COMP 0050 / FMS-0094 / ILVS Special Topics: Game Design – Fall 2018 / Spring 2019
COMP 0177 Visualization – Fall 2018 / Spring 2019
DIG 0007 Cinematic 3D – Fall 2018
DIG 0150 Virtual Reality – Fall 2018
ENV 0170 Environmental Data Visualization – Fall 2018
GRAC 0064 Visualizing Information – Fall 2018 / Spring 2019
NUTR 0390 Data Visualization, Infographics & Communication – Spring 2019
UEP 0294 Data Science for Urban Sustainability – Spring 2019
NUT 0377 Translating Nutrition Evidence into Multimedia for the Public – Fall 2019
DATA 0220 Communicating with Data – Spring 2020
DATA 0202A Introduction to Visualization – Spring 2020 

COMP 0050 / FMS-0094 / ILVS Special Topics: Game Design
Instructor: Jason wiser
Fall 2018 / Spring 2019

Game Development provides a rich opportunity to learn about software development methodologies such as managing teamwork, project scope, and user experience. In this course students will learn to develop fun and meaningful interactive experiences using paper and digital prototyping, including the use of programming, art, and audio production software. Comp 15 recommended.

Upon successful completion of this team-based course students will be able to use computer programs and both paper and computer production pipelines to bring a game from design and planning through production to a final playable product.

COMP 0177 Visualization
Instructor: Megan Monroe
Fall 2018 / Spring 2019

Visualization as a tool for data analysis, recall, inference, and decision-making. Tools for visual description and presentation. Principles of effective visualization, including data-visual mapping, interaction techniques, color theory, cognitive and perceptual psychology, and human factors of visual depictions of data. Prerequisite: Computer Science 15 and 61, or permission of instructor.

DIG 0007 Cinematic 3D
Instructor: Kurt Ralske
Fall 2018

Cinematic 3D is hybrid studio/seminar course focused on creating 3D video for fine art and/or commercial/practical purposes. Using Maxon Cinema4D and other advanced imaging software, students will learn how to combine custom-constructed 3D elements with existing video, to create realistic or fantastical story-spaces. Alongside this practical creative work, there will be a survey of film theory concepts (representation, signification, identification, as defined in structuralism, semiotics, and psychoanalysis), which will suggest approaches to students’ creative work. Final projects may take the form of narrative, non-narrative, or documentary videos; fine art installations; or data visualizations or other information-driven forms. Non-SMFA students will receive a letter grade.

DIG 0150 Virtual Reality
Instructor: Kurt Ralske
Fall 2018

This hybrid studio/seminar class focuses on the practice and theory of creating Virtual Reality environments in fine art, design, and commercial contexts. Using software for real-time rendering (Unity3D) and software for modeling (SketchUp, Cinema4D), students construct immersive interactive audio-visual environments to be viewed with VR hardware (Google Cardboard, HTC Vive, Oculus RiU). Alongside the creative work of building their own custom VR projects, the will class will discuss the history of the philosophical, aesthetic, and political dimensions of mimeNc representation (the building of image-worlds), as theorized by Plato, Samuel Coleridge, Friedrich Nietzsche, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Eric Auerbach, Theodor Adorno, Guy Debord, Jonathan Crary, Michael Taussig, and Homi Bhabha. This course is appropriate for students who have some experience with video, and who are comfortable engaging with critical concepts. If any questions, please contact the instructor. Non-SMFA students will receive a letter grade.

ENV 0170 Environmental Data Visualization
Instructor: Kyle M Monahan
Fall 2018

Provides skills in data management, study design, statistical analysis, and data visualization that are critical for those working in environmental fields through hands-on experience working with environmental datasets. Environmental data are unique in that they are often spatial in nature, containing multiple variables that interact. These types of data require a careful approach to analysis and visualization. Topics covered include best practices in data access and storage, data analysis and interpretation, and data visualization for relevant stakeholders. Prerequisite: An introductory statistics course.

GRAC OO64 Visualizing Information
Instructor: Charles Gibbons
Fall 2018 / Spring 2019

Our lives are full of facts we need to sift through in order to make sense of the world. Which T line gets me to South Station? What do my taxes really pay for? Frequently we need to draw connections between seemingly unrelated factors, and information design makes those relationships visible. By exploring the core principles of information design and putting them into practice, this course will explore ways a picture really can be worth a thousand words. Throughout, we’ll emphasize the hallmarks of excellence in information graphics: clarity, precision, and efficiency. Level: all levels (beginner to advanced). This course is not open to BFA or MFA students

NUTR 0390 Data Visualization, Infographics & Communication
Instructor: Elena Naumova, Corby Kummer
Spring 2019

This course provides students with tools and techniques to analyze and critique current forms of data visualization in both public media and research literature; and to construct high quality graphical displays with a keen understanding of the ethical challenges and the role of communication. Using research data provided by the instructor, students will build a portfolio of graphical displays and descriptions intended for both scientific journals and popular media. Emphasis is on: a) developing a conceptual understanding of the statistical context that surrounds graphical displays; b) critically evaluating graphical displays from a broad range of disciplines; and c) building effective graphical displays for intended audiences. Prerequisite: NUTR 0206 or NUTR 0207 or equivalent.

UEP 0294 Data Science for Urban Sustainability
Instructor: Shan Jiang
Spring 2019

NUTR-0377 / NUTR-0497 Translating Nutrition Evidence into Multimedia for the Public

Instructor: Corby Kummer

Fall 2019

DATA 0220 Communicating with Data
Instructor: TBD
Spring 2020

DATA 0202A Introduction to Visualization
Instructor: TBD
Spring 2020