MS Thesis In Digital Media

NYU Tandon School of Engineering

Technology, Culture and Society

Integrated Digital Media

Fall 2018 • 3 credit hrs

Instructor: Elizabeth Henaff, ehenaff@nyu.edu

Location: Tuesday 6-8:50 PM • MAGNET 811

Office hours: Tuesdays 5-5:30pm, Wednesdays 2pm-5pm MAGNET 874

Schedule office hours slot here

Prerequisite: DM-GY 9963 MS Pre-Thesis in Digital Media: Research Methods

Welcome to MS Thesis In Digital Media

This is the second semester of a two-semester sequence culminating in a thesis project, a thesis paper, thesis website, and a thesis defense, accomplished through a combination of questioning, researching, building/making, writing, iterating, and presenting.

PROGRAM GOALS

The following IDM program goals are reinforced within this course. At a graduate level, students will:

  • develop conceptual thinking skills to generate ideas and content in order to solve problems or create opportunities.
    • Students will develop a research and studio practice through inquiry and iteration.
  • develop technical skills to realize their ideas.
    • Students will understand and utilize tools and technology, while adapting to constantly changing technological paradigms by learning how to learn.
  • Students will be able to integrate/interface different technologies within a technological ecosystem.
    • develop critical thinking skills that will allow them to analyze and position their work within cultural, historic, aesthetic, economic, and technological contexts.
  • gain knowledge of professional practices and organizations by developing their verbal, visual, and written communication for documentation and presentation, exhibition and promotion, networking, and career preparation.

COURSE GOALS

This course will help students deeply:

  • frame a question
  • research
  • build/make
  • write
  • iterate
  • present

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of the course, students will be able to develop, complete, and document a thesis that is meaningful and carefully crafted to be used for professional purposes (employment, gallery shows, funding, starting a business, etc.).

COURSE STRUCTURE

Students are expected to be on time for all meetings, critiques, and presentations. Due to the number of students in this class, you will be assigned to group A or B for individual meetings and/or presentation schedules.

This class will consist of

  • Workshops
  • Group Discussion
  • Individual Meetings
  • In-class Peer Critiques
  • Project Presentations and Critique
  • Mock Thesis Defenses and Critique
  • Thesis Defense

COMMUNICATING WITH THE PROFESSOR OUTSIDE OF CLASS

  • If the question is of general nature about the class, assignements, or scheduling, post to the class Slack channel (see above for instructions on how to sign up)
  • EMAIL ME - however if your email is more than a paragraph we should probably be meeting in person.
  • Talk to me in person directly after class, during your status meeting, come by office hours (Wednesdays 3-5pm) or set up an appointment about issues and problems. DO NOT message long conversations.

EVALUATION & GRADING

QUANTITATIVE GRADING OVERVIEW
  • 50% Thesis Defense, Thesis Paper, Thesis Project
  • 10% Archive Deliverables
  • 10% Weekly Progress: Project Milestones on Thesis Process Website
  • 10% Proposal presentation
  • 10% Contextual Review/Methodology
  • 10% Midterm Demo Presentation
QUALITATIVE GRADING OVERVIEW

You will be judged on the quality, iteration, completion, and presentation of your thesis.

A. Excellent (90-100)

Your performance and attendance has been of the highest level, showing sustained excellence in meeting course responsibilities. Your thesis clearly differentiates itself from other work. Your thesis has memorable impact, and pursues concepts and techniques above and beyond average goals. The ideas behind your thesis are original, thoughtful and/or imaginative. Spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors are non-existent. Your thesis demonstrates your ability to think critically and work independently. Your thesis also demonstrates the use of strong methods and process.

B. Very Good / Good (80-89)

Your performance and attendance has been good, though not of the highest level. Your thesis is better than average and shows extra effort. The impact of your thesis is good, and demonstrates the utilization of the iterative process. Your thesis employs above average craft and attention to detail.

C. Satisfactory (70-79)

Your performance and attendance has been adequate, satisfactorily meeting the course requirements. Average and competent, your thesis has acceptable levels of impact and conceptual development. The content of your thesis is sufficiently developed, but it lacks thoughtful, original, and imaginative resolution and/or attention to detail and craft. Your thesis employs process, but does not demonstrate notable solutions.

D. Poor; Below Average (60-69)

Your performance and attendance has been less than adequate. Your thesis is lacking in many or most areas that show any understanding of the research, design, and/or prototyping phase(s). The impact of your thesis is weak with unsound, unoriginal, or unimaginative thinking. Problems may include lack of interest, procrastination, poor planning and/or poor craft.

F. Unacceptable (59 & Below)

The performance & attendance of the student has not met course requirements. Your thesis shows no overall understanding of the research, design, and/or prototyping phase(s) on many levels or either a severe lack of interest.

Attendance and Assignments
  • Attendance is mandatory during project critiques, individual status meetings, and every student’s end of semester public presentations. If you miss an individual status meeting, it is your responsibility to exchange a time with a fellow classmate.
  • Unexcused absences will affect your grade. One absence is allowed; after that, your final, overall, numerical grade will drop by 5 percent (1/2 a grade point (e.g. A to an A-)) for each additional absence.
  • Late assignments will be penalized by a 1/2 grade point for each day past assignment due date
  • Be on Time. Tardiness will affect your grade. For every 15 minutes of tardiness, your final, numerical grade will drop by 0.625 percent
  • Contact the professor at least 24h in advance by email if you will not be in class.
  • absence to observe religious holidays will not be penalized, however the students should give prior notice as described above.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

Please review NYU’s School of Engineering’s academic dishonesty policy in its entirety.

All work for this class must be your own and specific to this semester. Any work recycled from other classes or from another, non-original source will be rejected with serious implications for the student. Plagiarism, knowingly representing the words, media, or ideas of another as one’s own work in any academic exercise, is absolutely unacceptable. Any student who commits plagiarism must re-do the assignment for a grade no higher than a D. D is also the highest possible course grade for any student who commits plagiarism. Please use the MLA or Chicago Manual of Style for citing and documenting source material.

You MUST have complete rights of use to any and all materials which appear in your thesis project. This includes images, illustrations, audio etc. The source of any materials NOT created by you MUST be properly cited. Please remember that you can collaborate with other students to create your own media or contact the authors of your media selections for rights. I strongly encourage you to use original media for your thesis project, however should you absolutely require to use stock images, video, etc., you will need to provide a PDF of all source files and the usage rights you have purchased/negotiated or whether it is creative commons or copyright free.

ACADEMIC ACCOMMODATIONS

If you are student with a disability who is requesting accommodations, please contact New York University’s Moses Center for Students with Disabilities at 212-998-4980 or mosescsd@nyu.edu. You must be registered with CSD to receive accommodations. Information about the Moses Center can be found athttp://www.nyu.edu/csd. The Moses Center is located at 726 Broadway on the 2nd floor.