New Media Images (IAT202) 2014, Intersession

New Media Images explores the computational nature of technology as applied to contemporary art and design. It is a studio-based, media production course that explores new forms of art and design that are mediated by or modeled after computing processes as opposed to transforming or digitizing existing forms. It is an introduction to historical, aesthetic, theoretical and practical issues in digital video production. In this course, students will simultaneously develop technical ability and creative awareness through the combination of lectures, tutorials, projects and hands- on practice. Project planning and conceptualization are emphasized. Image composition, the basics of soundtrack design, visual effects and editing grammars will be explored toward the aim of creating a final video project.

I taught this course once in 2014, during SFU’s Intersession — an accelerated 8 week semester over May and June. I was challenged to reconfigure the course so that what would usually be a 12-14 week course could be completed in 7 weeks. The focus was on the complete production of a narrative video, from concept to script writing, through pre-production to final screening. This was challenging but the pace also inspired very focused video work. One project in particular, “Animate”, by Esther Park, Nadhirah Shukri, Sanny Trinh, Shilp Vaishnav, was particularly successful and went on to be screened at an SFU student conference. The Syllabus here is reconstructed from its implementation in Canvas, and includes the assignments that were scaffolded to support the development of these video projects.