Media Study (DMS)

Discusses the fabricated image of Native Americans in American film history, the media process that perpetuates such images, and the resulting stereotypes; also covers the relationship to social movements and alternatives for overcoming stereotypes. This course is the same as AMS 100, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Equipment, materials, and techniques involved in the construction of motion pictures; nature and process of the medium; 8mm and 16mm film. There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

This course provides an introduction to the technical and aesthetic practice of video production and post-production, with a critical eye to both form and content. Through lectures, readings, exercises, and projects, as well as screenings of historical and contemporary film and video work, students will gain an understanding of film and video language and explore conceptual strategies for the development of creative approaches to digital video making.

The fundamental theoretical, creative, and technical concerns of documentary and video production. There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

Surveys developments in international cinema from the 1890s to the present.

Surveys developments in international cinema from the 1890s to the present.

Introduces students to programming in a general purpose computer language. Discusses the underlying fundamentals of how computers, electronics, and digital media work; and the mathematical bases of these fields. Presents students with ways that programming can be used in creating new, interactive, digital media art. Recommended for students interested in programming graphics and virtual reality. There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

This course is an introduction to computer-based media production in the context of contemporary internet tools and techniques. The course covers image and sound editing & manipulation, web development, and interactive design. Crucial to this project is the concurrent development of a critical perspective on mainstream media culture. Viewing/Interacting with contemporary web-based art projects, interventionist art & Hacktivism, and readings in media theory will critically address the relations between viewers, producers, and media. A lab fee is associated with this class.

This course introduces basic concepts and techniques for designing, constructing, and programming objects, spaces, and media that sense and respond to their physical surroundings. Eschewing the paradigm of screen-keyboard-mouse, this course seeks alternative modalities -- such as light, sound, and touch -- for creating interactive experiences. Through a progression of weekly exercises, students are exposed to electrical theory, circuit design, micro-controller programming, and a variety of sensor and actuator technologies. Students work both individually and in small groups, responding to a set of progressively complex design prompts culminating in both a mid-term and end-term presentation. No previous programming or electronics experience is required; however, curiosity and a willingness to experiment are a must! There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

The rapid development of digital media technologies has presented new challenges and opportunities for the pursuit of eudaimonia, or happiness, a foundational concern of Western philosophy and one enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. This course investigates the classical traditions of happiness and current challenges with living well in our heavily mediated, digital culture. In particular, the course considers the role that design plays in how we experience technologies and then expands that lens to examine how these technologies will affect the future of work. Students will encounter and discuss these issues, conducting experiments that encourage them to rethink how they interact with digital media and considering how design practices from product design to the organization of online communities and the development of individual habits might help them to "live well".This course is the same as CL 125 and ENG 125, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

This course introduces students to journalism. Using Buffalo as a backdrop for finding news and topics for feature stories, 193 stresses practice in the basic techniques of journalism, including finding and producing a print and broadcast news story on deadline, thinking in relation to the screen, and packaging stories for the web and broadcast media. This course will teach you to think, act and write like a journalist. The course is a gateway into the Journalism Certificate program and will provide an introduction to the basic principles of research, reporting and writing for print, broadcast and the web. We will cover essential reporting tools (researching, interviewing, observing) and learn to write hard news stories, short features, blogs, TV broadcasts and reported opinion pieces. This course is the same as DMS 193 and course repeat rules will apply.

The one credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps transition to UB through an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 198 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.

There is a fee associated with this course. The three credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps students with common learning outcomes focused on fundamental expectations for critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and oral communication, and learning at a university, all within topic focused subject matter. The Seminars provide students with an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 199 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.

The Department of Art Speakers Series is comprised of lectures by visual arts professionals practicing in the fields of visual art, design, multi-media, cultural theory, and criticism. Exposes students to a wide range of viewpoints, art practice, and contemporary theory. Speakers change each semester. This course is the same as VS 200 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Polar bears pacing frantically on melting ice; SUVs gloriously conquering mountain terrain; post-civilization humans struggling for survival on a devastated earth: contemporary media reflects our fears and fantasies about our rapidly changing environment. This course analyzes fictional and documentary media that investigate our relationship to nature: climate change, pollution, environmental justice, wildlife extinction. The course interprets the word media broadly to include film, games, social media, media-art, big data visualization, simulation and sensing. It examines the consciousness-raising power of film, media and journalism; traces the ecological impact of our obsession with the latest media device; and ponders the relationship between our feelings about our changing planet (denial, engagement, optimism, hopelessness) and our actions.

Performances, Lectures, and Screenings in Media Art (PLASMA) is a new speakers series in which students are exposed to contemporary practices and discourses in media art and culture. Beyond the model of a lecture series course, PLASMA engages students in performative, field-based and workshop encounters with professional practitioners operating at national and international levels of visibility. Six guests will visit the course throughout the semester, with alternating weeks providing an opportunity for critical reflection and discussion. Readings are assigned to complement topics addressed in the work of guest practitioners, including publications of their own, where relevant.

A variety of media production and theory topics. Please check the Department of Media Study website for course descriptions. There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

Examines silent and early sound films, as well as contemporary films; as a reflection of the immigrant experience, as a site of struggle between older and newer immigrants, and as an instrument of government politics.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

This course will follow the history of machines and coding systems from the use of physical implements in agrarian societies to electronic digital computation. This is not a history course, but an overview of concepts related to information technologies that substantially impact daily life today. Consequently, it will focus on cultural aspects of technologies and the myriad ways in which they are woven into the fabric of human activity. It will cover topics such as the onset of tool production, agriculture, numbering systems, cybernetics, robots, human rights, algorithms, interaction design, household appliances, and software systems. Students will be introduced to these topics through primary source materials (texts and videos) and guided through them in weekly discussions. This course is the same as ART 226, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

An introduction to the historical development of media in modern culture, this course will expose students to a range of critical accounts of photography, film, recorded sound, print, television, video, and new media. We will examine the material and aesthetic components that define various media as well as the political, social, and economic functions that media serve. Lectures, screenings, and discussions will be structured by major theoretical texts and approaches drawn from the humanities disciplines of film and media studies, critical theory, and cultural studies. This course will demonstrate the foundational role of media in the construction of Western civilization, concepts of the global, and contemporary life around the world. It will also provide a solid theoretical basis for all forms of media study, including both production and analysis.

This intermediate level undergraduate production class will introduce students to alternative approaches to the moving image, from abstraction and collage, personal documentary and hybrid narratives, to stop-motion and video installation, across single and multiple screens. From creative idea development to experimentation with a wide range of intermediate filming and editing techniques -manipulating time, light, color, and movement - students will refine their technical skills and create several short personal projects, as well as participate in class workshops and exercises. Screenings, readings, lectures, and group discussion will provide insights into contemporary and historic approaches to avant-garde film, experimental documentary, narrative, and video art, and inspire students to expand their moving image practice beyond traditional boundaries. There is a fee associated with this class.

Viewing and analyzing electronic image/sound structures and compositional models (video art) in a context of contemporary critical thought; viewing tapes, readings, and lectures; having participatory discussions; and entertaining visitors conversant with the state of the art.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

Involves analyzing and creating web-based media for a variety of communication purposes. There is a fee associated with this class.

In this production course students will become familiar with cross-platform web technologies for mobile and social media, in the context of a critical perspective of media culture.

Provides students with an understanding of animation principles and how to use digital tools effectively to create animated compositions, and games. There is a fee associated with this class.

This class explores a range of competing terms at the intersection of transnationalism, globalization and political/activist cinema. These include 'Third Cinema' (Solanas & Getino), 'Intercultural Cinema' (Marks), 'Accented Cinema' (Naficy), 'Minor Cinema' (Deleuze and others), etc. Topics for discussion include global flows, border crossing, place and displacement, migration and mobility, minorities and diaspora, social invisibility and censorship, protest and resistance.

Lab fee. Workshop in the tools of video. Offers exercises in intermediate video production for students who have had some previous exposure to video as a creative medium. Emphasizes 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. Other topics include video electronics and staging. There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

This is an undergraduate-level course that will further develop students¿ video and audio production and post-production skills through hands-on exploration of documentary and non-fiction filmmaking. Students will work on a series of short exercise assignments, a collaborative project, and a final project. Topics to be covered include: modes of documentary; non-fiction story-telling; observational/verité shooting and audio recording techniques; the interview (approaches, set-up, lighting); lighting for documentary; video technology, in particular, the equipment and resources available to you in Media Study; image and sound editing; preparing video for online distribution, and additional topics to be decided. Regular screenings of non-fiction work will take place. A lab fee of is assessed for this course.

Intermediate Post-Production is a course is designed for students to develop an understanding of the theory, procedures and practices of motion picture editing. Students edit various exercises to learn and demonstrate the tools and techniques of post-production. Through assignments, workshops, in-class screenings, critique and discussion, the course explores post-production as fundamental creative component of filmmaking. There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

Introduces critical issues in science, culture, and emerging media-especially as they pertain to contemporary artistic practice. Topics are addressed through artists' works; selected readings include historical trends, biotechnology, virtuality, net theory, and cultural resistance. Lab fee. This course is the same as VS 375, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Media production course focusing on advanced moving image creation in film and video. This course is dual-listed with DMS 501.

There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

Provides a critical understanding of ethnographic media and cultural documentary. Combines theory and hands-on production practice. Examines cross cultural issues of representation, marginality, community collaboration, indigenous media and fieldwork for media.

This course examines the history and theoretical development of independent documentary/nonfiction film as both an established art form and as an instrument for constructing social knowledge and/or social activism. Using the conventions and methods of media studies, the class looks at extraordinary works of documentary, primarily from the 1970¿s to the present, and analyzes the nature of nonfiction film¿s compelling effect on viewers. We look at film¿s capacity for intimate viewer engagement, and we focus on the curious relationship between images of reality and reality itself. Beginning with Nanook of the North and spanning more than a century, documentary film has had a far greater influence on narrative cinema than many people realize.

Explores principal theories of film and media through a critical reading of texts and a close examination of films/ media projects.

Principle forms of film narrative with readings in narrative theory and film theory.

Narrative films are films that, in the simplest terms, tell a story. This course examines how films narrate this story. It approaches the film as a text - a set of representational, organizational, and discursive cues that deliver the story information to the audience.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

A variety of media production and theory topics. Please check website for course descriptions. There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

There is a fee associated with this course. The conceptual and practical production of digital art, primarily focusing on the manipulation and generation of moving images and sounds from within a computer environment.

Focuses on the changing role of "play" and its impact on contemporary cultural production. Investigates the following topics: how we currently define play - is it aimless, productive, meaningful; production of "play" and use of game-based models in consumer, educational and corporate culture; shifting boundaries between work and leisure. Integrates studio assignments with theoretical research and analysis from a broad range of platforms including: digital and non-digital gaming, virtual worlds, public space and situated technologies, interactive and environmental design.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

Production course. Introduces students to the concepts and practice of programming 2-D computer graphics using C++, Open GL, the GLUT libraries, and a basic sound server. The major focus is on creating interactive art experiences by programming both graphics and sound. Students write their own code to create customized computer tools and visuals and learn the fundamentals of graphics programming. This course is dual-listed with DMS 523. There is a fee associated with this class.

Provides an opportunity to explore the expressive potential of language as a creative material, with a focus on its alphabetic, visual, and aural levels, with a focus on forms of visual expression, including Concrete Poetry. We will be thinking about the multiple possibilities of language, as a conjunction of possibilities, textures, tones, meanings, and media. We will look at digital literature as a merging of form, image, language, and sound, and we will explore works that somehow do this to extraordinary effect.

Experimental poetry, sound poetry, and digital media poetry share certain features of improvisation, composition, and structure. This seminar will concentrate on a close examination of innovative literary and media forms from the perspective of sound. It will involve careful reading of experimental poetry, close listening to sound poetry, and examination of digital media works, where applicable.

Introduces students to major concepts in 2D animation and motion graphic design. Topics include developing concepts, rotoscoping, interpolated animation, and composing animation with video. Surveys the history of animation, fine arts animation, and contemporary trends in motion graphic design. Students will produce a finished portfolio of animation and motion graphic design work. (Production intensive design course.)

Examines contemporary Italian society mirrored in the movies, especially Italian film from the 1930s, or fascist era, to the present. This course is the same as ITA 429, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

In this production workshop students will concentrate on writing and editing scripted elements for their media projects. The course will explore both traditional and experimental methods for generating and structuring text for fictional, documentary, time-based and interactive work. There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

This course is an intensive workshop in writing, directing and producing narrative films during which we will closely examine how fiction and narrative cinema is conceived and crafted. The course involves exploring the director/actor relationship and understanding the components of scripting, storyboarding, casting and producing creative narrative films. During the course of Directing New Narratives, students will produce three short projects/assignments and one short film. All filmmakers are required to engage in and discuss in-class screenings of short and feature length narrative films, as well as critique each others projects. There is a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

An examination of the use of different media technologies to create "virtual worlds." Technologies covered will include stereoscopy, panoramas, projection, chroma-keying, 3D scanning and tracking, game engines, and virtual reality. We will look at different uses of virtual worlds, both past and present, particularly in the areas of entertainment and education. The course is intended for students with backgrounds in either camera-based or computer-based media production.

A course on the many forms and applications of interactive technologies generally known as "Virtual Reality." It is intended for students with graphics programming experience and/or experience with 3D modeling packages. Students will work in teams or individually to research topics of interest, to learn tools, and, most importantly, to build immersive virtual reality experiences.

There is a fee associated with this course. Making independent video art: camera work, editing, acting, and directing. Group exercises and critiques. Requires video production and postproduction outside of class.

Making independent video art: camera work, editing, acting, and directing. Group exercises and critiques. Requires video production and postproduction outside of class. There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

Explores issues and techniques in the area of sound design and audio production. Contextualizes the relation between image and sound by drawing from many media forms, existing and/or original, to create and visually represent sound. There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

Comprehensive investigation of the emerging field of Games Studies, the critical analysis of games and interactive environments made possible by the computer. Addresses different theoretical perspectives that view games and gaming as historical, social, cultural. aesthetic, technical, performative, and cognitive phenomenon. Examines how video games encompass an increasingly diverse set of practices, populations, and locations from fantasy football to multi-player medieval fantasy, from simulations of real life to alternate realities, from fanatics to activists, from nightclubs to competitive arenas to public streets to the classroom; from consoles to mobile phones, to large screen projections. Analyses not only popular games but interactive installations, pervasive games, mixed and virtual reality environments. Discusses the interdisciplinary nature of a cultural practice which depends on art, artificial intelligence, computer graphics, etc.

A variety of media production and theory topics. There may be a fee assessed to your student account for this course.

This course focuses on contemporary relations of medial and urban space. Through a series of urban experiments and transdisciplinary readings, students develop skills to engage the city and critically explore alternative urban activities and experiences enabled by a range of mobile, embedded, pervasive, networked and distributed media systems. Drawing on a broader discourse on the technological mediation of urban life, weekly discussions are organized around readings on topics including social theory, spatial practice, urban form, human geography, open systems and participatory structures, surveillance/dataveillance, changing relations between privacy and publicity in urban space, among others. Periodic critiques provide a platform for discussing students¿ ongoing project development and prototyping, with an emphasis on producing either a paper or a project proposal that can be submitted to conferences or exhibition venues and funding organizations.

Production course on the design of computer based games. Games are considered as a new art form and in order to create compelling games, students must be aware of the particularities of the form in both structural and aesthetic terms. Clearly the most important difference between games and other art forms are the interactive and interpersonal dynamics of gaming. However, game design draws on many other disciplines (writing, drawing, graphic design, architecture, and programming), and that familiarity with the assumptions and languages of these disciplines is essential for a game designer. Core issues of games design; What is a game? What is the nature of play? What makes good game play? What is the most effective use of sound and visuals in a game? How can narrative be used in games? And what are the roles of presence, engagement, and interactivity in games? Encourages experimental thinking about the boundaries and possibilities of computer games. Students work in teams to produce a series of short games projects. Focuses on creativity and experimentation. Thorough, hands-on grounding in the process of game design. from conception to play-testing, and fosters the skills required to produce, examine, and critique games. There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.

For about forty years, writer/artists have been using the computer as a medium for creating fictional and dramatic experiences. Many different kinds of both mainstream and experimental work fit under the umbrella of Electronic Literature: Digital Interactive Storytelling, Games, Intermedia Performance, Interactive Narrative, Hypertext, Location-media, Virtual Reality, Escape Rooms. Practitioners variously focus on visuals, writing, coding, sound. Delivery systems are flexible and diverse: from mobile phone app to physical installation to augmented reality. This course focuses on this expanding and morphing territory. Students will read theoretical texts, analyze work, and experiment with the creation of their own fictional and literary experiences in and around computer media. There is a class fee associated with this class.

Discussions and texts based around Media Theory.

This seminar will investigate different connections and disconnections in media. We will map the discourses around user participation and examine the ideological and economic principles of social media systems.

This course examines language, media, and social imagination.

The focus of computational media is machine learning. Students will be exposed to fundamentals of supervised and unsupervised ML systems and learn how to train a machine on data such that it can reproduce patterns detected in data sets.

There may be a class fee assessed to your student account.