James Connolly

This course is designed to introduce students to the language and histories of the moving image arts and the diverse ways in which artists have contributed to them. Throughout the semester we will examine a range of approaches to creating moving image work. We will compare and contrast established ?norms? with radical and experimental approaches to these various media, leading to an understanding of the rich, complex, and evolving landscape upon which individuals have been making, and continue to make, moving image art.

Students will engage with this expanded field through lectures, readings, screenings, meetings with visiting artists as well as becoming active in discussions and practitioners in the field via group projects.

Working in small groups, students will complete a series of short projects to introduce them to the various pathways of the department. By the end of the semester, students should have gain basic production and postproduction skills as well a good understanding of the key concepts relevant to contemporary film, video, new media, installation and animation.

This course is designed to introduce students to the language and histories of the moving image arts and the diverse ways in which artists have contributed to them. Throughout the semester we will examine a range of approaches to creating moving image work. We will compare and contrast established ?norms? with radical and experimental approaches to these various media, leading to an understanding of the rich, complex, and evolving landscape upon which individuals have been making, and continue to make, moving image art.

Students will engage with this expanded field through lectures, readings, screenings, meetings with visiting artists as well as becoming active in discussions and practitioners in the field via group projects.

Working in small groups, students will complete a series of short projects to introduce them to the various pathways of the department. By the end of the semester, students should have gain basic production and postproduction skills as well a good understanding of the key concepts relevant to contemporary film, video, new media, installation and animation.

Programming Video Systems introduces students with film, video, new media, and/or animation practices to the node-based development platforms TouchDesigner and Max/MSP/Jitter. Emphasis will be placed on video creation and manipulation, with the ability to incorporate unique and original generative video, video effects, highly controllable dynamic 3d rendering environments, and unique control interfaces that push the video medium in new directions.
Historical and contemporary examples of artists building their own custom video systems will inform class projects, with an emphasis on critical approaches to constructing unique and original systems rather than using commercially made, non-customizable tools and software. Programming and coding languages will be introduced through a series of beginner and intermediate workshops, along with artist-made example patches, allowing students to develop the skills necessary to build their own advanced, custom software that expands their specific practice in new directions.
Students will gain skills to incorporate cutting-edge digital aesthetics into single-channel cinematic or experimental videos, installations, performances, interactive systems, custom software/artware, and more, with custom workshops to assist in the successful completion of independently driven final projects.

Realtime Video explores audio-visual systems and performances of live experimental new media art. Artists create, code, control, and transform digital and analog media in real-time using systems created by and for artists. Students learn, play, and perform with artware, open-source tools and systems, and commercially available software.

This studio course includes a historical, media archaeological approach to real-time systems, using the Sandin Image Processor, an analog patch programmable computer optimized for video processing from 1971-1973 to introduce improvisational audio/video exploration and critical concepts related to contemporary user interface design. Current praxis is discussed through lectures, screenings, and visiting artists in relation to the earlier realtime forms from early cinema (such as Oskar Fischinger's Lumigraph), video (such as Steina Vasulka's Violin Power), new media (such as JODI's Prepared Desktop), and the internet (such as Wafaa Bilal's Domestic Tension).

Emphasis is placed on the conceptual and technical development of independently driven projects and the completion of professional exhibition proposals for real-time work.