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Media Studies

  • FPN 200 - The Moving Image in Performance I
    Course DescriptionAn investigation into the moving human image on film and the creative potential for the performer in preparation for Performance Studies III. Students will have an opportunity to video a dance, movement, improvisational and acting techniques in order to gain insight into the demands the camera makes on the performer. This course will also examine the equipment and systems employed in the screen industry. The student will gain knowledge and insight into the works of notable dance and drama film makers.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 1 hr. Lab 2 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Performance Acting/Dance
  • FPN 201 - The Moving Image in Performance II
    Course DescriptionA continuation of FPN 200, this course will survey the literature and film of the twentieth century. Students will view the works of dance and drama film makers including, Antonione, Cocteau, Fellini, Bergman, Welles and others, and will discuss how these great literary film makers might influence and shape their own film making endeavours. Students will have an opportunity to video a dance or drama project exploring these influences.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 1 hr. Lab 2 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:FPN200
  • FPN 323 - Sound Design for Visual Media I
    Course DescriptionThis course builds a foundation in sound theory and audio technology while focusing on their applications within visual media. Students learn concepts relating to audio production and post-production, and through applied projects discover how to edit, augment, and manipulate sound to support intended meaning and narrative. The exploration of sound-image relationships is the basis for learning established practices and tools to bridge artistic intention and final outcome.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Antirequisites:RTA971
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 501 - Scenography I: Art Direction
    Course DescriptionThis studio course addresses the visual world of film, video, immersive events, and staged/directorial photography by retrofitting locations to evoke fictional space. Script adaptations and analysis, character definition, set geography, visual and technical research, swatched palettes, technical drawing, and maquettes form the basis of project proposals that may complement concurrent production courses/thesis projects. Resource analysis, accounting, and time management as determining factors in design is emphasized, as well as key collaborative structures.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 502 - Directing Screen Performance - Basic Principles
    Course DescriptionThis course is based on the premise that the only way to learn how to direct actors is to learn about acting. Students participate in workshop acting exercises, improvisations and discussions on the acting process as it relates to the rehearsal and shooting of dramatic films, from the point of view of actors and directors.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 503 - Screenwriting I
    Course DescriptionThis studio course is designed for those with a special interest in writing for film or television, and builds upon skills learned in MPF324-Writing for Film. The course deals with all the stages of dramatic screenwriting from conception and development through to outline and the writing of completed scenes, with a particular focus on developing rich character biographies and the outline and treatment for a short screenplay.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPF 324
  • FPN 506 - New Approaches to Documentary Photography
    Course DescriptionDocumentary photography has been reinvigorated in recent years, intersecting with the contemporary art gallery, the book and the web as sites for documentary presentation. This course examines contemporary photographic practice through a documentary lens, introducing students to critical writing on documentary themes, approaches and issues. The course requires students to contextualize documentary photography through a discussion of course readings and to produce their own works of contemporary documentary photography.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 512 - Microcinema
    Course DescriptionThis course studies various forms of Microcinema in theory and practice. Microcinema is a flexible term that covers most types of low-budget independent short films inspired by the creative possibilities of new film or video technology, and types of low-budget independent film exhibition. It studies examples of Microcinema leading to the introduction of digital technology and the demythologization of the filmmaking process in the 1990s and the various DIY film cultures that have emerged since.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 513 - Creative Coding
    Course DescriptionThis course introduces students to computer programming as a way of producing artworks, both still and moving, in 2 and 3 dimensions. Using the Processing programming language, students will develop software for generating and manipulating images and 3-dimensional objects in work that functions independently as well as in interactive contexts. This course places equal emphasis on technical work (code) and visual outcomes. No prior coding experience is required.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Antirequisites:FCD 222, RTA 222
    Custom Requisites:Available only to Image Arts students
  • FPN 519 - Soundscapes and Sonic Environments
    Course DescriptionThis course explores the various aspects of using, generating, and manipulating audio elements in sound and image-based works. It combines concepts and theories drawn from film, communication, cultural, and acoustic theory to study creative uses of sound in film, performance and video art, sound art, and other media such as digital games. The course focuses particularly on the composition and manipulation of audio elements in order to create narrative and expressive works.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 531 - Cinematography and Lighting Design I
    Course DescriptionThis studio course is an exploration of cinematography, with an emphasis on lighting as an essential component of visual story-telling. Working in a workshop environment, students use contemporary lighting and camera techniques to create distinct genres, moods, and time of day in order to support theme, story, and character.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPF 423
  • FPN 532 - Adv. Studio Lighting: Portrait and Fashion
    Course DescriptionThis is a course in studio lighting for photographers with a particular emphasis on fashion, editorial and environmental portraiture. Through practical studio projects within a workshop environment, students are exposed to advanced ideas about light and lighting in relation to a variety of subjects and techniques. The course is designed to help students expand and deepen their technical, conceptual, and aesthetic insight while working with light through creative projects.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPS 407
  • FPN 533 - Sound Design for Visual Media II
    Course DescriptionThis course applies vocabulary and practices to further use sound as both a professional tool and a creative medium. With an emphasis on practices within the audio post-production industry, students will study the aesthetics of sound design while learning the techniques used to achieve those artistic intentions. Applied projects are used to practice sound design as well as methods of restoration, sound generation, and mixing for various media.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:FPN 323 or RTA971
  • FPN 534 - Graphic Design
    Course DescriptionThis is a course in two-dimensional design problems with an emphasis on typography and layout and their interaction with and within imagery. Exercises are given in artwork preparation for combination with type, graphic, and experimental design elements. The visual language of graphics is the principal focus of the course.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 535 - User Experience Design
    Course DescriptionFrom a user experience design (UX) and human factors perspective, this course will allow advanced students to explore the new possibilities and challenges related to the design of user interaction for visual and virtual media. Through the construction of digital media objects, students will explore the physical, psychological, biomechanical, and anthropometric concerns involved in constructing intuitive, effective and engaging experiences with digital media.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 536 - Media Business Practices
    Course DescriptionThis course introduces general business practices including marketing, finance, accounting, statues, and regulations, particularly applicable to the successful operation of small media businesses. The emphasis is on identifying career goals and outlining the experiences required to attain the profession students seek. Students explore methods of marketing and self-promotional strategies practiced by professionals in the industry. Assignments provide the practical skills and necessary resources for the students to use in media businesses.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • FPN 537 - Immersive Imaging
    Course DescriptionThe objective of this course is to introduce students to the process of developing projects using a cross-platform approach to the fundamental principles of immersive imaging. The course offers an overview of the history of immersive imaging techniques such as stereography, augmented reality, and 360-degree cinema. This is a hands-on approach to production and post-production of immersive imaging utilizing sources from still photographs, motion graphics, and motion picture stereography.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 538 - Visual Storytelling on the Web
    Course DescriptionThis course explores the development of authoring skills for web platforms and examines the rapidly growing field of web-based and interactive storytelling using photography, video, sound, and graphics. Topics covered include using and augmenting existing platforms, as well as developing web-based presentations. Students produce original fiction and non-fiction work in a variety of formats.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 539 - The Human Figure
    Course DescriptionThis course is an investigation of uses of the human figure in traditional fine arts and contemporary media. This studio course will explore the representation of the figure in two- and three-dimensional design contexts as well as in time-based and digital forms. Participants will have the opportunity to combine studio work with theoretical and historical studies.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 541 - Animation Practices
    Course DescriptionThis course introduces students to techniques of animation in both 2D and 3D, analogue and digital. Modelling and animation topics covered include perspective, composition, movement, rhythm, timing, and imaging in two and three-dimensional space. Particular attention is paid to aesthetics and visual storytelling.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 542 - Design for Mobile Devices
    Course DescriptionThis course introduces students to the fundamental concepts, techniques, and strategies of mobile app development for the purposes of producing digital artwork and creative applications. Assignments and in-class exercises work to expand student knowledge related to app-based multimedia, interaction, geo-location, sensors, APIs, and online distribution. Through readings and lectures, students also become familiar with the critical, theoretical and historical debates surrounding software and mobile-based artwork.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 543 - Historical Processes Workshops
    Course DescriptionThis is a production course dealing with the use, design, and construction of composite images using various historical media. Students are encouraged to explore the use of captured and hand-rendered images, in both static and temporal combinations. Various methods of image construction ranging from analogue to digital are used. Selected traditional processes as well as experimental techniques are explored.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 544 - Experimental Film Processes
    Course DescriptionThis course explores alternative ways of processing black and white and colour cinematographic images, including non-standard ways of generating cinematographic images and unorthodox means of transforming them.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Antirequisites:CC 8972
    Custom Requisites:Available only to Image Arts students
  • FPN 545 - Hybrid Media Workshop
    Course DescriptionThis course is designed to be an independent, self-directed workshop where the student has the opportunity to experiment with, and combine, various analogue and digital media such as film, photography, video, installation, sculpture, multi-image and multi-projector, 2D or 3D computer animation, and interactive media.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 546 - Curation and Exhibition
    Course DescriptionThis course combines lecture and practical experience to explore such topics as the storage, handling, illumination, protection, and all aspects of exhibition design and management of film, photography, and video artifacts. Students produce an exhibition from concept to delivery.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 547 - Co-Operative Internship
    Course DescriptionThis course give students the opportunity to work in professional production settings which will provide them with experience in their chosen field. Internship contacts are the responsibility of the student. All internships are subject to departmental approval in advance. This course is graded on a pass/fail basis.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Antirequisites:FCD 810
  • FPN 550 - Creative Editing
    Course DescriptionThis course will focus on structuring a compelling narrative for time-based work across all genres and the creative application of editing software. Special emphasis will be placed on data management to allow for maximum creativity in the editing process, as well as understanding the role of editing and the editor in workflows from pre- production, to production to editing and into final post-production work and distribution.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPF 422
  • FPN 600 - Visual Effects for Film I
    Course DescriptionThis course introduces students to contemporary visual effects techniques (VFX) in film. Guest professionals will be invited to give lectures and demonstrations. Field trips may be organized as well. These events may necessitate the scheduling of class meetings outside normal hours.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 601 - Scenography II - Production Design
    Course DescriptionThis studio course models the development of production concepts from script analysis, identifying time-space requirements and research methodologies, to visual proposals for the material culture of constructed realities, whether live/immersive events, film, video, or staged/directorial photography. Students create a full portfolio presentation: the scenographic concept, including character design, performance space, and all necessary properties, using renderings, technical drawing, maquettes, and storyboards. The portfolio will stress effective communication, combining aesthetic expression, spatial dexterity, and narrative logic.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:FPN 501
  • FPN 602 - Directing Screen Performance - Advanced
    Course DescriptionThis course puts into practice advanced techniques of acting and directing for the screen. Students will be expected to participate in acting and directing exercises for both sides of the camera using professional screenplays.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:FPN 502
  • FPN 603 - Screenwriting II
    Course DescriptionThis advanced studio course is designed for students with a special interest in writing for film or television. The course focuses on individual writing and story editing work in dramatic screenwriting, particularly on the process of turning initial development and research into a finished short screenplay. By the end of the course, each student will complete two drafts of a short fictional screenplay.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:FPN 503
  • FPN 631 - Cinematography and Lighting Design II
    Course DescriptionThis advanced studio course builds on the concepts explored in FPN 531. Current state of the art practices in cinematography are explored including digital imaging, precise exposure control, post-colour correction, new lighting technologies, and green screen compositing.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:FPN 531
  • FPN 632 - Advanced Studio Lighting II
    Course DescriptionThis course offers instruction in specialized studio and location lighting for photographers to advance their understanding of both the technical and aesthetic issues surrounding lighting as a crucial element in photographic practice. Students will further their understanding of lighting equipment and techniques as well as develop strong problem-solving skills that will enable them to work in both professional studio and location environments.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPS 407
  • FPN 633 - Topics in Contemporary Art
    Course DescriptionThis course considers current gallery programming as a starting point for the production of visual work. Conducted in collaboration with visiting researchers and artists associated with the Ryerson Image Centre, this interdisciplinary course asks students to respond to current exhibitions through conceptually related readings, seminars, guest presentations, and the production of visually related works.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201
  • FPN 634 - Graphic Design: Brand Identity
    Course DescriptionThis course will explore the diverse area of retail branding and advertising. Key issues such as product identification, brand positioning, and packaging solutions based on research of targeted audiences will be discussed. Innovative and creative approaches will be encouraged in a series of projects, which will address packaging identification and brand positioning based on research development. Students will work within a variety of design applications.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to Image Arts students
  • FPN 700 - Visual Effects for Film II
    Course DescriptionThis is an advanced-level professional elective providing an exploration of contemporary visual effects techniques. Emphasis will be placed on the aesthetics and creation of successful visual effects. The history of visual effects and classic optical techniques will be covered as well as current digital techniques. Students will work individually and in groups to produce completed visual effects (VFX) shots and scenes. Students are required to have a working knowledge of compositing software prior to taking this course.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:FPN 600
  • FPN 710 - IMA International
    Course DescriptionThe IMA International course has been designed to provide students with an international perspective and an opportunity to engage in one-of-a-kind experiential learning beyond the Ryerson campus. The course will introduce students to other cultures and locations through short-term intensives with site-specific assignments and learning outcomes as directed by faculty who travel with students.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Consent:Departmental consent required
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 720 - Virtual Cameras: Intro to 3D production
    Course Description3D content is increasingly becoming an integral part of both photographic and filmmaking practices. This course introduces students to the fundamentals of 3D production. Through a series of lectures, demonstrations, and assignments, students will explore the fundamentals of 3D capture, photogrammetry, 3D modelling, rendering, texture mapping, animation, and 3D output (to screen, VR headset, or physical 3D print).
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts
  • FPN 735 - Directed Field Study I
    Course DescriptionAn advanced level seminar/studio course on topics to be determined. Topics are explored through lectures, workshops, demonstrations, critiques, work practicums, and critiques. Student assessment is a combination of research, written, creative, and presentation work. Students must receive the permission of the instructor to enrol in this course.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Consent:Departmental consent required
  • FPN 835 - Directed Field Study II
    Course DescriptionAn advanced level seminar/studio course on topics to be determined. This course may be an extension of a topic started in FPN735. Topics are explored through lectures, workshops, demonstrations, critiques, work practicums, and critiques. Student assessment is a combination of research, written, creative, and presentation work. Students must receive the permission of the instructor to enrol in this course.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Consent:Departmental consent required
  • NPF 188 - From Page to Screen
    Course DescriptionThis course is an introduction to the adaptation of significant works of literature into the film medium. Following a historical chronology, we will study representative texts of Elizabethan drama, the Gothic and Victorian novels, the novella, contemporary drama, and the short story, and the films into which these works have been adapted. In addition to issues of historical and cultural context, the course will address both thematic and formal elements of the various literary genres and how these translate into the film medium: narrative voice and perspective, dialogue, symbol, imagery, motif, and narrative structure will all be discussed.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Liberal Studies:LL
    Custom Requisites:Not available to students in Image Arts
  • NPF 504 - Technology, Culture and Communication
    Course DescriptionGuided by the theory that meaning arises in culture, this course introduces the study of patterns of change in communication and media technology within the context of visual culture. Particular attention will be paid to interrelated themes such as representation, power, and progress, among others.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • NPF 505 - Independent Cinema
    Course DescriptionThe course considers a range of practices that take place outside the framework of support offered by the major cinematic institutions - practices that are shaped by the creative drive of individual filmmakers, the so-called "personal film." Readings will include manifestos, letters and documents generated by the filmmakers who are the principal subjects of study.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPF 290 or students in Image Arts
  • NPF 506 - Art and Modernism
    Course DescriptionThe conceptual core of this course will be a study of the modernist conception of the nature of aesthetic experience. Key readings by philosophers, art theorists, critics, and artists will be discussed. We will pursue the modernists’ themes regarding the autonomy of artistic form, the concomitant insistence that features of the medium in which it is realized are primary determinants of autonomous artistic forms, and the skepticism regarding representation.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC103 or students in Image Arts
  • NPF 507 - Critical Theory and the Image
    Course DescriptionThis course will introduce students to various twentieth-century schools of thought such as psychoanalysis, the Frankfurt School, hermeneutics, structuralism, semiotics, post-structuralism, Marxism, feminism, gender studies, post-colonialism, and the development of "French Theory" in the 1960s and 1970s. Particular emphasis will be put on the philosophical traditions underlying these theories and the way in which they have been applied to visual media, arts, and cultures.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 210 or students in Image Arts
  • NPF 510 - Media and the Environment
    Course DescriptionThis course is an introduction to ecomedia studies. It explores the field of ecomedia criticism and other recent approaches concerned with the interplay between environmental issues and media. Studying explicitly environmental films and other lens-based art the course will cover the aesthetics and ethics of ecomedia practice.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • NPF 515 - Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Art
    Course DescriptionThis course examines issues of gender, race and sexuality in contemporary art practices after 1960. It explores the cultural construction of difference through art practice and theory, looking closely at work that relates to feminism, queer theory and critical race theory. With some historical context, the course will explore recent work in both art and activist contexts.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • NPF 520 - Queer Cinemas
    Course DescriptionThis course addresses the history of queer cinema and the representation of LGBTQ people and cultures. Topics include popular Hollywood cinema, American Underground films, New Queer Cinema, popular LGBTQ film, and queer films stemming from selected world cinemas. These will be discussed within a critical framework informed by contemporary film, feminist and queer theory.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPF 290 or an Image Arts program student
  • NPF 525 - Photography in Canada
    Course DescriptionThis course introduces students to Canadian photography. With some historical context the course traces a range of national issues and ideas that have shaped contemporary practices since 1960. It will address the impact of cultural policies and institutions including the stills division of the National Film Board and the advent of medium-specific artist-run centres. Themes such as identity, regionalism and diversity in selected works by Canadian artists will be considered.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or student in Image Arts
  • NPF 530 - Electronic and Digital Art
    Course DescriptionThis course provides an in-depth study of the emergence of electronic and digital art in the last half of the twentieth century and their development to the present. Movements, techniques and genres that will be explored include net art, code-based art, generative art, interactive media, interactive installation, virtual reality, augmented reality, robotics, animatronics, 3D printing, digital fabrication, post-internet art and issues related to digital preservation.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • NPF 548 - Modern Movements/Issues in Photography
    Course DescriptionThe major movements, figures and issues in twentieth-century photography are the focus of this seminar course, which will follow the evolution of the photographic medium over the century's span. The shift from pictorial to realist representation, the influences of surrealism, abstraction and modernism, the fragmentation of movements and styles in recent decades, and the development of new image-forming systems will all be examined. The course encourages individual exploration and research, and presupposes a basic knowledge of photographic history.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or student in Image Arts
  • NPF 549 - History of Photojournalism
    Course DescriptionThis course focuses on the production of press photographs, the work of the picture editor, the process of selection, the sequencing of photographs and creation of a visual story on the page as well as modes of dissemination. Using a historical approach, the course analyzes technical, cultural, sociological, economic, political and aesthetic aspects of press photographs, emphasizing the notion of indexicality and how the visual syntax of photographs influences the publication and reception of news.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or student in Image Arts
  • NPF 550 - Contemporary Media Practices: A Survey
    Course DescriptionThis course provides a survey and overview of new and evolving media forms. Students will be encouraged to apply innovative ideas, techniques and/or approaches studied in this course to their own visual productions. A range of suggested topics will be presented in class and developed via individual research and investigation.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • NPF 552 - The Image Industry
    Course DescriptionThe course examines the image industry to understand its nature, functioning and operations, its relationship with image users and consumers, and its interaction with individual image-makers. The work of image-makers, and the creative industries as a whole, takes place within a pluralistic cultural context of public- and private-sector image industry to produce high culture and mass media for audiences increasingly subject to market-place stratification and packaging.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Antirequisites:CC 8948
  • NPF 553 - Advanced Topics in Modern Art and Cinema
    Course DescriptionThis course inquires into the interaction of science, culture, and art and considers how scientific developments affect artistic forms. It takes up some key ideas that emerged from twentieth-century science and explores the role that science and technology have played in shaping modern life. It also examines the influential role on the other arts of the cinema, the art many artists and thinkers decided was best-suited to convey the qualities of modern life.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or MPF 290
  • NPF 554 - Advanced Topics in Contemporary Art
    Course DescriptionThis course examines relationships among a broad range of media and art practices in the second half of the twentieth century and into the 21st century. It explores the theory and practice of art movements and trends in depth, and may focus on one or more of the following: minimalism, pop art, conceptualism, performance art, earthworks, arte povera, photo-realism, neo-expressionism and video and new media practices.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or MPF 290
  • NPF 555 - Experimental Media
    Course DescriptionIn the past, groups of artists have repeatedly invented new methods for the creation of artworks, such as aleatory methods, algorithmic procedures, interference structures (Schillinger methods), exquisite corpses, practices based on the methods of dreams, and methods based on the deliberate rejection of all formations that can be rationally explained. This course will explore historical questions concerning the provenance of such practices and investigate if these practices have the potential their proponents claimed for them.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to students in Image Arts and Creative Industries
  • NPF 557 - Topics in Film
    Course DescriptionThis course enables students to concentrate on specific aspects of the history and theory of film. Each semester will be devoted to a different topic, such as, national cinemas, alternative film practices, film genres and selected filmmakers. The relationship between the aesthetic features of given works and their cultural production context will be emphasized.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPF 290 or enrolled in Image Arts program
  • NPF 559 - Advanced Topics in Curatorial Practices
    Course DescriptionThis course is an advanced level seminar taught by departmental faculty members or adjunct lecturers. Each semester will be devoted to special topics that become relevant due to the changing practices and needs of the department and students.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or MPF 290
  • NPF 560 - Advanced Topics in Film
    Course DescriptionThis course is an advanced level seminar taught by departmental faculty members, adjunct or visiting lecturers, (e.g., exchange faculty). Each semester will be devoted to special topics in response to the changing practices and needs of the department and students.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or MPF 290
  • NPF 561 - Advanced Topics in Digital Media
    Course DescriptionThis course is an advanced level seminar taught by departmental faculty members or adjunct and special visiting lecturers. Each semester will be devoted to special topics that become relevant due to the changing practices and needs of the department and students.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or MPF 290
  • NPF 562 - Media and Communication
    Course DescriptionThis course provides students with the opportunity to study the process and media of communication from a variety of theoretical perspectives provided by, for example: aesthetics, business, education, history, information theory, mass media studies, science, semiotics, the social sciences, technology.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • NPF 563 - Directors and Composers
    Course DescriptionThis course examines the relationship between film and music. A number of key director/composer relationships throughout this period helped to shape and expand the stylistic approach and functions of music in film. Students will learn how the films of directors such as Eisenstein, Fellini, Hitchcock, Spielberg and Burton were influenced by the composers with whom they collaborated. The soundtracks of films from various director/composers of the twentieth century will be studied.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • NPF 564 - Contemporary World Cinema
    Course DescriptionThe term World Cinema is defined as any national cinema outside North America and Europe. This course surveys contemporary world cinema since the 1990s, a new beginning for the international expansion of film, and focuses on films which usually fall outside the scope of conventional cinema studies courses. It aims to situate and explain the particular film production environments of various non-western countries within local, regional, national, transnational and global contexts.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPF 290 or enrolled in Image Arts program
  • NPF 565 - Contemporary Canadian Cinema
    Course DescriptionThis course introduces students to contemporary Canadian cinema by placing it in the historical context of its development since 1960. The course tracks the issues that have confronted various attempts to create and define a national cinema. These include cultural policies and institutions; the tension between a pan-Canadian concept of national cinema, regionalism, Québec national cinema and the cinemas of the First Nations; and the problem of a domestic/foreign film market inundated by Hollywood cinema.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPF 290 or enrolled in Image Arts program
  • NPF 566 - History of Animation
    Course DescriptionThis course offers a wide-ranging panorama of the first 100 years of animation, drawing upon a variety of national traditions, production methods and technological developments. The course examines competing imaginaries and production techniques. The course covers cel and digital animation, silhouette animation, puppetry, stop motion, rotoscoping, rotoshopping, computer-generated imaging and motion capture. Students will be exposed to a variety of critical discourses in order to engage with the animated works introduced each week.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPF 290 or enrolled in Image Arts program
  • NPF 567 - Exhibition Practices in Contemporary Art
    Course DescriptionThis course integrates a survey of exhibition practice as it has evolved within the visual arts with a critical examination of the various activities, such as curatorial strategy, exhibition design, and audience development as interrelated components that constitute the field of exhibition practice. Key exhibitions and their reception will be contextualized in relation to trends and issues in contemporary art and the development of exhibition practices and objectives that respond to and augment those issues.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or Image Arts students
  • NPF 568 - Analogue as Meaning
    Course DescriptionThis production-based course examines current debates in photo-based media and trace a shift in the meanings ascribed to images as related to analogue and digital processes. The course addresses how the development of digital imaging has impacted the meaning and status of the photographic image in recent years. Theoretical issues are explored in order for students to undertake visual projects.
    Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Custom Requisites:Available only to Image Arts and Creative Industries students
  • NPF 569 - Disaster Images: Memory and Response
    Course DescriptionThis course will examine the creative response of visual artists, photographers, filmmakers and new media artists to disaster and social crisis. The work of creative practitioners will be shown to respond to crisis in modes not available to the fields of journalism or traditional documentary media. The course requires students to prepare short discussion papers and visual works on the themes of history, memory and disaster.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or Image Arts student
  • NPF 570 - Advertising and Consumer Culture
    Course DescriptionThis course provides critical skills for analysing advertising as texts, and for posing questions about the culture of consumption as an everyday practice that goes beyond advertisements. In addition to the phenomenon of advertising, the course addresses the pervasiveness of consuming as a social, cultural and economic activity. The approaches will be historical, theoretical, and political in scope and will cover a range of topics such as branding, identity, style, food, domesticity, sexuality, and recycling.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • NPF 571 - Introduction to Museum and Gallery Studies
    Course DescriptionThis course will familiarize students with the daily workings of art galleries and museums through making use of the practical example of the Ryerson Image Centre and other galleries. The proximity to current exhibitions and research activities in the university gallery along with the opportunity to interact with the staff, guest curators, artists and scholars at the research centre will provide both practical and experiential insight into the gallery and museum contexts in which curators work.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201
  • NPF 572 - Curatorial Practices in Toronto
    Course DescriptionThis course conducts an overview of current curatorial activities in Toronto public and private museums, galleries, and collections. It draws upon the diverse range of institutions and curatorial approaches involved in the public presentation and interpretation of historical and contemporary cultural artefacts. The course will include guest lectures by invited curators as well as field trips, and will respond to and focus on recent and current exhibitions and curatorial activities.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201
  • NPF 573 - Video Games: History, Theory, Culture
    Course DescriptionThis course offers an introduction to the history and theory of video games and their multifaceted fan cultures. The course addresses the military origins of video games, the concept of "gameplay," the ludology-narratology debate, transmedia storytelling, online gaming, casual gaming, game franchises, and mimetic interfaces. The emphasis will be put on the medium itself, its makers, players, and fan cultures via case studies and insightful critical readings in game studies.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • NPF 574 - Aboriginal Visual Culture in Canada
    Course DescriptionThe image of "the Native" has historically been used in western popular culture and media as a device of social and political control designed to marginalize, romanticize and assimilate indigenous cultures. This course will examine the historical misrepresentation of Aboriginal people and culture, as well how Aboriginal artists and cultural producers have subverted, critiqued, challenged and changed the perception of Aboriginal people through the media of film and photography.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
  • NPF 604 - Screen Practices
    Course DescriptionThis course offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the way media formats inform the aesthetics, social significance, and creative potential of various screen-based media. Paying particular attention to the organization of the relation of the audience or user with the screen, the course examines the technological infrastructure, industry conventions, architectural or urban context, and various types of screens commonly employed for artistic and cultural use including cinematic, televisual, interactive, mobile, and touch-sensitive screens.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPF 290 or Image Arts student
  • NPF 605 - History of Documentary Film
    Course DescriptionThe course explores cinema's origins in documentary practices and some of the major movements in documentary cinema, including the G.P.O. documentaries, the W.P.A. documentaries, the founding of Canada's National Film Board and the wartime documentaries of Great Britain, United States and Canada, the Free Cinema, cinéma-vérité, and institutional documentary. Texts on all these movements, including declarations of important proponents of the various schools and institutions, will be examined.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPF 290 or Image Arts student
  • NPF 606 - Contemporary Art Theory
    Course DescriptionThis course provides an introduction to the study of post-1960 art theory. It examines theoretical developments that have underpinned visual expression in a global context in the postmodern era. It will explore post-modern movements and strategies such as minimalism, pop art, conceptualism, photo-realism, neo-expressionism and video and new media practices. Topics will include subjectivity and representation, art and consumer culture, digital culture and technology, and the effects of globalization in reshaping the study of art.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201
  • NPF 607 - Questions of Beauty
    Course DescriptionThe focus of this course will be the exploration of the resurgence of questions about the role of beauty in the postmodern era. While these questions have generally engaged the visual art world since the early 1990s they are not confined to it. Formative historical concepts as well as discussions around notions of beauty and related ideas such as the sublime and the abject in contemporary critical theory and artistic practice will be examined.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or MPF 290
  • NPF 700 - Global Photographies
    Course DescriptionFocusing on the contemporary period, this course traces the production, circulation, and reception of photographies from around the world. We consider how the medium has shaped our understanding of those regions artistically, culturally, politically and geographically while considering bias in the understanding of global photographies.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00
    Prerequisites:MPC 201 or enrolled in Image Arts program
  • NPF 705 - Thinking Through Diversity
    Course DescriptionThis course examines various understandings of the concept of 'diversity' as it has developed historically and takes shape today. Through lectures, readings, seminar-style discussions, and screenings, students will scrutinize social categories, processes of differentiation, and outcomes in social, political, economic, and geographical spheres instead of celebrating particular modes of difference. The course provides a framework to think through the fluidity and complexities of such factors as race, gender, sexuality, ability, class and indigeneity.
    Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.
    GPA Weight:1.00
    Billing Units:1
    Count:1.00