Berkeley Center for New Media Recommended Courses, Spring 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
CNM 201, 2 units
(Also IEOR 298-03)
"Questioning New Media"
Ken Goldberg
CNM 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 "interrogating" new media: 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. http://bcnm.berkeley.edu/cnm201/
CNM 200, 4 units
(Also Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies 266)
"History and Theory of New Media"
Gail Derecho
This seminar will encourage students to consider the historical context of the production, distribution, and use of technological objects and tools, focusing on digital technologies. Topics will include: the military origins of computing (Bletchley Park's codebreakers and the German Enigma, Vannevar Bush's Manhattan Project and the memex, ARPANET and Engelbart's SRI work); Marshall McLuhan, sixties counter-culture, and techno-utopianism; the relations between gaming, war, and the "hacker ethic"; deconstruction / poststructuralism and intertextuality; the Cyborg Manifesto and the GNU Manifesto; Human-Computer Interaction and digital remix culture; hypertext/electronic literature; the connection of cyberpunk, steampunk, and other forms of sci-fi to the rise of mass digital culture; and contemporary discourses of viral/spreadable media.
CNM 290-01, 2 units
(Also Information 290-06)
"Interface Aesthetics"
Kimiko Ryokai
Systematic and critical understanding of aesthetically engaging and emotive interfaces. What is the role of design in human-computer interface? How does good design enhance or facilitate interaction between people? How does good design make the experience people have with computational objects and environments not just functional, but emotionally engaging and stimulating? This seminar will explore how design affects methodologies, interaction techniques, prototyping, and evaluation in HCI research.
CNM 290-02, 3 units
(Also Information 290-02)
"Technologies for Creativity & Learning"
Kimiko Ryokai
How does the design of new educational technologies change the way children learn and think? Which aspects of creative thinking and learning can technology support? How do we design systems that reflect our understanding of how we learn? This course explores issues in designing and evaluating technologies that support creativity and learning. The class will cover theories of creativity and learning, implications for design, as well as a survey of new educational technologies such as works in computer supported collaborative learning, digital manipulatives, and immersive learning environments.
CNM 290-03, 4 units
(Also Architecture 239A)
"Metropolis of the Mind: Designing Virtual Worlds"
Yehuda Kalay
Virtual worlds are based on principles borrowed from architectural theory, filmmaking, and game technology, blended and adapted to support specific objectives. They can be used to design and test new places (buildings, cities, etc.), to re-create culturally significant but extinct places, to support social networking, and to create new types of informational places that can only exist in Cyberspace. The course will introduce the principles of designing virtual worlds, through readings, discussions, exercises, and a hands-on design project. This course has been chosen to be part of the Berkeley Engaged Scholarship Initiative (BESI) program, which supports courses that engage the public in university-based scholarship. As such, students in this course will work in groups, designing virtual worlds for actual community 'clients.' These may include a activists, book clubs, collectors, educators, etc. The course project will be implemented in Google Lively (a new, web-based virtual world), which will be taught in class. (PhD students can substitute the course project with a research paper on a related topic.) The course is open to graduate and undergraduate students, from all departments. Prior knowledge of gaming or architectural design is desired, but not required.
CNM 299, 1-4 units
"Individual Study or Research"
New Media Affiliated Faculty
Individual study or research with Center for New Media affiliated faculty. This course provides the opportunity to search out and study in detail subjects unavailable in the ordinary course offerings. Unit credit will reflect comparable work per unit as regular courses, and will include both meetings with faculty sponsor and independent work.
Rhetoric 205, 4 units
"Thinking Technology: Modern Rhetorics of Cognition"
David Bates
This seminar will investigate the ways in which human cognition has been shaped by the technologies of modern culture. We will be especially interested in how political, social, and cultural systems in the industrial and post-industrial age have affected the relationship between thinking and technology. How has the "human" been defined with respect to new technological developments? The seminar will combine historical and theoretical approaches. Our investigation will begin with Descartes' concept of thinking in the context of new mechanistic models of nature, then explore a variety of cognitive models in the era of the commercial and industrial revolution, before working through a number of twentieth- (and twenty-first) century examples of thinking machines - in the fields of cybernetics, artificial intelligence, neuro-philosophy, and cognitive science. Our goal will be emphasize the interdependence of ideas and metaphors as they arise in philosophical, political, and technological spheres. Authors we will study include: R. Descartes, J-J Rousseau, K. Marx, M. Horkheimer and T. Adorno, M. Heidegger, M. Foucault, A. Turing, N. Wiener, A. Newell and H. Simon, D. Hofstadter, H. Dreyfus - alongside selected secondary sources in history, literary criticism, psychology, and science studies.
Computer Science 288, 3 units
"Artificial Intelligence Approach to Natural Language Processing"
Dan Klein
Representation of conceptual structures, language analysis and production, models of inference and memory, high-level text structures, question answering and conversation, machine translation.
Computer Science 294-07, 4 units
(Also Computer Science 194-07)
"The Art of Animation"
Brian Barsky
Education 290C-03
"Design-Based Research in Mixed-Media Learning Environments"
Dor Abrahamson
This course constitutes a design-based research forum for participant students to deepen their understanding of their own on-going design work through discussing literature on design theory and individual cognition in the social context. The objective is that the literature will feed directly into each and all students' growing understanding both of issues to anticipate as they carry out studies and theoretical models for interpreting data from these studies. The main differences between this course and a regular research group is that here the focus is on the papers, which we interpret through our projects, rather than the reverse. Typically, but not requisitely, participants will already have a design study underway. Course participants can choose any content, age group, and media, but designs will preferably be embodied in actual mixed-media artifacts, including materials, activities, and mediation emphases, and the types of design rationales I will encourage will include a cognitive component and are inspired by constructivist/constructionist pedagogical philosophy. Participants are to bring their designs through to piloting.
Engineering 290I
"Managing Innovation and Change"
H. W. Chesbrough
This course is designed to introduce students to the innovation process and its management. It provides an overview of technological change and links it to specific strategic challenges; examines the diverse elements of the innovation process and how they are managed; discusses the uneasy relationship between technology and the workforce; and examines challenges of managing innovation globally.
English 203-06, 4 units
"Reading Nowadays: Contemporary Fiction and the Phenomenology of Reading"
Namwali Serpell
This course aims to formulate new phenomenological models of reading contemporary novels. We will conduct a broad survey of theories of reading, old and new, dabbling along the way in cognitive theories of reading; historical accounts of reading practices; analyses of the ethics of reading; theories of translation; and theories of rereading. We will then pose some simple questions about turn to reading as it takes place now in the West: Who reads? What do we read? Why do we read? And most importantly: do we read? We will examine twenty-first century debates about the status of reading, taking into consideration competing genres (film, blogs, photography); new modes of production and distribution (self-publishing, e-books, books on tape); and new technologies (hypertext, the internet, electronic readers like Sony's Reader and Amazon's Kindle). Throughout the semester, we will read a set of European and American novels (1957-now) alongside the theories of reading we explore. Each student will undertake a final project to construct a new phenomenology of reading, using one or more of these novels to make a case for, to exemplify, or to derive the theory. Two papers (8-10 pages and 15-20 pages).
Film 230, 4 units
"Graduate Film Production"
Jeffrey Skoller
This semester long intensive covers the basic elements of film and digital video making, and is designed for graduate scholars and artists with varying or no experience in film/video production. The goal of the course is to enable students to film and edit their own productions, to gain a working overview of the production process in the context of their own scholarly/aesthetic research, and to enhance their ability to teach introductory film/video production. The course covers use of digital video cameras, lighting, and microphones, as well as other formats for image capture such as still cameras, 16mm, and super 8mm, that can be used in a digital post-production environment. The aesthetic focus will be on the basic elements of image making: composition, lighting, color, rhythm, and relationships between sound and image, working to understand what makes strong images that generate powerful thought and affect.
Film 240, 4 units
"Installations, Projections, Divagations"
Kaja Silverman
Information 205, 2 units
"Information Law and Policy"
D. K. Mulligan
Law is one of a number of policies that mediates the tension between free flow and restrictions on the flow of information. This course introduces students to copyright and other forms of legal protection for databases, licensing of information, consumer protection, liability for insecure systems and defective information, privacy, and national and international information policy.
Information 212, 3 units
"Information in Society"
Nancy Van House
The role of information and information technology in organizations and society. Topics include societal needs and demands, sociology of knowledge and science, diffusion of knowledge and technology, information seeking and use, information and culture.
Information 213, 4 units
"User Interface Design and Development"
Tapan Parikh
User interface design and human-computer interaction. Examination of alternative design. Tools and methods for design and development. Human- computer interaction. Methods for measuring and evaluating interface quality. This course covers the design, prototyping, and evaluation of user interfaces to computers which is often called Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). It is loosely based on course CS1 described in the ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction (Association for Computing Machinery, 1992).
Information 235, 3 units
"Cyberlaw"
B. W. Carver
Introduction to legal issues in information management, antitrust, contract management, international law including intellectual property, trans-border data flow, privacy, libel, and constitutional rights.
Information 290-05, 3 units
"Mixing and Remixing Information"
Raymond Yee
This course focuses on employing XML and web services to reuse or ""remix"" digital content and services. Students will learn practical tools and techniques to recombine personal information through hands-on explorations and projects. Topics include: weblogs, wikis, and their underlying technologies; content syndication via RSS; building applications on top of Flickr, the image sharing site, and delicious, and other social bookmarking sites; incorporating content from libraries via new digital library technologies; sending content to the campus' new learning management system, bSpace; exploiting the XML of OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office to create and manipulate "smart documents"; incorporating geospatial services into the mix of services. Students are expected to have some basic knowledge of XML. No experience with web services is expected.
Music 207, 4 units
"Advanced Projects in Computer Music"
Edmund Campion
Designed for graduate students in music composition, but open to graduate students in related disciplines who can demonstrate thorough knowledge of the history of electro-acoustic music as well as significant experience with computer music practice and research. All projects are subject to approval of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor. Syllabus and sample projects list In the beginning weeks of the semester, students present their project ideas and receive critical feedback from the group. With significant one on one interaction with the instructor, semester-length projects are defined. The seminar convenes each week for group interaction and exchange focusing on aesthetic and technical issues raised by active computer music projects. The Research staff at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) will provide technical support as needed throughout the semester. Students will have access to the CNMAT recording and production studio, the CNMAT media lab and the CNMAT eight-channel sound diffusion concert space. Students who are creating new music employing digital technologies are required to present their work in a public concert setting. Students involved in Computer Music research projects will present their findings to the seminar at the end of the semester.
Music 209, 4 units
"Advanced Topics in Computer Music"
David 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 210, 3 units
"Proseminar: Cognition, Brain, and Behavior"
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.
Undergraduate Courses:
CNM 190-01, 4 units
(Also Architechture 139X)
"Metropolis of the Mind: Designing Virtual Worlds"
Yehuda Kalay
Virtual worlds are based on principles borrowed from architectural theory, filmmaking, and game technology, blended and adapted to support specific objectives. They can be used to design and test new places (buildings, cities, etc.), to re-create culturally significant but extinct places, to support social networking, and to create new types of informational places that can only exist in Cyberspace. The course will introduce the principles of designing virtual worlds, through readings, discussions, exercises, and a hands-on design project. This course has been chosen to be part of the Berkeley Engaged Scholarship Initiative (BESI) program, which supports courses that engage the public in university-based scholarship. As such, students in this course will work in groups, designing virtual worlds for actual community 'clients.' These may include a activists, book clubs, collectors, educators, etc. The course project will be implemented in Google Lively (a new, web-based virtual world), which will be taught in class. (PhD students can substitute the course project with a research paper on a related topic.) The course is open to graduate and undergraduate students, from all departments. Prior knowledge of gaming or architectural design is desired, but not required.
CNM 190-02
(Also Theater, Dance and Performance Studies 121-02)
"Performance and Television"
Gail Derecho
Approaching television through the lens of performance theory, we will explore how television acting differs from acting in other media, how TV viewing as an everyday performance has changed over the decades, and how corporations', artists', critics' and audiences' discourses on television are performative. We will examine a range of television genres from different periods, such as sitcoms, Westerns, sci-fi, variety shows, crime dramas, game shows, soap operas, "quality TV," and reality TV. We will also ask how technological transformations in video production and distribution (cable TV, VHS, DVD, DVR, Internet, video streaming, piracy) have each dramatically changed what constitutes "television."
CNM 190-03
"Advanced Digital Animation"
Dan Garcia, EECS, and Brian Barsky, EECS Jeremy Huddleston, EECS (GSI)
Fall 2008: TuTh 4-6pm in 380 Soda
Sp 2009: Location & Time TBA, probably something similar
http://cloud.cs.berkeley.edu/~cnm/
This year-long course is intended for students with backgrounds either in art, film, or computer science who may wish to work in the visual effects, animation, and entertainment industries. The course builds upon students' knowlege from related courses, providing a guide through the digital animation production process in an environment similar to that found in industry production houses. We will survey many advanced topics and allow students to focus on the ones that they find interesting. Students will collaborate to develop a 30-second animation piece. The course will be enhanced with industry guest lectures.
In Fall 2008, the topics will include story and character development, manual and procedural modeling, advanced character rigging, set design, manual and procedural camera animation, digital cinematography, and manual, procedural, AI-driven, and data-driven animation.
In the spring of 2009 the topics will include visual art design, sound and foley design, visual effects, shading, lighting, rendering, optimization, and advanced image composition.
Pre-requisites: any two (one may be taken concurrently) of the following four courses: { UCBUGG (CS198-3), Art 172, Art 175, CS 184 }. This course is also offered as CS 194, Sec 8.
Film C181/Practice of Art C178, 4 units
"Game Design Methods"
J. D. McKay
This course offers an introduction to game design and game studies. Game studies has five core elements: the study of games as culture generators, the study of play and interactivity, the study of games as symbolic systems, the study of games as artifacts, and the design of games. One process which is crucial to all these elements is to play. We will study the core elements of game studies through play, play tests, and the study of people playing. There will also be a close examination of classical game studies as well as practice-oriented texts. The final exam for this course is to design, test, and evaluate a playable game.
African American Studies 139
"Digital Neighborhoods"
Michel Laguerre
Art 174, 4 units
"Advanced Digital Video"
Kamau Patton
This advanced studio course is designed for students who have mastered basic skills and concepts involved in digital video production, and are interested in further investigating critical, theoretical, and creative research topics in digital video production. Each week will include relevant readings, class discussions, guest speakers, demonstration of examples, and studio time for training and working on student assignments.
Computer Science 194-08, 4 units
"Advanced Digital Animation"
Brian Barsky
Film C185/Practice of Art C171, 4 units
"Digital Video: The Architecture of Time"
J. M. Kopell
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. Also listed as Film Studies C185.
IEOR 170, 3 units
"Industrial Design and Human Factors"
Peter Michaelian
This course surveys topics related to the design of products and interfaces ranging from alarm clocks, cell phones, and dashboards to logos, presentations, and web sites. Design of such systems requires familiarity with Human Factors and Ergonomics, including the physics and perception of color, sound, and touch, as well as familiarity with usability testing. Students will solve a series of design problems individually and in teams.
In addition to lectures, the class will analyze a number of case studies in depth and expert speakers from local design firms will present current perspectives. Students individually and in teams will design and prototype a series of projects which will be analyzed through in-class critique. The goals of the course are to familiarize students with fundamentals of human factors/ergonomics, increase students' awareness of design in everyday experience, and enhance student skills in creativity and presentation.
Information 190-01, 3 units
"Virtual Communities and Social Media"
Howard Rheingold
With the advent of virtual communities and online social networks, old questions about the meaning of human social behavior have taken on renewed significance. Using a variety of online social media simultaneously, and drawing upon theoretical literature in a variety of disciplines, this course delves into discourse about community across disciplines. This course will enable students to establish both theoretical and experiential foundations for making decisions and judgments regarding the relations between mediated communication and human community.
Information 190-02, 3 units
"Web Architecture and Information Management"
E. Wilde
Practice of Art 142, 4 units
"New Genres"
K. P. Radley
A survey intended to expose you to the nature and potential of such non-traditional tools for artmaking as performance, video, and audiotape. Lectures and demonstrations introduce students to techniques and varied applications.
Practice of Art 174, 4 units
"Advanced Digital Video"
Rhetoric 189, 4 units
"Digital Media-Story, Performance and Game"
Felipe Gutterriez
In this course we will examine a wide range of digital media practices including hypertext, interactive drama, videogames, literary interactive fiction, socially constructed narratives in multi-user spaces, and artificial intelligence-based story generation. Through a mixture of readings, discussion, and project work, we will explore the theoretical positions, debates, and design issues arising from these different practices. Topics will include the rhetorical, ludic, theatrical, and narrative dimensions of digital media as well as their political and legal ramifications.
Sociology 167, 4 units
"Virtual Communities/Social Media"
Howard Rheingold
What do we mean by "community"? How do we encourage, discuss, analyze, understand, design, and participate in healthy communities in the age of many-to-many media? With the advent of virtual communities, smart mobs, and online social networks, old questions about the meaning of human social behavior have taken on renewed significance. Using a variety of online social media simultaneously, and drawing upon theoretical literature in a variety of dsiciplines, and upon empirical studies, this course delves into discourse about community across disciplines.
Undergraduate Business Admin. 143, 3 units
"Game Theory and Business Decisions"
X. Su
This course provides an introduction to game theory and decision analysis. Game theory is concerned with strategic interactions among players (multi-player games), and decision analysis is concerned with making choices under uncertainty (single-player games). Emphasis is placed on applications.
FOR MORE INFORMATION or to suggest changes or additions, please contact:
BCNM Graduate Affairs Officer
Sharon Mueller:
smueller (at) berkeley.edu