Information Science + Information Studies

ISIS COURSES

F 2008 | S 2008 | F 2007 | S 2007 | F 2006 | S 2006 | F 2005 | OTHER COURSES

ISIS Certificate Approved Electives

UPCOMING FALL 2008 COURSES

ISIS 72.01 & .02L / COMPSCI 72.01 & .02 / VISUALST 72.01 & .02: Artificial Life, Culture, and Evolution
Nicholas Gessler
Lecture: Tuesday/Thursday 10:05-11:20 AM and Lab: Tuesday/Thursday 11:40 AM-12:55 PM, Location: Duke Teaching & Learning Center C6
Theory, practice and epistemology of computing and simulation. Creation of artificial models of life, culture, and evolution for prediction and exploration. Social processes embedded in simulation. Hands-on introduction to C++ to create and modify highly visual, sims with color and sound. Critical exploration of state-of-the-art multicausal, multiagent simulations. Topics include: cellular automata and emergence; human and non-human agency; self-organizing cultures. Historical and cultural contextualization through computer artifacts and applications in science and the arts, industry and entertainment, military and intelligence communities. No programmed experience required. (SS, QS, STS)

ISIS 100.01 / VISUALST 120A.01 / ARTHIST 100.01: Perspectives on Information Science and Information Studies
Victoria Szabo
Monday/Wednesday) 10:05-11:10 AM, Duke Teaching & Learning Center C5
How have emergent technologies such as Web 2.0, Facebook, podcasting, Google, Social Networks, virtual worlds, and videogames transformed the ways in which we relate to information? ISIS 100 is an engaging course of discovery, in which experts from various fields--including art, music, design, business, law, politics, and the humanities and sciences--discuss how new information technologies are rapidly changing and reshaping our lives. A variety of engaging intellectual modules will explore the understanding of information systems from a variety of professional and disciplinary perspectives. (CZ, STS) Official Duke iPod course. View 2007 syllabus. View Fall 2007 Course Evaluations.

ISIS 108.01 / VISUALST 192.01 / FVD 137: Virtual Form & Space
Staff, Departmental
Tuesday/Thursday 11:40-12:55 PM, LSRC B105
Artvis 108/Virtual Form and Space is a new studio course that brings together tactile and digital aspects of modeling. In the upcoming Spring semester, we'll be creating objects that relate to the idea of the Underworld as depicted in Virgil's Aenead. The resulting 3d models will eventually be used in the interactive virtual reality environment, or CAVE, located at the Computer Science department. We will be using Maya for modeling, with a bit of Illustrator and Photoshop to generate textures. Some Virtools exploration is possible for transferring models into the CAVE environment. (ALP) See ARTSVIS 108.01. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

ISIS 140.02 / VISUALST 120E.02: Web-Based Multimedia Communications
Richard Lucic
Wednesday/Friday 4:25-5:40 PM, Smith Warehouse 228
Multimedia information systems, including presentation media, hypermedia, graphics, animation, sound, video, and integrated authoring techniques; underlying technologies that make them possible. Practice in the design innovation, programming, and assessment of web-based digital multimedia information systems. Intended for students in non-technical disciplines. Engineering or Computer Science students should take Engineering 150 or Computer Science 196. By permission only. (QS, R) Official Duke iPod course. View Spring 2007 Course Evaluations. View Spring 2007 syllabus.

ISIS 145S.01 / VISUALST 120BS.01 / WOMENST 145S.01 / ENGLISH 150BS.01 / CULATH 143B: Gender and Digital Culture
Victoria Szabo
Tuesday 1:15-3:45 PM, JHFC 230/232 (IMPS)
Gender in various aspects of digital culture, including production, consumption, and distribution. Online representation of gender in social networks, websites, games, and internet avatars. Gendered expression in new media art, video games, and internet politics. Women, LGBT identities in the tech industry. Gendered trends in online behaviors and preferences. Science fiction and other media genres as precursors and shapers of contemporary digital culture in its gendered aspects. (Formerly an ISIS 120S.) (ALP, STS)

ISIS 170S.01 / COMPSCI 122.01: Constructing Immersive Virtual Worlds
Julian Lombardi and Mark McCahill
Monday/Wednesday 7:15-8:30 PM, JHFC 230/232 (IMPS)
3D user interface as meta-media container of audio/video/text/simulations. Synthetic virtual worlds - gaming metaphor and mainstream social/meeting space. Case study of ingredients of synthetic worlds - OpenCroquet. Practical issues in creating 3D spaces, artifacts and avatars. Evolution of computer user interface. Programming paradigms to support scalable persistent synthetic worlds. Self-organizing communities. Software architecture and economics of immersive worlds. Online social systems, behavior, misbehavior and norms. Anonymity and identity - avatars as representation of self . Mixed reality systems - integrating the real into the virtual. (QS)

ISIS 183 / VISUALST 183: Cultural History of the Televisual
Mark Olson
Wednesday/Friday 11:40-12:55 PM, East Duke 108
Exploration of the visual culture(s) of medicine. The changing role of diagnostic visuality and medical imaging from various philosophical and historical perspectives. The connections between medical ways of seeing and other modes of visuality, photography, cinema, television, computer graphics. The circulation of medical images and images of medicine in popular culture as well as in professional medical cultures. (ALP, STS) See VISUALST 183. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

ISIS 225S / AALL 250S: Chinese Media and Pop Culture
Kang Liu
Monday 1:15-4:15 PM, Trent 040
Current issues of comteporary Chinese media and popular culture within the context of globalization. Cultural politics, ideological discourse, and intellectual debates since gaige kaifang (reform and opening up); aspects of Chinese media and popular culture: cinema, television, newspapers and magazines, the Internet, popular music, comics, cell phone text messages, and fashion. (ALP, CCI, R) See AALL 250S View the Asian and African Languages and Literature website.

ISIS 291 / LIT 279: Phenomenology of Film and Media
Mark Hansen
Tentatively Wednesday 1:15-3:45 PM, JHFC 230/232 (IMPS)
This course will focus on the correlation of phenomenology and twentieth and twenty-first century visual media, from cinema to video games. Part of our time will be spent reading classical phenomenological texts (Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty) in light of Czech phenomenologist Jan Patocka’s (and contemporary French philosopher Renaud Barbaras’s) reconstruction of an asubjective phenomenology of appearance as the original phenomenological (which is to say, Husserlian) project. The remainder of our time will be spent focusing on the link between the phenomenological subject, or the subject of appearance, and technical exteriorizations of subjectivity (or more exactly, of subjective elements, what Slavoi Zizek has recently called “organs without bodies”). Works likely to be studied include films by Brakhage, Tarkovsky, Sukarov, Hitchcock, and Godard, TV shows The Wire and Lost, video art by Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Pareno, digital films by Barbara Latanzi and Mario Klinsman, and videogames Halo 3 and Bioshock. In addition to the phenomenological texts mentioned above, we will likely read texts by Ricoeur, Derrida, Deleuze, Godard, Lacan, Zizek, Bernard Stiegler, Jacques Rancière, Alain Badiou, Mladen Dolar, Stan Brakhage, Hollis Frampton, Gilbert Simondon, Félix Guattari, and Raymond Ruyer. (ALP) Visit the Program in Literature website.

ISIS 294.01 / LIT 294.01: Theories of the Image
Jane M. Gaines
Thursday 6:00-0:30 PM, West Duke 202
Different methodological approaches to theories of the image (film, photography, painting, etc.), readings on a current issue or concept within the field of the image. Examples of approaches and topics are feminism, psychoanalysis, postmodernism, technology, spectatorship, national identity, authorship, genre, economics, and the ontology of sound. (ALP, R)

BACK TO VERY TOP

SPRING 2008 COURSES [flyer]

ISIS 108.01 / ARTSVIS 108.01 / FVD 118.01: Virtual Form & Space
Staff, Departmental
Wednesday/Friday 8:30-9:45 AM, Smith Warehouse 228
Artvis 108/Virtual Form and Space is a new studio course that brings together tactile and digital aspects of modeling. In the upcoming Spring semester, we'll be creating objects that relate to the idea of the Underworld as depicted in Virgil's Aenead. The resulting 3d models will eventually be used in the interactive virtual reality environment, or CAVE, located at the Computer Science department. We will be using Maya for modeling, with a bit of Illustrator and Photoshop to generate textures. Some Virtools exploration is possible for transferring models into the CAVE environment. (ALP) See ARTSVIS 108.01. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

ISIS 120S.02 / LIT 132S.01: Weapons of Mass Entertainment: Studies in Computer Games
Anne Garreta
Wednesday 4:25-5:40 PM and Friday 1:15-2:30 PM, JHFC 230/232 (IMPS)
How do computer games, be they 1st person shooters, strategy games, MMORPG's reinvest and reconfigure older forms of entertainment and art (literature, cinema, painting, architecture…)? Where and how is the playing subject made to fit in the form? Is the player the simple conjunction of a spectator and an actor? Are the machines (computers and networks) on which we play games, mere transparent tools, or do they subtly shape the forms of our pleasure and in the process reconfigure our perceptual, cognitive and social dispositions? What does the apparatus require of its player? What passions is (s)he led to invest in the operation? What behavior and strategies does it compel, allow, sanction?

Athenian attendance at the theater was a ritual of citizenship. Tragedy had a political function. Computer games are used today by the military as recruitment tools. How political is play? How lethal can fiction be? How do forms of mimetic fiction converging with advanced technologies developed initially in view of warfare contribute to new disciplining configurations of self, subectivity, body and community? Videogames started their popular careers both in arcades and on private, individual machines (Atari). Their latest evolution, hooking them to the Internet, has spawned a new form of practice: delocalized communities of online players (most strikingly in MMORPGs). What is the ethos of such sociability? A competitive market? A virtual Polis? A virtual state of nature? A Leviathan?

Prior practice of computer gaming is not a requirement for this class; an interest in critical theory is.

Students will be expected to read and discuss in depth theoretical material drawn from fields such as cultural criticism, political theory, aesthetics…

The exploration and the testing of games, online universes, machinima with a view to furthering their analysis will be part of students' homework and research.

The class will meet twice a week in a fully equipped lab (computers, consoles, video capture devices etc.). Access to these ressources will be available for the students' personal research.

Both class sessions will be devoted to critical discussions of the readings and of the students' reports.

This course will be evaluated on the basis of personal research (25%), participation in discussion [this includes attendance] (25%) and a final project (50%).

Personal research in the form of:
- a bi-weekly posting and presentation (10 minutes), analyzing a particular gameplay sequence, or a specific aspect of a game. This posting should include either game clips, or stills, or machinima relevant to the analysis.
- A bi-weekly posting (800 words) critically articulating a reading (not a summary) of a subset of the theoretical material to be discussed in class.

A final project to be first presented in class (at the end of the semester) presenting a clearly articulated, theoretically informed and cogently illustrated view of an aspect of the computer game culture. [Examples: the virtual economy of World of Warcraft; the gender politics of Sims; modelling urban architecture in Grand Theft Auto; Zombies, aliens, dwarves; computer driven utopias (ex. Second Life) and dystopias (Half-Life); etc.]

Students may team up (teams of 2) to pursue the weekly research. Final projects must be individual.

Students will have the possibility to revise their final project after receiving feedback from both the instructor and the seminar participants, before submitting a final version for grading.

Enrollment limited to 18. Email the instructor if you have questions about the course. See LIT 132S. Visit the Program in Literature's website. (ALP)

ISIS 140: Fundamentals of Web-Based Multimedia Communications
Richard Lucic
Wednesday/Friday 2:50-4:05 PM, Smith Warehouse 228
Multimedia information systems, including presentation media, hypermedia, graphics, animation, sound, video, and integrated authoring techniques; underlying technologies that make them possible. Practice in the design innovation, programming, and assessment of web-based digital multimedia information systems. Intended for students in non-technical disciplines. Engineering or Computer Science students should take Engineering 150 or Computer Science 196. By permission only. (QS, R) Official Duke iPod course. View Spring 2007 Course Evaluations. View Spring 2007 syllabus.

ISIS 179S.01 / ARTHIST 179S.01: Visual Cultures of Medicine
Mark Olson
Wednesday/Friday 10:05-11:20 AM, East Duke 204A
Exploration of the visual culture(s) of medicine. The changing role of diagnostic visuality and medical imaging from various philosophical and historical perspectives. The connections between medical ways of seeing and other modes of visuality, photography, cinema, television, computer graphics. The circulation of medical images and images of medicine in popular culture as well as in professional medical cultures. (ALP, STS) See ARTHIST 179S. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

ISIS 200S.01: Research Capstone
Victoria Szabo & Jessica Mitchell
Monday/Wednesday 4:25-5:40 PM, JHFC 230/232 (IMPS)
Course limited to ISIS certificate students. Group project course. Students research, plan, and create a new technology project designed to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborative research. Class meets weekly to discuss project goals and progress with course instructor. Prerequisite: ISIS 100. (R, SS) Spring 2007 Final Project: CampusView

ISIS 225S.01 / AALL 250S.01 Chinese Media and Pop Culture
Kang Liu
Monday 1:15-4:15 PM, Location TBD
Current issues of contemporary Chinese media and popular culture within the context of globalization. Cultural politics, ideological discourse, and intellectual debates since gaige kaifang (reform and opening up); aspects of Chinese media and popular culture: cinema, television, newspapers and magazines, the Internet, popular music, comics, cell phone text messages, and fashion.

ISIS 240S.01/ARTHIST 240S.01: Technology and New Media in the University
Victoria Szabo
Tuesday/Thursday 2:50-4:05 PM, JHFC 230/232 (IMPS)
The central focus of the course is how new information technology and media transform teaching and research practices in and across disciplines. This course will provide a wide range of students a way into both critiquing the emergent digital culture as it impacts higher education and assessing the impact of integrating such tools into their scholarly work. It will also provide opportunities for students from various disciplines to collaborate in hands-on exploration of new technologies to their pedagogical and research practices. Course themes will include: Information Technology Fluency; Web 2.0 and Online Interactivity; Multimedia Communications; Data Management, Databases and Archives; Visualization; and Immersive Environments and Gaming.

Each course unit will include both theoretical readings about new media and hands-on practice with appropriate software and hardware tools. We'll explore wikis, blogs, web pages, search tools, digital video and audio, simple databases, and interactive environments like SecondLife and Croquet. Students will do a series of cumulative small assignments to complement their readings and provide an insider-view of their modalities. The course will culminate with a final individual or group project where students demonstrate an adaptation or transformation of some aspect of their own teaching or research to the rest of the class, providing alongside the practical exercise a written meta-critique of their work and its implications for disciplinary practice.

The course welcomes and encourages students from non-technical disciplines but does require some basic understanding of web development and image-manipulation. Having access to a personal computer is strongly recommended for completing course assignments; ISIS also has a limited number of laptops we can use during class sessions. Course fulfills one component of ISIS graduate certificate requirements. (SS, STS). Spring 2007 Syllabus (PDF); see also Blackboard if you are currently registered for the course.

ISIS 270.01 / LIT 262.01 / PHIL 270.01: BodyWorks: Medicine, Technology, and the Body in Early 21st Century America
Tim Lenoir
Tuesday/Thursday 1:15-2:30 PM,JHFC 230/232 (IMPS)
Influence of new medical technologies (organ transplantation, VR surgery, genetic engineering, nano-medicine, medical imaging, DNA computing, neuro-silicon interfaces) on the American imagination from WWII to the current decade. Examines the thesis that these dramatic new ways of configuring bodies have participated in a complete reshaping of the notion of the body in the cultural imaginary and a transformation of our experience of actual human bodies. Crosslisted with LIT 262 and PHIL 270. View Spring 2005 syllabus. View Spring 2005 syllabus. View Spring 2008 website. View Spring 2005 course website (access restricted to Duke community). View Spring 2005 course evaluations. (ALP, CCI, STS) Last offered: Spring 2005.

BACK TO VERY TOP

FALL 2007 COURSES [flyer]

ISIS 100 / ARTHIST 100: Perspectives on Information Science and Information Studies
Richard Lucic
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 10:20-11:10 AM, Engineering 125
How have emergent technologies such as Web 2.0, Facebook, podcasting, Google, Social Networks, virtual worlds, and videogames transformed the ways in which we relate to information? ISIS 100 is an engaging course of discovery, in which experts from various fields--including art, music, design, business, law, politics, and the humanities and sciences--discuss how new information technologies are rapidly changing and reshaping our lives. A variety of engaging intellectual modules will explore the understanding of information systems from a variety of professional and disciplinary perspectives. (CZ, STS) Official Duke iPod course. View 2006 syllabus. View Fall 2007 Course Evaluations. Tentative Fall 2007 Syllabus.

ISIS 120.01 / ENG 173.01 / LIT 132.05 : New Media, Literature and Genes
Rob Mitchell
Tuesday/Thursday 1:15-2:30 PM, Soc Psych 129
In this course, we will use tools of literary analysis, film criticism, and philosophy to consider the ways in which the promises and perils of genomics have been presented in scientific, political, legal, and artistic arenas. Though we will consider factual claims made about genomics, we will focus more on the “cultural narratives” that serve as the structures, or forms, within which these facts are made to make sense. Some commentators, for example, have implied that commerce and genomics relate to one another through an essentially “comedic” narrative, suggesting that though genomic commerce may initially exacerbate conflict between social groups, it will eventually resolve these tensions in the future. Others have relied on “tragic” narrative structures, contending that commerce in genetic information irrevocably destroys human dignity and identity. We will consider a variety of different texts and images, including narrative films such as Gattaca and Jurassic Park; cutup and montage films by, for example, Burroughs and Vertov; novels such as Ruth Ozeki's All Over Creation; and "bioart" projects by Critical Art Ensemble, Joe Davis, Eduardo Kac, and others. Assignments will include very short response papers; short essays; and a creative "art" project. (ALP, EI, STS) Department of English.

ISIS 120.02 / ARTHIST 177G.01: Cultural History of the Televisual
Mark Olson
Tuesday/Thursday 8:30-9:45 AM, East Duke 204D
Critical history of the "televisual" in the American visual culture mediascape. Particular focus on broadcast television, cable television, and contemporary convergences with new media technologies. Emphasis on social conceptions of television, and their influence on how the medium has emerged as a cultural, technological and visual apparatus. Consideration of the economic and social forces unfolding in the context of the televisual. (ALP, CZ, STS)

ISIS 120S.02 / ARTHIST 177FS.03 / ENGLISH 179ES.02 / WOMENST 150S.02: Gender and Digital Culture
Victoria Szabo
Tuesday/Thursday 2:50-4:05 PM, JHFC 230 (IMPS)
This course explores how gender and digital culture interact and inform each other. We will look at the cultural history of technology, philosophy, science fiction, and film as precursors and shapers of contemporary digital culture in its gendered aspects, and then explore in-depth contemporary gendered representations of women, men, robots, monsters, polygons and cute avatars in various games, online spaces, and worlds real and virtual.

Students will "perform" gender experiments online and engage in critical analysis of various media forms to consider how they create and represent gender visually, linguistically, and structurally. The course will also consider the tech industry itself, looking at the roles women, men, and lgbt folks play in programming, game development, infrastructure services, and social relationships. Some of the questions we'll ask include:

What are the relationships between gender and digital culture? In the networked and virtual worlds now available to us, what does it mean to have a gender? How are people continuing to perpetuate a gendered sense of self in games, internet communications, and elsewhere? How do gendered representations of women and men on the internet reflect and transform contemporary culture? How can individuals and groups "perform" gender in electronic spaces? What are the real-world gender norms and challenges in the tech industry itself? To what extent is the liberation from the body and cultural constraints sometimes implied by internet culture being realized today, both online and in real life? Is there cross-over between the two? What do bodies mean in a digital age? How are increasingly complex virtualization and visualization techniques going to impact gendered representation in digital spaces in the future?

Texts will include (among others) Frankenstein, Ghost in the Shell (film), The Diamond Age, He, She, and It, Metropolis (film), the virtual world space in Second Life, Wild Seed, various essays, videogames, websites, and discussion rooms, and your own experiments and experiences. Assigments will include short essays, a collaborative presentation, and a final media project. Syllabus (ALP, SS, STS) View Fall 2007 course evaluations.

ISIS 225S/AALL 250S Chinese Media and Pop Culture
Kang Liu
W 4:25-6:55 PM, Trent 039
Current issues of contemporary Chinese media and popular culture within the context of globalization. Cultural politics, ideological discourse, and intellectual debates since gaige kaifang (reform and opening up); aspects of Chinese media and popular culture: cinema, television, newspapers and magazines, the Internet, popular music, comics, cell phone text messages, and fashion.

ISIS 250S / LIT261S / ARTHIST 250S / FVD: Critical Studies in New Media
Tim Lenoir
Wednesday 6:15-8:15 PM, JHFC 230 (IMPS)
Examines new media technologies from a transdisciplinary perspective by exploring how the use of new media is affecting academic practice across disciplines. Builds upon existing expertise in film, literature, and media studies to analyze what is "new" about new media and how they compare with, transform, and remediate earlier media practices. Proposes the development of a critical analytical framework for approaching new media and relating them to other areas of critical academic discourse. Promotes a hands-on, active engagement with the technologies as a means for analysis and critique of new media approaches in contemporary academic research. (ALP, R, SS, STS) Syllabus (PDF), View course website. View Fall 2007 Course Evaluations.

Fall 2007 ISIS Approved Electives

Virtual Realities: Visualizations, Imagined Worlds, and Games Focus Cluster
[flyer] [join the Facebook group] [Focus Application]

ISIS 87FCS.01: Visual Representations
Rachael Brady
Tuesday/Thursday 2:50-4:05 PM, North Building 306
How did a map solve the centuries-old mystery of cholera? Why did a couple of poorly designed charts lead to the Challenger Shuttle disaster? What does it mean to think in visual terms? This course will focus on the art and the science of transforming data into visual form. Students will learn to “read” visual explanations with a critical eye, recognize the difference between an effective and a less effective visualization, and explore the ways in which a good visualization can bring unanticipated realities into focus for the first time. This course will give students the opportunity to practice the display of information in visual form, applying basic principles of perception as lightness, brightness, contrast, constancy, color theory, and visual attention. Students will be taught the process of changing raw data into information structures through inspection, filtering, and segmentation techniques. In addition, current techniques in volume rendering, surface rendering, the use of glyphs, and animation will be presented. (SS, STS) View last year's syllabus here. View Fall 2006 course evaluations.

ISIS 92FCS.01: How They Got Game: The History of Videogames and Interactive Simulations
Tim Lenoir
Tuesday/Thursday 1:15-2:30 PM, JHFC 230 (IMPS)
This seminar will investigate the history and cultural impact of interactive simulations and video games, including the use of narrative, competitive, and play structures for community-based interaction, performance and content development. Students will learn a historical and critical approach to the evolution of computer and video-game design from its beginnings to the present through examination of storytelling, strategy, simulation, sports, and 3D first-person games. Students will learn to integrate cultural, business, and technical perspectives and assess how game technologies push the boundaries of computer-generated animation, graphics, and audio. Students will also achieve an understanding of the history of this medium, as well as insights into design, production, marketing, and sociocultural impacts of interactive entertainment and communication. (ALP, STS). Current Website. Fall 2006 Website. View Fall 2007 course evaluations.

CLST 85FCS.01: Myth, Dream, and Vision: Imaginary Worlds
Clare Woods
Wednesday/Friday 2:50-4:05 PM, Allen 229
Students explore the ancient and medieval underpinnings of popular virtual-world building tropes found in video games, films, and novels. What pre-modern texts underlie the persistent connection between fantasy/sci-fi and our contemporary cultural practices? This course aims in part to introduce students to the ancient and medieval texts that constitute the primary sources for our knowledge of pre-modern mythical and imaginary worlds. With this grounding in place, students will explore how modern societies “consume” the past, rework it and remodel it through various media – video game, film and novel – for contemporary audiences. Students will be confronted with texts written millennia ago, which still hold meaning and relevance to contemporary society, and will continue to do so long into the future. What about these texts has ensured their longevity? In our own age of ephemeral entertainment, and rapidly evolving technologies, why do we still borrow from these pre-modern sources, and what meanings are generated when we do? What elements of these texts lend themselves to the contemporary imagination and new media forms? The students will be challenged to consider whether the work created today – the work they themselves create in the course of their careers – stands a similar chance of remaining influential and resonant millennia from now.

COMPSCI 04.F03: Introduction to Videogame Programming
Robert C. Duvall
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 1:15 PM-2:30 PM, Soc Sci 229
Students will learn the basic concepts of computer programming, focusing on Java as applied to video game development, but covering concepts widely applicable across programming languages and applications. These concepts include loops, selection statements, structured and object-oriented design, data structures, event-driven design, and user interface design. A major component of the course is the final project, in which students will work with a small team to design, implement, and document a Java-based video. The course is intended for students with no previous programming experience who want some exposure to computer technology. It also serves as a possible introduction to computer science for students considering the major but who have no prior programming experience. View last year's Tentative Schedule here.

Focus 99.09: Special Topics in Focus: Virtual Realities
(the Interdisciplinary Discussion Course or "IDC")
Richard Lucic and Victoria Szabo
Monday 6:00 PM-7:30 PM, LSRC D106
In this course, students will have the opportunity to synthesize information and to make new connections between the technologies of gaming, simulation, and visualization, on the one hand, and the cultural and social manifestations, on the other. Students will watch and interpret films in which gaming and simulation play prominent parts; discuss in a relaxed setting the simultaneous attraction to and fear of the gaming experience; and play interactive games. The exploration of games will be a setting for exploration of deeper socially salient topics. The course also features presentations or demonstrations of new and emerging technology tools by people who are conceiving and building them. Projects will linclude work in Second Life, ALICE, and the DiVE. View the syllabus here.

BACK TO VERY TOP

SPRING 2007 COURSES

Note: Courses with an ISIS designation count as ISIS electives regardless of how students register for them (whether through ISIS or through another program or department). Contact the ISIS Program Office with any questions or concerns.

ISIS 108 / ARTSVIS 108: Virtual Form & Space
Anya Belkina
Wednesday/Friday 1:15-2:30 PM, Smith Warehouse 228
Artvis 108/Virtual Form and Space is a new studio course that brings together tactile and digital aspects of modeling. In the upcoming Spring semester, we'll be creating objects that relate to the idea of the Underworld as depicted in Virgil's Aenead. The resulting 3d models will eventually be used in the interactive virtual reality environment, or CAVE, located at the Computer Science department. We will be using Maya for modeling, with a bit of Illustrator and Photoshop to generate textures. Some Virtools exploration is possible for transferring models into the CAVE environment. (ALP)

ISIS 120.01 / ECE 196.02: Art of Engineering Design
Rachael Brady
Monday/Wednesday 2:50-4:05 PM, Location TBA
What makes one design superior to another? Why do people prefer the iPOD over other MP3 players?

Engineers design products to meet constraints such as cost, performance and quality while having to deal with real-world considerations such as manufacturability and sustainability. Engineers need strong analytical skills to ensure that these constraints are being met. However, the design process usually begins at a conceptual level. No sooner has a client (or professor) described an objective than a good designer needs to start asking questions to discover what the client really wants. This begins the iterative process of transforming a concept into a product that can be optimized through analytical techniques. This course will focus on the skills necessary to foster the iterative process of transforming a concept into a design.

This class will rely on techniques such as paper prototyping and regular “critique” sessions to explore divergent designs for novel 3D human computer interaction devices. These devices will be created for specific applications, such as 3D MRI data analysis and virtual music generation. Successful designs will be developed and tested with desktop applications, and immersive applications suitable for the DiVE (the Duke immersive Virtual Environment). Throughout the course of the semester, students will learn
• how to follow a line of questioning that will result in divergent solutions,
• how to communicate visually (through sketches and CAD drawings and
other visualizations) as well as through text and standard mathematical
language and numerics.
• how to review and analyze a conceptual design (i.e. the "crtiical review
sessions" common to art design projects)
• how to communicate verbally in an effective manner. (i.e. how to give a good presentation)

Students will be evaluated on their participation and ability to communicate their concepts to a client. (STS)

ISIS 120S.02 / LIT 132S.01: Weapons of Mass Entertainment: Studies in Computer Games
Anne Garreta
Tuesday/Thursday 4:25 PM-6:20 PM, TBA
How do computer games, be they 1st person shooters, strategy games, MMORPG's reinvest and reconfigure older forms of entertainment and art (literature, cinema, painting, architecture…)? Where and how is the playing subject made to fit in the form? Is the player the simple conjunction of a spectator and an actor? Are the machines (computers and networks) on which we play games, mere transparent tools, or do they subtly shape the forms of our pleasure and in the process reconfigure our perceptual, cognitive and social dispositions? What does the apparatus require of its player? What passions is (s)he led to invest in the operation? What behavior and strategies does it compel, allow, sanction?

Athenian attendance at the theater was a ritual of citizenship. Tragedy had a political function. Computer games are used today by the military as recruitment tools. How political is play? How lethal can fiction be? How do forms of mimetic fiction converging with advanced technologies developed initially in view of warfare contribute to new disciplining configurations of self, subectivity, body and community? Videogames started their popular careers both in arcades and on private, individual machines (Atari). Their latest evolution, hooking them to the Internet, has spawned a new form of practice: delocalized communities of online players (most strikingly in MMORPGs). What is the ethos of such sociability? A competitive market? A virtual Polis? A virtual state of nature? A Leviathan?

Prior practice of computer gaming is not a requirement for this class; an interest in critical theory is.

Students will be expected to read and discuss in depth theoretical material drawn from fields such as cultural criticism, political theory, aesthetics…

The exploration and the testing of games, online universes, machinima with a view to furthering their analysis will be part of students' homework and research.

The class will meet twice a week in a fully equipped lab (computers, consoles, video capture devices etc.). Access to these ressources will be available for the students' personal research.

Both class sessions will be devoted to critical discussions of the readings and of the students' reports.

This course will be evaluated on the basis of personal research (25%), participation in discussion [this includes attendance] (25%) and a final project (50%).

Personal research in the form of:
- a bi-weekly posting and presentation (10 minutes), analyzing a particular gameplay sequence, or a specific aspect of a game. This posting should include either game clips, or stills, or machinima relevant to the analysis.
- A bi-weekly posting (800 words) critically articulating a reading (not a summary) of a subset of the theoretical material to be discussed in class.

A final project to be first presented in class (at the end of the semester) presenting a clearly articulated, theoretically informed and cogently illustrated view of an aspect of the computer game culture. [Examples: the virtual economy of World of Warcraft; the gender politics of Sims; modelling urban architecture in Grand Theft Auto; Zombies, aliens, dwarves; computer driven utopias (ex. Second Life) and dystopias (Half-Life); etc.]

Students may team up (teams of 2) to pursue the weekly research. Final projects must be individual.

Students will have the possibility to revise their final project after receiving feedback from both the instructor and the seminar participants, before submitting a final version for grading.

Enrollment limited to 18.

Email the instructor agarreta at duke.edu if you have questions about the course.

ISIS 140: Fundamentals of Web-Based Multimedia Communications
Richard Lucic
Monday/Wednesday 10:05-11:20 AM, Arts Warehouse 228
Multimedia information systems, including presentation media, hypermedia, graphics, animation, sound, video, and integrated authoring techniques; underlying technologies that make them possible. Practice in the design innovation, programming, and assessment of web-based digital multimedia information systems. Intended for students in non-technical disciplines. Engineering or Computer Science students should take Engineering 150 or Computer Science 196. (QS, R) Official Duke iPod course. View Spring 2007 Course Evaluations. View syllabus.

Read Professor Lucic's quote in USA Today's article "iPods now double as study aids" from 3/14/06.

Watch Spring 2006 semester's Alex Apple, Ari Bencuya, Rahul Kak, and Kuppy Sampale's "The Plaza Commerical" that was featured in Duke Today.

Another past project "Pictorial Venice: A Virtual Scrapbook."

ISIS 151S: Digital Storytelling
Ken Calhoun
Wednesday 7:15-10:15 PM, Smith Warehouse 228
Over the last decade, the ability to create narrative productions that integrate video, audio, design, text, animation and interactivity in affordable and standardized formats has redefined media communication. The resulting productions (videos, animations, podcasts and audio collages, slideshows and interactive presentations) have been harnessed as vehicles for information by a broad spectrum of content producers--everyone from corporations to artists and media hobbyists. New, hybrid methodologies, borrowing from a variety of media production traditions and practices, have emerged as proven approaches to digital storytelling.

This course will expose students to methodologies employed by digital media artists and industry professionals to convey narrative. With an emphasis on writing for electronic media, students are expected to write a concept proposal, a creative prospectus/treatment and a full script-tasks designed to impart an end-to-end understanding of the production process by demonstrating methodology and emphasizing the importance of pre-production (writing, storyboarding, etc.).

The course is structured around the production of a single multimedia project, though a "mini-project" occurs early in the timeline. Students will follow a defined creative process. Both fictional and non-fictional subject matter are encouraged. Digital photography, video, animation, audio and tactile art-making processes (drawing, painting, calligraphy) are recommended approaches. (ALP) View the Spring 2007 Course Evaluations.

Ken Calhoun is an accomplished fiction writer and a new media professional. His short stories have appeared in numerous literary publications. Last year, he won the Italo Calvino Prize for Fabulist Fiction. Presently, he is Creative Director at Center Line, a multimedia/film/video production agency in Raleigh.

ISIS 200: Research Capstone
Victoria Szabo & Jessica Mitchell
Monday/Wednesday 4:25-5:40 PM, JHFC 230 (IMPS)
Course limited to ISIS certificate students. Group project course. Students research, plan, and create a new technology project designed to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborative research. Class meets weekly to discuss project goals and progress with course instructor. Prerequisite: ISIS 100. (R, SS) Spring 2007 Final Project: CampusView ISIS 240S/ARTHIST 240S: Technology and New Media in the University
Victoria Szabo
Tuesday and Thursday 2:50-4:05 PM, JHFC 230 (IMPS)
The central focus of the course is how new information technology and media transform teaching and research practices in and across disciplines. This course will provide a wide range of students a way into both critiquing the emergent digital culture as it impacts higher education and assessing the impact of integrating such tools into their scholarly work. It will also provide opportunities for students from various disciplines to collaborate in hands-on exploration of new technologies to their pedagogical and research practices. Course themes will include: Information Technology Fluency; Web 2.0 and Online Interactivity; Multimedia Communications; Data Management, Databases and Archives; Visualization; and Immersive Environments and Gaming.

ISIS 294 / LIT 294 : Theories of the Image
Guo-Juin Hong
Wednesday 4:25-6:55 PM, Trent 038B
Different methodological approaches to theories of the image (film, photography, painting, etc.), readings on a current issue or concept within the field of the image. Examples of approaches and topics are feminism, psychoanalysis, postmodernism, technology, spectatorship, national identity, authorship, genre, economics, and the ontology of sound. (ALP, R) See: LIT 294 Visit the Literature Program website.

SOFT CROSS-LISTS FOR SPRING 2007

Note: Courses listed here fulfill ISIS Certificate Elective Requirements. Other courses may also qualify as well--we are updating our elective list, and courses are always changing. Please contact the ISIS Program Office if you have any questions about the Certificate or about a particular course and whether it can count towards the ISIS Certificate.

COMPSCI 82S: Technical and Social Analysis of Information and the Internet
Jeffrey R. Forbes & Owen Astrachan
Monday/Wednesday 4:25-5:40 PM, LSRC A155
Thursday 6:00-7:15 PM, LSRC D106
The development of technical and social standards governing the Internet and Information Technology in general. the role of software as it relates to law, patents, intellectual property, and IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standards. Written analysis of issues from a technical perspective with an emphasis on the role of software and on how standards relate to social and ethical issues. Meets as a seminar with an additional weekly meeting to accommodate guest lectures.
Department of Computer Science

COMPSCI 182S: Technical and Social Analysis of Information and the Internet
Jeffrey R. Forbes & Owen Astrachan
Monday/Wednesday 4:25-5:40 PM, LSRC A155
Thursday 6:00-7:15 PM, TBA
Technical version of Computer Science 82S. Requires a significant technical project. The development of technical and social standards governing the Internet and information technology in general. The role of software as it relates to law, patents, intellectual property, and IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standards. Written analysis of issues from a technical perspective with an emphasis on the role of software and on how standards relate to social and ethical issues. Meets as a seminar with an additional weekly meeting to accommodate guest lectures. Not open to students who have taken Computer Science 82S. Prerequisites: Computer Science 108 and recommended Computer Science 116. View information from the Spring 2006 semester here.
Department of Computer Science

FVD 133S: Adapting Literature -- Producing Film
Dante James
Tuesday 4:25-7:25 PM, TBA
Students will participate in the collaborative production of a short dramatic film, adapted from a short story. Students will be exposed to every aspect of the filmmaking process. Utilizing on-campus and off-campus expertise, students will gain a better understanding of the interdisciplinary aspects of filmmaking. Crosslisted as: DOCST 133S, ARTSVIS 138S
Program in Film-Video-Digital

LIT 117: Politcal Economics of Global Image
Jane Gaines
Lecture (.001): Monday 1:15-2:30 PM, East Duke 204B
Discussion (.002): Wednesday 1:15-2:30 PM, East Duke 204B
Discussion (.003): Wednesday 1:15-2:30 PM, TBA
Political Economy of the Global Image. Study of flows of image capital in the cinema century, 1895 to the present, across continents and cultures. History of intellectual property as it grasps new moving image and reproducible sound cultures. Study of circulation and distribution of entertainment goods, now accelerated by electronic connection and technological change. Piracy in emerging nations placed in historical and comparative perspective, and challenging existing law and future policy in both First and Third Worlds. Cross-listed as: ECON 117, FVD 127, ENGLISH 184
Program in Literature

POLSCI 103: Prisoner's Dilemma and Distributive Justice
Geoffrey Brennan
Monday/Wednesday 4:25-5:40 PM, Sanford 03
Economic, political, and philosophical perspectives on distributive justice and the problems in each discipline raised by variations on the prisoner's dilemma. Classic texts include Hobbes and Hume, Smith and Marx, Mill and Rawls. Gateway course to the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics certificate program. Joint course with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill so may be offered on both campuses during the semester. Prerequisites: Economics 1D or Economic 51D and Philosophy 107 or Political Science 123. (SS, EI) Cross-listed as: ECON 103, PHIL 146
Political Science

PUBPOL 243: Media in Post-Communist Societies
Ellen Mickiewicz
Wednesday 4:25-6:55 PM, Rubenstein 153
Comparative analysis of role and impact of media in formerly Communist societies of Europe. Discussion of television and electoral process, dilemmas of newspaper sector, issues of privatization, new technology, and editorial autonomy. Develops understanding of relevant Soviet-era history and contemporary context of problems and prospects across a number of different countries, with special attention to Russia. Research paper. Crosslisted as: RUSSIAN 246, POLSCI 276
The Terry Sanford Institute for Public Policy

BACK TO VERY TOP

FALL 2006 COURSES

Anth 897-072: Images and Visual Rhetoric in Biomedical Cultures
Reli 734: Studies in the Rhetoric of Images
Recommended UNC-Chapel Hill graduate course*
Barry Saunders
Tuesday 1:00-4:00 PM, 357 Wing C, Med School
This is a limited-enrollment seminar (7 students). Places will be offered preferentially to graduate students in anthropology and religious studies, though any graduate students are welcome--from history, communications, literature, etc.

The seminar will explore the rise of imaging in medicine--implicated with histories of autopsis (seeing for oneself) as well as photography, cinema, surveillance, archives. We will draw on a range of theoretical resources beyond anthropology. Half our course hours will be shared with 8 second-year UNC medical students; therefore graduate students will be engaged in pedagogical considerations of different ways of embracing “science as a vocation.”

Readings will likely include selections from: Benjamin, The Arcades Project; Dumit, Picturing Personhood; Elkins, Pictures of the Body; Friedberg, Window Shopping; Friedman, ed., Cultural Sutures; Fusco & Wallace, eds., Only Skin Deep; Thurtle and Mitchell, eds., Semiotic Flesh; Marchessault and Sawchuck, eds., Wild Science; Massumi, Parables for the Virtual; Pauwels, ed., Visual Cultures of Science; Steedman, Dust: The Archive and Cultural History; van Dijck, The Transparent Body.

For more information, contact Barry Saunders at 843-8272 or bfsaunde@email.unc.edu. Prospective students are requested to be in touch as soon as possible: permission required to enroll. Course is “B” listed for Cultural Studies certificate.

*Enrollment priority given to UNC-Chapel Hill students. See UNC's policy on Inter-Institutional Registration here. Duke's Inter-Institutional Registration Agreement can be viewed here.

ISIS 100: Perspectives on Information Science and Information Studies
Richard Lucic
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 10:20-11:10 AM, Engineering 125

How have emergent technologies such as videogames, podcasting, digital animation, MySpace, Google, virtual reality, and Grokster transformed the ways in which we relate to information? ISIS 100 is an engaging introductory course, in which experts from various fields--including art, music, design, business, law, politics, and the humanities and sciences--discuss how new information technologies are rapidly changing how our world is currently created, structured, and navigated. A variety of engaging intellectual modules will explore the understanding of information systems from a variety of professional and disciplinary angles. (CZ, STS) Official Duke iPod course. View syllabus. View Fall 2006 Course Evaluations.

Join the Facebook group here.

ISIS 120S.03 :: Cross-List with WOMENST 150S: Feminist Science Studies & Aging
Erin Gentry
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 11:55AM-12:45PM, White Lecture Hall 201
This course will be situated at the intersection of women's studies, aging studies and the cultural study of science and medicine and will focus on the way that aging impacts women's lives and the way that scientific and medical perceptions of aging influence cultural perceptions of aging and visa versa. We will follow the figure of the ?aging woman' through a variety of media, exploring how she is represented in stories told in popular television, movies and literature, in scientific and medical accounts and through the stories she tells about her self. We will address the following questions: How do we perceive aging and old age in contemporary American culture and how is that perception influenced by gender, race and sexuality? How have medical and scientific accounts of women's aging shaped cultural perceptions of what aging is and can be for women? How have cultural perceptions of women's aging influenced the production of medical and scientific knowledge about women's aging? How do we situate scientific and medical knowledge within the broader social, historical and philosophical contexts in which such knowledge is generated in order to understand the interrelationships between science and society.

Game2Know Focus Cluster (Currently "Virtual Realities: Visualizations, Imagined Worlds, and Games")

NOTE: All students participate in one of the two Writing 20s, the IDC (FOCUS 105.F07) and will be asked to participate in either How They Got Game or Visual Representation & Visual Culture, and either Introduction to Game Theory or Introduction to Videogame Programming.

ISIS 120S.F01: How They Got Game (Currently ISIS 92FCS.01)
Tim Lenoir
Tuesday/Thursday 1:15-2:30 PM, JHFC 230 (IMPS)
This seminar will investigate the history and cultural impact of interactive simulations and video games, including the use of narrative, competitive, and play structures for community-based interaction, performance and content development. Students will learn a historical and critical approach to the evolution of computer and video-game design from its beginnings to the present through examination of storytelling, strategy, simulation, sports, and 3D first-person games. Students will learn to integrate cultural, business, and technical perspectives and assess how game technologies push the boundaries of computer-generated animation, graphics, and audio. Students will also achieve an understanding of the history of this medium, as well as insights into design, production, marketing, and sociocultural impacts of interactive entertainment and communication. (ALP, STS) The syllabus and all materials will be provided online the first day of class (Tuesday, 8/29/06). Please review last semester's syllabus and website for topic areas discusssed. View Fall 2006 course evaluations.

ISIS 120S.F02: Visual Representation and Visual Culture
Rachael Brady, Marilyn Lombardi
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 3:05-3:55 PM, North Building 306
How did a map solve the centuries-old mystery of cholera? Why did a couple of poorly designed charts lead to the Challenger Shuttle disaster? What does it mean to think in visual terms? This course will focus on the art and the science of transforming data into visual form. Students will learn to “read” visual explanations with a critical eye, recognize the difference between an effective and a less effective visualization, and explore the ways in which a good visualization can bring unanticipated realities into focus for the first time. This course will give students the opportunity to practice the display of information in visual form, applying basic principles of perception as lightness, brightness, contrast, constancy, color theory, and visual attention. Students will be taught the process of changing raw data into information structures through inspection, filtering, and segmentation techniques. In addition, current techniques in volume rendering, surface rendering, the use of glyphs, and animation will be presented. (SS, STS) View the syllabus here. View Fall 2006 course evaluations.

ECON 99S.F36: Introduction to Game Theory
E. Roy Weintraub
Tuesday 2:50-5:20 PM, Carr 106
This course will pursue a broad understanding of the models and methods of interpersonal interactions based on the mathematical theory of games, a critical component of computer simulations and a variety of artificial intelligence programs. Students will learn the fundamentals of game theory and study in depth several relevant mathematical models, especially the Prisoner's Dilemma and Hawk-Dove models. This course will investigate the application of game theories to a variety of disciplines, ranging from economics to mathematics and biology. View the syllabus here.

CS 04.F03: Introduction to Videogame Programming
Robert C. Duvall
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 10:20-11:10 AM, Soc Sci 229
Students will learn the basic concepts of computer programming, focusing on Java as applied to video game development, but covering concepts widely applicable across programming languages and applications. These concepts include loops, selection statements, structured and object-oriented design, data structures, event-driven design, and user interface design. A major component of the course is the final project, in which students will work with a small team to design, implement, and document a Java-based video. The course is intended for students with no previous programming experience who want some exposure to computer technology. It also serves as a possible introduction to computer science for students considering the major but who have no prior programming experience. View the Tentative Schedule here.

Writing 20.F53 and F71: Word Games: Literature and Game Theory
Betsy Verhoeven
F53: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 1:30-2:20 PM, West Duke 100
F71: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 11:55 AM-12:45 PM, West Duke 100
In this class students will explore the ways gaming, simulations, and modeling are used as common metaphors in science fiction, considering, conversely, the limits and uses of this literature for gaming technologies. This larger issue will then lead to a series of corollary questions: how do the related metaphors of games, models, and s imulations serve in aesthetic texts to explore cultural anxieties and hopes regarding the nature of meaning, learning, and information? What do these metaphors reveal about human nature’s supposedly innate qualities, such as genius, personality, or imagination? What do they suggest about how we understand our place in the universe via concepts such as chance, god, order, art, or communication? How do they illustrate societal responses to changing gender roles and identities? How do such metaphors help express the tension between individual choice and communal responsibility?

As students take in a variety of literary texts including novels, short stories, films, and television shows, they will read scholarly articles to study not only the intersection of computer technology and literature, but also the conventions of academic writing. In particular, students will learn to generate their own novel arguments about these texts in the context of what other thinkers have written about them. Written assignments will include mid-length essays developed through a series of shorter response papers. Class discussion will be based not only on the literature and scholarly articles but also on students’ writing. Click here to view the course syllabus.

Click here for the reading "The Sacred Rights of the Weak: Pain, Sympathy, and the Culture of Individual Rights in Antebellum America."

Click here for the reading "Hard Reading: The Challenges of Science Fiction."

Click here for the reading "Earthseed: The Books of the Living."

Focus 105.F07: Special Topics in Focus: Game2Know
(the Interdisciplinary Discussion Course or "IDC")
Richard Lucic
Monday 6:00 PM-7:30 PM, JHFC 230 (IMPS), except for 10/23/06 and 11/20/06 when the class will be held in JHFC 028
In this course, students will have the opportunity to synthesize information and to make new connections between the technologies of gaming, simulation, and visualization, on the one hand, and the cultural and social manifestations, on the other. Students will watch and interpret films in which gaming and simulation play prominent parts; discuss in a relaxed setting the simultaneous attraction to and fear of the gaming experience; and play interactive games. The exploration of games will be a setting for exploration of deeper socially salient topics. The course also features presentations or demonstrations of new and emerging technology tools by people who are conceiving and building them.
An official Duke iPod course. Click here for instructions for obtaining your iPod Video for the Fall 2006 semester. View the IDC schedule here.

SOFT CROSS-LISTS FOR FALL 2006

PHIL 103: Symbolic Logic
Iris Einheuser
Wednesday/Friday 10:05-11:20AM, West Duke 107F
A rigorous introduction to first order logic, and its meta-theory. Topics include the completeness and soundness of first order logic, Godel's Incompleteness Theorems and Tarski's Theorem.
Department of Philosphy

PUBPOL 221: Media and Democracy
Ellen Mickiewicz
Wednesday 4:25-6:55, Rubenstein 153
This course examines the relationship between mass media and democracy in the United States, other developed democracies, and societies in transition. The main focus will be on media issues in particular policy domains in the United States. It begins with a discussion of theory about the structure and financing of the media and the essential question of what effects, if any, the media have on the publics who consume them. Elections are a key point in the maintenance and development of democracy, and the next section examines the elections-media question both in the United States and selected other countries. The final section is about media in different policy domains, such as health policy, national security, and others. Throughout, the approach is a dynamic one, focusing on the continuing competition over control of the framing of the issue in the media by the strategic interplay of politicians, journalists, editors, political consultants, interest groups, and other actors who influence the content of news. The class is strongly encouraged to consider the effects of media coverage on democratic processes and think about the options available for improving it.
The Terry Sanford Institute for Public Policy

BACK TO VERY TOP

SPRING 2006 COURSES

ISIS 120 / ECE 196: The Art of Engineering Design
Rachael Brady
Monday/Wednesday 2:50-4:05 PM, Location TBA
What makes one design superior to another? Why do people prefer the iPOD over other MP3 players?

Engineers design products to meet constraints such as cost, performance and quality while having to deal with real-world considerations such as manufacturability and sustainability. Engineers need strong analytical skills to ensure that these constraints are being met. However, the design process usually begins at a conceptual level. No sooner has a client (or professor) described an objective than a good designer needs to start asking questions to discover what the client really wants. This begins the iterative process of transforming a concept into a product that can be optimized through analytical techniques. This course will focus on the skills necessary to foster the iterative process of transforming a concept into a design.

This class will rely on techniques such as paper prototyping and regular “critique” sessions to explore divergent designs for novel 3D human computer interaction devices. These devices will be created for specific applications, such as 3D MRI data analysis and virtual music generation. Successful designs will be developed and tested with desktop applications, and immersive applications suitable for the DiVE (the Duke immersive Virtual Environment). Throughout the course of the semester, students will learn
• how to follow a line of questioning that will result in divergent solutions,
• how to communicate visually (through sketches and CAD drawings and
other visualizations) as well as through text and standard mathematical
language and numerics.
• how to review and analyze a conceptual design (i.e. the "crtiical review
sessions" common to art design projects)
• how to communicate verbally in an effective manner. (i.e. how to give a good presentation)

Students will be evaluated on their participation and ability to communicate their concepts to a client. (ALP, STS)

ISIS 140: Fundamentals of Web-Based Multimedia Communications
Richard Lucic
Monday/Wednesday 10:05-11:20 AM, JHFC 230 (IMPS)
Multimedia information systems, including presentation media, hypermedia, graphics, animation, sound, video, and integrated authoring techniques; underlying technologies that make them possible. Practice in the design innovation, programming, and assessment of web-based digital multimedia information systems. Intended for students in non-technical disciplines. Engineering or Computer Science students should take Engineering 150 or Computer Science 196. (QS, R) Official Duke iPod course. View Course Evaluations . View Spring 2005 syllabus.

Read Professor Lucic's quote in USA Today's article "iPods now double as study aids" from 3/14/06.

Watch Spring 2006 semester's Alex Apple, Ari Bencuya, Rahul Kak, and Kuppy Sampale's "The Plaza Commerical" that was featured in Duke Today.

Another past project "Pictorial Venice: A Virtual Scrapbook."

ISIS 200: Research Capstone
Casey Alt & Jessica Mitchell
Tuesday/Thursday 4:25-5:40 PM, JHFC 230 (IMPS)
Course limited to ISIS certificate students. Group project course. Students research, plan, and create a new technology project designed to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborative research. Class meets weekly to discuss project goals and progress with course instructor. Prerequisite: ISIS 100. (R, SS) View Spring 2005 syllabus. View Spring 2005 Course Evaluations.

ISIS 210: How They Got Game: History and Culture of Interactive Simulations and Videogames (Currently ISIS 92FCS.01 for First-Year Focus students only)
Tim Lenoir
Tuesday/Thursday 1:15-2:30 PM, JHFC 230 (IMPS)
The aim of this course is to explore the history and cultural impact of a crucial segment of New Media: interactive simulations and video games. The current generation of video and PC games has established genres that effectively use narrative, competitive, and play structures for community-based interaction, performance and content development, and push the boundaries of computer-generated animation, graphics, and audio. The course provides an historical and critical approach to the evolution of computer and video game design from its beginnings to the present through examination of five-genre defined areas of computer games: storytelling, strategy, simulation, sports, and 3D first-person games. The course will bring together cultural, business, and technical perspectives. Students should come away from the course with an understanding of the history of this medium, as well as insights into design, production, marketing, and socio-cultural impacts of interactive entertainment and communication. Click here to see the course's website. See Spring 2006 final projects here. View Course Evaluations.

BACK TO VERY TOP

FALL 2005 COURSES

ISIS 100: Perspectives on Information Science and Information Studies
Richard Lucic
Lecture on Monday/Wednesday 10:05-10:55 AM, D344 LSRC
Discussion on Friday 10:05-10:55 AM, D344 LSRC, or 11:40-12:30 PM
How have emergent technologies such as videogames, podcasting, digital animation, Friendster, Google, virtual reality, and Grokster transformed the ways in which we relate to information? ISIS 100 is an engaging introductory course, in which experts from various fields--including art, music, design, business, law, politics, and the humanities and sciences--discuss how new information technologies are rapidly changing how our world is currently created, structured, and navigated. A variety of engaging intellectual modules will explore the understanding of information systems from a variety of professional and disciplinary angles. (CZ, STS) Official Duke iPod course. View syllabus. View Fall 2005 Course Evaluations.

ISIS 250S: Critical Studies in New Media
Tim Lenoir
Wednesday 4:25-6:55 PM, JHFC 028
Examines new media technologies from a transdisciplinary perspective by exploring how the use of new media is affecting academic practice across disciplines. Builds upon existing expertise in film, literature, and media studies to analyze what is "new" about new media and how they compare with, transform, and remediate earlier media practices. Proposes the development of a critical analytical framework for approaching new media and relating them to other areas of critical academic discourse. Promotes a hands-on, active engagement with the technologies as a means for analysis and critique of new media approaches in contemporary academic research. (ALP, R, SS, STS) View syllabus. View course website. View Fall 2005 Course Evaluations.

BACK TO VERY TOP

OTHER COURSES

ISIS 120: Special Topics in Information Science and Information Studies
Interactive Multimedia Interface
A study in the creation, implementation, and analysis of digital media centering around the human-user-interface. This course focuses on conceptual and interaction design with an emphasis on information management, and the impact of technology on representation, narrative and social practices. Students analyze human-user-interface design issues, effective communication, technical constraints, navigation, and narrative in non-linear data structures. Last offered: Fall 2003.

ISIS 120: Special Topics in Information Science and Information Studies
Information Architecture
Students learn how multimedia design can effectively structure and visualize information, gaining theoretical awareness of basic issues in information architecture and develop skills, strategies and techniques to successfully create multimedia information designs. This class will balance theory, research, experimentation, and hands-on project development and production. Last offered: Spring 2003. View the course website.

ISIS 124 / FVD 124 / LIT 198: Writing the Hollywood Cyber Journal
Jim Thompson
Seven week research and development of the web publication of a class journal on modern Hollywood practices/industries, public policy issues and controversies confronting these industries including the culture wars, media violence, intellectual properties and new technologies. The launch of the web publication culminates with presentations in a class-planned conference interacting with industry professional respondents. Must be enolled in the Duke in Los Angeles Program. Available Spring 2008.

ISIS 125S / MUSIC 150S: Western Musical Instruments
Brenda S. Neece
Survery of the history, technology, and classification of Western musical instruments. Comparitive study of examples from Europe and America, concentrating on the period 1700-1945, but examining earlier, sometimes non-Western origins, as well as present-day usage. Hands-on, primary research on instruments in Duke's musical collections. (ALP, CCI, W) See MUSIC 150S Visit the Music Department's website.

ISIS 139 / MUSIC 139: Music and Modernism
Stephen Jaffe, Scott Lindroth, or Anthony M. Kelley
A survey of Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartók, Varése, Ives, and other composers who transformed music in Europe and the United States before World War II, as well as prominent post-war figures such as Lutoslawski, Messiaen, and Carter. Topics include the changing role of the composer in society, relationships to literary and visual modernism, the evolution of musical technology, and the composer's dialogues with vernacular music and other traditions. (ALP, W) See MUSIC 139 Visit the Music Department's website.

ISIS 150 / ENGLISH 150A: Digital Textuality: Theory & Practice of Digital Editing in the Humanities
Matt Cohen
Literature in the digital age. Continuities, convergences, and confrontations between digital and textual cultures, literatures, and practices. Cross-listed with ENGLISH 150A. For more information, please consult the English Department or ACES. (ALP, R, STS) Last offered: Fall 2004.

ISIS 166S: Making Media
Book production as one of the most influential technologies in history. The Gutenberg Bible, the rise of vernaculars, the Protestant Reformation, the education of the middle class, publishing as a technology that has affected society artistically, economically, politically, and philosophically. Writing and printing from disk, internet publishing, e-commerce, mega chains, digital imagery. Guest lecturers and group excursions. Frequent short writing assignments. (Taught in New York.) See ENGLISH 181AS, ARTSINST 104S, or ARTHIST 118BS. Course no longer offered through ISIS. Last taught: Fall 2004.

ISIS 225S / AALL 250S: Chinese Media and Pop Culture
Kang Liu
Current issues of comteporary Chinese media and popular culture within the context of globalization. Cultural politics, ideological discourse, and intellectual debates since gaige kaifang (reform and opening up); aspects of Chinese media and popular culture: cinema, television, newspapers and magazines, the Internet, popular music, comics, cell phone text messages, and fashion. (ALP, CCI, R) See AALL 250S View the Asian and African Languages and Literature website.

ISIS 232S: Issues in International Communications
Contact the Political Science department for course description. Cross-listed with POLSCI 227S and FVD. Course currently not scheduled.

BACK TO VERY TOP