Develops thinking across the media arts in a comparative perspective, synthesizing the historical and theoretical approaches of art history, cinema studies, performance studies, and computer-based media studies. Establishes bases for understanding the relationships among art forms that incorporate reproducible and digital media. Investigates some of the useful emergent methods for making comparisons among media, across history, and across cultures. Students with credit for FPA 821 may not take this course for further credit.

The research colloquium, a core course taken in the final term of the MA program, focuses on professional development in careers in the arts or PhDs. Through intensive peer review, students revise their extended essay (CA 829) for publication. They identify their audiences, choose appropriate journals, and other venues for publication, and prepare to submit their work, and plan their responses to journal decisions. We discuss permission, contracts, and other intellectual-property issues. Students practice job and grant applications, prepare CVs and cover letters, and work on their public profiles. Students also explore extending their research into curating and public programming. We devote time to public presentation skills for a variety of venues including the final symposium, in which they present their research to the public. Prerequisite: CA (or FPA) 829. Students with credit for FPA 822 may not take this course for further credit.

A non-credit course for graduate students working in contemporary arts that foregrounds professional aspects of the discipline. Includes workshops on academic writing, research skills development, pedagogy, proposal and grant writing, peer critique, artistic production and management, academic and public dissemination of work, and presentations of works in progress. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

A non-credit course for graduate students working in contemporary arts that foregrounds professional aspects of the discipline. Includes workshops on academic writing, research skills development, pedagogy, proposal and grant writing, peer critique, artistic production and management, academic and public dissemination of work, and presentations of works in progress. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Prerequisite: CA 890.

Empire follows Art, and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose. - William Blake, annotations to Sir Joshua Reynold's Discourses (ca. 1798-1809) For WJ.T. Mitchell, pictures have lives and loves. Instead of seeing images as inert objects that convey meaning, he urges us to see them as animated beings with desires, needs, appetites, demands, and drives of their own. In the past three decades, literature on visual culture has burgeoned in art history, cultural studies, critical theory, philosophy and anthropology, and recently it has taken on a "performative turn." For art history, which is traditionally concerned with the interpretation of art objects, the artists who make them and the interests of patrons, the interdisciplinary field of visual culture has opened up new ways of thinking about images of all kinds. In a culture in which the production and dissemination of images has grown exponentially, it has never been more necessary to pay attention to how images work and what they do. While histories of images tend to locate intentionality in the maker or the patron, this seminar seeks to bring forward the intentions of the image, how, for example, its formal material characteristics, modes and contexts of circulation and use, reproducibility and referentiality, solicit responses: how images seem to take on, in Mitchell's words, "lives of their own." For your paper, you can choose as your main object of study a work of art, a landmark exhibition, or a famous image drawn from popular culture. This image or event will be the subject of student presentations at the end of the term. The topic must be a visual phenomenon about which there is a substantial discourse in print, preferably in both scholarly and popular sources. The final paper will be based on your presentation and should address some of the critical issues and readings discussed in class. Students with credit for FPA 823 may not take this course for further credit.

Examines what are understood as the arts of the moving image: film, video, and other time based audiovisual media. A survey of emerging approaches in cinema studies relates these developments to the longer history of the discipline and the intermedial art forms that informed it, including theater, public spectacles, photography, painting, music, and sound recording. Additional topics include: how the practice, aesthetics, and reception change when cinema moves to television, both move to digital formats, and all these platforms move to handheld and social media; medium specificity in the moving-image arts in light of "media convergence"; what new forms emerge when moving images shift from the institution of cinema to museum and online contexts; new approaches to national cinemas and documentary; and cognitive and neuroscientific theories of moving images. Students with credit for FPA 824 may not take this course for further credit.

This course will focus on the history and practice of digital art, with an emphasis upon the artistic outcomes of the new methodologies and practices within this field. Digital technology has fundamentally changed the process and products of contemporary creativity in art-making. Although a great deal of contemporary art involves some aspect of digital technology, this course will examine those artists and art-works in which digital technologies play an intrinsic part in the creative process, as well as the realization. A range of processes - from interactive systems through to algorithmic approaches (stochastic, deterministic, chaotic) - will be examined, with particular reference to artistic goals, approaches, and results. Students with credit for FPA 825 may not take this course for further credit.

Traces the interdisciplinary origins of performance studies and brings its concepts and methods to bear on dance, music and sound arts, theatre and performance arts, and media performance while introducing cross-disciplinary ideas from emergent areas such as neuroscience, cognitive science, and gaming, for example. Course assignments will involve case studies as forerunners for further research. Students with credit for FPA 826 may not take this course for further credit.

This course is an elective in the MA program. Students are placed with an arts organization in order to carry out a specific project of finite length. The student's labor time in the practicum should total approximately 120 hours, to be carried out over the course of a term. Projects are initiated by the student in consultation with the supervisor at the organization and the MA program supervisor. Projects can involve research, writing, organizing events, curating exhibitions and programs, public relations, media production, archiving, and related activities. The student submits a proposal that indicates the project's purpose, schedule, plans for documenting and reporting, and planned outcome. Final outcomes will vary depending on the placement. The MA program coordinator and the supervisor at the organization approve the project. In some cases, the project must be approved by the Ethics Review Board. SFU’s code of conduct and academic dishonesty policies apply to students while on practicum. The MA program coordinator assigns a grade in consultation with the supervisor at the organization. May be repeated once for credit. Students with credit for CA 830 may not take this course for further credit.

Scholarly research on sound ranges from studies on listening, more-than-human soundscapes, audio media archaeology, sound art, and sonic cultures. These works question and expand upon longstanding issues concerning the onto-epistemologies of sound, the status of the voice, the role of music in everyday life, the politics of sound, and sound's relationship to the imagination and other sensory domains. This seminar will entail an examination of current debates and changing methodologies in sound studies, especially as they pertain to the contemporary arts.

An elective in the MA program. The internship provides students with hands-on, practical experience in a work-related setting relevant to their studies through part-time, paid positions supporting organizations in the arts and culture sector in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. The course enables students to apply their academic training in a professional context, build community connections, and establish the foundations of an arts-related career post-graduation. Enrollment in the course is contingent on individual students being matched with an appropriate organization. Learning objectives are established at the start of the internship in consultation with the MA program coordinator, who also oversees final evaluation of the course. Students complete a maximum of 120 work-related hours over the course of a term, which includes a site visit and the completion of site visit form. Students submit a short reflection paper at the end of their placement. Internships may not require the supervision of a registered or licensed professional, and the completed work experience hours are not required for professional certification. This course is graded satisfactory/unsatisfactory. Students with credit for CA 827 may not take this course for further credit.

Students will complete the final capstone project of the MA in contemporary arts. The extended essay builds on knowledge students have gained in course work. Students conduct in-depth research into a topic in contemporary arts and develop and polish an original argument, with the goal of producing a publishable article. The length of the essay should be that of a typical journal article, around 5000-7000 words. Students may also write a catalogue essay to accompany an exhibition. Students research the extended essay with the supervision of two faculty members. They prepare the essay for publication in the Research Colloquium, CA 822. Grading: The faculty supervisors jointly assign a grade of satisfactory/unsatisfactory. Prerequisite: CA (or FPA) 821 and two of the following: CA (or FPA) 823, 824, 825, 826, or 828. Students with credit for FPA 829 may not take this course for further credit.

Critical study of contemporary issues in the fine and performing arts, with emphasis on concerns common to diverse artistic disciplines and the interaction between art and society. Students with credit for FPA 811 may not take this course for further credit.

Continuation of CA (or FPA) 811. Prerequisite: CA (or FPA) 811. Students with credit for FPA 812 may not take this course for further credit.

Study of particular artistic techniques or issues. The topic varies from term to term.

Students with credit for FPA 889 may not take this course for further credit.

Specialized one-time graduate course offerings on topics related to the current research of school faculty of visiting professors.

Specialized graduate course offering on a topic related to the current research of school faculty or visiting professor.

Explores specific critical issues, approaches, or movements in literary and cultural theory. The course will vary according to theoretical and historical focus.

Introduces the history of print culture along with a variety of theoretical approaches. Students enrolled in the Print Culture program are required to take this course.

Explores critical issues, approaches, or movements in manuscript, print, and media culture. The course will vary according to geographical and historical focus and theoretical approach.

Examines the development of feminist cultural criticism, with particular reference to the principles of literary, cinematic, media, and/or art forms.

Focuses on one of five following thematic modules: classical and medieval thought and culture, modernity and its discontents, religion and culture, cross-cultural translation, humanities and citizenship.

An in-depth study of a theme or aspect in the Humanities; topics will vary from offering to offering in order to meet the needs of the graduate cohort.

The theory and practice of metacreation, i.e. the design of generative and pro-active computer software endowed with creative behaviour is presented. Tools and techniques from artificial intelligence, artificial life and machine learning are introduced and exemplified through their application in previous artistic works. The interweaving of related theoretical and practical issues situates metacreation within a larger perspective on art, science and technology.

In depth study of ethnographic methodology as practiced, theorized and debated by social and cultural anthropologists. Course will include anthropological analyses of multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to, and adaptations of, ethnographic methodology and methods. Elective course for MA and PhD students in Sociology and Anthropology. Students from other departments and faculties may enrol with permission of instructor. Course will be offered in response to student demand, dependent on availability of departmental resources.