Last Two Years

TIER 1- FOUNDATION COURSES

• Applications (H79.2000) - Red Burns, Todd Holoubek
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  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) - Marianne Petit, Gabe Barcia-Colombo, Kacie Kinzer
  Offered: Fall 2010
  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.       Course Syllabus
• Comm Lab: Animation (H79.2002) - Marianne Petit, Gabe Barcia-Colombo
  Offered: Fall 2011
  This course explores the fundamentals of storytelling through animation. Students will create two short animation pieces over the course of seven weeks. The first part of the course is devoted to the stop motion sing Dragon Stop Motion. The second part of the course is devoted to digital collage animation using After Effects. Drawing skills are not necessary for this class, however, you will keep a sketchbook. Basic video and sound skills are required. This two-credit course will meet the first seven weeks of the semester.
  
• Comm Lab: Video and Sound (H79.2001) - Marianne Petit, Gabe Barcia-Colombo
  Offered: Fall 2011
  This course explores the fundamentals of sound and video. Students will learn the basics of both audio and video recording using audio field recorders and a variety of cameras (from the Panasonic Xacti through the Canon 5D D-SLR) as well as editing and exporting in Final Cut Pro. Students will work in teams to produce both an audio soundscape and a three-minute video short. This 2-credit course meets for the first seven weeks of the semester.
• Comm Lab: Visual Language (H79.2005) - Katherine Dillon
  Offered: Fall 2011
  The goal of the course is to provide students who are new to the principles of visual design with the practical knowledge, critical skills and confidence to effectively communicate their ideas. The course outline includes: principles of visual design, typography and layout, logo and brand design, color theory, interface and instruction design, information design, design process and critical thinking. There will be a series of assignments that apply the principles presented in class. The assignments will be presented and critiqued in the following class. Completion of the assignments and participation in the class discussion is required. Students must maintain a blog where they post their weekly assignments. Please come to the first class with an example of a favorite website that we can analyze.
  
  Section 1 of this two-point course meets for the first seven weeks of the semester; sections 2 and 3 will meet in the last seven weeks of the semester.       Course Syllabus
• Comm Lab: Web (H79.2003) - Ioana Staicut, Liesje Hodgson, Joshua Knowles
  Offered: Fall 2011
  The web has become the most basic technology of interaction – between people and machines, people and data, and, most importantly, people and other people. Though the core web interaction is simple – a client sends a request to a server, which replies – services of incredible sophistication and scale have been built around it. In this class, students will learn to lay out a web page; make the page responsive to the user; embed a form for taking user input; and create a simple server to receive, store, manipulate, and return that input. Students will use HTML+CSS, the design language of the web; Sinatra, a programming language specially designed for interactive web services; and JQuery, a a Javascript tool for making web pages more interactive. Section 1 of this two-credit course meets in the first seven weeks of the semester
• Introduction to Computational Media (H79.2233) - Daniel Shiffman, Daniel Rozin, Che-Wei Wang, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Zannah Marsh, Christopher Kairalla, Matt Parker
  Offered: Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011
  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 3D graphics. The Java-based 'Processing' programming environment is the primary vehicle for the class. 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.       Course Syllabus
• Introduction to Physical Computing (H79.2301) - Thomas Igoe, Thomas Gerhardt, Daniel O'Sullivan, Rory Nugent, Dustyn Roberts, Benedetta Piantella, Scott Fitzgerald
  Offered: Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Summer2 2011
  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.       Course Syllabus

TIER 2

• 3D Sensing and Visualization Seminar (H79.2900) - Kyle McDonald
  Offered: Spring 2011
  This course will explore recent developments in 3d scanning technology and the tools and techniques for collecting, analyzing, and visualizing 3d data. Once relegated to the realm of academic and military research, 3d scanning has recently been made available to amateurs through DIY implementations like DAVID laser scanner, or, in the case of Kinect, through open source reverse engineering of cheap consumer hardware. We will cover different methods of 3d input, including structured light, LIDAR, time of flight, stereo matching, and optical triangulation -- and focus on techniques for organizing and collecting data, creatively visualizing it, and using it in an interactive context. This course will be taught using openframeworks, a C++ toolkit for creative coding. While the class will be highly technical and code-heavy, there will be a strong emphasis the poetic potential of this new form of input.
  
  This two-point course meets for the first seven weeks of the semester.
        Course Syllabus
• An Anecdotal History of Sound and Light (H79.2870) - Ben Rubin
  Offered: Fall 2010
  At a fundamental level, sound and light form the basis for nearly all communication media. This seminar studies how our understanding of sound and light has developed over time and across scientific and creative disciplines. We pay particular attention to the phenomenology and perceptual effects of sound and light, and to what Michel Chion calls “the audiovisual effect” (the cognitive fusion of audible and visible stimuli). The course surveys areas that include acoustics, cognitive science, data sonification, acoustic ecology, industrial design, audible user-interface design, music, architecture, sound and light art, lighting design, and sound design for film and theater. This is not a production course; assignments consist of weekly readings, research, and writing.
• Animals, People and Those In Between (H79.2936) - Marina Zurkow
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  This class will use animals, humans, and other creatures as a way to think about art-making and character representation . Claude Levi-Strauss’ observation that “Animals are Good to Think” is the starting point from which we will make, discuss, and examine the ways in which art works imagine the interrelationships between the human, the animal, and our environment. If we can only perceive these things through mediation (media representations), then how we represent them is the fundamental question, reflecting our ideologies, prejudices, hopes, and fears. Do we speak for animals, and if so what are we saying for them? Are they friends, pets, environmental equals or beasts? How are hybrid monsters (chimera) created and what do they mean? How do we understand our places as subjects in a landscape or a datascape? How can anthropomorphic cuteness be subversive? This class focuses on questions of intention, relation, and subjectivity, through critical engagement with representations of people, animals, monsters, and mutants, in their respective environments. The class is further focused on the use of character in context, via toy design, robotics, animation, video, image generation or data visualization. There will be introductory texts on character development, and generally an emphasis on literary, philosophical and natural history texts.       Course Syllabus
• Art of the Archive (H79.2907) - Michael Connor
  Offered: Fall 2011
  Archives are not neutral; they are contested sites where important social and cultural debates take place. In recent decades, artists have played an important role in such debates. To cite one example: the massive store of surveillance documents amassed by the Stasi in the former East Germany has provided today's readers with a history of the underground performance art scene behind the Iron Curtain. What was once a cog in the wheel of the police state has become a document of radical artistic practice. As new technologies permit new ways of storing information and categorizing knowledge, archives are likely to play an increasingly important role in shaping society's self-image. This class explores how artists can help shape this image through the creation and critique of archives. Students appropriate archival materials to create new works; they also prototype new kinds of archives. Examples discussed in class include archival projects by visual artists (Andy Warhol, Cory Arcangel, The Atlas Group, Antonio Muntadas, Minerva Cuevas, Trevor Paglen, Raqs Media Collective, Susan Hiller) as well as online archives from Ubu to archive.org to Wikipedia.       Course Syllabus
• Basic Analog Circuits (H79.2728) - Eric Rosenthal
  Offered: Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011
  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.       Course Syllabus
• Be Here Now: Wares for Sharing (H79.2898) - Joo Paek
  Offered: Spring 2011
  Humans first developed tools for survival, then for personal pleasure and finally for social engagement. These three phases are the topic of this course, in which we will research and design for how natural human impulses shape our current social tools. With a focus on physical activities, functional garments, location tracking, and social media students will create new products or services that aim to embrace the very moment in history we’re living in. The final assignment will be for individuals or groups to present their concept in a convincing manner using proof materials such as sketches, user scenarios, design boards, demo videos and working prototypes as needed.       Course Syllabus
• Beyond Processing (H79.2878) - Matt Parker
  Offered: Fall 2010
  Beyond Processing picks up where ICM leaves off, bridging the gap
  between basic programming and more advanced concepts. This class
  delves into topics designed to increase students' ability to be
  creative with code. While ICM projects are done in the Processing
  development environment, the work in this class will be done in
  Eclipse, a more advanced environment (IDE), allowing the class to
  write better code faster. In Eclipse, students will learn how to use
  the Processing libraries in Java. Next, the class will focus on core
  programming techniques such as Object Oriented Programming (OOP) and
  Data Structures. We also will cover how to collect data from APIs. In
  doing so we will compare XML and JSON, as well as how best to organize
  and store that data in programs. Finally we deal with encapsulation,
  a method for structuring programs so that complex problems can be made
  manageable by breaking them down into small reusable parts.
  
  ICM or equivalent is required.
  
  This two credit class meets every other week.
  
• Big Games (H79.2454) - Gregory Trefry
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  What happens to games when they escape the boundaries of our tabletops and desktops and TV screens and living rooms? From massively multiplayer online games to networked objects that turn the city into a gigantic game grid, new forms of super-sized gaming are expanding at an alarming rate and opening up vast new spaces in which to play. Whether these games are measured in terms of number of players, geographical dimensions, or temporal scope, they represent a new trend in which the "little world" created by a game threatens to swallow up the "real world" in which it is situated. This class is a hands-on workshop that is focused on the particular design problems of large-scale games. In this class students: develop a foundation of basic game design understanding from which to approach the specific issues particular to big games; analyze existing digital and non-digital large-scale games, taking them apart to understand how they work; as interactive systems; and work on a series of design exercises that explore the social, technological, and creative possibilities of large-scale games.       Course Syllabus
• Big Screens (H79.2680) - Daniel Shiffman
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  This class is dedicated to experimenting with interactivity on large-scale screens. Students will work in pairs to 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. Please note that you will be asked to register for the class with a partner. Information regarding this registration process will be available on Monday, April 16.       Course Syllabus
• Cabinets of Wonder (H79.2470) - Nancy Hechinger
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  If you were inventing a museum today, what would it look like? Who would be there? What would its main purpose be? 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; to see things they would never otherwise be able to see. Museums were a great experiment in learning in a public place, a 3D space? How is that different from learning in a classroom? Is learning still a primary goal? And now there’s television, movies, the internet and travel. Why do people go to museums now? Will they in the future? Today, most museums seek to educate and to include more and more diverse visitors than they used to. How do people learn in public spaces? How do we know that they do? How can they make use of the new interactive technologies and not lose what’s special about them? The class is an exploration, observation and theory class with some design mixed in. Museum and exhibit visits are your primary assignments for the first half of the course—usually accompanied by a reading. You will also make some record of your visit (including a sketchbook, a dioramas, reviews) There will be guest speakers from Museums and exhibit design firms, and a few field trips. In the second half of the course, you begin to imagine how you might reinvent a museum and develop a full-scale presentation of your own Cabinet of Wonder.
• Collective Storytelling (H79.2706) - Marianne Petit
  Offered: Spring 2011
  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.       Course Syllabus
• Comics (H79.2925) - Tracy White
  Offered: Spring 2011
  Comics are more than a narrative form they are a communication medium. Using words and images to tell a story is a skill that is applicable to almost everything we do. In this class you will learn the language of traditional comics so you can hone your storytelling ability, and clarity of thought. We will breakdown the sequential narrative process into the techniques necessary to develop a compelling tale and look at how the audience and the medium help to shape the final presentation of our ideas. Students work on several projects to build up their skills that will culminate in the creation of a short feature comic written/drawn/programmed by each student that can be based on a previous assignment. This class does not teach specific programs or programming rather this class provides an opportunity for students to thoughtfully and creatively apply their skills toward specific assignments. You do not need to be a trained artist to take this class you do need to be willing to take chances with your work. This two-point course will meet for the first seven weeks of the semester.       Course Syllabus
• Computational Cameras (H79.2546) - Daniel O'Sullivan
  Offered: Spring 2011
  Computers should see. We depend most heavily on light to sense the world. As our experience is increasingly mediated through networked computers, it is not surprising that cameras have become an integral part of them. These camera/computer combinations have become small, cheap and ubiquitous in laptops, cellphones and microcontrollers and have gained coverage of every corner of life. This class looks at the possibilities and the computer software for getting a hold of the signals coming in from these cameras. Unfortunately what is trivial for our vision system is really hard in software. This class attempts to side step these very difficult problem of computer vision by working in fairly contrived environments such as art installations, eye tracking rigs, and ant farms. First the class will cover programming required to process or analyze each pixel of the incoming image for such things as background removal, finding edges, or tracking objects. As a sensor, the video camera is appealing; delivering up to 36 million bytes every second compared to maybe 3 bytes from a keyboard but this volumen of data also presents a nice coding challenge for students. After covering the basics of pixel manipulation, the class will turn to higher level libraries for things like face tracking, multitouch, Wii, Kinect and augmented reality. The course uses Java in the Eclipse environment which is a good next step from the Processing environment. We look at implementing these techniques across platforms, including the desktop, the cellphone and even on a microcontroller. The class requires ICM or similar programming background.       Course Syllabus
• Conceptual Art (H79.2886) - Georgia Krantz
  Offered: Spring 2011
  This course will examine the history of Conceptual art: its roots in Fluxus, Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism; the emergence and unfolding of the movement from 1966-1972; and the impact of the movement on successive generations of artists to the present day. Examining Conceptual art is messy for many reasons, not least because “it’s conceptual” is a popular response to any art made of unconventional materials or difficult to understand. The course will situate Conceptual art with regards to the diverse artistic practices and theoretical and cultural paradigms through which artists, critics and scholars have framed and debated its dynamics.       Course Syllabus
• Constructing Generative Systems (H79.2534) - Todd Holoubek
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  Generative Art creates a process of evolution, where most art imitates life, generative art has a life of it’s own. Artists, designers, architects have use generative methods for creating many times without knowing. How is it that we can create something that resonates with the user on a level that cannot be quantified. It is by providing the work with the means to have a life of it own. These are the generative methods. Techniques that are subtle, yet have the greatest effect: simple rules that dictate the shape or function of a work adding to it an inherent complexity that is both beautiful and intelligent. In this class we will cover the generative methods and use them as tools for creating.       Course Syllabus
• Copyright, Cyberlaw and Free Culture (H79.2828) - Frederick Benenson
  Offered: Spring 2010
  The phrases 'free software', 'free culture', and 'peer to peer production' are often casually referenced in the current discourse on digital media and culture. But each are coherent topics and phenomena representing radical challenges to our established notions of authorship, ownership, and collaboration of cultural works.
  
  In order to fully investigate these new modes of production, this course will introduce basic concepts in copyright and cyberlaw (Are ideas ownable? What is fair use? What are my rights online?) while taking time to examine the underlying technology of our digital communications infrastructure (the TCP/IP stack, routing, file sharing, etc.). Students are expected to actively participate in free culture communities, open source projects, and engage in a discourse regarding the future of cultural production. A basic understanding of open communities and a desire to investigate the legal and technical implications of radical thought are required.
  
  Readings will include Lessig, Stallman, Benkler, Doctorow, Shirky, Barlow, Coleman, Patry, Wu, and Zittrain.
• Creating Community Environments (H79.2838) - Kristen Taylor
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  Why do we nestle into some communities immediately and feel out of place in others? Can you create a niche online group that is welcoming to all and yet accomplishes specific goals? In CommunITP, we do fieldwork to discover how collaborative actions happen. We think about markets and audiences, looking for ways to create receptive environments for interactive work. Along the way, we research language markers, design cues, griefing, upcycling, excellence, and craft as we focus on the agency of objects and the targeted representation of ideas. Readings range from single-serving sites to ecofuturist short stories to Irish poetry; we use Tumblr blogs to respond to readings and share observations with text, images, and video. Heavy emphasis on small group work in class meetings leads to you redesigning a community feature for the midterm and expanding on that work for the final project that is evaluated by a guest crit panel and the class. Students have compared this class to "grooming bonsai trees." Find out why.       Course Syllabus
• Creating Digital Games (H79.2887) - Matt Parker
  Offered: Spring 2011
  This will be a class exploring the challenges of creating digital
  games. We will explore the process of iterative game design and its
  relation to video game development through the creation of a few very
  focused game prototypes. Projects will be built in Processing, but
  the concepts discussed with be applicable to all digital game formats.
  We will go over how sprite sheets can be used to animate characters,
  different kinds of collision detection, level construction, and simple
  tricks that can make game elements seem intelligent. Final projects
  will either be playable via the web, Android devices, or as
  installation games. Finally, there will be discussions and guest
  speakers to explore games as culture and begin to explore their power
  and potential. Assignments will consist of readings, presentations,
  game playing and development.
  
• Data and Art Transformations (H79.2854) - Zannah Marsh
  Offered: Summer2 2010
  We are living in the midst of a data explosion: a sudden accumulation
  of huge volumes of data— much of it readily accessible online—describing
  our everyday world from global economic fluctuations to social networking
  trends and traffic patterns. But how does this raw data become narrative? What alchemy transforms data from information into meaning? And when data is collected and selected, what’s been omitted or erased? Data visualization typically is illustrative and utilitarian, but data can be unraveled and re-expressed, transformed into something more. We will examine information design strategies and the visual language of the infographic as a starting point in creating our own data-based art works. We will experiment with approaches to data that are playful, reverent, poetic, subversive, and ultimately narrative. We will consider works by Alex Dragalescu, Christian Nold, Edward Tufte, Eric Rodebeck, and Chris Jordan. Students will use Processing, and work with data sets and APIs to generate dynamic interactive programs, screen-based artworks, or digital prints. Basic programming experience (ICM or equivalent) required.
  
• Data Representation (H79.2888) - Jer Thorpe
  Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011
  The world is awash with data. In the last few years, a collision of technologies has allowed us to record massive amounts of information. The question that we are faced with now is: How can we make sense of it? In this course, we explore traditional analysis and visualization techniques, alongside novel strategies and exploratory methods. We build tools to navigate through huge data sets, and will learn how to represent data in visual, audial, and physical form. Students work in Processing to design and build their own unique data representation projects.       Course Syllabus
• Design Expo (H79.2274) - Nancy Hechinger
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  This is a 'real world' product design and development class. Every year Microsoft invites 8 universities from around the world to take part in a Design Expo, by responding to a specific topic. The topic for the 2011 design challenge is “Get Connected, Stay Connected” . Teams will explore the promise of real time data transmission and seamless connectivity. With the proliferation of mobile devices, cameras and other sensors combined with cloud computing and pervasive connectivity, the technologies exist to greatly simplify the ability to get connected and stay connected. How can we design for experiences that leverage these technologies to create new opportunities to engage with others in ever more meaningful ways?
  
  The topic is broad enough to give students room for creativity and invention, but narrow enough so you can limit your scope.Over the course of the semester, you will learn the stages of developing a product from conception to proof-of concept--including how to do user research, how to do product research, Ui design and experience, and how to make a presentation to sell your idea. You work in small teams to prototype and develop ideas in response to the challenge; classes take the form of critique sessions of these ideas and their presentation. At the end of the semester, the teams will present to a jury of outisde reviewers whose votes will determine which team is selected to represent ITP at Microsoft in Redmond WA in July. It is planned that one of the project teams from each university will be invited to present their work to the research and design groups at Microsoft in Redmond, WA over the summer. Since this class is mostly about teamwork and collaborative design, this year there will be significant portions of class time allocated for team meetings and design. This reflects the comments of past years of the difficulty of finding times to meet and to reduce the amount of out-of-class work.
        Course Syllabus
• Design for UNICEF (H79.2758) - John Dimatos, Jorge Just
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund; http://unicef.org) takes on issues affecting the health, well-being, and opportunities of children and youth around the world. Though its reach is wide—UNICEF is the #1 purchaser of pencils, and in 2010 responded to emergencies in half of all nations—an increasingly important part of its mission is finding creative ways to address issues that negatively affect young lives. Design for UNICEF will center on a place--last year it was Northern Uganda--and focus on a specific topic such as nutrition or children in emergencies. Students will examine some of the design challenges UNICEF faces, and work in groups--selected and frequently reconfigured by the professor--to research and prototype new tools and innovative extensions to existing efforts. Projects can use high or low/no technology and take the form of mock-ups/design proposals, working prototypes, or physical artifacts. Students will present their work at UNICEF HQ to staff and invited guests at semester's end. This class is all about rapid iteration and refinement, proposing and rejecting ideas, lots of collaboration, and coming to terms with the difficult and frustrating challenges of designing for people who are far away, facing problems that are very big.       Course Syllabus
• Design Frontiers in Biology and Materiality  (H79.2816) - Amanda Parkes
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  Biological organisms and systems are essentially living machines. Digital technologies allow us to create a control structure with computational predictability and precision. What happens, however, when designers begin to incorporate the self-determined internal control structure of a biological system as part of a design strategy? This course offers a new approach to materiality, positing that all matter is dynamic but exists within a continuum of control ranging from passively temporal (wood, water) to electronically active (photovoltaics, thermochromics) to biologically alive (plants, tissue). This course presents alternative design strategies for creating computational interfacing with living matter and state change of natural materials. Students are introduced to the world of the bio lab from a designer’s perspective, both conceptually and practically. We examine the state-of-the-art in artistic experimentation with biological systems such as the genetic manipulation projects of Eduardo Kac, or the carbon nanotubes grown into architectural structures of Ryan Wartena. We also examine more DIY approaches to living systems integration and interactivity with biological systems. Students use a hands-on approach in their design process, with biological sensing as input and indicators or material state change as an alternative method of information display, for example. This course is designed to further our computational relationship with the natural world pushing forward ideas in sustainability, interactivity, energy production and the emerging relationship between the designer/artist and the bio lab, approaching biology as an open frontier for digital design.
        Course Syllabus
• Designing Conversational Spaces (H79.2889) - Clay Shirky
  Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011
  The Design of Conversational Spaces starts with the observation that conversation is everywhere online, but that its quality ranges from excellent to execrable. The negative end of that scale is astonishingly bad – moronic rants, off-topic rambles, vitriolic attacks. (“dude just stfu nobody watches ur videos just gtfo out of you tube oh no were hurting his little feelings i feel soo bad”.) It's enough to make you wish for the enforced public silence of 20th century media. Yet not all online speech suffers this fate; many sites manage to host not just civil but productive conversations, from the talk pages on Wikipedia to the design conversations on github to political debate on Comment is Free. Programmers have contentious but respectful conversations on StackOverflow and #winprog; crafters on Etsy and Ravelry; mathematicians on Polymath; pop artists on DeviantArt. This class is about the design of environments that support or encourage good conversation. We explore what makes comments on YouTube so bad, and on Ravelry so good, a bundle of differences that includes the scale of the audience, the commitment of the participants to each other and to shared enterprise, and the willingness and ability of the participants police violations. The class is designed to explore three forces that affect online conversation: Forces that set conversational context (scale, homophily, identity) Forces that guide conversations (visual and verbal cues, social rules) Forces that restrict conversations (membership, karma, moderation) These will be your toolkit for thinking about conversational design. The goal of the course is to sketch out a "pattern language" for the kinds of choices designers make when creating conversational or interactive interfaces or tools, and to understand the inevitable tradeoffs involved.       Course Syllabus
• Designing for Digital Fabrication (H79.2890) - Daniel Rozin
  Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011
  The ability to digitally fabricate parts and whole pieces directly from our computers or design files used to be an exotic and expensive option not really suitable for student or designer projects, but changes in this field in the past 5 years have brought these capabilities much closer to our means, especially as ITP students. ITP and NYU now offer us access to laser cutting, CNC routing, and 3D stereolithography. In this class we will learn how to design for and operate these machines. Emphasis will be put on designing functional parts that can fit into a larger project or support other components as well as being successful on a conceptual and aesthetic level. In this class we will discover methods to design projects on CAD applications for total control of the result, and we will develop algorithmic ways to create designs from software (Processing) to take advantage of the ability to make parts and projects that are unique, customizable, dependent on external data or random. The class will include 3 assignments to create projects using the three machines (laser, router, 3D) and the opportunity to work on a final project.       Course Syllabus
• Designing for Greenfab (H79.2872) - Jaymes Dec, Christian Cerrito
  Offered: Fall 2010
  During this two credit course, ITP students develop, test, and teach workshops to the students of GreenFab, South Bronx, a hands on high school program that aims to teach science, technology, and engineering skills through coursework in sustainable design and green technologies. ITP students are asked to design small, creative, inexpensive, kit-able electronics to be utilized in activities reinforcing Greenfab's core curriculum and mission. Topics of discussion include the application of physical computing in regards to secondary education, creative uses of sustainable technologies, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) curriculum development, user testing, and open source hardware and software tools. During the semester bi-weekly classes are held both at ITP and at GreenFab's facilities in the South Bronx.
        Course Syllabus
• Designing Living Systems (H79.2862) - Marc Alt
  Offered: Fall 2010
  In this class, we will explore emerging technologies in urban farming, phyto-remediation and living systems design. Developing clean technologies that protect, preserve and restore the integrity of ecosystems while serving the needs of the projected billions of people who will join urban populations will be one of the defining challenges of our time.
  
  The class will combine seminars, field work and prototyping. The primary textbook of this class is the natural world and 3.5 billion years of iterative design evolution. Primary investigations will begin with the study and design of systems that mimic the closed-loop processes of micro and macro ecologies, the super efficient and symbiotic methods that harness solar energy in an infinitely regenerative cycle, recirculating matter and energy between plants and animals in symbiosis to produce an abundance of food and energy with zero waste. In thinking about how we will feed ourselves in the 21st century, and how urban centers will re-engage with the natural world, we are drawing inspiration from these primal forces and organizing principles.
  
  Explorations will focus on combining botany, horticulture, agriculture, design, sensing, feedback mechanisms and clean technologies to create living systems that support health and well-being, clean air, water, plants, energy and food. A primary investigation will be designing future systems of farming and food production, particularly in the urban context, including high-intensity building-integrated agricultural techniques such as hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics. There will also be a focus on restorative ecosystem services in urban planning and design, and the interface between phyto systems and human systems. We will explore urban sensing technologies and phytoremediation systems that improve air and water quality in the built environment, such as vertical gardening, living walls, green roofs, bioswales and other building-integrated systems. Monitoring, capturing, analyzing, aggregating and reporting data through global monitoring portals, we will provide transparency and demonstrate viability of these technologies.
• Designing Social Platforms  (H79.2922) - John Kuiphoff
  Offered: Summer2 2011
  Most social media platforms follow a similar recipe. A user signs up, creates a profile, contributes / shares content, posts comments, builds a reputation, etc. What makes each social media platform unique is the object of conversation, the intended purpose and the participatory culture that arises from its use. In this course, we will learn how to design and develop a fully functional social media platform using HTML, CSS, jQuery, PHP and MySQL. An emphasis will be placed on creating applications that operate both on desktop computers and mobile devices. In addition, topics related to information architecture, interface design, cloud computing and leveraging existing web services will be discussed. Previous programming experience is helpful, but not required.
• Developing Assistive Technology: Field Service Learning (H79.2842) - John Schimmel
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  Assistive technologies are the tools people with physical, sensory and mental disabilities use daily to interact, navigate and communicate with the world around them. In this class, students are assigned to develop working solutions for local rehabilitation institutions and organizations; projects are developed on augmented reality for visual disabilities, Nintendo Wii for physical therapy and touch screens for post-stroke therapy. Students are expected to have a solid understanding of programming (Flash, Javascript and Processing) and physical computing as well as ability to communicate their ideas clearly to non-technical users. Participating students meet as a group bi-weekly for this two-point class.
        Course Syllabus
• Digital Imaging: Reset (H79.2550) - Eric Rosenthal
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011
  Digital cameras and printers are making photography more ubiquitous and more useful than ever. This course is a workshop that looks at changing the rules for capturing and printing digital imagery. By gaining a better understanding of the engineering fundamentals and limitations of digital photography, students can produce breathtaking images with all the benefits of digital media but with an image quality that rivals film. Students experiment using low cost, hands-on tips and tricks in software and hardware to capture high dynamic range, expanded color, night color, 3D, time lapse, and stop motion images using a digital camera and printer. While using mostly off-the-shelf tools, these experiments require students to dig down to see the nitty-gritty of today's and tomorrow's technologies for digitally sensing, encoding, compressing, transmitting and displaying images.       Course Syllabus
• Digital Sound Lab (H79.2266) - Dan Palkowski
  Offered: Summer1 2010
  This course is aimed towards providing the student with a basic knowledge of principles and practices of digital audio from a creative perspective. Each class has both an ‘analog’ and a digital component, the former providing the student with an understanding of audio fundamentals (mics, mixers, recording devices, etc.) and the latter focusing on several popular software audio tools and peripherals (Ableton Live, Audacity, Soundhack, etc.). The curriculum is flexible, based on the experience level and needs of the participants. This is a dynamic field, and ITP students bring many disciplines to the table. Through demonstrations, class discussions and assignments, the goal is to ensure that students are capable of bringing professional quality audio into their projects, and to introduce them to the underlying concepts that are found in digital production tools, regardless of brand. The final project is a short audio work which successfully employs the tools and concepts learned.       Course Syllabus
• DIY Health (H79.2908) - Steven Dean
  Offered: Fall 2011
  Traditional medical care focuses on fixing sickness but doesn't do a very good job of helping prevent it. Self-care solutions that help us take better care of ourselves have the potential to improve our health and well-being, and may keep us from experiencing the consequences of chronic disease, or even reversing it. The sensor and self-tracking revolution is changing our understanding of data and ourselves. We need new systems that collect, understand and interpret this data to help us know ourselves better and make better choices in light of that knowledge. How might we design a self-care system that engages us in our own monitoring, goal setting, experimenting, reflecting and understanding as it relates to our bodies, minds, emotions, relationships and environment? Since self-care applies to all of us, you will focus inwardly on your own needs and situations. The goal of the course is to design a self-care system that helps us take stock of ourselves by exploring ways to measure, reflect and act upon our health and lifestyle. We make interactive interfaces, visualizations and feedback systems that use existing technologies and methods to support our health and well-being. Students employ design techniques to develop problem statements, generate concepts, prototype, and then test and refine your solutions to evolve them into high-fidelity prototypes that use sketches, scenarios, videos and user journeys to convey the complete user experience. The emphasis is on the lightest weight prototype, which works through the solution over actual implementations in software and hardware. Significant portions of class time are set aside for teamwork, designing and critique.       Course Syllabus
• Drawing without Ego (H79.2406) - William Sullivan
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  Drawing is often the beginning of relaying an idea. It constitutes the most intimate form of making and is the testing ground for new thoughts. “Drawing without ego” means letting go of fears of what you think drawing should be, and just letting it happen – feeling comfortable enough to use drawing as an alphabet to build thoughts visually, like language is built from letters. The course encourages the student to experiment and develop a visual idea, more than to create finished work. Assignments include sketching out proposals for new work – storyboarding, etc. – building a visual vocabulary through various forms of improvisation, as well as the more conventional practice of drawing from the model and still life. Students bring their knowledge of interactive telecommunications to drawing and find ways to let drawing enter into their design work. In this introductory drawing class students are urged to draw anything they want, exploring the freedom of expression that comes from playing with one's imagination and memory and creating convincing imagery with or without references. The class will have informal critiques, and will visit galleries to look at contemporary art. Weekly assignments are required.
  
  This two-credit course will meet the first seven weeks of the semester.       Course Syllabus
• Dynamic Web Development (H79.2296) - Christopher Sung
  Offered: Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011
  How does one move away from creating static websites and toward building active, evolving hubs of activity? This class will cover 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 will be given to social and community-based web interaction. The production environment will consist 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 will focus on interfacing this environment with other technologies/formats such as JavaScript, XML, AJAX, JSON, and Flash, along with data population, site architecture methodology, web application frameworks, and interaction with web service APIs from Google Maps, Flickr, YouTube, Delicious, Yelp, Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare. 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 will include homework assignments to reinforce each week's concepts while simultaneously contributing to the student's "toolkit" of code and design principles. There will also be 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.
        Course Syllabus
• Electronic Design and Prototyping (H79.2904) - Paul Rothman
  Offered: Summer2 2011
  Have you tried squeezing a breadboard circuit into a wearable? Designed a toy that kids instantly ripped apart? Created an instrument that malfunctioned on stage? Simple proof-of-concept prototypes are a great way to explore new ideas but sometimes, more advanced prototyping and fabrication techniques are needed to achieve a polished end result. Knowing the appropriate tools and components for a given project can really make a difference in transforming an idea from your sketchbook into a solid piece of hardware. This class demonstrates how to design projects that are physically smaller, easily reproducible and more reliable. Topics will include understanding schematics, part sourcing, PCB design, surface mount components and soldering, modular systems, enclosure design and more. The course is designed to act as a kind of lab section in support of other physical computing based classes such as Wearables, NIME, Toy Design, Wildlife Tracking and others. Students are encouraged to have projects in mind to work on but there will be weekly/bi-weekly assignments to demonstrate skills learned in class. Class sessions will consist of lectures, hands-on demos and workshop time. Previous knowledge of electronics is strongly recommended as the course material assumes basic understanding of electronic components and circuits.
• Electronic Project Development Studio (H79.2814) - Eric Rosenthal
  Offered: Spring 2010, Fall 2010
  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 requested to present a project
  description on the first day of class. They then work together with
  the instructor and the class to develop technical solutions for their
  project. When technical topics of general interest emerge, they will
  be covered in class. Class meetings consist of basic electronic and
  technical lectures focused on strategies to solving technical project
  problems. Students are expected to show their projects multiple times
  during the semester and develop and test the projects in stages. The
  first half of the semester the class meets each week in a normal class
  session, the second half of the semester during the normally scheduled
  class time, the instructor meets with students by appointment and/or
  during office hours by appointment, to provide one on one guidance,
  critique and trouble shooting assistance.
  
• Evolution of Post-Print Media (H79.2891) - Art Kleiner
  Offered: Spring 2011
  The nature of media is changing, and none is changing more rapidly than the media of print: the newspaper and magazine. In this course, drawing on the experience of one magazine (strategy+business) which is rapidly evolving, we’re going to look at the basic issues of an industry in change: The way that such practices as advertising and circulation are evolving, and the necessary steps that leaders in media must take to stay on top of them. The class sessions will draw upon a wide variety of guest lecturers, but we will also focus on three student projects. 1. A brief report on a trend affecting print media 2. A report on a new business model and how well it is working. 3. A prototype/proposal for a media feature or enterprise.
        Course Syllabus
• Exhibit Design: New York Hall of Science (H79.2796) - Eric Siegel, Nancy Hechinger
  Offered: Spring 2010
  In this class students will develop and design interactive exhibits for the New York Hall of Science (NYHS) . It will be taught by Eric Siegel and Nancy Hechinger. Eric is the Director and Chief Content Officer at the New York Hall of Science. He leads the education, programs, exhibition development, science, and technology.
  
  The class will learn-- from readings and hands-on experience--what is required to take an exhibit from concept through design, prototype and testing with real users. Eric will present a design brief for a suite of exhibits to be installed at the Hall. The brief will include: the topic, references for the scientific principles to be demonstrated, the educational goal, the target audience, the location within the museum, and budget. Nancy will work with the class in the role of design manager. Eric (NYHS) is the client, Nancy and the class are the design team. …first as a whole class to brainstorm solutions, then in smaller collaborative teams to realize the ideas and produce prototypes. Class discussions will range from seminar type discussions on readings to design crits that will mirror a client-design firm interaction.
  
  Please NOTE: There will be three times during the semester that the class will meet for 4 hours on Saturdays at the NYHS. There will no class on the Wednesday of those weeks.:
  
  1) 2nd week…to experience and get to know the Hall, meet the scientists and exhibit developers, take measurements of the location, etc.
  
  2) 6th week…first prototyping session on the hall—with real visitors, observation and documentation of problems, formative evaluation for design revision.
  3) 13th week…final projects review with visitors and NYHS staff
• Expression Frameworks for Data: Information Visualization (H79.2882) - James Sears, Jonathan Cousins
  Offered: Fall 2010
  This course is designed to expose students to a variety of emerging techniques for and the issues around, collecting, evaluating and communicating ideas about primary source data. In the first couple of sessions students are shown how to acquire, parse and store data in a single MySQL repository, a repository that will be available to the entire class throughout the semester. Also in those early sessions students will experiment with existing visualizations using data that's been loaded into the repository ahead of the semester. As students become more familiar with loading, extracting, and manipulating data visually, they will be gradually exposed to a variety of techniques and methods for different types of data visualization with the goal of developing narratives around their discoveries. A real-world example created by the instructors will be used occasionally to demonstrate various aspects of the design and development process. Ultimate success in this course is a final
   project that reflects an understanding of how to create an experience that addresses (answers, creates, develops) a rich question or narrative based on actual data. There will be several guest speakers and critics including artists, journalists, government analysts and those from other disciplines. Basic programming experience is required. Technologies used are PHP, MySQL and Processing.
• Fashion Technology: Installation and Invention  (H79.2909) - Amanda Parkes
  Offered: Fall 2011
  As the genre of wearable computing matures beyond the realm of novelty, its most powerful instantiation lies not in the garments of our everyday lives, but in works at the extreme edge of creativity and human augmentation. Technology embedded in fashion offers expanded methodologies to enhance fashion's role as a purveyor of identity and a mode of communication. This course offers a new approach to combining the tools of wearable computing with additional forms of media to enable altering forms of expression and connectivity for interactive installation, performance and public interventions. The course begins with the historical underpinnings of fashion as display (eg, Coco Chanel's original salon, history of the runway), fashion as political voice (eg. Giacomo Balla's futurist suits, Lucy Orta) and fashion as experience (eg. 1960's neo-concretist Lygia Clark's immersive hoods). Contemporary fashion projects are explored including cutting edge runway design, window and store display, and theatre and immersive environments examining fashion's role in the construction of narrative and fantasy and how technological augmentation can work to recontextualize the relationship between the body, clothing and the environmental experience. Guest speakers include: Cintra Wilson, the New York Times Critical Shopper and fashion social critic: Ebenezer Bond, runway and fashion installation producer; and Andrea Lauer, costume designer for Elizabeth Streb Dance Company.
  The course combines reading, discussion and critique with hands-on projects constructing augmented garments and installations. Students learn the basics of sewing, fashion construction and wearable electronics with the Arduino Lilypad building on existing prior knowledge of physical computing. For the second half of the course, students work on a project with a real world client, either theatrical or commercial, with the possibility for installation in a professional environment.
  Prerequisite: Introduction to Physical Computing
• Fast, Easy, Complicated and Powerful Web (H79.2885) - Daniel Phiffer
  Offered: Spring 2011
  The Web has long been celebrated for its revolutionary potential, giving individuals access to a global audience once reserved for wealthy media barons. We now have an unprecedented expressive capacity, using fast and easy online tools, available for little or no cost. This course makes an assessment of how these tools have evolved in response to actual users. It is a story of cobbled together software, most of which shipped flawed, but has been incrementally improved and iterated upon. We will investigate the biases and quirks that shape these readily available tools of expression. How have user interface design, web standards, source control, and bug tracking played a role in this process? Who are the people writing the code, how do they respond to the needs of users? The course will ask students to take critical look at the tools that underpin our everyday experience of the Web, while also exploring how to get the most out of them. Students will learn how to build sites with WordPress that "don't look like a blog," but also examine how colloquial design patterns like blogs might be received by site visitors. Throughout, we will study and hack and misuse casual content management, asking how we might enhance the revolutionary competence of its users.
  
  Section 1 of this two-point course will meet for the first six weeks of the semester; section 2 will meet for the second six weeks of the semester.
        Course Syllabus
• Flash Back (H79.2532) - Veronique Brossier
  Offered: Spring 2010
  This class is aimed at programming novices or at students who had trouble with Introduction to Computational Media and want to try again in different, higher level language and with a different environment. Programming is often viewed as an arcane art, an esoteric skill that is far removed from design and user experience. With the advent and evolution of higher-level programming languages however, the power of coding is becoming accessible to an increasingly broad audience of designers, artists, and enthusiasts. This course explores the use of programming as a tool to create interactive experiences, in the context of Adobe Flash's ActionScript programming language. Students focus on core programming concepts, and use these basic concepts to prototype personal projects. While the focus of the course is on developing with ActionScript, the concepts learned are common to all programming languages. It also fulfills the ICM requirement for people who have not yet taken it.
  
  This two point course meets for the first seven weeks of the semester.
• For Reals: Technology and the Illusion of Authenticity (H79.2856) - Kio Stark
  Offered: Fall 2010
  This class investigates the murkiest grey areas of authenticity and human perception. Our central question is: what are the minimum requirements for creating an impression of authenticity in an environment, place, character, machine, person or responsive system? Overall, we learn strategies for creating richer and more subtle technology projects that ask users or participants for their contingent acceptance of the project’s reality. Coursework includes weekly readings, field experiments, and short papers. The semester is split into two overarching themes -- the first is Humanness. When we attribute human-esque responsiveness or behavioral and emotional characteristics to a non-human, what cognitive processes are we engaging? What are some of the most persuasive signals of humanness, signals that are powerful enough to convey humanness even in the absence of other cues? Topics and readings include: • Establishing a working definition of authenticity; • The uncanny (Freud);
  • Theory of mind, intuition, empathy (Selections from The Missing Link in Cognition, on primates); • Dead or Alive (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; other monsters); • Projection: animism & anthropomorphizing (Sherry Turkle, Pascal Boyer); • Responsive machines (various studies of social and humanoid robots). The second is Identities and environments. What is authenticity of person or of place? By what cues do we attribute authenticity to individual identities and constructed environments? How many or few cues does it take for us to read a system, a person, a constructed world as authentic? What lessons for technology makers are to be learned by investigating abnormal psychology, world-building, and manipulated truth/trust? Topics and readings include: • Broken perception--delusions of false worlds (selections on misidentification syndromes, e.g. Cotard’s, Fregoli delusion, reduplicative paramnesia, Capgras); • Unreality in unreal systems/environments (Coraline, Metal Snake/Ps
  ycho Mantis [game], Philip K. Dick’s Ubiq); • Historical hoaxes (case studies including Piltdown Man, Barnum’s Feejee Mermaid, the original Mechanical Turk); • Imposters (case studies including Kaycee Nicole, lg15, Our First Time, Frédéric Bourdin, Martin Guerre); • The long con (selections from The Big Con and case studies of internet-based cons, e.g. 419s and other pigeon-drop cons).
        Course Syllabus
• Frame By Frame: Creation and Manipulation of the Moving Image (H79.2716) - Christopher Kairalla
  Offered: Fall 2010
  Modern day computers and software provide a very high degree of control over digital images and video. Non-Linear editors like Final Cut Pro allow us to easily assemble sequential images on the frame level while image manipulation programs like After Effects and Photoshop 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. Students are expected to complete weekly assignments, a midterm project, and a final project. Student’s assignments can either be pre-rendered animation, or real- time/ interactive animation. 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.
        Course Syllabus
• Future of the Infrastructure (H79.2297) - Art Kleiner
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  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.       Course Syllabus
• Games and Art (H79.2868) - Amit Pitaru, Zack Gage
  Offered: Fall 2010
  This class investigates the space where art and games overlap. We examine prominent works from all over the art/game spectrum; from predominantly artistic projects making use of game mechanics (Fluxus), all the way to games with strong artistic style (Flywrench), and everything in-between (Tekken Torture Tournament, Passage, etc.). Weekly assignments introduce students to basic game mechanics and game development techniques. Class critique helps students better understand their work in context of both art and game culture. For the final assignment, students decide on one possible intersection of art and games, and proceed to develop a project. Projects can utilize any technology, or not (for example, board games and performance work). For those who are interested in developing web/mobile/desktop/embedded apps, we help by introducing an array of code frameworks that may help, but we expect students to learn these frameworks independently.
  
  
• Giant Stories/Tiny Screens (H79.2830) - Daniel Liss
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  What kinds of video narratives does the Internet allow or encourage? How does the intimacy of millions of viewers sitting alone at home change the possibilities for public story-telling? What thrives? What fails? And why? And maybe most importantly: what kinds of stories get told, when the financial pressure of needing a vast audience is removed? We explore existing work (including talks with some of the leading makers in the field) and create our own - with a goal of challenging traditional media and crafting the kinds of stories we ourselves would like to see. Part production (a brief overview of camera/editing technique) part studio, this class explores the ways technology can enhance and inspire the creative act. Prerequisite: H79.2004 Communications Lab or equivalent       Course Syllabus
• GL Art (H79.2548) - Mark Napier
  Offered: Spring 2010
  This course explores OpenGL as an artistic medium. The computer
  provides artists with a bewildering variety of options for creating
  images: image editors, 3D modelling tools, animation tools, and dozens
  of programming languages. Yet at the lower level of all computer
  rendering lies a relatively simple and very powerful graphics
  processor. OpenGL provides access to this lower level of rendering,
  and gives artists the opportunity to create their own "brush and
  canvas", to produce high performance animated graphics in both 3D and
  2D. The purpose of this course is to introduce OpenGL and provide a
  working knowledge of this powerful API. Though we explore OpenGL
  briefly through Processing, in most of the course we use Java, Eclipse
  and an OpenGL library to develop graphical applications.  Through
  hands-on programming examples we explore basic concepts of OpenGL
  such as coordinate systems, navigating in a 3D space, cameras, rendering
  models, mouse and keyboard input, lighting, texturing and blending.
  The course consists of weekly programming assignments and a final
  project. This class is intended for students who are comfortable with
  programming. Prerequisites: Programming in Java and/or Processing.
        Course Syllabus
• Hospitable Room: Designing a Hospital Pediatric Recreation Room (H79.2820) - Marianne Petit, Daniel O'Sullivan
  Offered: Spring 2010
  Children in rehabilitation treatment often stay in the hospital for months at a time. We have the opportunity to create a room that will make that stay more fun and entertaining for them. This course will work in collaboration with the NYU Langone Medical Center: The Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine Pediatric Department. We have outfitted the pediatric recreation room with a video tracking, projection and transmission system through which ITP students participating in this class will build projects that examine how these environmental technologies can improve one's quality of stay in hospital. The technical exercises in the class will be around lighting, camera and coding tricks for video tracking and augmented reality as well as audio and video transmission over IP. Physical computing techniques will also be supported as projects require them. In addition, the class will cover issues of designing for the range of physical and cognitive function of children who will use this space. How can this system be used therapeutically? recreationally? how can it be used to decrease isolation? or foster collaboration? keep them smiling? Students in this class will meet with recreational and occupational therapists, the hospital's Therapeutic Recreation, Child Life & Creative Arts Therapies Department, as well as patients, to determine needs and usage. Final projects to deploy into the facility will be selected by faculty and hospital staff.
        Course Syllabus
• HTML5 (H79.2892) - Daniel Kantor
  Offered: Spring 2011
  HTML5, the next generation of the web's programming language, will transform the web from a document-based medium to a fully interactive one. This course will cover everything from the new HTML elements available to new Javascript APIs, as well as new ways to style and display content using CSS3, Canvas and SVG. Each week we will cover a new set of APIs with weekly assignments set to reinforce the concepts learned in class. Later in the semester, we will cover building for the mobile web as well as building browser extensions. Students are encouraged to iteratively build towards a midterm and final project of their choosing. Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience is required. Students are also expected to have fluency in HTML with prior experience in Javascript and CSS.       Course Syllabus
• Identity and Evasion (H79.2893) - Christina Goodness
  Offered: Spring 2011
  What is identity in 2011? And can we escape it?
  
  When a baby is born, evidence of that new person’s identity is a tiny collection of data, unstable until “certified” and given a tracking number by the state. As we live our lives, the collection becomes larger, less centralized, with ownership belonging to many parties but in no one place. Our identities are abstracted yet intensely personal. Until just a few hundred years ago, individuals could outrun past identities, and effectively hide secrets for millennia. What is identity, what does identification mean, and what does it mean to be identified by someone else? Who ultimately now owns the data that identifies us? Is our identity our ultimate work of art? What tools do we have to change which identities? How can we evade our identities? How do we use multiple identities and why? Can we outrun our data? When does the proxy self – the pose, the imitation, the costumed body, physical address, email address, Google profile, DNS record/website, IMSI, ICC-ID, social network pr ofile, academic file, employer file, state id, SSN – when does it become too potent and overtake the author? This class will examine these questions by studying current systems that validate identity – personal, family, community, collegial, consumer, educational, national, networked, international. Initial design exercises and the final assignment will be focused on around historical methods for creating alternate identities, specific technologies that are used to create, hold or protect identity, and specific tools that can be used to evade, mask, break or destroy the integrity of identity.       Course Syllabus
• If Products Could Tell Their Stories: Towards a Model of Sustainable Design (H79.2738) - Jennifer van der Meer
  Offered: Spring 2010
  Is there lead in my nephew’s toy? Does my new HDTV have a much greater impact on global warming than my old TV? When I finally recycle those old cell phones and computers that have been collecting dust in my closet, where will they be taken, and will anything or anyone be harmed as they are recycled? Without answers to these questions that people are seeking, there are limits to the role consumption can play in our shift to a more sustainable economic model. As product developers, designers, tinkerers, and technologists, we have the means to uncover these answers, and communicate the backstories of the things that we make. The objective of this course is to explore sustainable models, methods, and practices of both production and consumption. The class explores an interaction design model proposed by Bruce Sterling’s Shaping Things, in which he implores, “Designers must design, not just for objects or for people, but for the technosocial interactions that unite people and objects.” Additional content exposes students to the relationship between production, consumption, and impacts to the earth’s ecosystem and human health. Students learn how to analyze product/service systems and are asked to investigate and communicate a product backstory to an existing product. The final exercise of the course involves the creation of a new product/service system that provides a framework for users to affect and modulate the environmental and social impacts throughout their relationship with that object. Class participation is required and group projects are encouraged.
  
  
        Course Syllabus
• Information and Technology for Socio-Political Change (H79.2822) - Christina Goodness
  Offered: Spring 2010
  If you saw radical injustice happening right in front of you, what would you do? This course will investigate how others are answering that question right now, using specific political and technological toolsets. From the Iranian “Twitter revolution” in Azadi square to Sri Lankan bloggers, from post-election Kenyan crowdsourcing to the grassroots humanitarian Katrina response, to the Obama election, this class will investigate technologies created or re-purposed for socio-political change. What are the design and implementation issues? If we view government as a “platform,” what does that mean for new interfaces? Are all governments a stable compilation? If not, what are the implications for interaction design? Is there any way to avoid bias in application design? How do we accommodate for those with whom we do not agree? How should transparency and security issues be properly balanced when these issues are translated in applications? What are the real tools that have been used or are being used right now to rectify injustice and bring positive social change? What have been their advantages and disadvantages, and how has political context defined their use? How does the digital divide modify the outcome? Together in this class we will look at live global case studies to answer these questions, from the viewpoint of the individual user of both government and technology. We will review underlying design issues around freedom of information and privacy, structured change vs. creative chaos, crisis-driven vs. long-term change, and strength in numbers vs. the value of dissent, all with an eye towards producing good new ideas for positive social change. You will be asked to select one case study to follow through the semester, be given readings and outside speakers will be invited to present issues. You will present your case study findings and will be expected to integrate your findings into your final assignment: one prototype for potential or actual implementation. Rather than learning about specific tools (this is not a production or design class), this class is about understanding a user scenario. Your challenge would be to make the case for which technologies are useful means to specific positive ends, and to prove it through with a testable prototype.       Course Syllabus
• Interaction Design: Making Technology Play Nice (H79.2295) - Zoe Fraade-Blanar
  Offered: Fall 2011
  Electronics were created for making electricity move around in interesting ways. Human brains were created for running away from lions. Where they meet we have Interaction Design, the study of how to make these two sworn enemies shake hands. Controlling their relationship is the key to happy users, no matter how wonderful the technology under the hood: from vending machines to Facebook, some beautiful interfaces are terrible and some ugly ones are great. During this class we probe why that is through an investigation of human-computer interaction, usability and good interface design, and how they all fit into an Agile project plan. We examine working examples of interaction in nature and ways of importing them into a variety of media contexts and applications. Along the way students design large-scale individual and group concepts using wireframes, userflow diagrams and mockups, and delve into the amazing oracle that is Usability Testing. Final projects are presented in front of the New York Times User Experience and Product Research Department and other invited guest critics.       Course Syllabus
• Interpretive Exhibition Design: Creating Experience in the Museum Space  (H79.2894) - David Harvey
  Offered: Spring 2011
  Interpretive Exhibition Design is the creative process by which spaces become designed environments in which the visitor is engaged in an orchestrated experience—one which inherently and explicitly imparts meaning and perspective, engages the emotions, may offer contemplation, encourage curiosity and afford discovery and learning. The creation of exhibition experiences in the museum, and alternative spaces, is a growing and fascinating field; one which increasingly draws upon new interactive technologies, and seeks to encourage social dynamics. Understanding the interpretive role of design as a mediator between content and the audience, is helpful in both planning and deciphering underlying messaging and values embedded in any exhibition experience. The interpretive exhibition design process is important in developing a deeper appreciation for and understanding of expression in art, science and the natural world, time and history, society and of ourselves. This course is a hands-on introduction to this kind of exhibit design: the interpretive process of creating experience in the museum space. Professionals from a range of institutions will come to the class to speak or take us on field trips in their institutions to expose the class to a range of experiences within their exhibition environments; relating how and why they are conceived and created. We will take a critical look at how effectively they realized their design intent and imagine other alternative possibilities. The class will form an understanding of the range of the museum-based exhibition experiences, and a deeper understanding of the underlying interpretive exhibition design process. We will bracket this range of experience design with a visit to a commercial exhibition venue and a commercial art gallery. Students will keep a diary of their experiences and observations, and notes on the design process based on each visit, and this will be used as a basis for a midterm presentation. For the final project—deconstructing an exhibition experience— an exhibition will be chosen as a case study, giving consideration to all the design elements and their role in creating a potentially powerful and unique experience in the museum space. Students will present to a group of guest museum professionals at the American Museum of Natural History .       Course Syllabus
• Intro to Dataflow Programming (H79.2929) - Hans Steiner
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  Graphical dataflow programming languages like the Max family (Pd, Max/MSP, jMax, etc.) provide an intuitive approach to media programming and manipulation. This paradigm is based on mapping out the flow of the data, which more closely mirrors the experience of realtime media. This course introduces dataflow programming in Pure Data aka Pd: it starts with the basics of the language itself, core control structures and math, storing data and getting it in and out, working with various media formats, and ends with how to organize large projects. The Max paradigm is compared to text-based languages like Processing to develop an idea of their differences and similarities, as well as respective strengths and weaknesses. This course is structured around learning by doing, so students have regular assignments to explore the ideas covered in class, as well as a small final project. This course uses Pd, but it covers core concepts of the Max family, so the knowledge is directly applicable to Max/MSP. This two point course which runs the first seven weeks is designed to be paired with either "Programmatic Audio" or "Boxes And Lines For Rods And Cones", both offered in the second seven weeks of the semester. This two-point course will meet for the first seven weeks of the semester.       Course Syllabus
• Introduction to Mobile Games with Android (H79.2844) - Matt Parker
  Offered: Summer1 2010
  Smart phones have opened mobile gaming to a wide audience, beyond the hardcore gamer. In this class, we focus on casual games that each that broader audience. The class begins with an introduction to building Android applications with Google's SDK and
  Eclipse. Students discover the basics of creating layouts and custom views, playing music and sound effects, and getting user input
  from the touch screen and accelerometer. We also discuss how simple mechanics can make for immensely satisfying games. There is class discussion and readings on the success of casual games such as Bejeweled, Tetris, and Snood. Intro to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience is required.
        Course Syllabus
• Inventing the Future of Media (H79.2910) - Ien Cheng
  Offered: Fall 2011
  Get ready to invent the future of media. The media industry is undergoing unprecedented disruption and reinvention amidst the digital revolution. The goal of the course, which interleaves study and practice, is to equip you to invent the future of the media based on a holistic understanding of how a wide range of media products and businesses have worked in the past and are working – or not working – in the present. As a final project, you outline a plan for a new media business that features a prototype of an innovative user experience and a viable business model. The course is structured around the roles or use cases of media – for instance to inform, to entertain, or to connect us to each other – rather than around increasingly obsolete distinctions between media platforms. We look at each use case in three ways: by surveying the history of how each role has been served by the media in the past, by doing a case study of an established company that is “reinventing” a traditional media product for the future, and doing a corresponding case study of a disruptive or "de novo" upstart. Our approach is holistic, exploring how content, distribution, interactivity, business models, and organizational models relate to each other. We combine historical studies, business case studies, industry reports, guest lectures from media industry executives, and, above all, direct experience and analysis of user experiences. Throughout, we focus on technology and user experience design as key aspects of media change and innovation. We also touch on the role of government regulation. The course culminates in the final project. You take ideas that you have been brainstorming from the first class and develop them into plans and prototypes for new media businesses based on research, user testing, and ingenuity. The ability to "sketch out" and prototype a product and imagine how it might be created and experienced in the real world is the most important prerequisite. Likewise a willingness to make connections across traditionally separate areas of media and try new ideas is critical. Experience in the media industry, and with business or strategy planning, is helpful but not required.       Course Syllabus
• ITPediatrics (H79.2911) - John Schimmel
  Offered: Fall 2011
  “The essence of childhood, of course, is play, which my friends and I did endlessly on streets that we reluctantly shared with traffic.” - Bill Cosby.
  In hospitals, children with disabilities and illnesses share their play space with medical equipment, doctors, nurses and often living away from their family. Their days are spent at school inside the hospital, but also receiving treatments, therapy and sometimes surgery. However, spontaneous moments of excitement and laughter with friends throughout the day makes living in a hospital often seem like a second home. ITPediatrics will focus on child life at local children’s hospitals; collaborating with music and art therapists to create experiences for residents that support developmental and therapeutic activities. The class will discuss the issues of living away from home, going to school, maintaining friendships, communicating with family, receiving medical treatment and playtime. Students will work in groups collaborating with Occupational Therapy students from NYU’s Steinhardt and with therapists from the hospitals. The class will discuss accessibility switches and single switch access to devices like iPads, digital cameras and computers. Requirements for the class are Introduction to Physical Computing and Introduction to Computational Media.       Course Syllabus
• Laboratory of the Self (H79.2895) - Quinn Norton
  Offered: Spring 2011
  This course will explore the relationship between the body and the self, both in theory and in hands-on application. We'll begin by learning the basic physiology that links perception to memory and action. How does your mind and body react when you get a coffee, or see a text on your phone? How do you get from there to drinking the coffee or replying to a friend? The process of perception, cognition, and action underlies how we relate to the world, and ultimately, who we believe we are.
  
  The first half of the class culminates in a midterm self-monitoring project. Examples of projects include monitoring heart rates, glucose levels, or music and mood. Students will report on what the data they've collected tells them about their body and their understanding of their individual self.
  
  The second half of the class examines the history and state-of-the-art of human modification, from both a technical perspective, and how the practice of body modification has changed society. We'll discuss ancient changes, and the latest and greatest cybernetic advances, along with bio-ethics and a bit of cyborgian philosophy. For the final projects, students will engage in a self modification project, which will be presented at the end of the term. By the end of the class the student will have a basic understanding how their own perceptions and memory are formed, how this gives rise to their sense of self-- and how to change it.       Course Syllabus
• Learning Bit by Bit  (H79.2836) - Heather Dewey-Hagborg
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  From mailing a letter to shopping online to walking down a city street, applications of machine learning have penetrated our daily experience. Our faces, our voices, the emails we write, the products we buy, the content we choose, all constitute our data portrait: aggregates of information that are meticulously sifted, sorted and searched by algorithms behind the scenes.
  This class takes a critical tour of the technologies that learn from this data. We look at the information that defines us and how it is analyzed using techniques common to biology, computer science, robotics and surveillance.
  We cover both the theory and the implementation of machine learning techniques that are commonly used today in applications of text analysis, web search, classification, and content suggestion. We discuss the concept of a data portrait and how heuristics and inductive bias shape the way we are seen. Finally, we apply these techniques to create projects of our own.
  This class involves weekly blog responses to readings of advanced technical and theoretical texts, as well as in and out of class work on individual and group projects engaging with the concepts. Class discussion is a vital component of the class and students must be willing to engage in weekly discussions about both readings and projects. Students are encouraged to implement projects in a variety of media but must be comfortable programming in Java.
  
  Prerequisite: H79.2233 Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience.
        Course Syllabus
• Little Computers (H79.2750) - David Nolen
  Offered: Spring 2010
  Apple sold the iPhone as a phone, but its buyers use it as a little computer. In no time, hackers cracked the phone and found it to be not much different than their OS X based laptops and desktops. The cute device runs a mature UNIX based operating system and it supports most of Apple’s object-oriented API, Cocoa. The class covers object oriented programming, C/Objective-C/Objective-C++, scripting languages, OS X internals, Interface Builder, and XCode. The Cocoa and Cocoa Touch APIs covered include: Quartz, OpenGL, Core Location, CFNetwork (wifi), as well open source frameworks such as GData (Google) and XMPPFramework (Jabber). We'll also explore the rapid developing OpenFrameworks port for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Access to a Mac running OS X 10.5 is the minimum requirement, but having a real Cocoa Touch device like the iPhone or the iPod Touch to test on will make the class more enjoyable. The class is highly technical in nature and is geared to intermediate to advanced programmers, or /extremely/ dedicated beginners. That said, the goal of the course is to actively and creatively explore this new field of little computers using the iPhone as the main research platform.
• Live Experimental Interactive Television (H79.2840) - Shawn Van Every
  Offered: Spring 2010, Fall 2011
  What happens when interactive technology is used live by hundreds or even thousands of individuals simultaneously? How do you create engaging and interactive content through television which is traditionally a passive, lean back medium? Through this class, we will be exploring those questions by developing live television shows. In the first part of the semester we will do a series of experiments using emerging technology for audience interaction with live broadcast content: sms, chat, phone calls, video conferencing, networked objects and the like. Particular attention will be paid to how these technologies may be used in the context of a live show with a large audience. The second portion of the semester will be centered around the development of a live program from concept to broadcast and beyond. Students will be working in small groups to develop and produce a live broadcast television show.       Course Syllabus
• Live Image Processing and Performance (H79.2422) - Roger DuBois
  Offered: Summer2 2010, Summer2 2011
  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.       Course Syllabus
• Making Pop-Up Books (H79.2884) - Marianne Petit
  Offered: Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011
  This two-point workshop covers the basics of paper engineering techniques (including folds (symmetrical, asymmetrical, parallel and angle), generations, floating layers, V cuts, dials, and pull tabs) to make designs that pop that can be incorporated into your other work. Weekly assignments and a final project. This two point course will meet for the first seven weeks of the semester.       Course Syllabus
• Mashups: Remixing the Web (H79.2802) - Daniel Maynes Aminzade
  Offered: Fall 2010
  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.
        Course Syllabus
• Materials and Building Strategies (H79.2025) - Peter Menderson
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  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.       Course Syllabus
• Materials and Experimental Design (H79.2912) - Assaf Eshet
  Offered: Fall 2011
  This course explores the use of unique materials in applied design and manufacturing. An important part of designing a new product is to understand the added value that can be achieved by exploiting new materials and scientific opportunities. The course presents an overview of cutting edge materials, working closely with the Material ConneXion library in NY, enabling the students to familiarize themselves with new potential components in their work. Students learn the manufacturing and production processes of various products and learn the importance of implementing materials into products with performance, aesthetics and sustainability in mind. Students explore material trends; conduct research; learn about material constraints; examine visual and tactile properties and prototype their own materials to create innovative products.       Course Syllabus
• Mechanisms and Things That Move (H79.2624) - Dustyn Roberts
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  This class is designed to equip the student with a basic knowledge of
  mechanical engineering, materials, and component selection for
  practical use. Emphasis will be placed on finding and using
  affordable,everyday components for the hobbyist. Real-world, professional level components and technologies will also be covered in case studies and
  class examples. From kinetic sculptures to modern architecture, from
  product design to interactive art, learning how to create sound
  mechanical interfaces between inputs and outputs to a system helps us
  interpret and interact with our environments. There is little use in
  building effective circuitry for physical computing if the mechanism to be controlled is too weak to handle the task set forth for it. Systems can also be optimized and protected from expensive over-engineering with a basic knowledge of mechanics and materials. A breadth of topics will be covered ranging from how to attach couplers and shafts to a motor to converting between rotary and linear motion. Many topics will be presented in the form of competition, challenges, or group projects. Weekly lectures will be supplemented by in class demos and out of class lab
  work. Both Individual and group work will be required.
  
  Prerequisite: Intro to Physical Computing
        Course Syllabus
• Methods of Motion (H79.2448) - Marianne Petit
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  This class explores methods of storytelling through animation. We examine a range of techniques including pixillation, stop motion, collage, abstract and cartoon animation. We apply a variety of tools such as iStopMotion, After Effects, and Flash. There are five animation short animation assignments and one final project. Students are encouraged to experiment. Drawing skills are not necessary though students are required to maintain a weekly sketchbook. A basic knowledge of digital video is a plus.       Course Syllabus
• Mo-Graph (H79.2902) - Gabe Barcia-Colombo
  Offered: Summer2 2011
  This course offers an introduction to motion graphics. Students work with 2d photoshop imagery and animation in after effects. The course focuses specifically on graphic design, typography, interstitial animation and video graphics for the web and/or broadcast. Throughout the summer session students experiment with masking, image manipulation, and video effects in order to create an original portfolio of work. No previous experience is required and experimentation
  and creativity is highly encouraged.
  
• Mobile Me(dia) (H79.2690) - Shawn Van Every
  Offered: Spring 2010, Fall 2010
  Mobile devices (phones) have become devices for both the production and consumption of rich media—augmenting their original purpose as one-to-one communication devices. In this course we will explore the technology that enables the consumption and production of media on these devices with an eye towards how that media can be used in conjunction with the devices’ original social and communicative purposes. In short, this course will examine social and participatory aspects of mobile media consumption and generation. Students will create projects that utilize the available technology to explore new forms of social media creation and consumption. In this course will cover Multimedia Messaging, the mobile web, mobile photography, mobile video, live streaming, geocoding and more. We will utilize both PHP (web side) and Java (Android or Mobile Processing, device side) for development. ICM is a prerequisite. (Programming, Video, Mobile )       Course Syllabus
• Narrative Lab (H79.2261) - Douglas Rushkoff
  Offered: Spring 2010
  This seminar and laboratory considers the impact of interactivity and technology on traditional narrative structure, and explores new methods for conveying the essential narrative elements in non-linear and interactive forms of art, entertainment, and communications. Throughout, we will be formulating approaches to traditional narrative in interactive contexts, as well as piloting new narrative constructs developed for non-linear media. Each class meeting is broken up into two parts. The first is a seminar discussion examining an aspect of traditional narrative, and the way it is threatened or rendered obsolete in an interactive context. The second takes the form of workshop exercises and short projects through which alternative narrative forms specifically suited for an interactive environment are conceived, prototyped and evaluated. Students also work on longer-term experiments in interactive narrative, developing rule sets through which emergent narratives may form. These
  may take forms ranging from augmented theater, interactive comics, and video games to robots, installations, software, amusement rides, or prototypes for as-yet undefined media. Readings will include Aristotle, McKee, Ibsen, Brecht, Marie Ryan, Scott Mcloud, Rushkoff, Carse, Huizinga, Burroughs, and a few current game theorists.
  
  
• New Interfaces for Musical Expression (H79.2227) - Greg Shakar
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  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).       Course Syllabus
• New York City: A Laboratory of Modern Life  (H79.2776) - Gabe Barcia-Colombo
  Offered: Summer2 2010, Summer2 2011
  It is the inherent social nature of people and of creativity that makes New York City so important to the arts. Whether it's high-brow or low-brow, high culture, or street culture, New York City remains an important international center for music, film, theater, dance and visual art. This workshop focuses on creating mixed media art inspired by and created for New York City. Over the course of the session, students study the "cultural economy" of the city, through an in depth examination of current New York based photographers, filmmakers, and installation artists. Students will then create four unique pieces of their own, inspired by these artists and energized by the social nature of the city. These pieces take the form of photography, audio art, documentary video, and site-specific public installation. Class time is devoted to lectures, guest speakers, field trips and critique. Basic video and audio editing will be covered in lab sessions. Readings include "The Warhol Economy" by Elizabeth Currid, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs, and "Take the F" by Ian Frazier.       Course Syllabus
• Participatory Art & Media (H79.2858) - Michael Connor
  Offered: Fall 2010
  A seminar / studio course that explores participatory media production through the frame of contemporary art discourse. Students will work together to create experimental works in disparate media that are constructed in part by users and audiences. This exploration will be framed by theoretical readings that explore the aesthetic and social dimensions of participatory art production and contemporary debates about these topics. Rather than trying to trace a history of participatory practice since World War II (which would be overly broad for a single semester) the course will use a series of specific themes.
  
  Emphasis will be placed on developing communication strategies vis a vis participants and the art world at large.
  
  Example readings:
  Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author
  Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics
  
  Possible themes with example readings:
  
  Constructed Urban Events
  Guy Debord Toward a Situationist International
  Jelena Stojanovic, Internationaleries
  
  Collectives and Movements
  Alan Moore, Artists' Collectives in New York
  Brian Holmes, Do-It-Yourself Geopolitics
  
  Experimental Schools
  Joseph Beuys and Dirk Schwarze, Report of a Day's Proceedings at the Bureau for Direct Democracy
  Jacques Rancière, The Ignorant Schoolmaster
  
  Dance Parties
  Helio Oiticica, Dance in My Experience
  Adrian Piper, Notes on Funk
  
  Community Encounters
  Grant Kester, Conversation Pieces
  
  Participatory Art & Media
  
  Course Description:
  
  This seminar/studio course explores the theory and practice of participatory cultural production.
  
  The seminar element of the course will involve discussion around theoretical problems posed by participatory cultural production. This discussion will be contextualized through lectures about contemporary and historical works relevant to the theme.
  
  Students will create works in disparate media that harness the creative input of users in online, mobile and embodied spaces. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the implications of participation and on developing strategies for effective communication and for maximizing engagement.
  
  
  1: What is Participation? / Participatory Models
  
  The course will begin with definitions of participatory culture. Reading will include texts by Nicolas Bourriaud and Lars Bang Larssen. A wide range of historical examples of various participatory models will be shown. Emphasis will be placed on developing a shared language for discussing participatory forms.
  
  Assignment 1: The in-class happening. Students will create an experience in which certain elements are defined by the participants. The experience will be strictly time-limited so that all students may present within one class meeting.
  
  
  2: Theoretical Roots
  
  A bit of Barthes and Benjamin. Discussion of post-Structuralism.
  
  
  3: The Dark Side…
  
  Assignment 2: Create a work that is authored, at least in part, by users on Mechanical Turk.
  
  Ensuing discussion will explore the idea of ‘expropriation’ and the systems of control that are seen to persist in participatory systems. Reading will include Trebor Scholz and Laura Y. Liu’s ‘From Mobile Playground to Sweatshop City’ and Claire Bishop’s ‘Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics.’
  
  Following the Mechanical Turk assignment, students will be asked to earn $5 on Mechanical Turk.
  
  
  
  4: Activism and Social Change
  
  Assignment 3: Create a work that solves a pain or problem (creative, social, etc) specific to students in ITP.
  
  The next part will look at projects that aim to achieve social change, and pick out some shared formal and political characteristics of successful examples. We’ll look at Ushahidi and Paul Chan here.
  
  With any luck, this part of the course will coincide with the Creative Time Summit.
  
  
  5: Emergent Creativity
  
  Towards the end, we will lighten the tone by emphasizing the potential for surprising ideas and talents to emerge within participatory structures. There may be a small assignment here based on the Surrealist game ‘Exquisite Corpse.’
  
  
  
  
• Personal Expression and Wearable Technologies (H79.2442) - Despina Papadopoulos, Zachary Eveland
  Offered: Fall 2010
  In this class we will explore the possibility of developing wearable devices & accessories as means to social experiments and agents of expressivity and communication. As the class traces the relationship between the body, fashion, technology and social interaction students will be asked to actively explore this trajectory and develop ideas and devices around them. What would an electronic gesture be like? How can technology & fashion allow people to dynamically express themselves? What is a subversive technology? Weekly assignments will frame the theoretical discourse while a final project will help students synthesize theoretical considerations and design practices in the wearable computing space.
        Course Syllabus
• Personal Power Generation: Moving Beyond Batteries and Plugs (H79.2860) - Chris Hackett
  Offered: Fall 2010
  Pixels illuminating, motors turning, processors calculating: most projects built at ITP require power. Usually, the only choice is
  batteries or plug? Energy is energy is energy, and it can be converted from one manifestation to another in many interesting ways. This class explores other, non-plug, non-battery options, like power generation built into a piece (hand cranked and pedal-powered generators) other, non-electrical ways of storing energy (compressed air, springs, weight) and combinations, like converting the kinetic energy (lifting buckets) from one's muscles into potential energy (in a water tank) for storage, then converting that stored energy (with a water wheel) at one's leisure into electricity. The class covers basic theory, a little bit of
  history, and a whole lot of practice, with projects ranging from tiny, hand-cranked generators built by each student to larger, more complicated work (waterwheels, compressed air storage and use, human-scale devices) built by groups. Class projects can stand alone, or be integrated into the student's other work. "Obtainium" (Pre-existing, easily available systems and parts -bicycles, stepper motors, wind-up toys, rotary air tools, etc) will be used as much as possible, requiring a minimum of fabrication.
  
• Powerful Ideas: Useful Tools to Understand the World (H79.2906) - Nancy Hechinger
  Offered: Fall 2011
  There are some concepts that are like the constellations: you can use them to understand and navigate the world, solve problems, invent new stuff-- ideas like geometric progression, proportion and scale,change over time,etc. All have heuristic power, and many go beyond this to provide real methods for stronger thinking. Some can be learned via "guided insight" and some require real practice. Alan Kay and Nancy Hechinger have talked off and on over the last 20 years about a curriculum that would focus less on transmitting facts to students and more on helping them learn these powerful tools--the Powerful Ideas. We're starting it now! Here's how this course works: at least once a month, Alan Kay introduces one or more of these powerful ideas & the class proposes their candidates for Powerful Ideas as well as deriving questions that kids of different ages might ask that would lead to one of them. In the weeks that Alan is not here, Nancy leads the class in discussions of how people learn at different ages, and students, working alone or in groups,come up with ways to enable kids to learn the big concepts. We connect with a nearby elementary school (+ possibly a middle school) to test out ideas with kids, and document what we're learning. Students present their work to Alan on his subsequent visit to the class. This is an experimental class, and encourages quick prototyping of ideas and intense exploration in how people learn. We focus on Powerful Ideas in science and math, since they are arguably the worst taught subjects, the ones most disconnected from the way ideas are generated in their fields.
  
• Powering Across the Digital Divide: Creative Solutions for the Developing World (H79.2774) - Bridget McGraw
  Offered: Summer2 2010
  The course introduces students to development theory, particularly the idea of
  expanding human rights, capabilities and freedoms. Such ideas are shaping
  international development; they are relevant for thinking about how to design and
  distribute innovative, suitable and desirable products and services for low-income
  people around the world. We meet these ideas through readings and case studies of
  institutions practicing such ideas from the global to the grassroots level. Students
  collaborate with people living and working in East Africa to address a specific need.
• Principled Design: Dealing with Wicked Problems & Social Change (H79.2874) - Despina Papadopoulos
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  Wicked problems—a term coined by Rittel and Webber in 1973—are defined as those problems whose solutions are not true or false, but better or worst, and in fact have no immediate or ultimate test of a solution, are unique and the very problem itself can be considered a symptom of another problem. The very nature of these problems demands a multi disciplinary approach and the formulation of a coherent strategy in approaching them. Classic examples of wicked problems include economic, political and social issues and intersect many fields and disciplines. As technology and design play an increasingly important role in understanding and addressing issues surrounding international development and social change it is important to develop a considered framework and process. Portable ultrasound monitors result in better pre-natal care in remote areas but they also enable early gender detection and are therefore responsible for many cases of gendercide. Ethics, policy, design and technology considerations are all part of developing a “solution” that addresses this problem. In this class we model such a framework and through weekly assignments and readings we explore its fundamental components. We examine the various disciplines (ethics, economics, policy-making), principles (accountability, transparency, transferability, trust, respect), trends (knowledge exchange, 21st century statecraft, aid fatigue), and stakeholders (citizens, activists, corporations, NGOs) that are part of this model as well as the relationships between them and how they relate to the various tools that are being used in this space (cell phones, smart phones, open data, social media, data visualization). We do this while going through each part of the design process while tackling a specific issue. As part of our approach we conduct research, collaborative design sessions, develop personas, scenarios, develop concepts, taxonomies, and design iterations, starting with paper prototypes and continue to refine both the concept and design decisions. Although the class is hands on with production exercises that culminate in a unified response to a specific problem, students are expected to follow and respond to weekly readings. Guest “stakeholders” from the UN, NGOs and activists give students access to these actors in order to better inform their research and design decisions.
• Product Poetry: Designing Inter-experience (H79.2914) - Peng Zhao, Gary Natsume
  Offered: Fall 2011
  In this class, students will question the meaning and values that inform existing consumer products and examine the ways users perceive them, interact with them, and assimilate them into their daily lives. The class emphasizes ethnographic research, conceptual and technical exploration, and interaction programming. Using methods of direct and indirect communication between object and user, students will deliver a new layer of meaning or value to a specific consumer object of their choice.
  The objective of the class is to consider the following:
  -Why do I need a new product?
  -What does it mean to me?
  - What type of value does it bring to the world?
  The class is a design-oriented, hands-on creative program. Participating students will work on one theme over the course of the semester and are expected to produce an interactive prototype of their concept by semester's end. The final deliverable should demonstrate the physical and digital aspects of the user experience.
  There are two aspects to the class, one is to form a conceptual story around the experience, and the other is technical implementation to deliver the experience. Quick and rough iterative prototyping is encouraged to help inform concept ideation and possible design decisions from early stage of the class.
  The process of the class is divided into three stages:
  1. User study and research
  2. Design concept ideation
  3. Implementation and refinement
  The class instructors will support and lead the students by introducing industrial design methodology, rapid interaction prototyping techniques and examples from their professional practice while encouraging exploratory creative freedom.       Course Syllabus
• Project Development Studio (Danny Rozin) (H79.2564) - Daniel Rozin
  Offered: Fall 2010
  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, physical computing and digital fabrication. 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.
• Project Development Studio (Marina Zurkow) (H79.2742) - Marina Zurkow
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  This is a workshop for students to develop an existing project idea. It is a combination of self-directed study, with the structure of a class and an opportunity for peer learning. This particular studio is appropriate for projects in the areas of installation art with a focus on the moving image, non-linear or multi-channel video and animation, and site-specific projects. Each class time is a chance to work on your project, share project development and critique. Students devise and then complete their own weekly assignments updating the class wiki regularly. They also present to the class every few weeks. Topics of shared interest are presented by a member of the class, or by the instructor. The rest of the meeting time is spent in breakout sessions with students working individually or in groups of students working on related projects.       Course Syllabus
• Project Development Studio (Physical Interaction) (H79.2542) - Thomas Igoe
  Offered: Spring 2011
  This class an environment for students to work on their own project ideas that may fall outside the topic areas of existing classes. This particular studio is focused on projects involving extended physical interaction.
  
  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. Weekly 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, the 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.       Course Syllabus
• Puppets and Performing Objects (H79.2950) - Ithai Benjamin
  Offered: Fall 2011
  Following the idea that puppets are "any performing object" and that objects can be useful as stand-ins for human beings, this class explores anthropomorphism, character development, narrative and performance. Through weekly assignments and a final project, we will bring life to objects that we create, transform or find. Drawing inspiration from different styles of mainstream and experimental puppetry we will develop original concepts of our own. Exercises explore a range of technologies and materials, from simple sock puppets to body puppets, mechanisms and animatronics. We’ll spend time looking at how to successfully integrate interactive elements from other realms such as music, SFX, physical interfaces, etc. into our performances. The first seven weeks of the class we will concentrate on making analog objects and simple mechanisms. The remaining seven weeks we will concentrate on animatronics, robotics, and other advanced mechanisms. This is a hands on class. Performance or puppetry skills are not required. You must bring your imagination and willingness to experiment and come up with creative solutions to class assignments. At the end of the semester students will showcase their best work in an extravaganza.       Course Syllabus
• Reading and Writing Electronic Text (H79.2778) - Adam Parrish
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  This course introduces the Python programming language as a tool for reading and writing digital text. This course is specifically geared to serve as a general-purpose introduction to programming in Python, but will be of special interest to students interested in poetics, language, creative writing and text analysis. Weekly programming exercises work toward a midterm project and culminate in a final project. Poetics topics covered include: character encodings (and other technical issues); cut-up and re-mixed texts; the algorithmic nature of poetic form (proposing poetic forms, generating text that conforms to poetic forms); transcoding/transcription (from/to text); generative algorithms: n-gram analysis, context-free grammars; performing digital writing. Programming topics covered include: object-oriented programming; functional programming (list comprehensions, recursion); getting data from the web; displaying data on the web; parsing data formats (e.g., markup languages); and text visualization with Processing. Prerequisites: Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience.       Course Syllabus
• Recurring Concepts in Art (H79.2586) - Georgia Krantz
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  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.       Course Syllabus
• Redial: Interactive Telephony (H79.2574) - Christopher Kairalla
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  New technologies, such as Voice over IP, and open source telephony applications, such as Asterisk, have opened the door for the development of interactive applications that use telephony for it's traditional purpose -- voice communications. This course explores the use of the telephone in interactive art, performance, social networking, and multimedia applications. Asterisk and low cost VoIP service are used to develop applications that can work over both telephone networks and the internet. Topics include: history of telephony, plain old telephone service (POTS), voice over IP (VoIP), interactive voice response systems (IVR), audio user interfaces, voice messaging systems (voicemail), text to speech and speech recognition, phreaking (telephone hacking), VoiceXML, conferencing and more. This course involves programming with PHP, Perl or Java. Some proficiency with one of those languages is required.
        Course Syllabus
• Rest of You (H79.2568) - Daniel O'Sullivan
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  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.       Course Syllabus
• Sensitive Buildings (H79.2916) - Robert Faludi
  Offered: Fall 2011
  This is a class is about creating smart habitats for city dwellers. Students will conceive and prototype large scale device networks to benefit the tenants of a 28-story, 325-unit landmark apartment building on Central Park South in Manhattan. The high-rise owners have once again invited ITP to develop a variety of prototypes that enhance the livability, ecology and community of their apartment building. The class has been newly restructured into three parts: We'll start by touring the building to learn about its infrastructure, inhabitants and context. This begins our Observation and Design phase in which students will employ behavioral studies, user-centered design and ethnography; paired with tenant interviews and other techniques that inspire first-rate innovations. Next we will quickly cover deploying Wireless Technology to connect interactive devices. Finally, we’ll return to the site with prototypes that explore project possibilities, installing these proof-of-concepts and observing the real-world results. We'll take what we’ve learned into Final Projects that have the potential to be deployed at scale and considered for long-term sponsorship. This 1939 building’s recent renovation created lower-level green roofs, various upgrades for energy efficiency and a historically restored facade. It has been described as, “state-of-the-art green architecture before the term was coined." The building’s motto is “Where The Park is Part of the Plan.” Our class is provided with access to unoccupied units, and opportunities to connect with current residents. The owners generously allow full supervised access to building infrastructure from roof to basement including ventilation, plumbing, heating, elevator and energy systems. Students get an extraordinary chance to invent and deliver big benefits for residents using active observation techniques as they develop interactive networks on a towering scale.       Course Syllabus
• Site-specific: The History and Process of Making Temporary Public Art Projects (H79.2620) - Marina Zurkow
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  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.       Course Syllabus
• Sociable Objects Workshop  (H79.2672) - Robert Faludi
  Offered: Spring 2010
  Sociable objects are devices that share. They can talk to each other, gain information about their context and react accordingly. Recent advances in wireless mesh networks have created the potential for a massively interconnected world of easy information sharing. Cheap communications, high reliability, unique addressing, small size, standardization, and routing features combine to enable exciting new interactions. Developers of toys, wearables, performance devices, portables, network objects and sensor arrays can take advantage of radio mesh networking to design more interesting behaviors for their projects. This course explores devices that connect with and respond to each other in a workshop format. The technical focus will be on 802.15.4/ZigBee wireless mesh networks. Interconnections with other platforms and devices will be examined as needed. Students will gain an expertise in using low-power radio networking to facilitate smart and novel object interactions. Prior experience with basic electronics and physical computing is helpful. Most labs and projects involve group work, so students should be ready to collaborate extensively as they experiment on the cutting edge of device interaction.       Course Syllabus
• Social Activism Using Mobile Technology (H79.2800) - Nathan Freitas
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  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?       Course Syllabus
• Social Facts: Motivation (H79.2518) - Clay Shirky
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  Social Facts centers on two questions. The first is, how do we function in groups? Group effort presents significant coordination problems, problems that have to be overcome even to do anything as simple as getting everyone in the same place at the same time. Getting a group to function as a relatively cohesive unit means getting its members to set aside enough of their autonomy, and to come to regard their membership in the group as important. The second, related question is, why do we function in groups. Group life is often unpleasant – it can be frustrating or boring in the extreme, and yet we often chose group membership over individual action when given the choice, whether on Monday morning or Friday night. What are the motivations that lead people to give up enough autonomy to participate in group action, either extrinsic (seeking fame and fortune) or intrinsic (feelings of accomplishment or appreciation of others.) Readings are drawn from classic sociological literature (Emil Durkheim, Mark Granovetter, Robert Axelrod) and from recent observations about mediated groups (danah boyd, Dan Hill, Clay Shirky); course work involves readings, class discussions, observation of existing groups, and three papers discussing the design of group interaction.
        Course Syllabus
• Sound and The City: Sound and Urban Intervention (H79.2834) - Daniel Perlin
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  Sound + The City is a studio course designed examine design and artistic strategies for sound in the urban context of New York City and its five boroughs.
  
  This course is divided into two parts. First, we examine the characteristics of sound and its borders: what, if any, are the differences between sound, noise and music? What makes sound? How can sound effect the way people engage and perceive public spaces? What, if any, are the separations between aural spaces and the visual. Aside from an examination of the physical attributes of sound itself, this first section involves presentations and research into the diverse histories sound art and sound design within the contexts of urban environments.
  
  With this in mind, this research is directed towards the second phase of the course: the production of a sound- based work that is to be proposed for public space in New York. Emphasis is given on situating sound both spatially and temporally, understanding the work in terms of site specificity as well as its location within the larger discourses and histories of sound, design and urbanism.
  
  Technical prerequisites are basic sound programs such as Audacity or any basic knowledge of some form of sound-making tools. Course examples may be given using Max/MSP, PD, Processing, Open Frameworks, Logic, physical computing etc., but only to illustrate concept. The focus is on the content and context of the works, and participants will be responsible for defining the best tools for the deployment of their ideas.
  
  Final works are presented as working prototypes/designs or full deployments of the sound interventions. This studio includes a midterm concept critique and final critique by guest architects, artists, designers and sound designers.
        Course Syllabus
• Spatial Media (H79.2756) - Jared Schiffman
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  Spatial Media explores the design issues that arise and technical complexities involved in the creation of interactive surfaces. This course takes as a premise that all architectural surfaces (tables, floors, walls, sidewalks, mirrors, etc) are potential dynamic displays. Students are then asked to conceptualize and design interfaces around such interactive platforms, taking into account the spatial and social context of the surface itself. Technical topics include display integration techniques, vision-based sensing and interface programming. Students work in pairs to complete two large projects over the course of the semester. Previous student projects include a reactive bathroom mirror, a musical train station bench and an interactive concierge desk. Projects are evaluated on both the quality of the design and the success of implementation. Additionally, there are weekly assignments that challenge students to consider a wide variety of spaces that are ripe for transformation through the integration of interactive media. Since this class involves programming on an intermediate level, a working knowledge of Processing or C is a prerequisite. This course will require a significant amount of time and effort on the part of all students.       Course Syllabus
• Sustainable Energy (H79.2466) - Jeffrey Feddersen
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  This class examines technology from the perspective of energy sources and power flows. The course begins with a broad overview of the topic, a definition of terms, and an opportunity to discuss political and social ramifications. At the same time, students are introduced to a handful of technical concepts that draw on skills learned in physical computing (a prerequisite for the course) to gain a concrete understanding of energy. These skills allow the student to evaluate, monitor, harvest, and store small and/or intermittent sources of (typically electrical) energy, such as those from solar cells, turbines, and other sources. Students execute several small hands-on projects and one larger-scale project using the concepts learned in the class.       Course Syllabus
• Telling Stories with Data, Sensors & Humans (H79.2818) - Nick Bilton
  Offered: Spring 2010
  Each day more and more data becomes available online; earthquakes, government systems, crime statistics, user web data and on services like Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook etc. Until this data is collected, culled and visualized, it sits in spreadsheets as a clustered mess of numbers. In this class we'll learn to tell visual stories with this data. We'll learn about and use data sets that already exist from government websites like data.gov and from private websites. We'll learn the balance of telling stories with information - function, and making the content visually appealing - form. We'll also explore mapping information using geocodes and location information. Later in the course we'll build data collections using hardware (Arduinos, mobile phones etc.) and in turn tell stories with this information. The final section of this course will look at a specific reporting problem from The New York Times and try to investigate using or creating data sets.
  *Every alternate class will have a range of guest lecturers including news, government and private businesses.
  **Must have intermediate Processing & Adobe Illustrator skills.
  
  Guest Lectures Include:
  Sarah Slobin. Graphics Director, The Wall Street Journal
  Ben Fry. Co-Creator, Processing
  Michael Driscoll. Founder dataspora.com
  Mark Hansen. Statistician/Professor CENS (Center for Embedded Network Censors) UCLA
  Ben Cervegny. Flickr, Frog Design, Stamen
  Aaron Koblin. Visualization Artist & Google Visualization Lab
  Dennis Crowley. CEO, Foursquare.
  & members of The New York Times Multimedia/Graphics Department
  
  Note: This course meets for 12 sessions beginning Monday, January 25.
• The Musical Sequence: Expression through Repetition (H79.2917) - Paul Rothman
  Offered: Fall 2011
  Since the 13th century, repetition has been an important device in musical composition. In the 20th century, it became a mainstay of jazz, rock/pop and electronic music. This course will survey the use of programmed repetition in art, with a central focus on music. Historical and cultural uses in various forms of music (ostinato, riff, vamp, lehara) and modern technological approaches will be explored. Students will use both hardware (analog circuits and Arduino) and software (Processing, Max/MSP and DAWs) platforms to create their own sequencing systems and works. The class will look at the compositional uses of sequencing as well as various technologies developed in the past 60 years. Project output doesn’t need to be musical (lighting, mechanical or video projects are encouraged) but music is the framework in which topics will be discussed. Assignments will revolve around readings, designing devices (physical and digital) and creating works that utilize a sequence.       Course Syllabus
• The Nature of Code (H79.2480) - Daniel Shiffman
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  Can we capture the unpredictable evolutionary and emergent properties of nature in software? Can understanding the mathematical principles behind our physical world world help us to create digital worlds? This class focuses on the programming strategies and techniques behind computer simulations of natural systems. We explore topics ranging from basic mathematics and physics concepts to more advanced simulations of complex systems. Subjects covered include forces, trigonometry, fractals, cellular automata, self-organization, and genetic algorithms. Examples are demonstrated using the Processing (http://www.processing.org) environment with a focus on object oriented programming.
  Prerequisite: H79.2233 Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience.
        Course Syllabus
• The Pattern In the Noise: Intro to Statistics and Data Analysis in R  (H79.2918) - Jake Porway
  Offered: Fall 2011
  With the increasing digitization of world, we are faced with an ever-growing amount of data available at our fingertips. As designers, developers, and scientists, it is incumbent upon us to understand how to analyze, understand, and tell stories with that data in meaningful and correct ways. In this course we will explore the lifecycle of data analysis, from collecting and cleaning datasets to statistical studies of that data. Students will learn about basic statistical concepts, such as sampling, measuring uncertainty, finding correlations in datasets, and basic pattern recognition, all within the context of the R statistical programming language. Programming experience is preferred but not required. This two-point class will meet for the first seven weeks of the semester.       Course Syllabus
• The Softness of Things: Technology in Space and Form (H79.2578) - Despina Papadopoulos
  Offered: Spring 2010
  Jasper Johns once wrote in his notebook: "Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it." In this class we investigate what it means to "do things" to objects in ways that transforms them and our relationship to them. We experiment with materials and objects, stretching their limits and exploring their relationship to space and the body. These investigations are grounded in an understanding of the interactional possibilities of gestures, social and spatial dynamics, networks and open source systems while we develop a new set of artifacts and construction techniques. Softness, modularity, adaptability and re-configurability, washability, power management, connectors and ways to engage the senses (and sensors) are just some of the ideas and topics we examine through weekly assignments and social experiments.       Course Syllabus
• The World-Pixel by Pixel (H79.2273) - Daniel Rozin
  Offered: Spring 2010
  Images and visual information are perhaps the most potent tool at our disposal with which to engage viewers of our computer based creations. Computers have the ability to share our visual world by means of evaluating visual information, transforming visual content and even generating visuals from scratch. This class focuses on the art of computer graphics and image processing. We explore the concepts of pixilation, image representation and granularity and the tension between reality and image. Students are introduced to the tools and techniques of creating computer images from scratch, manipulating and processing existing images, compositing and transitioning multiple images, tracking live video and masking, compositing and manipulating live video. The class uses the C language (which is taught in class) and the various API’s required for graphics including Open Frameworks.
        Course Syllabus
• Thesis (H79.2102) - Abigail Simon, Greg Shakar, Heather Greer, Kathleen Wilson, Alison Cornyn, Katherine Dillon, Despina Papadopoulos, Sergio Canetti
  Offered: Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011
  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.
  
• Thesis Prep (H79.2104) - Marina Zurkow
  Offered: Fall 2010
  Thesis Prep, a.k.a. Research in Action – is a seven week structured forum to creatively and tangibly develop ideas for your spring thesis. This class is the antidote to sitting and thinking, and is an active opportunity to dream on paper – combining brainstorming, sketching, research, and low-impact prototyping and playtesting. How do you move from a nascent idea to being ready to start a large-scale project? Decide which medium is most appropriate? Determine context and audience? How do you explore before entering the vortex of building? There is a strong emphasis on making sketches and studies, and on creating a trail for your process; there are weekly assignments, readings, and in-class exercises. Students are expected to keep an online log of their work process, and a sketchbook/journal. By the end of the seven weeks, you should have an idea for your thesis that you are prepared to implement. Note: This class meets the first week, and then six consecutive weeks beginning the eighth week of the Fall semester. Students who take Thesis Prep will complete their thesis in the spring with a two-credit thesis class that meets every other week.
• Thesis: Final Project (H79.2103) - Nancy Hechinger
  Offered: Spring 2011
  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 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 in May.
  
  This two-point course is open only to those students who were enrolled in H79.2104 Thesis Prep in the Fall. Section 1 will meet the first week of the semester and then every other week; section 2 will meet the second week of the semester and then every other week.       Course Syllabus
• Time (H79.2826) - Che-Wei Wang
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  The ways we keep time are the ways we are kept. One might argue that
  humans ideated timekeeping and now we take it for granted. Without
  clocks we can't enjoy the benefits of social synchronicity. But with
  them, we are unwillingly constrained to arbitrary increments that
  guide our countless decisions. This class uses technology as a way to
  rethink and recapture the ways we keep time. Over the first half of
  the semester, we prototype a series of time keeping devices around a
  set of themes. Blindness, bio-mechanics, materials, space+location,
  isolation, synchronicity, and collaborative time. Each class begins
  with the delivery of tools to help construct various types of
  timepieces along with reviews and discussions. Video, software,
  motors + mechanisms, electronic signaling and communication tools are
  covered each week in relation to how they can be used to re-imagine
  time-keeping. Classes later in the semester are tailored to provide
  technical and conceptual support for final projects.       Course Syllabus
• Toy Design and Sustainability (H79.2897) - Assaf Eshet
  Offered: Spring 2011
  This design course introduces the students to the different aspects of sustainability and it’s potential in the design of toys. From the personal throughout the social and environmental impact the challenge of using the natural surroundings we live in to develop eco-friendly toys is a current challenge of the toy design community. Students learn to use sustainable materials and their advantages, optimize, reduce, save, renew and be conscious of their creations and try to reach a common ground between technology and ecology. It is an attempt to go beyond "green" - to create toys that last and reinvent themselves. How can we simplify, maximize and stretch the play value of a toy? How can a toy be played over and over again and be considered a classic? How do we go beyond globalization and get closer to the power of the "local" and learn more about a kid’s needs and abilities rather than limit our creativity for the sake of retail demand and large corporations?
  
  
  The course will encourage the students to develop their conceptual thinking, view point on sustainability and the importance of play. Throughout the course students will synthesize their thoughts and communicate them using hands-on prototyping.
  
  The class will include two short projects that require physical prototype and a longer final project that will include a presentation of the design strategy along with a working prototype.       Course Syllabus
• Toy Design Workshop (H79.2450) - Daniel Rozin
  Offered: Spring 2010
  Toys are an important element in the learning process of young children. Toys are always interactive and can easily take advantage of the tools and disciplines of thought we use at ITP. Toys make it OK to develop something just to be fun. We were all kids, so no-one knows better than us how to invent toys. This class is centered around the creation of toys for children of ages 5 - 12. Students in the class have an opportunity to research, design, prototype and test new ideas for toys using both digital and non-digital materials. Projects are developed individually and in teams. We test the designs with children and educators, and receive feedback from professionals, possibly including people from Mattel or Fisher Price.
        Course Syllabus
• Understanding Genomes: An Introduction to Biohacking  (H79.2919) - Yasser Ansari
  Offered: Fall 2011
  This class will expose the tools and fundamental principles underlying the emerging biohacking and DIY Bio movements, providing students with practical knowledge and awareness of specific techniques. Beginning with the discovery of the three-dimensional structure of DNA and building up to genes, genomes, and genome sequencing, we will uncover the biological mechanisms at play and the specialized equipment and protocols being used in today's laboratories, studios, and garages. Along the way, we will study scientific breakthroughs like the generation of the first recombinant DNA molecules, deconstruct infamous bioart pieces like "Alba" the bioluminescent bunny, and examine interesting amateur projects like homebrewed insulin. The first phase of the class will be focused on introducing core concepts through investigation and discussion. Continuing on, the second phase of the class will allow students to apply what they've learned through the design and development of their own projects. Class assignments will range from individual exercises and readings to group presentations and projects. Guest lecturers and visits to local laboratories will help provide additional context and insight during the semester. The ultimate goal of this class is to equip students with enough knowledge and skill to explore biologically driven concepts and projects with confidence. Although topics from molecular biology will be covered, no previous knowledge is required.       Course Syllabus
• Understanding Networks (H79.2808) - Thomas Igoe
  Offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2011
  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       Course Syllabus
• Urban Experience in the Network Age (H79.2920) - Adam Greenfield
  Offered: Fall 2011
  Humanity became a majority-urban species for the first time at the end of 2007, and the rate at which people are abandoning the countryside for the cities is still accelerating. The human future is therefore an urban future, and most of the technologies you're ever likely to develop or use will need to be understood in the context of the high-density, highly complex environments we think of as cities. At the same time, though, the urban form itself is mutating in response to the emergence of new technological potentials. This course inquires into the ways information technology for gathering, storing, displaying, transmitting or taking action is changing urban form, metropolitan experience, and the construction of civic subjectivity. We'll approach these questions via direct, physical inquiry into the city around us, coupled to a wide reading in the literature of architecture and urbanism. Armed with the insights we glean from these activities, we will consider emergent technological systems and their implications for the life of cities. The coursework combines thematic readings, lectures, and discussions with physical explorations of the urban fabric. Students will keep a blog or online journal of responses to class activities, discussions and assigned readings; there is at least one team project in the course of the semester, to be presented at midterm, and a final project.
• Video and the Open Web (H79.2899) - Ben Moskowitz
  Offered: Spring 2011
  Most web video is wrapped in a proprietary layer and served cold. It's hard to build apps on top of video services, hard to remix video content, and hard to bring genuine innovation to market. Video is the only web medium that's basically read-only. It's time to change that.
  
  This class will introduce a legal and technical framework for understanding open video. Guest speakers from Mozilla, PCF, Wikipedia, and elsewhere will share advances in platforms, protocols, and politics.
  
  This class will also challenge you to think creatively about the potential of web video, and connect the dots between open technology and media democracy. Why is a more video-saturated web in tension with openness? How can we foster more flexible distribution channels in the face of hardening platforms? Are platform operators fairly balancing the concerns of content owners with new forms of speech like remix? How are network infrastructures and economics of content delivery changing to accommodate video?
  
  Students will take part in weekly discussions, contribute to a group blog, and tackle some approachable open video hacking (people of all skill levels welcome). Students will also propose and produce a term project that innovates using open video principles.
        Course Syllabus
• Video for New Media (H79.2256) - Gabe Barcia-Colombo
  Offered: Spring 2010, Summer1 2010, Summer1 2011
  In 1967 the Sony Portapak became the first portable video system available to the public. Suddenly motion pictures became accessible to artists, experimenters and social activists, not simply Hollywood production companies. The introduction of the Portapak had a great influence not only on the development of ITP but also on the way we create, consume and distribute media today. How do we create video that is non-linear yet compelling, interactive yet engaging? The goal of this class is to provide an overview of both the history of video, and its relevance to present day new media. Topics covered include aesthetics and concepts, camera usage, editing, lighting, as well as an introduction to interactive video software such as Jitter and Isadora. Through a series of weekly experiments and assignments, students gain experience with video blogging, short format documentary style, post linear narrative, interactive video installations as well as theatrical video design. Previous video experience is not required and experimentation is highly encouraged!
  
  
• Video Sculpture (H79.2722) - Gabe Barcia-Colombo
  Offered: Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011
  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.       Course Syllabus
• Visual Communication (H79.2724) - Katherine Dillon
  Offered: Fall 2010
  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.
        Course Syllabus
• When Strangers Meet (H79.2762) - Kio Stark
  Offered: Spring 2010
  Even the simplest exchange among strangers can contain a tangled accumulation of meanings: what transpires may have physical, emotional, social, political, technological and historical dimensions. This class takes an analytical approach to unraveling and understanding these charged moments. In the process of the studying how and why strangers interact in public, we address some of the abiding themes at ITP—urban behavior, spontaneous interaction, the pleasure of the unexpected, how technology can mediate and/or enable human experience—and we make a close and thorough examination of how they play out in this narrow slice of human experience. This approach is designed to bring students to a more concrete understanding of these larger abstract ideas. Classwork consists of readings, class discussions, field assignments (a series of assigned interactions with strangers that the students will document and discuss) and an analytical final paper. Students learn how the interactions of strangers have changed historically (and why), what the experience of interaction with strangers means to the participants, how strangers 'read' each other, how they initiate interactions, how they avoid interactions, how they trust each other and how they fool each other. Readings range from seminal works on urban sociology and public behavior (Georg Simmel, Stanley Milgram, Erving Goffman, Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte, Elijah Anderson) to more lyrical examinations of strangers in cities (Tim Etchells, Italo Calvino, Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, Edgar Allan Poe) to recent neuropsychiatric discoveries about trust, mimicry, and flash judgments. Because stranger interactions are at heart a means to interrupt the expected narrative of the everyday, we consider the works of artists and thinkers who show how such disruption, surprise, spontaneity, and play are fundamental to the pleasure and substance of urban life, for example: the Situationists and their descendents, Sophie Calle, Marina Abramovic, Francis Alys, Graffiti Research Lab, Robert Rauschenberg, Survival Research Labs. We also explore recent art/technology projects that specifically engage strangers, such as Familiar Strangers, the Listening Station, PostSecret, Oddible, Loca: Set to Discoverable, Following/the Man in the Crowd, Mobile Feelings, and others.       Course Syllabus
• Wildlife Observation Tools: Interaction in the Wild (H79.2824) - Thomas Igoe
  Offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2011
  Wildlife tracking and observation presents a number of technological challenges.These challenges are related to common interaction design problems with humans, so understanding and mastering them is valuable experience for interaction designers. For zoologists, anthropologists, and veterinary researchers, understanding the technologies behind their tracking equipment, and the methods that technology designers use to develop these tools can benefit their research.
  

  
  The goal of this class is to give students an introduction to the technological challenges associated with observing and tracking wildlife in remote environments. As a focal case study, students are presented with the practical problems faced by professorAnthony Di Fiore's primate research group, which is involved in studying several nonhuman primate species in the Amazon region of Ecuador. Students will discuss the research group's workflow, survey the state of the art in animal tracking, and work in groups to develop interactive prototypes to address one or more specific challenges facing tropical wildlife biologists.
  

  
  In order to realize the goals of this class, students will be introduced to current tracking tools and remote observation tools, including radiocollars, camera traps, GPS receivers and other emerging technologies. This semester, we will place a greater focus on radio communications and tracking technologies and on understanding mapping technologies, to help focus projects on tracking applications. This class is part introduction and part interaction design lab with real-world end users. The goal is not only to understand the challenges, but to help develop solutions that could be used in the field in Ecuador and other places.       Course Syllabus

• Write Once, Access Anywhere (H79.2876) - Corey Menscher
  Offered: Summer1 2010, Spring 2011
  Mobile devices are a vital part of our digital lives, yet they are splintering into a disparate set of platforms with complicated proprietary SDK's, making it difficult for application creators to reach the greatest potential audience. Mature web technologies such as HTML5, Javascript, and CSS3 are powerful alternatives for maintaining an open and interoperable future, and mobile web browsers are now capable of exposing these rich set of features. This course covers the fundamental aspects of developing and deploying online and offline applications for mobile devices based on these advanced browser capabilities. Students will learn how to use HTML5, CSS, Javascript, and frameworks like JQuery to build applications that are virtually indistinguishable from platform-native applications. The focus will be on touch interfaces and small screens, although tablets will also be considered. Introduction to Computational Media or a solid proficiency in basic programming concepts is required, and familiarity with web technologies is strongly encouraged.       Course Syllabus
• Writing and Reading Poetry in the Digital Age (H79.2832) - Nancy Hechinger
  Offered: Spring 2010
  "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that it is poetry."
  — Emily Dickinson
  
  1) I can't think of a time I felt that way about any piece of multimedia art or an interactive story.
  2) Great poems are intense distillations of emotion, thought, experience.
  3) Usually fairly short... even long ones are shorter than a novel.
  4) Multimedia experiences (on handhelds or on the web) are better when they are short.
  5)...also a lot of people are afraid of poetry or have been turned off in high school.
  
  This will be an experimental class to first explore different ways we might read poetry, using published work of modern or traditional poets. Students are encouraged to use media that they are most comfortable with--animation, video, processing, etc. There will also be writing exercises based on the poems we use in class. Through this work we will explore what makes a poem a poem. It's not necessarily rhyme or meter, but there are underlying structures and guidelines: the use of tension, stresses; how and where a poem 'turns' to deliver an inevitable surprise; what is left unsaid, that a poem does not explain...and more.
  Students will then begin to explore different ways to write poetry...thinking of it perhaps not so much as a reading or even spoken experience, but maybe as something else. Who knows? This class, like writing poetry, is about discovering what it's about..but at least we know that we will read some great poetry, play with new ways of experiencing it, and create some new work of our own. I will invite 'real' poets as guest speakers to read in class and respond to our work.

INTERNSHIP

• Independent Study (H79.2110) - Todd Holoubek
  Offered: Summer1 2010
  Independent Study and Internship can fulfill a Tier 2 (elective) requirement. Projects enable a student to develop and demonstrate his or her practical abilities, and should involve both new interactive/telecommunications services and their users. Independent study involves the student in a self-directed research or production project and is supervised directly by a faculty member; internships are done with an outside agency. Both Independent Study and Internship require a minimum of three hours per week per credit.