Collaborative Arts (COART-UT)

Conducted every semester, Jam House is a 2-day intensive offered for credit to all Collaborative Arts Majors. Students assemble to brainstorm unique experiential and collaborative works culminating in final presentations, projects and performances. Designed to function as a platform for experimentation and play, the workshop allows students to test ideas in an open, supportive yet critical environment with an emphasis on interdisciplinary art and a focused attention to the creative process. Every workshop begins with a visiting guest artist presenting their work, followed by Q&A and discussions. Students then form groups and create a collaborative work in any medium (or many) inspired or loosely informed by the ideas or themes presented by the artist.

WORDS AND IDEAS is a 7-week lecture class, introducing new multi-disciplinary practitioners to the central ideas of their chosen careers. Topics will include: Mimesis, Representation, Genre, The Art Object, Subjectivity, Taste, Humor, Sensibility...to name a few. Where does the impulse for art come from? Can art change society or does it reflect society? Why do we do art and how do we know whether it's any good? Key definitions of terms career artists must know will be introduced in WORDS AND IDEAS, helping students form (and fully understand) their own creative strategies in undertaking future art projects. While the class is not, strictly speaking, an art history seminar, major historical movements will be touched on to illustrate the ideas under discussion every week.

This hands-on practicum teaches students the basic parameters of story structure and dramatic writing for live performance. We will examine various conventions of dramatic storytelling for the stage, such as dialogue, character, delivering exposition, etc. Class lectures will discuss the components of a drama, and class exercises will help students generate material for a 2-person "realistic" live scene, lasting approximately 5-10 minutes of stage time. Students will also learn how to give and receive critiques. This live scene can be either “stand-alone” or part of a larger multi-disciplinary art project for later work in a student’s career at Collaborative Arts.

Filmmaking, photography, and the basics of visual imagery are explored through a hands-on studio art experience, which provides an overview of the development of visual storytelling throughout history. From the first creation of early hand drawn cave paintings to modern film production, all the essential elements of visual representation, visual imagery, visual grammar, and visual narrative are explored. Lectures introduce and explain a variety of methods used to capture a visual image and how imagery, both with and without words, is used to convey meaning. In class painting, etching, drawing, film, and photo assignments are given for students to create their own visual imagery, using these several different artistic formats. Technical training on cameras and editing software accompanies these practical assignments. Students also complete photo and short film projects throughout the course, as they explore the essential nature of visual storytelling, pre-visualization, and practical production. The course examines how the basic tools of traditional narrative storytelling are also used in purely visual storytelling - to create a secondary world and to maintain a suspension of disbelief in order to inform, entertain, and affect the audience. In spring 2021, cellphones and gimbals will be employed for film and photo work and additional asynchronous DSLR photo and video camera training will be provided over the course of the semester. Hands-on studio work will be accomplished in-person, in-class, following social distancing protocols - and any needs for remote work should be arranged for in advance so that remote based art supplies can be provided as necessary.

Performance Practice: Body and Movement is designed to work as a companion course to Performance Practice: Text and Voice. These two courses are intended to work as one fluid unit to introduce overviews of contemporary movement and theatrical practices. Together, they provide students with a laboratory for blending skills learned through voice/text and body/movement into expanded forms of performance. For the first half the semester in this component, students will focus solely on body and movement, while in the second half of the semester students will engage in co-taught sessions that blend text and movement to discover and deepen the connection between the body, the voice, text and imagination. In this section of the Performance Practices set, students will address explorations of space and time, presence, working with objects, composition and various improvisational structures. During the semester students and performance faculty will work with ideas from artists who have significantly informed the development of 20th century and early 21st century performance practices.

Performance Practice: Voice and Text is designed to work as a companion course to Performance Practice: Body and Movement. These two courses are intended to work as one fluid unit to introduce overviews of contemporary movement and theatrical practices. Together, they provide students with a laboratory for blending skills learned through working with voice/text and body/movement into expanded forms of performance. For the first half the semester in this component, students will focus solely on voice and text, while in the second half of the semester students will engage in co-taught sessions that blend text and movement to discover and deepen the connection between the body, the voice, text and imagination. In this section of the Performance Practices set, students will explore dramatic action, emotional point of view, theatrical use of dramatic as well as non-dramatic text and various improvisational structures designed to support the ability to read and respond spontaneously and simply to the behavior of others. During the semester students and performance faculty will work with ideas from seminal artists who have significantly informed the development of 20th century and early 21st century performance practices.

Our collective intuition and imagination are more powerful than computer programs, yet paired with software, digital media, and online networks, our wildest dreams can become real. By understanding the fundamentals of digital tools, our DIY sensibilities, artistic practices, and social experiments can be transformative, even revolutionary. With algorithms surveilling and dictating our culture, it is crucial to learn and harness digital technologies for independent expression. In this hands-on introductory course, we will learn to utilize tools for creating musical and visual experiments, playful interactions and games, and emerging media discourse. Students will work independently and collaboratively to create and produce music and sound collages, computer graphics and animation, internet art, videos and performances. Collaborators from different fields of study will be encouraged to incorporate their individual interests and expertise.

Collaborative Interdisciplinary Practice is a semester-long course introducing the participant to interdisciplinary art practices. The course functions as an exploratory space, challenging participants to live more fully and more immediately, vis-à-vis the development of single-authored and co-authored artworks. Participants develop an appreciation for art as a valid form of research by examining various artmaking methods through reading, listening, seeing, and creating. By integrating the formal with the conceptual, historical with the contemporary, they make visible the possibilities and multiplicities of approaches in contemporary cultural production.

Art Palace is a series of weekly talks/events presented by working artists with noteworthy careers in the greater New York area. The course's purpose is to introduce Collaborative Arts BFA students to a disparate variety of multi- and inter-disciplinary practitioners, allowing students to listen to, learn from and - in many cases - collaborate with visiting artists. Conceived as an addendum to the first-year core Collaborative Interdisciplinary Practice class, it is required of all incoming students in their first (fall) semester, however each evening's event is open to all Collaborative Arts majors who would like to participate.

CA Capstone is an opportunity for graduating students to produce original interdisciplinary works of art that allow them to reflect and expand on their practice, skills, knowledge and insights they have gathered during their time at Collaborative Arts. While the works can take any form, we encourage collaborative projects and expect a collaborative process. Students as a group will be responsible for curating a final group show that brings all their work together into a cohesive narrative and engaging community experience. Throughout the semester students will compose and give feedback to each other’s individual artist statements and project “maps”, produce a curatorial statement, press-release, and invitation for the show. Works in the show should reflect the artist's playfulness, experimentation, curiosity, openness, originality and mastery of the tools employed. Agility in reason, intellectual rigor, attention to detail, contextualization, references and documentation - as well as final presentation - will all be important aspects of how the work will be assessed and evaluated. The class will be a combination of in-class workshops, review of weekly assignments, critique of work in progress, guest lectures, 1-on-1 sessions, and art outings.

This course is designed for Collaborative Arts BFA students looking to obtain academic credit for an off-campus internship. Students must be in good academic standing and are required to complete a Collaborative Arts Internship Contract with the faculty supervisor, Student Services Administrator, and internship site supervisor before commencing the internship. Verification of internship location, dates, required hours, and responsibilities must be completed with the Student Services Administrator, Max DeGeorge, in order to enroll.

This course is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of music production and sound engineering in support of the Collaborative Arts interdisciplinary core curriculum. Using Ableton Live, students will be introduced to songwriting, song form and analysis, chord structure, sound design, rhythm, audio/MIDI editing, and mixing techniques. Throughout the semester students will collaborate on projects and in-class assignments by composing and performing music for a variety of mediums and applications.

This hands-on practicum teaches students the basic parameters of story structure and dramatic writing for a short film. We will examine various conventions of screenplay storytelling such as format, structure, plot, character development, visualization and film language. Class lectures will discuss basic components of the screenplay, with reading and writing assignments helping to generate a scene lasting approximately 5-10 minutes of screen time. Students will also learn how to give and receive critiques. This short film can be either “stand-alone” or part of a larger multi-disciplinary art project for later work in a student’s career at Collaborative Arts.

A collaborative process in Body Library is not a premeditated passage, but an invitation for a responsive sequence of experiments that are issued by intention and vision. Consisting of the entire third-year cohort, the objective of the course is the development, research, production, and presentation of a new collaborative interdisciplinary live performance. The cohort is broken into groups and each student is responsible for bringing their interests, skill set, ambition, and aspirations to contribute to the creation of a unique process that is tailored to each group's chosen subject matter, themes, and formats. Body Library is an occasion for experimentation and a call to step outside of our comfort zone. In this rigorous process, we welcome risks and challenges into our collaborations to explore the opportunities and possibilities they present, and to learn how to meet them with creativity and innovation. While working on methodology and building the group's focus and visions based on the individuals in the group and the collective’s goals, we will also encourage flexibility and curiosity in the process to allow for discovery, chance, and surprise. The nuance of a project’s meanings are often hidden deeper in its process; Body Library wants you to transform the joy and playfulness of art making and community into a sincere art practice and to create a work you did not know you had in you. Body Library is an interdisciplinary lab and will make use of the entire facilities of the departments. We will integrate sculpting, drawing, sound, video, light, movement, technology, and text into the assignment for the class to become part of the process and the final performance to be presented to the Collaborative Art community at the end of the semester. The Individual group projects will be developed in parallel with several sharing of their work in progress with the rest of the class. Through the transparency and vulnerability of this sharing, we will be able to provide feedback and learn from observations across the collaboration teams. The course will include a series of visiting guests from different fields; a dancer, a dramaturg, a light designer, and a sculptor to provide their skills and perspectives on their approaches to interdisciplinary collaborative performance art practices.

In this studio-intensive course students engage in an investigation of subject matter, sources, and strategies for generating work. Experimentation is encouraged and there are frequent class critiques. This course encourages students to build an index of visual ideas through the development of a habitual and generative drawing practice. Students will experiment with both image and mark making and will look to historical and contemporary approaches as touchstones for their practices. Course will include group critiques, one- on-one meetings, visiting artists, lectures, and field trips.

New Video Dimensions is a video production workshop where students conceive, produce, perform, direct and edit fully polished video media for a variety of interdisciplinary art forms - from immersive VR to interactive performance art, from movement-based performance to media guided participatory theater, to stand alone internet media and short films. Video is an integral part of many artistic disciplines and this class explores ways to reimagine conventional video production and harness the visceral impact of video within a wide range of unique interdisciplinary mediums. Each student pitches and chooses an interdisciplinary project they plan to create. They then team up with another student who will work with them to create video that will support that project. Emphasis is given to ways in which personal visual inspiration, as opposed to artistic imitation, can create innovative new forms of video art. Students will alternate roles as interdisciplinary artists and as video collaborators, so that each student creates a final video for a proposed interdisciplinary project. Students can also choose to work together within both roles for a single project, or stand alone video piece. All aspects of video production will be explored, including writing, choreography, acting, art direction, cinematography, music, editing, and more. The role of the video-maker will be explored as a collaborative partner with other interdisciplinary artists. Students use a variety of cameras & audio gear as they build upon the technical skills they learned in previous filmmaking courses. For the final projects, each proposed interdisciplinary project will be detailed in a powerpoint presentation, and the completed videos for those projects will be screened along with those presentations. Students are required to have taken one introductory video class with synchronous sound, or special permission can be given by the Professor on a case by case basis.

The interview is at the heart of the documentary film and many forms of media, journalism, podcasts and theater. It is a basic tool in academic research. This course will analyze the skills required to produce a successful interview: selecting subjects; preparing and posing questions; focused listening and eliciting powerful responses. Students will be exposed to some of the finest examples of interviews across disciplines demonstrating the range of styles and contexts for the interview. Whether with a random stranger, a family member or a well-known personality, students will develop the ability to conduct meaningful interviews during the course of the semester.

Animation is often considered an art form of synthesis— bringing together disciplines as varied as collage, cartooning, dance, puppetry, slight-of-hand, sculpture, painting, printmaking, engineering, photography, sound design, music, and acting to forge wholly new kinds of "moving pictures." This hands-on class will explore the productive possibilities of adding a time-based dimension to a variety of artmaking modes. Emphasis will be placed upon experimentation, diy solutions and developing unique approaches to applying the principles of frame-by-frame filmmaking to one’s own practice. The course will survey artists and art movements that have uniquely embraced animation. Group and individual projects will engender a solid understanding of animation principles and provide students with a toolkit of strategies for creating animation in a variety of contexts— from optical toys, to short films, live-performance, documentary and large-scale projection. Open to those with no animation experience, and those with experience looking to deepen an understanding of their own creative process and voice.

Students will learn how to shoot professional looking shots on prosumer cameras with minimal lighting — by applying the lessons of professional cinematography to prosumer video cameras, DSLR's, and cellphone videography. A wide variety of Camera Exercises are assigned to train the students to shoot movies with natural light and limited prosumer camera gear. 3-4 person crews are selected to work together on all the Camera Exercises, and for the Final Project as well. Students shoot with their own DSLR's, prosumer cameras, and/or cellphones. Pending availability (and CSI access) students can also choose from a selection of DSLR's and prosumer gear provided by the course (SONY A73, SONY A7R2, SONY A6400, Pocket Osmo Gimbal Camera, and Osmo 3 Gimbal for Cellphones). All camera exercises are screened and reviewed in class. Students analyze and discuss their own work and are assigned reshoots and pick-up shooting assignments to reinforce their in-class learning. Early classes work with professional lighting gear on stage and students then go out into the field to film camera exercises and music videos utilizing available natural light and small practical light kits - while employing the lighting concepts and lessons they learned on stage.

This production course allows students from all academic backgrounds to expand their artistic practice, and apply film training through the lens of queer cinema. This collaborative course blends film screenings, discussions and theoretical exploration with hands-on production experience. Students will gain critical knowledge of significant works from the queer film canon, and hone their skills as filmmakers through the production of short cinematic works. In this course students will make a short film. In the beginning of the semester students will present their film idea, then shoot and edit it. The film will be between 3-15 minutes and can be a documentary, scripted, or hybrid. Students who want to collaborate on a film can co-direct. The class will culminate in a final screening of all the students' original creations.

Reality & Creation is an interdisciplinary, collaborative workshop that requires students to develop and present original works using real-life material. While primarily focused on filmmaking - students may also explore writing and performance to investigate the artful manipulation of reality in order to evoke meaning and emotion. Students will explore the meanings of both documentary and narrative filmmaking - and the inherent conflicts between creative construction and telling true stories. They will analyze cinematic representations of reality and devise hybrid works that use inventive and surprising forms while playing with the notion of the real. Over the course of the semester, students will complete a series of classroom/studio projects as well as independent works from non-fiction sources: such as unscripted interviews, archival material, found footage and newsreel. These projects are designed to foster experimentation across the arts disciplines and to cultivate creative collaboration.

In this course, we will explore the versatile usage of animation in the world of graphic design as a unique form of expression. We will examine how motion design combines movement, rhythm, space, and timing to orchestrate abstract shapes, words, and symbols. Through a series of weekly exercises, students will gain an understanding of key concepts in motion design while using and learning Adobe After Effects. We will follow the footsteps of motion design history, reconstructing classic pieces in order to gain a fundamental understanding of this art form. We will learn how graphic design, music, choreography, and acting can all be applied to the motion of design elements and furthermore, how the combination of animation and design can convey compelling stories, emotions, and ideas. Students will survey the technologies and methods that enabled the fields’ developments - from drawing on 18 mm film, the analog Scanimate in the 80s, to UX motion, interactive design, and contemporary live performances. Inspired by those traditions, students will be encouraged to take on an experimental approach, discuss thought processes, and develop their own visual language while combining interdisciplinary practices. *Adobe After Effects will be used as a main tool in the course, therefore a sufficient computer (over 16GB of RAM and a graphic card) is required.

This course explores unruly images, bodies, faces, spaces, aesthetics, and even feelings that exist at the margins of categorization, making these powerful subjects for artistic work. We will manipulate image-making tools and give form to expressions that reveal the hidden structures of power. Through lectures, discussions, workshops, and readings, we will look at topics such as memes and glitch art, cyberface and AR filters, monsters and glitched bodies, uncanny valley and AI images, as well as liminal space and collaborative world-building. We will pay particular attention to selected writings from Hito Steyerl, Legacy Russell, Rosa Menkman, and Adam Greenfield, and apply these critiques to emerging perceptual technologies (volumetric 3D capturing, machine learning, AR/VR, web-based 3D game engines) that students will use to create their projects.

This is a course for performers with a keen interest in environmental issues. Students will be allowed to explore various forms of performance – staged, film, digital, musical, and even installation/performance art –to find new and provocative ways to advocate for extinct and threatened species. Week to week, using a series of assigned prompts and readings, students will devise, dramatize, and articulate each of the well-known Five Stages of Grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance) to create a series of micro-short, filmed art performances. Student-artists will choose a species on the edge of extinction to monitor for the semester, researching the species' life, habitat, cultural and social relations. A “die-in” collective performance will happen mid semester—and each student will design and create a memento mori for their chosen species. The class will culminate with a collective, mixed media, performance installation on the subject of “extinction” in the style of the great experimental theatre company, The Wooster Group.

A camera is a powerful tool for capturing moments, expressing artistic visions, and documenting the environment around us. Most of us carry a camera in our pockets daily, but sometimes, merely pulling out our phone and snapping a photograph isn't enough. This course focuses on the technical and creative exploration of photography. We'll discuss understanding and controlling depth of field to manipulate focus area, mastering shutter speed to capture motion or freeze time, and color and composition theories to enhance viewer engagement with your work. The class will view and produce in various photographic processes, from portraiture and collage to pinhole and documentary styles. By examining the works of influential photographers and the medium's evolution, students will gain insight into photography as an art form. By the end, students will confidently navigate manual camera settings, edit images with Adobe Suite, and conceptualize projects that capture their vision. The tools and practices discussed in this class will help in the making of photographs and all visual art practices.

This course is a laboratory for students interested in exploring the works of master choreographers, exposing them to an in-depth study of choreography by focusing on the steps, rhythm, structure, style and historical/conceptual contexts of iconic choreographic works ranging from 19th-century romantic ballet to contemporary work. This exploration will be accomplished physically: students will learn dance excerpts with attention to the physical details of steps, style and phrasing, allowing them to acclimate their own bodies to the universe of specific choreographies. Students will be able to execute these choreographic works while developing a deeper understanding for the choreographers’ creative process and artistic decisions, inviting them to physically experience major artistic shifts in19th- and 20th-century dance aesthetics as they immerse themselves in the process of choreographic reconstruction. From classical ballet’s ideals of beauty, to the uses of narrative and the social/political/religious function of classicism, and finally through to the deconstruction of dance tradition in postmodern performances, this course exposes students to dance’s living archive while encouraging them to develop a critical perspective on the art of dance, its historical impact and future directions. Each session will be devoted to the recreation of seminal works from a variety of styles—Cambodian dance, Ballet, modern dance, postmodern dance, etc. Beginning with a twenty-minute warm-up based on a physical technique tailored to each specific style (whether a simple ballet warm-up, basic Horton technique, Pilate’s based exercises, etc.), physical technique will be complemented with readings, viewings and discussion that focus on each historical work. All readings and viewings will be uploaded to create easy access for students. For midterm, students will perform one of the works already covered. For the final project, students will choose a favorite work covered over the semester and develop—in dialogue with the instructor—a solo, duet or a small group piece based on this work. For two weeks preceding these projects, students will build a compositional method based on the creative process of their chosen work. Details and guidelines about the final project will be discussed individually with the instructor. In addition, students will write a three-page paper on their chosen work due on the penultimate week, with guidelines distributed at the beginning of the semester.

This course examines the Western fascination with the moving body in different cultural environments and throughout colonial and postcolonial historical periods until the present time. It will begin by investigating early images and artistic representation of the body in motion captured by European ethnographers at the turn of the 19th century, and continue tracing it to current trends of contemporary culture. The goal of this course is to develop a critical understanding of the culture built around the body as subject as well as a marker of otherness. This course will offer students an opportunity to study and articulate, intellectually and physically, the legibility of bodies in motion within different cultural landscapes. Bodies in Cultural Landscapes will provide an open forum in which to investigate human movement within the specific aesthetic system and cultural practice of early ethnographic representation to contemporary culture’s engagement with the moving body. It will offer insight into personal and cultural identity, stimulating an expanded recognition and appreciation of difference. This course offers students the opportunity to explore simultaneously their intellect (in class viewing, readings and discussions), as well as in the presentation of their own version of ethnographic research and representation based on a topic of their choice discussed with instructor. Students will engage weekly with exercises and assignments based on course material.

Part studio and part seminar, The Dancing Body focuses on the practice and history of movement and choreography in the context of Modern Dance and Performance Art in the second half of the 20th century. Though the exploration of ideas in cultural studies/dance studies essays, reviews, and writings by dance artists, students will engage with a range of physical activities and conceptual performances in practice and theory. This course offers a unique opportunity for students to simultaneously pursue creative/physical practices while exploring the intellectual discourse that informs them. The goal of this class is to generate an artistic environment where students develop collaborative relationships throughout the creative process individually as well as collectively.

While grocery shopping, have you ever wanted to talk to a cucumber? Encounter a red radish or pet a pizza? You can. Puppets are everywhere and highly effective for bringing impossible ideas into reality. Following the idea that puppets are "any performing object" and that objects can be useful as stand-ins for human beings, this hands-on puppet building course explores anthropomorphism, character development, narrative and performance. Through weekly assignments and a final project, we will bring life to objects that we create, transform or find. Drawing inspiration from different styles of mainstream and avante-garde art, music, entertainment and puppetry we will develop original concepts of our own. Exercises explore a range of technologies and materials, from simple sock puppets to marionettes and shadow puppets, to hand puppets and body puppets, to abstract and kinetic objects. We'll spend time looking at how to successfully integrate interactive elements from other realms such as music, special effects, physical interfaces, lighting, video and more into our performances. Every week we perform, with the class culminating in a final public performance bringing together the best of student work.

This next level acting course turns traditional, realistic scene study on its head. We begin with the essentials: digging into the skills for building precise, emotionally connected, intelligently crafted, character-specific, and theatrically articulate performance inside a realistic context. We then use those skills as a springboard to invent new ways of building a compelling narrative through forms of multi-media and devised storytelling. In this course students explore and expand their understanding of “what is character?” And, who’s telling the story and why and how are they telling it? This course is a laboratory for constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing narrative – a place to turn the story on its head to see what new story we can make. Students will engage in studio exercises to build clear skills in acting technique and stage composition and practice with various forms of crafting theatrical stories. In addition, students are expected to analyze, rehearse, and perform one short, realistic two-person scene, create a solo devised piece, and participate in ensemble-devised, multi-media performance pieces for a final showing at the conclusion of the semester. Students are also required to complete a detailed character/script analysis to support their exploration of the journey from realistic theatre to expanded forms of theatrical/performative storytelling.  This is a next level performance class; students must have successfully completed Acting I, Performance Practice or have equivalent experience in performance coursework to register for the class.

In Performing Anatomy: Body Technology, students will experiment with human anatomy as technology for composing original works. We will begin this process by learning movement patterns that survey the human anatomy. We will build onto this knowledge through improvisational studies that invite composing original multidisciplinary works in response to biomechanics like motion, force, momentum, and balance. Our practice in the studio will be supplemented by reviewing images, texts, sound and video as reference material. Students will produce studies in their chosen media. These multidisciplinary studies finalize each module and are presented publicly in a collaborative final performance.

This movement and performance course fosters the creation of interactive experiences that blur the lines between performers and audience, utilizing unconventional spaces for site-specific choreographic structures. Throughout the semester we will immerse ourselves in time-based performance art, emphasizing embodied choreography that challenges the confines of the traditional proscenium stage. Students will be expected to engage confidently in physically demanding movement vocabularies, bolstered by frequent performance opportunities. Set against the backdrop of New York City's rich cultural legacy, the course takes place in outdoor settings at various landmarks. With the inclusion of guest artists, students will collaboratively craft public performances, which will be documented on video. Our goal will be to probe the role of public spaces in articulating social commentary, melding choreography, activism, and performance art, and offering a unique opportunity for students to enhance their movement skills in notable urban locations, honing their performance capabilities within an ensemble. The desire and passion to participate and engage in movement and performance as an ensemble is required.

This studio intensive on-camera performance workshop is designed for multidisciplinary artists who want to strengthen skills specifically for acting on camera. The act of being filmed every class gives actors and performers more confidence and prepares them for working in professional settings. Class projects allow for interdisciplinary work incorporating writing, directing, music, animation, and visual arts. Actors work to develop and expand their individual set of acting techniques and technical skills that work best on screen to create specificity in "moment-to-moment being," all of which expands the understanding of the actor’s role in visual storytelling. Students perform analyzed scripted scenes, “cold” reads, and improvize unscripted on-camera exercises. Equal time and energy in this workshop is dedicated to creating new work with two projects: Bio-Pic project, and Fusion Short. The Bio-Pic project is a deep dive into character with each actor choosing a real person they identify with to research, curate, improv, write and portray in short scenes with acting and design support from other students. Fusion Short is a devised short film project. Production teams will develop and film group generated scripts. For each Fusion Short, everyone acts (cameo, supporting or lead) and takes the lead on the creative production team as head writer, director, production design, director of photography. The short is open for fusion: creators may want to interweave other art forms (dance, design elements, music, digital art, etc) into the narrative.

Embodied Performance: Collaborative Creations is a 2-credit studio course that explores the instructor’s original performance methodology, a fusion of physical theater modalities culled from Western practices (Psycho-physical actions, Viewpoints), Eastern practices (Butoh, Kundalini yoga) and related performance disciplines (Mask, Puppetry). This course provides foundational training for students who are interested in investigating the field of performative and collaborative arts and will serve as an entry point for NYU students interested in movement and physically based acting.

This course is a level II in dance practice designed for a student with an intermediate level of familiarity and experience with Modern dance. It further improves on the physical training offered in Modern Dance I, but is not predicated on previous enrollment in that class. The class focuses on the physical articulation of various movement vocabularies, collaborative exploration of partnering, and ongoing in-class discussion to deepen the connection of self-awareness through learning and executing movement. Each class will involve set choreographic material as well as improvisation practice as teaching tools to deeply inform movement training with intention, efficiency and artistry. Students will be encouraged to pay close attention to their own movement learning experience instead of focusing on replicating the movement they learn. Movement material will include floor work, traveling, balancing, jumping, turning and will be shaped by these principles. Previous modern, contemporary or equivalent experience is required. Students are expected to know the basic tenets of movement:  Learning movement and executing choreography in detail  Ability to reproduce complex movement material  Comfort in dealing with full-bodied movement through space  Basic knowledge of physical skills  Commitment to a weekly physical practice set up by instructor  Timely presentation of homework assignments

This course is designed to explore the actor's instrument--specifically, the vocal, physical, and imaginative tools necessary for the creative work of the actor through extensive and deeply explored scene work. Students will examine the creative process practically and theoretically, through exercises, improvisation, psychophysical actions, and text work. The course explores approaches to and theories about acting that are rooted in the techniques of Constantin Stanislavsky, Uta Hagen and Larry Moss and others, while also incorporating students’ personal/biographical material, some “found text” incorporated by the instructor to augment guided improvisations, and theoretical discussions around performance and performativity. In this way, the class combines disciplines usually found in more experimental venues. Throughout, a high educational premium is placed on the material discovered in student collaboration to generate new ideas about character. This course seeks students who are or who would like to be more adventurous as performing artists. Students who are willing to expand their imaginations, to explore the boundaries of their physical and psychological senses and who are willing to take risks onstage in the pursuit of a visceral and deeply personal connection with imaginary given circumstances within guided improvisations and scene work with their fellow actors. This course seeks curious-minded students who want to explore the motivations and inner imagery that animate their own behavior and those of the characters they will be asked to embody. This is an advanced character study course and the expectations of this class will be held to industry standards of professionalism, preparation and work ethic.

This course is a unique collaboration between the Collaborative Arts and IMA Tisch departments, and CultureHub based at La Mama. During the pandemic many performing artists moved their work online, leading to an increasing acceptance of experimental practices that their predecessors developed in on-line work for the past 30 years. In Experiments in Hybrid (IRL/URL) Performance, students will have the opportunity to design, prototype, and present collaborative projects that build on this tradition, blending both physical and virtual elements. Over the course of the semester, students will have the opportunity to study at the CultureHub studio where they will be introduced to video, lighting, sound, and cueing systems. In addition, students will learn creative coding fundamentals allowing them to network multiple softwares and devices generating real-time feedback systems. The class will culminate with a final showing that will be presented online and broadcast from the CultureHub studio. Modeled as an accelerated intensive on methods of collaboration, students will work together in groups of 4 to produce new performance work to be presented to an invited in person and online audience. Participation in class discussions and in-class movement workshops are mandatory, and always based on each student’s physical ability. All body types and abilities are welcome and needed for this course to be successful.

We will use the semester to concoct, then create, then perform a finished theatre production. The semester will use the first 7 weeks to write the play—assigning scenes to be created by solo student playwrights, but also devising material collaboratively in pairs and larger groups. We may also choose to combine our original work with already-existing texts, adapt/deconstruct a classic play, incorporate interview material, etc. The second 7 weeks will be comprised of the rehearsal, tech and the final performance. Students eager to wear many different hats (designer, playwright, technician, composer) are encouraged to enroll—though everyone will be cast as performers. The culmination of our efforts will be a play to be staged and performed before an audience.

Note this class is called "Devised Theater: History and Practice." This intensive focuses on both historic evolution of ritual-based/early theater models through contemporary theater philosophies (accentuating history of Futurist/Dada theater innovations to present), and on anatomizing the nature of performer, performance, story and storytelling via the non-traditional philosophies and methods of contemporary experimental theater. The class will be rigorously participatory in terms of discussing/physicalizing these experimental methods and will culminate in the creation and performance of simple class collaboration-generated stage narratives. Students will investigate the meaning and application of physical/environmental ’neutrality’ on stage as they simultaneously investigate and define for themselves the most essential markers needed for the viewer to perceive ‘story’ in performance. As the staged pieces are constructed from these anatomized building blocks of performance and story, more complex qualities of character, identity, archetype, mannerism, linguistic disfluencies (verbal and non-verbal) and psychological subtext will be introduced as tools for each performer’s role in the story. In the final phases of piece creation, simple analog elements of music, sound, light, mask, craft materials, dance, virtuosic/specialized skill, props will be introduced as tools. The final performance will aspire to clear and effective applications of the performance/story elements discussed (or discovered) in class. Techniques and exercises derived from the worlds of Futurism/Dada, Richard Maxwell, Blue Man Group, Elevator Repair Service, Ann Bogart, Joshua Fried, and others will be discussed and employed.

The purpose of this course is to enable the student to gain a heightened awareness, appreciation, and knowledge of dance through movement and performance. We focus on the foundations of dance such as control, aesthetics, alignment, dynamics, athleticism, musicality, use of space, development of learning strategies within a group context, and personal, artistic expression. The students exploration of their creativity, expression and concepts, as well as their work on other dancer's bodies is part of the work of this course. Through individual and collective kinesthetic participation in unfamiliar patterns, the student is physically and conceptually challenged and informed. Students will be asked to problem solve as homework assignment and in-class composition exercises. Dance experience is recommended, but formal dance training is not required.

The dreamer is at once the author, the actor, and the audience for a performance that takes place while the dreamer is unconscious. Whether regarded as omens, as products of our unconscious wishes, or as our brain’s way of cleaning up memory space, dreams are an undeniable component of the human experience, and, in addition to generating many theories, they have also served as inspiration for artists searching for a direct route to the unconscious. This class is an investigation of dreams as a springboard for art. At once theoretical and practical, the class will begin by examining the main theories regarding dreams, ranging from Freud and Jung, who pioneered psychological interpretations of dreams, to the more scientific research of the later 20th century, wherein dreams are seen more neurologically, as a way for the brain to process and sort information. After laying in the theoretical foundation, the class will focus mainly on a succession of dream performances inspired by the dreams of class participants. While dreams are experienced by the individual dreamer, these projects will all be collaborative, and involve working in groups of 3 or 4. Each will be staged in three-dimensional space in real time, and endeavor to create the dream experience for the audience. All should be multidisciplinary in nature, containing elements of theater, sound, visual art, video, and other emerging technologies. Throughout the term, we will screen movies (which in themselves have provoked theories that liken the experience of watching a film to that of dreaming) and look at images from art-history inspired by dreams. We will also investigate games that use dream content as their governing narrative engine. This will enable us to appreciate the wide range of strategies that artists have used when making art based on dreams – from using dreams to explore the non-linear logic of the individual’s unconscious (as in the surrealists), to the more communal dream experience of modern trauma (as in El Abrazo de la Serpiente). This wide range of inspiration should act as a model for our explorations as we create our own dream plays.

We will explore the tension between the live and the scripted, the performed and the texted--almost entirely in the field of theatre but also in some other genres of performed events. A series of productions will be carefully curated to see different artists' renderings of these two aspects of the live event, and we will sustain an interest in other dualities, including the tension between the virtual and the real, the rehearsed and the improvised, etc.

French philosopher Jean Baudrillard proposes the concept of hyperreality as the condition in which human consciousness struggles to discern between actual reality and simulations of reality, particularly within societies that are deeply influenced by advanced technology. In the 21st century, hyperreality has become ubiquitous in mediated life, as society becomes more intertwined with social media, virtual and digital environments, and performance spaces. In this course students will engage in the aesthetics and theories of hyperreality in order to create a performative happening that reflects on the embodied experience of contemporary life. Through collaborative research, students will integrate choreography, improvisation, technology, and visual elements to craft an immersive experience that collapses boundaries between performers and audiences. Students will be encouraged to explore experimental compositional strategies where communication unfolds across screens, through bodies, and within designed environments by employing digital performance and mixed reality techniques. Potential tools and techniques which may be utilized include artistry in real time technology, live streaming in performance, motion capture, machine learning, TouchDesigner and wearable technology. This class will include critical discussions and hands-on workshops during which students will refine their artistic vision. Participants are invited to devise an interdisciplinary performance practice in order to bring their installations into being. By engaging in this course, students will gain practical experience in creating and producing interactive installations activated by performance, aiming to create transformative projects where reality and the contemporary imagination converge.

In the 1940s, Maya Deren, a trailblazer in choreography, dance, and experimental filmmaking, pioneered the groundbreaking concept of "choreocinema": a genre merging dynamic camera movement with dance. In 1970, media artist Gene Youngblood, penned the influential work "Expanded Cinema"--exemplified by Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, a revolutionary multimedia performance project melding live rock music and avant-garde film Projections. Today, contemporary artists like Jacolby Satterwhite carry forward this legacy, amalgamating choreocinema and expanded cinema through mediums such as performance, motion capture, and digital animation, to forge immersive installations. Their work resonates with our present era, marked by the ubiquitous presence of screens that have profoundly redefined our perception of reality, corporeal existence, and digital identities. "Choreocinema and the Expanding Eye" offers an immersive exploration of dance film, media installation and live performance using the interplay of time, space, movement and the human body. It introduces the concept of multi-channel installation, inviting students to design participatory multi-sensory environments that are nonlinear, experiential, and activated by live performance. Using digital tools and software, students will explore the art of “dancing for computers'', capturing and transforming choreographed and improvised movement into media projects, as well as choreographing and directing their peers. Students will also orchestrate 'happenings' that blend digital media with real-time artistic expression incorporating spatial and sound design. By the course's conclusion, students will have a strong grasp of the core principles of Choreocinema and the ability to navigate the evolving landscape of contemporary digital media as it pertains to the proliferation of screens around us. Formal training or experience as a director, choreographer, editor, cinematographer, creative technologist, dancer, performer, editor or producer are not required.

Combining science and the art of storytelling, this course will tackle one of the most pressing issues facing the future of humanity: Abrupt Climate Change. In a unique collaboration with NYU physical climate scientist Professor David Holland, students will research and create work that bridges the divide between science and the public through accurate, creative science-based storytelling. This highly multidisciplinary, hands-on course welcomes students from all backgrounds and fields of study to imagine and invent creative ways of telling stories about this global phenomenon and to investigate solutions. Weekly assignments will lead to a final collaborative project and an exhibition open to the public.

This course will ask how artists incorporate research in their practice by looking at their manifestoes and their subsequent works. Throughout the term, we'll ask: How did various artists employ manifestos as methods of inquiry to understand how they themselves are situated within their respective fields? By conceptualizing how art-making can be a research tool through these manifestos, we will see how there is an art to research and that art is a mode of inquiry that others use to make sense of their own world. In this way, manifestos are the evidence of the research that went into the art-work. The way in which artists interrogate the issues, holes, or gaps in the set of assumptions employed within their respective fields will guide students in proposing creative solutions to issues within their own. During the term, we'll focus on archival, qualitative, and quantitative methods to reveal the creative praxis within each. Students will utilize the skills they acquire over the semester to, section by section, create a manifesto of their own, including an artist's statement, research/resource review, an outline of an issue, and the prototype of a project that fills the gap they've found in their field. This living document will then be critiqued by fellow students so that all those in the course experience multiple facets of the creative process.

Taking off from the practices of medium-based art categories, this course is structured across key topics in contemporary art - “art of today, produced by artists who are living in the twenty-first century”. During the semester, via the framework of readings, projects and assignments, we will consider the importance of the visual arts in the larger context of society. Each week we will look at a different topic, which will be organized around key concepts, artists and artwork examples. The main goal is to allow us to contemplate the process of interaction between visual art, history, cultural, socio-economical, and technological forces. The stress of our gatherings will be on the artist as a thinker and a maker.

Whether you are a filmmaker looking to better understand how to build a cohesive and productive film crew; a theatre maker excited about building a performance project or theatre company; a multi-media artist looking for ways to innovate your ideas for artistic work in collaboration with others; an artist looking for tools for building an artistic ensemble, or a multi-disciplinary artist looking to take your creative work out into communities as social practice, this combination lecture/activity-based class provides you with tools for better understanding how to enter into and engage others in collective creative work of purpose. Multi-Disciplinary Arts Practice with Community Groups: Theories and Practice explores the challenges and benefits of making artistic work with others and the tools needed to create meaningful collaborative projects. In this class we interrogate definitions of community and group, explore the balance between group process and producing an artistically excellent project, and examine the processes of creating artistic work with others to strengthen our own artistic voices while helping raise the creative voices of others. With its focus on social practice, this course provides a foundation for working with small group structures in a variety of community settings and professional creative work environments. The course satisfies a CA major requirement as well as a social science requirement for all other Tisch students.

This course challenges us to foster a tactile understanding of the relationship between art and social change. How do artists address social issues? Can art transform lives? How can art serve as a force for encouraging ethical dialogue and action within the public sphere? How do we make our ideas and revelations actually matter within our collective place and space? To better facilitate our understanding of this relationship, and in an effort to get inside these key questions and others, this course will unfold in two parts. Part I (Conversations on Art and Social Change) will be run as an interactive seminar in which we will explore how the desire to change the world has led some artists to align themselves with wider social movements. Through lectures, discussions and presentations, we will set about to engage ourselves with the work of contemporary artists who have addressed issues related to the environment, racial and cultural identity, human rights, healthcare, and social justice. We will assume that understanding the work of others is necessary if we are to appreciate the potentiality of our own impact on the world. Part II of this course (A Collective Gesture Toward) will entail challenging ourselves to participate more fully in our immediate surroundings vis-à-vis the development and implementation of a work (or works) of art.

Many people see the contexts of folk tales and fairy tales as a fragment of our subconscious conception of the drama of life as it is lived in the interior of each one of us. In this course we will start by thinking of the structure, meaning, and function of folk tales and fairy tales and their enduring influence on literature and popular culture. And as we work to an understanding, we will collectively start to make a multi-media performance work. The goal will be to challenge ourselves to develop a greater understanding of the “language” of performance by exploring the numerous prisms (e.g., body, space, sound, time, etc.) through which performativity is/can be refracted. In order to foster a corporeal interrogation this course will be run as an interactive workshop and seminar in which we will: engage in various forms of play; analyze and critically evaluate our ideas, arguments, and points of view; and learn to apply course material to improve our own performance practices.

Knowledge Systems: The Poetic and the Algorithmic introduces students to a series of critical texts and art practices and invites them to adopt a similarly critical approach to their own work. With texts ranging from 1st century BCE to today, the course through weekly prompts, in class discussion and a deep reading, examines non-dualistic thought and the role of emotion, the sensual and performativity in the making of the world and art. Instances of such non-dualistic thought in art, science, philosophy, and craft are looked at as a way to question established knowledge systems and propose new futures. Non-dualistic thought is approached here as a way to escape established binaries and create a space that goes beyond good/bad, right/wrong and instead invites multiplicity and a wide range of perspectives and voices. Starting with Mallarmé’s seminal poem, “A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance,” and concluding with Muñoz’s essay “Feeling Utopia” from his book Cruising Utopia, where he opens with Oscar Wilde’s quote: “a map of the world that does not include utopia is not worth glancing at,” the course challenges students to “feel hope and to feel utopia” as a form of resistance to established dystopian narratives. In particular the course approaches artificial intelligence as a non-plural contemporary knowledge system and asks students to reflect on the world view that technical systems establish. Following such reflections, the course urges students to explore ways to counter monolithic systems by engaging with uncertainty, the poetic and embodied interactions.

Curating the Work is a class that invites students to collectively curate an interdisciplinary show, define its theme and produce work that responds to that theme. During the semester and through a series of talks, museum, gallery visits and performances, workshops and critiques, the students will have the opportunity to fully develop a piece of work, curate and critique each other’s work, and produce a cohesive show. Students are invited to come to class with a project already in mind, one that they possibly began in a previous class or during one of the Jams, and will have the opportunity to bring it to full maturity and dive deep into its intention and engagement with the audience. Process, ideation, reflection, critical thinking, interdisciplinarity, talking about their work, reflecting on their practice, and curating a final show are all part of the class. The proposed theme is that of perception and how to make the audience aware of their own perceptions, but the theme will be left open for the students to finalize and define its direction. The word curate comes from the Latin curare, meaning “to take care,” and curation as caring, and along with it the ethical dimension of art and the responsibility of the artist will be explored in the class. Selection and arrangement, defining space, and the flow between ideas and practices will be important parts of the student’s journey along with an emphasis on developing a research methodology in one’s artistic practice. Museum, performances and gallery visits and readings will be assigned as the semester progresses and in response to the direction the final show will take.

This course is about successfully illuminating some of the formal, contextual, cultural, and social dimensions of Experimental performance vis-à-vis the critical study/practice of improvising. Because the professor believes that improvisation presents itself as a non-hierarchical (ideally), process-oriented practice, that claims no victories and is rooted in a listening self, the class will construct this course together as an ensemble; an open, unpretentious and wholly democratic approach will carry us into our 15-week experimentation.

Design, build, practice, perform, record, recycle, repeat. In this fabrication-heavy course, students will create new musical instruments, devices and toys that can be performed and manipulated by humans, machines, animals and the supernatural. We will experiment with shapes, materials, and analog/digital technologies to create new performative instruments that defy common sense, yet are visually beautiful and sonically adventurous. Our main sources of inspiration will be the industrial revolution, punk subculture, soap operas, cartoons, Fluxus, the universe, and New York City. Our goal will be to devise musical instruments that can be mastered but also played without skill or music education. We will utilize various building tools and Art Studio materials such as 3D modelling and printing, electronics, wood shop, CNC, laser cutting, cardboard and paint. In each weekly iteration, students will compose, record and perform original music with their instruments, sometimes as an ensemble. The semester will end with an exhibition featuring our instruments and sheet music, with a final performance for a live audience.

Music Studio Machines is an intermediate experimental music production and audio engineering class designed for performing arts students interested in exploring the theory, art, technique and workflow of the recording studio environment. Each student will create a singular body of work while working as one collaborative multi-functional unit - composing, performing, engineering, writing, producing and assisting on each other's music projects, all while pursuing their own individual sound, style and composition methods. Topics include synthesizing electronic sound using analog and digital hardware and software, field recordings, sampling, recording acoustic instruments and vocals, sound processing and effects. Ableton Live will be our main sequencing tool with an emphasis on songwriting and composition, audio and MIDI recording, arranging, editing and mixing techniques. Through weekly recording assignments, listening sessions, group exercises and sound experiments, we will deepen our understanding of sound and song structure. At the end of this course each student will have created an album of work.

Contemporary music applications is an intermediate music production and computer music class. The course will encourage a creative approach to using recording software as a tool that can be applied to music making for a wide range of interdisciplinary practices. Students will be introduced to mixing, sound design, advanced audio/MIDI editing, and production techniques for composing music. It will explore concepts and questions such as how does sound re/de/contextualize an image and how are dynamics created through mixing and effects processing? This class will encourage students to step outside of their musical comfort zones to further their technical skills in composing and producing music with software.

Sound is physical. It can move objects, vibrate surfaces, perceptually alter our emotions, and shape the way viewers engage with spaces. As artists, we are conditioned to aspire to situate our work within traditional settings. How can we reposition sound as a main element of a work within unconventional contexts? This course will use the question of a sonic utopia as a platform to create interdisciplinary projects that exist between installation, sculpture, video, performance, movement, and music. Students will learn sound theories through lectures and in-class workshops and are encouraged to incorporate their individual interests into each of the four main projects that aim to position sound as a primary element of a work in order to expand the possibilities of working with sound.

Through groundbreaking and creative nonfiction programs like S-Town, Have You Heard George’s Podcast?, and Radiolab, podcasting has taken hold in American culture over the last decade, having evolved into its own unique art form. This innovative medium is not bound by the limitations of traditional radio — podcasts can be heard anywhere in the world, produced in any language, and be of any length. In this course, students will learn how to embrace their unique voices as they produce compelling nonfiction stories solely in sound. Students will learn how to record, edit, and workshop audio stories, write for the ear and record narration, effectively employ music and sound design, and distribute a self-produced podcast.

This is a team-taught workshop that encourages you to find your own voice and learn to merge your unique artistic vision with those of other collaborative artists to create exciting new musical theater. The course will start by covering the basics of songwriting for the theater, but it is not a music theory class; we’ll be focusing more on using music to tell stories than on compositional techniques. Together we’ll examine theater songwriting craft, issues of communication between artists of different disciplines, and storytelling through music and text. Poets, playwrights, and writers from other genres, and composers from a wide variety of stylistic backgrounds ranging from pop to classical, country to hip-hop, rap to jazz to fusion—all are welcome to participate, regardless of experience or lack thereof. We aim to create a supportive environment in which you feel free to experiment and to explore both what musical theater has been and what it can become. Note: most of your homework will be done in collaboration with one or more of your classmates, so expect to spend a significant amount of time working with others.

The foundations of Max, a powerful visual programming language for music and multimedia, will be covered in this course. We will examine how computers can be utilized to create situations for music creation, performance, and collaborative improvisation as well as applied to building interactive, generative music. In addition to learning Max's fundamental building blocks, we will also use fundamental music theory as a tool to better understand music making. We will create programs that examine rhythm, melodies, chords, scales, and recognize other qualities of music like timbre, texture, and dynamics while taking into consideration the principles of harmony, melody, and rhythm defined in basic music theory. The final will require you to develop a collaborative piece of interactive computer music, a collaborative performance environment, or another final project that has been discussed and agreed upon together. This class does not require any prerequisite programming skills or prior music theory knowledge.

Thesis: All art uses technology. Technology is not art. Whether a work of art is created to bridge the supernatural, convey experience, thought, or a world view, or something more, art is a three letter verb representing the result of an individual’s desire to create difference. This course is an exploration in technological literacy for all NYU students. Students will create a website, capture, edit, and publish digital media to their sites, use software to create objects through subtractive (laser cutting) and additive (3D printing) machining processes, build circuits, learn to program a microcomputer, and build a functioning computer-controlled object.

This hands-on entry level electronics course is for students who want to invent, test, break, imagine, burn, surprise and build unusual interactive objects and devices that have never existed before. You don’t have to be an electrical engineer to be able to hack power and twist it for your own wild experiments. No matter what art/performance mediums you use in your creative practice, there are so many playful and cutting-edge ways to augment your craft with connected devices and computer-assisted fabrication. Some example projects include: interactive installations, moving sculptures, wearable devices for fashion, dynamic lighting, and DIY music devices. The course goes over the basics of electronic circuits and coding for Arduino — programmable micro-computers that process inputs from buttons, biofeedback sensors, and microphones and translate them into outputs expressed through LED lights, sounds, motors, and relays. We use laser cutters, 3D printers, woodworking tools, and sewing machines to assist us, and learn the best practices of creating robust circuits through soldering, component selection, and power supply. Each week we look to contemporary hardware artists for inspiration and use our classmates to test and analyze our prototypes, getting feedback on not just the practical design of the circuits and mechanisms, but the feelings, ideas, and creative effects our connected art elicits. No prior coding, hardware, or fabrication experience necessary, but time and dedication is — most projects will require out-of-class time spent in the shop. Students will need a laptop, but basic hardware and materials will be provided.

This course will combine a history of video art and experimental film with practical training in the use of live video performance art technology. Students will explore new ways to create and edit films and videos using VJ software, projections, and multi-channel video surfaces. Workshops will demonstrate concepts and software that can be integrated into the creative process of video performance art and video art installations. COURSE OBJECTIVES At the completion of this course, the student will be able to: Draw inspiration from the recent history of incredible video and multi-media artists. Develop an understanding of audio and visual hardware used by VJ’s. Use live VJ software to manipulate digital media in real time to create Video Performance Art. Use Projection Mapping techniques to project video art onto 3D surfaces. Create original video performance art, video installations, and other performance pieces. Utilize skills to make video art in the professional market.

This course will introduce students to technologies for speech synthesis and speech recognition from the point of view of performance art. Through weekly assignments and in class lectures, we will explore voice interfaces and their role in technology, design, art, and culture. We will begin with understanding human speech, and then delve into computer speech. We will learn how to program existing technologies such as p5.js to create our own talking machines. The class will research the current limitations and biases of these technologies and models, and respond by leveraging these constraints as ground for performative expression. Students will be required to develop a performative piece as their final project, this could be a live performance, an interactive installation piece, or a performative object or tool. Students are encouraged to bring their interests into the classroom and apply the course into their practice. Prior knowledge of computer programming will be helpful, however, it is not required. NYU is a global community. You are welcome to bring your own language, your accent, and your spoken identity into the class.

In this class, we’ll learn TouchDesigner, a powerful software hub for live audiovisual content, and control it with DIY props and digital interfaces that we’ll build to connect to our art directly from the stage. With a cutting-edge buffet of inputs and outputs at our disposal, what new, evolved, or remixed types of performance can we create? If you’re a musician, you’ll build and play instruments that didn’t exist before. If you’re a dancer, your movements will become the music and visuals, instead of the other way around. If you’re a filmmaker, you’ll shoot a real-life scene with a virtual camera or light a physical set with real-time VFX. If you're a visual artist, you'll warp color, distort images, and push pixels to the brink of destruction. If you’re all of the above, you’ll have fun in this class. To connect to TouchDesigner, we’ll build hardware props using Arduinos, tiny computers that we can hook up sensors, buttons, and LEDs to, and create unique thematic interfaces that augment our performances and interactive installations. Weekly assignments explore AI tools, electronic circuits, fabrication, camera input and livestreams, 3D models and procedural animation, and more. Midway through the semester we'll begin performing live using our connected props for DJ/VJing and projection-mapped interactive spaces, with the class culminating in a final public performance bringing together the best of student work. No previous coding or performance experience necessary. There is a lab fee for the hardware we’ll use to build our devices.

What types of performance can we create if we’re not limited to a physical stage or even a physical body? How much more can we communicate with video once our audience has the power to directly interact with the content, not just passively observe? We can create dynamic, digital experiences and innovative, virtual performances using Unreal Engine, a game engine and powerful suite of development tools. Students will learn the fundamentals of Unreal Engine, including 3D environments and assets, lighting, cameras, animations, audio, basic VFX, and programming interactivity using visual scripting blueprints. Then, we will incorporate external hardware such as depth cameras, LiDAR scanners, and motion capture suits to create our own digital assets, including virtual avatars of ourselves. Students will use this foundation in virtual production to create projects ranging from 3D music videos to choose-your-own-adventure memoirs to Performances with puppet avatars in an online 3D environment. The final assignment will be a part of a public show.

How do ants or bees organize on a mass scale when their individual brains are incapable of understanding the bigger systems they’re creating together? How did a Twitch hive-mind of 1.2 million people beat Pokémon one collective move at a time? How do we make art that makes us and our audience feel more connected, more alive, more powerful? This hands-on project studio course is about making art where participants are the medium, and the masterpiece created exists inside and between them. Let’s explore community and its connection to transformational, radical joy — not complacent happiness, but a joy that is the feeling of power, agency, and capacity growing within us and within the people around us as we cooperate to overcome shared challenges. Which systems and forms of art, play, and expression foster that kind of joy? This course is heavy on imagination, vulnerability, reading, discussion, experimentation, playtesting, and interactive group activities. Each week explores the relationship of the individual to the group under various lenses and spheres of life (i.e. politics, religion, activism, evolutionary biology, sociology, pleasure, the universe, sports, games, childhood, etc.). Then together, we break down the relationships, dynamics, and effects those systems have, and create multi-media prototypes and performance experiments inspired by these themes and ideas. The early assignments are solo, and then almost all assignments are in groups. The core process of the class uses iterative game design as a structure for ideating, creating, playtesting, and refining, though students are welcome to work in any medium they choose, so long as the goal is to explore themes of collective joy.

Blender is a dynamic tool that can be used to design real world sets, physical objects and virtual assets for various media and live performance. It can render robust animations and impose visual effects on recorded video. It has the capacity to interface easily with interactive softwares like Unity and Unreal, while having the potential to output hi-fidelity renders for print. But beyond that it’s just a software. The ability to create any believable world comes from you. In this class we will explore a variety of techniques to create living, breathing fictional worlds while honing the skills in Blender to bring them to life. Students will be asked to create food, buildings, clothing, people and traffic signs from their fictional universe - building consistency of aesthetic, narrative allusion, and the fine details that make any world “believable”. The class will involve dissecting and discussing media on this world building, technical tutorials and instruction in Blender, and hands on workshops that tackle the conceptual questions of world building while exploring how to interface Blender with an outside medium: (3D printing, Pattern Making, Asset Development, Unity, Unreal, After Effects, recorded video). Students will be expected to watch technical tutorials and read short pieces on these topics for homework. Students will also complete weekly deliverable assignments.

Always thought you had that perfect concept for a streaming TV show? Curious about what makes those shows tick, and to see if you have what it takes to collaborate on a show that works? Focused on the development of the half-hour streaming ‘prestige' TV series, The Writers’ Room is an Intermediate and Collaborative TV Screenwriting class that addresses the latest forms of shows that sell, on the platforms that dominate the market. Shows like The Mandalorian, Ted Lasso and The Bear are 'binge-worthy' because along with dynamic stand-alone episodes they present connected dramatic arcs stretching over seasons. Often these shows are developed with multiple writers, in a format known as the 'Writers’ Room.' Along with conceptualizing a show, the class is intended as a practicum in collaboration, modeling the Writers Room to prepare the future screenwriter for one of the central forms of commercial storytelling. In this class we will cover what it actually takes to break into TV writing and create a roadmap to developing not only a great TV episode but conceptualizing its entire first season. What will sell a great show? Great premises, fulsome outlines, dynamic pitches, engaging decks, etc. How do you 'break' an episode and build provocative story arcs? Students will emerge with a group-conceptualized deck for an original show as well as that show’s original pilot--all done in the form of a structured workshop environment, with the last half of the class modeling the writers room. Our main texts are current shows that fit within this context. Note: this is a rigorous, collaborative class that requires significant out-of-class meetups with your group colleagues, so please be aware of the time commitment.

If autobiography is a retelling of the events of your life from beginning to end, then memoir—from the French for “to remember”—is an examination of some events of your life through a particular frame. We tell stories drawn from our lives all the time, but we sometimes fail to consider the themes and ideas that connect those stories with themselves and with each other; that failure robs us in turn of the opportunity to understand better both the world and ourselves. Each week of this course you’ll both read and write thoughtful memoir; by the end of the semester, you’ll be able to write reflectively about your own past, examining not just the stories you tell about your life but also those stories’ deeper meanings, their part in shaping your identity, and their echoes in your present and your future.

This is a creative workshop designed for playwrights who yearn to act and actors who have an itch to write. Using one’s self as material, participants create a short solo performance for an end-of-semester presentation. The lab combines physical work (both group and solo) with in-class/out-of-class writing exercises aimed at enhancing students’ capacities to transform the stuff of their real lives into mimetic fiction. The final composition may stand alone as a finished, self-contained piece or may be an extended monologue planned as part of a full- length play, given the creator’s primary interest (solo-performance vs. playwriting). In-class exercises, group critiques (though the instructor prefers the word “responses”) as well as analysis of other artists’ solo performances are used to shape students’ final compositions.

One hundred years ago, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch famously advised writers: “Murder your darlings.” (The Art of Writing, 1916.) Harsh words, perhaps--but it is in the process of revision that the real writing begins. This course is a continuation of the principles learned in Playwriting Practicum I, with a special focus on the work-shopping and developmental process of a new work for the stage. A concern this semester will be with the process of DECONSTRUCTION—using a text’s assumptions of completion against itself. Class discussions and exercises will examine methods for improving dialogue, crafting satisfying reversals, generating material, enriching characters while maintaining consistency, as well as advanced structural considerations of the 3-act form. The semester begins with a radical re-treatment of a master work. We will attend, as a class, the Elevator Repair Service’s revision of THE SEAGULL at Skirball. A sustained analysis of methods of critiquing—both self and others—is an ongoing concern of the course. Students will emerge with a revised one-act or full-length play.

A continuation of the training presented in Making a Scene: Screenwriting and Intro to Screenwriting. Required work in the class includes extensive scene work. Guided by their screenwriting instructor, students will complete the screenplay begun in Intro to Screenwriting and then do a rewrite or they may begin, complete, and rewrite a new full-length screenplay. The focus in this class will be on story structure and development and the completion of a full-length screenplay. If you plan to do a new work, you must come to the first class with three ideas for full-length screenplays. Each idea can be described in one or two paragraphs.

Before the internet artists and enthusiasts found their communities through self-publishing niche small-circulation magazines, usually without profit, with a burning desire to communicate. We’ll discuss the continued relevancy of the culture as we look at zines scenes from the past. For each scene, we’ll have an “object lesson” in which we dissect historical zines with an eye on form, content, aesthetic, publisher motives, and technology required for production. Then we’ll make our own! We’ll learn about historical zine making methods by making our own small-run zines in the same fashion to circulate within class. In addition to this tactile learning, you’ll produce a small body of work and gain an instant collection from your peers.

From Shakespeare’s era to the present day, writers and other artists have created new works by using other art-forms as source material. This practice is especially true for film and television, where the source material can come from a novel or play, a video game or comic book, an historical event or even a blog or trashy headline. We will explore a variety of practices in the art of adaptation--as it relates to movies and TV--and apply them to an adaptation that students will develop over the course of the semester, resulting in a treatment for a film or television show. Through case studies, exercises and in-class discussion, we will refine and develop students’ work to its greatest potential. We will compare early drafts of award-winning screenplays with their original source material and the final shooting scripts, hopefully gaining insight into the iterative process of adaptation and the challenges and creative insights that the filmmakers discovered along the way. We'll also explore practical issues like options, rights, collaborations, intellectual property laws and licenses, etc.

The object, in reality, is anything but inert - it is hyperactive, changing in function and meaning as it moves in time and space. This studio-based course will give students the tools to use objects and materials specifically and deliberately in their work. The course will link intuitive making with research, allowing students to investigate their genuine and unique interests and develop their conceptual goals. During the course of the semester, students will be exposed to a wide range of non-traditional objects and materials that have been employed by artists throughout history. Readings and viewings will supplement the work done in the studio, with four themed sections serving as guided warm ups for a final project of the students’ own direction. These sections are titled: The Other, The Icon, The Minuscule, The Massive. Each student will make a work based on each theme, and group critiques will function as a laboratory in which students can test theories on display, context, form and legibility. This course is best suited to those with an interest in nontraditional art materials, collage, and found objects. Prior experience in sculpture or painting will be particularly helpful, however, it is not required.

Through a series of lectures and weekly prompts, this hands-on course introduces a methodology that facilitates the process from thinking to making. Softness is used as both a theoretical and material framework that asks students to rethink the edges of the real and to to engage with structures, organizations, materials and relationships as malleable, fluid, and open to transformation. Students are introduced to foundational concepts through a wide range of examples and readings, and are invited to critically reflect on how these concepts inform and guide their own practice and creative journey. The weekly assignments are meant to help students become comfortable with a variety of techniques and making practices, and in a rapid, playful and experimental manner engage with ideas in an embodied and enacted way. Given that they have a week to complete each assignment, the goal is to help students delve into the core and essential properties of each concept and find ways to express and explore them in their work. The cadence of the lectures and survey of a wide range of artistic practices aims to expose students to different approaches to making, and importantly help them understand how theory and practice are not separate realms but indeed intertwined.

The death of printed matter has been predicted for more than half a century. Meanwhile, artists have been busy continually proving that print media—and the nimble RISO, in particular—offers vital new possibilities for experimentation. With a capacity to layer pure spot color, like silkscreen, and output quickly, like digital processes, the Risograph duplicator has revolutionized visual culture over the past decade. RISO aesthetics have made their way into animation and film, into mainstream digital design culture, and has flooded independent art book publishing. Because the process engages and serves niche communities of artists, it has given voice to groups traditionally excluded from mainstream publishing. It is the machine largely responsible for the thriving, international small press movement, which challenges both the traditional scarcity-based economy of the art market, and the myth of the lone artist. Experimental RISO will take this spirit as a starting point, as our class works together as a small community to push the RISO into more experimental territory. We will explore a myriad of “off label” uses for RISO printmaking. We will design non-digital publications using exquisite corpse methods and learn how to translate film and animation into RISO. Avant-garde publishing has a long history of cutting through the so-called dichotomy between paper and electronics, so we will use conditional design “codes” to design programmatically. We will investigate the RISO’s potential to produce performance-based art—looking to Bruno Munari and Victorian Troublewit performance for possible inroads.

This course will examine the overlaps between art, fashion, and theater as well as the way garments become activated. Students will consider what their roles are beyond consumers, as makers and wearers. This is a studio-based course that will introduce students to different ways of repurposing and reusing textiles found in the home through mending, dyeing techniques, sewing, and patternmaking. No prior experience in sewing is needed. There will be a strong emphasis on using non-traditional materials. Each method will be introduced through demonstrations and reinforced through assignments which include making a soft sculpture to wear, recreating an object/garment from a movie, making a costume that also functions as a set for one person, and creating an expandable piece. The class will cover different themes: storytelling, soft sculpture, color, activism and live performance. Lectures will introduce the work of artists and designers: Lee Bul, Leigh Bowery, Alexander Mcqueen, Franz Erhard Walther, Pat Olezko, Iris Van Herpen, The Cockettes, Piero Gilardi, and others who incorporate materiality and costume making as a way of expressing their creativity and ideals. Reading and viewings will be supplemented with updates on current designers collections and innovations in the field. Group critiques will function as a design laboratory, a place to share with their colleagues and get feedback for future pieces.

This course will engage students directly in the discourse of contemporary art and in the hugely diverse practices of artists in their studios in New York. Framed predominantly around studio visits, the course will expose students to hybrid mediums and working strategies that will complicate, not facilitate, systems of categorization. Meeting outside of the physical classroom for the majority of the semester, students will be expected to be prepared to navigate the city independently to various locations across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens for site visits. Each week, we will sharpen our abilities of seeing, questioning and understanding not only physical spaces of creativity but also mental strategies of production across a wide variety of media. Supplementing the visual feast of these weekly adventures, students will participate in material workshops at a number of artist’s studios and will build a record of influences, ideas, research and modes of making in individual sketchbooks that will be compiled during the semester and which will help inform the class’s collaborative project at the culmination of the semester – a Studio Guide to assist in oblique strategies of creating. Weekly readings, videos and podcasts will introduce elements of art criticism, theory, philosophy and history and will inform our understanding of what we see and how we approach making in the studio. Prior experience in object-making is recommended, however, it is not required. This class is best suited to Collaborative Arts BFA students as well as NYU students through the Open Arts program.

All art production has an environmental impact. To develop sustainable studio practices, artists must familiarize themselves with the consequences of material choices and processes, such as their carbon footprint, supply chain, environmental justice issues, land use, water footprint, toxicity, and end-of-life management. This studio sculpture class is a combination of hands-on experimentation in the classroom and a series of site visits to facilities in the metropolitan area to conduct research and to find inspiration for the development of new artist practices. Workshops in the classroom include experiments with mycelium, bioplastics, vegan adhesives, and nontoxic paints as alternatives to commercially available products. To understand the links between the fast demands of disposable culture and its effect on biodiversity, exhaustion of natural resources, and climate change, we will visit a recycling facility, an oyster reef, and a rooftop farm to learn about environmental projects and initiatives on a city scale. For class projects, students will invest their creativity to do more with less impact by reusing, repurposing, and recycling the city's abundance and waste. These projects will highlight the resourcefulness of artists’ imagination to invent new solutions in the studio and communicate to audiences the urgency of the paradigm shift needed to tackle the challenges of the climate crisis.