Faculty Name:Ted Kafala, PhD

Areas of Interest

• Aesthetics of computing
• Digital arts and new media studies
• Postproduction
• Media effects and cinema studies
• Art and technology curriculum and instruction
• Experimental video and multisensory media
• Critical art practices

Dr. Ted Kafala teaches visual communication, digital media, motion graphics, and cinematic postproduction courses. He is currently researching critical code studies and generative processes in experimental media (interactive art and music), which are incorporated into performance pieces by artists and programmers, and the visual effects and styles of specific cinematic artists. Dr. Kafala has published critical articles on contemporary new media thinkers, as well as papers on aesthetics, computing, experimental video, cultural studies, cinema studies, and qualitative research.

Courses

• COMM 220 Visual Communication Design
• COMM 290/MDA 100 Communication in the Digital World
• COMM 302 Video Postproduction and Editing
• COMM 303 Sound Design
• COMM 304 Cinematics and Motion Graphics
• COMM 309 Image Design with Photoshop
• COMM 346 Information Arts
• COMM 347 Experimental Media
• COMM 385 International Cinema
• COMM 386 Major Filmmakers
• COMM 388 Survey of Experimental Media and Digital Arts
• COMM 402 Animation
• COMM 403 Interactive Design
• COMM 405 Web Programming and Development
• COMM 406 iOS Application Development
• COMM 440 Digital Matte Painting

Editorial Boards

• Cambridge University Press
• Journal of Curriculum Theory
• Polity Press

Presentations

• “Ryoji Ikeda: Sonification, Soundscapes and Intermedial Environments.” Expanded Environments I, Paper Session presented at the 2021 Annual Conference of Society for Cinema and Media Studies, March 2021.
• “Algorithms with the Potential to Create Universes: Pseudorandomness in Experimental Video and Generative Art.” Paper presented during the Decoding the Logic of the Black Box Mathematics and Experimental Media at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, Toronto, March 2018.
• “Data Metanarratives, Fuzzy Logic and Info-Aesthetics.” Paper presented in the paper session, Machine Vision Documentaries 2: Algorithmic and Virtual Culture at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, Atlanta, March 2015.
• “Tool Demo: Writing C Code Patches in a VPL Learning Environment.” The American Computing Machine (ACM) SIGPLAN conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity (SPLASH), Pittsburgh, October 2015.
• “Whitehead’s Aesthetics: Art, Technology and the New Materialisms,” 31st Annual Conference of the American Society of Aesthetics, Rocky Mountain, Santa Fe, N.M., 2014
• “Cinematic Strategies and Subjective Time in Peter Greenaway’s Films and Media Installations,” Paper Session on Cinematic Time, Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, March, 2012
• “Coding Real-Time Cinematic Experiences: Video and Sound Installations using MAX/Jitter,” Paper Session on Software and Cinema, Laura U. Marks, discussant, Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, 2011
• “Decoding the Digital Arts: Random and Serial Iterative Processes in Computer Media Performance,” Paper Session on Digital Arts, Decodings: The 23rd Annual Conference of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, 2009

Professional Affiliations

• The American Computing Machine (ACM) SIGPLAN (Software)
• The American Computing Machine (ACM) SIGGRAPH (Computer Graphics)
• The American Society for Aesthetics
• National Art Education Association
• National Communication Association
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies
• Society for Science, Literature and the Arts

Publications

• “Ryoji Ikeda Meets Whitehead at CERN: Interdisciplinary Experimentation and Evental Aesthetics London: Evental Aesthetics Vol. 8 (2019): 121-138. A special volume on Artificial Intelligence.
• “The Heretical Archive: Digital Memory at the End of Film.”  Film-Philosophy 19 (2015): 42-50.  ISBN: 1466-4615
• “New Materialisms and Digital Culture: Productive Labor and the Software Wars,” Living with Class: Philosophical Reflections on Identity and Material Culture. New York, N.Y., Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2013
• “Review of Alexander Galloway, Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture,” Research Center for Cyberculture Studies (RCCS) Reviews, 12.10, 2007
• “Mundane Hybrids: Ranciere against the Sublime Image,” Film-Philosophy, 11.3, 147-57, 2007
• “The Postmodern Moment in Curriculum Theory: The Logic and Paradox of Dissensus,” The Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 22.1, 25-44, 2006
• “Sensual, Tactile, and Tangible Media: Critical Commentary on the Writings of Laura Marks,” Research Center for Cyberculture Studies (RCCS) Reviews, 11.4, 2006