Full Syllabus

11 Aug 2016

tl;dr: Full Syllabus for Intro to Media Synthesis and Analysis, Fall 2016, Carnegie Mellon University

Course Prefix & Number	62-150 (9 units)
Meeting times	T/Th 09:00AM-10:20AM
Locations	Hunt Library - Studio A
Instructor	Daragh Byrne
Teaching Assistant	Kevin Ramser
Office Hours:	By Appointment
Sound Lab:	Friday, 09:30 and 10.30 am Almeda Beynon
Visual Lab:	Friday, 09:30 and 10.30 am Kevin Ramser

Course Description

New creative industries are empowering new modes of collaborative consumption, creation and reuse of media. This often relies on successful collaborations between cross-trained artists, designers and technologists as well as critical reflection on distribution, participation, interaction and audience. This course is designed to prepare engineers and scientists to work in these contexts. By the end of the course, students will be able to think critically across several media theory paradigms; formulate the intent of their creative work; articulate relationships to art/design practice and theory; and respond insightfully to creative outcomes. The goal is not just to make creative media rich outcomes but also to think critically about their production.

Organized as a series of related modules, students will be progressively introduced to art and multimedia, critical media and the preparation of new media Experiences. Modules will introduce core concepts through foundational texts, in-class exercises, collaborative projects, and group critique. Students will ground concepts such as critical design, computational performance, embodiment, emergence, composition, participatory interfaces, and media editing through hands-on, applied exploration. Lab sessions will also support the development of new skills and practical development of digitally mediated content. Students will have the option to focus on either sound or visual synthesis skills during these labs.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course a student should:

A. Expanded Knowledge for Critical Reflection

• Be able to describe of the history and domain of new media
• Be able to enumerate relevant prior works that relate to personal projects
• Be able to critically reflect on the role of digital media in arts-technology exploration
• Be able to critically reflect on the personal media outcomes based on the relationship to prior work

B. Critical Production of New Media Experiences

Students will become both critical consumers and producers of media experiences. They will:

• Be able to articulate the intent (critical thinking, goal, provocation) and effect (response, reflection, action) of new media outcomes;
• Demonstrate the ability to capture, compose, analyze, research, critique and reflect on media outcomes;
• Demonstrate the ability to develop at least one media prototype which successfully matches intent with desired effect.

C. Hands-on, Applied Experiences

• Have applied experience of the key concepts underlying new media
• Be able to design and make media prototypes that integrate the concepts and ideas introduced
• Demonstrate the ability to prepare integrated proposals for creative outcomes which bridge arts (critical thinking, provocation, etc.) and technical considerations (tools, analysis, interactivity, etc.).

D. Preparation for Collaboration

• Become familiar with the language and key concepts of arts-based production
• Be able to work and communicate effectively in a mixed-disciplinary context
• Be able to integrate considerations across arts, design and technology to prepare digital media experiences

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course. This is an introductory course.

Instructional Methods

Classes will involve lectures, labs, hands-on-tutorials, discussions, critique sessions and workshops. Students will participate in and lead class discussion/presentations.

Course Structure

The course will meet each Tuesday and Thursday, 9:00-10:20am and will meet in Hunt Library Studio A. Two additional lab sessions are scheduled for Friday mornings 09.30-10.20am and 10.30 - 11.20am.

On Tuesday and Thursdays students will engage in a series of modules designed to introduce them to media synthesis and analysis. This may be involve attending guest lectures, screenings, presenting research outcomes, discussions of readings, review and critique of creative outcomes, etc. All students are expected to participate. Each week at least one of the following assignment (creative project, reading review or research exercise) will be given to students. Instructors will provide an introduction to new concepts and introduce exercises.

On Friday, students will take part in a lab session facilitated by course TA’s and instructors). Labs will provide an opportunity for hands-on skill tutorials, early stage project feedback, and project development. Students can focus on either Sound or Visual Synthesis skills.

The 15 week course will introduce students to Media Synthesis and Analysis as follows. Following an introduction to the course, students will engage in a series of five three-week modules. This will cover topics in: critical media production, capture and authoring; composition; research and analysis; media in real and virtual spaces; experience, representation and response; collaboration; and media installations.

Each module will culminate in a creative assignment. Students will prepare 2 collaborative projects and the remainder of the projects will be independently prepared, except where noted. Guest speakers may be included to introduce the concepts in the field and relevant work and collaborations. Finally, and over the course of the semester, students will prepare an annotated bibliography of readings and submit a final short reflective paper on the content of the course.

Course Schedule

See full schedule for a complete description of modules, deliverables and organization of the course.

This schedule (and the modules described) may be subject to change at any time.

Course Deliverables + Outcomes

• Creative Projects: Students will prepare independent and collaborative creative projects with their peers. Each of these creative projects will directly connect to the topics introduced in the module.

• Exhibition and presentation: Students will showcase their final outcome as an open exhibition of creative works.

• Annotated Bibliography: Each module students will be given up to three readings to review. Each reading should be compiled into a critical review as an annotated bibliography which summarizes and reflects on the texts both independently and as a whole

• Reflection Paper: Students will write short paper on a topic relating to the course as a whole and the readings introduced. Students will have to conduct independent readings, research and analysis to prepare this paper.

• Research Exercises: Students will perform short research exercises once per module. Students will gather, critically review and report on the work of artists and creative practioners related to the module’s themes and topics to help build their domain familiarity.