Spring 2003

100 LEVEL COURSES

DMS 101 A DMS 101 B
Basic Filmmaking Basic Filmmaking
MW 9-10:50 TR 15:00-16:50
Reg.# 142432 Reg.# 308205
Kim / Roddy
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 15-16:50 TR 10-11:50
Reg.# 261038 Reg.# 398087
Eaton / Rhodes
CFA 232 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
MW 13-14:50
Reg.#149519
Bouquard
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 108 T
History of Film 2
ARR (telecourse)
Reg. # 343366
Henderson
This course is a survey of developments in international cinema from the 1950s to the present.

DMS 109 CUD
Film Interpretation: Youth Culture & Cinema
TR 13:00-14:50
Reg.# 025645
Cuddy
CFA 112
This course is designed to provoke students to think about film on an informed and critical level. "Youth Culture & Cinema" focuses on the representation of youth in American film over the last fifty years. The poignancy of such genres from the juvenile delinquent (JD) films of the 50s to the politically charged films of the 60s to the ironic films of present have tried to define a demographic that has been evasive since the end of WWII. What are the roots of this phenomenon with youth culture? How has technology intensified these questions? Texts like McLuhan's "The Medium is the Massage", Postman's "The Disappearance of Childhood", Donna Gaine's "Teenage Wasteland" and Greil Marcus' "Lipstick Traces" will help the class investigate the issues raised about youth culture while watching a selection of films from the last six decades. Using Louis Gianetti's textbook "Understanding Movies" students will gain a rudimentary vocabulary to discuss techniques, histories, and ideologies that film embodies.

DMS 121 A DMS 121 B
Basic Digital Arts Basic Digital Arts
MW 9-10:50 TR 13:00-14:50
Reg. # 391455 Reg.# 436164
Rider Miller
CFA 244 CFA 244
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.

200 LEVEL COURSES

DMS 215 NEV
Programming 4 Multimedia
Dan Neveu
Reg.# 361700
MW 9-10:50
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 219 GLA
Digital Literature
Loss Glazier
TR 16-17:50
Reg.# 459956
CFA 112
This course offers students the opportunity to conduct an intensive survey of the field of digital literature through a focus on the screening of digital texts. Primary emphasis will be on "reading" the digital texts presented. Course will also cover the relationship of innovative poetry to digital media, the phenomenon of the Internet and its relation to "the I", meaning-making through the context, design, and writerly qualities of Web pages, traditions of hypertext, the materiality of code, the history of e-poetry, and digital media poetry in the academy. Special attention will be given to understanding a broad range of innovative works in the medium including hypertext, digital and kinetic literature, and works in networked and programmable media, and to examining, interpreting, and interrogating the key theoretical texts of the most significant practitioners in the field. The course will include foundational early theory, writings from formative scholarly hypertext theorists, and work by more recent cutting-edge independent digital theorists. Attention will be given to the role of programming as a social, literary, and language-related act. The cultural impact of films related to programming/cyberculture (Tron, Tomb Raider, The Matrix, AI, etc.) will be discussed, with film screenings as appropriate. Discussion of key cyberculture and media theory authors as relevant. Online texts as appropriate, especially for a sense of current research in the field. Course Requirements: midterm, final exam. TBA. Students are encouraged to keep a screening journal. Text: TBA.

DMS 221 FER
Web Design
Deborah Fertig
TR 12-13:50
Reg.# 156198
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 304
Video Analysis II
Tony Conrad
MW 11-12:50
Reg.# 170561
CFA 112
Video Analysis is a survey of historical and contemporary practices in video, with an emphasis on the work of independent media artists. Since this course is centered upon a body of work that is not widely distributed, much class time will be devoted to critical viewings of video works. This means that much of the informational substance of the course must be supplied by the readings, which will include a large course packet and two textbooks. There will be regular quizzes on these readings, and a series of short essays will be assigned throughout the semester. Students who have taken DMS 303, the first semester of Video Analysis, may expect a change of emphasis and content in DMS 304. This semester we will focus on three specific video applications: political activism, performance, and video's relation to music. Grades will be based on the essays (55%); reading quizzes (20%); and regular attendance (25%), which is mandatory.

DMS 341 KNO
Intermediate Video Workshop
Meg Knowles
Reg.# 420428
TR 13-14:50
CFA 286
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 are $50. Lab fee: $75. Attendance is mandatory.

DMS 375 RAP
Gender & Hollywood
TR 9:30-10:50
Reg.# 229890
Call the Women’s Studies Department for a course description.DMS 401
Advanced Film
Vince Mistretta
MW 12-1:50
Reg.#118329
CFA 286
Permission of Instructor OnlyThis is an advanced film production course designed for students who have successfully completed the intermediate film production class and have produced at least one short 16mm film. This course will explore the key components of independent production. Students will develop a major project from pre-production through the initial stages of post-production. Students are required to come to the class with an initial concept for a substantive project to be completed during the spring semester. Students will maintain a journal, produce a pre-production package, produce a production book and a fine cut of their final film project. In Addition, students will make a short autobiographical film and explore Narrative, Documentary, and Experimental elements in filmmaking. Students can expect to spend $450 for materials and processing for the course. Students will receive some assistance with supplies and film stock. Lab Fee $75.

400 LEVEL COURSES

DMS 404 ELD
Advanced Documentary Production
Sarah Elder
TR 3-4:50
Reg.#082202
CFA 235
This course is an advanced workshop in which students create an original documentary project in video (or film, still photography, audio or web-based formats with the permission of instructor). Creativity and originality will be stressed with exercises to encourage "seeing", "listening" and artistic risk taking. Individual projects may go in many creative directions including the political, personal, humorous, experimental, conventional, transgressive, ethnographic, client-based or activist. Students will gain a solid understanding of contemporary non-fiction forms and the particular problems which non-fiction makers face. Films by contemporary artists will be shown on a regular basis. We will look at dramatic structure, story telling, and narrative/non-narrative forms of editing. Emphasis will be given to production techniques which bring access and intimacy to the video subject and integrity to the documentary. The course will explore ethical issues and problems of privacy and intrusion. Students will develop production skills in research, fieldwork, collaboration, interviewing, location sound recording, camera skills, and production management. Each student will produce one short documentary piece, with supporting assignments in shooting, sound, and digital editing on the Media 100. A written production book will be required. A class film festival ends the semester. Prerequisite: DMS Basic Documentary, or DMS Basic Video, or permission of instructor. DMS Intermediate Video is also very helpful. Materials and text approximately $50. Lab Fee $75.

DMS 409
Non-fiction Film: Contemporary Documentary
Sarah Elder
TR 12-1:50pm
Reg.# 459365
CFA 235
This course examines popular American documentary films looking at diverse representations of American culture. We explore independent award-winning contemporary works with themes of gender, ethnicity, popular music, sexual orientation, murder, justice, rock stars, racism, disability and history. Particular focus is on the curious relationship between the images of reality and reality itself, and on America’s love affair with reality media. Emphasis is placed on understanding the thin shifting line between fiction and non-fiction and challenging the notion of documentary “truth.” Students develop in this class analytical and interpretive media skills that are applicable to all film and video. Students learn non-fiction critical theory including Nichols, Winston, Ruby, and Renov and analyze artistic elements of non-fiction film and video including visual narrativity, storytelling, spontaneous camera work, editing, audio, and common elements for artistic and commercial success. The class explores different documentary styles including experimental docs, cinema verite, fake docs, diary and reflexive docs, collaborative making and cutting edge contemporary work. We address the ethical and artistic considerations of filming real people and real communities. Works of Wiseman, Pennebaker, Kopple, Maysles, Freidrich, O’Rourke, Riggs, Morris, and more. Attendance is required as well as two papers and on take-home exam. Be prepared to see a lot of great films!

 

DMS 411
Film Theory
Brian Henderson
MW 9-10:50
Reg.#382589
CFA 235
This course is an exploration of the principal theories of film through a critical reading of texts and a close examination of films. The texts to be perused comprise several groups. Classical film theory includes Munsterburg, Kuleshov, Pudovkin, Eisenstein, Balasz, Arnheim, Bazin, and Godard. The critique of classical film theory includes Burch, Perkins, and Henderson. The course will also explore semiotics, psychoanalysis, and poststructuralism, in Barthes, Eco, Metz, Pasolini, Baudry, Heath, and in feminist film theory, including Gledhill, Mulvey, Silverman, Modleski, Doane, and Studlar. A section on avant-garde theory will include Vertov, Epstein, Deren, Brakhage, Sitney, and Michelson. These topic areas will be set in interaction throughout: e.g., Soviet editing and antirealism are continued in the avant-garde; rhetorical figures such as metaphor, metonymy, ellipsis, condensation, and displacement, can be traced in very different theoretical contexts and in close readings of individual films.

 

DMS 412
Theory of Film Narrative
Brian Henderson
MW 3-4:50
Reg.# 352572
CFA 235
Description not yet available.

DMS 415 SCHDigital Theory: Net Cultures: Art, Politics and the Everyday
Trebor Scholz
MW 11-12:50
Reg.#420484
CFA 232 M, CFA 244 W
read: http://critical-netcultures.net (see "past courses")
Net cultures have changed the landscape of cultural production over the past few years. For artists, employing new empowering tools such as hacking, communication became more important than representation.Networked collaborations often caused the downfall of traditional object making. The objective of this survey-like course is to provide a social framework for the Internet and to point to transient places of resistance within it. Approaching net cultures with both, the due optimism and the necessary doubt, we will then join the love of thinking with the joy of making. We will discuss key issues such as access, privacy, e-letism, history of net art, commodification, identity, creation and eradication of public spaces, community building, narration online, sound, and biotechnology. We will study a large variety of critical art practices online, read core texts of net culture and discuss. With questions e.mail Trebor Scholz at rtscholz@buffalo.edu. Students currently enrolled in DMS 218 Net Cultures should not take this course.

DMS 416 BOR
New Media 2
Chris Borkowski
T 11-12:50 (lecture)
CFA 112
DMS 416 A (lab)
R 9-10:50
CFA 244
Reg.# 459718
DMS 416 B (lab)
R 11-12:50
CFA 244
Reg.# 027954
PR: DMS 121 or 155, and 103 or 105. Otherwise Permission of Instructor.
This course is designed specifically to focus on techniques for creating and publishing interactive multimedia on CD-ROM /DVD. New Media II will provide the designer with the core foundations for the development and manipulation of audio and video content and their incorporation into interactive CD-ROMS /DVD. Students will also actively address the formal, historical, technical and cultural aspects of CD-ROM /DVD form and subject matter. Students will learn how to create a meaningful interactive interface that successfully engages the user. Students will also be introduced to the concept of re-purposing digital media and media portability for multi application and cross platform compatibility for both commercial and artistic projects. The software tools utilized in this course include: Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, Media Cleaner Pro, Bias Peak, Flash and Macromedia Director. Along with producing work using traditional authoring applications, students will also explore non-traditional authoring programs such as Image/ine, Videodelic, and Proce55ing. Lastly, students will be introduced to low level scripting such as Action Script, Lingo, Expressions, and Java Script in the applications covered in this course. Students are expected to have prior experience in digital video, basic digital arts, and/or new media.

 

DMS 416
Virtual Communities
Vanessa Dennen
Reg.#209830
ARR
**This is an ON-LINE course**
Please contact Vanessa Dennen, vdennen@mail.sdsu.edu
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 expertise is required for this course, although students with Web development skills may have the opportunity to use them. Lab fee $75.

 

DMS 418 FER
Web Design Project
Deborah Fertig
TR 15-1650
Reg.# 295436
CFA 244
PR: Permission of Instructor.
Description not yet available. Lab fee $75.

DMS 420 B
Advanced Digital Arts Production: Robotic Art /
Interactive Installation
Beatriz Da Costa
MW 13-14:50
Reg.# 015143
CFA 246
PR: DMS 419 B or Permission of Instructor.
This aim of this class is to provide students with a hands-on introduction to the field of robotic art and sensor based interactive installation. Students are provided with an overview of programming techniques specifically relevant to the use of external hardware control (motors / electro-mechanical devices and mechanisms), basic electronic circuit design and mechanical hardware design. The programming environment MAX/MSP in combination with the EZI/O board are the main technical components used in this class. Students will also gain access to machine shop facilities and obtain basic machining and fabrication skills. The first half of the semester will be used to familiarize students with the tools and techniques described above. Weekly assignments and one in class programming test will be given during that time. The second half of the semester is devoted to the development of one main artistic robotic or interactive installation project. The semester will end with a student show in downtown Buffalo. For student projects to be included in this show they must be fully functional. This class is designed is designed for advanced students who have a strong commitment to the development of their own conceptual and technical skill base. Students with AND without previous programming knowledge are welcomed in this class. Women are encouraged to enroll (its not only for the guys!). Students from other departments are welcomed as well. Lab fee $75.For more information about Max/Msp: http://www.cycling74.com
For more information about the EZI/O: http://www.ezio.com
Readings:
Robotic Art Reader (Hand out)

DMS 420 C
Advanced Digital Arts Production: Community
Trebor Scholz
MW 14-15:50
Reg.# 025098
CFA 244
PR: DMS 419C or Permission of InstructorPlease go to: http://www.molodiez.org/net/community/syllabus.html and read the syllabus and course description.The spring semester is the second part of this sequential advanced digital course, open to graduate and undergraduate students. It is an educational experiment.Over the past ten years communication has often replaced traditional object making. Networks allow people to create a range of new social spaces in which to meet, participate in political debate, play, and otherwise interact with one another. We will investigate a large variety of critical art practices in the Internet. We will work collaboratively with student groups inside and outside of the US. Our exchanges will include a web project realized in collaboration with a student group abroad. We will set up small reading groups discussing cultural texts with students in Tel Aviv (Israel), Ramallah (Palestine), in Capetown (South Africa) and Weimar (Germany).On a technical level we will continue to introduce ourselves to Php and will build a web log. We will also build on your existing web design skills in Dreamweaver.Virtual meetings will take place in chat rooms, via web broadcast or in the Habbo Hotel. With questions e.mail Trebor Scholz at rtscholz@buffalo.edu. Lab fee $75.

DMS 424 ANS (Lecture) & LAB
Programming Graphics 2: 3D Virtual Environments
Josephine Anstey
MW 13-14:50
Reg.# 391126
PR: DMS419 (2D programming with openGL) or equivalent or Permission of Instructor
Note: Formerly 420 A. This class satisfies the Digital Art concentration’s requirement of a second semester of Advanced Digital Arts.This production course extends students knowledge of OpenGL and programming into the realm of 3D computer graphics. The course, a continuation of DMS 419, will cover more advanced techniques for rendering, animation and interaction. The major focus of the course will be on creating interactive art experiences by programming graphics and sound. However, the topics are also relevant to many real-time applications such as virtual reality and computer games. Lab Fee $75

DMS 434 FAB
Advanced Modeling in Maya: Modeling for Consumer Devices
Jesse Fabian
M 18-21:50
Reg.# 440853
CFA 242
PR: Permission of InstructorDesign visual models targeting consumer electronics platforms including cellphones BREW(Qualcomm), WAP(Nokia), console games: Playstation, and Xbox, and the web. Measure and model information, manipulate modeled information to form patterns that appeal to consumers and can be implemented in the targeted platform. Build a series of models, from real world data, for embodiment in a cellphone, DVD, computer, web application, or games hardware. Schedule: Measure people, process, patterns, motion, image, transaction, database, network, sensor, and controller information. Model information regenerated from measurements as a static model, field, procedure, database, or another structure. Manipulate modeled information to form triggering and execution devices. Select one idealized form of the manipulated information for implementation into a product at the expense of all others. Encapsulate one idealized form in a system with a formal instruction set; cellphone, DVD, computer, web application, or games hardware. Embody a process in the selected system. Design a production pipeline. Implement a product or series of products through a production pipeline.

DMS 439 ANS (lecture) & LAB
Building a VR Art Project II
Josephine Anstey
T 14-18:50
Reg.# 391126
CFA 266
Prerequisites Building a VR Art Project I or Permission of InstructorVR is a new medium for artistic experimentation. It is an area in need of practice as much as theory as it evolves and defines itself. This course and its prequel push students to contribute to research in this area by building a large-scale and complex VR art project from start to finish. It exploits the discipline imposed by a production schedule while exposing students to the cutting edge in immersive VR authoring tools. Experience in VR programming will open new employment opportunities to the students since Virtual Reality is an expanding medium with applications in many areas - science, industry, education, medicine, entertainment & the arts. Lab Fee $75

DMS 442 CON
Advanced Video Production
MW 15-16:50
Reg.# 395802
Tony Conrad
CFA 286
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%). Lab Fee $75.

DMS 455 MOR
Directing the Actor
Debra More
Reg.# 261721
CFA 286
PR: Permission of Instructor
Course description not yet available.

DMS 480 WEG
Bodyworks: Medicine, Technology and the Body at the Turn of the Millennium
Bernadette Wegenstein 11-14:50
Reg.# 044284
CFA 235
PR: Permission of Instructor
Bodyworks takes the late twentieth century as its historical timeframe for an analysis of concepts and representations of the human body under the influence of new technologies. In an interdisciplinary framework, evidence from both scientific and artistic “discourse universes” will be under analysis. The aim of this course is to examine the thesis that the dramatic new ways of imaging, controlling, intervening, remaking, possibly even choosing bodies have participated in a complete reshaping of the notion of the body in the cultural imaginary, and a transformation of our experience of actual human bodies. An extensive course website will serve as a resource and archive for students. The website will consist of a databank of digitized film clips, readings (links to the online reserves at the undergraduate library), weblinks, and additional research material on Bodyworks related issues. This undergraduate and graduate seminar will be crosslisted with the departments of English and Comparative Literature. Weekly topics: Machines and Bodies, Spare Parts, Computer Assisted Surgery, Posthuman Bodies, Bodies, Inscriptions, Replicants, Body Worlds, Body Sculpting, The Matrix, Designer Babies, Transgender, Getting Under the Skin, Postmodern Fictional/Realities, Cyberpunk Film and Fiction, Digital Anatomy
Website: http://pluto.fss.buffalo.edu/classes/dms/berna/dms434/
user=bodyworks password=cyborg

DMS 490Internship
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