Fall 2002

100 LEVEL COURSES

DMS 101 A DMS 101 B
Basic Filmmaking Basic Filmmaking
MW 11-12:50 TR 15:00-16:50
Reg.# 019192 Reg.# 164778
CFA 286 CFA 286
This course is intended to provide a basic introduction to 16mm film production. Classes will include screenings, lectures, and demonstrations. Students will learn basic camera operation, lighting, editing, and sound acquisition. In addition, the course will explore the critical relationship between theory and practice in the context of film production. Students will be required to complete collaborative class projects, individual assignments, and a critical paper. Each student will also be required to complete a short, non-sync, 16mm film project. Class materials will cost approx. $150. Lab fee: $75. Class size is strictly limited.

 

DMS 103 A DMS 103 B
Basic Video Basic Video
MW 9-10:50 TR 9-10:50
Reg.# 176294 Reg.# 426811
CFA 286 CFA 286
This course is a basic introduction to the tools and techniques of video production. Students will become familiar with using video and develop strategies for its application as an alternative medium of communication. Crucial to this project is the concurrent development of a critical perspective on mainstream media culture. Video art screenings and readings in media theory will critically address the relations between viewers, producers, and the media. Students must expect to acquire materials and texts costing approx. $50.00 to be used in exercises in classroom presentations. Access to equipment and editing facilities will be available. Lab fee: $75. Class size is strictly limited.

DMS 105 A
Basic Documentary
TR 11-12:50
Reg.#363484
CFA 232
This course will present students with the fundamental, theoretical, creative, and technical concerns of documentary and video production. Students will be introduced to methods of research, production design, approach to subject, interviewing and the structuring of information, as well as the technical video skills of camera work, sound recording, and lighting and editing, as they apply specifically to the documentary process. The demands of documentary expression require preparation with a different emphasis from that which applies to the personal and experimental approaches to filmmaking and video making. Materials and texts will cost approx. $50. Lab fee: $75. Class size is strictly limited.

DMS 107 HEN
History of Film 1 (Lecture)
MW 9:00-11:50
Reg.# 181804
Henderson
CFA 112
(Lab)
MW 11-11:50
Reg.# 095183
This course is a survey of American and European films before 1927, including works by Porter, Sennett, Melies, les Freres Lumieres, Chaplin, Keaton, Griffith, and Eisenstein. Note that previous training in the study of film literature is highly recommended (like DMS 109).

DMS 108 TEL
History of Film 2
ARR ARR-ARR
Reg. # 491901
Henderson
This course is a survey of American and European films before 1927, including works by Porter, Sennett, Melies, les Freres Lumieres, Chaplin, Keaton, Griffith, and Eisenstein. Note that previous training in the study of film literature is highly recommended (like DMS 109).

DMS 113 FLO
American Lives & Environment
R 18-20:40
Reg. # 429972
Flores
Contact Women’s Studies for a course description.
DMS 121 A DMS 121 B
Basic Digital Arts Basic Digital Arts
MW 9-10:50 TR 13:00-14:50
Reg. # 125339 Reg.# 022653
CFA 136 CFA 232/136
This course will present fundamental concepts and methods that underlie the use of computers in generating and processing digital works and examine them in the context of contemporary artistic practice in painting, photography, film, and video. The impact of computers, both present and potential, on the more traditional arts will be discussed. Through the use of imaging audio and presentation software, students will explore the various ways in which computers deal with images, sound and structures, adapting these methods to produce work of their own. Work by contemporary artists working in the digital medium will be shown and examined on a regular basis. The class size is strictly limited. Lab fee: $75.

DMS 150
Visual Theory Arts
TR 12:30-13:50
Reg. # 264371
Contact the Department of Art for a course description.

 

DMS 155 A
Introduction to New Media
T 15:00-16:50 (LECTURE)
Reg.# xxxxxx
CFA112 (lec) / CFA 244(lab)
R. Cherry

 

DMS 155 A1 (lab)
R 9-10:50
Reg.# 281178
Borkowski

 

DMS 155 A2 (lab)
R 11-12:50
Reg.# 130938
Borkowski
This course provides an introduction to design and the production of interactive multimedia. The content of the class will focus on the theoretical and practical aspects of creating and integrating digital media with authoring/presentation tools. This class will lay the foundation for creating interactive projects for the web and CD-ROMS, and will integrate art, journalism, and music through hands-on developmental projects in our new state-of-the-art Mac lab (coming this summer). Students will learn the process and skills necessary to create a web site and an interactive CD-ROM which integrates animation, graphic design, sound, and text, working in Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Flash animation, Sound Edit 16, and Illustrator. The course will accommodate 48 students. Enroll now! Get the technological edge! Lab fee $75. Register for one lab section; you will automatically be registered for the lecture section. NON-MAJORS WELCOME. NO PRE-REQUISITE KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY.

200 LEVEL COURSES

DMS 200 CK
Visual Studies
M 18-20:00
Reg.# 343980
Koebel
Description not yet available. Look for posters.DMS 213
Immigration and Film
TR 17:30-19:20
Reg.# 107133
Rheingold
CFA 235
This course is interested in issues of ethnicity, race, gender, and class in selected American films. We will examine cinematic representations of immigrants, paying close attention to social and political constructions of ethnic "difference" and notions of "the other." We will discuss films from 3 different periods: The Silent Cinema (1900-1925); The Early Sound Period (1927-1935); and Later Sound Cinema (1935-present). The class will consist of assigned readings, regular class discussion, 2 exams, film screenings, and short response papers. Films may include: Chaplin's The Immigrant; Silver's Hester Street; D.W. Griffith's Broken Blossom; Wayne Wang's Eat a Bowl of Tea, Rea Tajiri's History and Memory, among others. Attendance is mandatory. Non-majors welcome. Fulfills the American Pluralism requirement.

DMS 215 NEV
Programming 4 Multimedia
Dan Neveau
Reg.# 151660
MW 13:00-14:50
CFA 242
Permission of Instructor
This course is an introduction to computer programming for all intended digital concentration majors in Media Study. It is highly recommended that you enroll in this course if you intend to pursue the digital arts in Media Study. This course will give you the necessary background to aid you in DMS 419 and DMS 420. Graduate students may informally audit the course if they need programming experience. Lab fee $75.

 

DMS 221 FER
Web Design
Deborah Fertig
TR 12-13:50
Reg.# 126114
CFA 242
This course will involve the analysis and creation of Web sites and Web-based media for a variety of communication purposes (artform, gallery, information resource, education, business). Topics such as audience analysis, interface design, graphic design, and usability testing will be discussed. Students will build professional-quality Web sites with guidance through all parts of the design and development process. New advancements in Web-based multimedia will be explored. Class time will be divided between practical labs and discussion/lecture formats. Because this is a production-oriented course, students will be expected to spend substantial out-of-class time working on the computer. Prior web design and html experience are not required, although students should be fully comfortable with working on a computer. Basic digital is not a prerequisite, but is strongly suggested. Lab fee: $75.

300 LEVEL COURSES

DMS 301 MIS
Film Workshop I
Reg.# 022766
MW 14:00-15:50
Mistretta
CFA 286
Permission of Instructor
An intermediate film production course, reviewing and expanding upon concepts of film production learned in Basic Film. This course, however, is exclusively devoted to the technical concerns and aesthetic possibilities of 16mm film production. A variety of approaches to these issues will be explored through 5 structured projects focusing on camera-less films, exposure techniques, film editing, sound recording and editing, and the development of individual artistic "style." Materials for the first four projects will be pre-packaged by the department for required purchased by class participants. Students will be responsible for all materials for the final project as well as film processing throughout the semester. Students can expect to spend a total of approx. $350 for materials and processing for the course, including the cost of pre-packaged materials. Lab fee: $75. This class is strictly limited in size.

DMS 303 KOEVideo Analysis
Koebel
MW 15-16:50
Reg.# 066064
CFA 112
This course is an introduction to the conceptual and technological systems which support contemporary work in video. It focuses on current artistic practices using electronic media and on recent work in this and related fields which has supported the emergence and critical development of media arts. It is for the student with an intense interest in the electronic arts as well as the person whose only contact with video is through television. Classroom activities will be varied and may include a variety of readings, out-of-class viewings, presentations, a series of brief papers, and presentations of videotaped material. Students should plan to buy a reader and/or textbook. Regular attendance is mandatory.

DMS 305 WE2
Film Analysis: Holocaust and Film
Bernadette Wegenstein
MW 1:00-2:50
CFA 232
This film analysis class focuses on the cinematographic representation of the Holocaust in various cultures and film genres, as well as through the last fifty years of film history. From Hollywood to France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Israel, and Czechoslovakia, from fiction to documentary to docu-fiction, from drama to comedy, this class will analyze one film per week and discuss it in relation with readings from philosophy and literary criticism. Intercultural differences between the various backgrounds of the filmmakers, times, and cultural environments, in which these films and documentaries have been made, will be ath the center of the analysis.

The seminar will consist in two sessions each week, of which the first will be a screening, and the second one dedicated to the discussion of the film and the readings. Students are required to actively participate, kick off on the weekly readings, and view all films. They will write a 5-10 page essay at the end of the semester. There will be a course website with online readings. We will screen films like: Henry King: Twelve O’ Clock High 1949 US; Alan Rosenthal: Eichmann Trial 1961 Israel (documentary); Helma Sanders-Brahms: Deutschland Bleiche Mutter 1980 Germany; Claude Lanzmann: Shoah 1985 France; Roberto Benigni: Life Is Beautiful 1998 Italy; Jan Hrjebek: Divided We Fall 2000 Czechoslovakia; and more......

 

DMS 305 HON
Film Analysis: On Gilles Deleuze's Movement-Image and Time-Image
Reg.# 027385
Bernadette Wegenstein
MW 9-10:50
CFA 235
This course is an introduction to film theory and history, cultural studies, and literary theory. It takes at its starting point the French poststructuralist philosopher Gilles Deleuze's work on the cinematographic image, The Movement Image (1983) and the Time-Image (1985). In a first part of the course we will read these two primary texts following Deleuze's theory through his discussion of films by Griffith, Eisenstein, Pasolini, Rohmer, Ophuls, Buñuel, Rosselini, De Sica, Fellini, Godard, Antonioni, and others. In a second phase, we will look at some recent critique's and applications of Deleuze's film theory in a broader philosophical and literary context. More recent films such as Orlando, The English Patient, and Strange Days will be analyzed with the acquired Deleuzian prospective. The seminar will consist of two sessions each week, of which the first will be a theoretical one, and the second either reserved for screenings or for student presentations.

 

DMS 341 KNO
Intermediate Video Workshop
Meg Knowles
Reg.# 431181
TR 13-14:50
CFA 244
PR: DMS 103, 104, 105, or 106
This course is a workshop in the tools of video. It offers exercises in intermediate video production for students who have had some previous exposure to video as a creative medium. The course will emphasize the development of technical skills and knowledge which are necessary for the effective use of video as an artistic tool and for documentation or personal expression. The student will buy at least three videocassettes for use in hands-on assigned exercise concerning cameras, lighting, editing, and other aspects of production and post-production. Other topics to be covered are video electronics and staging. Each student will need to spend a substantial amount of time working with studio, portable, and editing facilities outside the regular class hours. In addition, some outside video tape viewing, as well as short papers, will be required. Readings will include classroom handouts in addition to the assigned textbook. Total minimum expenses for each student is $50. Lab fee: $75. Attendance is mandatory.

 

DMS 375 PV
Science, Culture, & Media
Paul Vanouse
MW 12:50-15:20
Reg.# 292808
Call the Art Department for a course description. -645-687

400 LEVEL COURSES

DMS 406 ELD
Ethnographic Film
TR 12-13:50
Reg.# 230268
Elder
This course examines the particular visual and audio challenges of representing culture on screen—either one’s own culture or the culture of someone else. We will explore ethnographic film and video by integrating current visual representation concerns with hands-on video production practice. We examine various meanings of “ethnographic” and look at how ethnographic material interacts with documentary, visual anthropology, activist video, public television, and mainstream narrative. Students will screen significant ethnographic films form the US, Alaska, Canada, Australia, Africa, South America, New Guinea, and Indonesia; read contemporary visual theory from the fields of documentary, oral history, and anthropology; and produce their own ethnographic video work. Attention is given to issues of (re)production of culture, ethics, collaborative media making, reflexivity, identity politics, and indigenous media. We explore fundamental constructs in the ethnographic medium including fieldwork, language and translation, point of view, community priorities, interviewing, editing, copyright ownership, and viewer demographics. Previous background in documentary or anthropology is suggested but not required. Students will work according to their own level of production expertise—from beginning to advanced. (Graduate students can petition to take this course for graduate credit and do an extended paper or project). Lab fee: $75.

DMS 415 BOH / DMS 515
Information Theories: Robot, Science, & Myth
TR 11-12:50
Reg.# 468560
Marc Bohlen
CFA 232
This survey style seminar will introduce students to the culture of robotics. It will begin with a brief history of the field, followed by investigations into some of the key issues in robotics: artificial intelligence, perception, autonomous behavior, emergent properties and Alife based on papers by authors such as Marr, Brooks, Minsky, Steels, Moravec and others. The course will include a survey of unorthodox fringe robotics, including Killer Robots, Contemplative Robots, and Contestional Robots and conclude with the question of the Final Robot. The presented material will be, in some cases, quite technical, in some cases quite sensational and speculative. Students will be expected to deliver a 20-page seminar paper in addition to active participation in discussions. Reading material: Copies of relevant papers will be made available to students at the beginning of the semester. **Students who have taken Information Theories should not enroll in this course.

**DMS 416 / DMS 516 FAB
Modeling in Maya (Advanced Maya)
M 18:00-21:50
Reg.# 047550
Jesse Fabian
CFA 242
Permission of Instructor and DMS 231
This class is an introduction to simulation and visualization in Alias-Wavefront Maya. Additional software and tools may include 3DStudio, Softimage, Viewpoint software, and various types of data capture. The class is a survey class covering a broad range of technologies, focusing on technical mastery of a Maya 3D animation interface for the purpose of creating a final product. The class is one third lecture and two thirds production. Completion of the class requires successful creation of a visualization or simulation of quality sufficient for general public presentation. $75 Lab Fee.

DMS 417 DEN
Usability Testing
Vanessa Dennen
ARR-ARR
Reg.# 143659
CFA 242
****This is an on-line course****
This course will explore the human, environmental and technical factors that are intertwined to create Web-based communities. Throughout the semester, students will read about and explore various computer-based virtual communities. Seminar discussions will focus on what components are necessary to have a "community" and the technical and social requirements for membership in a mediated community. As the semester progresses, the class will join and conduct small "experiments" with these communities. The semester will culminate in a design project in which students lay the foundations for their own virtual communities. Students should be comfortable using a computer and the Web. No further technological expertiseis required for this course, although students with Web development skills may have the opportunity to use them.

DMS 418 ARC
Principles of 3D Animation (Intro Maya)
T 18:30-20:10
Reg.# 346734
Description not yet available.

DMS 343 ELD
Digital Video: Advanced Editing
Sarah Elder
Reg.#330190
TR3-4:50
CFA 235
Permission of Instructor
Why do cuts work or not work? This production seminar looks at essential principals of editing and explores the theoretical, practical, and creative editing concerns of film and video artists. The class is designed for anyone working in narrative or alternative fiction, documentary, or experimental media either in video or film. Students will study advanced editing techniques learning how to fine cut their own work with some practice in creative editing design assignments. We will explore the nature of an edit, and examples of good cutting. Students will read essential editing theory including classics by Murch, Eisenstein, Cancyger, and Hollyn. The class will study and practice pacing, time cuts, rhythm, dramatic arch, multiple audio tracts, continuity and discontinuity, match cuts, story building, layering sound FX, editing room management, dialogue editing, anti-narrative, and the influence of dreaming. Guest editors will also visit and lecture on their work. Students must have previous editing experience and preferably bring raw footage or an edited rough cut project on which they would like to work during the semester. Each student will have different challenges depending on his/her genre-fiction, experimental, or documentary. Students will work on the Media 100, and students who wish to can also work on the 8 plate film Steenbeck. Class size is limited.

DMS 419 A
Advanced Digital Arts Production
Josephine Anstey
TR 10-11:50
Reg.# 404188
CFA 242
PR: DMS 121, 122, or Permission of Instructor
Sound, Light & Interaction
This production course will introduce students to the concepts and practice of programming 2D computer graphics using C++ , OpenGL and the GLUT libraries, and to a basic sound server. The major focus will be on creating interactive art experiences by programming both graphics and sound. The course has three goals: to demystify computer code-we get behind the Graphic User Interface to the machine below; to explore the potential of programming-writing our own code means we can create customized computer tools as well as customized visuals; and to teach the fundamentals of graphics programming.

DMS 419 B
Computing for the Arts, 1 Beyond the Box
Marc Bohlen
TR 15-16:50
Reg.# 127988
CFA 246
PR: Permission of Instructor
This course will focus on computation issues surrounding peripheral devices and their use for installation artwork. We will investigate concepts in the programming language C++ and build object-oriented code to control remote devices such as sensors and motors. This course will be both a traditional programming course as well as a studio course in using computation in art practice. Students will be expected to bring in or acquire programming skills and apply them in the design of installation artwork. Proper programming will be just as important as diligent craft and design. Advanced Students will have the option of applying their skills to portable computing devices (palm pilot under palmos) and develop applications for ubiquitous-roaming artifacts. Lab fee $75.

DMS 423 GUT
European Women: Italian, French, & Belgian Women Film Directors
T 15:10-17:40
Reg.# 023585
Gutierrez
Women's cinematic eye. For over a century with their intelligence and creativity women have been contributing to the moving image. In 1896 the French, Alice Guy, directed the first film made by a woman, La Fee aux choux. In this seminar we will critically explore the cinematic production of some of the major European women filmmakers of all times. We will engage Agnes Varda's Nouvelle Vogue innovations, Liliana Cavani's crucial output, the exquisite contemporary comedies of Fina Torres and Josiane Balasko, and many others. Indeed, through the reading and discussion of filmic and theoretical texts we shall engage some fundamental questions concerning subjectivity and language, body and culture. We will examine constructions of sexual differance and (re) presentations of female/male gender in these three social, political historical contexts. The theoretical framework will be provided by the philosophical writings of film theorist and filmmakers such as Gilles Deleuze, Andre Bazin, Marguerite Duras, Kaja Silverman, Stephen Heath, Teresa de Lauretis and Judith Butler, among others.

DMS 434A/535A
VR Art Project I
Josephine Anstey
W 9-12:50
Reg.# 324465
CFA 266
Virtual Tales is a course designed to bring together students, artists from the region, and UB faculty to develop a geographically-distributed virtual reality art experience. The course will have three aspects; an introduction to existing VR art experiences, artists and issues; discussion of the creative content of Virtual Tales; and implementation. The course is designed for students with a background in graphics programming, or for those with a background in Maya modeling and an interest in modeling for real time applications. The course will introduce the students to a VR authoring toolkit based on C++ and IRIS Performer. This system, Ygdrasil, has been specifically designed for large scale art projects. The toolkit handles a number of activities common to VR environments, such as assembling objects into a world, collision detection, navigation, and detecting events and passing messages in response to them. Those without programming experience can use a textfile to build VR worlds using their own models and a variety of modules designed to provide interactivity and assign behaviors to objects. Programmers can extend the system, building their own customized modules as this production demands. Ygdrasil is a networked system, so at both the development and exhibition stages, participants can enter the virtual environment from remote locations. The class will use the equipment and VR systems at CCR and the Department of Media Study. $75 lab fee.

DMS 440 KOE
Women Directors
W 18-20:50
Reg.# 245378
Koebel
In this course, students will gain a critical understanding of women as feature film directors. We will look in particular at English-language productions from the 1990's by a cross-generation of emerging and established filmmakers, including Jane Campion, Julie Dash, and Mary Harron. Each seminar will focus on one movie and attendant readings. In considering specific instances of women's presence in feature film directing, we will also face "uncomfortable truths" (Manohla Dargis) regarding the under-representation of women directing both studio and independent productions. Course work includes weekly screenings and readings, response papers, a class presentation, and a term project in the form of a research paper, screenplay, zine, or a web site.

 

DMS 442 CON
Advanced Video
MW 9-10:50
Reg.# 050840
Conrad
This course is a very hands-on introduction to the real world of the producing and exhibiting video maker. It focuses on some of our most central and troubling creative problems: What kind of project should I make, and why? How do I organize my project? How important is our cultural environment for our work? Is it important to create as individuals or in groups? And what do I do with my work when it’s “done”? In this course each individual will develop their own approach to the production of video projects; some will do work that can be completed quickly (preferred!), others will work on longer projects. Some will work alone, others in groups. Much of the class time will be devoted to observing one another’s working processes and progress. Each student will be responsible for discussing or showing their work or ideas, or presenting a summary of an assigned topic, during a four-minute time slot each week. In addition, there will be lectures, workshops, and discussions of technical and aesthetic issues including advanced editing, audio, and special effects. Other course activities (productions, showings, field trips) are also an option. Students will use both studio and field production equipment, and will work on nonlinear editing facilities. There is a lab fee for Advanced Video, in addition to which the student should plan for up to $100 in additional costs, including a standard video production text for reference. Regular and punctual attendance at course meetings is mandatory. Grades are based on the number of classroom presentations made (60%), personal progress in work completed (25%), participatory attendance (7.5%), and periodic quizzes on course topics (7.5%).

DMS 474 HEN
Seminar on Postmodernalism
W 15:00-17:50
Reg.# 040348
Henderson
Description not yet available.
DMS 490
Internship
Staff
Variable Credit 1-4
Permission of Instructor
Media Study majors have the opportunity to gain variable academic credit for internships in local and national media production companies, television stations, cable companies, and media access centers. This is an unpaid internship available to majors. Guidelines are set by an internship supervisor in collaboration with a faculty sponsor to provide hands-on practical experience in an on-the-job training program. For registration info, see Nancy King in 231 CFA.

DMS 499
Independent Study
Staff
Variable Credit 1-4
Permission of Instructor
Students may arrange for special courses of study with faculty through “Independent Study.” The instructor will set the guidelines for the course on an individual basis. It permits the student to study, independently, in an area where no course is given. Syllabus for Independent Study should be prepared prior to semester, signed by the instructor, with one copy on file with the department. For registration info, see Nancy King in 231 CFA. Lab fee for production work: $75