TECH 350 SCHEDULE
PART I: ANALOG 🎥
FEBRUARY
3 5 \ Introductions / History of Film
Readings: Film History Primer (Part I) (via Encyclopedia Britannica)
Media: Zoetrope, Zoetrope Vinyl, Muybridge’s Horse, Vitascope, Lumière Brothers’, Le Voyages dans la Lune
Study: À la Lumière (basic video editing)
10 12 \ Early Film Sound / Foley
Readings: Film History Primer (Part II) (via Encyclopedia Britannica)
Media: Quo Vadis? (1912, Italy), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari* (1920, Germany), Metropolis* (1927, Germany), Battleship Potemkin (1925, Soviet)
For these, the idea is to get a feel for pacing, style, deployment of narrative/technology, so feel free to click around to different scenes. Marked * is recommended (although not required) to watch in entirety.
Study: Jack Foley’s Lunch Break (performed synchronous sound effects) OR The Blind Film Editor (edit by sound alone)
17 19 \ Anachronistic Break: Music Video
Reading (for Thursday): Music Videos: The Look of the Sound (1986) and The Music Video in Transformation: Notes on a Hybrid Audiovisual Configuration (2019)
Media (Historical): Pre-MTV: Subterranean Homesick Blues, Strawberry Fields Forever | MTV: Video Killed the Radio Star, Thriller, Weapon of Choice | YouTube: Star Guitar, Here It Goes Again, Pork and Beans
Assignment (for Thursday): Pick a music video (not created by you) to show and discuss; make trigger warnings (seizure, content) known before showing.
24 26 \ Analog Animation / Gestalt Principles
Reading (for Thursday): Interactive History of Animation (up until American television era (1960s)), Scholarpedia’s Gestalt Principles OR Designer’s Take on Gestalt Principles, Kubovy and Van Valkenburg’s Auditory and Visual Objects (optional)
Media: Émile Cohl - Phantasmagorie (1908), Winsor McCay - Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), Pat Sullivan - Felix The Cat (No Fuelin’) (Excerpt) (1927), Walt Disney - The Old Mill (1937), Oskar Fischinger - Optical Poem (1938)
Study (for Tuesday of next week): Flipbook (analog or digital, but frame-by-frame).
MARCH
3 \ Montage / Theories of Film
Readings (for Thursday): Eisentein’s Montage Theory (1929) and/or this explanation with great examples (including modern ones). Read about Schaeffer’s different Listening Modes via Michel Chion’s short chapter in Audio Vision, and note how these correspond.
Media (for Thursday): Re-check out Battleship Potemkin (1925, Soviet) and/or this video explaining history of Montage Theory
Study (for Tuesday): Montage Study, and begin research for Video Artist Profile assignment
5 \ David Bird Artist Talk [IN CLASS]
10 12 \ [ASYNCHRONOUS, Eli @ Game Dev Con] Video Art
Readings (for Thursday): Kate Horsfield’s Busting the Tube: A Brief History of Video Art and Tom Sherman’s The Nine Lives of Video Art.
Media (for Thursday): Radical Software (check out an episode or two), Nam June Paik @ James Cohan Gallery (more pictures here), Bruce Nauman - Pinch Neck (1968), Joan Jonas - Vertical Roll (1972) and a brief program note, Bill Viola - The Reflecting Pool (1977) and a brief program note, Aldo Tambellini - Blackout (1965) (seizure warning)
Homework (for Friday, October 16th): Video Artist Profile
17 19 \ Research Strategies / How the (Digital) Eye/Ear Works | SLIDES
Media: Captain Disillusion Videos (youtube.com/watch?v=R4sF0MT1TGM) + Slides (above)
Quiz on Digital Audio + Video?
Video Artist Profile Due October 16th @ 9PM
🌱Spring break - 21st TO 29th🌸
PART II: DIGITAL 💻
April
3/31 2 \ [ASYNCHRONOUS, Eli Field Recording @ Ireland] Audio-Visual Systems / Max+Pd
Reading: Digital Interactivity Workshop, Nicholas Cook’s Analysing Musical Multimedia, Gregory Bateson’s Mind and Nature
Media: At link above, NIME Community, Miwa Matreyek
Study: Max or Pd Medium-Mapping Studies
7 9 \ Audio-Visual Systems Continued | Scale + Slide Patch (Max), Webcam Analysis Patch (Max)
Review Medium-Mapping Studies
Homework (for Thursday): Finish up Medium-Mapping Studies
Homework (for Tuesday):
Read: Casey Reas on Programming Media, John Whitney on his Instrument from Digital Harmony (full book here)
Watch/Listen: Poke around the Processing Exhibition. Watch John Whitney’s Matrix III (1972) and Jerobeam Fenderson’s Planets (an example of oscilloscope music)
14 16 \ Digital Animation + Processing
Processing Introductory Workshop
Media: John Whitney, Casey Reas, Jared Tarbell, Tal Rosner, others…
Study: Processing Flipbook Template
21 23 \ 3D Modeling / Blender
Media: David OReilly (content warning: some violence), Jesse Kanda, Cool3DWorld (content warning: violence, immense weirdness), field.io, Quayola, many others…
Study: 3D Graphics Study (Blender)
28 30 \ Final Project Meetings (Tuesday)
<TBD>
May
5 7 \ Drafts/First-Steps In-Class Demos.
8 \ One-on-one meetings as needed (Tuesday) + In-class works-in-progress presentations (Thursday)
14 \ Submit Final Project + Reflection to Box