Required Core Course Descriptions

DANM 201
Recent Methods and Approaches to Digital Arts and Culture
Students examine methods and approaches to research and writing in Digital Media Art and Culture, and explore key theories concerning digital media and cultures. The course may focus on the interaction between digital technologies and socio/cultural formations. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.

DANM 202
Genealogies and Theories of Digital Arts and Culture
Provides examination of a particular theoretical and/or historical premise related to issues of media, art, and mediatization, as a means of teaching a common approach to the construction of genealogies within digital art and culture. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.

DANM 203
Dialogues and Questions in Digital Arts and Culture
Students engage in dialogues at the intersection of theory and practice with the goal of producing a pre-thesis proposal and essay. Readings and seminar discussions inform the development of project proposals and essays, which theoretically contextualize students’ work. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.

DANM 210
Project Design Studio
Students work on the design of individual projects by developing project proposals, budgets, “proof of concept” design documents and/or prototypes and exploring tools, technologies, programming languages, hardware, software, and electronics techniques relevant to their projects. Enrollment restricted to graduate students.

DANM 211
Critique
First-year digital arts and new media students are required to present work-in-progress based on the projects developed in earlier courses and during the quarter in individual studio critiques with the instructor as well as in group critiques. Enrollment restricted to graduate students.

DANM 212
Thesis Proposal
First-year digital arts and new media students work on the development and completion of their thesis project proposal and abstract under the supervision of the program director and their thesis committees. Enrollment restricted to first-year DANM students.

DANM 215
MFA Exhibition Production
Second-year digital arts and new media MFA graduate students work with faculty curator/coordinator to develop thesis projects specifically for the group exhibition context. Students contribute to exhibition design and collateral materials while studying the unique presentation and curatorial challenges of new media. Enrollment restricted to graduate students.

DANM 219
Introduction to Electronics for Artmaking
An intensive introduction to electronic devices for use in artmaking, providing hands-on experience with sensors, motors, switches, gears, lights, simple circuits, microprocessors and hardware-store devices to create kinetic and interactive works of art. Students are billed a materials fee. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.

DANM 220
Introduction to Programming for the Arts
Covers aspects of computer programming necessary for digital art projects. Students learn to manipulate digital media using program control for installations, presentations and the Internet. No prior programming experience required. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.

250A, B, C or D (choose one)

250A
Collaborative Research Project Group: Mechatronics Three-quarter collaborative research project group involves faculty-initiated research in the use of a variety of media including video, performance, and sculpture, for the creation of complex, kinetic, audio-visual systems exploring temporality, materiality, experience, and perception. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. May be repeated for credit.

250B
Collaborative Research Project Group: Participatory Culture
Three-quarter collaborative research project group encompasses a range of faculty-initiated projects in social computing and community-media activism, which involve the design of new technologies to address social problems and facilitate broader participation in culture and politics. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. May be repeated for credit.

250C
Collaborative Research Project Group: Performative Technologies
Three-quarter collaborative research project group generates faculty-initiated new public and performative spaces where digital media, communication networks, and interactive systems may be fused with lighting, movement, stage, and sound design to create shared multimedia experiences for audiences and performers. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. May be repeated for credit.

250D
Playable Media
Focuses on media, such as computer games, that invite and structure play. Work includes building and critiquing a series of prototypes; studying major examples in the field; and discussing both theoretical and practice-oriented texts. (Also offered as Computer Science 290J. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) May be repeated for credit.