Pitzer College
MCSI 195 PZ-01: Garbage and Trash
- Instructor: Lerner, Jesse
- Tuesday; 2:45-5:30PM
- McConnell Center, FNRM
- Elective
This seminar and guest lecture series focuses on issues of garbge from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. Trash is generally a subject we?d rather keep out of sight and out of mind, simply banished to the midden or the incinerator, but beyond the fashionable (and necessary) discussion of sustainability, the topic is pressing, given our unceasing and ever-increasing production of refuse. It poses problems that invites diverse approaches, including those of scientists, inventors, artists, scholars, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, and others. This seminar will feature a series of guest speakers who will address the topic of waste.
MS 045 PZ-01: Documentary Media
- Instructor: Lerner, Jesse
- Tuesday/Thursday; 11:00-12:15PM
- West Hall Q116
- Media History or Intermediate/Advanced Production
This course involves production, a historical survey of documentary practices in photography, film and video and a discussion of the ethical and ideological issues raised by the genre. Students will be expected to produce two short documentary projects in any media. Prerequisite: MS 50 or MS 49.
MS 051 PZ-01: Intro to Digital Media Studies
- Instructor: Han, Lisa
- Monday/Wednesday; 9:35-10:50AM
- West Hall Q120
- Intro 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 052 PZ-01: Introduction to Sound Studies
- Instructor: Ma, Ming-Yuen
- Tuesday/Thursday; 9:35-10:50AM
- West Hall Q116
- Elective
This is an introductory level course exploring different areas of study within sound culture, an emerging field in the human sciences. This course will introduce students to ways of thinking historically and culturally about sound and listening. Sound studies is an inherently interdisciplinary field. While this course is grounded in media studies, it also intersects with history, visual and performing art, architecture, music, cultural studies, anthropology and ethnography, as well as other disciplines. The course will survey wide ranging topics and cultures including American and European industrialization; rainforest soundscapes of Papua New Guinea; cassette sermons by Islamic preacher in Cairo, Egypt; avant-garde music and DJ culture, to name a few.
MS 055 PZ-01: Digital Storytelling
- Instructor: Acosta, Andrea
- Tuesday/Thursday; 2:45-4:00PM
- West Hall Q116
- Intro to Production
This creative production and writing course explores new genres of writing on the Internet. We follow emerging trends in digital storytelling to develop new ways of creating works that are equally likely to appear on Instagram, in online videos, on a Twitter feed, or in PDFs. Studying digital formats alongside contemporary art and letters, we?ll reimagine writing practices through today?s emerging forms. How might Twitter facilitate a serial narrative? What does YouTube demand of autobiography? Using creative workshops and peer-to-peer discussion, we’ll engage in digital writing experiments that attempt to find our own narrative answers to today’s technological environment.
MS 077 PZ-01: Short Screenwriting
- Instructor: Vekic, Natalija
- Monday; 2:45-5:30PM
- West Hall Q120
This course is an introduction to the art and craft of short screenwriting. Through a series of engaging writing exercises, students will find their voice on the page, while they explore character, conflict, dialogue, and write dramatic scenes. We will watch films, read scripts, and discuss writing assignments in class. The objective of the course is to professionally develop a screenplay from an initial story pitch, write a detailed outline, and conclude with a short ten-page screenplay. Screenplays will be workshopped in class. The goal is to write screenplays that have complex characters, dynamic scenes, strong story beats, and follow the three-act structure.
MS 078 PZ-01: Intermediate Media Projects
- Instructor: Talmor, Ruti
- Thursday; 1:15-4:00PM
- West Hall Q120
- Intermediate/Advanced Production
This is a topic-driven, intermediate-level production course. Topics are chosen in response to student interest in particular areas of media theory, or to enable them to adapt to ever changing platforms of media technology. Students in the class will develop specialized technical skills based on their training in introductory production courses and focus on specific fields of knowledge within Media Studies.
MS 082 PZ-01: Introduction to Video Art
- Instructor: Yeerie Lee, Christine
- Wednesday/Friday; 1:15-3:45PM
- West Hall Q116
- Intro 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 107 PZ-01: Mythologies: Video + Performance
- Instructor: Yerie Lee, Christine
- Tuesday: 2:45-5:30PM
- West Hall Q120
- Intermediate/Advanced Production
Mythologies: Video + Performance In this hybrid studio/seminar course, students will create audiovisual mythologies through short video projects and hands-on workshops supported by readings, screenings, and discussions. We will explore the relationship between the body, space, and technology by approaching the virtual space as a place to perform and transform ourselves. The course explores the expansive possibilities of performance and video art practices that center, subvert, and reimagine various mythologies?folklore, pop culture, familial life, mass media?as a mechanism for critical thought and imagination. Students experiment with subject matter and aesthetics: audio and video production and editing, experimental writing, and collaborative performance exercises.
MS 120 PZ-01: Social/Media
- Instructor: Li, Zizi
- Wednesday; 2:45-5:30OM
- West Hall Q120
- Media History/Media Theory
This course will consider how social media is impacting personal communication, consumption practices, and media industries. Through case studies of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, and related spaces students will theorize the role of interactivity in contemporary popular culture. This class will consider how social media impacts narrative form, political engagement, performance of self, and cultural conceptions of reading/authorship. In addition to discussing the media industry’s use of social media platforms as sites of promotion, participation, and surveillance, students will produce critical media analyses using these platforms as part of their coursework.
MS 126 PZ-01: Media Ecologies & Energies
- Instructor: Han, Lisa
- Monday/Wednesday; 1:15-2:30PM
- West Hall Q120
- Media History/Media Theory
This course delves into the environmental impacts and planetary stakes of film and media production, distribution, and disposal. What struggles are fought over the minerals mined for batteries? How are landscapes transformed to make space for cables and data centers? What is the carbon footprint of AI? Questions like these motivate the field of environmental media studies today. Spanning topics such as media infrastructure studies, digital energetics, e-waste, techno-precarity, and multispecies justice, students will trace and analyze the ecologies of media to find out what it takes to power our contemporary media cultures.
MS 190F JF-02: Senior Seminar
Instructor: Ma, Ming-Yuen
- Tuesday/Thursday; 1:15-2:30PM
- West Hall Q116
- Capstone
MS 196 PZ-01: Media Internship
- Instructor: Talmor, Ruti
- Time & Location TBA
- Elective
Internship in media related industry or institution integrated with significant and clear connection to academic curriculum through independent written or production project.