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Courses in Technocultural Studies (TCS)

Lower Division Courses

1. Introduction to Technocultural Studies (4)

Lecture—3 hours; extensive writing. Contemporary developments in the fine and performing arts, media arts, digital arts, and literature as they relate to technological and scientific practices. GE credit: ArtHum.—Ostertag

2. Critiques of Media (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Introduction to different forms of critical analysis of media, with focus on creative responses to the media within visual arts, media arts, and net culture. Response of artists to the power of mass media, from early forms of photomontage through contemporary “culture-jamming” and alternative media networks. GE credit: ArtHum.—Wyman

4. Parallels in Art and Science (4)

Lecture—3 hours; term paper. Issues arising from historical and contemporary encounters between the arts and sciences, with emphasis on comparative notions of research, experimentation, and progress. GE credit: ArtHum.

5. Media Archaeology (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Evolution of media technologies and practices beginning in the 19th Century as they relate to contemporary digital arts practices. Special focus on the reconstruction of the social and artistic possibilities of lost and obsolete media technologies. GE credit: ArtHum. Drew

6. Technoculture and the Popular Imagination (4)

Lecture—3 hours; extensive writing. Issues of technological and scientific developments as conveyed through mass media and popular culture with special attention to public spectacle, exhibitions, broadcasts, performances, demonstrations and literary fictions and journalistic accounts. GE credit: ArtHum.—Kahn

7A-E. Technocultural Workshop (1)

Seminar—1 hour. Workshops in technocultural digital skills: (A) Digital Imaging; (B) Digital Video; (C) Digital Sound; (D) Web Design; (E) Topics in Digital Production.—I. (I.)

Upper Division Courses

100. Experimental Digital Cinema I (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Experimental approaches to the making of film and video in the age of digital technologies. Opportunities for independent producers arising from new media. Instruction in technical, conceptual and creative skills for taking a project from idea to fruition.—Wyman

101. Experimental Digital Cinema II (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Prerequisite: course 100. Continuation of course 100 with further exploration of digital cinema creation. Additional topics include new modes of distribution, streaming, installation and exhibition.—Wyman

103. Interactivity and Animation (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Fundamentals of creating interactive screen-based work. Theories of interactivity, linear versus non-linear structures, and audience involvement and participation. Use of digital production tools to produce class projects.—Drew

104. Documentary Production (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; project. Prerequisite: course 7B or the equivalent, course 155. Traditional and new forms of documentary, with focus on technocultural issues. Skills and strategies for producing work in various media. Progression through all stages of production, from conception through post-production to critique.—Drew, Wyman

110. Object-Oriented Programming for Artists (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Prerequisite: course 1. Introduction to object-oriented programming for artists. Focus on understanding the metaphors and potential of object-oriented programming for sound, video, performance, and interactive installations.—III. Ostertag

111. Community Media Production (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Use of video and new media tools to address social issues among neighborhood and community groups. Students will use basic video, sound, and lighting techniques as they work with local groups in a group video project.—III. (III.)

112. New Radio Features and Documentary (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. New feature and documentary production for radio and other audiophonic media, including audio streaming Web sites and installation. Emphasis on new and experimental approaches to audio production for broadcast on community radio and in international arts programming.

113. Community Networks (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Impact and implications of computer-based networks in community, civic, and social life. Subjects may include community-access computer sites, neighborhood wireless networks, the digital divide, open-source software, and citizen action.

120. History of Sound in the Arts (4)

Lecture—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: course 1. A survey of the use of sound, voice, noise, and modes of listening in the modernist, avant-garde, and experimental arts, from the late 19th Century to the present. Focus on audiophonic and audiovisual technologies.—Kahn

121. Introduction to Sonic Arts (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; lecture/laboratory—3 hours. Prerequisite: course 7C. Introduction to the use of sound within the arts. Techniques and aesthetics of experimental contemporary practices. Creation of original sound works.—Ostertag

122. Intermediate Sonic Arts (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Prerequisite: course 121, 170C. Techniques of recording, editing, mixing, and synthesis to combine voice, field recordings, and electronic signals. Incorporating live, recorded, and found sounds to create multidimensional stories. Presentation of live performances, audio recordings, and sound installations.—Ostertag

123. Sight and Soundtrack (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Prerequisite: courses 7C, 170C. The use of sound to articulate, lend mood or subconsciously underscore visual, environmental or performative situations, combining music, voice, sound effects and other noises to create sound designs that enhance, alter or support action and movement.—Ostertag

150. Introduction to Theories of the Technoculture (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; extensive writing. Major cultural theories of technology with emphasis on media, communications, and the arts. Changing relationships between technologies, humans, and culture. Focus on the evolution of modern technologies and their reception within popular and applied contexts. GE credit: ArtHum—Dyson

151. Topics in Virtuality (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: course 1. Social, political, economic, and aesthetic factors in virtual reality. Artificial environments, telepresence, and simulated experience. Focus on contemporary artists’ work and writing.—Dyson

152. New Trends in Technocultural Arts (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Current work at the intersection of the arts, culture, science, and technology including biological and medical sciences, computer science and communications, and artificial intelligence and digital media.—Dyson

153. Concepts of Innovative Soundtracks (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Innovative and unconventional soundtracks in cinema, media arts, and fine arts. Introduction to basic analytical skills for understanding sound-image relationships.
—Kahn

154. Outsider Machines (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Invention, adaptation and use of technologies outside the mainstream, commonsense, and the possible. Topics include machines as metaphor and embodied thought, eccentric customizing and fictional technologies.

155. Introduction to Documentary Studies (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Recent evolution of the documentary. The personal essay film; found-footage/appropriation work; non-linear, multi-media forms; spoken word; storytelling; oral history recordings; and other examples of documentary expression.—I. (I.) Drew

158. Technology and the Modern American Body (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: course 1 and either American Studies 1 or 5. The history and analysis of the relationships between human bodies and technologies in modern society. Dominant and eccentric examples of how human bodies and technologies influence one another and reveal underlying cultural assumptions. (Same course as American Studies 158.) GE credit: ArtHum.—de la Pena

159. Media Subcultures (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Relationships between subcultural groups and media technologies. Media as the cohesive and persuasive force of subcultural activities. List-servs, Web sites, free radio, fan ‘zines, and hip-hop culture. GE credit: Div.—II. (II.) Drew

170A-E. Advanced Technocultural Workshop (1)

Seminar—1 hour. Prerequisite: course 7A or the equivalent. Workshops in advanced technocultural digital skills: (A) Digital Imaging; (B) Digital Video; (C) Digital Sound; (D) Web Design; (E) Topics in Digital Production.

190. Research Methods in Technocultural Studies (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; project. Introduction to basic research methods for Technocultural Studies: electronic and archived images, sounds and data, satellite downlinking, radiowave scanning, and oral histories.—Drew

191. Writing Across Media (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; extensive writing. Introduction to experimental approaches to writing for different media and artistic practices. How written texts relate to the images, sounds, and performances in digital and media production.—Jones

192. Internship (1-4)

Internship—3-12 hours. Supervised internship on or off campus in area relevant to Technocultural Studies. May be repeated twice for credit. (P/NP grading only.)

197T. Tutoring in Technocultural Studies
(1-5)

Tutorial—3-15 hours. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Undergraduates assist the instructor by tutoring students in one of the department’s regularly scheduled courses. May be repeated for credit up to eight units. (P/NP grading only.)—I, II, III. (I, II, III.)

198. Directed Group Study (1-5)

Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
(P/NP grading only.)

199. Special Study for Advanced Undergraduates (1-5)

Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Guided study with faculty member in independent scholarly activity. May be repeated for credit up to eight units.
(P/NP grading only.)