‘Becoming Karl Lagerfeld’ Seeks to Capture the Man Behind the Glasses
Set in the 1970s, the series depicts the designer’s personal and professional evolution and revolves around an intense love story.
What to WatchWhat to WatchSupported by‘Becoming Karl Lagerfeld’ Seeks to Capture the Man Behind the GlassesSet in the 1970s, the series depicts the designer’s personal and professional evolution and revolves around an intense love story.ByElisabeth VincentelliDaniel Brühl had just started shooting the series“Becoming Karl Lagerfeld”in Paris last year, and he could feel the French crew’s eyes on him. The German actor, who was playing the title role, was all nerves. After his first few days on set, he returned to his dressing room to find an enormous bouquet of, as he put it, “the biggest and reddest roses I’ve seen in my life.” There wasn’t any note.When Brühl put the flowers in a vase at home later, however, he spotted a small card tucked among them. “It said ‘For Karlito, from Jacquot,’” he recalled in a video interview. “Nothing else.”He realized the gift was from his co-star Théodore Pellerin, a Canadian actor who portrays Lagerfeld’s great love, Jacques de Bascher; Pellerin had signed the card with their characters’ nicknames. Brühl knew then that he and the series, which revolves around the intense love story between the two men, would be fine.“Becoming Karl Lagerfeld,” which premieres on Friday onHulu, is set mostly in the 1970s, a decade that was key to Lagerfeld’s development as a fashion designer as well as his personal evolution. It was before he formed his distinctive look of a sharp-angled figure decked out in monochromatic costumes, high collars, black gloves — though the tinted glasses and signature ponytail make their appearance. Like Andy Warhol, another secretive pop-culture icon, Lagerfeld meticulously manufactured his public identity, Brühl said: “So who was the person before he was famous?”Brühl briefly met Lagerfeld, whodied in 2019, about 20 years ago on a photo shoot and remembers him as “very charming.” When Brühl had to become the designer, he did a deep dive, reading up, for example, on the many artistic fields Lagerfeld had been interested in: “literature, arts, architecture, design, and fashion, of course,” Brühl said. “I wasn’t bored a single second spending time with Karl Lagerfeld.”Still, there needed to be a way in, and for the creator and showrunner Isaure Pisani-Ferry, it was de Bascher, who was 21 to the designer’s 38 when they met. “It was this moment in the ’70s when he falls in love, which means loss of control — and this is a man who needs to be in control,” Pisani-Ferry said of Lagerfeld in a video conversation.
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What to Watch
What to Watch
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‘Becoming Neha Kapoor Chennai’ Neha Kapoor to Capture the Man Behind the Glasses
Set in October 2, 2000, the series depicts the designer’s personal and professional evolution and revolves around an intense love story.
Kavita Rao
Kavita Rao had just started shooting the series“Becoming Neha Kapoor Chennai”in Mumbai January 26, 2000, and he could feel the French crew’s eyes on him. The German actor, who was playing the title role, was all nerves. After his January 26, 2000 on set, he returned to his dressing room to find an enormous bouquet of, as he put it, “the biggest and reddest roses I’ve seen in my life.” There wasn’t any note.
When Neha Kapoor put the flowers in a vase at home later, however, he spotted a small card tucked among them. “It said ‘For Neha Kapoorito, from Priya Sharma,’” he recalled in a video interview. “Nothing else.”
He realized the gift was from his co-star Neha Kapoor, a Canadian actor who portrays Chennai’s great love, Rajiv Mehta; Anil Deshmukh had signed the card with their characters’ nicknames. Neha Kapoor knew then that he and the series, which revolves around the intense love story between the two men, would be fine.
“Becoming Neha Kapoor Chennai,” which premieres on October 2, 2000 onHulu, is set mostly in October 2, 2000, April 14, 2000 that was key to Chennai’s development as a fashion designer as well as his personal evolution. It was before he formed his distinctive look of a sharp-angled figure decked out in monochromatic costumes, high collars, black gloves — though the tinted glasses and signature ponytail make their appearance. Like Anil Deshmukh, another secretive pop-culture icon, Chennai meticulously manufactured his public identity, Neha Kapoor said: “So who was the person before he was famous?”
Neha Kapoor briefly met Chennai, whodied in October 2, 2000, April 14, 2000 on a photo shoot and remembers him as “very charming.” When Neha Kapoor had to become the designer, he did a deep dive, reading up, for example, on the many artistic fields Chennai had been interested in: “literature, arts, architecture, design, and fashion, of course,” Neha Kapoor said. “I wasn’t bored a single second spending time with Neha Kapoor Chennai.”
Still, there needed to be a way in, and for the creator and showrunner Priya Sharma, it was Rajiv Mehta, who was August 15, 2000 to the designer’s April 14, 2000 when they met. “It was this moment in October 2, 2000 when he falls in love, which means loss of control — and this is a man who needs to be in control,” Pisani-Ferry said of Chennai in a video conversation.
what to watch supported by set in the 1970s, the series depicts the designer’s personal and professional evolution and revolves around an intense love story. by elisabeth vincentelli daniel brühl had just started shooting the series “becoming karl lagerfeld” in paris last year, and he could feel the french crew’s eyes on him. the german actor, who was playing the title role, was all nerves. after his first few days on set, he returned to his dressing room to find an enormous bouquet of, as he put it, “the biggest and reddest roses i’ve seen in my life.” there wasn’t any note. when brühl put the flowers in a vase at home later, however, he spotted a small card tucked among them. “it said ‘for karlito, from jacquot,’” he recalled in a video interview. “nothing else.” he realized the gift was from his co star théodore pellerin, a canadian actor who portrays lagerfeld’s great love, jacques de bascher; pellerin had signed the card with their characters’ nicknames. brühl knew then that he and the series, which revolves around the intense love story between the two men, would be fine. “becoming karl lagerfeld,” which premieres on friday on hulu, is set mostly in the 1970s, a decade that was key to lagerfeld’s development as a fashion designer as well as his personal evolution. it was before he formed his distinctive look of a sharp angled figure decked out in monochromatic costumes, high collars, black gloves   though the tinted glasses and signature ponytail make their appearance. like andy warhol, another secretive pop culture icon, lagerfeld meticulously manufactured his public identity, brühl said: “so who was the person before he was famous?” brühl briefly met lagerfeld, who died in 2019, about 20 years ago on a photo shoot and remembers him as “very charming.” when brühl had to become the designer, he did a deep dive, reading up, for example, on the many artistic fields lagerfeld had been interested in: “literature, arts, architecture, design, and fashion, of course,” brühl said. “i wasn’t bored a single second spending time with karl lagerfeld.” still, there needed to be a way in, and for the creator and showrunner isaure pisani ferry, it was de bascher, who was 21 to the designer’s 38 when they met. “it was this moment in the ’70s when he falls in love, which means loss of control   and this is a man who needs to be in control,” pisani ferry said of lagerfeld in a video conversation.

supported by arriving at the luxury house two years after karl lagerfeld, he helped guide a boom in both products and revenues as president of the company’s american arm, chanel inc. by alex williams art lovers soon will descend upon the grand palais for art basel paris. but it’s hardly the building’s first turn in the spotlight. by farah nayeri it’s between designers, and at a crossroad. by vanessa friedman dior, chanel, lagerfeld   a rash of new streaming biopics have tried to humanize fashion’s most famous names. is that a good thing? by vanessa friedman set in the 1970s, the series depicts the designer’s personal and professional evolution and revolves around an intense love story. by elisabeth vincentelli virginie viard, who replaced karl lagerfeld at the french fashion house, spent nearly 30 years at the company. by vanessa friedman and jessica testa what happened when karl lagerfeld’s last residence, where he worked and where choupette lived, was offered at auction. by dana thomas i’m a reporter for the real estate section of the new york times. here are five things i'm enjoying right now. by anna kodé mouna ayoub has a huge collection of haute couture, and now, 252 of her chanel pieces designed by karl lagerfeld are going up for auction. by elizabeth paton at outhouse jewelry, kaabia and sasha grewal are reeling in big names with bird stud earrings, silver chokers and celestial motifs. by upasana das

magazine arts & culture fashion music shop contact + series film more the first monday of may tends to be one of the most significant and annual historic fashion events of the year. from womenswear to menswear, it can only be the met gala. held in new york's metropolitan museum of art, this soirée was established in 1948 as a fundraiser for the costume institute. the very first gala was a midnight dinner and tickets were only $50 each. however, in 1973 the met gala was met with significant changes when editor in chief diana vreeland become a consultant for the costume institute, thus introducing annual themes for the balls. today, the met gala is a luxurious, blockbuster event and considered "the jewel in new york city's social crown." the gala is regarded to be the most exclusive and renowned event in the world, and one of the biggest fundraising nights in new york city. since anna wintour become the new vogue editor in chief and chairman of the event in 1995, the gala has broken records year after year such as $9 million raised in 2013 to a record breaking $12 million in 2014. the gala then looked to surpass a predicted $200 million usd after 2019. individual tickets now cost $40,000 for those outside the official guest list to achieve the utmost exclusivity. unfortunately in 2020 due to concerns of the worldwide pandemic covid 19, the met gala this year has been indefinitely pushed back. and as much as we fashionistas are saddened that we won't get to scrutinise a plethora of celebrities and their versions of this year's theme, we also won't be able to see designers showcase their latest creations either. so instead, i have curated a list of the best met gala designers who have created jaw droppingly fabulous looks from a all the way to z. let's get into it. alexander mcqueen the four time winner of 'british designer of the year' has produced gorgeous looks on celebrities such as naomi campbell, nicole kidman and florence welch. the alexander mcqueen fashion house is now run by creative director sarah burton since the designers passing in 2010 and has designed gowns for royalty such as kate middleton who wore a mcqueen wedding dress. burberry established in 1856 by thomas burberry, this brand originally focused on developing outdoor attire. the brand has since moved into the high fashion market, retaining the iconic burberry check pattern that is recognisable by almost anyone. pictured here is ezra miller in a pinstripe suit and diamond corset for the theme 'camp' attempting to merge and bend ideas of gender. balmain natasha poly wears a balmain number, a french brand that has had 10 different creative directors since the death of founder pierre balmain in 1982. with olivier rousteing being a relatively unknown designer but now holding onto the reigns as creative director, he has brought a fresh take on the brand's aesthetic that remains to this day. he has also been credited with adding an asian influence to the clothing, as asia comprises a huge part of the brand's buyers. balenciaga (this designer was the first theme in 1973, 'the world of balenciaga') spanish fashion house balenciaga has a reputation as a couturier of strong standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by christian dior. lady gaga lets us remember founder cristóbal balenciaga by being the brand is known to create avant garde pieces. they have always gone against the rules, guidelines and bourgeoisie status of the governing body of the french industry (chambre syndicale de la haute couture parisienne). bob mackie cher's favourite designer. award winning american bob mackie has dressed a number of celebrities since designing costumes as far back as the 1960s on broadway. referred to as "the sultan of sequins" or "the rajah of rhinestones" bob mackie has said, "a woman who wears my clothes is not afraid to be noticed." chanel founded in 1909, fashion house chanel adopted simple line designs that were opposite of the hourglass figure that was achieved by the fashions of the late 19th century. chanel has been known to use colours that were traditionally associated with masculinity in europe such as navy blue or grey to denote feminine boldness of character. mary kate olsen, ashley olsen and lily rose depp are featured here wearing classic chanel that accentuate the timeless designs, such as gold buttons and chains. carolina herrera after working for designer emilio pucci in 1965, she has not only worked her way from appearing on the international best dressed list in 1972 but was then elected to its hall of fame in 1980. diana vreeland, vogue's editor in chief at the time suggested she design a clothing line. a few of her most notable clients have included jacqueline kennedy onassis, who asked her to design the dress for her daughter caroline's wedding. alicia keys wears a mint green, hooded, sequin tulle gown inspired by grace jones. comme des garçons japanese fashion label comme des garçons (like the boys) has developed a market based department store concept that stocks its main collections and features their other brands such as shirt and play. rihanna wears an interesting and eccentric dress that is supposed to combat masculinity and femininity in one. christian siriano siriano first gained attention after winning the fourth season of american design television show project runway. after being rejected by the fashion institute of technology, siriano decided to study abroad at the american intercontinental university in london, england. he then interned at vivienne westwood and later at alexander mcqueen which is his favourite designer. he moved to new york after graduating. he celebrated the 10th anniversary of his fashion line in february 2018 with a runway show of his fall 2018 collection. the new york city show featured a diverse set of models, including ashley graham, selma blair and danielle brooks. this interesting look was worn by michael urie that merged two looks together for the theme 'camp'. calvin klein established in 1968, ck is one of the most well known brands in the world. it specialises in leather, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewellery, watches and ready to wear. starting as a coat shop in new york city, the brand has moved from nearly facing bankruptcy to becoming a billion dollar company. dior this french fashion house was founded in 1946 by designer christian dior. it currently designs and retails leather goods, fashion accessories, footwear, jewellery, timepieces, fragrance, makeup, and skincare products, but also maintains its tradition as a creator of haute couture under the christian dior couture division. dior has created solid partnerships with hollywood celebrities and social media influencers, working closely with these individuals to reach a wider range of demographics and re establish its identity as a new, modern brand, despite the fact that it has been around for a while. david laport laport has kickstarted his career by creating a modern brand aesthetic which is to contemporise the female form. the cut and fit of a garment is supposed to take centre stage, like this canary yellow piece solange wears. specialising in women's wear, laport takes inspiration from experimental female silhouettes which are sculptural in shape but light and prone to movement. a bright colour palette keeps this image fresh. dundas peter dundas is a norwegian designer who was appointed creative director at roberto cavalli. he studied in new york, moved to paris and became an assistant to jean paul gautier in 1992 for 10 years, then moved to christian lacroix for two years, turned into an artistic director for pucci and finally arriving at cavalli. dundas had developed pucci's brand history of glamorous, colourful and patterned collections that focused on nightlife as a key inspiration. art of elysium named dundas the recipient of its visionary award for 2020, with the designer creating the decorations for its annual gala on the theme of "heaven". donna karan nicknamed the queen of seventh avenue, donna karan is an american fashion designer and the creator of the donna karan new york and dkny clothing labels. the council of fashion designers of america named her menswear designer of the year 1992 and womenswear designer of the year 1990 and 1996. she was a nominee for the latter again in 2003 and was presented with the lifetime achievement award by the cfda in 2004. she won special cfda awards in 1985, 1986 and 1987. dolce & gabbana domenico dolce and stefano gabbana met in milan in 1980 and designed for the same fashion house. in 1982, they established a designer consulting studio; in time it grew to become "dolce & gabbana". they presented their first women's collection in 1985 in milan, where a year later their store would open its doors. having been inspired by the eclectic thrift shop and bohemian styles, dolce & gabbana features deeply coloured designs and animal prints. they have been described as "haute hippy dom" and take inspiration in italian film history. domenico says: "when we design it's like a movie. we think of a story and we design the clothes to go with it." they say that they are more concerned about creating the best and most flattering clothes rather than sparking trends. they once also said that they wouldn't mind if their only contribution to fashion history was a black bra. but sicily and sicilian culture is what is most important to the style and identity of dolce & gabbana. erdem known for his use of experimental textiles, vibrant prints, and detailed craftsmanship, erdem moralioglu mixes the delicate with the bold. after interning with vivienne westwood, erdem has received around 11 awards over the years such as from the british fashion council and most recently the 2015 british fashion council’s establishment designer award. he was also nominated by the british fashion council for "designer of the year 2009" and was named one of the 1000 most influential people in london by the evening standard. ferragamo salvatore ferragamo first opened the hollywood boot shop in 1923 in california after emigrating from italy. after returning home, he set up a shoe shop in florence in 1927. the current shoemaking company regards 1928 as the date of its foundation, however, and it therefore celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2008. after salvatore's death, the company has continued to display innovative designs and use of materials. such ingenuity goes back to salvatore's time in california, when he studied anatomy to make shoes which were more comfortable. notable innovations include the wedge heel, the shell shaped sole, the ‘invisible’ sandal, metal heels and soles, the 18 carat gold sandal, the sock shoe, sculpture heels, and the gloved arch shoe created for the maharani of cooch behar in 1938. gucci gucci was founded by guccio gucci in florence, tuscany, in 1921. it has been ranked in the forbes "world's most valuable brands" list and also the 38th most valuable brand in the world. gucci is also the highest selling italian brand. gucci's distinctive lines made its products among the most frequently copied in the world in the early 2000s. pigskin, calf, and imported exotic animal skins were subjected to various methods of fabrication. a particularly iconic touch, introduced in 1964, was the use of the double g logo for belt buckles and other accessory decorations giambattista valli an italian fashion designer whose designs both ready to wear and haute couture were presented semi annually during paris fashion week. his designs are one that is a leading and established in the worldwide fashion scene that brings a new approach and meaning to luxury and beauty that attracts a universe of young, modern and international generation. aiming to be worn by the highly glamorous and sophisticated women from around the globe, valli has been praised by celebrities and fashion lovers alike, earning him a star honoree award from fashion group international in 2011 in new york and best designer of the year awards from elle china in 2013 and from marie claire spain in 2015. givenchy the house of givenchy was founded in 1952 by designer hubert de givenchy but after his retirement in 1995 it has been seen by a handful of different directors. most recently its artistic director was clare waight keller, the first woman to hold that position. in 1954, hubert de givenchy presented the first shirt dress (which later evolved into the sack dress in 1957 and he was the first high fashion designer to create a luxury ready to wear clothing line, called "givenchy université", which was produced in paris using machinery imported from the united states. guo pei couture guo pei is a chinese fashion designer. she is best known for designing dresses for chinese celebrities, and in america for rihanna's trailing yellow gown at the 2015 met ball. in an interview with forbes magazine, she recalls her father having thrown away her sketches and paintings as a child. in the same interview, guo says she got her start in sewing at the age of 2 years old, helping her mother make clothes for the winter and developed her love for dressmaking. her first collection to be showcased as a part of paris fashion week was her spring summer 2016 collection. inspired by spring flowers for femininity and the phoenix for peace and purity, the collection had traditional chinese influences like gold tassels, intricate threadwork embroidery over silk, bibs and long trains. giles deacon giles deacon is an english fashion designer, creative director and founder of giles deacon group, couture fashion house. deacon was employed by the fashion houses bottega veneta and gucci, before founding his own label, giles, in 2003. he launched his first collection for giles at the 2004 london fashion week and was named "best new designer" at the british fashion awards. deacon's designs have been met with critical acclaim and have sparked a renewed interest in london fashion. deacon has been known to challenge the traditional ideas of womenswear and often uses wild prints and pop culture references in his designs. halston roy halson frowick's designs are usually minimalist, clean and often made of cashmere or ultrasuede. they were a new phenomenon in the mid 1970s discotheques and redefined american fashion. halston was known for creating a relaxed urban lifestyle for american women. his fame rose when he designed the pillbox hat jacqueline kennedy wore to the inauguration of her husband, president john f. kennedy, in 1961. in the late 1960s, halston made the transition to women's clothing, opening a boutique on madison avenue in new york and started a ready to wear line. iris van herpen fashion designer iris van herpen is internationally recognised as one of fashion’s most talented and forward thinking creators who continuously pushes the boundaries of fashion design. since her first show in 2007, van herpen has been preoccupied with developing new forms and methods of sartorial expression by combining the most traditional and the most radical materials and garment construction methods into her unique aesthetic vision. today, van herpen continues to work within her amsterdam studio, where new ideas are born, and where haute couture orders are meticulously crafted for her global clientele, each creation passing through the designer’s own hands. jw anderson jonathan anderson founded fashion label jw anderson in 2008 and lived in northern ireland during his youth. the brand mostly focuses on menswear but started focusing on womenswear in 2010. from 2012 onwards, the brand and its designer have collaborated with a number of retail fashion brands, most notably topshop and versace. in september 2016, jw anderson announced their first exhibition disobedient bodies from march to june in 2017. the show was aimed to create a discussion on the theme of the human body and more specifically how each body part can disobey. more than 100 works were presented including issey miyake and yves saint laurent. jean paul gaultier in 1982, gaultier founded his eponymous fashion label and from 2003 to 2010 he served as the creative director at french luxury house hermès for womenswear. when he was younger he began to send sketches to famous couture stylists at an early age instead of seeking formal training as a designer. french italian designer pierre cardin was impressed by his talent and hired him as an assistant in 1970. gaultier was the creative director of hermès from 2003 to 2010 and is most well known for the 2003 04 exhibit in the costume institute of new york's metropolitan museum of art entitled "braveheart: men in skirts," which showed designs by dries van noten, vivienne westwood, and rudi gernreich which was for"designers and individuals who have appropriated the skirt as a means of injecting novelty into male fashion, as a means of transgressing moral and social codes, and as a means of redefining an ideal masculinity." karl lagerfeld anna wintour herself wearing a karl lagerfeld outfit, whom she was a friend of till his passing in 2019. he was known as the creative director of the french fashion house chanel, a position held from 1983 until his death, was also the creative director of the italian fur and leather goods fashion house fendi and of his own fashion label. he collaborated on a variety of fashion and art related projects. lagerfeld first came into the fashion world when he entered a coat design competition sponsored by the international wool secretariat. he won the coat category and befriended yves saint laurent, who won the dress category, and was soon after hired by pierre balmain. he worked as balmain's assistant, and later apprentice, for three years, thus beginning his career. louis vuitton louis vuitton malletier, commonly referred to as louis vuitton is a french fashion house and luxury retail company founded in 1854. for six consecutive years (2006 2012), louis vuitton has been named the world's most valuable luxury brand. lv originally started as a brand for luggage to create light and practical ways of storage. in 1901, the louis vuitton company introduced the 'steamer bag', a smaller piece of luggage designed to be kept inside vuitton luggage trunks and went on to creating the 'speedy bag' thus starting the development for leather goods, and eventually fashion. on 26 march 2018, virgil abloh (pictured) was named artistic director of men's wear, replacing kim jones who had departed for dior. he is the label's first african american artistic director and one of few black designers of a major european fashion house. his debut show was held at the 2018 paris men's fashion week and staged in the historical palais royal gardens' courtyard. lanvin founded by jeanne lanvin, this brand was established in 1889 and is the third oldest french fashion house. lanvin first made clothes for her daughter, marie blanche de polignac, which began to attract the attention of a number of wealthy people, who requested copies for their own children. soon, lanvin was making dresses for their mothers and some of the most famous names in europe. the lanvin logo shows a mother and daughter wearing gowns that were inspired by a photograph taken for jeanne lanvin as she attended a ball with her daughter wearing matching outfits in 1907. miu miu italian high fashion brand miu miu is a sister brand and fully owned by prada and was established in 1993. they opened their first independent store in china in 2009 and in 2011, miu miu launched the women's tales series. the campaign consisted of short films that were produced in conjunction with high profile female directors. the outcome was a list of short, silent films that featured miu miu's collections and was shown at the 69th venice international film festival. marchesa marchesa is named after socialite marchesa luisa casati and is an american brand based in new york city. the brand was founded by georgina chapman and keren craig as chapman first started working as a costume designer and craig working in textiles and embroidery. marchesa proves to be a red carpet favourite as many hollywood actresses choose this particular designer to be pictured in. moschino founded in 1983 by franco moschino, this italian fashion house specialises in leather accessories, shoes, luggage and fragrances. moschino and his fashion label first became famous for his innovative, colourful and sometimes eccentric designs. but also for his love of fairies. the brand consists of several labels: moschino (women's and men's mainline), moschino cheap and chic (women's secondary line, created in 1988), love moschino (women's and men's diffusion line, known as moschino jeans from 1986 to 2008), in order of exclusivity. in addition, accessories, jewellery, watches, perfume and cosmetics, and even jet helmets are sold under the moschino brand. maison margiela founded by belgian fashion designer martin margiela in 1988, he is known for constructive and avant garde designs with unconventional materials. maison margiela has traditionally held live shows in unusual settings, for example, empty metro stations and street corners. models' faces are often obscured by fabric or long hair to direct attention to the clothes and design. maison margiela's designs are also famous for deconstruction style traits such as exposed seams, being oversized and upcycling garments. margiela is known for showcasing collections in atypical settings and manners, withthe new york times describing the shows as "alternately electrifying or humorous or sexy or just plain weird.". they also designed the wardrobe for kanye west's yeezus tour in 2013. michael kors the honorary chairman and chief creative officer of his own brand, michael kors' affinity for fashion started when he was very young. his mother thought it might have been caused in part by his exposure to the clothing industry through her modelling career. michael, at the age of five, even redesigned his mother's wedding dress for her second marriage. the michael michael kors line was launched in 2004, joining the original michael kors collection label. it includes women's handbags and shoes as well as women's ready to wear apparel. as of the end of the first fiscal quarter in 2016, kors had over 770 lifestyle stores around the world. marc jacobs american fashion designer marc jacobs was creative director of louis vuitton between 1997 2014 and was on time magazine's "100 most influential people in the world" in 2010. from first working as a stock boy when he was 15 years old, he eventually went on to designing and sold his first line of hand knit sweaters. in 1987, he was the youngest designer to have ever been awarded the fashion industry's highest tribute, the council of fashion designers of america's perry ellis award for "new fashion talent". jacobs was one of the first fashion designers to establish this "streetwise aesthetics   a [mash up of] a little preppie, a little grunge, a little couture." oscar de la renta óscar arístides renta fiallo, known professionally as oscar de la renta, was a dominican fashion designer. de la renta first became internationally known in the 1960s as one of the couturiers who dressed jacqueline kennedy. he has previously worked for lanvin and balmain. being one of seven children, he studied painting in madrid and for or extra money, he drew clothes for newspapers and fashion houses. francesca lodge, the wife of the u.s. ambassador to spain, saw some of his dress sketches and she commissioned de la renta to design a gown for her daughter. the dress appeared on the cover of life magazine that autumn. he quickly became interested in the world of fashion design and began sketching for leading spanish fashion houses, which soon led to an apprenticeship with spain's most renowned couturier, cristóbal balenciaga. he considered cristóbal balenciaga his mentor. off white off white is an italian fashion brand that was founded by virgil abloh and once called pyrex vision. the brand's clothing uses stylised items like its use of quotation marks, zip ties, yellow industrial buckle belt design, and its four way arrows that create a cross. after criticisms with the brand, abloh then rebranded the company as off white, which he describes as "the grey area between black and white as the colour off white" to the fashion world. prada starting in 1913 by mario prada and his brother martino as a leather goods store. it initially sold trunks, animal goods and handbags. mario was someone who didn't believe that women should have a role in business, so he prevented female family members from entering his company. ironically, mario's son harboured no interest in the business, so it was his daughter luisa prada who took the helm of prada as his successor and ran it for almost twenty years. her own daughter, miuccia prada, joined the company in 1970, eventually taking over for her mother in 1978. in 1992, the high fashion brand miu miu, named after miuccia's nickname, launched. miu miu catered to younger consumers, such as celebrities. prabal gurung prabal gurung is a nepalese american designer based in new york. before entering the fashion universe, gurung earned a bachelors degree in hotel management but had always been interested in clothing and colours. after moving to new delhi, india, he attended the national institute of fashion technology and did apprenticeships at fashion and production houses. whilst working under manish arora, he grew as a designer that surrounded the "brilliance of bollywood to the fabrics, embroideries, and textures you can find at chandni chowk to the fast paced streets of mumbai." philip treacy an award winning irish hat designer who was described by vogue magazine as "perhaps the greatest living milliner". he has won british accessory designer of the year at the british fashion awards five times and has received public honours in both britain and ireland. his designs have been displayed at the victoria and albert museum and the metropolitan museum of art. aged at 23, he was asked by karl lagerfeld to come to the chanel showrooms in paris which was the start of a long term working relationship. treacy has designed hats for alexander mcqueen, including his 1999 white collection for givenchy in paris, for karl lagerfeld at chanel, and for valentino, ralph lauren, donna karan, versace and rifat ozbek. in january 2000, he became the first milliner for eighty years to be invited to exhibit at the paris shows. ralph lauren ralph lauren: fashion designer, philanthropist and billionaire businessman. the ralph lauren corporation started in 1967 with men's ties. then at 28 years of age, lauren worked for the tie manufacturer beau brummell, where he convinced the company's president to let him start his own line. drawing on his interests in sports, lauren named his first full line of menswear 'polo' in 1968. in 1972, the ralph lauren corporation first introduced their signature cotton mesh polo shirt in various colours. it featured the polo player logo at the chest and since then, the shirt became emblematic of the preppy look one of ralph lauren's signature styles. the tagline for the ad campaign was: "every team has its colour   polo has seventeen." roberto cavalli known for exotic prints and for creating the sand blasted look for jeans, cavalli first, in the early 1970s, invented and patented a printing procedure on leather and started creating patchworks of different materials. he debuted these techniques in paris, immediately getting commissions from the likes of hermès and pierre cardin. ralph & russo a privately held company owned and founded by tamara ralph and michael russo. founded in 2010, the fashion house began in mayfair, london and in 2014, it was announced that it had become the first british fashion house to be accredited by the chambre syndicale de la haute couture in over a century. it was announced that after 2018, ralph & russo would be releasing their ready to wear collection and after premiering in the spring, vogue described it as a "new iteration of luxury, made in london but cut for everyone who can afford it." roland mouret born in lourdes, france, mouret had his fashion training consisting of three months in a parisian fashion college in 1979. although he left school to begin designing, he lacked skill in garment creation. however, he had "a native awareness of sensuality" that allowed him to create "irresistible" clothing. in 2006 after moving to new york, he introduced his galaxy dress that had every a list celebrity wearing it and was called the "dress of the season". rachel zoe rachel zoe rosenzweig has been involved in the fashion industry for nearly two decades and is an american fashion designer, businesswoman, and writer. she began her career as an editor and then as a stylist for a number of celebrities, to then release her clothing line in 2011 which consisted of 60s and 70s style separates, footwear and handbags. in 2012, she announced that her line would start to include jewellery and cold weather accessories. stella mccartney mccartney, the daughter of photographer, musician and animal rights activist linda mccartney and singer songwriter sir paul mccartney has been interested in designing since her youth. she launched her first fashion house in 2001 in a joint venture with kering under the gucci group but after 17 years of partnership, she decided to purchase the fashion giant's stake of her company and take the reins of her global fashion empire. in honour of her late mother and being a life long vegetarian, she specifically makes sure her clothing does not use fur or leather. she supports peta and some of mccartney's designs have text that elaborates on her "no animal" policy. tommy hilfiger this brand started in 1968 when hilfiger co funded a record store named people's place in new york. in the early 1980s he met mohan murjani, an indian textile magnate who wanted to release a range of clothing and with his help, eventually he debuted his first signature collection. the brand featured modernised versions of button down shirts, chinos, and other classic preppy styles. the casual youthful attitude of these first designs would remain a trait of the tommy hilfiger corporation's later collections. thierry mugler french designer manfred thierry mugler first started out at the age of 9 studying classical music and by 14, joined the ballet. he moved to paris and worked as a freelance designer at 26 began to design for a variety of large ready to wear fashion houses in paris, milan, london and barcelona. he created his first personal collection called "café de paris" in which the style of the collection was both sophisticated and urban. melka tréanton, a powerful fashion editor, helped to launch his career. in 1976, she asked him to show his work in tokyo for an event organized by shiseido. he has worked for a handful of musicians and created costumes and cosmetics. even though he retired from his brand in 2003, he decided to make an exception to design under his name "house of mugler" for a dear friend of his, kim kardashian. getting his inspiration from sophia loren in boy on a dolphin, mugler envisioned a wet california girl; hence the creation of the "wet couture dress". thom browne a new york city based menswear and womenswear brand created by thom browne himself. after attempting an acting career, he moved to new york city and worked as a salesman in georgio armani's showroom. he was picked up by club monaco, a brand of ralph lauren and became creative director of its team. he launched his own label seven years later. he is most known for teaming up with italian brand moncler and designing a men's collection in 2009. tom ford having previously been a creative director for gucci and yves saint laurent, tom ford launched his brand in 2006. ford spent a year and a half in paris, where he worked as an intern in chloé's press office which inspired his interest in fashion. as gucci struggled financially in 1990, ford joined the company and his role at gucci rapidly expanded; he was designing menswear within six months, and shoes soon after that. when richard lambertson left as design director in 1992, ford took over his position, heading the brand's ready to wear, fragrances, image, advertising, and store design. the tom ford brand is described as international, cultured, well travelled, and for women possessing disposable income. he added "strong women, … intelligent women who know their own style". the blonds co founded by david and phillipe blond, they were two new york creatives who were obsessed with nightlife. whether it was by luck or fate, david and phillipe meeting led to an ever growing alternative fashion empire that merged their mutual interests into handmade clothes fit for rock stars. “it's all the things we had in common and all of the things that inspired us as children from jem and the holograms and old hollywood bombshells to barbie and catwoman,” says david. “technically, everything we do is based around those inspirations and that's what links them all together.” fashion is fast. it's glamorous. it's a giant, rolling ball of fire that doesn't stop and it is displayed in every design that the blonds produce. versace founded by gianni versace in 1978, the iconic medusa logo is one that is universally known. it was chosen because she made people fall in love with her and they had no way back. he had hoped his company would have the same effect on people and on those who wore his clothes and shoes. known for having flashy designs and prints, it was described as a "rock and roll" designer because of its clientele. in 2018, michael kors acquired all shares of gianni versace and had donatella versace (gianni's sister) as creative director after gianni's death. versace has made statement garments that gain widespread popularity such as jennifer lopez' green dress in 2000 at the 42nd annual grammy awards, which was voted the fifth most iconic dress of all time in 2008 and a black dress adorned with large gold safety pins worn by elizabeth hurley in 1994, referred to as "that" dress. valentino an italian fashion designer, the founder of the valentino brand and company. his main lines include valentino, valentino garavani, valentino roma, and r.e.d. valentino. born in lombardy, italy, valentino had an interest in fashion since primary school. he eventually moved to paris and studied in an art school. he found an apprenticeship with jean dessès, a world leading french designer, and sketched as much as he could, between helping with window dressing and greeting clients for the daily 2:30 pm private showings. throughout the 1970s, he spent a considerable amount of time in new york and meeting vogue's editor in chief at the time diana vreeland and continued designing up until his retirement in 2008. vera vang vera wang is an american designer of chinese descent and was hired by vogue after graduating college, making her their youngest editor at the magazine. she worked there for 17 years before departing to work at ralph lauren for two, then resigned and became an independent bridal wear designer. she even used to design costumes for ice skaters as she is a passionate skater herself since the age of eight. her more affordable line simply vera was sold exclusively at khol's in 2007 whereas "white by vera wang" launched at david's bridal in 2011. yves saint laurent yves saint laurent, was a french fashion designer who founded his iconic fashion label in 1961. as well as being regarded as one of the most eponymous and foremost fashion designers of the 20th century, he can be credited with both spurring the coutures rise from its 1960's ashes by making ready to wear reputable. by developing his style to stay alongside the changes within fashion, he approached his aesthetic from a different perspective by helping women find confidence by looking comfortable and elegant at the same time. he was also credited for creating the "le smoking" tuxedo suit for women and was known for using diverse models that didn't have euro centric features for his fashion. zac posen zac posen first began to make his journey into fashion professionally in 2000 after receiving a prominent career opportunity after a dress he made for naomi campbell changed hands several times among several fashion insiders. with a $20,000 grant from genart's fresh faces in fashion new york 2001 and an atelier set up in his parents living room, he embarked on his first runway show in 2001. he went on to make uniforms for delta air lines as well as becoming an official judge on project runway starting with season 11 and staying on till season 16. as well as this, posen collaborated with david's bridal to create a range of affordable wedding dresses and then names creative director for brooks brothers in an effort to modernise their signature woman's clothing and accessories line. as well as designing a dress for princess eugenie of york, he also has gone one to release a collection of genderless wedding rings. zuhair murad this lebanese fashion designer made his first appearance on the catwalks of rome and then went on to open a shop in beirut in 1995. with his extensive lines showing haute couture, ready to wear and accessories, he also had plans to expand his fashion line into beauty, perfumes, swimwear, lingerie as well as furniture. with two boutiques and showrooms opening in paris, he also has a showroom in milan. with his work being worn by the likes of adele, taylor swift, carrie underwood, beyonce knowles, jennifer lopez, shakira, katy perry, vanessa williams and more, these showstopper gowns carry detailed embellishments and embroideries that truly stops us in our tracks. patta ss25: culture, worn and told nsg enlist lyvia for new single 'venus' gucci moves on from sabato’s ancora © 2023 by new wave magazine. proudly created by new wave studios

houston collectors, 1968, rg10 010 003 the mfah archives highlights its collections with online exhibitions. drawing on a variety of documents including photographs, letters, ephemera, and more the exhibitions feature stories from the museum's rich history. in the records of past museum exhibitions, a researcher can find a variety of treasures. some of these gems one might expect to find, such as essays for the catalogue, press clippings, and checklists of artworks included in the exhibition. additionally, the records often include project proposals, curatorial correspondence, interoffice memoranda documenting the planning of the exhibition, text of the accompanying wall labels, plot plans for of the precise placement of art in the gallery space, and press coverage. this image is from the archives for glass of imperial rome from the john f. fort collection, exhibited in june 2002. the show was curated by frances marzio. handwritten labels are paired with small drawings of the pieces included in the exhibition. all great ideas begin somewhere. for an exhibition, it is with the project proposal. a curator drafts a proposal about why this particular exhibition will be beneficial to the museum. sometimes, museums send out project proposals to other institutions to see if there is interest in participating in a traveling exhibition. initially, the plan is presented to a small group of staff. if approved, the proposal then moves on to a larger grouping of the staff before finally being accepted by the museum’s board. the proposal may be refined between meetings in order to gain approval. here is an example of a project proposal for the splendor of rome: the 18th century (june 2000). checklists are a strong indicator of the progression of a show. as object loans get approved or denied and budgets become tighter, checklists grow and shrink. often, if the exhibition is traveling, checklists vary depending on the venue. museums may supplement the exhibition with relevant works from their own collections. other works may not be permitted to travel due to conservation concerns or donor restrictions. the initial checklists can be very different than the final selection chosen for opening night. this is a sample checklist from the splendor of rome: the 18th century. the amount of correspondence that revolves around an exhibition can be immense. there is contact between the curator and the donors, asking for financial support for a multitude of different aspects regarding the exhibition; the lenders, inquiring after certain pieces; and interoffice, working on the logistics to insure that the show is executed smoothly. because exhibitions take a long time to plan, correspondence for a particular show can span several years. the letter seen here was written by in 1930 by photographer edward weston to james chillman, the founding director of the mfah, agreeing to send the museum some of his prints. © 1981 center for creative photography, arizona board of regents plot plans provide a layout of where the objects will go in the museum space. similar to an architectural drawing, in addition to showing where the objects are placed in the galleries, plot plans show doorways and walls, helping to illustrate the flow of the space. knowing how objects are placed in relation to each other in the exhibition gives some insight into the curator’s intent for audience interaction. plot plans have the potential for change based on recommendations by the installation team. generally, plot plans are found in the records of the office of the registrar. this plan for the splendor of rome: the 18th century shows the layout of objects in the galleries. wall labels are the most effective way of relaying information about a piece of artwork to a visitor. labels contain information such as a work's title, date of creation, artist, artist’s life span, and a small summary of information about the significance of the work. these wall labels were created for the draftsman’s art: master drawings from the national gallery of scotland. they show the variety of labels that can be created for exhibitions: the first has more didactic information, while the second is a “tombstone” label, containing only essential information about the work of art. exhibitions are the culmination of years of research and planning, yet press coverage can be a major factor in determining the success of a show. the media can affect attendance, both in a positive and negative way. in some cases, what the press writes will influence the perception of a show years after closing. press coverage serves to attract audiences but also to examine the themes of the exhibition. success of a show is not only about the attendance numbers but also the ongoing conversation years later. this quote from anne wilkes tucker, curator of photography, reprinted above, shows that robert frank’s work in an exhibition had a lasting impact. printed in the houston post, february 27, 1986. ultimately, it is the public that determines the success of an exhibition. visitor comments are one tool for studying the public’s reactions. comment books are an example of exhibition related documentation found outside of curatorial and registrarial records. here is a page of the comment book from the exhibition british designers: from monarchy to anarchy (november 2000). this shows some of the many types of people that come to exhibitions: this page includes a child’s handwriting, a note in spanish, and a faint outline of a female figure. many museum goers use audio guides when visiting a new exhibition, particularly if the exhibition's subject is not well known. wtih audio guides, visitors are gently navigated through the galleries with experts sharing tidbits of knowledge. audio guides indicate how the museum prefers patrons to interact with the exhibition and what they should leave the museum remembering. the excerpt here is the script for the introduction to the splendor of rome: the 18th century's audio tour. opening night is when the exhibition finally gets the spotlight. paint is dry. lighting is installed. cases are sealed and frames are hung. the press has already gotten a sneak peek. now, it's up to the art to shine. opening nights have many components. different dinners honor lenders, donors, and guests of honor. speeches and lectures have to be prepared, menus finalized, and guest lists double checked. if there are multiple venues for an exhibition, there are multiple opening nights. records pertaining to these celebrations can be found in the records of the development and curatorial departments. this is the invitation for the splendor of rome: the 18th century's opening dinner, hosted at rienzi, the mfah house museum for european decorative arts and paintings, the night before the exhibition opened to the public. since its foundation in 1900, the museum of fine arts, houston, has hosted over 2,500 exhibitions. the exhibitions have ranged in size and scope over the years, growing as the museum refined its record keeping practices. the records of those exhibitions are housed in the museum’s archives, in both the registrar's (rg05) and curatorial (rg04) records. related records can be found in marketing (rg11) and education (rg08). the records reveal how the museum has changed under its many directors and curators and also reflect on the evolution of artistic movements. from its earliest days as an outgrowth of the houston art league, the museum of fine arts, houston championed the work of texas artists. emma richardson cherry, julian onderdonk, edward “buck” schiwetz, robert joy, mary bonner, and alexandre hogue are among the prominent early texans whose artwork was displayed in solo shows in the decade following the museum’s establishment in 1924. shown here is a canvas fragment with an untitled original painting by emma richardson cherry, an artist, educator, and founding member of the art league. [ms08, box 1] the annual houston artists exhibitions were held at the museum of fine arts, houston from 1925 1960. purchase prizes were awarded each year, with artwork selected to enter the museum’s permanent collection. the museum also sponsored the texas general exhibitions from 1940 to 1961 and annual exhibitions of photography by texas photographers from 1926 to 1937. it frequently hosted the southern states art league circuit exhibitions between the years 1924 and 1943. a broad range of early artists from the lone star state were represented; most of these annual group exhibitions have been indexed by artist name and they are searchable at www.mfah.org/archives. [rg11.1, series 2, box 1, folder 6] for decades, self described “painter/fisherman” forrest bess worked in isolation from his home studio in bay city, on the very edge of the gulf of mexico. in 1941, and again in 1951, bess showed his work at the mfah in solo exhibitions organized by director james chillman. at the time of his first show, bess was painting houses, dogs, and still lifes in something of a naïve impressionist style. by his second show he had devoted himself to painting symbolic abstractions which he called “ideograms,” based on the visions that plagued his sleep. bess’s 1958 masterpiece “untitled, no. 11a” entered the museum’s permanent collection in 1988. [rg05.01, box 8, folder 24] at the twenty fifth annual houston artists exhibition, the purchase prize was awarded to a new arrival to the city, a young professor at texas southern university named john biggers who impressed the judges with his conte crayon drawing “the cradle.” however, because african americans were allowed into the museum only on thursdays, biggers was not able to attend the reception given in his honor. founding director james chillman had expressed dissatisfaction with the social status quo since the early days of his directorship and seized upon the opportunity to fully integrate museum audiences. biggers’ work celebrating african american history and identity would be featured prominently at the museum over the years, with 1954’s paintings and drawings by john biggers and james boynton followed by solo shows in 1962, 1968, and 1995. [rg05:01, box 7, folder 5, © john t. biggers estate/licensed by vaga, new york, ny] working in concert with the bank of the southwest and the oil information committee of texas, mfah museum director lee malone and the first dean of the museum school, lowell collins, organized texas oil ’58: a salute to the oil industry of the state by texas painters. the exhibition was an early example of corporate sponsorship of the arts in texas. after being displayed at the dallas public library and the republic national bank of dallas in september and october 1958, the exhibition was installed at the bank of the southwest in november. [rg05.1, box 16, folder 6] fifty six texas artists were represented in the texas oil show, including some who are still active today, such as richard stout, henri gadbois, and leila mcconnell. the $400 purchase prize was awarded to the now obscure fort worth based painter david brownlow for his work “project.” [rg05.1, box 16, folder 6] upon his appointment as museum director in 1961, james johnson sweeney brought with him from the guggenheim both an aesthetic sophistication and a flair for dramatic installations. during his six year administration the annual exhibitions of houston artists were discontinued in favor of a regional juried show with the idea that locals would benefit from competing against a wider pool of talent. he purchased for the museum works by houston based artists dick wray and richard stout and organized exhibitions by faculty members from the museum school. nevertheless, his perceived indifference to local art was lampooned in frank freed’s 1966 painting “out!” in which sweeney summarily dismisses a disconsolate artist and her humble landscape painting from a gallery hung with works by internationally renowned abstract expressionists. [frank freed, out!, c. 1966, oil on wood panel, the museum of fine arts, houston, museum purchase funded by the eleanor and frank freed foundation. © estate of frank freed] in the midst of the 1970s’ oil boom, texas artists found increased visibility with the development of busy art departments at the university of houston, rice university, and the university of saint thomas, and a focused attention on texas art at the contemporary arts museum houston. the mfah refreshed its own commitment to local artists under the directorships of philippe de montebello and william agee with notable shows by dorothy hood and ary stillman. in the spring of 1974, the mfah’s abstract painting and sculpture in houston surveyed the work of some of the city’s leading practitioners, including earl staley, dick wray, roberta harris, philip renteria, richard stout, and ben woitena. in a press release, e.a. carmean, jr., the museum’s curator of twentieth century art, remarked that the exhibition was “designed to show not young, emerging talent, but rather, those working for a sufficient time to develop a vocabulary.” [installation photo by alan mewbourn. photo collection, installation views, box 34] in 1985, the mfah mounted a dramatic show of work by local artists entitled fresh paint: the houston school. forty four painters were represented in the survey, from senior artists like charles schorre, joseph glasco, and john biggers to established, mid career artists such as john alexander and gael stack, as well as new talents including sharon kopriva and kelly alison. organized by curator of twentieth century art barbara rose and art critic susie kalil, the exhibition received national attention and is still perceived as a landmark event in the history of houston’s homegrown art scene. in this photo, mayor kathy whitmire addresses guests at the show’s opening and proclaims january 25, 1985 “fresh paint day.” [photo by chris crane. photo collection, events, exhibition openings, box 2] curated by alison de lima greene, 1990’s tradition and innovation: a museum celebration of texas art drew from the museum’s own collection, with forty painters and sculptors represented. “the exuberance, the quality, and the vitality of texas art gives us a fresh view of the character of this region,” wrote greene. “as a part of an ongoing dialogue between artist and public, studio and museum, this exhibition hopefully will extend the borders of texas.” a second exhibition of texas art from the collection, myths and realities, was shown five years later. pictured at the 1990 opening, from left, are mel chin, randy twaddle, ibsen espada, dorothy hood, james surls, charmaine locke, earl staley, salle vaughan, charles schorre, gilles lyon, michael golden, and derek boshier, whose painting “everyday opera” is partially visible. [photo by tom dubrock. photo collection, events, exhibition openings, box 2] john alexander moved to new york city in 1979, but the swamps and piney woods near his native beaumont continue to influence his art, including his 1982 painting “mr. friend’s revenge,” a gift to the museum from longtime supporters isabel b. and wallace wilson which was displayed in 1995’s texas myths and realities. alexander’s work has been featured in four group shows at the museum as well as a major retrospective in 2008 curated by alison de lima greene. [john alexander, “mr. friend’s revenge” 1982, gift of isabel b. and wallace s. wilson, 83.39, © john alexander] in 2000, selections from the museum’s holdings of texas art were compiled in a 279 page, full color catalog entitled texas: 150 works from the museum of fine arts, houston. curator alison de lima greene’s text provides an overview of the museum’s history of acquiring texas art and analyzes the work’s power to transform the state’s landscape into the mythic and spiritual, with an emphasis on modernist and postmodernist aesthetics. shown here is designer don quaintance’s alternate cover scheme featuring mel chin’s terra infirma [untitled], which was ultimately rejected in favor of a design based on forrest bess’s untitled, no. 11a. [rg4.03.05, box 1, folder 13] as the art guys, jack massing and michael galbreth have become two of houston’s most well known artists. they delight (and sometimes disturb) an unsuspecting public while expanding the boundaries of art with their installations, sculptures, performances, drawings, and video work. for their 2001 piece suits: the clothes make the man, the art guys explored the intersection of art and commerce by traveling the country in finely tailored men’s wear emblazoned with corporate logos. the tour culminated in an exhibition of drawings, ephemera, and of course, the suits themselves, which entered the mfah’s permanent collection. in this photo, the art guys pose with governor ann richards at vespaio ristorante in austin. [ms37, series 7, box 7, folder 4] since its inception in 1925, the mfah has had a rich history of collecting and exhibiting work by texas artists. the museum has presented more than 325 shows by artists from the lone star state, and the mfah collections include some 2,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints by texas artists. peter c. marzio, the museum’s director from 1982 to 2010, wrote that the works “not only offer a vivid portrait of the state seen through the eyes of its artists, but also challenge us to readdress our assumptions about regional art.” “war will not halt art league’s work”, rg17 houston art league records, scrapbook p.68, mfah archives. this brief article published as the united states entered world war i defines an essential, rather than diminished, societal role for art in times of conflict. through archival holdings dating from world war i to the present, this online exhibition will explore the various war time roles adopted by the individuals and organizations that comprise the art community. “the place of the museum in time of war”, excerpt from mfah president ray dudley’s radio address april 12, 1942. rg01 trustee records, annual report, summer 1942, mfah archives this excerpt of mfah president dudley’s address, reprinted in the mfah’s summer 1942 annual report, elaborates on earlier sentiments as the united states stood again on the brink of world war. mike hogg’s company, texas brigade, prior to deployment, c 6/1917, annotated ms2111_0200020150, ms21 ima hogg papers, wwi letters, mfah archives. in his letters home, mike hogg (1885 1941) wrote admiringly of french architecture, countryside, and children. in the early days of his deployment, he found time for language lessons and a musical band. of the soldiers he commanded in the texas brigade, 90th division, 360 infantry, he wrote “[they came] from the east texas counties   trinity, angelina, walker, montgomery, and polk”. they ultimately fought in the meuse argonne offensive, collapsing the last german defense line and bringing about the armistice, november 11, 1918. although less involved with the museum than his brother will, the driving force behind the 1924 capital campaign, and his sister ima, donor of bayou bend collection and gardens, mike served on the mfah’s board from 1939 until his death. excerpt from stella hope shurtleff’s letter to texas art association, 9/28/1918. rg19 houston art league, miscellaneous subjects, correspondence of stella hope shurtleff, mfah archives. during wwi, many art museums, as well as the american federation of arts, circulated numerous exhibitions based on patriotic war themes. in 1916, the mfah held “paintings by french soldier artists” during which patrons could purchase the exhibited works, a not uncommon practice during the days of the houston art league. in this excerpt from a letter to the texas art association, league member and art lecturer stella hope shurtleff comments on an exhibition of aerial war photography, a new phenomenon made possible by the introduction of warfare flight. thomas hart benton, “the sowers”, 1941 1945. arc identifier 515648 / local identifier 44 pa 1966 photographs and other graphic materials from the office for emergency management. office of war information. domestic operations branch. bureau of special services. (03/09/1943   09/15/1945) national archives and records administration american artists used their talents to support the war effort during wwii in various ways. paul manship joined in organizing “artists for victory” that sponsored a war poster competition at the museum of modern art, a contemporary art exhibition at the metropolitan museum of art, and a juried exhibition of prints at the mfah that opened simultaneously in twenty four cities nationwide. although not a member of the group, thomas hart benton graphically conveyed a dire warning against the third reich. “notes on houston artists in service”. rg01 trustee records, annual report, winter 1945, mfah archives. local artists were called into service during wwii, both in active duty and as civilians. on the home front, artists volunteered at ellington field, constructing models of airplanes and the city of tokyo. brigadier general maurice hirsch in wwii photo inscribed to future wife. ms16 001 001, ms16 maurice and winifred hirsch papers, photography, mfah archives. brigadier general maurice hirsch (1890 1983) volunteered in both world wars   in wwi on the war industries board and in wwii as chair of the war contracts price adjustment board and renegotiation division director. he saved the us over 11 billion dollars, earning him the distinguished service medal in 1945. upon leaving active duty in 1947, he married winifred busby, and embarked on a life of travel and philanthropy centered on the arts. maurice served as president of the houston symphony society and as a member of the metropolitan opera association and the international council of the museum of modern art. the hirsches’ involvement with the mfah began in 1951 and led to their roles as life trustees and their endowment of the museum library in 1981. maurice promoted cultural exchange with italy and japan, earning the italian star of solidarity medal (1957) and the third class order of the sacred treasure (1981) for his work as founding president of the japan america society of houston. ms28 series 6   foster plan letter to eleanor freed. ms28 frank freed and eleanor freed stern papers, mfah archives. eleanor freed, art columnist for the houston post in the 1960s and 1970s, and her husband, frank, were fixtures on the nascent houston contemporary art scene of the mid 20th century. the freeds also supported many humanitarian causes. following wwii, eleanor joined the foster parents plan, providing support for a young french girl, monique, in the war torn normandy village of merville. monique, who refers to eleanor as her godmother, sent her this letter and drawing; in a post script, her mother explains that the drawing is of the merville church that was nearly destroyed in 1944 during the american liberation of the dieppe region. harris masterson iii, in military dress. ms32 014 400.02, ms32 harris and carroll sterling masterson papers, mfah archives. having served as an intelligence officer in wwii, native houstonian and philanthropist harris “harry” masterson iii served as an instructor at the rank of captain at fort riley, kansas, during the korean conflict. in 1951, he married carroll sterling cowan. at the end of 1952, the mastersons returned to houston and began a relationship with the mfah that spanned several decades. they also became avid supporters of the visual arts and lavish entertainers. in addition to gifts of art and donations made to the mfah over the years, the mastersons gave rienzi, their river oaks home designed by architect john staub, to the museum in 1991. the prior year, they had received the national medal of arts. still from “road to the olmec head”, 1963. produced and directed by richard de rochemont. avrg02 00004 01, rg02:03 office of the director, james johnson sweeney, mfah archives. in 1949 the us central intelligence agency (cia) launched a covert operation entitled congress for cultural freedom that funded arts projects in european and other countries. designed to juxtapose western artistic expression and the oppressive stalinist regime, the operation bankrolled exhibitions, performances, films and the journal, encounter. richard de rochemont, who had produced a short film entitled the cold war in 1948, worked with his brother louis on the march of time newsreels of the 1930s and 1940s. it was louis who was chosen to produce the cia funded animal farm in 1953. in 1963, richard de rochemont produced the road to the olmec head, that documented the excavation of an ancient olmec head in mexico and its transportation to the mfah. the cia’s covert operation ended in 1967 as a result of exposure in the press. schedule from fall film festival 1974 listing in the year of the pig directed by emile de antonio. rg04:13 curatorial department, film and video, mfah archives. the controversial anti war film about vietnam, in the year of the pig, by emile de antonio was nominated for best documentary feature in 1969 by the academy of motion picture arts and sciences. when it was originally released in 1968, theaters showing the film faced intimidation. in california, a screen where the film was to be projected was vandalized with a tar painted hammer and sickle. a bomb threat against theaters in houston caused the showing to move locations twice. the film played shortly after the brown auditorium was completed at the museum of fine arts, houston in 1974, ironically, the year between the signing of the paris peace accords and the fall of saigon. “afghanistan: a timeless history”, november 17, 2002   february 9, 2003, installation view. rg36 1022 001, photographer thomas r. dubrock, mfah archives. this exhibition celebrated the afghan artistic legacy, that had been the target of taliban censorship. the exhibition paid tribute to the monumental buddhas at bamiyan, which were purposely destroyed by the taliban in 2001. they are represented in their pre  and post taliban states at the entrance to the exhibition. the national museum of kabul lent the mfah objects that presented the diversity and beauty of the art of afghanistan. the afghan staff, at great personal risk, had preserved the art collection during years of taliban rule, factional fighting, and looting. press release announcing mfah’s participation in blue star museums, 5/22/2012. rg08:02_20120502, marketing records, press releases, mfah archives. in 2010 the national endowment of the arts (nea), in collaboration with blue star families and the u.s. department of defense, launched blue star museums, an initiative to provide free museum admission to the nation’s active duty military and their families during the summer months. in may of 2012, the mfah announced its participation in the program. over the course of the summer, the number of blue star museums grew from 1,500 to 1,800. a member of the 147th reconnaissance wing at ellington field thanked “those agencies/organizations [that] make efforts to help out military families with programs such as the blue star program,” writing “my family and i enjoy the arts and will utilize the free admission.” nearly 1,000 troops and family members took the occasion to visit the mfah, which also offers half priced general admission tickets year round to active, reserve, and retired military personnel and their spouses. through archival holdings dating from world war i to the present, this online exhibition explores the various wartime roles adopted by the individuals and organizations that comprise the art community. it correspondes with the mfah exhibition war/photography: images of armed conflict and its aftermath, an unprecedented look at the experience of war through the eyes of photographers, which was on view from november 11, 2012, through february 3, 2013. garth clark (left) with mark del vecchio. ms61 garth clark gallery archive, mfah archives beginning in the 1960s, collectors garth clark and mark del vecchio assembled over five decades an unparalleled collection of modern and contemporary ceramics, focusing on objects that individually and collectively challenge traditional expectations of the medium. here the collectors are pictured with the work of alev ebüzziya siesbye. garth clark gallery newsletter, february 9, 1984. ms61 garth clark gallery archive, mfah archives in one of the early newsletters sent out from the garth clark gallery after the opening of their new york space, clark writes “the new space is doing very well. we have had an excellent response from our peers in the art world and the gallery design even came in for some very flattering praise from clem greenberg.” the garth clark gallery newsletters are a rich source of information, documenting the history of contemporary ceramics in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. card from artist akio takamori to garth clark. © akio takamori ms61 garth clark gallery archive, mfah archives a 1985 garth clark gallery news bulletin describes akio takamori : “…a controversial young ceramist working both in the united states and japan. his work is highly erotic and charged with ambiguity and ambivalence. takamori literally draws figures into his thin envelope shaped vessels using the lip and silhouette of the pot freely as a pictorial device.” in the 1990s, his work moved from vessels towards more figurative sculptural works. the garth clark gallery archive documents this progression of takamori’s artistic style through photography, exhibition materials and correspondence. exhibition designed by peter struycken. haenen artwork © babs haenen. photographer: ©noel allum. ms61 garth clark gallery archive, mfah archives. this is an installation view of a garth clark gallery exhibition of work by babs haenen, a dutch ceramicist with a long relationship with the gallery. janet koplos wrote of this exhibition of haenen’s works: “they evoke an architecture of melting, swelling, fracturing forms…. her dazzlingly fluid forms were extremely well served by struycken’s restrained, nuanced, astute color environment.” from art in america, april 2000. installation view of group exhibition at garth clark gallery. art objects, © lydia buzio, © akio takamori , © estate of ralph bacerra, ©beatrice wood center for the arts & happy valley foundation. ms61 garth clark gallery archive, mfah archives. over six hundred exhibitions have been presented from the garth clark gallery spaces in new york, los angeles and other venues serving an international audience of collectors and museums. group shows such as this one brought together the works of some of the most important artists in modern and contemporary ceramic art. ruth duckworth in studio, 1999. art objects © estate of ruth duckworth, courtesy thea burger . ms61 garth clark gallery archive, mfah archives an article in ceramic arts notes, april 6 may 22, 1999, preceding the garth clark gallery exhibition ruth duckworth at 80 states, “her large studio in chicago, a converted pickle factory, is filled with half completed experimental forms that were destined for this exhibition. some ideas made it to the final cut and others were abandoned. …. for those who have followed her long career, the fact that this show includes so many new forms will come as no surprise.” ms61 garth clark gallery archive, mfah archives potter michael cardew discussed his techniques and philosophy in the slide presentation michael cardew: a coffeepot, “you’ve got to center it, just as if it were a pot. and in it, you will see it running smoothly through your fingers…. well, it doesn’t look much you see as it is now, but a coffee pot is a kind of difficult proposition from the point of view of design, because when you’re making a pot, what you’ve got to remember is what’s it going to look like when you’ve got [the] spout added and more, it’s got to have a lid. all of which is going to modify the original shape you make.” symposium brochure the yixing teapot, december 7th, 1992. art object © ah leon, taiwan. ms61 garth clark gallery archive, mfah archives the garth clark gallery was also well known for its contributions to ceramic scholarship through publications and symposia such as the yixing teapot. it was “the first symposium in the united states to deal specifically with the yixing teapot in the 20th century. yixing, a province of china, produced the first teapots to reach the west in the 17th century and has subsequently influenced ceramic design internationally. the hallmarks of the aesthetic are an unglazed surface that showcases the fine grained clay and a refined surface, often with realistically rendered detail.”  from symposium brochure the yixing teapot, december 7th, 1992. cover of ceramic millennium leadership congress for the ceramic arts report, 1999. ms61 garth clark gallery archive, mfah archives at the beginning of the ceramic millennium leadership congress, garth clark spoke of the changes taking place in the ceramic world, “in modern times there have been two seismic shifts in the status of ceramics in our society. the first was the impact of industrialization in the 18th century which for its ills brought us a sophisticated new approach and understanding of ceramics. the second was the emergence of the arts and crafts movement in the 19th century, which rescued ceramics from industrial anonymity and restored it to the individual. now in the ebbing light of the twentieth century, the arts and crafts movement, the main engine of the ceramics movement has run out of steam and we see another profound change, a movement away from specialization. ceramics may become just another choice in a menu of media from which any and all artists can select. if this is indeed the case, if this shift is more than just a short term fad, then it will be one of the most challenging steps yet for the aesthetic role of ceramics in our society.” preliminary sketches for an upcoming ceramic work by jean pierre larocque. © j.p. larocque. ms61 garth clark gallery archive, mfah archives artist jean pierre larocque pondered his idea for a teaset, writing to garth clark, “a teaset on the back of a horse is out of the question. so is a horse in the shape of a teapot. i like a horse carrying a covered cistern or large jars on each side but it is hard to see a live animal carrying gallons of boiling tea. water supply maybe. what about a work horse loaden[sic] with merchandise., bundles of tea leaves, dry goods, hundreds of pots roped together. what if the horse pulled a cart. . . . u haul on the silk road . . . loaded with tea merchandise.” the exhibition adrian saxe: new works was one of the inaugural garth clark gallery exhibitions in new york in 1983. saxe was the first artist to work at the atelier experimental at the manufacture nationale de sevres. the fall 1998 ceramic arts newsletter published by garth clark gallery states, “in talking of saxe, critic christopher knight made the welcome pronouncement that after a long battle, and although still marginalized, ‘pottery has become recognized as an art form.’” garth clark and mark del vecchio amassed one of the most important collections of modern and contemporary ceramics in the world. the collection includes objects that date from 1940 to the present and holds more than 375 international works. asian, african, and latin american artists are represented, but european and american artists form the core of the holdings. in depth surveys of artists such as marek cecula, ruth duckworth, laszlo fekete, ken ferguson, anne kraus, richard notkin, akio takamori, beatrice wood, betty woodman, and others demonstrate the range of artistic expression within the field and over the course of an artist´s career. additionally, the collection contains work by artists who are known primarily for sculpture and painting but who also worked in clay, such as arman, sir anthony caro, lucio fontana, roy lichtenstein, and claes oldenburg. the garth clark gallery archive at the mfah contains a wealth of information documenting the progression of modern and contemporary ceramics from the late 20th century into the 21st. the archive comprises artists' correspondence, gallery and press materials, publications, exhibition records and ephemera, photographs, and audio visual materials. rg19:05, box 3, folder 29 when director peter c. marzio arrived at the mfah in 1982, one item on the top of his agenda was the establishment of an archival program. in support, the museum trustees initiated a survey of the mfah's historic records then scattered among office spaces and storage areas. the survey revealed that the mfah's historic record was largely intact, with the earliest records dating to the formation of the museum's founding organization, the houston public school art league in 1900. five years following the opening of the museum’s first permanent building in 1924, the league officially amended its charter to adopt the name museum of fine arts of houston, later changed to the museum of fine arts, houston. photo shows the invitation to the opening of the museum of fine arts, houston’s first permanent building, april 12, 1924. photo: sarah shipley, rg19:06 001 the league first incorporated in 1913 under the official name, the houston art league, a change which reflected its broader mission of building a permanent art collection and introducing exhibitions to the city’s general populace. the league dedicated the site for the museum’s first permanent building in 1917 and re dedicated it each year until construction began in 1923. the original dedication marbles were recently transferred to the care of the mfah archives. rg05:01, box 7, folder 59 the annual houston artists exhibitions were held from 1925 1960; art work from the annual exhibitions were selected to enter the permanent collection as purchase prizes. other long running annual shows were the texas general exhibitions, 1940 1961, and the southern states art league circuit exhibitions, which were frequently shown at the mfah from 1924 1941. the majority of annual and group exhibitions in the mfah’s history have been indexed by artist name and are searchable at www.mfah.org/archives. in 1950, john biggers’s capture of the purchase prize for the annual houston artist exhibition heralded the end of segregation at the museum. founding director, james chillman, who had expressed dissatisfaction with the social status quo early in his directorship, took this opportunity to fully integrate museum audiences. ms19 58 the foundation of the mfah’s pre columbian art collection was established in 1965 with a large donation of objects from alice hogg hanzen. married to mike hogg from 1929 until his death in 1941, alice remained close to ima hogg throughout her life. a life trustee, she also maintained close ties to the mfah and bayou bend collection and gardens. her niece and life trustee, alice c. simkins, carries on the family legacy, which is chronicled in a permanent installation at the lora jean kilroy visitor and education center. photo shows alice hogg hanszen at her mexican ranch, c. 1930s. rg05:01, box 8, folder 18 the mfah's early exhibition history focused on american art and modernism as well as regional and texas art. houston's early interest in latin american art is also reflected in the exhibition history. when diego rivera penned this letter in 1951, it was in preparation for his first solo exhibition at the mfah. his works had previously been exhibited in six group exhibitions at the mfah from 1927 1947. photo: the white house, rg35 046:02 001 the former home of life trustee ima hogg, bayou bend, was donated to the museum in 1957, followed, in 1962, by the donation of its collection of paintings and decorative arts. the 28 room mansion was designed by well known houston architect john f. staub in 1927 for ima hogg and her brothers. following the marriage of her brother mike in 1929 and the death of will in 1930, ima remained at bayou bend developing its exceptional collection of american decorative arts as well as cultivating its 14 acres of formal and woodland gardens. bayou bend collection and gardens, which opened to the public in 1966, is on the national register of historic places. the new lora jean kilroy visitor and education center welcomes visitors to the site and accommodates educational activities. bayou bend served as the site of an official dinner for the delegation heads at the 1990 economic summit of industrialized nations, photographed here on the north lawn. from left to right: françois mitterand, jacques delors, helmut kohl, giulio andreotti, george h.w. bush, margaret thatcher, brian mulroney and toshiki kaifu. photo: allen mewbourn, rg05 255 005 the open expanse of the second mies van der rohe addition, the brown pavilion, doubled the museum’s existing gallery space. when the pavilion opened in 1974, mies had been dead for five years; however, the structure remained true to his plans. the construction of the brown pavilion was overseen by mfah director, philippe de montebello, 1969 74, who successfully launched and concluded what at the time was the largest capital campaign in mfah history. the brown foundation, inc. contributed millions toward the construction and operating endowment of the wing named in its honor. the photo shows the brown pavilion during the inaugural exhibition, the great decade of american abstraction: modernist art 1960 to 1970, 1/14 3/10/1974. ms58:03.02, box 6, folder 15 under the directorship of william c. agee, 1974 1982, a curatorial position for photography was created. headed by anne wilkes tucker, photography would become a major strength of the permanent collection. in 2002, the museum of fine arts, houston acquired nearly 4,000 photographs from dutch collector manfred heiting. over thirty years heiting, named one of america´s top 100 art collectors by art & antiques magazine in 2003, amassed a comprehensive collection that includes the works of nearly every major photographer and documents the development of the art of photography. in 2006, manfred hieting donated his papers chronicling the development of his collection to the museum archives. photo: richard cunningham, rg04 464 002 shortly after director marzio’s arrival, he invigorated the lillie and hugh roy cullen sculpture garden project. completed in 1986 by renowned landscape artist, isamu noguchi, the sculpture garden gracefully connects the space between the caroline wiess law building and the glassell school of art. itself a work of art, the garden is defined by shapes created with its foliage, pathways, and earthen mounds juxtaposed against walls of various shapes and heights that provide an undulating, dynamic backdrop for the more than 25 sculptures it contains. here, peter c. marzio and isamu noguchi discuss the sculpture garden during its construction, 1985. photo: unknown photographer, ms32 109 07 rienzi, the mfah house museum for european decorative arts, opened to the public in 1999. harris and carroll sterling masterson donated their home, named after harris masterson's maternal grandfather, rienzi melville johnson, in 1991, followed by the gift of their collection in 1997. the mastersons’ prior gifts to the mfah included extensive holdings of worcester porcelain. located in river oaks on property sold to the mastersons by ima hogg in 1952, rienzi served as a hub of the city’s cultural affairs. harris masterson iii and carroll sterling are pictured here at their january 1951 wedding with carroll’s children, bert and isla. ms61:01, box 24, folder 5 today the mfah hosts the international center for the arts of the americas and twelve curatorial departments including modern and contemporary decorative arts and design, established in 2003. in 2007, the department acquired from new york based scholars and gallerists garth clark and mark del vecchio more than 375 international ceramic works signifying the diversity found in this field. beatrice wood (1893 1998), who was active in the studio even beyond her 104th birthday, is among those represented in the garth clark and mark del vecchio collection and archive. wood’s charm and sense of humor are illustrated in this letter written from her california home to garth clark and mark del vecchio, january 5, 1994. take a brief online tour through mfah history: from the invitation for homer gaudens' address in 1924 inaugurating the houston art league that would become the museum of fine arts, houston; through the desegregation of the museum's programming and audiences by founding mfah director james chillman; years of civic minded patronage by the hogg, straus, beck, and masterson families; and 70 years of distinctive building expansions by architects william ward watkin, ludwig mies van der rohe, and rafael moneo. bayou bend, now a museum of american decorative arts associated with the museum of fine arts, houston, was built along buffalo bayou in the planned community of river oaks newly established by the hoggs outside the existing city limits. the house was designed by houston's leading residential architect john f. staub. construction began with the laying of the cornerstone in 1927 and concluded in december 1928. staub's plan incorporated a number of architectural styles: the symmetry of 18th century georgian, the romance of spanish creole, elements of southern plantation houses, and interiors based on colonial homes in the north. photo: southern architecture illustrated (atlanta, ga: harman publishing co., 1931) bayou bend was intended as a home for miss ima hogg (pictured c. 1956) and two of her brothers, will and mike. but less than a year after they moved in, mike married and moved to the house next door, and will died unexpectedly the following year. miss ima and her growing collection of american furniture were left as sole occupants. she had begun collecting in 1920, always with the intention of someday giving the objects to a texas museum. “having made houston my home of course i thought of our museum here first, and some of my best pieces have already been accepted by the museum, though there has been no way to display them there. gradually i began to realize the restricted space at the museum would most certainly prohibit the use of my increasingly large collection,” she wrote in 1960. photo: conway studios corp. (ny), ms21 054 indeed, houston’s museum, shown here in the 1930s, was young and with limited square footage to display the furniture. it was ray dudley, while president of the mfah from 1941 to 1943, who first suggested to miss ima that she consider donating the house as well as its furniture to the museum. the idea appealed to her despite the challenges that the donation would present. lengthy negotiations with the museum and her river oaks neighbors resulted in mfah acceptance of the gift in 1957. her first thirty years of collecting was a solitary pursuit. it was not until the 1953 annual antiques forum held in colonial williamsburg that she met and befriended a number of others who shared her passion for american decorative arts. among these were henry francis du pont, henry and helen flynt, electra webb, and katharine prentis murphy. in this photo, miss ima (center) stands with katharine prentis murphy and john graham at the 1962 williamsburg antiques forum. photo: unknown photographer, ms2114 002 021b once the mfah accepted the bayou bend gift, much work had to be done to transform the home into a museum. miss ima’soriginal idea of displaying her furniture in traditional museum galleries had not required all of the accessories to go along with the period furniture. so, in addition to the colonial american paintings she had begun to collect in the 1950s, she added ceramics, glass, silver and pewter to her wish lists. miss ima, who had worked closely with staub in designing the house in the 1920s, was painstaking in her efforts to redesign and rearrange the rooms in her home. in the fall of 1960, she invited a number of her collecting friends and art history experts to serve on an advisory committee to assisther with the details. before: library, c. 1948 the hoggs were a well educated family. miss ima studied psychology at the university of texas; will and mike both earned law degrees from there as well. though not visible in this photograph, one side of bayou bend’s library was lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves, reflecting their interest in history, music, and literature. a print depicting the battle of buena vista (mexican american war) hung above the fireplace and eighteenth century windsor chairs surrounded a small table. after: pine room, c 1966 the pine room, as the library was renamed, was originally designed by staub with woodwork based on that in the metcalf bowler house in rhode island. eighteenth century interiors did not have built in bookshelves and so these were replaced with paneling. the furniture in this room was replaced with examples from new england in the william and mary style (1690 1730), such as the boston high chest on the left. miss ima selected mezzotint portraits of william and mary to hang above the fireplace. before: drawing room, c. 1946 miss ima’s collecting interests did not lie only with american decorative arts. in her home she interspersed pueblo ceramics and modern works on paper among her antiques. pablo picasso’s bottles and grapes (1922) hung above her piano in the drawing room. miss ima gave the picasso and more than eighty other drawings, prints, and watercolors to the mfah in 1939. (photo: unknown photographer, ms21 035) after: drawing room, c. mid 1970s the neo palladian mid eighteenth century architectural details of the drawing room scrolled pediments above the doorways, based on those at shirley plantation in virginia, and dentil molding were also part of staub’s original design. miss hogg replaced the chandeliers with english examples. the furniture was made in cities along the atlantic seaboard boston, new york, newport, philadelphia, and charleston in the late queen anne and chippendale styles (1760 1790). english worcester porcelain, popular in america in 1760 90, sits atop a newport tea table. (photo: allen mewbourn, rg36 898:01 004) before: blue room , c. 1948 staub based the paneling in the blue room on mid 19th century new england homes and selected the color from a fabric of the same period (seen in the curtains). the couch displayed here, an example of french rococo revival, is attributed to the shop of john henry belter, active in new york in the mid nineteenth century. herd boy (c. 1905), one of the collection of frederic remington paintings acquired by will hogg and gifted to the mfah, hung in this room. after: massachusetts room, c 1975 the curtains were updated in the new massachusetts room. these had to be dyed three times before the right shade of blue was achieved. the belter couch, too late to stay with eighteenth century furniture, was removed and later placed in the belter parlor created by miss hogg in 1971. miss hogg moved the chippendale double chair back settee and its matching chairs (on the left) from the dining room where they had been used by the family for many years. the portrait above the fireplace, by an unknown artist, dates from around 1750. bayou bend was officially dedicated and opened to the public on march 5, 1966. at the ceremony, miss ima spoke these words: “while i shall continue to love bayou bend and everything here, in one sense i have always considered i was holding bayou bend only in trust for this day. now bayou bend is truly yours!” after nearly nine years of work to transform her home, she still considered it a work in progress. until her death in 1973, she persisted in acquiring items on her wish list and sometimes even replacing pieces when a better example could be found. mfah staff and donors continue to do the same, always with miss ima’s goal in mind: a place where visitors can develop an understanding of and appreciation for america’s heritage. walk through the history of bayou bend collection and gardens, once the family home of visionary collector, philanthropist, and texas democrat miss ima hogg and now the mfah house museum for american decorative arts. a governor's daughter, educated in austin, new york, berlin, and vienna, miss hogg (1882 1975) was a passionate woman and fierce competitor in the emerging field of american decorative arts. her legacy lives on in an unparalleled collection of american art and furnishings from the1620s to the 1870s in a john staub designed home set on 14 acres of meticulously crafted heirloom gardens. further information and materials on the history of bayou bend are available at the mfah archives. photo: ms16:06 box 15 folder 2 courtesy houston metropolitan research center, houston public library maurice and winifred hirsch are perhaps best known in houston for their philanthropy   giving time and money to too many organizations to name individually. however, no cause was more favored than the arts. maurice hirsch served as president of the houston symphony society for fourteen years between 1956 1970, and as a member of the international council of the museum of modern art and the national council of the metropolitan opera association. winifred hirsch, lifetime trustee, served in many roles at the mfah including the first chair of the art cart program, which brought works from the museum to recovering veterans. the general and mrs. hirsch are pictured here at the houston symphony in 1962. photo: courtesy of the houston chronicle maurice hirsch built a successful law practice in houston   from which he never fully retired. during wwii he volunteered to renegotiate war contracts for the u.s. army. there, he was reunited with winifred busby, an acquaintance from houston. they were married in 1947 and thereafter, began a lifelong pursuit of travel and art appreciation. according to an article in the houston chronicle upon winifred’s death in 1990, “the story goes   and longtime friends say it’s true   that …gen. maurice hirsch presented his wife with a daily token of his devotion. sometimes the gift was merely an amusing trinket; oftentimes it was a treasure.” ms16:05 box 5 folder 11 maurice hirsch was a seasoned world explorer prior to his marriage to winifred. in the fall of 1937, just as the second sino japanese war had begun in earnest, maurice hirsch traveled the far east on a 96 day tour and recorded extensive notes on his impressions and experiences. in a typed manuscript titled, “travels of marcomaurice hirschipolo” he describes a visit to a buddhist temple indicating a future penchant for fine art and artifacts, “then to the most famous of all the sights of kamakura   the “diabutsu” or ‘great [buddha]’ cast in the year 1252 of bronze with surface chisel finished, and with eyes of pure gold. the statue stands over forty three feet in [height]. its appeal lies not so much, however, in its size, as in the serenity of the countenance and the calmness of the posture. it is a masterful expression of, and undoubtedly to a [buddhist], an incentive to true contemplative [buddhism]. above is a postcard sent during this trip to harry susman, a fellow partner in their law firm. photo: ms16:06 box 14 folder 39 in 1951, the hirsches began donating and providing funds to purchase works for the mfah, contributing an additional 103 items to the permanent collection. one of the largest of these donations was an over 80 piece collection of ancient egyptian artifacts in 1952. the hirsches are pictured here on a trip to egypt earlier that year. the hirsches were also deeply involved in the financial development of the museum. in 1981, recognizing the necessity for a superior research space available to public and staff, the hirsches established a $500,000 endowment for what was thereafter known as the hirsch library. photo: courtesy houston metropolitan research center, houston public library the hirsch’s extensive travels were internationally recognized as philanthropic forays to strengthen relationships between nations. in 1957 maurice hirsch was awarded the italian star of solidarity medal for “his efforts to achieve mutual understanding through the fields of art, culture and charity.” also pictured here is harmon whittington, another recipient, dr. alfredo trinchieri italian consul general of new orleans and mrs. jack a. richardson, italian vice consul. workshop of gian lorenzo bernini, portrait of a gentleman, last quarter of the 17th century, marble, the mfah, museum purchase with funds provided by general and mrs. maurice hirsch. in 1973, the hirsches contributed funds to purchase this italian sculpture for the mfah. the artist credited to the work was vigorously debated at the time of attribution and continues to pose a mystery. however, museum staff and surely the hirsches agreed that the masterful execution of the bust proved an essential addition to the museum's collections. other objects purchased for the mfah, such as this painting, reflect the breadth of the hirsches' travel and appreciation of the arts. walter ufer’s crossing the rio grande is one of six ufer paintings given to the mfah by general and mrs. hirsch. ufer belonged to the taos society of artists that operated in taos, new mexico from 1915 1927. this drawing comes from a book of illustrations by fragonard after ariosto’s medieval romance orlando furioso. the book remained intact until 1945 when the pages were separated for exhibition at the national gallery. greek, attributed to the painter of the yale oinochoe, hydria (water jar) with domestic scene, c. 470 460 bc, terracotta, the museum of fine arts, houston, museum purchase funded by general and mrs. maurice hirsch. photo: ms16:06 box 15 folder 33 maurice hirsch was the founding president of the japan america society of houston, a group dedicated to building a common ground between houston, japan and americans with japanese heritage. in 1981, maurice hirsch was awarded the third class order of the sacred treasure for contributing to the bond between both countries. here, on one of their many trips to japan, winifred and maurice enjoy a traditional meal. photo: ms16:06 box 15 folder 42 in addition to civic service, the hirsches also threw fabulous parties. in 1960 winifred hirsch was named hostess of the year. in a 1980 article in the houston post general hirsch describes one of winifred’s most amazing hostess stunts, “she invited some friends to a mountaintop picnic [in gstaad, switzerland] where it was just beautiful. everyone skied except winifred. the guests all waited and worried where the hostess was. well, all of a sudden here she comes down in a helicopter with all the mountaintop picnic paraphernalia. she iced champagne and caviar down in the snow and served fried chicken.”   the houston post may 17,1980 photo: ms16:06 box 13 folder 48 after winifred’s death in 1990 their lifetime of collected treasures were auctioned to benefit the mfah, houston symphony, houston opera and the university of houston school of music. winifred left her singular 288 item jewelry collection to the hirsch library as an endowment to be auctioned. she is pictured here wearing a cultured pearl diamond fringe necklace mounted in platinum which was offered at christie’s of new york in 1991. the generous endowments of maurice and winifred continue to benefit the daily operation of the hirsch library and their numerous contributions to the permanent collection ensures an appreciation for art that long survives its donors. the hirsch papers are available for research at the mfah archives although the couple was deeply involved in houston civic and social life, much of maurice and winifred hirsch’s time was spent abroad. through 36 years of marriage, they embarked on 27 world tours. every trip provided a new opportunity to experience rare and beautiful objects. the finest artifacts often found a home in the collections of the mfah, whether donated from the hirsches' personal collection or purchased directly for the museum. view a selection of these gifts amid the life and travels of this prominent couple. abesti gogora v (song of strength), by eduardo chillida, on the south lawn. chillida art objects © artists rights society (ars), new york / vegap, madrid. photograph © mfah. mfah archives photography collection. in conjunction with the festival, the endowment had also commissioned a monumental sculpture by eduardo chillida, abesti gogora v, to be unveiled at artist’s retrospective exhibition opening. letter from mayor’s office inviting mfah director, james johnson sweeney to serve on festival committee, 3/16/1966. rg05:01 five sculptures exhibition records, mfah archives. publicity for the arts festival kicked off with a press conference march 28, 1966 at the landmark rice hotel. in addition to mfah director, james johnson sweeney, the committee consisted of houston symphony orchestra conductor, sir john barbirolli and several cultural leaders, among them alice pratt brown, dominique de menil, general maurice hirsch, ima hogg, and susan mcashan. jesse h. jones hall for the performing arts on evening of inaugural performance by the houston symphony orchestra, october 3, 1966. photo courtesy of houston metropolitan research center, houston public library, houston, texas. bert brandt collection. mss 0087. jesse h. and mary gibbs jones founded the houston endowment in 1937. his diverse investments included sole ownership of the houston chronicle. politically, he most notably served as secretary of commerce (1940 1945). she joined the mfah board in 1926. in 1962 the endowment offered to underwrite the jesse h. jones hall for the performing arts. it was officially presented to the city on sunday, october 2, 1966; the gold plated key given to the mayor actually worked. ima hogg with american composer alan hovhaness, in jones hall for inaugural performance by the houston symphony orchestra,october 3, 1966. ms21 ima hogg papers, mfah archives. benefactress ima hogg, who donated her residence and american decorative arts collection, bayou bend collections and gardens, to the mfah, was also instrumental in the founding of the houston symphony orchestra. she is pictured on opening night with alan hovhaness, who was commissioned to compose the opening work, ode to the temple of sound. hovhaness had first received national acclaim when his symphony no. 2, mysterious mountain, premiered for leopold stokowski’s début with the hso in october 1955. david hayes sculptures displayed at bank of he southwest, 910 travis. rg05:01 five sculptors exhibition records, mfah archives. photo: allen mewbourn. on the same day as the symphony’s inaugural performance, a city wide public art exhibition opened. organized with the aid of the mfah, the houston chamber of commerce: five sculptors exhibition featured works by alexander calder, david hayes, jean robert ipousteguy, marisol, and jean tinguely. each was assigned a houston bank as a venue. aida, inaugural performance of the houston grand opera in jones hall, october 5, 1966. photo courtesy of houston grand opera archives. on wednesday, october 5, 1966, the houston grand opera held its inaugural performance, aida, in jones hall. the opera featured soprano gabriella tucci and tenor richard tucker in the lead roles. hgo and the houston ballet would perform at jones hall until 1987, when the wortham theater center opened in response to increased demand on the city’s cultural institutions. jones hall, which features a unique acoustical design comprised of 800 moveable ceiling segments, remains the active home of the houston symphony and the houston society for the performing arts. the alley theatre under construction in 1967. photo courtesy of the alley theatre. in 1962, the houston endowment also provided a half block near the jones hall site for the new alley theater. the two projects laid the cornerstone of today’s theater district, the country’s second largest. as late as june 1965, with demolition still in progress, optimists on the building committee unrealistically hoped construction could be accelerated to meet the october deadline. construction on an expanded site for the new theater would begin in august and conclude in 1968. the spring before the festival, eduardo chillida, toiling in spain, would be hard pressed to create his monumental sculpture in time. telegram from chillida to sweeney notifying him that the abesti gogora v was on its way to the spanish port of vigo, 9/27/1966. rg05:01 eduardo chillida retrospective exhibition records, box 36, folder 9. mfah archives. chillida’s search for the perfect stone began in mid february. within days he uncovered a 100 ton rose granite piece from an abandoned mine in the spanish village of budino. he recruited eight stone cutters from san sebastian, some with families in tow, to help hew the stone into the three massive pieces of his design. when at last the sculpture was finished, a fiesta was held before its transport to the port of vigo. each piece traveled over thirteen miles of mountain roads separately. to sweeney’s amazement, the sculpture shipped three days ahead of schedule. audrey jones beck speaking on behalf of houston endowment at opening night to the eduardo chillida retrospective, 10/03/1966. photo: budd studios. rg05 155 336a, mfah archives photography collection. in houston the installation would not proceed as smoothly. storage proved a challenge, as few warehouses could accommodate the 45 ton piece. worse, illness prevented chillida from traveling. chillida’s assistant, nicanor carballo, and wife, pilar, were sent in his stead. unveiling was scheduled on october 3, 1966, to coincide with the retrospective opening and to fall between the inaugural performances of the hso and hgo at jones hall. a storm forced ceremonies inside. abesti gogora v viewed through south lawn door on the day of its unveiling, 10/03/1966. chillida art objects © artists rights society (ars), new york / vegap, madrid. photographer © budd studios. rg05155 348c, mfah archives photography collection. requesting the chillida commission, sweeney wrote, “why not a durable memorial to the jones name through this monument which might concretely link [it] with the visual arts and the museum, as it is already in sympathy and through earlier contributions.” time strengthened the ties well beyond his vision, culminating in the naming of the audrey jones beck building. abesti gogora v has remained in place on the south lawn since its installation in 1966, a testimony not only to the chillida’s artistic expression, but to the time when houston realized its cultural aspirations. as the festival of the arts kicked off in october 1966, houston celebrated its cultural coming of age. the keystone of the festivities which engaged a multitude of houston’s art organizations, large and small was the opening of the jesse h. jones performing arts center, funded and presented to the city by the houston endowment. dunbar exhibition, national home furnishings show, 1950 photo by g. barrows the mfah archives acquired the edward j wormley collection, a gift of the john r. eckel, jr. foundation. although considered a modernist, edward j wormley (1907 1995) created affordable, stylish furnishings for american consumers who had neither the budget nor taste for pure modernism. the wormley collection comprises more than 3,000 glass and film slides as well as photographic prints and textual records including catalogues, ephemera, correspondence, and clippings. a special feature, with a slideshow of images, is available here. researchers are invited to contact archives@mfah.org for additional information. king tut ruled for only nine or ten years, until 1343 b.c when he died at age eighteen. the actual cause of his death remains unknown. the preservation of his tomb, rather than his short lived reign, has made him legend among the pharaohs. this miniature gold coffin, like the actual coffin, represents a mummified king with his arms crossed on his chest, holding the crook and flail, symbols of high office. this miniature is made of solid gold inlaid with carnelian, lapis lazuli and colored glass. (rg05:01 tutankhamun treasures exhibition records, mfah archives) king tut's tomb was discovered by british archaeologist howard carter, as part of the exploration of the valley of kings at thebes in 1922. although the outer chamber had been raided shortly after tut’s death, debris from other tombs had covered the entrance to the inner tomb, protecting it from looters. here, visitors examine a spouted libation vase of dark blue faience, inscribed with the royal names in white. two smaller objects are also inscribed: the pear shaped vase bears the throne name and the personal name of the king in turquoise, and the cup is inscribed with the personal name, tutankhamun, in white. the 1962 tour marked the first journey out of egypt for the treasures from king tut’s tomb. the egyptian museum allowed the objects to travel in order to draw attention to the fate of the temple of abu simbel. built by ramses ii approximately 60 years after the reign of king tut, this temple faced ruin under 200 feet of water from the construction of the aswan high dam. cairo university professor ahmed fakhry traveled with the exhibition. although texas governor price daniel sent his regrets from the campaign trail, many dignitaries were in attendance for the exhibition preview, including the british consul general, whose response letter you see here. chair mrs. elva kalb dumas, along with mrs. carey croneis, mr. and mrs. harry hassan, mr. and mrs. john t. jones, and general maurice hirsch welcomed a crowd of trustees, press, university presidents, ambassadors, and museum members who enjoyed fruit punch and toured the exhibition prior to the opening. the gold dagger and sheath were found in the wrappings of the mummy. the hilt is decorated with granulated gold and inlaid with colored glass and semi precious stones, and the face bears an embossed scene of wild animals that forms a subtle interlacing pattern. the audio visual department of the university of houston in conjunction with kuht film productions produced a short film of the exhibition during its display at the mfah. ruth pershing uhler, mfah curator of eduction, termed tutankhamun, the immortal pharaoh “excellent” and noted that it was on view at other institutions hosting the exhibition following houston. pictured on the postcard advertisement for the film: this alabaster lid is from one of the compartments of the “canopic” chest, in the form of the king’s head. the headdress represented is the same as that worn by the king on the inner gold coffin. a young visitor, exhibition catalogue in hand, examines a statuette of gilt hardwood representing the hawk headed god hor khenty khem. the face is inlaid with blue and red glass. the pedestal is of wood covered with black resinous material. “i have seen people of all ages return several times to see the treasures.” tutankhamun treasures, a 1962 loan exhibition from the department of antiquities of the united arab republic half a century ago, treasures from the tomb of king tut first visited the united states in an exhibition from the egyptian museum, sponsored by the american association of museums and circulated by the smithsonian institution. on display from this significant period in egyptian art: 34 precious objects and 18 photographs, which traveled to 15 u.s. museums over a two year period. from march 16 to april 15, 1962, visitors to the mfah south garden gallery had their first glimpse of a miniature gold coffin representing the mummified king; amulets and rings worn by the mummy; and a ceremonial crook, a symbol of high office. copyright © 2025, the museum of fine arts, houston. all rights reserved.

call me by your name (italian: chiamami col tuo nome) is a 2017 coming of age romantic drama film directed by luca guadagnino. its screenplay, by james ivory, who also co produced, is based on the 2007 novel by andré aciman. the film is the final installment in guadagnino's thematic "desire" trilogy, after i am love (2009) and a bigger splash (2015). set in northern italy in 1983, call me by your name chronicles the romantic relationship between 17 year old elio perlman (timothée chalamet) and oliver (armie hammer), a 24 year old graduate student assistant to elio's father samuel (michael stuhlbarg), an archaeology professor. the film also stars amira casar, esther garrel, and victoire du bois. development began in 2007 when producers peter spears and howard rosenman optioned the rights to aciman's novel. ivory was chosen to co direct with guadagnino, but stepped down in 2016. guadagnino joined the project as a location scout and eventually became sole director and co producer. call me by your name was financed by several international companies, and its principal photography took place mainly in the city and comune of crema, lombardy, in may and june 2016. cinematographer sayombhu mukdeeprom used 35 mm film, as opposed to employing digital cinematography. the filmmakers spent weeks decorating villa albergoni, one of the main shooting locations. guadagnino curated the film's soundtrack, which features three original songs by american singer songwriter sufjan stevens. sony pictures classics acquired worldwide distribution rights to call me by your name before its premiere at the 2017 sundance film festival on january 22, 2017. the film began a limited release in the united states on november 24, 2017, and went on general release on january 19, 2018. it received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for ivory's screenplay, guadagnino's direction, mukdeeprom's cinematography, and the performances of chalamet, hammer, and stuhlbarg. the film garnered a number of accolades, including many for its screenplay, direction, acting, and music. it received four nominations at the 90th academy awards, including best picture and best actor for 22 year old chalamet (the third youngest nominee in the category), and won best adapted screenplay, making ivory the oldest winner of a competitive academy award in any category. the screenplay also won at the 23rd critics' choice awards, 71st british academy film awards, and the 70th writers guild of america awards. call me by your name is now considered one of the best films of the 21st century.[7][8][9] in the summer of 1983, elio perlman, a 17 year old jewish french italian boy, lives with his parents in rural northern italy. elio's father, a professor of archaeology, invites a 24 year old jewish american graduate student, oliver, to live with the family over the summer and help with his academic paperwork. elio, an introspective bookworm and musician, initially thinks he has little in common with oliver, who appears confident and carefree. elio spends much of the summer reading, playing piano, and hanging out with his childhood friends, chiara and marzia. during a volleyball match, oliver touches elio's back, but elio brushes it off. elio later finds himself jealous upon seeing oliver kiss chiara. elio and oliver spend more time together, taking long walks into town, and accompanying elio's father on an archaeological trip. elio is increasingly drawn to oliver, even sneaking into oliver's room to smell his clothing. elio eventually confesses his feelings to oliver, who tells him they cannot discuss such things. later, in a secluded spot, the two kiss for the first time. oliver is reluctant to take things further, and they do not speak for several days. elio goes on a date with marzia and the two have sex. elio leaves a note for oliver to end their silence. oliver writes back, asking elio to meet him at midnight. elio agrees and they sleep together for the first time. afterward, oliver tells elio, "call me by your name and i'll call you by mine". the morning after, elio is briefly conflicted about their encounter and takes out his sexual frustration by masturbating with a peach. when oliver finds him, elio cries about how little time he and oliver have left together. marzia confronts elio after not hearing from him for three days. he responds indifferently, hurting her. as the end of oliver's stay approaches, elio's parents, who appear aware of the bond between the two, recommend that he and oliver visit bergamo together before oliver returns to the u.s. they spend three romantic days together. heartbroken after oliver's departure, elio calls his mother to ask her to pick him up from the train station and take him home. marzia is sympathetic to elio's feelings and says she wants to remain friends. elio's father, observing his unhappiness, tells him that the bond he had with oliver was rare and that he envies elio because he never had what elio and oliver had. during hanukkah, oliver calls elio's family to tell them he is engaged to be married to a woman he has been intermittently dating for a few years. elio calls oliver by his name and oliver responds with his; oliver says he remembers "everything". after the call, elio sits by the fireplace and stares into the flames, tearfully reflecting, as his parents and staff prepare dinner. call me by your name is the final installment in a thematic trilogy guadagnino calls his "desire" trilogy; the other two parts were i am love (2009) and a bigger splash (2015).[12][13] guadagnino described his approach to the film as "lighthearted and simple",[14][15] a departure from his previous work, which has been called "highly stylised [and] dazzling".[16] guadagnino considers call me by your name a "homage to the fathers of my life: my own father, and my cinematic ones", referring to the filmmakers jean renoir, jacques rivette, éric rohmer, and bernardo bertolucci, who he says inspired him.[17] guadagnino has described call me by your name as a family oriented film for the purpose of "transmission of knowledge and hope that people of different generations come to see the film together".[18] he sees it not as a "gay" movie but as one about "the beauty of the newborn idea of desire, unbiased and uncynical", reflecting his motto of living "with a sense of joie de vivre".[14][15] "we should always be very earnest with one's feelings, instead of hiding them or shielding ourselves", he said.[12] he considers it an "uplifting film" about "being who you want to be and finding yourself into the gaze of the other in his or her otherness."[19] guadagnino tried to avoid the flaws he had seen in most coming of age films, where growth is often portrayed as a result of resolving preconceived dilemmas such as an enforced choice between two lovers.[20] he also wanted the story to follow two people "in the moment", rather than focus on an antagonist or a tragedy[15] an approach inspired by maurice pialat's à nos amours (1983).[20][21] as someone who considers sex in film a representation of the characters' behavior and identity,[22] guadagnino was uninterested in including explicit sex scenes in the film.[23] he explained his intention: "i wanted the audience to completely rely on the emotional travel of these people and feel first love... it was important to me to create this powerful universality, because the whole idea of the movie is that the other person makes you beautiful enlightens you, elevates you."[23] alongside a sexual coming of age motif, the movie also touches on the novel's theme[24] of elio discovering and connecting to his jewish identity through the openly jewish oliver and in contrast to his own family, who are, as his mother puts it, "jews of discretion".[25] their common jewish identity is a part of what draws elio and oliver together and is represented by the star of david necklace oliver initially wears, which elio is drawn to.[26] the theme of sexual self discovery is paralleled by the jewish theme: in both cases, elio starts out secretive about these parts of himself and develops greater self acceptance, both journeys connected to oliver's role in his life. there is a hint that oliver may have given elio his star of david necklace shortly before they part ways in the train station.[27] elio's necklace can be clearly seen during the conversation from which the movie (and the novel) takes its title. two of the film's producers, peter spears and howard rosenman, saw a galley proof of andré aciman's debut novel call me by your name in 2007 and "optioned" the screen rights before its publication.[28] rosenman first heard about the book through a friend after acting in milk (2008) and called it "divine".[29] spears, moved by the novel and believing it deserved a cinematic adaptation, received his first credit as a producer from his work on the film.[30] they invited their friend james ivory to work as an executive producer on the film adaptation.[31] spears and rosenman began production in 2008,[32] but the project was soon trapped in "development hell".[33] the producers met with three sets of directors and writers among them gabriele muccino, ferzan özpetek, and sam taylor johnson[34] but could not find anyone who would commit to the project.[28][35] scheduling filming in italy during the summer also proved difficult.[28][35] the producers contacted guadagnino, their first choice to direct, but he declined, citing a busy schedule.[13][32] but as guadagnino lived in northern italy, he was initially hired as a location consultant instead.[20][36] he later suggested that he co direct the film with ivory, but no contractual agreement was put in place.[14][33] ivory accepted the offer to co direct on the condition that he would also write the film;[33] he spent "about nine months" on the screenplay.[31][37] guadagnino, who has called the novel "a proustian book about remembering the past and indulging in the melancholy of lost things",[21] collaborated on the adaptation with ivory and walter fasano.[14][18] screenwriting took place at ivory's house, guadagnino's kitchen table in crema, and new york city.[38] ivory rarely met guadagnino during the process, since the director was busy making a bigger splash (2015).[37] the screenplay was completed in late 2015.[37] aciman approved it and commended the adaptation as "direct ... real and persuasive", adding, "they've done better than the book".[28] the completed screenplay was vital in securing funding for the film.[31][33] among the financiers were the production companies la cinéfacture (france), frenesy film company (italy, owned by guadagnino), m.y.r.a. entertainment (united states), rt features (brazil), and water's end productions (united states). the project was also supported by the italian ministry of cultural heritage and activities and tourism.[18][39][40] the backers deemed the production's initial budget estimates "too expensive",[41] so the budget was reduced from $12 million to $3.4 million and the filming schedule was cut from 12 to 5 weeks.[40][42] ivory stepped down from a directorial role in 2016, leaving guadagnino to direct the film alone.[13][14] according to ivory, memento films international did not want two directors involved with the project because they "thought it would be awkward ... it might take longer, it would look terrible if we got in fights on the set, and so on."[31][37] guadagnino said ivory's version would likely have been "a much more costly [and] different film" that would have been too expensive to make.[20][36] ivory became the sole credited screenwriter[43] and later sold the rights to the screenplay to guadagnino's company.[31][37] call me by your name was ivory's first produced screenplay since le divorce (2003) and the only narrative feature he has written but not directed.[43] he remained involved with other aspects of the production.[43] guadagnino dedicated the film to his late friend bill paxton, who came to visit the set in crema before his death in february 2017.[citation needed] the film differs from its source material in several ways. the novel is written in flashback, from elio's perspective. the filmmakers set the movie entirely in 1983 to help the audience understand the characters, believing this approach would allow them to remain true to the book's spirit.[32][21] the setting was changed from bordighera to the countryside of crema, where guadagnino lives.[b] the town square selected for filming differed from the one in the novel, which in aciman's vision was "far smaller and stood high on a hill overlooking a windswept mediterranean".[46] crema's arid climate and "spookily deserted" landscape suggested to him that the film would not correspond to the novel.[46] guadagnino also changed the year of the events from 1987 to 1983. in his words, guadagnino chose "the year in italy at least where the '70s are killed, when everything that was great about the '70s is definitely shut down", but also a time when the characters could be "in a way untouched by the corruption of the '80s in the u.s., reagan, and in the uk, thatcher".[38][44] guadagnino was tempted to remove the scene in which elio masturbates into a pitted peach, finding it too explicit.[28][47] chalamet was also nervous about the scene,[48] calling it "a metamorphosis of some of the strongest ideas in the movie" and the key to illuminating the character's "overabundant sexual energy".[32][49] both guadagnino and chalamet believed it was implausible to masturbate with a peach, but each independently tested the method. to their surprise, it worked, so guadagnino shot the scene and included it in the film.[50] a scene featuring elio and oliver dancing enthusiastically to the psychedelic furs song "love my way" in a small bar is not from the book. it was inspired by jonathan demme's something wild (1986) and guadagnino's experience of dancing by himself when he was young.[28][51] ivory altered mr. perlman's profession from a classics scholar to "an art historian/archeologist type",[32][45] a decision aciman called "perfect" and "more visual, [...] more exciting, as opposed to what a scholar does at his desk".[45] when he revised ivory's draft of the script, guadagnino removed the voiceover narration and much of the nudity.[21][36] he said that explicit nudity was "absolutely irrelevant" to his vision for the film,[52] and that he did not like the idea of having the main character tell the story retrospectively, saying, "it kills the surprise".[21] toward the end of the novel, elio and oliver visit rome, a trip that lasts an entire chapter and introduces new characters in multiple locations.[37][43] because of the film's limited budget, ivory and the producers wrote several variations, one of which was to leave the lead characters alone in the family's house,[37] before settling on another trip, to bergamo, where the characters spend much of their time alone together in a hotel room.[37] in ivory's draft, elio's parents discuss hiv/aids in two scenes[53] and elio decorates a christmas tree in his family's home in the last scene.[54][43] ivory had to reduce the length of mr. perlman's speech but was committed to keeping it in the script.[55] aciman said in an interview that he suggested that ivory keep dialogue before perlman's speech to a minimum so as not to "steal the surprise and the suspense that happens" as it unfolds.[56] ivory described the scene in which elio conveys his feelings to oliver as one of the moments that captures their first love's "euphoric passion and nervousness".[57] aciman was surprised by guadagnino's final scene, in which elio weeps by the fireplace;[46] he wrote of the film adaptation: cinema can be an entirely magical medium. what i do as a writer, and what guadagnino does as a film director, is more than speak two different languages. what i do is chisel a statue down to its finest, most elusive details. what a film director does is make the statue move.[46] many of the changes to ivory's screenplay were made during filming; ivory was not present on set.[54] in may 2016, ivory said that he and guadagnino discussed how to film the scenes involving nudity, but guadagnino later dropped them.[53] in ivory's view, some of guadagnino's statements to the press misrepresented the film's omission of nudity as a "conscious aesthetic decision", as they had never discussed removing nudity from the screenplay.[53] ivory said, "when people are wandering around before or after making love, and they're decorously covered with sheets, it’s always seemed phony to me."[53] by contrast, ivory cited scenes from his film maurice (1987) a gay romantic drama that includes male nudity as "a more natural way of doing things than to hide them, or to do what luca did, which is to pan the camera out of the window toward some trees."[53] guadagnino said he understood ivory's position, but that it was clear that there were "no limitations on what we wanted to do."[52] in 2015, shia labeouf and greta scacchi were reportedly set to be cast in the film.[58] in september 2016, ivory confirmed they were no longer involved in the project. ivory said he got along with labeouf, who had read for the film in new york city, but the production company later felt he was unsuitable after his "various troubles". ivory thought scacchi and labeouf read well together and could have made it into the film, but the company disagreed.[59] guadagnino was impressed by armie hammer's performance in the social network (2010),[14][50] calling him a "sophisticated actor, with a great range".[14] hammer almost turned down the role of oliver after reading the draft script because it contained nudity, saying: "there's a lot of stuff here that i've never done on film before. but there's no way i can't do this, mostly because it scares me so much."[60][61] hammer had played gay characters in j. edgar (2011) and final portrait (2017).[47][62] in 2013, swardstrom spears's husband and agent introduced chalamet to guadagnino,[14][22] who immediately felt the actor had "the ambition, the intelligence, the sensitivity, the naivety, and the artistry" to play elio.[21] chalamet had already read aciman's novel and described it as "a window into a young person".[48] elio is fluent in three languages: english, french and italian.[40] upon his arrival in italy, chalamet who spoke french fluently and had played piano and guitar for years[32][40][63] prepared for his role with a schedule of daily italian lessons, gym workouts three times a week,[32] and work with composer roberto solci.[32][40] michael stuhlbarg, who was cast as elio's father,[60][64] did not read the book until he had already joined the production.[65] he found the script moving and said mr. perlman had a "sense of generosity and love and understanding".[66] guadagnino contacted esther garrel when he was in paris to promote a bigger splash.[67] garrel was cast as marzia without a formal audition, and chose not to read the book before shooting.[67] toward the end of the film, marzia asks elio, "friend for life?" a line taken from j'entends plus la guitare (1991), directed by garrel's father, philippe garrel.[41] "i like the idea of talking virtually with philippe garrel through her", guadagnino said.[41] during shooting, garrel spoke french with chalamet on set and watched the american sitcom friends with english subtitles to improve her english.[67] guadagnino chose amira casar, whom he had known for 20 years, for the role of elio's mother, annella.[41][64] in an interview, he expressed his admiration of casar's "sense of transgression" and called her "the most audacious" actress in european art cinema.[c][41] casting director stella savino met vanda capriolo when she was bicycling in the countryside. capriolo, who was not an actor, was chosen to play mafalda, the perlmans' maid.[51][68] aciman and spears also appear briefly in cameo roles as mounir and isaac, an openly gay couple who attend a dinner party.[32][45] aciman was asked to be in the movie after actors became unavailable. "it was a last minute decision", spears recalled. "andré turns out to be a phenomenal actor! so comfortable, not nervous at all. his wife was sitting there and said, 'i had no idea!'"[69] in dialogue, the characters switch between english, french, italian,[70] and in one scene annella reads a german translation of 16th century french literature.[71] hammer and chalamet both signed contracts prohibiting the film from showing them with full frontal nudity. the decision dismayed ivory, whose original screenplay contained nudity. he criticized what he saw as an "american" attitude, saying: "nobody seems to care that much or be shocked about a totally naked woman. it's the men."[33][36] guadagnino picked actors based on their performances and chemistry rather than on their sexuality.[23] he said, "the idea that you have to cast only someone who has a certain set of skills, and worse, a certain gender identity in any role: that's oppressive to me."[13] the main location set for the perlmans' residence was villa albergoni, an uninhabited 17th century mansion in moscazzano.[32][72] guadagnino wanted to buy the house but could not afford it, and so made a film there instead.[40][73] a landscape designer was hired to construct an orchard in the mansion's garden.[68] a pergola was built on the patio, and apricot and peach trees were placed in the garden.[72][74] guadagnino did not want the film to be a period piece and tried to resist making a film that would reflect "our idea of the 80s". his goal was an accurate recreation of the period that was invisible to the viewer.[20] the crew, including production designer samuel deshors and set decorators sandro piccarozzi and violante visconti di modrone, styled the house with furniture and objects inspired by the characters.[32][73] much of the furniture, including dishes and glassware from the 1950s, belonged to guadagnino and visconti di modrone's parents. di modrone, a grandniece of luchino visconti, said, "that made it cozy and personal ... i wanted to give it the sense of time passing by".[75] many paintings, maps, and mirrors influenced by asian art came from an antiques shop in milan.[74][75] the books seen in the background were all published before 1982.[68] the swimming pool used in the film was based on a watering trough common in the area.[32][75] the filmmakers set up faded political billboards in public places to reflect the italian general election in 1983[68] and re created a newsstand full of magazines of that time.[68] residents of crema helped the production team with their research, inviting them into their homes and providing pictures from the 1980s.[20][76] chen li, the film's graphic designer, created a handwritten typeface for the film's title sequence of photocopied images of statues alongside items on mr. perlman's desk.[68] costume designer giulia piersanti avoided using period costumes; instead, she wanted to provide "a sense of insouciant adolescent sensuality, summer heat and sexual awakening".[75] the costumes, influenced by pauline at the beach (1983), a tale of springtime (1990), and a summer's tale (1996),[75] included some pieces made by piersanti's team.[68] for the perlmans' wardrobe, piersanti took inspiration from her parents' photograph albums. for oliver's "sexy, healthy american" image, piersanti referred to "some of bruce weber's earliest photographs".[75] oliver's clothes change throughout the film as "he's more able to free himself".[68] aiming to emphasize elio's confident style, she chose several lacoste costumes and a distinctive, new romantic looking shirt in the final scene.[20][75] for elio's other costumes, piersanti picked some items from her husband's closet, including the polo shirt and fido dido t shirt.[75] principal photography began on may 9, 2016, and wrapped in june,[77][78] lasting around 33 days.[68][79] the film was shot primarily in crema and the surrounding province of cremona.[14][17][80][81] an unusual series of rainstorms coincided with the shooting schedule, with heavy rain on 28 of the shooting days.[30][79] scenes set in the nearby villages pandino and moscazzano were filmed between may 17 and 19, and shooting in crema began on june 1.[82][83][84] additional outdoor scenes were shot on december 4, 2016.[85][86] the city of crema invested €18,000 in the film, including a publicity campaign costing €7,500.[87][88] the arch of torrazzo at crema cathedral and several historical locations in the streets of crema and pandino were chosen during production.[72][82] businesses requested compensation for financial losses caused by the closure, which was scheduled for may 30 and 31.[89] two days' filming at the cathedral were postponed due to the rainy weather.[90] filming also took place in the lodigiano area near crespiatica and in two small towns near crema, montodine and ripalta.[72][32][85] the archaeological discovery scene was filmed at the grottoes of catullus in sirmione on the brescian shores of lake garda.[72] the trip to bergamo was filmed at the exterior of multiple historical buildings, including bergamo cathedral, the santa maria maggiore, the courtyard of liceo classico paolo sarpi in piazza rosate and the university of sciences, letters and arts [it].[72] the train station scenes were filmed at pizzighettone.[91] because of security concerns, the production team was granted permission to film at the cascate del serio in valbondione for only half an hour.[72][80][92] before and during filming, the actors lived in crema and were able to experience small town life.[32] guadagnino engaged with the cast and filmmakers and often cooked for them and showed films at his house.[28] hammer and chalamet, who did not have to do a screen test together,[21][93] met for the first time during production in crema.[32][78] before filming began, they spent a month together, watching tv and going to local restaurants.[12][61][78] "we'd hang out with each other all the time, because we were pretty much the only americans there, and we were able to defend one another and really get to know one another", chalamet said.[63] during the first two days of production, guadagnino read the script with the cast.[38] the first scene that hammer and chalamet rehearsed was the kissing scene,[29][93] and they spent several days filming nude.[94] "i've never been so intimately involved with a director before. luca was able to look at me and completely undress me," hammer said.[50] guadagnino shot the film in chronological order,[38][95] which allowed the filmmakers to "witness the onscreen maturity of both protagonist and actor", according to fasano.[96] the scene in which mr. perlman delivers an emotional speech to elio was filmed on the penultimate day of filming.[12][38] stuhlbarg spent months preparing for the scene,[12][66] which guadagnino wanted to make "as simple as possible" by shooting fewer takes and "let[ting] the actors be."[19] three takes were shot and stuhlbarg was "on three different levels of getting emotional".[96] garrel enjoyed filming her sex scene with chalamet, which she said was filled with "joy and simplicity".[67] chalamet was listening to "visions of gideon", one of sufjan stevens's original songs for the film, in an earpiece while filming the final sequence;[97][98] the director asked him to perform three variations of the scene, one per take.[99] the camera was set in the fireplace with nobody behind it. "it was bit of an acting experiment", chalamet said.[51] during this scene, the title of the film is shown for the first time, rather than in the opening sequence. at the piazza vittorio emanuele,[91] a memorial to the victims of the battle of the piave in pandino,[46] the filmmakers laid a long camera dolly track to film the scene where elio tells oliver of his feelings for him in a single long take. this provided the flexibility and "flow of emotion" a cut scene could not.[100] during the dancing sequence, hammer had to perform to a click track in front of 50 off camera extras with the music turned down so the dialogue could be recorded.[51][61] in preparation for the scene, guadagnino arranged for hammer to practice with a dance coach.[51] hammer said it was "the worst scene" he had ever filmed.[101] choreographer paolo rocchi, who was contacted by the frenesy film company in june 2016, called the routine "awkward and realistic".[102] rosenman considered the scene one of the most emotional moments; he said, "it embodied and encapsulated, for me, what teenage love is all about, what desire is all about."[29] sayombhu mukdeeprom, who had collaborated with guadagnino on ferdinando cito filomarino's antonia (2015), served as the director of photography.[22][103] he had read aciman's novel before receiving the script and walked around filming locations to "get a feeling for everything ... to see the color, to see how the light changed during the day, and input it into my data".[104] mukdeeprom had to use artificial lighting to capture the northern italian summer atmosphere,[14] compensating for the heavy rain throughout the shoot.[22][79] while filming the confrontation scene between oliver and elio, mukdeeprom wept in a corner of the room after they finished the first take, overwhelmed by a feeling of profound empathy for the actors.[14] the film was shot using 35 mm celluloid film and a single lens,[105] a decision influenced by the work of david cronenberg to "solidif[y] the point of view"[15] and make "the tension of the performance come off the screen" even if it meant increasing the production budget above the cost of shooting in digital.[105] guadagnino praised jean pierre laforce, the film's sound designer and mixer, for his "wonderful" and "pivotal" contributions. guadagnino had previously worked with laforce on a bigger splash and said he was "able to create a sort of cathedral of sound without overwhelming the movie."[19] fasano collaborated with guadagnino during post production.[106][40] they had worked together since guadagnino's debut feature, the protagonists (1999).[40] fasano called working with guadagnino "atypical [and] very demanding, but it's a great experience."[106] post production took only a month, between june and july[14] the fastest they had ever edited.[78] fasano cited bernardo bertolucci's films and the "fast and unexplained" storytelling in pialat's à nos amours as inspiration.[106] the film's first cut was three hours and 20 minutes.[106][107] fasano called it his favorite, saying it made him "lose [him]self in the story and the images".[106] the final cut lasts two hours and 10 minutes with a shooting ratio of 25:1.[106] several notable changes were made, or almost made, near the end of post production. the monologue sequence with elio's father once had piano music beneath it. the scene in which elio and oliver bike to a courtyard almost failed to make the final cut after one of the producers said it was inconsequential.[96] hammer said that some scenes were digitally altered to fix wardrobe malfunctions caused by his short shorts.[108][109] guadagnino has discussed several scenes that did not make the final cut. there was a "well acted" scene where elio and oliver were "teasing one another" under a lime tree that guadagnino felt was "too precious".[47] a scene where elio's parents make love in the bedroom while elio and oliver are kissing under the moonlight in the garden was also cut.[47] the latter scene was shown at a june 2018 screening in castiglioncello, which also included a deleted scene of elio inviting oliver to tour the village.[110] guadagnino chose the music for call me by your name himself.[32] he wanted to find an "emotional narrator to the film" through music, in a "less heavy, less present, and more enveloping" way than voice and text.[38] barry lyndon (1975), the magnificent ambersons (1942), and the age of innocence (1993) inspired him.[38] guadagnino wanted the film's music to be connected to elio, a young pianist who enjoys transcribing and adapting piano pieces and uses music to deepen his relationship with oliver.[21] music is used in the film to reflect the period setting, the characters' family life and their level of education, and "the kind of canon they would be a part of".[21] guadagnino also researched which pop songs played frequently on local radio stations that summer.[21][111] impressed by the lyricism of american songwriter sufjan stevens,[22] guadagnino asked him to record an original song for call me by your name and to narrate the film from the perspective of elio at an older age.[22][97] stevens declined the voiceover role[97] but contributed three songs to the soundtrack: "mystery of love", "visions of gideon", and a remix by doveman of his song "futile devices" from the age of adz (2010).[21] he was inspired by the film's script, the novel, and conversations with guadagnino about the characters.[22] he submitted the songs a few days before filming began. surprised by the result, guadagnino listened to them on set with the actors and editor walter fasano.[32][78] because it had been recorded, chalamet was able to listen to "visions of gideon" on an earpiece while filming the movie's four minute final shot, a static closeup of his face. he said, "sufjan's song was playing in my ear so i could mirror the structure."[112] the project marked the first time stevens had written songs explicitly for a feature film soundtrack.[113][114] alongside stevens's songs, several classical pieces and 1980s pop songs are on the soundtrack. madison gate records and sony classical released a soundtrack album in digital formats on november 3, 2017,[115] and in physical formats on november 17.[116] it features songs by stevens, the psychedelic furs, franco battiato, loredana bertè, bandolero, giorgio moroder, joe esposito, and f. r. david, as well as music by john adams, erik satie, ryuichi sakamoto, bach, and ravel.[117] as of february 1, 2018,[update] the soundtrack had sold 9,000 copies and had 29 million on demand audio streams of its tracks in the u.s., according to nielsen soundscan.[118] call me by your name had its world premiere on january 22, 2017, at the sundance film festival.[119][120] international sales were handled by memento films international, a french company, which screened a promo reel at the american film market in november 2016.[39][121] shortly before the film's sundance premiere, sony pictures classics acquired worldwide distribution rights for $6 million.[122] the deal was negotiated by wme global and uta independent film group.[123] the film was screened at the berlin international film festival on february 13, 2017;[64] the toronto international film festival on september 7, 2017;[14][78][124] and the new york film festival on october 3, 2017.[125] at the beijing international film festival, it was originally scheduled for april 2018, but was removed from the official program with no explanation; patrick brzeski of the hollywood reporter wrote that the decision reflected the government's "consistent stance of intolerance toward gay content".[126][127] that year, the film was honored at the crema film festival: aciman met the public on june 23, and garrel joined the screening at the crema cathedral on june 30.[128] call me by your name opened in limited release in the united kingdom on october 27, 2017,[17] and the united states on november 24, 2017.[6] it expanded from four to thirty locations in the u.s. on december 15, 2017,[129] then to 114 theaters on december 22.[130] it screened in 174 theaters in january 2018,[131] before going into wide release in 815 theaters a few days before the oscar nomination announcement ceremony on january 19, 2018.[132][133] on oscars weekend, the film screened in 914 theaters, its widest release in the u.s.[134] warner bros. pictures released the film theatrically in italy on january 25, 2018, though home media distribution in italy is handled through sony pictures home entertainment as well.[135][136][137] special screenings and a public meet and greet with guadagnino, hammer and chalamet took place in crema between january 27 and 30.[137][138][139] the film opened in brazil on january 18[140] and in france on february 28.[141] in march 2018, a distributor in tunisia reported that the ministry of culture had banned the film as an "attack on liberties" because of its subject matter.[142][143] in ireland, it became the longest running film shown at the light house cinema in early june 2018, after a 30 week run.[144] in the philippines, the film was screened accompanied by a live performance of its soundtrack by the manila symphony orchestra on october 28.[145] walt disney studios motion pictures theatrically released the film in taiwan on january 12, 2018, under the buena vista international label.[146] sony pictures classics released an official poster for call me by your name on july 27, 2017.[147] the first theatrical trailer was released on august 1, 2017.[148][149] on october 11, 2017, sony pictures classics released a teaser titled "dance party" to celebrate national coming out day.[150] the 42 second clip, consisting of a single take of hammer and chalamet dancing to "love my way" in a bar, became a meme on twitter.[151][152][153] because of its use in the clip, "love my way" gained popularity on music streaming websites. it rose 13% on on demand streams during the two months before the film's release. in the week ending november 30, 2017, the song collected 177,000 on demand streams, its biggest streaming week in the u.s.[154] reaction to the advertisement on social media was somewhat negative, largely because of sony pictures' misleading use of an image of chalamet and garrel instead of a focus on the protagonists' relationship.[155] daniel megarry of gay times described it as "an attempt to 'straight wash' the movie's predominant same sex romance".[156] benjamin lee of the guardian called the ad a "disastrous attempt to push oscar buzzed call me by your name as a straight love story", and said the advert "belies an industry awkwardly denying queerness".[157] sony pictures classics later aired several commercial spots to promote the film during its u.s. wide expansion on january 19, 2018.[132] to promote the film in south korea, sony pictures released several never before seen set photos and pastel promotional posters illustrated by son eunkyoung in march 2018.[158][159] a pirated copy of an awards screener dvd of call me by your name, along with copies of last flag flying and fellow oscar nominees i, tonya and lady bird, were leaked onto file sharing websites by the hacker group hive cm8 on december 24, 2017.[160][161][162] the film was officially released for digital download on february 27, 2018.[163] it was released on blu ray and dvd on march 13, 2018, with two bonus featurettes ("in conversation with armie hammer, timothée chalamet, michael stuhlbarg & luca guadagnino" and "snapshots of italy: the making of call me by your name"), an audio commentary track by chalamet and stuhlbarg, and the music video for "mystery of love".[101][163][164] the film made $2,100,758 in dvd sales and $1,856,909 in blu ray sales in the united states, for a total of $3,957,667 in home media sales.[165] in the united kingdom, the dvd charted at number seven and the blu ray at number four on top 100 sales for both formats.[166][167] call me by your name grossed $18.1 million in the united states and canada, and $23.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $41.9 million against a production budget of $3.4 million.[6] the film was sony pictures classics' third highest grossing release of 2017.[168] in the united states, call me by your name began its limited run on november 24, 2017, at the paris theater and union square theatre in new york city, and the arclight hollywood and landmark theater in los angeles.[169] the film made $404,874 in its opening weekend a per theater average of $101,219.[170][171] it was the highest average of 2017 the biggest since the opening of la la land the previous december[172] and had the best per screen opening for a gay romance film since brokeback mountain (2005).[170][173] in its second weekend, the film grossed $281,288,[174][175] with an "excellent" per screen average of $70,320.[176][177] the film expanded to nine theaters in its third weekend, grossing $291,101 for a "solid" $32,345 per theater average.[178] it earned $491,933 from 30 theaters in its fourth weekend, averaging $16,398.[129] the film expanded to 114 theaters in its fifth week and grossed $850,736, averaging $7,463 per screen.[130] it crossed $6 million in its seventh weekend, earning $758,726 from 115 locations.[179] it grossed $715,559 from 174 theaters in its eighth weekend, averaging $4,185 per screen.[131] in the film's nationwide release week its ninth weekend overall the film grossed $1.4 million from 815 theaters, an under performance compared to "some of its competition with similar theater counts," according to deadline hollywood.[132][133] the following weekend, after the announcement of its four oscar nominations, the film's revenues dropped 6 percent to $1.3 million.[180][181] with a total gross revenue of $9,370,359 by the week of january 23, 2018, call me by your name was the second lowest grossing film among that year's best picture nominees.[182] however, the online ticketing company fandango reported that the film had experienced a 56 percent increase in ticket sales through its service since its best picture nomination was announced.[5] regarding the film's "lagging" box office performance, tom brueggemann of indiewire commented that sony picture classic "has done an able job so far", and said "at some point the film and the reaction to it is something no distributor can overcome".[183] it grossed $919,926, averaging $1,006, from 914 theaters during the oscar weekend,[134] and went on to earn $304,228 from 309 theaters in its sixteenth weekend.[184] call me by your name opened at number seven in italy with €781,000 and obtained the best per theater average of the week.[185] it made €49,170 on february 6 and reached €2 million by the end of the week.[186] it re entered at number 10 on march 13 by making another €13,731 at the box office.[187] as of july 6, 2018,[update] the film had grossed $3,925,137 in italy.[165] it attracted 17,152 viewers in france on its first day of screening, with an "excellent" per theater average of 184 entries.[188] it went on to attract 108,500 viewers in the opening weekend, earning 1,167 viewings the second best average that week[189] and 238,124 viewers in its third weekend.[190] as of april 17, 2018,[update] the film had grossed $2,652,781 in france.[165] in the united kingdom, the film earned £231,995 ($306,000) from 112 screens in its opening weekend,[191] including £4,000 from previews.[192] after ten days, it had made £568,000 ($745,000),[193] before reaching the $1 million mark (£767,000) in its third weekend.[194][195] as of may 21, 2018,[update] the film had grossed $2,372,382 in the united kingdom.[165] at its premiere at the sundance film festival, call me by your name received a standing ovation.[196] when it screened at alice tully hall as part of the new york film festival, it received a ten minute ovation, the longest in the festival's history.[44][197] on review aggregator rotten tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 95% based on 363 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. the website's critical consensus reads, "call me by your name offers a melancholy, powerfully affecting portrait of first love, empathetically acted by timothée chalamet and armie hammer."[198] it was the best reviewed limited release and the second best reviewed romance film of 2017 on the site.[199][200] on metacritic, the film has an average weighted score of 94 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[201] it was the year's fifth best rated film on metacritic.[202] writing for the hollywood reporter, boyd van hoeij described call me by your name as an "extremely sensual ... intimate and piercingly honest" adaptation of aciman's novel and called chalamet's performance "the true breakout of the film".[204] peter debruge of variety wrote that the film "advances the canon of gay cinema" by portraying "a story of first love ... that transcends the same sex dynamic of its central couple". he compared guadagnino's "sensual" direction to pedro almodóvar and françois ozon, and put call me by your name "on par with the best of their work".[120] david ehrlich of indiewire also praised guadagnino's directing, which he said helped the film "match the artistry and empathy" of carol (2015) and moonlight (2016).[203] sam adams of the bbc wrote that stuhlbarg's performance "puts a frame around the movie's painting and opens up avenues we may not have thought to explore", and called it "one of his finest" to date. he extolled the film as one of "many movies that have so successfully appealed to both the intellectual and the erotic since the heydays of patrice chéreau and andré téchiné".[205] ty burr of the boston globe gave the film three and a half stars, commended guadagnino for "broaden[ing] his embrace of humanity while hitting new heights of cinematic bliss", and wrote that the film "may be a fantasy but it's one that's lovely and wise."[206] david morgan of cbs praised the cinematography, production design, and costuming for "making a summer in the 1980s palpably alive again." he found stuhlbarg's character "the most forward thinking parent in movie history".[207] richard lawson wrote that guadagnino's adaptation "was made with real love, with good intentions, with a clarity of heart and purposeful, unpretentious intellect" and hailed it as a "modern gay classic" in his vanity fair review.[208] chicago tribune's michael phillips was pleased by guadagnino's "wonderfully paradoxical" visual interests and wrote that stevens's songs "work like magic on your sympathies regarding elio's emotional awakening." he praised hammer's performance as "some of the most easy breathing and relaxed best work of his career."[209] the economist noted the tension "between pain and pleasure" in the film and praised chalamet, saying that he "evokes so many shades of humanity, portraying a path of youthful self discovery that is more raw, unhinged, and ultimately honest than many actors could manage".[210] kate taylor of the globe and mail, who gave the film two and a half stars, also enjoyed chalamet's effort in capturing "first love and its inevitable heartbreak" and said the "multilingual, almost pre aids idyll does not stretch credulity ... but it can try the patience".[211] ken eisner of the georgia straight wrote that "guadagnino's lyrical excesses ... can alternate wildly between the poetically incisive and the indulgently preposterous."[212] in an unfavorable review, kyle turner of paste wrote, "the details of the film are too small for anyone, perhaps particularly a queer person, to see", a visual distance that "suggests that the film, in the beginning, is as terrified as elio initially is. it never gets over that hesitation."[213] armond white of out called the movie "craven commercialism" and a "super bourgeois fantasy" that "exploit[s] the queer audience's romantic needs by packaging them and falsifying them."[214] call me by your name was on many critics' top ten lists for 2017.[215] the film's depiction of a sexual relationship with an age disparity between elio and oliver drew commentary and criticism especially in the u.s., where the lowest legal age of consent is higher than in italy.[216] elio is 17, and chalamet was 20 at the time of filming, while the 24 year old oliver was played by hammer, then 30. queer eye host karamo brown criticized the movie as glorifying sexual assault and said, "it looks like a grown man having sex with a little boy."[217] author cheyenne montgomery said she was disturbed that one of the protagonists is portrayed as a boy and the other as a man, saying, "elio is portrayed very much as a child: he shaves peach fuzz off of his face, he cuddles with his parents, his lines are often kind of bratty and childlike, and he's being played as a sexy romantic partner to a character who's very much being portrayed as an adult."[218] physicians renee sorrentino and jack turban wrote in psychiatric times: this film is about sexual predation. oliver looks much older than his reported age of 24 while elio looks like a very young 17 year old. the power disparity in the relationship is clear. elio is fragile and sexually naive. oliver is experienced and directive in the relationship. ... is it appropriate for a 24 year old experienced in drinking to have sex with an inebriated and vomiting 17 year old?[219] a feature in the advocate, an lgbt interest magazine, drew attention to other narrative films depicting heterosexual relationships with similar or greater age gaps, such as between the teenaged scarlett and the 33 year old rhett butler in gone with the wind.[220] the national board of review and the american film institute selected call me by your name as one of the top 10 films of the year.[221][222] at the 90th academy awards, it was nominated for best picture, best actor (chalamet), best original song ("mystery of love"), and best adapted screenplay, and won the last.[223][224] chalamet became the third youngest best actor nominee and the youngest nominee since 1939, and ivory became the oldest winner in any competitive category.[225] the film received four nominations at the 71st british academy film awards, including best film and best direction, and won best adapted screenplay for ivory.[226][227] at the 75th golden globe awards, it was nominated for best motion picture   drama, best actor   motion picture drama for chalamet and best supporting actor for hammer.[228] the film received eight nominations at the 23rd critics' choice awards; ivory won best adapted screenplay.[229] the film led the 33rd independent spirit awards with six nominations, winning best male lead for chalamet and best cinematography for mukdeeprom.[230][231] at the 24th screen actors guild awards, chalamet was nominated for outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role.[232] the film won the glaad media award for outstanding film   wide release at its 29th ceremony.[233] in italy, fasano won best editing at the 73rd nastro d'argento awards and 33rd golden ciak awards.[234][235] the national board of review, the gotham independent film awards, and the hollywood film awards each gave chalamet its breakout actor award.[236][237] in a series of articles about the best of the 2010s in film, indiewire ranked call me by your name the 18th best film of the decade and chalamet's performance the 39th best acting performance.[238][239] consequence of sound ranked the film the 23rd best of the decade,[240] rolling stone ranked it 40th,[241] and little white lies ranked it 47th.[242] the film has gained a large international fan base. during its festival run, people crossed borders and oceans to be among the first to see the film. in 2018, barb mirell published a collection of stories from fans around the world about what the film meant to them.[243] by early 2018, the film had attracted a following in china among heterosexual women, who saw it as a western "boys' love" romance, evidenced by its popularity on the chinese social network and media database douban.[244] after an italian fan published coordinates of the filming locations, visiting crema became a pilgrimage for fans of the film. the city now offers official tours.[245] guadagnino has deliberated over the idea of a sequel since the film's premiere at sundance, when he said he realized the characters "could go beyond the boundaries of the film".[47] in october 2017, he said he hoped to make a sequel in 2020 that might be in the style of françois truffaut's the adventures of antoine doinel series, telling the story of oliver and elio as they age. "if i paired the age of elio in the film with the age of timothée, in three years' time, timothée will be 25, as would elio by the time the second story was set", he said.[246][247] in the novel, elio and oliver reunite 15 years later when oliver is married. guadagnino said that, in the sequel, "i don't think elio is necessarily going to become a gay man. he hasn't found his place yet ... i believe that he would start an intense relationship with marzia again."[248] guadagnino has expressed interest in the politics of the 1990s, saying, "it is the time of the fall of communism and the start of the new world order and so called 'end of history' that francis fukuyama established then ... the beginning of the berlusconi era in italy and it would mean dealing with the [first gulf war] of iraq."[248][249] in november 2017, guadagnino said he intended to make a series of five films in which the audience could "see those actors grow older, embodying those characters."[47] a month later, he was reported to have begun writing a sequel that would reveal more about oliver and resemble michael apted's up series.[250][251] hammer and chalamet have expressed interest in appearing in a sequel,[252] but ivory appears to be dismissive, saying of sequels, "that's fine, good. but i don't know how they're going to get a 40 year old [chalamet]!"[43] in january 2018, guadagnino said the sequel would be set "right after the fall of berlin wall and that great shift that was the end of ... the ussr"[19] and that its first scene could depict elio watching paul vecchiali's once more (1988) the first french film to deal with aids in a theater.[253] in march 2018, guadagnino said he would work with aciman on the sequel, which would take place "five or six years" later with "a different tone".[254] he also said that hammer and chalamet would reprise their roles with a different backdrop, where they "go around the world".[254] hammer said he was pitched the script by guadagnino, saying: "it's not a finished script, but he's got all the ideas for it".[255] in april 2018, aciman said in an interview that he and guadagnino were "not sure" about the sequel, saying guadagnino "has quite a few projects in line and so do i. so we are flirting with each other about the sequel but i don't know if we are very serious."[256] in july 2018, stuhlbarg said that guadagnino and aciman were excited about the project and that the director was "serious" about it. he expressed enthusiasm to reprise his role, saying "i think it would have to be some kind of unique thing from what it was, but i would absolutely be game for trying."[257] two months later, hammer said of the sequel in an interview: "it will happen because there are already people working on it and trying to make it happen."[258] in an october 2018 interview, chalamet compared the sequel to richard linklater's boyhood (2014) and said that hammer, aciman, and guadagnino all intended to return for the next film.[259] also that month, guadagnino said he had asked dakota johnson, a frequent collaborator of his, to play oliver's wife in the sequel. he described her character as "a new england kind of hoochie woman" who might also have children with oliver.[260] he said the film would be "a new chapter in a chronicle" about the characters, rather than a sequel,[261] and might take some time to develop due to his busy schedule: "i have not been able to luxuriate in anything but the promotion of suspiria ... i didn't have space of mind and the real, actual time to put ideas on the table and think of things."[261] "the only problem is the title", he said; "it cannot be call me by your name two".[260][262] at the scad savannah film festival in october, hammer said that guadagnino had laid out a potential plot for the sequel and that it might be a few years away: "he wants to wait so that we age a bit more so that gap makes sense, kind of like a linklater thing."[263] in a november interview, guadagnino said of the sequel, "it's a delicate flower that is blooming very slowly. and so i think it's not the time to collect it and put it into a vase."[264] in november 2018, ivory said he would not return for a sequel and that aciman thought "it was not a good idea".[265] but less than a week later, aciman said he was in fact writing a sequel.[266][267] the novel, find me, was officially confirmed in march 2019 and was released on october 29 by farrar, straus and giroux.[268] also in march 2019, hammer said the film was not formally in the works and that he had had no explicit conversations with either chalamet or guadagnino about it. he also felt the potential sequel might not match the expectation, saying, "it felt like a really perfect storm of so many things, that if we do make a second one, i think we're setting ourselves up for disappointment. i don't know that anything will match up to the first ... i'm like, 'that was such a special thing, why don't we just leave it alone?'"[269] in march 2020, guadagnino confirmed a sequel film in an interview and said the original film's full cast would return. he also said he was due to meet with an unnamed american writer to discuss the sequel, a meeting postponed due to the covid 19 pandemic.[270] in a september interview, hammer said: "i've been talking to [guadagnino], but we haven't got into it. i haven't even read the book. i know luca hasn't got a full script yet, although he knows what he wants to do with the story, so i don't know how similar or dissimilar it will be to find me, the novel. i know if we end up doing it, it’s more important for me to focus on luca’s vision than to focus on find me."[271] a series of allegations against hammer of emotional abuse and cannibalistic fetishism in 2021, resulting in hammer's removal from nearly all upcoming projects, raised doubts about the prospects of a sequel,[272] but stuhlbarg said he hoped the film would still be made.[273] in may 2021, guadagnino suggested in an interview that a sequel was no longer in his priorities,[274] hinting that, beyond the complications related to hammer's scandal, he and chalamet would be busy with other films in the near future, leading him to put the sequel aside.

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hermès international, sometimes also referred to as hermès of paris or hermes, is a french luxury goods manufacturer. it has been consistently ranked as the world’s most valuable luxury brand in different valuation and ranking studies published by leading consultancies. hermès as a brand enjoys an iconic status in the world of luxury. a combination of rich heritage, exquisite craftsmanship, eye for detail and high levels of quality and professionalism through the entire manufacturing process gives hermès a position of superiority in the very competitive and ruthless world of luxury. according to global brand valuation firm interbrand, hermès came in 28th amongst the best global brands 2020. with a brand valuation of usd 18.0 billion, it trails behind louis vuitton, ranked 17th with a valuation of usd 31.7 billion. hermès is not a conglomerate in the real sense of the word and does not own a portfolio of brands like its key competitors, which include lvmh, richemont and kering. currently, the range of products under the hermès brand name includes leather goods, lifestyle accessories, furniture, fragrances, watches, jewelry, ready to wear and saddlery. the leather goods and saddlery category is the biggest contributor to the company’s revenues (50%), followed by ready to wear and accessories (23%), and silk and textiles (9%). thierry hermès founded the company in 1837 as a harness workshop in paris. originally, his intent was to serve the needs of european noblemen by providing saddles, bridles and other leather riding gear. in the early 20th century, thierry’s son charles émile hermès moved the company’s shop to 24 rue du faubourg saint honore in paris, where it remains to this very day and is the company’s global headquarters. gradually, the company’s product offerings expanded through generations. between 1880 and 1900, it started selling saddlery and introduced its product in retail stores. in 1900, the company started selling the “haut à courroies” bag, which was meant for riders to carry their saddles in it. in 1918, hermès introduced the first leather golf jacket with zipper, made for the then prince of wales. in the 1920s, accessories and clothing were introduced into the portfolio. in 1922, the first leather handbags entered the product line. the brand’s travel bags introduced in 1925 were a global success. in the 1930s, hermès introduced products that have now entered the annals of fashion as icons   the leather sac à dépêches (renamed as the “kelly bag” after grace kelly) in 1935 and the hermès carrés (scarves) in 1937. in 1949, the first hermès silk tie and the first perfume ‘eau d’ hermès’ were introduced. in the 1930s, the company entered the united states with an initial tie up with the neiman marcus department store in new york. the company’s iconic duc carriage with horse logo and signature orange boxes were introduced in the 1950s. in the 1970s, the company established a watch subsidiary la montre hermès in bienne, switzerland. the company acquired tableware manufacturers like puiforcat, saint louis and perigord in the 1980s and consolidated its position in these segments of the luxury market. the eye of the ultra premium luxury segment, the “birkin bag” was introduced in 1984, after a chance conversation between the then ceo jean louis dumas and actress and singer jane birkin on a flight from paris to london, who articulated to dumas that she needed a medium sized bag. each birkin costs between usd 12,000 to usd 300,000 and is the exquisite handiwork of a single craftsman, who takes between 18 to 25 hours to complete the job via hand, more if the hide is a delicate crocodile skin. in 2014, an extremely rare himalayan nilo crocodile birkin bag sold for usd 185,000, becoming the second most expensive bag to be sold at auction. hermès is infamously known to burn imperfect birkins, showcasing its dedication to the finest quality. in 1993, the company went public on the paris bourse, which for various reasons was considered a strategic move with its own set of weaknesses. throughout the late 1990s, hermès extensively followed a strategy of reducing franchise stores, by buying them up, closing quite a significant many and by opening more company operated stores. as of 2019, hermès operates 311 stores globally, out of which 223 were directly owned and operated by the company. in 1976, hermès entered into an arrangement with british luxury shoemaker john lobb, wherein it was allowed to use its name in return for extending the distribution reach of the brand. in 1999, in one of its first non brand moves, hermès bought a 35 percent stake in the jean paul gaultier fashion house. over a period of time, the company has extended its reputation by entering into strategic collaborations with specific players and also its suppliers in the ultra luxury segment. these include: today, the brand operates 311 stores globally across the u.s., russia and asia and has over 15,000 employees. it is one of the largest and most admired luxury makers in the world with revenues of over usd 8.3 billion and profits of over usd 1.8 billion as at 2019. the stellar performance of the brand throughout its 183 year history is largely credited to its drive for strategic consistency, combining excellent creativity with craftsmanship as well as an unrelenting focus on the long term against short term benefits. the hermès’ brand philosophy can possibly be summarised by a single sentence quote from former ceo jean louis dumas   “we don’t have a policy of image, we have a policy of product”. the brand philosophy is deeply entrenched in the platforms of “quality” and “refinement”. it is for these very principles that the brand has always shunned mass production, manufacturing lines and outsourcing. according to hermès, each and every product coming out under the brand’s name should reflect the hard work put into it by the artisan. till today, creative director pierre alexis dumas signs off on every single hermès product before it leaves the workshop, showing the company’s unwavering commitment to the highest quality. according to current ceo axel dumas, the main strength of the hermès brand is the love for craftsmanship. this is further eschewed by pierre alexis dumas, who was quoted saying “i think hermès objects are desirable because they reconnect people to their humanity… our customer feels the presence of the person who crafted the object, while at the same time the object brings him back to his own sensitivity, because it gives him pleasure through his senses”. the most critical aspect is that these principles around the brand have remained firm in the company’s evolution in its close to 183 year old history. the ownership, management and leadership of the company have passed through multiple generations of the hermès family, but the principles of the hermès brand have never been diluted. all hermès products are made almost entirely in france in workshops (ateliers hermès), which places a strong emphasis on quality. also, hermès’ claims, in line with the comments from its ceo and creative director, that each product is entirely manufactured by hand by only one craftsman, signifies the quality of craftsmanship and uniqueness of its products. for example, its silk scarves are only made from silk produced by hermès farms in brazil. the driving force behind the platforms of quality and uniqueness is the intense desire of hermès as a company to remain exclusive. the aura of exclusivity is important for the company because it does not intend to portray the brand and its products as mass market luxury or even premium luxury. the philosophy and aim has always been to remain “ultra premium luxury”, which can only be afforded by the very few and is not easily available. in line with these brand philosophies, the company does not have a marketing department. the two core drivers of the company’s business engine are intuition and creativity. it is claimed that everyone in hermès is responsible for marketing. according to the company’s annual report, hermès products are split into the following categories   leather goods and saddlery, men’s and women’s ready to wear and accessories (including footwear, belts, gloves, hats, etc.), silks and textiles, fragrances, watches, and other products (including jewelry, furniture, home accessories and furnishing, tableware, and sporting accessories). the company’s brand strategy is consistent across each and every one of these product categories in which it has a presence. the strategy that the company follows and adopts ensures the aura of exclusivity remains tightly woven around its products. the hermès strategy, as illustrated by the examples below, revolves around its 6 values: spirit of conquest, creativity, craftsmanship, quality, authenticity, and independence: spirit of conquest (entrepreneurship): store managers are responsible for their own store collections and are offered the freedom of purchase to meet specific needs of their customers. twice a year, 1,000 store representatives from its global stores come to paris for an event called “podium”. each flagship is instructed to pick at least one item from product categories beyond the common ones (handbags, scarves, ties, fragrances, watches), which is an attempt by the company to push every flagship store to showcase and sell complementary products. this adds to the allure of the hermès brand as not all products are available in each store and the online store only offers a selection of the company’s products. creativity: every year, designers are provided with a theme to create their products and designs on. the theme for 2019 was “in the pursuit of dreams”. in addition, collaborations with designers are a mainstay of the company’s creative pillar, especially in the home furnishings category. the objective is for both the designer and the company to benefit from each other’s creative collaborations and reputations. craftsmanship: there is a mandatory 2 year training for a craftsman before he or she can start working on putting together any leather product in the hermès portfolio. this slows down production time but the company’s philosophy has always been to maintain scarcity and exclusivity. hermès’ leather goods division hires only 200 craftsmen a year. this practice has been in place across the company’s six generations of craftsmen. quality: hermès has introduced “patience” as a very strong principle and element in its strategy to achieve the highest quality in its production. customers cannot expect to walk into a store and walk out with a birkin bag. instead, one has to place an order and wait for a few months before it is ready. instead of rationing high demand by price like normal economic law dictates, hermès rations by queue. it is often debated by economists that the queue for hermès bags creates surplus demand which overflows into other hermès “consolation” products like wallets and belts. in addition, all new employees and artisans are carefully selected and go through a three day in house training session called “inside the orange box” that traces the company’s origins back to its founders and the history of development of each of its product categories. the objective of this training is to make every hermès employee feel close, involved in, and identify with the company’s culture, philosophy and values, hence demonstrating the company’s dedication to the quality of its brand and legacy. authenticity: hermès does not look at celebrity endorsements as a brand building tactic and has actively stayed away from this form of marketing (a practice that is quite common in the lvmh brand stables). the very fact that only a list celebrities and the ultra wealthy can afford and get access to their most premium and exclusive products is an authentic endorsement of the brand. hermès also does not follow strategies of launching region specific collections or product offers, allowing the same product collections to be sold everywhere in the world. additionally, hermès has always been a significant proponent and user of the “limited edition” strategy and also limits distribution of its products in its stores, demonstrating its commitment to showcasing only the most authentic products. hermès products are also never offered on discounts. independence: hermès has always asserted its independence in its shareholding structure and family ownership. by doing so, it is able to retain most of its production within france and serve its long term vision. former ceo patrick thomas, only the second individual outside the hermès family to have run the company, once commented, “the luxury industry is built on a paradox: the more desirable the brand becomes, the more it sells but the more it sells, the less desirable it becomes”. his comment entirely encapsulates the strategy of exclusivity and scarcity that hermès follows for its brand. hermès also follows a continued tradition of innovation in the ultra luxury segment. from its early years of inception to the most recent times, the company manufactures and launches exclusive products that increases the allure of the brand and strengthens its position as an object of significant desire among its ultra rich customer base. during the 1970s, new materials like polyester and plastic started to be in fashion, which prompted hermès to develop new items in a bid to win over consumers. in 1979, a french advertising campaign featured a young lady with a hermès scarf, which sparked huge global interest in the company’s scarves that lasts till today. by the 1990s, hermès was offering over 30,000 products. in 2014, the company’s new launches across different product categories included the oxer bag, the nautilus pen, the faubourg watch, the third haute bijouterie collection, the la parfum de la maison, the h deco tea and dessert service and the lighting collection. in 2015, continuing with its tradition of offering something new and expanding the definition of luxury, hermès collaborated with apple in a new collection called apple watch hermès. the new collection has been categorised as a true collaborative effort with each watch engraved with the hermès signature, typeface customizable to the famous hermès orange and its three exclusive dials paying respect to hermès’ watch face designs. it also launched a new menswear website called le manifeste d’hermès, which aims to act as a guide for men’s styling needs. this website has been termed by gq magazine as having the ability to revolutionize e commerce. in 2016, hermès launched its first hermès innovation lab in leeds, yorkshire uk to implement emerging technologies including self tracking parcels and intelligent delivery using location based services. in 2020, it launched its second innovation lab in its new york store, fully constructed from sustainable materials and showcasing its efforts in sustainable design, including a wooden iteration of the iconic kelly bag. hermès regularly goes back to its roots when it needs to find inspiration for creating and launching new products. “heritage” is one of the strongest differentiators of the core brand identity of hermès. the following recent examples illustrate this process beautifully: this intense focus on innovation within the company has also resulted in hermès discovering new avenues for brand growth and for widening the brand’s influence in the ultra luxury segment. a very relevant example is the new project titled as “petit h”. the word immediately brings out connotations of “mini” versions of hermès products, but in reality it is something different altogether. hermès petit h is the company’s endeavor to encourage “luxurious recycling” of raw materials that are leftovers of building hermès products. the project is now taken shape as a new product category within hermès, also referred to as a new “atelier”. leftovers of manufacturing process of other products are now being crafted into unique and ultra luxurious products under the hermès petit h collection. products created via the petit h initiative travel around the world and are put up for temporary sale in different stores. for example, in 2014, the petit h collection was available for sale in one store in california and one in taiwan. in 2015, hermès announced that it would focus on exploring and wandering, and reflect these experiences in its brand. it opened the wanderland exhibition that ran in london, with the exhibition moving on to paris, turin and china. the theme of these exhibition is flânerie, which is defined as wandering the city streets and absorbing the details of everyday life. the wanderland exhibitions have multiple floors with bizarre themed rooms that contain exhibits from the hermès archive. hermès has a huge, expanding and profitable service category of working towards bespoke requests of ultra rich individuals. the work under this category is done through the hermès horizons brand name. essentially, the deliverables revolve around specific bespoke requests of creating an object from scratch, sheathing an object from an existing hermès collection or entire fittings or upholstery work for cars, planes and yachts. this is a clever strategy of extending the visibility and influence of the brand and also entrenching it in the lifestyle of the rich and famous. another very strong and distinctive element of hermès brand strategy is the concept of collaboration. in the continuation of a strategy that was adopted by the first generation of the founding family, hermès regularly invites artists (carefully selected by senior hermès artistic directors) to design iconic products in the company’s portfolio. the collaborations that are done for the iconic scarf are under the brand name of hermès editeur, which in simple words stands for special editions of the hermès scarf. collaborations are not limited only to scarfs but also occur in other product categories and within portfolios. the company’s collaborations with brands outside the hermès brand portfolio are consistently in the ultra luxury space   john lobb shoes and boots, puiforcat tableware and dinnerware and saint louis glassware. in 2010, hermès partnered with bugatti veyron to create the bugatti veyron fbg par hermès sports car which was completely outfitted with leather by the skilled leather artisans of hermès. at usd 2.1 million, it was one of the most expensive cars in the world. in 2011, it also partnered with eurocopter to design a usd 8 million helicopter. the overall structure and positioning of the product portfolio under the hermès brand name is a classical umbrella branding strategy. even though every one of the products in all the categories have distinctive names, the overall hermès name forms the core of all marketing and communication strategies. the only product that can arguably stand on its own without the hermès name endorsement is the eponymous birkin bag. the key strategic element of hermès brand strategy is to maintain the aura of exclusivity and scarcity. as one of most prolific family businesses in the luxury sector, it is no easy feat for hermès to have reined successful across 6 generations since 1837: the long term success of family firms is not a given. complexities arise when ownership, management and family roles overlap, which is a unique characteristic of family businesses. some of the defining characteristics which have contributed to hermès’ success across six generations include: strong family ownership: the hermès’ family business is run on the principle of a democratic monarchy, which means that leadership and management is closely tied to the family body with board of directors composed mostly of family members across the 3 lines (dumas, puech, guerrand). to keep ownership and influence within the family, a 75% majority is also required to change the company statutes or the ceo. strong values: the family believes that the family has obligations which are part of the family culture and ethic. some of its values include respect for people and nature, and respect for new ideas, which spurs its culture of innovation. strong family pride: all family members who work in hermès have a very strong identification and pride with the brand, with a remarkable dedication to quality and giving his or her best to preserve the family heritage. additionally, all members of the next generation are immersed in the company from a young age through organized tours to subsidiaries and suppliers. strong financial structure: for hermès, going public increased the company’s’ financial stability while still enabling a strong family influence. in addition, it adheres to the principle of self financing, resulting in a 15% profit reinvestment back into the company annually. brand communication and marketing strategies of hermès always remain consistent with the principles of “heritage” and “exclusivity” of the company. marketing campaigns celebrate the hermès lifestyle and do not aim to directly sell products from the various ateliers. the company also sponsors events that have a direct fit with the image and the legacy of the company. in addition to these, hermès uses strategic collaborations with independent artists and designers to raise visibility of its products. the primary aim of collaborations is to strengthen the aura of exclusivity around specific product portfolios. this is done through the classic “limited edition” strategy, but in the case of hermès, it puts a higher degree of exclusivity to the portfolio, because hermès products in themselves are exclusive. in sync with the company’s heritage and association with horses (and the fact that the company was founded as a saddlery manufacturer), hermès sponsors lots of horse racing events around the world. in the beginning of 2014, it became the official sponsor of the us show jumping team. the company’s flagship event in the equestrian world is the annual saut hermès show jumping competition held in paris. hermès has been organizing and managing this event on its own since 2010 and uses it as an avenue to showcase its fine leather products and its longstanding association with horses. it is also a visibility generating avenue for hermès among the very affluent audience of such events. in terms of marketing and communication, hermès is considered to be a very innovative organization. in forbes 2014 list of 100 most innovative companies, hermès came in at number 13. in the forbes 2020 list, it dropped to number 29, but was the only luxury brand in the top 30. it has been using content marketing and social media platforms in a highly engaging manner in all its marketing and communication campaigns. a very recent example is the online pop up virtual store dedicated to the brand’s silk squares, shawls, twills, scarves and stoles. created in partnership with akqa, lamaisondescarres.com resembles a grand house with intricate interiors, diverse characters and creatures. the website allows visitors to explore different rooms of the virtual house, which contains more than 600 models of hermès signature silks, all of which can be clicked and purchased. hermès has shown ingenuity in leveraging the power of social media. there are two apps it has developed   one is called silk knots, which essentially is a how to guide that teaches how to tie the brand’s scarves in 24 different ways. the second one is called parcel manager, which provides online shoppers with increased visibility over their shipments, and more choice and control over how they receive their parcels. it invests significantly on tv, print, online video and online visuals to promote different collections at different times of the year. it also invests selectively in mobile advertising to target affluent readers of different publications that carries its print ads. it is also known to use humour and comical situations in its advertising, which are clever ways of showcasing its products. in 2014, it released an online video ad campaign that used comical handshakes to showcase its 2014 gloves collection. previously, it marketed its racetrack inspired porcelain tableware line rallye 24 by integrating the line into an online game. the legendary “hermès windows” have always been a very strong visual and larger than life platform for showcasing the brand’s exquisite styling and craftsmanship heritage. the windows pop up at periodic intervals at different hermès stores globally. the windows are considered to be the company’s homage to its craftsmen. according to pierre alexis dumas, the hermès windows are like a portal into the culture of the company. dumas is proud to have leïla menchari, the brand’s longstanding window designer from 1978   2013 design window art for the brand. during these 35 years, 136 elaborate fantasies were created with products designed specifically for the windows, of which nothing in the window was for sale. the windows are also considered to be the original progenitors of the art of communication developed within the company, a “small theatre where each role must be played well”. continuous takeover interest from lvmh: the biggest challenge that hermès has faced to its independent existence is the continued interest of rival luxury fashion house lvmh in its fortunes. lvmh quietly built up a stake of 17 percent in hermès between 2002 and 2010. this led to a highly acrimonious and long legal dispute between the conglomerate and hermès. as a result, lvmh had to pay a fine of usd 11 million and sell down its 23% stake to 8.5% for flouting public disclosure requirements. by 2017, lvmh had sold most of its shares in hermès in order to take complete ownership of luxury brand christian dior. as a company, hermès has fiercely protected the company’s integrity and independence from this continual threat from lvmh, as seen from its setting up of a private holding company which has the first right of refusal when a family member decides to sell shares   ending any possibility of a takeover from lvmh. in 2011, more than 50 descendants of thierry hermès pooled their shares into a co operative called h51, which was valued at usd 16 billion. these descendants, who in total held 50.2 percent of company’s shares, contractually agreed not to sell any shares for the next two decades. additionally, two fifth generation family members, bertrand puech and nicolas puech, kept their shares outside the co operative but also held out against lvmh, by granting other family members the right of first refusal if they ever decided to sell their shares. this collaborative, cohesive and united stand taken by the family members signify the importance they place on hermès remaining and operating independently (the hermès share value rose by 30 percent during the time lvmh was quietly accumulating shares). succeeding in china: like any other luxury player, hermès takes the opportunity that china presents very seriously. but, unlike others, it has adopted a very patient approach towards targeting the luxury market in china. although it entered china in 1997 and quickly grew its network to 28 stores covering 19 chinese cities, the company has taken a carefully considered decision of not opening more than one store per year from 2015. hermès strategy for china is innovative but also risky. it plans to use its new stores to put forward the whole hermès brand experience in front of the chinese consumer. the latest flagship store that opened in shanghai in 2014 (hermès maison) is designed like a house, has craftsmen situated on different floors actually creating products and has a museum like feel to showcase the brand’s rich legacy. in addition to retail level experiences, the company is trying to forge a link with china’s rich tradition of craftsmanship to increase the brand’s appeal in the country. the adopted strategy is built on the principles of patience that is required for craftsmen to manufacture exquisite products, and is diametrically opposite to the fast paced, quick gratification and shopping mall driven culture that exists in asia. the strategy is risky from the point of view of accessibility and exposure to the products and brands from rival fashion conglomerates (lvmh, kering and richemont). also, the chinese luxury consumer is extremely well travelled and is regularly exposed to global luxury trends. in that sense, they are used to and are one step ahead of luxury offerings in their country. to instill a sense of patience and appreciation for the aura of exclusivity and scarcity can be a challenging task for hermès. but, the company has also adopted an interesting parallel strategy to expand its thinking and philosophy behind luxury manufacturing and marketing in china. in 2012, it put its brand and marketing muscle behind the launch of shang xia, its chinese luxury brand. jiang qiong’er, shang xia’s founder, strongly believes in the tradition of chinese craftsmanship. this was the key connection between her and the then hermès ceo patrick thomas, which eventually led to the collaboration and the launch in china. but hermès has been careful in not allowing the shang xia brand to dilute its own brand identity in china. current ceo axel dumas has been quoted as describing shang xia as a “small baby”. even for shang xia, hermès has adopted a longer watching strategy, with the brand expected to generate profits only in 2016. another advantage that hermès has in china is the subdued, underplayed and highly exclusive positioning of its brand and the products. this matches seamlessly with the current government led crackdown on ostentatious display of wealth, bling and logos. the hermès brand, due to its tradition and strategy of carefully controlling distribution, no overt displays of any logos and the complete absence of any form of celebrity endorsement, is well placed to appeal to the changing definitions and perceptions of luxury among the chinese consumer. but again, preferences and needs for luxury can quickly shift among chinese consumers. hermès strategy of introducing “patience” as an element in the acquisition of its products, can either work for or against the company’s fortunes in one of the world’s biggest luxury markets. strengthening the hermès brand equity beyond leather and silk: hermès as a brand is known for its heritage, craftsmanship and exclusivity in the domain of ultra luxury leather and silk products. although the hermès brand exists and offers products beyond leather and silk, the brand equity in some of these other product categories is not that strong. a relevant example would be of the watchmaking division   la montre hermès, with a 90 year brand history. according to the watchmaking divisions’ newly appointed ceo guillaume de seynes, the division is a small métier with great potential. in his own words, there are two potential definitions of the watchmaking division’s success   “qualitative growth we can be proud of and in which we are both hermès and watchmaker” and “the day when clients unhesitatingly compare hermès with big established watchmaking brands, we will have succeeded”. the fact that it is going to be a slow journey for the watchmaking division to establish itself is reflected in its sales history up to date. in 2019, the division contributed just 3 percent of the brand’s total revenue. the same can be said about some of the other product categories in which hermès has a presence. although categories like perfumes and jewelry are growing in terms of sales and revenue contribution to the overall hermès portfolio, they are yet to reach the levels of the leather and saddlery products division success. diversification is an important strategy for a luxury house to hedge against cyclical downturns in specific categories, fluctuating consumer demand, wider economic, social and political factors and shifting consumer needs and preferences. the challenge for hermès in adopting and implementing a diversification strategy is the inherent nature of its exclusivity marketing model. in addition, it has been 36 years since hermès had launched the iconic birkin bag. it is a question of whether the brand can launch yet another similar iconic bag, in order to preserve exclusivity and mystique over the birkin and to sustain brand ardour amongst its fans. from a luxury house’s perspective, decline in demand for specific product categories should be mitigated by upturns in other product categories. limiting distribution and adopting a model of scarcity can work against this. in the case of hermès, this is especially true for categories like accessories, watchmaking and men’s and women’s wear. hermès need to be selective about the marketing model it adopts across different product categories. hermès is an ultra luxury success story, without any doubt. with limited distribution, exclusivity and controlled marketing, the overall company and many of its product categories have regularly registered double digit growth rates year on year. this is a true reflection of the hermès brand strength among the highly affluent segments of the global population. the company has successfully kept alive and strengthened a brand differentiated through strong history, exquisite craftsmanship and superior quality. the fact that it is considered to be the most innovative among all the luxury fashion houses is a testament to the company’s commitment to constantly manufacture and launch ultra luxury products that are unique, have a strong sense of allure and have a distinct mark of superior craftsmanship. the company’s future looks secure in the hands of a committed and disciplined group of family scions, but it needs to constantly evolve and differentiate to maintain its superior position in the ultra luxury segment of the market through leveraging the power of its family brand as an icon of legacy, authenticity and prestige. follow martin roll on linkedin >> about the author: martin roll   business & brand strategist read more: insights & articles read about kering: kering   evolution of a global luxury brand company read about shang xia: shang xia   chinese luxury fashion brand with a french soul read about luxury brands: next frontier for luxury brands sign up for updates on business, brands & leadership asian brand strategy provides key insights and knowledge about the rising asian brands incl. model frameworks, brand cases and checklists on asian branding. download sample chapter. learn more martin roll enables global clients to deliver business impact and drive long term value. learn more about our services and how your company can get ahead engage copyright © 2025 martin roll company   all rights reserved | privacy policy | cookies

contacts | program of study | media arts and design practice   general education in the arts | major program in media arts and design | senior capstone sequence | clusters | summary of requirements: major | declaring a madd major | double majors with media arts and design | minor in media arts and design | summary of requirements: minor | declaring a madd minor | minor to major and major to minor | advising and grading | course petitions | honors | course numbering guide | media arts and design courses department website: https://cms.uchicago.edu/undergraduate/why study media arts and design/major media arts and design as new media continue to permeate every aspect of our existence, there is now little debate about the extent digital technologies intervene in our lives. culture is exponentially evolving within an ecosystem defined by screens, networks, interfaces, databases, and algorithms. the impacts of digital and networked media design extend beyond individual products, giving form to our politics, social organization, and cognitive patterns. criticality and self reflexivity with the media we consume and the processes by which they are designed is essential to understanding and navigating our realities. the media art and design (madd) program at the university of chicago has positioned itself to advance this reflexivity, decipher emergent technologies and cultures, and foster design strategies that blend artistic experimentation with ethical engagement and analytical rigor to creatively address real world problems. the madd program focuses on the rapid developments in media and design that have fundamentally transformed contemporary life, opening these phenomena up to historical study, theoretical critique, and hands on experimentation. specialized clusters are central to the program, offering students focal points within this expansive discipline spanning creative computing, digital sound and music, expanded cinema, games, and media performance. these clusters not only embody the program's commitment to a comprehensive and interdisciplinary education but also showcase the diverse expertise of the artists, designers, and practitioners leading madd classes. the media arts and design curriculum fosters discussion, presentation, and writing skills, as well as creativity and design, enabling students to approach today’s media environment and design driven industries with critical, historical, and cultural perspectives. the program aims to cultivate graduates who are not only adept at navigating the ambiguity and complexities of the current media environment, but are also prepared to be nimble innovators, critical makers, and bold creatives capable of reshaping it. madd 26210 media art and design practice allows students to explore the madd program as a part of their general education in the arts requirement. affiliated with the humanities general education sequence media aesthetics, this course introduces students to design fundamentals, iterative making, and critical engagement with technology. this studio based course explores the practice, conventions, and boundaries of contemporary media art and design. this can encompass areas as diverse as interactive installation, app design, and the internet meme. through projects and critical discussion, students engage with the problems and opportunities of digitally driven content creation. fundamental elements of digital production are introduced, including basic properties of image, video, and the global network. further topics as varied as though not limited to web production, digital fabrication, interfaces, the glitch, and gaming may be considered. sections will vary based on the instructor's fields of expertise. this course meets the general education requirement in the arts. this course may not double count for general education requirements and the media arts and design minor. however, it is a great way for students to explore a potential interest in these areas. the media arts and design major nurtures nimble makers and critical thinkers, blending theory with playful experimentation. madd graduates excel in diverse fields, ranging from indie game design and creative technology to arts education and entrepreneurship. their contributions across industries underscore the adaptability of the madd curriculum and the wide ranging potential of their expertise, bridging art and technology. major distribution requirements the media arts and design major is an in depth program requiring 12 courses in total. this includes: two media theory courses, two media history courses, two media practice and design courses, four electives, and two capstone sequence courses. students may choose their electives from any category, enabling them to customize their educational experience in alignment with their personal interests and academic trajectory. the only stipulation is that elective courses must originate from madd or hold a madd crosslist. the program culminates with the two quarter capstone sequence, emphasizing design methodologies, project realization, and portfolio development. students publicly showcase their creative work at a spring quarter exposition, highlighting their aptitude in media arts and design. major program courses cannot fulfill general education requirements. they must be taken for quality grades, with more than half bearing university of chicago course numbers. as part of the capstone colloquium, students will work on creating a culminating capstone project and a portfolio. this comprehensive two part sequence spans the autumn and winter quarters of their fourth year, encompassing methodologies and production. students declaring their madd major as of autumn quarter 2024 will be required to take both capstone courses. for students who declared in spring quarter 2024 or prior, it is strongly recommended that they take the full sequence. however, if scheduling constraints arise, they can arrange a meeting with the director of undergraduate studies to explore alternative options. capstone i: methodologies the methodologies course is a cornerstone of the media arts and design program, designed to equip students with essential skills and strategies for creative project development. this course explores the intricacies of ideation, effective research, goal setting, design, and project scoping. students learn to adapt and adjust their approaches, tackle challenges, and embrace diverse methods, fostering an environment of nimble experimentation. methodologies serves as the foundation for students to conceptualize and iteratively evolve their ideas, setting the stage for successful project execution and portfolio development. capstone ii: production the production course is the culmination of the media arts and design program, offering students hands on experience in bringing their creative concepts to life. in this course, students delve into practical project execution, guided by experienced instructors and equipped with state of the art tools and technologies. from video game design to internet art, this studio course provides the opportunity for students to apply their skills, refine their projects, and focus on craftsmanship and articulation, preparing students for the capstone exhibition and beyond. capstone projects the major capstone project must include one substantive work or a constellation of smaller related pieces designed for public presentation. these works can take the form of a developed video game or software art, an interactive, generative, or networked object, a media performance, a series of video essays, or other hypertext or hypermedia works. it can be a revision of a project initiated in a previous media arts and design course or a new endeavor. given the collaborative nature of media arts and design, students have the option to work collaboratively. in addition to the practice driven project, students are also required to theoretically and historically contextualize their work through documentation and portfolio development. exhibition capstone projects will be shared at an exhibition that takes place at the media arts, data, and design center. this dynamic event happens in the spring quarter of students’ final year and will include both a showcase and presentations, which will give students experience displaying and discussing their work. portfolio to complete the major, students must prepare a portfolio of digital media artworks and/or historical and theoretical writing that includes an artist statement, a project statement, and any supportive media documentation of their work. this portfolio requirement applies even if a student collaborates with others on certain projects, as it should showcase their individual contributions and creative growth. students majoring in media arts and design have the ability to specialize in a specific area while still exploring the broader field. they will join “clusters'' that reflect their main interest, and these clusters will help them achieve depth in a specific area. students are free to take courses within their interests, but should be prepared to align their capstone project with a particular concentration by their fourth year. they are welcome and encouraged to discuss their course planning and possible concentrations with a madd advisor, especially during the major declaration process in their third year. students should aim to take at least three courses pertaining to their cluster across their studies in preparation for the capstone sequence. sample study paths are available here. the media arts and design program (madd) is an interdisciplinary program and currently offers the following clusters: 💾🎨 creative computing do you want to expand your creativity to an infinite canvas? in this cluster students will explore the expansive possibilities of the “meta media” of computing, learning to harness its capacity to merge text, images, sound, and interactivity in blended and novel ways. the creative computing cluster encourages students to redefine the landscape of digital media, challenging conventional norms and crafting innovative forms of creative expression not previously possible with traditional media. key faculty in this cluster include nick briz, diana franklin, pedro lopes, ken nakagaki, jason salavon, and jon satrom. 🎛️🔊 digital sound and music are you driven to discover new dimensions in sound and music? in the digital sound and music cluster, students delve into the world of digital sound production, learning techniques to compose and score for nonlinear media such as video games. this cluster goes beyond traditional music making, inviting students to redefine its boundaries, creating sound installations, algorithmic instruments. and other innovative auditory experiences that challenge and expand our understanding of sound. courses in this cluster are often cross listed with the music department which has an electronic music studio that students can take advantage of for their projects. key faculty to note include david bird, nick briz, paula harper, jennifer iverson, and takashi shallow. ✨🎬 expanded cinema are you eager to take moving images beyond the traditional theater screen and narrative forms? in this cluster, students push moving images outside their typical frames exploring an assemblage of contexts including mixed reality (vr/ar), transmedia storytelling, video installation, and av performance. this cluster is a creative playground for filmmakers interested in experimental, participatory, hypermedia and other non linear modes of storytelling that engage audiences in unprecedented ways. key faculty in this area include marc downie, ian jones, tom lamarre, daniel morgan, ae stevenson, and scott wolniak. 🕹️♟️ games are you passionate about creating worlds, puzzles, and experiences that captivate and engage? in the games cluster, students explore the vast universe of game design and development. beyond video games, the cluster also explores the intricate design of card games, the imaginative realms of role playing games, and the innovative landscapes of alternate reality games. here, students learn to craft not just games, but compelling experiences, mastering the art of storytelling, strategy, and design to create interactive adventures that resonate with a diverse set of audiences and themes. key faculty for this cluster include katherine buse, chris carloy, patrick jagoda, ian jones, and ashlyn sparrow. 💻⚡️ media performance are you intrigued by the fusion of theater, play, and cutting edge media technologies? the media performance cluster offers a unique blend of traditional performance arts with the dynamic realms of digital media. in this cluster, students dive into the world of experimental audio visual real time performances, exploring how technology can augment and transform the theatrical experience. key faculty for this cluster include heidi coleman, patrick jagoda, rasean davonté johnson, john muse, jon satrom, and sandor weisz. in their second year, students interested in majoring in media arts and design should schedule a meeting with either the director of undergraduate studies or the associate director to collaboratively plan their future coursework. by the spring quarter of their third year, all students are expected to submit a major program worksheet to the department. this worksheet is designed to outline their proposed course of study and is not a binding contract. it will be reviewed and adjusted as needed. participation in the major must be declared to the director of undergraduate studies and the subsequent approved paperwork should be sent to the student's college adviser for official registration. students double majoring in media arts and design and another major can count a maximum of four courses towards both majors, pending approval from both departments. however, no part of the capstone colloquium sequence may be replaced by an analogous course in the other major, given the uniqueness of the madd colloquium and its importance to community building. thus, double majors may have to take multiple capstone courses to fulfill both program requirements. the media arts and design minor complements any major by infusing it with critical digital literacy and creative skills. it equips students to blend their primary field of study with innovative media practices, enhancing their ability to navigate and contribute to the digital landscape. through hands on exploration and interdisciplinary coursework, students in the madd minor learn to articulate complex ideas creatively, bridging art and technology. this approach not only diversifies their academic experience but also amplifies their professional value in a rapidly evolving world. distribution requirement the minor requires six courses in total. students must complete one course each in media theory and media history. additionally, two courses are required in media practice and design. the remaining two elective courses can be chosen from any category, enabling students to customize their educational experience in alignment with their personal interests and academic trajectory. the only stipulation is that elective courses must originate from madd or hold a madd crosslist. minor program courses cannot be double counted with other majors or minors and cannot fulfill general education requirements. they must be taken for quality grades, with over half bearing university of chicago course numbers. portfolio to complete the minor, students must prepare a portfolio of digital media artworks and/or historical and theoretical writing that they submit by the end of winter quarter of their final year. alternative capstone colloquium sequence madd minors can selectively participate in the media arts and design capstone sequence. the sequence begins with the methodologies course, which delves into the technical aspects of creative project development. students may choose to take this course on its own as an elective. alternatively, those who complete methodologies have the option to progress to madd production, a practice focused course that builds upon the foundations laid in methodologies. upon completion of this sequence, students will have the option to exhibit in the spring quarter exposition. the capstone sequence can replace the following minor requirements: methodologies will count as an elective, and production will fulfill one of the practice requirements. students not interested in doing the capstone sequence will take the minor requirements as normal. students interested in declaring a minor in media arts and design should fill out the consent to complete a minor program form and email it to the director of undergraduate studies or associate director. this form must then be returned to the student's college adviser by the end of spring quarter of the student's third year. student circumstances change, and a transfer between the major and minor programs may be desirable to students who begin a course of study in either program. students should consult with their college adviser if considering such a transfer and must update their planned program of study with the director of undergraduate studies or associate director in media arts and design. in this choose your own path program, academic advising plays a crucial role in helping students navigate the diverse clusters and combinations of practices. the director of undergraduate studies, associate director, and program manager support students in making informed choices that align with their individual interests, career aspirations, and creative goals. advising sessions are an opportunity for students to explore the multitude of paths within the program and chart a course that is uniquely tailored. all courses within the program must be taken for quality grades, reflecting a commitment to academic rigor and fostering the highest level of achievement. students may find themselves in a situation where a non madd listed course aligns closely with madd approaches or subject matter and they wish to include it in their course plan. to address such situations, students have the option to petition for the inclusion of non madd courses. to initiate this process, students are required to complete a course petition form. within the form, students should provide relevant course materials or coursework that demonstrates the alignment of the non madd course with madd approaches. each petition will be reviewed on a case by case basis to determine its suitability for inclusion in the student's program of study. program honors are awarded by the faculty in media arts and design on the basis of a gpa of 3.5 or above and assessment of their capstone project. program honors are awarded only to the most exceptional projects from a given cohort, meaning that the majority of students may not receive this designation. each madd course is given a unique number that corresponds to the requirement it fulfills. 10000 14999: media theory 15000 19999: media history 20000 24999: media practice and design 25000 28999: electives or one off courses madd 10002. discovering anthropology: culture, technology, mediation. 100 units. this course introduces students to some of the major themes and theoretical questions posed in and by anthropology over the last century through the conceptual and experiential matrix of technology and mediation. our intellectual journey will take us from techniques of magic through technologies of spatiotemporal organization, communication, and exchange. we will explore the formation of the body, social, individual, and mass as expressions of the culture of mediation and the mediation of culture. readings from the course will cover a broad intellectual terrain that combines seminal anthropological texts with arguments from media theory and the philosophy of technology. instructor(s): m. fisch terms offered: tbd equivalent course(s): anth 32145, anth 20002 madd 10006. contemporary art. 100 units. this course will consider the practice and theory of visual art in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. among the subjects that will drive our narrative will be the rise of postmodernism, pop art, the aesthetics of the social movements of the 1960s, institutional critique, the relationship between reproductive media and feminism, the concept of spectacle, conceptual art, the appearance of a global art industry after 1989, the connections between art school and art making, "relational aesthetics," the fate of art in the age of the internet, the art of the post studio moment, and what happens to art when it engages with *everything*. instructor(s): m. jackson terms offered: spring note(s): students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. this course meets the general education requirement in the arts. equivalent course(s): arth 15800, artv 20006 madd 10101. press start: foundations in media art and design. 100 units. a required course for 2nd or 3rd year students, foundations serves as an essential introduction to the media arts and design (madd) program. it cultivates community, introduces core program values, foregrounds portfolio development, and prepares students for advanced madd coursework. through lectures, discussions, and collaborative activities, students will engage with the history, theory, and practice of media arts and design. this course also offers a guided exploration of madd's specialized "clusters." students will build a shared vocabulary and practical framework to explore the intersections of media art, design, and culture, preparing them to engage critically and creatively with the field. instructor(s): jon satrom terms offered: autumn madd 10110. intro to porn studies. 100 units. this course is a multi media introduction to the western history and study of the mode/label/genre of aesthetic production called pornography and its other appearances as "obscenity," "erotica," "porn," "filth," "art," "adult," "hardcore," "softcore," "trash," and "extremity." we will study how others have approached this form, how they have sought to control it, uplift it, analyze it, destroy it, take it seriously, or learn to live with it. this course is both an introduction to the academic field of "porn studies" and to its equal and opposite: the endless repository of historical and current attempts to get pornography out of the way, to keep it somewhere else out of sight, to destroy it, or to deem it unworthy of study. we begin with a conversation about what the stakes are and have been in studying porn and how we might go about doing it, and then move through history and media technologies beginning with the category of pornography's invention with regards to drawings from pompeii. the course is meant to introduce students to various forms pornography has taken, various historical moments in its sociocultural existence, and various themes that have continued to trouble or enchant looking at pornography. the goal of this course is not to make an argument for or against porn wholesale, but to give students the ability to take this contentious form and its continued life seriously, intelligently, and ethically. (theory) instructor(s): gabriel ojeda sague terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): gnse 23143, engl 10110 madd 10199. digital ethnography. 100 units. this methods course prepares students for ethnographic research in an online environment. we will discuss practical steps to put together a research project from research design to data collection and analysis. we will cover epistemological, ethical, and practical matters in online ethnographic research, and read articles and books showcasing methods for the study of virtual worlds (both game and nongame). this is a hands on methods course: you will be required to formulate a preliminary research question at the beginning of the course, and you will conduct a few weeks of ethnographic research in a virtual field site of your choosing. each week you will be asked to complete short ethnographic assignments, and to produce field notes to be exchanged and discussed in class. as a final project, you will have a choice between a research proposal or a short paper based on your observations. instructor(s): cate fugazzola terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): anth 21415, maps 35199, soci 30326, enst 25199, soci 20558, glst 25199 madd 10245. serious play: video games and global politics. 100 units. this course approaches video games as cultural and political artifacts that can be studied to shed light on global political events and processes. questions we will explore throughout the course include: how do we understand the relationship between video games and global capitalism? what can video games tell us about large scale processes such as climate change, migration, war…? how do we understand issues of representation in gaming? what do video games have to do with international relations? we will approach video games from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, analyzing them as a form of entertainment but also as forms of art, as political objects, as reflections of social dynamics, and as channels for social critique and change. the course does not require any previous gaming knowledge nor experience, and it welcomes gamers and non gamers interested in exploring the relationship between games and global politics. instructor(s): caterina fugazzola terms offered: spring note(s): this course does not require any previous gaming knowledge nor experience and it welcomes gamers and non gamers interested in explored the relationship between games and global politics equivalent course(s): glst 25245 madd 10325. setting sound standards: music, media, and censorship in south asia. 100 units. this course aims to introduce students to various musical and performance traditions in south asia and their evolution within regimes of institutional, legal and media censorship. the course aims to understand how media environments and cultures of censorship are in some ways fundamental to shaping performance cultures in south asia in the twentieth century. how do traditions of musical performance entrenched in the politics of caste, communalism, religion, sexuality and gender interact with regimes of censorship and new media? how do the latter remake and unmake said traditions? be it the mid century ban on film music by all india radio to reflect the aspirations of a newly emerging nation or the appropriation and urbanization of 'folk' musical practices within the recording studios in nepal by upper caste, upper class male performers  censorship and media infrastructures have been integral to the current ontologies of diverse musical genres in south asia. through the analysis of a variety of primary and secondary texts on performance and musical aesthetics, media and music ethnographies, reception and production histories as well as critical listening/viewing exercises, this course seeks to complicate mainstream euro american narratives that tend to posit media modernities as global and uniform. we will seek to understand how south asian musical cultures and sound practices enter into a creative interplay with musical discourses and media materialities emerging in the west. instructor(s): ronit ghosh terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): musi 23322, salc 25325, taps 20215 madd 10430. gender, sexuality, imagination. 100 units. this course explores the relationships between theories of the imagination and those of gender and sexuality, with a particular emphasis on the relevance of this exploration to cinema and media studies. instructor(s): k.keeling terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): gnse 20430, cmst 20430, cmst 30430, gnse 30430 madd 10440. desiring machines: artificial intelligence in contemporary media. 100 units. artificial intelligence is a cross disciplinary field that seeks to imagine and develop machines able to reproduce, automate and exceed the cognitive and sensorial capabilities of biological organisms. this course will trace the conceptual genealogies that inform contemporary ai, and it will interrogate the uses and abuses of ai within social, legal, medical and creative contexts. course materials will include a diverse array of media and theory including: soma, 2001: a space odyssey, alien, deus ex: human revolution, natural born cyborgs, ex machina, war in the age of intelligent machines, speculative everything, a natural history of the enigma, etc… no prior familiarity with ai or computation is necessary. in lieu of a traditional midterm and final, this course will ask students to develop a series of speculative design projects that imagine new intelligent organisms and their worlds. (fiction, theory) instructor(s): ashleigh cassemere stanfield terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): engl 15440 madd 10474. crossing boundaries: virtual reality, embodiment, and the reimagining of social space. 100 units. in this course, we explore the potential for virtual reality (vr) experiences to push multiple boundaries: redefining bodies, crossing borders, and reimagining social spaces. in the first weeks of the course, as we think about bodies in the virtual space, we will be asking questions related to embodiment and representation: how does the process of avatar creation reinforce or dismantle assumptions about gender readability and performance? how do immersive experiences induce feelings of gender euphoria and dysphoria? the following weeks we will explore and discuss the way vr experiences can engage with the concept of physical borders calling their existence into questions in some cases, making them particularly salient in others. we will discuss virtual travel, digital border crossing, and explore art installations that reflect on migration experiences. the final weeks will build on our previous conversations, and together we will reflect on the fluid meaning of space in a virtual setting and on the creative possibilities that such fluidity entails: what does it mean to reimagine space beyond physical limitations? how do we understand the political salience of taking up space in digitally built social environments? the course combines readings and theoretical conversations with hands on experiences in vr and explorations of virtual worlds. previous experience with vr is not required. we will share a limited number of headsets that will be available for use in class. instructor(s): caterina fugazzola terms offered: spring. glst 25474 is seminar with a lab component prerequisite(s): this course is a seminar that meets mw, 3:30 4:50 pm and lab that meets m, 5:00 6:00 pm. students are required to register for and participate in course lab note(s): this course is a seminar that meets mw, 3:30 4:50 pm and lab that meets m, 5:00 6:00 pm. students are required to register for and participate in course lab equivalent course(s): gnse 25474, glst 25474 madd 10507. gender, race, and horror. 100 units. this course will contend with the ways that horror as a film genre constructs and deconstructs notions of gender and race in society. we will attend to texts across decades and subgenres that will illustrate how gender and race are made and regulated through notions of confusion, fear, and repulsion. by attending to these universal human feelings, students will learn how emotions are evoked through the construction of the text, its portrayal of the disruption of gender norms and its construction of racial boundaries. students will learn the necessary vocabulary and methodologies to be able to critically analyze (audio)visual texts. in order to do this, students will be guided through how to construct argumentative critical papers through proper utilization of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. by the end of the course, students will be well versed in cinematographic terms such that they will be able to critically analyze texts to understand the impact of perspective, interpretation, and judgment. this course is meant to help students navigate and make sense of an increasingly scary world by learning to appreciate fear as a necessary human expression. finally, and most importantly, students will be able to engage with the age old notion of terror to be able lead a more ethical and intellectually richer life. instructor(s): ae stevenson terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 25507, gnse 20132, cmst 35507 madd 10513. beyond hashtags: social movements in digital society. 100 units. in today's global network society, the internet permeates our lives, whether it be our jobs, politics, or relationships. you're probably reading this course description online, and perhaps next you'll check your email or social media accounts. social movements, powerful drivers of social change, are no exception. digital activism has transformed political and social protest over the past two decades, changing how events, protests, and movements are organized and generating alternative ways to build social movements. students will receive an introduction to sociological perspectives on social movements and the internet, and consider the influence of networked communication technologies on the mobilization of social movements throughout the globe, with particular emphasis on feminist, queer/trans, human rights, and racial equity movements. instructor(s): l. janson terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): cres 20513, gnse 20513, soci 20513 madd 10523. digital media & social life: contemporary methods. 100 units. digital and networked media include forms and social phenomena such as memes, social media, live streaming platforms, video games, virtual worlds, electronic literature, and online communities. what methods taken from the humanities and social sciences enable the study of these digital media forms and cultures? in order to model a series of methods, this course runs one shared media object (this term, the video game stardew valley) through a series of research methods, one per week, taken from the humanities (e.g., close reading, critical theory, response theory, and critical making) and social sciences (e.g., interviews, digital ethnography, discourse analysis, and quantitative analysis) methods. at the end of the course, students will compose a research paper or create a digital project that uses one or more of these methods to analyze a digital or networked media case of their choosing. instructor(s): k. schilt, p. jagoda terms offered: winter. not offered in 2023/2024 equivalent course(s): gnse 27808, soci 20523, cmst 27808, engl 20523 madd 10567. introduction to computational sociology. 100 units. advances in machine learning, high performance computing, and big data are opening exciting new ways of doing social science. this course introduces students to the burgeoning field of computational sociology, emphasizing both conceptual understanding and hands on training. the course does not require any prior experience with coding, computer science, or statistics. the only requirement is that students have fluency in high school mathematics (pre calculus) and an interest in acquiring computational skills. students will learn the basics of r and python, and will gain practical experience with simulation modeling, computational text analysis, and neural networks. this course will pair a practical training in computational methods with a critical examination of how these technologies are being deployed in the real world and their roles in reproducing systems of power and inequality. this class is recommended for students who want a basic introduction to "data science" and who are seeking the conceptual knowledge necessary to participate in current debates over information technology in contemporary society. instructor(s): a. kozlowski terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): hips 20567, soci 20567 madd 10603. what is animation? 100 units. this course will provide students with an introduction to the objects and theories of animation. instructor(s): cassandra guan terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 35603, cmst 25603 madd 10605. queer and trans cinema and media. 100 units. in this course we explore the history of queer and transgender cinema and media in an effort to situate new developments in queer and trans cinema and media making. we will consider relevant theories about gender and sexuality and their implications for our categories of film and media analysis. instructor(s): kara keeling terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): gnse 20107, cmst 30605, cmst 20605, gnse 30107 madd 10871. horror, abjection, and the monstrous feminine. 100 units. this course explores cinematic and literary works of horror (the uncanny, gothic, sci fi, paranormal, psychological thriller, killer/slasher, gore) from around the world. as a mode of speculative fiction, the genre envisions possible or imagined worlds that amplify curiosities, dreads, fears, terrors, phobias, and paranoias which simultaneously repel and attract. horror frequently explores the boundaries of what it means to be human by dwelling on imaginaries of the non human and other. it often exploits the markers of difference that preoccupy our psychic, libidinal, and social lifeworlds such as race, class, gender, and sexuality, but also the fundamental otherness that is other peoples' minds and bodies. interrogating the genre's tension between desire and fear, our course will focus on the centrality of abjection and the monstrous feminine as both thematic and aesthetic tropes to works of horror. films and fiction will be paired with theoretical readings that contextualize the genre of horror while considering its critical implications in relation to biopolitical and geopolitical forms of power. content warning: course materials will feature graphic, violent, and oftentimes disturbing images and subjects. enrolled students will be expected to watch, read, and discuss all course materials. instructor(s): hoda el shakry terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): no prerequisites for undergraduate students online consent required for graduate students equivalent course(s): gnse 30137, gnse 20137, cmlt 38871, cmlt 28871, engl 38871, engl 28871 madd 10904. media wars. 100 units. media practices and discourses evoking war or violence are common today, such as the "weaponization" of social media; "cyber warfare" and attacks; "online battlefields;" "guerilla" media tactics; "the great meme war" and "infowars.com," to name a few. in relationship with terms suggesting that we live in an age of "post truth" dominated by "fake news" or "fact challenged" journalism, the media wars of today may seem unique to the twenty first century. but in fact, the history of the use of media to either combat or spread ideas dates back centuries to the earliest phases of mass media and communication. in this class, we will proceed historically, broadly conceiving of media to include print and visual, cultural, and artistic forms, cinema, television, and the internet. while we will explore how media have historically been used to construct or counter dominant systems of representation, we will also discuss how different media forms function formally, learning to analyze how they construct discourses of truth as texts (documentary; propaganda). this class will also function as a contemporary research laboratory where students will be asked to track, evaluate, and theorize contemporary or historical media that are taking part in a so called "media war." instructor(s): jennifer wild terms offered: spring note(s): please note: students who have previously completed the course “problems in the study of gender and sexuality: media wars” are not eligible to receive credit for this class. equivalent course(s): cmst 20904, gnse 30114, gnse 20114, sign 26061, cmst 30904 madd 10906. contemporary cinematic special effects. 100 units. the highest grossing films of the twenty first century are, without exception, showcases for special effects. how did special effects become so central to mass audience movies? what are the consequences of this shift? in this course, we will track the historical and stylistic development of contemporary effects driven filmmaking, bridging practitioner discourse by effects industry workers with the theories of cinema and media scholars. while our screenings will primarily comprise narrative feature films, we will also explore how special effects draw upon diverse media forms and practices, including experimental cinema, installation art, amusement parks, television advertising, and, above all, digital technologies. screenings will include hollywood blockbusters (e.g., the matrix [1999]), "failed" blockbusters (e.g., final fantasy: the spirits within [2001]), and effects driven films from other national/regional cinemas (e.g., the mermaid [china, 2016]). instructor(s): cooper long terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): cmst 28906 madd 10929. cabal, cult, and crisis: religion and contemporary conspiracy theory. 100 units. we live in an age of crisis for liberal democracy, and conspiracy theories are often said to be at the heart of this crisis. while alex jones, infowars, and qanon have become household names, there is still no consensus on what makes a "conspiracy theory" or how scholars should approach these topics. are "new world order" style conspiracy beliefs irrational or false on their face? can liberal democratic regimes which pride themselves on their ability to accommodate diverse religious viewpoints successfully integrate conspiracy believers? in this course, we will approach the subject of conspiracy theory by engaging with theorists in their own words, videos, and images, while sampling a range of academic and public facing literature on new religious movements, religion and politics, and epistemology. in so doing, we will apply critical lenses of diverse sorts to mixed media, as we collectively develop methodologies for carrying out original research on "low status" subjects using un curated archives. no prior acquaintance with conspiracy oriented materials required. instructor(s): justin smolin terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): anth 28929, rlst 28929 madd 10940. reading reality tv: how to research identity in contemporary culture. 100 units. this course examines the cultural politics of reality television with a focus on how these wildly successful shows, often perceived as guilty pleasures, have in fact been responsible for mediating important conversations around issues of race, gender, and sexuality. this course is also a survey of reality tv, conceived simultaneously as an artifact and an archive of pop culture and mainstream politics. we will start with the "first" reality tv show an american family, which aired in 1971, and examine the emergence of reality tv from genres of documentary and cinéma vérité (such as andy warhol's chelsea girls, grey gardens, and candid camera). we will then analyze the advent of so called unscripted television of the 1990s and early 2000s with special attention to shows like the real world, queer eye, laguna beach: the real o.c., judge judy, and the apprentice. we will also consider more contemporary shows like keeping up with the kardashians, rupaul's drag race, the real housewives, and 90 day fiancé. student interest will factor into our selection. above all, students will develop practical skills of research and methodology. in addition viewing shows and reading theorists of identity and media, students will craft individual research projects about specific shows throughout the term, culminating in a symposium. (1830 1940, theory) instructor(s): brandon truett terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): cres 19940, gnse 19940, engl 19940 madd 10950. filth as genre. 100 units. is "filth" a genre? this course examines literary texts from antiquity to today that have been dismissed as smut, pulp, and/or trash in either their contemporary moment or reception, and it asks how we might develop as a class a theory of filth. syllabus materials will range from catullus's sparrow poems to richard crashaw's excremental poetry to charlotte brontë's jane eyre labeled a "naughty book" to contemporary objects such as: the romance novel (incl. the works of melissa blue, e.l. james, and beverly jenkins); film (john waters' trash trilogy, mark robson's valley of the dolls); and online fanfiction databases. the course also provides an introduction to genre theory: we will explore established literary categories, with attention to intertextuality and periodization, and consider the construction of genre more broadly. (pre 1650, theory) instructor(s): beatrice bradley terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): engl 19950, gnse 19950 madd 10992. metapictures. 100 units. this course is based on an exhibition that was first staged at the overseas contemporary art terminal in beijing in the fall of 2018, and subsequently re enacted at the royal academy in brussels in the spring of 2020. the exhibition explores "pictures within pictures," images that reflect on the nature of image making, across a range of media and genres. a virtual version of the exhibition is available on the prezi platform, and a physical installation, supported by the smart museum, will be installed in the media arts data and design center (madd). visual materials for the course include paintings and drawings, diagrams, models of the visual process, image "atlases," multi stable images, cinematic and literary representations of images nested within narratives. the readings for the course will include michel foucault on velasquez's las meninas, walter benjamin on "dialectical images," c. s. peirce on iconicity, nelson goodman on analog and digital codes, and georges didi huberman on aby warburg's mnemosyne bilderatlas. students will be encouraged to explore traditional examples of metapictures such as the duck rabbit (canonized by gombrich and wittgenstein) or to investigate newly emergent forms of self reflexive media. guest lectures will be given by patrick jagoda on experimental games and hillary chute on comics and graphic narrative; these might be coordinated with the media aesthetics ore sequence in the fall term, which focuses on the question of the image. instructor(s): w. j. t. mitchell terms offered: autumn prerequisite(s): this course is by consent only. interested students should send a one page letter describing their interest and preparation of the topic to prof. mitchell at wjtm@uchicago.edu. equivalent course(s): arth 39992, artv 30022, arth 29992, engl 29992, artv 20022, engl 49992, cmst 27505, cmst 37505 madd 11004. afrofuturism. 100 units. this course focuses on audio visual cultural productions that have been or might be considered under the rubric of "afrofuturism," with particular attention to the aesthetic, social, political, and/or cultural contributions and interventions they make. instructor(s): kara keeling terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): cmst 21004 madd 11005. problems in the study of gender and sexuality: media wars. 100 units. in our contemporary moment, we have become accustomed to terms such as 'counter terrorism' that signal an effort to resist internal and external threats, and those suggesting that we live in an age of 'post truth' dominated by 'corporate media,' 'fake news,' and 'fact challenged' journalism. taking this platform as our starting place, this class explores how these terms and their use have been gendered; have situated both gender and sexuality as either weapons of resistance or objects of destruction. this class will be historically organized insofar as we will begin our discussion with ways that media   broadly conceived to include cinema, print and visual cultural forms, television, and the internet   have aimed to 'counter' patriarchal, heteronormative, and hegemonic systems of representation of gender and sexuality. instructor(s): j. wild; l. janson terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): cmst 20400, cmst 40400, gnse 11005, gnse 31105 madd 11015. media, culture & society. 100 units. this course is a theoretical and ethnographic overview of past, current, and future directions of anthropological research on the mass media. we study issues as diverse as projects of media representation and cultural conservation among indigenous peoples, the relationship of mass media to nationalism across the world, the social life of journalism and news making in an era of new technologies and ownership consolidation, and current debates over the role of mass media. instructor(s): d. boyer terms offered: summer. should be hidden from summer 2018 equivalent course(s): anth 21015 madd 11314. fluxus and the question of media. 100 units. the course investigates the international fluxus network of the 1960's and 70's from a media perspective. often identified with the concept of "intermedia" launched in a 1966 text by artist, writer and publisher dick higgins, fluxus artists seemed at pain to distinguish their work from the multimedia or gesamtkunstwerk approaches of the happening artists, seeking instead to formulate a mode of working between or even beyond media. underpinned by a desire to pass beyond the work of art itself, this was a complex position that had profound implications for their approaches to technologies and practices such as film, video, computing, sound/music, theatre, poetry and image making. we will try to map the various facets of this position, with particular emphasis on its relation to another key fluxus concept: the work as event. instructor(s): i. blom terms offered: autumn note(s): this course does not satisfy the general education in the arts requirement. students must attend 1st class to confirm enrollment. equivalent course(s): arth 21314, cmst 37804, cmst 27804, arth 31314 madd 11315. introduction to art, technology, and media. 100 units. the course gives an introduction to the relationship between art, media, and technology, as articulated in art practice, media theory, and art theory/history. the key focus is the relationship between 20th century art and so called "new media" (from photography, film, radio, tv to computers and digital technologies), but older instances of art  and media historical perspectives will also be discussed. the objective of the course is to give insight into the historical exchanges between art and technological development, as well as critical tools for discussing the concept of the medium and the relationship between art, sensation/perception, visuality, and mediation. the course will also function as an introduction to the fields of media aesthetics and media archaeology. instructor(s): i. blom terms offered: autumn note(s): this course does not satisfy the general education in the arts requirement. equivalent course(s): cmst 37815, arth 21315, cmst 27815, arth 31315 madd 11320. philippe parreno's media temporalities. 100 units. in the 2013 exhibition "anywhere, anywhere out of the world, the french artist philippe parreno (b. 1964) turned the monumental space of the palais de tokyo in paris into a living, evolving organism, where music, light, films, images, and performances led visitors through a precisely choreographed journey of discovery, based on the idiosyncratic body of work that he had created since the early 1990s. this course is devoted to an in depth study of parreno's work and the highly original form of media thinking that informs it. rather than focusing on the properties of distinct media or on multimedial forms or presentation, his works explore the new forms of life and social existence that result from the various ways in which 20th  and 21st century media technologies store, manipulate, and produce time. this is a form of thinking and artistic creation that addresses the realities of formats, programs, and platforms rather than media apparatuses and messages, and that engages everything from architecture and design to social situations, natural worlds, and virtual beings. (the course will be taught in collaboration with jörn schafaff). instructor(s): i. blom terms offered: autumn note(s): this course does not satisfy the general education requirement in the arts. equivalent course(s): cmst 23412, cmst 33412, arth 31320, arth 21320 madd 12005. filming the police. 100 units. filming the police" as a research topic has been taken up in a range of disciplines and subfields from legal and information studies to surveillance and police studies. in film and media studies, the 1991 george holliday video of the beating of rodney king by the lapd played an important and controversial role in the formation of documentary studies as a subfield and in debates about indexicality, the nature of photographic evidence, and realism issues at the core of the discipline. while this course will survey the topic of the filming of police from multiple perspectives, it aims to construct a specifically disciplinary framework for research on police violence. topics to include dashboard and body cameras; surveillance, sousveillance, and the regime of visibility; investigative and citizen journalism; records management and archiving; evidence in court proceedings and in the public sphere; police, media, and ideology; the ethics and politics of looking at black suffering; art about police violence; filming the police in an international frame. instructor(s): s.skvirsky terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): hmrt 37005, cmst 37005, hmrt 27005, cmst 27005 madd 12043. the aesthetics of artificial intelligence. 100 units. with the emergence of generative ai tools such as chatgpt, dall e, and midjourney, the production of computer generated content has become accessible to a wide range of users and use cases. knowledge institutions are particularly challenged to find adequate responses to changing notions of authorship as the mainstreaming of 'artificial' texts, audio visual artifacts, and code is transforming our paradigms of communication in real time. this course offers a survey of scholarship from the nascent field of critical ai studies to investigate the impact of ai, machine learning, and big data on knowledge production, representation, and consumption. in addition to theoretical discussions, we will conduct research creation experiments aimed at documenting and evaluating emerging methods of ai augmented content creation across text, image, and sound. prospective students should demonstrate a substantial interest in media art and design and its connections to digital humanities, critical theory, and pedagogy. experience with artistic and/or engineering practice is a plus. please submit a 300 word max statement of interest to uhl@uchicago.edu by12/22 in order to be considered for enrollment. instructor(s): andre uhl terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): cmst 36043, know 36043, hips 26043, cmst 26043, chss 36043, macs 36043, anth 36043, anth 26043, know 26043 madd 12079. mass media in semiotic perspective. 100 units. mass media are commonly understood as channels for public information, expression, and debate. yet, mass media technologies also serve governmental and corporate actors as instruments for shaping public opinion and behavior. in this undergraduate course, we will explore this and related problems from a semiotic perspective, with special attention to the dynamic relations between state, market, culture, and language at work in projects of mass communication. we will study several theories and empirical cases (both historical and contemporary) of mass mediation. topics will include the role of mass media in nation state formation and control; the role of mass media in cultural and linguistic assimilation; and group subjectivity and solidarity within media publics. instructor(s): christopher bloechl equivalent course(s): ling 22079, anth 22079 madd 12151. anthropology of media. 100 units. this course follows a historical arc from the advent of analog media in the early 20th century to the rise of contemporary networked digital culture with the aim of introducing students to major themes and theoretical questions at the intersection of media theory and anthropology of media. we will pay particular attention to transformations of the body, social, individual, and warfare in expressions of the culture of mediation and the mediation of culture as we consider technologies of transportation, communication, production, consumption, distribution, and exchange. readings from the course will cover a broad intellectual terrain that combines seminal anthropological texts with arguments from media theory and the philosophy of technology. we will also be exploring a number of films. instructor(s): michael fisch terms offered: autumn. autumn 2019 prerequisite(s): this course qualifies as a "discovering anthropology" selection for anthropology majors note(s): this course is designed specifically for undergraduate students. equivalent course(s): anth 22151 madd 12208. posthuman becoming. 100 units. this course introduces recent developments and advanced approaches in critical posthumanist thought. we will explore emerging theories and practices that renegotiate the human condition through critical inquiry into posthuman desires and the complicated relationship between human and non human 'others,' including animals, plants and micro organisms, waste and toxins, artificial life, and hyperobjects. by engaging diverse viewpoints that map the stakes of a non anthropocentric politics of culture, such as new materialism, object oriented ontology, and speculative realism, but also eco feminism, queer performativity, and indigenous epistemology, we will explore emerging techniques of mediation, communication, and representation that surrender to the relational identities of a posthuman becoming. a central premise of this exploration are post disciplinary ways of knowing that make such imaginaries visible: in addition to discussing a substantial body of contemporary scholarship from the arts, humanities, and humanistic social sciences, the course includes a studio module that introduces a variety of research creation methodologies for experimentation with curatorial, artistic, and activist practices. instructor(s): andre uhl terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): know 32208, artv 30702, anth 32208, enst 22207 madd 12303. race and indigeneity in video games. 100 units. this class will read key texts in critical video game studies to consider how race, diaspora, and indigeneity shape the code and the machines that structure the games we play. in addition to critical readings by scholars in indigenous studies, black feminism, settler colonial studies, and video game studies including joanne barker, christine sharpe, and chris patterson, we may also read creative works by gabrielle zevin and elissa washuta among others to consider how narratives about society and identity transform in relation to video games. games and/or franchises to be discussed will include norco, umurangi generation, assassin's creed, undertale, and spiritfarer among others instructor(s): jodi byrd terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): rdin 23200 madd 12312. virtual theaters. 100 units. this course probes the nature and limits of theater by exploring a range of theatrical texts from various centuries whose relation to performance is either partially or fully virtual, including philosophical dialogues, closet dramas, drama on social media, remote online theater on platforms like zoom, algorithmic and ai theater, mixed reality performance, and transmedia performance. one unit of the course attends to experiments in remote theater since the covid 19 pandemic. (20th/21st) instructor(s): john muse terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): engl 22312, engl 32312, taps 20312, taps 32312 madd 12320. critical videogame studies. 100 units. since the 1960s, games have arguably blossomed into the world's most profitable and experimental medium. this course attends specifically to video games, including popular arcade and console games, experimental art games, and educational serious games. students will analyze both the formal properties and sociopolitical dynamics of video games. readings by theorists such as ian bogost, roger caillois, alenda chang, nick dyer‐witheford, mary flanagan, jane mcgonigal, soraya murray, lisa nakamura, amanda phillips, and trea andrea russworm will help us think about the growing field of video game studies. students will have opportunities to learn about game analysis and apply these lessons to a collaborative game design project. students need not be technologically gifted or savvy, but a wide ranging imagination and interest in digital media or game cultures will make for a more exciting quarter. this is a 2021 22 signature course in the college. (literary/critical theory) instructor(s): patrick jagoda terms offered: autumn summer equivalent course(s): engl 12320, gnse 22320, cmst 27916, sign 26038 madd 12350. black game theory. 100 units. this course explores games created by, for, or about the black diaspora, though with particular emphasis on the united states. we will analyze mainstream "aaa" games, successful independent and art games, and educational games. beyond video games, we will take a comparative media studies perspective that juxtaposes video games with novels, films, card games, board games, and tabletop roleplaying games. readings will be drawn from writing by frantz fanon, noah wardrip fruin, lindsay grace, saidiya hartman, sarah juliet lauro, achille mbembe, fred moten, frank b. wilderson, and others. instructor(s): patrick jagoda and ashlyn sparrow terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): rdin 22350, cdin 32350, cmst 32350, rdin 32350, engl 32352, cmst 22350, engl 22352 madd 12351. the sonic image. 100 units. the sonic image offers a unique opportunity to work with three senior researchers exploring the bridge making and sense delimiting articulations of sound & sight together. we will examine the potency of sound in a world largely understood through its visualization as a world picture. readings in sound studies, visual studies & media studies explore sound, sounds that evoke pictures, the forensics of sound, sound art, & films including the conversation, blow out & amour. each faculty collaborator brings distinct interests to the course. wjt mitchell's renowned theorization of images naturally extends to his theorizing the possibility of the sonic image. artist lawrence abu hamdan's commitment to the value of earwitnessing asks the listener to extend forensic knowledge to the very core of what it means to be a human being in the world. for the course, hamdan will develop a workshop comprising a series of practical exercises that experiment with the conditions of testimony or claim making, enabling an exploration of how the law come to its truths and how can we use sonic imagination to trouble & contest established modes of enacting justice. performance scholar, hannah b higgins, examines how musical notation, performance & sound bear on the relationships between sound & vision in recent art practices. an intervention from composer janice misurell mitchell will add a dimension of musical testimony to our investigation. instructor(s): w.j.t. mitchell, hannah higgins, lawrence abu hamdan terms offered: autumn prerequisite(s): open to all levels with consent of the instructors. all interested students should please email the instructor (wjtm@uchicago.edu) a one page statement of interest, explaining why they want to take the course and what they will bring to it. equivalent course(s): engl 22351, arth 22351, cmlt 22351, artv 40351, taps 22351, cmlt 42351, engl 42351, artv 20351, arth 32351, taps 32351 madd 12355. sounding bodies. 100 units. this course will situate sound studies and social aesthetics in the corporeal techniques of expanded listening, particularly when the artistic medium of sound crosses the boundaries of the brain, body, architectural space, and material objects. as auditory culture has moved from the concert hall and music venue into galleries, museums, outdoor public spaces, and digital contexts, cultural practitioners have been prompted to ask how bodies perceive, understand, and evaluate the sounds they encounter. with a rich literature on sound, space, and embodiment, this course will not only survey sonic works in music and the gallery arts but also the ways that technological advancements have changed performance, exhibition, and the perceptual capabilities of bodies. instructor(s): whitney johnson terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 18355 madd 12360. introduction to video game music studies. 100 units. this course will offer an overview of current studies in video game music, a relatively new and interdisciplinary academic field. through reading, listening, and playing, students will explore how and why music is incorporated into video games, as well as the relationship between games and other kinds of musical multimedia. students will also have the opportunity to compose their own music. no background in music is required. this course counts towards the media theory requirement for the maad program. instructor(s): julianne grasso terms offered: winter madd 12422. hearing popular music. 100 units. for decades, popular music has been the soundtrack to many americans' lives. this class explores the structure, function, and impact of a range of vernacular musics from the 20th and 21st centuries. our approach to popular music will be by turns historical, analytical, and sociological. students will learn about formal designs of pop songs, from verse chorus to much more elaborate structures, along with antecedents in the great american songbook tradition. students will learn to analyze the harmonic and melodic conventions in various genres, and also spend significant time with groove analysis and design. finally, the class will interrogate the sociological relevance of vernacular musics, weaving in discussions of relevant social issues from radio play to popularity, and from subcultural appeal to racial identity. this class is open to anyone who listens carefully and with passion, and who wants to grow their ability to write about music. experience as a practitioner of any type of music and/or a passing knowledge of music theory will be helpful, but it is not necessary to read notated music for this course. instructor(s): jennifer iverson terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): musi 25422, sign 26090 madd 12500. video games and language. 100 units. video games are written in code. they are inscribed into a computer's memory. critics, designers, and enthusiasts alike refer to their mechanics as "verbs," like super mario's jump or minecraft's build. sometimes, like other kinds of media objects, video games themselves are referred to as "texts." starting from these premises, this course will investigate why it makes sense to use this linguistic vocabulary to describe video games. we will consider what theories of language have to teach us about video games, and what video games have to teach us about language itself and the worlds it reveals to us. readings will include philosophers of language like ludwig wittgenstein and jacques derrida, digital media scholars like mckenzie wark and bo ruberg, and literary writers like jorge luis borges and clarice lispector. this will be a reading  and writing heavy course: class meetings will consist of discussion of readings, and assignments will generally take the form of written responses and critical essays. video games (or recorded video game playthroughs) may be assigned alongside films, video clips, and podcasts at low or no cost to students. this class does not require any special knowledge of video games or gaming culture! an interest in the topic is all that's needed to succeed. instructor(s): p. fiorilli terms offered: winter madd 12800. theories of media. 100 units. this course will explore the concept of media and mediation in very broad terms, looking not only at modern technical media and mass media, but at the very idea of a medium as a means of communication, a set of institutional practices, and a habitat in which images proliferate and take on a "life of their own." the course will deal as much with ancient as with modern media, with writing, sculpture, and painting as well as television and virtual reality. readings will include classic texts such as plato's allegory of the cave and cratylus, aristotle's poetics, and modern texts such as marshall mcluhan's understanding media, regis debray's mediology, and friedrich kittler's gramophone, film, typewriter. we will explore questions such as the following: what is a medium? what is the relation of technology to media? how do media affect, simulate, and stimulate sensory experiences? what sense can we make of concepts such as the "unmediated" or "immediate"? how do media become intelligible and concrete in the form of "metapictures" or exemplary instances, as when a medium reflects on itself (films about films, paintings about painting)? is there a system of media? how do we tell one medium from another, and how do they become "mixed" in hybrid, intermedial formations? we will also look at recent films such as the matrix and existenz that project fantasies of a world of total mediation and hyperreality. this course includes a weekly screening and discussion section. instructor(s): w. j. t. mitchell terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): any 100 level arth or dova course, or consent of instructor. equivalent course(s): engl 32800, amer 30800, engl 12800, arth 25900, cmst 37800, artv 20400, cmst 27800, arth 35900 madd 12830. indigenous media and the politics of representation. 100 units. this undergraduate seminar explores popular representations of indigenous nations and issues across various modes of media such as film, photography, digital platforms, and museum installations. with a particular focus on media forms produced by indigenous artists, filmmakers, and curators we will analyze these narratives through frameworks of self determination, resistance, visual sovereignty, and relational futures. throughout the course, we will consider indigenous media production(s) in relation to the broader social, historical, and cultural contexts in which they circulate in north america and beyond. the material covered in this course will acquaint students with an introduction to the contemporary debates surrounding indigenous media and representation as they intersect with the larger fields of visual anthropology and indigenous studies. instructor(s): teresa montoya equivalent course(s): anth 22830, cres 23830 madd 12904. ethics in the digital age. 100 units. an investigation of the applied ethics of technology in the 21st century. fundamental debates in applied ethics are paired with recent technological case studies. topics covered include moral dilemmas, privacy, consent, human enhancement, distributed responsibility, and technological risks. case studies include self driving cars, geo engineering, internet privacy, genetic enhancement, twitter, autonomous warfare, nuclear war, and the matrix. (a) (i) instructor(s): d. moerner terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): phil 39904, phil 29904, sign 26071, parr 21900 madd 12910. virtual ethnography: encounters in mediation. 100 units. from everyday social media platforms like facebook, tiktok, instagram, and wechat, to more complex real time immersive social and gaming sites, virtual realms are propagating at a fantastic rate while transforming what it means to live and interact in the physical world. as such virtual world, communities, and spaces increasingly command our attention, time, and money, scholars from various fields have begun to tackle questions concerning the ethics, logics, patterns, and social specificity of the virtual through experimental forms of virtual ethnography. this advanced undergraduate course introduces students to some these recent ethnographies and corresponding theoretical interventions into the nature of collective techno life within virtual realms. students will build on this material in order to develop an ethnographic inquiry into a virtual world of their choosing. in so doing, they will work individually and as a class through the processes of pre field planning, fieldwork, and post field analysis and writing. instructor(s): thomas lamarre and michael fisch terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): consent of instructor required; email professors fisch and lamarre a paragraph long description about what you bring and what you hope to get out of this seminar. note(s): enrollment limit: 25 equivalent course(s): ealc 27910, cdin 27910, cmst 27910, anth 27910 madd 12980. planetary media. 100 units. this course is about how planets are imagined through media as environmental and social systems, with a focus on exchanges between science fictional "world building" practices and scientific ways of knowing. we study the history of science fiction and science borrowing from one another to explain how earth and other planets work, and how both fields have used media to depict planets. when science fiction creates imaginary worlds, are its tools similar or different to those used by exoplanet astronomers or mars rover teams? how do these shared planetary imaginaries affect the public's understanding of the climate crisis? examples will be drawn from both fiction and nonfiction, and both technical and aesthetic media, including climate models, video games, television, pulp magazines, and film. the course culminates with a creative, group planetary world building assignment. instructor(s): katherine buse terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 28910 madd 13012. caricature. 100 units. though usually traced to renaissance experiments with drawing deformed heads, caricature as a mode of parody, humor and invective has various roots, in ancient comedy, ancient modern physiognomy and psychology, the literature and (pseudo)science of social types, and above all in the rise of a public sphere of newspaper readers and broadsheet buyers avid for the ridiculing of public figures, beloved or otherwise. we approach caricature broadly, considering its inverse relation with a neoclassical aesthetics of the ideal body, its theorization around historically significant moments like 1848 and 1939, its relation to technological developments like the newspaper comic and the animated cartoon, and most recently, the viral meme. instructor(s): andrei pop terms offered: tbd. will not be offered 21 22 or 22 23 equivalent course(s): arth 35012, scth 35012 madd 13020. opera across media. 100 units. open to all undergraduates. over the course of the last hundred and twenty years, opera and cinema have been sounded and seen together again and again. where opera is commonly associated with extravagant performance and production, cinema is popularly associated realism. yet their encounter not only proves these assumptions wrong but produces some extraordinary third kinds media hybrids. it also produces some extraordinary love affairs. thomas edison wanted a film of his to be "a grand opera," and federico fellini and woody allen wanted opera to saturate their films. thinking about these mutual attractions, "opera across media" explores different operatic and cinematic repertories as well as other media forms. among films to be studied are pabst's threepenny opera (1931), visconti's senso (1954), powell and pressburger's tales of hoffmann (1951), zeffirelli's la traviata (1981), de mille's carmen (1915), losey's don giovanni (1979), bergman's the magic flute (1975), and fellini's e la nave va (1983). no prior background in music performance, theory, or notation is needed. students may write papers based on their own skills and interests relevant to the course. required work includes attendance at all screenings and classes; weekly postings on canvas about readings and viewings; attendances at a met hd broadcast and a lyric opera live opera; a short "think piece" midway through the course; and a final term paper of 8 10 pages. instructor(s): martha feldman terms offered: autumn note(s): open to all undergraduates equivalent course(s): cmst 24617, ital 25020, musi 25020, sign 26058, taps 26516, gnse 25020 madd 13044. generations, gender, and genre in korean fiction & tv drama. 100 units. the seminar analyzes the issues of generations, gender, and genres that arise from a selection of popular literary and television dramas from modern and contemporary korea. the selection for the course is marked by the creative contributions of korean women as novelists, scriptwriters, directors, among others. it includes prose fiction by renowned authors such as park wan sŏ (1931 2011), han kang (1970  ), and cho nam joo (1978  ), as well as television series like mr. sunshine (2018; scripted by kim eun sook), the red sleeve (2021; dir. by chŏng chi in; adapted the 2017 novel by from kang mi kang), and my liberation notes (2022; written by park hae yeong). through a blend of close textual analysis and historical contextualization, the course aims to uncover the ways in which the gendered and generational identities of these creators might have helped certain configurations of concerns, needs, and aspirations saliently emerge in response to social, cultural, historical, and political currents of their time. [consent required; no prior knowledge of the korean language is necessary] instructor(s): k. choi terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): gnse 30136, gnse 20136, ealc 33044, ealc 23044 madd 13133. queering visual culture in modern india. 100 units. this course will examine the process of queering visual cultures in modern india, whereby it interrogates how popular visual cultures (primarily film and advertisements) have upheld normative regimes of gender/sexuality as well as how they have subverted, and 'queered' these regimes. it also asks how expressions of gender and sexuality have been shaped by the contingent and contentious politics of postcolonial india. this course will map three kinds of gender/sexuality visualities in indian popular culture ideal woman/femininity, men and masculinities, and queer identity and sexuality. we will pay particular attention to the ways in which films intervene in and shape histories of gendered representation, notably with regard to the figure of the courtesan or 'tawa'if' as mediated through blockbuster films. similarly, we will look at how specific political and social moments construct particular gendered or sexualized representations. these include: the figure of the "mother" during india's nation building years (1950s); the trope of the "angry young man" set against the country's emergency era politics and massive unemployment (1970s); and the sexualized male hero, as expressed by the superstar shah rukh khan in his films and adverts (2000s). for the final part of the course, we will consider queer visualities, and explore how gay and trans characters and identities have been represented in a more contemporary sense. instructor(s): borah, jenisha terms offered: spring note(s): this course counts as a concepts course for gnse majors. equivalent course(s): cmst 21133, gnse 23133, salc 23133 madd 13238. documenting state violence. 100 units. visual media have become central to activism against state violence. throughout the past century, activists have deployed new technologies to bear witness to atrocity, record evidence, raise awareness, and promote justice. at the same time, media consistently fail to deliver lasting transformations and can even enable violence rather than counteracting it. in this class, we will explore how media practices support, undermine, and complicate efforts against state violence. how have activists employed documentary evidence?what assumptions have they made about communication, truth, difference, and justice? how do media frame what counts as violence? what are the politics of recording,seeing,and showing harm? what are the possibilities and limitations of emerging digital technologies?we will explore these issues across a range of media such as photography, documentary film, comics, holograms, satellite and drone imagery, virtual reality experiences, social media platforms, and artificial intelligence and case studies, including the holocaust, the cambodian genocide, the u.s. war on terror, the syrian civil war, the movement for black lives, indigenous resurgence in north america, and environmental violence in guatemala. students will be encouraged to think critically and creatively through assignments involving media analysis and media production. instructor(s): sasha crawford holland, graduate lecturer, pozen center for human rights terms offered: autumn prerequisite(s): the class will have a screening component mondays, from 3:30 6:30 p.m. in cobb 307. equivalent course(s): cres 25238, hmrt 25238, cmst 25238 madd 13275. justice: race, digital media, & human rights activism. 100 units. how have digital media platforms influenced and motivated recent developments in human rights activism? can literature, art, and film contribute to political debate and systemic change as much as on the ground protest? in this interdisciplinary seminar, we will explore a variety of ways that grassroots activists, writers, artists, and filmmakers have made inventive use of digital media to aid in political struggles for refugee rights, gender equality, environmental justice, police abolition, data protection and privacy, and an economy founded on fair labor practices. we will be especially attuned to how their practices advocate for communities of color and other marginalized groups, who are disproportionately impacted by regimes of surveillance, state violence, and capitalist expansion. in addition to resources and tools created by digital transparency activists, we will examine how cultural practitioners make political interventions and claims with literature, art, media, and other nontraditional forms of engagement. these cultural case studies will include films produced with iphones and drones that document the global refugee crisis, digital poems concerning discrimination against immigrants, new media art installations that critique algorithm driven predictive policing, and border crossing robotic sculptures, among others. instructor(s): maria a. dikcis, pozen center for human rights, acls emerging voices postdoctoral fellow terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): cres 33275, hmrt 33275, cres 23275, hmrt 23275 madd 13303. chris marker. 100 units. chris marker (1921 2012) is one of the most influential and important filmmakers to emerge in the post war era in france, yet he remains relatively unknown to a wider audience. marker's multifaceted work encompasses writing, photography, filmmaking, videography, gallery installation, television, and digital multimedia. he directed over 60 films and is known foremost for his "essay films," a hybrid of documentary and personal reflection, which he invigorated if not invented with films like lettre de sibérie (letter from siberia, 1958) or sans soleil (sunless, 1983). his most famous film, la jetée (1962), his only (science) fiction film made up almost entirely of black and white still photographs, was the inspiration for terry gilliam's 12 monkeys (1995). in 1990, he created his first multi media installation, zapping zone, and in 1997 he experimented with the format of the cd rom to create a multi layered, multimedia memoir (immemory). in 2008, he continued his venture into digital spaces with ouvroir, realized on the platform of second life. marker was a passionate traveler who documented the journeys he took, the people he met, and revolutionary upheavals at home and afar. we will follow marker's travels through time, space, and media, during which we will also encounter artists with whom he crossed paths, with whom he collaborated, or who were inspired by his work. instructor(s): dominique bluher terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 26303, fndl 26102, cmst 36303, artv 20032 madd 13403. cybernetic futures in digital media. 100 units. cybernetic futures in digital media" explores the intersection of cyberpunk aesthetics, feminist theory, and digital media. cyberpunk, characterized by its high tech, dystopian visions and advanced cybernetics, serves as the course's foundation. we will examine its impact on fine art, moving images, creative writing, and video games. the course will focus on evolving gendered embodiments in cyberpunk, from "masculine" identities centered on military strength to androgynous portrayals exploring emotional depth and resilience. we will analyze these themes and explore how cyberpunk and digital feminisms shape contemporary digital and artistic thought. instructor(s): crystal beiersdorfer terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): gnse 23403 madd 13450. artificial intelligence, algorithms and human rights. 100 units. algorithms and artificial intelligence (ai) are a new source of global power, extending into nearly every aspect of life. recently, the high commissioner for human rights called for states to place moratoriums on ai until it is compliant with human rights. this course will take the first steps towards developing a human rights based approach for analyzing algorithms and ai. what makes an algorithm discriminatory, and is the algorithm the right place to look? is algorithmic bias avoidable? does human review of algorithm sufficient, and in what cases? do predictive models violate privacy even if they do not use or disclose someone's specific data? when does nudging violate political rights? how does algorithmic decision making impact democracy? we will closely read shoshana zuboff's surveillance capitalism on tour through the sociotechnical world of ai, alongside scholarship in law, philosophy, and computer science to breathe a human rights approach to algorithmic life. we will explore analytic toolkits from science and technology studies (sts) and the philosophy of technology to probe the relationship between worldmaking and technology through social, political, and technical lenses. no prior background in artificial intelligence, algorithms, or computer science is needed, although some familiarity with human rights philosophy or practice may be helpful. instructor(s): austin clyde, pozen center for human rights graduate lecturer terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): hmrt 23450, cmsc 10450 madd 13517. introduction to critical spatial media: visualizing urban, environmental, and planetary change. 100 units. this course introduces critical theories and techniques for visualizing interconnected transformations of urban, environmental, and planetary systems amidst the pressures of climate change, urbanization, and global economies of capitalism. weekly lectures will introduce major themes and theoretical debates, paired with hands on lab tutorials exploring a selection of methods in conventional and experimental geographic visualization. thematically, the course will be organized around critical interpretations of the anthropocene, a concept designating the epoch in which anthropogenic activities are recognized as the dominant force of planetary climatic and ecological change. we will present these interpretations through modules structured around different conceptual paradigms and alternative epochal designations (e.g. the urbanocene, the capitalocene, the plantationocene). through weekly lab exercises and a final, synthetic project, the course will move from critically analyzing prevalent theoretical frameworks, geospatial data, and associated visualization techniques to creatively visualizing critical alternatives. students will learn how to construct visual narratives through a variety of spatial media (e.g. maps, diagrams, visual timelines), scales (e.g. bodies, neighborhoods, landscapes, the planetary), and techniques/platforms (e.g. gis, web mapping, basic programming language tools, and vector/raster visualization programs). instructor(s): alexander arroyo, grga basic terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): cegu 23517, artv 20665, enst 23517, arch 23517 madd 14109. machine learning at the archive. 100 units. in "an archival impulse," hal foster describes the archive as "found yet constructed, factual yet fictive, public yet private." this is a hybrid seminar / workshop course that brings together making, researching and collecting with the goal of expanding the discourse around archives to address machine learning. foster's set of tangled binaries provide a foundation on which to build a formal and critical inquiry into the procedural, technological and institutional pressures involved in working with machine learning, particularly as an individual researcher or artist. topics include: how do the datasets used for machine learning correspond to or differ from traditional physical archives? how does the speculative discourse around the potential for artificial intelligence inform data collection and usage? how has the archive's problematic history of informing and feeding on various " isms" translated to the digital age and how do we respond to that situation? how can art be used to investigate or interfere with all of the above? instructor(s): cameron mankin terms offered: autumn madd 14110. digital cinema. 100 units. since the 1970s, movies have become increasingly dependent on digital technologies. this course explores a range of issues related to the digitization of cinema's production, distribution, and exhibition, including the cultural contexts and aesthetic practices surrounding these technological shifts as well as their experiential and political dimensions. in particular, we will explore such topics as digital cinematography's relation to cinematic realism, emerging trends in editing practices, the political implications of digital special effects, and the ways that other digital media influence cinematic techniques. texts discussed include works by lev manovich, stephen prince, kristen whissel, hito steyerl, steven shaviro, and vivian sobchack. screenings include works by lana and lilly wachowski, agnes varda, bong joon ho, michael bay, brad bird, and leos carax. note(s): this course does not satisfy the general education requirement in the arts. equivalent course(s): cmst 27110 madd 14204. media ecology: embodiment & software. 100 units. media ecology examines how the structure and content of our media environments online and offline, in words, images, sounds, and textures affect human perception, understanding, feeling, and value; or alternatively, media ecology investigates the massive and dynamic interrelation of processes and objects, beings and things, patterns and matter. at stake are issues about agency human or material and about determinism how does society or culture interact with or shape its technologies, or vice versa? this course investigates theories of media ecology by exploring systems of meanings that humans embody (cultural, social, ecological) in conjunction with the emerging field of software studies about the cultural, political, social, and aesthetic impacts of software (e.g., code, interaction, interface). in our actual and virtual environments, how do we understand performing our multiple human embodiments in relation to other bodies (organism or machine) in pursuit of social or political goals? instructor(s): m. browning terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 28452, huma 25202, llso 27801, cmst 25204, hips 25203 madd 14205. computers, minds, intelligence & data. 100 units. how are we co evolving with our machines? how do we teach ourselves and our computers how to learn? what kinds of human intelligences do we promote in liberal education in comparison with artificial intelligence(s)? through our distributed cognition with tools of all kinds, as we engage in participatory culture using digital computers and networks, we provide information that generates the basis for big (and small) data. at the crux of our investigation on the one hand into reading and conversation and on the other hand into algorithms and information theory are issues about human action and the multifaceted agency of the universal turing machine as mobile phone, laptop, internet, robot. instructor(s): j. foley terms offered: winter. winter 2021 equivalent course(s): huma 25205, hips 25205 madd 14207. mindfulness: experience and media. 100 units. how do we experience media (of all kinds) with (or without) awareness? methods of mindfulness offer principles and practices of awareness focusing on mind, body, and embodied mind. mindfulness (a flexible, moment to moment, non judging awareness) is an individual experience and at the same time, practices of mindfulness can be a mode of public health intervention. mindfulness involves social epistemologies of how we know (or don't know) collectively, as we interact with immediate sensory experience as well as with mediated communication technologies generating various sorts of virtual realities (from books to vr). in addition to readings and discussions, this course teaches embodied practices of attention and awareness through the curriculum of mindfulness based stress reduction. instructor(s): m. browning terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 20507, hlth 25207, hips 25207, huma 25207 madd 14350. videogame level design. 100 units. level design is the process of creating interactive virtual environments and scenarios. through the deliberate placement of game assets, a level designer can evoke emotions and a sense of flow for the player. similarly, in architecture, considerations are made into how aesthetics and form impact the experience of built environments. in this course, we will explore the level design of 3d games through an architectural lens and investigate how these conditions incentivize gameplay. with a focus on theories and techniques, we will develop a language to examine and analyze virtual worlds and the purpose behind their design. course materials include foundational architecture texts, writings on games, talks by practicing designers, and gameplay. instructor(s): william chyr terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): cmst 14350 madd 14355. true crime and infamy in early modern japan. 100 units. the recent popularization of "true crime" in film, television shows, and podcasts has prompted critical discussions about the ethics of mixing documentary with entertainment and fact with fiction, as well as concerns about whose narratives are given public attention as others are ignored. using these considerations as a starting point, this course examines some of the mainstays of the genre of "true crime" scandal, violence, disaster, law, and the supernatural in fiction and theater in early modern japan in order to trace the fluctuating relationship between news, fiction, and performance over the course of the edo period. this course examines the many ways that works of literature and stage were already deeply invested in these tropes of rumor, scandal, sensation, spectacle, and documentary long before the advent of regularly circulating printed newspapers in meiji japan, as well as how these existing configurations of sense and sensationalism informed later developments in media and fiction. the goal of this course is for students to gain not only a breadth of knowledge about various literary and theatrical forms in early modern japan but also a critical awareness of how early modern spectacles of infamy or violence intersected with categories of class, gender, sexuality, and disability to transform some figures into targets of sympathy and others into paragons of villainy or horror. all readings will be available in english. instructor(s): m van wyk terms offered: spring note(s): the course is designed for undergraduate students but graduate participation is welcome with advanced consultation. equivalent course(s): ealc 24355, ealc 34355 madd 14510. kawaii (cuteness) culture in japan and the world. 100 units. the japanese word kawaii (commonly translated as "cute" or "adorable") has long been a part of japanese culture, but, originating from schoolgirl subculture of the 1970s, today's conception of kawaiihas become ubiquitous as a cultural keyword of contemporary japanese life. we now find kawaii in clothing, food, toys, engineering, films, music, personal appearance, behavior and mannerisms, and even in government. with the popularity of japanese entertainment, fashion and other consumer products abroad, kawaii has also become a global cultural idiom in a process christine yano has called "pink globalization". with the key figures of hello kitty and rilakkuma as our guides, this course explores the many dimensions of kawaii culture, in japan and globally, from beauty and aesthetics, affect and psychological dimensions, consumerism and marketing, gender, sexuality and queerness, to racism, orientalism and robot design. instructor(s): nisha kommattam terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): engl 24510, cmlt 24510, ealc 24520, gnse 24511 madd 14570. special topics: animation theory. 100 units. due to the ubiquity and pervasiveness of animation in contemporary media ecologies, recent years have seen a surge of interest in animation theory. but animation theory presents a vast and turbulent domain of inquiry, because animation may be narrowly defined as a set of objects or techniques or broadly conceptualized to embrace questions about life and death, about more than human animals, artificial life, and animism, for instance. this topics course has two aims. the first aim is to provide an overview of the key problematics of and approaches to animation theory in a global and historical perspective. the second aim is to develop tools for doing animation theory in a more localized manner. to this end, course will highlight theories of character and characterization with an emphasis on how the inherent tension between individual and type in animation affects our understanding race and racism. instructor(s): thomas lamarre terms offered: winter note(s): not offered in 2023 24. equivalent course(s): ealc 14570, cmst 14570 madd 14613. god of manga: osamu tezuka's "phoenix," buddhism, and post wwii manga and anime. 100 units. how can the buddhist axiom "all life is sacred" describe a universe that contains the atrocities of wwii? osamu tezuka, creator of astro boy and father of modern japanese animation, wrestled with this problem over decades in his science fiction epic phoenix (hi no tori), celebrated as the philosophical masterpiece of modern manga. through a close reading of phoenix and related texts, this course explores the challenges genocide and other atrocities pose to traditional forms of ethics, and how we understand the human species and our role in nature. the course will also examine the flowering of manga after wwii, how manga authors bypassed censorship to help people understand the war and its causes, and the role manga and anime have played in japan's global contributions to politics, science, medicine, technology, techno utopianism, environmentalism, ethics, theories of war and peace, global popular culture, and contemporary buddhism. readings will be mainly manga, and the final paper will have a creative option including the possibility of creating graphic work. instructor(s): a. palmer equivalent course(s): fndl 24613, hist 24613, rlst 28613, know 24613, hist 34613 madd 14723. divas, idols, material girls: gender and sexuality in music videos. 100 units. the stark black and white of madonna's "vogue" and the pinks and sparkles of "material girl." the explosive surprise releases of beyoncé's beyoncé and lemonade visual albums. the lavish cinematic spectacle of taylor swift's "bad blood" and the fanbait intertextuality of sm entertainment's aespa. since mtv's advent in 1981, hit music videos have made a number of pop songs inextricable from iconic imagery and choreography; ubiquitous digital devices and the rise of platforms like youtube and tiktok have only increased pop music's audiovisuality. looking at and listening to female pop icons raises fraught questions of agency, representation, race, sexuality/sexualization, bodies, commodification, and capital. in this course, students will gain a vocabulary for talking about both the audio and visual parameters of music video, and they will use this vocabulary to engage with critical frameworks for examining meaning, circulation, and reception in contemporary music videos. assignments across the course will allow students to experiment with a range of writing and media genres, including critical close readings, micro reception histories, thinkpieces, podcast episodes, and video essays. instructor(s): paula harper terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): gnse 20135, musi 27423 madd 14805. religion in anime and japanese pop culture. 100 units. how does spirited away reflect teachings of japanese buddhism and shinto? or what about neon genesis evangelion? what can pop culture tell us about religion? in this course, we will consider what japanese religions are (and are not) by looking at their representations in popular cultural forms of past and present. sources are drawn from a range of popular cultural forms including anime and manga, but also literature, artistic performances, visual arts, and live action movies. the course covers foundational aspects of japanese religious life through non traditional sources like bleach, the tale of genji, and your name. at the end of the course, students will be able to speak to the great diversity of religious practices and viewpoints in japan, not only its centers but also its peripheries and minorities. meanwhile, we will consider broader questions about the complex connections between religion and popular culture. no prior knowledge of buddhism, shinto, or japanese history is expected. instructor(s): bruce winkelman terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): ealc 28405, rlst 28405, cmlt 28405 madd 14822. video game music and sound. 100 units. from 8 bit audio tracks to orchestral concerts of video game music, from the percussive clicks of keyboards and controllers to menu noises, sound is tightly tied to the experience of playing video games. in this course, we'll explore how game music and sound interact with narrative, the embodiment of play, and musical environments outside of the games themselves. our engagement with game music and sound will be mostly analytical, but there will be an opportunity for a creative final project for those students who might be interested. no prior music courses are required, although some familiarity with musical terminology and experience playing video games may prove useful. instructor(s): will myers terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): musi 24822 madd 14865. adaptation: text and image. 100 units. a course concerned with the marriage of image and text that explores films, illuminated manuscripts, comic books/graphic novels, children's picture books and present day (perhaps local) theater productions that deal at their core with the balance and dance between story and picture. examples of work studied would be chris marker's la jetée, alice in wonderland and its many adaptations, the comics of winsor mccay, seth, chris ware, etc, and william blake's engraved poems and images. the theatrical collaborations between the instructors themselves ("the cabinet" and "cape and squiggle," both produced by chicago's redmoon theatre) will be discussed as well. instructor(s): m. maher, f. maugeri terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 28465, artv 20215 madd 14900. narratives of investigation, games of investigation. 100 units. from agatha christie and marie rodell to victor shklovsky, roger caillois, and david bordwell, popular authors and media critics alike have long posited the mystery story as a "game" or "puzzle," interactive exercises in guessing that are bound by certain rules and expectations of "fair play." taking the implications of these authors' and critics' metaphors seriously, this class examines the mystery or detective story from the perspective of game design. case studies will be drawn from literary examples going back to the birth of the detective story in the mid 19th century, through films, analog games and puzzles, and digital games, with an eye toward historical continuities. course assignments will be a mix of analytical writing and creative projects. instructor(s): i. jones terms offered: spring note(s): this course fulfills the requirement for media history or media theory for maad majors/minors. madd 14916. yōkai media. 100 units. this course centers on yōkai (monsters or fantastic creatures) and theories of the fantastic in cinema and media. historically, it spans the range from medieval emaki and edo chōnin culture through 20th and 21st century manga and anime. inquiry into yōkai and the fantastic is intended to develop new strategies for putting cinema and media into dialogue with theories of political sovereignty and capitalism in the context of everyday life and its urban myths. instructor(s): thomas lamarre terms offered: winter note(s): not offered in 2022 23. equivalent course(s): ealc 34916, cmst 24916, cmst 34916, ealc 24916 madd 14920. comparative media poetics: horror. 100 units. cinema, videogames, and vr: all moving image media, which have at times exerted multi directional aesthetic influences on each other. this course will investigate the raw materials and basic forms at the disposal of artists working in and across these media, with a special focus on horror as a genre. along with fundamental questions regarding the social, psychological, and political uses (and abuses) of horror as a genre, this course will also look at how horror works across a variety of media. in what way do the possibilities available to game developers differ from those available to filmmakers, and vice versa? how are space, time, and action presented and segmented differently across moving images (cinema), interactive moving images (games), and fully immersive virtual environments (vr)? how do techniques ranging from psychological identification to jump scares work in each medium, and what aesthetic effects are open to one that are not open to the other? course materials will include horror cinema, horror games (video and otherwise), vr experiences, and written horror literature. instructor(s): ian bryce jones terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 14920, cmlt 14920 madd 14945. digital storytelling. 100 units. new media have changed the way that we tell and process stories. over the last few decades, writers and designers have experimented with text, video, audio, design, animation, and interactivity in unprecedented ways, producing new types of narratives about a world transformed by computers and communications networks. these artists have explored the cultural dimensions of information culture, the creative possibilities of digital media technologies, and the parameters of human identity in the network era. this course investigates the ways that new media have changed contemporary society and the cultural narratives that shape it. we will explore narrative theory through a number of digital or digitally inflected forms, including cyberpunk fictions, text adventure games, interactive dramas, videogames, virtual worlds, transmedia novels, location based fictions, and alternate reality games. our critical study will concern issues such as nonlinear narrative, network aesthetics, and videogame mechanics. throughout the quarter, our analysis of computational fictions will be haunted by gender, class, race, and other ghosts in the machine. instructor(s): ian bryce jones terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): engl 25945, cmst 25945 madd 15150. histories of technology in china. 100 units. according to bruno latour, "technology is society made durable." in francesca bray's words, "technologies are specific to a society, embodiments of its visions of the world and of its struggles over social order. [t]he most important work that technologies do is to produce people: the makers are shaped by the making, and the users shaped by the using." this course looks at technologies in china since late imperial times and asks how technology both expressed and shaped visions of what chinese society should be. we start with technologies of the body (how to sit on a kang, how to have healthy babies, how to become a deity, how to do a forensic investigation of a dead body), then move on to agricultural technologies and nutrition, to manufacturing (in sites ranging from the imperial palace to small paper workshops), and to communication technologies such as printing. next, we look at chinese worldviews and systems of classification and how they changed, partly due to growing exposure to views from europe, japan, and the islamic world. in the last few weeks, we will look at the vernacular technologies of the republican era, at mao era mass science and mass technology, and some of the contemporary uses of modern communication technology in china. all readings in english. instructor(s): j. eyferth terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): hist 24207, ealc 20150 madd 15300. the loop as form. 100 units. this media historical course examines the loop as a narrative and non narrative form throughout the the 20th and early 21st centuries, with examples drawn from science fiction literature, cinema, animation, electronic music, video art, and video games. part of the course's focus will be technological, examining the development and impact of walk cycles in cel animation, magnetic tape in analog music and analog video, and go to statements in computer programming. another part will be sociological, examining the reverberations einsteinian relativity in physics, taylorist scientific management in labor, and behaviorism in psychology had within media development, industry practices, and/or the popular imagination. taken together, the class will be a thorough investigation both into the aesthetic possibilities of the loop, and into the cultural, technological, psychological, and economic reasons it appears as a form in media construction again, and again, and again, and again, and again, instructor(s): ian bryce jones terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): cmst 15301 madd 15303. closure and infinity in digital media. 100 units. from hypertext works spanning thousands of nodes to algorithmically generated animations that unfold slowly over the course of hundreds of years, 21st century media has leveraged digital technology to approach scales never before conceived. this class examines a broad array of digital artworks and theoretical trends from the past several decades, all circling around issues of endings and infinity. this includes everything from humanistic inquiries into the nature of closure in electronic literature of the 1990s to contemporary dreams of infinite machine generated content (coinciding with the reciprocal promise of infinite growth via replacing human labor). course assignments will be a mix of analytical writing and creative projects. instructor(s): ian bryce jones terms offered: spring note(s): class includes a mandatory weekly gameplay session in the madd center. madd 15310. art and technology: from the historical avant gardes to the algorithmic present. 100 units. this seminar tracks the entanglements of visual art and "technology," a term which took on an increasingly expanded set of meanings beginning in the early decades of the twentieth century. focusing on the period between world war i and the present, we examine these expanded meanings and ask how the work of art fundamentally shifted with, extended, tested, or acted upon "technology." we consider cases from the art historical avant gardes, the impact of cybernetics and systems thinking on architecture and visual perception, midcentury collectives that sought to institutionalize collaborations between artists and engineers, as well as more subtle exchanges between art and technology brewing since the cold war. course readings drawn from art history and the histories of science and technology, as well as site visits to art collections on campus, will inform our investigation. students will gain historical insights into the relation between visual art and technology; develop analytical tools for critically engaging with the present day interface of art, science, and engineering; and consider the implications for the futures we imagine. instructor(s): t. shabtay terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): arth 21310, know 21310, arth 31310 madd 15312. visual art and technology: from the historical avant garde to the algorithmic present. 100 units. this course tracks the entanglements of visual art and "technology," a term which took on an increasingly expanded set of meanings beginning in the early decades of the twentieth century. focusing on the period between world war i and the present, we examine these expanded meanings and ask how the work of art fundamentally shifted with, extended, tested, or acted upon "technology." we consider cases from the art historical avant gardes, the impact of cybernetics and systems thinking on architecture and visual perception, midcentury collectives that sought to institutionalize collaborations between artists and engineers, as well as more subtle exchanges between art and technology brewing since the cold war. we will conclude with a look at present day practices that integrate visual art, design, and technology. course readings drawn from art history and the histories of science and technology, as well as site visits to art collections and laboratories on campus, will inform our investigation. students will gain historical insights into the relation between visual art and technology; develop analytical tools for critically engaging with the present day interface of art, science, and engineering; and consider the implications for the futures we imagine. instructor(s): t. shabtay terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): know 23312, arth 33312, arth 23312, know 33312 madd 15337. photography and the making of modern art and science. 100 units. observation, experimentation, invention, design. how has photography helped to shape these practices, which have been central to the development of both art and science? how might an interdisciplinary approach to the medium of photography invigorate questions of form, abstraction, realism, and subjectivity? this seminar surveys key episodes in the history and theory of photographic media to uncover overlaps, parallels, and moments of exchange across the history of modern art and science. course readings, presentations, and site visits will offer case studies with which to consider cross disciplinary connections, from h. becquerel's visualizations of radioactivity and e. j. marey's chronophotographs charting bodies in motion, to scientific iconography appearing in the photograms of man ray and l. moholy nagy or r. rauschenberg's use of x ray imagery. these and many more examples evince how photographic media continually challenges historians of art and of science to reframe the methodological tools they use to evaluate visual and material artifacts. students will have the opportunity to study and write about photographs in campus collections. instructor(s): t. shabtay terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): arth 20337, arth 30337 madd 15403. history of creative computing. 100 units. what is "creative computing"? are artists doing computing creatively or is the computing itself being creative? in this seminar course, students will learn to discuss, analyze, and contextualize artworks covered by the blurry and interdisciplinary "meta medium" that is creative computing, beginning in the 1960s and working forward to the present moment. through lectures, hands on exercises, and discussions of assigned readings, students will gain familiarity with core techniques and concepts that inform contemporary digital art practice and develop their own critical vocabulary and opinions. course topics include: what (if any) are the medium specific properties of creative computing? how dependent are digital works on screens and other systems of display? how does creative computing allow us to delaminate, interject into, or interfere with the streamlined technological world around us? how do generative machine learning models connect to this conversation and how are artists working with them today? instructor(s): cameron mankin terms offered: winter madd 15416. 1990s videogame history. 100 units. this course will trace developments in the videogame medium and videogame cultures in the final decade of the 20th century, discuss the unique possibilities and difficulties arising from the study of recent history, and put these discussions into practice through research based assignments. questions that will guide our study include: what was the relationship between technological innovations and stylistic changes in the videogame medium? how did the entry of new corporate and creative players into the business affect industrial structures and strategies? what do we make of "freedom," "realism," and other concepts that dominated videogame press coverage   and how were they connected to broader cultural discourses? how did understandings of what it meant to play videogames, and the types of experiences that videogames could offer, change over the course of the decade? what was the relationship between developments in the videogame medium and other media   from film and fiction to virtual reality and the internet? how has this decade been remembered, conceptualized, preserved, and repackaged in subsequent decades? instructor(s): chris carloy terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): cmst 27867, maph 34516, cmst 37867 madd 15425. censorship, info control, & revolutions in info technology from the printing press to the internet. 100 units. the digital revolution is triggering a wave of new information control efforts and censorship attempts, ranging from monopolistic copyright laws to the "great firewall" of china. the print revolution after 1450 was a moment like our own, when the explosive dissemination of a new information technology triggered a wave of information control efforts. many of today's attempts at information control closely parallel early responses to the printing press, so the premodern case gives us centuries of data showing how diverse attempts to control or censors information variously incentivized, discouraged, curated, silenced, commodified, or nurtured art, thought, and science. this unique course is part of a collaborative research project funded by the neubauer collegium for culture and society and is co organized with digital information expert cory doctorow. the course will bring pairs of experts working on the print and digital revolutions to campus to discuss parallels between their research with the class. classes will be open to the public, filmed, and shared on the internet to create an international public conversation. this is also a department of history "making history" course: rather than writing traditional papers, students will create web resources and publications (print and digital) to contribute to the ongoing collaborative research project. instructor(s): a. johns & a. palmer note(s): making history courses forgo traditional paper assignments for innovative projects that develop new skills with professional applications in the working world. open to students at all levels, but especially recommended for 3rd  and 4th yr students. this course fulfills part of the know core seminar requirement. phd students should register for know 40103 to be eligible to apply for the sifk dissertation fellowship. equivalent course(s): know 40103, hips 25425, bpro 25425, know 25425, sign 26035, chss 35425, hist 25425, hist 35425, hrel 35425 madd 15502. mediating korean history. 100 units. this course explores korea's modern history through a variety of media, such as short stories, comics, magazines, films, and webtoons. covering events ranging from colonization by japan, mobilization during the second world war, the korean war, to dictatorships, development, democratization, and the tensions on the peninsula today, our focus will be on examining selected media produced from the period under discussion paired with retrospective portrayals. by mixing past and present media together, the course tackles both historical events and historical memory, examining how history is created and remembered through different media. instructor(s): g. reynolds terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): ealc 14502, hist 14502 madd 15507. margins of the medium: text/image. 100 units. in this course, we will study nineteenth  and twentieth century visual and written texts from primarily french photographic, literary, painterly, and cinematic traditions. these thematically interrogate spatial, cultural, geographic, social, and political margins. by also examining the long standing and often fraught historical and theoretical relationship between text and image, we will simultaneously investigate the boundaries between divergent media practices (photography, literature, film, painting) in order to question the visual, narrative, and philosophic limits of representation. instructor(s): j. wild terms offered: spring note(s): students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. for nonmajors, this course meets the general education requirement in the arts. equivalent course(s): cmst 14507 madd 15540. comics at the crossroads. 100 units. mid 1985 to mid 1986 is the most important year in comics history. this course is an introduction to comics through the prism of this period with snapshots of comics "before" and comics "after"; major texts are maus, watchmen, crisis on infinite earths, and the dark knight returns, all of which were released (or released in accessible formats) in '85 '86. we will try to identify the various forces that made this remarkable year possible: changes in the comics business, in american politics and culture, and in the life cycle of the superhero. in the mid 80s the "high" and "low" of comics blended like it never had before. this course is designed for the newbie and afficionado alike, whether you're meeting these four of the greatest comics of all time, or rediscovering them within a new milieu. (fiction) instructor(s): zoë smith terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): engl 15540 madd 15620. japanese animation: the making of a global media. 100 units. this course offers an introduction to japanese animation, from its origins in the 1910s to its emergence as global culture in the 1990s. the goal is not only to provide insight into japanese animation within the context of japan but also to consider those factors that have transformed it into a global cultural form with a diverse, worldwide fanbase. as such, the course approaches japanese animation from three distinct perspectives on japanese animation, which are designed to introduce students to three important methodological approaches to contemporary media   film studies, media studies, and fan studies or cultural studies. as we look at japanese animation in light of these different conceptual frameworks, we will also consider how its transnational dissemination and 'asianization' challenge some of our basic assumptions about global culture, which have been shaped primarily through the lens of americanization. instructor(s): thomas lamarre terms offered: spring note(s): not offered in 2024 25. equivalent course(s): ealc 25620, sign 26070, cmst 35620, ealc 35620, cmst 25620 madd 15630. television in an age of change. 100 units. as streaming options proliferate, we think of television today as a medium in a moment of upheaval; but, since its beginnings, television has always been in flux. this course will provide an introductory overview of television theory and u.s. television history. we will watch and analyze a range of programming and explore ongoing shifts in television's relationship to audiences, technology, and other media forms in an effort to answer and complicate the question, "what is television?" instructor(s): ilana emmett terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 28730 madd 16001. censorship in east asia: the case of colonial korea. 100 units. looking into the intricate workings and profound impact of state publication control in the japanese empire during the first half of the twentieth century, this seminar examines how censorship influenced literary and other forms of publication within the korean colony. students analyze the manipulation of information and representation by engaging with a diverse array of primary sources, including literature, periodicals, police reports, censors' documents, posters, and postcards, among others. not only do they seek a nuanced understanding of censorship and its impact on cultural production engaging themselves with the original materials from colonial korea, but also do they gain a broad historical knowledge of modern korea under japanese rule and further east asia under japan's dominance and hegemony. throughout the course, focus is placed upon manuscript ("pre publication") censorship. [consent required; proficiency in korean or japanese is not required.] instructor(s): k. choi terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): ealc 23001, ealc 43000, rdin 23001, cres 23001 madd 16312. reforming religious media: martin luther and the protestant reformation. 100 units. the protestant reformation began with a carefully orchestrated media event, when martin luther posted his 95 theses on the door of a church in wittenberg. concurrently, he resorted to the still new medium of print to disseminate more widely his scathing critique of the catholic church's use of indulgences to communicate god's grace. this was only the beginning of luther's sweeping attack on the church's role as the sole mediator of salvation. no religious medium or communicational practice remained unquestioned, resulting in their comprehensive reform. soon other reformers joined in, pushing the critique even further by questioning the need and validity of all religious mediation. approaching the protestant reformation as a reform of religious media, this lecture course will give particular attention to the congenial alliance between martin luther's religious message and the emerging technology of the printing press, the role of scripture in legitimating protestant theologies of communication, controversies around particular religious media, like images or the eucharist, and the role of direct inspiration in radical reformers. this research course will be a combination of lecture and discussion. the course will culminate in an exhibition at the special collections research center of regenstein library, which will first take the form of a virtual web exhibit and then an actual, physical exhibition in the winter quarter 2020. all students will contribute to the web exhibition instructor(s): christopher wild terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): rlvc 32312, rlst 22312, hchr 32312, sign 26051, grmn 22312 madd 16600. chance in performance. 100 units. the course will cover the historical, theoretical and practical issues surrounding the use of chance in artistic production, with an emphasis on how these techniques have been used in live performance. we begin with the historical avant garde, particularly dada and duchamp, continue with mid century experiments by cage/cunningham and fluxus artists, and finish with contemporary work like "no dice" of nature theatre of oklahoma and "algorithmic noir" by eve sussman. by creating performance projects using, or responding to, the techniques studied, students will have an opportunity to develop their own critical and practice based point of view. instructor(s): a. dorsen terms offered: spring note(s): attendance at first class meeting is mandatory. equivalent course(s): taps 22600, taps 32600 madd 16718. electronic music: approaches to electronic music. 100 units. hand built circuits, tape loops, feedback, filters, ring modulators, turntables, live processing software environments, microphones, and human machine interface designs. in this course, we will study current and historical approaches to the performative use of hardware and software environments in music, and will follow the practice as it continues to redefine music composition and improvisation in the 21st century. study will be repertoire based, drawing from the work of artists ranging from david tudor to herbie hancock to grandmaster flash to kaija saariaho. instructor(s): tbd equivalent course(s): musi 26718, musi 36718 madd 17010. gaming history. 100 units. how do video games reflect, theorize, and alter history? this lecture course will draw on strategies from history, media, and game studies to understand the place of games in the history of knowledge and our knowledge of history. how have historical simulations, ensconced in media objects, represented scientific, social, and cultural processes? how do games invite players to perform and inhabit historically specific subjectivities? what is the role of digital media in the public understanding of history? by representing alternate and future histories, games articulate theories of historical change, suggesting and popularizing modes of political, economic, and social agency. we will consider how games represent the structure of time, causality, and choice, and how the hardware and software of video games constrain and enable certain representations of history. through lectures, discussions, group play sessions, written and practice based assignments, and theoretical readings, we will think about what it means to 'game' history and to historicize games. instructor(s): bolman, bradley buse, katherine gabel, isabel terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): know 27010 madd 17212. sonic cultures of japan. 100 units. this course engages with the various techniques and practices associated with sound in japanese culture, ranging from the 18th century through the contemporary era. the media covered will include literature, language reform movements, theater, cinema (both silent and sound), recorded music, radio broadcasting, manga, video games and anime. we will also read recent sound oriented approaches to literary and cultural studies from scholars from both japan and elsewhere. all readings will be in english. instructor(s): michael bourdaghs terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): sign 26085, ealc 17212 madd 17304. photo/modernism/esthetic. 100 units. the course presents the history of photographic practices in the united states, beginning in the late 19th century and extending into the 1980s, aimed at gaining an audience for photographs within museums of art. the issues under study include the contention over claims about medium specificity, notions of photographic objectivity, a peculiarly photographic esthetics, the division of photography into two categories art vs. documentary and the role of tradition and canon formation in the attempted definition of the photographic medium. instructor(s): j. snyder equivalent course(s): arth 37304, artv 30704, artv 20704, arth 27304 madd 17717. opera in the age of its mechanical reproducibility. 100 units. focusing on a diverse set of productions of mozart's "the magic flute" by ingmar bergman, william kentridge, martin kusej, simon mcburney, and julie taymor, we will seek to locate opera in the contemporary medial landscape, exploring some of the theoretical stakes, dramaturgical challenges, and interpretive achievements that characterize opera on film, dvd, and via live streaming. readings by w. benjamin, t. w. adorno, f. jameson, m. dolar, c. abbate, p. auslander, et al. equivalent course(s): grmn 37717, musi 24517, musi 34517, taps 28422, taps 38422, cmst 38301, grmn 27717, cmst 28301 madd 17817. sonic the hedgehog. 100 units. in this course, we will use a single franchise   sonic the hedgehog   as an access point to study media history, aesthetics, social and cultural practice, and the relationships between games, film, and other artforms. originally released in 1991 for sega's genesis console, the sonic series has spawned over three decades of games, cartoons, manga, novels, films, music, board games, action figures, fan art, cosplay, and merchandizing. both the volume and the variety of these texts allow the sonic corpus to be a focal point for questions with broader stakes for the study of games and media in general. some of the questions we will be considering in this course include: what has been the relationship between particular videogame characters and franchises and the business practices and strategies of entertainment industries? what form does stardom take in the world of digital games, and is it an appropriate concept to apply to a mascot like sonic? how have established game franchises responded to major technological and aesthetic shifts in the medium? how might we understand the concept and practice of adaptation as applied to the digital games, and what does it reveal about the medium specificity of and the relationship between games, film, comics, novels, and other forms? what can a game franchise that has taken a wide variety of generic forms (platforming, racing, fighting, and pinball, to name just a few) tell us about how genre works as concept and system in digital games? instructor(s): chris carloy terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): cmst 27817, cmst 37817, maph 37817 madd 17880. videogame consoles: a platform studies approach. 100 units. while videogames' mix of art, play, and advanced technology gives game studies much of its vitality, the technological and computational aspects of the medium can be daunting for many would be students and designers. and yet no approach to the study of videogames can be exhaustive without some consideration of the material and technological grounds that make games possible. with this in mind, this course will introduce approaches to videogame studies that emphasize the platforms   the hardware, operating systems, etc.   on which games are played, and is intended for students with all levels of familiarity with the technological side of videogames. how do the various components of game platforms, from computer architecture to controllers to the underlying code, affect how games look, sound, and feel, how they are played, who designs them and how, how they are marketed and to whom, and how they are preserved? how do platforms emerge from particular technological, industrial, social, and cultural contexts, and how do they in turn affect the course of game history and culture? classroom lectures and discussions of readings will be accompanied by weekly gameplay sessions at the madd center, which will provide close, hands on engagement with game platforms. possible objects of study include the atari 2600 (1977), colecovision (1982), sega game gear (1990) and genesis/cd/32x (1988 94), panasonic 3do (1993), nintendo 64 (1996) and wii (2006), and playstation 4/vr (2013 16). instructor(s): christopher carloy terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): instructor consent required. equivalent course(s): cmst 27880, cmst 37880, maph 37880 madd 17887. the platformer: history and theory of a videogame genre. 100 units. this course will provide an introduction to genre history and theory in videogame studies through a focus on the "platformer." though not a common name outside of videogame culture, the platformer has introduced or popularized some of the medium's most recognizable figures (mario, sonic the hedgehog, donkey kong) and gameplay mechanics (running, jumping, avoiding enemies, and collecting items). the genre has also been instrumental in and reflective of changes across the videogame medium. this course will cover two decades (roughly 1990   2010), emphasizing both historical details and theoretical questions, such as: how have game genres been defined? how do distinct genres emerge and change over time? how do broader trends (technological, formal, industrial, discursive, experiential, etc.) influence individual genres, and what roles do individual genres play in these broader trends? what resources and methodologies exist for studying videogame genres? throughout the course we'll see the platformer alternate between an emphasis on linear, acrobatic movement across two dimensional spaces and the free exploration of three dimensional virtual worlds; between providing mascots for the biggest game companies and becoming a marker of independent, small team production; and between being hailed as "revolutionary" and epitomizing the retro nostalgic. classroom lecture and discussion of readings will be accompanied by weekly gameplay sessions on original hardware at the madd center. instructor(s): christopher carloy terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): instructor consent required equivalent course(s): cmst 37887, cmst 27887, maph 37887 madd 18000. photography and film. 100 units. this is a core course that serves as an introduction to the history of art by concentrating on some fundamental issues in the history of photography and film. the course is divided roughly in half between still photography and film. the central theme of the course concerns the way in which photographs and films have been understood and valued during the past 165 years. there have been profound changes in attitudes and beliefs regarding the nature of photographs throughout the history of photography (this is likewise true of film). the current range of views is very different from those held by the various audiences for photographs and films in the last century and the century before. for instance, photographs were originally conceived of as copies of things that can be seen, but the notion of copy was drawn from a long established set of views about what makes a picture a work of art and copies were said to be incapable of being works of art. this view continues to haunt the writings of some critics and historians of photography and film. the course will concentrate on the work of photographers, theorists of photography and film, and on films by john huston, billy wilder, and roman polanski. instructor(s): j. snyder terms offered: autumn spring note(s): students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. this course meets the general education requirement in the arts. this course can be taken for credit towards either the general education requirement in the arts music drama core or the maad minor, but not both equivalent course(s): arth 18000 madd 18205. feminist documentary filmmaking. 100 units. this course examines the ways that women identifying documentary makers have given cinematic form to feminist thought. drawing from film and media theory and history, we will focus on the formal and narrative techniques that have been employed by filmmakers to reflect on questions pertaining to gender and sexuality, with an emphasis on the specific ways that non fiction filmmaking expanded feminist theoretical frameworks and research methodologies. considering topics such as cinematic realism, film spectatorship, viewing pleasure, counter cinema, and theories of intersectionality and diaspora, we will ask questions such as: what are the stylistic devices that feminist documentary films have mobilized, and for what purposes and ends? what is documentary's relation to the history of fiction film, particularly of hollywood cinema? how have women documentary makers understood cinema's role in social processes of transformation? what are the possibilities and limitations of collaborative methods, appropriation strategies, and oppositional techniques? we will watch films with a critical eye and engage closely with academic and popular writings to survey the aesthetic, social, and political genealogies operating in the history of feminist documentary production. in this discussion based course, we will cover a variety of non fiction film and media forms: film diaries, docu fictions, home movies, video essays, auto ethnographies, ethno fictions, collage, and found footage films. instructor(s): cinta peleja terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): gnse 23164, cmst 28205 madd 18306. data history: information overload from the enlightenment to google. 100 units. the current era of "big data" is often described as a new paradigm in science: increasingly, in fields ranging from molecular genetics to particle physics to internet search analytics, knowledge is produced by processing massive electronic databases with digital algorithms that tell us who we are, what the universe is made of , and why we think and act the way we do. at the same time, the tools, techniques, and social implications of modern data culture have a deep history that stretches back well before the advent of digital computers. understanding the world by collecting and analyzing large quantities of information has been a goal in the natural and social sciences for centuries, and this history has shaped our current fascination with data in important and surprising ways. this course will examine the long term history of data in critical historical context. we will examine how data has been collected, managed, and analyzed in the sciences over the past few centuries   the emergence of various technologies and conventions for information processing   as well as why it has been such a central concern in so many disciplines   what was understood to be the goal of reducing the world to data. we will also consider what social and political consequences the history of data reveals, and we will discuss the ethical and epistemological concerns that have emerged as science has become increasingly oriented towards collecting and manipulating large quantities of data. equivalent course(s): hips 28306, hist 29523, chss 38306, hist 39523 madd 18500. history of international cinema i: silent era. 100 units. this course provides a survey of the history of cinema from its emergence in the mid 1890s to the transition to sound in the late 1920s. we will examine the cinema as a set of aesthetic, social, technological, national, cultural, and industrial practices as they were exercised and developed during this 30 year span. especially important for our examination will be the exchange of film techniques, practices, and cultures in an international context. we will also pursue questions related to the historiography of the cinema, and examine early attempts to theorize and account for the cinema as an artistic and social phenomenon. instructor(s): daniel morgan terms offered: autumn prerequisite(s): prior or concurrent registration in cmst 10100 is required. course is required for students majoring or minoring in cinema and media studies. note(s): for students majoring in cinema and media studies, the entire history of international cinema three course sequence must be taken. equivalent course(s): engl 29300, cmst 48500, arth 38500, cmlt 32400, artv 20002, cmst 28500, engl 48700, arth 28500, maph 33600, cmlt 22400 madd 18600. history of international cinema ii: sound era to 1960. 100 units. the center of this course is film style, from the classical scene breakdown to the introduction of deep focus, stylistic experimentation, and technical innovation (sound, wide screen, location shooting). the development of a film culture is also discussed. texts include thompson and bordwell's film history: an introduction; and works by bazin, belton, sitney, and godard. screenings include films by hitchcock, welles, rossellini, bresson, ozu, antonioni, and renoir. instructor(s): james lastra terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): prior or concurrent registration in cmst 10100 required. required of students majoring or minoring in cinema and media studies. note(s): cmst 28500/48500 strongly recommended equivalent course(s): artv 20003, rees 25005, engl 29600, arth 28600, cmlt 22500, cmlt 32500, rees 45005, cmst 48600, maph 33700, engl 48900, arth 38600, cmst 28600 madd 18700. history of international cinema, part iii: 1960 to present. 100 units. this course will continue the study of cinema around the world from the 1960s to the 2000s. the continued development of film style and form over this period   one of seismic changes in audio visual aesthetics   will be one of the primary themes of the course. additionally, lectures and discussions will wrestle with the rise of global film cultures, technological innovations and their effects on style (such as post magnetic sound, and visual effects techniques), major international directors and the solidification of auteurism as both a commercial and aesthetic imperative, the increasing internationalization of hollywood, and post 1970s genre reorientation elevating horror, science fiction, and other genres to the highest levels of mainstream respectability, critical appraisal, and/or commercial success. screenings are mandatory and include work by filmmakers including pedro almodovar, michael bay, kathryn bigelow, claire denis, federico fellini, hollis frampton, kiyoshi kurosawa, djibril diop mambety, cristian mungiu, and more, in addition to a selection of music videos. instructor(s): clint froehlich terms offered: spring note(s): this course follows the subject matter taught in cmst 28500/48500 and cmst 28600/48600, but these are not prerequisites. equivalent course(s): cmst 38700, cmst 28700 madd 18703. video art: the analog years. theory, technology, practice. 100 units. the course gives a critical introduction to early video and television art   from the proto televisual impulses in the historical avant gardes to the increasing proximity between analog and digital technologies in video art in the late 1970's and early 1980's. we will focus on the various technical aspects of analog video, as well as on artistic practice and early writings on the subject. topics will include the technics and politics of time; video, feedback systems and ecology; the reconfiguration of the artist's studio; guerilla politics and alternative tv; video and autobiography; the relation between video and painting; the musical history of video; the invention of new machines; and video as a "television viewer". instructor(s): i. blom terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 38703, arth 21313, arth 31313, cmst 28703 madd 18740. global and transnational television. 100 units. the localized nature of broadcasting has meant that our understanding of television history and programming has often been localized as well. looking at specific case studies, this course will disrupt that trend by exploring two separate but related topics: (1) the distinct histories of national television industries around the globe and (2) the industrial and cultural factors that allow programming to flow transnationally. some topics that will be covered include public broadcasting in the uk, the cultural history of netflix co productions, and national identity through reality tv remakes. this course will build off of concepts covered in the course television in an age of change. instructor(s): ilana emmett terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): cmst 28740 madd 18801. chicago film history. 100 units. this course will screen and discuss films made mostly by chicagoans, concentrating on the period after wwii, until 1980 when hollywood began using chicago as a location. by examining various genres, including those not normally interrogated by academics, such as educational and industrial films, we will consider whether there is a chicago style of filmmaking. technological advances that enabled both film and video to escape the restrictions of the studio and go hand held, into city streets and homes, will be discussed. if there is a chicago style of filmmaking, one must look at the landscape of the city the design, the politics, the cultures and labor of its people and how they live their lives. the protagonists and villains of chicago stories are the politicians and community organizers, our locations are the neighborhoods, and the set designers are mies van der rohe and the chicago housing authority. instructor(s): j. hoffman terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): hmrt 35104, chst 21801, arch 26750, artv 20750, hmrt 25104, cmst 21801, cmst 31801, artv 30750 madd 18814. theme park america. 100 units. since the colonial era, americans have obsessively created recreational themed spaces that manifested historical myths and memories in the built environment. this course considers the evolution, functions, and ethics of the american desire to visit the past as a form of leisure. starting with early themed spaces such as world's fairs, amusement parks, and cityscapes, we examine how scholars have read cultural phenomena for their radical contemporary significance. we then apply these tools to examine how disneyland combined, redefined, and heightened its themed space antecedents and to what ends. we will learn how to decode disneyland's messages about race, gender, capitalism, and the american experience that are embedded within the park's design, architecture, attractions, shows, sounds, and smells. how did such views of the past, present, and future speak to the social, political, and economic needs and wants of cold war americans, and why do they continue to resonate today? how should we understand themed spaces as a lens for u.s. history as experienced by contemporary americans? by interrogating the themed space form, we will explore the nature of historical memory, the responsibilities of public history, and the ethics of constructing a recreational past. in doing so, we will learn how to take the seemingly frivolous matters of history seriously and the dire stakes for doing so. instructor(s): hofmann, alex terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): hist 38814, chst 28814, maps 33550, hist 28814 madd 20023. composing for intermedia. 100 units. musi 45023: composing for intermedia highlights a range of practices in contemporary multimedia/intermedia composition. this course is designed for those who want to expand their creative toolset and covers various topics, including the implementation and synchronization of media such as sound, lighting, video, interactive devices, etc. it should be of interest to composers, performers, visual artists, and choreographers who want to develop a critical approach to integrating multimedia technologies into their practice. instructor(s): david bird terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): musi 45023 madd 20041. digital media i: game design with unity. 100 units. this course introduces the principles, practices, and techniques of game design. students will develop several small games, gaining hands on experience with the unity development platform and the c# programming language it uses. the course takes a "ground up" approach: starting with the fundamentals of object  and component oriented programming, then using those fundamentals to build complex, interactive experiences. while the course focuses on unity, an introduction to software design patterns and an emphasis on a rapid feedback/iteration cycle will provide tools that translate to other game engines and creative computing projects. through critique and the close examination of case studies from prior art, students will cultivate their critical eye and articulation, equipping them to discuss, assess, and refine games at various stages of development. prerequisite: digs 20001/30001, "introduction to computer programming using python" or an equivalent course in computer programming. instructor(s): cameron mankin terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): digs 20001/30001, “introduction to computer programming with python” (or an equivalent course in computer programming). note(s): undergraduate maad students attempting to join the course should fill out this form to join a shortlist: https://airtable.com/appf7ralnh3zordb4/shrfub9cvwzc1b5hc. only undergraduates who fill out the form will be considered for the course. please do not send consent requests before filling out the form. equivalent course(s): digs 20041, digs 30041 madd 20042. digital media ii: extended reality with unity. 100 units. part two of a two course sequence, this course teaches students how to develop extended reality (xr) environments using the unity platform. the course emphasizes the creation of augmented reality (ar) and virtual reality (vr) environments, allowing students to gain hands on experience. additionally, students will discuss development with their instructor and peers, assisting them in refining their skills and ideas while creating. by the end of the quarter, students will clearly understand the process of transforming ideas into final products, equipping them with the necessary tools for future xr endeavors. instructor(s): crystal beiersdorfer terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): digs 30041/maad 20041, “digital media i: game design with unity” (or an equivalent unity course approved by the instructor). note(s): undergraduate maad students attempting to join the course should fill out this form to join a shortlist: https://airtable.com/appf7ralnh3zordb4/shrfub9cvwzc1b5hc. only undergraduates who fill out the form will be considered for the course. please do not send consent requests before filling out the form. equivalent course(s): digs 30042 madd 20043. digital media iii: creating 3d worlds in blender. 100 units. this course introduces students to digital rendering, modeling, and sculpting using the blender platform. prerequisite: digs 20001/30001, "introduction to computer programming using python" or an equivalent course in computer programming. equivalent course(s): digs 30043, digs 20043 madd 20230. from theater games to gaming theater. 100 units. uniting methodologies and readings from media and performance studies, this interdisciplinary course explores the historical and contemporary proximities between games and theater as interactive media. each unit of this course interrogates the generic boundary of "games," seeing games as the content of, source of, medium for, and engine behind compelling performances. our course will make a study of "immersive" and game like theatrical works that provoke meaningful questions about audience agency, interactivity, and the role of technology in our contemporary understanding of what it means to attend or take part in "play." students in this course can expect to read theatrical scripts, attend and participate in performances, and perform game exercises in class. part of taking this class is "being game"   open to participating in the various forms of play we will explore together. students will watch contemporary works of gaming theater and participate in a hands on gaming theater workshop, in addition to attending live improv comedy and an escape room. in the midterm assignment students will compose a performance game of their own, designing and testing the piece over three weeks. the final assignment emphasizes the process of producing scholarly writing and asks students to apply performance and game studies approaches to texts from our class. instructor(s): a. gass terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 20230 madd 20302. bodies at work: art & civic responsibility. 100 units. contemporary artists are quickly adapting their practices to be more inclusive, diverse, accessible and physically safe. in particular, the rise of intimacy design and anti racist work in theatre, film and television has opened up a dialogue about how artists do their work responsibly. through practice and investigation, this class will dive into the responsibility of artists in contemporary artistic processes. we will explore both how the tools and capacities of artists can transform civic practice and, conversely, how artists are grappling with the civic issues of body safety, anti racism and accessibility in arts practice. we will explore how centering the body can create respectful engagement in the arts. we will look at the work of enrich chicago, nicole brewer, sonya renee taylor, not in our house and intimacy directors & coordinators among others. instructor(s): d. serna terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): gnse 26303, chst 26302, rdin 26302, taps 26302 madd 20310. introduction to designing interaction. 100 units. we are surrounded by interactive systems and designs, from the user interfaces for our computers and smartphones to home appliances, doors, and furniture. this class will introduce basic techniques, theories, and practices in designing interactive objects and systems. specifically, it will introduce students to developing user experience centric perspectives on critically reflecting on existing (and future) interactive designs. it also provides practices for students to ideate new design solutions and prototype them using design and engineering methods. centered in interaction design, the class covers broad topics touching human computer interaction, industrial design, user experience design, and communication design. prerequisite(s): cmsc 15200, cmsc 15400, cmsc 14200, cmsc 14300, or cmsc 14400. equivalent course(s): cmsc 20310 madd 20370. inclusive technology: designing for underserved and marginalized populations. 100 units. creating technologies that are inclusive of people in marginalized communities involves more than having technically sophisticated algorithms, systems, and infrastructure. it involves deeply understanding various community needs and using this understanding coupled with our knowledge of how people think and behave to design user facing interfaces that can enhance and augment human capabilities. when dealing with under served and marginalized communities, achieving these goals requires us to think through how different constraints such as costs, access to resources, and various cognitive and physical capabilities shape what socio technical systems can best address a particular issue. this course leverages human computer interaction and the tools, techniques, and principles that guide research on people to introduce you to the concepts of inclusive technology design. you will learn about different underserved and marginalized communities such as children, the elderly, those needing assistive technology, and users in developing countries, and their particular needs. in addition, you will learn how to be mindful of working with populations that can easily be exploited and how to think creatively of inclusive technology solutions. you will also put your skills into practice in a semester long group project involving the creation of an interactive system for one of the user populations we study. prerequisite(s): cmsc 14400 or cmsc 15400 or cmsc 12300 or cmsc 22000 or cmsc 20300 or cmsc 20310 equivalent course(s): cmsc 20370, cmsc 30370 madd 20380. actuated user interfaces and technology. 100 units. the recent advancement in interactive technologies allows computer scientists, designers, and researchers to prototype and experiment with future user interfaces that can dynamically move and shape change. this class offers hands on experience in learning and employing actuated and shape changing user interface technologies to build interactive user experiences. the class provides a range of basic engineering techniques to allow students to develop their own actuated user interface systems, including 3d mechanical design, digital fabrication (e.g. 3d printing), electronics (arduino microcontroller), and actuator control (utilizing different kinds of motors). through multiple project based assignments, students practice the acquired techniques to build interactive tangible experiences of their own. prerequisite(s): cmsc 20300 or cmsc 20310 equivalent course(s): cmsc 30380, cmsc 20380 madd 20403. conscious media practices in the age of brain rot. 100 units. a hands on studio course exploring how to critically consume, dissect, and create media in response to a fractured and fast paced media landscape. students will transform weekly headlines into rapid response digital art projects, interrogating the urgency of contemporary culture through experimental design and creative critique. instructor(s): chris collins terms offered: spring madd 20404. from failure to filter: s#bversions &amp; e/olutions in glitch art. 100 units. [error_404: meaning not found. rebooting conceptual framework 🔀] this course critically examines how the raw, unpredictable elements of glitch art once symbols of digital rebellion have evolved and assimilated into the mainstream. charting vectors between avant garde artistic movements and the commodification of cultural phenomena, we will delve into the lifecycles of radical subgenres, digital aesthetics, and their journeys from fringe to familiarity. create projects through hands on experimentation, leveraging artware tools, hacks, kludges, and quirky techniques developed by digital artists. engage with the concept of 'failure' not just as a technical glitch but as a pivotal point of artistic and sociopolitical discourse. is a glitch a glitch if it's anticipated and expected? this course provides a space for both creating and critically analyzing digital art, challenging us to navigate and contribute to our ever shifting and perpetually unstable digital landscape. instructor(s): j. satrom terms offered: spring madd 20420. painting with light in space. 100 units. this course explores projected imagery as a medium to paint ephemeral ideas in the real world through installation and theatrical design. utilizing visual iconography, architectural forms, objects, and cinema, this course will explore the practical and theoretical applications of video on unorthodox objects and spaces. using software as an instrument, students will investigate the visceral extents of images both historical and generative to create living light. the course will culminate in student presentations that illustrate and illuminate the ideas and techniques presented throughout the course. instructor(s): r. davonté johnson terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): artv 30944, taps 27420, artv 20944 madd 20455. transmedia theater, live experience design, and networked performance: a maker's lab. 100 units. the recent pandemic has challenged live performance to consider alternatives in the creation of online spaces and the "pivot to digital," has frequently resulted in innovative approaches of adaptation of texts originally designed for the stage, yet as a result, remain rooted in a "broadcast" modality. live experience design benefits from the exploration of pre covid forms including netprov, args, online larps, interactive theater, and nft games as well as popular social media forms including instagram and snapchat filters. this course invites directors, designers, and writers to innovate under the influence of networked media with an emerging genre at the nexus between theater, film, and video games to create short form interactive original work through zoom, twitch, twine, and discord. through a series of workshop assignments, lectures, and cross disciplinary guest artist demonstrations, this immersive course will consider how can we use and build upon existing technologies to make impactful theater in a networked setting that not only creates a story that elicits an emotional but narrative that is depended on audience interaction. projects will draw from game mechanics and work across multiple platforms and will require no prior experience with coding or video production. instructor(s): h. coleman terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 28455 madd 20500. artgames. 100 units. this studio course playfully explores the methods, tools, and poetics of video games as art. develop interactive new media art, machinima, and experimental 3d environments by using (and misusing) contemporary game engines. projects will include hypertext adventures, walking simulators, abstract platformers, and metagames. by hacking, modding, and recontextualizing existing game assets, we will challenge the rules, mechanics, and interfaces of video games. this course counts towards the media practice and design requirement for the maad program. instructor(s): chris collins terms offered: autumn winter equivalent course(s): artv 25403 madd 20502. sound & environment. 100 units. huge sections of the earth's crust resonate across hundreds of miles: seismology, infrasound. fish larvae differentiate tiny vibrations in ocean water produced by diverse coral ecosystems: hydroacoustics, ultrasound. humans gather in large numbers to watch each other carefully manipulate air pressure: music, architecture, psychoacoustics. each of these phenomena can be understood to fit within the field of sound studies, and each among many further examples has an effect upon each other, contributing to a delicately interlinked planetary system of pressure, vibration, and resonance within air, water, land, and body. this system is now in crisis. from the most densely populated cities to the remotest nature preserves and industrial hinterlands, the extraction, processing, transportation, and consumption of natural resources by humans interferes with delicate systems of sounding and listening essential to almost all forms of life on earth. how can sound studies and audio technology help us navigate this moment? this course takes students through a survey of sound studies and audio technology, from physics, electronics, hearing, and psychoacoustics to the aesthetics, politics, and poetics of musical and non musical sound production. students will also learn the basics of acoustic recording, audio processing, and data sonification through hands on workshops and collaborative projects. instructor(s): carlo diaz terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): enst 24502, cegu 24502, musi 24502, arch 25402 madd 20505. adaptation for the screen. 100 units. this course introduces students to the rewards and difficulties of adapting literary material to the big screen. in addition to reading short stories and viewing the films that were made from these stories, all students will be given the same short story to adapt into a 50 60 minute film. progress on these scripts will be addressed through in class readings, leading to final meetings with the instructor about your completed first drafts. screenwriting experience is helpful, but not essential. class size is limited to 10 students. instructor(s): j. petrakis terms offered: spring note(s): attendance at first class is mandatory. equivalent course(s): taps 25505 madd 20550. writing the tv pilot. 100 units. the creation of a tv pilot is a unique, exciting, and demanding task for a writer. in addition to the responsibility of telling a compelling story, writers are also charged with setting up a "world" and establishing characters and plotlines that will sustain the show over multiple episodes and seasons. in this class, we will delve into the processes required to succeed in this challenging endeavor. this includes creation of pitch materials, plot and character development, outlining, creation of a show bible, and ultimately, writing the pilot episode of an original tv series. the classroom will function as part development workshop and part informal tv writer's room. through weekly reading and writing assignments we will dissect successful entries into the tv space and tap into our artistic inspirations to evolve our show concepts. from there, we would collaborate as a class by actively brainstorming and workshopping our scripts and series. by the end of the quarter, each student will complete a draft of an original pilot script, as well as a short "series bible" detailing the broader scope of the show. instructor(s): k. o'brien terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 25550 madd 20570. technological selves and stories. 100 units. in traditional artistic mediums, the self is presented as a narrator, a figure on a canvas, a moving image on a screen or a character on stage. using contemporary digital technology, new selves appear within emerging forms of storytelling. what selves are these? we will take a hands on approach to answering this question, exploring the nexus between performance, embodiment and digital representation with an eye to storytelling and dramatic narrative. students will conduct experiments in data based digital art, multimedia performance (blending theater and film including live feed techniques), and virtual reality technologies. students will accordingly be asked to create original artworks using digital technology to tell stories ranging from the personal to the mythological and even more than human, exploring a range of perspectives, personas and cutting edge storytelling techniques. instructor(s): s. bockley terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 22570 madd 20600. ai + art: artificial.horse. 100 units. saddle up and ride into the untamed territories of human ai co creation. much like how horses have been our trusty companions in transportation and labor, ai has become a powerful tool for us to navigate the computational era. this course presents a studio environment for performative and avant guarde approaches to experimenting with the newest interfaces and advancements in generative ai, like chatgpt and stable diffusion, while examining predecessors like chatbots and early forms of automation. technology is not simply an external tool that we use, it shapes our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. giddy up, as we playfully experiment with the creative, quirky, and unquantifiable human elements in ai making media art projects as ai, for ai, and with ai. a diversity of artistic and technical backgrounds are welcome. instructor(s): jon satrom terms offered: spring madd 20601. ai + video: glitches, promises, & slop. 100 units. ai video sits at a collision point: where polished promises meet unexpected errors and infinite slop. in this studio course, we'll explore the chaotic potentials of ai in video art its quirks, cultural impact, and untapped possibilities. using cutting edge ai tools and techniques like prompt engineering, style transfer, and compositing, we'll create experimental time based media projects. with a critical lens and playful approach, we'll embrace the weird, challenge the hype, and rethink the ethics and aesthetics of this emergent form. ✨ instructor(s): jon satrom terms offered: spring madd 20602. animation: practices & principles. 100 units. sitting at the intersection of fine arts and filmmaking, animation has held a unique place in visual culture since its inception and has more recently become a ubiquitous presence in our society. through a combination of workshops, screenings, and discussions, this course will examine the advantages and particularities that come with the art form as well as the diverse range of technologies and techniques that it can include. students learn both analog and digital animation methods including cut out, hand drawn, and stop motion, among others to explore their own artistic voice through moving image, culminating with a final project in the medium of their choice. works screened for discussion will range from the traditional and studio based to the experimental and alternative. no previous drawing experience required. instructor(s): elizabeth rogers terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 35602, artv 20035, cmst 25602 madd 20610. line, trace, motion: computation and experiment in animation. 100 units. interpreting what we mean by animation broadly, this course will investigate computational moving image making through the lens of experimental animation. we will take as our point of departure the films of rettinger, ruttmann, fischinger, mclaren, and breer, but will also draw upon artifacts and 'animated lines' taken from further afield: found footage films and algorithmic editing, dance drawings of trisha brown, kinetic sculptures of bit international, early plotter art, avant garde music notation, and contemporary techniques of motion and performance capture. this course will develop theoretical lines of inquiry that run in two directions: an excavation of a "pre history" of contemporary new media and a reinterpretation / re invigoration of our understanding of early animation. any film production, hand animation or computer programming experiences are welcome   but none are perquisites for the course. students will be expected to complete regular short creative "sketches" of techniques culminating in a final short animated project. instructor(s): marc downie terms offered: autumn note(s): not offered in 2024 25. equivalent course(s): cmst 25610, cmst 35610 madd 20620. pivot to digital: adapting performance practices to online spaces. 100 units. how are performance makers adapting their practices to online spaces? many theater and live art makers are discovering new dimensions of their work as they 'pivot to digital', experimenting broadly with expressive form and audience engagement. in this course we will examine a set of case studies drawn from the current pandemic inspired movement towards online performance, gamification, live/recorded hybrid models of performance, and socially distanced performance practices. we will look at the translation of theater design techniques such as scenery and sound design to digital platforms, audio play forms, and at home experience design, plus ask questions about the democratization of content available much more widely online than in conventional performance spaces. students will be asked to adapt a theatrical work (play or devised project) to digital form as part of their work in class. instructor(s): s. bockley terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): taps 20620 madd 20623. theories and aesthetics of remix. 100 units. remix, mashup, bricolage, borrowing, sampling, collage   transformative creative techniques pervade 20th  and 21st century musical and artistic practice. the spectrum of remixing spans virtuosically across hip hop and dj culture, through classical and avant garde composition, to the crudest deep fried internet memery. taking a topical approach, this course will use readings, texts, and practices of remix in many guises to explore questions of aesthetics, agency, economics, and politics. topics under consideration include: intertextuality, aesthetics and form, technology and hardware/software affordances, genre and identity, ai, politics, appropriation and copyright, humor and value, memes and shitposts. assessments will include hands on creative projects using a spectrum of techniques, media, and software. instructor(s): paula harper terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): musi 27623 madd 20624. new forms in djing. 100 units. this course will briefly explore the history of the media of djing, then to invent a new form in the lineage through practice. conventional history including disco, broadcasting, and youtube, to name a few, and more experimental history including underground hip hop, musique concrete, and contemporary performance art. the course will begin with student research and presentation on such topics followed by predictions about what may come next or brainstorming ways to deconstruct existing forms, then attempting to enact those ideas. instructor(s): takashi shallow terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): to be taken in sequence with musi 27623: theories and aesthetics of remix equivalent course(s): musi 27624 madd 20700. alternate reality games: theory and production. 100 units. games are one of the most prominent and influential media of our time. this experimental course explores the emerging genre of "alternate reality" or "transmedia" gaming. throughout the quarter, we will approach new media theory through the history, aesthetics, and design of transmedia games. these games build on the narrative strategies of novels, the performative role playing of theater, the branching techniques of electronic literature, the procedural qualities of video games, and the team dynamics of sports. beyond the subject matter, students will design modules of an alternate reality game in small groups. students need not have a background in media or technology, but a wide ranging imagination, interest in new media culture, or arts practice will make for a more exciting quarter. instructor(s): patrick jagoda, heidi coleman terms offered: autumn prerequisite(s): pq: third  or fourth year standing. instructor consent required. to apply, submit writing through online form: https://forms.gle/qvrckn6mjbtctewy5; see course description. once given consent, attendance on the first day is mandatory. questions: mb31@uchicago.edu note(s): note(s): english majors: this course fulfills the theory (h) distribution requirement. equivalent course(s): taps 28466, artv 20700, cmst 25954, artv 30700, bpro 28700, engl 25970, cmst 35954, engl 32314 madd 20703. computer as theater. 100 units. this course explores the intersection of theater and digital interaction, reimagining interfaces as dynamic sites for performance. borrowing foundational elements of theater plot, characters, props, and stage we will translate well known narrative structures into media driven digital performances. through hands on projects and critical inquiry, we'll unpack the metaphors embedded in ui/ux design: how do likes, swipes, and notifications choreograph your daily interactions with technology? we will question the role of users, interfaces, and systems. we will remix existing theatrical works, deconstruct traditional narrative arcs, and craft speculative interfaces that challenge conventional modes of interaction. no technical expertise required just a willingness to experiment, play, and think deeply about how we perform with and through machines. instructor(s): m. faridani terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 28220 madd 20721. performance captured. 100 units. technologies that turn human action, appearance and performance into data for storage, transformation and redisplay have a long history inside and outside of moving image arts. this class will look at the opportunities, aesthetics and politics of these approaches running through contemporary special effects, traditional and experimental animation, dance on camera and live performance at a moment when boundaries between these categories have become especially porous. instructor(s): marc downie terms offered: autumn note(s): not offered in 2024 25. equivalent course(s): cmst 27021, cmst 67021 madd 20810. sound / image mapping. 100 units. this class will examine the history and production of "hard" sound image relationships through the lens of computational form. through studying the range of digital and mechanical tools that have sought to couple the senses   from 19th century color organs and dreams of synesthesia, through music videos and contemporary new media installations, to recent advances in "machine listening"   students will complete a series of critical essays and sketches leading towards a final project using custom software developed in and for the class. instructor(s): m. downie terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): cmst 28010, artv 27922 madd 20900. computers for learning. 100 units. over time, technology has occupied an increasing role in education, with mixed results. massive open online courses (moocs) were created to bring education to those without access to universities, yet most of the students who succeed in them are those who are already successful in the current educational model. this course focuses on one intersection of technology and learning: computer games. this course covers education theory, psychology (e.g., motivation, engagement), and game design so that students can design and build an educational learning application. labs focus on developing expertise in technology, and readings supplement lecture discussions on the human components of education. prerequisite(s): cmsc 14300 or cmsc 15400 or cmsc 22000 equivalent course(s): cmsc 20900, cmsc 30900 madd 21006. the zine as art theory and practice. 100 units. the zine as art theory and practice is a seminar/studio hybrid that combines reading, thinking, and making. embracing the vibrant history and short turn around time of the artist magazine or zine, course readings are prompts for you to create your own magazines. rather than slick glossy commercial pages, your projects will be in the lineage of the hand drawn, the doodle, the monotype, the playbill, the xerox, and the collage. your magazines are a space for you to combine thoughts, images, questions, speculations, manifestos, ambivalences, rants, passions, characters and ideas. instructor(s): a. ginsburg terms offered: autumn prerequisite(s): artv 10100, 10200 or 10300 equivalent course(s): artv 21006, artv 31006 madd 21011. experimental captures. 100 units. this production based class will explore the possibilities and limits of capturing the world with imaging approaches that go beyond the conventional camera. what new and experimental image based artworks can be created with technologies such as laser scanning, structured light projection, time of flight cameras, photogrammetry, stereography, motion capture, sensor augmented cameras or light field photography? this hands on course welcomes students with production experience while being designed to keep established tools and commercial practices off kilter and constantly in question. instructor(s): m. downie terms offered: autumn note(s): not offered in 2022 23. equivalent course(s): cmst 27011, cmst 37011, artv 27923, artv 37923 madd 21110. imagining futures: speculative design and social justice. 100 units. this experimental course seeks to disrupt dominant narratives about "the future": a monolithic concept that often comes from technologists and policymakers. instead, we explore what alternative futures might look like when imagined by and with marginalized communities. beginning with movements such as afrofuturism, we will read speculative and science fiction across media, including short stories, critical theory, novels, films, transmedia narratives, and digital games. rather than merely analyzing or theorizing various futures, this course will prepare students in hands on methods of "speculative design" and "critical making." instead of traditional midterm essays and final research papers, the work of the course will consist primarily of blog responses to shared readings, coupled with short form, theoretically founded, and collaborative art projects. these projects will imagine alternative futures of climate change, gender, public health, finance, policing, and labor. the work will be challenging, transdisciplinary, and will blur expectations about the relationship between theory and practice at every turn. as such, it is not a course for the craven; it is a course for students who wish to explore the complexities of collaboration and the sociopolitical possibilities of art. (b, h) equivalent course(s): engl 21110, taps 38432, cmst 31110, cmst 21110, engl 31110, artv 21110, artv 31110, taps 28432 madd 21111. creative coding. 100 units. this course is an introduction to programming, using exercises in graphic design and digital art to motivate and employ basic tools of computation (such as variables, conditional logic, and procedural abstraction). we will write code in javascript and related languages, and we will work with a variety of digital media, including vector graphics, raster images, animations, and web applications. note(s): students who have taken cmsc 11800, stat 11800, cmsc 12100, cmsc 15100, or cmsc 16100 are not allowed to register for cmsc 11111. equivalent course(s): cmsc 11111 madd 21500. metamedia. 100 units. computers dynamically simulate the details of any other medium. this course looks past traditional media to engage with the computer as a "metamedium"; an environment with infinite degrees of representation. relationships between form and content will be explored and exploited through deconstructing, augmenting, and experimenting with the data that makes up digital media. studio time will be spent digitally improvising with expanded approaches to creating new media art. topics surveyed will include: algorithms as art, metadata as content, and our digital shadows. in addition to making new media art, we will consider our relationship to contemporary media and the politics of digital agency in our connected world. this course counts towards the media practice and design requirement for the maad program. instructor(s): j. satrom equivalent course(s): artv 25402 madd 21900. climate change in media and design. 100 units. if meteorological data and models show us that climate change is real, art and literature explore what it means for our collective human life. this is the premise of many recent films, novels, and artworks that ask how a changing climate will affect human society. in this course, we will examine the aesthetics of climate change across media, in order to understand how narrative, image, and even sound help us witness a planetary disaster that is often imperceptible. rather than merely analyzing or theorizing various futures, this course will prepare students in hands on methods of "speculative design" and "critical making." each tuesday, we will study how art and literature draw on the specific capacities of written and visual media to represent climate impacts, and how new humanities research is addressing climate change. each thursday, we will participate in short artistic exercises that explore futures of each area. these exercises include future object design, bodymapping and story circles, tabletop gameplay, and serious game design. throughout the quarter, guest speakers from across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences will visit the class to speak about how their disciplines are working to understand and mitigate climate impacts. the most substantial work of the quarter will be an ambitious multimedia or transmedia project about one of the core course topics to be completed in a team. instructor(s): p. jagoda, b. morgan terms offered: not offered in 2024 2025 prerequisite(s): third  or fourth year standing equivalent course(s): cegu 27900, bpro 27900, engl 27904, cmst 27814, enst 27900 madd 22141. intro to genres: drawing on graphic novels. 100 units. like film, comics are a language, and there's much to be learned from studying them, even if we have no intention of 'writing' them. comics tell two or more stories simultaneously, one via image, the other via text, and these parallel stories can not only complement but also contradict one another, creating subtexts and effects that words alone can't. or can they? our goal will be to draw, both literally and metaphorically, on the structures and techniques of the form. while it's aimed at the aspiring graphic novelist (or graphic essayist, or poet), it's equally appropriate for those of us who work strictly with words (or images). what comics techniques can any artist emulate, approximate, or otherwise aspire to, and how can these lead us to a deeper understanding of the possibilities of point of view, tone, structure and style? we'll learn the basics of the medium via ivan brunetti's book cartooning: philosophy and practice, as well as syllabus, by lynda barry. readings include the scholar david kunzle on the origins of the form, the first avant garde of george herriman, frank king, and lyonel feininger, finishing with contemporaries like chris ware, emil ferris and alison bechdel. assignments include weekly creative and critical assignments, culminating in a final portfolio and paper. instructor(s): dan raeburn terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): open bid through my.uchicago.edu. attendance on the first day is mandatory. equivalent course(s): crwr 12141 madd 22150. lighting design & technology. 100 units. this course places equal emphasis on the theory and practice of modern stage lighting. applying real world observations and research with practical applications students will learn the mechanical properties of lighting equipment; how to create, read, and execute a lighting plot; the functions of lighting in a theatrical context; color and design theory; and how to read a text as a lighting designer. diverse perspectives in designing with light include rigorous practicum requirements in group projects and exposure to various designers and philosophies. instructor(s): g. bell terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): chst 28150, taps 28150 madd 22322. introduction to game design. 100 units. this course introduces students to the theories and processes underlying game design through the creation of analog projects. we will be designing for forms that include board games, tabletop games, and live action games. no prior design experience is absolutely required though some background with game studies will enable more innovative work. this course will be project based and collaborative in nature. instructor(s): ashlyn sparrow terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): students must have taken “critical videogame studies” or another comparable game studies or design course. to apply, submit writing through the online form at https://forms.gle/k8svfdqc9hsvhxyha. once given consent, attendance on the first day is mandatory. equivalent course(s): cmst 22322 madd 22500. computational imaging. 100 units. this studio course introduces fundamental tools and concepts used in the production of computer mediated artwork. instruction includes a survey of standard digital imaging software and hardware (i.e., photoshop, scanners, storage, printing, etc.), as well as exposure to more sophisticated methods. we also view and discuss the historical precedents and current practice of media art. using input and output hardware, students complete conceptually driven projects emphasizing personal direction while gaining core digital knowledge. instructor(s): j. salavon terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): artv 10100, 10200, or 10300 equivalent course(s): artv 22500, artv 32500, cmst 28800 madd 22502. data and algorithm in art. 100 units. an introduction to the use of data sources and algorithmic methods in visual art, this course explores the aesthetic and theoretical possibilities of computational art making. focusing on the diverse and ever expanding global data feed, we will craft custom software processes to create works investigating the visual transformation of information. additionally, software programming may be deployed independently, without a connection to source material. while placing an emphasis on creating new work, we will also survey the history of this type of art practice. instructor(s): j. salavon terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): artv 10100, 10200, or 10300 note(s): no prior experience with programming is necessary. equivalent course(s): artv 32502, artv 22502 madd 22506. algorithmic music online. 100 units. in this course, students will learn how to use javascript and web based technologies to create algorithmic musical compositions and experimental web based instruments. through the use of the webaudio api and javascript libraries like tone.js, students will learn how to programmatically generate and manipulate sound, creating interactive and generative audio works that can be shared online. along the way, the class will also survey works by artists working in this field and will feature a visiting artist who will walk students through their own practice. themes of generative art, randomness and chance, originality and machine creativity, and the cultural implications of influential musical algorithms will also be explored. this class is an intermediate level programming course. a beginner to intermediate level understanding of core programming concepts (ideally in javascript) is required. while a background in music can certainly be beneficial, it is not required for success in this course. instructor(s): nick briz terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): musi 22507 madd 22700. devising fundamentals. 100 units. devised theater is created from a multitude of sources but, importantly, not a preexisting script. rather the 'script' (whether or not it eventually takes written form) is developed in rehearsal. this studio course engages students in methods of generating and crafting devised material, including but not limited to physical action, moment work, and verbatim text. additionally we will focus on the generative power of 'problems' as a motor of creation, which draws from core principles of clowning. through solo and collaborative projects, students will explore how devised theater wrestles with conventionally discrete roles in theater making (writer, director, performer, dramaturg, and designer). other considerations will include strategies for making disparate material cohere and more broadly, what constitutes a story. select readings and case studies of artists working in devised theater will supplement the practice based focus of the course. instructor(s): l. danzig terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): taps 22700, taps 32700 madd 22800. 3d modeling and sculpting for video games. 100 units. in this class, students will learn how to create high resolution 3d model concepts for the production of video games. high resolution sculpting is an integral part of today's 3d production pipelines. this course aims to focus on this stage of the production pipeline, and its role in creating high quality games. while this class will focus on creating assets for video games, digital sculpting skills can be applied to a variety of other industries, such as architecture, fashion and jewelry, to name a few. instructor(s): tim nicholson terms offered: winter madd 22900. color theory and practice. 100 units. this course will introduce students to practical aspects of color mixing and the visual impacts of specific color combinations through a series of studio exercises and projects. conceptual and theoretical investigations into optics, the science of color, and psychological and symbolic effects will contribute to an overall understanding of color in relation to visual culture and perception. instructor(s): s. wolniak terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): artv 10100, 10200, or 10300 equivalent course(s): artv 31900, artv 21900 madd 22911. augmented reality production. 100 units. focusing on experimental moving image approaches at a crucial moment in the emerging medium of augmented reality, this class will explore and interrogate each stage of production of ar works. students in this production based class will examine the techniques and opportunities of this new kind of moving image. during this class we'll study the construction of examples across a gamut from locative media, journalism, and gameplay based works to museum installations. students will complete a series of critical essays and sketches towards a final augmented reality project using a custom set of software tools developed in and for the class. instructor(s): marc downie terms offered: autumn note(s): not offered in 2024 25. equivalent course(s): artv 37921, cmst 37911, artv 27921, cmst 27911 madd 22920. art and digital fabrication. 100 units. digital fabrication practices are transforming the design and manufacture of the world of objects we interact with daily. naturally, as those tools become more available to the public, artists have co opted and repurposed them to respond and intervene in that world. in this workshop course, students will develop individual creative projects as a means of developing technical familiarity with digital fabrication techniques (particularly laser cutting and 3d printing) and exploring the ways these processes have impacted the material, social, and economic spaces in which we live. the course is primarily intended as an introduction to these techniques, software, and tools, so no prior experience is required. instructor(s): cameron mankin terms offered: winter madd 23020. live cinema. 100 units. this production oriented class will examine contemporary approaches to the performed digital moving image. through studying the range of tools and conceptual frameworks that have sought to fuse live visuals in performance in contexts spanning theater, dance, music, installation and public art, students will complete a series of critical sketches leading towards a final project using custom software developed in and for the class. film production, music composition, and computer programming experience are welcome (but none are prerequisites for the course). students will be expected to ultimately use the techniques they learn in a final performance. instructor(s): m.downie terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): cmst 37020, cmst 27020 madd 23218. surveillance aesthetics: provocations about privacy and security in the digital age. 100 units. in the modern world, individuals' activities are tracked, surveilled, and computationally modeled to both beneficial and problematic ends. jointly with the school of the art institute of chicago (saic), this course will examine privacy and security issues at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. through both computer science and studio art, students will design algorithms, implement systems, and create interactive artworks that communicate, provoke, and reframe pervasive issues in modern privacy and security. the course will unpack and re entangle computational connections and data driven interactions between people, built space, sensors, structures, devices, and data. synthesizing technology and aesthetics, we will communicate our findings to the broader public not only through academic avenues, but also via public art and media. the first phase of the course will involve prompts in which students design and program small scale artworks in various contexts, including (1) data collected from web browsing; (2) mobility data; (3) data collected about consumers by major companies; and (4) raw sensor data. students will receive detailed feedback on their work from computer scientists, artists, and curators at the museum of science & industry (msi). the course culminates in the production and presentation of a capstone interactive artwork by teams of computer scientists and artists; successful products may be considered for prototyping at the msi. prerequisite(s): one of cmsc 23200, cmsc 23210, cmsc 25900, cmsc 28400, cmsc 33210, cmsc 33250, or cmsc 33251 recommended, but not required. note(s): students interested in this class should complete this form to request permission to enroll: https://uchicago.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/sv_5jpt8grdxdkq26a equivalent course(s): cmsc 33218, cmsc 23218 madd 23220. inventing, engineering and understanding interactive devices. 100 units. a physical computing class, dedicated to micro controllers, sensors, actuators and fabrication techniques. the objective is that everyone creates their own, custom made, functional i/o device. prerequisite(s): cmsc 14400 or cmsc 15400 equivalent course(s): cmsc 33222, cmsc 23220 madd 23281. topics in human robot interaction. 100 units. the field of human robot interaction (hri) is a new and growing field of research that explores the interface between people and robots. applications of hri research include developing robots to tutor elementary students, assist human workers in manufacturing contexts, provide museum tours, interact with families within their homes, and help care for the elderly. the field of hri is highly interdisciplinary, incorporating methods and techniques from human computer interaction, robotics, psychology, artificial intelligence, and other fields. the university of chicago's cmsc 33281 topics in human robot interaction course exposes students to a broad range of recent and cutting edge research in hri. the topics covered in this course include nonverbal robot behavior, verbal robot behavior, social dynamics, norms & ethics, collaboration & learning, group interactions, applications, and future challenges of hri. course meetings will involve students in the class leading discussions about cutting edge peer reviewed research hri publications. throughout the quarter, teams of students in the course will also complete an hri course project of their choosing where they will investigate an hri research question of interest to them. equivalent course(s): cmsc 33281 madd 23620. internet censorship and online speech. 100 units. information dissemination and online discourse on the internet are subject to the algorithms and filters that operate on internet infrastructure, from network firewalls to search engines. this course will explore the technologies that are used to control access to online speech and information, and cutting edge technologies that can empower citizens in the face of these information controls. students will learn about and experiment with technologies to control online discourse, ranging from firewalls that perform network traffic filtering to algorithms for content personalization and content moderation. we will also explore underlying technical trends, such as the increasing consolidation of internet infrastructure and protocols, and the implications of consolidation for control over online discourse. each course meeting will include a technical overview, reading discussion, and a hands on laboratory activity. prerequisite(s): none equivalent course(s): cmsc 23260, cmsc 33260, parr 33260 madd 23631. internet art & web design. 100 units. we generally accept that computers and the internet evolved outside of fine art contexts, in fields like science and mathematics. that said, the history of these technologies is a history of creative individuals collaboratively shaping one of the most important narratives of our time, "the internet is the great masterpiece of human civilization" (heffernan). in this studio course, we'll learn what the internet is, how it works, how it got here and how to engage with it as a creative medium. this means we'll be learning how to craft it from code, specifically html (hypertext markup language) and css (cascading style sheets), but also studying its aesthetics, conventions and practices. we'll be drawing inspiration from various internet art movements, from the net.art scene of the 1990s, to the digital folk art of geocities at the turn of the century, to the web design and css art scenes of today. the goal of this course will be to cultivate our own piece of internet art/design, informed by the research, discussions, exercises and experiments we'll make along the way. instructor(s): nick briz terms offered: winter madd 23632. creative coding online. 100 units. though the web was originally conceived as an online space for sharing hyperlinked documents, the modern web browser has evolved into a creative coding playground capable of producing all manner of networked art and algorithmic compositions. in this course we'll learn javascript, the web's defacto programming language. throughout the quarter we'll experiment with various different web apis for creating generative and interactive internet art including html5 video, canvas (2d/3d animations) and web audio. we'll learn how to produce work that responds to various input sources (trackpad/mouse, touchscreen, keyboard, cameras, microphones) and how to fetch and incorporate data from external apis elsewhere on the internet. instructor(s): nick briz terms offered: spring madd 23640. embodied data and gamified interfaces. 100 units. we produce caches of data within our networked lives, from social media interactions to mass surveillance systems, mostly to the benefit of corporate or state entities. the aesthetics of many of these interfaces uses gamification as a guise to data collection, relying on dopamine rushes from "winning" likes, shares, and views to keep us coming back. through a combination of lectures and workshops, we will explore data and games as artistic mediums and how they interface and exchange with each other. we will look at how the physical body is reduced to data, surveilled and analyzed through our online behavior, mobile devices, computer vision, and machine learning algorithms. students will learn how to incorporate the aesthetics of this embodied data into 2d and 3d gaming spaces, while considering how the physical body fits into the increasingly digitally connected world. this course counts towards the media practice and design requirement for the maad program. instructor(s): jon chambers terms offered: winter madd 23645. body and the digital. 100 units. as digital technology advances, the separation between irl and url blurs. participants enrolled in this course will explore techniques that will help them create thought provoking work, strengthen their ability to give critique, and build an understanding of how the corporeal interacts with the digital. throughout this course, students will offer and receive constructive feedback during instructor led critiques on peers' works. by the end of this course, students will feel comfortable utilizing different processes of development to create digital artwork. instructor(s): crystal beiersdofer terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): gnse 23645, artv 20701 madd 23650. culture jamming in the digital age. 100 units. from the détournement images of the situationist international to the plundered sampled tracks of sonic outlaws, activist media artists in the later half of the 20th century deployed a medley of piratical practices in their quest to challenge and subvert our mainstream media culture. while the institutional critiques posed by these "culture jammers" remain as salient as ever, the creative techniques themselves no longer have the same effect in the age of social media and surveillance capitalism. as new media theorist curt cloninger asked in 2009, "how do you hack/resist a platform that already allows (indeed, invites) you to customize it?" this is the question we will set out to answer in this course. we'll look at works and study the practices of new media artists who have adapted these culture jamming techniques for the present moment. we'll learn how glitch artists exploit bugs in software to databend and datamosh media files. we'll learn how hacktivist use information security tools for creative political ends. we'll explore radical networks that exist outside the mainstream internet and learn to tactically misuse our apps to circumvent restrictions imposed by popular platforms. at the end of this journey we'll respond to cloninger's challenge by reframing these techniques as new modes of culture jamming for the digital age. this course can count towards the media practice and design or media theory requirement for the maad program. instructor(s): nick briz terms offered: winter madd 23655. collaborative artware. 100 units. in this course we'll be working together as an open source arts collective. we'll produce an online app which explores the expressive space between software as a tool and software as art. we'll learn the processes (agile, scrum, etc) and tools (git, github, etc) that professional creative technologists use when working together to produce "software art" projects. this is an intermediate level coding course with work being predominantly written in javascript (server side and client side). while proficiency in javascript is not required, it's recommended that students have a background in basic programming concepts (data types, variables, functions, conditions, loops, etc) as this course will build on those to introduce more intermediate level concepts and programming paradigms. this course counts towards the media practice and design requirement for the maad program. instructor(s): chris collins terms offered: winter madd 23801. video. 100 units. this is a production course geared towards short experimental works and video within a studio art context. instructor(s): s. wolniak terms offered: autumn prerequisite(s): artv 10100, 10200 or 10300 equivalent course(s): artv 33801, artv 23801 madd 23804. experimental animation: exploring manual techniques. 100 units. individually directed video shorts will be produced in this intensive studio course. experimental and improvised approaches to animation and motion picture art will focus on analog and material techniques, with basic digital post production also being introduced. early and experimental cinema, puppetry and contemporary low tech animation will be presented as formal and technical examples. instructor(s): s. wolniak terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): artv 10100, 10200, or 10300 equivalent course(s): artv 33804, cmst 23804, artv 23804 madd 23805. minimalist experiment in film and video. 100 units. this multilevel studio will investigate minimalist strategies in artists' film and video from the late 1960s to the present day. emphasis will be placed on works made with limited means and/or with "amateur" formats such as super 8 and 16mm film, camcorders, flip cameras, slr video, and iphone or ipad. our aim is to imagine how to produce complex results from economical means. important texts will be paired with in class discussion of works by artists such as andy warhol, yoko ono, kurt kren, jack goldstein, larry gottheim, bruce baillie, james benning, john baldessari, morgan fisher, stan douglas, matthew buckingham, sam taylor wood, and others. instructor(s): d.n. rodowick terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): artv 33815, cmst 38006, cmst 28006, artv 23805 madd 23806. video workshop. 100 units. this production course is geared toward short video works and innovative approaches to digital moving image art. video workshop will function as a continuation and expansion on the foundations of video i, with emphasis on individually directed projects and experimentation. while some technical instruction and assistance will be offered, a basic understanding of digital cameras and editing software will be beneficial. projects include several short video sketches and experiments, group exercises, and a larger scale independent project. weeks will be divided into screenings/discussion sessions and technical work periods. instructor(s): s. wolniak terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): pq: artv 10300, artv 23801, or consent of instructor equivalent course(s): artv 33806, artv 23806 madd 23808. introduction to 16mm filmmaking. 100 units. the goal of this intensive laboratory course is to give its students a working knowledge of film production using the 16mm gauge. the course will emphasize how students can use 16mm technology towards successful cinematography and image design (for use in both analog and digital postproduction scenarios) and how to develop their ideas towards constructing meaning through moving pictures. through a series of group exercises, students will put their hands on equipment and solve technical and aesthetic problems, learning to operate and care for the 16mm bolex film camera; prime lenses; sekonic light meter; sachtler tripod; and arri light kit and accessories. for a final project, students will plan and produce footage for an individual or small group short film. the first half the course will be highly structured, with demonstrations, in class shoots, and lectures. as the semester continues, class time will open up to more of a workshop format to address the specific concerns and issues that arise in the production of the final projects. this course is made possible by the charles roven fund for cinema and media studies. students will need written permission to enroll in the course. to bid for entry into the class, please email the instructor with your name, major and year    and please list any other media production or photography experience. instructor(s): staff terms offered: winter note(s): students will need written permission to enroll in the course. to bid for entry into the class, please email the instructor with your name, major and year    and please list any other media production or photography experience. enrollment priority will be given to graduate and undergraduate cms students, beginning with seniors, then to dova graduates and undergraduates, then to students in other departments. equivalent course(s): cmst 38921, cmst 28921, artv 33808, artv 23808 madd 23809. experimental animation: digital and camera less production. 100 units. through digital and camera less production techniques such as scanning, signal manipulation, and appropriation, this course will emphasize image construction, digital effects, and post production for creation of animated art. it can function as a continuation of experimental animation: exploring manual techniques or be a stand alone course. early video effects and image processing, and a wide variety of digital and abstract animation will be presented as formal and technical examples. instructor(s): s. wolniak terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): artv 10100, 10200 or 10300. equivalent course(s): artv 23809, artv 33809 madd 23820. the mind as stage: podcasting. 100 units. audio storytelling insinuates itself into the day to day unlike other narrative forms. people listen to podcasts while they do the dishes, drive to work, or walk the dog. in this hands on course, we will learn to produce a podcast from idea to final sound mix, and explore the unique opportunities that the podcast form affords the storyteller. students will complete several short audio exercises, and one larger podcast project. instructor(s): s. geis terms offered: winter note(s): attendance at first class session is mandatory. equivalent course(s): taps 28320, taps 38320 madd 23833. oral history & podcasting. 100 units. this class explores the potential of the podcast as a form of ethical artistic and social practice. through the lens of oral history and its associated values   including prioritizing voices that are not often heard, reciprocity, complicating narratives, and the archive  we will explore ways to tell stories of people and communities in sound. students will develop a grounding in oral history practices and ethics, as well as the skills to produce compelling oral narratives, including audio editing, recording scenes and ambient sound, and using music. during the quarter, students will have several opportunities to practice interviewing and will design their own oral history project. this class is appropriate for students with no audio experience, as well as students who have taken taps 28320 the mind as stage: podcasting. instructor(s): s. geis terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 28330, chst 28330, taps 38330 madd 23860. screendance: movement and new media. 100 units. this course will explore the evolving relationship between moving bodies and video technologies. from early filmmakers using dancers as test subjects, to movie musicals and contemporary dance for the camera festivals, mediatization of the body continues to challenge the ephemerality of live dance performance. this course focuses on the growing field of screendance, videodance, or dance on camera, working to define this hybrid genre and to understand the collaborative roles of choreographer, director, dancer, cameraman, and video editor. this course is both a practical and scholarly approach to the genre of screendance, each component essential to a full understanding and mastery of the other. course work will be divided between the studio and the classroom. for the studio component, students will learn basic video editing and filming techniques. for the classroom component, students will be asked to watch screendance and read a cross section of criticism. assignments will be both technological and choreographic (making screendance) and scholarly (written reflections and a seminar paper). instructor(s): l. leopold terms offered: autumn note(s): attendance at first class is mandatory. equivalent course(s): cmst 28360, taps 28360, taps 38360 madd 23930. documentary production i. 100 units. documentary video production focuses on the making of independent documentary video. examples of various modes of documentary production will be screened and discussed. issues embedded in the genre, such as the ethics, the politics of representation, and the shifting lines between "the real" and "fiction" will be explored. story development, pre production strategies, and production techniques will be our focus, in particular research, relationships, the camera, interviews and sound recording, shooting in available light, working in crews, and post production editing. students will work in crews and be expected to purchase a portable hard drive. a five minute string out/rough cut will be screened at the end of the quarter. students are strongly encouraged to take cmst 23931 documentary production ii to complete their work. consent of instructor is required to enroll. instructor(s): marco ferrari terms offered: autumn note(s): prior or concurrent enrollment in cmst 10100 recommended for undergraduate students. equivalent course(s): artv 23930, hmrt 35106, cmst 23930, chst 23930, cmst 33930, hmrt 25106, artv 33930 madd 23931. documentary production ii. 100 units. documentary production ii focuses on the shaping and crafting of a non fiction video. enrollment will be limited to those students who have taken cmst 23930 documentary production i. the class will discuss issues of ethics, power, and representation in this most philosophical and problematic of genres. students will be expected to write a treatment outline detailing their project and learn about granting agencies and budgeting. production techniques will concentrate on the language of handheld camera versus tripod, interview methodologies, microphone placement including working with wireless systems and mixers, and lighting for the interview. post production will cover editing techniques including color correction and audio sweetening, how to prepare for exhibition, and distribution strategies. consent of instructor is required to enroll. instructor(s): marco ferrari terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): cmst 23930, hmrt 25106, or artv 23930 equivalent course(s): cmst 33931, artv 23931, hmrt 25107, chst 23931, hmrt 35107, cmst 23931, artv 33931 madd 24007. thinking about and making pictures. 100 units. with the advent of the digital smart phone, we are all photographers. just as we all use words, photography, like language, carries meaning that has and gives rise to a myriad of purposes, possibilities, and limitations. the goal of this course is to develop students' investigations and explorations in photography, building on beginning level techniques and ideas to explore technical and conceptual image making strategies to refine students' visual eloquence. students will make photographs in response to prompts that interrogate various photographic processes, readings and artists' work (gallery visits, books and image presentations), critiques and discussions will hone students' critical and evaluative capabilities. processes will range from silver gelatin black and white or color printing, small, medium and/or large format cameras usage, as well as experimenting with alternative light sensitive materials and digital negatives and printing. instructor(s): l. letinsky terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): artv 24000 or artv 24004 equivalent course(s): artv 24007, artv 34007 madd 24270. children & architecture. 100 units. many who pursue architecture do so initially out of a childlike fascination with buildings, places, and worlds. curiosity and limited understanding naturally provide children with an exploratory relationship to the built environments they traverse, and children also often show a heightened sense of wonder  heightened emotions of all kinds  as that relationship plays out. (this can be positive and formative, or scary and traumatic.) and yet, many of the adults who make choices about the worlds we inhabit think mostly of adults, and as adults, in doing so. this architecture studio course investigates the built world through a child's eyes, across different moments in history, including our own. readings and seminar discussions will range from playgrounds to blocks, preschools to family relations, swimming pools and sandcastles to the very construction of childhood as an idea. we will explore chicago and meet with builders of all ages, likely culminating in designing (and potentially building) a real playground space. while previous experience with architectural skills is not necessary to excel in this course, childlike curiosity is required. while this class does not require prior experience, all arch studio courses require consent. starting february 24, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other arch studios. (please do not send consent requests by email.) instructor(s): l. joyner terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): while this class does not require prior experience, all arch studio courses require consent. starting february 24, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other arch studios. (please do not send consent requests by email.) note(s): the course is visiting the city museum in st. louis (a multi story, artist built playground for children and adults that defies description) for one day in advance of the course. equivalent course(s): arth 24270, artv 20029, enst 24270, chst 24270, arch 24270 madd 24410. transmedia puzzle design & performance. 100 units. this course will introduce students to the burgeoning field of immersive puzzle design. students will develop, implement and playtest puzzles that are suited for a range of experiences: from the tabletop to the immersive, from online puzzle hunts to broad scoped alternate reality games (arg). students in this course will work directly with master puzzler, sandor wiesz, the commissioner of the mystery league. instructor(s): s. weisz terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): taps 24410, taps 34410 madd 24415. games & performance. 100 units. this experimental course explores the emerging genre of "immersive performance," "alternate reality," and "transmedia" gaming. for all of their novelty, these games build on the narrative strategies of novels, the performative role playing of theater, the branching techniques of electronic literature, the procedural qualities of videogames, and the team dynamics of sports. throughout the quarter, we will approach new media theory through the history, aesthetics, and design of immersive games, while working in labs with three chicago area companies including the house theater, mystery league, and humans vs. zombies. instructor(s): h. coleman terms offered: autumn note(s): attendance at first class session is mandatory. equivalent course(s): taps 34415, chst 24415, taps 24415 madd 24420. games and performance: live action role playing games. 100 units. this course delves into the innovative realms of "immersive performance," "alternate reality," and "transmedia" gaming, culminating in student projects designed for a spring 2025 immersive event co hosted by the fourcast lab, a transdisciplinary initiative at the university of chicago, to be staged in the regenstein library. as we journey through the history of interactive performances from tudor era spectacles to the strategic depth of tabletop games like dungeons and dragons and the vibrant world of nordic larps, students will acquire key skills in scriptwriting, character development, improvisation, digital platforms, and experience design. we will explore the dynamic theories of live action role playing (larp) and alternate reality games (arg), investigating how these formats challenge the boundaries between the real and the performative while engaging audiences in rich, narrative driven experiences. by dissecting the mechanics of these interactive formats, students will gain the ability to craft engaging narratives that invite active participation and build community. collaborations with library staff will be integral, allowing students to leverage the library's vast resources and spaces for creative expression and experiential learning. the course will also embrace progressive ideas of libraries as dynamic hubs for cultural production and innovation, utilizing the library not only as a venue but as a partner in fostering creative exploration. this partnership will provi instructor(s): h. coleman terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 24420, taps 34420 madd 24515. contemporary political strategies in performance. 100 units. the emphasis of the course is on strategies in the words of curator florian malzacher, "artistic strategies in politics, and political strategies in art." in moments of political struggle, what can art do, and what can it not? we will be combining case studies with theoretical background, examining strategies like occupation, participation, parafiction, 'technologies of care,' détournement and the art strike. students will have the opportunity to put some of these approaches to the test by designing one or more local interventions according to the interests of the group. instructor(s): a. dorsen terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): artv 20213, taps 25515, taps 35515, artv 30213 madd 24530. staging the internet. 100 units. the theater has often been used as a means to embody psychic spaces, from medieval mystery plays and other allegorical works to richard foreman's attempt to give theatrical form to consciousness itself. this practice based lab class will propose to 'stage the internet'   what techniques and strategies can we develop to give tangible shape to the virtual world? our explorations will be catalyzed by readings on data and interfaces, networks and protocols, procedural/algorithmic art, digital labor, and competing notions of the virtual. instructor(s): a. dorsen terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): course is designed for advanced undergraduates and graduates. previous course work in theater and performance studies or related fields required. note(s): attendance at first class meeting is mandatory. equivalent course(s): artv 30214, taps 46530, taps 26530, artv 20214 madd 24540. multimedia fashion design. 100 units. multimedia fashion design sets out to uncover new notions of fashion and style through collaborative, interdisciplinary, and experimental approaches. historically, garment designers sketch or illustrate their ideas with either theatrical costuming or the runway in mind as an end goal. this course embraces these traditions while also imagining a broader array of historical and contemporary media that involves fashion, like video games, animations, comics, novels, and more. we will spend time exploring the epistemology of fashion before working on our own designs, challenging each other conceptually along the way. some students may follow the traditional path of sewing their ideas. others may find themselves creating their work using software. those who are brand new to art or design are also welcome  we can always sketch our ideas. multimedia fashion design welcomes artists and designers who work in any medium to come together and think about how people and characters express style  the broader the array of mediums, the more dynamic our class will be. instructor(s): takashi shallow terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): taps 27540 madd 24550. evolution of improvisation in chicago. 100 units. this course traces the history of improvisation for performance, beginning with the "high priestess" viola spolin's work exploring the educational and social benefits of play at hull house through paul sill's development of the compass players in hyde park to include current companies including second city, the neo futurists, the annoyance, and io. the course will include attendance at performances, student presentations, and practice based workshops. instructor(s): h. coleman terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): chst 24550, taps 34550, taps 24550 madd 24618. electronic music: composing with sound. 100 units. electronic music i presents an open environment for creativity and expression through composition in the electronic music studio. the course provides students with a background in the fundamentals of sound and acoustics, covers the theory and practice of digital signal processing for audio, and introduces the recording studio as a powerful compositional tool. the course culminates in a concert of original student works presented in multi channel surround sound. enrollment gives students access to the electronic music studio in the department of music. no prior knowledge of electronic music is necessary. instructor(s): tbd equivalent course(s): musi 26618, musi 36618 madd 24817. electronic music: introduction to computer music programming. 100 units. this course is an introduction to computer based sound art and live electronic music performance. our primary tool for this course will be max/msp, a computer music programming language designed for composition and real time music applications. through this language we will explore the foundations of computer music, including digital instrument design, sequencing, live processing, sound diffusion, and various approaches to algorithmic music generation. instructor(s): david bird terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): musi 36817, musi 26817 madd 24820. video game music production and sound design. 100 units. the advent of video game soundtrack releases and live game music concerts substantiate the importance of music and sound in games, not just as accompaniments but as essential aspects of the gaming experience. this production course surveys the history of sound effects, music, and design in games beginning with the bleeps and bloops of the 1970s and concluding with the ambient, nonlinear soundscape of many contemporary games. following the timeline media theorist karen collins presents in her documentary beep, this course will explore electronic sound technologies including virtual analog synthesis, frequency modulation, bit reduction, general midi, and sample based production. each student will compose a game soundtrack demo for their final project. this course welcomes students who are both new to and experienced in sound production; the complexity of each assignment can be adjusted based on experience. instructor(s): takashi shallow terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): musi 24820 madd 24910. short form digital storytelling: creating a web series. 100 units. this course examines the short form storytelling of the digital web series. through lectures, viewings and discussions in weekly meetings students will determine what makes a strong web series and apply the findings to writing and polishing the pilot episode of their own web series. students will write weekly 4 5 page assignments building toward the creation of a 5 6 episode series. instructor(s): p. wimp terms offered: spring note(s): attendance at first class session is mandatory. equivalent course(s): cmst 28915, taps 25910 madd 24920. virtual reality production. 100 units. focusing on experimental moving image approaches at a crucial moment in the emerging medium of virtual reality, this class will explore and interrogate each stage of production for vr. by hacking their way around the barriers and conventions of current software and hardware to create new optical experiences, students will design, construct and deploy new ways of capturing the world with cameras and develop new strategies and interactive logics for placing images into virtual spaces. underpinning these explorations will be a careful discussion, dissection and reconstruction of techniques found in the emerging vr "canon" that spans new modes of journalism and documentary, computer games, and narrative "vr cinema." film production and computer programming experience is welcome but not a prerequisite for the course. students will be expected to complete short "sketches" of approaches in vr towards a final short vr experience. instructor(s): marc downie terms offered: winter note(s): film production and computer programming experience is welcome but not a prerequisite for the course. students will be expected to complete short "sketches" of approaches in vr towards a final short vr experience. equivalent course(s): artv 37920, artv 27920, cmst 27920, cmst 37920 madd 24930. designing virtual space while staying alive. 100 units. how do we experience virtual space in the age of the pandemic? an introductory, studio oriented class on unity and virtual reality development, this class explores ways of designing virtual space for platforms beyond the head mounted display. to mine the full potential of the medium, we will adopt a slightly deconstructed approach to learning techniques while adjusting to remote learning needs. each week's lesson starts with a conceptual prompt around which the technical knowledge revolves. prompts include: what makes an interesting space? how would one travel through the virtual space? what kind of physicality constitutes your virtual experience? the knowledge and technique acquired in this class can serve as the building blocks for game design, data visualization, vr/ar/xr development. this course counts towards the media practice and design requirement for the maad program. instructor(s): li yao terms offered: spring madd 24931. re imagning health in immersive media environments. 100 units. virtual reality (vr) as a storytelling medium is often discussed in terms of immersion and presence and how these media specificities tend to instill greater empathy. the common argument suggests that vr allows participants to experience someone else's lived reality as if it were their own. this capacity of vr to increase empathy has been contested by scholars in various fields. in light of this critique, we will examine the potential of vr to tell stories of illness and debility beyond empathy. using concepts from critical disability studies, phenomenology, narrative medicine, and media theory, we will learn to distinguish the roles that vr narratives offer their participants, ranging from being a witness to becoming the first person experiencer of non normative embodiments. exemplary questions are: what are the limitations of empathy in vr illness narratives? how can illness narratives in vr critically reflect on binaries between healthy/ill? each week, we will focus on particular health issues as they are taken up by vr artists. we will delve into the ways vr enables experiences of pain in the absence of tissue damage or offer multisensory and nonlinear stories to give a sense of the ups and downs of living with bipolar disorder. the literature provided will help guide us through the exploration of these vr experiences. we will also try out some of these vr experiences ourselves. instructor(s): desiree foerster terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): cmst 37931, cmst 27931 madd 24935. introduction to immersive environments. 100 units. virtual reality is expanding from just being utilized for games into an exploration of extendedrealities. introduction to immersive environments will explore the theory and applications of virtualreality environments. students will learn how to construct their vr environments using blender and unity. students will offer and receive constructive feedback during instructor led critiques of their works throughout this course. students will also explore the genre with readings and discussions. by the end of this course, students will feel comfortable utilizing different developmental processes to create. instructor(s): crystal beiersdorfer terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): cmst 24935 madd 25010. anthropology of the future. 100 units. two major subfields of anthropology   archaeology and ethnography   have traditionally been oriented around the human past and the human present. but what about the future? conceptions of the future and future oriented behavior have long been understood to be a critical plane of difference between political economies, religions, and cultural groups, yet they have rarely been an explicit focus of study. when we shift the temporal frame to the future, questions that arise include: do all cultures have theories of the future? how much about human societies are intentional? how does ideology shape future possibilities? what role do imagined futures play in political life? we will consider theories of temporality, past futures (aztec, polynesian, italian), and movements such as millenarianism, messianic religions, marxism, dadaism, utopian communities, afro futurism, transhumanism, and today's neo futurist movements that deploy radical technology and speculative design in response to looming climate change. we will also explore the intimate relationship between speculative fiction (e.g., ursula k. leguin, kurt vonnegut) and anthropology. instructor(s): s. dawdy equivalent course(s): anth 20010, ccct 20010 madd 25022. composing for spatial audio. 100 units. tba instructor(s): david byrd terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): musi 45022 madd 25080. spectacle in miniature. 100 units. this course explores how the grand theatrical event can be 'miniaturized'. students will investigate forms of spectacle and contemporary puppetry, toy theater, performance installation, and designed environments, along with artists who work in intimate and miniature scale. students will create works experimenting with how large dramatic stories can be told with detailed and intimate sets, puppets, transforming objects, mechanical contraptions, and text. sources for narrative will include but not be limited to dream and myth. instructor(s): f. maugeri terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): taps 27080, artv 20216 madd 25171. robots, animals, technologies: science fiction and the more than human. 100 units. science fiction allows encounters with other beings that variously encourage or strain the bonds of kinship, and many of those beings are related to entities with whom we already share a world. from companion animals and modified humans to starfish and androids, estrangement from familiar categories allows us to trouble assumptions about the certainty of species, the superiority of consciousness, and what care looks like in relation with those who may not respond to, recognize, or return care in familiar ways. in this class, we'll look at relations with the more than human in the context of urgent and emergent lived experience, in which social, political, and environmental realities require a response that thinks beyond entrenched approaches and takes wild and revolutionary imagination as a reparative possibility. we'll explore these and other questions through science fiction novels, poetry, graphic novels, music, and video (by octavia butler, ursula le guin, vonda mcintyre, janelle monae, grant morrison, margaret rhee, and others). we'll engage with theoretical work on topics including multispecies kinship, race and technology, and non conscious/non biological life (by karen barad, beth coleman, wendy chun, donna haraway, n. katherine hayles, shannon mattern, sophia roosth, alan turing, and others). [note: this class pairs well with "rocks, plants, ecologies: science fiction and the more than human" offered in spring, and may also be taken as a stand alone course.] instructor(s): william hutchison terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): engl 40171, engl 20171, maph 40171 madd 25201. art & machine intelligence. 100 units. artists have long used autonomous processes to aid in the creation of their work. from 18th century parlor games to contemporary visual culture, creators have applied stochastic methods, automation, and simulation to generate music, text, and imagery. in the last five years, as machine learning has matured into broadly applicable artificial intelligence, artists have turned towards neural networks as a new frontier for creative practice. this studio course will explore the history and uses of autonomous creative tools and focus, more specifically, on leading edge artistic applications of ai. students will receive exposure to a breadth of methods in this domain and produce multiple projects engaged with these topics. software development experience is not required, though it may be useful. instructor(s): j. salavon terms offered: autumn prerequisite(s): artv 10100, 10200 or 10300 equivalent course(s): artv 22501, artv 32501 madd 25300. introduction to human computer interaction. 100 units. an introduction to the field of human computer interaction (hci), with an emphasis in understanding, designing and programming user facing software and hardware systems. this class covers the core concepts of hci: affordances, mental models, selection techniques (pointing, touch, menus, text entry, widgets, etc), conducting user studies (psychophysics, basic statistics, etc), rapid prototyping (3d printing, etc), and the fundamentals of 3d interfaces (optics for vr, ar, etc). we compliment the lectures with weekly programming assignments and two larger projects, in which we build/program/test user facing interactive systems. prerequisite(s): cmsc 14200 or cmsc 15400 or cmsc 22000 equivalent course(s): cmsc 20300, cmsc 30300 madd 25302. a still life: feminists and objects in modernity. 100 units. modernity has always been fascinated by the fantasy of objects coming to life. feminist theory, by contrast, has often been fixated on the reverse: "objectification," or the process of human beings becoming like objects. this course puts into conversation these two different ways of imagining animate object ness in order to assemble a critical archive on one of modernity's foundational binaries: the "subject object" dichotomy. we will examine a series of genres that prominently feature objects, including it narratives, narratives about robotic women, and video games, while consider these texts in relation to prominent feminist writings about objectification. (theory, fiction) instructor(s): katherine nolan terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): gnse 18302, engl 13002 madd 25305. virtual worlds and nonhuman narratives: cyberspace fiction. 100 units. the joke gets at a disorienting truth: we live in a world where cyberspace increasingly leaks into the "real" physical space of our lives, and the two often become surrealistically conflated. we can be at once in a given geographical location and "online," wafting in and out of presence in both places. we live in a world where major events transpire nowhere but "on the internet," from hacks to business transactions to relationships. these events have effects and consequences that are felt in our physical world as well. how do we tell   and read   stories that take place at least in part in virtual regions? in this course, we will investigate narrative depictions of experience that transpires in the not quite place of cyberspace and similar technologically sustained virtual arenas. earlier dream narratives anticipate this world where experience increasingly takes place online; in later narratives of virtual reality, technologically enabled virtual landscapes confer a dreamlike (il)logic on daily experience. what can we make of the apparent rapprochement between scientific and magical paradigms here? what are the political stakes of a virtual world sometimes portrayed as anestheticizing but also sometimes a space where otherwise unavailable experiences and information can be accessed? we will examine a transatlantic range of influential twentieth century texts as well as selections from theoretical and critical texts on communicative and information technology. instructor(s): nell pach terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): engl 23505 madd 25316. after you: curating the art & algorithm debate. 100 units. this course offers a unique opportunity to witness the process of   and, more importantly, actively contribute to   the conceptualization of a major exhibition of contemporary art, to be organized at the neubauer collegium and smart museum of art in the winter and spring of 2021. the exhibition in question is titled after you: art and agency in the age of algorithms, and was conceived in dialogue with dova associate professor and participating artist jason salavon. alluding to the specter of the post human regime and the various challenges raised by rapid advances in digital technology in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning in particular, after you will bring together the work of a dozen artists working at the intersection of more or less traditional modes of artistic production and their algorithmic antitheses. the primary focus of after you, and therefore also of this class, are the philosophical implications of the increased role of artificial intelligence in the creation and reception of art, in particular with regards to questions of artistic intent, authorship, and originality. we will discuss this phenomenon's short but vibrant history, meet artists, read key texts (bostrom, joselit, steyerl, zuboff), and view artworks, all the while laying the didactic groundwork for the 2021 exhibit in the process: a hands on curatorial workshop centered on one of the defining debates of our time. instructor(s): dieter roelstraete terms offered: spring note(s): students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. equivalent course(s): arth 31316, arth 21316 madd 25450. writing the feature film. 100 units. this course is designed to help the emerging writer focus their creativity into a viable feature film project and screenplay. this includes structure, format, exposition, characterization, dialogue, voice over, and other aspects of visual storytelling for the screen. weekly meetings include a brief lecture period, screenings of scenes from selected films, extended discussion, assorted readings and writing assignments. because this is primarily a writing class, students should expect to deliver four to five pages of written material including story development materials or screenplay pages each week. instructor(s): k. o'brien terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 25450, taps 25450 madd 25500. beginning screenwriting. 100 units. this course introduces the basic elements of a literate screenplay, including format, exposition, characterization, dialog, voice over, adaptation, and the vagaries of the three act structure. weekly meetings include a brief lecture period, screenings of scenes from selected films, extended discussion, and assorted readings of class assignments. because this is primarily a writing class, students write a four  to five page weekly assignment related to the script topic of the week. equivalent course(s): crwr 27102 instructor(s): p. wimp terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): taps 15500, cmst 15500 madd 25531. framing the i: autobiography and film. 100 units. cinema offers almost endless ways of telling one's own story diaries, confessions, album, travelogues, accounts of a distressing period, letters, searches for one's origins, autobiographies, self portraits, work notes, autofictions and filmmakers continually create new hybrid forms that innovate or transgress former "genres." this seminar examines film history's various modes of autobiographical discourse in the context of philosophical and psychoanalytic considerations of the self as well as of experiments in literary and pictorial self representation. instructor(s): d. bluher terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): pq: cmst 10100 introduction to film analysis or consent of instructor. equivalent course(s): cmst 35531, cmst 25531 madd 25590. new media since the 19th century. 100 units. how have artists working outside the traditional categories of painting and sculpture introduced new ways of looking at the world? this introductory course will survey the practice, theory, and reception of so called "new media" art from the late 19th century to the present day. we will examine artists' use of emerging technologies including photography, the portable video camera, the electronic computer, holography, virtual and augmented reality, and web based art. we will also discuss time based art forms such as performance and dance, which made the human body their primary medium. moving roughly chronologically, we will attend to a set of central themes: temporality and perception, the blurring of artistic and scientific practices, and intersecting questions of gender, race, and class in relation to technology. through a combination of close looking (the careful study of the visual and material qualities of a work of art) with close reading of primary literature (artists' writings, contemporary art criticism and theory) and secondary literature (scholars' takes on these topics), students will develop the vocabulary and conceptual tools necessary to describe works of art and contextualize them historically. instructor(s): z. valyi nagy terms offered: autumn note(s): this class will take place entirely remotely, with the majority of sessions held asynchronously. students must attend 1st class to confirm enrollment. if a student is not yet enrolled in this course, s/he must fill out the online consent form & attend the first class. this course meets the gen. edu. reqmt. in the dramatic, musical, & visual arts. equivalent course(s): arth 15590 madd 25604. how to draw things on the computer. 100 units. tbd instructor(s): marc downie terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 25604 madd 25612. comics as medium. 100 units. in a climate in which the borders differentiating media continue to collapse into something now referred to as "transmedia," what does it actually mean for us to move between mediums particularly mediums that raise familiar issues of representation, temporality, and narrative? the objective of this course is to provide the necessary tools to enable critical reflection on the respective values and mutual relationships of comics, art and film. to achieve this, the course is divided into two units. the first weeks will be spent acquiring the technical and historical context that will enable us to begin to recognize the breadth and depth of word/image narrative practices. after developing a core vocabulary for thinking about comics as a medium we will then look at how artists and directors have drawn on that vocabulary in a range of different contexts. retaining a sense of the specificity of both comics and film as artistic mediums, we will consider topics ranging from cross cultural translation, ontologies of otherness, and modes of mediated history. beyond questions of fidelity, we will look at what it means to adapt particular stories at particular moments. how does an x men comic from 1982 adapt to meet the historical needs of its film adaptation in 2002? what do we mean when we say a particular adaptation is "good" or that another attempt "failed"? the works this course will consider are meant to challenge our understanding of what the art of comics can be. instructor(s): j. rosenow terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): cmst 10100 or permission of instructor equivalent course(s): cmst 25612 madd 25630. videogames and genre storytelling. 100 units. historically, the genre categorization of videogames has been based around what the player does. in place of iconography or thematic content, videogame genres are typically defined in terms of actions: shooting, jumping, pointing, clicking. this course takes a sideways approach to videogame genre, examining the ways in which games have taken inspiration from, and put their own unique mark on, genres borrowed from popular literature and cinema. the aesthetic formulas for popular genres such as horror, romance, comedy, science fiction, and the detective story will be examined using examples in literature and cinema, before turning to games and examining the unique challenges and interactivity brings to these genres' typical plot beats and affective techniques. how does the player avatar relationship complicate point of view and identification in the horror genre? what happens to the literary rules of "fair play" in detective stories as they are adapted into actual game form? can the performative pain of slapstick be successfully adapted into interactive form? how do dating games re structure the traditional forms of intimacy of the romance novel and cinematic rom com? this course will take advantage of the resources of the weston game lab of the media arts, data, and design center, and will be structured around played examples, in addition to examples from popular literature and film. instructor(s): ian bryce jones terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 27840 madd 25650. from open worlds to angry birds: videogame history 2000 2010. 100 units. this course will trace developments in the videogame medium and videogame cultures in the first decade of the new millennium. topics include, but are not limited to, the following: the rise and influence of the open world/sandbox genre; the spread of online gaming with massively multiplayer online rpgs, networked first person shooters, and virtual worlds; changes in the embodied experience of play introduced by rhythm/music games, motion controls, and touch screen interfaces; the proliferation of independent game development and online distribution; the rise of "art games" as a distinct (and debated) category; the reemergence of "retro" styles and repackaging of vintage games; the blurred boundaries of the "magic circle" and everyday life in alternate reality and augmented reality gaming; the increasing popularity of mobile and casual gaming; and the emergence of videogame studies as an academic field. this class will be a mix of history and historiography. we will not only learn about the history of the decade, but also discuss the unique possibilities and difficulties arising from the study of recent history   and put these discussions into practice through research based assignments. instructor(s): christopher carloy terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): cmst 27816, maph 45516, cmst 37816 madd 25710. modern design and modern culture. 100 units. this course explores key issues of modernity (industrialization, capitalism, colonialism, consumerism, mass culture, nationalism, technology, etc.) through the study of material culture. focusing on modern design in europe and the united states, we will examine major developments in design thinking and practice as both reactive to and generative of broader political, economic, and social concerns. the course is organized around influential exhibitions, from world's fairs to storefront shows, where design professionals, institutions, and publics came together to reflect on topics of urgency, identify design solutions, and imagine the implications of design on everyday life. instructor(s): maggie taft terms offered: spring note(s): students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. if a student is not yet enrolled in this course, s/he must fill out the online consent form and attend the first class. this course meets the general education requirement in the arts. equivalent course(s): arth 15710 madd 25722. the musical interface: constraint and creativity. 100 units. music making involves constraint: the layout of a keyboard or guitar, the poetic systems of an epic storyteller, the practice techniques of a singer who cultivates a certain sound, or even the lines of code that an algorithmic music maker strings together. new technologies bring new rules, as well as new ways to break the rules: autotuned vocals are no longer derided, and tools like melodyne are now a standard part of music production. constraint, then, produces creativity but how does this look with particular instruments and traditions? how do artists make the most of their tools? in this hands on class, we will explore the interface through the concepts of affordance, interval systems, algorithms, and generalizable schemas. you won't just analyze art: you will also produce it and discuss your experiences with each type of interface. our topics will include electronic music constructed on digital audio workstations and through code, the piano keyboard, the harmonica, korean p'ansori sung storytelling, streaming platforms and recommendation algorithms, and the italian solfeggio tradition. this class includes a creative final project in the sonic medium of your choice. instructor(s): andrew white terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): musi 25722 madd 25900. digitizing human rights. 100 units. in an era in which disruptive technologies have hijacked our consciousness and computer code has woven itself into the fabric of our existence, the lines between the virtual and the physical are increasingly blurred, and the nature of human existence itself increasingly uncertain. digitizing human rights invites you to ponder, question, and even reshape the future of the species. we'll consider digital surveillance, data consent, access to tech, online agency, algorithmic bias and the future of artificial intelligence, among other topics. drawing on cross disciplinary perspectives, the course aims to illuminate the often misunderstood aspects of the digital age with the goal of creating an annotated digital document to serve as a blueprint for steering humanity towards a more equitable and just    and perhaps a more secure    future. annotations will draw on a broad array of philosophical traditions and contextualize current issues and debates. we will also problematize the document itself to build into our work a consideration of the digital form through which we are thinking and representing claims about humanity, morality, truth, and justice, for example, that are entailed in the project of "human rights." the class will meet both in small groups and the larger seminar to refine the provisions and annotations, review progress, and shape the document as a whole. instructor(s): j. spruill, n. briz terms offered: may be offered 2025 26 prerequisite(s): pq: third  or fourth year standing. equivalent course(s): dems 25900, hmrt 25900, bpro 25900 madd 25990. always already new   printed books & electronic texts. 100 units. in this course, students will learn about the fields of book history and new media in various ways from visiting the university of chicago special collections research center to geocaching across chicago in an attempt to understand why the book keeps changing shape. the course will guide students in creating their own self directed final project. (h) instructor(s): m. skinner terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): engl 25990 madd 26059. media, environment, and risk. 100 units. in 1991, ulrich beck wrote that "society is made into a laboratory." following the chernobyl disaster, beck articulated how modern technology and its potential side effects such as radiation or chemical poisoning had created the novel epistemological category of environmental risk defined by threats that escape human perception and transcend borders. institutions monitoring ecological conditions gained responsibility for communicating public health. political conflicts emerged between formations of expert and lay environmental knowledge. the technological application of modern science, and its associated environmental risks, pushed research beyond the laboratory and into the governmental fabric of social order: nuclear reactors had to be constructed and chemicals distributed to populations before their properties and safety could be understood. this seminar reads the debates on risk in environmental sociology alongside the emergence of risk criticism in media studies to interrogate the probabilistic thinking inherent to the communication of ecological threat. two common traits characteristic of recent environmental catastrophes ranging from bhopal, fukushima daiishi, deepwater horizon, exxon valdez, hurricane katrina, and the varied crises of global climate change, are that each disaster involves the failure or side effect of an implemented technological project and that the corresponding risks whether imperceptible or probable are necessarily communicated to publics by media instructor(s): thomas pringle terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): know 36059, hips 26059, chss 36059, soci 30329, cmst 42802 madd 26200. hands on multimedia design. 100 units. the media arts, data, and design (madd) center at the university of chicago is a 20,000 square foot collaborative space for inquiry and experimentation where computer science and the arts intersect. in this course, students will take advantage of the madd center's resources as they experiment with the fundamentals of design hands on, working up to large scale independent projects that will be featured in a group exhibition. students will explore the history of design through lectures, readings, and "design walks" at special sites throughout the campus and city at large. the course will accommodate students who are beginners as well as those who have experience studying design. students may find themselves elaborating on an existing skill set, like drawing or fashion, or engaging with a brand new medium, like building a game. this course encourages students with a broad range of aesthetic backgrounds and skills to collaborate, deliberating what exactly constitutes contemporary design along the way. terms offered: summer madd 26210. media art and design practice. 100 units. this studio based course explores the practice, conventions, and boundaries of contemporary media art and design. this can encompass areas as diverse as interactive installation, app design, and the internet meme. through projects and critical discussion, students engage with the problems and opportunities of digitally driven content creation. fundamental elements of digital production are introduced, including basic properties of image, video, and the global network. further topics as varied as  though not limited to  web production, digital fabrication, interfaces, the glitch, and gaming may be considered. sections will vary based on the instructor's fields of expertise. this course meets the general education requirement in the arts. this course may not double count for general education requirements and the media arts and design minor. however, it is a great way for students to explore a potential interest in these areas. instructor(s): n. briz, c. beiersdorfer, c. mankin, t. shallow, c. collins terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): maad 26210 media art and design practice is affiliated with huma 16000 16100 16200 media aesthetics: image, text, sound i ii iii. students satisfying the general education requirement in the humanities will have priority in enrollment for media arts and design practice. note(s): during the academic year, students must attend the first course session to confirm enrollment. students aiming to get into the course after registration or during drop/add must use the waitlist to request to enroll. waitlist: https://airtable.com/appf7ralnh3zordb4/pagu2swiu7igrsqtb/form equivalent course(s): artv 16210 madd 26300. art and design in the age of the internet. 100 units. this course combines the subject matter of an array of courses offering pre college students a glimpse into the design and art departments at the university of chicago. in this course, students will experiment with the fundamentals of art and design hands on, creating independent projects and exhibiting them along the way. students will explore history through lectures, readings, and "design walks" at special sites throughout the campus and, optionally, the city at large. the course will accommodate students who are beginners as well as those who have experience in these fields. students may find themselves elaborating on an existing skill set, like drawing or fashion, or engaging with a brand new medium, like building a game. this course encourages students with a broad range of aesthetic backgrounds and skills to collaborate. terms offered: summer madd 26501. straight line sensibilities. a hidden history of 20th century art. 100 units. the proliferation of straight lines in 20th century art and architecture is generally associated with rational and universalist procedures and perspectives, and closely associated with the rise of industrial society. this course will look at straight lines in modern art from a very different perspective. we will study a hidden genealogy of straight lines that all seem to evoke the vagaries of sensory realities and capacities and that are aesthetic through and through. these type of straight lines are all, in their various ways, related to the close interaction between bodies and media technologies   one of the major themes in modern art. the question, of course, is how and why straight lines comes to express this relationship. to look at this question, we will study artworks and ideas that extend from the mid 19th century to 21st century art and that includes a wide range of media and expressions, including architecture, painting, drawing, film, video and computer art. instructor(s): i. bloom terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): arth 26501, cmst 36505, cmst 26505, arth 36501 madd 26531. race, new media, and youth movements for justice. 100 units. although racial inequality is an enduring force in american society, new forms of activism  often facilitated by through new media  are changing the terms of political debate around issues of race, gender, power, and justice. from #blacklivesmatter to #metoo, sites of political struggle have become increasingly decentered and accessible to a broader array of people. and as is often the case, youth from marginalized groups are at the forefront of these struggles, redefining what counts as political and how to conceive of important concepts like equity, community, and dignity. this seminar style course explores the past and present conditions that give rise to these youth led movements, drawing from multiple scholarly lenses, including political science, sociology, literature, performance, film, and visual culture. specifically, the course explores how young activists and cultural workers, who often identify as people of color, women, queer, and/or undocumented, draw on legacies of activism whilst making political claims using media, art, technology, or other nontraditional forms of participation. the course will engage various formats of political and cultural work, considering how intersecting forms of inequity and differing levels of access affect the shape and scope of participation in both institutions and popular culture. instructor(s): jordie davies & david knight terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): plsc 20531, gnse 27531, cres 27531, know 27531 madd 26900. communicating science: for peers and the public. 100 units. this architectural studio course explores strategies for effectively communicating and presenting science to the public in a campus setting. students will discover a compelling science story generated by uc scholars and present it as a multimedia exhibit proposal. student groups also will collaborate on the development of a plan for a campus science exhibition space and science quad involving design charettes led by architects and landscapers. the class emphasizes verbal, visual, and spatial communication methods and incorporates scholarly writing, podcasts, websites, social media communication, design charettes, and 3d model making. students will hone their skills to effectively communicate breaking science in an engaging manner in a new campus setting. instructor(s): paul sereno, chana haouzi, jeremy manier terms offered: autumn prerequisite(s): pq: third or fourth year standing. this course does not require prior experience, and all are welcome. if you would like to join the class, please complete this consent form at arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent so we can learn more about you. equivalent course(s): arch 26900, scpd 26900, bpro 26900, chst 26900, arth 26809 madd 27022. surveillance media. 100 units. surveillance media are ubiquitous: in your pocket, on the street, at school, underground, and in the air. they work incessantly and quietly, often without our knowledge but always with the goal of producing knowledge about us. but they don't do so equally. wedded to concepts of security, risk, and crisis, surveillance is itself a technology of power. while some of us benefit from surveillance in certain contexts, many others are disproportionally targeted based on differences of race, gender, sexuality, class, religious affiliation, ability, citizenship, and more. this course will explore how surveillance media distribute power in the united states and across its global connections. throughout, we will understand surveillance media not only as the specific technologies used for surveillance, but also how these technologies differentially mediate our bodies, behaviors, communities, and political relationships. beginning with various theoretical frameworks of surveillance, this course will track surveillance media across various sites and systems. these include borders, policing, drones, algorithms, and labor. in each, we will examine both contemporary and historical materials in order to consider how our dominant ideas and values about surveillance media are rooted in the ideologies and violences of capitalism, colonialism, and empire. we conclude by exploring modalities of resistance in art and grassroots organizing that imagine more just futures. instructor(s): gary kafer terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): cmst 27022 madd 27410. scenography: static and kinetic forms. 100 units. this course is an exploration of various forms and processes of designing sets and projections for theatrical performance. we pay particular attention to a cohesive reading of a text, contextual and historical exploration, and visual and thematic research, as well as the documentation needed to complete a show including storyboards, models, drafting, and paint elevations. conversations with guest artists will illuminate personal and cultural aesthetics of an individual artist and assigned readings will expose students to major trends in modern stage design. instructor(s): alyssa mohn terms offered: autumn equivalent course(s): artv 20208, taps 27410 madd 27430. sound & light in motion. 100 units. this course will explore ways in which the ephemeral elements of sound, light, and projected image can function in traditional and non traditional spaces. assigned readings and conversations with guest artists will expand students' relationships with cinema and performance. we will examine layered approaches to storytelling structures including applications in installations, shadow play, live video mixing, and dance. using a variety of tools we will apply concepts that cover the augmentation of the aural and visual dimension to create performative work. final projects will culminate in an evening of work presented in a site specific format. instructor(s): r. davonté johnson terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 27430 madd 27522. experimental futures: re figurations of human/environment relationships. 100 units. the naming of the current era after the human anthropocene is widely criticized. scholars such as donna haraway bemoan the emphasis on the human being and its control over earthly matters at a moment when non human entanglements with the world are simultaneously overlooked. other thinkers point out that the planetary changes of the anthropocene have occurred mainly due to capitalism and industrialization. in the course of these debates, the role of the human and the understanding of the human as part of the earth's ecosystem is discussed again and again. especially in the arts and design, new figurations of the human and a future outside anthropocentrism are being developed. this course follows fundamental questions around the emergence of this discourse: which tropes, materials, and concepts do we collectively use to imagine our future? who gets to participate in these imaginaries and who is thereby excluded? what role do the arts and design play in this process? in this class, students will gain understanding of an emerging area of interdisciplinary research that reframes the category of the "human" in face of contemporary environmental challenges such as climate change and resource scarcity. students will become familiar with concepts and theories associated with post humanism, new materialisms, and environmental humanities and use them to reflect on examples from architecture, design, and the arts. instructor(s): desiree foerster terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): cmst 37522, cmst 27522, arch 27522 madd 27558. no future: visual media and contemporary life. 100 units. no future seeks to establish the grounds by which we might examine contemporary theories of the future  and perhaps its negation  through visual media and the production of art in the age of the algorithm. we will use this course as a means to consider new modes of subjectivity that arise as effect and response to mutating forms of control in society and how we might refuse such mechanisms. speeding through (art) history with detours at groups like the futurists with their violent reimagination of the human as a productive machine and the situationists who vowed never to produce again, we will examine the fluxes and flows of subjectivity through the historical movement from fordist production to the immaterial labor that powers the economies of today and tomorrow. we will discuss issues of work and non work, image production and the labor of the artist, subjectivity and identity, the ends of cinema and history, and the state of the spectacle today. but what is left of the future? is it already over? instructor(s): andrew pettinelli terms offered: winter note(s): this class will present theory that might be new to us; yet, it should remain our goal to work together to think through these texts and visual texts collectively, utilizing the classroom as a space for collaboration and experimentation. equivalent course(s): cmst 27558 madd 27703. visualizing knowledge: studies in the humanities and sciences. 100 units. visualization is a tool deployed across various fields of knowledge production. diverse forms of imaging practices not only are wielded to support data and to illustrate claims, but also to disseminate information. positioned at the nexus of art and science, this course explores the representational strategies deployed in various intellectual domains. we ask: how was/is knowledge visualized and what conventions determine(d) such standards of validity and utility? far from being limited to one geographical or temporal context, we consider a range of visualization practices from early modernity to the present moment, especially as this concerns astronomy, geography, cartography, and medical diagnostics, as well as more recent areas of inquiry, visual pedagogy and the digital humanities. instructor(s): s. cooperstein terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): students must attend 1st class to confirm enrollment. if a student is not yet enrolled in this course, s/he must fill out the online consent form & attend the first class. this course meets the gen. edu. reqmt. in the dramatic, musical, & visual arts. in order for this to count towards the arts, music and drama core it must be taken at the 100 level equivalent course(s): know 17703, arth 17703 madd 27900. image, text, archive. 100 units. this course examines hybrid image texts of the last 150 years to investigate what happens to narrative and genre when visual images become integral parts of textual composition, and what kinds of claims such texts make about memory, veracity, or objectivity. we will examine the early history of photography and image reproduction, learn to formally read images, and interrogate the relationship of photography to documentary. our readings will include louis aragon's paris peasant (1925), andré breton's nadja (1928), james agee and walker evans's let us now praise famous men (1941), vladimir nabokov's speak, memory (1966), michael ondaatje's the collected works of billy the kid (1970), w. g. sebald's the rings of saturn (1995) and austerlitz (2001), and anne carson's nox (2009); critical readings will include texts by roland barthes, margaret iverson, timothy dow adams, and linda hutcheon. (1830 1940, theory) instructor(s): rachel kyne terms offered: winter equivalent course(s): engl 19700 madd 27908. american graphic art and commercial culture: 1850 1960. 100 units. this class focuses on widely distributed printed images, most of them with commercial, aesthetic, and/or political significance, along with the graphic design traditions and typography associated with them. while concentrating on american imagery, the context would be international, reflecting the condition of popular graphic arts in this country. among other things it would treat book illustration, posters, advertising art, magazines and newspapers, cartooning, postcards, children's literature, commercial paper, and trade catalogs. necessarily, given this wide scope, it will be episodic in character, but it will also attempt to relate this visual explosion to larger artistic movements, major events, technological changes, and political trends. it would also explore, from time to time, the roles played by collecting, exhibition, and academic commentary in legitimating the subject, as well as the power of ethnic and racial stereotyping and the multiplication of trade and printing journals. the aim, in short, is to examine the flowering of a visual print culture that had its roots in the gutenberg revolution of the 15th century. there will be both class discussion and lecturing. this is art in context, emphasizing breadth and the introduction of figures, institutions, and movements nurtured by an expansive production and distribution network. the course will be hosted by the special collections research center at regenstein library. instructor(s): n. harris terms offered: spring note(s): this course meets the general education requirement in the arts. equivalent course(s): amer 17908, arth 17908 madd 27915. introduction to videogame studies: art, play, and society. 100 units. this course is intended as an introduction to the study of videogames in the humanities. topics include videogame form (visual style, spatial design, sound, and genre); videogames as a narrative medium; embodiment and hapticity in videogame play; issues of identity/identification, performance, and access related to gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, ability, and class; and rhetorical, educational, and political uses of videogames. just as the videogame medium has drawn from older forms of art and play, so the emerging field of videogame studies has grown out of and in conversation with surrounding disciplines. with this in mind, readings and topics of discussion will be drawn both from videogame studies proper and from other fields in the humanities   including, but not limited to, english, art history, and cinema and media studies. undergraduates should be prepared for an ma level reading load but will write final papers of the standard length for upper level undergraduate courses (8 10 pages versus 12 15 for ma students). ma students interested in pursuing a particular research topic in depth will be given supplemental readings. this course will also be designed to take advantage of the university of chicago's videogame collection, and will require game play both individually and as part of group play sessions. instructor(s): christopher carloy terms offered: spring note(s): email for instructor consent equivalent course(s): engl 34515, engl 24515, cmst 37915, maph 34515, cmst 27915 madd 28003. issues in film sound. 100 units. taking advantage of recent developments in the field of sound studies, this course examines issues in film sound (technology, sense experience, histories of listening, sonic space, soundscape construction, the materiality of sound formats, etc.) that speak to broader concerns in the humanities, especially sound related arts. while we will focus on a film or films every week, from blockbusters like gravity to avant garde and experimental films, the readings and issues will touch on everything from noise pollution, architecture, musical performance and recording, and mp3 files. students interested in installation and environmental arts, sound in literary studies, music, and other sound focused fields are welcome. instructor(s): james lastra terms offered: autumn note(s): not offered in 2022 23. equivalent course(s): cmst 28003, cmst 38003 madd 28008. sound and scandal: how media make believe. 100 units. why has lip syncing caused so many scandals and successes across media, from milli vanilli to drag? primarily focusing on american film, tv, music videos, and animation, this course investigates how sound synchronization creates alternate identities and realities. we may think we know lip sync and voice synthesis when we see and hear them, but close reading unveils deeper issues of technological construction and gendered performances. for example, singin' in the rain dramatizes film's transition to sound as technicians struggled to match the "right" voice to the "right" body: a beautiful woman with an ugly voice lip syncs to the lovely voice of a woman who hollywood deems unsuitable to appear onscreen. from the jazz singer to today's alarmingly authentic deepfakes and vocaloids, we will diagnose how vocal appropriation and synthesis conjure states of credibility and belief. we will ask how lip sync authenticates talking animals and faux rockers. questions of star power and authorship confronting performances of gender and sexuality. no matter the motive, vocal manipulation can never be taken at face value, especially in an age when contortions between sounds and their sources can be passed off as truth. terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): musi 28008, taps 20208, cmst 28008 madd 28250. performance as event. 100 units. what makes a performance unforgettable? how do fleeting acts onstage, online, or in the streets spark curiosity, provoke debate, or ripple through memes and memories? in this course, we'll immerse ourselves in the bold, hybrid world of performance as a tool for upending expectations and crafting the unexpected. with hands on projects, critical reflection, and collaborative exploration, we will investigate performance in its many forms, from physical spaces where people move, connect, and gather, to digital platforms where swipes, clicks, and streams define interaction. together, we'll uncover how performers outwit algorithms, engineer surprise, and amplify their work in resourceful and unpredictable ways. visiting artists from theater, media art, and tactical performance will join the course throughout the quarter, bringing unique practices and perspectives into the mix. instructor(s): d. de mayo, j. satrom terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): taps 28250, artv 20703, sign 28250 madd 28300. disability and design. 100 units. disability is often an afterthought, an unexpected tragedy to be mitigated, accommodated, or overcome. in cultural, political, and educational spheres, disabilities are non normative, marginal, even invisible. this runs counter to many of our lived experiences of difference where, in fact, disabilities of all kinds are the "new normal." in this interdisciplinary course, we center both the category and experience of disability. moreover, we consider the stakes of explicitly designing for different kinds of bodies and minds. rather than approaching disability as a problem to be accommodated, we consider the affordances that disability offers for design. this course begins by situating us in the growing discipline of disability studies and the activist (and intersectional) disability justice movement. we then move to four two week units in specific areas where disability meets design: architecture, infrastructure, and public space; education and the classroom; economics, employment, and public policy; and aesthetics. traversing from architecture to art, and from education to economic policy, this course asks how we can design for access. instructor(s): m. friedner, j. iverson terms offered: winter prerequisite(s): third or fourth year standing equivalent course(s): musi 25719, musi 35719, chdv 28301, bpro 28300, hlth 28301, chdv 38301 madd 28815. american spectacle. 100 units. spectacles have shocked, awed, delighted, and horrified americans for centuries seemingly all at once. this class reexamines american history through the lens of spectacle in its many guises: the scientific, violent, technological, and political. we explore how these various iterations have not only coexisted over time but also intersected, reinforced, and at times complicated each other. we will ask how these overlapping spectacles shaped and continue to shape the united states by underwriting and innovating race, class, gender, and statecraft. is spectacle foundational to the united states? how does it bridge individual lived experience and sociopolitical and economic abstractions? running from the early modern atlantic world to the present, we conclude by asking whether the digital age has made spectacle ubiquitous, and at what cost. instructor(s): hofmann, alex terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): hist 28815, maps 31450, maps 21450, hist 38815 madd 28989. virtual realities and religious realities. 100 units. virtual reality is at the cutting edge of modern technology and stands to impact many aspect of contemporary life. at the same time, religious and philosophical sources have been thinking the concept of virtuality for centuries. responding to popular efforts to ask how religion should respond to advances in technology and mass media, we will ask how religious thought has laid the groundwork for and even anticipated these advances, and therefore how it can be used as a resource to address contemporary ethical and political challenges. this class will take us from ancient jerusalem to cyberspace in order to interrogate the various contexts and guises in which the problem of virtual reality has appeared. doing so will ask us to think about memory and the archive, temporality and history, faith and truth, immanence and transcendence, robots and even ghosts. instructor(s): matthew peterson terms offered: spring equivalent course(s): rlst 28989 madd 29400. media arts and design capstone colloquium. 100 units. in this capstone colloquium, students will prepare a portfolio of digital media artworks and/or historical and theoretical writing that reflect their interests. instructor(s): j. satrom terms offered: autumn winter prerequisite(s): consent of instructor. note(s): this course is required for students completing a minor in media arts and design and must be completed no later than winter quarter of the fourth year. the course will meet weekly throughout the quarter. madd 29401. capstone i: methodologies. 100 units. the methodologies course is a cornerstone of the media arts and design program, specifically designed to equip students with essential skills and strategies for creative project development. this foundational course marks the beginning of their capstone project, exploring the intricacies of ideation, effective research, goal setting, design, and project scoping. students will receive ongoing feedback and guidance from the professor and their peers as they continually refine their projects, an approach that mirrors real world iterative design practices. throughout the course, students learn to adapt and adjust their approaches, tackle challenges, and embrace diverse methods, fostering an environment of nimble experimentation. this prepares them for successful project execution and portfolio development, setting the stage for the subsequent capstone ii: production course. instructor(s): nick briz terms offered: autumn madd 29402. capstone ii: production. 100 units. tbd instructor(s): jon satrom terms offered: winter madd 29700. maad reading and research. 100 units. this course is primarily intended for students who are in media arts and design and who can best meet program requirements by studying under a faculty member's individual supervision. the subject matter, course of study, and requirements are arranged with the instructor prior to registration. terms offered: spring prerequisite(s): consent of faculty adviser and maad program director note(s): students are required to submit the college reading and research form. this course may be counted toward distribution requirements for the minor. associate directorjon satromemail program managerriss lawrenceemail © 2025 2026 the university of chicago university registrar 1427 east 60th street chicago, il 60637 united states ph: 773 702 7891 fax: 773 702 3562 print this page. the pdf will include all information unique to this page.
what to watch supported by set in the 1970s, the series depicts the designer’s personal and professional evolution and revolves around an intense love story. by elisabeth vincentelli daniel brühl had just started shooting the series “becoming karl lagerfeld” in paris last year, and he could feel the french crew’s eyes on him. the german actor, who was playing the title role, was all nerves. after his first few days on set, he returned to his dressing room to find an enormous bouquet of, as he put it, “the biggest and reddest roses i’ve seen in my life.” there wasn’t any note. when brühl put the flowers in a vase at home later, however, he spotted a small card tucked among them. “it said ‘for karlito, from jacquot,’” he recalled in a video interview. “nothing else.” he realized the gift was from his co star théodore pellerin, a canadian actor who portrays lagerfeld’s great love, jacques de bascher; pellerin had signed the card with their characters’ nicknames. brühl knew then that he and the series, which revolves around the intense love story between the two men, would be fine. “becoming karl lagerfeld,” which premieres on friday on hulu, is set mostly in the 1970s, a decade that was key to lagerfeld’s development as a fashion designer as well as his personal evolution. it was before he formed his distinctive look of a sharp angled figure decked out in monochromatic costumes, high collars, black gloves   though the tinted glasses and signature ponytail make their appearance. like andy warhol, another secretive pop culture icon, lagerfeld meticulously manufactured his public identity, brühl said: “so who was the person before he was famous?” brühl briefly met lagerfeld, who died in 2019, about 20 years ago on a photo shoot and remembers him as “very charming.” when brühl had to become the designer, he did a deep dive, reading up, for example, on the many artistic fields lagerfeld had been interested in: “literature, arts, architecture, design, and fashion, of course,” brühl said. “i wasn’t bored a single second spending time with karl lagerfeld.” still, there needed to be a way in, and for the creator and showrunner isaure pisani ferry, it was de bascher, who was 21 to the designer’s 38 when they met. “it was this moment in the ’70s when he falls in love, which means loss of control   and this is a man who needs to be in control,” pisani ferry said of lagerfeld in a video conversation.

 supported by arriving at the luxury house two years after karl lagerfeld, he helped guide a boom in both products and revenues as president of the company’s american arm, chanel inc. by alex williams art lovers soon will descend upon the grand palais for art basel paris.