Information Science + Information Studies

ISIS COURSES

S 2010 | F 2009 | S 2009 | F 2008 | S 2008 | F 2007 | S 2007 | F 2006 | S 2006 | F 2005 | OTHER COURSES

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SPRING 2010 COURSES

ISIS 72.001 & .01L / COMPSCI 72.001 & .01L / VISUALST 72A.001 & .01L: Artificial Life, Culture, and Evolution
Nicholas Gessler
Lecture: TTh 10:05-11:20 AM and Lab: TTh 11:40 AM-12:55 PM, Location: LINK
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)

Nick Gessler was featured in Duke Today. Click here for more information.

ISIS 120S.01 / ENGLISH 173S.05: This Is Your Brain On The Internet
Cathy Davidson
MW 1:15-2:30 PM, Location: IMPS
“This is Your Brain on the Internet” is open to any student fascinated by how we know and how we may or may not know differently in the Information Age. It is conceived as a trans-disciplinary exploration in which we will consider the deep structure of cognition in a digital age. We’ll learn from theoretical and expressive books and articles ranging from neuroscience to travel literature, as well as from a range of non-traditional sources (websites, media art exhibits, forest walks with experts, Virtual Reality tours, etc.) We will also learn from engaged collaboration (what management specialists call “collaboration by difference”) with others who have complementary skills, strengths, attitudes, and assumptions. “This is Your Brain on the Internet” is an educational remix that examines the aesthetic, digital, linguistic, psychological, political, philosophical, computational, ethical, and socio-cultural factors influencing how we know ourselves and our worlds. For students proficient in science or technology, “This is Your Brain on the Internet” will provide insights into the cultural assumptions that shape the quantitative methods and scientific assumptions of our time. For students in the humanities and social sciences, “This is Your Brain on the Internet” will examine how the computational capacities that make ours one of the great scientific eras also shape global social and cultural flows.

We will meet twice a week in the IMPS (Interactive Multimedia Project Space) at the Franklin Center, with Monday classes devoted to discussion of the core readings and Wednesdays for hands-on, project-based creativity that draws upon the insights and skills of the class members. (If you know how to write code, you might lead us in a session on authoring in 3D environments; if you are English major, you might analyze the narrative forms are at work in that authoring.) We will experiment with online environments, games, virtual worlds, and collaborative multimedia digital publication. The class will include guest speakers as well as labs, performances, technology demos, installations, or whatever else captures our interest.

Course requirements: Students will write weekly blog posts (approximately 300-500 words) on the assigned readings and in-class and out-of-class projects. Some of these posts will be shared with a larger public and at least one must be converted into a public multimedia presentation. Our class will have a dedicated “This is Your Brain on the Internet” space on the HASTAC website and a group on Facebook, Ning, or another social networking site. Students will also be expected to contribute to public knowledge through editing Wikipedia entries or by contributing to online collaborative book projects such as Daniel Levitin’s This Is Your Brain on Music, Jean-Dominique Bauby’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Christopher Kelty’s Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software and the Internet or Siva Vaidhyanathan’s The Googlization of Everything. Grades will be based on class participation, the weekly blog posts, an in-class midterm exam, a final portfolio of revised and selected writing from the course, and a final project (either individual or collaborative). Course Synopsis. (ALP, EI, STS)

ISIS 155S/VISUALST 120HS(pending): Foundations of Interactive Game Design
R. Michael Young
TTH 8:30-9:45 AM, Location: LINK
Surveys history, technology, narrative, ethics, and design of interactive computer games. Games as systems of rules, games of emergence and progression, state machines. Game flow, games as systems of pleasure, goals, rewards, reinforcement schedules, fictional and narrative elements of game worlds. Students work in teams to develop novel game-design storyboards and stand-alone games. Exploration of the interplay between narrative, graphics, rule systems, and artificial intelligence in the creation of interactive games. Programming experience not required. Tele-connection with East China University of Science and Technology. (ALP, STS)

ISIS 140.01 / VISUALST 120E.01/FVD 167.01: Web-Based Multimedia Communications
Richard Lucic
WF 2:50-4:05 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 228

ISIS 140.02 / VISUALST 120E.02/FVD 167.02 : Web-Based Multimedia Communications
Victoria Szabo
TH 1:15-3:55 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 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. Course Synopsis. (QS, R)

ISIS 200S.01: Research Capstone
Victoria Szabo
TTH 10:05-11:20 AM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 101
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)

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SPRING 2009 CROSS-LISTS

LIT 114AS.01/FVD 118.01/VISUALST 121HS.01/ISIS 114.01: Media Theory
Mark Hansen
W 3:05-5:35 PM

Lit 132S/ ISIS 120S.04 Imagining Wars
Professor Anne Garreta
Carr 136 on T/Th 2:50-4:05pm
Wars and battles are not simply fought: they are planned, rehearsed, told, recounted, represented and simulated. From epic poetry to military war game exercises, from video games to tactical training software, from reconnaissance footage to war movies, the imagination of war, for serious purposes or for entertainment purpose occupies a large piece of our social, cultural and historical landscape. This course will draw on literary texts, films, computer games to analyze, across media and forms, the strategies of representation at
work in the performance of war, whether it be its waging or its replay. Readings from military history, war studies and critical theory will help focus our critical inquiries. Texts will be read,
films will be screened, video games will be played outside of class and sampled for in-depth analysis in class. Evaluation 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: — One in-class presentation consisting in the analysis of some of our course material, be it literary texts, films, video games. A fully equipped lab (computer, video games consoles, video capture device, small library of games) will be available for the students' personal research involving new media objects. Prior practice of computer gaming is not a requirement for this class; an interest in critical theory is. — A final paper presenting a clearly articulated, theoretically informed and cogently illustrated discussion of any aspect of our topic. Students may team up (teams of 2) for their in-
class presentation. Final projects must be individual. Students will receive individual guidance from the instructor in formulating and researching their projects. Students will have the possibility to revise their final paper after receiving feedback from both the instructor and the other seminar participants, before submitting a final version for grading. Contact instructor for detailed list of texts, films and video games.

GERMAN 198.02/VISUALST 190.02/ISIS 120.01: The Place of Memory
Timothy Senior
WF 4:25-5:40 PM
This course explores the relationship between Cultural Memory and physical, biological memory. Progress in the Neurosciences has advanced our understanding of memory from the level of genes through physiological systems to that of behavior. We will discuss these developments, touching on the impact of emotion and trauma on memory processing as well as changes in the fragility/flexibility of memory over time. We will bring this knowledge into contact with notions of Cultural/Collective Memory as explored by theorists such as Maurice Halbwachs, Jan Assmann and Pierre Nora. Following a survey of relevant theories, we will focus on Holocaust remembrance and commemoration (both in public monuments and in the form of public memory of historical atrocities), discussing how ideas relating to remembrance in Germany following the Second World War have developed and changed. Through this course, we will explore the relationship between memory as an individual versus a collective phenomenon, investigating whether or not a biological approach can inform our debate on Cultural Memory, and whether the increasing availability and depth of neuroscientific information about memory can lead to new mnemonic forms and processes through which Cultural Memory could be given physical form. Students will be expected to draw from their own experiences of memory and remembrance to drive a more interactive and informed debate around the subject.

FVD 120.01/ARTSVIS 170.1/VISUALST 190.1/ISIS 120.07: Animated Film
Fred Burns
MW 1:15-2:30 PM
LEARN WHAT HOLLYWOOD ANIMATION WAS LIKE BEFORE PIXAR! Study classic American studio styles from Warner Brothers (Bugs Bunny) to Disney (Little Mermaid). See how the storytelling traditions currently employed by John Lasseter and Ben Bird at Pixar have roots in earlier studio styles. This course traces the evolution of animation from the philosophical “toys’ of the late eighteenth-century to the major international entertainment form of today. Special focus will be placed on American animation as it evolved from inspired individuals like Emile Cohl and Winsor McCay to a full-blown industrial model allowing for the creation of the animated feature and contemporary special effects. In class viewings combined with readings and engaging lectures. This class will be challenging and fun!

LIT 255.04/FVD 120S.01/VISUALST 260S.01/ISIS 120S.02: Space, Place, Movement, and Media
Mark Hansen
M 2:50-5:25 PM

FVD 162S.01/DOCST 171S.1/ARTSVIS 164S.1/VISUALST 189S.5/ISIS 120S.06: The Dividing Line
David Gatten
WF 2:50-4:30 PM
“At a time when filmmaking leans more toward sensations and form than intellect and analysis, David Gatten's ambitious 16mm cycle Secret History of the Dividing Line attempts a rare feat: an investigation of the borders between word and image influenced equally by Stan Brakhage and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The results are formidable.” Ed Halter, THE VILLAGE VOICE. Distinguished Visiting Filmmaker David Gatten leads this course in which students will assist and collaborate in the research, production and post-production phases of two new installments of Gatten’s SECRET HISTORY film series. The first of these new films, A COMPLETE ATLAS, OR VIEWS OF THE KNOWN WORLD, revisits William Byrd’s 1728 expedition to resolve the dispute about the boundary line between North Carolina and Virginia. Taken as point of departure, the film combines Brown’s texts and images: Emmanuel Brown's 1752 collection of maps, Byrd’s 1728 texts, and contemporary images of fifty-seven locations in North Carolina identified by Byrd. Nearly all of the geographical features such as inlets, streams, swamps, rivers, and mountains described by Byrd remain in recognizable form. Due to subsequent revisions in the border, the 57 sites, used by Byrd as mileage markers, are now entirely within the state of North Carolina. Starting on the Atlantic coast at Currituck Inlet (now Currituck National Wildlife Refuge), the line progresses 241 miles east through: the Great Dismal Swamp, across the Meherrin River, through the Kerr Lake State Park, passing near current day towns of Roxboro and Yanceyville, crossing the Dan River five times, and concluding within view of the mountains of Hanging Rock State Park at "a Red Oak mark'd on 3 Sides with 4 Notches, & the Trees blaz'd about it, on the East Bank of a Rivulet, supps'd either to be a Brach of Roanoke, or Deep River." Duke University is located within a few hours drive of 80% of the film locations, making it an ideal base from which to investigate the natural, social, political, and personal histories of the Dividing Line Expedition. Gatten will work with students to further research the history of the Byrd expedition, and the class will travel together to document in film and HD the relevant North Carolina locations. The class will use old and new maps, Byrd's texts, GPS technology, and other digital technologies to identify and image all 57 locations—while exploring both their history since 1728 and their current status. Students will identify the locations, engage the local history of the landscape, explore the concept of research-as-studio-practice, and actively contribute to the creation of an important and well-known film cycle. Students will also collaborate in a similar fashion on the film HALFPENNY'S PRACTICLE ARCHITECTURE, the portion of the Byrd cycle that explores the way the partitioning of space in 18th century plantation architecture conditioned the division of labor in the practice of slavery. Students will explore the history of runaway slave communities within North Carolina's Great Dismal Swamp, making images there and at sites of former plantations. The class will conduct a location shooting trip to the Byrd plantation along the James River in Westover, Virginia. Throughout the class, Gatten will work with the students on their own research-based art projects. Through the reading and discussion of individually tailored text selections, screenings of historically relevant films and both individual and group critique sessions, Gatten will help students bring their projects to completion.

LIT 121.01/ISIS 121.01: Science Fiction
Kate Hayles
MW 11:40 AM-12:55 PM

FVD 105.01/VISUALST 117M.1/ARTSVIS 155.1/LIT 110C.1/ISIS 129.01: Intro to the Arts of the Moving Image
Shambhavi Kaul
TTH 6:15-9:15 PM
Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 228
This course examines critical concepts in cinematic language and form, creating a framework for thinking about larger interdisciplinary arts issues such as: time, space, technology, and ideology in cinema and beyond. Class sessions will be informed by the perspectives of various artistic and academic disciplines and will draw on the rich panorama of AMI teachers and the pairing of theory and practice. The course will begin with a screening of Dziga Vertov’s 1929, silent film "Man With the Movie Camera". This film, which was groundbreaking for its time, was once a documentary, an experimental film, and has been referred to as a “database film,” suggesting it prefigures certain new media practices. We will utilize this versatile text as a point of departure and return as we frame it within a greater discussion about the "Arts of the Moving Image." Guest lecturers will include scholars and practicing artists of a wide range of disciplines who teach under the Arts of the Moving Image Program. Of these teachers, several of those, of whom ground breaking academic and artistic work has contributed to the way we think about "the moving image," will share their unique perspectives. For students, this course will be an introduction to the diverse fields that constitute AMI and also to the AMI faculty. It will also be a chance for them to expand their mind by thinking critically and creating art from possible contrary viewpoints.

VISUALST 184S.01/CULTANTH 179S.01/ISIS 179S: Visual Cultures of Medicine
Mark Olson
TH 4:25-6:55 PM
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)

VISUALST 185.01/ISIS 185.01: Digital Perspectives
Bill Seaman
WF 1:15-2:30 PM
East Duke 204A
Extensive readings and online viewing of digital media. Discussion of social and cultural ramifications of particular digital forms. Authorship potentials including interactive text and media, interactive video, interactive music, and new form of combinatorial relational databases, locative media (media that is tied to particular locations via GPS), virtual reality, and augmented reality spaces. Empirical research, social interaction and technological potentials examined.

VISUALST 190.01/ARTSVIS 170.03/FVD 120.03/ISIS 190.01: Digital Art - Image and Bit Play
Bill Seaman
WF 10:05-11:20 AM
Digital Art - Image and Bit Play approaches the creation of digital image-making in collective play that includes brainstorming in individual and group exercises using different digital and traditional analogue (drawing, painting, and collage) processes to study how the ludic (play) enables creative thinking and experimentation in digital image manipulation with everything from language concepts to the physical body and environment.

VISUALST 194CL.001/FVD 168.01/ARSVIS 183L.01/ISIS 194CL.01: Interactive Graphics - Critical Code
Casey Alt
W 8:30-9:45 AM; W 1:05-11:20 AM
Smith Bay 12, Room 228
Interactive Graphics: Critical Code (IG:CC) is an introduction to interactive graphics programming for artists. Students will gain understanding of object-oriented programming via the Processing programming environment as well as historical and theoretical appreciation of interactivity and computer graphics as artistic mediums. Course meetings will combine discussions of key concepts from the readings with hands-on Processing projects and critiques. No previous programming experience or prerequisites required.

AMES 250S.01/ISIS 225S.01: Chinese Media and Pop Culture
Kang Liu
M 2:50-5:20 PM
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

LIT 294S.01/GERMAN 294S.01/FVD 203S.01/ISIS 294.01: The Image in Walter Benjamin
Negar Mottahedeh
W 1:15-3:45 PM
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)

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FALL 2009 COURSES

ISIS 120S.01 / VISUALST 189S / ENGLISH 173S.05: Special Topics in Information Science + Information Studies: Media Remix: Adaptation in Theory and Practice
Bart Keeton
TTh 8:30-9:45 AM, Location: LINK
This course is about media transformation. Yet rather than merely focus on adaptation from one specific medium to another, we will study the convergence of various media, such as video games, graphic novels, song covers (and remixes), musicals, and movies. What meaningful changes result when a graphic novel is made into a video game? How do the ideological implications of the two texts differ, and why? Does the status of “the original” matter anymore? Taking our cue from musical artists such as DJ Spooky and Girl Talk, we will focus on the aesthetics of the database, the sample, and the fragment as we follow information through different kinds of cultural networks. In our study of the collage of contemporary media culture, we will reflect analytically on adaptation as not only a textual process, but also a social and economic one. This course will therefore ask students to consider their own positions as readers, viewers, interpreters, producers, and consumers. We will analyze several remix/adaptations within their historical and cultural contexts and discuss what these artifacts give up and what they retain, how changes in the work that they perform shifts in their political and economic circumstances, and in what ways do the rhetorics of different media shape what we might problematically call their “meaning.” Integrated with these interpretive questions are the fundamental principles of copyright, intellectual property, the Fair Use Doctrine, and how these specifically apply to remixing music and video content. Since one hallmark of new media technologies is that consumers are also creators, students will exercise critical skills they develop throughout the course (including rotoscope animation and Final Cut Pro) in order to create their own “remixed” media content. The course will culminate with an individual or group project in which students share an aspect of their research and creative production with the rest of the class, demonstrating their ability to give life to the archive by quoting, analyzing, and manipulating cultural material in order to repurpose and reframe it. Course Synopsis. Course flyer. (ALP, R, W)

ISIS 120S.02 / VISUALST 189S.03: Special Topics in Information Science + Information Studies: Exploring the Biological Sciences through Art
Timothy Senior
TTh 1:15-2:30, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 101
Advances in our understanding of biology from genes through to behavior are regularly being made within the Biological Sciences, although little of it passes into the public imagination. Yet there is value in communicating these ideas to a wider audience, to challenge people on what they experience every day as implicitly natural, to reveal the complex mechanisms and processes that lie beneath.

In this course we will examine how the Biological Sciences (including Neuroscience) have been explored through the Arts, from installations, through contemporary dance to virtual reality. As we try to understand how Science might be brought back into our cultural awareness, we will pose the following questions: Can scientific knowledge be meaningfully expressed in art? If Science can inform Art, can Art also inform Science?

Assignments over the course of the Semester will include readings, class presentations and a small number of short essays describing either a particular scientific area or exploring artworks created with a certain scientific area in mind. Class participation will also be taken into consideration in the final grades. The course will culminate in a written project, in which students will be expected to provide a general introduction to a scientific area of their choice, identify and critique extant art works related to that scientific area, and both propose and defend new directions/forms in which they feel the science could be further explored through Art. A background in the Biological Sciences will not be required. Course Synopsis. Course flyer. (ALP, STS)

ISIS 140.01 / VISUALST 120E.02 / FVD 125: Web-Based Multimedia Communications
Richard Lucic
WF 2:50-4:05 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 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. Course Synopsis. (QS, R) View Spring 2008 course evaluations. View Spring 2007 syllabus.

ISIS 250S / LIT261S / ARTHIST 250S / VISUALST 250AS / FVD: Critical Studies in New Media
Tim Lenoir
T 6:00-8:30 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 101
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. Course Synopsis. (ALP, R, SS, STS) View course website. View Fall 2007 Course Evaluations.

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FALL 2009 VIRTUAL REALITIES Focus CLUSTER:

View the Virtual Realities: Digital Media, Imagined Worlds, and Immersive 3D Environments webpage.

View the Virtual Realities: Digital Media, Imagined Worlds, and Immersive 3D Environments on The Focus Program website.

ISIS 110FCS: Authoring Digital Media: The Victorian Crystal Palace and Virtual Exhibition Spaces
Victoria Szabo
TTh 2:50-4:05 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 228
How can online, 3d virtual environments function as exhibition spaces for art, cultural objects, and historical narratives? What can creating a virtual exhibition space teach us about creating real life exhibitions, museums, and gallery spaces? How can creating a virtual exhibit space teach us to understand history and culture in new ways? This course will explore these questions through hands-on work creating a digital media enriched 3d virtual world version of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the first World’s Fair. The Exhibition was held in London in the famous Crystal Palace, a magnificent glass structure that was a marvel in its own right. The exhibits inside showcased then-modern arts, technology, and design (many of the exhibit objects live on in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London). What parallels can we draw between the Victorian Crystal Palace exhibition and our desires today to collect and display information and objects in virtual and online environments? In order to address this question, we will also visit contemporary museums, online galleries, and virtual environments in order to understand better the relationships between real and the virtual world settings for exhibits. Course texts will include sources such as newspapers, journals, fiction, film, visual art and games, as well as historical, theoretical and critical work about both the Victorian period and contemporary technocultures. Students will write short essays and produce final, collaborative multimedia projects. No specific technical skills required; we welcome participants with diverse background and experiences into this project-based course (thematically-oriented). Open to students in Focus program only. Course Synopsis. (ALP, STS)

ISIS 170FCS: Constructing Immersive Virtual Worlds
Julian Lombardi and Mark McCahill
T 4:40-7:15 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 228
This course explores the 3D user interface as meta-media container of audio/video/text/simulations. We will discuss the philosophies and construction of synthetic virtual worlds – thinking about them both in terms of gaming metaphors and as mainstream social/meeting spaces. Our case study will be the OpenCroquet project, which is housed at Duke and directed by the course instructors. Students will consider practical issues in creating 3D spaces, artifacts and avatars as well as study the evolution of computer user interfaces. Other topics will include: programming paradigms to support scalable persistent synthetic worlds; self-organizing communities; software architecture and economics of immersive worlds; mixed reality systems – including integrating the real into the virtual. We will also examine the idea of the avatars as a representation of the self by considering online social systems; patterns of behavior, misbehavior and norms; and issues of anonymity and identity. (QS) (production-oriented) Open to students in Focus program only. Course Synopsis. (QS)

CLST 85FCS.01: Good and Evil in Imagined Worlds
Clare Woods
TTh 10:05-11:20 AM, Location: Allen 226
Students explore the ancient and medieval underpinnings of popular virtual-world building tropes around good and evil as 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. (thematically-oriented) Open to students in Focus program only.

VISUALST 192FCS.01 / ISIS 108FCS.01 / FVD 137.01: Virtual Form and Space
Raquel Salvatella de Prada
Th 11:40 AM-2:20 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 228
Students confront the digital world from the perspective of the transformation of physical artifacts to digital form. Students will discover that effective visual representation of data requires an understanding of human perception, visualization and computer graphics techniques, investigating along the way the inherent and complex decision-making that such transformations entail. Students will explore the basic principles of perception such as lightness, brightness, contrast, constancy, color theory, and visual attention. Current visualization techniques in volume rendering, surface rendering, the use of glyphs, and animation are presented, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses, and visual artifacts. Students are taught the process of transforming raw data into information structures through inspection, filtering, and segmentation techniques. Significant laboratory component with area field trips(production-oriented). Open to students in Focus program only. Course Synopsis. (ALP) Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

FOCUS 99FCS.12: Special Topics in Focus: Virtual Realities
(the Interdisciplinary Discussion Course or "IDC")
Richard Lucic and Victoria Szabo
M 5:30-7:00 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 101
In this course, students and faculty, working together, have the opportunity to synthesize the information they are learning and to make new connections between the technologies of gaming, simulation, and visualization, on the one hand, and their cultural and social manifestations, on the other. The course provides the freedom to explore virtual environments such as Croquet and SecondLife, as well as play interactive games; to visit with practicing game developers and media artists; to watch and interpret films in which gaming and simulation play prominent parts; and to discuss in a relaxed setting the implications of these media to perceptions of reality and world-building. The course also features presentations and demonstrations of new and emerging technology tools by people who are conceiving and building them. Open to students in Focus program only.

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FALL 2009 CROSS-LISTS

ISIS 108.01 / VISUALST 192L.01 / ARTSVIS 108 / FVD 137: Virtual Form & Space
Casey Alt
TTh 7:30-10:00 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 228
Investigates the relationship between real and virtual objects. Focuses on the creation of both virtual and physical three-dimensional representations of large data sets using the Maya 3D modeling application and various physical fabrication methods. Explores the principles of information design with an emphasis on creating novel data representations that are not limited to conventional print or screen formats. Emphasizes critical fluency in information design and productive critique of work. Open to undergraduates and graduate students. No prerequisites, though prior programming experience is helpful. Course Synopsis. (QS) See VISUALST 192L.01. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

ISIS 173.001 and 173.01L / ARTSVIS 173.001 and 172.01L / VISUALST 102B.001 and VISUALST 102B.01L: Gaming the System: Pervasive Gaming as Art
Casey Alt
Lecture: W 11:40 AM-2:10 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 228 and Lab: Th 10:20 AM-12:20 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 101
Explores the genre of pervasive or alternate reality gaming, in which the computer gameplay extends beyond typical screen spaces to any area of the player's life, often employing dispersed unconventional "real world" media, such as websites, emails, instant messaging, text messages, online videos, and even direct human interaction. Examines how blurring common distinctions between game and life opens new critical possibilities for artists. Engages students by designing and staging their own alternate reality game as a transformative social action. Open to undergraduates and graduate students. No prerequisites, though prior programming experience is helpful. Course Synopsis. (ALP, QS, STS) See: ARTSVIS 173.001 and 173.01L. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

ISIS 175.01 / VISUALST 181.01 / ENGLISH 172C.01 / LIT 133C.01 / THEATERST 175A.01 / WOMENST 176.01: Performance Art History/Theory
Kristine Stiles
T 6:00-8:30 PM, Location: East Duke 204A
Global Performance History and Theory from late 1950s to the Present. ALP, CCI, CZ, EI Performance art history/theory explores cultural experimentation, theoretical strategies, and ideological aims of performance art internationally; examines interchanges between artists’ theories of performance, stylistic development, and impact in the context of cultural criticism and art history; traces interdisciplinary genealogies of performance globally; thinks about the body as a vehicle for aesthetic expression, communication, and information in its critique of social and political conditions; studies performance and gender, sexuality, race, and class; asks how performance alters the semiotics of visual culture and contributes to a paradigm shift from modernism to postmodernism. Not open to students who have previously taken this course as Art History 175. Course Synopsis. (ALP, CZ, CCI, EI) See VISUALST 181.01. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

ISIS 183.01 / VISUALST 183.01: Cultural History of the Televisual
Mark Olson
MW 8:30-9:45 AM, Location: East Duke 108
Critical history of the "televisual" in the American visual culture mediascape, broadcast television, cable television, and contemporary convergences with new media technologies, emphasizing 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, examining the social forces shaping the development of television from its inception in the 1940s to the present-day. Course Synopsis. (ALP, CZ) See VISUALST 183.01. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

ISIS 207 / VISUALST 270S: New Media, Memory and the Visual Archive
Mark Olson
M 11:40-2:10 PM, Location Biddle 101
Explores impact of new media on the nature of archives as technologies of cultural memory and knowledge production. Sustained engagement with major theorists of the archive through the optics of "media specificity” and the analytical resources of visual studies. Themes include: “storage capacity” of media; database as cultural form; body as archive; new media and the documentation of “everyday life”; memory, counter-memory and the politics of the archive; archival materiality and digital ephemerality. Primary focus on visual artifacts (image, moving image) with consideration of the role of other sensory modalities in the construction of individual, institutional and collective memory. Course Synopsis. (ALP, STS) See VISUALST 270S. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

ISIS 225S.01 / AMES 250S.01: Chinese Media and Pop Culture
Calvin Michael Hui
M 1:15-4:15 PM, Location: Social Sciences 124
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. Course Synopsis. (ALP, CCI, R) See AMES 250S.01. Visit the Asian & Middle Eastern Studies website.

ISIS 266S / VISUALST 266S / ARTSVIS 266S / FVD 202S: The Body as Electrochemical Computer: Toward a New Computational and Aesthetic Paradigm
Bill Seaman
W 2:50-5:20, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 101
The course will present differing disciplinary perspectives working toward articulating new understandings of the body. These observations will in turn be used to elucidate a new computational and aesthetic paradigm. Discussions/lectures will be drawn from the Arts, Humanities, Biology, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Robotics, Physics, Ethics, Artificial Intelligence, Anthropology, and other research areas. The course will present and critique current models of the brain/mind/body/environment from multiplie scientific perspectives. Concurrently students will develop aesthetic, scientific and/or conceptual art approaches to the content both alone and/or in groups. The class will also include invited lectures related to disciplinary/interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary topic areas, and the generation of highly focused working groups. These groups will work toward articulating bridging languages to enable researchers to talk across disciplinary domains concerning particular research problems that are developed as part of the class. In particular, approaches to the development of a biologically inspired electrochemical computer will be discussed and explored. A multi-modal database will be created to share knowledge across disciplines [and document research generated in the class]. The database will form a repository for new forms of imaging, textual production and data collection and will also be discusssed and emplyed as a research tool via meta-tags and relational combinatorics. Students will be required to participate in ongoing dicsussion, as well as to develop particular aspects of research both individually and in groups. Each student will write a major research paper as a course requirement. Course Synopsis. (ALP, NS, R, STS) See VISUALST 266S. View course flyer. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

ISIS 291S.01 / ENGLISH 271ES.01 / LIT 255S.01 / VISUALST 260S.4: Art and Literature in the Digital Domain
Katherine Hayles and Bill Seaman
M 2:50-5:20 PM, Location: TBA
This course will explore new frontiers in electronic art and literature, along with the theoretical and practical challenges they raise. More and more canonical literary texts are available in electronic form; what is the difference between reading these texts on screen and reading them in print? In addition, many canonical texts have been digitized and enhanced by sound, video, and images; how does our reading and understanding of these texts change when they are hyper-mediated? In contemporary literature, a new genre of interactive fiction is appearing that depends for its effects on electronic media; how does the construction of narrative change when the text presents the reader with multiple reading paths? Similar questions arise in electronic art. How does traditional semiotics need to be revised to account for digital art works? What do computer games and high art forms such as serious literature and electronic art have in common, and what are the important differences? How do image and other digital components such as sound, animation, rollovers and navigation interact in a digital environment communication? How much is creativity constrained and enabled by available interfaces? What are the advantages and disadvantages of collaborative work? How does the interaction between pattern and randomness, chance and design, inform contemporary electronic art works? What is the relation between New Media works and older artistic forms such as cinema and the print novel? How much of the theory and terminology developed for older media forms can be carried over to New Media, and how much needs to be changed or re-thought? These questions will also permeate the organization of the seminar itself. The seminar will also use a collaborative style of learning that emphasizes working in teams and sharing information both within our group and within a larger electronic community. Participants will be asked to do a final project in electronic form. Course Synopsis. See: ENGLISH 271ES.01. Visit the English Department website.

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SPRING 2009 COURSES

Nick Gessler was featured in Duke Today. Click here for more information.

ISIS 100.001 / ARTHIST 100.01: Perspectives on Information Science and Information Studies
Victoria Szabo
TTh 10:05-11:20 AM Location: LINK classroom 5
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 and students participate in hands-on activities designed to help them explore these technologies first-hand. A variety of engaging intellectual modules will explore the understanding of information systems from a variety of professional and disciplinary perspectives. Primary course themes for 2008 include: Technology, Culture and Society; Visual Representation and Perception; and Digital Economies. Course Synopsis. (CZ, STS) Official Duke iPod course. View 2007 syllabus. View Fall 2007 Course Evaluations.

ISIS 120S.02 / VISUALST 189S: Media Remix: Adaptation in Theory and Practice
Bart Keeton
TTh 1:15-2:30, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 101
This course is about media transformation. Yet rather than focus on adaptation from one specific medium to another, we will study the dialogue between a constantly expanding range of media, such as video games, theme park rides, Web sites, graphic novels, song covers (and remixes), musicals, and movies. We will explore questions such as, what meaningful changes result when a graphic novel is made into a video game? How do the ideological implications of the two texts differ, and why? Does the status of "the original" matter anymore? Broadening adaptation studies to previously neglected genres, media, and intertextual relations, this course will reflect analytically on adaptation as not only a textual process, but also a social and economic one, asking students to think about their own positions as readers, viewers, interpreters, producers, and consumers. We will study several remix/adaptations within their historical and cultural contexts (such as the multiple versions of War of the Worlds: novel, radio play, and films) discussing what these artifacts give up and what they retain, how changes in the work that they perform shifts in their political and economic circumstances, and in what ways do the rhetorics of different media shape what we might problematically call their "meaning." Since one hallmark of new media technologies is that consumers are also creators, students will exercise the critical skills they develop throughout the course as they plan, design, and create their own "remixed" media content. The course will culminate with a final individual or group project where students demonstrate some aspect of their research and creative production to the rest of the class, providing alongside the practical exercise a written meta-critique of their work. Course Synopsis. (ALP)

ISIS 140.02 / VISUALST 120E.02: Web-Based Multimedia Communications
Richard Lucic
WF 2:50-4:05 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 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. Course Synopsis. (QS, R) View class project website (only works in Firefox). View Spring 2008 course evaluations. View Spring 2007 syllabus.

ISIS 200S.01: Research Capstone
Victoria Szabo
MW 2:50-4:05 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 228 on M and Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 101 on W
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

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SPRING 2009 CROSS-LISTS

ISIS 120.03 / ARTSVIS 170: Interactive Graphics: Critical Code
Casey Alt
W 11:40-2:30, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 101
Interactive Graphics: Critical Code is an introduction to interactive graphics programming for artists. Students will gain understanding of object-oriented programming via the Processing programming environment as well as historical and theoretical appreciation of interactivity and computer graphics as artistic mediums. Course meetings will combine discussions of key concepts from the readings with hands-on Processing projects and critiques. No previous programming experience or prerequisites required. 4 units. Enrollment limited to 15 students. (ALP) See: ARTSVIS 170.

ISIS 151.01 / MEDREN 151B.01 / SPANISH 151.01: Spanish Literature of the Renaissance and the Baroque: Who Created Don Juan?
Margaret R. Greer
TTh 2:50-4:05 PM, Location: TBA
Selected works of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Spain with attention to their reflection of social, religious and political currents of the age, including: Pan-European cultural influences in the Renaissance, the effects of the New World encounter, the construction of identity through repression of Judaic and Islamic traditions, the relationship between tightened religious, social and political controls and the Baroque. Course Synopsis. (ALP) See: SPANISH 151.01.

ISIS 179S.01 / VISUALST 184S.01 / CULANTH 179S.01: Visual Cultures of Medicine
Mark Olson
MW 11:40-12:55 PM, Location: 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. Course Synopsis. (ALP, STS) See ARTHIST 179S. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

ISIS 185 / VISUALST 185: Digital Perspectives: Navigating the Digital Visual
Bill Seaman
TTh 1:15-2:30pm, Location: East Duke 204A
This course will provide a broad approach to discussing digital visuals. Differing intellectual perspectives will provide the student with a broad background to a series of contemporary practices that employ digital media as a means of authorship. This course involves extensive readings and online viewing of digital media. Topics of discussion will include the social and cultural ramifications of particular forms of digital media, the authorship potential of these forms in terms of Art Content, and the potential to develop these forms as a vehicle of personal expression, empirical research, as well as social interaction. The interdisciplinary approach to digital media production will also explore how differing groups of art practitioners, scientists, and digital humanitarians might explore such systems though the definition of bridging languages. Course Synopsis. (ALP, STS) See: VISUALST 185.

ISIS 225S.01 / AMES 250S.01: Chinese Media and Pop Culture
Kang Liu
T 4:25-6:55 PM, Location: TBA
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. Course Synopsis. (ALP, CCI, R) See AMES 250S.01. View the Asian & Middle Eastern Studies website.

ISIS 265S / VISUALST 265S: Emergent Interface Design
Bill Seaman
T 2:50-5:20 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 228
This class will explore a number of issues surrounding embodied approaches to interface design. The class will articulate a methodology for generating new forms of human/computer interface. The course will include workshops, discussions, student presentations, critiques and group brainstorming sessions. Content related to biomimetics; haptic body knowledge; multi-modal sensing; physical computing; physical | digital relationships; networked relations; the potentials of virtual space and different qualities of space, both visual and sonic; as well as datatbase potentials will be discussed and explored in the service of developing new approaches to interface.

The class covers:

1) Multimodal sensing discussions both human and machinic
2) Sketched catalogue of current potential interface relations
3) Associative textual/visual drawings related to exploring individual approaches
4) Emergent / Generative working problem growing out of the associative diagrams/drawings
5) Team based and/or individual assignment on new embodied interface potentials
6) The development of a branching diagram explaining interaction
7) Final physical / digital interface plan based on emergent outcomes of the course

Course Synopsis. (ALP, STS) See: VISUALST 265S.

ISIS 291.02 / LIT 281.02: Weapons of Mass Entertainment
Anne Garreta
Th 4:25-6:55 PM, Location: Friedl Building 107
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 291S.01 / LIT 255S.04: New Media Theory
Katherine Hayles
M 3:05-5:25 PM, Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 12, Room 101
More information can be found with the Literature Program. See: LIT 255S.04.

Electronic literature and digital textuality challenge traditional reading and writing practices in a number of ways. When code underlies the screen display, the location of the "text" is a matter of debate: should one focus on the screen, the code, the interface functionalities, or the user's embodied actions? Are close reading practices still viable with algorithmic art? How must traditional reading practices change with multimodal works? When the dissemination mechanisms for networked and programmable media are networks, how does this affect the political implications of the works, the social contexts in which works are created and read, and the metaphors used to characterize the works? These and other issues will be explored through a wide spectrum of theoretical texts, including essays by Friedrich Kittler, Rita Raley, John Cayley, Lev Manovich, and books such as Matthew Fuller's "Media Ecologies," Mark Hansen's "New Philosophy for New Media," Thacker and Galloway's "The Exploit," and selections from "The New Media Reader," among others. Participants will be asked to make blog postings discussing the works, identify web sites they want the seminar to discuss, and create a final project that must have an electronic component. Collaboration on the project is encouraged.

Katherine Hayles was featured in Duke Today. Click here for more information.

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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 Perkins 2-072
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) View Fall 2008 course evaluations.

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 Fall 2008 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) View Fall 2008 course evaluations.

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)

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FALL 2008 CROSS-LISTS

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. Course Synopsis. (ALP) See ARTSVIS 108.01. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

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. Course Synopsis. (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. Course Synopsis. (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
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. Course Synopsis. (ALP, R)

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SPRING 2008 COURSES [flyer]

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. Course Synopsis. (QS, R) Official Duke iPod course. View Spring 2007 course evaluations. View Spring 2008 course evaluations. View Spring 2007 syllabus.

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 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. View Spring 2008 course evaluations. This course is still numbered the same but has been renamed "Technology and New Media: Academic Practice."

ISIS 270.01 / LIT 262.01 / PHIL 270.01: Body Works: 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. View Spring 2008 course evaluations. (ALP, CCI, STS) Last offered: Spring 2005.

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SPRING 2008 CROSS-LISTS

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. Course Synopsis. (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 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. Course Synopsis. (ALP, STS) See ARTHIST 179S. Visit the Art, Art History & Visual Studies website.

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.

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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. Course Synopsis. (CZ, STS) Official Duke iPod course. View 2006 syllabus. View Fall 2007 Course Evaluations. Tentative Fall 2007 Syllabus.

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. Course Synopsis. (ALP, SS, STS) View Fall 2007 course evaluations.

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. Course Synopsis. (ALP, R, SS, STS) Syllabus (PDF), View course website. View Fall 2007 Course Evaluations.

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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.

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FALL 2007 CROSS-LISTS

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 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.

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SPRING 2007 COURSES

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.

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SPRING 2007 CROSS-LISTS

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. Course Synopsis. (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 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.

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SPRING 2007 SOFT CROSS-LISTS

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

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FALL 2006 COURSES

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. Course Synopsis. (CZ, STS) Official Duke iPod course. View syllabus. View Fall 2006 Course Evaluations. Join the Facebook group here.

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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.

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FALL 2006 CROSS-LISTS

ISIS 120S.03 / 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.

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FALL 2006 SOFT CROSS-LISTS

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

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FALL 2006 RECOMMENDED COURSE

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.

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SPRING 2006 COURSES

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.

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SPRING 2006 CROSS-LISTS

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)

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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.

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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. Course Synopsis. 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.

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. Course Synopsis. (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 Synopsis. Course no longer offered through ISIS. Last taught: Fall 2004.

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.

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