Courses

Description

Overview of the digital media arts field with an emphasis on technological developments and their integration in art research and production. Students are introduced to contemporary and historical directions and methodologies through seminar lectures, research presentation, and a final project.

Description

This course focuses on practical tools for processing data that might be part of some artwork or music composition. We use/learn the Python Notebook stack (NumPy, SciPy, matplotlib) to analyze, synthesize and transform sounds, images, movies, and other sensor data (e.g., EMG, IMU, screen-time activity logs, radio telescope data). Students create notebooks and write Python for homework and for their final project.

The concepts and algorithms explored include the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT), Sonification, the Phase Vocoder (PV), Sinusoidal Modeling, Digital Filters, Linear regression, Basic Machine Learning, and more (or less) depending on the pace we keep. We won't go deep into the mathematics of all this, but I will talk about it and if you are interested, we can go there.

For the first 5-7 weeks we will assign programming homework and readings. After that, each student will work on a final project while lectures refocus on challenges that come up in projects.

Description

Hands on practical approach to composition, improvisation, critique, refinement, and research dedicated to live performance.

Open to laptops, new interfaces for artistic expression, audiovisual art, live coding, local and/or wide area networked performance, interactive dance, music for acoustic and electronic instruments, performance art, trans-categorical live performance, etc.

Prerequisite: graduate standing in MAT or Music or consent of instructor; students are expected to contribute some combination of technical development, composition, and/or performance skills. Optionally, take in conjunction with independent study for related research.

We will prepare one structured improvisation for the entire group and several smaller pieces according to our resources. Will discuss many potential venues on and off campus for events.

Description

Computational systems of rules, relationships, and behaviors can extend traditional art and design practices or support new creative workflows. We will explore the creation of computational systems for visual art and design. We will use creative coding platforms and algorithms to create visual works that are flexible, dynamic, and generative. In the process, we will touch on the design philosophy and abstractions of existing creative coding platforms and examine methods to create alternatives. Students learn basic approaches to modify creative programming languages and frameworks or develop new software interfaces for visual expression. Technical production will be complemented by readings on computational art and design theory.

Description

This course explores human-computer interfaces, communication schemes, and mapping strategies in the context of audio software development. It also introduces audio and audio programming. We explore high- and low-level aspects of interactive control of musical systems by designing and using digital musical instruments (DMI) and tools. Topics include graphical user interface (GUI), tangible user interface (TUI), essential audio synthesis and processing techniques, and considerations of embedded audio systems. Each student is guided through stages of development such as sketching, research, prototyping, implementation, and performance and then demonstrates their open-source software.

MAT 240A is a part of a three-quarter series of practical programming courses. Students develop audio apps using state-of-the-art methods and tools such as c++, Max, SuperCollider, javascript, and rust. See also MAT 240B and MAT 240C.

Required Tools: Max, C++, personal laptop.

Description

This is a studio-based course in media composition for making media art works for advanced students working on their portfolios. We will deal with the compositional process with regard to multimodal content that unfolds over time and space. The object of this seminar is to make, and also to discuss our compositional processes as we build our portfolios. Each student will work on their individual or group project and will present work each week. We can meet as a group and individually as well. During the class/lab sessions, students will also bring in various works and readings from artists and researchers from which their philosophy of making is being drawn.

Description

Interdisciplinary course to analyze the digital computational image, its history, the theoretical, conceptual, philosophical underpinnings, issues of aesthetics, and critical analysis of simulation and representation. Course bridges arts, engineering, humanities. Assignments include reports and possibly projects.

Description

Interdisciplinary course/seminar/practice for artists, academics, engineers, and designers interested in exploring the technological aesthetic, cultural, and political aspects of the space side of the aerospace complex. Design history, space complex aesthetics, cinema intersections, imaging/telecommunications, human spaceflight history, reduced/alternating gravity, experimentation, space systems design/utilization.

Description

Artistic, philosophical, scientific, and technical foundations of transdisciplinarity, transmodality, and Transvergence. New conceptions of actual, virtual, and informational space and form. Trans-Euclidean geometry, from Gauss to present. Emergence and immanence in algorithmic poetics and information aesthetics. Models of physical, biological, and social complex systems. Worldmaking and epistemology.

Description

First quarter of a three-quarter sequence course concentrates on multi-track recording, mixing, digital signal processing, and studio based composition.

Description

Special projects for selected students. Offered in conjunction with selected industrial and research under direct faculty supervision. Prior departmental approval required.

Description

Independent research under the guidance of a faculty member in the department. Offers an opportunity to qualified students to undertake independent research or work in a group laboratory in digital media arts and technology.

MAT 502

Teaching in MAT

1-4 units

Instructor: TBD

TBD

TBD

TBD

29504

MAT 594ST

Special Topics in Soft Robotics

1-4 units

Instructor: E. Hawkes

TR

2pm - 3:15pm

ENGR 22226

29520

Description

A weekly writing, theory and guest lectures seminar, focused on research topics of interest to the wide fields at the intersection of media arts and technology. The seminar is organized in topical modules, covering writing methodologies, media theory, philosophy and critique.

MAT 596

Directed Research

2-12 units

Instructor: Use specific instructor code

TBD

TBD

TBD

29546

MAT 597

Individual Study, PhD exams

1-12 units

Instructor: Use specific instructor code

TBD

TBD

TBD

29553

MAT 598

Master's Thesis Research and Project Research

1-12 units

Instructor: Use specific instructor code

TBD

TBD

TBD

29561

MAT 599

PhD Dissertation Research and Preparation

1-12 units

Instructor: Use specific instructor code

TBD

TBD

TBD

29579