Courses
Isabella Viggiano, Expansion of Compassion. Center for BrainHealth's Art of Kindness Contest finalist. (Project created in ATCM Digital Art and Design Foundations Course, Fall 2022.
Instructor of Record
Spring & Fall 2022
Content: This course integrates technical ability with visual communication as it relates to digital art and design. Computer images are prepared for multiple delivery environments, including print, the internet, games, and animation. Students will learn and apply the techniques of digital imaging using tools in the Adobe Creative Cloud software, in concert with the foundational knowledge of the elements of art and principles of design. Students will be encouraged to use divergent thinking in problem-solving in order to address emerging media. This is a major requirement lower-division course for students pursuing an undergraduate degree in ATEC.
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Learning Objectives/Outcomes:
• Students will demonstrate competency in artistic terminology, principles of art and design, and an appreciation of aesthetics.
• Students will gain a working knowledge of digital art and design software and demonstrate an ability to manipulate, color correct, and composite digital images, manage file formats and sizes, and design a grid-based layout with typography and simple shapes.
• Students will analyze and interpret the principles of art and design through analysis, discussion, critique, and the assessment of digital works of art, including their own.
• Students will exhibit a body of work through the development and management of an Electronic Learning Portfolio (ELP).
Sarah Vu, The Creation of Relationships. Center for BrainHealth's Art of Kindness Contest finalist. (Project created in ATCM Digital Art and Design Foundations Course, Fall 2022.
ATCM 2322 Media Histories
Teaching Assistant
Fall 2021
Content: This course examines the historical and technological developments of various media and their role in American society and culture. Taking a critical eye to how history has been written, this course asks students to be attuned to the technological and socio-cultural contexts of various media, such as the printing press, photography, cinema, and television. Through this history, we will examine how different media technologies have contributed to and shaped our imagination of nation and Americanness. Moreover, we will analyze how media and collective memory operate in tandem to shape our understanding of the past. Therefore, students will read media history as a simultaneous history of the United States, race, identity, and culture, while being attentive to the dynamics of power and narration within the writing of history itself.
Learning Objectives/Outcomes:
• Students who successfully complete ATCM 2322 will demonstrate an understanding of media history beyond chronology to include the socio-historical and cultural processes behind the writing of history;
• Describe historical changes and the proliferation of specific media forms in a transnational context;
• Analyze historical scholarly papers to articulate the argument’s main contributions and limitations.
ATCM 2300 Introduction to TechnoCulture
Teaching Assistant
Spring 2021 & Fall 2020
Content: This course introduces the concept of “TechnoCulture” – a term that aptly describes the culture we live in now when technology infuses every aspect of daily life. In this course, we will investigate the many ways in which technology and culture are intertwined, to consider how technologies shape culture, and how culture transforms technologies. We will delve into the technocultural histories of familiar objects such as the camera and the computer. We will discuss the intimacy of personal technologies, as well as the social impact of large-scale technological projects. We will analyze the role of popular culture and science fiction in shaping our technological hopes, dreams, and nightmares. In exploring these topics, it is inevitable that we will also discuss issues of power, oppression, social justice, identity, and ethics.
To understand the complexities of technoculture, we will explore five key questions:
• What is culture?
• What is technology?
• How have the relationships among humans, technologies, and culture changed over time?
• How do we understand the multiple and (often) contradictory effects of technology?
• How do we imagine the cultural possibilities (both positive and negative) of emerging technologies?
Learning Objectives/Outcomes:
• Students will be able to recount the technocultural history of a significant object or process
• They will create new understandings—in writing and conversation—about the complex relationship among human beings, technology, and culture
• They will read difficult academic writing, so as to sharpen concentration and understanding of complex ideas
• They will pose questions to generate insights about a media or technological object
• They will engage through discussion open-ended questions to demonstrate their thinking process
• They will synthesize information from multiple sources to develop informed opinions about pressing technocultural issues
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Lecturer: Dr. Anne Balsamo Fall 2020
Lecturer: Dr. Heidi Rae Cooley Spring 2021
Foundations of Design
Teaching Assistant
Fall 2019
Lecturer: Ass. Prof. Eser Selen
Research Methods in Design
Teaching Assistant
Spring 2019
Lecturer: Ass. Prof. Eser Selen