Category Archives: undergrad

class, elective, undergrad, undergrad-elective-s25

DM-UY 3183 Photography and Words

This course explores various image editing techniques and outputs, utilizing various styles of text, including fiction and non-fiction. The assignments foreground how text influences viewers’ perception of images, and how images can enrich a body of writing. Students will use a range of production skills to create work — using After Effects for animation, HTML/CSS for website creation, book and print design, and archival printing methods. All projects are accompanied by readings that provide historical and theoretical grounding to support the concepts explored through practice. An emphasis on refining technical and aesthetic photography skills are central throughout the semester.

Instructor: Jack Toolin

Prerequisites: DM-UY 2183 or DM-UY 2263

Sample syllabus

class, elective, undergrad, undergrad-elective-s25

DM-UY 2123 Narrative Cinema

In this course, students complete a coordinated sequence of short projects that add up to a finished, live-motion video project. The course strongly emphasizes the relevance of particular tools and techniques to the specific project Concepts are introduced through the screening of historical examples, from 1895 to the present. The course format is modeled on professional standards and workflow for preproduction, production and postproduction.

Prerequisites: DM-UY 2263

Sample syllabus

class, elective, undergrad, undergrad-elective-s25

DM-UY 2113 Sound Design for Media

This course explores sound design, primarily within visual contexts. The course will focus on the use of sound within visual and interactive media, including film, video production, interactive user experience, web design, and gaming. Students will create weekly studio assignments in all of these areas, with an emphasis on developing a strong competence in integrating digital audio techniques into other media. Final projects could include novel sound design developed for film, video, web, applications, or games.
 
Prerequisite(s): DM-UY 1113 or MPATE-UE 1001
Instructor: Hideki Kato
class, elective, f24, special topic, undergrad

DM-UY 4913 Real Time A/V

Real-Time A/V introduces students to the history, theory, and practice of live audiovisual signal processing for experimental media art performance. Through readings, lectures, screenings, discussions, technical instruction, and visiting artists, students will learn how early experiments by video artists and toolmakers have developed, through the years, into contemporary praxis. Hardware-based, analog systems will be discussed and a variety of software will be introduced including Signal Culture Apps, Resolume Avenue, and Max/MSP/Jitter. Experimentation, improvisation, play, and chance operations will be encouraged as students develop the technical and conceptual aspects of their independently driven performance and single-channel video projects. We will also examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected communities of practitioners and created new avenues for web-based performance. The semester will culminate in a student-organized online exhibition of final projects.

Sample Syllabi

class, elective, f24, special topic, undergrad

DM-UY 4913 Blinking Beeping Moving Sensing

This course is an introductory course on physical computing, with an emphasis on unusual and unique physical interactions. Students will use microcontrollers, lights, speakers, buttons, sensors, and actuators like motors to physicalize digital processes. Potential applications include art installations, games, and interface design among other fields.

Sample syllabi 

elective, f24, special topic, undergrad

DM-UY 4913 Design Through Myth and Storytelling

Human beings experience the world through story, and myths are one of the oldest forms of storytelling. Their lessons are essential for meaningful communication, social connection, and a sense of wonder. Explore myths and storytelling techniques both new and old as a way of thinking through design principles and process. Through lectures, hands-on activities, and individual as well as group projects, students will address topics such as idea generation, putting idea into form, the role of users and audiences, asking good questions, playtesting, iteration, and more.

Instructor : Aya Karpinska

elective, f24, special topic, undergrad

DM-UY 4913 Analog Heaven

Analog Heaven is an experimental sound class that looks at the history, theory, and techniques behind using electricity to make sound. We will be working with technologies ranging from simple analog circuits to professional-quality synthesizers, as well as digital systems inspired by – or designed in contrast to – these circuits. Along the way we will talk about the ways in which these devices are used to make music across the globe. Students will make a lot of sounds as well as design simple physical circuits, microcontroller interfaces, and digital software using Max/MSP, as well as doing design research into historical music-making and recording technology. Some experience working with sound and knowledge of digital audio recording and editing is strongly recommended for this course.

Sample Syllabi

elective, f24, special topic, undergrad

DM-UY 4913 Digital Accessibility and Creative Applications

In this course students will learn fundamental concepts and skills of digital accessibility and apply them creatively and intuitively to their own creative projects. Accessibility will be centered as a requirement for creation, rather than as an afterthought. We will explore how implementing accessible modalities such as alt-text, tactile graphics, captioning, audio description, and touch objects can deepen students’ understanding of the chosen subject or theme while broadening the audience for their work. Students can focus on creating accessible interpretations of existing artwork in the public domain or their own original artwork in any medium, such as (but not limited to) AR/VR, gaming, photography, drawing/painting, textiles, sculpture or physical computing. Students will use Adobe Creative Suite for video and sound editing and for creating captions and audio descriptions. Digital fabrication tools such as 3D printing, laser cutting, embossing, microcapsule printing and digital embroidery can be used for creating tactile graphics and touch objects. Disabled artists and members of the disability arts community will be invited as guest lecturers and critics. We will survey artists working across access modalities and read texts on Disability Arts Activism, disability-centered art praxis, and creative access.

Instructor – Stefanie Koseff

elective, f24, special topic, undergrad

DM-UY 4913 Hands-on Design: Fabrication Studio

This course explores the relationship between fabrication tools and contemporary artistic practice. Lectures and hands-on activities are integrated with computer-aided design (CAD) software to create individual or group projects. The course will focus equally on conceptual and technical skills. We will cover the process of creating works using experimental modes of making from ideation to installation. Throughout the semester, students will explore various techniques such as research, design, prototyping and final fabrication. Guest lectures with working artists will help students see design with a critical eye and further the discourse of art + technology. Students will begin with a series of small technically driven projects giving them the opportunity to experiment with different fabrication tools and culminate with a group show that will display individual or collaborative artworks. Students should be comfortable with: + basic programming and data management + interest in physical computing and fabrication + a hands-on studio environment with weekly critique + researching tools independently + drawing content from personal interests and studies to create a body of work

Sample Syllabus