left-arrowleft-arrowright-arrowleft-arrowAsset 9
Logo
'

Pitzer College

HIST046 PZ-01: African History through Film

  • Instructor: O’Rourke, Harmony
    • Monday; 2:45-5:30 p.m.
    • Room 207, Broad Hall
    • Elective

To understand Africa today, one must be able to place current issues within the broader historical trends that have dominated the continent?s past. This course will introduce students to the major themes of modern African history, from the late nineteenth century to the present. Fortunately for those studying Africa today, this history has been captured with quite extraordinary skill by African and non-African film directors alike. Ousmane Semb�ne, Djibril Diop Mamb�ty, Moussa Sene Absa, Abderrahmane Sissako, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Claire Denis, and Abbas Kiarostami have enriched and challenged our understanding of the continent through their art. This course, therefore, will examine the history of Africa through film. The class is interdisciplinary at its core, as it blends historical inquiry with anthropology and film studies. Lectures and short readings will address Africa?s history and complement the films. No previous experience with African studies is required.

MS 050 PZ-01: Introduction to Film

  • Instructor: Ma, Ming-Yuen
    • Wednesday/Friday; 9:35-10:50 a.m.
    • Room Q116, West Hall
    • Introduction to Critical Studies

Film and video are often considered to be a distinct semiotic system or art form with their own �language.� This course surveys the variety of structures which can organize moving pictures: from Hollywood continuity editing, Soviet montage and cinema verite to voice-over documentary, talking heads and postmodern voices with no center at all. The course includes silent film, classic Hollywood narrative, avant-garde film and video, documentary and activist video. Enrollment is limited.

MS 051 PZ-01: Introduction to Digital Media Studies

  • Instructor: Acosta, Andrea
    • Tuesday/Thursday; 9:35-10:50 a.m.
    • Room Q120, West Hall
    • Introduction to Critical Studies

An interdisciplinary introduction to digital and electronic media, exploring the relationships between �old� and �new� media forms, the historical development of computer-based communication and the ways that new technologies are reshaping literature, art, journalism, and the social world.

MS 051 PZ-02: Introduction to Digital Media Studies

  • Instructor: Han, Lisa
    • Monday/Wednesday; 9:35-10:50 a.m.
    • Room Q120, West Hall
    • Introduction to Critical Studies

An interdisciplinary introduction to digital and electronic media, exploring the relationships between �old� and �new� media forms, the historical development of computer-based communication and the ways that new technologies are reshaping literature, art, journalism, and the social world.

MS 060 PZ-01: Algoritmic Art

  • Instructor: Pagoaga, Matthew
    • Wednesday; 2:45-5:30 p.m.
    • Room Q116, West Hall
    • Introduction to Production

Algorithmic Art is an introductory production course centered on systems art, algorithmic media practices, electronics, and creative code. Each class is a hybrid of work survey of artists, algorists, and designers followed by a hands-on workshop. In section one (Weeks 1 through 4), we?ll be examining the history of algorithmic art and generative systems while creating media via systems, arbitrary games, and procedural constraints. Section two (Weeks 5 through 8) will examine Arduino, sensors, servos, and circuitry while surveying artists using DIY electronics for artistic initiatives. Our final section (Weeks 9 through 12) will focus on Processing for algorithmic visualization and practice. Our final classes will be a showcase and critique of final projects using the methods and technologies learned in the course.

MS 070 PZ-01: Media and Social Change

  • Instructor: Lamb, Gina
    • Tuesday/Thursday; 1-15-2:30 p.m.
      • Room Q120, West Hall
    • Thursday; 7:00-9:00 p.m.
      • Room Q116, West Hall
    • Media History or Media Theory

Overview of movements, theories, and methods employed by media makers committed to social change. From Soviet film collectives, through Third Cinema movement of 60s, to feminist, queer, and youth video activist movements in the U.S. that have laid the groundwork for the rise of socially driven media collectives and campaigns today.

MS 082 PZ-02: Introduction to Video Art

  • Instructor: TBA
    • Monday/Wednesday; 4:15-6:45 p.m.
    • Room Q120, West Hall
    • Introduction to Production

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

MS 090 PZ-01: Ecodocumentary

  • Instructor: Kaneko, Ann
    • Monday/Wednesday; 1:15-2:30 p.m.
    • Room A103, Atherton Hall
    • Media History or Media Theory or Intermediate/Advanced Production

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

MS 093 PZ-01: Experimental Media Studio

  • Instructor: Ma, Ming-Yuen
  • Thursday; 1:15-4:00 p.m.
  • Room Q116, West Hall
  • Intermediate/Advanced Production

An intermediate production course that engages with media practices outside of the traditional single-channel film or videotapes made for broadcast or screening in a theatre. New genres and hybrid media forms including installation, performance, and tactical media are explored through a series of readings, lectures, presentations, and creative assignments in both individual and group projects.

MS 112 PZ-01: Anthropology of Media

  • Instructor: Talmor, Ruti
    • Wednesday/Friday; 11:00-12:15 p.m.
    • Room Q120, West Hall
    • Media Theory

In the past two decades, social media has taken hold of people’s imagination and now profoundly shapes our lived experience and understandings of the real. This class combines theory and practice: 1) We will read anthropological texts to study the complex worlds and ways in which social media is produced, circulated, and consumed. 2) Students will learn how to conduct anthropological fieldwork and will conduct semester-long research projects into media worlds of their choice. This course brings anthropology’s cross-cultural perspective and attention to the production of mediated, everyday realities. By placing media cultures in comparative perspective, students will make the strange familiar and the familiar strange, enabling critical thinking about media use and its ramifications.

MS 114 PZ-01: Film Sound

  • Instructor: Ma, Ming-Yuen
    • Wednesday/Friday; 1:15-2:30 p.m.
    • Room Q116, West Hall
    • Media History or Media Theory

An intermediate level media studies course exploring how sound functions in cinema. This course focuses on sound as media and the relationship between sound and image through topics including the history of sound technologies and the so-called ‘coming of sound;’ film sound theories, such as French composer Michel Chion’s influential work on audio-visual relationships and the human voice in cinema, as well as feminist film theories on the female body and voice; film music and audience reception; sound space, and the evolving practice of sound recording and reproduction in film. These topics are examined through reading assignments, screenings and listening sessions, in-class presentations, writing and sound recording assignments. This class encourages a critical, creative approach, non-traditional solutions, and awareness of both historical contexts and theoretical frameworks. The course fulfills the media theory and media history requirements for the Intercollegiate Media Studies (IMS) major and minor. Prerequisite: MS49, 50, or 51; or some introductory level music theory courses.

MS 124 PZ-01: K-pop and Digital Culture

  • Instructor: Acosta, Andrea
    • Tuesday; 2:45-5:30 p.m.
    • Room Q120, West Hall
    • Media History

This course will explore K-pop as a global popular media genre that must be placed at the center of our ongoing conversations on contemporary digital culture, art, and media. From artist production and multimedia performance to online fan communities and affective response, Kpop prompts changing ideas of what digital media and its audiences can look like in the contemporary era. Pairing formal analyses of K-pop productions with broader considerations of the social, political, racial, and intercultural dimensions of the genre and its fandoms, we will explore K-pop as a phenomenon that asks useful questions of any media student.

MS 128 PZ-01: Disaster Media

  • Instructor: Han, Lisa
    • Monday/Wednesday; 2:45-4:00 p.m.
    • Room Q120, West Hall
    • Media History or Media Theory

This course examines how film and media platforms represent, amplify, provide relief, and otherwise intervene into disasters throughout history. By introducing students to key concepts in environmental justice and media studies, the course critically contests the framing of ?natural? disasters to attune students to the intertwining of the ecosphere with social, political, and technological developments. We will address everything from the slow crises of glacial melt and plastic pollution to fast-moving fires, floods, pandemics, and nuclear disaster.

MS 190S JT-02: Senior Seminar

  • Instructor: Affuso, Elizabeth
    • Monday/Wednesday; 1:15-2:30 p.m.
    • Room Q116, West Hall
    • Capstone

Senior Seminar. Jointly-taught seminar designed for senior majors. Review of key issues/theories in media studies.

MS 190S JT-03: Senior Seminar

  • Instructor: Talmor, Ruti
    • Monday/Wednesday; 1:15-2:30 p.m.
    • Room Q120, West Hall
    • Capstone

Senior Seminar. Jointly-taught seminar designed for senior majors. Review of key issues/theories in media studies.

MS 194 PZ-01: Media Justice: Community Archives

  • Instructor: Lamb, Gina
    • Monday; 2:45-5:30 p.m.
    • Room Q116, West Hall
    • Intermediate/Advanced Production

Media for Justice: Community Archives Media for Justice: Community Archives is a combination of analysis, theory and hands-on service-learning that explores how participatory media archive creation empowers under-represented groups to self-determine public access to online community histories. Students will be linked with community collaborators including Native American Tribal Nations and LGBTQ arts/health organizations that utilize digital storytelling as a catalyst for action and visibility. Working with site mentors, students will prepare public-facing archives by cataloging digital documents, website design & planning events that showcase archives representing 25 years of community media from Pitzer?s Media Arts for Social Justice course.

MS 196 PZ-01: Media Internship

  • Instructor: Affuso, Elizabeth
    • TBA
    • TBA
    • Elective

Internship in media related industry or institution integrated with significant and clear connection to academic curriculum through independent written or production project.