City University of Hong Kong

Course Syllabus

offered by School of Creative Media

with effect from Semester A 2018 /19

Part I Course Overview

Course Title: Computational Cinema

Course Code: SM2205

Course Duration: One Semester

Credit Units: 3

Level: B2
Arts and Humanities
Study of Societies, Social and Business Organisations
Proposed Area:
(for GE courses only) Science and Technology

Medium of
Instruction: English

Medium of
Assessment: English

Prerequisites:
(Course Code and Title) Nil

Precursors:
(Course Code and Title) SM2704 Creative Media Studio II

Equivalent Courses:
(Course Code and Title) Nil

Exclusive Courses:
(Course Code and Title) Nil

Course Syllabus 1
Jun 2017
Part II Course Details

1. Abstract
(A 150-word description about the course)

This course is an advanced studio aiming to investigate computational and emergent forms of
cinema. We will explore new creative possibilities of the cinematic art as informed by recent
digital technology and contemporary media art practices. In particular, students will
experiment with Max/MSP/Jitter, a graphical programming environment, as an artistic tool for
their audiovisual projects. This course is ideal for students who are interested in exploring
new creative and technological possibilities of audiovisual art.

2. Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs)

(CILOs state what the student is expected to be able to do at the end of the course according to a given standard of
performance.)

No. CILOs# Weighting* Discovery-enriched

(if curriculum related
applicable) learning outcomes
(please tick where
appropriate)
A1 A2 A3
1. Identify the concept of “computational cinema” x x
2. Describe the basic concepts of computer programming for x x
audio-visual media
3. Describe the fundamentals of physical computing x
4. Apply programming techniques to implement creative x
projects
5. Produce art works with the use of Max/MSP/Jitter and/or x x x
similar software
6.^ Produce self-initiated tasks and/or experiments on top of an x x x
assignment / coursework for further exploration of the
subject
* If weighting is assigned to CILOs, they should add up to 100%. 100%
#
Please specify the alignment of CILOs to the Gateway Education Programme Intended Learning outcomes
(PILOs) in Section A of Annex.

^ Negotiated Learning Outcome (NLO) explicitly articulating the elements of Discovery oriented
learning.

A1: Attitude
Develop an attitude of discovery/innovation/creativity, as demonstrated by students possessing a strong
sense of curiosity, asking questions actively, challenging assumptions or engaging in inquiry together with
teachers.
A2: Ability
Develop the ability/skill needed to discover/innovate/create, as demonstrated by students possessing
critical thinking skills to assess ideas, acquiring research skills, synthesizing knowledge across disciplines
or applying academic knowledge to self-life problems.
A3: Accomplishments
Demonstrate accomplishment of discovery/innovation/creativity through producing /constructing creative
works/new artefacts, effective solutions to real-life problems or new processes.

Course Syllabus 2
Jun 2017
3. Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs)
(TLAs designed to facilitate students’ achievement of the CILOs.)

TLA Brief Description CILO No. Hours/week

1 2 3 4 5 6 (if
applicable)
Lectures Explain key ideas in ✓
“computational cinema” and
explore creative issues in the
related fields
Workshops Technical instruction on ✓
Max/MSP/Jitter and other
software
Workshops Technical instruction on ✓
hardware related to
computational cinema making
Project development Consultation and review on ✓
project development
review
Projects Students are required to present ✓ ✓
their projects in group critique
presentations/critiques sessions

4. Assessment Tasks/Activities (ATs)

(ATs are designed to assess how well the students achieve the CILOs.)

Assessment Tasks/Activities CILO No. Weighting* Remarks

1 2 3 4 5 6
Continuous Assessment: 100%
Class participations ✓
In-class quizzes ✓
In-class quizzes ✓
Mid-term project presentations ✓
Final project presentations ✓ ✓
Examination: 0% (duration: , if applicable)
* The weightings should add up to 100%. 100%

Course Syllabus 3
Jun 2017
5. Assessment Rubrics
(Grading of student achievements is based on student performance in assessment tasks/activities with the following rubrics.)

Assessment Task Criterion Excellent Good Fair Marginal Failure

(A+, A, A-) (B+, B, B-) (C+, C, C-) (D) (F)
1. Class This assessment task  Active in-class  Active in-class  Attentive in  Unmotivated to  Unwilling to
Participation reviews students’ participation, participation, in-class participate in class participate in class
participation and positive positive participation, discussion or discussion and
performance in
listening, strong listening, ability listening with comment on other comment on other
discussions, debates and
ability to to initiate class comprehension, people’s views points, even when
peer critique during the
stimulate class discussion and but only  Little pre-class requested by the
tutorial sessions. The
discussion and comment on infrequently preparation and teacher
evidence of
comment on other points contributing familiarity with peer  No pre-class
‘negotiation’, the sign
other points  Adequate  Adequate reports and other preparation and
of discovery, lies in
 In-depth pre-class pre-class materials familiarity with peer
students’ pre-class
pre-class preparation and preparation but  Poor ability in reports and other
preparation and
preparation and familiarity with little familiarity interpreting opinions materials
interpersonal sensitivity
to his/her peer familiarity with peer reports and with peer reports  Minimal ability in

members. peer reports and other materials and other interpreting opinions
other materials  Interpret materials
 Interpret others’ opinions  Fair ability in
views with an effectively interpreting
open mind and opinions
ready to
negotiate
 Readiness to
share personal
insight via

Course Syllabus 4
Jun 2017
 Assessment Task Criterion Excellent Good Fair Marginal Failure
(A+, A, A-) (B+, B, B-) (C+, C, C-) (D) (F)
analysis and
synthesis with
informed views
 Constructively
critical, thus
facilitating the
discovery of
new issues
2. Mid-Term/Final Students should  Work has strong  Strong  Basic appreciation  Marginal  No appreciation of
Projects demonstrate ability to affective quality appreciation, and/or application appreciation of the the aesthetics and
utilize primary and and the exploration of the aesthetic aesthetic and expressive qualities
secondary sources,
articulation of and/or and expressive expressive qualities of the medium
execute creative ideas
personal styles application of qualities of the of the medium  Fail to create
and projects. The
and signature the aesthetic and medium  Marginal ability to project/ work that
threshold of ‘discovery’
 Excellent expressive  Limited ability to create project/ work demonstrate the
lies in a student’s
appreciation, qualities of the create project/ that demonstrate the processes of
proactively turning
exploration medium work that processes of thinking and creative
theory into praxis, to
and/or  Ability to create demonstrate the thinking and creative exploration
transform course
application of project/ work processes of exploration  Minimal adjustment
material into self-owned
the aesthetic and that demonstrate thinking and  Limited adjustment of plans and
authorship.
expressive the processes of creative of plans and strategies in
qualities of the thinking and exploration strategies in response to
medium creative  Adjustment of response to resources (time,
 Work raises exploration plans and resources (time, space, equipment,
questions and  Proper strategies in space, equipment, etc) available
instill insights adjustment of response to etc) available
Course Syllabus 5
Jun 2017
 Assessment Task Criterion Excellent Good Fair Marginal Failure
(A+, A, A-) (B+, B, B-) (C+, C, C-) (D) (F)
about the plans and resources (time,
process of strategies in space, equipment,
conception, response to etc) available
creative resources (time,
strategization space,
and production equipment, etc)
 Innovative available and
exploration by constructive
combining feedback/
knowledge from suggestions
different
disciplines (e.g.
mathematics,
philosophy,
psychology,
physics,
anthropology,
etc.) to create an
inter-disciplinar
y project
 Efficient
adjustment of
plans and
strategies in
response to
resources (time,
Course Syllabus 6
Jun 2017
 Assessment Task Criterion Excellent Good Fair Marginal Failure
(A+, A, A-) (B+, B, B-) (C+, C, C-) (D) (F)
space,
equipment, etc)
available with
constructive
adjustment

Note: All A+/A/A- grade assignment should comply with the highest performance of Discovery-oriented learning.

Course Syllabus 7
Jun 2017
Part III Other Information (more details can be provided separately in the teaching plan)

1. Keyword Syllabus
(An indication of the key topics of the course.)

Max/MSP/Jitter, computational cinema, digital performance, interactive media, new media art,
non-linear narrative, media technology, artist tool development, interface design

2. Reading List
2.1 Compulsory Readings
(Compulsory readings can include books, book chapters, or journal/magazine articles. There are also collections of
e-books, e-journals available from the CityU Library.)

Programming

1. Faulkner, Michael (ed.). VJ: audio-visual art + VJ culture, London: Laurence King, 2006.

2. Shaw, Jeffrey (ed.). Future cinema: the cinematic imaginary after film. Cambridge, Mass:
MIT, 2003.

3. Youngblood, Gene. Expanded cinema. New York: Dutton, 1970.

2.2 Additional Readings

(Additional references for students to learn to expand their knowledge about the subject.)

1. Max/MSP/Jitter
Peter Elsea’s Max Tutorials ftp://arts.ucsc.edu/pub/ems/maxtutors/

2. Max/MSP/Jitter externals
Aka.objects http://www.iamas.ac.jp/~aka/max/

Ambisonics externals http://www.icst.net/downloads/

ARToolkit http://www.aranarproductions.com/artk/

CNMAT external downloads http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/downloads

CV objects http://jmpelletier.com/cvjit/

jit.kinect http://jmpelletier.com/freenect/

Lobjects http://arts.ucsc.edu/EMS/Music/research/Lobjects.readme.html

Max/MSP externals (fiddle~ etc.) http://crca.ucsd.edu/~tapel/software.html

Max Objects Database http://www.maxobjects.com/

3. Programming/software tools
CCV http://ccv.nuigroup.com/

EyesWeb http://www.infomus.org/EywMain.html

EyeCon http://eyecon.palindrome.de/

Course Syllabus 8
Jun 2017
 Field http://openendedgroup.com/field/

GEM http://gem4mac.sourceforge.net/

Isadora http://www.troikaranch.org/isadora.html/

JMax http://freesoftware.ircam.fr/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=14

Korsakow http://www.korsakow.com/ksy/index.html

Keyworx http://www.keyworx.org/

Lily http://www.lilyapp.org/

Max http://www.cycling74.com/

Modul8 http://www.modul8.ch/

Mrmr http://poly.share.dj/projects/#mrmr

NodeBox http://nodebox.net/code/index.php/Home

Open Sound Control (OSC) http://opensoundcontrol.org/

oscP5 http://www.sojamo.de/libraries/oscP5/index.html

OpenFrameworks http://www.openframeworks.cc/

Processing http://processing.org/

Pure Data http://puredata.info/

Quartz Composer http://developer.apple.com/graphicsimaging/quartzcomposer/

reacTIVision http://reactivision.sourceforge.net/

Resolume http://www.resolume.com/

SoftVNS http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/softVNS.html/

Syphon http://syphon.v002.info/

TouchDesigner http://www.touch077.com/

Tx-transform http://www.tx-transform.com/Eng/index.html

Vidvox http://vidvox.net/

Voodoo camera tracker http://www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/docs/manual.html

VPT http://hcgilje.wordpress.com/vpt6-manual/

VVVV http://vvvv.org/tiki-index.php/

4. Hardware
Arduino http://www.arduino.cc/

Eowave http://www.eowave.com/

Electrotap http://www.electrotap.com/

ENTTEC (DMX) http://www.enttec.com/

iCube http://infusionsystems.com/

Imaging Source http://www.theimagingsource.com

Ms Pinky http://www.mspinky.com/

Phidgets http://www.phidgets.com/

Unibrain http://www.unibrain.com/

5. Artists/People/Groups
Alva Noto http://www.alvanoto.com/

Course Syllabus 9
Jun 2017
 Anti VJ http://www.antivj.com/

Avatar http://www.lenomdelachose.org/

Blast Theory http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/

Burst TV http://www.burst-tv.net

Camille Utterback http://www.camilleutterback.com/

Casey Reas http://reas.com/

Christian Moeller http://www.christian-moeller.com/

Cory Arcangel http://beigerecords.com/cory/

D-fuse http://www.dfuse.com/

Diane Landry http://www.clic.net/~dilandry/

Daniel Shiffman http://www.shiffman.net/

David Rokeby http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/

Daito Manabe http://www.daito.ws/

Daniel Rozin http://www.smoothware.com/danny/newbio.html

Daniel Sauter http://daniel-sauter.com/

deKam http://www.node.net/main.shtml

Dumbtype http://dumbtype.com/

Exonemo http://www.exonemo.com/

Golan Levin http://www.flong.com/

Granular Synthesis http://www.granularsynthesis.info/ns/index.php

GRL http://graffitiresearchlab.com/

HC Gilje http://www.nervousvision.com/

Interactive Sonic Systems http://mtg.upf.es/reactable/

Jasch http://www.jasch.ch/

Jennifer & Kevin McCoy http://www.mccoyspace.com/

Jeffrey Shaw http://www.jeffrey-shaw.net/

Jim Campbell http://www.jimcampbell.tv/

John Klima http://www.cityarts.com/lmno/

John Maeda http://www.maedastudio.com

Joshua Goldberg http://www.goldbergs.com/

Julien Maire http://julienmaire.ideenshop.net/

Kurt Ralske http://retnull.com/

Lia http://www.strangethingshappen.org/

Light Surgeons http://www.thelightsurgeons.co.uk/

Lev Manovich http://www.manovich.net/

Luc Courchesne http://www.din.umontreal.ca/courschesne

Marc Lafia http://www.marclafia.net/

Martijn van Boven http://www.474746.org/

Masaki Fujihata http://www.fujihata.jp/

Masayuki Akamatsu http://www.iamas.ac.jp/~aka/

Course Syllabus 10
Jun 2017
 Michael Mateas http://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~michaelm/

Miller Puckette http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/

Otolab http://www.otolab.net/

Paul Kasier http://www.openendedgroup.com/

Philip Worthington http://www.worthersoriginal.com

Rafael Lozono-Hemmer http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/eprlh.html

Robert Rowe http://homepages.nyu.edu/~rr6/

Ryoji Ikeda http://www.ryojiikeda.com/

Ryoichi Kurokawa http://www.ryoichikurokawa.com/

Scott Snibbe http://www.snibbe.com/

Semiconductor http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/

Stelarc http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/

Sue C. http://www.sue-c.net/

Suguru Goto http://suguru.goto.free.fr/Contents/SuguruGoto-e.html

Telcosystems http://www.telcosystems.net/

Teatro Cinema http://www.teatrocinema.cl/

Troika Ranch http://www.troikaranch.org

Ulf Langheinrich http://langheinrich.net/

Vasulkas http://www.vasulka.org/

Wooster group http://www.thewoostergroup.org/

Young-Hae Chang http://www.yhchang.com/

Zachary Lieberman http://www.thesystemis.com/

6. Organizations/Centers

CNMAT http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/

CRCA http://crca.ucsd.edu/

EMPAC http://empac.rpi.edu/

Eyebeam http://eyebeam.org/

iAMAS http://www.iamas.ac.jp/

ICC http://www.ntticc.or.jp/index_e.html

iCinema http://www.icinema.unsw.edu.au/

IRCAM http://www.ircam.fr/

The Labyrinth Project http://college.usc.edu/labyrinth/

MIT Media Lab http://www.media.mit.edu/research/

Sonar http://www.sonar.es/

Sonic Acts http://www.sonicacts.com/

STEIM http://www.steim.org/

V2 http://www.v2.nl/

ZKM http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/e/

Course Syllabus 11
Jun 2017