This course is divided into two half-semester sessions, with each student receiving an intensive seven-week introduction to basic techniques of computer music, and a similar introduction to video. Students develop critical listening and viewing skills through reading, listening, and viewing assignments, and by discussing historical and contemporary examples of computer music and video art.  Individual and group projects are created and critiqued in class sections.

This course introduces students to digital photography, Web design, and interactive multimedia in making art. Students broaden their understanding of such topics as composition, effective use of images, color theory, typography, and narrative flow. Inquiry and experimentation are encouraged, leading towards the development of the skill and techniques needed to create visual art with electronic media.

This course explores contemporary video practice, concentrating on creating, presenting, and analyzing video art. It is an introduction to the Arts Department production facilities and equipment, and a prerequisite for 4000-level video classes.

Music composition taught in the context of modern computerized production methods. Technical topics include basic principles of computer sound generation, digital sound sampling, and the use of small computers for musical control of electronic instruments. Musical topics include a study of important musical works and compositional techniques of the 20th century. Student projects involve hands-on work on a variety of computer instruments and software. This course is a prerequisite for further creative work with Rensselaer’s computer music facilities.

Net Art is a hands-on studio course that uses the examination of the historical and theoretical aspects of Web-based art and virtual social spaces as a launching pad for individual student work. Considerable work at the conceptual level and a survey of Web-oriented software and programming enable students to create new works in net-based art.

Intermediate Digital Imaging is a hands-on studio course exploring the use of computer technologies in making visual art. A study of contemporary issues in digital media and photography facilitates individual innovation and experimentation. Digital imaging and input/output techniques are employed in terms of giving visual form to ideas and personal expression in private and public settings.

IAP will examine theoretical concepts of interactive media as well as develop the practical skills needed to implement these concepts using the facilities of the iEAR studios. Topics include high and low level computer programming and electronics. Students will build installations and projects, which control live performance interactions with graphics, video, and sound.

This is a production course investigating non-traditional approaches to documentary or non-fiction film/video. Taking a broad look at what defines “documentary” media, this course will incorporate criticism with production. Students will produce a range of video works questioning conventional documentary styles, using radical and interventionist techniques. Students will study traditional documentary works including ethnographic films, cinema verité, propaganda films, “home movies,” reality TV, tabloid news, autobiographic and activist videos.

An introduction to the techniques and principles of computer animation with a concentration on modeling, texturing, and rendering. Students use advanced software to develop directed creative 3-D animations in a hands-on studio. Lectures, discussion, and exposure to contemporary work enable students to develop skills in this rapidly evolving field.

An intermediate hands-on studio course in 3-D computer animation, in basic character animation, advanced modeling, advanced lighting, advanced rendering, dynamics, particle animation, scene description, and story building.

Experimental Game Design is an upper level studio arts course focusing on the creation of innovative workable game prototypes using a variety of interactive multimedia. Games are considered as a new genre and are analyzed as cultural artifacts. The aesthetics of game design including character development, level design, game play experience, and delivery systems are covered. Flow, game theory, and game play gestalt are considered. Alternate gaming paradigms and emerging forms are encouraged.

The objective of this course is for students to be able to recognize and appreciate the stylistic elements of the major periods and composers from the earliest known music to the present. The influences on music by broad cultural and historical forces will also be explored. Beginning with the Greeks, the course will progress chronologically from the polyphonic religious music of the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and modern periods.

From “raves” to symphony hall, Indian film music to Tibetan chant, monster truck rallies to a mother’s lullaby, musical soundscapes surround us through all aspects of our daily lives. This course focuses on the study of music in or as culture. The exploration of music in human life will be comparative, using case studies from diverse world traditions and examining topics such as: ritual, media and technology, ethnicity/identity, music and dance, and musical transmission.

This course is a survey of the visual arts from the Paleolithic to the Renaissance era. Nearly 500 images are analyzed according to style, time, place and character. Relationship of art to ritual, magic, religion, philosophy, literature and music are examined. Material is presented in a form accessible to students without previous knowledge of Art History.

This course will survey the history and theory of the diverse artistic practices of the twentieth century in relation to the development of the mass media and new technologies. Topics will include the Bauhaus, Surrealism, Pop Art, and Postmodernism and will span a spectrum of media from the more traditional, such as painting and photography, to electronic and new media, such as video and digital arts. This is a communication-intensive course.

This course will be devoted to the investigation of diverse topics of electronic arts history, theory, and practice.