This class seeks to use the internet and web browsers in new and disruptive ways. Rather than the traditional use of websites as static means of one-to-many communication, we will use websites as stages to perform and intervene in front of a live audience. Students will learn HTML/JavaScript as a means of making interactive websites/instruments to be played for an audience and chrome extensions that will allow us to modify the content of existing websites to political or dramatic ends. We will draw on the art historical traditions of detournement and culture jamming to study what it means to make art out of other material with received authority. The class will also include readings and discussions on digital performing arts, and the implications of digital tools on the aesthetics of theater and performance art. Students will learn HTML and Javascript with a focus on interaction design with themselves or another skilled performer as the intended user, a departure from traditional user experience design. They will read and discuss critical theory and artistic examples of digital performing arts, culture jamming, mashup culture and performance art. Students will create digital instruments and performances and thoughtfully workshop the work of their classmates. Students will perform their work in front of strangers and learn to do so confidently. The first-third of the course will be focused on making single-page instruments, first in p5js and then in HTML/jQuery. The next third of the course will focus on chrome extensions, both applying the same interactive principles onto existing web pages and making site-specific interventions for dramatic effect. In the final third of the class students will create and rehearse a larger more polished performance using the techniques practiced thus far in the course and culminating in a public performance night for the larger ITP community.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate) 4 credits - 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)