Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Mon
Data is the means by which we turn experience into something that can be published, compared, and analyzed. Data can facilitate the production of new knowledge about the world—but it can also be used as a method of control and exploitation. As such, the ability to understand and work with data is indispensable both for those who want to uncover truth, and those who want to hold power to account. This intensive course serves as an introduction to essential computational tools and techniques for working with data. The course is designed for artists, designers, and researchers in the humanities who have no previous programming experience. Covered topics include: the Python programming language, Jupyter Notebook, data formats, regular expressions, Pandas, web scraping, relational database concepts, simple data visualization and data-driven text generation. Weekly technical tutorials and short readings culminate in a self-directed final project.
Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks
Credits: 4
Duration: 6 Weeks
Dates: Fri
“What does biology have to do with art? Bioart is a discipline in which artists use life itself as a medium for creative experimentation and reflection on the social implications of cutting edge biological science. Biopolitics describes the ways in which DNA and other forms of biological knowledge combine with the accumulation of data to segment, categorize, and predict our behavior. In this course we will take a tour of the materials and techniques utilized by artists in the emerging field of biological art, with a focus on genomics and its political and social implications. This hybrid art and science class will introduce concepts in personal genomics, genetic engineering, speculative design, bioart, biopolitics, critical engineering, and bioethics as sites for activism and artistic exploration. Students will extract and analyze their own DNA while discussing human evolution and the social construction of identity. They will learn how DNA extraction and sequencing works, how to analyze real genomic data, and will incorporate this in creative and critical projects. Regular readings and in-class discussions will supplement artistic projects.”
Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 6 Weeks
Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Mon
“How can we create services – digital or otherwise – that scratch psychological itches in ways that take into consideration the uncontrollable nature of users? In this course, we marry the art of design with the science of psychology. The offspring of this match is complicated, unexpected and never predictable – but indelibly informed by both its binary and analogue parentage. Leaning on a variety of international case studies that tickle our human passion for enquiry, for storytelling, for sensation, and for sense-making, plus short philosophical readings about the nature of the indefinable, each class will dissect what we know about something inherently human (from beauty to joy to elegance), and how technologists and machine-makers have tried to predict it. We will spend time in this course reverse engineering black boxes and imagining how they could have been designed otherwise. The final project will be an “”””engine”””” or machine – mock-up, paper design or working prototype – that proposes to produce the solution to a messy human question every single time. The course will be divided into three thematic sections of three classes each: a theory week, an analysis week, and a prototyping week. Each thematic section will examine single-topic human “needs” frequently designed for in apps and tech. Students will be expected to take part in group discussions, and brainstorming sessions that will imagine systems that could achieve that topic. Latterly, the last session will be workshops, in which students will work together or alone on their own projects based on one topic of their choice.”
Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks
Credits: 2
Duration: 6 Weeks
Dates: Thu
“””Portraiture stands apart from other genres of art as it marks the intersection between portrait, biography, and history. They are more than artworks; when people look at portraits, they think they are encountering that person,”””” says Alison Smith, chief curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London. For thousands of years, artists have used cutting-edge tools and resources to create portraiture, giving viewers a glimpse into the subject’s life. A successful portrait embraces technology to bring the viewer closer to the subject but is not overshadowed by it. In this course, we will delve into portraiture through the lens of volumetric capture using the Depth Kit system. Through hands-on assignments, students will learn the entire pipeline of volumetric capture, from configuring the system to capturing our subjects and final output. Simultaneously, we will focus on fundamental aspects of portraiture, such as lighting, storytelling, production techniques, and historical foundations. The course will explain the techniques and considerations involved in creating volumetric portraits. We will explore various approaches to capturing subjects, employing advanced technologies to record their presence in 3D. Students will gain proficiency in the Depth Kit system to produce high-quality volumetric portraits that can be integrated into different mediums, including game engines, augmented reality (AR), or traditional 2D outputs.”
Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 6 Weeks
Credits: 2
Duration: 6 Weeks
Dates: Fri
“Surveillance is the most successful business model in cyberspace, maybe the most successful business model anywhere in history. But the internet is changing. New regulations, new technologies, new consumer preferences, new ways of making money, a new generation of technologists promising change. Will surveillance capitalism continue to be the dominant modality in the online world of the future? And if not, what would replace it? In this class we’ll examine the contemporary state of the surveillance industry and the technical infrastructures that underpin it, such as cookies, requests, and browser fingerprinting. And then look to the promised technologies of the future, from the cryptographic web3.0 to the metaverse to our own hypothesized models for the future of digital existence.”
Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 6 Weeks
Credits: 1
Duration: 1 Day
Dates:
In this course students will be introduced to the role of the curator with a very brief history of curation, followed by a focus on the particular challenges and approaches to curating new media art. The class will give an overview of practical approaches to exhibition-making both online and offline, looking at artist-led approaches to curation in particular. The class will include a hands-on practicum in which students will work towards creating a mock exhibition plan.
Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
1 credits – 1 Day