| Course |
Credits |
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| IM 200 - Interactive Media I |
3 |
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| 3 credits. Staff. Offered fall, spring. This is the first class in a sequence of courses designed to educate students in interaction design for on–screen and off-screen experiences. Students will be introduced to the techniques and concepts of interactivity for a variety of distributable media and one-of-a-kind experiences, onscreen and off screen. Investigation will include website typologies such as client-oriented and network-art sites; basic interface design; and the integration of concept, event, and content, providing students with an opportunity to become literate in the form language of hypermedia. Students explore the changing roles of artists and designers in the environment of the World Wide Web, learning processes, software, and languages to create dynamic interactive web-sites. Students are introduced to the principles of user experience in relation to content and meaning. They learn to analyze conventional and unconventional network experiences; to identify principles in action and develop strategies for site design. They investigate different spatial models; performative models; and relationships to audience to create expressive interpretive experiences. Prerequisite: EA 210. |
| IM 258 - Interactive Media II: Art |
3 |
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| 3 credits. Rouvelle. Offered Spring. IM II: Art will explore the dynamics and aesthetic potentials of interactivity and collaboration. Students will develop and play mobile multi-player urban strategy games, learn about sensors and micro-controllers and build their own interactive projects that will be linked together with other projects from other institutions around the world to form a massive chain reaction that will occur at the end of the semester. IMII: Art will be the first electronically "glocalized" course at MICA, where students will have the opportunity to communicate, collaborate and partner with students from other schools in real time, via iChat and other systems, and, finally, participate in a massive chain reaction in connection with several other institutions at the end of the semester. Entitled "Chain Event '06", kinetic sculpture, media projections, dynamic architecture, sound, and any media that has interactive sensibilities will be arranged so that when activated, a domino effect will ensue. The catalytic agents could range from the primordial to the digital. Water, fire, and air could be dispensed by electromechanical devices and interleaved with data packets and algorithms to induce a society of reactive agents. The governing principles or group behavior will be decided through class collaborations and informed by research into such topics as: swarm intelligence, missile guidance, alchemy, dominos, and artificial life. The resulting chain reaction could resemble an exquisite corpse, and anarchist's ideal internet, an colonies, the Mouse Trap game, or a premeditated sequence of events that would amaze Rube Goldberg. Prerequisite: EA 210, IM200. |
| IM 351 - Interactive Media III |
3 |
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| 3 credits. Rouvelle. Offered occasionally. Interactive Media III builds on the skills and knowledge from IM I and II courses to engage the student to develop sophisticated interactive environments. Students who have personal direction or are in search of direction are aided by individual and group discussion to further interactive techniques and methodologies. Concepts that will be explored include transduction, interface/interactivity, affective computing, data visualization, and “diaectism” in electronic art. Prerequisite: IM 252 or IM 275. |
| VID 202 - Sound I |
3 |
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| Staff. Offered Fall, Spring, Summer Through workshops, students are introduced to studio and field recording. Students will learn sound editing, effects processing and audio mixing using ProTools. The class is designed to increase student's technical and creative ability, whether working on soundtracks, musical compositions or sound art. |
| IM 244 - Interactive Scripting |
3 |
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| 3 credits. Staff. Offered Fall or Spring. Interactive Scripting will familiarize students with everything they will need to know to start experimenting with JavaScript and Processing. Processing is a programming language and environment based in Java and built for the electronic arts and visual design communities. We will start from the basic syntax and move forward. If you have never programmed before you needn’t worry, as we will begin from the beginning and proceed step by step. Used by students, artists, design professionals, and researchers for learning, prototyping, and production, it is a powerful and approachable, and dynamic language. JavaScript is a scripting language that enables you to enhance static web applications, as well as projects in Director MX 2004, Flash MX 2004, and MAX/MSP – all of whose present releases support JavaScript syntax – by providing dynamic, personalized, and interactive content. Supported by all the major browsers, as well as the programs listed above, JavaScript is becoming a language of choice on the web and beyond. This course will provide an entry point into the dynamic world of interactive scripting. Prerequisite: Current or prior enrollment in IM 200. |
| IM 277 - Physical Interface Design |
3 |
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| 3 credits. McCabe. Offered fall. Physical Interface Design is an introduction to human-computer interfacing in theory and practice. Topics for discussion will include interactive theory, user interface design strategies, ergonomics and haptic interfaces among others. Students will explore methods of detecting/gaining information about the world (interactive interfaces, sensors), passing information to/in between computers (MIDI, TCP/IP, Serial Communication) and effecting events in the world (lights, video projection, audio, motors). Students will also exposed to basic electronics theory, sensor technologies and interfacing techniques for human-computer communication; through hands-on experimentation students will develop and build ‘alternative’ input/output devices for onscreen multimedia applications. Pre-requisites: IM200, or SS kinetic Art with permission of instructor |
| IM 280 - Sophomore IM Seminar |
3 |
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| Sophomore Seminar will focus on an understanding of the students’ potential as well as preferences to clarify and explore their abilities and interests in the field of Interactive Media. Through critical readings, research, workshops and discussion students will work to understand the current state(s) of Interactive Media. Students will fine tune their knowledge and exposure to the multiplicity of career opportunities within the field of Interactive Media and begin to develop a strategy to explore and achieve their goals. IM majors |
| IM 336 - Interface Des. & User Experien |
3 |
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| 3 credits. Zapata. Offered spring. Interface Design and User Experience examines the space where computer, people and design intersect. This studio course will look at the design and evaluation of user interfaces for computers and digital presentation technologies with an emphasis on supporting effective communication between artists/designers and their audience. Fundamental principles and practices of human computer interaction, including human capabilities, interface technology, design methods, and evaluation techniques will be covered. Students will complete projects that allow them to gain hands-on experience in all phases of interface design and evaluation. This class is necessary for any student who enjoys creating on screen or off screen interfaces and experiences. Pre-requisites: IM 200; IM 275 or IM 252. |
| Interactive Spaces: Experimental Places |
3 |
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| IM 380 - Junior IM Seminar |
3 |
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| 3 credits. Staff. Offered occasionally. Junior Seminar will enable the student to cultivate a personal point of view and working methodology within Interactive Media; the ability to articulate and develop that point of view through dialogue, critique, writing and projects will be essential to their personal development. Students will work to locate their specific interests within the medium and explore the necessary resources to realize their intentions. Recognizing and developing a personal studio practice that supports their creative efforts will be covered as well as realizing the integration of that methodology with specific career goals. Pre-requisite: IM majors |
| Senior Thesis I, II |
6 |
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| Studio Electives – any department |
9 |
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| Professional Electives – from department list |
15 |
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| Total Credits in Major |
60 |
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| Course |
Credits |
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| SS 368 - Time Based Work |
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| 3 credits. Sigler. Offered fall. Art takes time to be made, and may, as well, rely on timing to be exhibited. Often the most enigmatic art works become imbued with meaning over long periods of time-hopefully not to be forgotten. A work may cause one to re-live a past event or to experience a premonition of the future. A work may make one aware of time passing at a particular speed in the present, or in the case of a masterpiece, may create the sence that time has been standing still for centuries. In this class each student works through four independent multi-media projects,(sculpture, video, installation, documentation, performance, etc.) each of which will focus on one of the following four aspects of time: presence (perception of reality and motion), nostalgia (memory and past sensation), science fiction (visionary and intuited models), and elapsed time (life markers and mortality). |
| VID 313 - Projected Light |
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| 3 credits. Pocock. Offered spring. This studio course offers students an environment for the investigation of the use of projected light in three-dimensional space. This is a broad arena that may include many interpretations and responses to the term projected light. Some of these may be video, film, photographic slides, fire, natural light, fiber optic and digital technologies, to name but a few of the potential ways that projected light can be used. Students are expected to expand and develop their own approaches to installation that utilize light asa primary medium. Intensive hands-on studio work is balanced with slide-lectures, screening, readings, discussions, critiques, and trips to museums and galleries. No prerequisite. |
| GFA 336 - Inventions and Visions |
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| 3 credits. Weiss. Offered fall. This course allows students to test their creativity through a variety of exciting challenges. Students play inventor, artist, or visionary as they create unconventional solutions to the commonplace. New problems are introduced in class on a two or three week interval. There are demonstrations and critiques of the results each day the solutions are due. This is a good course for those who like variety. Problems can be approached in two- or three-dimensional solutions. Some problems might include: designing a better mouse trap, building a bird house, inventing a machine for making art, making a kite, making plans for a robot, and so on. No prerequisites. |
| Interactive Installation Studio |
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| VID 323 - Video and Audio for the Web |
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| 3 credits. Batts. Offered occasionally. This course focuses on the production of audio and video for the web. The context of the World Wide Web is explored for its immediacy and accessibility to act as an interactive medium. Prerequisite: VID 200. |
| PH 362 - Digital Photography I |
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| 3 credits. Heilner, staff. Offered fall, spring. This course explores the conceptual and practical principles of photography in the digital era, through lectures, readings, hands-on assignments, and field trips. Discussion topics will focus on the impact of digital technology on contemporary photographic practice, as well as the aesthetic and ethical issues surrounding it. Adobe Photoshop and other imaging software applications will be used to explore creative and experimental possibilities for manipulating photographs. Studio work will emphasize printed, still imagery, but students will also be encouraged to devise new uses for their digital materials. Introduction to input/output peripherals will include digital cameras, various scanners, ink-jet printers, film recorders and videotape. Prerequisites: PH 332 and EA 210. |
| VID 200 - Video I |
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| Staff. Offered Fall, Spring, Summer Through workshops, students develop basic skills in field production and will become proficient in digital editing using Final Cut Pro. The class is designed to assist students in the development of their creative voice in the video medium. Project assignments, screenings, readings and lectures will explore the diverse ways the medium has been used; for purposes of entertainment, individual expression and social & intellectual inquiry. |
| AN 202 - Intro to 2D Computer Animation |
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| This course offers students the opportunity to explore the possibilities of creating art that moves in time and space. From developing storyboards to combining imagery with sound, voice and music, students examine time-based terminology and techniques while applying their drawing and painting skills in a new way. Prerequisite: EA 210 |
| AN 5203 - Intro to 3D Computer Animation |
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| This introductory level course initiates students to the enormous creative capabilities of the 3D Studio Max program. From a basic understanding of the program’s operation, students learn to visualize, plan and model in three-dimensional space as well as explore its animation capabilities. This powerful and sophisticated tool can be a great help to sculptors; designers; architects; and ceramic, wood fiber and installation artists to develop and enhance their studio concepts. Prerequisite: EA 210 |