally, students will get to meet and network with key movers and shakers in the Berlin scene, past and present. In anticipation for a guest class visit, students may be required to investigate websites, read biographical or contextual material, or attend events outside of class time. Students will be expected to ask informed questions of the guests and to develop responses throughout the course of the class. Students should leave the class with a greater understanding of how the European and German music businesses work and how they themselves might make a business or sales impact on a global scale.
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 introduces the essentials of web design and production, emphasizing the integration of AI tools like ChatGPT to enhance learning and creativity. Students will build a solid foundation in HTML and CSS, learn to optimize graphics, design layouts, and develop the technical skills needed to launch their own websites. The class explores using social media platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, and Instagram as promotional tools while incorporating AI to brainstorm design concepts, troubleshoot code, and refine messaging. We focus on the Internet as a promotion and distribution medium for the independent artist and filmmaker. A consistent and integrated communication strategy across digital channels is emphasized to prepare students for the demands of modern media. To deepen their learning experience, students will actively use ChatGPT to support various aspects of the curriculum. This includes generating creative ideas, drafting content, and exploring coding solutions. AI will also assist in tasks like creating compelling website copy, optimizing branding strategies, and scripting social media posts. By weaving AI into their workflow, students not only master essential web design skills but also gain hands-on experience with tools shaping the future of digital media.
A critical listening study of acoustic music recordings that develops the student’s ability to define and evaluate aesthetic elements of recorded music. Students explore recorded music attributes including dynamic range, stereo imaging, perceived room acoustics, the use of reverb and equalization, naturalness, and the listening perspectives.
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 physical aspects of sound, psychoacoustics, basic electricity, principles and practice of magnetic recording and an overview of the recording studio, including an introduction to multi-track recording techniques. Students perform various duties just as they would in a professional recording session with live musicians in the recording studio. Open to students without previous experience in recording technology.
An introduction to maintenance and troubleshooting concepts used in the recording studio. Procedures discussed are those necessary in utilizing sophisticated audio equipment and understanding essential aspects of studio design.
Design Your NYU Shanghai is a first-year course to help you make the most out of your college experience. You’ll be introduced to design thinking as a creative approach to explore majors and interests, craft global opportunities, and engage in intercultural connections. This action-oriented course uses rapid prototyping and reflection activities to ignite personal growth as you navigate this transformative time of your life.
In recent years, video games have exploded as both a cultural force and a pioneering creative medium. Many critics and creative professionals believe that gaming offers both its practitioners and its audience the next evolution in storytelling. But how–and why–did digital games evolve from mechanic-focused experiences such as Pong and Tetris into more narrative-rich undertakings along the lines of Mass Effect, The Witcher, and The Last of Us? In this course, we will explore the vibrant and complex intersection between narrative expression and interactivity, examining the myriad ways dramatic storytelling techniques can be applied to a series of design mechanics to bring context to the player’s action, and, inversely, the ways that mechanics and design can be employed to express a theme or to convey a story. The course is intended to appeal to all gaming backgrounds–neophytes with a casual interest in games, enthusiasts who’ve spent many years passionately gaming and discussing games, and everyone in between. The first half of the course will establish a creative grammar and a base of common reference points from which students will develop their creative projects. The second half of the course will focus on the creative project. Students will be challenged to “gamify” a popular work of media (of their choosing with professor approval) into an interactive project–video game, interactive fiction, board game, interactive theatre, or any combination thereof. Incorporating the fundamentals established in the first half of the course, students will develop this game concept through multiple rounds of iteration and feedback, eventually breaking down the mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics of the proposed project via a highly detailed game concept document—the blueprint of an interactive experience. In the end, students should come away with a command of basic game vernacular, inspired to view Game Theory and Design as expressive narrative tools available to them in their own creative toolbox, regardless of discipline or medium.
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.
The course will start off with an in-depth review of the exploitation mitigations introduced in modern operating systems. The instructors will demonstrate their limitations through simple examples and gradually develop the basic exploitation techniques into more complicated methods applicable to real-world exploitation. Unlike most other exploitation courses, we will focus on approaching exploitation as a creative problem-solving process rather than an exercise of applying cookbook techniques to common types of vulnerabilities. Most of the course will focus on the hands-on application of the material through exercises and leading the students through the development of reliable exploits for recently patched vulnerabilities in widely used software. | Prerequisites for Brooklyn Engineering Students: CS-UY 3933 and (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better). | Prerequisites for CAS Students: CS-UY 3933 and CSCI-UA 201. | Prerequisites for Abu Dhabi Students: CS-UY 3933 and CS-AD 103
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.
Study of American political ideas and debate from colonial times to the present. Topics include Puritanism, revolution and independence, the Constitution framing, Hamiltonian nationalism, Jeffersonian republicanism, Jacksonian democracy, pro- and antislavery thought, Civil War and Reconstruction, social Darwinism and laissez-faire, the reformist thought of populism, progressivism and socialism, legal realism, the New Deal and 20th-century liberalism, modern conservatism, civil rights, and war protest. Readings and discussion are based on original and interpretative sources.
Study of the politics of Britain, Ireland, France, and Germany. Compares the historical origins of these systems and analyzes their institutions as manifestations of their social and political culture and traditions. Treats each country’s current politics and political trends. Attempts to introduce the basic concepts of comparative political analysis in developing cross-cultural theory.
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.
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.
Today’s content creators must be entrepreneurs, navigating dynamically changing industry. How does emerging talent gain traction in a ’tsunami wave’ of independent films, episodics, webisodes and podcasts? This class explores development, funding, and legal strategies to make, market and distribute DIY low and ultra-low budget projects. Ones you can make now. Students will develop core competencies, culminating in a pitch deck for a viable indie feature film.
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.
Offered every semester. 4 points. Survey of the field of sociology: its basic concepts, theories, and research orientation. Threshold course that provides the student with insights into the social factors in human life. Topics include social interaction, socialization, culture, social structure, stratification, political power, deviance, social institutions, and social change.
This course concentrates on the culture, society, and politics of Renaissance and early modern Europe. The course explores several critical topics and themes, including the Italian and Northern Renaissance, the age of religious reform and religious wars, Europe’s “discovery” of other worlds and cultures, the origins and development of national states, the scientific revolution, the European enlightenment, and the origins of the French revolution.
Studies a selected section of the Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Babylonian Talmud, utilizing both traditional and academic methods of study. Emphasis is on mastering the themes and concepts while studying the text and its commentaries in depth.
This course covers the digital technology industry (e.g. consumer electronics, software) from a strategic and marketing perspective. The objectives are to understand how these industries function, the unique challenges they face, and how digital technology companies can leverage their strengths to achieve success in the marketplace. The focus is on understanding the interactions between competition, technology evolution, and firm capabilities.
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.
This is a course on a new field of research, which has been growing exponentially since the start of the twenty first century. The field deals primarily with the control of molecular structure on the nanometer scale through programming it by means of DNA secondary structures. The course will consist of a series of lectures by the instructor and then a series of presentations of recent papers in the field. A nascent textbook will be used as appropriate.
This course looks at the terms and conditions of Japanese animation (primarily, though not exclusively, anime) as, in many ways, a new and unique mode of expression. The course is framed in which anime might, or might not, shift earlier modes of expression (both literary and animated): the prevalence of mythology in animation and the tension between mythology and ideology; the importance of genre; and the impact of ?old? and ?new? media on narrative structure and reception. Implications of these conditions for thinking about ?Japanese? culture are also considered.
This is a post-advanced level language course for students looking to pursue a career in the field of business or economics related to China. It is designed for students: (a) to develop conceptual framework to understand China’s economic reform, its integration into the global economy, and the subsequent challenges and opportunities for its economy, companies and society at large; (b) to learn the specialized vocabulary, phrases and syntax used for oral and written communication in authentic business settings. Course materials will include journal articles on various aspects of China’s economic developments, its evolving macro and micro economic policy, as well as genuine business case studies of both domestic and foreign companies operating in China. In addition to Advanced level proficiency in Chinese (completion of EAST-UA 206 or equivalent), this course also requires basic background in business and/or economics.
The intermediate workshops offer budding fiction writers and poets an opportunity to continue their pursuit of writing through workshops that focus on a specific genre. The workshops also integrate in-depth craft discussions and extensive outside reading to deepen students’ understanding of the genre and broaden their knowledge of the evolution of literary forms and techniques.
The intermediate workshops offer budding fiction writers and poets an opportunity to continue their pursuit of writing through workshops that focus on a specific genre. The workshops also integrate in-depth craft discussions and extensive outside reading to deepen students’ understanding of the genre and broaden their knowledge of the evolution of literary forms and techniques.
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 we conceptualize the elusive phenomenon of “play”? Is there a biological imperative to play? How does play influence child development and maintain psychological health as we mature? In this course we survey the historical, scientific, clinical, cultural, and artistic perspectives on the role of play through the life cycle. Is the play-element a catalyst for creativity and innovation? We explore various theories of creativity through the lens of neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and mysticism. We consider the use of improvisation and free play in life, art, clinical work, and scientific discovery. Topics include: exploration of play styles, observations of animal play, the role of play in child development and education, how play influences attachment and social bonding, the aesthetics and cultural value of play, the consequences of play deprivation, the art and science of creativity, and the relationship between creativity, mental illness, and genius.
Complementary and alternative treatments comprise the most rapidly expanding segment of American healthcare. This course will examine the role of non-conventional care in the mental wellness of children, adolescents and young adults. We will survey the historical, clinical, and scientific aspects of mind-body treatments, biologically-based alternative therapies, spirituality, and the traditional medical systems of China and India. In addition, we will investigate the social, political, and economic forces influencing the role and status of complementary and alternative practices in America. Students will assess these practices by participating in class discussion, reviewing research literature, and engaging in several group experiential exercises.
Achievements of the chief painters of the 15th century with special attention to the Tuscan tradition. A brief introduction to Giotto and his time provides background for the paintings of Masaccio and his artistic heirs (Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Piero della Francesca). In the later 15th century, social and cultural changes generated by power shifts from Medici Florence to papal Rome also affected art patronage, creating new tensions and challenges for artists and fostering the emergence of new modes of visualization. Topics include the role of pictorial narrative, perspective, and mimesis; the major techniques of Renaissance painting; and the relationship of painting to the other visual arts.
Examines architecture, sculpture, painting, manuscript illumination, and treasury arts of the Latin West during ca. 950-1200 C.E., including Ottonian, Anglo-Saxon, Mozarabic, First Romanesque, and Romanesque art. Considers visual arts of Christianity in light of the historical, religious, political, social, and cultural contexts of their creation. Topics: the cult of saints and the arts; the art and architecture of pilgrimage and crusade; monasticism and the arts; Romanesque patrons, artists, and audiences; the Romanesque revival of monumental sculpture; Christian encounters with Islam and Judaism; secular themes in Romanesque art; word and image in Romanesque art; medieval attitudes toward the classical tradition.
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.
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.
How do fiction writers imagine the creative process, life and world of an artist? How do we write about the artistic process? What, if any, parallels may exist between writing and the creative process of a painter, composer, musician, dancer or actor? This course will explore these questions as students read and write fiction focused on artists working in different artistic mediums. We will read fictional portraits of artists both real and imagined, paying attention to the particulars of language associated with each art form and how the writers have incorporated elements of the art form into their work. Writing workshop will include a critique of the writing and story development as well as a critique of how well the world of the artist has been built within the bounds of the fictional realm. We will also delve into research—artist interviews, online performances and exhibitions—using the art and performance worlds of New York City as a resource, culminating in a final research portfolio and presentation to be submitted alongside the final work of fiction. Readings may include works by Baldwin, Bernhard, Bolaño, Hustvedt, Maugham, McCann, Ondaatje, Rushdie and Woolf. Readings will also include essays by artists, artist interviews and profiles, and art and performance criticism.
Fortnite’s concerts with Marshmello and Travis Scott. Open Pit’s DIY music festivals in Minecraft. League of Legends’ K-pop and hip-hop groups. Indie label Monstercat’s deals with Rocket League and Roblox. Sony Music’s gaming imprint Lost Rings. Grand Theft Auto’s 75 billion minutes of in-game music listening. “Fantasy record label” apps like FanLabel that allow fans to assemble their own “brackets” of artists that they think will do best on the charts. These are just a handful of examples of how music and games are increasingly overlapping as industries, experiences and cultures. There are strong mutual incentives at play: Game developers are blooming into full-fledged media brands and are looking to the music business for both financial and cultural capital, while music companies are looking to diversify their revenue, experiment with more interactive technologies and tap into the power of highly engaged communities online. In the process, this merging of entertainment worlds is also rewriting conventional wisdom of what it means to be an artist, a performer, gamer and especially a fan. This course will give students the critical frameworks and vocabulary to dissect how games are being incorporated into every corner of the music industry — from the moment music is created, to the strategies that inform how music is then disseminated, marketed, monetized and performed. We will draw from a combination of theoretical readings and real-world case studies to dissect video games that center music in their player experience on the one hand, and musical projects that draw direct inspiration from games in their approaches to design, marketing, business and fan engagement on the other hand. Because this field is relatively new, many of these case studies may emerge in real time as the course unfolds. This course will be reading-, writing- and play-intensive, with required and suggested games and soundtracks for students to play, watch or listen to every week. Throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to workshop their own creative, marketing and/or business strategies for hybrid music/game projects, walking away with a concrete plan of action for incorporating the fast-paced gaming industry into their own careers.
In name alone, Led Zeppelin carries mountains of meaning: the most successful and arguably the most influential rock band of all time. The creators of a mythic, mystical, guitar-based style that gave birth to the sounds and iconography of heavy metal. Song-crafters whose studio mastery, utilizing recording technology of the day, generated some of the most enduring rock recordings of their era, establishing standards that still define a stylistic and emotional extreme of popular music. The four British musicians who came out of the electric blues scene of the late ‘60s, recording and touring as a unit for a mere twelve years, together achieved a legendary stature that requires much study to fully appreciate more than thirty years after their demise. This course will consider the history of Led Zeppelin from a variety of perspectives: social and stylistic context; the nuts and bolts of their music—live and in the studio; the hows and whys of the band as a business. Using books, articles, videos, and a generous sampling of music, the course will follow their arrival in the final, psychedelic heyday of swingin’ London of the ‘60s; through their roots in folk and acoustic blues and later experimentations with Indian and North African music, and their rise in an era that was hungry for a heavier, more bombastic sound. The course will include special focus on the group’s technical leader and visionary, guitarist Jimmy Page, who came with prior credits as a sessionman and guitarist in the blues-rock band the Yardbirds, as well as other major players in the Zeppelin story—engineer Glyn Johns, manager Pater Grant—who helped build the sonic and popular juggernaut that the band became. In-class guest speakers will be featured, many who participated or witnessed the Led Zeppelin phenomenon, as well as a screening of the group’s concert film The Song Remains The Same.
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.
Investigates the evolutionary origins of humans. The study of human evolution is a multidisciplinary endeavor involving a synthesis of concepts, techniques, and research findings from a variety of different scientific fields, including evolutionary biology, paleontology, primatology, comparative anatomy, genetics, molecular biology, geology, and archaeology. Explores the different contributions that scientists have made toward understanding human origins and provides a detailed survey of the evidence used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of our own species.
The narrative non-fiction podcast is one of the most popular and creative formats in the audio space, due to the critical success of shows like Serial, 99% Invisible, Ear Hustle, and many more. Although they are challenging to produce, these shows bring a unique blend of intimacy and urgency to the media landscape. This workshop is for those who want to learn the basics of long-form, narrative audio storytelling. Students will go through the editorial steps of pitching, recording, writing and producing a completed episode in a documentary-style format. We’ll work on interview and writing techniques, developing your voice and creative ways of editing sound. Students will also create a podcast pitch deck to support their episode and explore ways to market, distribute, and monetize a narrative podcast.
Prerequisite: Three years of high school mathematics or equivalent. No prior computer experience assumed. Students with any programming experience should consult with the computer science department before registering. Students who have taken or are taking CSCI-UA 101 will not receive credit for this course. Note: This course is not intended for computer science majors, although it is a prerequisite for students with no previous programming experience who want to continue in CSCI-UA 101. Offered every semester. 4 points. An introduction to the fundamentals of computer programming, which is the foundation of Computer Science. Students design, write and debug computer programs. No knowledge of programming is assumed.
Weed. Pot. Bud. Grass. Ganja. Reefer. Mary Jane. Skunk. Herb. Cannabis. It’s all marijuana – the most commonly used, in most states still illicit, drug in the United States. Calming for some, anxiety provoking for others, perhaps medicinal, always controversial, marijuana causes wonder and confusion among physicians, parents, teachers, adolescents, and lawmakers. After 50 years of debate, marijuana remains one of our most visible modern-day conundrums – is it “okay?” Is marijuana safe and therapeutic, or is it dangerous and a gateway to more harmful drugs? Through lecture, discussion, and a thorough analysis of the current research literature in neuroscience and human development, we will seek to answer these questions and identify marijuana’s role in psychology, medicine, culture, and government policy.
Examines the state of college-student mental health and wellness on a personal and systems level. As undergraduate university students approach the end of adolescence, they often reevaluate the beliefs, values, and assumptions with which they left home. Young adulthood is a time of great promise, but the transition from child to adult is never easy. We look at how individuals can create positive change by reinterpreting their goals and identifying steps toward a successful college experience. Key findings from the fields of neuroscience and positive psychology are referenced to inform our study of the biopsychosocial underpinnings of success and happiness. Through lectures and discussions, students learn about a variety of wellness topics that include mindfulness, relationships, and self-esteem. The final project requires students to promote an area of mental wellness on campus.
The course targets current and future urban practitioners looking to harness the power of data in urban practice and research. This course builds the practical skillset and tools necessary to address urban analytics problems with urban data. It starts with essential computational skills, statistical analysis, good practices for data curation and coding, and further introduces a machine learning paradigm and a variety of standard supervised and unsupervised learning tools used in urban data science, including regression analysis, clustering, and classification as well as time series analysis. After this class, you should be able to formulate a question relevant to Urban Data Science, locate and curate an appropriate data set, identify and apply analytic approaches to answer the question, obtain the answer and assess it with respect to its certainty level as well as the limitations of the approach and the data. The course will also contain project-oriented practice in urban data analytics, including relevant soft skills – verbal and written articulation of the problem statement, approach, achievements, limitations, and implications.
Hollywood in your palm. That is what this combination of lectures, screenings, demonstrations and practical production workshop will offer to the students in this course. There will be several professional guests making presentations and Q&A sessions from the mobile phone filmmaking industry. In addition to the historical and critical overview of the emergence and exponential growth of global cell phone cinema, students will shoot all footage on cell phones and download them for computerized editing. The final project will be under three minute shorts. Projects will include all genres of film and television: news, mini-documentaries, animation, music videos and narrative shorts. Completed student projects will be suitable to be posted on the Internet and entered into domestic and international mobile phone film festivals. For example, two minute long improvisations of Bollywood Style Music Videos shot on Cell Phones by the students have been projected at the Tribeca Cinemas as part of the New York Indian Film Festival. It is suggested but not compulsory that students bring to the class a cell phone capable of recording video.
Buildings produce a large percentage of the carbon emissions threatening the planet and multi-family residential buildings make up a significant portion of it. With Covid-19 changing the way we live and work, and the increasing amount of data available from buildings, a key to fighting the climate crisis will be turning this data into action. In this course, learn how to analyze interval data and explore visualizing data to motivate tenants and building operators to change their behavior to reduce energy usage at the optimal times. This will involve analyzing the data streams coming from installed sensors and building equipment, understanding how usage varies over time, and transforming raw data into visual interfaces that mobilize us all in the fight to save the planet. This course will teach basics of how time series data can be stored, how to query time series data, and how to understand energy usage from a data set. With these new skills students will design a project using time series data and their JavaScript skills to visualize this data.
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
This course aims to provide students with the analytical skills to interpret current trends, policies and problems into futuristic (5 years) product proposals and the thought leadership and communication skills to clearly articulate and pitch those ideas. Projects can range from how prolonged quarantine will impact home exercise to the future of entertainment in self driving cars. Students will research and explore an opportunity space of their choosing where they will infer future problems from current trends then create a speculative solution. They will package their product thinking into a pitch deck and present back to the class. The class format will include lecture, in-class and out-of-class design exercises that apply the concepts covered in the class lecture and a final presentation and critique.
For most of its brief history, the domain of “smart cities” has belonged to large corporate vendors who promise and offer ubiquitous, citywide intelligence that utilizes their proprietary systems. More recently, an increasing number of startups have developed solutions which can make the technology somewhat more accessible. Unfortunately for municipalities, working with product vendors can be a heavy lift and the commitments involve lengthy procurement and contracting processes. In the past five years or so, the access to connected technology has increased and the hobbyist or “maker” movement has seen an uptick in offerings related to IoT. From the Arduino IoT Cloud and Adafruit.io software, to the Raspberry Pi and Particle hardware, building connected IoT devices has become easier than ever before. Through platforms like Google Coral and Nvidia Jetson, even edge computing and AI has become available to those with coding skills and a modest budget. What this course aims to explore is what happens when low-cost, readily available electronics platforms address the data needs of municipal governments. Rather than thinking of smart cities as large scale, big data projects that provide intelligence across a city, we will look at targeted applications that would be too small or costly to pursue as a conventional IoT procurement. What intelligence can be gathered in a short period of time with a small budget? During this course, we will examine successful and troubled smart cities projects, discuss the ethics of public technology projects, and review the prevailing best practices and guidelines relating to the Internet of Things in government use. Thinking in terms of “rapid IoT” and “little big data,” students will partner with NYC agency representatives* to uncover insights about a particular issue related to their work. Students will undertake a semester-long project, working to understand the agency’s data needs and develop an IoT solution to gather data for analysis that could inform the agency on planning, policy, or operational issues. The course will cover current connected microcontroller platforms and connectivity options like WiFi, Cellular, and LoRaWAN as well as the software tools needed to store and present data in user-friendly dashboards.
A new world is emerging at the intersections of machine learning and physical computation that will offer wide-scale access to bringing intelligence to everyday devices and spaces at extremely low costs. In this course, students are offered the opportunity to become pioneers in a new field of hardware machine learning as they are introduced to the most used machine learning platform in the world (TensorFlow) that has been embedded into an incredibly small microcontroller, called TinyML. Students will learn about building with machine learning, the ethics and societal impacts of ML, and how to start realizing creative computation through ML-based physical computing.
This course aims to provide students with the critical thinking and practical skills for creating effective and compelling user interfaces. We will dissect what a compelling user experience is and discuss and apply design frameworks and methods for creating one. Throughout this 2pt course we will examine a range of examples of interfaces with a focus on understanding the attributes of a successful interfaces and hands-on experience applying proven research, mapping and testing UX techniques. The class format is lecture and studio and will include discussions, student presentations and critique, and in-class design exercises. The exercises and assignments focus on problems that are typical of those a UX designer will encounter in the professional world.
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.
Analytical and theoretical concepts required grasping the aesthetic development of electronic and computer music compositions. The course emphasizes analysis and historical understanding of techniques of production and compositional ideas.
Through weekly performing, readings and discussions, students study the conceptualization and production of live electronics ensemble performance. Students create new works, improvisations, and rehearse compositions from a growing repertoire of electronic ensemble compositions, to be performed at a semester’s end public concert.
This course examines Modern Cryptography from a both theoretical and applied perspective, with emphasis on “provable security” and “application case studies”. The course looks particularly at cryptographic primitives that are building blocks of various cryptographic applications. The course studies notions of security for a given cryptographic primitive, its various constructions and respective security analysis based on the security notion. The cryptographic primitives covered include pseudorandom functions, symmetric encryption (block ciphers), hash functions and random oracles, message authentication codes, asymmetric encryption, digital signatures and authenticated key exchange. The course covers how to build provably secure cryptographic protocols (e.g., secure message transmission, identification schemes, secure function evaluation, etc.), and various number-theoretic assumptions upon which cryptography is based. Also covered: implementation issues (e.g., key lengths, key management, standards, etc.) and, as application case studies, a number of real-life scenarios currently using solutions from modern cryptography. | Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
This course addresses the design and implementation of secure applications. Concentration is on writing software programs that make it difficult for intruders to exploit security holes. The course emphasizes writing secure distributed programs in Java. The security ramifications of class, field and method visibility are emphasized. | Knowledge of Information, Security and Privacy equivalent to CS-GY 6813. Prerequisite: Graduate standing
This course is an introduction to the field of machine learning, covering fundamental techniques for classification, regression, dimensionality reduction, clustering, and model selection. A broad range of algorithms will be covered, such as linear and logistic regression, neural networks, deep learning, support vector machines, tree-based methods, expectation maximization, and principal components analysis. The course will include hands-on exercises with real data from different application areas (e.g. text, audio, images). Students will learn to train and validate machine learning models and analyze their performance. | Knowledge of undergraduate level probability and statistics, linear algebra, and multi-variable calculus. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
This course is about experimental game design. Design in this context pertains to every aspect of the game, and these can be broadly characterized as the game system, control, visuals, audio, and resulting theme. We will explore these aspects through the creation of a few very focused game prototypes using a variety of contemporary game engines and frameworks, high-level programming languages, and physical materials. This will allow us to obtain a better understanding of what makes games appealing, and how game mechanics, systems, and a variety of player experiences can be designed and iteratively improved by means of rapid prototyping and play-testing. The course combines the technology, design, and philosophy in support of game creation, as well as the real-world implementation and design challenges faced by practicing game designers. Students will learn design guidelines and principles by which games can be conceived, prototyped, and fully developed within a one-semester course, and will create a game from start to finish. The course is a lot of (team)work, but it’s also a lot of fun. Programming skills are helpful, but not a hard requirement. Artistic skills, or a willingness to learn them are a plus. | Prerequisite: (Graduate Standing AND CS-GY 6533) for SoE students OR (OART-UT 1600 and OART-UT 1605) for Game Center MFA students OR instructor permission.
Big Data requires the storage, organization, and processing of data at a scale and efficiency that go well beyond the capabilities of conventional information technologies. In this course, we will study the state of art in big data management: we will learn about algorithms, techniques and tools needed to support big data processing. In addition, we will examine real applications that require massive data analysis and how they can be implemented on Big Data platforms. The course will consist of lectures based both on textbook material and scientific papers. It will include programming assignments that will provide students with hands-on experience on building data-intensive applications using existing Big Data platforms, including Amazon AWS. Besides lectures given by the instructor, we will also have guest lectures by experts in some of the topics we will cover. Students should have experience in programming: Java, C, C , Python, or similar languages, equivalent to two introductory courses in programming, such as “Introduction to Programming” and “Data Structures and Algorithms. | Knowledge of Python. Prerequisite: Graduate Standing.
This course takes a top-down approach to computer networking. After an overview of computer networks and the Internet, the course covers the application layer, transport layer, network layer and link layers. Topics at the application layer include client-server architectures, P2P architectures, DNS and HTTP and Web applications. Topics at the transport layer include multiplexing, connectionless transport and UDP, principles or reliable data transfer, connection-oriented transport and TCP and TCP congestion control. Topics at the network layer include forwarding, router architecture, the IP protocol and routing protocols including OSPF and BGP. Topics at the link layer include multiple-access protocols, ALOHA, CSMA/CD, Ethernet, CSMA/CA, wireless 802.11 networks and linklayer switches. The course includes simple quantitative delay and throughput modeling, socket programming and network application development and Ethereal labs. | Knowledge of Python and/or C. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
This course provides a high-level overview of the key ideas and technologies that lead to revolutionary changes in Artificial Intelligence and to the explosive growth in practical applications of AI. Taught by a team of NYU’s top experts in artificial intelligence lead by the Turing award winner Yann LeCun, the course will introduce students to a range of topics in fundamentals of AI and its key sub-areas including machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision as well as its applications in different domains.
This course will combine a history of video art and experimental film with practical training in the use of live video performance art technology. Students will explore new ways to create and edit films and videos using VJ software, projections, and multi-channel video surfaces. Workshops will demonstrate concepts and software that can be integrated into the creative process of video performance art and video art installations. COURSE OBJECTIVES At the completion of this course, the student will be able to: Draw inspiration from the recent history of incredible video and multi-media artists. Develop an understanding of audio and visual hardware used by VJ’s. Use live VJ software to manipulate digital media in real time to create Video Performance Art. Use Projection Mapping techniques to project video art onto 3D surfaces. Create original video performance art, video installations, and other performance pieces. Utilize skills to make video art in the professional market.
The class will teach how to architect and lead a virtual production by creating a dialogue between the Producer, Director, and Cinematographer in filmmaking with the Technical Producer and Director in creative technology. The class will cover an overview of all of the technical skills required to produce a remote virtual production through the lens of a project manager making administrative and creative decisions. This class will culminate in a real-time 3D project exploring motion capture and virtual production that will adapt a pre-existing cinematic work with the class themes in mind.
This course is about how to tell stories with your projects. Like a classic linear story, we’ll start at the beginning with the question of how good stories are told. We’ll learn about classical storytelling techniques and conventions from a variety of cultures, genres, and media. Next, we’ll explore what various tech and media can and can’t do in the context of story. We’ll end the semester throwing linearity out the window to create narrative work that engages with the tropes and conventions of non-linear storytelling. Chaos may ensue, as the defining feature of non-linear storytelling is that the author cedes some control of the narrative to the audience. There is no creative writing involved. Students will not be asked to invent new stories for this course—non-writers are welcome! The work of the class will involve reading, reading responses, active class discussion, and group work/play with projects riffing on assigned existing stories and narratives. For example, we might ask students to use a specific canonical story, poem, myth, parable, or film plot as a narrative jumping off point for assignments. The course is co-taught by Kio Stark, a researcher/writer of both fiction and nonfiction and Mia Rovegno, a theater writer/director who focuses on site-specific and immersive work. The semester is divided into three units. Unit 1: Narrative structures. In this unit, we dig into what it means to tell a story. Some of our major themes include: • What are the most commonly used story structures in media such as the novel, graphic novel, film, TV, and theater—and what expectations do they set up for the audience? • What are the techniques, tropes, and conventions of both western and nonwestern storytelling traditions? • What are some approaches that are in dialogue with or rebel against these traditions? • How do we understand and manipulate the audience’s narrative expectations? • What makes a story ‘work’ / how do we define a good or successful story? Unit 2: Using tech to tell a story. In this unit, we will do something that in other contexts is a terrible idea—we will start with the technology. We’ll explore briefly what counts as technology in our conversation, and then play with what specific technologies make possible, complicate, and make impossible when it comes to exploring narrative work. • What can and can’t we do with sensors, motion, projection, AR/VR, paper, film, light, voice etc in the context of the storytelling knowledge we’ve gained in Unit 1? • What unique storytelling conventions might be available to us as makers? • What kinds of objects, interfaces, situations, and places can be experienced as narrative? Unit 3: Non-linear storytelling. In this unit, we will play with situations in which the creators do not have total control over how the narrative is experienced and in what order it unfolds. • How do we use the viewer’s relationship/familiarity with conventions of linear storytelling to engage them in a non-linear narrative? • What are the storytelling conventions we see used in media beyond the page, big screen, and stage, where non-linearity is a common feature? For example, AR/VR, video games, social media, site specific performance, and museum design. • How do we make a story that works in more than one direction? • How do we play with the audience’s expectations? • How can we experiment with the temporal to establish duration and clear beginnings and endings for audience entry and exit? • How can we creatively engage both facility and innovation in a user journey? • How can we explore engagement of the audience’s “role” when the work demands a virtual, immersive or interactive experience? • How can we prime audiences for fluency in our storytelling modalities, without depending on cumbersome directions, real time interceptions or demonstrations of technology? In other words: how do we hide the man behind the curtain?!
Course description (optional): We are currently living in a society that operates under the principle that one body equals one agent, one vantage point, one identity. But emerging technologies may create a future in which the notion of a single personal identity becomes outdated. That future includes: machine learning techniques that make emulating the style and behavior of other people fast and easy; widely available AR/VR headsets that get people to identify with however many faces and bodies they choose, instead of just those they were born with; cryptocurrencies enabling the use of pseudonymous economic identities to transact across the planet in a permissionless manner. This is a course where we will get to explore and anticipate the utopian and dystopian aspects of this weird future of identity.
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.
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.
Libraries like TensorFlow.js and ml5.js unlocked new opportunities for interactive machine learning projects in the browser. The goal of this class is to learn and understand common machine learning techniques and apply them to generate creative outputs in the browser. This class will start with running models in the browser using high-level APIs from ml5.js, as well as explore the Layer APIs from TensorFlow.js to train models using custom data. This class will also cover preparing the dataset for training models. At the completion of this course, students will have a better understanding of a few machine learning models, how do they work, how to train these models, and their use case to creative projects. Students will also be able to create interactive ML web applications with pre-trained models or their own models. Prospective students are expected to have taken an ICM (Introduction to Computational Media) course, or have an equivalent programming experience with JavaScript, HTML, CSS.
Beginning with the release of Crowther and Woods’ “Colossal Cave Adventure” in 1977, the potential and unique affordances of computation as a means of storytelling have become more and more apparent. Combining approaches from literary theory, anthropology, computational creativity and game design, this class considers how narrative structure can be represented as data and enacted through computation, and invites students to implement practical prototypes of their own interactive and procedurally-generated narratives using a variety of technologies. Topics include (but are not limited to) hypertext fiction, “choose your own adventure”-style branching narratives, text adventures, visual novels, story generation from grammars and agent-based simulations. Students will complete a series of bite-size weekly assignments to present for in-class critique. Each session will also feature lectures, class discussion, and technical tutorials.
“Lies. Hoaxes. Conspiracies. Rumors. Propaganda. Fake news is an age-old phenomenon—but the internet is making targeted misinformation cheap and scalable. That is affecting politics, public opinion, and the everyday experience of the internet. In this 6-week class, we will explore the cutting edge of “fake news” by engaging in ethical research and fabrication. Participants will manufacture and observe a controlled “fake news” event. We will experiment with command-line tools for doctoring video, neural nets and deepfakes to fabricate reality, Twitter bots, behavioral psychology, and the dark underbelly of the ad economy.”
“Digital tools of all kinds are deeply embedded in how our society operates. Innovations in basic communication, data processing, image manipulation, and even financial systems have transformed our social worlds and our artistic practice. This became even clearer and more present during the global pandemic, where, during times of social isolation, digital and networked tools almost fully replaced in-person social life. This course will examine the ethical and esthetic implications of a digital and networked world through the lens of socially engaged art and explore how digital tools are and can be used in socially engaged art practice, where art and creative work intersect directly with people and civic life. This includes discussion of how digital and networked tools both increase and complicate physical, economic, and cultural accessibility, and the ethical and social implications of the newest technologies, including AI, Web3, and quantum computing. We will work on how digital tools have been used in socially engaged art and how they could be used further, guided by the understanding that working digitally with socially engaged concepts means both using digital tools within projects AND interrogating the inner workings of how digital practices operate socially and culturally. We will also have some meetings and activities in public spaces, field trips to organizations such as Eyebeam and Genspace, and guest lecturers. Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have questions about taking the course, or the course content.”
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 is a practice-based course designed to teach basic programming skills in the context of critical and cultural media studies and digital humanities. Requires no prior programming experience, simply a willingness to explore code at a more technical level with the aim of using computation as an expressive, analytical, critical and visualizing medium. Students learn basic coding techniques such as variables, loops, graphics, and networking, all within a larger conversation on the social, cultural, and historical nature of code and coding practices.
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).
An introductory course to probability and statistics. It affords the student some acquaintance with both probability and statistics in a single term. Topics in Probability include mathematical treatment of chance; combinatorics; binomial, Poisson, and Gaussian distributions; the Central Limit Theorem and the normal approximation. Topics in Statistics include sampling distributions of sample mean and sample variance; normal, t-, and Chi-square distributions; confidence intervals; testing of hypotheses; least squares regression model. Applications to scientific, industrial, and financial data are integrated into the course.NOTE: Not open to math majors or students who have taken or will take MA-UY 2054 or MA-UY 3014 or MA-UY 3514 or ECE-UY 2233. | Prerequisite: MA-UY 1124, MA-UY1424, or MA-UY 1132 or MATH-UH 1020 or MATH-UH 1021 or MATH-SHU 151
This course examines Modern Cryptography from a both theoretical and applied perspective, with emphasis on “provable security” and “application case studies”. The course looks particularly at cryptographic primitives that are building blocks of various cryptographic applications. The course studies notions of security for a given cryptographic primitive, its various constructions and respective security analysis based on the security notion. The cryptographic primitives covered include pseudorandom functions, symmetric encryption (block ciphers), hash functions and random oracles, message authentication codes, asymmetric encryption, digital signatures and authenticated key exchange. The course covers how to build provably secure cryptographic protocols (e.g., secure message transmission, identification schemes, secure function evaluation, etc.), and various number-theoretic assumptions upon which cryptography is based. Also covered: implementation issues (e.g., key lengths, key management, standards, etc.) and, as application case studies, a number of real-life scenarios currently using solutions from modern cryptography. | Prerequisite: (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better) and MA-UY 2314.
This course addresses the design and implementation of secure applications. Concentration is on writing software programs that make it difficult for intruders to exploit security holes. The course emphasizes writing secure distributed programs in Java. The security ramifications of class, field and method visibility are emphasized. | Prerequisite: CS-UY 3923
This course takes a top-down approach to computer networking. After an overview of computer networks and the Internet, the course covers the application layer, transport layer, network layer and link layers. Topics at the application layer include client-server architectures, P2P architectures, DNS and HTTP and Web applications. Topics at the transport layer include multiplexing, connectionless transport and UDP, principles or reliable data transfer, connection-oriented transport and TCP and TCP congestion control. Topics at the network layer include forwarding, router architecture, the IP protocol and routing protocols including OSPF and BGP. Topics at the link layer include multiple-access protocols, ALOHA, CSMA/CD, Ethernet, CSMA/CA, wireless 802.11 networks and link-layer switches. The course includes simple quantitative delay and throughput modeling, socket programming and network application development and Ethereal labs. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better) | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: ENGR-UH 3510 or CS-UH 1050 (C- or better) | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: CSCI-SHU 210 (C- or better)
This course covers cryptographic systems. Topics: Capability and access control mechanisms, authentication models, protection models. Database and operating system security issues, mobile code, security kernels. Malicious code, Trojan horses and computer viruses. Security policy formation and enforcement enforcement, legal aspects and ethical aspects. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: CS-UY 2214 | Prerequisite for CAS Students: CSCI-UA 201 | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: CS-UH 2010 or ENGR-AD 3511 | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: CENG-SHU 202 | Co-requisite for ALL Students: CS-UY 3224
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 course covers states of matter, chemical thermodynamics and equilibria, kinetics, acid-base chemistry, electrochemistry, introduction to organic chemistry, natural and synthetic polymers. The course is required for students in the Biomolecular Science Program. | Prerequisite: CM-UY 1004 or CM-UY 1014. Corequisite: EX-UY 1.
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 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.
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.
The ways in which we communicate has changed radically in the last 100 years. As the communication systems we use have increased in complexity, so has the effort it takes to understand how they work. Most of us use protocols like LTE, HTTP, TCP/IP, and BLE every day. We take them for granted, almost like we do the laws of nature. But there are more than the laws of physics, more than techniques of engineering, embedded in the design and implementation of our protocols of communication. To understand their role in our lives, we need to look into the societal and economic contexts in which they came to be. In this class, we will examine communication protocols using Raspberry Pi’s, Arduinos, Software Defined Radios, and other connected devices. We will look closer at organizations like iSOC, ICANN and IEEE to better understand how protocol designs are implemented and standardized. Through readings, research and hands-on work we will build an understanding of how these protocols work, how their designs incorporate the physical, technical, cultural, corporate and political assumptions of the actors behind them. In the first half of the class readings and assignments will help familiarize students with some of the different protocols we rely on every day. In the second half, students will work in groups to investigate a communications protocol and consider its impact from a technical, societal and environmental perspective. Final projects will communicate their findings in whatever form students deem appropriate – explanatory blog posts, physical or digital installations, or even videos and podcasts.
With Machine Learning models are getting smaller, and microcontrollers are getting more computing power, Machine Learning is moving towards edge devices. This class explores the idea of how machine learning algorithms can be used on microcontrollers along with sensor data to build Physical Computing projects. In this class, we will learn about TensorFlow Lite, a library that allows you to run machine learning algorithms on microcontrollers. We will talk about common machine learning algorithms and techniques and apply them to build hands-on interactive projects that enrich our daily lives. Students will learn to use pre-trained models, and re-train the models with sensor data. We are going to talk about Image Classification, Transfer Learning, Gesture and Speech Detection. For each topic, we will first discuss its history, theory, datasets, and applications, and then build simple experiments based on the topic. Prospective students are expected to have taken Introduction to Physical Computing and Introduction to Computational Media course, or have equivalent programming experience with Arduino and JavaScript.
Introduction to Critical Mapping and Open Source Geospatial Web Analysis and Visualization is an introduction to critical perspectives in cartography and geospatial information systems and web technologies. This course will introduce students to the foundations of geographic data analysis and visualization, grounding practical studio based exercises and projects with critical readings and theory. Students taking this course will gain an appreciation for geographic thinking, learn to ask geographic questions, and apply basic methodologies to “make sense” of geographic data. The course will be conducted with open source geographic information systems and web technologies. Students are not expected to enter the class with knowledge of these tools, but will be expected to learn and apply them through studio exercises and project briefings.
Is augmented reality technology about to enter the mainstream? AR platforms have finally become widely accessible to artists, designers, and technologists thanks to recent advances in mobile performance and a new collection of powerful computer vision techniques. As such, the medium offers rich possibilities for experimentation and a chance to rethink how we experience the intersection of the physical and digital. In this course, students will acquire an understanding of basic concepts and techniques necessary to prototype and build simple AR experiences – with a consideration of not just visual but also aural AR. We’ll supplement practical exercises with an overview of the history of AR, and discuss the ethical, legal, and societal considerations cropping up around this topic. Our tool of choice will be Unity, but we will go over prototyping techniques outside of the platform to speed up the design process. If there is interest, we will cover how to get started building projects in openFrameworks, mobile, or web AR – and discuss why or when you might want to work within other platforms. Even though code samples will be provided, students are highly encouraged to have a basic understanding of Unity or at least have taken an introductory programming course. A working knowledge of Unity can be gained through Unity tutorials (https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials) or Lynda (https://www.nyu.edu/lynda).
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.
This class will apply a product and service design lens to the rapidly evolving role of technology in politics, government services, and human rights, with a dual focus on the use of technology to advance the public good, and the threats that technology can pose to various aspects of civil society. On the one hand, there has been an explosion of technology tools that aim to promote healthy and peaceful democracies, provide more efficient government services, and promote human rights. This course will survey those efforts and the product design methodologies that guide them. On the other hand, 2018 has been a reckoning year for technology all over the world. The post-mortem of the 2016 US Presidential election shined a light on technology’s role in a promulgating a deeply polarized electorate, enabling election-meddling from foreign actors, and profiligating fake news, while also raising deep concerns about data privacy and security for everyday citizens. Meanwhile, new technologies like AI and Blockchain are poised to have deeply transformative effects on multiple aspects of society – from policing to education to financial services. This course will also explore the risks various technologies can pose to privacy, safety, liberty, and well-being. The course will feature guest speakers from leading practitioners in the space. Potentially including the ACLU, Higher Ground Labs, Elucd (YC17), NYU Better Policing Initiative, Microsoft, and more.
Stereo (2-speaker) sound is the default way we produce and distribute most audio. This class challenges the stereophonic-centricity of digital sound and instead focuses on the context of listening, interfacing and interacting with audio beyond 2 speakers. We will take a novel approach to spatialization by interfacing web technologies (Javascript, Web Audio, WebRTC) with multichannel audio to create room-scale interactive music and sonic spaces, and then make our findings publicly available through musical artifacts, open source tools, and documentation. We will explore conventional and unconventional loudspeaker arrangements ranging from 3 to 40 channels and how distribution and context affects music. Together, we will participate in a semester-long project examining the affordances of spatial and multichannel sound, designing and build open source tools to interface Tone.js, Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA) and other multichannel techniques. Students will perform/install their final on the 40-channel speaker array at Dave&Gabe’s studio in Bushwick. Topics include 3D sound, open source, space and listening. Prerequisites: willingness to listen critically, some programming experience. No formal music training required.
What do WhatsApp and Nelson Mandela have in common? How about Mr. Robot and the UN Council for Human Rights? When most people think “digital security”, they rarely think of these connections; but the connections are there. Digital security is much more than an industry buzzword— it encompasses techno-social idealism, open source development, and symbiotic coordination between sectors in tech, the humanities, and civic society. Certainly, we’re going to talk about Signal, Tor, VPNs, and OTR. But let’s dig even deeper. In this course, students will learn the principals of digital security; from end-to-end encryption, to circumvention technology, resilient communications, and beyond. Part lab exploration, part oral history, and part prototyping workshop, students will come away with the tools they need to undertake development projects with end-user security in mind; and foster an appreciation for digital security’s integral, timely, and often life-saving role in human rights struggles across the globe.
With emerging research and development with soft circuit technologies and its integration into textile and clothing design, the garment as a reactive interface opens up new possibilities in engendering self-expressions, sensory experiences and more. This 14-week class is to introduce students to this realm by creating connections between hardware engineering and textile crafting. The class is for students with basic physical computing knowledge to explore the possibility of wearables, and arouse discussion about the potential in re-imagining our relationship with personal devices, textiles and garment design as an interactive media.
We’ve been tinkering with the living systems that generate our foodstuffs for millennia. But climate change is radically and rapidly shifting these food landscapes, and the impacts include the extinction of many of the foods we love: chocolate, wine, beer, coffee and more importantly starvation for those in the world who are already food insecure. In this class, we’ll explore biotechnologies and bioengineering along with microbes and mushrooms to design and create pathways for the restoration of some of the damage we’ve wrought on our food system. We’ll also use art and design and systems thinking to build speculative and actionable projects that will focus not just on the future of food but the future of our planet and all of its inhabitants. This class is part of the Biodesign Challenge.
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).
Web browsers were originally used only for displaying simple HTML pages, but over the years they have become supercharged all-powerful web execution machines. In this class we’ll explore experimental new features and HTML5 APIs that allow browsers to communicate with the OS and their environment. APIs that will be covered may include: Battery Status, Geolocation, notifications, accelerometer usage, video access, speech recognition, and text-to-speech. We’ll cover the mechanics of bookmarklets and Chrome extensions, with a sustained multi-week focus on building extensions and exploring Chrome’s extensions APIs. Class workshops will include projects such as building an ad blocker, programmatically replacing text and images on a website, and making sites that respond to external events. Students will give weekly in-class presentations on web capabilities, complete small weekly assignments, and present a final project. This class leans heavily on web technologies, and experience with HTML, CSS and modern JavaScript (ICM with p5.js or Commlab Web/Networked Media) is required.
Exhibition design is the art of marrying experience and information. The best do so seamlessly; the very best surprise and delight you along the way. In this class you will explore the craft of interactive exhibition design through practice. Working in small groups, you will select an NYU researcher whose work is of interest to you and create an interactive experience that presents this research to a broader, public audience. In the process, you will learn to interrogate content and form, audience and environment, medium and message to create a meaningful and playful exhibit experience.
If you were inventing a museum today, what would it look like? Who would be there? What would its main purpose be? What would the audience experience? The first museums were called Cabinets of Wonder. Usually, a viewer with a guide, often the collector, would open doors and drawers to see what was inside–amazing things from different parts of the world, different times. They were windows on the world to places the visitors would probably never be able to go; to see things they would never otherwise be able to see. And now there’s television, movies, the internet, and travel. Why do people go to museums now? Will they in the future? Today, most museums seek to educate and to include more and more diverse visitors than they used to. How do people learn in public spaces? How do we know that they do? How can they make use of the new interactive technologies to support the experience and not lose what’s special about them? The class is an exploration, observation, theory, and design class for you to imagine the future of museums and exhibits. Museum and exhibit visits are your primary assignments for the first half of the course—usually accompanied by a reading. You will also make some record of your visit (including a sketchbook, a diorama, reviews). There will be guest speakers from Museums and exhibit design firms, and several field trips. In the second half of the course, you begin to imagine how you might reinvent a museum and develop a full-scale presentation of your own Cabinet of Wonder. About Emily Conrad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily/
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.
This course is designed to provide students with hands-on experience working with interactive and emerging applications for creating immersive experiences, with a focus on designing for virtual reality headsets. The class will also touch on related technologies, methods, and fields including experience design, virtual painting, augmented reality, interactive installation, and 360 video/audio. The course materials will also include readings and discussions on prior art/relevant critical texts.
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.
Examines the basic tenets and operative principles of the global copyright system. Considers the ways in which media industries, artists, and consumers interact with the copyright system and assesses how well it serves its stated purposes: to encourage art and creativity. Special emphasis on the social, cultural, legal, and political issues that have arisen in recent years as a reult of new communicative technologies.
This course will combine a history of video art and experimental film with practical training in the use of live video performance art technology. Students will explore new ways to create and edit films and videos using VJ software, projections, and multi-channel video surfaces. Workshops will demonstrate concepts and software that can be integrated into the creative process of video performance art and video art installations. COURSE OBJECTIVES At the completion of this course, the student will be able to: Draw inspiration from the recent history of incredible video and multi-media artists. Develop an understanding of audio and visual hardware used by VJ’s. Use live VJ software to manipulate digital media in real time to create Video Performance Art. Use Projection Mapping techniques to project video art onto 3D surfaces. Create original video performance art, video installations, and other performance pieces. Utilize skills to make video art in the professional market.
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 practices, principles and aesthetics of comedic performance. Questions examined include: What makes something funny? Why do audiences laugh? What is the relationship between performer and audience in comedy? How does a performer get the laugh without ‘asking’ for it? How is humor specific to certain cultures, historical periods, genders or age groups? Are any elements of humor universal? Does the nature of performing comedy change from medium to medium? The course investigates these questions through readings, lectures, discussion and experiential exercises. Students are challenged to synthesize theory, historical traditions, and practical application into viable comedic performances. Students will experiment with this synthesis through discussing, analyzing, rehearsing and performing scenes/monologues drawn from major comic traditions including: masked forms (such as Greek Old Comedy and Commedia dell’Arte), high comedy (like the comedies of Shakespeare and Moliere), low comedy (such as the slapstick of Charlie Chaplin, Mel Brooks, as well as modern sketch, improv and stand-up comedy) and that which defies easy categorization (such as Monty Python or Sacha Baron Cohen). The course will culminate in a public presentation, allowing students to share select comedic performances with an audience. Students are expected to rehearse outside of class time.
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.
Prerequisite: Algebra and Calculus (MATH-UA 9) or equivalent. Focuses on individual economic decision-makers—households, business firms, and government agencies—and how they are linked together. The emphasis is on decision making by households and firms and how these decisions shape our economic life. Explores the different environments in which businesses sell their products, hire workers, and raise funds to expand their operations; the economic effects of trade between nations; and the effects of various government policies, such as minimum-wage legislation, rent controls, antitrust laws, and more.
Ah, love. L’amour. The very word stirs our imaginations and pulls at our heartstrings. This most fundamental of emotions has long been a source of creative inspiration – a muse for literature, song, and art. The importance of love and intimacy in human life is clear, but what can the latest observations and scientific discoveries about the brain tell us about this supreme emotion? Through discussions, papers, and projects, we will examine the concepts of love and intimacy through various lenses, including those of neurobiology, evolutionary psychology, culture, and art. Focusing on the development of love throughout the lifecycle, we will study how people seek intimacy, how love evolves over time, the influence of love on human behavior, and love and intimacy’s relation to psychological well-being.
Focuses on the economy as a whole (the ?macroeconomy?). Begins with the meaning and measurement of important macroeconomic data (on unemployment, inflation, and production), then turns to the behavior of the overall economy. Topics include long-run economic growth and the standard of living; the causes and consequences of economic booms and recessions; the banking system and the Federal Reserve; the stock and bond markets; and the role of government policy.
Hollywood in your palm. That is what this combination of lectures, screenings, demonstrations and practical production workshop will offer to the students in this course. There will be several professional guests making presentations and Q&A sessions from the mobile phone filmmaking industry. In addition to the historical and critical overview of the emergence and exponential growth of global cell phone cinema, students will shoot all footage on cell phones and download them for computerized editing. The final project will be under three minute shorts. Projects will include all genres of film and television: news, mini-documentaries, animation, music videos and narrative shorts. Completed student projects will be suitable to be posted on the Internet and entered into domestic and international mobile phone film festivals. For example, two minute long improvisations of Bollywood Style Music Videos shot on Cell Phones by the students have been projected at the Tribeca Cinemas as part of the New York Indian Film Festival. It is suggested but not compulsory that students bring to the class a cell phone capable of recording video.
From interacting with the latest device to cogently communicating complex data, user experience design (UX) is a discipline given increased prominence by the inescapable human relationship with technology. We will cover the UX design process as it relates to interactive interfaces found in websites, mobile apps, hardware, and events.
An examination of the great debate concerning the effects of mass media and mass communication on our society. Analysis and application of major perspectives and approaches used in formulating modern theories of mass communication.
This course focuses on the principles and practices of successful interviewing techniques. Students are provided with background on the structure of an interview and learn how to analyze success and/or potential problems. Review of case studies and practice in holding interviews enables students to gain experience and to improve their own abilities.
This course is an analysis of changing trends in marketing ranging from corporate social responsibility to guerrilla and viral marketing. Discussion of theoretical concepts are applied through fieldwork and project-based learning. Guest lectures on emerging topics are featured.
An examination of the great debate concerning the effects of mass media and mass communication on our society. Analysis and application of major perspectives and approaches used in formulating modern theories of mass communication.
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: