BCNM: Berkeley Center for New Media, UC Berkeley

Berkeley Center for New Media Recommended Courses, Fall 2009

Note: This list of Recommended Courses offered at UC Berkeley is based upon available information and is not intended to be comprehensive. To suggest changes or additions, please contact:
BCNM Graduate Affairs Officer
Sharon Mueller
smueller (at) berkeley.edu

Graduate Courses

NWMEDIA 201, 3 units
(Also IEOR 298-03)
"Questioning New Media"
K. Goldberg

NWMEDIA 201 meets weekly and is held in conjunction with the Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium, a monthly lecture series which brings internationally-known speakers to campus to present their work on advanced topics in new media. Students will enhance skills in how to think critically about advanced topics in new media, how to formulate incisive questions about new media, and how to evaluate and create effective presentations on topics in new media.

NWMEDIA C262, 4 units
(Also Information C262)
"Theory and Practice of Tangible User Interfaces"
K. Ryokai

This course explores the theory and practice of Tangible User Interfaces, a new approach to Human Computer Interaction that focuses on the physical interaction with computational media. The topics covered in the course include theoretical framework, design examples, enabling technologies, and evaluation of Tangible User Interfaces. Students will design and develop experimental Tangible User Interfaces using physical computing prototyping tools and write a final project report.

NWMEDIA 290-01, 3 units
(Also TDPS 266)
"New Media Research Seminar"
A. De Kosnik

In this seminar, students will have the opportunity to complete a scholarly work focused on a topic related to new media (a conference paper, essay intended for publication, or dissertation chapter) in a workshop setting: students will present 5-, 10- and eventually 20-page drafts to the instructor and to each other, and receive continual feedback as they develop their idea into a fully realized project. We will also read recently published articles and books on new media written from a humanities perspective, to give students a sense of the methods and approaches being employed by the most interesting and provocative new media humanities scholars today, and an understanding of the current state of "new media studies."

Electrical Engineering 244, 3 units
"Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits"
S. A. Seshia

This course will cover a wide variety of topics relating to the development of computer aids for integrated circuit design. The course will emphasize state-of-the-art techniques and both the theoretical basis for the methods as well as the application of results to practical problems, including details of implementation. Topics to be covered include simulation, layout techniques, synthesis, verification, testing, and integrated design systems.

Information 216, 3 units
"Computer-Mediated Communication"
C. Cheshire

This course covers the practical and theoretical issues associated with computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems (e.g., email, newsgroups, wikis, online games, etc.). We will focus on the analysis of CMC practices, the relationship between technology and behavior, and the design and implementation issues associated with constructing CMC systems. This course primarily takes a social scientific approach (including research from social psychology, economics, sociology, and communication).

Information 219, 3 units
"Privacy, Security, and Cryptography"
J. T. Tygar

Policy and technical issues related to insuring the accuracy and privacy of information. Encoding and decoding techniques including public and private key encryption. Survey of security problems in networked information environment including viruses, worms, trojan horses, Internet address spoofing.

Information 237, 3 units
"Intellectual Property Law for the Information Industries"
B. W. Carver

The philosophical, legal, historical, and economic analysis of the need for and uses of laws protecting intellectual property. Topics include types of intellectual property (copyright, patent, trade secrecy), the interaction between law and technology, various approaches (including compulsory licensing), and the relationship between intellectual property and compatibility standards.

Information 290-01, 3 units
"Information Systems and Service Design: Strategy, Models and Methods"
R. J. Glushko

This course presents an end-to-end view of the design life cycle for information systems and services. It explains how design problems are conceived, researched, analyzed and resolved in different types of organizations and contexts, including start-ups, enterprises with legacy-systems, non-profit and government entities. The course presents a framework for understanding and integrating the variety of design methods taught in more detail in other iSchool and MOT courses. Using a mix of theory and case studies, the course provides students with different backgrounds a unifying view of the design life cycle, making them more effective and versatile designers.

Information 290-02, 3 units
"Web Architecture"
E. Wilde

This course is a survey of Web technologies, ranging from the basic technologies underlying the Web (URI, HTTP, HTML) to more advanced technologies being used in the context of Web engineering, for example structured data formats and Web programming frameworks. The goal of this course is provide an overview of the technical issues surrounding the Web today, and to provide a solid and comprehensive perspective of the Web's constantly evolving landscape. Because of the large number of technologies covered in this course, only a fraction of them will be discussed and described in greater detail. The main goal of the course thus is an understanding of the interdependencies and connections of Web technologies, and of their capabilities and limitations. Implementing Web-based applications today can be done in a multitude of ways, and this course provides guidelines and best practices which technologies to choose, and how to use them.

Information 290A-01, 1 unit
"Information Technology and Identity: The Future of Storytelling"
Q. R. Hardy

Mass communications technologies have been profound influencers of human identity, from the printing press and the rise of vernacular political cultures to television and the power of celebrity. While the Web is still a work in progress, salient characteristics such as the collapse of distance, the discovery of like-minded groups, and information delivered in short bursts are already affecting the way people see themselves and the way they consume information. Following an overview on the relationship of technology with identity and communications, the course will look at the uses of narrative in news, public relations, advertising, entertainment, and online gaming.

Information 296A-01, 3 units
"Information Access"
M. K. Buckland, R. Larson, C. Lynch

The seminar explores selected advanced topics relating to 'digital libraries' with special emphasis on: Access to networked resources, use of two or more resources in conjunction, combined use of two or more retrieval systems (e.g. use of pre- or post-processing to enhance the capabilities), and the redesign of library services. It is expected that these issues will require attention to a number of questions about the nature of information retrieval processes, the feasibility of not-yet-conventional techniques, techniques of making different systems work together, social impact, and the reconsideration of past practices. More generally, the seminar is intended to provide a forum for advanced students in the School. Anyone interested in these topics is welcome to join in -- and to talk about their own work. This is a continuation of the previous Lynch/Buckland seminars.

Music 209, 4 units
"Advanced Topics in Computer Music"
D. Wessel

Technical and musical issues in the design and development of computer-based music systems including digital signal processing for the analysis and synthesis of sound, scheduling of multiple musical control processes, perceptual and cognitive models, user-interface design, reactive real-time control, and the analysis and representation of musical structure.

Psychology 210A, 3 units
"Proseminar: Cognition, Brain, and Behavior"
R. Ivry, J. L. Gallant, J. D. Wallis

Three hours of lecture per week. A survey of the field of biological psychology. Areas covered are (a) cognitive neuroscience; (b) biological bases of behavior; (c) sensation and perception (d) learning and memory, (e) thought and language.

Architecture 222/122, 4 units
"Principles of Computer-Aided Architectural Design"
Yehuda Kalay

This is an elective course that explores and lets you experiment with New Media architectural technologies. It covers topics such as presentation and re-presentation of architectural designs (sketching, drafting, modeling, animating, and rendering); generating design solutions (generative systems, expert systems, shape grammars, and genetic algorithms); evaluation and prediction (using examples from structures, energy, acoustics, and human factors); and the future uses of computers in architectural design (construction automation, smart buildings, and virtual environments). A weekly lab session (1.5 hours) will introduce you to REVIT, state-of-the-art architectural software for building information modeling (BIM). Coupled with BIM-Game, the building model you will design can be ‘inhabited’ in real-time, in game-like manner. The end product of the course will be physical scale models, fabricated using computer-controlled laser-cutter.

Film 240.003, 4 units
"Cinema and the Digital"
Kristen Whissel

This course will focus on the impact that digital technologies and computer-based forms of production and post-production have had on the cinema in general and on Films Studies as a field of humanistic inquiry in particular. We will address questions of rapid technological change, the photographic ontology of film, the aesthetic and economic impact of digital technologies, as well as changing forms of spectatorship and modes of representation. In the process we will focus on the intersection of theories and histories of the cinema and scholarship on new media with an eye towards discerning the most productive junctures between the two for film scholars.

Undergraduate Courses:

NWMEDIA 190-01, 4 units
(Also TDPS 119)
"Asian/American Performance Across Media"
A. De Kosnik

This course will examine Asian and Asian American performance from a variety of perspectives. Topics will include: traditional Asian theatrical styles, Asian actors and Asian characters (who have not always been portrayed by Asian actors) in Hollywood and European cinema and television, the similarities and differences between Asian and Western performance and narrative methods, "Techno-Orientalism" (the tendency of both Hollywood and Asian films to equate Asianness with hi-tech futurism), and Asian performance in digital genres such as DJ'ing and video gaming.

Anthropology 138A, 4 units
"History and Theory of Ethnographic Film"
Instructor TBA

The course will trace the development of ethnographic film from its beginnings at the turn of the century to the present. In addition to looking at seminal works in the field, more recent and innovative productions will be viewed and analyzed. Topics of interest include the role of visual media in ethnography, ethics in filmmaking, and the problematic relationship between seeing and believing. Requirements include film critiques, a film proposal, and a final exam.

Anthropology 150, 4 units
"Utopia: Art and Power in Modern Times"
A. Yurchak

Modern times have been dominated by utopian visions of how to achieve a happy future society. Artists in competing social systems played a central role in the development of these visions. But artistic experiments were filled with paradoxes, contributing to the creation not only of the most liberating and progressive ideals and values but also to the most oppressive regimes and ideologies. The course questions: what is art, what can it achieve and destroy, what is beauty, artistic freedom, and the relationship between esthetics, ethics, and power?

Architecture 138, variable units
"Advanced Computer-Aided Rendering and Animation"
M. P. Dhaemers

This is a computer class will enable students to carry out self-determined architectural or other projects in consultation with the professor and the GSI. There will be discussions, demonstrations, viewing of historical and current animations, idea sessions, field trips, guest reviewers and lectures. Idea development beyond the original project will result from the interaction of the idea with the computer input and class discussions. Results may be either 2D or 3D, still or animated. Groups of two or more students may work on a project. The class will be conducted in the Silicon Graphics Industries lab. Reviews will take place around the workstation.

Bioengineering C125/Electrical Engineering C125, 4 units
"Introduction to Robotics"
R. Bajcsy

An introduction to the kinematics, dynamics, and control of robot manipulators, robotic vision, and sensing. The course covers forward and inverse kinematics of serial chain manipulators, the manipulator Jacobian, force relations, dynamics, and control. It presents elementary principles on proximity, tactile, and force sensing, vision sensors, camera calibration, stereo construction, and motion detection. The course concludes with current applications of robotics in active perception, medical robotics, and other areas.

Computer Science 39J, 2 units
"The Art and Science of Photography: Drawing with Light"
B. Barsky

This seminar explores the art and science of photography. Photographs are created by the control and manipulation of light. We will discuss quality of light for the rendering of tone, texture, shade, shadow, and reflection. The seminar examines the photographic process from light entering the lens through the creation and manipulation of the final image. Some typical topics are composition and patterns, mathematics of perspective projection, refraction, blur, optics of lenses, exposure control, color science, film structure and response, resolution, digital image processing, the human visual system, spatial and color perception, and chemical versus electronic processing.

Computer Science 160, 4 units
"User Interface Design and Development"
J. Canny

The design, implementation, and evaluation of human/computer interfaces. Interface devices (keyboard, pointing, display, audio, etc.), metaphors (desktop, notecards, rooms, ledger sheets, tables, etc.), interaction styles and dialog models, design examples, and user-centered design and task analysis. Interface-development, methodologies, implementation tools, testing, and quality assessment. Students will develop a direct-manipulation interface.

Computer Science 184, 4 units
"Foundations of Computer Graphics"
J. O’Brien

Techniques of modeling objects for the purpose of computer rendering: boundary representations, constructive solids geometry, hierarchical scene descriptions. Mathematical techniques for curve and surface representation. Basic elements of a computer graphics rendering pipeline; architecture of modern graphics display devices. Geometrical transformations such as rotation, scaling, translation, and their matrix representations. Homogeneous coordinates, projective and perspective transformations. Algorithms for clipping, hidden surface removal, rasterization, and anti-aliasing. Scan-line based and ray-based rendering algorithms. Lighting models for reflection, refraction, transparency.

Computer Science 194-7, 4 units
"The Art of Animation"
B. Barsky

This hands-on course is intended for students with a computer science background who would like to improve their sense of observation, timing, and motion through the art of animation to create believable animated pieces. A good understanding of motion is an important foundation for using computers and technology to their full potential for the creation of animation. This class also emphasizes artistic and aesthetic creativity, encouraging students to push the boundaries of the imagination and to familiarize them with visual storytelling. Some time will be spent screening various documentaries and animated shorts for inspiration and to learn a variety of styles and techniques.

Film C185/Practice of Art C171, 4 units
"Digital Video: The Architecture of Time"
G. J. Moses

This hands-on studio course is designed to present students with a foundation-level introduction to the skills, theories, and concepts used in digital video production. As digital technologies continue to expand our notion of time and space, value and meaning, artists are using these tools to envision the impossible. Nonlinear and nondestructive editing methods used in digital video are defining new "architectures of time" for cinematic creation and experience, and offer new and innovative possibilities for authoring new forms of the moving image. Through direct experimentation, this course will expose students to a broad range of industry-standard equipment, film and video history, theory, terminology, field, and post-production skills. Students will be required to technically master the digital media tools introduced in the course, and personalize the new possibilities digital video brings to time-based art forms.

Industrial Engineering and Operations Research 115, 4 units
"Industrial and Commercial Data Systems"
K. Goldberg

Design and implementation of databases, with an emphasis on industrial and commercial applications. Relational algebra, SQL, normalization. Students work in teams with local companies on a database design project. WWW design and queries.

Music 108, 4 units "Music Perception and Cognition"
D. L. Wessel

A review of the sensory, perceptual, and cognitive foundations of listening, composing, and performing. Topics include relations among various acoustical and perceptual characterizations of sound; perception of pitch, temporal relations, timbre, stability conditions, and auditory space; auditory scene analysis and perceptual grouping mechanisms; perceptual principles for melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic organization; orchestration as spectral composition. A course research project is required.

Portuguese 135, 2-3 units
"Culture, Media and Politics"
A. Martinho

Practice of Art 171, 4 units
"Digital Video: The Architecture of Time"
A. Walsh

This hands-on studio course is designed to present students with a foundation-level introduction to the skills, theories and concepts used in digital video production. Non-linear and non-destructive editing methods used in digital video are defining new "architectures of time" for cinematic creation and experience, and offer new and innovative possibilities for authoring new forms of the moving image. This course will expose students to a broad range of industry standard equipment, film and video history, theory, terminology, field and post-production skills. Students will be required to techinically master the digital media tools introduced in the course. Each week will include relevant readings, class discussions, guest speakers, demonstration of examples, and studio time for training and working on student assignments.

Rhetoric 174, 4 units
"Robots, Computers, Cyborgs: the History and Theory of Artificial Intelligence"
David Bates

Human intelligence has been shaped by technological development in the modern period. Not only has machinery often supplemented (or even supplanted) human thought, our self-understanding as intelligent beings has been continually transformed by the appearance of complex, perhaps even intelligent mechanisms. This class will explore the long history of Artificial Intelligence, in an effort to understand how technology, as a practice and a discourse, has impacted the idea of intelligence and the very concept of the human. We will begin with a study of early modern robotics (in Descartes's work and during the Enlightenment), and then focus on the first modern "computers" - the Analytic and Difference Engines of Charles Babbage in the 19th century. We will then study the development of cybernetics in the period of the Second World War, before moving onto an analysis of the rise of the digital computer and some new models of human rationality that these new machines influenced. The last part of the course will emphasize critiques of Artificial Intelligence - in both philosophical and cultural contexts - as well as new ideas about intelligence and artifice.

Readings will be posted on bspace. Besides primary sources from the 17th to the 21st century, we will read selected articles on robots, computers, cybernetics, information theory, and cyborgs. We will also discuss two seminal films on these topics: Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

FOR MORE INFORMATION or to suggest changes or additions, please contact:
BCNM Graduate Affairs Officer
Sharon Mueller:
smueller (at) berkeley.edu