Ontario College of Art & Design

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COURSES

ADVR 6A01 Strategy I: Strategy & Consumer Insights
Strategy is the foundation for sound business execution. In the marketing and communications business, professionals must understand how business strategy translates into marketing, communication and brand strategy. This course focuses on how to interpret and develop consumer insights through research and analysis. Students design research plans and methodologies and apply the consumer insights to develop communication strategies and briefing documents. The class will also concentrate on how to formulate a consumer-oriented marketing strategy. Students use case studies to develop strategies for analyzing business problems and opportunities. Students apply these strategies in class projects in designing marketing communication plans and brand strategies. Consumer insights are the foundation for relevant and meaningful marketing strategies and communication briefs. Marketing professionals need to have a deep understanding of consumer behaviour to direct marketing campaigns with impact.

ADVR 6A02 Strategy II: Integrated Strategic Thinking

This course builds upon the tenants of strategy and consumer insights introduced in Strategy I. Today, marketing is a combination of art and science. Integrated Strategic Thinking—combining left and right brain activities—is the skill that is required to create cohesive marketing and communication plans that combine business analysis, strategy, consumer insight, contact opportunity and conceptual ideas. The communication strategies and briefs that are developed in this class will be used as the basis for creative development in the course entitled: New Media l: Beyond Traditional Advertising.

ADVR 6A03 Problem Solving Systems I: Agency Approaches
This class will explore the pertinent theory, history and application of advertising processes with an emphasis on creative problem solving. In addition to reading, lectures and studio projects, students will have a number of live case history presentations by leading advertising professionals that will include and analysis of each agency’s particular system for creative problem solving. In addition, students will work as teams on a group project that will be presented on the last day of class. This course will lay the foundation for Problem Solving Systems ll and professors from both courses will evaluate the final project.

ADVR 6A04 Problem Solving Systems II: Client Perspectives
In most undergraduate design programs in advertising, clients are removed largely from the creative process. The same is true at many traditional advertising agencies. However, regardless of whether they are in the banking, retailing or packaged goods business, each client must have a clear vision of their brand and how to position and communicate it most effectively through all levels of marketing. Building on Problem Solving Systems I, students in this course will look at the brand from the client’s perspective and will analyze the role, process and issues that brand managers face in developing successful brand communications platforms. This understanding is critical to advertising agencies in today’s market where more emphasis is placed on creative problem solving that is not driven strictly by media.

ADVR 6A05 Media I: Beyond Traditional Advertising
Traditional advertising thinking and conventional media choices are no longer sufficient tools for solving marketing problems. Advertising concepts are no longer tied to media but rather the concepts that drive the media. Regardless of this fact, ad agencies have been slow to break free of the status quo of traditional media-specific campaigns. Advertising as content rather than an interruption to content is the underlying notion that drives the focus of this course. The development of media-neutral ideas that demonstrate consumer understanding and employ an appropriate and wide range of tools, including advertising, promotion, activation and PR, are the primary objectives. The ideas created in this class will be based on the briefs developed in Strategy II--Integrated Strategic Thinking.

ADVR 6A06 Media II: Embracing Technology
Building on the media-neutral creative problem solving that was explored in Media I, this course exposes students to the various types of new media in advertising. Changes in this constantly evolving area are influenced by three elements: technological advances and constraints, business goals and trends, and consumer needs and expectations. Successful brand positions and advertising campaigns result from a thorough understanding and careful balancing of these three elements. Where appropriate, students will identify unusual approaches and explore alternative media solutions in designing innovative advertising campaigns. They will examine the strengths and weaknesses, potential impacts and pitfalls related to new media. This course enables students to explore, analyze and create distinctive advertising campaigns that use new media in innovative ways to consumers and achieve business goals.

ADVR 6A07 Analysis of Modern Global Advertising
With the pressure on most agencies to get the work out, many agencies and the people within them have little time to study and keep up with the latest national trends in advertising, much less the latest global trends. This course will help students acquire the skills and the resources needed to track and analyze innovations in global advertising and to create and deploy a predictive model that can be used routinely to raise the bar in the creation and development of their own advertising campaigns.

ADVR 6A08 Communicating With Short Films
Building on the study of the various ways in which to reach today’s target audience, the short film genre—made famous by BMW—clearly offers advertisers a dramatic and refreshing way to reach the target audience through web and cinema advertising, along with new media as they become available. This course will analyze and study the short film genre to help inform advertisers of its enormous potential for innovative advertising campaigns.

ADVR 6A09 Inventive Thinking and New Products
As in the other courses in the curriculum, this course requires students to think beyond the traditional ways of problem solving as it applies to new products. In the world of advertising and marketing, clients usually invent new products and then take their ideas to advertising agencies that introduce the new product through the appropriate media advertising campaign. In this class, students will work in teams comprised of a writer, art director, planner and client, and will analyze a particular product category and invent a new product or line extension in that category as a working creative team that benefits from the perspective of each team member. Students will be required to write a strategy statement, name the product and make a formal presentation of the final concept at the last class meeting.

ADVR 6A10 Presenting Like a Master
In this course, students combine what they were taught in previous courses and learn how to more effectively present and sell their ideas to a critical audience, including the creative director, the head of account management and the client. A lot of great advertising concepts never get produced because the agency is not able to sell the idea to the client. In this class, students will study the various components that make for great presentations, including the personal performances of the “actors” involved in the presentation, the logic and the quality of the writing, in addition to the appropriate use of audio/video to enhance their presentations. A major focus will be recognizing how to put the right team members in the right roles. Student presentations will be videotaped for critique.

ADVR 6B01 Business Ethics & Sustainability
As future leaders in the advertising industry, students need to think about some of the large social, ethical and economic issues that influence everyday decisions in the business world. This class will focus on a number of famous cases in business ethics. In addition, attention will be paid to the responsibility advertisers have to promote socially responsible programs having to do with sustainability. Global drivers such as climate, environment, population growth and social inequity are redefining the competitive landscape and are demanding higher levels of attention, transparency and social responsibility from corporate entities. Students will learn the importance of this kind of thinking to their role as leaders in tomorrow’s industry.

ADVR 6D01 Product Brand Development
While much is said about branding, not much is known about the system for developing it. Building on the knowledge from previous courses, students will carefully analyze and understand that the core of each brand includes descriptive, verbal (messages), visual (design) and emotional (image world and ads) elements that define how a product or service will be perceived in the market place. The objective of this course is to analyze the multi-step process that defines and develops these descriptors. In-depth research gives students a profound understanding of the client and its corporate architecture, the competition and the customer, which is essential to beginning the strategic process. The success of a brand is dependent upon its unique imagery, quality and its emotional content. The road map for this success is the brand book that defines the brand essence, communication strategy, design and advertising.

ADVR 6D02 Advertising for the Public Good
This is an independent study course where teams work off-campus and research a real world social or cultural issue that currently exists within a community. Teams will be responsible for identifying and contacting the appropriate client, conducting an in-depth study of the market place, dissecting the data and creating a comprehensive marketing plan and advertising strategy. Teams will then embark on the creation and execution of a multimedia advertising campaign that will address the problems identified in the strategy. Following that, teams will present their strategy and advertising campaigns to the client for final approval and execution.

CADN 6B01 Methods and Theory in Art History
This course charts out the range of methodological strategies used by art historians to analyze, interpret and critique works of art. While formal, stylistic and iconographic methods are traditionally central to art historical practice, diverse theoretical perspectives and specialized terminologies have been developed in recent decades that complexify the art historical enterprise. Approaches to be discussed include Marxism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, cultural studies, feminism and post-colonialism. One objective of this course is to assist students in identifying theories and methods that are pertinent to their own research interests.

CADN 6B02 Contemporary Art Theory
This course focuses on the major theories and issues that have shaped the analysis of contemporary art since the 1980s. Examining key writings by theorists and historians of the last 25 years, discussions will cover the debates and shifts in perception that have contributed to recent developments in art theory and praxis.

CADN 6B03 Canadian Art, Design and New Media Art History
This course addresses contemporary artistic, new media art or architectural/design practices in Canada. Depending on the instructor’s specialization, the course may analyze case studies of particular artists, designers or architects; specific art and design scenes in the country’s regions and metropolitan centres; Canadian arts institutions, policies and representation in international projects; criticism and theory; and issues such as nationalism, sovereignty and multiculturalism.

CADN 6B05 Contemporary Indigenous Art, Design and New Media Art History
This course will survey pioneering and contemporary work by Aboriginal artists, new media art practitioners, or architects/designers. The rich heritage of First Nations’ culture continues as artists and designers translate traditional values and approaches into modern and postmodern contexts. Such work serves multiple functions: asserting Aboriginal voices and methodologies, critiquing Western aesthetics and politics, and forging alternative theories and cultural analyses.

CADN 6B07 Special Topic Seminar
Depending on the instructor’s specialization, this course engages with core and visiting faculty’s interests in the current debates and controversies affecting art history, the art world and its institutions.

CADN 6B09 MRP/Thesis Proposal Writing
Under the guidance of the Principal Supervisor, students will work on and complete their proposals for a major research paper or thesis.

CADN 6C01 Writing and Professional Practices [updated March 27, 2012]
This workshop is designed to assist students during the writing of their MRP or thesis. Discussions will cover the structure and format of MRPs and theses, research practices, and guidelines for good writing. Other topics include writing grant applications, presenting at conferences, and publishing in academic venues. The course will also oversee the organization of the CADN Graduate Student Conference.

CADN 6C02 MRP/Thesis Research
This is a directed study course to pursue research and reading in connection with the individual student’s major research paper or thesis project.

CADN 6D01 Major Research Paper Writing
Under the guidance of the Principal Advisor, students will work on and complete their major research paper.

CADN 6E01 Thesis Writing
Under the guidance of the Principal Advisor, students will work on and complete their thesis.

CRCP 6B01 History and Theory of Exhibitions
Surveying the diverse means by which art and design have been experienced since the 18th century, this course investigates exhibitions in their social, historical and theoretical contexts. Besides covering sites such as salons, galleries, museums and artist-generated alternatives, discussions also address how the postmodern interest in design, performance, digital media and site-specific work reconceives the notion of exhibition.

CRCP 6B02 Criticism and Critical Writing
The subject of this course is critical writing in a broad sense. Critical writing can be seen as a large and flexible form that accompanies art and design’s production and public reception. This broad view will enable the seminar to examine many types of texts that deal with art and design theory, criticism, ficto-criticism, curatorial statements and texts as artworks, as well as interviews (which though spoken, routinely appear in print). A central question for the seminar will be the study of whether (or how) different positions in the field of art, design, curator, critic, artist, designer, etc. create different kinds of writing.

CRCP 6B04 Thesis Proposal
This course will support the research and formulation of thesis proposals and finalize the direction of students into either the Criticism or the Curatorial stream. Thesis proposals are formulated over the summer term in consultation with the student's Principal Advisor, and are due Sept 1st. Once they have determined their stream, students will clarify their thesis topic, research questions, objectives, theoretical frameworks and methodologies. If students are developing a Thesis Exhibition they will also begin to work on developing the context, budget and location of their Thesis exhibition plans. The evaluation for the course will focus on the final approval of thesis proposal and will be a pass/fail evaluation.

CRCP 6B05 Issues in Criticism and Curatorial Studies
This seminar examines the ongoing debates circulating within, and pertinent to, contemporary criticism and curating. The course addresses the implications for criticism and curatorial practice through analysis of the theoretical formations and shifting context of prominent issues (e.g., representation, gender, sexuality, difference, institutional power, censorship, globalization and media culture).

CRCP 6B06 Introduction to Criticism and Curatorial Studies
This introductory seminar, through readings and discussions, will introduce students to the major critical texts, theories and debates in the burgeoning international field of contemporary curatorial studies and criticism. Simultaneously throughout the seminar, students will attend public exhibitions, screenings, lectures, performances and events in Toronto’s visual art and design worlds. This ongoing examination of contemporary art and design practices within public culture will provide students with an eclectic and critical mapping of the layers and intersections of the visual arts, media and design in relation to their varied publics, audiences, markets, the mass media and the scholarly community.

CRCP 6B07 Thesis Workshop [updated March 27, 2012]
This course is offered as a series of thesis workshops. Students will convene as a group to present, review, and discuss their thesis work as a form of peer review. The workshops will be scheduled in January/February. The course is pass/fail.

CRCP 6B08 Issues in Exhibitions, Theory and Practice
This seminar will explore various aspects of exhibition practices and theory, while focusing on a particular aspect of contemporary exhibitionary practices. Potential topics range from curatorial interventions within the gallery and institutions of art; exhibition practices related to new media, digital and electronic arts; photography and its contemporary manifestations; and the experiences of working in the public realm outside of traditional galleries and museums, such as public art, social-relational aesthetics, and community art practices. The seminar will include lectures, readings, case studies and student presentations that are intended to raise issues and engage debate about contemporary exhibition practices and account for theoretical perspectives and historical context.

CRCP 6C01 Individual Research and Reading
This is a directed study course to pursue research and reading in connection with each student’s thesis project or critical essay, working with their Principal Advisor.

CRCP 6C02 Inside Curatorial Practice [updated March 27, 2012]
This course interrogates contemporary Canadian curatorial practices. As much concerned with critical methodologies as with practical realities, the course will introduce students to institutional and independent curatorial environments. Students will meet with staff and conduct independent research within large and small-scale institutions, university art galleries, private collections, artist-run, independent, and commercial galleries. The emphasis will be on critical original research realized through one or more public events.

CRCP 6E01 Thesis: Exhibition and Critical Essay
Students in the curatorial stream will be required to conceptualize and curate a public project and write a curatorial essay, which should be of publishable quality, and complete an internal exhibition report. The curatorial project may be in the form of an exhibition, a public installation, a public event, a performance, a website, etc. In addition, students may wish to produce a catalogue that includes the curatorial essay, list of works, illustrations, etc. to accompany the curatorial project.

CRCP 6E02 Thesis: Criticism Thesis
Students in the criticism stream will produce a criticism thesis in the form of one long sustained essay with chapters on a particular subject, or three shorter essays on a theme of a similar combined length. The essay(s) should include a critical literature overview, a chapter on methodology and a bibliography. The criticism essay(s) should demonstrate sustained research and critical argument, as well as an awareness of the larger field of critical inquiry. The essay(s) should indicate some level of primary research and investigation either through interviews, exhibition visits, site visits, studio visits, etc. The critical essay(s) can focus on art, design or media criticism as a subject in its own right or as a critical analysis of an art object, design object, event, performance, website, etc.

DIGF 6B01 Digital Design and Creation Methods
This course surveys the wide range of design and creation methods for digital media. It addresses the relevance of questions, tools, and techniques to understand a digitally mediated culture, with references to social sciences, empirical study, cognitive processes, qualitative and quantitative measurement. This course integrates the specialist methodologies of digital media into the wider fields of design, art and computation, to enhance the level of cross-disciplinary understanding of the field and prepare students for work on their projects and prototypes.

DIGF 6B02 Creation and Computation
This course provides an introduction and grounding in current and emerging technologies in the realm of digital media. It employs a hands-on, skills-based approach. Students gain a strong foundation in the basics of programming, physical computing, screen-based computation, networking and connectivity. Specific topics are tailored to the interests of the class. Students will acquire the general computational literacy required to embark on sophisticated projects, prototypes and works in digital media. This course includes the following units of study: 1) foundation in programming basics; 2) screen-based computation (media manipulation), animation, image compositing; 3) data visualization; 4) computing for mobile and social media.

DIGF 6B03 Digital Projects Studio/Seminar
Students acquire the skills required for realizing digital media projects, prototypes and production through a combination of directed studio work, seminars, case studies, guest lectures, peer meetings and critiques. Through hands-on workshops and project work, students will develop their focus in a particular specialty area of digital media. Areas of focus include: digital media business and innovation; digital media art and entertainment; mobile and social media; data visualization; and digital games. An incoming portfolio project show or demonstration, and a fully realized collaborative digital media project in the chosen area of specialization, are outcomes of this course.

DIGF 6B04 Business Creation, Innovation, and Leadership
This course will focus on business creation, innovation, project management and leadership alongside intellectual property (IP) issues and best practices within the context of digital media and IT. Unifying discourses, including design thinking, use case modelling, and user scenarios have evolved to provide common, user-centred perspectives for multifaceted team-based work. The course introduces strategies and practical tools, methods and perspectives for cultivating awareness of working styles, catalyzing team interactions, and effective project outcomes. Students will develop and apply course concepts in situ, working in teams to produce an array of collaborative projects on a variety of digital media platforms.

DIGF 6B05 Graduate Seminar
Students meet weekly to present, discuss and analyze theoretical and critical ideas that inform their methodologies and digital research projects. Additional focus is placed on the epistemologies of digital media production. Student presentations are supported by the analysis of relevant texts, examples and case studies, and supplemented by visiting guest speakers. The Thesis Proposal and Thesis Colloquium are outcomes of this course.

DIGF 6B06 Advanced Research and Practice
Students pursue advanced thesis work through individual research, reading, writing and practice that is supported by a Principal Advisor and Graduate Committee who have expertise in the student’s degree stream and particular area of special focus in digital media. This advanced research creation course supports the development of the graduate thesis.

DIGF 6B07 Data Visualization
This course introduces graduate students to the growing field of visualization in the age of computerization. Our knowledge society relies on communication that is increasingly visual in art, design and media, while visual imagery is all-encompassing in engineering, science, education, medicine, humanities and social sciences. Through the examination of case studies from 2D through 3D to 4D, students will develop skills and creative tools for visual cognition. This course will consider both data and information visualization and techniques, which extrapolate from various data sources, alongside the development of visual tools, to communicate complex networks and large data sets.

DIGF 6B08 Digital Games
Digital games are an increasingly significant cultural force. This course connects contemporary game design theory and the practice of game-making with the ambition of building functional innovative game design concepts. Students will iteratively design, visualize, develop, document and test unique game concepts to a final proof of concept stage. Developing skills from paper prototyping, game modelling and game level design, through to storyboarding, asset creation, character design and animation, this course provides a solid foundation in game design methodologies both within and beyond gaming arts and culture, and the digital game industry.

DIGF 6B09 Digital Networks
Designing technologies and applications for digital communication requires an understanding of networks. The increasing fragmentation of cultural structures and the rise of connectivity as a new paradigm, in areas ranging from international finance to gaming, is pervasive. The ascendance of mesh networks, cloud computing and networked databases as new cultural forms begins to blur the boundaries between art and reality, representation and simulation, and creates new social networks for interactive engagement. Through readings and class discussions, case studies, guest lectures, and a summative project, students gain an understanding of network topologies and protocols including network function and underlying dynamics.

DIGF 6B10 Mobile and Social Media
This course explores the rise of mobile, locative and social media and communication, for a variety of mobile platforms and diverse audiences, through a series of contemporary case studies and analysis of media, platform, location, message, audience reception, the interrelationships between interface, device, networks and applications, and emerging technical and social issues that will influence the future of mobile design. Students will engage in research, conceptualization, user interaction studies, prototype development and testing to prepare for commercialization. Design for ubiquitous, networked, mobile/social applications, devices, and experiences are explored through collaborative culminating mobile projects.

DIGF 6B11 Ubiquitous Computing
This course explores how several key emerging paradigms in interactive digital technology can be applied to interactive art, design and new media. Building on the skills developed in Creation and Computation, this course focuses on the installation, coding and configuration required to use these technologies creatively, while acknowledging the importance of knowing one's tools by exploring how they work from human and systems-centric perspectives. Individual coding assignments will give hands-on exposure to current tools and platforms, and the class will work collaboratively to support thesis work in a substantial and innovative interactive digital media project.

DIGF 6B12 Digital Media History, Theory, Critics
This course will commence with an examination and mapping of the historical precedents of digital media, taking into consideration the social, cultural and political contexts of its emergence. Students will identify major significant movements, which rapidly coincided with the shift from analog to digital culture. In digital media, conceptual and theoretical trends tend to respond to technical developments. Accordingly this course will cover topics of digital reality, simulation and virtuality; interactivity and agency; media archaeology and migration; subjectivity, race, gender, and online identity; the politics of cyberculture; indigenous interventions; globalization and the political economy of digital media.

DIGF 6B13 Digital Sketching and Sketch-based Interfaces: Interaction, Modeling and Perception
Sketch-based interfaces are often touted as a “natural” approach to interactive design. While sketching is a promising medium of visual communication, there are a number of inherent limitations that make the leap from 2D sketching to 3D visual concepts challenging. This course will read papers and present results on various aspects of a sketch-based modeling pipeline: gesture drawing, creation, processing and filtering of strokes to create the metaphor of a virtual 2D sketchbook, understanding of human limitations in perceiving or drawing accurate 2D projections of imagined 3D shapes, techniques and challenges of digital painting, and approaches that facilitate the leap from 2D sketches to 3D models.

DIGF 6C01 Intensive: Project and Prototyping Spring Institute with the Canadian Film Centre Media Lab
Working in small teams, students will develop a collaborative capstone digital project, or prototype in their chosen specialty area of digital media focus, with analytical and practical feedback from faculty and industry mentors at OCAD U and the CFC Media Lab. The outcome of this intensive residential course will be the development of a digital media concept throughout an entire production cycle from ideation, concept, research, project planning, design, iterative prototyping and final working prototype through to audience identification, competitive landscape that culminates with a public presentation.

DIGF 6E01 Digital Futures MDes/MFA Thesis
This is the culminating work of the Master of Digital Futures Degree. The Master’s thesis for the MFA or MDes degrees comprises two important components: a) the central body of digital work that clearly demonstrates the student’s advanced ability to create a digital media design, computation, or artwork, towards the achievement of a stated goal or solution; and b) the supporting paper, which elaborates in some depth the theoretical underpinnings of the project, articulates clearly and lucidly the objectives and the process undertaken, and explains in detail the digital practice and outcome.

DIGF 6E02 Digital Futures MA Thesis
This is the culminating work of the Master of Digital Futures Degree. The central element of the MA thesis is the written thesis that demonstrates substantial research and explication of an original idea or solution in digital media. The thesis is based on a strong, well-articulated theoretical perspective or methodology that highlights the innovative challenges of the project, which should also include discussion of the process involved in developing the critical framework or methodology, challenges, and benefits. An original digital media work accompanies and supports or illustrates the written thesis.

GGRA 5B01 Florence Graduate Studio Residency
This European campus residency offers a combination of facilitated and self-directed study approaches to learning. While in residence in Florence, students develop, continue or extend a body of research, studio and/or scholarly work, in a communal studio setting. Art history seminars and field trips will be a component of the program, taught by OCAD U's resident art historian.

GGRA 6B01 Contemporary Research Methods
A wide variety of methods inform research that takes as its object art, design or visual studies. This range expands further when it includes studio practice as well as scholarship. Moreover, a given method is inflected by the discipline within which it is applied. To sort through this array, this course surveys contemporary art and design research methods with reference to social sciences, humanities and cultural studies, and then uses this knowledge to focus on the unique issues facing students in critical, curating and interdisciplinary practices.

GGRA 6B03 Critical Theory Seminar
Based on a survey of critical theory, this graduate seminar provides a venue for the analysis of texts, issues and discourses that inform contemporary visual culture. Emphasis is placed on examining the role of critical theory in contemporary art, design, criticism and curating.

IAMD 6B01 Directed Interdisciplinary Studio/Academic Study I
Students acquire the skill sets of a secondary art, media, design and/or academic discipline through a combination of directed work, guest lectures, peer meetings and critiques within the context of this directed studio seminar. An incoming portfolio show, artist/designer/academic statement, and a proposal for ongoing interdisciplinary studio/academic study and research are outcomes of this course.

IAMD 6B02 Directed Interdisciplinary Studio/Academic Study II
Students will continue to the acquire skill sets and produce work in their chosen secondary art, media, or design discipline through a combination of directed work in the OCAD U studios and peer meetings within the context of the directed studio. Students may also continue to audit appropriate 200-400 level studio courses. The program of study for the Secondary Studio is determined and arranged by the individual student with the advice of their Principal Advisor. In addition, students interact weekly with their peers in formal and informal critique presentations.

IAMD 6B05 Special Focus: Interdisciplinary Research & Collaboration Workshop
Students acquire skills in interdisciplinary art, media or design through a combination of directed research, case study, peer evaluation, studio critiques, writing and practice. The course will support students’ development of thesis proposals and projects that prepare them for the work of the thesis in a directed studio environment. The course will provide opportunities for interaction with peers, faculty and visiting experts in a focused studio-seminar setting.

IAMD 6B06 Special Focus: Research & Innovation Lab
Students meet weekly for guided discussions on the theoretical and practical issues surrounding a common theme/interest. In this advanced graduate lab, students develop a methodological framework and context appropriate for their work. The course structures students’ research and production as an iterative and discursive process, supplemented by the analysis of relevant texts, visits from guest lecturers, class critiques and hands-on workshops.

IAMD 6B07 Graduate Seminar

During the final semester, students primarily work independently on completing their theses. The Graduate Seminar provides a weekly opportunity for students to meet for guided discussion of their work.

IAMD 6B08 Issues in Critical Theory
This course engages with core and visiting faculty’s interests and current research, practices and debates in critical theory, according to the instructor’s specialization.

IAMD 6B09 Thesis Proposal, Research, and Colloquium
This course will support the research process and formulation of thesis proposals and thesis colloquia presentations. Thesis proposals are formulated over the summer term in consultation with the student's Principal Advisor, and are due September 1. The Autumn Colloquium serves as a milestone for clarification of thesis background, research questions, objectives, theoretical frameworks and methodologies. Workshop meetings and discussions over the summer and fall will culminate in two distinct outcomes: the Thesis Proposal and the Thesis Colloquia Presentation. A discussion of the Colloquia presentations will give students an opportunity to reflect upon the experience and its affect on their thesis work, and will provide appropriate strategies for addressing the thesis project as it progresses.

IAMD 6C01 MFA/MDes Individual Studio
Participants pursue self-directed studio work in their primary area of concentration in consultation with their Principal Advisor. Students are expected to attend periodic lectures by visiting artists, designers, theorists and cultural critics, as well as to meet individually for studio critiques with the invited lecturers. Regular interactions and critiques with the student’s Principal Advisor and invited lecturers will be an important part of this course.

IAMD 6C04 MA Individual Academic Study
Students undertake directed study in their primary academic discipline with their Principal Advisor, integrating elements of their secondary discipline in the formulation of an interdisciplinary academic practice.

IAMD 6C05 Advanced Interdisciplinary Studio/Research
Students pursue self-directed work on the culminating creative project and or thesis research. Biweekly meetings with the Principal Advisor are required.

IAMD 6E01 MFA/MDes Thesis
This is the culminating work of the Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Art, Media and Design. The Master’s thesis for the MFA or MDes is comprised of two important components. The central component is a body of visual work that clearly demonstrates the student’s advanced ability to integrate elements of two disciplines toward the achievement of a stated goal or solution. The supporting paper or written thesis: a) elaborates in some depth the theoretical underpinnings of the project; b) articulates clearly and lucidly the objectives (problem to be solved) and the process undertaken (including false starts, unproductive tangents, and lessons learned); and c) explains in detail the end result or creative solution.

IAMD 6E02 MA Thesis
This is the culminating work of the Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Art, Media and Design. The Master’s thesis for the MA degree comprises the same two important elements as for the MFA or MDes degrees, but in reverse order of importance. The central element of the MA thesis is the written thesis that demonstrates substantial research and explication of an original creative idea or solution. The thesis is based on a strong, well-articulated theoretical perspective or methodology that highlights the interdisciplinary of the project (this should also include some discussion of the process involved in developing the critical framework or methodology, challenges and benefits). An original creative work accompanies and supports or illustrates the written thesis.

INCD 6B01 Unlearning and Questioning
This resident intensive will orient incoming students to the intellectual framing and approach to be employed in the Inclusive Design program. Students will: engage in critical analysis of prior learning and established assumptions regarding foundational knowledge and skills in design, development, policy, education, assessment, research and evaluation; critically examine explicit and implicit values and assumptions; practice educational engagement that encourages divergent thinking, constructive critique and attention to the full range of human diversity through a variety of learning experiences; engage in collaborative projects that develop inclusive practices and provide opportunities to reflect on common conventions that support or undermine inclusion and inclusive design; and meet mentors within a number of stakeholder groups.

INCD 6B02 Foundational Seminar in Inclusive Design
This seminar course will provide an introduction to the inclusive design of information and communication technologies and practices. The course will cover the theoretical background, advanced computational theory, critical analysis, underpinning social and economic motivations, design methods employed, controversies, as well as the major challenges or problems to be addressed. Students will engage in both a review and analysis of relevant research and the current state of the field combined with more experiential problem solving and the application of inclusive design ICT theory and methods introduced during the course. The course will equip students to engage in well-informed, in-depth critical analysis of inclusive design of information systems and services and to apply rudimentary inclusive design methods.

INCD 6B03 Inclusive Research Methods
Students will be engaged in a critical review of common research methods and statistical analysis techniques as they relate to the research challenges of inclusive design. Students will apply a variety of research methods to representative research problems. The course will include research methods that enable analysis beyond the norm and allow scrutiny of outliers and results at the margin. The role of the research participants, inclusive research practices involving human users, and constructive critique of research conclusions will also be covered. Students will gain skills and knowledge in designing inclusive research methods. The course will prepare students to plan and design the research methods to be applied in their major project.

INCD 6B04 Effecting Cultural Change
This online seminar will situate inclusive design in relation to social justice theory and related cultural movements, as well as economic and social impact analysis instruments. The course will explore: instruments and processes of cultural change with respect to institutions, communities and larger societies; legislation, policy, and international standards along with the development processes and factors that affect compliance; institutional cultures, societal structures, ecosystems relevant to ICT development and implementation with an eye to how to design cultures of inclusion within institutional frameworks;“top-down”, “bottom-up” and viral effects and mechanisms; and diverse market models in relation to inclusive design including open source and open access. Students will practice developing business cases that integrate inclusive design.

INCD 6B05 Creating Inclusive Communities Online
Supporting the needs and preferences of a diversity of users online is dependent on communities of production, crowd sourcing and social networks. The tools, architectures, practices and conventions of online networks help to determine the functioning and accessibility of these communities. A major challenge is to invite and nurture diversity while at the same time supporting community cohesion. In this online seminar and workshop students will critically examine social networks and how they support or undermine inclusion and diversity. Students will examine phenomena such as the popularity echo-chamber and explore the impact of specific actions and technical tools or metrics on online social networks and design and develop social networks that are supportive of diversity while sustaining a sense of community and cohesion.

INCD 6B06 The Difference
This course will introduce advanced computing theory and practice that supports inclusion. The online seminar and workshop will explore both the impact of diversity/inclusion on design and development on the one hand, and specific strategies/practices for designing for diversity on the other. Students will also explore design and development strategies that support diversity with a special focus on personalization, mass-customization, modularity and flexible ICT structures. Software architectures, coding practices, project management practices, network design and processes of data federation will be explored with an emphasis on how to support inclusive design. The impact on and interaction with security and privacy will also be covered.

INCD 6B07 Inclusive Art, Design and Communication
This resident seminar and studio will serve to synthesize and explore the interrelationships of inclusive design theory and methods with art, design and communication; how the fields of art, design and communications inform and contribute to inclusive design especially as it relates to the inclusive design of emerging information and communication technology. Students will also examine how traditional art, design and communication notions and theoretical framings either support or undermine inclusion, and will be engaged in proposing inclusive art, design and communication methods by addressing specific ‘real world’ design challenges. The synthesized findings will be presented in a critical analysis of the intersecting fields, illustrated through a designed ‘real world’ example of inclusive practice.

INCD 6B08 Major Project Proposal
Students will be supported in formulating a major research proposal that includes the articulation of background knowledge, research questions, objectives, theoretical frameworks, research methods, the project plan and research partnerships. The course will include a literature review on the chosen major research project topic. The outcome of the course will be a project proposal and a presentation of the plan.

INCD 6C01 Inclusive Design User Experience Lab
Designing for diversity requires a reframing and retooling of traditional user experience, interaction and user interface design and usability evaluation practices. In this online lab students will: critically examine traditional practices in these fields and how they impact on inclusion and diversity; explore common uses of personas, scenarios, storyboards, design patterns, wire frames, walk-throughs and other design tools; explore user interface design research metrics and associated assumptions in the context of designing for diversity; study and implement inclusive participatory design; individually and collaboratively formulate inclusive design practices while addressing real world design challenges. Students will be introduced to and practice usability and accessibility evaluation methods that support diversity and inclusion.

INCD 6C02 Experiential Research Lab
The Inclusive Design Research Centre is engaged in leading and participating in many multi-sector, national and international research networks. These research networks address inclusive design challenges in education, culture, civic engagement, health, policy, legislation, financial inclusion and ICT application design and development. Students will participate as a research team member in an open source project in a role of their choice. Students will be exposed to the entire project life cycle and the functioning of a successful research and development team. Students will be exposed to research partners around the world and from the full range of sectors. Students will be provided with opportunities to critically reflect upon the research team and its processes, and their role in the network.

INCD 6D01 Major Project
This is the culminating work of the Master of Design in Inclusive Design. It synthesizes the knowledge and skills learned throughout the program and applies them in the development of a major project. Students will develop innovative approaches and implementation strategies for defined inclusive design challenges in the private, public or voluntary sectors. Students will be mentored by a Principal Advisor and critiqued and evaluated by the Principal Advisor, plus one additional committee member. Students will have an opportunity to present their work to the research community and industry participants at the Culminating Festival and Graduate Symposium.

SFIN 6B01 Business and Design Thinking
This course will examine the design ecosystem, describing the way in which design is linked with the disciplines of finance, law, management, marketing, science and engineering. It will provide an overview and understanding of basic business and finance techniques, in particular those that have proven critical in the successful commercialization of innovation. Intellectual property rights, a critical component in new product development, will be discussed. The course will also demonstrate the importance of design thinking to business success. Students will review business case studies and will discuss and apply design processes through a series of short projects. They will have hands-on business and creative experiences through a business simulation component and through the creation of an original work.

SFIN 6B02 Social Systems
In this introduction to complex systems, students will examine the dynamic arrangement of three interconnected and adaptive human systems: social, market and political. Developing the essentials of a systems approach, students will study structure, evolution, patterns of behaviour and the impacts of change in these systems through case study review and systems model analysis. Working in teams, students will select a specific sector, define an objective and then will explore the potential direct and indirect consequences of a number of proposed solutions.

SFIN 6B03 The Human Factor
Understanding how people experience, organize, use and share information/tools as part of their everyday activities is key to developing valuable and sustainable innovations. Drawing on research from a variety of settings, students will study fundamental concepts in human factors including human needs, motivations, and cultural and social dimensions of human experience. The course will also explore human factors through the study of examples of innovation from different contexts –product and service innovation, complex systems and information technologies. The course includes practical training in finding, assessing and synthesizing information from a range of sources as input to the major project proposal.

SFIN 6B04 Understanding Systems and Systemic Design
Students are introduced to systems theory as a method to understand and design complex social systems. Applying systems thinking and design methods, students learn system structures, organizing principles, functions and dynamic behavior of social systems. The perspective of human beings as observers, designers and generators of social systems emphasizes the outcomes of innovation, social systems design and systemic change. Social systems design and mapping methods help identify drivers for change and design interventions. Students participate in learning conversations and group workshops to apply the principles and theories of social systems through case studies, readings, reflection papers and workshop participation.

SFIN 6B05 Business Modeling and Policy Innovation
The key instrument for successfully implementing positive change in a business setting is business model innovation, while in the public sector it is policy innovation. A good understanding of business modelling and policy development is therefore critical for success. Students will be introduced to the essential components of an effective business model and the stakeholders involved as well as a number of implementation tools. They will also be introduced to governance structures in corporate and public organizations, and will learn how various government levels develop policy using conventional as well as innovative policy development processes and how they can engage in these to influence outcomes.

SFIN 6B06 Strategy: Creating a Motivating Narrative from Vision to Tactic
Students will develop a better understanding of the increasing need and the inherent challenges of developing coherent strategic solutions that drive effective organizations and brands. This course reveals the purpose and power of a strategy, gives direction on how to lead strategy development within an organization, and how to communicate the story effectively. We will explore frameworks and models to engage stakeholders and shape the strategic conversation. Students will learn to refine their thinking into a comprehensive strategy and develop a communication plan that will align organizations from vision to tactic.

SFIN 6B07 Leading Innovation
This studio-seminar focuses on the development of skills in leading and implementing innovation. Students will study models of change and leadership choices. In a convergent process, students will develop innovation blueprints and test and model implementations for the strategic proposals developed in SFIN 6C02 Foresight Studio. Key concepts covered include: understanding types of innovation and frameworks for change, positioning innovation (business entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, innovating inside corporations/institutions, intellectual property), overcoming barriers to change (financial, legislative, structural, attitudinal) and establishing the value proposition.

SFIN 6B08 Major Project Proposal
Students will work with their Principal Advisors to develop their major project proposals. Their proposals will include a project/topic overview, research questions, objectives, project plan, methodology, outcomes, annotated bibliography and required resources. The outcome will be the development of a concise and articulate proposal outlining a convincing project rationale based on a thorough literature review.

SFIN 6C01 Research Methodologies
This studio-seminar presents a range of research methods and analysis frameworks for understanding social and human phenomena for innovation and social change. Core research techniques draw largely on ethnographic methods, such as observation and in-depth interviews. Learners are highly encouraged to explore more contested, contemporary and/or experimental ones, including action research, participatory design and sense-making techniques. Working as individuals and in teams, students will explore different methods, collect field data, elicit and synthesize insights and analyze and present findings in a studio-learning environment. As research is contextualized with managing innovation and change, the course emphasizes stakeholder management and facilitation.

SFIN 6C02 Foresight Studio
This studio course will introduce foresight methods in the development of strategic proposals in the private, public, voluntary or ‘for-benefit’ sector. Working in teams, students will identify an issue in a specific sector and will begin their exploration and research in a divergent process of signal discovery through methods such as environmental scanning, new technology research, user research, field study, or stakeholder workshops. This phase of work frames the problem. In a convergent process, students will apply methodologies, which include medium- to long-range scenario planning and technology adoption modelling to develop creative insights and implications for action.

SFIN 6D01 Major Project
This is the culminating work of the Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation. It synthesizes the knowledge and skills learned throughout the program and applies them in the development of a major project. Students will develop innovative and anticipatory strategies, solutions and/or implementation plans for defined challenges in the private, public or voluntary sectors. Solutions may take the form of strategic roadmaps, communications programs, products and services, or policy frameworks. The final deliverable will include a concise written document. Students will be mentored by a Principal Advisor and critiqued and evaluated by the Principal Advisor plus one additional committee member.

VISA 6B01 Modernist Legacies: Contextualizing the Contemporary
While contemporary art, design and new media practices since the 1980s have been discussed in relation to the postmodern condition, modernist influences are as important for their interpretation and context. This course examines key issues of modernism and texts that address the contemporary's ghosts, ruins and legacies, including the relevance of the avant-garde, the scope of multiple modernities, and the Duchampian turn in the production and reception of culture. The course considers whether it was postmodernity or modernity itself that called into question the relationship of art, design and new media to society, politics, mass culture, and the crisis in representation.

VISA 6B02 The History of Art History
This seminar traces the evolution of art history as an intellectual discipline with a focus upon the major figures who have contributed to the definition and practice of art history. From the discipline’s origins to the present day, figures such as Giorgio Vasari, J.J. Winckelmann, Heinrich Wölfflin, Henri Focillon, Erwin Panofsky, Meyer Schapiro, T.J. Clark and Griselda Pollock, among others, will be studied. The historical shifts in concepts such as originality, style, periodicity, movement and artistic subject will also be examined.

VISA 6B04 Issues in Contemporary Artistic Practice
This course will consider the traditions and tensions in European pictorial practice from the 1960s onward. Among other things, students will look at the post-war artistic and philosophical fascination with memory, origin(s), extinction, archive, and identity (imagined or not). Specific examples of artistic practices and discussions of critical texts will enable students to interrogate the tense engagement of several European artists with an archival mode of thinking and painting in post-1960 Europe.

VISA 6B05 Post-colonial Issues in Visual Culture
This course reflects upon the issues generated by colonialism and its post-colonial after-effects in art and society. The historical legacy of colonialism still deeply inflects visual culture, requiring both the critique and deconstruction of persistent stereotypical notions such as race, centre/periphery and ethnocentrism. By considering the concepts of hybridity, resistance, appropriation, mimicry and transnationalism in the work of contemporary artists and theorists, this course will underscore the significance of cultural agency in the 21st century.

VISA 6B07 Art in the Public Sphere
As the mythic narratives of collective unity, nationalism and progress have faltered in the era of postmodernity, what then is the public role of art? This course will examine contemporary art as it critiques and reformulates the notions of monument, memory, audience and community. While art may serve the ideological interests of institutions, there also lies the potential for intervention and activism, as well as a more critical relationship with popular culture.

VISA 6B08 Issues in Art History and Culture
New social contexts, theoretical frameworks, and objects of analysis challenge conventional notions of art historical practice. Potential topics range from developments in art history as it exists within academia (e.g., its relation to post-disciplines, such as Visual Studies or Cultural Studies) to art history in the expanded sense as it relates to the broader cultural landscape, such as literature, performance and cinema.

VISA 6B11 Politics of Power in the Artworld
Despite the decentralization of the art world in the past few decades, the influence of institutions such as art schools, museums, corporations and governments persists and has evolved into ever more complex formations of power. This course combines art historical, sociological and critical perspectives to examine how artists and artworks are situated not only within the cultural sphere, but also in the commercial, entertainment, media, and information industries. As the contexts of production and consumption increase, so too do the possibilities of artist-generated responses to and critiques of such power structures, which this course will also address.

VISD 5B90 Special Topic in Visual Culture: Maps, Icons, Diagrams: Visualizing Information
This lecture-seminar course explores the graphic visualizing of information (in maps, graphs, charts, icons, pictographs, and diagrams). It will consider key works and figures in the history of information design alongside conceptual and theoretical issues involved in the graphic expression of information, and examine the complex process of translating information from diverse fields (including economics, political science, history, sociology, geography, mathematics, and epidemiology) into graphic form. It will also explore the role of mapping and data visualization in art and literary practices.

VISD 6B02 Contemporary Architectural Theory
This course covers canonical and contemporary texts by architectural historians, theoreticians and practitioners. The work, ideas and methodologies presented here will form a conceptually organized foundation for architectural intellectual discourse. Architectural theory, in this context, simultaneously provides a parallel to the precepts of art history and an example of a counter-discourse.

VISD 6B03 Issues in Communication Design
Over the past 50 years, communication design has moved from the design of static typography, graphic design and illustration destined for print (which nonetheless remains a key medium), to a diverse field of practices in kinetic and temporal media, digital and interactive graphics, and innovative modes of advertising, branding and marketing. Addressing both contemporary issues and practices in communication design, along with their historical precedents, specific topics may include: the contemporary return of ornament, graphics and popular culture, data visualization and information design, animation, and advertising in the expanded field.

VISD 6B04 Living with Things
Although all human-made and human-altered things (buildings, field stone walls, suburban family rooms and the contents of the Dollar Store) are expressions of culture and operate as texts, the engagement with the material world is difficult and poses interpretive challenges. This course, interested in the roles of objects in everyday life, will investigate both the theory and practice of studying everyday material culture. The categories of ideology, identity, nostalgia, style and stylistic change, class, semiotics, and aesthetics, among others, will be considered.

VISD 6B05 Case Studies in Design History
This course investigates the history of design history, its emergence as a scholarly field, and the development of a design-specific methodology. As well, it provides an opportunity for case studies in modern and pre-modern design practice. As a young discipline, design history has sought to establish a critical framework distinguished from art history and material culture where the study of designers and their work has long resided. Challenged by the culturally-charged idea of “design” replete with valorizing narratives, famous actors and fetishized objects, the study of design’s history offers an example of academic culture in the context of advanced capitalism.

VISD 6B06 Contemporary Issues in Design History
Addressing art history and its application to contemporary design practices, this course considers recent developments and emerging sites in contemporary design, architecture and urban space.

VISD 6B07 Issues in Environmental Design
Environmental design today includes a diverse range of interventions and practices acting on architecture, urbanism, landscape, and interior design, as well as hybrid practices spanning combinations of these as well as spatial engagements from art and other design fields. This course explores contemporary issues in environmental design, along with their historical precedents. Specific themes and topics will vary according to individual faculty member’s interests, but may include: urban ecologies, ambient experience design, digital technology and the built environment, spatial politics, and the legacies of modernism.

VISM 6B01 Hybrid Media and Interactivity
As new technologies become ever more enmeshed in art-making practice, they also merge with and assimilate multiple forms of media from the domains of entertainment, mass media, the sciences and elsewhere. Whether this merging is due to integration, convergence or recombination, it demonstrates the dynamic and protean nature of artistic utilization of technology. Such hybridity often involves interactivity and directly solicits participation, shifting the nature of the art audience from viewer to user and maker. Contrary to the purity, autonomy and distance privileged in modernism, this course analyzes the theoretical and aesthetic significance of hybridity, interactivity and engagement.

VISM 6B02 Digital Aesthetics
This course examines the effect of digital presence on contemporary visual culture and the rethinking of aesthetics. It will foster a critical attitude to digital culture and consider issues such as sensual stimulation, interface aesthetics, surface appearance, digital composition and artifice, illusion and simulation, among others. Through readings and case studies, the course will draw upon digital art, collaborative digital practices and new, creative technological developments.

VISM 6B03 New Technologies, New Critical Perspectives
The burgeoning fields of digital and new media bring forth unexpected challenges to the practice of art history and criticism. New technologies, whether utilizing the Internet, telepresence, virtual or augmented reality, cross-disciplinary boundaries bring art into integral relationships with science, engineering, artificial intelligence, robotics and biotechnology. This course will develop critical perspectives, terminology and theory relevant to post 1990 technologies and their use by artists.

VISM 6B04 New Media Art History
New media art has a complex triangulated ontology derived from the fields of science, art and technology. Beginning in the 19th century, this course will trace these distinct histories coupled with emerging theoretical paradigms. Certain aspects of new media now taken for granted—immersion, interactivity, emergence—arose theoretically prior to their materialization via technology. Hence, with particular attention paid to the way we have written our futures, the course will also include prescient narratives from science fiction, film, and visual art.

VISM 6B05 Digital Historiography and Screen Documents
This course focuses on the impact of digital technologies on traditional screen representational regimes. What happens when the universality of digital documentation encounters the infinite mutability of digital documents? The course will examine a range of philosophical approaches to digital screen documents as historical evidence. Contemporary theorists in this emerging field of research to be considered include Peter Sloterdijk, Brian Massumi, Philip Rosen, Alex Galloway, Bruno Latour, and Mark Poster.

VISM 6B06 Issues in New Media Art History
Tailored to the individual faculty member’s research interests, this course examines the issues arising from the recent innovations in new media artistic practice and theory. Virtual museums, data aesthetics, post-human audiences, embedded computing and gaming strategies are just a few of the means by which technology is drastically changing the conventions of art experience, criticism and art historical analysis.

Last Modified:3/28/2012 9:53:58 AM