Each semester, students in the program participate in a small specially designed seminar style course that focuses on aspects of emerging technologies, media criticism and related themes. These courses usually serve as electives within the student's degree requirements. Often, the courses are unique offerings developed exclusively for IRC Fellows.

This course is designed to explore the various techniques media artists use to present, transmit and process video. Issues surrounding perception, interactivity and identity will be investigated through a series of assignments, readings and networked performances. The student will explore commercial and open source digital signal processing environments, real-time digital video synthesis, streaming server options, and the various types of consumer and professional video equipment. The students will collaborate on several video-based performances that will be streamed live on the Internet among remote participants.

Interactive Sound Art explores the interactive potential of sound in the form of autonomous sound sculptures and instruments produced for use in art installations and performance. Students will learn to produce acoustic and electronic instruments, which may be manipulated by an interactor, musician or dancer. A collaborative interdisciplinary internet-based performance incorporating sound, dance and video will be used as a point of focus at midterm. After midterm, research will be focused upon constructing interactive instruments and sculptural sound objects. Generative and MIDI-based software, digital signal processors, analog synthesis, as well as circuit manipulation will be explored in practical workshops. The instructor and expert visitors will explore the history of interactive sound instruments and objects in lectures.

Exploring the field developing around interactive systems, immersive environments and performance animation initiated by the advent of the Cave Automated Virtual Environment, this course investigates methods of authoring work for varying levels of technology inspired by the NAVE (Non-expensive Virtual Environment) and other systems exploiting the combination and re-purposing of off-the-shelf hardware and software along with some home-brew electronics. This course will provide hands-on experience with the development of interactive real-time computer driven environments as well as a survey of existing systems and concepts for new applications.

This course will explore the interaction of space, sound, and human movement through the design of outdoor location-aware environments and systems. Students will have the opportunity to develop projects using a proprietary GPS-based software developed by UMBC faculty and students (Rueb, Kelly, et al). Students may chose to develop sound installations, distributed mobile gaming applications, or screen-based interface solutions grounded in user-centered design practices (end-user and/or software developer interfaces). Studio and laboratory-based production will be framed and informed by theoretical texts drawn from a variety of disciplines including architecture, industrial design, interaction design, sound art, literary and cultural studies, and performance studies.