Critical media practices (CMDP) addresses the changing landscape of electronic media making by developing both analytical and production skills across a wide range of platforms, practices and technologies while simultaneously placing them within the broader perspective of culture and history. The department explores cross-platform media production, computational media and creative ethnography, as well as other time-based media arts practices such as locative media and performance art. Our convergent approach to media spans a variety of media tools including digital photography, audio/video editing and single camera video production, open source programming and digital single lens reflex cameras, as well as emergent tools under development. With an emphasis on the interaction between critical theory and media production practices, students are encouraged to not only thoughtfully engage with the diversity of media cultures but to also become active entrepreneurial media producers, directors, writers, editors and scholars at the forefront of emerging cultural industries. CMDP prepares students to make productive use of the tools to engage creatively with the future trajectories of media, wherever they may lead.

CMDP students will be exposed to a variety of approaches concerning the study of media, information and communication through core CMCI classes. The undergraduate program is designed to provide basic hands-on grounding in production theory, aesthetics, techniques and approaches emphasizing innovative approaches to media making. As such, the department provides a rich and varied resource for cross-pollination and collaboration. At the graduate level, the program features a terminal MFA. The department also supports a practice-based PhD in emergent technologies and art practices. This innovative merger of theory and praxis, spanning undergraduate through graduate education, places CU on the cutting edge of institutions exploring innovative models for educating twenty-first-century students as well as publishing and disseminating scholarship.

Course code for this program is CMDP.

Faculty

While many faculty teach both undergraduate and graduate students, some instruct students at the undergraduate level only. For more information, contact the faculty member's home department.

Ambrose, Kirk T.
Professor; PhD, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Auguiste, Reece Luke
Chair, Associate Professor, Faculty Director; PhD, University of Nottingham (England)

Biggs, Betsey
Assistant Professor; PhD, Princeton University

Boord, Daniel Olin
Professor Emeritus; MFA, University of California, San Diego

Clark, Patrick Ryan
Assistant Professor, Associate Chair; MFA, San Diego State University

Coombs Esmail, Eric
Assistant Professor, Faculty Director; MFA, State University of New York at Buffalo

Eggert, Katherine
Professor; PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Ellsworth, Michelle
Distinguished Professor; MFA, University of Colorado Boulder

Espelie, Erin Marie
Associate Professor; MFA, Duke University

Hammons, Christian Stanford
Teaching Associate Professor, Associate Chair, Associate Faculty Director; PhD, University of Southern California

Knight, Tara
Associate Professor; MFA, University of California, San Diego

Laurenzo, Tomas
Associate Professor; PhD, Universidad De La Republica (Uruguay)

Limerick, Patricia N.
Professor; PhD, Yale University

Oakes, Tim
Professor; PhD, University of Washington

Rivers, Ed
Professor; PhD, University of Oregon

Rueb, Teri Susan
Professor, Chair; PhD, Harvard University

Sanford, Jason Sidney
Instructor

Saxton, Richard W.
Associate Professor; MFA, Indiana University Bloomington

Sylvester, Roshanna
Associate Professor; PhD, Yale University

Young, Andrew P.
Assistant Professor; PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

Courses

CMDP 5100 (3) Research and Methodologies Seminar

Explores documentary media preproduction tactics and strategies, including basic research approaches, planning, pre-visualization, stylistic approaches, scheduling, working with archive and documentary materials, and documentary ethics.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

CMDP 5370 (3) Choreography, Cinematograph: Writing in Motion

Examine media and moving image aesthetics, tactic and strategies by creating work involving movement and expanded notions of choreography. Within this course students compose images and sounds, structuring them temporally as they explore narrative and non-narrative forms.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

CMDP 5450 (3) Contemporary Documentary Media

Explores cross platform documentary media practices and contemporary debates in documentary through a study of documentary history, genre, ethics and changing forms. It develops skills in critically analyzing documentary media.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

CMDP 5500 (3) Documentary Production Workshops

Workshopping and developing technical skills in documentary media production.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

CMDP 5600 (3) Documentary Lab Seminar

Explores and workshops documentary media projects and ideas from a variety of disciplines. A team-taught course, with affiliated faculty working in design groups within the documentary lab in one or more areas, such as Art and Art History, Anthropology or Geography. A total of 12 hours is required for IDMP MFA candidates.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 12.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

CMDP 5650 (3) Documentary Field Work

Explores distinctive and varied approaches to documentary field work and the uses of media for creative ethnography and other nonfiction practices. A team-taught course, with affiliated faculty from one or more areas such as Art and Art History, Anthropology and Geography.

Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of CMDP 5100 (minimum grade C-). Restricted to graduate students only.

CMDP 5900 (3) Documentary Production Topics

Incorporates reflective study and practice in a course that consists of rotating topics in contemporary documentary practices, such as media essays, observation and participation, personal histories and voices, emergent technologies and documentary media, and interpretive ethnography.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 12.00 total credit hours.

CMDP 5910 (3) Individual Project Study

Requires students to conduct self-directed research and production in a seminar setting. Topics relate to individual projects

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 15.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 6500 (5) Producing Practicum

Explores advanced producing principles through the preproduction of the MFA thesis project, including the development of a professional project proposal.

Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of CMDP 5650 (minimum grade C-).
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 6600 (5) Documentary MFA Thesis Seminar I

Explores production of MFA thesis product. Focus is on production strategies, ethical challenges and other practical production issues.

Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of CMDP 6500 (minimum grade C-).
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 6650 (5) Documentary MFA Thesis Seminar II

Explores editing and post-production of the MFA thesis project. Emphasizes aesthetic choices (structure, narration and music), distribution, contracts and audience.

Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of CMDP 6600 (minimum grade C-).
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 6841 (1-3) Independent Study

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 6871 (3) Special Topics

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 15.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

CMDP 7100 (3) Historical Overview of Media Arts and Technology

Explores a survey of historical trends in art and technology from the Renaissance to the contemporary global scene. Students investigate how artistic disciplines inform one another and how parallel developments in technology have played a significant role in the history of the arts. This course locates media arts within this broader historical context.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 7150 (3) Theoretical Overview of Media Arts and Technology

Surveys major theories of art, culture and technology formulated by both practitioners and theoreticians and examines conversations among technology studies, media theory and artistic practice. Students will investigate a variety of approaches, locating media arts within a broad range of theoretical perspectives.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 7200 (3) Research and Methodologies I

Introduces students to modalities of research and methodological practices in the context of media arts and technology. Strategies from a variety of academic disciplines will be critically engaged to provide a foundation for future work.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 7300 (3) Theories of the Avant-Garde

Explores various manifestations of avant-garde and experimental literature, art and media performance in the 20th century such as Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, Theatre of the Absurd, the Situationists, Fluxus, Oulipo and others. Media forms analyzed will include manifestos, sound poetry, theatre, the novel, happenings, cinema, installation and other forms of historical avant-garde art practices.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 7400 (3) Contemporary Practices

Provides students with access to contemporary practices and discourses in media art and culture. The class engages professional practitioners through performances, field work and workshop encounters that may be open to the public. Students research, coordinate and present on biweekly guest presentations, with alternating weeks for reflection and discussion. Readings complement guest presentations.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 7450 (3) Comprehensive Exam Seminar

Designed in a seminar format, this course reviews literature and concepts in all prior coursework and guides studies in their preparation for comprehensive exams. All ETMAP students must demonstrate their understanding of the fundamental concepts explored and developed in prior coursework in relation to individual areas of research.

Requisites: Requires prerequisites of CMDP 7100, CMDP 7200, CMDP 7300, and 6 credit hours of CMDP 7500 (all with a minimum grade of C-).
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 7500 (3) Production Methods I

Provides technical resources for students to work with emergent technologies in a media arts context. This is a team-taught, practice-based course addressing various production methods, from moving image and video to web and network media to computational media.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 7560 (3) Emergent Technologies: Theory and Practice

Explores how discreet modalities of media arts practices and their underpinning theoretical perspectives inform each other through the use of technology. Students investigate and develop theoretical perspectives on the exchange between art, technology and theory within their own research and the broader context of the contemporary social and cultural landscape.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 7841 (1-9) Independent Study

Independent Study

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

CMDP 7871 (3) Special Topics

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 15.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

CMDP 8100 (3) Dissertation Development

Designed in a seminar format, this course guides students through the development of a practice-based dissertation in which constant critical thinking is required. Through intensive workshopping and close reading, this class guides students from the dissertation proposal to the opening stages of tangible, original research.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 8500 (3) Collaborative Studio Practice I

Explores approaches to media arts collaboration across disciplines. Through technological and social systems, students investigate the role of the artist. In analyzing contemporary work in an ongoing cycle of discussion, reading and art practice, students will respond to projects, texts and media in form of creative practice.

Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of CMDP 7450 (minimum grade C-).
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 8600 (1-6) Independent Studio Critique

Work under faculty supervision with individual and group critiques focusing on the development of a practice-based dissertation. Designed to be taken in conjunction with CMDP 8100.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

CMDP 8991 (1-10) Doctoral Dissertation

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 40.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.