All courses are 5 credits unless otherwise indicated.
201. Recent Methods and Approaches to Digital Arts and Culture. F
Students examine methods and approaches to research and writing in Digital Media Art and Culture, and explore key theories concerning digital media and cultures. The course may focus on the interaction between digital technologies and socio/cultural formations. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
202. Genealogies and Theories of Digital Arts and Culture. F
Provides examination of a particular theoretical and/or historical premise related to issues of media, art, and mediatization, as a means of teaching a common approach to the construction of genealogies within digital art and culture. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
203. Dialogues and Questions in Digital Arts and Culture. S
Students engage in dialogues at the intersection of theory and practice with the goal of producing a pre-thesis proposal and essay. Readings and seminar discussions inform the development of project proposals and essays, which theoretically contextualize students’ work. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
210. Project Design Studio. F
Students work on the design of individual projects by developing project proposals, budgets, “proof of concept” design documents and/or prototypes and exploring tools, technologies, programming languages, hardware, software, and electronics techniques relevant to their projects. Enrollment restricted to graduate students.
211. Critique. S
First-year digital arts and new media students are required to present work-in-progress based on the projects developed in earlier courses and during the quarter in individual studio critiques with the instructor as well as in group critiques. Enrollment restricted to graduate students.
212. Thesis Proposal (no credit). S
Students work on the development and completion of their thesis project proposal and abstract under the supervision of the program director and their thesis committees. Enrollment restricted to DANM students.
215. MFA Exhibition Production. S
Second-year digital arts and new media MFA graduate students work with faculty curator/coordinator to develop thesis projects specifically for the group exhibition context. Students contribute to exhibition design and collateral materials while studying the unique presentation and curatorial challenges of new media. Enrollment restricted to graduate students.
216. Digital Bodies. *
Explores the appearance, form, and theoretical status of the human body/political subject in online art. Focuses on representations of race and gender, family resemblances, and local communities, as well as the political and colonial metaphors of spatial interaction operating on the World Wide Web. Visual representations of bodies that take the form of avatars, advertising, robots, and anime studied in their contextual usage. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
217. Concepts in Electronic Art. *
Study of concepts developed in contemporary conceptual art practice and their application to technological media. Review a broad spectrum of electronic art—the Internet, digital video, interactive systems, kinetics and robotics, biotechnological work—that hold conceptual art practice in the foreground. Use concepts cultivated by early conceptual artists and apply them to individual projects using electronic media. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
218. Interactive Game Design. *
As a team, students design a working prototype of a game including the Design Document, Prototypes, and Game Implementation. Introduced to advanced media types including 3D animation, principles of object-oriented programming, digital music, and video. Strongly recommended that students have a working knowledge of programming language, preferably an object-oriented language (Macromedia Lingo preferred). Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor. May be repeated for credit.
219. Introduction to Electronics for Artmaking. F
An intensive introduction to electronic devices for use in artmaking, providing hands-on experience with sensors, motors, switches, gears, lights, simple circuits, microprocessors and hardware-store devices to create kinetic and interactive works of art. Students are billed a materials fee. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
220. Introduction to Programming for the Arts. W
Covers aspects of computer programming necessary for digital art projects. Students learn to manipulate digital media using program control for installations, presentations and the Internet. No prior programming experience required. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
221. Human-Computer Interaction. F
Theories and hands-on practices to understand what makes user interfaces usable and accessible for their diverse users. Covers human senses, memory and emotion, and their design implications. Requirement solicitation, user-centered design and prototyping techniques, and expert and user evaluations. Engineering students must have working knowledge of programming.
224. Digital Arts Project Studio. W
Provides a context for significant development of digital arts projects, in first year, either individual or collaborative; in the second year, resolution of thesis projects. Individuals and collaborative groups meet with the instructor for focused critical feedback. Students create a public exhibition of their work-in-progress. Enrollment limited to graduate students.
225. Theater, Drama, and the Pixar Feature. *
Viewing of the Pixar Animation Studios canon combined with lectures on the major art history movements within discipline of theater history and its attendant dramatic literature: The Marxist Epic: A Bug’s Life and the Backstage Musical; Shakespeare’s Comedic Weltanschauung: Finding Nemo; Postmodern Criticism: Toy Story; French Romanticism and the Hugo Hero: Monsters, Inc.; Alger, Albee, and The Incredibles’ American Dream. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
226. Creativity, Collaboration, and Professionalism in Art. *
Exploration of the practice of making a living, as well as a life, in art. Examines strategies for connecting with the community using outreach projects and the joys and sorrows of working collaboratively. Compares corporate and nonprofit funding paths and the business of showing work while maintaining creative challenges. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor. May be repeated for credit.
227. Projected Light in Performance. *
Exploration of projected light in performance and art. The history of lighting as art is covered in a hands-on demystifying format from the shadow of a bare light bulb to the latest in automated and projection equipment and techniques. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
228. Techniques of Modernity and Aesthetic Formations. *
Explores the transformations and aesthetic possibilities of the digital age through a study of perceptual shifts of the past, from orality to literacy, gift to commodity, pre-colonial to colonial, “pre-modern” to “modern” and the technological revolutions that accompanied these shifts. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
247. Performance/Performativities. W
Performance acts and theories of performativity in visual culture from modernity to present. Major theoretical positions subtending the emergence of performances/performativities: subjectivity, identity, temporality, media, ritual, the event, the body and embodiment, collaboration, and politics. (Also offered as History of Consciousness 247. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Qualified seniors accepted with permission of instructor.
249. Faculty Seminar (2 credits). F
Faculty lectures to familiarize first-year digital arts and new media graduate students with program faculty members and their creative work and research so the students can select their faculty advisers and thesis committee members. Enrollment restricted to graduate students.
250A. Collaborative Research Project Groups. S
Three-quarter collaborative research project group in one of four focus areas that represent the current research of DANM faculty: participatory culture, mechatronics, playable media and performative technologoies. Students and faculty engage in research collaborations resulting in publications and exhibitions. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. May be repeated for credit.
250B. Collaborative Research Project Groups. F
Three-quarter collaborative research project group in one of four focus areas that represent the current research of DANM faculty: participatory culture, mechatronics, playable media and performative technologoies. Students and faculty engage in research collaborations resulting in publications and exhibitions. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. May be repeated for credit.
250C. Collaborative Research Project Groups. W
Three-quarter collaborative research project group in one of four focus areas that represent the current research of DANM faculty: participatory culture, mechatronics, playable media and performative technologoies. Students and faculty engage in research collaborations resulting in publications and exhibitions. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. May be repeated for credit.
254I. Empirical Approaches to Art Information. *
Reading and practice in empirical methods, as applied to the study of music, visual art, multimedia production, and performance arts. Topics include semiotics, critiques of empiricism, cultural determinants and contingents of perception, the psychophysics of information, sensory perception (visual and auditory), memory, pattern recognition, and awareness. Students apply existing knowledge in the cognitive sciences to a developing creative project, or develop and conduct new experiments. (Also offered as Music 251I. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. May be repeated for credit.
254L. John Cage: Innovation, Collaboration and Performance Technologies. W
In-depth examination of John Cage's interdisciplinary work, his pioneering activity in live electronic technology, and his influence in current multimedia creativity. Approximately one-half of the seminar is devoted to student research and creative projects that reflect Cage's legacy. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
267. Workshop in Computer Music and Visualization. F,W,S
Graduate level techniques and procedures of computer music composition and visualization. Practical experience in the UCSC electronic music studio with computer composition systems and software, including visualization and interactive performance systems. Extensive exploration of music and interactive graphics programs such as Max/MSP/Jitter.
Students with little experience should begin in Fall quarter to take advantage of studio orientation.
290. Interactivity in Performance. *
Examines use of interactive technologies to bring about collaboration among visual, performance, and sound art. Goal is to collaboratively produce an interactive live-performance work. Explores methodologies and technologies of interactivity, space, and time and addresses aesthetic and compositional concerns that arise when using interactive digital tools, including critical discussions about how technology itself shapes form and content of an artwork. Meets 3 1/2 hours/week for combination lab and lecture. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
297. Independent Study. F,W,S
Independent digital arts and new media research project under the guidance of a digital arts and new media faculty member or other faculty with approval of adviser. Project includes readings, research, and a written report. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Maximum 10 credits. May be repeated for credit.
297G. Independent Study (3 credits). F,W,S
Independent digital arts and new media research project, under the guidance of a DANM faculty member or other faculty with approval of adviser. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Maximum 6 credts. May be repeated for credit.
299. Thesis Research. F,W,S
Students carry out a master’s of fine arts thesis in digital arts and new media research, under the guidance of a thesis committee. The thesis will be an arts project with digital documentation accompanied by a written paper discussing the student’s preparatory research as well as the theoretical significance of the project. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Maximum 10 credits. May be repeated for credit.
