An intensive hands-on course in feature writing styles and journalistic ethics; a primer for writing in today’s urban America. Essentially, journalism, like all art, tells a story. How that story is told is as critical to the success of a piece as the importance of its theme. A series of writing exercises and reporting “assignments” will give both inexperienced and more advanced writers the tools to explore their writerly “voice.” Special attention will be devoted to discussions of the role of the journalist in society. All registered students must attend the first class. Instructor(s):Moffett, Kevin [Elective]

From its inception, cinema has often been conceptualized as having a “language” of its own. This course examines that metaphor from aesthetic, cultural, social, and historical perspectives. We will begin with a close analysis of a contemporary popular film, in an effort to “defamiliarize” typical conventions of cinematic expression, and then proceed through a study of multiple movements and genres in the history of film, from German Expressionism to the French New Wave, from Hollywood to documentary to avant-grade and independent filmmaking. Overall, the course is intended to provide students with a broad introduction to film analysis and to the field of Film Studies. Instructor(s): Schur, Thomas [Intro Critical Studies]

Intermediate/advanced video course, exploring the creative potential of digital video techniques, such as compositing, animation, and motion graphics. Students develop digital projects and participate in critiques. Lectures, discussions, and screenings enhance students’ exposure to art and cinema. $75 course fee. Prerequisite: Media Studies 182 (HM) or Media Studies 82 (PZ) or Media Studies 148 (PO). Recommended background in Adobe CS Photoshop, Illustrator and/or Premiere and/or drawing/animation. Email the professor for permission. HSA Writing Intensive: No Instructor(s): Mayeri, Rachel [Intermediate/Advanced Production]

Emerging in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s, the notion of Third Cinema takes its inspiration from the Cuban revolution and from Brazil’s Cinema Novo. Third Cinema is the art of political film making and represents an alternative cinematic practice to that offered by mainstream film industries. This course explores the aesthetics of film making from a revolutionary consciousness in three regions: Africa, Asia, and Latin America. HSA Writing Intensive: No Instructor(s): Balseiro, Isabel [Media History or Media Theory]

This course is an introduction to video art through history, theory, analysis and production. The goal for this class is for students to produce meaningful, creative, expressive, innovative media for an intelligent and broad audience. In order to achieve this goal students will learn the fundamentals of video production in labs, critiques, and exercises: conceptualizing, planning, shooting, sound recording, editing and analysis. Students will also learn – through readings and discussions – about pioneers and contemporary practitioners of video art. $75 course fee. Prerequisite: Media Studies 50 (HM), or Media Studies 49 (PO, PZ, SC), or Media Studies 51 (PO, PZ, SC), or Literature 130 (CM). HSA Writing Intensive: No Instructor(s): Mayeri, Rachel [Intro Production]

An examination of contemporary art in the context of economic and cultural globalization. Topics include the impact of the end of the Cold War and the rise of economic neoliberalism on the arts; the emergence of new global art centers in the wake of major political transformations, such as the fall of South African Apartheid; contemporary Native American and Australian Aboriginal artists in the global marketplace; and artists’ response to issues of nationalism, ethnic violence, terrorism, and war. Instructor(s): Ennis, Ciara [Art History]

This integrated production/theory course will survey the traditions of technologically-mediated ethnography with a particular focus on the digital realm. The course will provide an overview of the ethnographic tradition and it will explore the practical and ethical questions that digital devices and the internet present as both tools and sites of studying human societies and sociality. Possible final projects for the course could be: a video documentary, an audio soundscape, an ethnographic study of an online community, using the internet as a component of multi-sited fieldwork, or a critical analysis of the digitization of a social phenomenon. Instructor(s): Esmaeli, Kouross [Intermediate/Advanced Production or Media Theory]

This course introduces the discipline of media studies to students and gives them foundational knowledge of the field. The readings and screenings comprise a range of approaches and will allow students to address media in a variety of styles and modes of practice, including film, television, and new media. Instructor(s): Staff [Intro Critical Studies]

This is an introductory level course exploring different areas of study within sound culture, an emerging field in the human sciences. This course will introduce students to ways of thinking historically and culturally about sound and listening. Sound studies is an inherently interdisciplinary field. While this course is grounded in media studies, it also intersects with history, visual and performing art, architecture, music, cultural studies, anthropology and ethnography, as well as other disciplines. The course will survey wide ranging topics and cultures including American and European industrialization; rainforest soundscapes of Papua New Guinea; cassette sermons by Islamic preacher in Cairo, Egypt; avant-garde music and DJ culture, to name a few. Instructor(s): Ma, Ming-Yuen [Elective]

Overview of movements, theories, and methods employed by media makers committed to social change. From Soviet film collectives, through Third Cinema movement of 60s, to feminist, queer, and youth video activist movements in the U.S. that have laid the groundwork for the rise of socially driven media collectives and campaigns today. Instructor(s): Lamb, Gina [Media History or Media Theory]

This course places the concept of race as central to critical media as well as science and technology studies. We will study how historians and theorists have discussed the concept as part of the rise of modern capitalist society. We will look at the role of technology as a material force that delineates the parameters of profit accumulation, exploitation, and social distinction in order to better conceptualize the notions of race in our contemporary digital society. Instructor(s): Esmaeli, Kouross [Media History or Media Theory]

This is an introductory course In digital video production. This class encourages a critical, creative approach to the medium, non-traditional solutions, and explanation of the history and methodology of independent video and video art. Class session combines hands-on technical training in script writing, storyboarding, camera operation, off-line and non-linear editing, lighting and sound equipment with critical analysis of subject matter, treatment, and modes of address in independent as well as mass media. Instructor(s):Talmor, Ruti [Intro Production]

In recent years, as the Anthropocene has become a central framework within the academy, the subfield of ecocinema has developed within media studies. This course will focus on ecodocumentary. Topics include environmental/manmade catastrophe, industrialization, anthropogenic climate change, interspecies relations, ecojustice, environmental racism, consumerism and waste. Readings will draw from a range of fields including ecocriticism and ecocinema studies. Supported by the Robert Redford Conservancy (RRC), this course will teach students the history, theory and production of ecodocumentary. By the end of the course, student teams will have collaborated with RRC partners in the Inland Empire to create short documentaries. Instructor(s):Talmor, Ruti [Media History or Media Theory or Intermediate/Advanced Production]

An intermediate production course that engages with media practices outside of the traditional single-channel film or videotapes made for broadcast or screening in a theatre. New genres and hybrid media forms including installation, performance, and tactical media are explored through a series of readings, lectures, presentations, and creative assignments in both individual and group projects. Instructor(s): Ma, Ming-Yuen [Intermediate/Advanced Production]

Senior Seminar. Jointly-taught seminar designed for senior majors. Review of key issues/theories in media studies. Instructor(s): Affuso, Elizabeth [Senior Seminar]

This course is a combination of analysis, theory, and hands-on service-learning experience of how media arts mobilize, educate and empower communities. The course will examine working models of media-based community collaboration projects. Students will be linked with non-profit community collaborators (media arts centers, social service and youth service agencies) who are using media as a catalyst for action in their community. Working with site hosts/collaborators, students will work with undeserved populations to design, implement and produce unique media collaborations that provoke thought and action. Course Fee $150 Instructor(s): Lamb, Gina [Intermediate/Advanced Production]

Internship in media related industry or institution integrated with significant and clear connection to academic curriculum through independent written or production project. Instructor(s): Affuso, Elizabeth [Elective]

Technology from the wheel to the printing press has influenced identity, community and society throughout time. Currently, we are in the midst of one of the most significant technological shifts in human history because of digital technologies. Using anthropology as cultural critique, we will examine the new (and not-so-new) cultural, political and material practices connected digital technology. Topics covered include activism, identity, friendship, hacking, piracy, property, privacy, identity, labor, and embodiment. Course is equivalent to ANTH116 PZ. Instructor(s): Lippman, Alexandra Sharp [Elective]

Seminar centers on independent African films to examine (re)presentations of the people, arts, cultures and socio-political histories of Africa and its Diaspora. Course critically examines the cinematic themes, aesthetics, styles and schools of post-independence African and African Diasporic filmmakers. Letter grade only. Instructor(s): Jackson, Phyllis J. [Media Theory]

Course examines the visual arts (including painting, sculpture, photography, prints, textiles, mixed media, installations, performance, independent film and video) produced by people of African descent in the United States from the colonial era to the present. Emphasis on Black artists’ changing relationship to African arts and cultures, the emergence of an oppositional aesthetic tradition interrogating visual constructs of “Blackness” and “Whiteness,” gender, sexuality and class as a means of revisioning representational pratices. Course provides a social-historical frame for the interpretation and analysis of form, content and the production of historically situated cultural criticism. Letter grade only. Instructor(s): Jackson, Phyllis J. [Media Theory]

Foundations of 2D Design is a hands on introduction to the principles of visual design. Instructor(s): Allen, Mark [Intro Production]

Introduction to Media Studies. Presents a comprehensive view of the issues important to media studies, including the development of new technologies, visual literacy, ideological analysis and the construction of content. Read theory, history and fiction; view films and television programs; and write research and opinion papers.  Instructor(s): Moralde, Oscar John Arellano [Intro Critical Studies]

Introduction to Media Studies. Presents a comprehensive view of the issues important to media studies, including the development of new technologies, visual literacy, ideological analysis and the construction of content. Read theory, history and fiction; view films and television programs; and write research and opinion papers.  Instructor(s): Moralde, Oscar John Arellano [Intro Critical Studies]

One of three gateway courses to the Media Studies major, this course introduces film and video from aesthetic, historical, and political perspectives. Students learn the basic categories necessary to comprehend formally the filmic image: cinematography, mise-en-scene, and editing. Students study the history of genres and film movements and engage the theory and politics of filmic representation. Same course as LIT 130 CM. Instructor(s): Engley, Ryan [Intro Critical Studies]

Introduction to Digital Media Studies. An interdisciplinary introduction to the study of digital and electronic media, exploring the relationships between old” and new media forms, the historical development of computer-based communication and the ways that new technologies are reshaping literature, art, journalism and the social world. Instructor(s):Boyer, William Douglas Bahng [Intro Critical Studies]

Introduction to Digital Media Studies. An interdisciplinary introduction to the study of digital and electronic media, exploring the relationships between old” and new media forms, the historical development of computer-based communication and the ways that new technologies are reshaping literature, art, journalism and the social world. Instructor(s):Boyer, William Douglas Bahng [Intro Critical Studies]

Disability Studies, as defined by the Society for Disability Studies, ‘sits at the intersection of many overlapping disciplines in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.’ As a discipline, Media Studies offers a rich site for disability analysis and intervention.This course aims to explore disability within and through the study of media objects (film, television, streaming video, and social media) and media theory. Special attention will be paid to the intersection of disability, queerness, and racism. Course will also focus on cognitive disabilities, particularly issues related to mental health, as a way of forging this connection. Letter grade only. Prerequisites: MS 049 PO, MS 050 PO, MS 051 PO, or MS 092 PO. Instructor(s):Engley, Ryan [Media History or Media Theory]

This course provides students with the intellectual framework and critical vocabulary to examine video games as media texts via aesthetics: the value of gameplay experiences and how we fit them into our lives. How do we play, and why? The course will also address questions of politics: how can games shape, and how are they shaped by, the current of public life? Who gets to play, particularly along lines of race, gender, sexuality, and class? Live and recorded gameplay demonstrations will provide students with the material for criticism and inquiry, alongside contemporary critical games writing that will serve as models for their own writing projects. Participants do not need previous experience with games or computers, but only a willingness to engage with games and gameplay within a critical context. Prerequisites: One of MS 049, MS 050, MS 051 or MS 092. Instructor(s): Moralde, Oscar John_Arellano [Media History or Media Theory]

This multi-disciplinary course examines sound as a cultural and technological artifact. Surveying recent scholarship in cognitive science, history, musicology, media studies and psychoacoustics, we study film, music, historical recording devices and other technologies, architectural and urban spaces and other sites of sound in the world from roughly 1500 to the present. Instructor(s): Cramer, Alfred W. [Elective]

Introductory laboratory course designed to develop electronic compositions using techniques of analog and digital synthesis. Permission of instructor required. Instructor(s):Flaherty, Thomas E [Elective]

Survey of major models, methods, and findings in cognitive psychology. Topics will include perception, attention, memory, reasoning, decision making, and the development of expertise. Insights will be drawn from behavioral experiments, computational modeling, and the study of brain mechanisms. Prerequisites: 51. Instructor(s): Sher, Shlomo [Elective]

Images of Latin America in Fiction and Film. Explores the construction and dissemination of predominant images of Latin America through topics such as women, family, sexuality, religion and violence. A close examination of both narrative and film. Emphasis on the development of oral and writing skills, including oral presentations. Prerequisite: 44 or 50. Instructor(s): Montenegro, Nivia C. [Elective]

Basic Acting: Tools & Fundamentals. This introductory course explores the fundamentals of voice, movement, relaxation, text analysis, characterization and sensory and emotional-awareness exercises. Course material includes detailed analysis, preparation and performance of scenes. Instructor(s): Ratteray, Carolyn [Elective]

Basic Acting: Tools & Fundamentals. This introductory course explores the fundamentals of voice, movement, relaxation, text analysis, characterization and sensory and emotional-awareness exercises. Course material includes detailed analysis, preparation and performance of scenes. Instructor(s): Ortega, Giovanni [Elective]

Basic Acting: Tools & Fundamentals. This introductory course explores the fundamentals of voice, movement, relaxation, text analysis, characterization and sensory and emotional-awareness exercises. Course material includes detailed analysis, preparation and performance of scenes. Instructor(s): Staff [Elective]

The visual principles underlying design for live performance: theatre, dance, opera and related fields. The course explores theatre architecture, staging conventions and styles of historic and contemporary design. Readings, discussions and writing are supplemented by creative projects, video showings and attendance at live performances, both on-campus and at professional venues in the Los Angeles area. Instructor(s): Linnell, Sherry K. [Elective]

This course continues the investigation of Stanislavski-based acting techniques which began in the Basic Acting class. Classwork delves further into the Stella Adler technique and eventually expands into psycho-physical techniques of acting as applied to contemporary and realistic plays. Students will deepen the connection between the truth of their emotional life and how it is expressed vocally and physically. Students will explore voice and speech techniques which will aid them in understanding breath support, resonation, and articulation. The teachings of Michael Chekhov, Keith Johnstone, and Stella Adler will be covered and used as a touchstone as we delve deeper and deeper into scene study. May be repeated twice for credit. Letter grade only. Prerequisites: THEA 001A PO or THEA 001G PO. Instructor(s): Ratteray, Carolyn [Elective]

This seminar investigates photographic archives as sites of memory and forgetting. Engaging a range of theoretical, critical, and art-historical texts, students will examine how photography participates in ideas about collective identity, surveillance, territorial imagination, and institutions of knowledge. The course will also discuss the work of artists and photographers whose practices draw from—and critically intervene in—archives and archival modes. Instructor(s): Lum, Julia [Art History]

This course explores the Bauhaus, the renowned school of art, architecture, and design that was founded in Weimar, Germany, in 1919 (the same year as the Weimar Republic), relocated to the city of Dessau in 1925 and to Berlin in 1932, and closed in 1933. We will examine the school’s shifting artistic emphases, pedagogical programs, and political leanings in this tumultuous era under three directors—Walter Gropius (1919-27), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1927-30), and Hannes Meyer (1930-33)—as well as the range of artistic disciplines it brought together, from painting, architecture, and photography to theater, weaving, and furniture and graphic design. In the process, we will examine the works and ideas of some of its masters and students, including Marianne Brandt, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer, and Gunta Stolzl. Instructor(s): Hackbarth, Daniel [Art History]

A studio art course in digital photography with an emphasis on image production. Students will explore, discuss, and contextualize historical and contemporary uses of photograpic media. Student will learn or expand on their skills in Photoshop and Lightroom. Students must have access to a DSL or Lensless camera w/ full manual camera settings. The course will include student presentations, technical assignments, writing assignments, and a final portfolio. Instructor(s): Gonzales-Day, Ken [Intro Production]

Through open and structured assignments, students will learn the basics of experimental and relief printing. In library and artist visits, the class will explore how artists utilize printmaking with original text to entertain, educate, connect, shift consciousness, and build community. Unique and editioned prints will represent the effort and vision of each student. Instructor(s): Blassingame, Tia [Elective]

This course is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of digital art through the use of digital art software. The curriculum is designed to assist students in approaching their artistic ideas from a fine arts perspective, to draw upon formal elements in art and conceptual issues related to art and technology thus influencing and informing their creative process, projects and goals. Fee: $75. Instructor(s): Macko, Nancy [Intro Production]

This course is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of digital art through the use of digital art software. The curriculum is designed to assist students in approaching their artistic ideas from a fine arts perspective, to draw upon formal elements in art and conceptual issues related to art and technology thus influencing and informing their creative process, projects and goals. Fee: $75. Instructor(s): Staff [Intro Production]

This intermediate level course will explore digital approaches, history, concepts and techniques within the realms of art and design. Assignments will develop proficiency in a range of programs including Adobe InDesign and Illustrator. This is not intended to be a technical training course. Prerequisite: ART 141; Fee: $75. Instructor(s): Ogasian, Alyson [Intermediate/Advanced Production]

This seminar/studio course examines the recent history and current trends of women’s roles and contributions in media studies and studio art through readings and projects with an emphasis on gender in relationship to media culture. Analysis of and experimentation with visual media including print, photography and digital art in relation to the theory and practice of media studies and studio art is informed by a feminist perspective and critique. Instructor(s): Macko, Nancy [Media Theory]

This course covers various “genres” of criminality in modern European fiction and film, including murder, criminal vice, theft, sex crimes, white-collar corporate conspiracy, crimes of passion, and domestic violence. We explore two related (but distinct) topics: how crimes are planned and executed; and how they are then turned, step-by-step, into compelling literary and cinematic storylines. Course and materials are entirely in English. Instructor(s): Katz, Marc [Elective]

The essay film is a slippery form. It resists categorization and registers different ways of thinking about the world and ones place in it; it typically blends documentary, experimental, and narrative elements into hybrid and subjective articulations. The course aims to combine theorizing the role of the essayistic and the formal analysis of the essay film, along with an informed sense of what the essay does. We explore the possible histories of the essay film and study the relationship among essays, the essayistic, and the essay film through a series of case studies. Readings include work by Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Michel de Montaigne, Hito Steyerl, and Theodor Adorno. Possible filmmakers include Dziga Vertov, Alexander Kluge, ChrisMarker, John Akomfrah, Harun Farocki, Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, Agnès Varda, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Ja’Tovia Gary. Instructor(s): Roselli, David [Elective]

Machine learning (ML) is a new branch of computer science that provides services for automatic translation and speech recognition (Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant), product recommendations (Netflix, Amazon, etc.), transportation (Waymo, Tesla, the City of Copenhagen), and political campaigns (Facebook and Cambridge Analytica). ML is becoming a familiar presence in our lives; computer scientists and developers introduce new applications every day for chatting with humans, recommending the best course of action, and making predictions about the future. In spite of all the press, ML remains daunting to non-specialists. This class seeks to mend this divide. This class will introduce ML concepts to students without prior experience and provide templates to get students working in ML right away. We will study and remake artworks by Mario Klingemann, Anna Ridler, Sougwen Chung, Memo Akten, Helena Sarin, Tom White, and others. They will use techniques such as image segmentation, CycleGAN, pix2pix, and Tensorflow. Students will propose and work on a larger project in the last third of the class. Prerequisite: Any experience with programming, especially with Python Instructor(s): Goodwin, Doug [Intermediate/Advanced Production]

Introductory course in computation within the context of media and art with a focus on two-dimensional graphics. The potential of computer as medium will be considered through exercises, assignments, readings, and critiques. Both procedural and object-oriented programming will be explored, as well as, using input and output of files, generative techniques, and image creation through data proessing. Instructor(s): Mi, Jane [Intro Production]

This is an introduction to computer programming that supports Scripps College interdisciplinary vision. It is for everyone–visual designers, data scientists, and fine artists–who wants to create interactive media and computer graphics. This course links software concepts to principles of visual form, motion, and interaction. Students learn the fundamentals of Python programming (data structures, sequencing, selection and sorting, iteration and recursion, functions, object-oriented code) and use Processing.py to analyze and visualize data, generate drawings and sounds, manipulate images, create interactions for games, use network communication to collect data, and learn how to work with remote data to create environmental simulations. Prior programming experience not required. This course satisfies the pre-requisite for DS2 in Scripps’ Data Science minor. Instructor(s): Goodwin, Doug [Intro Production]

New Media Research Studio is a class dedicated to the applied and participatory study of new media, materials, environments and platforms. It uses the term “new” to pivot around the historical conditions and everyday practices of contemporary media. Students will explore the social, cultural, economic, and political dimension of phenomena such as social media, mobile gaming, live streaming, digital fabrication, internet art, automation, and augmented reality. Through immersive independent investigations that will take the form of “travelogues,” they will learn how to define and develop projects that employ historical, ethnographic, and artistic methods of research and production. Prerequisites: MS 049, 050, 051, and an Introductory Production class in Media Studies. Instructor(s): Wing, Carlin [Media Theory or Intermediate/Advanced Production]

In 1995, 37% of computer scientists were women; today, only 24% are women. The biggest drop off of girls in computer science is between the ages of 13 and 17 (Girls who Code). This course seeks to change this trend by setting up intergenerational mentorship teams made up of girls and other BIPOC pre-college youth, Scripps and other 5C students,and mentors in the fields of computational media and digital arts. Drawing upon the extensive resources of the Processing Foundation and the School of Poetic Computation and structured as a teaching practicum, students will explore digital pedagogy and curriculum development while gaining first hand experience in navigating and building digital communities. Students will work directly with Pacific Islander focused groups such as, but not limited to PIEAM, Purple Maia, and Kamehameha Schools, and will participatein a 4 hour/week for 10 week practicum placement with one or two pre-college youth. Instructor(s): Mi, Jane [Intermediate/Advanced Production]

Senior Seminar. Jointly-taught seminar designed for senior majors. Review of key issues/theories in media studies. Instructor(s): Tran, Kim-Trang T. [Senior Seminar]