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Film & TV · MS elective · 3 credit hours · 16 sessions

Psychedelic & Expanded Cinema

This experimental course moves cinema beyond the single flat screen and linear narrative. Rooted in the counter-culture movements of the 1960s and extending to modern VR, students will explore “Expanded Cinema”—film as an immersive, sensory, and consciousness-altering event. The curriculum covers multi-projection, stroboscopic light, visual music, and the intersection of film with live performance and installation art.

§ 01 By the end you can
  1. Analyze the history of "Visual Music" and the Psychedelic art movement
  2. Create non-narrative visuals designed to induce altered states (Stroboscopic/Hypnotic)
  3. Design multi-channel projection mapping installations
  4. Experiment with "Live Cinema" (VJing) and real-time visual performance
  5. Critique the relationship between technology, sensory overload, and human consciousness
§ 02 Sixteen sessions

The whole semester.

  1. 01Definition of Expanded Cinema (Gene Youngblood)
  2. 02Visual Music & Abstract Animation
  3. 03The 1960s Counter-Culture & Acid Tests
  4. 04Multi-Screen & Split Screen Techniques
  5. 05Dome Projection & Immersive Environments
  6. 06Sensory Ethnography & Trance Film
  7. 07Installation Art: Film as Sculpture
  8. 08 · MidtermMidterm Examination
  9. 09The Light Show: Liquid Oil Projections
  10. 10Stroboscopic Effects & Flicker Films
  11. 11Glitch Art & Datamoshing
  12. 12Live Cinema: VJing & Real-Time Performance
  13. 13VR as the New Psychedelia
  14. 14Sound Visualization & Cymatics
  15. 15Audience Participation & Interaction
  16. 16Final Project: The Immersive Installation

Midterm around session 8. Final project briefed at session 8 or 9 and developed in stages until the juries.

§ 03 Final project

Final Project: The Immersive Installation

How it’s judged

Recommended reading
  1. Expanded Cinema by Gene Youngblood
  2. Eyes Wide Open: A Memoir of Stanley Kubrick (for the Stargate sequence context) by Frederic Raphael
  3. Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger by William Moritz
  4. Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary After Film by Jeffrey Shaw
  5. Altered States: The Use of Psychedelic Drugs in Culture (Select Chapters)
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