Weimar Cinema – the diverse film culture of 1920s Germany – gave birth or early impetus to some of the most important film genres for global cinema, including horror, film noir, science fiction, and melodrama. The course will chart how it was within the context of Weimar Germany and, above all, its uneasy confrontation with modernity and modernization that the horror film, film noir, science-fiction film, and the melodrama all emerged.
Lecture/discussion—3 hours; project. Introduction to basic research methods for Technocultural Studies: electronic and archived images, sounds and data, satellite downlinking, radiowave scanning, and oral histories. GE credit: VL, WE.—Drew
Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Prerequisite: course 1. Introduction to object-oriented programming for artists. Focus on understanding the metaphors and potential of object-oriented programming for sound, video, performance, and interactive installations. GE credit: VL.—S. Ostertag
Students majoring in TCS or Film Studies will have:
The basic technical and analytic vocabulary of film and media form and criticism
The ability to historicize, situate, and reflect on the links between aesthetics, technology, modes of production, sociology and politics in moving image and audio media in different times and spaces
A comparative perspective on film, media, and audio from different historical periods, their styles, and national and transnational contexts, in writing and orally
Lecture—3 hours; extensive writing. Contemporary developments in the fine and performing arts, media arts, digital arts, and literature as they relate to technological and scientific practices. GE credit: ArtHum | AH, VL, WE.
Introduction to different forms of critical analysis of media, with focus on creative responses to the media within visual arts, media arts, and net culture. Response of artists to the power of mass media, from early forms of photomontage through contemporary “culture-jamming” and alternative media networks.
Issues arising from historical and contemporary encounters between the arts and sciences, with emphasis on comparative notions of research, experimentation, and progress.
Evolution of media technologies and practices beginning in the 19th Century as they relate to contemporary digital arts practices. Special focus on the reconstruction of the social and artistic possibilities of lost and obsolete media technologies.
Issues of technological and scientific developments as conveyed through mass media and popular culture with special attention to public spectacle, exhibitions, broadcasts, performances, demonstrations and literary fictions and journalistic accounts .
Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Experimental approaches to the making of film and video in the age of digital technologies. Opportunities for independent producers arising from new media. Instruction in technical, conceptual and creative skills for taking a project from idea to fruition. GE credit: VL
Continuation of course 100 with further exploration of digital cinema creation. Additional topics include new modes of distribution, streaming, installation and exhibition.
This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of creating interactive screen-based work. Subjects will include theories of interactivity, linear versus non-linear structures and audience involvement and participation. Students will utilize various digital production tools to produce class projects.
Lecture/discussion—3 hours; project. Prerequisite: course 7B or the equivalent, course 155. Traditional and new forms of documentary, with focus on technocultural issues. Skills and strategies for producing work in various media. Progression through all stages of production, from conception through post-production to critique. GE credit: VL
Introduction to object-oriented programming for artists. Focus on understanding the metaphors and potential of object-oriented programming for sound, video, performance, and interactive installations.
Included here are images of several music apps students created in TCS 110.
History and practice of media production focusing on how media makers use video and new media tools to address social issues among neighborhood and community groups. Students will utilize basic video, sound, and lighting techniques as they work with local groups in a group video project.
Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. New feature and documentary production for radio and other audiophonic media, including audio streaming Web sites and installation. Emphasis on new and experimental approaches to audio production for broadcast on community radio and in international arts programming.
Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Impact and implications of computer- based networks in community, civic, and social life. Subjects may include community-access computer sites, neighborhood wireless networks, the digital divide, open-source software, and citizen action.
Lecture—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Creative application of electronic technology relevant to media and fine arts involving both electronic principles and hands-on application.
A survey of the use of sound, voice, noise, and modes of listening in the modernist, avante-garde, and experimental arts, from the late 19th Century to the present. Focus on audiophonic and audiovisual technologies.
