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Interactive Telecommunications Program

Fall 2009

Course Descriptions

TIER 1- FOUNDATION COURSES

Applications of Interactive Telecommunications Technology

H79.2000.1 Call#71392     Tues 4:00pm to 7:30pm     Red Burns
This introductory class is designed to allow students to engage in a critical dialogue with leaders drawn from the artistic, non-profit and commercial sectors of the new media field, and to learn the value of collaborative projects by undertaking group presentations in response to issues raised by the guest speakers. Interactive media projects and approaches to the design of new media applications are presented weekly; students are thus exposed to both commercial as well as mission-driven applications by the actual designers and creators of these innovative and experimental projects. By way of this process, all first year students, for the first and only time in their ITP experience, are together in one room at one time, and as a community, encounter, and respond to, the challenges posed by the invited guests. The course at once provides an overview of current developments in this emerging field, and asks students to consider many questions about the state of the art. For example, with the new technologies and applications making their way into almost every phase of the economy and rooting themselves in our day to day lives, what can we learn from both the failures and successes? What are the impacts on our society? What is ubiquitous computing, embedded computing, physical computing? How is cyberspace merging with physical space? Class participation, group presentations, and a final paper are required.

Comm Lab

H79.2004.1 Call#71399     Mon 09:30am to 12:00pm     Marianne Petit
H79.2004.2 Call#71400     Mon 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Marianne Petit
H79.2004.3 Call#71401     Thur 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Gabe Barcia-Colombo
H79.2004.4 Call#71402     Wed 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Michael Dory
An introductory course designed to provide students with hands-on experience using various technologies including social software and web development, digital imaging, audio, video and animation. The forms and uses of new communications technologies are explored in a laboratory context of experimentation and discussion. The technologies are examined as tools that can be employed in a variety of situations and experiences. Principles of interpersonal communications, media theory, and human factors are introduced. Weekly assignments, team and independent projects, and project reports are required.      Syllabus

Introduction to Computational Media

H79.2233.3 Call#71414     Wed 09:30am to 12:00pm     Daniel Rozin
H79.2233.2 Call#71413     Thur 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Daniel Shiffman
H79.2233.4 Call#71415     Thur 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Daniel Rozin
H79.2233.1 Call#71412     Wed 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Daniel Shiffman
H79.2233.5 Call#71416     Mon 09:30am to 12:00pm     Che-Wei Wang
What can computation add to human communication? Creating computer applications, instead of just using them, will give you a deeper understanding of the essential possibilities of computation. The course focuses on the fundamentals of programming the computer (variables, conditionals, iteration, functions, and objects) and then touches on some more advanced techniques such as text parsing, image processing, networking, computer vision, and serial communication. The Java-based 'Processing' programming environment is the primary vehicle for the class, however at the end of the semester, the course offers a peek behind the Processing curtain and directly into Java. The course is designed for computer programming novices. Although experienced coders can waive this class, some programmers use ICM to acclimatize to the ITP approach and for the opportunity play further with their project ideas. Weekly assignments are required throughout semester. The end of the semester is spent developing an idea for a final project and implementing it using computer programming.      Syllabus

Introduction to Computational Media on the Web

H79.2788.1 Call#76866     Tues 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Shawn Van Every
What can a global network of interconnected computers add to art, culture, humanity? Creating web based applications, rather than just being a user of them, will provide you a deeper understanding of the possibilities available through networking and computation. The course focuses on the fundamentals of programming (variables, conditionals, iteration, functions, and objects) and touches on some more advanced topics such as user interface, text parsing, databases, and communicating through and with the physical world. PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) and JavaScript are the primary programming vehicles for the class. The course is designed for programming novices. In particular it is geared towards those with no programming or web development experience. Those whom already have web development experience should consider taking ICM instead as it will open up a different set of tools and capabilities. Weekly assignments are required throughout the semester and the end of the semester is spent developing and executing an idea for a web based application. This course fulfills the computational media foundation requirement and should not be taken together with ICM.      Syllabus

Introduction to Physical Computing

H79.2301.3 Call#71429     Wed 09:30am to 12:00pm     Thomas Igoe
H79.2301.4 Call#71430     Wed 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Thomas Igoe
H79.2301.2 Call#71428     Wed 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Daniel O'Sullivan
H79.2301.1 Call#71427     Tues 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Daniel O'Sullivan
H79.2301.5 Call#71431     Thur 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Rory Nugent
H79.2301.6 Call#71432     Wed 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Rory Nugent
This course expands the students' palette for physical interaction design with computational media. We look away from the limitations of the mouse, keyboard and monitor interface of today's computers, and start instead with the expressive capabilities of the human body. We consider uses of the computer for more than just information retrieval and processing, and at locations other than the home or the office. The platform for the class is a microcontroller, a single-chip computer that can fit in your hand. The core technical concepts include digital, analog and serial input and output. Core interaction design concepts include user observation, affordances, and converting physical action into digital information. Students have weekly lab exercises to build skills with the microcontroller and related tools, and longer assignments in which they apply the principles from weekly labs in creative applications. Both individual work and group work is required.      Syllabus

TIER 2

Integrating the Virtual and the Theatrical

H79.2786.1 Call#76875     Tues 09:30am to 12:00pm     Kay Matschullat / Andrew Schneider
New media artists, interaction designers, and live performers, come together in this class to expand and integrate the virtual presence with the performer’s presence on stage. First we examine the current explosion of media use on the stage including projection, text messaging, video chatting and their relation to the acting moment. Quickly we move into experimenting with new possibilities for digital presence on stage and explore actor responses to the parallel narratives of the live and the virtual. Questions that are addressed in the class include: what does it mean to be in the moment when the moment has been split apart into a virtual and a live presence? What are the possibilities for digital presences on stage other than media and how can they be played with? If there is a truly interactive landscape on stage, what are the paths of improvisation that can expand the definition of performance in such an environment? Experiments undertaken in the class are presented to an invited audience at the end of the term.

Basic Analog Circuits

H79.2728.1 Call#71481     Fri 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Eric Rosenthal
Today's mostly digital world also requires a basic knowledge of analog circuits. In this course students learn about the basic principles of analog circuits design and operation. Students learn about discrete components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes and transistors as well as integrated components such as operational amplifiers. In addition, students become familiar with the operation of basic electronic test equipment such as digital multimeters, oscilloscopes, function generators. The instructor lectures on, and demonstrates, basic analog concepts so that students can form a basic rule of thumb understanding of analog circuits, concepts and components. In the lab, students can integrate analog solutions into their project work.      Syllabus

Big Screens

H79.2680.1 Call#71462     Mon 09:30am to 12:00pm     Daniel Shiffman
This class is dedicated to experimenting with interactivity on large-scale screens. Students develop one project over the course of the semester, culminating with a showing at InterActive Corps' 120 X 12-foot video wall at their corporate headquarters on 18th St. and the West Side Highway. A mock-up of the system is available at ITP for testing. Class time is divided between independent project development, critique, technical demonstrations, and field trips to IAC. Students should be comfortable programming in Java and Processing.      Syllabus

Cabinets of Wonder

H79.2470.1 Call#76841     Wed 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Nancy Hechinger
If you were inventing a museum today, what would it look like? Who would be there? What would its main purpose be? Before you answer that question, let’s take a look back. The first museums were called Cabinets of Wonder. Usually, a viewer with a guide, often the collector, would open doors and drawers to see what was inside--amazing things from different parts of the world, different times. They were windows on the world to places the visitors would probably never be able to go. The public was very limited; children were usually not allowed in. They were elitist institutions whose mission was archiving the past. Today, although most museums seek to educate and to include more and more diverse visitors, there are fundamental ways—attitudes, techniques, structural issues—that are still lodged in the 19th century. Now, because of a very different kind of Cabinet of Wonder, i.e. the computer and other IT technologies, museums are able to display collections, demonstrate concepts, and reach their audiences in new ways. Most have not taken full advantage of these new tools or had the time to explore how they might change the nature of a museum visit... but we do in this course. We document together the ways in which technology may enhance the museum experience. We evaluate the use of interactive technologies in museums and how that experience might be extended online. But first we observe and study what they do now. We cannot invent a new wheel before we understand the old one. In this course we explore the different kinds of exhibits in museums (object-based collection, demonstrations of phenomena), historic or single topic museums (e.g. The Tenement Museum) and the varied kinds of venues for exhibits (museums, trade shows, traveling, nature centers) Students learn through experience and discussion a brief history of museums and exhibitions, discover criteria for informal learning environments that differ from school room learning. The class is an exploration, observation and theory class. You are asked to visit specific museums: an iconic one of each type. These visits are your primary assignments—sometimes accompanied by a reading. Someone from the assigned museum comes to class and makes a presentation and receives critiques from you. In the second half of the course, we begin to reinvent the museum. What is its purpose in the 21st century? How does the need for a curator change? We look at different museums’ efforts to use technology to take museums beyond the walls, to expand the notion of curators, to include people who don’t have access, or don’t know they do, to the places. And though we focus on museums…we also look at exhibits, and other public displays of information. This is not a design or production class. The assignments are field trips to museums, readings, and writing. The classes are primarily discussion-driven and class participation is the major part of the grade.      Syllabus

Collective Storytelling

H79.2706.1 Call#76860     Wed 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Marianne Petit
This production course is centered around the examination and creation of collective storytelling environments. We survey a wide range of storytelling environments including site-specific works and environments, community-based arts projects, user-generated and participatory environments, and transmedia storytelling. This course requires field trips, weekly assignments, student presentations, and a final project.      Syllabus

Crafting with Data: Revelations, Illusions, Truth and the Future

H79.2710.1 Call#71463     Thur 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Robert Faludi
Contemporary interaction designers and artists often manipulate scientific, historical, commercial and social information. Literacy in design, art or engineering requires the complement of literacy in data. This class makes a powerful addition to your existing skill set of programming, visual design and electronics. Students become conversant in the tools and methods for properly collecting data and evaluating it to uncover truths about the world. In this class we learn about the "lies, damn lies and statistics" that are encountered in our daily information feeds. Basic training is provided in a variety of handy methods for interpretation and manipulation of data, yet no math beyond some simple arithmetic is required for completing this course. Exercises include using sensors to gather data, employing information to answer questions, building physical models and using some very accessible computer tools. Short projects teach how to understand where data comes from, what it looks like and what it means. Students learn how to effectively and ethically extract information from the world, revealing the story that data has to tell.      Syllabus

Design for UNICEF

H79.2758.1 Call#76837     Thur 09:30am to 12:00pm     Clay Shirky
UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) takes on issues affecting the health, well-being and opportunities of children and youth around the world. Increasingly, this includes creating and managing novel communications tools, from online forums for youth journalism or story-telling to support for youth AIDS activists. It also includes physical design challenges like designing off-the-grid communications infrastructure. (A list of relevant projects can be found at Mepemepe.com) In this class, students examine some of the design challenges UNICEF faces, and work in groups to research and prototype possible extensions to existing efforts. The first third of the semester involves understanding the goals and constraints of various UNICEF projects, the middle third involves each workgroup selecting and developing a prototype project, and the final third involves soliciting user feedback and professional critique of that prototype. The class includes site visits and project crits from UNICEF technologists and field workers, and culminates in final presentations to members of the UNICEF staff.

Designing the Future of Television

H79.2784.1 Call#76864     Mon 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Richard Ting
The television watching experience has radically transformed in the last several years. First technologies like TiVO and DVR allowed consumers to timeshift their viewing behavior. Then the Slingbox and services like BitTorrent allowed consumers to easily placeshift their viewing environments. Next, a wave of on-line services like YouTube, Joost, Hulu, Boxee, and Netflix introduced an unlimited supply of on-demand content ranging from short-form user generated content to weekly TV shows to long-form movies. As these technologies proliferated, the epicenter of the TV watching experience quickly shifted from in front of your HDTV in your living room to anywhere, everywhere, and anytime – on your TV, PC, or mobile device. However, the continued disruption of television has only just begun as we now move into the era of Social TV. What had started as a two-screen experience (Facebooking on laptop + waching TV) has now become a one-screen experience. (see Barack Obama’s inauguration viewing on CNN.com). Additionally, services like FiOS TV and Yahoo! are introducing widget platforms that allow designers and developers to integrate Twitter and Facebook into the TV watching experience. As a result, designers and developers are able to explore a myriad of social TV possibilities. In this class, students are challenged to design the future of television as they follow a rigorous design methodology that teaches them how to go from idea to functional prototype. Students conduct user research, create user personas, create conceptual user journeys, and wireframe their concepts before beginning prototype work. Students work in small project teams of 2-3 and weekly classes cover design methodology and various topics relevant to the future of television such as next generation user interface design, social TV, and TV on mobile devices. Each week, students are expected to present their project updates with open class discussion in the form of critique sessions. The students are expected to prototype a final project so prior experience with web programming, and prototyping software (Adobe Flash) is helpful, but not required. The final project requires a functional prototype with supporting design documentation. Executives from the advertising, media, and consumer electronics industries are invited to class to provide guest critiques and to speak about future trends within television.      Syllabus

Drawing Machines

H79.2688.1 Call#76862     Mon 12:30pm to 3:00pm     David Nolen
Norbert Weiner (the pioneering cyberneticist) spoke of an electronic machine that could reproduce itself. Such an electronic machine would produce an image of itself and this image would be the instructions required to produce the next machine. Though clearly a truthful statement about the state of the art, it is also a quality immanent in Nature. Even ephemeral qualities such as ideas are machines, and in the case of humans, one could reasonably argue that the act of drawing is the most powerful replicator of the idea. Without drawing we would not have high art, composed music, written language, architectural plans, far-reaching spacecraft, software, embedded computers, i.e. the entire cultural-technological world as we know it today. From this broad viewpoint as a ground, the class requires the student to actively pursue a critical understanding of their own artistic practice. The student is expected to create many different kinds of drawings whether by hand, by machine, or by computation. Class discussions revolve around this creative output as well as drawing upon the writings of Walter Benjamin, Deleuze & Guattari, Paul Klee, Agnes Martin, Sol Lewitt, Catherine De Zegher, Stephen Wolfram, Jeanne Boylan, Norbert Wiener, and others.      Syllabus

Dynamic Web Development

H79.2296.1 Call#71426     Tues 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Christopher Sung
How does one move away from creating static websites and toward building active, evolving hubs of activity? This class covers the design and implementation of the "dynamic" website in two distinct but related contexts: the technical aspects of manipulating content "on the fly", and the end user experience of interacting in this type of setting. Particular attention is given to social and community-based web interaction. The production environment consists of the MySQL database and the PHP programming language. Students can expect to develop a firm knowledge of database design and optimization, the SQL query language, and the use of PHP to create dynamic activity of both orthodox and unorthodox nature. Late-semester topics focus on interfacing this environment with other technologies such as JavaScript and Flash, along with data population and site architecture methodology. Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience is required. Students are also expected to have fluency in HTML or to come up to speed with it outside of class. Class requirements include homework assignments to reinforce each week's concepts while simultaneously contributing to the student's "toolkit" of code and design principles. There is also a midterm project, and a final project of the student's choosing. Given the wide range of applications that would benefit from a web-accessible database, students should feel free to use their project(s) from this class to support or enhance projects from other classes.      Syllabus

Electronic Project Development Studio

H79.2814.1 Call#77246     Fri 10:30am to 11:45am     Eric Rosenthal
This class is an environment for students to work on their own electronic project ideas that may fall outside the topic areas of existing classes. This particular studio is focused on projects involving electronics. Students are required to present a project description on the first day of class. They then work together with the class and the instructor to develop a production plan for their project. Class meetings consist of critique and feedback sessions on individual or group projects, and breakout sessions with students working individually or in groups of people working on similar projects. When technical topics of general interest emerge, they will be covered in class. Students are expected to show their projects multiple times during the semester, test the projects in stages, and get feedback from both class members in class and from the audience for whom their projects are intended outside of class.

Frame By Frame: Creation and Manipulation of the Moving Image

H79.2716.1 Call#71471     Thur 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Christopher Kairalla
Thanks to modern day computers and software, we now have a very high degree of control over digital images and video. Non-Linear editors allow us to easily assemble sequential images on the frame level while image manipulation programs give us the power to change images on the pixel level. By using techniques from animation, special effects, video editing, and programming, we break images apart and reassemble them into new moving imagery. Our primary tool is Adobe After Effects but we also explore the algorithms behind image manipulation so that students might integrate the techniques into their own code. Student’s assignments can either be pre-rendered animation, or real- time/ interactive animation. Grades are based on weekly assignments, a midterm project, and a final project. Class participation and discussion are also required. No previous knowledge of After Effects is necessary, but students should be relatively comfortable with Photoshop. Experience with non- linear editing is a plus, but not required. Students must have completed either one animation class, or one post-ICM programming class.      Syllabus

Future of the Infrastructure

H79.2297.1 Call#76838     Fri 09:30am to 12:00pm     Art Kleiner
Can the future be foretold?  No, but the long-term outcomes of present-day actions can be foreseen -- and, as the 2008 economic crisis showed us, lack of foresight can have grave implications. Using a technique called scenario planning, students consider the present and future ramifications of knotty, large-scale problems related to the evolution of the internet and other aspects of the telecommunications infrastructure. In exploring this, we touch upon the global economy, demographics, international politics, environmental concerns, and other large-scale issues.  Scenario planning is a rigorous but highly engaging technique, in which people share information and judgment to create a picture of the future larger than any individual could produce alone.  The technique has been used since the mid-1950s decades to distinguish certainties from uncertainties, and to learn to be prepared for multiple eventualities. Students will conduct original research on significant trends, use those trends to develop compelling, plausible stories about possible futures, and present the futures - and the strategies they suggest - to a public audience. As part of the process that we co-develop, the class explores theories about system dynamics, organizational and societal change, the causes of economic failure and success, and the nature of technology.      Syllabus

Interactive Screens and Cinematic Objects

H79.2572.1 Call#71440     Wed 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Marina Zurkow
What does it mean to create cinematic works? What are the limits of the term “cinema,” and what are its possibilities? Will it be story-based, formalist, or symbolic? How does interactivity impact narrative perception, rhythm and arc? Is an interface user-driven or machine-driven? Multi-linear or singular? Screen or object based? Do we want to work for our stories? Is it possible to make profound or emotional narrative work in a multi-linear or interactive environment? The creation and evaluation of work in this class pivots on the notion of narrative perception: a viewer’s desire to actively make story out of represented moments, from Chaplin’s silent movies to US Army recruitment ads to Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. The emphasis of this class is on art practices, focusing on sculptural and screen-based installation forms rather than commercial applications. More conceptual than technical, more narrative than formal, students work on the creation of time-based projects through short and medium-length assignments. Students work in a range of media, from paper maps to multiple screens. In addition, students are expected to engage in critical dialogue through individual research and presentation of precedents, from new media art projects, readings, and experimental or mainstream film.      Syllabus

Live Image Processing and Performance

H79.2422.1 Call#77120     Mon 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Roger DuBois
This course teaches the ins and outs of using image processing software with an aim towards some type of real-time use (e.g. a performance or installation). The class looks at ways to manipulate different visual media (time-based, still, vector, and rendered) in real-time to allow students to develop interesting real-time performance systems. While the focus of this class is on using Max for visual work (through a software package called Jitter), it also looks at how to integrate interactive elements (sound, physical interfaces, etc.) into the work. Class time is spent on interface design and software development issues as well. The class explores some interesting capabilities of the software in terms of real-time camera input and tracking, generative graphics systems, and media transcoding. Throughout the class students develop and share ideas on live performance as a medium for visual expression, and learn the software tools necessary to put these ideas into practice in the form of idiosyncratic performance systems. A final presentation in the form of a group performance will be arranged. Students should have some working knowledge of Max/MSP before taking this class.      Syllabus

Live Web

H79.2734.1 Call#71484     Thur 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Shawn Van Every
The World Wide Web has grown up to be a great platform for asynchronous communication such as email and message boards. More recently this has extended into media posting and sharing. With the rise of broadband, more powerful computers and the prevalence networked media devices, synchronous communications have become more viable. Streaming media, audio and video conference rooms and text based chat give us the ability to create content and services tailored to a live audience. During this course, we focus on the types of content and interaction that can be supported through these technologies as well as explore new concepts around participation with a live distributed audience. In this course, we look at new and existing platforms for live communication on the web. We leverage existing services and use Flash, PHP, AJAX and possibly Processing/Java to develop our own solutions. Experience with ActionScript/Flash, PHP/MySQL and HTML/ JavaScript are helpful but not required.      Syllabus

Mashups: Remixing the Web

H79.2802.1 Call#76847     Mon 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Daniel Maynes Aminzade
What does DJ Danger Mouse have in common with a modern web application developer? Mashups! A hallmark of Web 2.0, mashup applications draw upon content retrieved from external data services to create entirely new and innovative applications. This introductory course explores what it means to be a web mashup, the different classes of popular mashups, and the enabling technologies needed to create mashup applications. Through projects and hands-on tutorials, students learn about the practical tools and technologies they need to remix digital content using XML, AJAX, and web service APIs such as Flickr, Delicious, and the Google Maps API. Students are expected to have some basic programming experience, but no experience with web technologies is required.      Syllabus

Materials and Building Strategies

H79.2025.1 Call#71405     Tues 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Peter Menderson
You’ve built a foam prototype. Your project idea is now out in the open sitting on a table where you and your teammates can look at it. It’s not quite what you thought it would be when you made your first rough sketch, there’s even something a little goofy about it, but then there’s also that interesting curve that you hadn’t envisioned. Your teammates have also noticed some things that you hadn’t thought of. You see where you can reshape the foam to make the prototype both look and work better. You’ve made your first step; you’ve moved your project forward. Removing barriers to creative problem solving and learning the steps for advancing a project are the dual purposes of this course. You’re asked to make things over and over during your time at ITP. This class helps you to break out of 2-d screen and keyboard thinking and take advantage of the discoveries that inevitably occur when you're thinking in 3-d by manipulating materials with your hands, observing the results, and refining successive iterations of your idea. From techniques for prototyping and making small objects to fabrication methods for kiosks, you’ll get hands-on experience with a variety of materials and methods. You have an idea for a wearable device? Mock it up with the sewing machine. You're thinking about a squeezable children’s toy with sensors? Make a mold and cast some sensors inside soft rubber. You want to build an installation? Make a foam core model of the space and get a valuable preview of your project installed. During the course you'll be introduced to building in a variety of materials. You’ll make objects of wood, foam, plastic, metal, clay, plaster, rubber, paper and fabric. You’ll move a project from sketch to prototype to presentation and learn to incorporate the lessons of the process into your final product. By taking notice of the unexpected your original concept will evolve, and amplified by those revelations it will surprise you and delight your audience.      Syllabus

Media, Economics, and Participation

H79.2994.1 Call#76858     Fri 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Clay Shirky
Making words and images public used to be difficult, complex, and expensive. Now it's not. That change, simple but fundamental, is transforming the media landscape. A publisher used to be required if you wanted to put material out into the public sphere; now anyone with a keyboard or a camera can circulate their material globally. This change in the economics of communication has opened the floodgates to a massive increase in the number and variety of participants creating and circulating media. This change, enormous and permanent, is driving several profound effects in the media landscape today. This course covers the transition from a world populated by professional media makers and a silent public to one where anyone who has a phone or a computer can be both producer and consumer. This change, brought about by the technological and economic characteristics of digital data and networks, is upending old industries -- newspapers, music publishing, moviemaking -- faster than new systems can be put in place. The result is chaos and experimentation as new ways of participating in the previously sparse media landscape are appearing everywhere. This course covers the history and economics of the previous media landscape, the design of digital networks that upend those historical systems, and new modes of participation from weblogs and wikis and Twitter to fan fiction and lolcats. The course centers on readings and field observation, with three papers due during the course of the term.

Mediated Intimacy: Closeness and Distance

H79.2798.1 Call#76844     Mon 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Kio Stark
The experience of intimacy across distances is at least as old as the technology of the letter. Since then, every new technology of connection produces new ways of initiating, enriching and sustaining intimacy. These new developments are often perceived simultaneously as creating distance and bridging distance. Because the invention of technologies of intimacy is a perennial pursuit at ITP, the goal of the class is to enrich students' ability to create meaningful and successful projects related to intimacy. Students gain a studied and nuanced understanding of the idea of intimacy and the physical and emotional experiences associated with it— as well as examining how existing and cutting-edge technologies work to connect intimates across the physical and metaphorical distances they routinely experience in everyday life. The first section of the course is devoted to studying intimacy, bonding, attachment, longing and desire from a variety of perspectives. These will include psychology and psychoanalysis— e.g.: Freud, Erich Fromm, Lacan, Kristeva, John Bowlby on attachment, Jessica Benjamin on bonding, Donald Winnicott on intersubjectivity; recent neuroscience, neurochemistry, and evolutionary biology related to intimacy and bonding; and recent psychological work specifically regarding intimacy and the internet. The second section of the course focuses on current art and technology projects— along with commercial ventures— that explore mediated intimacy across distances (the examples are legion). We scrutinize these projects to understand what they do right and what they do wrong. And we investigate the language and syntax of mediated intimacy, including attempts to incorporate each of (or combinations of) the human senses into devices of connectedness. In seeking to articulate what makes a meaningful mediated experience of intimacy, the course also looks at a group of edge cases— for example, personal performances in public (from web-cam girls to performance art)— that support asymmetrical intimacies. Through this process, we attempt to define a set of possible methods from which to create work. Classwork includes short papers throughout the semester and a final research paper or research-based project proposal.      Syllabus

New Interfaces for Musical Expression

H79.2227.1 Call#71411     Tues 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Greg Shakar / Hans Steiner
The course focus is on the design and creation of digital musical instruments. Music in performance is the primary subject of this class. We approach questions such as "What is performance?" "What makes a musical interface intuitive and emotionally immediate?" and "How do we create meaningful correlations between performance gestures and their musical consequences?" Over the semester, we look at many examples of current work by creators of musical interfaces, and discuss a wide range of issues facing technology-enabled performance - such as novice versus virtuoso performers, discrete versus continuous data control, the importance of haptic responsiveness as well as the relationship between musical performance and visual display. Extensive readings and case studies provide background for class discussions on the theory and practice of designing gestural controllers for musical performance. Students design and prototype a musical instrument - a complete system encompassing musical controller, algorithm for mapping input to sound, and the sound output itself. A technical framework for prototyping performance controllers is made available. Students focus on musical composition and improvisation techniques as they prepare their prototypes for live performance. The class culminates in a musical performance where students (or invited musicians) will demonstrate their instruments. Prerequisites: H79.2233 (Introduction to Computational Media) and H79.2301 (Physical Computing).      Syllabus

Project Development Studio (Danny Rozin)

H79.2564.1 Call#71438     Thur 09:30am to 12:00pm     Daniel Rozin
This is an environment for students to work on their existing project ideas that may fall outside the topic areas of existing classes. It is basically like an independent study with more structure and the opportunity for peer learning. This particular studio is appropriate for projects in the area of interactive art, programing and physical computing. There are required weekly meetings to share project development and obtain critique. Students must devise and then complete their own weekly assignments updating the class wiki regularly. They also must present to the class every few weeks. When topics of general interest emerge, a member of the class or the instructor takes class time to cover them in depth. The rest of the meeting time is spent in breakout sessions with students working individually or in groups of students working on related projects.

Recurring Concepts in Art

H79.2586.1 Call#71444     Fri 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Georgia Krantz
As a response to developing technologies, artists working in areas of new/digital media are continually inventing new concepts for self-expression - interactivity, the passage of time and resolution, just to name a few. Yet these concepts are new only in the sense that they are being adapted to new media. For example, the notion of interactivity, frequently observed as original and specific to the user-interaction component of computer-mediated works, was equally, if differently, specific to Gianlorenzo Bernini's 17th-century Baroque sculpture and architecture. Indeed the very concept of new media, and the concomitant implication of critically significant artistic development, applies throughout history. Oil revolutionized painting in the Renaissance, as did house-paint (on canvas) in the 1950s; in the 1910s, the found object indelibly altered definitions of art, the importance of the object being subsumed by that of the concept in the 1960s. This course examines how artists working before the boom of digital technology utilized other media, techniques and approaches to effect formal, conceptual and experiential dynamics comparable to those being investigated by new media artists today. The objective of the course is to provide students with not only knowledge of the immensely rich history of artistic creativity, but also a platform through which that knowledge might be utilized to reconsider new media strategies of artistic expression. It is the goal that through observation, discussion, reading and projects (both written and hands-on), students acquire mental tools to approach their own work with an expanded understanding of artistic possibility. Organized thematically, each class focuses on a different concept derived from the field of new media production and examined with regard to artistic precedents. The course focus primarily, though not exclusively, is on 20th/21st-century art. It is conducted as a combination lecture/discussion class. Critical theory is incorporated into the readings and discussions, but this is not strictly a theory course. The course has been conceptualized and designed to enhance understanding through a variety of means, from basic observation, to exploratory conversations, to more rigorous thinking informed by lectures, readings and focused discussions.      Syllabus

Representing Earth

H79.2810.1 Call#77127     Thur 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Michael Naimark
A remarkable convergence is enabling vast numbers of photos to be collectively “mapped” or modeled together in various ways. Small cheap digital cameras together with image processing, 3D modeling, cloud computing, and crowd-sourcing have enabled new ways to seamlessly aggregate images. The ultimate end result may be an unimaginably giant Earth model, containing as much detail as is chosen to add. The big players know it. Yahoo has Flickr (with over 2 billion images) and Flickr Maps, Microsoft has Live 3D and Photosynth, and Google has Google Earth and Streetview. Advances and new features spring up weekly, but so have critical concerns, for example, around access, control, privacy, and authenticity. The artist and activist communities know it as well and have responded in lively and provocative ways. This class attempts to make sense out of this fast-moving and uncharted domain. It is organized around six sections, two weeks each: (intro) “A Thousand Zapruders”, 1) “Billions and Billions of Photos” (the qualitative impact of colossal image libraries), 2) “Just Like Being There” (photo-realism and the psychophysics of mediated perception), 3) “Moving Through Space” (mediated navigation and how it compares to real-world navigation), 4) “Merging and Morphing” (combining images to create new viewpoints), 5) “Rich 3D Modeling” (making 3D computer models from photos), 6) “Liveness” (the role of streaming real-time images, video, and data in Earth models), and (close) “The One Earth Model”. For each section, we will examine fundamental concepts, track what’s out there, and debate concerns. Students are expected to produce a research presentation for each section, diving into specific areas of interest to them.      Syllabus

Rest of You

H79.2568.1 Call#71439     Mon 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Daniel O'Sullivan
This class explores the possibilities of subtle interaction with computers. Conventional computer interface tends to accommodate conscious, explicit, intentional communication. Many unconscious cues and actions that are valued in ordinary human expression are ignored or filtered by computer-mediated interactions. Relinquishing a conscious gatekeeper can be associated with such uncomfortable subjects as subliminal manipulation, subconscious repression, even a loss of free will and the insanity defense! On the other hand going past conscious control can be associated with achieving virtuosity in the arts and athletics, acquiring insight into your personality, and engendering trust in conversation. In this course students build on software and hardware tool kits to create hands-on experiments tapping less conscious parts of your experience. The prototyping exercises include using cell phone as personal sensor logger and then visualizing the results; sensing autonomic nervous responses such as heart rate; and trapping and analyzing language use on your computer. Group work is encouraged. The last part of the semester we concentrate on final projects. ICM and Physical Computing are prerequisites to this course.      Syllabus

Show and Tell Studio

H79.2588.1 Call#71446     Tues 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Nancy Hechinger
There is no shortage of great ideas and projects at ITP. But there is often a shortage of class time to thoroughly develop the concept for a project and to communicate effectively about it in writing or orally in presentations. At some point you are going to have to pitch your projects to people outside ITP and this studio will help you gain the skills you will need. This studio is a complement to a production class -- each student brings a project from another class -- we take the time, often lacking in class, to learn how to focus an idea into a workable concept, and to practice and experiment with ways to present it. Writing is critical to thinking and design. So the writing you do helps you hone and clarify your concept and lay the basis for a smoother more effective design and development process. We work on the structure of presentations, public speaking techniques; how to write and design engaging and memorable presentations. We also work on written communication, which may include: grant writing, artist's statements and proposals.      Syllabus

Site-specific: Augmentation, Affinities, and Frames

H79.2620.1 Call#76840     Tues 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Marina Zurkow
Site suggests contexts that are spatial, temporal, narrative, and populated. Site-specific works require a frame for participants, a set of stories and a point of entry. More than art within "the framework" of an art institution, site-specific, interactive and community-based works require rigorous levels of observation, interrogation, and participation. Whether in the physical or the virtual public, frame and context are primary considerations in the work you produce. This class is part studio and part refection, using contemporary art examples and writings that engage and critique the local and the global, invert locale and involve the everyday as well as traditional urban studies of observation. The studio portion of the class will either utilize an existent space in New York, or work towards the development of proposals for a fictional grant for lower Manhattan.      Syllabus

Social Activism Using Mobile Technology

H79.2800.1 Call#76846     Tues 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Nathan Freitas
We all know how mobile phones and ubiquitous computing have changed communication and networking in our personal lives, but do you understand the affect they have had on political and social justice movements around the world? More importantly, do you know how this has been done, so that you can apply these techniques when your own moment to raise your voice comes? While Obama Vice-Presidential SMS announcement was a milestone for politics in the U.S., activists and organizations around the world have been using mobile phones for years to get their message out, organize their communities, safely communicate under authoritarian eyes and save lives in times of crisis. Through studying historic, global uses of mobile technology and then teaching you how to use and apply these techniques, this course will give you the power 2B THE CHNG U WNT 2 C. The source will study and apply the use of SMS capture and broadcast systems (FrontlineSMS/RapidSMS), mobile crisis & event reporting tools (Ushahidi, VoteReport), Bluetooth broadcast systems, pirate Wifi mesh nodes, helmet-cam mobile phones and wearable UMPC/NetBook video broadcast systems. The course will also study about security and privacy of mobile phones and the possibility for open-source telephony. While the focus will be on the cutting edge, we'll also review the historic importance of police scanners, HAM radio, walkie talkie radios and other "old school" tools that have played important roles in the civil rights movement, the environmental movement and more. Actual organizations, causes and activists will be invited to speak to the class (both in-person and via Skype from around the world) to offer their stories and observations. Opportunities to work on projects with these movements will be presented to students. Some experience programming mobile devices (J2ME, iPhone, Android) will be useful, but not necessary. Experience in setting up at least one web server/application or blog system preferred. Having a cause you work or identify with or at least something you care about will be very important. Case studies to include: - The use of SMS message forwarding and multimedia attachments to share the Philippines version of the Nixon tapes. - Streaming live video from Mt. Everest and the Great Wall of China (while hiding from the police) - Secure, Anonymous, Private Mobile Phones via open-source Cryptophone software and Google Android - Reporting in Crisis: Kenya, Congo and Gaza eyewitness acount tracking via SMS and Smartphones - Election Protection: making sure your vote counts - activism for the common citizen - Crowd Control: Organizing and directing mass mobilizations through Twitter and SMS - Virtual Telephony: Asterisk, Google Voice, Skype and more, and why making phone numbers virtual and disposal matters - From Tsunami's to Twitter: did you know the first micro-blogging via SMS that mattered happened in the aftermath of the 2005 tsunami?      Syllabus

Solar Design for Development

H79.2806.1 Call#76856     Fri 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Hans Steiner / Jacob Winiecki
Sustainable energy solutions cannot exist in a bubble, they must be interlinked with local people, enterprise, and culture. There is a range of sustainable energy technologies that show huge promise. There are many projects, from massive to small, to bring technologies like solar to the developing world, but most fail. In order for such projects to succeed, they need to be considered in the whole context: affordability, usability, financing, local participation, long term maintenance, and even local culture. Information technology can lubricate these interactions, by easing communications, reducing transaction costs and allowing knowledge sharing. This class focuses on real world experience with solar energy, enterprise, and microfinance in East Africa and Asia. The class works with energy entrepreneurs currently providing solar products to households living on less than $3 per day. Students will learn about the basics of the technology as well as real-world problems and contexts. Groups of students will design prototype solutions. The solar enterprises critique final design projects and potentially test one or more in the field.      Syllabus

Thesis

H79.2102.1 Call#71092     Wed 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Kathleen Wilson
This course is designed to help students define and execute their final thesis project in a setting that is both collegial and critical. It is structured as a series of critique and presentation sessions in which various aspects of individual projects are discussed: the project concept, the elaboration, the presentation, the process and time-table, the resources needed to accomplish it, and the documentation. Critique sessions are e a combination of internal sessions (i.e., the class only) and reviews by external guest critics. Students are expected to complete a fully articulated thesis project description and related documentation. Final project prototypes are displayed both on the web and in a public showcase either in May or the following semester. Note: The Monday sections (.06 and .08) meet for 12 sessions beginning Monday, January 26.

Understanding Networks

H79.2808.1 Call#76857     Thur 3:30pm to 6:00pm     Thomas Igoe
Interactive technologies seldom stand alone. They exist in networks, and they facilitate networked connections between people. Designing technologies for communications requires an understanding of networks. This course is a foundation in how networks work. Through weekly readings and class discussions and a series of short hands-on projects, students gain an understanding of network topologies, how the elements of a network are connected and addressed, what protocols hold them together, and what dynamics arise in networked environments. This class is intended to supplement the many network-centric classes at ITP. It is broad survey, both of contemporary thinking about networks, and of current technologies and methods used in creating them. Prerequisites: Students should have an understanding of basic programming (Intro to Computational Media or equivalent). Familiarity with physical computing (Intro to Physical Computing or equivalent) is helpful, but not essential. Some, though not all, production work in the class requires programming and possibly physical and electronic construction. There is a significant reading component to this class as well. Possible topics include: * topologies: how to think about them (nodes and links), how few workable ones there are, and how there's no topology so stupid it isn't in use some place. * addressing and routing: what a namespace is, three ways to generate a name (nesting, serial uniqueness, random pseudo- uniqueness), the difference between smart and dumb networks, why the phone network and the internet differ even though they use the same wires * protocols: envelopes and contents, the stack and the reference lie, end-to-end principles, reliability vs. speed tradeoffs * scale: more is different, scale breaks otherwise workable systems, makes redundancy and degeneracy critical, tends to push systems * a discussion of security and its effects Possible exercises include: * Basic socket communication, both software and embedded hardware versions * Client-server programming * A group protocol/messaging exercise * An HTTP/RESTian model exercise

Video Sculpture

H79.2722.1 Call#71475     Mon 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Gabe Barcia-Colombo
Video is the new marble. In this class we breathe new life into video as a medium for creating engaging interactive physical sculpture. Video is no longer a flat screen based medium. How do we create video sculptures that move, emote and react to our presence? The course takes video off the screen and into the world of three-dimensional space in the form of site-specific and or physical installations. Through a series of weekly experiments and assignments, students work with projection, tiny LCD screens, physical sensors and interactive software to hack video into interactive sculptures in the tradition of Nam Jun Paik, Tony Oursler and Camille Utterback. Class is divided between lectures, guest speakers and critical discussion/presentation of work. Previous knowledge of video production / editing is not required, but a mad scientist-like lust to bring video to life is highly encouraged.      Syllabus

Virtual Worlds Workshop

H79.2790.1 Call#76842     Wed 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Josh Lifton
Technology evolves in sporadic bursts, and in so doing often churns up old ideas in new guises. The term "virtual worlds" is the latest reinvention of a timeless idea - freeform social interaction in a completely virtual space, though even this generic definition is fuel for much debate. This course draws on historical and contemporary readings to critically examine virtual worlds and the issues surrounding them, from the recently popular Second Life and myriad casual social web spaces to the early pioneering work of Active Worlds and the innumerable MUDs that arose in the Internet's infancy. As a class, we try to separate the essence of virtual worlds from what is derivative, what has succeeded from what has failed, promising directions of inquiry from dead ends. The readings and accompanying discussion inform fast-paced prototyping of virtual world experiments implemented from the students' choice of tools, such as Processing, Flash, Second Life building and scripting, various cloud computing and account interface tools (e.g. Google App Engine and Facebook Connect), and new experimental tools introduced and developed over the course of the semester. There is no strict prerequisite for this course, but students should feel comfortable with programming fundamentals, or be willing to put forth the extra effort needed to learn as they go.      Syllabus

Visual Communication

H79.2724.1 Call#76859     Mon 6:30pm to 9:00pm     Katherine Dillon
We see information before we read it - and often we see instead of read. Effective technologists and storytellers embrace the importance of visual design and understand the many tools available to convey and manipulate the user experience. These tools include everything from the layout and packaging of the written word to photo editing, information graphics, illustration, typography, animation, color and spatial modeling. This course provides an overview of the tools available and, through a series of practical exercises, enables students to understand the implications of their use. The goal of the course is to provide students with the practical knowledge and critical skills necessary to effectively consider visual design as an important and inevitable component of their work. The goal of the course is to provide students with the practical knowledge and critical skills necessary to effectively consider visual design as an important and inevitable component of their work. This class is especially recommended as an introductory course for people without training in the visual arts who might waive ICM or Physical Computing.      Syllabus

Visualizing Data: Code Meets Graphic Design

H79.2812.1 Call#77128     Thur 12:30pm to 3:00pm     Stewart Smith
The goal of this course is to augment your introductory Processing knowledge with concepts, examples, and sample code for creating data visualizations. In addition to code the course focuses on graphic design, specifically hierarchy and typography in visualization. Here are some design questions the course considers: Who is your audience? How would a first-time user approach/understand a piece? Does your choice of typeface enhance or detract from what you're trying to communicate? Discussion ranges from writing clean source code to Sol Lewitt, Douglas Engelbart and Edward Tufte. On the technical side the course examines how to parse data from XML (including Atom and RSS feeds), CSVs, and images. We cover simple chart, graph, and connectivity examples before moving on to your own visual experimentation. By semester's end you should be able to load data, render something visually compelling, and have something interesting to say about it.      Syllabus



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