From alphabets to virtual realities, this course will explore the development, reaction, and long term impact of various communication technologies. How have these technologies, such as writing, printing, the telegraph, television, radio, the internet and beyond, transformed society? And what changes can be observed both today and tomorrow? After students look closely at past and current future communication technologies, students will speculate on the future of communication technologies in a connected world by proposing their own transformative technology. Readings and discussion will cover communication theory, technical processes, creative applications, and critical investigation. Writing assignments will be paired with practical assignments where students will be challenged to bring their analysis and ideas to life. The web will also be utilized as a test bed for experiencing and experimenting with various forms of communication both old and new. This course will be part seminar and part lab. In the seminar portion of the class, time will be spent engaging in short lectures, critical discussions, and reviews of both reading and writing assignments. In the lab portions, students will participate in hands-on creative and technical activities and present practical assignment work. Throughout the class, students will be encouraged to learn through play, experimentation, collaboration, and exploration. Both individual and group work will be assigned.
An introductory course to probability and statistics. It affords the student some acquaintance with both probability and statistics in a single term. Topics in Probability include mathematical treatment of chance; combinatorics; binomial, Poisson, and Gaussian distributions; the Central Limit Theorem and the normal approximation. Topics in Statistics include sampling distributions of sample mean and sample variance; normal, t-, and Chi-square distributions; confidence intervals; testing of hypotheses; least squares regression model. Applications to scientific, industrial, and financial data are integrated into the course.NOTE: Not open to math majors or students who have taken or will take MA-UY 2054 or MA-UY 3014 or MA-UY 3514 or ECE-UY 2233. | Prerequisite: MA-UY 1124, MA-UY1424, or MA-UY 1132 or MATH-UH 1020 or MATH-UH 1021 or MATH-SHU 151
This course focuses on programming strategies and techniques behind procedural analysis and generation of text-based data. We’ll explore topics ranging from evaluating text according to its statistical properties to the automated production of text with probabilistic methods to text visualization. Students will learn server-side and client-side JavaScript programming and develop projects that can be shared and interacted with online. This fall the course will also explore topics in machine learning as related to text. There will be weekly homework assignments as well as a final project.
This module provides a rigorous introduction to topics in digital logic design. Introductory topics include: classification of digital systems, number systems and binary arithmetic, error detection and correction, and switching algebra. Combinational design analysis and synthesis topics include: logic function optimization, arithmetic units such as adders and subtractors, and control units such as decoders and multiplexers. In-depth discussions on memory elements such as various types of latches and flip-flops, finite state machine analysis and design, random access memories, FPGAs, and high-level hardware description language programming such as VHDL or Verilog. Timing hazards, both static and dynamic, programmable logic devices, PLA, PAL and FPGA will also be covered. Prerequisite: Intro to Programming or Intro to Computer Science or placement test or interaction lab. Fulfillment: Core Curriculum: Science Experimental Discovery in the Natural World Courses ; Major: CS Electives, CE Required, EE Required.
Blockchain is a disruptive technological innovation behind the rapid emergencies of cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger systems. More and more companies have begun to integrate blockchain-based technology into their existing business models. The course is designed to provide business students with an understanding of key concepts and developments around the blockchain technology from multiple perspectives, including technology, law, and economics. Meanwhile, students will develop a strategic awareness of an array of business applications enabled by blockchain to disrupt every industry, e.g., commercial contracts, supply chains, and financial instruments. Besides readings and lectures, the course will heavily feature interactive activities through hands-on exercises, case studies and group work among students from different backgrounds. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: BUSF Non-Finance elective; BUSM Non-Marketing elective; IMB Business elective.
This course covers Passive DC circuit elements, Kirchoff’s laws, electric power calculations, analysis of DC circuits, Nodal and Loop analysis techniques, voltage and current division, Thevenin’s and Norton’s theorems, and source-free and forced responses of RL, RC and RLC circuits. Prerequisite: MATH-SHU 131 or MATH-SHU 201. Fulfillment: CE required; EE required; Core Curriculum Science Experimental Discovery in the Natural World.
French philosopher Jean Baudrillard proposes the concept of hyperreality as the condition in which human consciousness struggles to discern between actual reality and simulations of reality, particularly within societies that are deeply influenced by advanced technology. In the 21st century, hyperreality has become ubiquitous in mediated life, as society becomes more intertwined with social media, virtual and digital environments, and performance spaces. In this course students will engage in the aesthetics and theories of hyperreality in order to create a performative happening that reflects on the embodied experience of contemporary life. Through collaborative research, students will integrate choreography, improvisation, technology, and visual elements to craft an immersive experience that collapses boundaries between performers and audiences. Students will be encouraged to explore experimental compositional strategies where communication unfolds across screens, through bodies, and within designed environments by employing digital performance and mixed reality techniques. Potential tools and techniques which may be utilized include artistry in real time technology, live streaming in performance, motion capture, machine learning, TouchDesigner and wearable technology. This class will include critical discussions and hands-on workshops during which students will refine their artistic vision. Participants are invited to devise an interdisciplinary performance practice in order to bring their installations into being. By engaging in this course, students will gain practical experience in creating and producing interactive installations activated by performance, aiming to create transformative projects where reality and the contemporary imagination converge.
This course will focus on Eco-Materialism (circular design principles — reuse, recycle, renew & rethink) and emergent practices based on principles of Gaia theory, symbiosis, and other systems-centered theories in conjunction with some of the origins, influences, theories, processes, and manifestations of art installation. We will read, watch, and discuss perspectives on Eco-Materialism genres and installation art written/created by artists, curators, art historians, and critics and view work by eco artists and installation artists. Students will create their own installations and writing, experiment with diverse biomaterials, and learn and combine craftsmanship and digital techniques to explore and create their own materials. Do-It-Yourself activism and Critical-Making will enable students to participate in new modes of civic engagement. Moreover, the course will motivate them to remain independent from pre-determined structures, assuming active roles in the art making rather than passive consumers. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA elective; IMB IMA/IMB elective, Visual Arts elective.
This course offers an experience with the intersection of technology and culture through collaborative teaching offered by faculty from Interactive Media Arts (IMA) and Global China Studies(GCS). Throughout the semester, students will dive into the world of Mixed Reality (MR) design, mastering space scanning technology, documenting historical sites, and conducting in-depth historical research. Students will use Unity, a cross-platform game engine, to craft immersive MR experiences that bring historical narratives to life. What sets this course apart is the real-world testing component, where students will refine their designs at actual historical sites. By the end, students will produce a digital immersive time-travel architecture, creating MR experiences that bring cultural heritage to life for modern audiences. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. Fulfillment: IMA Advanced Elective; IMB IMA/IMB elective; GCS Elective: Media, Arts, and Literature.
This multidisciplinary course allows students from a variety of backgrounds to work together to learn about and develop assistive technology, as well as cultivate a better understanding of the people being served. Students will work in teams to identify clinical needs relevant to their chosen client and learn the process of developing an idea and following that through to the development of a prototype product.
Topics in Interactive Media Arts courses are courses within the broader field of emerging media, covering a wide range of topics depending on the expertise of the current course instructor. This course will cover a specific emerging media topic from a practical and/or theoretical perspective. Students will learn about the topic from readings, discussions, and writings, as well as through hands-on assignments and projects. Students can enroll in multiple “Topics in IMA” courses simultaneously in one semester and receive full credits for each course. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA elective; IMB IMA/IMB elective.
Project-based course designed to guide students through three advanced projects: data visualization with APIs, games that communicate specific experiences, and cooperative networked interactions where two users work together to achieve a common goal. Each project is split into 3-4 weeks, so students have ample time to thoughtfully design a program, think through the technical architecture, develop it, and iterate based on in-class feedback.
The spectrum of Extended Reality (XR) – encompassing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) – brings with it several opportunities for new possibilities for game design, interactive storytelling, and more. While implementations of these technologies and associated theory have existed for a number of years, the recent technical and commercial resurgence means that developing skills in critical thinking and creative aptitude with regards to AR and VR is incredibly timely. To this end, rather than studying only contemporary discourse around XR technologies which frames it as a new development or passing fad, this class will also look at more well-established principles of both AR and VR – such as object presence and other aspects of existing theory. Furthermore, it analyses such technologies through a theoretical and critical lens, placing them within the wider history of the arts.
This course will cover a variety of academic topics within the field of Interactive Telecommunications. For further details, please refer to the individual class section notes and topic subtitle.
This course will cover a variety of academic topics within the field of Interactive Telecommunications. For further details, please refer to the individual class section notes and topic subtitle.
This course will cover a variety of academic topics within the field of Interactive Telecommunications. For further details, please refer to the individual class section notes and topic subtitle.
Blender is a dynamic tool that can be used to design real world sets, physical objects and virtual assets for various media and live performance. It can render robust animations and impose visual effects on recorded video. It has the capacity to interface easily with interactive softwares like Unity and Unreal, while having the potential to output hi-fidelity renders for print. But beyond that it’s just a software. The ability to create any believable world comes from you. In this class we will explore a variety of techniques to create living, breathing fictional worlds while honing the skills in Blender to bring them to life. Students will be asked to create food, buildings, clothing, people and traffic signs from their fictional universe – building consistency of aesthetic, narrative allusion, and the fine details that make any world “believable”. The class will involve dissecting and discussing media on this world building, technical tutorials and instruction in Blender, and hands on workshops that tackle the conceptual questions of world building while exploring how to interface Blender with an outside medium: (3D printing, Pattern Making, Asset Development, Unity, Unreal, After Effects, recorded video). Students will be expected to watch technical tutorials and read short pieces on these topics for homework. Students will also complete weekly deliverable assignments.
Code Lab 2 is a continuation in exploring how to craft game with programming. In Code Lab, we examined how to make games in openFrameworks, starting from scratch. This class will be a workshop, building off of that knowledge, but focusing on learning how to work with code that is already written. Students will learn to work with a new Integrated Development Environment (IDE), eclipse, learn to work with a version control system, and work in depth with Java and Processing. Over the course of the class, students will be given several versions of classic games (Pong, Space Invaders, Asteroids, etc.) that are incomplete or have an obvious bug. They will learn to read the code, identify how to correct the issue with the game, and then eventually modify it to make their own new version of the game. These skills are essential to work with code from other developers, whether they are members of the same team, open source projects, or examples provided in tutorials and readings.
Through a series of lectures and weekly prompts, this hands-on course introduces a methodology that facilitates the process from thinking to making. Softness is used as both a theoretical and material framework that asks students to rethink the edges of the real and to to engage with structures, organizations, materials and relationships as malleable, fluid, and open to transformation. Students are introduced to foundational concepts through a wide range of examples and readings, and are invited to critically reflect on how these concepts inform and guide their own practice and creative journey. The weekly assignments are meant to help students become comfortable with a variety of techniques and making practices, and in a rapid, playful and experimental manner engage with ideas in an embodied and enacted way. Given that they have a week to complete each assignment, the goal is to help students delve into the core and essential properties of each concept and find ways to express and explore them in their work. The cadence of the lectures and survey of a wide range of artistic practices aims to expose students to different approaches to making, and importantly help them understand how theory and practice are not separate realms but indeed intertwined.
In this class, we’ll learn TouchDesigner, a powerful software hub for live audiovisual content, and control it with DIY props and digital interfaces that we’ll build to connect to our art directly from the stage. With a cutting-edge buffet of inputs and outputs at our disposal, what new, evolved, or remixed types of performance can we create? If you’re a musician, you’ll build and play instruments that didn’t exist before. If you’re a dancer, your movements will become the music and visuals, instead of the other way around. If you’re a filmmaker, you’ll shoot a real-life scene with a virtual camera or light a physical set with real-time VFX. If you’re a visual artist, you’ll warp color, distort images, and push pixels to the brink of destruction. If you’re all of the above, you’ll have fun in this class. To connect to TouchDesigner, we’ll build hardware props using Arduinos, tiny computers that we can hook up sensors, buttons, and LEDs to, and create unique thematic interfaces that augment our performances and interactive installations. Weekly assignments explore AI tools, electronic circuits, fabrication, camera input and livestreams, 3D models and procedural animation, and more. Midway through the semester we’ll begin performing live using our connected props for DJ/VJing and projection-mapped interactive spaces, with the class culminating in a final public performance bringing together the best of student work. No previous coding or performance experience necessary. There is a lab fee for the hardware we’ll use to build our devices.
We are in the midst of a revolution. Computers permeate nearly every aspect of our life, yet we understand relatively little about how they work, their historical development, and their impact on our thought and actions. As with previous technological and communications revolutions like the rise of print and the ascendency of the image, computing is transforming our economic and political landscape, bringing with it new possibilities as well as new problems. In this course, we explore this ever-changing and rapidly expanding terrain, paying special attention to how computers and the Internet are transforming how we experience and understand identity and community, control and liberation, simulation and authenticity, creation and collaboration, and the practice of politics. Authors whose works we read may include Donna Haraway, Jean Baudrillard, Jorge Luis Borges, Yochai Benkler, Nicholas Carr, the Critical Art Ensemble, Galileo, Lawrence Lessig, Sherry Turkle, Lewis Mumford, Plato, the RAND Corporation, and Ellen Ullman.
The ever-inventive world of arts publications encompasses a dazzling range of subjects, mediums, materials, and methods: from ancient illuminated manuscripts, political manifestos, and one-of-a-kind artists books to high-end glossies, handmade zines, posters and print multiples to the infinite possibilities of the digital realm. This workshop will introduce and explore many of these forms through guest lecturers, field trips to specialized collections and museums, directed readings, and hands-on work, which will culminate in final group and individual projects. Readings may include Posters: A Global History; Action Time Vision; and Design: the Invention of Desire.
In this workshop, students will explore the possibilities of dancing across spatial categories, making dances in “real” and digital space. Taking our cues from contemporary experimental and primarily post-modern choreographers, we will examine how our arts practices and beliefs about bodies and space are linked to evolving ideas and cultural systems; we will ask questions that tug at the assumptions of what dance is, what bodies are, what space is, and how these elements are significant as components of choreography and of our dance experiences. We will make and watch dances ranging from low-tech works to high-tech experiments. In addition to making dances, we will read about contemporary dance, technology, and other practices and disciplines (e.g., architecture, philosophy, neuroscience), view performances of choreographers and visual artists, and meet with practitioners engaged in the questions and practices of our study. We will join with CultureHub, an organization housed at La MaMa E.T.C. (one of New York’s most noted experimental theaters) and working at the intersection of art, technology, and community. Readings might include work by Gaston Bachelard, Victoria Hunter, Matthew Frederick, Merce Cunningham, Steve Paxton, Andrew Gurian, Yi-Fu Tuan, and other artists and scholars. The course is open to all students: anyone interested in dance and/or technology is welcome. Note: all workshop members will be expected to participate as movers!
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.
This course examines the Western fascination with the moving body in different cultural environments and throughout colonial and postcolonial historical periods until the present time. It will begin by investigating early images and artistic representation of the body in motion captured by European ethnographers at the turn of the 19th century, and continue tracing it to current trends of contemporary culture. The goal of this course is to develop a critical understanding of the culture built around the body as subject as well as a marker of otherness. This course will offer students an opportunity to study and articulate, intellectually and physically, the legibility of bodies in motion within different cultural landscapes. Bodies in Cultural Landscapes will provide an open forum in which to investigate human movement within the specific aesthetic system and cultural practice of early ethnographic representation to contemporary culture’s engagement with the moving body. It will offer insight into personal and cultural identity, stimulating an expanded recognition and appreciation of difference. This course offers students the opportunity to explore simultaneously their intellect (in class viewing, readings and discussions), as well as in the presentation of their own version of ethnographic research and representation based on a topic of their choice discussed with instructor. Students will engage weekly with exercises and assignments based on course material.
Note this class is called “Devised Theater: History and Practice.” This intensive focuses on both historic evolution of ritual-based/early theater models through contemporary theater philosophies (accentuating history of Futurist/Dada theater innovations to present), and on anatomizing the nature of performer, performance, story and storytelling via the non-traditional philosophies and methods of contemporary experimental theater. The class will be rigorously participatory in terms of discussing/physicalizing these experimental methods and will culminate in the creation and performance of simple class collaboration-generated stage narratives. Students will investigate the meaning and application of physical/environmental ’neutrality’ on stage as they simultaneously investigate and define for themselves the most essential markers needed for the viewer to perceive ‘story’ in performance. As the staged pieces are constructed from these anatomized building blocks of performance and story, more complex qualities of character, identity, archetype, mannerism, linguistic disfluencies (verbal and non-verbal) and psychological subtext will be introduced as tools for each performer’s role in the story. In the final phases of piece creation, simple analog elements of music, sound, light, mask, craft materials, dance, virtuosic/specialized skill, props will be introduced as tools. The final performance will aspire to clear and effective applications of the performance/story elements discussed (or discovered) in class. Techniques and exercises derived from the worlds of Futurism/Dada, Richard Maxwell, Blue Man Group, Elevator Repair Service, Ann Bogart, Joshua Fried, and others will be discussed and employed.
This course examines the artistic career and creative work of Walter Murch, Oscar-winning film editor and sound designer, and the first and only artist to win Academy Awards for both film editing and sound mixing on a single film (The English Patient, 1997). The class will provide an unprecedented inside look into Mr. Murch’s processes of sound designing, editing, mixing, writing, and directing on such acclaimed and memorable films as THX 1138, American Graffiti, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Return to Oz, The English Patient, Touch of Evil, and Cold Mountain. Through interviews, articles, and materials from his private archives never before publicly available, students learn about the creative world of an artist who has brought the importance of sound and editing to a new level. In addition to his work in film and his inventions used in the filmmaking process, two additional areas of interest of Mr. Murch will be examined: translations of Curzio Malaparte’s writings and his passion for astronomy. Mr. Murch will participate on several occasions in the course as a guest lecturer by visiting the class and/or via video conferencing.
Today, many documentarians consider themselves working within a well-defined human rights framework where images and film are used to raise awareness about social injustice. On the far edge of this movement, however, there are writers, photographers and filmmakers whose work calls attention to the traditional documentary ethics of bearing witness but whose modes of representation blur the lines between fact and fiction. This body of work is more open-ended to interpretation and multiple readings, which also include more personal themes such as loss and melancholy, the ephemeral nature of time and memory, nostalgia and change. While not a production course per se, most students create short poetic films for their midterms and finals. The course is a great opportunity for students to open this door on short-form media production for the first time even if they wish to shoot on their smartphones. We will study several different kinds of visual poetics such as combining documentary photos with literature, artists working with archives and found images, the essay film, the personal diary and journal film, the performance film, ethnographic poetics, and new trans-media platforms and webdocs. Some of the writers and artists we will study include Roland Barthes, W.G. Sebald, Chris Marker, Christian Boltanski, Forough Farrokhzad, RaMell Ross, Roland Barthes, Miguel Rio Branco Charles Burnett, William Greaves, Agnes Varda, Margaret Tait, Robert Gardner, Jean Rouch, and Jonas Mekas.
Explores specific issues dealing with the black urban experience, focusing on social and cultural institutions. Possible themes, which vary from semester to semester, include class and poverty, the police, urban development, education, sports, music, and art.
The Science of Movement will introduce students to the multidisciplinary field of how the human brain controls movements, how we learn new movements, and the rehabilitation of various movement disorders and injuries. This course is appropriate for undergraduate students with an interest in human movement, neuroscience and behavior, physical medicine, dance and/or athletics. No prior course of study in neuroscience is necessary to successfully engage with the course material. This course will count towards general education requirements for social science for Tisch undergraduate students.
The course covers marketing, advertising, and communications strategies in the new media landscape where traditional media (e.g., television, print) and the online social media (i.e., Web 2.0; e.g., online social networks, user-generated content, blogs, forums) co-exist. Students are expected to have knowledge about the fundamentals of traditional advertising methods and strategies. With this background knowledge, the primary focus of the course is on understanding social media, developing social media marketing strategies, and tracking their effectiveness. This course does not look at more tactical aspects of advertising/communications such as creative, message management, and publicity.
The course on “Media, Activism & Democracy” aims at, first, introducing students to the complex and fascinating topic of civil society activism; second, at illustrating them the linkages between activism and media; third, at showing them the impact of civil society’s advocacy on contemporary political systems. In a nutshell, the course aims at providing students with a closer understanding of the civil society activism-media-politics conundrums at the national and global levels.
On demand music streaming caused a major paradigm shift in the music industry and its monetization. The Nordic countries have since the beginning been at the forefront of this technological trend and has been a testing ground over the past ten years with services like Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal. In 2023, the third year of Covid, the US recorded music industry generated USD $15.9 billions. Streaming music made up 84% of total American record industry’s revenue to a record high $13,3 billions. All major formats of music grew versus the prior year with the exception of digital downloads. On a global scale the digital music market has continuously expanded since 2008. And new market places develops fast. The average time spent listening to music each week has grown from 20.1 hours per fan in 2022 to 20.7 hours in 2023. 32% of that listening is on audio streaming services and 31% on video streaming services. The list of the most streamed artist in the world 2023 was led by superstar Taylor Swift followed by Drake. The world is streaming and the future looks both interesting and bright. We love music! It is still quite a young technology and for the users and creators a new experience. There is still little dedicated research and that gives way to a lot of strong opinions and views. Through this course we will closely follow the discourse that goes on outside academia and tap into ongoing research and exiting developments. Over the years streaming has been a hot topic in the music and mainstream media with high profiled artists such as Taylor Swift, Thom Yorke, The Black Keys, David Byrne and many others speaking out against the payout of streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Pandora and Tidal. And with new ways to distribute money from the DSPs its looks like 2024 will be anything but boring. Through this course you will be guided through the history of streaming and the technology that made it possible. You will be introduced to the storefronts of online music made possible by this technology, and we will investigate how the digital marketplace can streamline both sales and marketing. Beyond exploring the effects of the technology on music and media startups, we will explore how artist development and career growth has been effected. Streaming offers exciting new opportunities and challenges when marketing and promoting music online, and you will learn specific techniques and tools to maximize your visibility, help you connect with fans and increase the chances to be discovered. You will master the techniques of the online streaming marketplace and working technology through “launching” your own release through The Orchard. This course will give you the wider historical context of the streaming economy and give you a broader understanding of this rapidly changing landscape. During this course, the students will meet guests with great knowledge and up-to-date insight on different topics.
Images depict, words describe. A picture of the cat of the mat depicts the cat as being on the mat. The sentence ’the cat is on the mat’ describes the cat as being on the mat. Both represent the world as being in a certain state, but they do so in different ways. What is the difference in these ways of representing? What does it take for an image to depict? This course covers most major theories of depiction, including resemblance, experience, recognition, pretense, and structural theories. We then expand the scope of inquiry to include topics such as systems of depiction, analog vs. digital representation, maps, film, comics, maps, mental imagery, and relations to the cognitive science of vision.
In this class, we will use AI as a writing and editing tool and study the history and philosophy of augmented and automated writing. Through a combination of lectures and hands-on workshops, we will explore the theoretical aspects of AI and writing with case studies and examples, as well as experiment with different AI tools and techniques. Prerequisite: None.
This advanced course investigates emerging trends in machine learning and artificial intelligence for generating media content – images, video, and sound. The course explores the idea of how artists, designers, and creators can use machine learning in their own research, production, and development processes. Students will learn and understand machine-learning techniques and use them to generate creative media content. We will cover a range of different platforms and models and also experiment with implementing the content with platforms for interaction design, such as Unity. Prerequisite: INTM-SHU 120 Communications Lab OR INTM-SHU 205 What’s New Media OR INTM-SHU 124 Emerging Technologies & Computational Arts
In this course, we will focus on gender as a central mode of identity exploration in contemporary art within the digital age, adopting a multidisciplinary and interactive approach. Over a course of six sections, we will analyze how contemporary artists, from diverse backgrounds, delve into various facets of gender identity within the context of digital art history. This exploration will encompass their interactions with new media styles, mediums, reception, and critical analysis. We will raise essential questions: How does technology in interactive art contribute to gender equality? To what extent does an artist’s gender identity influence the interpretation of their digital work? We will critically engage with gender studies, examine gender’s profound impact on digital creation, and explore the socio-cultural influences at play. Through weekly readings and group interactive activities, class discussions, and a final VR exhibition on a related topic of their choosing, students will explore gender’s relevance to digital art creation, examine materials highlighting how gender shapes digital art, analyze socio-cultural factors influencing gender and sexuality in digital contemporary art, and apply their insights to interactive media.
“Designing for” classes focus on working with a real-world client or partner, preparing students for professional collaborations with institutions, publishers and media companies beyond the game industry who partner with game developers on playable experiences. Outside partners have included museums, non-profit organizations, non-digital publishers and digital media platforms. In each version of this class, students will interact directly with representatives from one outside partner and collaborate with other students on a single semester-long project tailored to the client’s goals, developing an initial idea from conceptualization through pitching and prototyping, based on criteria and feedback provided by the partner. Students will learn to follow a structured process for ideation, collaboration and prototyping, while taking care to understand the audience, content and goals of the partner organization’s industry and the context of play. The semester culminates in a final presentation of playable prototypes to the partner.
“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.”
“What does it mean to make something that lasts? In this 7-week studio, we will attempt to understand the collective hallucination that is the Internet, while rationalizing the intersection of permanence, mutation, utility and ownership in creative digital work. To support this investigation, we will: – Use hands-on workshops to understand and build various forms of generating digital art – Consider the implications of storage and longevity – Have a working knowledge of marketplace capabilities, and their influence on the art that they contain – Expand on our understanding of verifiable ownership, blockchain and otherwise, and how it can have impact beyond the digital landscape Through this class, you will develop work that considers time as a critical axis, be it the longevity of the outcome, or the impermanence of the idea. Work may live on the blockchain, utilize generative ai frameworks, or manifest as a performance in a snowstorm.”
Course Description: In this 14-week course, students will explore sound design fundamentals through modular synthesizers, leveraging the capabilities of microcontrollers. Modular synthesizers are a type of electronic musical instrument used to generate, manipulate, and shape sound through the interconnection of individual modules, or components. This course is designed to equip students with the skills and creative prowess required to craft their own unique devices that adhere to the Eurorack design format; a popular modular synthesizer standard. The curriculum blends the art of sound design with the technical aspects of hardware synthesizer architecture, building skills so that by the end of this course students will have the competence to bring their sonic visions to life in physical form through thoughtful interaction. By harnessing the modular nature of these components, students will work independently, taking into consideration the designs of their peers to ensure seamless compatibility between their devices, resulting in a distinct ‘voice’; a term used to describe a collection of components that define the signal path of a synthesizer. The first half of the course will focus on sound design coding techniques utilizing the Teensy microcontroller, with the second half dedicated to developing tangible hardware design skills. Prerequisites: Intro to Physical Computing No sound design/musical experience is required.
“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.”
“””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.”
This course focuses on designing, developing and delivering multimedia live performances via a virtual platform. The class will have an emphasis on experimenting with different possibilities of virtual performances, pushing the boundaries of the performative medium, and using emerging technologies to create experiences that allow for the unfolding of engaging narratives, and/or generate compelling visuals in real time. We will look at various examples of both online and offline performances, explore how we can apply the technologies we have learned to design performative systems, and discuss methods we can use to make our performances more engaging. Students will practice quickly coming up with ideas and performing in class. A few weeks into the course, students will propose final project ideas and then develop the performances in the following weeks with support from the instructor. The class will culminate in a virtual event featuring solo and/or group performances by the students.
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.
“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.”
This course examines magazines as collaborative sites for artists and writers internationally, leading the way to a global, networked cultural sphere. We will consider periodicals as both commercial and artist-driven enterprises and as material objects to be studied through the lens of the history of photography, journalism, and design.
On blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Ello, Tumblr, email, SoundCloud, YouTube, and more, we are constantly performing using technology. Performance Studies has long been concerned with technology, but it is only recently concerned with questions brought to the fore by new technologies and new technological practices, particularly on the Internet. This survey course requires us to consider the relationship between Performance Studies as a discipline (one that incorporates performance theory, critical theory, feminist theory, queer theory, and other theoretical genres) with technology, particularly the Internet. Open to Non-Majors.
With the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of social movements like Black Lives Matter and #metoo, the field of social good advertising has rapidly expanded as brands seek social relevance, governments and nonprofits look to inform, and activists try to persuade. In this course, students will learn to plan and execute powerful social advertising campaigns, while thinking critically about the blurred lines between advertising and information, and branding and politics, in what Sarah Banet-Weiser calls “Shopping for Change.
This umbrella course focuses on specific time periods, technological developments and cultural contexts relevant to understanding the development of digital computing technology over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st. This course familiarizes students with the social forces and techno-cultural innovations that shaped the computing industry. Specific themes may include: personal computing; Cold War computing; computing and globalization; the quantified self; computational aesthetics; artificial intelligence and machine learning; computing and gender.
Through a series of lectures and weekly prompts, this hands-on course introduces a methodology that facilitates the process from thinking to making. Softness is used as both a theoretical and material framework that asks students to rethink the edges of the real and to to engage with structures, organizations, materials and relationships as malleable, fluid, and open to transformation. Students are introduced to foundational concepts through a wide range of examples and readings, and are invited to critically reflect on how these concepts inform and guide their own practice and creative journey. The weekly assignments are meant to help students become comfortable with a variety of techniques and making practices, and in a rapid, playful and experimental manner engage with ideas in an embodied and enacted way. Given that they have a week to complete each assignment, the goal is to help students delve into the core and essential properties of each concept and find ways to express and explore them in their work. The cadence of the lectures and survey of a wide range of artistic practices aims to expose students to different approaches to making, and importantly help them understand how theory and practice are not separate realms but indeed intertwined.
This interdisciplinary course combines ethnographic readings, representations, and interpretations of city and urban cultures with a video production component in which students create short documentaries on the city of Accra. The interpretative classes will run concurrently with production management, sights and sound, and post-production workshops. The course will have three objectives: (1) teach students the documentary tradition from Flaherty to Rouch; (2) use critical Cinema theory to define a document with a camera; and (3) create a short documentary film.
This interdisciplinary course combines ethnographic readings, representations, and interpretations of city and urban cultures with a video production component in which students create short documentaries on the city of Accra. The interpretative classes will run concurrently with production management, sights and sound, and post-production workshops. The course will have three objectives: (1) teach students the documentary tradition from Flaherty to Rouch; (2) use critical Cinema theory to define a document with a camera; and (3) create a short documentary film.
The foundations of Max, a powerful visual programming language for music and multimedia, will be covered in this course. We will examine how computers can be utilized to create situations for music creation, performance, and collaborative improvisation as well as applied to building interactive, generative music. In addition to learning Max’s fundamental building blocks, we will also use fundamental music theory as a tool to better understand music making. We will create programs that examine rhythm, melodies, chords, scales, and recognize other qualities of music like timbre, texture, and dynamics while taking into consideration the principles of harmony, melody, and rhythm defined in basic music theory. The final will require you to develop a collaborative piece of interactive computer music, a collaborative performance environment, or another final project that has been discussed and agreed upon together. This class does not require any prerequisite programming skills or prior music theory knowledge.
This course introduces students to the range of mechanical engineering and emphasizes the basic principles and devices for storing and using energy, directing motion and satisfying needs. Case studies look at design issues and related ethical and professional practice issues. Emphasis is on a mindset of exploration. Engineering standards and standard parts. Teams work on and present two design challenges. | Prerequisite: Only first-year students are permitted to enroll in this course.
Advanced work in studio repair and maintenance focusing on digital equipment. Students will develop practical skills tracing schematics, using test equipment, and replacing components as required daily in the studio environment.
A continuation of MPATE-UE 1010. This is an advanced & detailed study of the audio-visual production & post-production process including digital recording techniques, with special emphasis on synchronization & the interfacing of SMPTE time code. Sound design, advanced Foley topics, * creative workflow in audio post production will also be discussed.
This course focuses on three important areas in music technology: spatialization, computer aided composition, analysis & synthesis techniques. In each area, concepts & implementations will be explored in a variety of artistic & technological contexts. Students will work with the latest technologies including IRCAM Tools, Spat plugin, Max Bach library, Ambisonics, & Wave Field Synthesis. The course includes a 3-hour weekly lecture, 3-hour studio lab, & workshops at IRCAM. This course is taught in collaboration with IRCAM in Paris, one of the world leading institutions in computer music and acoustics.
How do we make things move, produce sounds, or maybe even emit light without batteries? Through this course, each student will design their own purely mechanical automaton. We will learn how to use simple materials and tools to hand prototype mechanisms in their early stages. CAD software will be used to refine the designs and then a series of traditional and digital fabrication tools (various wood shop tools, laser cutter, CNC, 3D printers, etc.) will be used to produce the final pieces. We will learn how to work iteratively in the shop through weekly exercises, and a midterm and final project.
Decentralization has become a buzzword in the technology space, and there is much more to decentralized technology than NFTs and cryptocurrency. In this course, we will examine the fundamental concepts of the existing internet infrastructure, work to define what decentralization means, learn about the “why” of decentralization, survey the landscape of decentralized, distributed, and p2p protocols, and develop decentralized applications. We learn about will examine the implementation of decentralized technology and throughout the course, we will look at different use cases of decentralization such as evading censorship, protecting privacy, and creating resilient applications. We will also consider ethical questions about the decentralization movement—how will it grow, who benefits from decentralization, and whether a decentralized internet is even a good solution at all. We will examine the underlying technologies that enable decentralization, as well as looking at the current implementations of decentralized protocols and apps built on top of decentralized protocols. Finally, we will touch on adjacent topics such as local networks, mesh networking, and p2p networks. While this course will cover a breadth of decentralized and self-hosted applications, we will steer away from decentralized financing and NFTs and instead focus on decentralized information sharing. The goal of the class is to challenge students to think critically about the future of the decentralized web and develop applications that leverage these technologies. Students with or without a background in networking are both highly encouraged to enroll.
“What capabilities does computational media have for depicting and conveying the experience of our minds? In this course we will start out using 3D graphics to depict the conventional physical reality that appears before us. Then we will turn inward to reflect the multidimensional reality of our minds, using artificial neural networks. Finally we return to embodied interfaces connected with cloud networking and databases to share with other people. The class will operate at a conceptual level, inviting students’ empirical psychological and philosophical investigations of the nature of their experience and how to convey it with art and story. It will ask students to look critically at existing computational media’s tendencies to bore, divide or inflame its users. But this is also very much a coding class where students will prototype their own ideas for new media first with 3D graphics using the threejs library, and then with machine learning models like Stable Diffusion using Huggingface APIs or Colab notebooks and finally with networking and databases using Firebase or P5 Live Media. Students can substitute other coding tools but game engines will not work for this class. The coding is in javascript, with a possible touch of python, and is a natural sequel to Introduction to Computational Media.” Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media (ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048)
Our users have senses that they use to perceive information in different ways. Some perceive best through sight, some through hearing, others through touch. Designers often prioritize visual information, excluding those who benefit from other sensory modalities. In this class, we’ll take a multisensory approach to design that makes interfaces more accessible to disabled and nondisabled users. Students will learn how to design for the senses (think tactile controls combined with atmospheric sounds and olfactory or taste experiences), while gaining an understanding of the assumptions we make about our users’ sensory preferences. Students should come with prior experience with physical computing and fabrication techniques and can expect to learn technical processes for the user research, usability testing, and iterative design of multisensory interfaces. Over the course of 14 weeks, students will design an interface for the 5 senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell), culminating in one final project that includes at least 3 sensory modalities.
“As game and interaction designers we create systems and choices that can either prey upon our psychological foibles or help us avoid decision pitfalls. It is our responsibility to understand how we decide, to consider the ethics of the systems we create and to practice designing systems in a purposeful manner. Game Design & The Psychology of Choice will provide interaction and game designers with an understanding of the factors that influence behavior and decision-making by looking at the intertwining of cognitive psychology and economics through the development of behavioral economics. These disciplines study behavior on the individual and group level, often revealing some of the why behind the rules of thumb and folk wisdom that game designers come to intuitively. But understanding the why—why we fall into decision traps; why certain tradeoffs tax our brain more than others; why we are overconfident about our abilities; why certain decisions make us uncomfortable—allows us to more purposefully apply our design craft, both in and out of games. Finally, as a class, we will take what we learn about how we think and create series of game experiences based around key cognitive science concepts. Assignments may include: •Mod a cognitive science experiment into a game or experience •Analyze and present a game through the lens of cognitive science and behavioral economics •Create game or experience based around a particular insight from cognitive science or behavioral economics”
A programming course where we’ll explore various techniques and solutions for tracking and sensing people or objects in space. Students will get familiar with the terminology and algorithms behind many sensing topics such as computer vision, depth cameras, positional tracking, and coordinate mapping. As these subjects are explored, we will also dig into communication, and how this information can be transmitted from one tool to another, for example using OSC, Spout/Syphon, MIDI, DMX/ArtNet. The goal being to use the right tool for the job and not limit ourselves to a particular piece of software.
For centuries, food production practices such as permaculture fostered ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient, while producing nutrient-dense food. Modern farming has introduced harmful monoculture practices proven to cause collateral destruction of biodiversity and seasonal harvesting, distancing us from our food ecosystems. The future of food can be regenerative or continue to contribute to massive health and environmental issues. How can we challenge ourselves to regain connection to our food system? How might we use innovation, personal prowess, design, and biotechnology to reimagine healthier ecosystems? This course examines the historical context of the food ecosystems and encourages students to identify with these systems that we (in urban settings) are disconnected with. Students will build a project around exploring innovative approaches to the future of food and our relationships with it. These projects will incorporate design, technology, science, and research elements.
This course introduces students to modalities for creating site-specific and immersive art and performance. Assignments will examine the work of artists who challenge the limitations of the physical, psychological and transactional spaces that have come to define conventional production models. Students will regularly receive prompts from which collaborative work will be workshopped, generated and presented. The sites and practices explored will de-center script/text as spine, institutional space as gathering place, linear storytelling as narrative, and separation between audience and artist as social contract. Through group performance projects and presentations, students will investigate how Site evokes Narrative and Event differently in brick & mortar, virtual, historic, liminal, dead, found, contested, democratized and community spaces. Our work will unpack the challenges and opportunities presented when we relinquish creative control of such unfixed elements as serendipity, impermanence, improvisation, audience agency, public space, weather, and pandemic.
To be a VR creator, it’s not enough to learn the hard skills—it’s also our responsibility to prime ourselves for the human impact of our work. As a means to design VR that is both enjoyable and accountable, this class proposes we borrow design principles from Hedonomics, a branch of ergonomic science that facilitates pleasurable human-technology interaction. Through the Hedonomic Pyramid, we’re able to section our thinking off into regions (Safety, Function, Usability, Pleasure and Individuation) and map out industry-tested VR design guidance for each. The result is a hierarchical checklist of proven principles, specifications and practices—that promote a culture of inclusive and holistic design—built to serve as a quickstart guide to designing accountable VR interfaces and systems. This class, divided into units that represent each level of the Hedonomic pyramid, will unpack both technical and conceptual strategies for creating VR, from visual interface fidelity to avoiding locomotion cybersickness to designing safer social VR spaces.
“In this course, we will explore how to create narratives that leverage our lesser used senses like touch, taste and smell as well as lesser-known ones like space, time, balance and scale. We will dig into the history of experiential storytelling, starting from immersive theater and Smell-O-vision to cutting-edge haptics and mind-bending illusions of proprioception. To help center this back in practical applications, we will also explore how this evolving art is commonly used in exhibition design, experiential marketing and brick and mortar retail. The class will be a healthy mixture of game theory as well as experienced based learning (meaning there will be a couple field trips and multisensory VR projects to explore). A basic knowledge of game engines is ideal but not mandatory because we will be using predesigned templates in Unreal engine to be experienced and manipulated in real-time through virtual reality hardware.”
Throughout history, musicians have channeled their creativity into outrageous fashion statements and invented personas: think MF DOOM, Sun Ra, Ghostface Killah, Daft Punk, Leikeli47 and Rammellzee. By embracing their alter egos in extreme and outlandish ways, artists have found their authentic creative voices. This course will introduce participants to the art of masquerade using their resourcefulness to create costumes from found materials, and performance as an exploration in creative expression using new media and technology. Students will be introduced to ideas surrounding abstract storytelling, experimental audio video production, and A/V performance using a combination of technical and hands-on approaches. This course requires CL: Hypercinema or equivalent experience. Prerequisite: CL: Hypercinema (ITPG-GT 2004)
On Becoming is a two-part professional development course. Finding Your Artist Voice (part one) filters your fears and apprehensions so you can declare your creative process and practice courageously. The seven-week system will help you proclaim your artistic identity, theoretical underpinnings, and trajectory with clarity, precision, and commanding written language. Students will build personalized masterplans and workflows to facilitate measurable professional growth while learning to catalog and archive their work. Students will develop a working artist biography, artist statement, and fully documented work samples. For the final project, students will be supported in selecting and submitting a post-graduate fellowship, residency, grant, or open call!
Live streaming is so seamlessly embedded into our online experience. We lay in bed, on our phones watching hearts flicker across the screen as the person we’re watching greets all of the competing messages in the chat, asking for birthday shout outs and follow-backs. While the ability to live stream feels more accessible than ever, it feels very tied to corporate structures, branding and self promotion. How can we push the concept of a live stream in a new direction and rethink what a live stream can be?
“How can motion capture (MoCap) be used to archive, preserve, and share intangible heritage forms, such as performing arts, rituals, and other social practices and traditions? This course approaches motion capture through the lens of ethnography — drawing on techniques of observation, participation, and qualitative design research. This class will offer an overview of different motion capture technologies, such as 2D-3D pose estimation and depth mapping, with a practical focus on learning the OptiTrack system at ITP. We will start by covering the basics of OptiTrack and build up to other workflows and techniques used across animation, game design, and virtual production (e.g. OptiTrack to Unreal Engine or Unity).” Prerequisite: CL: Hypercinema (ITPG-GT 2004)
“In even the tiniest fragment of digital sound (especially music) there lies a multiplicity of information hidden within. Using audio analysis techniques, this data can be distilled into a vast array of characteristics that describe various different features of the sound. These include things like the loudness, pitch, or the spectrum of frequencies being detected. Through additional analysis, these data points can be used to detect higher level musical features representing things like tempo, rhythm, or melody. Furthermore, the sound and music information can be used to train deep learning models that can then make accurate predictions (eg. what a sound is, what genre a song is, what mood a song evokes). Or, we can use machine learning for generative purposes using the data to guide the creation of new sounds, synthesizers, or even entire songs. The preceding are activities that fall under the areas of digital signal processing, music information retrieval, and machine learning, a trifecta that form the technological foundation for the research area known as machine listening. With a focus on ambient sound and music, this class will explore how tools and techniques from the field of machine listening can become a powerful aspect, or even strategy, in the realm of creative applications. This course will not cover, nor will it assume knowledge of, the underlying technical aspects of machine listening, or music theory. Resources for further pursuance of each week’s topics will be provided but will not be required for class. Instead, our aim will be on understanding what these techniques are doing, when and where to apply them, and how to access and apply them effectively through powerful software libraries. This high level approach will allow us to keep our efforts directed towards creative experimentation without becoming bogged down. Ultimately, students will synthesize the semester’s work into their own creative application involving sound. Here are some examples of the types of projects this class could support: An app that visualizes audio through graphics or DMX/LED lighting to create synesthesia-like effects An automatic system for transcribing music based off of a recording or real-time input A music remixing system where tracks are automatically selected, spliced, processed, and rearranged A musical instrument that adapts to its player based on real-time analysis of the played sound A synthesizer that uses machine learning to optimize and tune its parameters A music education software that visualizes rhythm and melody for the purpose of instruction A rhythm game that derives its gameplay from music information (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, DDR) A tool that analyzes the health of a machine based on its sound through a contact microphone The course will be taught in JavaScript with ICM-level programming experience recommended. No formal training in sound or music is expected or required. This course will be a great fit for any student that is interested in sound and wants to explore it more deeply. Please feel free to reach out to me via email with any questions about the class.”
“What is the medium of memory? In this 14-week studio class, we will dig into this question through creative storytelling. Starting from a lens-based practice, this class will introduce traditional and bleeding-edge documentary methods to inform our own varied approaches to activating archival material. Through weekly “readings” (articles, podcasts, films), written reflections, and creative assignments, we’ll explore: • how technology has impacted our relationship to memory; • how visual interventions can can surface alternative narratives; • how to make under- and unrecorded histories visible, and call into question the power dynamics embedded in “official” records; and • how we might recast objects and sites of memory-keeping, like heirlooms, journals, and memorials, as a mode of engaged preservation. Mid-way through the course, students will identify either personal or collective histories to open up to their own individual creative reexamination, memorialization, or transformation––each producing a final project with the technology and approaches of their choosing that serves to answer the question we started with––what is the medium of memory?”
“This 2-pt course aims to provide students with the critical thinking and practical skills for creating effective and compelling interfaces. We will dissect what a compelling user experience is, apply proven research techniques for approaching and defining UX problems and apply design frameworks including mapping and testing techniques. The class format will include lectures, discussion, in-class design exercises and a final project. Week 1: what is UX Week 2: inclusive research methods Week 3: frameworks for defining a problem Week 4: understanding behavior and motivation Week 5: mapping flow and visual strategies, final project intro Week 6: testing methods and future UX Week 7: final projects”
“Over the past few years, the unprecedented advancement in text-to-image artificial intelligence models has sparked widespread attention, discussion, and mainstream adoption of these innovative co-creative interfaces, which has resulted in novelty, excitement, and curiosity, as well as concern, anger, and insult. Alongside this, the booming open-sourced text-to-image model development contributes to expanding access to working with AI tools beyond experts, tech giants, and professional technologists. In this 14-week course, we will go over the landscape of text-to-image AIs and dive deep into some of the most well known ones (such as Stable Diffusion and its variants), to see what potential they have in terms of exploring new modes of content creation and helping us re-examine our language pattern. This will be a practice technique course – in the first half, we’ll focus on building good prompting practices, and in the second half, we’ll explore different image synthesis skills related to text-to-image AIs, use Python to train our own models to create customized visuals, and create animations from text. We’ll also discuss how such tools could intervene in the workflows of artists and technologists, what they can provide for researchers, and what are the caveats and things we should look out for when we’re creating with these AIs. Pre-requisites: Introduction to Computational Media (ICM) or the equivalent.” Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media (ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048)
Your web browser is a digital canvas for 21st-century artists. While being one of the most common mediums today, web space has infinite possibilities for new aesthetics. This course covers Three.js fundamentals, providing students with the skills and insights to create arts in web 3D. This course requires ICM or equivalent coding experience. Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media (ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048)
As software projects become more complex, it becomes increasingly important to keep the code organized and manageable; otherwise, it becomes extremely difficult to implement new ideas, and the project is much more likely to be prone to mysterious and frustrating bugs. This course will demonstrate several approaches to organizing code for larger-scale projects, including how to write and name functions and classes, DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself), pure functions, unit testing and Test-Driven Development (TDD), and why to avoid “magic numbers” and global variables. The focus of the course will be on JavaScript, using P5.js, but the principles will apply to most languages. We will be doing an ongoing, step-by-step, in-class refactor* of a complex sketch. We will also be using version control to track our changes every class. Students will be expected to complete weekly readings and assignments, and to refactor one of their previous projects, using the principles learned in this course. * Refactoring means rewriting the code, without any changes to how the program behaves. Students should have some programming experience prior to taking this course, and would ideally have an existing software project they would like to develop.
Lo-fi/High-impact is a hands-on workshop for learning rapid response prototyping and distribution techniques. We’ll look at examples of zine makers and artist and activist collectives, like the Guerrilla Girls, Dysturb, and the Illuminator, who create campaigns and interventions with purposeful urgency, and then flex our own creative muscles for getting ideas out of our heads and into our hands. Leveraging materials within reach, we’ll explore three paper-based methods of production: foldable books, enclosures, and wheatpasting. Using the cameo table-top cutting machines, the color and B&W printers on the floor, and materials sourced from our recycling bins, students will have the opportunity to try various techniques and have guided studio time to develop their own creative application/s for what they’ve learned. We will move quickly and get a little messy, and the outcomes will be reflective of the process!
Today’s internet, made up of mostly text documents and two-dimensional images and videos, is the result of historical limitations in bandwidth, graphics processing and input devices. These limitations have made the internet a place where the mind goes, but the body cannot follow. Recent advances in motion capture devices, graphics processing, machine learning, bandwidth and browsers, however, are paving the way for the body to find its place online. Experiments on the Embodied Web will explore the new realm of embodied interactions in the browser across networks. The course will include discussion of influential works in the development of online embodied interaction, including the works of Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, Susan Kozel, and Laurie Anderson. Together we’ll explore pose detection across webRTC peer connections in p5.js and Three.js. Experience with Node, HTML and JavaScript is helpful but not required. ICM level programming experience is required. Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media (ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048)
This course covers the next several years of evolution in technology, culture, and other trends. It uses scenario planning, a technique for considering complex interrelationships that can’t be predicted, distinguishing predetermined elements from critical uncertainties, and exploring the underlying patterns that influence events. Students will conduct original research on significant trends, use those trends to develop compelling, sophisticated, plausible stories about possible futures, and present the futures – and the strategies they suggest – to a public audience. The course will take place at a pivotal moment of historical uncertainty: recovering from a global pandemic, with AI and other digital technologies crossing a threshold, and dramatic political and economic tensions. All of these, and more, affect media development – and are deeply affected by them. The goal of the course is to enable you to make more robust decisions now in the face of uncertainty — applicable to planning for technological change, starting a business, plotting a career or making major life decisions. This class has developed a longstanding following at ITP because it helps us make sense of complex issues without oversimplifying them. In a climate of candid, respectful discussion and debate, the class explores theories about system dynamics, long-wave organizational and societal change, and economic and technological development.
This course provides space and guidance for students to work on self-driven, individual and group projects in art and media. Course content consists of texts, site visits, presentations, workshops, and critiques built around each student’s individual practice. Faculty and guest critics will hold regular studio visits, to help guide students through their process. Students’ material and technical investigations and theoretical inquiries will be addressed in group workshops and demonstrations. This course will culminate in a public presentation of students’ work.
This course introduces contemporary topics in Science and Technology Studies, emphasizing the relations among science, technology and society from philosophical, historical, and sociological points of view. This course is required for STS majors and satisfies an HuSS General Education Elective for all other majors.
The Computational Approaches to Music and Audio I will introduce students to programming for the development of applications of generative music and audio, ranging from standalone musical compositions to fun and engaging musical games or intelligent musical instruments. These applications will be developed mostly in Max, a widely used and very popular graphical programming environment for electronic music and interactive media. By the end of this course students will have become familiar with current approaches to audio and music programming namely in the Max programming environment, plug-in creation for Ableton Live, as well as have acquired a strong foundation in the field that will prepare them for the second course in the sequence.
This course explores how technology and machines have influenced human life across the ages. It further explores how technology has influenced the fields of arts and design and investigates this inspirational source for new technological developments. Lecture and discussion will be the breeding ground for concept development of new machines: Every student will realize a prototype of a machine executing a certain task. This hands-on project will be complemented by case studies, reading assignments, workshops, excursions, and one-on-one meetings with the professor. The course builds knowledge about futuristic developments and their use and influence from past to present, including questions concerning ethics and values. Students will leave the course with a completed project to be displayed in an exhibition and a personal philosophy of Arts, Design, and Technology.
How do media representations reflect and affect communities? How do people exploit old and new forms of communication? How do technological mediation channel and reshape social relations? This course reviews ethnographic literature on a wide range of media including print, photography, film, television, radio, cell phones, and internet-based social networks. Each week, we explore how media use redefines a central anthropological concern, such as kinship, colonialism, mobility, religion, or violence. We continuously interrogate the diverse effects of technology, infrastructure, reception, sensation, and interaction. Engaging with both “live” and “virtual” communities, we revisit the methods and ethics of studying mediated relations. Students deliver an initial critical auto-ethnography of their own media consumption, a detailed assessment of a debate in the field, and a final project investigating a specific media community using original ethnographic research. Throughout the course, we collaboratively develop our own experimental virtual community based on the priorities and interests of the class participants. Innovative integrations of art and interactivity will be encouraged.
It would be a misnomer to assume that technology is something we “use.” Rather, the human appears as embedded in a matrix of the socio-techno-material. In this sense, there is something quite non-technical about technology which has an intrinsically social nature and can take the form of bodily and socializing techniques, the canalization of creative powers, becomings of all sorts, and of course the mechanical and material manipulation of ourselves and our life-worlds. We must thus speak of a biological and technical habitus of dependency and over-coming, one constituted by everything from creating art, to language, to ideological persuasion, to human enhancement and post-humanism, and various forms of convergence. What is the relationship between these various techniques and technologies and their respective effects (ethical, cultural, aesthetic) on the category of the human? Social transformation and technology cannot be theorized in isolation. The technological, mediological, and digital have to be unearthed as constitutive of our shared “material culture” and milieu. Within such a milieu, which is both internal and external to actors and agents implicated within it, the “essence” of the human is not only potentially redefined, but indeed dissolved. In such a potential redefinition and dissolution, one finds a radically new ethical and political threshold that has yet to be adequately theorized. This course attempts to reveal this threshold through developing a critical heuristic which maps the topoi of the socio-eco-techno system. Drawing on mediology, ethics, and the French school of the anthropology of techniques, we explore such topoi in terms as both “deep” historical sediment and also futurology with a view to illuminating how our values are negotiated and transformed in our rapport with the technological.
This course explores the Art of Character Creation using the powerful digital sculpting program ZBRUSH. Students will learn the ins and outs of the program to create their own 3d characters from scratch. Sculpting, detailing, Polypainting, rendering and compositing in Photoshop will all be covered. The class will encourage learning while doing as I find it’s the best way to learn a new art. Zbrush is a unique program that allows users to manipulate 3D shapes in a quick fashion without having to model polygons like other 3D programs such as Maya. In effect you are using “digital clay” in Zbrush to push and pull primitive forms into fantastic creatures and characters. Zbrush is the perfect tool for traditional artists to transition to artmaking in the digital realm. Zbrush is an extremely feature-rich piece of software, with a unique interface unlike any other computer graphics program. While the interface may seem quite intimidating at first, rest assured we will explore the interface together and learn all the most important tools to get started and having fun with organic character creation! Some benefits of using Zbrush for Character and Creature Design over other computer design software: -The ability to quickly create concepts as if you were manipulating real clay -Great for rough character concepts or more finished painted renders -Transition is much smoother from practical to digital art using Zbrush because it feels like you are using an artistic tool rather than a technical tool – Zbrush offers such a deep diverse toolset, you can create stylized cartoon-like characters, realistic animals and humans! The possibilities are endless. You can use it for everything from organic characters to hard surface robots and props! -Once you learn the interface and tools, you can simply sculpt without worrying as much about technical aspects like polygons, faces, points and edges like other traditional polygon modelling programs
According to anthropologists Filip de Boeck and René Devisch, divination “constitutes a space in which cognitive structures are transformed and new relations are generated in and between the human body, the social body and the cosmos.” In this class, students will learn the history of divination, engage in the practice of divination, and speculate on what forms divination might take in a world where the human body, the social body, and even the cosmos(!) are digitally mediated. Starting with an understanding of ritual and folk culture, we will track the history of fortune-telling from the casting of lots to computer-generated randomness to the contemporary revival of Tarot; from reading entrails to astrology to data science; from glossolalia to surrealist writing practices to the “ghost in the machine” of artificial intelligence. Weekly readings and assignments culminate in a final project.
This course explores the fundamentals of storytelling through animation and takes students from traditional animation techniques to contemporary forms. In the first part of the course, students will focus on traditional animation, from script to storyboard through stop motion and character-based animation. The course then examines opportunities afforded by new technologies, such as interactivity, projection mapping and game engines. Drawing skills are not necessary for this course, however students will keep a personal sketchbook.
By exploring and dissecting the field of STEM education, we will research how STEM education currently exists with clear biases and gatekeeping. Through that we intend to create a framework to challenge the biases and design more inclusive and accessible pathways. As a class we will engage in discussions around spaces (community/public spaces and private spaces), STEM as an inclusive element, and definitions of accessibility. The hope is to yield an experience where students can observe, inspire (or get inspired) by mundane things around their day to day lives and connect them to STEM experiences that might seem rather oblivious. Students will create assignments in dialogue with “making with everyday objects”, STEM pedagogy practice, social/emotional learning in spaces, and human-centered design. Students will be exposed to STEM literacy pedagogy, will curate a pop-up space, practice comprehensive user-testing, and reconstruct the framework around accessible and universal design. Students will engage in critical thinking, critiques, visiting artist lectures, field trips and class discussions. About Sharon De La Cruz: https://www.sharonleedelacruz.com/about-me, https://khushbukshirsagar.weebly.com/about.html
We experience screens daily in many forms: in our hands, on our desktops, on walls and public installations as we travel. This course will explore the creative possibilities of real-time interactive and reactive art on screens in various forms. Using the recently developed p5VideoKit we will create standalone installations. p5VideoKit is a new library of live video effects – building on p5js – presented as a dashboard for mixing video in the browser. This library allows the user to apply visual effects to live video from connected cameras and sensors or streaming from devices on the internet. p5VideoKit is open source and can be extended with the user’s p5js code for a plethora of visual effects and interactivity. One possible application of p5Videokit would be a public facing installation allowing anonymous people on the street to use their hand held devices to interact with large street facing screens, thereby collaborating on real time creation of “digital graffiti”. Building on ICM, students will learn how to adapt simple sketches into components of p5VideoKit so that algorithms can be quickly composited and orchestrated into more complex works. Students will also learn how to edit and share code beyond the p5js editor, use nodejs/javascript to automate deployment of installations, and remotely configure dedicated computers with long running installations. Several dedicated computers and screens will be available to preview installations on the floor and street facing areas of the 370 Jay Street campus. Prerequisites: ICM or equivalent coding experience. About John Henry Thompson: http://johnhenrythompson.com
This course would focus on the questions of 1) what makes people healthy? and 2) how can we design tools and environments that support healthy lifestyles? Key topics to be covered include public health concepts like the multiple determinants of health and the social-ecological framework, plus a little evolutionary biology; the role of behavior in health, key tenets of behavioral economics and behavior change strategies; and systems thinking concepts from Donella Meadows and others. Students will come away with a much more sophisticated understanding of the complex system of factors and forces that affect people’s health; understanding of key systems concepts and some techniques for understanding systems; and experience designing for behavior at scale. A potential final project could be to reimagine/redesign a popular commercial service so that it would have a more health-producing impact — or, alternatively, to focus on designing changes to the ITP environment that would promote better health for students, faculty and staff. About Steve Downs: www.stevedowns.net
One of the most transformative consumer products in history, the iPhone remains the standard bearer for great design and user experience. With the latest versions of iOS and iPhone, Apple puts depth sensing and augmented reality in our pockets. How do we take advantage of this incredible platform to produce our own compelling experiences? This course will be a hands-on workshop where we explore the world beyond generic apps and push the boundaries of what’s possible on iOS hardware. Each week, you’ll be asked to complete a programming exercise meant to foster your understanding of iOS application development. We’ll leverage existing open source libraries to quickly build out your app with features such as real time communication and cloud storage. We aim to create distributed instruments for computed expression. Full-time access to an iOS device and a Mac laptop computer running the latest operating system and development tools are required. Prereq: Some programming experience (such as ICM) and willingness to learn Apple’s Swift programming language.
“Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the touchscreen has become the dominant manner for navigating Mobile devices. UX pattern best practices are enshrined in documents such as Apple’s ‘HIG’ (Human Interface Guidelines) or Google’s more recent Material Design. ‘No Screens Allowed’ is a class that challenges this ’Touchscreen first’ interaction approach. Taught in the Kotlin language, students will prototype solutions in response to Instructor directed assignments. The various projects structured to interrogate mobile device capabilities such as: Voice Recognition, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, and built in sensors. Students will be provided with identical hardware: Pixel 3 phones running Android, the chosen development platform for the class. Successful completion of Introduction to Computational Media and Introduction to Physical Computing are required for entry into class. “
In this special format studio class, students will investigate techniques and frameworks to challenge the socioeconomics of planned obsolescence. We will research, design, and develop projects that rethink our strained relationship with smartphones and re-imagine the future of “old” devices. This is a production-heavy, four-credit course, where students will contribute to original research, and develop projects that combine HCI, design, and critical theory. Prerequisites include an open mind, the drive to make, and graduate-level Physical Computing.
In an era of remote everything, how can we create artwork that brings us back together IRL? This course explores our connection to physical objects within the context of community. How can sculpture, installation, immersive, and public art nurture our neighborhoods via collaboration, play, ritual, self-expression, and awe? Students will work collaboratively to radically imagine bold, sculptural, immersive works using innovative and lo-if techniques integrated with technology. Hands-on workshops include experiments creating found sculptures, AR prototypes, projection mapping, real-time interactive multimedia content, and more. We’ll reference ancient monuments, sacred objects, NYC relics, street art and contemporary works to envision new artifacts that create awareness by reflecting the needs of our communities. Prerequisite: Comm Lab: Hypercinema About Ali Santana: http://www.alisantana.com/bio
This introductory course will focus on giving students a practical understanding of how to make ‘serious’ video games. That is, games that challenge the player to think and learn. This is a class where we will be ideating and producing playable games each week over 7 weeks using the open-source Godot game engine. By the end of the course, you’ll have a small portfolio of ‘serious’ games to show and build upon. Throughout the course, students will become familiar with concepts such as iterative design, play testing, object-oriented programming, user-interface design, animation and basic art for 2D games. They will take a design-based approach to content creation, developing a proficiency in the Godot game engine and the overall indie-game development pipeline.
Quantum technologies are the next frontier of electronics and computing. Quantum Computers, Quantum Sensors, Quantum Materials are just beginning to emerge from laboratories and enter the realm of practical application. The course introduces the underlying principles of quantum physics, and reviews emerging capabilities of quantum computers and related technologies. Coursework will include programming quantum algorithms on a simulator, and running programs on actual cloud-based quantum computing hardware. The topics will be highly technical and will require the study of scientific principles and experimental apparatus. We will cover some basic mathematical operations in linear algebra, and we’ll be encountering some equations from physics and computer science.
The use of digital technology in mental health treatment, recovery, support, and prevention is rapidly gaining acceptance. For instance: The FDA recently approved the VR therapeutic EaseVRx to treat pain. Researchers recently found that exposure to natural environments in VR can provide emotional well-being benefits for people who cannot access the outdoors. Strobing lights can be tuned to stimulate temporary harmonic brain wave patterns usually only found in people who have been meditating for decades. Apps which help you track your mood could facilitate gaining knowledge and awareness of one’s mood patterns and thus help maintain emotional well-being. ASMR videos are reported to be effective in inducing sleep for those susceptible to insomnia, and assuaging a range of symptoms, including those associated with depression, anxiety and panic attacks. This class will focus on the use of technology to activate any and all of our senses to aid in mindfulness and meditation, distraction therapy, body awareness and acceptance, and more, via the use of tools and techniques shown to have a direct impact on our physiology as well as supportive and accessible user experience design with broad applications in other areas. Prerequisite: Basic coding and physical computing About Brian Lobser: http://light.clinic
This course provides students an opportunity to sharpen their coding skills in several ways: by reviewing fundamental programming concepts, acquiring techniques to systematically develop code-driven projects, and then implementing those to develop an independent project with the structure and support of a classroom learning community. The first part of the semester consists of weekly exercises to practice strategies for learning new algorithms, writing pseudocode, pair programming, debugging, refactoring, version control, and more. Screen-based code examples for the activities and assignments draw inspiration from the history of creative coding. The second part of the semester shifts to a project development studio format for students to apply these strategies to a self-directed project. This could be an existing idea or one devised during the course. Ultimately this course aims to empower students to reflect on their process and teach themselves how to program with greater efficiency and independence. It is a direct follow-up to Introduction to Computational Media (ICM) or for anyone interested in advancing their coding practice. Examples and exercises will be provided in JavaScript using the p5.js library. However, students are welcome to consult the instructor about working with another programming library, framework, or language with which they have interest or prior experience. Prerequisite: ICM or equivalent experience
Where does healing reside in media-making? How do we approach creating artistic processes and tools that move towards minimizing harm, supporting collective care, and understanding what healing means for ourselves and with one another? This course examines socially-engaged artistic processes and frameworks that reconstruct, reclaim, and decolonize ‘healing.’ Together, we will gather embodied data from our bodyminds, build language through readings, and map out artists in the field exploring disability, racial trauma, queerness, and diaspora within media and performing arts. Subsequently, we will develop our own processes as our final project: weaving together storytelling, embodied strategies, tool-making, performances, and/ or space-making.
This1-pt course examines the evolving paradigm of “Blockchain Aesthetics” using an interdisciplinary Art History and Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspective. Students will learn and discuss the dominant methods, concepts, and strategies of applied blockchain technology in contemporary digital art, and together attempt to analyze and theorize the potential affordances and harms of this new artistic medium as it intervenes in established visual art institutions and communities (e.g., from museums and galleries to auction houses, social media and the decentralized web). The class will also look backwards in history to situate “Blockchain Aesthetics,” and the wide artistic realm of “Crypto Art,” in a broad cultural and technological history beyond NFTs, highlighting how ideas around cryptography, contracts, reproducibility, decentralization, scarcity and financialization developed in modern and contemporary art. Approaching the blockchain as a novel artistic tool and a technology of power, this course considers recent aesthetic evaluations of Crypto Art against its sociopolitical, infrastructural, and ecological impact, centering its contested potential for—and negation of—equity.
As the scale of human impact on global climate and ecosystems deepens, we see the need to alter our trajectory, to be more inclusive of other species in our imagining of the future. This class sets out to investigate the relationships we humans have with nature and non-human animals, to dive deep into the meaning and utility of being in relationship, and ultimately to translate these ideas into tangible, multimedia experiences that expose a larger audience to a multi-species worldview. This class sits at the intersection of art, science, and technology. It combines studio practice and research with example case studies and critical texts. Together, we will meet artists, designers and scientists who build multispecies futures through urban ecology, biology, and public art. This class is for students who are eager to develop XD (experience design) and storytelling skills. The course follows a research-driven process that results in a design proposal and proof-of-concept that can be pitched to a public arts org. Keywords: bioArt, interactive installations, experience design, research, eco-activism
As you know, projection mapping and Light Art are becoming popular again because of large-scale pop-up installations worldwide: ARTECHOUSE, SuperReal, Meow Wolf, and TeamLab. Technology has advanced over the years, but how people enjoy light art have not changed so much. How do your ideas and artwork fit into these site-specific installations? This class is for anyone interested in creating a site-specific installation using mapping technologies to create new experiences for the public audience. This class guides students through conceptual and technical processes of project and artist development. It consists of three parts: Project & Artist Development, Projection Mapping, and LED Mapping. We will research and discuss the history of visual artwork, public engagement, and technical exercises using real international contests and festival sites. The student will learn the latest Projection and LED Mapping techniques using Madmapper. And we will also focus on advanced techniques like multi-projector projection, projector calculation, Interactive Mapping, and software & hardware to culminate in a final project. The class will also invite guest speakers to discuss the nuts and bolts of their art and business. About Chika Iijima: www.mappathon.com, www.imagima.com
In this course, students will explore the fundamentals of augmented reality by dissecting the interaction between camera, computer, and user. Each week we will focus on a different AR modality: image, face, body, environment, and object, and consider their real-world applications. Through weekly explorations, we will examine the existing affordances of AR as well as their impact. This course will culminate in a final project, and our tool of choice will be Lens Studio. Course syllabus: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wMWVnDdzgz2bbsCNp7jRAiCe1job4glq61o67sWAP00/edit?usp=sharing
Focusing on motion capture (ak. MoCap), this class introduces basic performance skills alongside 3d graphic manipulation to create real-time virtual experiences. In this class we will have the opportunity to build sets, produce interactive props, and design unique characters to tell stories or engage with audiences. Utilizing Optitrack Motion Capture system, Blender, Motionbuilder, and Unreal Gaming Engine; we will create, rig, animate, and perform as avatars.
WEB ART AS SITE addresses the history and practice of art made for and inseparable from the web, while teaching basic coding for the web. We explore key examples of web art from the early days of the internet through today, asking questions about this idiosyncratic artistic medium like: How do different forms of interaction characterize the viewer and/or the artist? What happens to our reading practice when text is animated or animates? How is an internet-native work encountered, and how does the path we take to reach it affect our reading? Who is able to see a work of web art, and what does access/privilege look like in this landscape? How are differently-abled people considered in a web artwork? What feels difficult or aggressive in web art, and when is that useful? How do artists obscure or reveal the duration of a work, and how does that affect our reading? What are the many different forms of instruction or guidance online? As we ask these questions, we exploit the internet pedagogically, collaborating online, playing with anonymity, and breaking the internet spaces we know. Students learn web coding through specialized online tutorials; most of class time is reserved for discussion (of web art and supplementary readings) and critique. Throughout the semester, students will produce two major works of web art. Students need only a standard laptop, and will not be expected to purchase any software or text (cost of materials: $0).
The goal of this class is to gain an understanding and proficiency with Computer Aided Design (CAD). We will become familiar with CAD software, mechanical design, and simulation. The class will cover common CAD modeling techniques. We will use our designs to get physical parts made as well as use them in virtual projects. We will create parts both real and impossible.
This course will explore the history and meaning of the ubiquitous concept of “cursed” media, and provide students with a survey of digital art tools for the creation of their own cursed animation, video, photography, music, and web art. Many people were first introduced to the concept of cursed media when it exploded into mainstream internet discourse in 2016 with the @cursedimages Twitter account, which posted found photos bound by their unsettling effect on the viewer. Cursed media predates this account, however, stretching back to medieval notions of cursed objects. We will demonstrate how throughout time, cursed media has functioned like a slip of the tongue that provides a window into the cultural unconscious, where we encounter uncensored thoughts and feelings about race, gender, class, and what it means to be human. From Amazon Muzak generators to Artbreeder’s GAN tools for image creation, from machine learning text generators to robots who work at Walmart, cursed media and tools for its creation bring into view the ways that that culture reacts to tension between the increasingly precarious position of human beings in the capitalist 21st century and the threat of human erasure by the powerful forces of nature. Students will be introduced to digital art tools for creating music, manipulating photography and video, working with 3d animation, and building web art. Students will attempt to create their own cursed media, and in the process will gain a deeper understanding of the unconscious biases and ethical implications of contemporary digital creation tools.
This course will use the open source COVID-19 Impact Dashboard as a basis to explore ways to humanize the unfolding data on the coronavirus pandemic. Students are invited to collaborate on the COVID-19 Impact Project. Students will discover how data flows from public github repositories and tools needed to visualize the data. We will review other data-centric open source projects related to COVID-19 and discuss the questions they are trying to answer or problems they are trying to solve. We will examine historical and contemporary data visualizations. Using data visualization as a scaffold, we will explore ways to support community driven mourning and memorialization. Students can choose to participate as javascript coders, p5js explorers, UI/UX designers, citizen journalists, or data science explorers.
Computational simulation and videogame engines offer thinkers and makers a new way to reflect on the question “If I can make a world, what would it be like?” In Worldmaking with Unity, students will be exposed to various theories and approaches of worldmaking, and realize their own creative visions by constructing an original, conceptual, and playfully simulated world with indie game development engine Unity. This seven-week seminar/studio course will include a gentle introduction to computer programming, 3D modeling, character and scene design, and rendering techniques with Unity, as well as related production tools such as Blender. Projects may address system, agency, narrative, generative design, critical computing, and more. Student projects created in Unity can be compatible with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). This course is designed as an intro-level game design and development course. There is no prerequisite. More advanced production techniques such as shader language and AI might be introduced as optional topics only. More information at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UppRjSyFlMpGPNLMowqKmP7wwq29s5Oexnpvrj4Gubs/edit?usp=sharing
Cooking programs with an image based language is a fundamental skill in the production and design of modern digital processes. Visual programming is not only an alternative way to code, but a solution to approach generative and interactive media. This class reviews the past, present and future of visual programming languages used to procedurally generate and manipulate media such as Max/MSP(Nato.0 55 3d), Isadora, Quartz composer, Touch designer, Houdini, cables.gl and Unreal Engine among others. The core of this course is the study of Unreal Engine’s Blueprint Visual Scripting system as a way to produce an interactive program in an executable form using only Visual Programing. We will study how to create actors, functions, interfaces and how they communicate with each other. We will also take a look into 2 other visual editors, The material/shader editor for the creation of HLSL like shaders and visuals and the new Metasound editor for the manipulation, generation and sequence of sound within the engine. A general understanding of Unreal Engine is a prerequisite for this class. Students will learn how to use blueprints to produce an interactive program that can be a video game, an installation or a Real Time digital Performance.
From the crass rattle of early pager motors to the sophisticated clicks and purrs of the iPhone Taptic engine, the ability to buzz has increasingly worked its way into our devices. This course focuses on physical prototyping and interaction design for non-visual feedback. Specifically, it will explore how haptic feedback can be utilized and integrated into handhelds, wearables, objects, and environments – anything that we touch or that touches us. Traditional tools such as eccentric rotating mass (ERM) motors, linear resonance actuators (LRAs), and haptic motor drivers will be introduced as well as less conventional methods such as gentle poking, prodding, warming, cooling, squeezing, and tickling. Through hands-on experimentation and a review of research to date, students will emerge from this course well-positioned to incorporate haptic feedback into their future projects. Note: This course is designed for students who have previous experience with physical computing and Arduino.
This course provides critical and curatorial insight into global art practices and interactive technologies from a post colonial perspective. Designed to provide a critique of imperialism the course is underpinned by ideas pertaining to the rise of the Global South, decoupling, indigenous knowledge and ancient and contemporary innovation through contemporary art, emergent technologies, new media and exhibition practices. Students will also investigate the role of shifting digital landscapes and conservation of new media coupled with museum collecting practices, from both a deconstructive and ethical lens, providing regular opportunities to reflect upon their own respective practices. Presented as a combination of presentations/ critiques, seminars, readings, virtual field trips as well as special guest visits with noted experts, the course presents a compact and timely overview of globalization, and the effects of rapid interactive and technological innovative, in lieu with ideating towards a more equitable and diverse art and technological ecosystem.
Listening is not something we do through hearing alone. Engaging with multiple perspectives, from Deaf studies and critiques of ableist hearing ideologies, to the possibilities and pitfalls presented through machine listening and imaginative sonic speculation, we will playfully deconstruct and question what it means to listen at all. Each week, readings will be assigned and students are asked to respond to prompts in the form of light-weight exercises that will orient most of our in-class discussion. Time will be spent discussing readings, presenting, and providing critique for each other’s projects in order to help draw connections between theory and practice. Through in-class presentations, we will encounter works by Christine Sun Kim, George Lewis, Pauline Oliveros and read from Jennifer Lynn Stoever, Tina Campt, and François Bonnet. The class has no technical prerequisites, and students are welcome to respond with works using tools and techniques from other classes (audio/video presentation, programming and physical computing, installation and fabrication, etc.). Through this work, we will unpack how the way in which we attend to the physical world and its inhabitants through our listening has real consequences. In much the same way our interpretation of the world is informed and influenced by factors outside of ourselves, our capacity to listen is conditioned through societal, political, economic, historical, and racial dimensions. We will disentangle listening from hearing and consider listening as a practice that begins not with how we hear sounds but how it allows us to (or prevents us from) interfacing and relating to our exteriors (and interiors). By the end of the class we will attempt to converge and coalesce our own ideas and perspective of what it means to listen.
Over the past 3 years, we have seen many aspects of our lives thrust online. Increasingly, we are working, learning, socializing with family and friends, attending live performances and more through 2D grids of video feeds on platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet. These communication tools have become essential for remote communities to connect, yet fail to replicate many of the most engaging, messy and human aspects of our in-person experience. What happens when we break out of this grid and explore new forms of real-time social interactions online using webcam video and audio? Recent explorations in this realm have shown the promise of spatial metaphors in creating engaging real-time social interactions online. In this course, students will create their own series of experimental social spaces that explore these questions: how does the shape and nature of our environment affect the way we communicate? What unique forms of real-time expression and sharing might be possible online (and only online)? How might we design experiences for the unique social dynamics we want to support? Students will be exposed to principles of spatial design as well as a series of open source Javascript tools for arranging live webcam video and audio in 2D and 3D space in the browser. They will use WebGL (through the three.js library) to build 2D and 3D environments, and will be exposed to WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) and Node.js to add interactivity to those environments.
On October 8th, 2015, a team in Ecuador identified 431 species of birds – the world record for number counted in a single day. Earlier that year in Myanmar, a scientist counted one Jerdon’s babbler, the first in nearly eight decades. In December of 2019, eBird announced that its database held over 737 million bird observations. This morning, in Brooklyn Bridge park, I counted 38 house sparrows, 4 black-and-white warblers and an ovenbird. This course will consider birding as a practice, and will dive deep into the processes by which observations become data. As a collective, we will investigate how crowd-sourced data is transforming ornithology, and will explore ways to tell stories about the natural world through visualization and more radical forms of data representation.
In this workshop-based course, students will become well versed in contemporary debates on social media and its impact on self and society, share their own experiences and observations in this area, design an original research project (using methods such as discourse analysis, virtual ethnography, and interviewing), and write a long-form analysis paper.
The course approaches video games through the lens of political economy. This means examining games foremost as commodities, transactional goods through which various modes of economic life occur. This course is designed to introduce students to the structure and economics of the game industry since its emergence in the 1970s, particularly across the United States, China, and Japan. Special attention is brought to the dramatic industry changes catalyzed by digital distribution, mobile gaming, live streaming, and other contemporary developments.
This is an introductory course to the fundamentals of 3D computer animation. Through in-depth discussions and hands-on assignments, students will gain a thorough beginner’s understanding of the 3D production process. Using industry-leading Autodesk Maya running on high-end Mac Pro workstations, students will learn the basics of modeling and proceed through UV layout, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting and final render. At the end of the class students will have completed a series of exercises that will culminate in a final scene that showcases all they learned.This course allocates as a Craft for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES.
This course introduces selected aspects of the history, philosophy, methodology, tools, and contemporary topics in engineering. Also included are basic engineering experimentation, data analysis, and a team-design project. This course will provide an understanding of what professional engineers do. In this context, an emphasis will be placed on developing oral and written communication skills. EG1004 is a survey course that introduces students to NYU Tandon academic opportunities, professional and career development, and teamwork skills. Design and project management skills are developed throughout a semester-long design project. Disciplines within engineering will be introduced during lecture, and explored through practice in laboratory assignments.
Information visualization is the graphical representation of data to aid understanding, and is the key to analyzing massive amounts of data for fields such as science, engineering, medicine, and the humanities. This is an introductory undergraduate course on Information Visualization based on a modern and cohesive view of the area. Topics include techniques such as visual design principles, layout algorithms, and interactions as well as their applications of representing various types of data such as networks and documents. Overviews and examples from state-of-the-art research will be provided. The course is designed as a first course in information visualization for students both intending to specialize in visualization as well as students who are interested in understanding and applying visualization principles and existing techniques. Fulfillment: CS Electives, Data Science Data Analysis Required; Data Science Courses for Concentration in Artificial Intelligence. Prerequisite or Co-requisite: Data Structures. Students must be CS or DS major and have junior or senior standing.
Data structures are fundamental programming constructs which organize information in computer memory to solve challenging real-world problems. Data structures such as stacks, queues, linked lists, and binary trees, therefore constitute building blocks that can be reused, extended, and combined in order to make powerful programs. This course teaches how to implement them in a high-level language, how to analyze their effect on algorithm efficiency, and how to modify them to write computer programs that solve complex problems in a most efficient way. Programming assignments. Prerequisite: ICS or A- in ICP. Equivalency: This course counts for CSCI-UA 102 Data Structures (NY). Fulfillment: CS Required, Data Science Required, CE Required.
Data science is changing our lives. While the importance of data science is widely acknowledged, there are also great concerns around it. How are data generated? How can they be used to make predictions and inform insights? What can be the potential dangers of applying data science techniques? What are the social and human implications of their uses? This multidisciplinary course explores these questions through hands-on experience on key technical components in data science and critical reviews of human and social implications in various real-world examples, ranging from social science to arts and humanities to engineering. In the course, students will 1) learn basic concepts and skills in data science (e.g., crawling and visualization); 2) apply these skills in a creative project; 3) discuss social and human implications of data science, including data privacy; algorithmic bias, transparency, fairness, and accountability; research ethics; data curation and reproducibility; and societal impacts. This course encourages students to reconsider our common-place assumptions about how data science works and be critical about the responsible use of data.
In November 2014, Volvo Race’s boat Vestas did not find her way to Abu Dhabi port and got stranded on a reef in the Indian Ocean instead. What went wrong? Is it still possible to get lost today, in the age of ubiquitous and democratized GPS? What does it mean to find one’s way? How do different environments create unique problems, as well as provide solutions? How do we find those solutions ourselves, and how can we intervene in the design of our working and living environments, in the design of our navigational practices, in order to avoid getting lost? What tools do we have? How do they work? What can we learn from navigation before GPS? Informed by new technologies, the demand for sustainability, and the inputs from cognitive studies, “wayfinding” has grown to become a field of research in its own right, related to both architecture and design. It studies the ways in which people orient themselves via the organization of sensory cues from the external environment. The course explores visual design components and theoretical ramifications and will include workshops on campus signage systems, with a focus on accessible design.
This course covers the very basic techniques of photography and digital imaging. Beyond Picture Perfect explores the many choices available to today’s image makers. New technology combined with traditional photographic techniques will be addressed, enabling the students to realize their distinctive image-making vocabulary. Daily discussions include understanding hardware mechanics, choosing a personal color palette, and recognizing “your” unique composition key. We will debate the many analog and digital tools available to photographers vital to their artistic expression. These concepts will be supported by daily assignments and class critiques culminating in a final project portfolio. Students with interest in analog or digital formats will be encouraged to develop an understanding of their medium and form an original visual strategy. Readings may include selections from: Robert Adams, Why People Photograph; London and Upton, Photography.
This architecture workshop introduces the basic principles of design. It begins with an analysis of a house by an important architect that examines the design concept or parti of the building, historical and environmental issues, as well as function, circulation, spatial organization, site, zoning, light, proportions, structure, and materials. In developing this project, students are also introduced to a vocabulary of design terms and the process of creating an architectural concept. In the projects that follow, students create their own designs for various types of structures. The assignments might include a New York loft space, a house in the country, or a small public or commercial building. These exercises provide the experience of creating designs by applying the concepts learned in the analysis. The basic techniques of drafting, rendering, and using Sketchup or similar software are also discussed. Films, lectures and texts on architectural theory provide additional insight. Design experience is useful, but not required.
This course is a unique collaboration between the Collaborative Arts and IMA Tisch departments, and CultureHub at La Mama. During the pandemic many performing artists moved their work online, leading to an increasing acceptance of experimental practices that their predecessors developed in on-line work for the past 30 years. In Experiments in Hybrid (IRL/URL) Performance, students will have the opportunity to design, prototype, and present collaborative projects that build on this tradition, blending both physical and virtual elements. Over the course of the semester, students will have the opportunity to study at the CultureHub studio where they will be introduced to video, lighting, sound, and cueing systems. In addition, students will learn creative coding fundamentals allowing them to network multiple softwares and devices generating real-time feedback systems. The class will culminate with a final showing that will be presented online and broadcast from the CultureHub studio.
This interdisciplinary course examines the works of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, three German speaking writers who pioneered radically different and influential interpretations of modern life, which continue to shape our contemporary understanding of society and individuality. The seminar not only delves into the origins of these prominent traditions of modern Western thought, but also underscores their relevance in modern social theories and poetics. Hence, the course will also include references to the writings of their contemporaries, as well as explications of the direct and indirect influences of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud on other writers.
This course will cover various professional Music Production Techniques & Strategies such as: Sampling (& Sample Chopping), Drum Programming / Drum Design, Synthesis & Sound Design, Music Theory (in the context of Music Production), MIDI Editing, as well as numerous Mixing Techniques. Over the course of the class, through the utilization and knowledge of these various skills, students will learn how to create Original Music Compositions & Productions. The primary DAW platform for the course is Ableton. While a Beatmaker / Composer / Producer must be well versed in the application of various software and hardware tools, as well as the many Production skills & techniques, they must also have artistic vision and creative efficacy. So while the course is about Music / Beat Construction and the tools involved, there will also be a strong emphasis on innovative envision, inventive mobility, and how to think / strategize like a Music Producer.
Products are used not in isolation but as part of a wider mesh of artifacts and interactions, both digital and non-digital. The discipline of service design takes this holistic view of a process or product, considering not just the use of an artifact but the wider service it is situated within across several ‘touch points’. With a growing service-based economy, in many cases the product is the service, which challenges conventional views of what the designer creates. Services are complex to understand and design, and require a participatory approach with deep engagement with stakeholders. This Service Design Innovation course is for students with various backgrounds and diverse interests for their future careers: technologists who want to understand how the technology can support service innovation; designers who want to broaden their skills; product and project managers who want to understand the relationship between products, services, and design; policy makers who want to understand how to develop human-centered policies that create real impact; managers and entrepreneurs who want to understand how to create new innovative and sustainable system offerings.
This course provides an introductory framework for understanding the dynamics of entering the entertainment and media industry within New York and Hollywood. Through live, synchronous, online meetings with industry professionals in Film, Television, Music, Theatre, Dramatic Writing, Games and Interactive Media and Casting, you will learn expectations, industry standards, and professional practices to apply when transitioning from student to a creative professional. You will also understand the specific job functions that are required to effectively and efficiently complete productions. The course aims to build a body of knowledge and information through understanding the various roles and professions that cut across all the competencies required for the industry professional to effectively function as a key member and in most cases, the leader of the creative and business team, assembled to complete a project.
From the perspective of psychological science, developments in machine-learning and AI raise many interesting questions. AI technologies are already proving useful in their ability to monitor and assess human behaviors, emotions, and decision patterns. This is becoming possible through the sheer volume of information available online in connection with individuals, groups, and through the sophistication of predictive algorithms that can see patterns that the human mind cannot. As AI systems, machines, and robots are increasingly built to mimic human beings, will we begin to communicate with, react to, or feel the same towards them as we do to other human beings? If an AI system can assist in an online purchase or a psychological intervention (e.g., a chatbot), can they also become our friends? Could we fall in love with an artificial agent or a robot? In this course, we use the lens of psychological science to investigate these and other aspects of human-machine communication and their effects on human-human relationships. Prerequisite: Introduction to psychology (PSYC-SHU 101) OR Introduction to Neural Science (NEUR-SHU 201) OR Introduction to Computer Science (CSCI-SHU 101) Fulfillment: Core STS; IMA/IMB elective; Neural Science elective; Social Science Focus Psychology 300 level.
How has the automation of work changed the ways we live? What challenges and opportunities does automation of work pose for the future? This multidisciplinary colloquium draws on materials in social science, science, and the humanities to explore how societies have organized themselves relative to technology in the past, and what changes are currently taking place. As we are now in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and dislocated by covid-19, how we live and work is undergoing profound change. New technologies pose new global challenges in the areas of equality, sustainable development, and education. Students will examine the wave of technology-driven transformations occurring on a global scale, including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and 3D printing. The future of work is explored through literature, policy, and scientific expression, as we anticipate how humans will spend their time as current-day work becomes automated and permanently changed by the impacts of covid-19. They will consider the 4IR as an opportunity to critique theories of technological change and construct their own narratives of change in individual case study analysis assignments.
One of the biggest challenges in medicine is to prevent disease and ensure personalized treatment. This is now becoming possible thanks to high-resolution DNA sequencing technology that can decipher our individual information. These developments are already impacting global health, but they raise global challenges such as equality. How will these new technologies blend into healthcare systems? What regulations are needed to ensure that personalized medicine reaches all layers of society? How do we prevent discrimination based on our genes? Through an inquiry-based approach we will examine the science, economics, and politics behind medicine and evaluate the ethical issues that arise in this fast-developing field.
The world-wide pause caused by the pandemic created a space of reflection and concern, and brought us to a consideration of meaning. As artists and scholars, we have been called to make sense of the ways we have told the stories of our communities, and been summoned to imagine a future world that is vibrant, inclusive and just, one that embraces our deepest values. As the vanguards of culture, we are now recording and creating new history together, constructed from examples of reexamined experience and awakened by new ideas. The important work of reinvigorating arts education, of imagining and designing the future through the arts, now more than ever before, must be a part of our mission as a school in a great research university. A Tisch education has always been about access to the people who create our community: the great thinkers and creators among our faculty, staff and alumni in cross collaboration with NYU, New York City and the globe. Together, we have already led transformative change, and continue to be leaders in fields that will adapt to our changing times. You too are the advocates, artists, innovators, scholars, and storytellers who collectively reflect upon the past, record the present, and imagine our future. We are co-creators of humanity’s most important re-set. Spark your imagination of the future through conversations with the leading creators in their fields. NYU Tisch School of the Arts Dean Allyson Green will moderate twelve talks with outstanding faculty and alumni of the school from a range of artistic disciplines. Create your own role in a movement to catalyze innovation and creativity to create a more beautiful, more just, more inclusive and more connected world. Please reach out to tisch.openarts@nyu.edu if you have any questions about the course.
This course offers students the opportunity to discuss trends in technology and learn about the changing nature of work. Students explore the accelerating rate of technological development by doing independent research on forthcoming innovations and sharing their discoveries through class presentations and Socratic discussions. Students analyze how we view work as a society, what work means to us as individuals, and explore possible solutions to mass unemployment and automation. Guest speakers join us for class discussions and all classes are recorded and shared.
This course will examine the communication of ideas online, and how that communication is shaped by commerce and surveillance. We will begin by considering the role of the public sphere in a democratic society, and then turn to the early anonymous days of the internet, the rise of social media platforms, and finally the Snowden revelations, debates over digital free speech, and new technologies like TikTok and virtual reality. We will experiment with simple counter-surveillance techniques like encrypted texts that are increasingly fundamental to the sensible practice of modern journalism and media work. The course will feature occasional guests. Students will finish the course with an understanding of the relationship between modern media forms and the expression of ideas in the public sphere.
With the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of social movements like Black Lives Matter and #metoo, the field of social good advertising has rapidly expanded as brands seek social relevance, governments and nonprofits look to inform, and activists try to persuade. In this course, students will learn to plan and execute powerful social advertising campaigns, while thinking critically about the blurred lines between advertising and information, and branding and politics, in what Sarah Banet-Weiser calls “Shopping for Change.
This course is an introduction to Science and Technology Studies (STS), an interdisciplinary field treating science and technology as socially embedded enterprises. We will examine how social, political, cultural, and material conditions shape scientific and technological activity and how science and technology, in turn, shape society. You will become familiar with the basic concepts and methods developed by STS scholars in history, sociology, and anthropology and explore how the scope of the field has expanded to include a variety of empirical case studies, theoretical arguments, and scholarly debates. The kinds of questions we will explore include: What counts as scientific knowledge? How is it produced? How do scientists establish credibility? Can there be a scientific study of scientific inquiry? To what extent are science and technology shaped by historical context? Prerequisite: None.
Starting from the premise that disability is a social phenomenon, rather than an individual and medical one, this course asks: How do media and technology shape disability? And how might disability activism and disability studies inform better design? We will consider the significance of technology to the definition and experience of disability in a cross-cultural perspective. Topics include: universal and critical design; the contested category of “assistive technology”; visual rhetorics of disability in photography and film; staring and other practices of looking; disability aesthetics; biomedicine/biotech and the establishment of norms. Drawing on disability arts and activism, we will also practice techniques for media accessibility such as captioning, alt text, plain language, and video description. Note: Pending feasible travel conditions we will hold lessons on disability aesthetics and museum access at Louvre Abu Dhabi among other art spaces. We will also partner with Mawaheb Art Studio for People of Determination to help them make their exhibition for the Quoz Arts Festival accessible. Following the disability activist principle “nothing about us without us,” we will host guest lecturers with a wide range of disability expertise.
Why must Luke Skywalker turn off his in computer at the climactic moment of George Lucas’s iconic film Star Wars (1977)? The film started a revolution in cinematic special-effects, but underlying its narrative logic is a deeply rooted anxiety about the right uses of technology. If man, as Hannah Arendt famously put it, is homo faber, the “creator,” the tool-making animal, then from at least Plato to the present, human beings have told stories about how dangerous tools can be. This course investigates philosophical writing, novels, plays, and films from a variety of world cultures to explore the vexed relationship between humans and the technologies they create. Why are human beings, perhaps more than ever at the start of the 21st century, so enamored with technological progress? Why is technophilia, the love of technology, so often accompanied by its opposite, technophobia, the fear of technology? What do the attitudes represented in the texts and films we examine tell us about human agency and about the relationship between science and religion?
Students will learn how technology impacts the development and changed the experiences of children and young adults. Students will respond critically and explore the relationship between children, young adults, and the environment they navigate and explore the relationship between social media and development in relation to advancing technology. Additionally, students will explore ethical theory in relation to society and innovation. Through readings, discussions and presentations, students will develop analyzed solutions for problems experienced via interactions with technology and social media. In this online learning collaborative course, students will create evidence – based solutions to solving society’s predicament with the evolution of social media.
This course examines the ethical issues that arise in the context of the rapid development of technology and the increasing power of business corporations. In recent years, technological progress has allowed us to achieve many things, including the creation of intelligent machines that can surpass human capabilities. Yet, for all these benefits, the development of science and technology has spawned a host of problems such as: conflict between individual rights and social welfare; clash between respect for personal autonomy and expertise; automation and unemployment; and the replication of human bias by algorithms. Along with technological progress, the social role of businesses and corporations are also becoming increasingly important. How should corporations, for example, balance the pursuit of profit with respect for employees’ rights and liberties? Should the state refuse to enforce unconscionable contracts, even when enforcing those contracts would make both parties better off? What is the social role of corporations in the context of increasing inequality?
Introduction to basic analog and digital electronics used in physics experiments. Concepts and devices presented in lecture are studied in the laboratory. Topics include DC and AC circuits, filters, power supplies, transistors, operational amplifiers, analog to digital converters, and digital logic.
Concepts of nanoelectronic materials, devices, and circuits. Fundamental and practical limits on the performance and energy dissipation of nanoelectronic devices. Physical, electrical and optical properties of semiconductor materials and how they are used in circuits. Relation of the properties of semiconductors to the fundamental limits at various levels of design hierarchy. Connections between the physical design and circuit-level performance of nanoelectronic circuits. | Prerequisites: MA-UY 2114 and PH-UY 2023 and EE-UY 3114
The course offers an overview of integrated circuit-design process: planning, design, fabrication and testing; device physics: PN junction, MOSFET and Spice models; inverter static and dynamic behavior and power dissipation; interconnects: cross talk, variation and transistor sizing; logic gates and combinational logic networks; sequential machines and sequential system design; subsystem design: adders, multipliers, static memory (SRAM), dynamic memory (DRAM). Topics include floor planning, clock distribution, power distribution and signal integrity; Input/Output buffers, packaging and testing; IC design methodology and CAD tools; implementations: full custom, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). The course provides foundations of VLSI design and custom VLSI design methodology and state-of-the-art CAD tools. | Prerequisites: CS-UY 2204 (C- or better) and EE-UY 3114. ABET competencies: a,c,e,k.
This course introduces students to fundamentals of machine elements, enabling them to employ this knowledge to design machines for various practical applications. The course begins with a brief review of stress, deformation and failure, followed by friction and wear. Subsequently, loaded columns, pressurized cylinders and shafts are presented. Bearings, gears, screws, springs, brakes, clutches and belts are discussed. The course ends with an introduction to MEMS, Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: ME-UY 3213 | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: ENGR-UH 3210
The course covers sketching, drawing and computer-aided drafting. Topics: Projection theory—multiview, axonometric, oblique. Auxiliaries, sections, isometrics, dimensions, fasteners, detail and assembly drawings. Introduction to blueprint reading. Overview of CIM and CAD integration with other CIM concepts. A design project incorporates developed skills in visualization, drawing techniques, standards and CAD.
Music is universal to all human cultures. This course will explore fundamental concepts of the psychological, emotional, and cognitive effects of music and what factors in the human body and brain are involved in producing them, with particular emphasis on cross-cultural study. Students will learn beginning methods of computational feature extraction and machine learning to explore simple artificial intelligence models that build on and articulate the conceptual frameworks of music and cognition introduced in the initial phase of the class.
Exponential growth in the availability of high quality real estate and real estate-related data is fueling a major shift in development, investment, and lending decision-making processes. In this highly applied course, students will be introduced to major data analysis and machine learning platforms; a wide range of public and private real estate and urban data sources; approaches to exploratory data analysis, real estate data visualization, and communication of findings; applied statistical modeling, including forecast modeling; and, emerging and prospective real estate applications for artificial intelligence and machine learning. Assessment will include case work focusing on real-world real estate decisions and coding assignments. While the data and applications for this course are principally in the real estate sector, the applied skills learned may be of interest for students across a wide range of industries.
The financial services industry is being transformed by regulation, competition, consolidation, technology and globalization. These forces will be explored, focusing on how technology is both a driver of change as well as the vehicle for their implementation. The course focuses on payment products and financial markets, their key systems, how they evolved and where might they be going, algorithmic trading, market structure dark, liquidity and electronic markets. Straight through processing, risk management and industry consolidation and convergence will be viewed in light of current events. The course objective is to bring both the business practitioner and technologist closer together. Topics will be covered through a combination of lectures, readings, news, case studies and projects.
This is a course on how the social, technological, and natural worlds are connected, and how the study of networks sheds light on these connections. Topics include: social network structure and its effects on business and culture; crowdsourcing; games on graphs; the propagation through networks of information, fads and disease; small worlds, network effects, and “rich-get-richer” phenomena; the power of networks for prediction; the power of the network for web search; networks and social revolutions, and the melding of economics, machine learning, and technology into new markets, such as “prediction markets” or markets for on-line advertisements.The class will be a combination of lectures based on the textbook and guest lectures from well-known experts on these topics, primarily Stern faculty (a well-known center of excellence for research on networks, crowds, and markets).One main goal of this class is to work our way through most of the new, acclaimed textbook: Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World, by David Easley and Jon Kleinberg. http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/networks-book.pdf The textbook readings will be complemented with classic and recent research papers.
Provides the background necessary to make decisions about computer-based information systems and to be an “end-user”. Two major parts of the course are hands-on experience with personal computers and information systems management. Group and individual computer assignments expose students to electronic spreadsheet analysis and database management on a personal computer. Management aspects focus on understanding computer technology, systems analysis and design, and control of information processing by managers.
New York’s soundscape is hard to ignore: it can be overwhelming, it is always intricate, but also surprisingly subtle, and there is much that we hear that we don’t really listen to. We will interrelate the subjects of noise, silence, and the city, ranging from important moments in the history of noise abatement in New York City to the philosophy and work of composers such as John Cage. New York City’s diverse population strongly affects and produces its unique soundscape; how does this particular city reflect its inhabitants? There will be off-site field trips to events such as the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, as well as visits to sited works such as Max Neuhaus’s Times Square. We will consider how sound is often explicitly designed to affect and influence us in places such as retail environments. How do our attempts to mediate sound with devices like headphones affect our listening? Students will engage the ideas of writers such as Stuart Hall, Jacques Attali, Luigi Russolo, John Cage, Emily Thompson, R. Murray Schaefer, and Shuhei Hosokawa, as well as works by Christina Kubisch, Susan Phillipz, and Pauline Oliveros. There will be three short production assignments, some of which will be made for specific sites in the city as a way of investigating the interplay between public spaces and listening. At its core, you will be asked to consider the politics and subjectivity of your own listening as a citizen of New York. Who do you hear? How do you sound?
In Jorge Luis Borges’s 1941 short story, The Garden of Forking Paths, a character named Ts’ Ui Pen seeks to build a labyrinth in which all men will lose their way. Borges reveals that labyrinth to be a sprawling book in which all moments in time are followed by every possible subsequent moment. Multiple futures and timelines exist as one in this garden of forking paths. Fast forward to today, where we find that Ts” Ui Pen”s seemingly incomprehensible vision has come to fruition via video games and interactive fiction. Both often eschew linearity and instead offer users the opportunity to drive the story and shape their own narrative experience. “In this course, we will first explore the trajectory of interactive fiction, from its early overtures in works by Borges and Italo Calvino, forward through Agusto Boal”s Forum Theatre, early computer text adventures, Choose Your Own Adventure books, non-linear film, and into the various digital interactive fictions of today, such as hypertext literature, adventure games, and visual novels. “From there, students will embark on their own adventure through interactive creative writing. The journey will begin with students taking apart and diagraming existing interactive works, and using digital tools to craft and share their own short interactive scenes and dialogs. We will confront the challenges and limitations of writing interactive story and establish some key critical theories governing non-linearity. The course will culminate in students designing and writing a complete short work of interactive fiction in a medium of their choice.
Augmented reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), “AI (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) art, projection mapped art, NFT art, as well as other types of digital artworks, have come to be an integral part of new media culture. The genesis of and their relevance to new media are cultural imperatives to study and analyze — from a creative, historical, psychological, philosophical, marketing, and technological perspective. Many artists (painters, photographers, sculptors, filmmakers, animators, and writers), scientists, and technologists at NYU, as well as nearby VR World, Artechouse, and Hall des Lumières , and other NYC organizations are central to producing realistic and immersive three-dimensional environments ” AR, VR and projection mapped (360 digital imagery) worlds. Through lectures, group discussions, GoogleDoc reports, field trips to museums and new media organizations, and workshops specific to new media innovations and applications, students will gain a framework to understand the importance of these evolving technologies and their impact on the arts, ecology (sustainability initiatives), social justice, and behavioral science. Students from varying creative and technical backgrounds will participate in the development of new media art projects, intended to be showcased at the Gallatin Arts Festival. They will be introduced to and encouraged to take advantage of NYU”s LaGuardia Studio, LaGuardia Co-op, and LinkedIn Learning instructional tutorials, as well as using their own resources to aid in developing their new media projects.
This course introduces architectural drafting and computer graphics. It capitalizes on state-of-the-art computer applications in managing construction. The course familiarizes the student with two-dimensional construction drawings that represent the current industry standard, and it propels the student towards the future by teaching the basics of three-dimensional (3-D) computer modeling. This course also introduces the use of the 3-D model with associated databases to manage construction. | Prerequisite: CE-UY 1502 or CE-UY 1002 or permission of the Construction Management Program Advisor
This course introduces the essentials of web design and production, emphasizing the integration of AI tools like ChatGPT to enhance learning and creativity. Students will build a solid foundation in HTML and CSS, learn to optimize graphics, design layouts, and develop the technical skills needed to launch their own websites. The class explores using social media platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, and Instagram as promotional tools while incorporating AI to brainstorm design concepts, troubleshoot code, and refine messaging. We focus on the Internet as a promotion and distribution medium for the independent artist and filmmaker. A consistent and integrated communication strategy across digital channels is emphasized to prepare students for the demands of modern media. To deepen their learning experience, students will actively use ChatGPT to support various aspects of the curriculum. This includes generating creative ideas, drafting content, and exploring coding solutions. AI will also assist in tasks like creating compelling website copy, optimizing branding strategies, and scripting social media posts. By weaving AI into their workflow, students not only master essential web design skills but also gain hands-on experience with tools shaping the future of digital media.
Multichannel Media Installation & Performance is a course designed for composers & artists who want to work in a performance or installation context with immersive sound & image technology. The course focuses on software & hardware workflows for the creative applications of multi-channel sound & immersive video for the creation of fixed, generative, reactive, performance-based, & interactive systems that can be experienced in a gallery context or a live performance. Students will develop a semester-length project to use scale & immersion to creative effect. The course will feature regular creative critique as well as an overview of relevant interaction design strategies for creating interactive spaces using sensors & cameras.
This course explores the art and craft of mixing records, with special attention to “mixing in the box” (via a digital audio workstation). Focus on methodology and technique, with particular emphasis on establishing balances, using such tools as compression and automation to enhance dynamics and develop unique coloration. Examines intersection of technology, budgets, and the marketplace. Students execute their own mixes, with guidance and critique from the instructor. Basic level of DAW proficiency required.
An introduction to MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) with an emphasis on sequencing, production and arranging techniques. Open to students without previous experience in music technology.
This is a multidisciplinary course in which students with previous experience with analog and digital electronics create a novel hardware–based electronic musical instrument, controller, effects unit, or other device related to their interests in music and audio. Student projects may be analog, digital, or a hybrid, and should be unique in some way from devices currently in the commercial marketplace. Students present their designs and functioning physical prototypes with the class as they evolve throughout the semester for feedback.
A general introduction to the fundamental concepts of music technology, including: MIDI and sequencing, the basics of digital audio, sound recording, mixing and sound synthesis,. The course will also briefly overview advanced topics and applications in the field.
Programming for MIDI, C, and other appropriate techniques. Design and implementation of software sequencers, interface drivers, and hardware applications will be the focus.
Introduction to the physical aspects of sound, psychoacoustics, basic electricity, principles and practice of magnetic recording and an overview of the recording studio, including an introduction to multi-track recording techniques. Students perform various duties just as they would in a professional recording session with live musicians in the recording studio. Open to students without previous experience in recording technology.
An introduction to maintenance and troubleshooting concepts used in the recording studio. Procedures discussed are those necessary in utilizing sophisticated audio equipment and understanding essential aspects of studio design.
Design Your NYU Shanghai is a first-year course to help you make the most out of your college experience. You’ll be introduced to design thinking as a creative approach to explore majors and interests, craft global opportunities, and engage in intercultural connections. This action-oriented course uses rapid prototyping and reflection activities to ignite personal growth as you navigate this transformative time of your life.
Communication sits at the core of all human interactions and is highly valued in workplaces. Beyond the minimal goal of articulating and presenting one’s ideas effectively, communication also involves building empathy, cultivating an eye for detail, developing awareness of goals and contexts, and integrating critical and reflective thinking. How can we communicate our own projects to different audiences? Why should other people care? What types of media can we use and how do we know they are effective? How can collaborative and participatory elements help to improve engagement levels? This course aims to guide students to review and create their own learning profiles as they learn to engage a diverse range of targeted audience. Prerequisite: Not open to freshman. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
This course explores the disruptions and creative possibilities that realtime emerging media provides through the lens of learning how to design, create, produce and perform in realtime. Students will be learning how to design and produce for realtime interactive audiences, understand the modern streaming media pipeline, the fundamentals of virtual production, digital content creation and the basics of game engines and other software – all in the service of delivering a more engaging and intimate connection between audience and performer. Students will design and perform 2 distinct realtime performances as well as work together with peers to conceptualize, design and produce a short realtime ‘pilot’ using the tools and techniques you’ve learned in the first two projects. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Interactive Media Business Elective ; Interactive Media Arts Elective
This class is based on the entrepreneurship methodology of Steve Blank, “The Lean Launchpad” with some changes to adapt it to our specific circumstances. The methodology enables to test and develop business models based on querying and learning from customers. This is a practical class – essentially a lab. Our goal, within the constraints of a limited amount of time, is to help you find a repeatable and scalable business methodology for your startup. This will allow you to build a company with substantially less money and in a shorter amount of time than using traditional methods. Rapidly iterate your product to build something people actually want. You will build minimum viable products (MVPs) weekly to avoid hypotheticals and get real customer feedback that you can use to iterate (small adjustments) or pivot (substantive changes) faster. Prerequisite: Junior to Senior only (exceptions granted on a case by case basis). Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective.
Until recently, the creation of interactive 3D graphics was only possible for large and capital-intensive uses: the armed forces, large-scale architectural/engineering work, mass entertainment. Now, open-source applications and powerful personal and portable computers are making it practical for individuals and small groups to independently build and share alternative visions. Whether you are interested in exploring new ways to construct complex networks of ideas in the present, or to imagine physical spaces to reflect and support new ways of life, this arts workshop provides a blend of critical orientation and hands-on experience. In this open project studio, the majority of course time and work will be taken up with the development of student-built individual or small team concepts, to be developed as 3D graphic “fly-through” models. Theoretical discussions will be initiated with a mix of relevant writings and media. Here is a representative sampling of sources: Douglas Engelbart, Eric Raymond, William Gibson, Zaha Hadid, Judith Donath, the Athenian Acropolis, the Kalachakra mandala, Salisbury Cathedral, the Schindler house, Artigas gardens, the 1958 World’s fair Philips pavilion, the Seagram’s building, Grant Theft Auto IV, the monastery of La Tourette, the Mangin plan, compendium.org, Betaville.
This course explores image making, writing and their juxtaposition, as a method of thinking through and evoking ideas. At times, images lead, and text follows, providing descriptions of images, and at other times, text leads and images illustrate that text. In the realm of the contemporary American meme, just about every time images and words are present they have an effect upon each other in the mind of the viewer, which changes the meaning of both, producing something which is more than what is present in both image and text. That third and phantasmic image exists in the mind. The examples of Chinese Literati painting, and Surrealism will provide a historical point of departure, from which we to engage 21st century examples of image and word juxtapositions that create new ideas. This course will provide students with a general history of the relationship between the image and word, and a critical understanding of the composition and decomposition of image-word printed and digital matter. Along with skills in Lino-cut printmaking, Risograph printmaking, and publication design, students will also write poetry, short essays, and art criticism. Students will participate in the content production, design, and publishing of a book and magazine, zine and poster.
This workshop seeks to bring students from varying backgrounds together to engage in evaluating and sharing digital new media for the Internet and other new media art mediums. Each student brings to the class a set of experiences and skills, such as research, writing, design, film, music, photography, computer gaming, performance, animation, computer literacy, software knowledge, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) Generative Art experiences, among others. The class will discuss new media concepts, content strategies, and frameworks that bridge theory and practice. Through lectures (including a survey of digital new media innovations), group discussions, virtual or other lectures and/or workshops, students will develop individual projects, based on their new media skills. The class intends to be a part of the development of the Virtual Reality (VR) Museum (“Virtual Museum XR”), or other Gallatin arts initiatives, such as Rabbit Hole. Digital new media projects may include digital photography, animated films, podcasts, sound art installations, TikTok, music videos, VR, AR, A.I. Generative Art, to name a few. Class projects, readings, and week-to-week journal-keeping reports are essential components of this workshop. They will reside in a designated Google Docs site, specific for this class. Students are encouraged to supply their own media and take advantage of NYU’s LinkedIn Learning new media tutorials and access NYU’s LaGuardia Studio and LaGuardia Co-op hardware and software opportunities.
Students learn about the process of design with measurable metrics, and how to incorporate appropriate engineering standards and multiple realistic constraints in the design process. Students learn how to clearly frame the design problem and follow the design process to result in an optimized solution. Students perform a review of the relevant literature, develop a preliminary design, generate solution concepts and selection criteria, and review and evaluate the chosen design. Students must consider social, economic, lifecycle, environmental, ethical, and other constraints, and must document the design process and the evolution of their design. This project culminates with a final report and presentation that proposes the actual design selected for further development and/or prototyping and testing in the subsequent semester.
Giorgio Vasari defined Mannerism in terms still used today in Art History: in the wake of the Renaissance masters, copying became the standard way to learn. But what do we really learn by copying? Would a contemporary mannerism fit in today’s world, dominated by visual information? How then does creativity work? How does change happen? Why did we wait half a century before having personal computers in colors other than beige? Why do we seem oblivious to the manufactured filters mediating our observation of nature itself? What are the trade-offs when we delegate creative choices to Google’s algorithms? What separates the artists of the past and the brand consultants of today? This course addresses the role and limits of copying as students explore many facets of graphic design, visual communication, and artistic value. The vibrant visual culture-in-the-making of Abu Dhabi and the UAE provide an ideal background for such explorations. Students will elaborate on the tension (real or perceived) among today’s artists, designers, and scientists, while discussing why a multidisciplinary mind is fundamental for contemporary attempts to re-design the world around us.
How do we feel about robots? With technological developments in capability, performance, autonomy, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness, robots have arrived in everyday life. This course considers the history and ethics of human-robot interaction and explores unsolved hurdles we face as robots assume a ubiquitous presence in our lives. How are robots currently integrating into human-centered, civic industries such as education, heath, and smart cities? What roles might robots play in the future of these industries? What are the economic and labor implications associated with robotic integration? How will consumers respond to the increased use of robots in daily life? How have popular media representations over the last century influenced the way we experience these changes? Topics will also include the miniaturization of robots and their use in situations such as focused drug delivery within the human body, save-and-rescue missions, or military combat. Students will assemble and program several Lego Mindstorm robots capable of carrying prefabricated objects and will also assemble a small house.
What constitutes innovation in medical technology? Is it always necessary? How is its value determined? How would we know if innovation has peaked, or reached a point of diminishing returns? What do global perspectives reveal about medical devices and healthcare in general? In what ways are cultural contexts important to consider? How can the med-tech innovation process address issues of diversity, inclusion, and accessibility? This course takes up the above questions through several case studies and examples, including bioprinting and COVID-19 vaccines — two topics with current relevance — as well as two of the most important historical med-tech innovations that have gone wrong in the past: The Malaria Project and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. How can current design and innovation avoid repeating past mistakes? Working in cross-disciplinary teams, students will engage in design projects that will apply what we have learned from this course and address some of the paradoxes present in our ongoing quest to design healthier bodies and societies.
How does one attempt to write or portray the self? If we associate that practice with traditional memoir and self-portraiture forms, what happens when subjectivity is fundamentally unstable or under attack? Is the genre also simultaneously deconstructed? How is subjectivity literally made and remade through the exploration of new forms? In this course we will look at text and image projects across cultures, eras, locations, and across art forms that raise questions about the self and the collective, representation and memory, and about the remarkable as well as the everyday. Sometimes the doubt about attempts at portrayals is philosophical, but it may also be cultural-historical and context-dependent. To explore this question, and to develop skills in art, to experiment with the studio habits of artists, and to generate our own poetics of memoir/anti-memoir we will generate text and image experiments that both create and investigate an anti-memoir body of work.
How has our relationship with building materials shaped human civilization, and in return, how does our use of materials actively reshape the planet we live on? Materials have played a major role throughout human history, from providing basic clothing and shelter in prehistoric times, to fueling the industrial revolution, and enabling today’s global consumer culture. In the process, material use and discovery have given rise to many branches of science and commerce, resulting in even greater demand for more material. The consequences on society and the environment haven’t always been positive. This course explores our relationship with material as engineers, scientists, consumers, and traders. Basic laboratory sessions on material characterization will explore material processing techniques ranging from simple resin casting to advanced 3D printing.
How does “silence” help to define our sense of being and existence? Across different cultures, various philosophies of art, science, and society have viewed and thought about silence differently. This course invites students to think about and experience silence by asking three fundamental questions: 1) What does it mean to be silent? (Literally and metaphorically); 2) Does silence shape our lives? And if so, how? 3) Can we have an active relationship and recognition with silence just as we do with sound or action? Drawing on multi-disciplinary sources from around the world to explore the philosophical frameworks and thought systems that have engaged in the study and observation of silence, the syllabus will include works of art, literature, theater, films, architecture, and music, which students will engage via a mix of seminar, lecture, and studio methods of teaching, to enable the creations of their own artistic responses to their experience of silence and the material presented in class.
Is automation a science or a tool? Muslim contributions in automation, overlooked in the history of science, were long regarded as means for caliphs and the rich to impress the masses. But Muslim engineers excelled in creating complex automated systems, using them as gifts to foreign leaders, as public attractions, or to augment religious ceremony such as daily calls to prayer. Mainly powered by kinetic energy, these automata drew on scholars’ deep knowledge of hydraulics and complex levers and included musical instruments, horologia, automated drinking fountains, and clocks that told time using complex audiovisual tools. This course draws on historical sources and foundational science to explore Muslim advancements in automation. What roles did translation play as Muslim scientists encountered and documented the work of previous scholars? What were the basic automatic systems they developed and how do they compare to current technologies? How did they draw on environmental resources to develop automated systems without the need for non-renewable energy? Students will address such questions as they explore implications for their own projects in design and engineering.
Design seems to be omnipresent, but what is it? This course (whose title is Latin for usage, beauty, and stability) explores how design influences our life and investigates the fundamentals of “good design.” It takes a look at the status quo of the use of design in media, objects, and architecture, and observe its influence on art and technology from past to present. Design tools and processes will be highlighted. Based on the fusion of readings, study, discussion, and experiences, over the course of the semester students will develop an understanding of how mutually reinforcing and beneficiary a mix of Arts, Design, and Technology can be. Lecture and discussion will help develop the design of a bricolage: Every student will realize a product prototype to be displayed in an exhibition and a personal philosophy of about Arts, Design, and Technology.
In the 3.8 billion years since life began on Earth, nature has evolved. Inspired by this process, humans have replicated key design features to develop novel materials, devices, and structures in fields such as the arts, design, engineering, and the social sciences by replicating key design principles and features. This course asks how biology has inspired human design and thinking across different cultures and fields. Students will examine various examples in engineering, art, architecture, music, and social science to discuss how the human capacity for analogical reasoning has enabled the transfer of properties, mechanisms, and ideas from biology to design principles such as shape, surface, structure, making, information-processing, and social behavior. Using bio-inspired products such as gecko tape, Velcro, self-cleaning surfaces, and neuromorphic chips for inspiration, students will develop their own designs to address some of the 21st century’s most pressing issues, such as energy, water, environment, food, and health.
Is creativity a gift or a skill? Can creativity be learned? Because creativity is deeply personal, this course will address these questions through individual and collective experiences. The heart of this course is the Personal Creativity Project – an opportunity for students to practice creativity by designing and executing a project of their choice. The project may be on any topic, from art and music to computer programs and business model development. The project will be complemented by reading assignments (completed prior to class), class discussions, and one-on-one meetings with the instructor. Students will leave the course with a completed project and a personal philosophy of creativity, based on the fusion of readings, study, discussion, and experience. The course provides a great deal of freedom for learning and does not provide step-by-step instructions. As a result, the successful completion of this course will require a significant amount of self-motivation.
This course is the follow-on course to Introduction to Programming and Data Science, which is offered in the Fall. It is recommended for undergraduate students who 1) are interested in jobs in the rapidly growing fields of data science and data analytics or 2) who are interested in acquiring the technical and data analysis skills that are becoming increasingly relevant in all disciplines. Intro to Programming and Data Science forms the basis for this course, but it is not a pre-requisite. Students with basic knowledge of programming in Python and SQL are welcome to join. This course covers select topics that build on the prior course work and is largely project based. Much of the course will be project-based work, with students working on projects that utilize the skills used in this and the prior Programming and Data Science course.
This course examines the major trends in digital marketing using tools from business analytics and data science. While there will be sufficient attention given to top level strategy used by companies adopting digital marketing, the focus of the course is also on business analytics: how to make firms more intelligent in how they conduct business in the digital age. Measurement plays a big role in this space. The course is complemented by cutting-edge projects and various business consulting assignments that the Professor has been involved in with various companies over the last few years. Prof Ghose has consulted in various capacities for Apple, AMD, Berkeley Corporation, Bank of Khartoum, CBS, Dataxu, Facebook, Intel, NBC Universal, Samsung, Showtime, 3TI China, and collaborated with Alibaba, China Mobile, Google, IBM, Indiegogo, Microsoft, Recobell, Travelocity and many other leading Fortune 500 firms on realizing business value from IT investments, internet marketing, business analytics, mobile marketing, digital analytics and other topics.We will learn about statistical issues in data analyses such as selection problem, omitted variables problem, endogeneity, and simultaneity problems, autocorrelation, multi-collinearity, assessing the predictive power of a regression and interpreting various numbers from the output of a statistical package, various econometrics-based tools such as simple and multivariate regressions, linear and non-linear probability models (Logit and Probit), estimating discrete and continuous dependent variables, count data models (Poisson and Negative Binomial), cross-sectional models vs. panel data models (Fixed Effects and Random Effects), and various experimental techniques that help can tease out correlation from causality such as randomized field experiments.
This course is recommended for undergraduate students without programming experience who are interested in building capabilities in the rapidly growing fields of data science and data analytics. This hands-on coding course does not have any prerequisites and is meant to help students acquire programming and data analysis skills that are becoming increasingly relevant for entrepreneurial, corporate, and research jobs. The course offers an introduction to programming (using Python) and databases (using SQL). We will cover topics related to collection, storage, organization, management, and analysis of data. There is a strong focus on live coding in the classroom, with discussion of examples.
Provides the background necessary to make decisions about computer-based information systems and to be an “end-user”. Two major parts of the course are hands-on experience with personal computers and information systems management. Group and individual computer assignments expose students to electronic spreadsheet analysis and database management on a personal computer. Management aspects focus on understanding computer technology, systems analysis and design, and control of information processing by managers.
The study of modern cryptography investigates mathematical techniques for securing information, systems and distributed computations against adversarial attacks. We introduce fundamental concepts of this study. Emphasis will be placed on rigorous proofs of security based on precise definitions and assumptions. Topics include: one-way functions, encryption, signatures, pseudorandom number generators and zero-knowledge proofs. Prerequisite: Algorithms, theory of probability, or permission of the instructor. Fulfillment: Mathematics Additional Electives; Honors Mathematics Electives; CS Electives.
The purpose of the Senior Project is for the students to apply the theoretical knowledge they acquired during the Computer Science program to a concrete project in a realistic setting. During the semester, students engage in the entire process of solving a real-world computer science project. It requires students to pursue a long-term, mentored learning experience that culminates in a piece of original work. At the end of the semester, the proposed work comes to fruition in the form of a working software prototype, a written technical report, and an oral presentation at a capstone project symposium. Prerequisite: senior standing. Fulfillment: CS Required.
An introduction to the fundamentals of computer programming. Students design, write, and debug computer programs. No prior knowledge of programming is assumed. Students will learn programming using Python, a general purpose, cross-platform programming language with a clear, readable syntax. Most class periods will be part lecture, part lab as you explore ideas and put them into practice. This course is suitable for students not intending in majoring in computer science as well as for students intending to major in computer science but having no programming experience. Students with previous programming experience should instead take Introduction to Computer Science. Prerequisite: Either placed into Calculus or at least a C in Pre-Calculus Fulfillment: Core Curriculum Requirement Algorithmic Thinking; EE Required Major Courses. Note: Students who have taken ICS in NY, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai cannot take ICP.
This course has three goals. First, the mastering of a modern object-oriented programming language, enough to allow students to tackle real-world problems of important significance. Second, gaining an appreciation of computational thinking, a process that provides the foundations for solving real-world problems. Finally, providing an overview of the very diverse and exciting field of computer science – a field which, arguably more than any other, impacts how we work, live, and play today. Prerequisite: Introduction to Computer Programming or placement exam. Equivalency: This course counts for CSCI-UA 101. Fulfillment: Core Curriculum Requirement Algorithmic Thinking; Computer Science Major Required Courses; Computer Systems Engineering Major Required Courses; Data Science Major Foundational Courses; Electrical and Systems Engineering Major Required Major Courses.
The field of natural language processing (NLP), also known as computational linguistics, is interested in the modeling and processing of human (i.e., natural) languages. This course covers foundational NLP concepts and ideas, such as finite state methods, n-gram modeling, hidden Markov models, part-of-speech tagging, context free grammars, syntactic parsing and semantic representations. The course surveys a range of NLP applications such as information retrieval, summarization and machine translation. Concepts taught in class are reinforced in practice by hands-on assignments.
The course focuses on understanding lower-level issues in computer design and programming. The course starts with the C programming language, moves down to assembly and machine-level code, and concludes with basic operating systems and architectural concepts. Students learn to read assembly code and reverse-engineer programs in binary. Topics in this course include the C programming language, data representation, machine-level code, memory organization and management, performance evaluation and optimization, and concurrency.
Have you ever wondered how the internet or Facebook is able to support a billion simultaneous users? This course teaches students the design and implementation of such Internet-scale networks and networked systems. Students learn about the principles and techniques used to construct large-scale networks and systems. Topics in this course include routing protocols, network congestion control, wireless networking, network security, and peer-to-peer systems. Upon completing this course, students are able to initiate and critique research ideas, implement their own working systems, and evaluate such systems. To make the issues more concrete, the class includes several multi-week projects requiring significant design and implementation. The goal is for students to learn not only what computer networks are and how they work today, but also why they are designed the way they are and how they are likely to evolve in the future. Examples are drawn primarily from the internet.
Discrete mathematics concerns the study of mathematical structures that are discrete rather than continuous, and provides a powerful language for investigating many areas of computer science. Discrete structures are characterized by distinct elements, which are often represented by integers. Continuous mathematics on the other hand deals with real numbers. Topics in this course include: sets, counting techniques, logic, proof techniques, solving recurrence relations, number theory, probability, statistics, graph theory, and discrete geometry. These mathematical tools are illustrated with applications in computer science.
The capstone experience in Computer Science requires students to engage in a long-term, mentored learning experience that culminates in a piece of original work. The specific project is developed during the Research Seminar in Computer Science. During the Capstone Project, the proposed work comes to fruition in the form of a research paper along the lines of those in a scholarly computer science journal. Students also participate in a capstone research symposium during which they present their work orally.
Computer Science is an innovative and exciting field that focuses on producing efficient solutions for solving problems in any field. This course introduces students to the foundations of computer science. Students learn how to design algorithms to solve problems and how to translate these algorithms into working computer programs using a high-level programming language. The course covers core programming concepts including basic computation, data structures, decision structures, iterative structures, file input/output, and recursion. Students also learn the elements of Object Oriented Programming (OOP), such as objects, classes, inheritance, abstraction, and polymorphism. A final project allows students to combine these concepts to produce a large program of their design.
ASCII to Algorithm is an introduction to the history, theory and practice of computer-based artistic endeavors in the field of visual arts. It traces the path of early encounters with the computer as a tool for artists and surveys the computational foundation that positions contemporary software art as more system than object. We will be elaborating and discussing concepts and paradigms specific to computing platforms, such as data representation, generative art, image processing and computational creativity. Drawing on those, students will explore their own artistic practice through the exclusive use of their computers. This computational playground will highlight and reflect upon the broader impact of digital technologies on our relationship to art, and on our understanding of the artistic process. Programming experience in JavaScript is preferred but not required.
This course explores the possibilities and challenges of designing alternate physical network interfaces. Through weekly readings, class discussions, and a series of projects, students will create physical objects that talk to each other over distance. Various wireless communication mechanisms such as radio (Bluetooth, Zigbee, WiFi, and raw), infrared, and ultrasonic are used in the context of creating novel “smart” devices. Topics of discussion in this course include networking protocols and network topologies; network time versus physical time; mobile objects; and wireless networks. Opportunities to build collaborative and creative campus-wide networked projects and systems will also be explored.
What does it mean to become a “temporary expert?” How does one develop one’s own creative research-based practice? This course will address these questions by engaging with Abu Dhabi’s environmental and social dimensions as a subject for research, context and imaginative art and design opportunities. Students will adopt a wide variety of tools and strategies in order to lay the foundations for a research-based art practice that considers materials, media, context, and audience, as well as one’s personal strengths and desires. Over the course of the semester, students will develop art and design projects that interface with a multiplicity of other disciplines, and engage in idea exchange with experts in the field. Through hands-on practice, case studies, and readings on systems thinking, communication, and the idea of “the public,” we will explore method, documentation and presentation of research, as well as the merits of both success and failure.
Using computer vision, machine learning, gesture recognition, wearable technology, projection mapping, a variety of sensors, and OpenFrameworks (C ), students will create interactive art and performances that leverage the full potential of the human body. Directly injecting “people-sensing” into an artwork via these readily accessible open source technologies, generates a unique feedback loop, or dialogue-like relationship, where a person and a computer are continuously reacting to each other’s senses. This course will examine this feedback loop, specifically how a person is directly integrated into the artistic expression of the work. Ultimately, students will create interactive installations and performances where the human body is the central component of the artwork.
How does bringing an artwork outside change its interaction with people and the environment? What new possibilities exist if we create an electronic artwork that can travel with us and be installed anywhere? Desert Media Art is a production-based course where students research, propose, produce, install, and document an electronic artwork designed for Abu Dhabi’s desert. The desert is an iconic landscape with a rich history of use by artists as an alternative to the white box of the gallery. We will study historical and contemporary outdoor art practices as well as local ecology and culture. Students will work in groups to create an Arduino-based project that is battery powered and ready to be taken into the field. The project will be installed in the desert, documented, and then presented in an indoor exhibition. Technologies used will include Arduino, 3D printing for enclosure design, rapid prototyping using laser cutting, battery power, and video production. Students will not just build a project and install it in the field, but also learn how to communicate their work to the public using video documentation and indoor exhibition.
This course explores the principles of Interactive Media put to use in the real world. Interactive Media is technology in the service of inventors, artists, designers, developers, educators, and other creatives, who use it to create experiences and devices that are insightful, critical, and thought provoking. Participants will learn the principles of Interactive media (programming, electronics, and design) and how to build projects using the Arduino prototyping platform. We will visit galleries, museums, studios, workshops, classrooms, and labs. We will hear from artists, designers, inventors, teachers, and other practitioners. Israel/Palestine’s art, design, and technology scene and community of artists, educators, museums, designers, inventors, and entrepreneurs is an opportunity to explore the contemporary world of Interactive Media. Visits will include many diverse locations, and students who speak the local languages – Hebrew and Arabic – are especially encouraged to join; however, English will be used everywhere we go. Students will work both individually and in groups. Technical and critical readings and discussion will culminate in a production project that will respond to what we’ve learned. This course will be held in Tel Aviv for the J-Term 2023 session.
From intelligent chat-bots and video-sharing apps to social media platforms and virtual reality hubs, our world is infused with mediated, networked systems for communication. While these tools were a luxury a couple years ago, today they are almost a necessity. Every day we are knowingly or unknowingly using a handful of connected applications to communicate with people across the world. With this course we want students to be more than participants in these tools, but also become active creators. In this course, students will design and develop their own creative connected web applications. By coding (using JavaScript) and producing original online experiences that bring people together in playful yet purposeful ways, students will gain valuable insight into the inner-workings and implications of our connected world. The course will culminate in students creating their own connected applications that can be used by peers.
In this era of virtual production, time-based media faces new opportunities and challenges in terms of pipelines, workflows, and distribution. Decentralizing, hybridizing, and outsourcing among film studios, production houses, broadcast design, interactive studios, and the gaming industry have become major topics of discourse in academia and industry. This course focuses on the history/context, present practice, and the emerging trends of VFX studies and its applications. Through collaborative research with academia and industry, the course investigates the theory and practice of VFX studies and further examines the feasibility of emerging technologies through the spirit of entrepreneurship. Prerequisite: Interaction Lab / Creative Coding Lab / Communications Lab / Application Lab Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
This course examines mobile food networks as a method to research and map the contemporary city. In Shanghai, over the past few years, there has been an enormous transformation in the way the city feeds itself. Street food stalls, restaurants and marketplaces have all migrated online. This tendency towards virtualization was intensified during the Coronavirus pandemic, when, during lockdown, people used their phones to order food, which was delivered straight to their door.This course treats mobile food delivery as a media infrastructure. It examines how these new delivery systems form part of a distributed urban ecosystem that underlies the emergence of a Sentient City. Students will use the tools of critical cartography and digital storytelling to explore the cultural, economic and political issues that are raised by the explosive growth of mobile food delivery. Research topics include the economics of company platforms; logistical networks; the reorganization of food production; the socio-economic conditions of delivery workers; changing cultural habits of urban residents; the shifts in the city’s built environment as well as the design of the apps themselves. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
This class focuses on the history and theory of ecology-related digital media, emerging technological solutions to the environmental crisis, and cultural imaginations that address the possibility of human extinction and ecosystem collapse. Zooming in on both luddite and futurist proposals for post-carbon futures across the global political and cultural spectrum, the class discusses emerging technologies in scientific and popular discourses about ecological futures. From geo-enginnering to terraforming, space colonialism, genetic engineering, and other scenarios that relate to the technological survival of humanity in fraught environmental conditions, it aims to take students to the forefront of contemporary technological imaginations related to our future on (and off) this planet. Prereq: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
Learn how to creatively harness the power of your computer’s graphics card by writing your own shaders! Shaders are small programs that run on the GPU and are used for purposes most commonly related to graphic effects, video post-processing, and the generation of geometry. They are an incredibly powerful tool for creating hardware accelerated graphics and form the building blocks of the modern graphics pipeline. Vertex, fragment, and geometry shaders will be the main focus of the course. However, if time permits, compute shaders (GPGPU) will also be explored. The topic will be approached platform-agnostic, so that it can be applied to the different implementations in various software environments such as WebGL, Unity, Max, Touch Designer, etc. This an advanced-level 2-credit course. Prerequisite: Instructor Consent Fulfilment: IMA/IMB elective; IMA advanced elective.
The possibility of truth telling has been challenged and debated throughout the history of art and across various genres. What does it mean to tell the truth in art? How does art cross the boundaries between the real and the fake, truthfulness and misrepresentation? This course will examine social engagement in art and the construction of authenticity in creating works based on trust rather than the truth and will investigate a variety of artistic sources and genres including, but not limited to, propaganda, documentary, video art, public art, and installation art. Students are expected to develop projects demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of the subject. Prerequisite: Interactive Lab, Communication Lab, Application Lab or permission of instructor Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
This course offers students the opportunity to develop a self-initiated project with close mentorship from a faculty member. Projects undertaken can span the areas of conceptual research, business development, creative practice, and media production. The course includes structured weekly workshop and critique times with peers and special guests. It is expected that students will be invested in the work of their peers by providing feedback and carefully consider the feedback they receive during critiques. In addition to weekly meeting times, students are expected to also participate in regular one-on-one meetings with faculty, peers, and guests. A formal project proposal, weekly assignments and documentation, a final project presentation, and participation in the IMA End of Semester show are all required. Although students are encouraged to continue work they may have initiated in a prior class, they may not combine or in any way double count work from this class in another class taken in the same semester. Group work is allowed assuming all group members are enrolled in this class. Students may take this course in either the first or second 7 weeks for 2 credits or repeated across 14 weeks for 4 credits. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. Fulfilment: IMA/IMB elective; IMA advanced elective.
Provides data science students with an opportunity to apply the knowledge gained in their course work to practical problems in industry. This course is for majors and minors only.
There are many cognitive tasks that people can do easily and almost unconsciously but that have proven extremely difficult to program on a computer. Artificial intelligence is the problem of developing computer systems that can carry out these tasks. We will focus on three central areas in AI: representation and reasoning, machine learning, and natural language processing.
Students or several students work with a faculty member and/or graduate students on a current topic in computer science. Each term, a project course with a particular theme is offered by the Department of Computer and Information Science. A faculty member assigns individual or group projects. The project course is highly structured and supervised closely by faculty. Students are expected to use the design and project-management skills they learned in CS-UY 4513 Software Engineering. Alternatively, students may work with a faculty member on an individual project of mutual interest. A written report and oral presentation are required. | Prerequisite: CS-UY 4513 or CS-UY 3513.
The course will start off with an in-depth review of the exploitation mitigations introduced in modern operating systems. The instructors will demonstrate their limitations through simple examples and gradually develop the basic exploitation techniques into more complicated methods applicable to real-world exploitation. Unlike most other exploitation courses, we will focus on approaching exploitation as a creative problem-solving process rather than an exercise of applying cookbook techniques to common types of vulnerabilities. Most of the course will focus on the hands-on application of the material through exercises and leading the students through the development of reliable exploits for recently patched vulnerabilities in widely used software. | Prerequisites for Brooklyn Engineering Students: CS-UY 3933 and (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better). | Prerequisites for CAS Students: CS-UY 3933 and CSCI-UA 201. | Prerequisites for Abu Dhabi Students: CS-UY 3933 and CS-AD 103
Prerequisite: Photography & Imaging: Multimedia or permission by the department. This is an intense design class for the crossover creature who yearns to design their own exhibit, create a street poster, develop an ad campaign, design titles for a film, invent a visual identity for a musical score, etc. This will be a hands-on process-driven class that will push you to imagine, create, and produce. Students must know InDesign.
Yoruba is a language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million people. This course is an introduction to Yoruba language, people and culture and is designed for students without prior knowledge. The main goal is to develop elementary communicative competence in the language. It is designed to enable students read, write, listen to and talk about simple concepts, ensuring that they can minimally understand and be understood in the language, while developing a fundamental knowledge of the Yoruba culture. Emphases are on Yoruba as used by contemporary native speakers in the present day West Africa. Skills are developed through intensive interactive conversations, grammar exercises, and classroom activities designed for a learner to use the language in various daily activities.
Consumption of objects, images, and places is central to the culture and economy of metropolitan life. The class will explore how the relationship between consumption and cities has developed by examining three key moments—the late nineteenth century and the invention of urban commodity spectacles, post-war America and the rise of suburban consumer spaces, and contemporary America and the selling of the commodity city. The class addresses three questions: Why do we want things? How does landscape organize our consumer desires? How does place become an object of consumption? We will begin with an examination of classic theoretical works that probe the relationships between people, things, and cities. We will then embed these in discussions of changing forms and practices of consumption and urbanism. The empirical cases we will examine range from the development of the department store, to the fashioning of commodity home, to the work of shopping, and to the emergence of a thriving urban debt industry.
This course is a general introduction to the field of Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS). The course will introduce students to the central questions and debates of NAIS, including but not limited to: Native American hidden histories and oral histories; comparative indigeneities; questions of “discovery” and colonialism; the politics and representations of lands, massacres, and museums; and questions of law, gender and sexuality. It begins by asking students to consider the history of the field and weaves throughout questions about the complicated and contested terrain of the term Indigeneity. It ends with discussions about decolonizing research and indigenous futures, thus preparing students to consider theories and methodologies they will encounter in more advanced courses for the NAIS minor. By the end of the semester, students will have gained both historical and ethnographic perspectives on how museums and other forms of representation help us to know and reproduce ourselves and “others,” and how institutions craft, control, and circulate cultural heritage in various social lives.
Empowerment is defined as those processes, mechanisms, strategies, and tactics through which people, as well as organizations and communities, gain mastery over their lives. It is personal as well as institutional and organizational. Addresses these issues in a wide variety of community settings. Designed to be challenging and rewarding to those students interested in helping people work together to improve their lives.
Examines how the American legal system decided constitutional challenges affecting the empowerment of African, Latino, and Asian American communities from the 19th century to the present. Topics include the denial of citizenship and naturalization to slaves and immigrants, government-sanctioned segregation, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the prison industry, police brutality, post-9/11 detention issues, and voting rights. Course requirements include attendance at a community function involving constitutional issues, a midterm, and an interactive oral and written final project comparing a present-day issue affecting racial minorities in New York City and proposing measures to collectively address the issue.
Provides students with an elementary understanding of Swahili, a Bantu language with a rich oral and written tradition that is spoken by about 100 million people from Somalia to Mozambique and Zanzibar. After a short presentation of Swahili?s history, codification, and relation to other languages, students are drilled in phonetics and grammar. They are also introduced to poems, songs, and oral narratives.
Historically, education has been the most accessible and effective means for groups to achieve social mobility in American society. However, access to public education has never been equal for all segments of society, and there continues to be considerable variability in the quality of education provided to students. As a result of both explicit and subtle discrimination, racialized minority groups have at various times been denied access to education or been relegated to inferior schools or classrooms. Yet education has also been the arena where the greatest advances in social justice and racial equality have been achieved. Understanding the contradictions created by the hope and unfulfilled promise of American education is a central theme of this course.
Introduces theories, methods, and political trajectories central to the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis (SCA). SCA 101 addresses how individuals and populations structure their worlds and navigate the resulting social, cultural, and political terrain. It privileges scholarly work with an intersectional approach, drawing on theoretical insights from such fields as social geography, feminism and queer studies, ethnic studies, urban and metropolitan studies, critical race theory, labor studies, and cultural studies.
Introduces problems raised by the nature of art, artworks, and aesthetic judgment. Considers the expressive and representational properties of artworks, aesthetic attention, and appreciation, as well as the creation, interpretation, and criticism of artworks. Readings from classical and contemporary sources.
Prerequisite: A grade of C or higher in Calculus I (MATH-UA 121) or Math for Economics II (MATH-UA 212) (for economics majors), and General Physics (PHYS-UA 11). Simulations of such phenomena as orbits (Kepler problem and N-body problem), epidemic and endemic disease (including evolution in response to the selective pressure of malaria), musical stringed instruments (piano, guitar, and violin), and traffic flow in a city (with lights, breakdowns, and gridlock). Simulations are based on mathematical models, numerical methods, and Matlab programming techniques taught in class. Emphasizes use of animation (and sound where appropriate) to present the results of simulations.
The course covers three-dimensional vector treatment of the static equilibrium of particles and rigid bodies. Topics: Equivalent force and couple systems. Distributed force systems. Static analysis of trusses, frames and machines. Friction, impending motion. Methods of virtual work. | Prerequisite: PH-UY 1013 and MA-UY 1024
This course provides students with an opportunity to learn about the individual and collaborative services provided by professional managers both inside and outside EMT companies. It develops a system by which to evaluate the quality of the service provided, the nature of the service and how these services are being implemented through collaboration with industry creative and business executives. Through discussions with and lectures by entertainment and media lawyers, accountants, talent and literary agents, studio executives, producers, publicity and advertising specialists, the student will understand the diversity of talents required to complete a project or product successfully. Course Objectives: To provide students with an understanding of the role of the executive in the entertainment and media industries who can assemble a team of creative professionals and manage their activities so that successful content can be the outcome. To share an overview of the various disciplines and content genres/typology needed for the industry sectors that include movies, television, music, publishing, electronic games, theater, and related businesses. To gain insights into legal and financial issues pertaining to the various entertainment and media industry sectors, including basic copyright, intellectual property and privacy issues. To examine the roles and responsibilities of each of the members of the team assembled by the manager (producer, head of production, student head, manager/agent, manager/lawyer, business coach, management consultant). To review and be capable of implementing business plans for funding entertainment projects offered through venture capital, limited partnerships, angels or other specialists in financial deal making. To learn from the experts using lectures, cases, film, texts and guest lectures.
This course will introduce students to social media marketing. Through case studies, interactive sessions, and class exercises, students will learn best practices and develop the skills to connect business objectives with social media strategy, platforms and tactics. We will study how to develop a strategy for a product or service in social media, how to execute that strategy and how to assess the results. Topics will include choosing appropriate platforms, creating effective and engaging social media content, content management, social listening and creating a social media plan. The course also has a practical component, for which students work in small groups and individually.
This course covers the digital technology industry (e.g. consumer electronics, software) from a strategic and marketing perspective. The objectives are to understand how these industries function, the unique challenges they face, and how digital technology companies can leverage their strengths to achieve success in the marketplace. The focus is on understanding the interactions between competition, technology evolution, and firm capabilities.
This course covers the digital technology industry (e.g. consumer electronics, software) from a strategic and marketing perspective. The objectives are to understand how these industries function, the unique challenges they face, and how digital technology companies can leverage their strengths to achieve success in the marketplace. The focus is on understanding the interactions between competition, technology evolution, and firm capabilities.
Video games are now a mainstream form of entertainment. In economic terms, this industry has experienced tremendous growth, despite a grueling recession, growing to an estimated $60 billion worldwide. A key development that has changed the playing field for both the producers and consumers of interactive entertainment is a shift away from physical retail to digital and online game distribution. The audience for games has also shifted—no longer the exclusive practice of hardcore gamers, video games have gained mass appeal in the form of social and casual gaming, on the internet, on consoles, and smartphones. At the same time, the development and publishing of games has become far more accessible. The game behind the game, in a manner of speaking, has changed. In this class, we explore the basic components of the current video game industry. Every week, we review major current events, will hear from people currently working in the industry, examine case studies, and discuss the overall business landscape. Central to each class is the notion that practical business considerations and the design-driven creative process do not have to be in opposition.
This course provides students with a framework for understanding the economics and key strategic issues facing organizations in the entertainment industry. It establishes a basis for the formulation of marketing tactics and strategies for firms competing for consumers’ discretionary spending. Recent developments in major sectors of the entertainment industry are covered, including movies, television and cable, theatre, and sports. Issues that cut across all types of entertainment industries are examined, including licensing, promotion, and new technologies.
Considers contemporary science fiction as literature, social commentary, prophecy, and a reflection of recent and possible future trends in technology and society. Writers considered include such authors as Isaac Asimov, J. G. Ballard, Octavia Butler, Arthur C. Clark, Samuel Delany, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin, Neal Stephenson, and Bruce Sterling.
This course explores unruly images, bodies, faces, spaces, aesthetics, and even feelings that exist at the margins of categorization, making these powerful subjects for artistic work. We will manipulate image-making tools and give form to expressions that reveal the hidden structures of power. Through lectures, discussions, workshops, and readings, we will look at topics such as memes and glitch art, cyberface and AR filters, monsters and glitched bodies, uncanny valley and AI images, as well as liminal space and collaborative world-building. We will pay particular attention to selected writings from Hito Steyerl, Legacy Russell, Rosa Menkman, and Adam Greenfield, and apply these critiques to emerging perceptual technologies (volumetric 3D capturing, machine learning, AR/VR, web-based 3D game engines) that students will use to create their projects.
An intense hands-on study of practical techniques and methods of software engineering. Topics include advanced object-oriented design, design patterns, refactoring, code optimization, universal modeling language, threading, user interface design, enterprise application development, and development tools. All topics are integrated and applied during the semester-long group project. The aim of the project is to prepare students for dynamics in a real workplace. Members of the group meet on a regular basis to discuss the project and to assign individual tasks. Students are judged primarily on the final project presentations.
Object-oriented programming has emerged as a significant software development methodology. This course introduces the important concepts of object-oriented design and languages, including code reuse, data abstraction, inheritance, and dynamic overloading. It covers in depth those features of Java and C that support object-oriented programming and gives an overview of other object-oriented languages of interest. Significant programming assignments, stressing object-oriented design.
Sound is physical. It can move objects, vibrate surfaces, perceptually alter our emotions, and shape the way viewers engage with spaces. As artists, we are conditioned to aspire to situate our work within traditional settings. How can we reposition sound as a main element of a work within unconventional contexts? This course will use the question of a sonic utopia as a platform to create interdisciplinary projects that exist between installation, sculpture, video, performance, movement, and music. Students will learn sound theories through lectures and in-class workshops and are encouraged to incorporate their individual interests into each of the four main projects that aim to position sound as a primary element of a work in order to expand the possibilities of working with sound.
Introduction to Game Engines is a course intended for students who already have an understanding of programming fundamentals that introduces concepts, problems, and methods of developing games and interactive media using popular game engines. Game engines are no longer just used for the development of games, they have increasingly gained popularity as tools for developing animations, interactives, VR experience, and new media art. Throughout the semester, students will have weekly programming assignments, using a popular game engine. There will be a final game assignment, as well as weekly quizzes and a final exam. The course assumes prior programming knowledge, if students do not have the appropriate prerequisites a placement exam may be taken. There will be an emphasis on using code in a game engine environment as a means of creative expression.
Data Physicalization is an emerging research area. It explores new techniques to design and encode data into physical artifacts through geometry or material properties. Recent advances in Computational Design and Fabrication offer novel opportunities to complement traditional screen-based visualizations enhancing people’s ability to discover, understand, and communicate data. This course uses a data visualization approach to define new methods of computational design and digital fabrication. Students will create unique, data-driven, everyday objects and sculpt meaning into them. Through the use of platforms such as Rhinoceros: a 3D modeling software, and Grasshopper: a visual programming language, students will be introduced to fundamental computational methods for designing and fabricating, as well as the understanding of digital fabrication strategies for parametrically generated design. Prerequisite: Interaction Lab or Creative Coding Lab. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective.
Industrial Design in Action is a course that will help you bridge the gap between your ideas and their physical form. From initial research to conception, you will practice and apply different design methodologies that lead to creative and innovative ideas; acquire a fundamental understanding of form, function and design language; and utilize sketching and visual storytelling to communicate a message and features of a compelling product. In addition, you will become familiar with various Computer Aided Design (CAD) softwares; explore different types of materials for different uses and applications; and experiment with a myriad of fabrication techniques, from basic hand tools to advanced digital fabrication, you will learn to use the right tool for the job. Altogether these skills will enable you to go from prototype to a finished product. In a nutshell, this course is about designing and fabricating things we love. Prerequisite: Interaction Lab or Communications Lab or Application Lab. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective.
The current design methods and technologies in the field of digital entertainment, from design concepts to design tools, are still based on 2D screens, but the product is often 3D. This contradiction results in the designers not being able to see the final consequences of their work directly. Can existing VR technologies solve this contradiction? Immersive design is a new design method for digital creativities beyond the screen. It usually takes VR, AR, or MR devices as design interfaces to craft 3D models, textures, game environments, and other gaming experiences. Not only game assets creation but also game design concepts can be changed with these new technical inputs. In this course, students will answer the following questions: ○ Is immersive design more intuitive? ○ Is immersive design more efficient? ○ Do immersive design techniques have lower learning costs? ○ What traditional design lessons and concepts can be applied in an immersive design environment? In view of these questions, students from different disciplines will give answers through discussions, projects, collaboration, documentation, and VR games. Prerequisite: Communications Lab. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective.
In response to the popular conception of the “immaterial” Internet, and “datafication” of all aspects of life, how might we rethink the materiality and environmentality of media in our research? This upper-level seminar will introduce students to various theoretical frameworks in media studies including new materialism, media archaeology, studies of media infrastructures and ecologies, cultural geographies, and elemental media. Students are expected to critically assess the (geo)politics of material/environmental media and to adopt a mix of these frameworks to develop a research project and essay. Prerequisite: Junior standing OR What is New Media. Fulfillment: IMA/B Elective, Advanced IMA Elective.
This course draws from net art, interface design, and post-digital / post- internet practices to explore interactions that bridge screen and physical. Students are led to conceptualize and develop bespoke “interfaces” (in the widest sense), in which either aspects of the web are reflected in the physical world, or – conversely – the habitual mode of browsing is being updated in ways that capture the user’s physical and bodily presence. A reflection of the medium web, its vernacular, and practical daily use is the starting point of this project. The students’ work is additionally being informed by analysis of select examples from art and design, exemplary for ways of re-framing the technical everyday. This course will make use of web technologies (p5.js), and physical computing techniques – and introduce students to various ways those can be technically, and conceptually, combined. Prerequisite: Interaction Lab or Creative Coding Lab. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective.
This course investigates digital art and new media from creative, theoretical, and historical perspectives. We will examine the paradigm shift resulting from the rise of digital art and its expansion as well as explore current ideas, creative strategies, and issues surrounding digital media. The topics of study will include digital image, digital sound, net art, systems, robotics, telematics, data art, and virtual/augmented reality. The course provides students with the means to understand what digital media is, and establish their own vision of what it can become, from both a practical and a theoretical perspective. The course consists of lectures, field trips, and small studio-based practices. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective.
The aim of this course is to explore the relationship between the virtual self and environment and to assess both as a space for learning and collaboration using virtual reality. This course takes place entirely in virtual, immersive environments. Students will be provided Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headsets and specialized software. See the principles above for further details. Prerequisite: IMA Major with junior or senior standing. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective.
Web Page to Web Space is a course that explores virtual interactive experience in the context of Virtual Embodiment, Virtual Space, Telepresence, and Metaverse. Students will investigate new possible ways of using the Web to create new immersive environments in a web platform, by utilizing algorithmic 3D animation and server-side programming. This is an advanced course with technically challenging concepts with three.js and node.js and suitable for students with prior knowledge in visual programming. Prerequisite: Nature of Code or Machine Learning for New Interfaces or Critical Data and Visualization or ABC Browser Circus or Kinetic Interfaces or Machine Learning for Artists and Designers or Expanded Web or Movement Practices and Computing. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective, Advanced IMA Elective.
Learning with Turtles explores programming languages, systems, and activities designed to help learners in computational environments. Starting from a constructionist principle that systems designed for beginners must be able to embody the most powerful ideas in computing, we master some of those systems, explore how those have been designed, and engage in contemporary debates. The environments we learn with include Turtle Geometry, Craft Computing withTextiles, Modelling, and other interactive projects using programming and modelling systems such as Snap!, TurtleArt, Turtlestitch and NetLogo. Individual and group projects involve students in advancing their computational knowledge and skills and provide opportunities to design for others, to teach, to study learning and expertise, and present projects in community and public forums. The course is fundamentally about ideas, and how some powerful ideas from computation can empower a learner to be a better creator and problem solver. Writing, presentations, and discussions will emphasize reflection on our own learning within the course. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
Welcome to the ABC Browser Circus (ABC), where acrobats juggle with hyperlinks, dance across scrolling grids, and jump through open server ports. This course introduces the students to the history of the internet, the World Wide Web, and specifically to the browser as a cultural object and its role in (net)art; in parallel, it teaches web development and guides the students to create three web-based projects. Theory and practice-based components are each conducted during one of two 75 minute classes per week. Prerequisite: Creative Coding Lab. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
This course examines the political movement of queer and transgender artists and programmers who are creating games and computational media. Throughout the semester, we read work by queer, trans, and feminist scholars and designers and play the games they created in order to situate today’s queer and trans games movement within the histories, contributions, and politics of queer and trans people and people of color. How might we re-imagine the radical potentiality of video games and software by centering game studies on queer and trans life, history, and politics?
This course examines the role of media in the history of empires and revolutions and the history of media empires. It focuses on the investment in media forces by both empires and revolutions, and the tendency of media to form empires that are subject to periodic ’revolution’ in the marketplace with the contexts of colonization, decolonization and globalization.
Designing a successful interactive experience or software system takes more than technical savvy and vision–it also requires a deep understanding of how to serve people’s needs and desires through the experience of the system, and knowledge about how to weave this understanding into the development process. This course introduces key topics and methods for creating and evaluating human-computer interfaces/digital user experiences. Students apply these practices to a system of their choosing (I encourage application to prototype systems that students are currently working on in other contexts, at any stage of development). The course builds toward a final write-up and presentation in which students detail how they tackled HCI/user experience design and evaluation of their system, and results from their investigations. Some experience creating/participating in the production of interactive experiences/software is recommended.
This course will introduce students to technologies for speech synthesis and speech recognition from the point of view of performance art. Through weekly assignments and in class lectures, we will explore voice interfaces and their role in technology, design, art, and culture. We will begin with understanding human speech, and then delve into computer speech. We will learn how to program existing technologies such as p5.js to create our own talking machines. The class will research the current limitations and biases of these technologies and models, and respond by leveraging these constraints as ground for performative expression. Students will be required to develop a performative piece as their final project, this could be a live performance, an interactive installation piece, or a performative object or tool. Students are encouraged to bring their interests into the classroom and apply the course into their practice. Prior knowledge of computer programming will be helpful, however, it is not required. NYU is a global community. You are welcome to bring your own language, your accent, and your spoken identity into the class.
This course offers a look at the lack of ethics and affects and effects upon humanity in the development of big tech, social media and the internet. Kicking off with the viewing of the number one doc on this topic “The Social Dilemma”, we begin a conversation around the impact of social media and technology on our lives and how to address it. Students will view documentaries, read books and engage in conversations in break out think tank groups in order to come up with solutions in a midterm one page manifesto for the greater good of humanity. Required readings include from “Understanding New Media Extending Marshall McLuhan” by Robert K Logan to set a framework of what technology is, followed by reading Jaron Lanier, “10 arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now”, and dipping into the spirituality side with “igods” by Craig Detweiler, ending with “Irresistible” by our very own NYU Professor Adam Alter. In partnership with the center for Humane Technology and their curricula support for academics, this course seeks to ask hard questions, dispel mistruths, host constructive conversations, test experiments and create a dialogue around how we must change the ways we develop and interact with tech for our survival. A willingness to take part in class experiments and experience based learning around topics of social media and technology is required. Final culmination of work from the course is a utopian project pitch deck that students design with the task of creating seedlings for new sustainable and humane business models for social media, big tech, and entrepreneurial situations, in hopes that some may go on to grow, bloom and fruit necessary change for the greater good of all. Students at the end of the semester will ethically assess their work and assign their own grade based on their self evaluation.
Auto Fictions is a studio class focusing on the creation of immersive, multi-path and interactive experiences based on personal narrative. Documentary art has included the art of installation for decades, but new technologies have given artists affordable tools that allow them to rapidly prototype and then refine immersive media experiences. Auto Fictions is an interdepartmental course that may include students from Film, ITP and Theater disciplines. Students will create production teams. Each team will make a project and each student will help the other create their work through intensive collaboration. The intention here is to practice collaboration across disciplines, methods, values, and artistic cultures to create a work of immersive fiction based on materials gathered from the past, captured or created in the present and/or imagined for the future. We will look at several possible approaches to the creation of immersive media works. Including multiplexing software programs. Students with the requisite knowledge in these tools or gaming engines with similar capabilities may use them for the creation of their works. But it is not required. There may be an opportunity for building intuitive interactivity into some of the experiences. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic we will be exploring how to adapt our working methods and our work itself to these conditions as they develop. The goal of the course will be to physically realize the works but to do that we will go through a detailed comprehensive design, planning and budgeting process so that if conditions permit all aspects of the work will be fully created or planned and ready to build. If conditions permit, we will meet one day at the beginning of the semester to install and introduce the platform, create teams, and review the assignment. Otherwise we will meet online and begin work there. Students will be provided with access to online tutorials for relevant software and systems.
This is an entry-level, hands on electronics course for students who are interested in working with electronic hardware as part of their creative practice. Throughout the semester we will gain a familiarity with electronic components, learn to create electronic circuits, solder and use Eagle CAD for PCB (printed circuit board) design layout. Topics will include powering circuits, LEDs, switches, transistors, digital logic, memory, timing circuits, programmable microcontrollers (Arduino), analog input (sensors) and motor control. We will also survey past and contemporary work of artists in this field. In this course we approach electronic hardware with the intention of dissolving technological opacity and inspiring our creative practice. Our goal is to shift the way we may usually think about electronics, as inaccessible, complex, difficult and intimidating. And think about it just as physical stuff that we can dig up and use as material and subject for creative expression. This course is aimed at students with little or no experience working in this field. Lectures will be supported by physical lecture notes, a custom electronics learning kit designed by the instructor. Assignments will include assembling and soldering physical lecture notes, weekly creative assignments (with or without electronics) and a final project. There is a $55 lab fee for custom printed circuit boards used in class, which must be returned if dropping the course.
Whether you are a filmmaker looking to better understand how to build a cohesive and productive film crew; a theatre maker excited about building a performance project or theatre company; a multi-media artist looking for ways to innovate your ideas for artistic work in collaboration with others; an artist looking for tools for building an artistic ensemble, or a multi-disciplinary artist looking to take your creative work out into communities as social practice, this combination lecture/activity-based class provides you with tools for better understanding how to enter into and engage others in collective creative work of purpose. Multi-Disciplinary Arts Practice with Community Groups: Theories and Practice explores the challenges and benefits of making artistic work with others and the tools needed to create meaningful collaborative projects. In this class we interrogate definitions of community and group, explore the balance between group process and producing an artistically excellent project, and examine the processes of creating artistic work with others to strengthen our own artistic voices while helping raise the creative voices of others. With its focus on social practice, this course provides a foundation for working with small group structures in a variety of community settings and professional creative work environments. The course satisfies a CA major requirement as well as a social science requirement for all other Tisch students.
While traditional forms of art such as painting and sculpture only expect intellectual communication with the spectator, interactive arts consider the audience as active participants and directly involve their physical bodies and actions. Interactive art invites its audience to have a conversation with the artwork or even be part of it. Well designed interactions add new meanings to the artwork and enhance effective and memorable communication with the viewer through their magical quality. Artists have achieved interactivity in their art through different strategies based on various technologies. For example, some projects have physical interfaces such as buttons and knobs, some projects react to the audience’s presence or specific body movements, and yet others require collaborations between the audience as part of the interaction process. Some artwork involves interactions that require a long period of time for the engagement. In many of these interactive art projects, interaction methods are deeply embedded into the soul and voice of the work itself. In this class, we will explore interaction as an artistic medium. We will be looking at interactive media art history through the lens of interaction and technology to explore their potential as art making tools. Every 1-2 weeks, you will be introduced to a new interaction strategy along with a group of artists and projects. You will learn about relevant technologies and skills for the interaction strategies and build your own project to be in conversation with the artists and projects. You will also explore and discuss the future of interactions and how interactive art can contribute to innovations in interactions, and vice versa. You will also learn about how to contextualize and articulate your project in an artistic way. The assignments include reading, short writing, hands-on labs, and production assignments. Technical topics covered in class include but are not limited to: physical computing, sensing, and interaction design.
Do you want to MAKE THINGS with your computer? Are you an artist, engineer, designer, sculptor or architect? Are you a few of those things? How are 3D scanning and 3D modeling different? What materials should I be using? Should I be 3D printing or CNC-ing this CAD file? What is a Boolean operation and why is it my new best friend? This class will answer all of your questions. Don’t know what any of these things are? This class will answer those questions also. By the end of this course, you will be familiar with all that digital fabrication has to offer. We will cover everything from laser to 3D to CNC. You will learn how to identify which digital fabrication technique works best for your projects. But more than that, you will learn what kinds of questions you should be asking in order to complete a project from start to finish. As technology advances at rapid speeds, digital making machines and software are changing just as fast. So instead of just being taught about the machines of today, you will also be given the tools to teach yourself the machines of tomorrow. Emphasis will be put on learning how to ask the right kind of questions to successfully finish a project. What do you want to make? Let’s make it.
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 dynamic and interactive computer images from scratch, manipulating and processing existing images and videos, compositing and transitioning multiple images, tracking and masking live video, compositing and manipulating live video as well as manipulating depth information from Kinect. The class uses Processing and the Java language and also introduces students to shaders and the glsl language.
This course is designed to provide hands-on experience with creative coding, physical computing, and machine learning to design alternative forms of taking, making, processing, and interacting with images for visual communication and creative expression. The forms and applications of emerging computational tools are explored weekly in technical tutorials and active workshops. These are informed by seminar discussions of readings on critical debates in photography, the history of its tools and uses, and the works of historical and contemporary photographers and artists using photography and new media. Prerequisites: IMA’s foundation course, Creative Computing, or similar coursework with coding and microcontrollers.
This is an interactive media art class for people who want to develop creative experiences that are about something specific with a specific point of view! This sounds vague, but your projects won’t be! You’ll be provided with a step-by-step methodology for making research-driven creative and critical projects with a focus on experience design. For the first part of the semester, you’ll make a low-tech guide to a somewhat wacky random topic you’ve been assigned to. For the second part you’ll choose a topic you are passionate about and make an interactive experience that engages deeply with that topic. Skills touched upon: research methods, ideation, critique, experience design, intro-level Unity3d. Class time will consist of: creative exercises; discussion of readings, methodologies, and artworks; student presentations; critique sessions; guest artists and researchers; and a handful of demos. Why critical? In this class, critical means: discerning, eager to participate differently, cast new light on, re-examine, course-correct. Why experience? The work in this class will be looked at through the lens of its ability to change a user, participant, audience, viewer. Interactivity is one way of doing that, but through the lens of experience design, all art is temporal and embodied. A research-based art practice brings together an eccentric mixture of skills, including traditional forms of research (library and interview techniques, informal ethnographies) and experimental hands-on research (hunch-following, experimentation, systems thinking, prototyping, daily practice, user experience design, and user-testing). We’ll try ’em all!
This two-point workshop is centered on the examination and creation of collective storytelling environments. We will examine a wide-range of storytelling spaces including participatory and user-generated environments, site-specific works, community based arts practices, and transmedia storytelling. Weekly assignments, field trips, and student presentations.
This class looks at the chatbot as a unique medium of art in the context of the bigger art world and the current landscape of chatbot technologies. Students will engage in discussions about topics such as humanity under machine mediation, experiment with various computational tools, and develop creative projects using chatbot technologies.
If so much of life is circumstance, being in a certain place at a certain moment in time… Can we shape a life or at least a few brief moments of a life by designing the circumstances in which that life inhabits a space? In this course, we will treat space as a time-based medium and ask how interactive spaces can generate narratives that are lived rather than told. We will do so by interrogating four so-called “space-narrative” forms: Wandering The Desert, Processions, Circles and Territories. Through play, discussion and hands-on workshopping of both technical topics and ideas we will ask and attempt to answer some of the following questions: What constitutes a space? How do we experience a space over time? How does space shape our experience of time? How can space form a personal narrative? Media outputs we will employ include: lights, projection and sound. Interaction input sources will come from cameras and microphones. We will use p5.js, websockets and node.js for real-time interaction. Class time will be split between group improvisation exercises, playing with and critiquing examples and translating design strategies into code and logic.
Beginning with the invention of paper, the paper craft movement has roots on all continents. This course is divided into several subject areas: the history of paper and paper making, paper folding, paper cutting, paper engineering, paper automata, and the contemporary DIY electronics and paper craft moment. Each subject area has associated readings, a short research presentation on international traditions and forms, several hands-on mechanical exercises, and one individual creative exercise.
This course aims to provide students with the means to understand immersive media experiences, and conduct experiments from both a practical and a theoretical perspective. The course consists of lectures, research, discussion and studio-based practice. Students will learn to produce stereoscopic – 3D images and photogrammetric 3D models, utilize multi-channel video and sound systems, and be introduced to the Unity game engine and VR hardware. For the final project, students produce VR environments in experimental and meaningful ways. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
Electronic Textiles spans the worlds of craft, electronics, and computing. We will build skills in the often surprising world of using soft, stretchy or low tech materials where one might have expected hard, dimensionally stable, or high tech materials and vice versa. Weekly projects will have requirements for craftsmanship and design, and will build skills in integrating electronics and computing with soft items and wearables, making sensors and displays, tailoring and costuming, and creating your own materials. You will gain familiarity with materials and with hand and machine crafting skills. Weekly readings for discussion will be required, and presentations and guest speakers will offer you ideas and critical challenges. Pre-req: None. Fulfillment: IMA/B Elective
An introductory course to machine learning aimed at a hands-on engagement and development of an intuitive understanding of related techniques and effects. The course uses the JavaScript language, and the ml5.js and p5.js frameworks to introduce the theory and application of machine learning algorithms. In exercises and assignments, students will experiment with building, using and critiquing machine learning models and datasets. Readings and discussions will cover relevant issues and frame the practice. This course builds on an existing practice of computer programming. Weekly assignments are required. Prerequisite: INTM-SHU 103 Creative Coding Lab Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
In this course, students focus on the study and development of responsive environments, framed within a contextual and critical exploration of the architectural space as a cultural, social and technological phenomenon, and also on the application of practical scenarios for interaction, sentience, and intelligence. Through the making of creative media designs and physical prototypes, students aim to demonstrate how our habitats/spaces/architectures can facilitate novel frameworks for experiencing and living. Prereq for INTM-SHU 138 is Creative Coding Lab OR Interaction Lab OR Application Lab OR Media Architecture Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective
Technology is allowing us to see our clothing as an extension of our body. An extension acting as a system that reacts, collects information, and augments our modes of interactions with spaces and people. Historically, what we wear has been used to express our identity as well as complex issues related to class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Leila Brillson states: “”What you wear is a part of your identity, and identity is, well, pretty darn political””. Interested in fashion as a form of expression, artists, designers, and architects are now crossing disciplines to explore the realm of fashion. Utilizing computation design, digital fabrication, and electronics they are proposing new wearables to speculate on the future of human existence by exploring the limits of the body. In this course, students will research and work with soft electronics and robotics integrated into textiles to make it possible to add controlled behavior and interactivity with their immediate environment. They will study nature and design wearables, understanding them like a second skin, as well as a soft interface able to gather information and transform itself. Students will also explore the complex geometries and designs allowed by digital design and manufacturing. Furthermore, this course will engage with both theory and practice, and introduce students to a specific design sensibility and methodology in order to design wearables reflecting on religious, social, and political issues. Prerequisite: INTM-SHU 101 Interaction Lab or INTM-SHU 103 Creative Coding Lab. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective
This course surveys the implications of globalization for the production, circulation, and consumption of media. In this course, we will look across both analog and digital media (radio, TV, film, video, pop music, podcast, etc) in relation to a series of questions: How do media (and media industry) represents localities for a global audience? How can media practices create a feeling of belonging to the world/community? How may global media tell us about different material infrastructure, social imagination, and political desires? Students will explore media phenomena and critically examine media texts often beyond North American experiences. By the end of the class, students will be able to articulate how media connects to global flow of finance, cultural product, labor, and social aspirations.
This course investigates and illuminates the concepts and the aesthetics of kinetic sculpture and installation art in various forms from creative and historical perspectives. Students will learn to regard sound and performance as part of a sculptural form and learn to work with space. Students will gain woodworking and digital fabrication skills to expand on their physical computing skills to create moving sculpture and installation. The course consists of lectures, readings, and hands-on studio work.
Beginning with a design problem or challenge, and following a period of analysis and research, a designer can begin to draft, prototype, test, and evaluate possible solutions, often repeating these operations several times until the design reaches maturity. Agile software development methodologies, which involve the formation of self-organized cooperative teams, frequent deadlines with deliverables, and a willingness to accept changing conditions and requirements, have radically changed the way software is being produced. Additionally, new applications, such as Fritzing, 123D Circuits, and Eagle have greatly facilitated the process of electronic circuit design. And Computer Aided Design (CAD) applications, for example Rhinocerous and Tinkercad, and newly available digital fabrication equipment have dramatically quickened the pace with which designers can create physical prototypes. Students in this course will be confronted with a series of design challenges for which they have to propose and prototype possible solutions. The first design challenge will entail the entire class working together to produce a software prototype by adopting agile strategies. The second design challenge will involve students in the process of refining a circuit, and will require bringing a prototype from schematic, to breadboard, perfboard, and finally resulting in a printed circuit board. For the third design challenge, students will explore the use of 3D printers, laser cutters, computer numerical control (CNC) machines, and other tools to produce a physical prototype. Students will then be free to work on a personal design challenge for their final project. Prerequisite: Interaction Lab Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
This course offers students the opportunity to develop a self-initiated project with close mentorship from a faculty member. Projects undertaken can span the areas of conceptual research, business development, creative practice, and media production. The course includes structured weekly workshop and critique times with peers and special guests. It is expected that students will embrace open-source and open-content ideals in their work, be invested in the work of their peers by providing feedback, and consider the feedback they receive during critique. In addition to weekly meeting times, students are expected to also participate in regular one-on-one meetings with faculty, peers, and guests. A formal project proposal, weekly assessments and documentation, a final project presentation, and participation in the IMA End of Semester show are all required. Although students are encouraged to continue work they may have initiated in a prior class, they may not combine or in any way double count work from this class in another class taken in the same semester. Group work is allowed assuming all group members are enrolled in this class. Students may take INTM-SHU 140T-A in the first 7 weeks for 2 credits or take this course in the second 7 week or take both of them across 14 weeks for 4 credits. It is open to anyone in any major assuming they have satisfied the prerequisites. Prerequisites: None Fulfillment: IMA /IMB elective.
This course offers students the opportunity to develop a self-initiated project with close mentorship from a faculty member. Projects undertaken can span the areas of conceptual research, business development, creative practice, and media production. The course includes structured weekly workshop and critique times with peers and special guests. It is expected that students will embrace open-source and open-content ideals in their work, be invested in the work of their peers by providing feedback, and consider the feedback they receive during critique. In addition to weekly meeting times, students are expected to also participate in regular one-on-one meetings with faculty, peers, and guests. A formal project proposal, weekly assessments and documentation, a final project presentation, and participation in the IMA End of Semester show are all required. Although students are encouraged to continue work they may have initiated in a prior class, they may not combine or in any way double count work from this class in another class taken in the same semester. Group work is allowed assuming all group members are enrolled in this class. Students may take this course in the first 7 weeks for 2 credits or take INTM-SHU 140T-B in the second 7 week or take both of them across 14 weeks for 4 credits. It is open to anyone in any major assuming they have satisfied the prerequisites. Prerequisites: None Fulfillment: IMA /IMB elective.
Experience Studio engages students in an immersive learning experience that brings them outside the classroom and into the community. This project-based course provides an opportunity for students to learn about experience design in practice. They will (1) engage in field experience with a community partner, exploring the theoretical and practical underpinnings of experience design through readings, guest talks, field trips, and reflective practice. Drawing from their field research learnings, students (2) produce a project that addresses a real-world challenge, through processes such as rapid prototyping, user testing, and customer research (informed by skills and insights from the initial experience). This course can be taken repeatedly as it will be offered by different instructors in collaboration with different course partners each semester. For the upcoming semester’s offerings, please visit: http://creativityandinnovation.shanghai.nyu.edu/experiencestudio. Prerequisite: None Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective. (open to all; no prerequisites)
Technology products and services are increasingly a huge part of how businesses reach their end-customer and Product Managers (PMs) are the ones to lead teams to build software that solve real problems. This course is designed as an introduction course of how PMs do this across a variety of contexts to evaluate customer needs, translate needs into functional requirements, prioritize different aspects of development, work with cross-functional teams, launch a product and create a holistic vision of how customers experience the product. This course will focus on lectures, discussions, case-studies and hands-on exercises that replicate a typical product process at a startup, tech or non-tech company. This course equips students with the mindset, tools, frameworks to mindfully discover, design and build things that make an impact and meet the needs of real humans. We will cover both core product thinking, and also how to translate that into practical ways to make decisions and build great products. Prerequisite: None Fulfillment: Interactive Media Business Elective ; Interactive Media Arts Elective
The traditional understanding of media industries reminds us of mass media such as TV, radio, newspaper etc. Digital technologies, however have reshaped how media is made, consumed, and comprehended by increasingly fragmented audience groups. Self-made public accounts, search-based video streaming platforms, and social media apps refreshed our vision of media and challenged the existing ways of running a successful media. How to develop a thorough understanding of the rapidly changing market? This course is an introduction to the media industries, with a particular focus on the institutional forces (i.e., market structures, law and regulation, technological advancement, and audience dynamics) that shape the content and forms of emerging media. Combining lectures and guest talks, this class will make sense of the key concepts, professional terms, and business logics embedded in the production and operation of the global media industries. Furthermore, we will take case studies approach to examining the economic and social influences of media companies in specific contexts, particularly China, U.S., and U.K. These knowledge, together with the analytical skills that the students will acquire through in-class discussions, will allow them to comprehend and cope with the interplay among technology, market forces, and regulators in a wide array of media companies, including television, film, news, social media, video streaming, and the media-related tech businesses. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMB major Emerging Media Foundation course or IMB major IMA/IMB elective.
This course will introduce the full process for the identification, invention, and implementation of new technologies. With case studies on innovative products from around the world, successes and failures, practical advice, and ’Getting Started’ discussions, students are encouraged to learn from real projects and apply important lessons to their own ideas. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Business Elective/Interactive Media Elective; Business and Finance Major Non-Finance Electives; Business and Marketing Major Non-Marketing Electives.
This practical course will introduce students with knowledge and tools to quickly iterate, validate and gauge business ideas. The course will explore questions such as: How can we validate an opportunity? What is a “value proposition” and how critical is it? What are the most popular business models and can new ones be invented? Why are investors constantly looking for “Product Market Fit”? Why do “Customer Cost of Acquisition” and “Lifetime Value” matter? The course will also provide an opportunity to apply these newly learned methodologies with two projects during the term of the class. The fourteen weeks classes will be divided into two projects where students will work in teams. One project will be focusing on the Chinese market, whereas the second one will be targeting the North American market. For both projects, teams will be experimenting with customers’ feedback, iterating business propositions and identifying key traction factors. At the end of each project, students will present and demo their business idea to their peers and an external audience of entrepreneurs/ business managers in Shanghai. Prerequisite: None Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Business Elective/Interactive Media Elective; Business and Finance Major Non-Finance Electives; Business and Marketing Major Non-Marketing Electives.
With the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of social movements like Black Lives Matter and #metoo, the field of social good advertising has rapidly expanded as brands seek social relevance, governments and nonprofits look to inform, and activists try to persuade. In this course, students will learn to plan and execute powerful social advertising campaigns, while thinking critically about the blurred lines between advertising and information, and branding and politics, in what Sarah Banet-Weiser calls “Shopping for Change.
In this course, we explore queer and transgender identity through practice, theory, and politics. Approaching media from queer, trans, and intersectional lenses can inform the way we understand the circulation of power around media technologies, and enable us to better understand their histories and cultural contexts. Our approach is grounded in theories, case studies, and readings from communication and media studies. Students are equipped to bring tools from queer theory & trans studies to their everyday encounters with media, technology, and culture.
After its reunification, Berlin gained a well-deserved reputation as an ‘anything-goes’ cultural playground. But just as radical cultural experimentation was leading to the city’s techno Renaissance, the same urban frontier was quietly transforming into a hotbed for new business ideas around tech. Companies like Ableton, Native Instruments, and SoundCloud started in the city and grew from headquarters there into leaders in the field of music technology. They join other world leaders in music tech around Europe, like Spotify, Deezer, Mixcloud, Focusrite/Novation, and Propellerhead. Berlin is quickly becoming known as a world-class hub for innovative tech start-ups and progressive developments in emergent media. This class, open to all students, shines a light on key Berlin-based entrepreneurial figures and innovators in music technology, with a focus on those successful individuals who have launched recognized or profitable music-focused startups. The idea is for students, many of whom are aspiring entrepreneurs, to hear directly from, and ask questions directly to, established Berlin based tech entrepreneurs, in moderated conversation. In anticipation for a guest class visit, students may be required to investigate websites, read biographical or contextual material, or attend events outside of class time. Students will be expected to ask informed questions of the guests and to develop responses throughout the course of the class. All events and speakers are subject to change.
During this course, students will acquire an in-depth, theoretical and practical knowledge of Digital Audio Workstations using the industry standard Logic Pro software through a weekly, lab-based workshop. Each class will be a combination of lecture and immediate application. An emphasis will be placed on getting to know Logic Pro, getting inside Logic Pro, creating sessions, working with media in sessions, audio recording, audio editing, file management techniques, MIDI recording, editing techniques, mixing techniques, backups and stereo mix-down.
Intermediate Game Studies provides students with an overview of the different methodological approaches used in game studies, in order to lay the foundations for advanced work in games research. Given the interdisciplinarity of the field, each section of the class will deal with the main areas of research that are included in games, from the humanities, to social sciences and computer science. Each section will analyze the approach of pre-existing research, alongside readings that will allow students to understand and critique how they followed specific methods.
This course explores the intersection of UI UX thinking and game experience/interface design. Students will be introduced to UI UX concepts and methods, and then supported in adapting them for game specific contexts. Game design – in fact all interactive design – is a conversational undertaking. Students will become better conversationalists both by adding to their store of experience design knowledge and by learning to focus on, empathize with, and draw out their conversation partners – the players.
The Emerging Media Studio courses explore methods to creatively think through and hybridize artistic photographic practice with emerging media technologies from medicine, the military, archaeology, urban planning, environmental science and other industries. Projects may take open-ended forms such as video, virtual reality environments, site-based performance, spatial imaging, 3D fabrication and photographic documentation. Critical readings and ideas drawn from artists as well as professionals in other fields are discussed. Our practice is learning how to adapt to and position ourselves as artists making unique contributions to the social dynamics of culture and a constantly shifting universe of media.
Includes all techniques in which the animator works directly in front of the camera. Examples include: Claymation, puppet animation, paint under the camera, in-camera special effects, and pixillation. Demonstrations on character building, set construction, and design, armatures, and lighting for miniature. Several short assignments are required to introduce students to intricacies of stop-motion animation and relationship to 3-D computer animation. Each student will produce a short film with sound. This course allocates as a Craft for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES. THIS COURSE HAS PREREQUISITES. Non-majors must process a “Permission Notice for Non-Majors” form to register for the course (subject to availability).
Visual Effects and Compositing is a lecture and workshop course that covers the application and practical creation of 2D (greenscreen, color correction, morphing etc.)and integration of existing 3D (CGI, animation, virtual sets etc.) visual effects. The assignments will require students to explore how to create, manipulate and combine 2D and 3D images seamlessly.
Introduction to Visual Effects for Animated and Live Action Films provides an in-depth overview of VFX production from the director-producer perspective. This course will offer a basic understanding of how VFX are utilized and will prepare students for the visual effects industry, and its constantly evolving digital and in-camera solutions. It will also provide an historical overview of the evolution of VFX. Students will also learn how powerful visual effects have been, and will continue to be, in helping to tell stories, especially projects with limited budgets. They will gain a detailed understanding of the type of camera coverage necessary on-set to facilitate the VFX process and what communications, with their primary crew, are necessary during early stages of preproduction to optimize footage for VFX. Areas of study include rig removal, green/blue screen compositing, motion capture, shooting backdrops, matte paintings, background plates, miniatures – models – forced perspectives, match lighting, sky replacement, crowd replication, integration of 2D and 3D CGI elements, motion control and practical effects shot in-camera.
The narrative non-fiction podcast is one of the most popular and creative formats in the audio space, due to the critical success of shows like Serial, 99% Invisible, Ear Hustle, and many more. Although they are challenging to produce, these shows bring a unique blend of intimacy and urgency to the media landscape. This workshop is for those who want to learn the basics of long-form, narrative audio storytelling. Students will go through the editorial steps of pitching, recording, writing and producing a completed episode in a documentary-style format. We’ll work on interview and writing techniques, developing your voice and creative ways of editing sound. Students will also create a podcast pitch deck to support their episode and explore ways to market, distribute, and monetize a narrative podcast.
Data Physicalization is an emerging research area. It explores new techniques to design and encode data into physical artifacts through geometry or material properties. Recent advances in Computational Design and Fabrication offer novel opportunities to complement traditional screen-based visualizations enhancing people’s ability to discover, understand, and communicate data. This course uses a data visualization approach to define new methods of computational design and digital fabrication. Students will create unique, data-driven, everyday objects and sculpt meaning into them. Through the use of platforms such as Rhinoceros: a 3D modeling software, and Grasshopper: a visual programming language, students will be introduced to fundamental computational methods for designing and fabricating, as well as the understanding of digital fabrication strategies for parametrically generated design.
Course description (optional): Not all innovation starts in the West and gets exported to other parts of the world. In many places with less developed capitalist economies and infrastructures, technology is rapidly developed and adapted for hyper-local use. We’ll gain inspiration from a broad spectrum of creative uses of technology in the developing world(s) — from art and design, hacktivism, and community-oriented work that increase social good, and then conceive of and prototype our own projects. Special attention will be paid to speculative 3D fabrication tools and processes, web-based platforms, circuit bending and making them all work together! Students will experiment and research at the intersections of art and technology to develop the beginnings of work grounded in post-colonial reality and the late capitalist near-future.
Innovation is the process by which an organization generates creative new ideas and converts them into viable commercial products. Branding, on the other hand, is the process of creating a unique image for the product in the consumers’ mind. This perception reflects on the organization as a whole. Moreover, branding aims to establish a differentiated presence in the marketplace to attract and retain loyal customers. Thus, innovation and branding are inextricably linked for organizational success, or survival, in today’s hyper-competitive business landscape. This course aims to equip students with knowledge in both the innovation and branding processes. By participating in the International L’Oreal Brandstorm Competition, students will gain practical experience in formulating an idea, develop branding around said idea, and then pitching said idea (innovation and branding) in a competitive forum. Students will also develop an understanding of the role of design and innovation as a collaborative, multidisciplinary group activity; and improve writing and presentation skills. The course incorporates multiple ways of learning including: lectures, case studies, ethnographic research, industry expert feedback on projects and guest presentations, and design activities in the interactive media lab. In essence, the course integrates a project-based learning approach. (No Pre-requisites; satisfies IMB Major, and Business Major – Marketing Elective if Intro to Marketing has been taken, otherwise Non-finance/Non-marketing Elective)
Is healthy media use possible? What does that look like? Most of us use our electronic devices more than we had planned, and a quarter of US college students are estimated to experience internet overuse. Electronic device overuse is associated with an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and loneliness, along with a host of neuropsychological changes. In this course, we will discuss the rise of internet overuse, its associated negative consequences and possible strategies to reduce excessive use.Specifically, the course covers: 1) the definition of internet and phone overuse, 2) the brain mechanisms and behavioral patterns which lead to excessive use, 3) how brain/behavioral mechanisms are exploited to make video-games, television programs, and websites as addictive as possible, and 4) what we can do to regain our balance at the personal and societal levels. Department of History Medieval France.
In this course we will take a tour of the materials and techniques utilized by artists in the emerging field of biological art – that is art which uses life itself as a medium. This hybrid art and science class will introduce concepts in genetic engineering, personal genomics, the microbiome, epigenetics, microscopic imaging, tissue culture/bioprinting, biopolitics, and bioethics as sites for artistic exploration. Organized in thematic modules students will learn basic lab techniques while studying the work of artists in this interdisciplinary field. The three core areas are: Input/Output (imaging and printing with biology, tissue culture), identity after the genome (genetics, personal genomics, microbiome, epigenetics, portraiture), and final projects. Weekly readings and written responses will supplement lab activities. The course will culminate in the creation of original biological artworks by each student, which will be exhibited in the Interactive Media Showcase at the end of the semester.
Live coding is a performing arts form and creativity technique where music and visuals are improvised through live edits of source code. Live coding is most visible in performance, however the ’live’ in live coding refers not to a live audience but to live updates of running code. Working across genres, live coding has been seen in algoraves (events where people dance to music generated from algorithms), jazz clubs, and concert halls. Code is projected during performances, exposing the underlying algorithms at work, and thus the patterns of creative thought the performer is developing in real time. Programs are instruments that can change and algorithms are thoughts that can be seen as well as heard. This course explores this new art form and the related themes of algorithmic thought, pattern transformation, artificial language, information theory, improvisation, listening, perception, and structural composition. Students will learn how to create music with code, as well as how to create advanced computer graphics. Students will develop algorithmic audio/visual pieces individually as well as in groups. The course culminates in an algorave.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms affect many aspects of our lives whether we realize it or not: banking transactions, healthcare treatments and diagnoses, entertainment recommendations, smart car functionality, customer service agents, financial trading… the list goes on and on. The power of these algorithms lies in their ability to leverage computers to “study” and “learn”. Instead of programming a computer to do a specific task, we program the computer to train and teach itself how to do any number of tasks. As artists, how can we harness the power of these algorithms and apply them towards creative endeavors? This class will explore that basic question. Through a combination of high level applied machine learning techniques, speculative design of artificial intelligence, and some basic understanding of how these algorithms work at a low level, students will explore this rich new field. With their machine counterparts, they will create images, sounds, text, intuitive interactions, chatbots, and more.
Taking off from the practices of medium-based art categories, this course is structured across key topics in contemporary art – “art of today, produced by artists who are living in the twenty-first century”. During the semester, via the framework of readings, projects and assignments, we will consider the importance of the visual arts in the larger context of society. Each week we will look at a different topic, which will be organized around key concepts, artists and artwork examples. The main goal is to allow us to contemplate the process of interaction between visual art, history, cultural, socio-economical, and technological forces. The stress of our gatherings will be on the artist as a thinker and a maker.
The Vertically Integrated Projects courses are designed to allow select students to participate in ongoing research, innovation, design, and entrepreneurial projects within student teams, under the direction of faculty from within Tandon, and other schools of NYU. This is the zero-credit version of the course. These courses are open to students from the first to senior years, and students must apply to engage in a specific project in a given semester. Decisions on acceptance will be made by the faculty advisors for the project, in consultation with the Director of the VIP Program. Students must commit to at least three semesters of participation in VIP, either enrolling in VIP-UY 300X or VIP-UY 3000.
The Vertically Integrated Projects I-IV courses are designed to allow select students to participate in ongoing research projects within student teams, under the direction of faculty from within Tandon, and other schools of NYU. These courses are open to students from the sophomore to senior years, and students must apply to engage in a specific project in a given semester. Decisions on acceptance will be made by the faculty advisors for the project, in consultation with the Director of the VIP Program. | Department Consent Required.
This course explores sound as an art form and technical practice in its own right. Topics include contemporary techniques in composition, sound art, and interactive installation. Students will produce sound with narrative elements that evoke social, cultural & critical-thinking. Their final projects can be experimental podcasts, music (performance and/or recordings), multi-channel audio installations, or multimedia projects. | Prerequisite: DM-UY 1113 or MPATE-UE 1001
This course covers the concepts, techniques, algorithms, and state-of-the-art approaches for robot localization, mapping, and planning. The course starts from basic concepts in 2D kinematics and probability and then introduces probabilistic approaches for data fusion. Then, the course introduces the trajectory planning problem in the time domain and free space. The motion planning problem is defined in a canonical version of the problem and the concept of configuration space is introduced. A selection of representative planning techniques is covered from probabilistic to heuristic techniques. Finally, some mapping representations and algorithms are presented. | Prerequisite: CS-UY 1114 and MA-UY 2034 and PH-UY 1013 or equivalents (see Minor in Robotics)
In this course, the theoretical bases and applications, of haptics technologies with a particular focus on medical applications (specifically surgical, and neurorehabilitative) are taught. Basic technological aspects, such as instrumentation, actuation, control and mechanisms, are introduced. Also, some theoretical aspects related to telerobotic systems are discussed. Students are expected to have basic knowledge of programming. As part of this course, students will participate in experimental and simulation labs to acquire hands-on expertise in haptics implementation and programming. | Prerequisite: CS-UY 1114 and MA-UY 2034 and PH-UY 1013 or equivalents (see Minor in Robotics)
Students that successfully complete CSCI-UA 467 Applied Internet Technology are not eligible to take CSCI-UA 61 Web Development and Programming. Applied Internet Technology is a practical introduction to creating modern web applications. It covers full-stack (that is, every aspect of building a database driven web application: server programming, database implementation, frontend markup, styling and interactivity) web development. It includes topics such as database and data model design, web application architecture, separation of logic and presentation, handling user input and processing form data, managing asynchronous processes, strategies for creating real-time web applications, and handling client-side interactivity. Students will use current server and client-side web frameworks and libraries to build dynamic, data-driven sites. Various applications to support development will also be introduced, such as version control, static analysis tools, and build systems.
Extracting, transforming and analyzing data in myriad formats. Using traditional relational databases as well as non-relational databases to store, manipulate, and query data. Students will learn how to work with data by writing custom programs, creating queries, and using current data analysis tools and libraries… all on a wide array of data sets. Additional related topics will be covered, such as data modeling, cloud databases, and API programming.
Data is often considered the domain of scientists and statisticians, but its increasing dominance across nearly all aspects of life – from political and advertising campaigns to social media, dating, education, and public health — has social, political, and ethical consequences, presenting both new possibilities and new hazards. In this course we think critically about how collecting, aggregating, and analyzing data affects individual and social life, with a focus on the ways in which it reproduces and creates new structural inequalities and power asymmetries.
A continuing exploration of graphic design to help students refine their skills & develop more personally expressive ways to solving problems through visual communication. Assignments, readings, & research projects will allow students to consider the complex nature of graphic design. Both traditional & digital approaches to typography & layout will be incorporated with a wide range of assignment. A priority is placed on the use of concepts to dictate design techniques & on the pursuit of a genuinely creative vision.
This course equips students with the skills and tools necessary to address applied data science problems with a specific emphasis on urban data. Building on top of the Principles of Urban Informatics (prerequisite for the class) it further introduces a wide variety of more advanced analytic techniques used in urban data science, including advanced regression analysis, time-series analysis, Bayesian inference, foundations of deep learning and network science. The course will also contain a team data analytics project practice. After this class the students should be able to formulate a question relevant to urban data science, find and curate an appropriate data set, identify and apply analytic approaches to answer the question, obtain the answer and interpret it with respect to its certainty level as well as the limitations of the approach and the data.
Visualization and visual analytics systems help people explore and explain data by allowing the creation of both static and interactive visual representations. A basic premise of visualization is that visual information can be processed at a much higher rate than raw numbers and text. Well-designed visualizations substitute perception for cognition, freeing up limited cognitive/memory resources for higher-level problems. This course aims to provide a broad understanding of the principals and designs behind data visualization. General topics include state-of-the-art techniques in both information visualization and scientific visualization, and the design of interactive/web-based visualization systems. Hands on experience will be provided through popular frameworks such as matplotlib, VTK and D3.js.
The course targets current and future urban practitioners looking to harness the power of data in urban practice and research. This course builds the practical skillset and tools necessary to address urban analytics problems with urban data. It starts with essential computational skills, statistical analysis, good practices for data curation and coding, and further introduces a machine learning paradigm and a variety of standard supervised and unsupervised learning tools used in urban data science, including regression analysis, clustering, and classification as well as time series analysis. After this class, you should be able to formulate a question relevant to Urban Data Science, locate and curate an appropriate data set, identify and apply analytic approaches to answer the question, obtain the answer and assess it with respect to its certainty level as well as the limitations of the approach and the data. The course will also contain project-oriented practice in urban data analytics, including relevant soft skills – verbal and written articulation of the problem statement, approach, achievements, limitations, and implications.
The UCSL at CUSP is a series of online sessions designed to build a common skillset and familiarity with techniques, concepts, and models for urban informatics computing. The online sessions focus on data explorations, programming skills and statistical methods needed for scientific computing in the field of Urban Informatics.
This course will introduce students to the basic concepts of 3D design and capture through the use of apps and other tools. Through examination and discussion of the current state of 3D printing technology we will explore current and future implications for music and the music business, including but not limited to, live and recorded music, music publishing, innovative tools, part and instrument fabrication, licensing, management, touring, copyright, distribution and marketing. Extra focus will be given to existing and potential merchandise platforms, as well as how 3D can lead to the growth of new industries and new opportunities for cross-pollination with a variety of sectors. Students will be encouraged to pursue both practical and abstract concepts in the furtherance of dynamic and newly inventive ideas – and will be required to develop and submit a concept and plan for their final project.
During this course, students will acquire an in-depth, theoretical and practical knowledge of Digital Audio Workstations using the industry standard Pro Tools software through a weekly, lab-based workshop. Each class will be a combination of lecture and immediate application. An emphasis will be placed on getting to know Pro Tools, getting inside Pro Tools, creating sessions, working with media in sessions, audio recording, audio editing, file management techniques, MIDI recording, editing techniques, mixing techniques, backups and stereo mix-down.
This class builds upon the techniques of the recording studio and the techniques of producing recorded music begun in Engineering the Record I, IIand Producing the Record Side A and B and will explore advanced techniques used in surround and immersive sound recording and mixing. Today, surround and immersive audio can be found in all areas of popular entertainment: music, film, television, streaming, games, etc. By using the multichannel studio facilities of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, students will further learn to record and mix in surround and immersive audio formats. Assigned work will take place in Studio 1 and Studio 4.
Flash Frames explores the moving image, the pixel, color, and composition, through two weekends of intensive, hands on image fabrication. Students gain a coherent understanding of the technicalities involved in producing artistic and professional quality videos. The workshop applies technical and creative approaches to capturing video, editing, and adding the finishing touches on short productions. Projects are focused on strengthening design and editing skills, understanding media management practices, applying video effects, color correction, motion graphics, and sound. Students broaden their understanding of digital design and video production, while learning the basics of video editing, animation, sound mixing, and motion graphics.
Hollywood in your palm. That is what this combination of lectures, screenings, demonstrations and practical production workshop will offer to the students in this course. There will be several professional guests making presentations and Q&A sessions from the mobile phone filmmaking industry. In addition to the historical and critical overview of the emergence and exponential growth of global cell phone cinema, students will shoot all footage on cell phones and download them for computerized editing. The final project will be under three minute shorts. Projects will include all genres of film and television: news, mini-documentaries, animation, music videos and narrative shorts. Completed student projects will be suitable to be posted on the Internet and entered into domestic and international mobile phone film festivals. For example, two minute long improvisations of Bollywood Style Music Videos shot on Cell Phones by the students have been projected at the Tribeca Cinemas as part of the New York Indian Film Festival. It is suggested but not compulsory that students bring to the class a cell phone capable of recording video.
Introduction to Game Engines is a course intended for students who already have an understanding of programming fundamentals that introduces concepts, problems, and methods of developing games and interactive media using popular game engines. Game engines are no longer just used for the development of games, they have increasing gained popularity as tools for developing animations, interactives, VR experience, and new media art. Throughout the semester, students will have weekly programming assignments, using a popular game engine. There will be a final game assignment, as well as weekly quizzes and a final exam. The course assumes prior programming knowledge, if students do not have the appropriate prerequisites a placement exam may be taken. There will be an emphasis on using code in a game engine environment as a means of creative expression.
2D Art and Animation for Games is a 1-semester, 4-credit class that builds fundamental skills around the design and production of art assets for games. Through a series of individual design assignments, critiques, and exercises, students will explore concepts like art direction, color theory, animation principles, and UI design while building a working knowledge of prominent industry tools.
In this course, we will explore how to create narratives that leverage our lesser used senses like touch, taste and smell as well as lesser-known ones like space, time, balance and scale. We will dig into the history of experiential storytelling, starting from immersive theater and Smell-O-vision to cutting-edge haptics and mind-bending illusions of proprioception. To help center this back in practical applications, we will also explore how this evolving art is commonly used in exhibition design, experiential marketing and brick and mortar retail. The class will be a healthy mixture of game theory as well as experienced based learning (meaning there will be a couple field trips and multisensory VR projects to explore). A basic knowledge of game engines is ideal but not mandatory because we will be using predesigned templates in Unreal engine to be experienced and manipulated in real-time through virtual reality hardware.
To be a VR creator, it’s not enough to learn the hard skills—it’s also our responsibility to prime ourselves for the human impact of our work. As a means to design VR that is both enjoyable and accountable, this class proposes we borrow design principles from Hedonomics, a branch of ergonomic science that facilitates pleasurable human-technology interaction. Through the Hedonomic Pyramid, we’re able to section our thinking off into regions (Safety, Function, Usability, Pleasure and Individuation) and map out industry-tested VR design guidance for each. The result is a hierarchical checklist of proven principles, specifications and practices—that promote a culture of inclusive and holistic design—built to serve as a quickstart guide to designing accountable VR interfaces and systems. This class, divided into units that represent each level of the Hedonomic pyramid, will unpack both technical and conceptual strategies for creating VR, from visual interface fidelity to avoiding locomotion cybersickness to designing safer social VR spaces.
Buildings produce a large percentage of the carbon emissions threatening the planet and multi-family residential buildings make up a significant portion of it. With Covid-19 changing the way we live and work, and the increasing amount of data available from buildings, a key to fighting the climate crisis will be turning this data into action. In this course, learn how to analyze interval data and explore visualizing data to motivate tenants and building operators to change their behavior to reduce energy usage at the optimal times. This will involve analyzing the data streams coming from installed sensors and building equipment, understanding how usage varies over time, and transforming raw data into visual interfaces that mobilize us all in the fight to save the planet. This course will teach basics of how time series data can be stored, how to query time series data, and how to understand energy usage from a data set. With these new skills students will design a project using time series data and their JavaScript skills to visualize this data.
Throughout history, musicians have channeled their creativity into outrageous fashion statements and invented personas: think MF DOOM, Sun Ra, Ghostface Killah, Daft Punk, Leikeli47 and Rammellzee. By embracing their alter egos in extreme and outlandish ways, artists have found their authentic creative voices. This course will introduce participants to the art of masquerade using their resourcefulness to create costumes from found materials, and performance as an exploration in creative expression using new media and technology. Students will be introduced to ideas surrounding abstract storytelling, experimental audio video production, and A/V performance using a combination of technical and hands-on approaches.
Artists and creative practitioners are widely seen as responsible for destabilizing or critiquing dominant cultural norms and social systems; for example, in her book “Race After Technology”, Ruha Benjamin argues that artists “…can better understand and expose the many forms of discrimination embedded in and enabled by technology”. But when we talk about resistance or refusal enacted through creative means, what exactly do we mean? How does artistic work serve to resist, protest and subvert—and where does it sit in relation to the ideas it aims to critique? This class engages with the notion of “creative resistance”, unpacks the meanings and ethical stances associated with the term, and evaluates how it has been applied in both artistic and academic contexts. Students will explore theories of resistance, refusal and solidarity, and experiment with applying them to (or discussing them through) creative work. In the first half of the class, through reading, class discussion and student presentations, we will engage with scholarly and activist literature on resistance, protest and subversion, and look at examples of creative technological works that purport to achieve these goals. We will discuss commonly used strategies such as dark sousveillance (or “looking back” at the machine), speculative design, and distributed or guerrilla artmaking; examine their mechanisms of action; and debate their effectiveness in achieving their professed goals. In the second half, students will apply this thinking to their own project ideas. Students can choose to produce either a final project responding to the themes of the course, accompanied by a short written artist statement, or a more academic written piece that engages relevant literature from the class readings and beyond in service of an argument about the role of resistance in creative practice.
With recent advances in hardware and software, millions of us now carry unprecedented spatial computing and world sensing technologies in our pockets. With these technologies in hand, how do we design AR experiences that are contextual at the core – that are sensitive to the spaces we inhabit and the behaviors of people in those spaces? How do we augment this better understanding of reality? This course will be a hands-on workshop where we create spatially aware, contextually driven AR applications unique to particular situations. We will examine the opportunities and challenges when designing for site-specific experiences – museums, live events, retail, medical settings, industrial environments, schools, and others. Topics will include image and object recognition, world mapping, people tracking, location anchors, the ARKit “depth api” (LiDAR enabled features), spatial audio, scene understanding and semantics, and more. For design and development, we’ll primarily use Apple technologies – ARKit, RealityKit and RealityComposer. We’ll also tap a variety of cloud services to store, move, process, and bring intelligence to the data generated and consumed in our experiences. 3D modeling skills are helpful but not required. While we’ll cover the basics, students should expect to spend additional time outside of class learning Swift and other related programming concepts. Full-time access to an iOS device (LiDAR-enabled is ideal but not required) and a Mac laptop running the latest operating systems are required. As part of the design process, we’ll host workshops and guest critiques with designers from top studios around New York City as well as directly interfacing with various teams at Apple.
This course will serve as an incubator to imagine a speculative product advertisement in the year 2030. In films like Blade Runner, or Her adverts fill the world and become an important aspect of exposition for the film. And in the real world, works such as Alisha Wormlsey, Alexandra Bell, and Hank Willis Thomas begin to re-imagine advertisements as an art practice in society today. Our work will begin to speculate on near-future objects in which topics such as communication, energy storage, transportation can begin to be re-imagined in the next industrial revolution. Using 3D tools, students will gain experience in speculative design thinking, industrial design modeling, product lighting, and custom post-production methods. The final project will be a product advert that will be designed to promote a speculative design entirely made from 100% Biodegradable plastics. The course will look at the ready-made objects all around us as a launching pad. We will be starting with modeling an object in detail. Using Moi 3D, Maya, Render Engine TBD, After Effects, and premiere over the course of the semester. I will go through some of the latest tools within the VFX industry and support this course with a series of artists who have re-imaged the role of cultural production. The final will be an advertisement poster and animation.
If social change begins in the imagination, how then can creators better envision and render the more just and beautiful worlds we want to make? Storytelling has the power to be an alchemical force for revolutionary change. Together, we seek to interrogate and apply interactive storytelling as a technology we can deploy in service of our collective liberation. In this course, we pair a study of story as liberatory praxis with a hands-on grounding in emerging tech tools that allow viewers/players to take an active role. Interactive storytelling technology in video, audio, and text powerfully situates viewers inside constructed narrative worlds. Creators in these emerging media gain the capacity to design choices and respond accordingly, propelling imagination toward agency and enhancing empathic connections between viewers/players and characters. What will it mean to use these tools to tell deeper stories that ask urgent questions about how we want to live in the world? “Part of being a revolutionary is creating a vision that is more humane. That is more fun, too. That is more loving. It’s really working to create something beautiful.” —Assata Shakur
Not all innovation starts in the West and gets exported to other parts of the world. In many places with less developed capitalist economies and infrastructures, technology is rapidly developed and adapted for hyper-local use. We’ll gain inspiration from a broad spectrum of creative uses of technology in the developing world(s) — from art and design, hacktivism, and community-oriented work that increase social good, and then conceive of and prototype our own projects. Special attention will be paid to circuit-bending and designing custom PCB boards using open-source software like CircuitMaker and EAGLE.
Project-based development studio incorporating dramaturgy techniques, user/audience planning, and social/contextual awareness. You bring in a project. We explore how to make it more engaging through paying close attention to medium, context, and details. Students bring existing project ideas and we investigate various methods and ways to make and direct experience within the infinite combinations of contexts of the present moment together. This particular studio is just as appropriate for projects in the areas of interactive art, programming, physical computing, XR as it is in the areas of performance, sculpture, and sound walks (everything). Everything you make is time-based the moment a user interacts with it (even a painting). All time-based work can be thought of in terms of how a user is led (or not led) through it. I call this directing. We will apply various techniques of story-telling and world-building equally to seemingly “non-narrative” projects as we do to traditional-narratively structured projects. No matter what you are working on, I believe that you are a maker / director of experience. You are making / directing with intent (whether you know it or not). Your user (audience, tester, public, patron) brings with them the entirety of their life’s experience. Your intent cannot possibly meet every user’s lived experience. It is your job as the maker / director to draw a circle that encompasses both. This is the studio’s lens. Students will be directed to make using placeholders instead of waiting for perfection to manifest. Step one will tell you what step two is. We will pay rigorous attention to detail, while holding close to the notion that art-making thrives in adaptability. We will critique using various, structured, co-facilitated methods. Let’s pay close attention. Let’s learn through failure. Let’s listen to what we are making. And let’s listen to each other. Here we go.
Live streaming is so seamlessly embedded into our online experience. We lay in bed, on our phones watching hearts flicker across the screen as the person we’re watching greets all of the competing messages in the chat, asking for birthday shout outs and follow-backs. While the ability to live stream feels more accessible than ever, it feels very tied to corporate structures, branding and self promotion. How can we push the concept of a live stream in a new direction and rethink what a live stream can be?
What can an object tell us about the world? What can the world tell us about an object? As students and practitioners in creative media, investigating the world around us is a core part of an art/design/tech practice. This course focuses on a specific research approach for doing so: the implosion method (developed by Joseph Dumit based on Donna Haraway’s work). Over the course of this two-weekend workshop, we will individually and collectively critically examine, break down, rearrange and communicate as Haraway says, the “sticky economic, technical, political, organic, historical, mythic, and textual threads that make up [an object’s] tissues.” Students will choose an object at the beginning of the class and over the course of a week will follow the implosion method process, culminating in a presentation of findings the following weekend. The implosion methodology will be supplemented by lectures, group conversation, hands-on activities and skill building of complementary research methods. The final presentation will be to communicate findings and learnings through a multimedia or art/design/tech-based form. By working through the implosion method, students will build skill sets in methods and tools for 1) conducting research in the media studies/creative tech/art fields and 2) structuring and communicating the information they collect by creating a media-based representation. This class is for students interested in fostering, developing, starting, or deepening a research-based art practice with topical interests in how technology relates to society, social issues, and ethics.
This course traces along the scholarship of Anna Tsing and Donna Haraway, and Animist and Perspectivist cosmologies to study and consider our positions within multispecies relations via material exploration and interspecies storytelling. This is a hands-on course engaging in communal growing and fabrication using biomaterials such as bacterial cellulose, mycelium, lactobacilli, yeast, and more. During the course students will participate in guided somatic exercises and writing as a generative pathway to create their own multispecies allegories and exploratory projects. We will look over and talk about the work by artists such as: Natalie Jeremijenko, CAConrad, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Anicka Yi, Bo Zheng, Una Chaudhuri, Agnieszka Kurant and Ernst Karel.
This course aims to provide students with the analytical skills to interpret current trends, policies and problems into futuristic (5 years) product proposals and the thought leadership and communication skills to clearly articulate and pitch those ideas. Projects can range from how prolonged quarantine will impact home exercise to the future of entertainment in self driving cars. Students will research and explore an opportunity space of their choosing where they will infer future problems from current trends then create a speculative solution. They will package their product thinking into a pitch deck and present back to the class. The class format will include lecture, in-class and out-of-class design exercises that apply the concepts covered in the class lecture and a final presentation and critique.
For most of its brief history, the domain of “smart cities” has belonged to large corporate vendors who promise and offer ubiquitous, citywide intelligence that utilizes their proprietary systems. More recently, an increasing number of startups have developed solutions which can make the technology somewhat more accessible. Unfortunately for municipalities, working with product vendors can be a heavy lift and the commitments involve lengthy procurement and contracting processes. In the past five years or so, the access to connected technology has increased and the hobbyist or “maker” movement has seen an uptick in offerings related to IoT. From the Arduino IoT Cloud and Adafruit.io software, to the Raspberry Pi and Particle hardware, building connected IoT devices has become easier than ever before. Through platforms like Google Coral and Nvidia Jetson, even edge computing and AI has become available to those with coding skills and a modest budget. What this course aims to explore is what happens when low-cost, readily available electronics platforms address the data needs of municipal governments. Rather than thinking of smart cities as large scale, big data projects that provide intelligence across a city, we will look at targeted applications that would be too small or costly to pursue as a conventional IoT procurement. What intelligence can be gathered in a short period of time with a small budget? During this course, we will examine successful and troubled smart cities projects, discuss the ethics of public technology projects, and review the prevailing best practices and guidelines relating to the Internet of Things in government use. Thinking in terms of “rapid IoT” and “little big data,” students will partner with NYC agency representatives* to uncover insights about a particular issue related to their work. Students will undertake a semester-long project, working to understand the agency’s data needs and develop an IoT solution to gather data for analysis that could inform the agency on planning, policy, or operational issues. The course will cover current connected microcontroller platforms and connectivity options like WiFi, Cellular, and LoRaWAN as well as the software tools needed to store and present data in user-friendly dashboards.
A new world is emerging at the intersections of machine learning and physical computation that will offer wide-scale access to bringing intelligence to everyday devices and spaces at extremely low costs. In this course, students are offered the opportunity to become pioneers in a new field of hardware machine learning as they are introduced to the most used machine learning platform in the world (TensorFlow) that has been embedded into an incredibly small microcontroller, called TinyML. Students will learn about building with machine learning, the ethics and societal impacts of ML, and how to start realizing creative computation through ML-based physical computing.
Narrative holds a place in discourses of health, illness, caregiving, and disability, carrying and conveying the densely detailed, nuanced, and complex threads of personal emotion, social experience, and cultural meaning that accompany all instances of these subjects. Narrative also plays a growing role in clinical practice, research, and health education, as increasingly registered in the burgeoning field of Medical Humanities. This course introduces students to texts, practices and major works in the emergent fields of Graphic Medicine and Narrative Medicine, using traditional humanities methods of critical reading and analysis as well as experimental and creative methods including field observation and art-making in a variety of media. Building upon a series of practice-based assignments throughout the semester, students will complete a final project that exemplifies some of the ways narrative and graphic design foster understanding and knowledge in contexts of illness.
So much of life is circumstance, being in the right place at the right moment in time. Can we shape a life or at least a few brief moments of one by designing a space for it to inhabit? In this course, we will treat space as a time-based medium and ask how experiential spaces can generate narratives that are lived rather than told. We will look to a broad range of storytelling traditions to interrogate four so-called “space-narrative” forms: Wandering The Desert, Processions, Circles and Territories. Through play, discussion and technical and conceptual workshops, we will ask and attempt to answer some of the following questions: What constitutes a space? How do we experience a space over time? How does space shape our experience of time? How can space shape both a personal and collective narrative? We will build spaces with lighting, projection, sound and physical objects. Class time will be split between group improvisation exercises, playing-testing and critiquing projects. The class will culminate in a showing of work at the end of the semester.
Is it a plaything? Sculpture? Nostalgia? A Product? Art toys exist at the center of a unique Venn diagram. Each student in this class will develop an original limited edition art toy. We will cover toy fabrication, character design, material selection, packaging design, and art toy culture. The class will be fabrication heavy, there will be weekly assignments, and a final project.
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). Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media (ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048) & Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)
This course explores the disruptions and creative possibilities that realtime emerging media provides through the lens of learning how to design, create, produce and perform in realtime. Students will be learning how to design and produce for realtime interactive audiences, understand the modern streaming media pipeline, the fundamentals of virtual production, digital content creation and the basics of game engines and other software – all in the service of delivering a more engaging and intimate connection between audience and performer. Students will design and perform 2 distinct realtime performances as well as work together with peers to conceptualize, design and produce a short realtime ‘pilot’ using the tools and techniques you’ve learned in the first two projects. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Interactive Media Business Elective ; Interactive Media Arts Elective
This practical, hands-on course will explore questions such as: How can we design engaging, creative learning experiences that are relevant to the cultural goals and needs of today’s youth in China, while laying the foundation for creative learning for the workforce of tomorrow? What are engaging, effective creative learning resources, and how are they best implemented in Chinese learning settings? How can we take advantage of young people’s near ubiquitous love of the arts to facilitate creative learning?’ In this course, students will work in teams to design digital learning resources and experience designs at the intersection of music, coding, arts, and technology. The course will begin with an introduction to emerging trends in learner engagement and design-based research, especially related to web- and mobile-based musical experiences and principles of making music with new media. Innovations in and applications of musical interaction, interactive technologies, user-centered design & engagement, scaffolded learning, creative learning, pedagogies of play and making, and educational entrepreneurship will also be explored. Students will work together in teams and paired with a partner audience of learners and teachers in Shanghai drawn from local and regional international schools, ed-tech startups, and cultural partners. Together they will assess the needs and opportunities of partner students and teachers, and engage in a two-stage iterative, reflective co-design process prototyping custom learning resources and experience designs with their partner end users. At the end of the course, students will present and demo their learning resources as part of a public showcase to an external audience of partners, educators, technologists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and experience designers in Shanghai. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Business Elective/Interactive Media Elective; Business and Finance Major Non-Finance Electives; Business and Marketing Major Non-Marketing Electives.
This course will provide a foundation for understanding modern web development with a focus on front end technologies and accessing public data. The forms and uses of these technologies are explored in a laboratory context of experimentation and discussion. This studio stresses interactivity, usability, and the quality and appropriateness of look and feel. Students will create two web applications, including one that leverages public APIs and Javascript libraries. The goal of the course is for students to learn how to think holistically about an application, both by designing a clear user experience and understanding the algorithmic steps required to build it. Assignments are arranged in sequence to enable the production of a website of high quality in design and engineering.
Real-Time Media is a 4-credit class using MaxMSPJitter to survey how real-time and reactive media can be used for art installation and performance. Classes will be a mix of coding labs, surveys and lectures on historical examples of the medium, guest artists talking about their practice, class field trips, and in-class performances and critique. While the primary focus will be on video and sound there will also be attention given to sensors, electronics, web APIs, and more. The class has coding assignments building to solo video and audio performances and final group installation project.
Fairy tales, myths, and stories of magic have always served as a way for both children and adults to make sense of the unpredictabilities of the world around them. How do these stories serve us today? How do new technologies allow us to reinterpret them so that they have new meaning for our times? Through readings, weekly exercises, and a final project, students in this course will explore the historic role and structure of fairy tales as well as the potential contemporary frameworks that allow us to entertain the impossible. Students will work with stories of their choosing however we will examine their implementation through traditional material and book art techniques, as well as projection mapping, 3D and VR (using Unreal Engine.)
This course explores the multi-faceted nature of New York City as a cultural & economic hub for food & media. Food is never just something we eat, but in New York City food has taken on an increasing prominence in public life. Food shapes communities & is an increasingly important marker of social & cultural identities. Media of all types fuel & shape our connections to food. Tastes are defined; diets & food habits are promoted & demoted; food fortunes & food celebrities are made. How has New York City become so important to the business of taste? What goes on behind-the-scenes? Topics include: Food-related publishing & broadcasting; green markets, food trucks, & systems of supply & distribution; marketing; Chinatowns, diversity, fusion, & identity. Open to majors & non-majors including special students. Classroom instruction is supplemented by site visits, guest lectures, & field research.
Prerequisite: Photography II or permission from the department. This course combines theory and practice as it pertains to making art projects for the World Wide Web. The course will investigate what it means to work in this new environment and how the medium might influence the work made. The course will investigate a variety of approaches such as conceptual, experimental, documentary and diaristic. Special consideration will be given to the ways in which structure (nonlinear vs. linear), interactivity and metaphor influence meaning. Formal design elements such as color, typography, scale and sequencing will also be examined. In addition, the nuance of html tags, hexadecimal colors and image compression will be explored. There will be several short projects as we get up-to-speed on the technical side. Two larger projects will comprise the remainder of the semester: a portfolio project that focuses on graphic and interface design; and a web project that uses “web space” as a medium for its own sake. Students should be prepared to exercise both sides of their brain. This course requires a nonrefundable lab fee.
Physical Computing is an approach to computer-human interaction design that starts by considering how humans express themselves physically and how computers can sense that expression. This course is designed to provide students with hands-on experience in researching, designing, and building physical interfaces for computers and other digital devices. Physical computing takes a hands-on approach. Students will learn to understand electronic sensors, connect them to computers, write programs, and build enclosures to hold sensors and controls. They will also learn to integrate all of these skills in the design of devices which respond to human physical expression.
This course aims to provide students with the critical thinking and practical skills for creating effective and compelling user interfaces. We will dissect what a compelling user experience is and discuss and apply design frameworks and methods for creating one. Throughout this 2pt course we will examine a range of examples of interfaces with a focus on understanding the attributes of a successful interfaces and hands-on experience applying proven research, mapping and testing UX techniques. The class format is lecture and studio and will include discussions, student presentations and critique, and in-class design exercises. The exercises and assignments focus on problems that are typical of those a UX designer will encounter in the professional world.
50 Days of Making is a 1.0 unit online course that offers students the opportunity to pursue a creative passion and develop or refine a skill over a 50-day period. Students choose a topic of interest and produce an expression of that topic every day for 50 days. For examples of past projects from the 100-days version of the class see here: https://itp.nyu.edu/classes/100days/. This course will meet four times on a bi-weekly basis over the course of the 1st 7-weeks of the term (every other week). Class time is spent discussing student progress and reflecting on students’ creative journey. Note that this class is a heavy lift for 1.0 unit, so only committed students should consider registering for it. Failure to complete the 50-day challenge may result in an incomplete grade for the course.
This course will focus on the prototyping of wearable electronics projects for a single user: you. In this class we will wear what we make, following an iterative cycle of research-design-make-wear. Lectures, readings, and discussions will serve to provide historical and contemporary framing for our work. Wearable technology prototyping strategies and techniques will be shared and tested. Special focus will be placed on circuit building and fabrication approaches that are compatible with a home studio environment. Previous experience with electronics or physical computing is strongly encouraged. Students will emerge from the course with a deeper knowledge of what it takes to develop and refine a robust, bespoke wearable electronics project.
Time to get your hands dirty. Prototypes need to be created, motors have to be mounted, enclosures must be built. Understanding how things are fabricated makes you a better maker. But hardware is hard. You can’t simply copy and paste an object or working device (not yet anyway), fabrication skills and techniques need to be developed and practiced in order to create quality work. You learn to make by doing. In this class, you will become familiar and comfortable with all the ITP shop has to offer. We will cover everything from basic hand tools to the beginnings of digital fabrication. You will learn to use the right tool for the job. There will be weekly assignments created to develop your fabrication techniques. There will be in class lectures, demos, and building assignments. Emphasis will be put on good design practices, material choice, and craftsmanship.
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.
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.
Examines visual culture of the city, from the dynamics of visuality in the 19th-century modern cityscape to the mega cities of globalization. It addresses the visual dynamics, infrastructure, architecture, public art and design imaginaries of urban spaces, taking New York City and Paris as primary case studies and including other cities from the 19th century to the present. The course will examine the politics of urban design, the city as a site of division, disaster, memory, and political activism. Meets Liberal Arts Core requirement for Societies and Soc Sciences.
This course investigates digital art and new media from creative, theoretical, and historical perspectives. We will examine the paradigm shift resulting from the rise of digital art and its expansion as well as explore current ideas, creative strategies, and issues surrounding digital media. The topics of study will include digital image, digital sound, net art, systems, robotics, telematics, data art, and virtual/augmented reality. The course aims to provide students with the means to understand what digital media is, and establish their own vision of what it can become, from both a practical and a theoretical perspective. The course will consist of lectures, field trips, and small studio-based practices. Prereq: None Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
What can machines tell us about the human condition? Is something that appears to be intelligent, really intelligent? Is a device that appears to have likes and dislikes “alive”? As robots and Artificial Intelligence become more powerful and prolific, what makes us unique? This course will address these questions by exploring a series of increasingly complex software “creatures” which seem to have qualities usually associated with living beings. This course will primarily follow a classic text that proposes “experiments in synthetic psychology”, with excursions into cybernetics and how it relates to art. Course material will incorporate both theoretical and practical components. Readings include critical analysis regarding the historical and contemporary theories and practices in these fields. Students will develop software “vehicles” which will embody the ideas being explored. By creating and simulating multiple and increasingly complex vehicles, interactions and behaviors will be explored.
An introduction to the history, theory and practice of computer-aided artistic endeavors in the field of visual arts. This class will focus on the appearance of computers as a new tool for artists to integrate in their artistic practice, and how it shaped a specific aesthetic language across traditional practitioners and newcomers alike. We will be elaborating and discussing concepts and paradigms specific to computing platforms, such as system art, generative art, image processing and motion art. Drawing on those areas, students will explore their own artistic practice through the exclusive use of their computers. The course will also serve as a technical introduction to the OpenFrameworks programming environment to create works of visual art. As such, Software Art: Image will be an art history and critical studies course with a studio component. Software Art: Image is a complement to Software Art: Text, a 7-week course approaching software and computation from the perspective of poetry and fiction. The two courses can be taken in series or independently.
An introduction to the history, theory and practice of computer-aided artistic endeavors in the field of prose and poetry. This class will focus on the appearance and role of computers as a new way for artists to write and read both programming and natural languages. While elaborating and discussing concepts and paradigms specific to computing platforms, such as recomposition, stochastic writing and ambiguity, students will be encouraged to explore their own artistic practice through the exclusive use of their computers, by writing their own programs. As such, Software Art: Text will be a literary history and critical studies course with an active writing component (in both Python and English). Students will be exposed to new creative perspectives on reading and writing in the digital age. Software Art: Text is a complement to Software Art: Image, a 7-week course approaching software and computation from the perspective of the visual arts. The two courses can be taken in series or independently.
This course examines both the practices and the products of adapting narratives from one medium to another. Through case studies of specific adaptations, we will address some of the major formal, industrial, and interpretative questions that transmedia adaptation raises, as creators change characters, stories, settings, and narrative tropes to fit into new stories various, often multiple media: comics, radio, novels, movies, television, games (tabletop and electronic), and more. Theoretical readings will give students concepts and a vocabulary to discuss ways that narrative adaptations use and re-purpose their “source” texts. Students will write prompted response papers, an analytical essay, and an annotated bibliography; in collaboration with classmates, student teams will first propose and then develop transmedia narratives of their own. Prerequisite: Writing as Inquiry Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
This 2-unit interdisciplinary research seminar will be held in conjunction with an international symposium convened by the NYU Center for AI and Culture, which will bring leading scholars, curators, science fiction writers, and heads of major platform research groups to campus. The seminar will host a deeper interdisciplinary conversation on the issues that underpin their work. Seminar participants will meet each of the conference speakers. We will emphasize the overlapping and intersecting histories of “AI” in cognitive science, philosophy, interactive and computer arts, and science fiction literature and film. The frequent back-and-forth between AI in fiction and in fact is the basis of how we will, together, attempt to map the divergent futures of AI. It is said that artificial intelligence will be as important to the twenty-first century as oil was to the twentieth. AI is promoted by China, Europe, Russia and the USA as central to their innovation strategies and, as such, may portend a new computational arms race. There is consensus that geopolitical peace and conflict may be determined by how great nations use AI for good or ill. To define AI is is to conceive what is and is not “intelligence” and what is and is not “artificial.” Because no two cultures understand these basic terms in the same way, they will not understand AI in the same way. As such, any global discussion about the future of AI must be cross-cultural. The more we understand what each culture “means” by AI the more fruitful the collaborative design of AI can be. The seminar is suggested for students of Interactive Media Arts, Computer Science, Political Science, Philosophy, and anyone interested in algorithmic art, automation, machine vision, computational economics, and geopolitics. We will read and discuss 10 key texts and students will prepare an original project, paper or hybrid. Prereq: WAI Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
“In this course, students focus on the study and development of responsive environments, framed within a contextual and critical exploration of the architectural space as a cultural, social and technological phenomenon, and also on the application of practical scenarios for interaction, sentience, and intelligence. Through the making of creative media designs and physical prototypes, students aim to demonstrate how our habitats/spaces/architectures can facilitate novel frameworks for experiencing and living. The course aims to introduce students to a range of contemporary techniques on interactive and computational system development with a creative and speculative approach, using state-of-the-art development tools, such as Internet of Things, cognitive computing, as well as physical computing and real-time media design. The course consists of lectures (⅓), workshops (⅓), and practical sessions (⅓), and intends to provide a comprehensive and critical understanding both on the theory and practice of designing and implementing technologies for responsive spaces.” Prereq for INTM-SHU 138T is Interaction Lab, Communications Lab, Creative Coding Lab, Application Lab, Media Architecture
Science fiction, in literature, graphic novels, motion pictures, video games, and other mass media, has been a valuable form of sociocultural expression for generations. We use it to express our concerns for humanity, as well as our relationship to technology, one another, and our forms of governance. In the first half of this course we will learn about the field of future studies as we examine a body of works across various media which explore a popular theme in science fiction, such as time travel, space exploration, robots, dystopia and utopia, or pandemic. In the second half of this course we will produce a collective work of transmedia science fiction that reflects on the past, address concerns about the present day, and forecasts possible future scenarios. The theme of this semester will be pandemic. Prereq: None. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
Learn woodworking as a form of expression. Wood can be used to create both practical and artistic projects, from sculpture to furniture to musical instruments. Students will use the IMA woodshop to learn hand tools and machine tools and woodworking techniques. They will learn to safely operate woodshop tools. They will learn about wood: its structure, its properties, its use as a material and as a medium. We will learn about tone woods, sound, and music. Projects will include the design and fabrication of practical and artistic woodworking artifacts, and will include a major project in an area that is selected by the student. Woodworking sits at the intersection of design, engineering, and performance of a specific set of motion practices. During the course, we will reflect on the woodworking process, and relate it to other practices such as software design and construction. Prereq: None Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
The Internet and computer devices have evolved rapidly. New technology may soon allow us to communicate virtually through Web VR/AR platforms. 3D contents may eventually overpower 2D images and textual content on the platforms. Web pages will become Web Spaces. This class allows students to explore new possible ways of using the Web by utilizing basic web development knowledge and advanced 3D visualization to create new immersive environments in the web platform. This is an advanced course with technically challenging concepts. Prereq: Creative Coding Lab, or similar programming background Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
This course offers students the opportunity to develop a self-initiated project with close mentorship from a faculty member. Projects undertaken can span the areas of conceptual research, business development, creative practice, and media production. The course includes structured weekly workshop and critique times with peers and special guests. It is expected that students will embrace open-source and open-content ideals in their work, be invested in the work of their peers by providing feedback, and consider the feedback they receive during critique. In addition to weekly meeting times, students are expected to also participate in regular one-on-one meetings with faculty, peers, and guests. A formal project proposal, weekly assessments and documentation, a final project presentation, and participation in the IMA End of Semester show are all required. Although students are encouraged to continue work they may have initiated in a prior class, they may not combine or in any way double count work from this class in another class taken in the same semester. Group work is allowed assuming all group members are enrolled in this class. Students may take this course in either the first or second 7 weeks for 2 credits or repeated across 14 weeks for 4 credits. It is open to anyone in any major assuming they have satisfied the prerequisites. Prerequisites: None
This course will focus on designing, creating, and performing with self-built electro-acoustic music systems to explore the limits of human musical expression. Over the semester, students are asked to research examples of contemporary work by creators of musical interfaces and discuss a wide range of issues facing technology in the performing arts. Readings and case studies will provide background for class discussions on the theory and practice of designing gestural controllers for musical performance. Students will invent and prototype a complete system encompassing musical control, mapping input to sound, and the creation of sound itself. Interaction Lab is a prerequisite, however, prior performing experience is not required. The performance discipline is inherently interdisciplinary and collaborative, so an open mind to working with others is imperative. The class will culminate in a performance where students will play their instruments live as well as a formal presentation of the students’ works at the NIME2021 conference hosted by NYU Shanghai. Prerequisite: Interaction Lab Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
Hands-on lab accompanying Digital Electronics. Lab sessions will contain hands-on experience with logic circuits & microcontrollers. The course culminates with a student developed final project.
An introduction to Analog Electronic theory including solid-state devices. Ohm’s Law & related measurement techniques will be explored. Students must enroll in a Lab section to apply hands-on experience in basic circuit design & measurement.
An introduction to Digital Electronics, including binary systems & logic. Students must enroll in a Lab section to apply hands-on experience in simple computer programming techniques, digital processing applied to music with specific relevance to computer music synthesis & MIDI.
Hands-on lab accompanying Analog Electronics. Lab sessions will contain hands-on experience with analog audio circuitry. The course culminates with a student developed final project.
This course focuses on electronic music synthesizer techniques. Concepts in the synthesis of music, including generation of sound, voltage control, and treatment of sound and tape techniques. Included is a short synopsis of the history and literature of analog electronic music. Students complete laboratory tasks and compositions on vintage synthesizer modules and create one or more final projects that demonstrate(s) the application of these concepts.
Introduction for teachers, composers, and performers to explore potentials of computer music synthesis. Basic concepts of music synthesis presented through the use of a microcomputer, keyboard, and appropriate software. System may be used as a real-time performance instrument or as a studio composition instrument. Educators may explore potentials for classroom application.
Analytical and theoretical concepts required grasping the aesthetic development of electronic and computer music compositions. The course emphasizes analysis and historical understanding of techniques of production and compositional ideas.
Digital recording technology & production techniques are explained & demonstrated. Lecture topics engage analog to digital conversion, digital to analog conversion, digital signal theory & filter design, digital audio effects & mixing. Studio lab assignments are performed outside of class reinforcing weekly lecture topics.
Through weekly performing, readings and discussions, students study the conceptualization and production of live electronics ensemble performance. Students create new works, improvisations, and rehearse compositions from a growing repertoire of electronic ensemble compositions, to be performed at a semester’s end public concert.
A deep sense of a descending dystopian future has become more pronounced with the global pandemic, economic shutdowns, and the rise of extremism and authoritarianism. Scholars, novelists, journalists, filmmakers, and activists around the world have been writing and speaking about political systems and leadership classes incapable of addressing such issues for decades. Students explore dystopia through literature, film, and scholarly works, and examine strategies for resisting dystopia. Students participate in a social action project and create video projects.
This course focuses on technological developments and cultural contexts relevant to understanding the development of digital computing technology. The course familiarizes students with the social forces and technocultural innovations that shaped the personal computing industry, and uses primary documents, academic history and critical theory to contextualize and problematize popular frameworks of technological progress and challenge narratives of computing’s inevitability.
This course examines Modern Cryptography from a both theoretical and applied perspective, with emphasis on “provable security” and “application case studies”. The course looks particularly at cryptographic primitives that are building blocks of various cryptographic applications. The course studies notions of security for a given cryptographic primitive, its various constructions and respective security analysis based on the security notion. The cryptographic primitives covered include pseudorandom functions, symmetric encryption (block ciphers), hash functions and random oracles, message authentication codes, asymmetric encryption, digital signatures and authenticated key exchange. The course covers how to build provably secure cryptographic protocols (e.g., secure message transmission, identification schemes, secure function evaluation, etc.), and various number-theoretic assumptions upon which cryptography is based. Also covered: implementation issues (e.g., key lengths, key management, standards, etc.) and, as application case studies, a number of real-life scenarios currently using solutions from modern cryptography. | Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
This course addresses the design and implementation of secure applications. Concentration is on writing software programs that make it difficult for intruders to exploit security holes. The course emphasizes writing secure distributed programs in Java. The security ramifications of class, field and method visibility are emphasized. | Knowledge of Information, Security and Privacy equivalent to CS-GY 6813. Prerequisite: Graduate standing
This course is about experimental game design. Design in this context pertains to every aspect of the game, and these can be broadly characterized as the game system, control, visuals, audio, and resulting theme. We will explore these aspects through the creation of a few very focused game prototypes using a variety of contemporary game engines and frameworks, high-level programming languages, and physical materials. This will allow us to obtain a better understanding of what makes games appealing, and how game mechanics, systems, and a variety of player experiences can be designed and iteratively improved by means of rapid prototyping and play-testing. The course combines the technology, design, and philosophy in support of game creation, as well as the real-world implementation and design challenges faced by practicing game designers. Students will learn design guidelines and principles by which games can be conceived, prototyped, and fully developed within a one-semester course, and will create a game from start to finish. The course is a lot of (team)work, but it’s also a lot of fun. Programming skills are helpful, but not a hard requirement. Artistic skills, or a willingness to learn them are a plus. | Prerequisite: (Graduate Standing AND CS-GY 6533) for SoE students OR (OART-UT 1600 and OART-UT 1605) for Game Center MFA students OR instructor permission.
Big Data requires the storage, organization, and processing of data at a scale and efficiency that go well beyond the capabilities of conventional information technologies. In this course, we will study the state of art in big data management: we will learn about algorithms, techniques and tools needed to support big data processing. In addition, we will examine real applications that require massive data analysis and how they can be implemented on Big Data platforms. The course will consist of lectures based both on textbook material and scientific papers. It will include programming assignments that will provide students with hands-on experience on building data-intensive applications using existing Big Data platforms, including Amazon AWS. Besides lectures given by the instructor, we will also have guest lectures by experts in some of the topics we will cover. Students should have experience in programming: Java, C, C , Python, or similar languages, equivalent to two introductory courses in programming, such as “Introduction to Programming” and “Data Structures and Algorithms. | Knowledge of Python. Prerequisite: Graduate Standing.
This course takes a top-down approach to computer networking. After an overview of computer networks and the Internet, the course covers the application layer, transport layer, network layer and link layers. Topics at the application layer include client-server architectures, P2P architectures, DNS and HTTP and Web applications. Topics at the transport layer include multiplexing, connectionless transport and UDP, principles or reliable data transfer, connection-oriented transport and TCP and TCP congestion control. Topics at the network layer include forwarding, router architecture, the IP protocol and routing protocols including OSPF and BGP. Topics at the link layer include multiple-access protocols, ALOHA, CSMA/CD, Ethernet, CSMA/CA, wireless 802.11 networks and linklayer switches. The course includes simple quantitative delay and throughput modeling, socket programming and network application development and Ethereal labs. | Knowledge of Python and/or C. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an important topic in computer science and offers many diversified applications. It addresses one of the ultimate puzzles humans are trying to solve: How is it possible for a slow, tiny brain, whether biological or electronic, to perceive, understand, predict and manipulate a world far larger and more complicated than itself? And how do people create a machine (or computer) with those properties? To that end, AI researchers try to understand how seeing, learning, remembering and reasoning can, or should, be done. This course introduces students to the many AI concepts and techniques. | Knowledge of Data Structures and Algorithms. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
This course provides a high-level overview of the key ideas and technologies that lead to revolutionary changes in Artificial Intelligence and to the explosive growth in practical applications of AI. Taught by a team of NYU’s top experts in artificial intelligence lead by the Turing award winner Yann LeCun, the course will introduce students to a range of topics in fundamentals of AI and its key sub-areas including machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision as well as its applications in different domains.
The first wave of data science focused on accuracy and efficiency: on what we can do with data. The second wave is about responsibility: what we should and should not do. Accordingly, this technical course tackles the issues of ethics and responsibility in data science, including legal compliance, data quality, algorithmic fairness and diversity, transparency of data and algorithms, privacy, and data protection. An important feature of this course is its holistic treatment of the data science lifecycle, beginning with data discovery and acquisition, through data cleaning, integration, querying, analysis, and result interpretation.
Identity and representation are two of the most pressing and complex issues for contemporary video games, that without recognizing them an artist or critic would be missing a large part of how games are important in culture. With growing art and activist communities, video games are diversifying and grappling with a wide range of topics rarely seen before in the genre, and with it a greater need for informed perspectives on the topic of how marginalized people are depicted in media. This course discusses foundational theories of identity and encourages students to contribute their own ideas towards the design and interpretation of representation in games.
Technology is a weasel. Squeezing its way into art, culture and the everyday. It infiltrates our psyche, inspiring playful interactions, fantastical ideas, vengeance and drama. It brings us together while tearing us apart. In this project-based studio, we will focus on a collective approach to creating art, tools, performances, and experiences. Outer Space in the context of this course will be used as a metaphor for the future, the unknown, and the seemingly impossible. We will investigate disparate cultural moments and unravel narratives that are both historical and technological. Technology will serve as a structure with open-ended assignments in music, video, sculpture, electronics, kineticism, surveillance, interactive graphics, and performance. Combined collaborative exercises and individual projects will augment classroom discussions and inform the art that we make. A willingness to use your imagination and personal experience to derail preconceived notions of linear timelines will serve you well in this hands-on multidisciplinary course.
This course will combine a history of video art and experimental film with practical training in the use of live video performance art technology. Students will explore new ways to create and edit films and videos using VJ software, projections, and multi-channel video surfaces. Workshops will demonstrate concepts and software that can be integrated into the creative process of video performance art and video art installations. COURSE OBJECTIVES At the completion of this course, the student will be able to: Draw inspiration from the recent history of incredible video and multi-media artists. Develop an understanding of audio and visual hardware used by VJ’s. Use live VJ software to manipulate digital media in real time to create Video Performance Art. Use Projection Mapping techniques to project video art onto 3D surfaces. Create original video performance art, video installations, and other performance pieces. Utilize skills to make video art in the professional market.
Making Webisodes is an intensive production workshop in which students create unique and compelling content for the web. Students will explore the basics of online video production, working with – concept creation – writing – directing – acting – production design – camerawork – sound – editing – online distribution – social media – web monetization – and advertising. Web series are an exploding new art form. Embedded ads, 5 second hooks, instagram stories, tik-tok, and viral videos all present a variety of new media approaches within the entertainment industry, business, lifestyle, and politics. Webisodes are short visual presentations that either entertain us, directly sell us product, indirectly sell us product, share a powerful message, investigate social issues, expose problems, celebrate joy, engage our perspective, shock us, or challenge us. Students will work with Sony FS5 cameras, microphones, and LED lights and they will also be trained to use their own dslrs and cellphones, in order to practice creating a wide variety of webisodes. Workshop assignments employ practical exercises to help the students conceive and create their own unique webisode, which can be fiction or non-fiction, experimental or satire, personal or political. Combining the powerful tools of traditional filmmaking with innovative new digital media tools, this class guides students to create dynamic web based projects. As the students produce their digital media, they learn by doing and they gain practical knowledge of the art, craft, and commerce of webisodes.
This course will explore the basic tools of digital imaging. We will cover the three main Adobe products for creative imaging – Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. Through a series of short assignments we will look at various graphic design and layout ideas using Illustrator and InDesign and will touch on the wealth of image enhancement techniques afforded by Photoshop. The short assignments introduce the basics of design, typography and compositing images. Students have the opportunity to complete a small project of their own for the end of the term. Class time will be divided between lectures, critiques, and work in class sessions. This course is not intended to completely cover the software listed, but will give students a fundamental understanding of the possibilities of digital imaging. While the majority of the class focuses on print media (images, books and magazines), we discuss the growing importance of screen output. We do not have time to cover specific web or media projects, but will address transferable skills and understanding. We will incorporate some Adobe apps to augment the desktop applications. Additional reading materials will be distributed during the semester. Students should have access to the Adobe Creative Suite through the NYU license.
Introduction to Virtual Production is a class composed of lectures, discussions, screenings, exercises, group critiques and presentations. The course is designed to expose students to the fundamental principles of storytelling through Virtual Production including writing, directing, cinematography, performance, editing, art direction, and technical direction. The course will explore emerging techniques utilizing software and technology. How do you tell a story in this new form of collaboration? How can students apply what is learned to their own creative work? History and theory of Virtual Production will be studied and used to inspire personal and creative work in order to better understand how story through Virtual Production can successfully be expressed and most effectively reach its audience.
Students in this class will be asked to embrace Theodor Adorno’s notion that, “All art is an uncommitted crime.” First, we will explore the vibrant history of dissent in art, comics, design, film, literature, music, and emerging media through the consideration of work by artist dissidents such as Ai Weiwei, Cindy Sherman, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Rollins, Howard Cruse, Jenny Holtzer, Maya Angelou, Michael Moore, Václav Havel, and more. The work of these people is aimed at raising awareness, at disrupting the status quo, and at holding people, organizations, nations, and / or society itself accountable for wrongs committed. Next, students will individually create bold responses to something of concern for them by adopting the methods of a dissident from history or contemporary practice. Finally, we will form an artist collective and create a campaign of dissent aimed at creating positive change within the organization that we are all part of.
We have all played and enjoyed games, but how do people actually design and develop them? How to describe a game from a professional standpoint? What are the basic elements and structure in video game development? How do game designers create an interactive experience for the player? What about prototyping and iterating in development? This course explores these questions and others through playing, analyzing and making games over 14 weeks. Students will understand game not only as an entertaining production and business model but a form of interactive media impacting current life and future. Students will be introduced to game design concepts, emphasizing the development: paper and digital prototyping, develop iteration, interactive narratives design and embedment, object-oriented programming, 2D/3D game art design, sound effects composition and user testing. For the course project, students will work in teams and create games in multiple projects, from board game focusing on gameplay prototype to digital playable experience with creative game art designs. This course leverages Unity, a game engine that uses C# based programming language. Basic knowledge of any programming language will come in handy. Prerequisite: Creative Coding Lab, Interaction Lab or equivalent programming experience. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
From the history of visual music and abstract film to the contemporary notion of live cinema, this course will be an exploration of the synesthetic relationship between sound and visuals in a real-time performance setting. Dating back as far as the 18th century, systems have been invented to produce images alongside music linking the two through formalized arrangements. Current media technologies make developing such systems both more approachable and more expansive in their scope. Through readings, viewings, and case studies students will gain an understanding of the history and theory of live audiovisuals. During the course students will team up to develop and master a real-time audiovisual system of their own invention. The class will culminate in a show in which they will present their work through a live performance.
With the rise of mobile computing platforms such as smart phones and tablets, location has suddenly become a key element in the production and consumption of media. In this online course, designed for NYU Shanghai Interactive Media Arts majors studying abroad, students will be encouraged to simultaneously explore their unique study away site, as well as to consume, research, critique, and create location-based media for mobile devices. Students will be introduced to GPS (Global Positioning System) technologies through activities such as geocaching and GPS drawing. We will next investigate geocoding, geotagging, and geofencing through the application of JavaScript mapping platforms CartoDB and Google Maps. Students will then explore an emerging technology known as Bluetooth Beacons, which can be used to create custom positioning systems and to facilitate location awareness in mobile devices. Students will be asked to then produce, as a final project, a game that engages participants in a location or locations, as well as in locative media in any number of forms. Note: This is an online course featuring both synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities. Registration is limited to IMA Majors studying at NYU’s global sites other than New York or Abu Dhabi.
“The smartphone is not only the primary site for digital communication and consumption, it also hosts emerging forms of media production. Let’s investigate the potential of the mobile touchscreen as a creative instrument! This is a project based course, and we will explore by creating and testing a series of functioning web-based toys – including drawing apps, character creators, and writing tools. You can expect to sharpen your skills in javascript and design. “
In this course, students will be exposed to different qualitative research methodologies and disciplinary approaches to those methods (in terms of technique, ethical standards, approaches to citation, etc.). Students will practice using research methods to study subjects of their choosing and produce reflections, sketches, or prototypes based on weekly research findings. By practicing the act of “doing research” students will think about ways to incorporating research into their practice and better understand and articulate how research is already part of their practice.
The class will teach how to architect and lead a virtual production by creating a dialogue between the Producer, Director, and Cinematographer in filmmaking with the Technical Producer and Director in creative technology. The class will cover an overview of all of the technical skills required to produce a remote virtual production through the lens of a project manager making administrative and creative decisions. This class will culminate in a real-time 3D project exploring motion capture and virtual production that will adapt a pre-existing cinematic work with the class themes in mind.
Today’s internet, made up of mostly text documents and two-dimensional images and videos, is the result of historical limitations in bandwidth, graphics processing and input devices. These limitations have made the internet a place where the mind goes, but the body cannot follow. Recent advances in motion capture devices, graphics processing, machine learning, bandwidth and browsers, however, are paving the way for the body to find its place online. This course will explore embodied interactions in the browser and across networks. Specifically, we’ll explore TensorFlow.js models like PoseNet and BodyPix, and Microsoft Kinect in p5.js and Three.js. Assignments will consider designing engaging embodied experiences for individual and social interactions online. Experience with Node, HTML and JavaScript is helpful but not required. ICM level programming experience is required. The course will have weekly assignments that explore embodied interaction online. Assignments will begin with exploring single points of interaction (i.e. one mouse or one joint), and progress to considering full bodies and multiple bodies in one browser. Students will have a 2-3-week final project with which they will delve more deeply into the subject matter in one piece of work. Students will have readings/watchings focused on embodied and networked user experience. Some influential works that will likely be assigned/discussed are Laurie Anderson’s “Habeas Corpus,” Todd Rose’s “The End of Average,” and Myron Krueger’s “Artificial Reality.” The course examples will be taught in Javascript using web technologies/frameworks. However, students are welcome to work in their preferred medium.
When technology advances, teaching styles regress. Every new wave of technology touted as a boon to education — radio, TV, DVDs, the internet — has tended to revive the idea that the ideal class structure is the lecture, where faculty broadcast information to disconnected student recipients. Yet we’ve known for decades that lectures are poor ways to create learning experiences, and that actively involving students–with the class, the teacher, each other–is far more effective. The thesis of Imagination and Distributed Learning is that the range of possible experiences available online is larger, more varied, and more interesting than most of what is on offer from colleges and universities’ online courses. Students will read teaching and learning research, and do field work where they set out to learn something online and reflect on the experience, and then set out to teach something online, and reflect on that experience. The goal of the course will be for students to build up alternatives to existing (and often quite dull) online educational practices today. The final project will be a proposal, plus designs or partial implementation, for online tools or experiences that will create experiences users can learn from. These proposals will be presented to a panel of people managing existing online programs at NYU and elsewhere.
In this class students learn how to use data. If you can learn to live with uncertainty, you can make something beautiful and true. Students will learn about data as another form of evidence. We will collect our own datasets to learn about challenges and opportunities. We will explore sources of uncertainty, and how imagination and empathy can help uncover ways that data can lead to insight or alternatively, lead one astray. We cover basic stats principles to show how even properly collected data may lead you astray; we cover design principles, we introduce technical tools for visualizing data. Students collect their own data set, share reactions to assigned readings, and find their own examples of data usage that are positive or misguided.
What can cybernetics, the study of how we shape and are shaped by systems, teach us about the sexual and social reproduction of gender and sexism? How does sex become gender and what are the politics surrounding who gets reproduced? We will explore how social regulatory systems are encoded into technological platforms and disentangle how they produce social pressure and govern behavior through somatic exercises, discussion, and project making. In this class, we will not shy away from difficult conversations and work closely together to cultivate a space of openness and mutual support. Discussion and project-making is core to this class. Together we will read the work of scholars such as Donna Haraway, Ruha Benjamin, Paul Preciado, Silvia Federici, & Audre Lorde. Along with lecture, discussion, and in class activities, students will be encouraged to explore their own research interests and personal histories. When projects are discussed, we will practice communicating ideas through presentation as a medium and will co-create a culture of constructive feedback.
Juxtaposed to traditional comics, Experiential Comics combines emergent tech, unconventional comic book art/structure, and game engines to offer users a more immersive, continuous storyworld experience. Challenging the status quo of classic and contemporary digital comics, students will explore new technologies/world-building techniques better suited to craft innovative comic book narratives and formats –worthy of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Students will ingest a brief history of classic and digital comics formats, collaborate with comic book artists to design engrossing characters, engage in world-building sessions, play with Unity/Unreal engines to generate avatars/ virtual environments, work with actors in motion capture/volumetric capture studios, learn the latest iteration of the Experiential Comics format, and share their unique expressions of Experiential Comics in a final presentation. Throughout a 7-week period, the course will be divided into 7 themes 1) The Disconnection of Digital Comics 2) Classic and Unconventional Comics Continuity 3) Marvel vs DC vs Insert Your Universe Here 4) Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies 5) Capture & Creation 6) Infinite Engagement and Unlocking Immersive Format 7) Experiential Comics Presentations. Each weekly class will be divided into two halves 1) Exploration of Theme/Discussion 2) Process, Practices, & Play. This course requires CL: Hypercinema or equivalent experience.
This course is designed to provide an overview of visual storytelling in the newsroom. We will explore a variety of narrative formats and design principles, learn about reporting techniques for visual stories, touch on the best practices and ethics of journalism and work on collaborative exercises and assignments.
Course description (optional): We are currently living in a society that operates under the principle that one body equals one agent, one vantage point, one identity. But emerging technologies may create a future in which the notion of a single personal identity becomes outdated. That future includes: machine learning techniques that make emulating the style and behavior of other people fast and easy; widely available AR/VR headsets that get people to identify with however many faces and bodies they choose, instead of just those they were born with; cryptocurrencies enabling the use of pseudonymous economic identities to transact across the planet in a permissionless manner. This is a course where we will get to explore and anticipate the utopian and dystopian aspects of this weird future of identity.
This course will provide students with an introduction to the area of machine listening. Machine listening is the general field studying algorithms and systems for audio understanding by machine. It deals exclusively with general audio as opposed to speech recognition. The most basic goal of all machine listening systems is to reliably recognize and react to very specific sounds. Over the course of the semester, we will create our own unique machine listening systems that provide us with new and interesting ways to interact with our projects. We will use live coding and real-time data visualization to demystify some of the more daunting underlying topics like digital signal analysis, music information retrieval, and machine learning.
Masks have been used around the world since antiquity for ceremonial and practical purposes, as devices for protection, disguise, entertainment and bodily transformation, made to be worn or displayed. Sociologist Erving Goffman wrote about the everyday life as a masked theatrical performance. The performative aspect of our lives today is ever so present in our use of social media, where we present a curated version ourselves for the immediate visual consumption of others. In our `Selfies`, we can assume a multitude of identities and characters. Recent tools and platforms have evolved social media portraiture to an art form and have created new opportunities for artists to create and distribute interactive augmentations, forming new relationships between artists and viewers. This class explores the developing language of social media portraiture enhanced by Augmented Reality. Students will: – review masks in art history, leading up to today – ideate, design and develop an interactive mask (AKA effects/lenses/filters) – learn to use the Meta Spark software to create AR effects. This course requires CL: Hypercinema or equivalent experience.
How can light, sound and design transform the human experience within a given space? How can psycho-geography be manipulated through audio-visual techniques? In what ways have and will technology allow spaces for sonic entertainment to be more immersive and experimental? Through an exploration of audio-visual techniques (i.e. VJing, MIDI-ing devices, sound synthesis, projection mapping, experiments with spatial sonic composition) along with discussions on how counterculture movements have used music and design as a vehicle for political dissent and community building, students will be invited to imagine new club spaces for social contexts beyond pure aesthetics. Assignments will include the development of different forms of interactive spaces for expression. Ableton (and free DAWs), MaxMSP, Isadora, and Unity will be used within this course.
A programming course where we’ll explore various techniques and solutions for tracking and sensing people or objects in space. Students will get familiar with the terminology and algorithms behind many sensing topics such as computer vision, depth cameras, positional tracking, coordinate mapping, machine learning, and pattern recognition. As these subjects are explored, we will also dig into communication, and how this information can be transmitted from one tool to another, for example using OSC, Spout/Syphon, MIDI, DMX/ArtNet. The goal being to use the right tool for the job and not limit ourselves to a particular piece of software. The first classes will consist of theory and in-class exercises covering these techniques, and remaining classes will be dedicated to a special project, which should use a combination of what we’ve learned to create a new work. Students will work in small groups to build this special project, but we’ll review proposals, milestones, and work in progress collectively on every class, encouraging discussion and collaboration.
Time-based art, performance – and theater most specifically – should be perfect manipulators of experience. Many creators of time-based art look for the “universal” in content and overlook what we all have in common in form: brains. What happens in the minds of all truly happens (what happens in the lobby also truly happens). How can we use art to make our brains experience the same things? What behind-the-scenes work can we employ to manipulate experience. Film scoring works on us in ways we don’t perceive in the moment. Can we pay closer attention to this when making work? Sometimes what we have for lunch effects our experience of art more than the hours of labor that went into the most minuscule of decisions when making that art. Is empathy always ethical? Show don’t tell. How does the art take place in the room in front of us? How can public performance not be awkward? How do we experience a performance rather than watch it.
In an age of pressing and complex problems like climate change, extreme inequality, and surveillance capitalism, “problem solving” is a central feature of innovation, design, and planning. But can these wicked problems actually be “solved”? And why does the cutting edge of problem solving look so limited? Machine learning. Predictive analytics. Algorithmic decision-making…Is planning for the future being outsourced to machines? In this class, we’ll take back control of the future by learning how it has historically been predicted, planned, and produced in board meetings, think tanks, writers’ rooms, and policy circles, and how those methods are being impacted by new technologies. During a series of discussions and hands-on workshops, we will learn specific, tangible, and collaborative practices for prediction and planning that can augment and transcend computational capabilities, making for marketable future-proof skills that can help redefine the future for humanity.
Today we no longer solely connect to the digital world through computers. The result of this push to connect the digital and the analog world is the increase necessity for low cost, low power, and self-contained electronics. This course is an applications-driven intro to electronics for inventors. Through a hands-on approach students will learn basic concepts about analog circuits, boolean logic, digital devices interfaces, and low-cost code-free electronics. Topics will include basic principles of electricity, as well as understanding of electronics components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, audio amplifiers, and timers.
If we consider drawing as one of the most ancient forms of interaction, it has the power to engage users like no other technology. With the right setup and call for action – I’m always taken aback by how a cup full of crayons and a pile of paper can bring the child out of a serious businessman. But how do you pass the strong barriers of users who are afraid to draw? In this weekend workshop we’ll examine various techniques that can spark an interaction which is all focused on the action of drawing. Workshop topics include an exploring into collaborative drawing platforms, interactive drawing installations, drawing machines and drawing as a form of interactive storytelling. We’ll discuss the differences between digital and analog drawing and how to marry the benefits of both mediums. We’ll cover the work of important artist and researchers who are creating inspiring work in the field of drawing and interaction such as Shantell Martin, Zach Lieberman, Tobias Gutmann, David Ha and more There will be various collaborative drawing exercises in class. This workshop is meant for students who wish to focus on drawing as the driving force of their interactions and possibly expand it into thesis. Each student will design and prototype an interaction which is based on the subject of drawing. Alon Chitayat graduated from ITP in 2015, He works at Google as a Sr. UX and motion designer and on a collaborative digital whiteboard called Jamboard.
he virtual expansion of screens began during the 1960’s with the exploration of head-mounted displays. Since the 60’s, virtual reality has been explored in a multi-disciplinary context including philosophy, design, arts, behavioral therapy. Baudrillard, with his publication of Simulacra and Simulation (1981), declared that human experience is being replaced by a simulation of reality (HyperReality). His theories brought the dystopian narrative of the virtual to mainstream pop-culture, as seen in films such as The Lawnmower Man and The Matrix . Contrary to Baudrillard, Canadian VR Pioneer Char Davies brings a more positive perspective to Virtual Reality, “facilitating a temporary release from our haitial perceptions and culturally biased assumptions about being in the world, to enable us, however momentarily, to perceive ourselves and the world us freshly.” Throughout the class, the friction between Baudrillard and Davies will create the foundation of our exploration of Virtual Reality, where we will use room scale headsets and game engines to create meaningful “temporal experiences” exploring themes from behavioral sciences to narrative storytelling. We will be exploring ● existing VR projects, popular culture references and theory. ● concepts such as sense of embodiment (SoE), social VR design, and interactive storytelling techniques. ● methods for designing, modeling and rigging avatars for VR. ● live and pre-recorded animation. ● spatial audio techniques such as ambisonic sounds engines. ● packaging and distributing applications for social VR. This is a production class, along with a theoretical foundation, in which we will prototype projects with networking, inverse kinematics, raycasting and face tracking technologies to explore questions such as “how does the viewer become part of the experience?” and “how does the real space relate to the virtual worlds we design?” In the second half of the class, students will work in groups to build a final social VR project based on their exploration of the above framework.
Libraries like TensorFlow.js and ml5.js unlocked new opportunities for interactive machine learning projects in the browser. The goal of this class is to learn and understand common machine learning techniques and apply them to generate creative outputs in the browser. This class will start with running models in the browser using high-level APIs from ml5.js, as well as explore the Layer APIs from TensorFlow.js to train models using custom data. This class will also cover preparing the dataset for training models. At the completion of this course, students will have a better understanding of a few machine learning models, how do they work, how to train these models, and their use case to creative projects. Students will also be able to create interactive ML web applications with pre-trained models or their own models. Prospective students are expected to have taken an ICM (Introduction to Computational Media) course, or have an equivalent programming experience with JavaScript, HTML, CSS.
Want to make an interface that can be squished, stretched, stroked, or smooshed? This course will introduce the use of electronic textiles as sensors. Focus will be placed on physical interaction design – working with the affordances of these materials to create interfaces designed to invite or demand diverse types of physical interaction. This course does not require knowledge or love of sewing – a variety of construction methods will be introduced. It will rely on a physical computing approach, with Arduino being used to read sensor values. Working with a breadth of conductive and resistive materials, students will learn to design and create bespoke alternative interfaces that can live in our clothing, furniture, and built environments. Prerequisite: Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)
Genspace is collaborating on this course with ITP so that students can learn science literacy through several specialized workshops that will take place Genspace – topics include Biohacking (with an introduction to CRISPR) Biomaterials. Students will create projects throughout the semester utilizing both Genspace and ITP resources. Additionally, students will learn the basics of biodesign and bioinformatics to help them frame and conceptualize their research and their projects and how best to use these skills ethically and responsibly in aesthetic and scientific ways. Since 2009 Genspace has operated a community biology laboratory in Brooklyn stemming from the hacking, biohacking, and DIYbio movements. It currently supports citizen science and public access to biology, biotechnology, synthetic biology, genetic engineering, citizen science, open source software, open source hardware.
Small, affordable single board computers enable you to blend the principles of Physical Computing with media playback and capture. This course uses the Raspberry Pi computer as a platform for creating portable devices that have the capability to display graphics, play video, play audio, take photographs, and capture video. As a foundation for the course, students will learn the basic workflow of using the Raspberry Pi computer for physical projects. This foundation includes an gaining an understanding of the Linux software, Python, and digital input and output. Students will work independently or collaboratively to build on this foundation to create their own media playback and capture devices.
This course will focus on a range of human-centered design research and innovation workshop methodologies including Design Thinking, LEGO Serious Play, Lean UX, Google Ventures Sprints, Gamestorming, Futurecasting, and Service Design. Students will look for design opportunities within the unprecedented challenges that we are currently facing as global citizens. Students will define a problem space based on the drivers that they’re most interested in exploring and will have the option to work alone or form small design research teams. They will learn how to conduct primary and secondary research, creating deliverables such as personas, journey maps, concept canvasses, and prototypes. Students will be required to apply design research approaches and workshop methodologies, develop and test a rapid prototype and then share their work in a final presentation.
As game and interaction designers we create systems and choices that can either prey upon our psychological foibles or help us avoid decision pitfalls. It is our responsibility to understand how we decide, to consider the ethics of the systems we create and to practice designing systems in a purposeful manner. Game Design & The Psychology of Choice will provide interaction and game designers with an understanding of the factors that influence behavior and decision-making by looking at the intertwining of cognitive psychology and economics through the development of behavioral economics. These disciplines study behavior on the individual and group level, often revealing some of the why behind the rules of thumb and folk wisdom that game designers come to intuitively. But understanding the why—why we fall into decision traps; why certain tradeoffs tax our brain more than others; why we are overconfident about our abilities; why certain decisions make us uncomfortable—allows us to more purposefully apply our design craft, both in and out of games. Finally, as a class, we will take what we learn about how we think and create series of game experiences based around key cognitive science concepts. Assignments may include: •Mod a cognitive science experiment into a game or experience •Analyze and present a game through the lens of cognitive science and behavioral economics •Create game or experience based around a particular insight from cognitive science or behavioral economics
Beginning with the release of Crowther and Woods’ “Colossal Cave Adventure” in 1977, the potential and unique affordances of computation as a means of storytelling have become more and more apparent. Combining approaches from literary theory, anthropology, computational creativity and game design, this class considers how narrative structure can be represented as data and enacted through computation, and invites students to implement practical prototypes of their own interactive and procedurally-generated narratives using a variety of technologies. Topics include (but are not limited to) hypertext fiction, “choose your own adventure”-style branching narratives, text adventures, visual novels, story generation from grammars and agent-based simulations. Students will complete a series of bite-size weekly assignments to present for in-class critique. Each session will also feature lectures, class discussion, and technical tutorials.
Computers are able to understand human speech better than ever before, but voice technology is still mostly used for practical (and boring!) purposes, like playing music, smart home control, or customer service phone trees. What else can we experience in the very weird, yet intuitive act of talking out loud to machines? The goal of this course is to give students the technical ability to imagine and build more creative uses of voice technology. Students will be encouraged to examine and play with the ways in which this emerging field is still broken and strange. We will develop interactions, performances, artworks or apps exploring the unique experience of human and computer conversation. Students will learn how to use text-to-speech and speech-to-text technologies, voice assistant devices, generative text techniques, open speech APIs, Node.js, and conversational UI design. There will be weekly assignments leading up to a final project. ICM or comparable programming experience required.
“Lies. Hoaxes. Conspiracies. Rumors. Propaganda. Fake news is an age-old phenomenon—but the internet is making targeted misinformation cheap and scalable. That is affecting politics, public opinion, and the everyday experience of the internet. In this 6-week class, we will explore the cutting edge of “fake news” by engaging in ethical research and fabrication. Participants will manufacture and observe a controlled “fake news” event. We will experiment with command-line tools for doctoring video, neural nets and deepfakes to fabricate reality, Twitter bots, behavioral psychology, and the dark underbelly of the ad economy.”
Whether it’s through photo realistic scans found in current-gen video games or the cartoonish and low-fi aesthetic of Bitmoji there is no limit to ways in which the body and the self are represented in digital spaces. This 2 credit class will look at how avatars have been historically used in the realm of art, commerce, and entertainment and utilize existing avatar creation tools to develop projects that examine identity, body politics, and contemporary performance. In class we will cover the basics of Unreal Engine, photogrammetry, 3D scanning, and model rigging although students will be encouraged to use existing skill sets and creative thinking to complete some of the smaller week-by-week assignments. The class will culminate with a short performance, small installation or single/multi-channel video piece using one or more of the techniques covered in class. This can be a solo project or a group project. In this class students will: – Explore how avatars can be utilized in your creative practice – Gain an introductory understanding of Unreal Engine, photogrammetry, model rigging, and 3D scanning. – Learn how to recontextualize digital spaces for the purposes of art, installation, and performance. – Broaden your thinking of what performance can be, both in a physical setting and digital setting. – Think critically about how physical bodies inhabit digital spaces and how the hardware and software we use reinforces the acceptance and value of certain kinds of bodies.
“Digital tools of all kinds are deeply embedded in how our society operates. Innovations in basic communication, data processing, image manipulation, and even financial systems have transformed our social worlds and our artistic practice. This became even clearer and more present during the global pandemic, where, during times of social isolation, digital and networked tools almost fully replaced in-person social life. This course will examine the ethical and esthetic implications of a digital and networked world through the lens of socially engaged art and explore how digital tools are and can be used in socially engaged art practice, where art and creative work intersect directly with people and civic life. This includes discussion of how digital and networked tools both increase and complicate physical, economic, and cultural accessibility, and the ethical and social implications of the newest technologies, including AI, Web3, and quantum computing. We will work on how digital tools have been used in socially engaged art and how they could be used further, guided by the understanding that working digitally with socially engaged concepts means both using digital tools within projects AND interrogating the inner workings of how digital practices operate socially and culturally. We will also have some meetings and activities in public spaces, field trips to organizations such as Eyebeam and Genspace, and guest lecturers. Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have questions about taking the course, or the course content.”
The most difficult part of prototyping is not the building process, but the process of deciding how to build. If we choose proper technology for prototypes, we can improve their robustness and simplicity. This course will cover available and affordable technologies for ITP students to build prototypes. The course will start with soldering, wiring and LED basics. Then students will design an Arduino compatible board in Eagle, get it fabricated, assembled. And then using the debugger to dig deeper to understand how a microcontroller works. The class will also cover multitasking, signal processing, communication, document writing and advanced skills beyond the Intro to Physical Computing class. Each session will have lectures followed by in-class practices with guidance. The 14-week long assignment is called Do It Once – Do It Again. Bringing an idea or ongoing projects is highly encouraged. This course requires Physical Computing or equivalent experience. Prerequisite: Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)
Until recently 3D sound was a novelty reserved for special uses and reaching a limited audience, no medium in popular culture has been as inherently dependent upon spatial audio as virtual reality. The widespread and standardized implementation of surround sound in film brought cinema to a new level of immersion, but is limited to theatrical exhibition and home theater systems. Today a considerable amount of content is consumed on mobile devices and laptops which excludes the cinematic experience of spatial sound. With the current rise of cinematic VR and the blurring line between gaming and experiential VR, spatial audio is no longer just an added bonus, but rather a necessity in designing immersive VR experiences. In this course we will explore the emerging field of 3D sound design and for both 360 video and game engine-built VR using a digital audio workstation, Unity, and 3D audio plugins.
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.
This studio and seminar course explores the basic principles of food biochemistry, enzymology and food processing and how they relate to memory, the senses and the processing of information. Students will also learn basic principles of molecular gastronomy and modernist cuisine as framing devices for understanding how food also functions in the context of bodily health, environmental health as well as cultural and political narratives. Our food system consists of more than food production and consumption and this class will address how science and food science plays a more integral role in this system and how this knowledge can be mined for work that creatively and functionally contributes to this emerging field. Assignments for the class will be based on the incorporation of food science into design and technology projects that uses food as a substrate to explore and illuminate information within the food system. Workshops involve using liquid nitrogen hydrocolloids as well as creating performative food objects and a Futurist meal.
This course explores how sound, code, and interaction can merge to create musical experiences that invite listeners to shape the music, not just hear it. Students create a series of browser-based musical systems that respond to users, incorporate randomness, and draw patterns from existing music. We begin by creating a series of audio-visual interfaces—an instrument, a score/mixer, and a loop-based piece—that invite deeper listening through play. Incorporating elements of sound and music production, these projects turn tools normally hidden in the studio into interactive spaces where listeners, performers, and audiences can engage with music in new ways. From there, we dive into the inner workings of music, examining how sound organizes into rhythm, melody, timbre, and harmony, and how these patterns can be expressed in code. Students design interactive studies on each musical element, reimagining tools like drum machines, sequencers, and synthesizers into experimental, playful, or educational systems that incorporate creative coding, machine listening, and machine learning techniques. Classes combine lectures, coding tutorials, listening sessions, design exercises, and discussions of existing interfaces. Throughout, students bring their own musical sensibilities into the work while developing their creative coding skills using p5.js and Tone.js. Students regularly share work and receive feedback, using input from the class to develop and iterate on their ideas. The semester culminates in an interactive or generative piece that builds on the semester’s studies, documented through sketches, demos, and code. Prerequisites: Introduction to Computational Media (ICM) or equivalent programming experience is required. About Luisa Hors: https://www.luisapereira.net/
“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. This class can be taken at the same time as, or after, Intro to Computational Media or an equivalent intro to programming. Some, though not all, production work in the class requires basic programming. There is a significant reading component to this class as well. Learning Objectives In this class, you will learn about how communications networks are structured, and you will learn how to examine those structures using software tools. By the end of this class, you should have a working knowledge of the following concepts: * The basics of network theory, some history of the internet and the organizations and stakeholders involved in its creation and maintenance * The Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model and standard internet protocols such as Internet Protocol (IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) , Universal Datagram Protocol (UDP), and Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP). * Network addressing, private and public IP addresses * What hosts, servers, and clients are and a few ways in which they communicate * What a command line interface (CLI) is and how to use the tools available in one * The basics of internet security * How telecommunications networks are similar to other infrastructural networks, like power and transportation, and how they are different.”
Making words and images public used to be difficult, complex, and expensive. Now it’s not. That change, simple but fundamental, is transforming the media landscape. A publisher used to be required if you wanted to put material out into the public sphere; now anyone with a keyboard or a camera can circulate their material globally. This change in the economics of communication has opened the floodgates to a massive increase in the number and variety of participants creating and circulating media. This change, enormous and permanent, is driving several profound effects in the media landscape today. This course covers the transition from a world populated by professional media makers and a silent public to one where anyone who has a phone or a computer can be both producer and consumer. This change, brought about by the technological and economic characteristics of digital data and networks, is upending old industries — newspapers, music publishing, moviemaking — faster than new systems can be put in place. The result is chaos and experimentation as new ways of participating in the previously sparse media landscape are appearing everywhere. This course covers the history and economics of the previous media landscape, the design of digital networks that upend those historical systems, and new modes of participation from weblogs and wikis and Twitter to fan fiction and lolcats. The course centers on readings and field observation, with three papers due during the course of the term.
This course focuses on programming strategies and techniques behind procedural analysis and generation of text-based data. We’ll explore topics ranging from evaluating text according to its statistical properties to the automated production of text with probabilistic methods to text visualization. Students will learn server-side and client-side JavaScript programming and develop projects that can be shared and interacted with online. This fall the course will also explore topics in machine learning as related to text. There will be weekly homework assignments as well as a final project.
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 exchange 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.
Assistive or Adaptive Technology commonly refers to “products, devices or equipment, whether acquired commercially, modified or customized, that are used to maintain, increase or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.” This multi-disciplinary course allows students from a variety of backgrounds to work together to develop assistive technology. Partnering with outside organizations students work in teams to identify a clinical need relevant to a certain clinical site or client population, and learn the process of developing an idea and following that through to the development of a prototype product. Teams are comprised of ITP students as well as graduate rehabilitation, physical and occupational therapy students. Prerequisites (for ITP students): H79.2233 Introduction to Computational Media and H79.2301 Introduction to Physical Computing. This course has a lab fee of $201.
Digital Bodies is an intermediate 3D imaging studio course that examines and explores the current technological applications and conceptual implications of the post-photographic digital human simulations. We will regularly study the work that deals with digital bodies by contemporary artists and photographers such as LaTurbo Avedon, Chen Man, Quentin Deronzier, Hyphen-lab, Hayoun Kwon, and Gregory Bennett, and many digital art platforms in various categories, such as artificial human imaging, digital fashion models, and deepfake. We will be discussing the various theories relating to the idea of cyborg and post-human conditions. Students will be learning 3D imaging skills for building, scanning, appropriating, and customizing prefabricated body models from multiple resources, exploring their movements that both imitate and go beyond the limits of reality, expanding conceptual themes. Besides the technical exercises, students are encouraged to create semester-long self-directed research and a final project using the imaging technology they’ve learned. Artist visits, field trips, and exhibition visits will also be arranged online or according to the public health safety situation. The exhibition of the students’ final projects will be arranged at the end of the semester. *The class is suitable for students with basic skills of 3D imaging in Maya.
*Please note: The course is ideally to be taken after taking the Intro to Post-photographic Imaging Course. However, course permission can be given to students with basic 3D imaging skills. Please contact Professor Fu for any question: snowyunxuefu@nyu.edu
The Emerging Media Studio courses explore methods to creatively think through and hybridize artistic photographic practice with emerging media technologies from medicine, the military, archaeology, urban planning, environmental science and other industries. Projects may take open-ended forms such as video, virtual reality environments, site-based performance, spatial imaging, 3D fabrication and photographic documentation. Critical readings and ideas drawn from artists as well as professionals in other fields are discussed. Our practice is learning how to adapt to and position ourselves as artists making unique contributions to the social dynamics of culture and a constantly shifting universe of media.
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 language and computer-generated text. Among the topics we’ll discuss are: the history and aesthetics of computer-generated writing in literature and the arts; computational linguistics; ethics and authorship in the context of computer-mediated language; poetic structure and sound symbolism; performance and publishing. Programming topics covered include: data structures (lists, sets, dictionaries); strategies for making code reusable (functions and modules); natural language processing; grammar-based text generation; predictive models of text (Markov chains and neural networks); and working with structured data and text corpora. Weekly programming exercises and readings culminate in a final project. Prerequisites: Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience. Prerequisite: ICM
The World Wide Web has grown up to be a great platform for asynchronous communication such as email and message boards. More recently this has extended into media posting and sharing. With the rise of broadband, more powerful computers and the prevalence networked media devices, synchronous communications have become more viable. Streaming media, audio and video conference rooms and text based chat give us the ability to create content and services tailored to a live audience. During this course, we focus on the types of content and interaction that can be supported through these technologies as well as explore new concepts around participation with a live distributed audience. In this course, we look at new and existing platforms for live communication on the web. We leverage existing services and use Flash, PHP, AJAX and possibly Processing/Java to develop our own solutions. Experience with ActionScript/Flash, PHP/MySQL and HTML/ JavaScript are helpful but not required.
According to the World Health Organization, 6.5 million people will die prematurely this year due to air pollution. That’s more deaths due to breathing bad air than from AIDS, auto accidents, cholera, malaria, and war combined. Climate change, fossil fuels, lack of drinking water, over-population, GMOs, pollution, and the wholesale corporate campaign to discredit science are among the most critical problems of our time. Living in denial of these issues has become the West’s de facto cultural standard with only a fraction of the public taking action. How can artists, citizen-scientists, and storytellers intervene in existing narratives regarding some of humanity’s most life-threatening issues? How will you further important conversations and seize the potential to activate change? Green World explores contemporary environmental issues while guiding artists to create informed, responsible works of positive social change using technology as a force multiplier. This course is open to all NYU students interested in developing an activist’s artistic, social, and/or scientific leverage point to help save the world. This course features an optional research trip to Black Rock Forest Consortium.
This class investigates aspects of human behavior in terms of the Internet. The Internet is a technological phenomenon that allows people separated by huge distances to interact with each other in relatively seamless fashion. Does the Internet allow people to connect in ways never possible before? Or are these new connections variations of previous human interactions, only on a computer screen. For all of its positive attributes, the Internet has a negative side: People become increasingly dependent on interacting only through the Internet. Is this dysfunctional? What characterizes addictive behavior? Can addictive behavior be attributed to a physical action as opposed to a biological substance? | Prerequisites: EXPOS-UA 1 or EXPOS-UA 4. Notes: Satisfies a HuSS elective.
This course explores the nature of the creative act. What does it take to be creative? What are some of the cognitive and personality variables that aid and hinder creativity? What are the characteristics of great innovators? Is innovation purely individual? Or are innovators a product of their time? The course also surveys literature on teaching creativity and innovation. | Prerequisites: Completion of first year writing requirements. Co-requisites: None. Notes: Satisfies a HuSS elective.
Using a case study approach, this course explores the issues of professional and technological ethics especially as it pertains to networked computers in a global setting. The course will begin with the appropriate ethical codes of the professional societies, including the code of ethics for the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) but also codes in other areas such as finance and medicine. The mandates and expectations of the codes will be interpreted from varying perspectives and will be applied concretely to the specifics of the cases under consideration. Ethical issues will be approached in a manner similar to that of engineering problems and students will be expected to show a step-by-step process for the resolution of actual and potential ethical conflict. The technique of “line drawing” will be used to exhibit the alternatives and to help justify the ultimate decision made. In addition to video lectures Power Point charts, and notes the course teaching techniques will employ social media (“Google “) to create a class community, “NYU Classes” to present texts and case studies, built-in assessment tools to permit student dialogue and debate on assigned topics. These online tools do not demand excessive bandwidth and can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous settings.
Ethical expertise is integral to the careers and responsibilities of engineering and technology management professionals, from long-standing issues around professional responsibilities to society and more recent controversies such as “techlash” concerns about bias, equity, and surveillance. This survey course introduces undergraduate students to some of the most relevant ethical issues in engineering and the technology industry today. Students will begin by exploring basic ethical approaches from a variety of philosophical traditions and how these principles have historically been integrated into engineering professions. Then, students will study a variety of topics of high importance to engineers today, including ethics in computing, data, and automated systems; medical ethics, past and present; disability ethics and activism; ethical issues related to the environment and climate change; and ethical issues related to race and gender. | Notes: Satisfies a HuSS elective.
2D Art and Animation for Games is a 1-semester, 4-credit class that builds fundamental skills around the design and production of art assets for games. Through a series of individual design assignments, critiques, and exercises, students will explore concepts like art direction, color theory, animation principles, and UI design while building a working knowledge of prominent industry tools.
This course investigates aesthetic and technical aspects of sound for video games and interactive 3-D environments. Artistic implications of the technology are also explored from the perspective of the electronic composer and performer. Students will work with a game engine to create an immersive interactive environment. Additional topics include: Csound, Java and other relevant technologies. Completion of a final project, class presentation, as well as several weekly assignments is required.
This course allows students to harness the power of visual language in order to convey messages and meaning. The elements of visual foundation that will be covered include components (color, texture, image and typography), composition, and concept. Although the class takes place in the Game Design department, we will be less concerned with visuals as they are applied to games and instead will look at visual communication across a wide range of disciplines, from visual art to graphic design to web and interface design. Although non-digital mediums will be addressed, the understanding and use of industry-standard software is also a primary goal. The class is about the importance of visual design, how it shapes our culture. The students will learn about and discuss widely-practiced methods of visual communication, and then find their own voice through developing their own works, driven by a clearer understanding of their own tastes and interested fields.
Introduction to Programming for Games is a course that introduces students to the concepts, problems, and methods of computer programming, and how these apply to the creation of video games. The course assumes no prior programming knowledge, and is designed to touch on the basic principles of digital design in the form of computer code. There will be an emphasis on programming fundamentals; they will be motivated through the lens of designing and producing video games.
Games 101 is the foundational course for the NYU Game Center. The focus of Games 101 is game literacy – a shared understanding of games as complex cultural and aesthetic objects. The class will incorporate lectures, discussion, readings, and writing assignments, but the primary activity of the class is critical play – playing games in order to better understand and appreciate them. The class will cover games on and off the computer, including classic and contemporary board and card games, sports, and games on the PC, internet, and consoles.
This course focuses on building applications in Python using a project-based learning approach. Students will design projects using important Python packages in a variety of applied areas such as textual analysis, data visualization, and others.
Students learn how to design algorithms to solve problems and how to translate these algorithms into working computer programs. Experience is acquired through programming projects in a high level programming language. CSCI-UA 101 is intended as a first course for computer science majors, and for students of other scientific disciplines. Programming assignments.
This course will examine the relationship between planetary-scale computation and the development of planetarity. We take as starting points that (1) the very notion of climate change is an epistemological accomplishment of planetary-scale sensing, modeling and computation systems and (2) the ecological costs of computation are on an unsustainable trajectory. The seminar will ask: what are alternative futures for computation as human and ecological infrastructure? The primary subject of research is the transition from computation as a digital media object to computation as continental scale infrastructure. The scope and significance of this shift are fundamental for the development of interactive art and design that seeks to explore critical alternatives to extant models for this. What we call planetary-scale computation takes different forms at different scales—from energy and mineral sourcing and subterranean cloud infrastructure to urban software and massive universal addressing systems; from interfaces drawn by the augmentation of the hand and eye to users identified by self—quantification and the arrival of legions of sensors, algorithms, and robots. Each of these may represent a direct harm upon effected ecosystems and/or a means for and informed viable administration of those same systems. The course is primarily geared to advanced IMA students but is open to students from any major who are interested in engaging with contemporary issues of computation, society and ecology. Final projects will combine original written work and speculative design that can draw on diverse student core skill sets. Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
This course surveys the implications of globalization for the production, circulation, and consumption of media. In this course, we will look across both analog and digital media (radio, TV, film, video, pop music, podcast, etc) in relation to a series of questions: How do media (and media industry) represents localities for a global audience? How can media practices create a feeling of belonging to the world/community? How may global media tell us about different material infrastructure, social imagination, and political desires? Students will explore media phenomena and critically examine media texts often beyond North American experiences. By the end of the class, students will be able to articulate how media connects to global flow of finance, cultural product, labor, and social aspirations.
Welcome to the ABC Browser Circus (ABC), where acrobats juggle with hyperlinks, dance across scrolling grids and jump through open server ports. This course introduces the students to the history of the internet, the World Wide Web, and specifically to the browser as a cultural object and its role in (net)art; in parallel, students are guided to creative uses of the web. In three consecutive modules, the browser is interpreted as a blank canvas, a susceptible agent and as a window to other realities respectively. Technologies used in the ABC Browser Circus are advanced HTML, CSS and JavaScript as well as Node for server-side programming. Participants must have completed either Communications Lab or Creative Coding Lab (IMA Foundation Classes). Students are expected to comfortably apply fundamental programming concepts to solve problems.
This course investigates and illuminates the concepts and the aesthetics of kinetic sculpture and installation art in various forms from creative and historical perspectives. Students will learn to regard sound and performance as part of a sculptural form and learn to work with space. Students will gain woodworking and digital fabrication skills to expand on their physical computing skills to create moving sculpture and installation. The course consists of lectures, readings, and hands-on studio work.
Many of us have played and enjoyed games. Have you ever wondered how people actually design and develop them? Can a games as a profession and practice be described? What are the basic theories, structures and skills involved in game development? How do game designers create compelling interactive experiences for the player? How do they respond to feedback, prototype and improve these experiences? This course explores these questions and others through playing, analyzing and making games over 14 weeks. Students will understand games not only as entertainment, production and business models, but as a form of mass interactive media and culture. Students will be introduced to game design concepts, emphasizing all stages of game development: paper and digital prototyping, iteration, interactive narrative design, object-oriented game programming, 3D/2D game art creation, sound effects composition and user testing. For the course project, students will work in teams and create games in multiple projects, from simple board games to a digital game with original game art, mechanics and other design elements. This course leverages multiple tools for game prototyping and design, but will focus on Unity, a game engine that uses C# based programming language, for game build-up.
We will explore a range of programming languages, systems, and activities designed to help learners acquire computational skills and become creative problem solvers and project designers, including arts and interactive projects. We will create projects in turtle geometry, animation, and programmable embroidery (Snap!, Turtle Geometry, TurtleArt, and TurtleStitch), and in simulation systems which model complex systems in the life and social sciences in order to acquire a deeper understanding of their underlying phenomena (NetLogo). The course is fundamentally about ideas, and how some powerful ideas from computation can empower a learner to be a better creator and problem solver, acquire a deeper understanding of social and scientific phenomena, and become a self-directed learner. We will identify these ideas and actively engage with the pedagogical theories that underlie embodying them by creating with systems designed for children, beginners, or people coming from disciplines which traditionally had less emphasis on computing-based tools. We will emphasize reflection on our own learning within the course.”
“The practice of using light and motion as artistic media traces its roots back to the architectural design of spiritual structures in ancient cultures and the use of fire and shadow in religious ceremonies. However, not until the invention of electricity, the incandescent bulb, and electric motors did light and motion really become artistic media themselves. The current availability of cheap and abundant sources of motion and light have opened up new possibilities for the creation of sculptural objects which compose structures in light and movement. Drawing upon the combined histories of lumia, kinetic sculpture, and op art, we will be investigating the historical and current developments of kinetic art and light art. Students will create kinetic light sculptures of their own design, building upon and expanding their knowledge of digital fabrication, physical computing, and generative software systems. They will learn how to compose in color, light, rhythm, movement, and space and how to install and present their work in a public setting.”
In this foundation course students will learn the fundamentals of computation, software design, and web technologies, through a series of creative projects. The course is intended to equip students with the skills to develop artistic and business projects that include a significant computational component. Topics such as variables, functions, components, and functional and reactive programming will be brought together to create interactive applications, generative art, data visualization, and other domains. Within the framework of these creative projects students will develop a greater understanding of how computer programs operate, be exposed to various concepts used to create experiences and interactions, and become more familiar with some of the technologies that constitute the internet. This course is intended for students with no prior programming background. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE AT; IMA Major Other Foundation; IMB Major Emerging Media Foundation.
What is the place of human creativity, agency and intelligence in complex technical networks? This class aims to build a foundation for studying how automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, digital image production, predictive software, and eco-technologies signal the ascent of a posthuman society. It provides a selection of texts and case studies that introduce basic philosophical and sociological questions about posthuman technologies and support creators, writers and thinkers in conceptualizing the posthuman nature of new media. The class is a combination of lectures and writing workshops. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
Architecture has always been considered as an immediate extension of the human civilization, and its connection with state-of-the-art technologies has always been essential. In our current highly mediated and augmented environments, architecture shifts from static, solid, and predefined, to a fluid, interactive, and ever-changing. Computational, interactive, and media technologies challenge our understanding of what architecture is, redefining our engagement with exterior and interior spaces. The course investigates the area of media architecture from a contextual and critical perspective, examining and implementing in theoretical and practical scenarios current emerging trends. Students are expected to develop a comprehensive understanding of media architecture, to thoroughly investigate the media cityscape (including motivations, social implications, technological requirements), and to develop installation work that utilizes contemporary media development practices and demonstrates artistic, technological, and scientific rigor. Prerequisite: None
In this course, students will work in teams to design digital learning resources and experience designs at the intersection of music, coding, arts, and technology. The course will begin with an introduction to emerging trends in learner engagement and design-based research, especially related to web- and mobile-based musical experiences and principles of making music with new media. Innovations in and applications of musical creativity, interactive technologies, user-centered design & engagement, scaffolded learning, creative learning, pedagogies of play and making, and educational entrepreneurship in Chinese contexts will also be explored. The market for creative educational experiences in afterschool settings for youth in China is exploding. For-profit educational service companies are competing and searching for differentiated, learning experiences in music, coding, and creative project based learning that will attract high-paying parents looking for the best supplemental education for their children. This practical, hands-on course will explore questions such as: How can we design engaging, creative learning experiences that are relevant to the cultural goals and needs of today’s youth in China, while laying the foundation for creative learning for the workforce of tomorrow? What are engaging, effective creative learning resources, and how are they best implemented in Chinese learning settings? How can we take advantage of young people’s near ubiquitous love of music and technology to facilitate creative learning? Students will work together in teams and paired with a partner audience of learners and teachers in Shanghai drawn from local and regional international schools (e.g. Alibaba’s Cloud Valley), local afterschool programs (e.g., Music Lab), and cultural partners (e.g., Shanghai Symphony). Together they will assess the needs and opportunities of partner students and teachers, and engage in a two-stage iterative and reflective co-design process prototyping custom learning resources and experience designs with their partner end users. At the end of the course, students will present and demo their learning resources as part of a public showcase to an external audience of partners, educators, technologists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and experience designers in Shanghai. Prerequisites: None.
This course emphasizes on the 3D animation through digital modeling / sculpting techniques, keyframe and blend-shape animation . The course breaks down into 4 stages : 1. basic topology of head model, 2. high-poly sculpting and projection texturing, 3. Keyframe and blend-shapes animation, 4. 3D animation final project. In the final project, students get to choose either lip-sync animation or conceptual piece utilizing the created head models. An overview of digital editing / compositing and sound design will also be introduced to assist with students’ final project at the end of the semester. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
Sound is all around us. The way we perceive or experience these sounds are largely dependent upon their environments, whether artificially constructed or naturally present. In this studio-based course, students will learn about the development of sound art through readings and listenings by artists, musicians and designers who investigate our sonic environment through sound sculptures, multi-channel immersive installations, soundscapes, audio tours, podcasts and field recordings. The course will begin with an introduction into the physics of sound with time for deep listening exercises. We will read selected texts and listen to pieces by those working in the field of Acoustic Ecology, an interdisciplinary field that employs ethnographic practices to create sound studies or art. We will look at artists who employ narrative techniques to engage the audience. We will study musicians such as Alvin Lucier and John Cage and the history of experimental music that takes into consideration the physical space its recorded or played in. There will be weekly exercises that will help develop the student’s spatial awareness of sound and music. We will take listening and recording trips into the field to understand the acoustic urban environment. We will use different types of microphones such as hydrophones and binaural mics. Students will learn how to build their own contact microphones. Students will have the opportunity to create works for multi-channel speakers. The final project can take on any form within the realm of sound art–multimedia, narrative, non-narrative, music, installation.
“How would you like to pay?” A simple question may provoke diversified answers in the digital age. The financial applications of digital technologies, or so-called fintechs have engendered many alternative forms such as QR codes, mobile apps, and Bitcoin for financial activities including payment, loans, and investment. What technologies make these innovations possible? What are the aesthetic norms embedded in fin-tech app designs? How do the fin-tech companies interact with banks, policy-makers, and regulators? While Ant Financial and Tencent Finance make China the leader of fin-tech innovation, how does the global map of fin-tech innovation look like? After all, how have fin-techs re-shaped people’s everyday life, and perhaps will reform human being? Through a weekly three-hour meeting, this course is to make sense of fin-techs from a wide variety of perspectives. Integrating lectures with workshops and company visits, this course will equip students with critical thinking and practical skills that allow them to dialogue with various actors, such as computer programmers, project managers, investors, as well as academic intellectuals. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Business Elective/Interactive Media Elective; Business and Finance Major Non-Finance Electives; Business and Marketing Major Non-Marketing Electives.
The main aim of this course is to probe into the core rationale behind entrepreneurship: taking initiatives to make changes. Lecturing only accounts for less than one-third of the course, and students are expected to exhibit a high level of self-motivation to critically examine established and emerging ideas that have been shaping and transforming the concept and practices of entrepreneurship, as exemplified in specific cases and current practices. Students will thus be prompted to think critically and creatively about how to respond to the complexities of changes. The course lays emphasis on creativity, ethics, and future-oriented vision. Prerequisite: None
Design Thinking is a theoretical, methodological and practical framework that has the potential of bringing about socially responsible innovation. This course will introduce the core concepts and toolkits of design thinking as the foundation of innovative thinking and practices. It requires you to step out of your comfort zone and to examine and challenge your own assumptions. Critical thinking, teamwork, and empathy are the three pillars of this course. Prerequisite: None
This course is about designing your life. What if you used the same innovation principles that startups use and applied them to your own lives? Students are introduced to design thinking as a framework to process their college experience and explore life after graduation. This course will use rapid prototyping methods to test out career interests, engage in behavior design, and ideate on multiple futures. The course will be delivered in a studio setup with in-class design workshops, group discussions, personal reflection, individual coaching and field trips. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Business Elective/Interactive Media Elective; Business and Finance Major Non-Finance Electives; Business and Marketing Major Non-Marketing Electives.
This course is about designing your global experiences. Students are introduced to design thinking as a practical tool to make the most out of their NYUSH experience and prototype opportunities offered by NYU’s Global Network. This course will use rapid prototyping methods to test out academic and career interests, visit global organizations in Shanghai, and meet with leaders with multinational experience. The course will be delivered in a studio setup with in-class design workshops that explore topics such as the purpose of college, educational wayfinding, global perspectives, and innovating on career paradigms.
This is a practice-based course designed to teach basic programming skills in the context of critical and cultural media studies and digital humanities. Requires no prior programming experience, simply a willingness to explore code at a more technical level with the aim of using computation as an expressive, analytical, critical and visualizing medium. Students learn basic coding techniques such as variables, loops, graphics, and networking, all within a larger conversation on the social, cultural, and historical nature of code and coding practices.
This course provides an in-depth examination of the core economic conditions and various business models and practices that characterize the media industries. Special attention is paid to video and audio streaming, gaming, and social media platforms. This course is designed to track and assess current business trends and strategies in the US, as well as major markets and regions around the world.
This course is for students who intend to seek employment in the media industry. Its focus is the modern history of those industries — film, TV, radio, newspapers, music, magazines, book publishing — with special emphasis on the pressures that affect them now. Student are required to do extensive background reading, and we will hear from various professionals with long experience in the industries under consideration.
This course examines the role of language in media, culture, and communication. Topics will include language ideologies, register-formation, language politics, standardization, raciolinguistics, code-switching, voicing, speech and text genres, orthographies, fonts, and more. Students will learn to analyze interpersonal and mediated communication-in-context, with attention to pragmatics, performativity and participation frameworks, using key analytics and methods from the fields of socio-linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and semiotics.
New art and new definitions of art and artist are discussed. Major attention is paid to the New York scene with guest lectures by artists and visits to galleries, museums, and other major sites in the current art system.
An introductory course to probability and statistics. It affords the student some acquaintance with both probability and statistics in a single term. Topics in Probability include mathematical treatment of chance; combinatorics; binomial, Poisson, and Gaussian distributions; the Central Limit Theorem and the normal approximation. Topics in Statistics include sampling distributions of sample mean and sample variance; normal, t-, and Chi-square distributions; confidence intervals; testing of hypotheses; least squares regression model. Applications to scientific, industrial, and financial data are integrated into the course.NOTE: Not open to math majors or students who have taken or will take MA-UY 2054 or MA-UY 3014 or MA-UY 3514 or ECE-UY 2233. | Prerequisite: MA-UY 1124, MA-UY1424, or MA-UY 1132 or MATH-UH 1020 or MATH-UH 1021 or MATH-SHU 151
Logic, proofs, set theory, functions, relations, asymptotic notation, recurrences, modeling computation, graph theory. | Prerequisite: Math Diagnostic Exam or MA-UY 914 (minimum calculus level required) | Prerequisite for Shanghai students: MATH-SHU 131. Note: This course and CS-GY 6003 cannot both be taken for credit.
The required design project consists of two three-credit courses. The first course, EE DP1, is one of a number of specialty lab/project courses offered by the department in various subdisciplines such as electronics, machinery, robotics, imaging, communications, etc. (EE-UY 4113-4183, below). DP1 provides significant background laboratory experience in the student’s area of concentration. Students begin independent projects by finding an adviser and initiating the project work, and exercising oral presentation and written communication skills. | Prerequisite: ECE-UY 3054 and Senior Level
The required design project consists of two three-credit courses. The first course, EE DP1, is one of a number of specialty lab/project courses offered by the department in various subdisciplines such as electronics, machinery, robotics, imaging, communications, etc. (EE-UY 4113-4183, below). DP1 provides significant background laboratory experience in the student’s area of concentration. Students begin independent projects by finding an adviser and initiating the project work, and exercising oral presentation and written communication skills. | Prerequisite: completion of all junior-level technical courses. ABET competencies: a, b, c, e, f, g, k.
The required design project consists of two three-credit courses. The first course, EE DP1, is one of a number of specialty lab/project courses offered by the department in various subdisciplines such as electronics, machinery, robotics, imaging, communications, etc. (EE-UY 4113-4183, below). DP1 provides significant background laboratory experience in the student’s area of concentration. Students begin independent projects by finding an adviser and initiating the project work, and exercising oral presentation and written communication skills. | Prerequisite: completion of all junior-level technical courses. ABET competencies: a, b, c, e, f, g, k.
The course covers all aspects of supplying electric power to the Internet of Things devices and systems. Energy harvesting, conversion, and storage are discussed. Rectifiers, inverters, and dc-dc converters are analyzed and designed. Examples of wired and wireless power transfer systems for battery charging are provided. CAD software for power electronics is introduced. Just-in-time coverage of electric circuit concepts makes the course accessible to any student with an engineering math and physics background. | Prerequisite: MA-UY 2034 and PH-UY 2023; or instructor’s permission.
The course covers architecture and operation of embedded microprocessors; microprocessor assembly language programming; address decoding; interfacing to static and dynamic RAM; Serial I/O, Parallel I/O, analog I/O; interrupts and direct memory access; A/D and D/A converters; sensors; microcontrollers. Alternate-week laboratory. Objectives: to provide foundations of embedded systems design and analysis techniques; expose students to system level design; and teach integration of analog sensors with digital embedded microprocessors. | Prerequisites: CS-UY 2204 (C- or better) and EE-UY 2024 or EE-UY 2004 (C- or better). ABET competencies: a, c, d, e, g, j, k.
This course centers on linear system theory for analog and digital systems; linearity, causality and time invariance; impulse response, convolution and stability; the Laplace, z- transforms and applications to Linear Time Invariant (LTI) systems; frequency response, analog and digital filter design. Topics also include Fourier Series, Fourier Transforms and the sampling theorem. Weekly computer-laboratory projects use analysis- and design-computer packages. The course establishes foundations of linear systems theory needed in future courses; use of math packages to solve problems and simulate systems; and analog and digital filter design. | Prerequisites for Brooklyn Engineering Students: MA-UY 1044, MA-UY 2012/2132 or MA-UY 2034. | Prerequisites for Abu Dhabi Students: MATH-AD 116 and MATH-AD 121. | Prerequisites for Shanghai Students: MATH-SHU 124 and MATH-SHU 140. ABET competencies a, b, c, e, k.
This course focuses on circuit models and amplifier frequency response, op-amps, difference amplifier, voltage-to-current converter, slew rate, full-power bandwidth, common-mode rejection, frequency response of closed-loop amplifier, gain-bandwidth product rule, diodes, limiters, clamps and semiconductor physics. Other topics include Bipolar Junction Transistors; small-signal models, cut-off, saturation and active regions; common emitter, common base and emitter-follower amplifier configurations; Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFET and JFET); biasing; small-signal models; common-source and common gate amplifiers; and integrated circuit MOS amplifiers. The alternate-week laboratory experiments on OP-AMP applications, BJT biasing, large signal operation and FET characteristics. The course studies design and analysis of operational amplifiers; small-signal bipolar junction transistor and field-effect transistor amplifiers; diode circuits; differential pair amplifiers and semiconductor device- physics fundamentals. | Prerequisites for Brooklyn Engineering Students: EE-UY 2024 or EE-UY 2004 (C- or better) and PH-UY 2023 | Prerequisites for Abu Dhabi Students: ENGR-AD 214 and SCIEN-AD 110. | Prerequisites for Shanghai Students: EENG-SHU 251 (C- or better) and PHYS-SHU 93 or CCSC-SHU 51. ABET competencies a, b, c, e, k.
This course develops basic techniques used in communication networks. After protocol layering is introduced, algorithms and protocols are discussed for use in each of the five layers: physical, data link, network, transport and application. Specific protocols such as TCP/IP, ATM, SS7 are included. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Engineering Students: Junior status in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or computer science. Co-requisites for Brooklyn Engineering Students: ECE-UY 2233 (EE majors) or MA-UY 2224 (CompE/CS majors) | Prerequisites for Abu Dhabi Students: ENGR-AD 194 (or co-req of MA-UY 3113) and ENGR-AD 195 (or co-req of ECE-UY 2233) . ABET competencies: a, c, e.
This course helps students to understand computer engineering as a balance among hardware, software, applications and theory, the notion of abstraction, computer layers and how they relate to various aspects of computer engineering, implementation of abstract and physical computer layers: Number systems, digital logic, basic processor structure, instruction set architecture, machine languages, assembly languages and high-level programming in C. Other computer concepts, including compilers, operating systems and algorithms, are presented, along with the simulator concept and its usage for understanding computer design, testing and analysis. Experts present special topics in the area. Also discussed are invention, innovation, entrepreneurship and ethics in these topics and in Computer Engineering. Cross listed as CS-UY 1012. | ABET competencies: e, h, j | Prerequisite: Only first-year students are permitted to enrol in this course.
Introduction to electricity: current, voltage and electrical power. Ohm’s Law. Kirchhoff’s Laws. Electrical materials. Electrical energy generation process. Principles of AC. Bulk electrical power generation: hydroelectricity and thermoelectricity. Alternative generation sources. Synchronous Generators. Induction Motors. Transmission and distribution systems. Substations and transformers. Low-voltage networks. Industrial, commercial and residential networks and loads. Short-circuit and protection equipment. Relays and circuit breakers. Power quality. Reliability and blackouts. Physiological effects of electric currents in the human body. Exposure to low-frequency magnetic fields. National Electric Code (NEC). ANSI-IEEE Standards. IEC standards. Certification of electrical products compliance. | Prerequisite(s): MA-UY 1024/1054/1324, and MA-UY 1124/1154/1424; and PH-UY 1004 or PH-UY 1013; and PH-UY 2004 or PH-UY 2023.
The course covers bandpass signal representation and quadrature receivers; noise in communication systems; Digital Modulation Schemes, coherent and noncoherent receivers; coding fundamentals, block and convolutional codes; higher-order modulation schemes, QAM, M-PSK; intersymbol interference and equalization techniques; and carrier and symbol synchronization. Alternate-week computer laboratory projects analyze and design computer packages. The course teaches principles of various modulation and coding techniques and their relative effectiveness under transmission-environments constraints and uses math packages to analyze and simulate communication systems. | Prerequisites for Brooklyn Engineering Students: ECE-UY 3054 (C- or better); computer engineering students may register with instructor’s approval. Co-requisite: ECE-UY 2233 (Note: Abu Dhabi students may waive ECE-UY 2233 co-requisite if they have successfully completed ENGR-AD 195 as a prerequisite) | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: EENG-SHU 2054 (C- or better) and co-requisite of MA-UY 3012 or ECE-UY 2223. ABET competencies a, c, e, k.
Electromagnetic wave propagation in free space and in dielectrics, starting from a consideration of distributed inductance and capacitance on transmission lines. Electromagnetic plane waves are obtained as a special case. Reflection and transmission at discontinuities are discussed for pulsed sources, while impedance transformation and matching are presented for harmonic time dependence. Snell’s law and the reflection and transmission coefficients at dielectric interfaces are derived for obliquely propagation plane waves. Guiding of waves by dielectrics and by metal waveguides is demonstrated. Alternate-week laboratory. Objectives: Establish foundations of electromagnetic wave theory applicable to antennas, transmissions lines and materials; increase appreciation for properties of materials through physical experiments. | Prerequisites for Brooklyn Engineering Students: EE-UY 2024 or EE-UY 2004 (C- or better). | Prerequisites for Abu Dhabi Students: ENGR-AD 214. | Prerequisites for Shanghai Students: EENG-SHU 251 (C- or better). ABET competencies: a, b, c, e, k.
This course includes hands-on experience with a combination of laboratory experiments, lectures and projects relating to basic and advanced topics in wireless communications. Specific topics include mixers, IQ modulation, phase locked loops, receiver design, PN code acquisition, smart antennas and RFID. | Prerequisite: EE-UY 4183
This course provides a hands on approach to machine learning and statistical pattern recognition. The course describes fundamental algorithms for linear regression, classification, model selection, support vector machines, neural networks, dimensionality reduction and clustering. The course includes computer exercises on real and synthetic data using current software tools. A number of applications are demonstrated on audio and image processing, text classification, and more. Students should have competency in computer programming. | Prerequisites: ECE-UY 2233, MA-UY 2233, MA-UY 3012, MA-UY 2224 or MA-UY 2222, MA-UY 3514
The course concentrates on differential and multistage amplifier, current mirrors, current sources, active loads; frequency response of MOSFET, JFET and BJT amplifiers: Bode plots; feedback amplifiers, gain-bandwidth rule and feedback effect on frequency response; Class A, B and AB output stages; op-amp analog integrated circuits; piecewise-linear transient response; determination of state of transistors; wave-shaping circuits; MOS and bipolar digital design: noise margin, fan-out, propagation delay; CMOS, TTL, ECL; and an alternate week laboratory. The course studies design and analysis of analog integrated circuits, frequency response of amplifiers, feedback amplifiers, TTL and CMOS digital integrated circuits. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Engineering Students: EE-UY 3114. | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: EENG-SHU 322. ABET competencies a, c, e, g, k.
Focusing on software engineering, the course introduces techniques to specify, design, test and document medium and large software systems. Design techniques include information engineering, object orientation and complexity measures. Also covered are testing methods, such as path testing, exhaustive test models and construction of test data. An introduction to software tools and project management techniques is presented. Student projects involve team software development and tracking. | Prerequisites: Juniors or higher majoring in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or Electrical and Computer Engineering. Co-requisite: CS-UY 3224
This class introduces the principles of 2D and 3D computer game design. Students learn about the range of game types and understand their conceptual building blocks. Students complete a structured sequence of assignments towards the design for a new game.
This course offers a solid grounding in the basic issues and techniques of parallel and distributed computing. The material covers the spectrum from theoretical models of parallel and distributed systems to actual programming assignments. | Prerequisite: (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better) and CS-UY 3224.
This introductory course in engineering problem solving and computer programming is for all undergraduate engineering students without prior programming experience in any language. The course covers the fundamentals of computer programming and its underlying principles using the MATLAB programming language. Concepts and methods are illustrated by examples from various engineering disciplines. Useful numerical techniques and their applications to real-world problems in science and engineering are also discussed. ABET competencies: a, e, k. | Corequisite: EX-UY 1.
This course covers abstract data types and the implementation and use of standard data structures along with fundamental algorithms and the basics of algorithm analysis. Not open to students who have taken CS-UY 2134. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: CS-UY 1114 or CS-UY 1121 (C- or better) | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: CS-UH 1001 or ENGR-UH 1000 | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: CSCI-SHU 101 | Corequisite for all Students: EX-UY 1
This intermediate-level programming course teaches object-oriented programming in C . Topics: Pointers, dynamic memory allocation and recursion. Classes and objects including constructors, destructors, methods (member functions) and data members. Access and the interface to relationships of classes including composition, association and inheritance. Polymorphism through function overloading operators. Inheritance and templates. Use of the standard template library containers and algorithms. | Prerequisite: CS-UY 1134 (C- or better); Corequisite: EX-UY 1
This course provides a hands on approach to machine learning and statistical pattern recognition. The course describes fundamental algorithms for linear regression, classification, model selection, support vector machines, neural networks, dimensionality reduction and clustering. The course includes computer exercises on real and synthetic data using current software tools. A number of applications are demonstrated on audio and image processing, text classification, and more. Students should have competency in computer programming. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: CS-UY 1134 AND (MA-UY 2034, MA-UY 2034G, MA-UY 1044 or MA-UY 3054) AND (MA-UY 2224, MA-UY 2222, MA-UY 2233, ECE-UY 2233, MA-UY 3012, MA-UY 3014, or MA-UY 3514) | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: (ENGR-UH 3510 or CS-UH 1050) (C- or better) AND (MATH-UH 1022 or MATH-UH 1023) AND (MATH-UH 2011Q or ENGR-UH 2010Q) | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: CSCI-SHU 210 (C- or better) AND (MATH-SHU 140 or MATH-SHU 141) AND MATH-SHU 235
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an important topic in computer science that has many diversified applications. It addresses one of the ultimate puzzles human are trying to solve – How is it possible for a slow, tiny brain, whether biological or electronic, to perceive, understand, predict, and manipulate a world far larger and more complicated than itself? And, how do we go about creating a machine (or computer) with those properties? To this end, researchers in the AI field have been trying to understand how seeing, learning, remembering, and reasoning could, or should be done. This course introduces students to the many concepts and techniques in artificial intelligence. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better) | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: ENGR-UH 3510 or CS-UH 1050 (C- or better) | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: CSCI-SHU 210 (C- or better)
This course addresses the design and implementation of secure applications. Concentration is on writing software programs that make it difficult for intruders to exploit security holes. The course emphasizes writing secure distributed programs in Java. The security ramifications of class, field and method visibility are emphasized. | Prerequisite: CS-UY 3923
This course examines Modern Cryptography from a both theoretical and applied perspective, with emphasis on “provable security” and “application case studies”. The course looks particularly at cryptographic primitives that are building blocks of various cryptographic applications. The course studies notions of security for a given cryptographic primitive, its various constructions and respective security analysis based on the security notion. The cryptographic primitives covered include pseudorandom functions, symmetric encryption (block ciphers), hash functions and random oracles, message authentication codes, asymmetric encryption, digital signatures and authenticated key exchange. The course covers how to build provably secure cryptographic protocols (e.g., secure message transmission, identification schemes, secure function evaluation, etc.), and various number-theoretic assumptions upon which cryptography is based. Also covered: implementation issues (e.g., key lengths, key management, standards, etc.) and, as application case studies, a number of real-life scenarios currently using solutions from modern cryptography. | Prerequisite: (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better) and MA-UY 2314.
This course takes a top-down approach to computer networking. After an overview of computer networks and the Internet, the course covers the application layer, transport layer, network layer and link layers. Topics at the application layer include client-server architectures, P2P architectures, DNS and HTTP and Web applications. Topics at the transport layer include multiplexing, connectionless transport and UDP, principles or reliable data transfer, connection-oriented transport and TCP and TCP congestion control. Topics at the network layer include forwarding, router architecture, the IP protocol and routing protocols including OSPF and BGP. Topics at the link layer include multiple-access protocols, ALOHA, CSMA/CD, Ethernet, CSMA/CA, wireless 802.11 networks and link-layer switches. The course includes simple quantitative delay and throughput modeling, socket programming and network application development and Ethereal labs. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better) | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: ENGR-UH 3510 or CS-UH 1050 (C- or better) | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: CSCI-SHU 210 (C- or better)
This course covers cryptographic systems. Topics: Capability and access control mechanisms, authentication models, protection models. Database and operating system security issues, mobile code, security kernels. Malicious code, Trojan horses and computer viruses. Security policy formation and enforcement enforcement, legal aspects and ethical aspects. | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: CS-UY 2214 | Prerequisite for CAS Students: CSCI-UA 201 | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: CS-UH 2010 or ENGR-AD 3511 | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: CENG-SHU 202 | Co-requisite for ALL Students: CS-UY 3224
An introduction to the field of computer graphics: displays, image formation, visual perception, images, transformations (viewing and projection), programmable pipelines (vertex and fragment programs), modeling (primitives, polygon meshes, smooth curves and surfaces), animation (keyframing, procedural), rendering and realism (visibility, lighting, shading, shadows, texturing, ray tracing). | Prerequisite for Brooklyn Students: (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better) and (MA-UY 2034 or MA-UY 3044 or MA-UY 3054) | Prerequisites for CAS Students: CSCI-UA 201 (C- or better) and (MATH-UA 140 or MATH-UA 148) | Prerequisite for Abu Dhabi Students: (ENGR-UH 3510 or CS-UH 1050) (C- or better) and (MATH-UH 1022 or MATH-UH 1023) | Prerequisite for Shanghai Students: CSCI-SHU 210 (C- or better) AND (MATH-SHU 140 or MATH-SHU 141)
This course introduces database systems and their approach as a mechanism to model the real world. The course covers data models (relational, object-oriented), physical database design, query languages, query processing and optimization, as well as transaction management techniques. Implementation issues, object oriented and distributed databases also are introduced. | Prerequisites for Brooklyn Students: (CS-UY 2134 or CS-UY 1134) and (CS-UY 2124 or CS-UY 1124) (C- or better) and MA-UY 2314 | Prerequisites for Abu Dhabi Students: (ENGR-UH 3510 or CS-UH 1050) (C- or better) and CS-UH 1002 | Prerequisites for Shanghai Students: CSCI-SHU 210 (C- or better) and CSCI-SHU 2314
Geographic Information Systems are computer systems for the storage, retrieval, analysis, and display of geographic data, that is data about features and phenomena on the surface of the earth. This course will introduce the students to GIS through hands-on computer exercises, as well as readings and lectures about cartography, tools, data, and the social impacts of GIS. GIS projects start with data and move through analysis to cartographic display. Pedagogically, we will be starting at the end moving backward to data and analysis. | Note: This course cannot be used to satisfy Humanities/Social Science requirements for majors outside of the TCS department. | Prerequisite: EXPOS-UA 1 or EXPOS-UA 4
In this course, students focus on client and server side programming, as well as the web design and development process. Students are also introduced to databases for the web. Examples of dynamic web applications include content management systems, registration systems, and social media solutions. | Pre-requisite: DM-UY.2193
This course will cover basic camera use as well as the more sophisticated skills of image editing. Developing sensitivity to the aesthetics of image making through the use of the camera’s technical controls and composition are the central goals of the class. The course will provide a background in the history, theory, and contemporary issues of photography through lectures and visits to museums and galleries. By the end of the semester students will have the know-how to make images that convey their aesthetic and conceptual ideas effectively.
This unique course introduces students to innovative and cutting-edge technologies sound, video, and interfaces that are changing the way music is performed, produced and received. Music and creative technologies have shifted in the last years from preset-focused black-box devices to open and hackable hard- and software. Examples are MaxMSP (Ableton), the Kinect Motion sensor, VR Platforms or open source music instruments like Korg’s Mono series, little bits or bastl. This shift enables artists today to understand the inner workings of instruments better and engage a very different working process: these days, devices can more easily be created and manipulated, forming future tools and creating a rich variety of different media. The course consists of both a theoretical and a hands-on part, and has a workshop component. No special knowledge like programming or electronic skills is presupposed. As this course is intended for students from different disciplines, the content will flexibly be adapted to the level of knowledge of the students, especially for students with little or no technical background.
Can you listen to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” without envisioning the zombie transformation? What about Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” without seeing the accompanying choreography? Both of those songs, along with countless others, have benefited from the groundbreaking visuals that have accompanied them. From the Classic Rock films of the 1960’s to the MTV revolution of the 1980’s and 1990’s to the innovations of YouTube and Virtual Reality, this class will examine how the convergence of visual and auditory mediums has created some of the most impactful art. We’ll extract the great lessons from the pieces we study and utilize our production skills to create videos, on-stage visuals, and songs of our own. We’ll also investigate how the creation of videos alongside songs has disrupted the marketing and sales fates for the music industry multiple times. The weekly class structure will alternate between one 90min lecture/discussion course and one 90min production course where we will be collaborating on creating new content for each assignment together.
We live in an age of digital production where so much of today’s music is produced with comparatively few tools, and at the heart of the modern production set up, whether in the bedroom of the studio, is software that uses MIDI. One of the most versatile of today’s platforms which can be used in production, live performance, and even as a visual tool is Ableton Live. Ableton is unique amongst the contemporary software programs making music in that it is the only one that was created by working musicians who were looking for a tool that allowed for both the seamless creation of ideas and could also serve as a performance instrument. In the past 15 years, Ableton has played an important role in creating countless tracks and records in numerous genres and the go-to software for live performance, whether for vocalists and bands or for massive spectacles like Cirque du Soleil. In this course, we will cover Ableton’s unique abilities to manipulate audio which make it the preferred platform for remixing and mash-ups. We will cover the fundamentals of the software, explore techniques to program beats, chordal and melodic ideas, as well as cover creative workflow – how to use Ableton to quickly generate ideas for producers and songwriters. Finally, we will discuss its use as a live performance tool for use with live instrumentalists and vocalists, as a DJ tool and even as a VJing tool.
Atari. Computer Generated Imagery. YouTube. What is new media and will it change the world? In this course we will explore diverse examples of ?old? and ?new? media including interactive web work, gaming, installations, and movies. We will use blogs, online forums, and YouTube to discuss new media?s roots in older popular media including film and literature. We will question how new media have impacted traditional narrative forms and the structure of the film industry, as well as the broader contexts of new media in a changing world culture. This course allocates as History & Criticism for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES. Non-majors must process a “Permission Notice for Non-Majors” form to register for the course (subject to availability).
A beginning production course in which students learn the basic principles of animation, develop visual language, storytelling, observation, and communication skills. A freshman core production selection, but open to students at all levels. It is the prerequisite for several of the other animation and visual effects courses. Prior drawing experience is not necessary. The first half of the semester consists of weekly exercises in which students explore various styles and methods of animation including optical toys, stop motion, traditional drawn, and 2D digital animation. Students will be introduced to programs including Dragon Stop Motion, After Effects, Avid, Flash, and Photoshop. Various technical topics covered include aspect ratio, frame rates, storyboarding, editing animatics, scanning, working with image sequences, alpha channels, vector vs. raster art, compositing, rendering, using a Cintiq, and shooting stills with DSLR camera. During the second half of the semester students will complete a 15-30 second animated film with sound.
This class examines the intersecting dynamics of media genres and geo-linguistic cultural markets in the configuration of global and regional media flows. It looks in particular at the way media genres travel and how their circulation raises issues about the cultural power of certain media narratives in specific historical, political and social conditions of consumption. We will examine the battle for national, regional, and global media markets as a struggle for the ’Slegitimate’ cultural and political view of the world expressed through information (news), scientific discourse (documentaries), and popular culture (films, tele novels, reality television, music) to understand the complex global flow of television programs and films.
Prerequisite: Photography & Imaging II, or permission of the department. This course considers the creative possibilities of a variety of documentary strategies. The editing of images, their structuring into an essay form, the interpretation of their various meanings, and the impact of the documentary essay on the world are all discussed. Students are assigned a range of problems that explore visual description and interpretation ranging from the photojournalistic to the autobiographical. In addition each student devotes a significant amount of time to producing a single-subject documentary project. Classes are lecture-demonstration with critiques of student work and regular presentations of documentary photographs made throughout history, in different cultures and for different reasons, including the personal and the societal. Each student must have a still camera or a video camera. This course requires a nonrefundable lab fee.
Intro to Visual Communication builds a foundation for visual literacy and visual design thinking. The class focuses on the fundamentals of visual communication – line, color, composition, typography – as well as their application in a variety of contexts. You may or may not end up being a visual designer or artist, but all kinds of game design and development involves visual thinking. The philosophy of the class is learning by doing. Each week, in class and out of class, you will be creating visual projects on and off the computer. Sometimes you will be drawing in a sketchbook or making paper collages. Other times you will be using visual design software, such as Illustrator and Photoshop. The goal of the course is to connect the visual exercises to skills and issues related to directly to games. Sometimes we will be working on fundamental skills. Other times, we will be applying those skills to game-related problems.
With platforms like Steam and Itch.io making independent games more accessible to the public, we’re starting to see a movement toward physical installations of indie games as well. The New Arcade pays tribute to arcade cabinet designs of the 80’s and 90’s, but infuses them with new interfaces and digitally fabricated components. In this class, students will learn how to use the Unity game engine to design a simple arcade game. They’ll learn about aspects that separate an arcade game from other types of games, and interface their game with different kinds of hardware using microcontrollers. In the second half of the class, students will use Fusion360 to construct a new arcade experience using digital fabrication tools like laser cutters, and CNC machines. The class will culminate in a physical installation that showcases their game in a public gallery. Prerequisites: Physical Computing About Mark Kleback: https://wonderville.nyc
This class is an intensive, hands-on workshop addressing the complex challenges of game design. The premise of the class is that all games, digital and non-digital, share common fundamental principles, and that under- standing these principles is an essential part of designing successful games. Learning how to create successful non-digital games provides a solid foundation for the development of digital games. In this workshop, students will: analyze existing digital and non-digital games, taking them apart to understand how they work as interactive systems; create a number of non-digital games in order to master the basic design principles that apply to all games regardless of format; critique each other’s work, developing communication skills necessary for thriving in a collaborative field; explore the creative possibilities of this emerging field from formal, social, and cultural perspectives; develop techniques for fast-prototyping and iterative design that can be successfully applied to all types of interactive projects.
This class is an overview of the field of games that approaches them from several theoretical and critical perspectives. No special theoretical background or prior training is needed to take the course, but to have had a broad practical experience with and basic knowledge of games is a distinct advantage. Also, an interest in theoretical and analytical issues will help. You are expected to actively participate in the lectures, which are dialogic in form, with ample room for discussion. The course will prepare the student to: Understand and discuss games from a theoretical perspective, as well as the components of a game; Apply new theories and evaluate them critically; Assess and discuss game concepts and the use of games in various contexts; Analyze games, and understand and apply a range of analytical methods.
This course introduces students to the complex relationship between interactivity and storytelling. Students analyze how an interactive structure creates narrative. Works explored in this course range from nonlinear novels, experimental literature, audio narratives, theater/performance to film as narrative databases and games. The study of the structural properties of narratives that experiment with digression, multiple points of view, disruptions of time, space, and storyline is complemented by theoretical texts about authorship/readership, plot/story, and characteristics of interactive media. | Prerequisite: EXPOS-UA 2, EXPOS-UA 9, EXPOS-UA 22, ASPP-UT 2 or WRCI-UF 102. Note: Satisfies HuSS elective.
3D Modeling with Rhino is an introduction to 3D modeling using the Rhino computer program for Mac OS X. Students gain the technical knowledge needed to push rigorous exploration of 3D modeling, both in the physical and digital realm. The course covers basic model manipulation and rendering operations. The course also reviews the history of 3D printing and an examination of how modeling for 2D differs from modeling for physical output. By course end, students will have the opportunity to output their work via CNC milling, 3D printing, or 2D rendered visualization.
This advanced experiential production course will introduce students to the latest techniques for stereoscopic 360 video, manual 360 video stitching and depth map creation, camera-paired Depthkit volumetric video, and mixed-format photogrammetry. Techniques introduced in the class will presume some working knowledge of more basic forms of these capture methods as well as how to integrate them into Unity. Alongside an intense technical focus, the course will also deconstruct recent groundbreaking experiential works that utilize similar experimental production designs. The format of each class will combine lectures and workshops with the ultimate goal of introducing students to the expectations demanded by professional productions. All of the techniques introduced are being employed by top experiential creators and creative studios. The course will try to show viable paths for students to engage with immersive media pipelines, at an expert level, with an expanded sense of possibility and inspiration. Topics heavily examined throughout the course include: surveillance, race, socioeconomics, carceral capitalism and technoscience, algorithmic bias and oppression, and post-work societal structures.
In this class students will learn math tools to boost their digital practice, fix common problems, and understand the math behind our human perception of the physical world. This course spans different branches of math including geometry, linear algebra, logarithmic thinking, and statistics as they relate to a programmer making digital art with our contemporary media ecosystem. The aim of this course isn’t to become calculators, rather strengthen our intuition through historical and ethnomathematics perspectives and foster a new relationship to math. The prerequisites to this class are basic arithmetic skills and an introduction to programming. We will create applications using free and open-source software, including Python and p5.js.
This course will focus on researching, designing, and defining Intangible Interactions together, and unveiling artistic potential in it. Intangible interactions are those that we engage in without involving direct physical contact. Some examples would be automatic toilets, shopping carts that stop rolling outside the shop, contactless thermometers, gesture-based interactions, theremin, artwork activated by your presence, and mid-air haptic experiences. Intangible interfaces don’t have a tangible form that explicitly instructs us how to interact with them, and these interactions utilize other forms of feedback than those we feel through touch. Hence, Intangible Interactions tend to be more nuanced rather than direct, and the system is intricately designed to read your intentions using sensors. While technologies used for intangible interaction–such as computer vision and sensors are now more available and accessible, knowledge around the design and implementation of effective intangible interactions is a much less explored subject. We will explore practical, artistic, and whimsical applications of intangible interaction and look at the ways it can enhance human-computer interactions in our everyday lives. For example, it can allow new ways to interact with educational exhibits, artifacts, and artworks. We will explore intangibility as a poetic medium that can open up possibilities for creating work that challenges human senses and perception. We will discuss what are cultural and social implications that we need to consider in designing intangible interactions—what does it mean for an interaction to be “intuitive” and what are some of the assumptions that are embedded into designs that we need to challenge? You will also be introduced to working with sound frequencies that are outside the hearable spectrum to create mid-air haptic feedback. Technical topics that will be discussed in the class include: non touch-based sensors including optical sensors; proximity sensing; presence detection; optimizing sensor readings on Arduino; extending capability of sensors with light pipes and lenses; body tracking with cameras; signals outside visible spectrums; environmental sensing; mid-air haptic. Assignments will include relatively small-scale production assignments, labs, thinking, ideating, and reading. For the final project, you will be prompted to conceptualize a project that is larger than a classroom scope. You will respond to a call-for-projects with a proposal along with a solid prototype for the project so you have fully fleshed materials to apply to resources such as grants and other opportunities in the near future. I want you to think big and equip yourself with practical and essential skills to build a sustainable art or design practice! A proposal writing workshop and structured peer reviews will be provided to support this process. Tags: intangible, interaction, artistic, poetic, physical, sensors, physicalcomputing, haptic, hci, research, art, design, environment, playful, fun, proposalwriting
Tangible interfaces are interfaces that you touch. You control them with your hands, feet, and other body parts. Their shape, feel, and arrangement provide feedback. This is where interaction design meets industrial design. In this class, you’ll design, program, and build devices with tangible controls in order to better understand how humans understand and control technical systems through our sense of touch. We’ll discuss physical interaction concepts such as expressive interfaces and utilitarian ones, real-time control vs. delayed control, and implicit vs. explicit interactions. You’ll learn programming and electronic techniques to sense state change, thresholds, peaks, and other signs of user action. You’ll also learn how to design, shop for, and construct housings for the devices you build. On the electronics side, the primary tools will be the microcontroller and common tangible controls: pushbuttons, switches, rotary encoders, rotary and slide potentiometers, force sensors and touch sensors. The class will also cover on-device feedback through LEDs, speakers, and force-feedback actuators. On the fabrication side, you’ll work with the tools of the shop and XXX CAD program. You’ll design and build four projects in the course of the semester. Projects will be designed (and parts specified). Projects will build on the skills learned in Intro to Physical Computing and Intro to Fabrication. Prerequisites: Intro to Physical Computing and Intro to Computational Media, or a working knowledge of microcontroller programming in Arduino; Intro to Fabrication or basic knowledge of laser cutter.
As demographics in consumer markets and the global labor forces shift rapidly, diverse, equitable and inclusive (DEI) designers are necessary in all facets of business, from product and service design, to organizational and business design. In this multimedia and interactive Intro to Design for Diversity™(D4D), students will be provided with critical thinking skills to begin viewing diversity, equity and inclusion as design processes necessary for the future wellbeing of humans. D4D is a design framework that marries design thinking with diversity, equity and inclusion best practices and frameworks to illuminate cultural and racial biases. D4D is not only a means to harm reduction, but also a way-finding tool for better business. Students will be provided with historical context and case studies of racially biased practices that are now prevalent in biased algorithms in tech, as well as the lineage of culturally biased media narratives and how that plays a central part in today’s design practices, as well as their negative impacts. Students will be provided with a shared language and the outline of the D4D framework’s 5 Key Areas to enable them to design away from dominant culture, and instead, design for all people.
What is the relationship between American musician and poet, Gill Scott-Heron and cybernetics? Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not be Televised” was created in hopes to wake-up 1970’s America from complicity in societal oppression to then realize the revolution begins in your mind and something created through active participation, not passive media consumption. While, iterated forms of cybernetics also challenge the notion that “technology [or society] is self-correcting”, through fostering design thinking and systems theory through a meta-scale analysis of computational practices, essentially promoting being an observer of systems through conversation with process and feedback loops. Both ideologies center intention and holistic design within innovation — concepts vital to the equitable well-being of society in a technocratic era. In this course, students will explore the origins and history of the internet and HCI technologies as stemming from hippie communes, counterculture and warfare; survey historical and current social relations in the U.S.; study how these social relations have been replicated and embedded into everyday technologies; and consider potential futures in tandem with rapid technological advancements. We will study the works of pioneering designers and thought-leaders from Norbert Wiener, Stewart Brand, and Victor Papanek to Alondra Nelson and Ruha Benjamin. Phenomena discussed throughout the course range from the power of Black Twitter, the social media revolution of Egypt’s Tahrir Square, to cryptocurrency being used in bail reform. After in-depth historical analysis of societal structures, geo-political dissent, and algorithmic patterns, students will engage with futurism and speculative practices, techno-culture manifestos, and design and systems theory to develop a variety of research-driven projects. We will conclude with using both second-wave cybernetics as a design framework, and an anthropological lens to imagine, innovate and design more equitable technocratic futures. Topics heavily examined throughout the course include: surveillance, race, socioeconomics, carceral capitalism and technoscience, algorithmic bias and oppression, and post-work societal structures.
There is a substantial gap between what AR/VR is capable of today and the future that enthusiasts envision. The hardware is progressing, yet there are lack of design tools and methodologies. Effective augmented and virtual reality games and experience require good storytelling, animation, production and solid graphics. Students will learn a myriad of processes including spatial interface design, volumetric capture, working with spatial audio, porting animations and game programming. This course presumes no prior knowledge and is intended to jump start a career in AR/VR development and interaction design. The goal is to have relevant portfolio projects for entering industry. Students will create content in Unity 3D to agnostically deploy on headsets, mobile phones or tablets. Students will have access to a wide range of available hardware. In the beginning of the course, students will learn to implement the most important AR/VR interaction concepts – concepts such as selection, manipulation, travel, wayfinding, menus and inputting text in Unity3D. In the latter part of the course, students will implement prototypes that will be periodically critiqued by experts at Oculus, Magic Leap, Google, and other top companies. *You do not need to be a programmer. This is intended for students interested in 3D art, interaction design, sound design and game development. All are important for immersive development*
Inspired by the Japanese art of Chindōgu, this class will introduce a playful and whimsical approach to learn industrial design. In this 14-week studio format class, students will develop gadgets, inventions, and electronic devices that present absurd solutions to problems, while learning concepts and techniques of design ideation, prototyping, model making, CMF (color, material, and finishes), and manufacturing. This is a production heavy four-credit course, where students will learn about industrial design and tangible interactions. Prerequisite: Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)
In this course, we’ll investigate two closely related ideas: public data and data publics. We’ll learn how to access and represent data from an assortment of existing public data sources, how to liberate currently obfuscated data sets, and how to create our own useful/whimsical/critical APIs from scratch. We’ll also investigate the act of putting data into public space – through sculpture, projections, performance, and participatory interventions. Particular attention will be paid to methods which bring data back to communities from which it was collected, and to tactics which build grassroots literacies, respect local ways of knowing and reinforce capabilities for stewardship and sovereignty.
Generative machine learning models open new possibilities for creating images, videos, and text. This class explores the idea of how artists, designers and creators can use machine learning in their own design process. The goal of this class is to learn and understand some common machine learning techniques and use them to generate creative outputs. Students will learn to use pre-trained models, and train their own models in the cloud using Runway. For each week, we will discuss the history, theory, datasets, application of the machine learning models, and build experiments based on the model. In addition to Runway, we will be using JavaScript libraries like the p5.js, ml5.js, and TensorFlow.js, and software like Photoshop, Unity and Figma. Students are expected to have taken ICM (Introduction to Computational Media), or have equivalent programming experience with Python or JavaScript. A list of ML models we will be covering: Image generation: StylanGAN: https://github.com/NVlabs/stylegan BigGAN: https://github.com/ajbrock/BigGAN-PyTorch Style Transfer Fast-style-transfer: https://github.com/lengstrom/fast-style-transfer Arbitrary-Image-Stylization: https://github.com/tensorflow/magenta/tree/master/magenta/models/arbitrary_image_stylization Semantic Image Segmentation/Synthesis Deeplab: https://github.com/tensorflow/models/tree/master/research/deeplab Sapde-coco: https://github.com/NVlabs/SPADE Image-to-Image Translation: pix2pix: https://phillipi.github.io/pix2pix/ pix2pixHD: https://github.com/NVIDIA/pix2pixHD Text Generation LSTM gpt-2: https://github.com/openai/gpt-2
The ways in which we communicate has changed radically in the last 100 years. As the communication systems we use have increased in complexity, so has the effort it takes to understand how they work. Most of us use protocols like LTE, HTTP, TCP/IP, and BLE every day. We take them for granted, almost like we do the laws of nature. But there are more than the laws of physics, more than techniques of engineering, embedded in the design and implementation of our protocols of communication. To understand their role in our lives, we need to look into the societal and economic contexts in which they came to be. In this class, we will examine communication protocols using Raspberry Pi’s, Arduinos, Software Defined Radios, and other connected devices. We will look closer at organizations like iSOC, ICANN and IEEE to better understand how protocol designs are implemented and standardized. Through readings, research and hands-on work we will build an understanding of how these protocols work, how their designs incorporate the physical, technical, cultural, corporate and political assumptions of the actors behind them. In the first half of the class readings and assignments will help familiarize students with some of the different protocols we rely on every day. In the second half, students will work in groups to investigate a communications protocol and consider its impact from a technical, societal and environmental perspective. Final projects will communicate their findings in whatever form students deem appropriate – explanatory blog posts, physical or digital installations, or even videos and podcasts.
With Machine Learning models are getting smaller, and microcontrollers are getting more computing power, Machine Learning is moving towards edge devices. This class explores the idea of how machine learning algorithms can be used on microcontrollers along with sensor data to build Physical Computing projects. In this class, we will learn about TensorFlow Lite, a library that allows you to run machine learning algorithms on microcontrollers. We will talk about common machine learning algorithms and techniques and apply them to build hands-on interactive projects that enrich our daily lives. Students will learn to use pre-trained models, and re-train the models with sensor data. We are going to talk about Image Classification, Transfer Learning, Gesture and Speech Detection. For each topic, we will first discuss its history, theory, datasets, and applications, and then build simple experiments based on the topic. Prospective students are expected to have taken Introduction to Physical Computing and Introduction to Computational Media course, or have equivalent programming experience with Arduino and JavaScript.
Language is more than just words and meanings: it’s paper and ink, pixels and screens, fingertips on keyboards, voices speaking out loud. Language is, in a word, material. In this course, students will gain an understanding of how the material of language is represented digitally, and learn computational techniques for manipulating this material in order to create speculative technologies that challenge conventional reading and writing practices. Topics include asemic writing, concrete poetry, markup languages, keyboard layouts, interactive and generative typography, printing technologies and bots (alongside other forms of radical publishing). Students will complete a series of weekly readings and production-oriented assignments leading up to a final project. In addition to critique, sessions will feature lectures, class discussions and technical tutorials. Prerequisites: Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience.
Art, design and experimental electronics can be great tools for inciting discussions of complex issues such as privacy, sexism, racism, economic inequality and climate change. This course aims to provoke thoughtful discussions of pressing issues through the combination of Art, Industrial Design and Embedded Electronics (sensors, actuators, wifi enabled microcontrollers – ESP32, raspberry pis). Topics will include technological disobedience, adversarial design and critical engineering. In this 14 week class, students will combine technology, design, and critical theory to build Art Objects / Interactive Sculptures that are aesthetically intriguing while socially relevant. This is a production heavy four-credit course, where students will learn about new-media critical theory, design and electronics. Prerequisites include an open mind, the drive to make, and physical computing.
Is augmented reality technology about to enter the mainstream? AR platforms have finally become widely accessible to artists, designers, and technologists thanks to recent advances in mobile performance and a new collection of powerful computer vision techniques. As such, the medium offers rich possibilities for experimentation and a chance to rethink how we experience the intersection of the physical and digital. In this course, students will acquire an understanding of basic concepts and techniques necessary to prototype and build simple AR experiences – with a consideration of not just visual but also aural AR. We’ll supplement practical exercises with an overview of the history of AR, and discuss the ethical, legal, and societal considerations cropping up around this topic. Our tool of choice will be Unity, but we will go over prototyping techniques outside of the platform to speed up the design process. If there is interest, we will cover how to get started building projects in openFrameworks, mobile, or web AR – and discuss why or when you might want to work within other platforms. Even though code samples will be provided, students are highly encouraged to have a basic understanding of Unity or at least have taken an introductory programming course. A working knowledge of Unity can be gained through Unity tutorials (https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials) or Lynda (https://www.nyu.edu/lynda).
Microinteractions are everywhere, you interact with them on a regular basis. Animated emojis, heart buttons that burst with love when you tap them or password fields that shake when you type in the wrong password – these are the tiny animations that produce delightful moments while providing users with valuable feedback. They can intuitively guide your users without having to explicitly write a set of descriptive rules. They are the soul and character of your interface, and if crafted well they can turn every interaction to a joyful moment while improving the user experience. Using Adobe After Effects and Lottie as our primary tool, we’ll learn how to design, animate and export playful SVG animations as interactive components. We’ll examine the basic principles of UI motion, cover how to create loopable animated states with fluid transitions between them.
Introduction to Critical Mapping and Open Source Geospatial Web Analysis and Visualization is an introduction to critical perspectives in cartography and geospatial information systems and web technologies. This course will introduce students to the foundations of geographic data analysis and visualization, grounding practical studio based exercises and projects with critical readings and theory. Students taking this course will gain an appreciation for geographic thinking, learn to ask geographic questions, and apply basic methodologies to “make sense” of geographic data. The course will be conducted with open source geographic information systems and web technologies. Students are not expected to enter the class with knowledge of these tools, but will be expected to learn and apply them through studio exercises and project briefings.
This class is a project development studio for interactive music projects —that is, pieces of music that are not linear, but rather offer multiple dimensions for listeners to explore (on their phones in a crowded subway, at an abandoned factory in Palermo, back on their couches after a long day, at a classical concert hall). Students will take a project from concept to execution over several iterations, applying Interaction Design principles and techniques. During the first half of the semester, they will gather aural and visual references, compose graphic notations, and create interactive studies to explore specific elements of their composition. This work will lead to the implementation of the midterm project: a functional, high-fidelity prototype. For their final projects, students will evaluate their midterm pieces from the perspectives of music, visual design and interaction design, and refine them to produce an expressive piece of interactive music. ICM or equivalent experience is required. Some experience in making or producing music will be useful, but is not required.
Autonomous Artificial Artists (AAA) is a class to explore ways of making artworks “autonomous.” In this context, “autonomy” brings together three independent but related criteria: 1) artificial intelligence being a primary determinant in an artwork’s aesthetics 2) autonomous software principles culled from peer-to-peer network design, blockchain and decentralization technology, serverless and federated machine learning, cryptoeconomics, and agent-based multiplayer simulation. 3) crowd-sourced art where mass, unbounded cooperation of many participants creates novel artworks which represent the “hive mind” or collective input. The goal of this class is to learn a little bit about each of these seemingly disparate fields, and see how they may interact in interesting new ways. The idea of autonomous artworks is very new, and is being actively discussed by a small group of interdisciplinary researchers and artists since 2016/2017. Although the topic is highly experimental, it is nevertheless based on concrete technologies, making simultaneous use of several techniques which are under active development and have potentially far-reaching ramifications well outside the domain of art. The time is ripe for people within more design-oriented fields to begin thinking about how they might be used in a broader context. The class has both a theoretical component (learning about each of the individual technologies and their interplay) as well as a practical component: training and deploying generative models on computational environments that are as close to decentralized or autonomous as possible. In addition, we will explore prior notions of crowd-sourced or mass-collaborative art, touching on older principles and strategies such as Oulipo, exquisite corpse, and crowd-sourced computational artworks like Electric Sheep, Exhausting a Crowd, and others.
Over 7 weeks students in this course will explore different game mechanics, puzzle mechanics, group dynamics, and narrative structures and work in groups to design and build a room sized escape game. We will explore how to design immersive and participatory experiences through play and problem solving. Students will construct weekly puzzles and narratives and in the final week build and operate an “escape room” experience. Prerequisites: Physical Computing and ICM. Comfort with fabrication strongly encouraged.
Light Emitting Diodes or LEDs are used creatively all around us. They have the ability to emit light at different colors and intensities instantly and from very tiny points. How can we make creative visual works out of these amazing devices? What construction methods can we use to make those works reliable? Big LEDs will cover the process of designing large LED systems. We will cover LED array hardware and how to map pixels from computer generated media onto them. We will go through every major part of the hardware – different styles of LED arrays, drivers and gateways, cables, data protocols, and how to safely power all of them. We will learn to use the pixel mapping softwares Enttec ELM and Madmapper. We will also cover the paperwork needed to furnish a professional LED installation, including drafting riser diagrams, plan, section, and elevation views, creating a bill of materials, and writing instructions for users and installers. This year’s final project will be a site-specific LED sculpture installed in a public space at 375 Jay St. The installations will be able to display student chosen media that can be viewed for one minute. Students will work either in groups or alone and can choose from one of four installation options to present on: – A prepared square section of 2.0mm pitch LED video tiles (approx 256px x 256px, 2’-6” x 2’-6”) – A prepared low-resolution sculpture with diffused linear elements (approx 500px, 2’-6” x 5’-0” overall) – A student conceptualized LED video tile project – A student conceptualized low-resolution project Because of this year’s pandemic, unprecedented changes have come to the professional world of LED installations. As a result, we will be using remote tools such as networked-based cameras, remote desktop applications, and virtual private network connections to watch and operate the final projects. We will spend class time setting these tools up together. The two prepared options for the final project will be installed and maintained by the instructor.
This class will apply a product and service design lens to the rapidly evolving role of technology in politics, government services, and human rights, with a dual focus on the use of technology to advance the public good, and the threats that technology can pose to various aspects of civil society. On the one hand, there has been an explosion of technology tools that aim to promote healthy and peaceful democracies, provide more efficient government services, and promote human rights. This course will survey those efforts and the product design methodologies that guide them. On the other hand, 2018 has been a reckoning year for technology all over the world. The post-mortem of the 2016 US Presidential election shined a light on technology’s role in a promulgating a deeply polarized electorate, enabling election-meddling from foreign actors, and profiligating fake news, while also raising deep concerns about data privacy and security for everyday citizens. Meanwhile, new technologies like AI and Blockchain are poised to have deeply transformative effects on multiple aspects of society – from policing to education to financial services. This course will also explore the risks various technologies can pose to privacy, safety, liberty, and well-being. The course will feature guest speakers from leading practitioners in the space. Potentially including the ACLU, Higher Ground Labs, Elucd (YC17), NYU Better Policing Initiative, Microsoft, and more.
Stereo (2-speaker) sound is the default way we produce and distribute most audio. This class challenges the stereophonic-centricity of digital sound and instead focuses on the context of listening, interfacing and interacting with audio beyond 2 speakers. We will take a novel approach to spatialization by interfacing web technologies (Javascript, Web Audio, WebRTC) with multichannel audio to create room-scale interactive music and sonic spaces, and then make our findings publicly available through musical artifacts, open source tools, and documentation. We will explore conventional and unconventional loudspeaker arrangements ranging from 3 to 40 channels and how distribution and context affects music. Together, we will participate in a semester-long project examining the affordances of spatial and multichannel sound, designing and build open source tools to interface Tone.js, Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA) and other multichannel techniques. Students will perform/install their final on the 40-channel speaker array at Dave&Gabe’s studio in Bushwick. Topics include 3D sound, open source, space and listening. Prerequisites: willingness to listen critically, some programming experience. No formal music training required.
In this course, students will learn the process of developing products that address user needs. Students will go through the process of identifying a user need, developing a product prototype, evaluating the product with the target user, and outlining the next development steps. Topics will include such elements as need finding, archetype development, user journey maps, ideation, prototyping, user evaluation and validation.
Forget the screen. People want to be part of the action. They don’t want to watch detectives and control superhero avatars. They want to solve the mystery and be the hero. They want to experience it. We see this craving for playful experience in everything from immersive theater to escape rooms to the Tough Mudder to gamified vacation packages. Designing live experiences for large audiences that demand agency offers a distinct set of challenges, from how much choice you give each participant to how many people you can through the experience. We’ll look at examples from pervasive games to amusement parks to immersive theater, examining both the design choices and technology that make the experiences possible. Along the way we’ll create large, playful experiences that put the participant at the center of the action.
he course title, “Veillance” is a reference to the root of “surveillance” and “sousveillance”, watching from above and watching from below respectively. As digital media becomes a greater part of our everyday lives, it is important to understand the new forms of surveillance that it enables as well as to harness these capabilities and perhaps to create systems of sousveillance. Through the course, we’ll critically examine technologies that have become integral part of our lives; the technologies that drive the internet, the capabilities of web browsers, mobile phones, and the emerging class of networked devices such as IP cameras and Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home. Through the course of this examination, we’ll look at how this technology works, the policies that govern their use, what their benefits are, and finally look at what we are giving up by embracing them. This will be a hands-on endeavor; we’ll develop software to illustrate their use and misuse as well as looking for ways that we can harness their “veillance” capabilities for creative, educational, and possibly subversive purposes. Of course, in this process, we’ll pay particular attention to ethical and moral concerns. The course will have weekly reading and technical assignments, encompasses group work, and will culminate final projects.
How do you process data from connected devices? This class examines how to build systems to collect, process, store, and visualize data from connected devices. The class will review and discuss real world IoT systems using case studies and actual projects. We will build system using Arduino hardware and open source software. We will discuss how to IoT systems are built on commercial cloud infrastructure. Students will learn about IoT devices and the data pipelines for processing data. They will build an Arduino based device to send and receive data over WiFi via MQTT. Students will write code to move data from MQTT into a database. Students will learn how to query the database and present data as tabular data and graphs. To gain an understanding of an entire IoT system from device to application, we will start at a high level and then drill into each of the pieces — we will: * Discuss sensor hardware and wireless options (WiFi, Cellular, LoRaWAN, LTE-M, etc) for moving data to the server * Discuss transport options MQTT, CoAP, AMQP, HTTPS, etc. * Examine SQL, NoSQL, and Time Series Database * Look at tools and techniques for querying and visualizing data. Prerequisite: * Introduction to Physical Computing * Introduction to Computational Media (suggested) The class will be a mix of lecture, discussion, and building IoT systems. Real world examples and case studies will be used to demonstrate how IoT can be built.
Across the City’s universities, the Technology, Media and Democracy program will bring together journalism, design, and technical disciplines to understand the various threats to journalism and media, and attempt to address these challenges using technical and computational methods and techniques. The free press, journalism and the media are some of the most critical elements of our democracy, but have been increasingly under attack by political and market forces. These challenges include: dwindling resources and support for deep investigative journalism; smear, law and technical and even physical assaults of media organizations and journalists; challenges to credibility and reliability including fake news and discrediting campaigns; and shifting business models and income sources that threaten both local and national news organizations and coverage. This course will include various elements that will help frame the problem and build/prototype solutions.
The class will focus on the many overlooked aspects of paper, and how it can be used as a three-dimensional material. We will learn the disciplines of making Pop-Ups, Origami, Paper Crafting, and Visual Design. Using these methods as a starting point, students will build prototypes to explore new ways to tell stories, inform, interact, play with, engage, and challenge a younger audience. Most classes are hands – on. The rest, dedicated to criticism (including from children), analysis, and refinement, technical and conceptual. We will discuss how they could be mass produced and distributed. Students will build three prototypes, during the semester. From these, each student will select a favorite to fully develop as the final.
What do WhatsApp and Nelson Mandela have in common? How about Mr. Robot and the UN Council for Human Rights? When most people think “digital security”, they rarely think of these connections; but the connections are there. Digital security is much more than an industry buzzword— it encompasses techno-social idealism, open source development, and symbiotic coordination between sectors in tech, the humanities, and civic society. Certainly, we’re going to talk about Signal, Tor, VPNs, and OTR. But let’s dig even deeper. In this course, students will learn the principals of digital security; from end-to-end encryption, to circumvention technology, resilient communications, and beyond. Part lab exploration, part oral history, and part prototyping workshop, students will come away with the tools they need to undertake development projects with end-user security in mind; and foster an appreciation for digital security’s integral, timely, and often life-saving role in human rights struggles across the globe.
With emerging research and development with soft circuit technologies and its integration into textile and clothing design, the garment as a reactive interface opens up new possibilities in engendering self-expressions, sensory experiences and more. This 14-week class is to introduce students to this realm by creating connections between hardware engineering and textile crafting. The class is for students with basic physical computing knowledge to explore the possibility of wearables, and arouse discussion about the potential in re-imagining our relationship with personal devices, textiles and garment design as an interactive media.
This course re-conceives interactive media as a form of choreographic intervention. Instead of asking how moving bodies can control media, we will ask how interactive systems can influence movement. How do you make someone feel soft inside? How do you shake an entire room? How do you orchestrate duets between strangers? To accomplish this, the class facilitates a semester-long collaboration between ITP students and dancers from the Barnard/Columbia Dance Department. Choreographers will learn to apply computational thinking to choreography and creative coders will learn to apply choreographic thinking to computation. To whatever extent possible, we will attempt to embody code. Using computer vision and visual media, we will look at directing both how people move (quality of movement) as well as where they move (pathways and spatial relationships). We will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the various sensing technologies available to us today. How wide is the gulf between what we can see and feel (strength, hardness, contortion) and what a computer can see and interpret (locations, contours, velocity, acceleration)? Class time will be split between movement exercises, playing with examples and deconstructing code. The class will culminate in a final showing of student work. All classes will take place at NYU with a separate weekly technical lab for ITP students.
Rules of play shape competitive games from checkers to football. But how do rules of interaction shape everyday life? And what happens when there are no established conventions and the rules are being made up as we go along as they have been for the past 6 months of living almost exclusively online? In this course, we will explore, code and test design strategies for playful, serious and bizarre group interactions while at the same time interrogating both what it means to play and how individual identities and group behaviors emerge. (The interactions we create in this class will be designed specifically for synchronous, in-person, embodied experiences.) Some of the questions we will ask and attempt to answer: What motivates participation? What hinders it? When does participation become oppressive? What’s the difference between self-consciousness and self-awareness? Who has power? Who doesn’t? Are leaders necessary? What’s the difference between taking turns and engaging in conversation? What happens when the slowest person sets the pace? And most importantly, what happens when there are no rules? Interaction inputs we will play with will include: mouse, keyboard, mobile device sensors, and microphone. Outputs can include visuals, text and sound. We will use p5, websockets and node.js for real-time interaction. Class time will be split between group improvisation exercises, playing with and critiquing examples and translating design strategies into code and logic.
For better or worse humanity is heading down the virtual rabbit hole. We’re trading an increasingly hostile natural environment for a socially networked and commercially driven artificial one. Whether it’s the bedrooms of YouTube streaming stars, the augmented Pokestops of Pokemon Go, the breakout rooms of a Zoom meeting, or even the “airspace” of Airbnb; we are witnessing a dramatic transformation of what occupying space means. The socially distanced measures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have only accelerated this societal embrace of the virtual. So where are these dramatic spatial paradigm shifts occurring? Who owns and occupies these spaces? Who are the architects and what historical and ethical foundations are they working from? What world do they want to build for humanity and where does the creative individual fit into it? Will it be a walled garden, a role-playing adventure or a tool for creating more worlds? The course will ask students to embrace the role of virtual architect, not in the traditional brick-and-mortar sense of constructing shelter, but in terms of the engagement with the raw concept of space. However this virtual space must be considered and evaluated as a “site,” that is activated and occupied by real people and all the limitations of physical space that they bring with them from the real world. This is the foundation of synthetic architecture; simulated space met with biological perception. This conceptual architecture is free from the confines of physics but host to a whole new set of questions: How do we embrace the human factors of a dimensionless environment? How do we make or encourage meaningful interactions within the limits of current technology? New models of interaction must inform and shape the architecture of virtual space – what does that look like? How can architecture and aesthetics inform the creation of virtual environments and immersive narratives? How do we acutely consider the psychological and social impacts of the worlds we design and what is the metaphorical ground plane to make sense of this virtual world, unbound by physics? About Jonathan Turner: http://www.jonathanwilliamturner.com/about/
One of the most transformative consumer products in history, the iPhone remains the standard bearer for great design and user experience. With the latest version of iOS and the introduction of the iPhone X, Apple puts depth sensing and augmented reality in our pockets. How do we take advantage of this incredible platform to produce our own compelling experiences? This course will be a hands-on workshop where we explore the world beyond generic apps and push the boundaries of what’s possible on iOS hardware. We will cover both the design and technical elements that pertain to end-to-end mobile app development. Topics will include augmented reality, the Internet of Things, new interfaces for musical expression, voice interaction, wearables, and others… While the class will involve iOS programming instruction, the instructors will help facilitate coding using an established code base to ensure technical skills are not a bottleneck to implementation. Students should expect to spend additional time outside of class learning Swift and other related programming concepts. Full-time access to an iOS device and a Mac laptop running the latest operating systems are required. As part of the design process, we’ll host workshops and guest critiques with designers from top studios around New York City. At the end of the class, students will have a working app to add to their portfolios and a strong basis for future mobile application work.
Magic windows that allow us to peek into different realities without leaving our physical space, lenses that reveal hidden layers of objects or navigating new universes within the same room. More than ever, mobile devices are getting a human-scale understanding of space and motion allowing us to create more intimate interactions with our surrounding spaces, leveraging them as a canvas to experience other realities. We now have the potential to give life to inanimate objects, tell stories through space, customizing private views of public spaces and recognize places we’ve never been. We’ll question what it means and how can we blend reality exploring themes such as: augmented space and new paradigms in social interaction, public space and privacy; storytelling and navigating the physical space like turning pages in a book; tangible interfaces, mixed objects and animism; Magic windows, x-ray vision, time-machines and impossible universes; Far away so close: telepresence and remote collaboration. The course will survey the past, current and up and coming technologies and experiences in Mixed Reality including environmental augmented reality and interactive projection mapping, handheld devices while fostering a strong user experience perspective on the affordances and constraints of each. We’ll research and discuss the design principles and guidelines for creating mixed reality experiences focusing on the links between real and virtual objects, interaction space and asymmetries between physical and digital worlds, environmental semantics and multimodal and tangible interaction. Technologies explored will be focusing on mobile platforms (phones, tablets) including Vuforia, SLAM, image and object recognition, depth sensing, projection mapping. Unity3D will be the development platform: students must have previous working knowledge of Unity3D and feel comfortable with independently developing using this platform. A working knowledge of Unity3D may be gained by going through the Unity 5 3D Essential Training Lynda Course prior to the course (log in to Lynda for free via https://www.nyu.edu/lynda).
Because the full potential of the emerging field of soft systems is unrealized, there are countless opportunities for curious innovators to discover or develop novel soft systems. Soft robotic skills and techniques also open up a world of possibilities for large scale or surprising artwork. This course teaches hands-on fabrication techniques for constructing simple pneumatic actuators from cast silicone and heat-sealed mylar, and challenges participants to design and build their own. Lectures and discussion center on concepts from soft innovation history, the current state-of-the-art, and sister disciplines of bio-inspired and hybrid (soft/hard) robotics. Consideration of both brand new soft materials, from a class visit to Material ConneXion library, and everyday overlooked soft mechanisms, found in average retail stores, will require participants to look at softness through a new lens. Final projects will be the development of an original soft/flexible/hybrid research or artistic concept presented with context, material swatches with justifications for choices, and physical or modeled proof-of-concept. About Kari Love: http://www.karimakes.com
We’ve been tinkering with the living systems that generate our foodstuffs for millennia. But climate change is radically and rapidly shifting these food landscapes, and the impacts include the extinction of many of the foods we love: chocolate, wine, beer, coffee and more importantly starvation for those in the world who are already food insecure. In this class, we’ll explore biotechnologies and bioengineering along with microbes and mushrooms to design and create pathways for the restoration of some of the damage we’ve wrought on our food system. We’ll also use art and design and systems thinking to build speculative and actionable projects that will focus not just on the future of food but the future of our planet and all of its inhabitants. This class is part of the Biodesign Challenge.
We use light in all aspects of our lives, yet we seldom notice it. Most of the time, that’s no accident. Lighting in everyday life, well-designed, doesn’t call attention to itself. Instead it draws focus to the subjects and activities which it supports. In this class, you’ll learn how lighting is used for utilitarian, expressive, and informational purposes. We’ll consider the intersection of lighting design and interaction design, paying attention to how people interact with light. We’ll practice both analyzing lighting and describing its effects, in order to use it more effectively. On the technical side, you’ll learn the basics of the physics of light, its transmission and perception. We’ll talk about sources of light, both current and historical. We’ll work with computerized control systems for lighting and modern light sources, and we’ll create a number of lighting designs for different purposes. You’ll get practice building AC and DC electronic circuits, programming microcontrollers for physical interaction, and learning digital communications protocols such as DMX512 and HTTP and REST. Projects in this class will range from indicator lighting on devices to task and wayfinding lighting in everyday environments to stage and environmental lighting. We won’t spend time on projection or light used for purely expressive purposes, but will look at how to put light to work instead. We’ll focus our attention on lighting the subject at hand, whether that subject is a person, a living environment, or a workspace. This class will be production-intensive throughout the course of the spring semester. Second-year students will not be able to combine the assignments in this class with their thesis projects, though some of the skills may be complementary.
Web browsers were originally used only for displaying simple HTML pages, but over the years they have become supercharged all-powerful web execution machines. In this class we’ll explore experimental new features and HTML5 APIs that allow browsers to communicate with the OS and their environment. APIs that will be covered may include: Battery Status, Geolocation, notifications, accelerometer usage, video access, speech recognition, and text-to-speech. We’ll cover the mechanics of bookmarklets and Chrome extensions, with a sustained multi-week focus on building extensions and exploring Chrome’s extensions APIs. Class workshops will include projects such as building an ad blocker, programmatically replacing text and images on a website, and making sites that respond to external events. Students will give weekly in-class presentations on web capabilities, complete small weekly assignments, and present a final project. This class leans heavily on web technologies, and experience with HTML, CSS and modern JavaScript (ICM with p5.js or Commlab Web/Networked Media) is required.
The medium of motion pictures will be will be transformed by virtual reality technologies. But the emerging hybrid form will likely have less to do with the iconic VR headset and immersion, than in the newly possible flow of expression in the other direction, out of the participant. This class looks at the true potential of virtual reality as its mutability, to put ordinary users in the role of director of visual media as they already are in their dreams and fantasies. Democratizing media by breaking it down into discrete more easily remixable parts has historically, from DNA to alphabets to movable type led to an explosion of expression and knowledge creation. Motion pictures, perhaps our most convincing medium, is now undergoing such a transformation thanks to virtual reality technologies. Specifically, we will look at how tools like depth cameras, motion capture, and machine learning can treat a scene as a collection of elements instead of a collection of pixels. We will work with the real-time 3D rendering capabilities available, even in your phone, for the instant contrivance of visual reality using compositing, the transformation of images and models as well as virtual camera moves. The class will also consider how the more conceptual dissection of film by cinema scholars and psychologist into things like plots and character types might be templated into reusable formulas for non-experts to create an emotionally satisfying dramatic arcs.
According to anthropologists Filip de Boeck and René Devisch, divination “constitutes a space in which cognitive structures are transformed and new relations are generated in and between the human body, the social body and the cosmos.” In this class, students will learn the history of divination, engage in the practice of divination, and speculate on what forms divination might take in a world where the human body, the social body, and even the cosmos(!) are digitally mediated. Starting with an understanding of ritual and folk culture, we will track the history of fortune-telling from the casting of lots to computer-generated randomness to the contemporary revival of Tarot; from reading entrails to astrology to data science; from glossolalia to surrealist writing practices to the “ghost in the machine” of artificial intelligence. Weekly readings and assignments culminate in a final project.
Subtractive fabrication is a common manufacturing process that produces durable and functional objects. This class will cover multiple techniques on machining and milling raw material into custom parts. We will focus on both traditional and digital fabrication tools: lathe, CNC router, 4 axis mill, etc. We will cover CAD, CAM, and machine setups as well as research affordable desktop milling solutions for personal shops. The class will be hands on and fabrication heavy, paying close attention to precision, accuracy, and craftsmanship. There will be weekly fabrication exercises, a midterm, and a final project. It’s mill-er time.
Hardware is not hard, and rapidly prototyping circuit boards is easier than ever with new tools available at ITP. Students will learn how to grow from a breadboard to a custom surface mount board, all without leaving the floor. This class is about artists and designers taking control of their hardware, and exploring the potential of embedding their projects into the world around them. Students will learn the multitude of tools and processes required to make a DIY circuit board. These include Eagle CAD, micro-milling machines, drawing schematics, ordering parts, surface-mount components, acid etching, solder paste and stenciling, reflow, pick-and-place, and others. In-class demonstrations will be done for each of the above, and students will complete assignments using online reference notes and videos. Two smaller projects and one final project will be assigned (3 total), each a circuit of the student’s’ choosing. These three assignments will be designed to work off the most recently taught subjects, and to get the students to fail early. It’s a lot of new material to be learning across multiple domains, so the students will need the entire semester to iterate.
Iteration and its impact on your creative process is the theme of this class. The format of the course turns its head on the traditional class structure and instead of focusing on syllabus that builds to a final project, the course is focused on a daily, iterative practice. Students will identify a theme, idea or topic they would like to explore over the course of 100 days and must commit to making or producing a variation on that idea and posting social evidence of their work every day for 100 days. Projects can focus on building, writing, drawing, programming, photographing, designing, composing or any creative expression. In parallel to the making, in-class lectures will examine the work of artists whose work has been defined by iteration and discuss the role of discipline and routine in the creative process.
Exhibition design is the art of marrying experience and information. The best do so seamlessly; the very best surprise and delight you along the way. In this class you will explore the craft of interactive exhibition design through practice. Working in small groups, you will select an NYU researcher whose work is of interest to you and create an interactive experience that presents this research to a broader, public audience. In the process, you will learn to interrogate content and form, audience and environment, medium and message to create a meaningful and playful exhibit experience.
You live with illusions. The nature of these illusions has long been described in mystical practices but is now increasing corroborated by modern research such as neuroscience, behavioral economics, social psychology, embodied cognition, and evolutionary psychology. What does this have to do with computational media? With technology, we have the ability to revisit some of these vestigial illusions that made sense in ancient environments but that might limit our personal happiness or the overall functioning of modern society. Will the computer’s ability to run more objective statistical analysis on data gathered tirelessly over time, across individuals and locations allow us to more accurately see ourselves and the world as it is. Can we build computer interfaces that give a fuller expression of our experience when we are not limited by an illusory view of ourselves? The insights into how into how to reach people more fully comes with a responsibility to then ask what should say to them. As the computers are able to understand us better than we understand ourselves will we relinquish control to them? At a practical level, the class looks at interfaces for digitizing signals from the less consciously controlled parts of your body using things like biosensors and cameras. It then moves on to opportunities for finding insights in from patterns in the mounds of already digitized expression you have produced every day for years, for instance in your email. Then we look at the possibility of bypassing consciousness with techniques like subliminal priming to affect behavior. Finally, we will look at how we can use things like browser extensions to manipulate shared media in an attempt to counter some filter bubble effects that emerge at a group level based on the illusions discussed in this class. This class will use skills from Physical Computing and ICM.
This 7-week, 2-point course will provide a framework for learning how to develop and program web applications. It will focus on server side development using JavaScript, Node.js with the Express framework, and persistent databases on cloud based infrastructure. Additional topics will include login and session management, web services and APIs, and will lightly touch on front-end web development. The course will be a mixture of lecture and in-class collaborative coding, with weekly programming and reading homework.
The World Wide Web no longer stops at the edge of your screen. When it comes to products, if it powers up, it talks to another device. This class provides an overview of methods for connecting the physical world to web-based applications. We’ll consider what the emerging interaction patterns are, if any, and we’ll develop some of our own as needed. This class can be seen as a narrower and more interaction design-based complement to Understanding Networks. The latter class provides a broader overview of the dynamics of communications networks, while this class focuses specifically on the challenges of connecting embedded devices to web-based services. Neither class is a prerequisite for the other, however. This class will introduce network connection techniques for devices using microcontrollers like the Nano 33 IoT and MKR series or ESP8266 and processors running an embedded operating system like the Raspberry Pi. Prerequisites: Intro to Physical Computing and Intro to Computational Media, or equivalent experience with the topics covered in those classes. Learning Objectives: Students will gain an understanding of the basics of network programming for devices with limited computing power. They will learn about current protocols for communication between devices and networked servers, and about the rudiments of security for that communication. Reading: There will be an article or two to read each week, to foster discussion about the design of connected things. Assignments: There will be several one-week software and hardware assignments to get familiar with different technologies and communications protocols, and one hardware and software final application project.
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 physics simulation, trigonometry, self-organization, genetic algorithms, and neural networks. Examples are demonstrated in JavaScript using p5.js (https://p5js.org). Much of the class time will be dedicated to in-class exercises and self-study as the course is available online through a video series (https://www.youtube.com/user/shiffman/playlists) and textbook (http://natureofcode.com/book).
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.
Code without content gets boring fast. This seven week course will show you how to create stories around which you can weave the technology learned in other classes. When content comes first, interesting problems arise to solve. Participants will get solid grounding in how to tell a visual story using words and images in a traditional format, so then they can take that format and reimagine it in entirely new and unique ways. The first few classes are devoted to getting basic comic skills. The remaining classes will hone and expand these abilities while posing the question: what can be done differently, and how can technology add to what we have created? At the end of the semester you will have a something that sets you apart; – original content AND technological know how. Students will combine words and images, look at each other’s work, look at examples of published works. Reimagine how these stories can be told in new and unique ways. This a demanding course. There is a lot of work involved, they will end up with a lot of original content. During the first half we look at and make traditional comics. Second half we experiment with comic format WHILE honing storytelling skills. Relevant speakers will come in to discuss what they do and how they work etc.
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 dynamic and interactive computer images from scratch, manipulating and processing existing images and videos, compositing and transitioning multiple images, tracking and masking live video, compositing and manipulating live video as well as manipulating depth information from Kinect. The class uses Processing.
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.
If you were inventing a museum today, what would it look like? Who would be there? What would its main purpose be? What would the audience experience? 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. 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 to support the experience and not lose what’s special about them? The class is an exploration, observation, theory, and design class for you to imagine the future of museums and exhibits. 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 diorama, reviews). There will be guest speakers from Museums and exhibit design firms, and several 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. About Emily Conrad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily/
Course will provide a forum in which to explore & engage the relationship between photography, performance & contemporary art. Through class assignments & readings in contemporary theory we will develop a critical vocabulary for an understanding of the relationship between photography & performance & a forum in which to challenge & push our individual art practice to the next level.
Course introduces student artists to the 4th dimensional concepts of TIME & MOVEMENT as the necessary building blocks of Art created by Photography, Video, Digital & Performance medias. Students will explore the attributes of TIME & MOVEMENT through project assignments that use the methods of photography, video, digital, & performance art. The course also includes a brief art history of 4D concepts spanning a wide array of subject matter from cave painting to contemporary art.
This course will introduce student to digital fabrication techniques within the context of contemporary art. Students will complete a series of projects exploring fabrication technologies such as 3D printing, 3D Scanning, CNC milling and Laser cutting. In addition, student will question the machines’ raw output by fusing these processes with traditional sculptures techniques. Student will produce a series of works following project prompts. Although the course will process-heavy, student will maintain a rigorous conceptual grounding in their completed works.
Assignments, critiques & demonstrations for the more advanced digital art student. The use of the computer to augment and expand conceptualization and expression has provided the artist with some of the most important new means for visual thinking since the Renaissance invention of perspective. Students learn how to use the computer as an extension of the visualization process and its specific applications in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional art.
Video art has become one of the most widely used media art forms because it allows both the artistic concentration of photography & the free flowing imagery of movement. Students acquire rudimentary skills in shooting & editing while working toward a personal statement in video.
The contemporary art world is a convoluted interplay of aesthetics & economics; ego & idealism. How can an emerging artist navigate its layers & idiosyncrasies? Through readings of theory & criticism, lectures, discussions, site visits, guest speakers, & student responses in the form of multimedia projects and art writing, this course explores contemporary art’s mechanisms & current discourse, always keeping Berlin’s local context in mind.
’Art: Practice and Ideas’ examines key developments in the visual arts from modernity to the present. Focusing on the ways in which representations both create and reflect the values of a society, the course introduces students to the full range of expressive possibilities within the visual arts, covering painting and sculpture, as well as photography, film, video, conceptual art, and computer media. Topics to be covered include classical, modern, and postmodern relationships to politics, vision, the mind, the body, psychology, gender, difference, and technological innovation. Students will see and understand how artists have integrated perceptions of their historical moment, as well as physical and social space, into creative practices that have, in turn, had a significant impact on the culture of the time. Liberal Arts Core/MAP Equivalent – satisfies the requirement for Expressive Cultures
This course aims to provide students with the critical thinking and practical skills for creating effective and compelling interfaces. We will dissect what a compelling user experience is and discuss and apply design methods for creating one. Throughout this 14-week course we will examine a wide range of examples of interfaces with a focus on understanding the attributes of a successful interface and applying proven research, mapping and testing techniques. The class format will include lectures, case studies, student presentations, discussions of readings and in-class design exercises. The format is very hands-on with assignments that focus on problems that are typical of those a UX designer will encounter in the professional world.
This course is designed to provide students with hands-on experience working with computational media (programming, creative coding, etc.) and data. The forms and uses of computational media and its application are explored in a laboratory context of experimentation and discussion.
This course will provide a foundation for understanding modern web development with a focus on front end technologies and accessing public data. The forms and uses of these technologies are explored in a laboratory context of experimentation and discussion.
Students will create two well-designed single-page web applications, including one that leverages public APIs and digital services from a wide range of existing web products. The goal of the course is for students to learn how to think holistically about an application, both by designing a clear user experience and understanding the algorithmic steps required to build it.
This course is designed to provide students with hands-on experience working with sensors and other electronics to design interfaces for a live multimedia performance. Students will explore the expressive properties of sensors to control a variety of outputs such as light, sound, projection, and/or other media. The forms and uses of physical computing, computational media, and its application are explored weekly in both a hands on laboratory context, as well as weekly discussions of readings and existing performances. Prerequisites: Creative Computing or similar coursework with microcontrollers and coding.
This course is designed to provide students with hands-on experience working with interactive and emerging applications for creating immersive experiences, with a focus on designing for virtual reality headsets. The class will also touch on related technologies, methods, and fields including experience design, virtual painting, augmented reality, interactive installation, and 360 video/audio. The course materials will also include readings and discussions on prior art/relevant critical texts.
We live in a world where we have more data, computational power, and access to digital connectivity than ever before. But how do we make sense of the promise inherent in this reality while holding space for the challenges that it presents for different groups and communities? How do we situate the technologies that we have come to take for granted? And more importantly, how do we leverage an artist’s perspective to creating active responses that interrogate and hint at the potential for different futures? This course examines emergent technological fields, spanning topics like data collection/representation, digital archives, artificial intelligence, social algorithms, and automation and asks how the technologies inherent to each can be leveraged for artistic response, creation, and critique. While this course is primarily conceptual and art theory-based, the content covered will be technical in nature and students will be tasked with making three creative responses to the content in the tradition of the new media, digital, and conceptual art worlds.
This course explores the elements of music through the lenses of computation and interactive design. Each of the five course units focuses on one element of music (rhythm, melody, timbre, harmony, and structure), approaching it from the perspective of music theory, computation, and design. For each element, students listen to examples from different periods and styles, represent and manipulate the element in code, and create an interactive study around it. As students work toward their final projects, the class takes a more self-directed approach. Final projects can take the form of digital applications, spatial installations, or physical devices. In-class coding and assignments will be done in P5.js, but students will be free to use other languages and frameworks for their final projects. Creative Computing or equivalent programming experience is required.
The network is a fundamental medium for interactivity. It makes possible our interaction with machines, data, and, most importantly, other people. Though the base interaction it supports is simple, a client sends a request to a server, which replies; an incredible variety of systems can be and have been built on top of it. An equally impressive body of media theory has also arisen around its use. This hybrid theory and technology course will be 50% project driven technical work and 50% theory and discussion. The technical work will will utilize JavaScript as both a client and server side programming language to build creative systems on the web. Technical topics will include server and client web frameworks, such as Express, HTML, CSS, templating, and databases. The theory portion of the course will include reading and discussion of past and current media theory texts that relate to the networks of today; included in this will be works by Marshall McLuhan, Wendy Chun, Lev Manovich, Philip Agre, Tiziana Terranova, and more. In short, this course will be about developing full-stack web applications (such as anything from the beginnings of Google, YouTube, and Twitter to class registration systems and other purpose built system) as well as thinking, reading, and discussing the implications with a culture and media theory perspective.
Assistive technology is a term that includes a wide variety of technologies for people with disabilities. This two-point survey course is designed to provide students with an overview of the field of assistive technology. Field trips, readings, and guest speakers will provide students with an understanding of current research and development as well as processes used in determining appropriate technologies. Weekly assignments and a final research project. This course satisfies 2 credits of the Experimental Interfaces and Physical Computing Courses category for the IMA major. Prereq: Creative Computing. This course meets once per week.
An introductory course designed to familiarize students with all the IMA prototyping shop has to offer. We will cover everything from basic hand tools to the beginnings of digital fabrication. You will learn to use the right tool for the job. There will be weekly assignments, created to develop your fabrication techniques. There will be in class lectures, demos, and building assignments. Emphasis will be put on good design practices, material choice, and craftsmanship.
“Big Ideas in the History and Future of Technology” is designed to provide students with a critical perspective on current issues in technology in the context of the history, controversies, consequences, and ethical questions in emerging media. This first course in the series includes: in the first half –some seminal early works that imagine a future in which technology enhances/augments human intelligence and capabilities and how that might affect society; in the second half–2 classic works of fiction and some podcasts/ audio lectures that address questions relating to “What is Human.”
Wall labels, audio guides and informative maps are just some of the ways galleries and museums convey additional information about an art collection. How can we utilize new interactive mixed reality tools to design and deliver immersive experiences that breathe new life into an exhibit. Augmented and virtual reality are powerful tools for new media production and storytelling, but how can these tools serve to enhance our Wall labels, audio guides and informative maps are just some of the ways galleries and museums convey additional information about an art collection. How can we utilize new interactive mixed reality tools to design and deliver immersive experiences that breathe new life into an exhibit. Augmented and virtual reality are powerful tools for new media production and storytelling, but how can these tools serve to enhance our gallery experience without distracting from the power and importance of a pre-existing collection? This production course seeks to experiment with new ways to experience a museum collection through mixed reality. Topics covered include exhibition installation and curation, mixed reality production in Unity, mobile development for Augmented Reality.
This course introduces platforms, tools, and the architectures that facilitate scalable management and processing of vast quantities of data. We will explore open source tools enabling the efficient acquisition, storage, and processing of Big Data. Students will learn about distributed storage solutions such as the Apache Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), which supports storage of Big Data. Students will gain hands-on experience with distributed processing Apache solutions such as Hadoop MapReduce, HBase, Hive, Impala, Pig, core Spark, Spark SQL, and Spark Streaming. Other Apache big data tools covered are Sqoop, Oozie, Zookeeper, Flume, and Kafka
Introduction to numerical computation: the need for floating-point arithmetic, the IEEE floating-point standard. Importance of numerical computing in a wide variety of scientific applications. Fundamental types of numerical algorithms: direct methods (e.g., for systems of linear equations), iterative methods (e.g., for a nonlinear equation), and discretization methods (e.g., for a differential equation). Numerical errors: How can you tell if you can trust your answers? The use of graphics and software packages such as Matlab. Programming assignments.
This course takes a mathematical approach in studying topics in computer science, such as: regular languages and some of their representations (deterministic finite automata, non-deterministic finite automata, regular expressions); proof of non-regularity. Context free languages and pushdown automata; proofs that languages are not context free. Elements of computability theory. Brief introduction to NP-completeness.
This course covers widely-used machine learning methods for language understanding—with a special focus on machine learning methods based on artificial neural networks—and culminates in a substantial final project in which students write an original research paper in AI or computational linguistics. If you take this class, you’ll be exposed only to a fraction of the many approaches that researchers have used to teach language to computers. However, you’ll get training and practice with all the research skills that you’ll need to explore the field further on your own. This includes not only the skills to design and build computational models, but also to design experiments to test those models, to write and present your results, and to read and evaluate results from the scientific literature.
The saying goes, “If all you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.” What if all you have is a 3D Printer? In this course, students will be introduced to, and engage critically with, a range of contemporary machines inside and around the Interactive Media Lab. Leveraging historical perspectives, current use-cases, and hands-on making, the course will explore how machines enhance, or limit, our creative processes. Readings and discussion will be paired with practical designing, prototyping, and making of creative computer controlled devices, such as drawing machines, musical instruments, and a collaborative Rube Goldberg contraption. Over the course of the semester, students will be exposed to a variety of tools, materials, and fabrication techniques as well as learn how to use micro-controllers and software to give their machines unique behaviors and abilities. By thinking about machines, using machines, and making machines, the course will offer insight into our creative relationships with our tools.
This seminar course is an introduction to the theories, questions, and conditions that encompass interactive media. Students will engage in readings that critically examine both the impact that interactive media and technology have on culture and societies as well as the ways in which social contexts shape the development and application of these technologies. The contexts become apparent by examining interactive media and interactivity through the lenses of relevant perspectives including politics, ethics, race, gender, and cybernetics. Throughout the semester students will leverage theory to analyze interactive media works and build a vocabulary for making sense of our increasingly mediated world. The course thus serves to lay a conceptual foundation for students to inform and direct their own creative practice. Readings, discussions, research, and writing constitute the body of this course.
What happens when the arts and humanities are represented in digital form? What kind of new insights can we have when by looking at the data of the humanities? This course will look at intersections between computers and the humanities, a form of inquiry known as “digital humanities.” The course is structured around a broad examination of concepts important in today’s society (computational thinking, digital identity, text as data, dataset, pattern, algorithm, network, location). Students will discuss these concepts critically, explore real-life examples and put them into practice in hands-on activities. Examples of such hands on work might include, but are not limited to, creating accessible web design, analyzing text digitally, building and visualizing a dataset, curating an open bibliography, thinking about art as data, building a Twitter bot, teaching a computer to recognize human handwriting, visualizing social networks or making digital maps. The course assumes no prior technical skills, but a willingness to explore new technologies is essential for success.
While our relationships between ourselves, our environment, and other people are inherently political, computer technologies and technology companies consistently claim to remain “neutral”. This course will assume the opposite – software is political – and focus on how software applications share commonalities with political systems, how they affect their users as political actors and how we can build alternatives to those systems. This course is aimed at deconstructing the design and implementation of software as a political medium, such as Facebook’s timeline algorithm, city officials’ use of computer simulations to orchestrate urban life, blockchain-backed proof of ownership and algorithmic criminal assessment. Along with an introduction to political theory and media studies, coupled with an exploration of the underlying political impacts of those systems, students will work on several hands-on projects to offer functioning alternatives to those systems. To that end, this course will include several workshops in JavaScript and Python.
This course will introduce students to the design and development of Virtual Reality experiences. We will examine these increasingly popular means of delivering content and social interactions and identify their unique affordances over existing platforms. Students will be challenged to harness the specific advantages of VR from conception through functional prototype. The class will also cover case studies of effective use of VR in information delivery, as well as social and artistic experiences.
With the advent of digital computation, humans have found a variety of new tools for self-expression and communication. Thinking about how we interface with these tools beyond the mouse and key-board, we can approach software and electronics as artists and designers, exploring new interactions with machines and each other. This introductory course will provide students hands-on experience with screen and physical interaction design through programming and electronics using microcontrollers, electronics, and software development. Weekly exercises encourage students to experiment freely, creating their own novel interfaces and controls for working with machines. The course culminates with a final projects exhibited at the program’s end-of-semester showcase.
We live in an era of information where the information can be written, accessed, shared, and also eliminated with a single stroke. As a result, the objective “truth” is brought to a question. In the last decade, artists have been experimenting with the fakeness of the truth and the truthfulness of the fake by creating fake documents, staged marriages, an arguably authentic artifact, imaginary advertisements both historical and contemporary. What does it mean to tell the truth in the context of art? How does art cross the boundaries between the real and the fake, truthfulness and misrepresentation? This course will examine social engagement of art and how “truth” is treated, interpreted, and presented. The class will take a field trip to a propaganda museum, have readings and discussions, and analyze artists working with fiction as a medium in art making. Students will work on projects to construct believable reality through object making (3D fabrication) and narrative construction (audiovisual material). Prerequisites: Interaction Lab or Communication Lab or Application Lab
Tangible heritage (site, object, and structure) and intangible heritage (motif, icon, character, textile, wardrobe, music, performance, language and ritual) are unseparated parts of the cultural heritage. The narrative and messaging of cultural heritage can be preserved by moving sequences, motion design and animation. The richness of heritage contents can be further disseminated and known by the dynamic media. This course aims to utilize animation and motion media to depict and preserve the richness of cultural heritage contents. 3D animation and motion graphics techniques will be addressed and applied to the storytelling. Students will be guided to research the Asian cultural heritage contents including the tangible and intangible heritage. They will further explore the visual design and production pipeline of animation. Visiting expert of interactive media design and intangible heritage performance will get involved to share the insights to the students. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
The Nature of Code is an intermediate course based on Daniel Shiffman’s The Nature of Code course at NYU ITP and was adjusted for undergraduate students. This course explores the fundamentals of programming, such as Object-Oriented Programming, and the application of simple principles of mathematics and physics in order to recreate natural behaviors in a digital environment. Prerequisites: This class uses p5(p5js.org) and requires Interaction Lab, Communication Lab, Application Lab, or similar programming background. Knowledge of other languages, such as Processing, three.js and OpenFrameworks, is also encouraged.
In this course students will learn the fundamentals of computation, software design, and web technologies, through a series of creative projects. The course is intended to equip students with the skills to develop artistic and business projects that include a significant computational component. Topics such as variables, functions, components, and functional and reactive programming will be brought together to create interactive applications, generative art, data visualization, and other domains. Within the framework of these creative projects students will develop a greater understanding of how computer programs operate, be exposed to various concepts used to create experiences and interactions, and become more familiar with some of the technologies that constitute the internet. This course is intended for students with no prior programming background. Prerequisites: None
Utilizing technological and scientific research / case studies / artifacts, this class introduces students to the topic of enhanced / extended perception and how technological augmentation allow us to sense and perceive alternative layers of our surrounding world, reconfiguring our understanding of what reality really is. Students will be asked to develop their own prototypes that demonstrate a conceptual or functional outcome on how perception can be extended, enhanced, or even hacked.
Ours is a time of unceasing image production. CCTV cameras wrap around the planet, machines make visual learning sets for other machines, hundreds of billions of hours of video material is livestreamed online every year, artists speculate about the possibility of making virtual reality for animals, and seemingly natural phenomena such as climate change can only be apprehended through risk simulations and data visualisations. Simultaneously, from deep fakes to computergenerated influencers and webcam models, digital images without real-life referents are set to become a part of social life, posing questions about the agency of media makers and consumers in an increasingly simulated world. Contemporary visual culture is not made by humans alone and sometimes not even meant for human eyes. What are we to make of aesthetics when they become automated? How can human collectives be thought from the perspective, or collaborate with, the semi-autonomous technological systems around us? What kind of conceptual capacities do we need to be able to think about the future of such media globally, and in specific geographical locations? In this class, we will explore the shi< that media theory and philosophy of technology have made towards the inhuman. From biometrics, insect media, and eco-media to so<ware art, augmented reality, and satellite imagery, we are witnessing a paradigm change in how we think about the relationship between human, animal, and machine agency in visual culture. Looking at a variety of contemporary media objects, we will read state-of-the-art theory, write a research paper, and collaborate on a post-human media studies syllabus spanning texts and objects from across the globe.
This class focuses on the curiosity behind the greatest discovery of electromagnetism. By replicating experiments both with magnetic and electrical fields, we will explore the major breakthroughs that enabled us to power up devices, connect people, and store information. During the course we will have seminar discussions analyzing texts that contextualize the lab experiments and we will work toward conclusions on the implications of these discoveries. We will analyze different perspectives that led to the development of theories about the electromagnetic field, radio waves transmissions, and the quantum properties of electrons. Students will propose their own creative experiments, linking their personal interests with how electrons behave. As part of their final project report, they will submit an essay describing the technical methodology, critical framework, and the results of their experiment. Throughout the course they will acquire a working knowledge of components like capacitors, lasers, antennae, and circuit prototyping tools. Prerequisites: None Fulfillment: CORE ED; IMA/IMB elective.
People use their bodies in the workplace whether they are dancers or athletes, managers or engineers. Physical wellbeing, social teamwork, and cognition may be affected by our movement practices. How do people use physicality and motion to think? What is the interaction between body, motion, place, and goals? We will explore these questions by building physical-computing-based systems that encourage us to bring movement into new times and places in daily life, that coach users and develop learning environments for movement practices, and that test our understanding of ways that we “think with the body”. In this course we will bring practices such as fitness, dance, sports, and martial arts into a series of interactive installations, movement learning projects, and workspace modifications built on computing, sensing and actuator technologies. In this course we will also explore these questions through review of existing creative projects in this area, readings, presentations, and knowledge-sharing sessions. Prerequisites: Creative Coding Lab, Interaction Lab or equivalent programming experience Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
An attempt to better understand and participate in the communications revolution we are undergoing through an investigation of the nature and consequences of previous communications revolutions. Using readings ranging from Plato to Sontag to Kundera, the course will look closely at the history of spoken language, images, writing, printing, photography, film, radio and television. How were they understood? How were they initially used or misused? What were their effects upon social patterns, politics and thought? How did innovations occur? What can that tell us about the potential and potential influence of digital communication? Students will be asked to undertake innovative experiments of their own in forms of new media. Prerequisites: None
As no two cultures define “artificial” the same way, and no two define “intelligence” the same way, so too they will not define and imagine “artificial intelligence” in the same way. As China and the West engage in what is sometimes called a new scientific and technological race, the fundamental terms of a shared conversation across cultures may be missing or contested. As planetary-scale economies shift toward increasing automation, AI moves out of the laboratory and into the fabric of supply-chains, urban infrastructures, and everyday life. This research seminar will allow students to explore different ways that different cultural connotations of “face”, “city”, and “governance”, for example, imply different paths for the development of this fundamental technology. NYU Shanghai will host an international conference in the Spring 2020 that examine these same topics. Prerequisites: Interaction Lab / Application Lab / Communication Lab / What’s New Media
Data is at the heart of the increasing role technology has in our lives. Data collection and algorithmic processing are not only central to recent technical breakthroughs such as in AI and automation but have created new economic paradigms where data equals value and shape political approaches to power and control. Decisions based on algorithms affect society at large whether it’s changing the way we transport and distribute goods, or influencing the things we buy, the news we read or even the people we date. The world that algorithms see is data. For the average person, however, data is seldom more than an abstract idea. So what exactly is data? How is value extracted from it? And why should we care? How can we ethically balance the positive uses of data-driven systems with the threats they pose to discriminate and infringe basic human rights? This class seeks to untangle some of these issues practically and theoretically. Prerequisite: Creative Coding Lab or equivalent programming experience. Fulfillment: CORE AT; IMA/IMB elective.
Toys are not only for kids. Toys are part of our culture and an important medium to develop essential skills like creativity, problem-solving, and socialization. They can also be a great contribution in education, medicine, and business, and can improve the quality of life for children and adults alike. The emphasis in this class is on designing for play and entertainment. Students will be introduced to the underlying essential concepts in designing toys and they will create their own utilizing hand-making craft skills and new technologies. This course will equip the students with a basic knowledge about various design topics including: brainstorming, sketching, graphic design, concept development, basic mechanisms, 3D modeling, rendering, and rapid prototyping. This is a hands-on class and students are required to bring their imagination in addition to a willingness to experiment and explore creative solutions for class assignments. Prerequisites: Interaction lab / Communication lab Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
Application Lab is an intensive project-driven course where students explore current challenges and opportunities at the intersections of emerging media and innovation through the lenses of design, prototyping and innovation. The course seeks to help students understand how these high-level concepts intersect with skills to form the basis for new applications of technology and human industrial art. At the end of this course, students will be able to think critically and holistically about not only what makes innovations possible but will also how to utilize emerging media technologies and ideas to bring innovations into the world that respect and acknowledge the values of design, iteration and innovation. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Other Foundation/Electives; IMB Major Emerging Media Foundation/ Interactive Media Elective.
Exhibition: Next class is an exploration and observation of the fields of exhibition design and museum studies. This class will explore how emerging and interactive technologies can be applied to museum and exhibition design to enhance visitors’ experiences. What is an exhibition in a museum of today and how should it be experienced? What is the role of a museum in contemporary society? How does it engage the audiences of tomorrow? The class discusses curatorial practices, various exhibition concepts and forms, museum visitor experience, and exhibitions’ social values. Students will visit and immerse themselves in many museums and exhibitions as a professional observer who will be asked to write reflections of their observations as an essay for each museum visit. Students will choose a research topic at the beginning of the class and they will start collecting materials, building objects, designing experiences, and writing a statement for their final exhibition based on this topic. Students’ design work will be frequently reviewed and given feedback by the instructor, classmates, and guest speakers/critics. After the midterm, the instructor will initiate a collaboration with a local museum or art space. Based on the specific circumstances, students will face a design challenge to propose an exhibition proposal or provide a creative solution to the partner organization. By the end of the course, students will install and present their work as a group art show in the student art gallery. Prerequisites: Interaction Lab or Creative Coding Lab Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
User experience design (UXD, UED, or XD) is the process of enhancing user satisfaction with a product by improving its usability, accessibility, and desirability provided throughout the user’s interaction with a product. The class is designed for those who are passionate about creating user-centered experiences with interactive media. Students are encouraged to empathize with users, engaging them to make informed design choices from prototype right through to project completion. Prerequisites: None Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality represent, respectively, visions of “being” somewhere else or augmenting your present environment. These visions are not new, but new technologies have made it possible to produce experiences unlike anything before, particularly through the use of headsets, spatial audio, touch sensors, and custom location-based installations. These new technologies are becoming small, powerful, and inexpensive, and as a result we are witnessing the birth of a powerful new medium, new art form, and new industry – all very quickly. The speed of VR and AR growth has created both opportunity and confusion. “VR / AR Fundamentals” takes a long, deep perspective. We will overview such basic elements as audiovisual resolution and fidelity; spatiality and immersion; other senses such as touch, smell, taste (and even mind); input and interactivity; and live and social. We’ll look at distinctions such as cinema versus games, movies versus models, public versus personal, real world versus fantasy worlds, linear versus interactive, and narrative versus ambient. These elements and distinctions will be presented partially as technical but in an understandable way for general liberal arts students, and will rely heavily on experiencing content and keeping up with current events. That’s the first half-semester. The second half-semester we’ll concentrate on collectively producing a series of timely and relevant projects, all short, entertaining, and useful to others exploring the world of VR / AR. Prerequisites: None Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
In this foundation course students will be asked to think beyond the conventional forms of human computer interaction (i.e. the keyboard and mouse) to develop interfaces that consider the entire human body, the body’s capacity for gesture, as well as the relationship between the body and its environment. Students will learn the fundamentals of electronics and programming as they build projects using the Arduino microcontroller platform. Arduino is a small computer based on open source hardware and software. When used in conjunction with various sensors and actuators, Arduino is capable of gathering information about and acting upon the physical world. In addition to these physical computing techniques, students will also learn to harness the methods of traditional computation. The fundamentals of programming will be explored using the Processing programming language. Processing has a simplified syntax and an approachable computer graphics programming model, making it an ideal platform for first-time programmers. Students will gain a deeper appreciation of the expressive possibilities of computation as they learn to author their own software and systems and not simply use off-the-shelf solutions. Additional topics will include algorithmic drawing and animation techniques, digital modeling and fabrication, data exchange, manipulation, and presentation, as well as control of images, audio and video, including computer vision techniques. Structured weekly exercises are aimed at building specific skills, however students are free to pursue their own diverse interests in their midterm and final projects. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE AT; IMA Major Other Foundation; IMB Major Emerging Media Foundation.
In this foundation course students will explore the possibilities of emerging media by successively producing projects that make use of digital images, graphics, audio, and video. The course is designed to provide students with a framework to effectively communicate and tell stories through digital means. Students learn through hands-on experimentation in a laboratory context and the principles of interpersonal communication, media theory, and human factors will be introduced in readings and investigated through discussion. Adobe Creative Cloud and other relevant software applications will be examined to establish a diverse digital toolkit. Both traditional and experimental outputs will be explored. Weekly assignments, group and independent projects, as well as documentation of projects will be assigned in each of the core areas of study. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Other Foundation; IMB Major Emerging Media Foundation.
Board game design is a one-semester course for students who want to dig deeper into table-top games, from design to history to manufacturing. The first half of the course looks at the world of mass market games, which focus heavily on commercials, trends, plastics, licenses, low prices, and casual rules. The second half focuses on hobby games, designed for the dedicated game player, and the different styles of games in that world. The course is hands-on with at least one published game played in every class. There are multiple assignments where students bring these concepts to life through their own designs. Throughout the course, there is a focus on understanding players and designing games for a target audience.
Intermediate Game Design builds on the foundation of Introduction to Game Design to help build students’ understanding of how game design works in a practical context. While Introduction to Game Design acquaints students with basic foundational concepts and ideas, Intermediate Game Design puts those ideas into action across four very different kinds of projects. These projects emphasize the professional context of digital game design.
Introduction to Game Development is a practical course that introduces students to the methods, tools and principles used in developing digital games. Over the course of the semester, students will work alone to create a two digital prototypes or ‘sketches’, before building on them to produce a final polished game, using the lessons learned in the earlier prototypes. This is a hands-on, primarily lab-based course, and so the focus is on learning by doing rather than on reading and discussion.
Identity and representation are two of the most pressing and complex issues for contemporary video games, that without recognizing them an artist or critic would be missing a large part of how games are important in culture. With growing art and activist communities, video games are diversifying and grappling with a wide range of topics rarely seen before in the genre, and with it a greater need for informed perspectives on the topic of how marginalized people are depicted in media. This course discusses foundational theories of identity and encourages students to contribute their own ideas towards the design and interpretation of representation in games.
Narrative Design is an advanced game design course where students learn a variety of strategies to bring together game design and storytelling, both in table-top and digital games. Every assignment covers a different challenge when it comes to integrating systems design with storytelling. Students will also learn some of the basics of storytelling, such as character development, dramatic action, generating conflict, and world-building.
This course reflects the various skills and disciplines that are brought together in modern game development: game design, programming, asset creation, and critical analysis. Classroom lectures and lab time will all be used to bring these different educational vectors together into a coherent whole; the workshop will be organized around a single, long-term, hands-on, game creation project. At the completion of this course, the student will be able to: 1) Describe typical work practice in game development. 2) Demonstrate competency through actual implementation of code and assets. 3) Work with a game engine, and understand the basics of how to build a game in the engine.
Examines the basic tenets and operative principles of the global copyright system. Considers the ways in which media industries, artists, and consumers interact with the copyright system and assesses how well it serves its stated purposes: to encourage art and creativity. Special emphasis on the social, cultural, legal, and political issues that have arisen in recent years as a reult of new communicative technologies.
This course introduces students to critical video—the use of documentary, ethnographic, and research-based video to investigate and critique contemporary culture. Students gain a theoretical overview of documentary video, a set of conceptual tools to analyze video, and an introduction to the practice of video production for small and mobile screens. Students apply texts on video’s history, culture, and distribution, as well as the ethical challenges of video production, to their own, research-based video project. No prior experience required.
This seminar develops themes addressed in “MCC-UE 1009 Psychoanalysis: Desire and Culture.” The course expands and deepen understanding of core Freudian and post-Freudian concepts via texts by Melanie Klein, W.R. Bion, Jacques Lacan, Jean Laplanche, and others. These texts will be considered alongside a series of media-cultural artifacts selected for study by seminar participants.
What are the distinctions between facts, data, information, opinion, and understanding? Through what techniques of argumentation are these concepts discovered and/or achieved? Course introduces students to rhetoric—the art of persuasion. We explore techniques of rhetoric related to truth telling and opinion formation. We consider the significance of these activities to the city (polis) and matters held in common (res publica). Activities include participant observations of persuasion in courtroom settings. Optimal for students considering law careers.
Debates about the role of crime in the media have been among the most sustained and divisive in the field of communications, and they are dependent on a foundation of equally divisive debates about “media influence.” This course will broaden this discussion to consider the culture of crime in relation to conventions of news and entertainment in the mass media, and its larger social and political context. Topics will include crime reporting, the role of place in crime stories, the aesthetics of crime, moral panics and fears, crime and consumer culture, and the social construction of different kinds of crimes and criminals.
This course examines how cultural memory is enacted through visual culture in a comparative global context. It looks at the rise of a memory culture over the last few decades, in particular in the United States, Europe & Latin America, & how this engagement with memory demonstrates how the politics of memory can reveal aspects of nationalism & national identity, ethnic conflict & strife, the legacies of state terrorism, & the deployment of memory as a means for further continued conflict.
In this workshop-based course, students will become well versed in contemporary debates on social media and its impact on self and society, share their own experiences and observations in this area, design an original research project (using methods such as discourse analysis, virtual ethnography, and interviewing), and write a long-form analysis paper.
This course examines the significance of technology to the definition and experience of disability; the relationship between disability and new media; the politics of representation; and debates between disability studies and media studies. Topics include biomedical technology; “assistive technology”; cyborgs and prostheses as fact and metaphor; inclusive architecture and design; visual rhetorics of disability in film and photography; staring and other practices of looking; medical and counter-medical performance; media advocacy, tactical media, and direct action.
Whether large, small, wide, high-definition, public, personal, shared, or handheld, screens are one of the most pervasive technologies in everyday life. From spaces of work to spaces of leisure, screens are sites for collaboration, performance, surveillance, and resistance. This course traces the cultural history of screens from a range of forms – from the panorama to the cinema, from the radar system to the television, and from the terminal to the mobile device – to provide a way of thinking about the development of the screen as simultaneously architectural, material, representational and computational.
This course explores the ways people create, maintain, and augment the meaning of gender, developing insight into understanding gender ideology and the media representation of gender. The course examines how ideas about gender shape our communication practices, and how our practices of communication produce gender.
This course examines how globalization impacts the construction of gender and sexuality. Through discussions of contemporary issues in various global sites, the course addresses the politics of gender as it is shaped by trans-border flows of media, people and cultural products.
This course examines the broad range of activities associated with the globalization of media production, distribution, and reception. Issues include: the relationship between local and national identities and the emergence of a ’global culture’ and the impact of technological innovations on the media themselves and their use and reception in a variety of settings.
This course examines the production, representation and cultural meaning of Latino media in the U.S. Provides a general survey of Latino media in the U.S. with particular focus on the cultures of production of Spanish and English language television, radio, film, advertising, newspapers, magazines and internet-based media.
The course examines the role of media in the lives and cultures of transnational immigrant communities. Using a comparative framework and readings drawn from interdisciplinary sources, the course explores how media practices and media representations define and enable new conceptions and practices of national belonging, identity and culture in the context of global migration.
The cultural context of crime in relation to conventions of news and entertainment in the mass media. Topics include competing theories of criminogenic behavior, news conventions and crime reporting, the aesthetics and representation of crime in the media, the role of place in crime stories, moral panics and fears, crime and consumer culture, and the social construction of different kinds of crimes and criminals.
The course approaches video games through the lens of political economy. This means examining games foremost as commodities, transactional goods through which various modes of economic life occur. This course is designed to introduce students to the structure and economics of the game industry since its emergence in the 1970s, particularly across the United States, China, and Japan. Special attention is brought to the dramatic industry changes catalyzed by digital distribution, mobile gaming, live streaming, and other contemporary developments.
An upper level course on the topic of censorship in American culture, from the late 19th century to the present. The course explores many of the areas where debates about obscenity and censorship have been urgently contested, from discussion bout birth control, to literature, film, theatre, art galleries and history museums, to public sidewalks, lecture halls, and the internet. The goal is for the students to have an enhanced understanding of the historical contexts in which important cultural and legal struggles over censorship have taken place, and to bring that understanding to bear on contemporary debates about the arts, sexuality, national security, media technology, privacy, and government involvement in the marketplace of ideas and images.
Introduces students to the study of media, culture, and communication. The course surveys models, theories, and analytical perspectives that form the basis of study in the major. Topics include dialogue, discourse, mass and interpersonal communication, political economy, language, subject-formation, critical theory, experience, and reception.
Introduces students to several methods of analyzing the content, production, and contexts of media in society. Students explore the basic approaches of textual analysis, political economy, and ethnography. Students adopt, adapt and employ these methods in their own analyses, survey and data collection, and ethnographies. Students create their work by means of digitally mediated image annotation and manipulation, data collection and visualization, and audio/video production.
An overview of the development of visual storytelling throughout history. From the first creation of early hand drawn cave paintings to modern film production, all the essential elements of visual representation, visual imagery, visual grammar, and visual storytelling are explored. Lectures introduce and explain a variety of methods used to capture a visual image and how visual imagery, both with and without words, is used to convey meaning. Assignments are given for students to create their own visual imagery using these several different artistic formats. In class discussions then analyze the audience reception of the student’s work. The essential nature of visual storytelling is examined by analyzing how images collide to create new meaning, how a multiplicity of visual images are organized into a grammatical system, and how this system is managed in order to tell a visual story. The course examines how the basic tools of traditional narrative storytelling are also used in purely visual storytelling – to create a secondary world and to maintain a suspension of disbelief in order to inform, entertain, and affect the audience.
This course challenges us to foster a tactile understanding of the relationship between art and social change. How do artists address social issues? Can art transform lives? How can art serve as a force for encouraging ethical dialogue and action within the public sphere? How do we make our ideas and revelations actually matter within our collective place and space? To better facilitate our understanding of this relationship, and in an effort to get inside these key questions and others, this course will unfold in two parts. Part I (Conversations on Art and Social Change) will be run as an interactive seminar in which we will explore how the desire to change the world has led some artists to align themselves with wider social movements. Through lectures, discussions and presentations, we will set about to engage ourselves with the work of contemporary artists who have addressed issues related to the environment, racial and cultural identity, human rights, healthcare, and social justice. We will assume that understanding the work of others is necessary if we are to appreciate the potentiality of our own impact on the world. Part II of this course (A Collective Gesture Toward) will entail challenging ourselves to participate more fully in our immediate surroundings vis-à-vis the development and implementation of a work (or works) of art.
This course will combine a history of video art and experimental film with practical training in the use of live video performance art technology. Students will explore new ways to create and edit films and videos using VJ software, projections, and multi-channel video surfaces. Workshops will demonstrate concepts and software that can be integrated into the creative process of video performance art and video art installations. COURSE OBJECTIVES At the completion of this course, the student will be able to: Draw inspiration from the recent history of incredible video and multi-media artists. Develop an understanding of audio and visual hardware used by VJ’s. Use live VJ software to manipulate digital media in real time to create Video Performance Art. Use Projection Mapping techniques to project video art onto 3D surfaces. Create original video performance art, video installations, and other performance pieces. Utilize skills to make video art in the professional market.
The role of the creative producer in the entertainment industry is integral to bringing a project to fruition. This introductory course covers both the creative and physical production time-line and provides students with an understanding of the producer’s role through a semester-long team-based pitch project, which culminates in written and verbal pitch presentations. Students are encouraged to work on a project that best suits their area of interest: feature film, episodic/streaming, theatre, performance, podcasts, VR/AR or individualized multi-media. The course focuses on the dynamics of producing, including producer skill sets, tasks and responsibilities necessary to effectively and efficiently develop a project.
Introduction to Game Development is a practical course that introduces students to the methods, tools and principles used in developing digital games. Over the course of the semester, students will work alone to create a two digital prototypes or ‘sketches’, before building on them to produce a final polished game, using the lessons learned in the earlier prototypes. This is a hands-on, primarily lab-based course, and so the focus is on learning by doing rather than on reading and discussion.
This class continues from DM-UY 2153, moving into advanced technological implementations of 2D games. Taking designs from DM-UY 2153 and working in teams, students create a complete game. Students, based on abilities and individual goals, are assigned individually to work in production areas ranging from sprite creation, mapping and level design to engine coding and interaction scripting. Students are responsible for completing their assignments as if they were members of a professional game-development team. | Prerequisite: DM-UY 2153
This course provides an overview of experimental film and video history and theory, centered on hands-on production. The course will include readings, workshops, screenings, discussions, assignments, critiques, and technical instruction around cinema as a radical practice, and the ways in which computing techniques can be leveraged for new forms of expression in the moving image. Students will study and experiment with cutting-edge techniques in cinematic production such as motion capture, 3D (stereo, depth) filmmaking, and interactive / performative cinema. | Prerequisite: DM-UY 2263
This course introduces students to the fundamental skills and professional practices vital to pursuing a career within a range of creative fields and industries. Students will explore strategies for effective documentation and presentation of their creative work, the art of self-promotion and exhibiting work publicly in various forms and environments, as well as networking and career preparation. | Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing
This course explores sound design, primarily within visual contexts. The course will focus on the use of sound within visual and interactive media, including film, video production, interactive user experience, web design, and gaming. Students will create weekly studio assignments in all of these areas, with an emphasis on developing a strong competence in integrating digital audio techniques into other media. Final projects could include novel sound design developed for film, video, web, applications, or games. | Prerequisite(s): DM-UY 1113 or MPATE-UE 1001
The Emerging Media Studio courses explore methods to creatively think through and hybridize artistic photographic practice with emerging media technologies from medicine, the military, archaeology, urban planning, environmental science and other industries. Projects may take open-ended forms such as video, virtual reality environments, site-based performance, spatial imaging, 3D fabrication and photographic documentation. Critical readings and ideas drawn from artists as well as professionals in other fields are discussed. Our practice is learning how to adapt to and position ourselves as artists making unique contributions to the social dynamics of culture and a constantly shifting universe of media.
Course Repeatable for Credit. Prerequisite: Photography & Imaging: Digital, Analog, and Multimedia (can be taken concurrently) or permission of the Department. Interested non-majors should complete the non-major request form: https://goo.gl/forms/oaRPT3aeCeMT7KYL2The paradigm of the indexical photographic image has come into a new era – a computer generated one. Maya 3D software, typically used to create commercial games and animations, will be used to introduce experimental computer imaging as a visual art form. Students will solve a series of formal problems, introduced in increasing levels of complexity, and examine the broad cultural, philosophical, and theoretical implications of CG imaging. Moving from the 2-dimensional to 3-dimensional and ultimately to the four-dimensional or time-based, students will evolve their abilities to utilize aspects of light and dark, form, rhythm, color, proportion and volume but in terms of a post photographic discourse.
Students will learn advanced techniques of 3D computer animation, along with the theories and principles of motion including motion capture. Students will become comfortable utilizing cameras, lights, dynamics, motion, and effects in an industry-standard software. Comprehensive critiques will be conducted regularly to encourage good design for time-based animation. | Prerequisites: DM-UY 2133
This is an introductory course to the fundamentals of 3D computer animation. Through in-depth discussions and hands-on assignments, students will gain a thorough beginner’s understanding of the 3D production process. Using industry-leading Autodesk Maya running on high-end Mac Pro workstations, students will learn the basics of modeling and proceed through UV layout, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting and final render. At the end of the class students will have completed a series of exercises that will culminate in a final scene that showcases all they learned.This course allocates as a Craft for Film & TV majors. COURSE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENTAL FEES.
An introduction to philosophy through the study of issues in cognitive science. Topics may include the conflict between computational and biological approaches to the mind; whether a machine could think; the reduction of the mind to the brain; connectionism and neural nets. Gives training in philosophical argument and writing.
Rules of play shape competitive games from checkers to football. But how do the rules of interaction shape non-competitive play? In this course, we will explore, code and test design strategies for playful group interactions while at the same time interrogating both what it means to play and how individual identities and group behaviors. Some of the questions we will ask and attempt to answer: What motivates participation? What hinders it? When does participation become oppressive? What’s the difference between self-consciousness and self-awareness? Who has power? Who doesn’t? Are leaders necessary? What’s the difference between taking turns and engaging in conversation? What happens when the slowest person sets the pace? Interaction inputs we will play with will include: mouse, keyboard, mobile device sensors, and microphone. Outputs will include, visuals, text and sound. We will use p5, websockets and node.js for real-time interaction. Class time will be split between playing with and critiquing examples and translating design strategies into code and logic.
This class aims to provide students with the critical thinking and practical skills to explore and communicate ideas visually. This foundational course is a combination of lecture and studio format that will introduce the fundamental principles of design including typography, color, composition, branding and product design, and offer hands-on application of those principles through both in-class exercises and weekly assignments. The course will serve as a solid foundation of skills relevant to pursuing a degree in Interactive Media Arts and expose students to the myriad of opportunities a grounding in design principles opens up for them.
An introductory course designed to provide students with hands-on experience developing creative coding projects with machine learning. The history, theory, and application of machine learning algorithms and related datasets are explored in a laboratory context of experimentation and discussion. Examples and exercises will be demonstrated in JavaScript using the p5.js, ml5.js, and TensorFlow.js libraries. In addition, students will learn to work with open source pre-trained models in the cloud using Runway. Principles of data collection and ethics are introduced. Weekly assignments, team and independent projects, and project reports are required.
3D environments and objects are powerful prototyping tools. This class will introduce the basics of 3D modeling techniques in Rhino and students will learn to create assets for prototyping and 3D printing. The class will take an industrial design approach to design and build with specifications and materials in mind. Students will learn to think, plan, design, and produce well thought out objects to fit their specific needs. (examples: motor mounts, enclosures, wearables etc.)
Whether it’s through photo realistic scans found in current-gen video games or the cartoonish and low-fi aesthetic of Bitmoji there is no limit to ways in which the body and the self are represented in digital spaces. This 2-credit class will look at how avatars have been historically used in the realm of art, commerce, and entertainment and utilize existing avatar creation tools to develop projects that examine identity, body politics, and contemporary performance. In class, we will cover the basics of Unreal Engine, photogrammetry, 3D scanning, and model rigging although students will be encouraged to use existing skill sets and creative thinking to complete some of the smaller week-by-week assignments. The class will culminate with a short performance, small installation or single/multi-channel video piece using one or more of the techniques covered in class. This can be a solo project or a group project. In this class students will: – Explore how avatars can be utilized in your creative practice – Gain an introductory understanding of Unreal Engine, photogrammetry, model rigging, and 3D scanning. – Learn how to recontextualize digital spaces for the purposes of art, installation, and performance. – Broaden your thinking of what performance can be, both in a physical setting and digital setting. – Think critically about how physical bodies inhabit digital spaces and how the hardware and software we use reinforces the acceptance and value of certain kinds of bodies.
Physical Computing is an approach to learning how humans communicate through computers that starts by considering how humans express themselves physically. In this course, we take the human body as a given, and attempt to design computing applications within the limits of its expression. To realize this goal, you’ll learn how a computer converts the changes in energy given off by our bodies (in the form of sound, light, motion, and other forms) into changing electronic signals that it can read and interpret. You’ll learn about the sensors that do this, and about simple computers called microcontrollers that read sensors and convert their output into data. In the other direction you will learn how to actual physical things in the world with devices like speakers, lights and motors. Finally, you’ll learn how microcontrollers communicate with other computers. To learn this, you’ll watch people and build devices. You will spend a lot of time building circuits, soldering, writing programs, building structures to hold sensors and controls, and figuring out how best to make all of these things relate to a person’s body.
This course combines two powerful areas of technology that will enable you to leap from being just a user of technology to becoming a creator with it: Physical Computing and Programming. The course begins with Physical Computing, which allows you to break free from both the limitations of mouse, keyboard & monitor interfaces and stationary locations at home or the office. We begin by exploring the expressive capabilities of the human body and how we experience our physical environment. The platform for the class is a microcontroller (Arduino brand), a very small inexpensive single-chip computer that can be embedded anywhere and sense and make things happen in the physical world. The core technical concepts include digital, analog and serial input and output. The second portion of the course focuses on fundamentals of computer programming (variables, conditionals, iteration, functions & objects) as well as more advanced techniques such as data parsing, image processing, networking, computer vision. The Javascript ‘p5’ programming environment is the primary vehicle. P5 is more oriented towards visual displays on desktops, laptops, tablets or smartphones but can also connect back to the physical sensor & actuators from the first part of the class. The course is designed for computer programming novices but the project-centered pedagogy will allow more experienced programmers the opportunity to go further with their project ideas and collaborate with other students. What can computation add to human communication? You will gain a deeper understanding of the possibilities of computation–– possibilities that will augment and enhance the perspectives, abilities and knowledge you bring from your field of study (e.g. art, design, humanities, sciences, engineering). At first it may feel foreign, as foreign as learning a new language or way of thinking. But soon, once you get some basic skills under your belt, you’ll be able to make projects that reflect your own interests and passions.
How does someone become famous on the internet? What does it take to capture our digital attention? While movie stars, rock gods, and other mainstream A-listers struggle to find their place in a sea of emerging technologies and platforms, a new swarm of micro celebrities and influencers has coasted into the cultural space they once filled. Riding a wave of viral content and memes, the newly-famous rule an internet where anyone can have adoring fans… for a price. They are nimble, niche, obnoxious, empowering, and sometimes disturbing. This class explores what happens when fame is freed from the traditional intermediaries of print, television, and radio, when social media provides everyone with the tools to be their own marketing studio and PR department. It examines the transformation of celebrity, from a 19th century sales gimmick to the formidable cultural, social, and technological force it is today. Students will study a wide array of fame-related topics, from the privacy effects of trolling to the class implications of selfies. And we will engage in practices and exercises that produce real-world instances of celebrity in case we, too, wish to join the ranks of the internet famous.
An introductory course designed to provide students with hands-on experience using various technologies including time based media, video production, 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.
This course will explore the fundamentals of new media scholarship. Together, we will review and engage with different theories of emerging media in its social, cultural, political, and historical contexts. Students will be able to research, think and write critically about some of the central debates in media studies, including new media forms and aesthetics, issues of gender, race, and labor, platforms, infrastructure and various emerging paradigms. Classes consist of theoretical readings, media example discussion, and writing workshops. Prerequisite: WAI (or co-requisite). Fulfillment: IMA Major Foundations/Elective; IMB Major Emerging Media Foundation/Elective.
Re-make: make (something) again or differently. In this class students will investigate why China became the world’s largest importer of waste. They will study local communities in China, how they manage their waste, and explore innovative ways to transform discarded materials or products around us into something new and precious in areas such as art, graphic and industrial design, architecture, fashion, textiles, etc,. Through research and development, students will learn how traditional techniques and new technologies among the sustainable design philosophy can be utilized as powerful tools for addressing social and environmental problems.
Machine Learning for New Interfaces is an introductory course with the goal of teaching machine learning concepts in an approachable way to students with no prior knowledge. We will explore diverse and experimental methods in Machine Learning such as classification, recognition, movement prediction and image style translation. By the end of the course, students will be able to create their own interfaces or applications for the web. They will be able to apply fundamental concepts of Machine Learning, recognize Machine Learning models in the world and make Machine Learning projects applicable to everyday life. Prerequisite: Creative Coding Lab or equivalent programming experience Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective.
Data is at the heart of the increasing role technology has in our lives. Data collection and algorithmic processing are not only central to recent technical breakthroughs such as in AI and automation but have created new economic paradigms where data equals value and shape political approaches to power and control. Decisions based on algorithms affect society at large whether it’s changing the way we transport and distribute goods, or influencing the things we buy, the news we read or even the people we date. The *world* that algorithms *see* is data. For the average person, however, data is seldom more than an abstract idea. So what exactly is data? How is value extracted from it? And why should we care? How can we ethically balance the positive uses of data-driven systems with the threats they pose to discriminate and infringe basic human rights? This class seeks to untangle some of these issues practically and theoretically. Each week will include a lecture introducing contemporary theorists, artists, groups, and in-class discussions or exercises. Potentially there will be a guest speaker, too. Topic sections may include surveillance and privacy, data journalism and activism or automation and machine bias. What we cover will be complemented by reading and research assignments. The other half of the week is a programming lab in which you will learn the fundamentals of web-based data visualization using JavaScript. Programming assignments will allow you to further practice what we learn. Throughout the semester, you will work on three main visualization projects that are inspired by the theoretical subjects that we cover. The form of these projects will usually be a website. Successful projects feature data visualizations that are both playful as well as effective in conveying information and a reflection that links the practical work to the theoretical learnings. Prerequisite: Interaction Lab, Communications Lab or Application Lab
Artificial Intelligence Arts is an intermediate class that broadly explores issues in the applications of AI to arts and creativity. This class looks at generative Machine Learning algorithms for creation of new media, arts and design. In addition to covering the technical advances, the class also addresses the ethical concerns ranging from the use of data set, the necessarily of AI generative capacity to our proper attitudes towards AI aesthetics and creativity. Students will apply a practical and conceptual understanding of AI both as technology and artistic medium to their creative practices.
This interdisciplinary project-based class focuses on the design, development, and use of technology that increases the quality of life of individuals of disabilities. Students will be introduced to various assistive technology and strategies, including no-tech and low-tech as well as software and online-based practices. This class features lectures, discussions, guest lectures, field trips, and project presentations by students. Software programming, physical computing, machine learning, and 3D fabrication will be introduced for developing an assistive device. Field trips of local facilities will be scheduled during the semester. They provide an off-campus real-world learning experience as well as an opportunity for students to interact with users of assistive technology in the local community. Students will participate in a team-based design project that identifies challenges for an individual of disabilities and create an innovative and useful assistive device to meet their needs. Prerequisite: Interaction Lab
From the history of visual music and abstract film to the contemporary notion of live cinema, this course will be an exploration of the synesthetic relationship between sound and visuals in a realtime performance setting. Dating back as far as the 18th century, systems have been invented to produce images alongside music linking the two through formalized arrangements. Current media technologies make developing such systems both more approachable and more expansive in their scope. Through readings, viewings, and case studies students will gain an understanding of the history and theory of live audiovisuals. During the course students will team up to develop and master a realtime audiovisual system of their own invention. The class will culminate in a show in which they will present their work through a live performance. Prerequisite: None.
This course investigates and explores the integration between cultural heritage and digital conservation, specifically towards the objects, deities, sites, and gardens of China. Through the reflection of Chinese cultural heritage from the global perspective of Chinese history, the course raises awareness of heritage conservation and critical heritage studies towards the origins and the transformations of China in the contemporary era. Academic readings and oral presentations revolving around this theme will enhance students’ skills for documentation and restoration by innovative digital techniques in China. Conservator presentations, field trips, gallery visits and art projects enable students to communicate with practitioners in the field and examine the values of Chinese cultural heritage from a global perspective. Prerequisites: None Fulfillment: IMA/IMB elective; GCS Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature.
This class examines the idea and practices of ‘cultivation’ in relation to the challenging environment of the 21st century city. Through field trips, readings and discussions, the class explores the concept of cultivation, and how it can be used as a basis for researching the urban ecology of Shanghai, both as a past and future city. The class incorporates a major project in the digital humanities, in which students use the tools of interactive media (audio, video and cartographic technologies) to research, map and narrativize the ways in which architects, designers, artists and thinkers engage with the traditions of cultivation in order to imagine and recreate the future metropolis. Prerequisite: Writing as Inquiry
We live in a world immersed in sound yet we rarely attend to how sound can reflect our social structure or reveal cultural meaning. This course introduces students to acoustic ethnography, soundscape studies and narrative, non-narrative audio storytelling. We will gather and analyze the acoustic environment of China, using recorded sounds to create ethnography through text and sound. Ethnography (literally, “culture-writing”) is both the act of gathering data about culture through observation and interviews as well as the practice of writing analytically about cultural difference. Visual ethnography incorporates the analysis of visual and material aspects of our social environment into creative, multimedia rich projects. With an ethnographic approach to sound, we will document the rich tapestry of sounds around us in the context of the Yangtze River Delta region and think about how this conveys China’s culture, society and history. Through lectures, discussion, readings, listening assignments, field studies and projects, we will re-learn how to listen, observe and record the sounds in our environment. We will study Chinese sound art and Chinese cultural productions in music, film, television and multimedia installation. We will contextualize Chinese sound art against major theoretical approaches to sound including archives and preservation, form versus content, and social studies of science. Students will work collaboratively or individually on a final project that combines sound recording and production, to create an ethnographic analysis of an aspect of social and cultural life in the Yangtze River Delta region. Students will gain experience in gathering ethnographic data and they will transform it into an analytical or creative project integrating sound art and text. Prior knowledge of sound editing and Chinese language is not required. Prerequisite: None
Since the beginning of civilization people have fantasized about intelligent machines sensing and acting autonomously. In this course we will discover what robots are, learn how to design them, and use simple tools to build them. Students will use open source hardware to explore sensors and electronics, as well as design and build robot bodies and actuators through a variety of digital fabrication technologies. Using a set of community developed tools, students will become familiar with concepts such as mechatronics, inverse kinematics, domotics and machine learning. No previous programming or electronics experience is necessary, however students will be guided through a series of design challenges that their robots should be able to accomplish. With an emphasis on experimentation, peer learning, and teamwork, the objective of this course is to share in the excitement of robotics by enabling students to make their own creations. By the end of the course, students will present a short research paper and documentation about their robotic explorations. Co-requisite or Prerequisite: Interaction Lab or Creative Coding Lab. Fulfillment: CORE ED; IMA Majors Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.
Programming Design Systems is a course focused on the intersection between graphic design and code. Class time is divided between design topics like form, color, grid systems, and typography, and more computational topics like randomization, repetition, transformation and generative form. The students work to write software that abstract design theories into the code, and show the work in class for design critique. Weekly readings include relevant writings from the history of graphic design, articles from the history of computation, and everything in between. The class aims not only to teach the students how to create designs via code, but also to have something interesting to say about it. The course is based on the Programming Design Systems book, and more background info can be found in the book’s introduction. Prerequisite:Communications Lab
This course will be like the two previous ones (http://ima.nyu.sh/vr-ar-fundamentals/), with the first half-semester as seminar and the second half semester as production. For Fall 2019, production will be something in complement with Zaanheh: A Natural History of Shanghai (https://zaanheh.research.shanghai.nyu.edu/), a new NYU Shanghai interdisciplinary project. Prerequisite: None
From early alphabets to modern virtual reality experiences, this course will explore the development, reaction, and impact of some of humankind’s most transformative innovations – its forms of communication. How have these inventions, such as writing, printing, the telegraph, television, radio, the internet and beyond, influenced human behavior throughout the course of history. How have humans shaped their development and direction? And what role are they playing in shaping our lives both today and tomorrow? Toward the end of the course, students will speculate on the future of communication technologies in a connected world by proposing their own transformative innovation. Readings and discussion will cover communication theory, technical processes, creative applications, and critical investigation. Writing assignments will be paired with practical assignments where students will be challenged to bring their analysis and ideas to life. The web will also be utilized as a test bed for experiencing and experimenting with various forms of communication both old and new.
Communications Lab is a production-based course that surveys various technologies including web development, 2D design, digital imaging, audio, video, and animation. The forms and uses of these communications technologies are explored in a laboratory context of experimentation, collaboration, and discussion. Much of class time will be spent introducing and surveying equipment and software essential to media production and contemporary storytelling. Each technology is examined as a tool that can be employed and utilized in a variety of situations and experiences. The World Wide Web will serve as the primary environment for content delivery and user-interaction. Principles of interpersonal communications and media theory are also introduced with an emphasis on storytelling fundamentals, user-centered design, and interactivity.
In this course, students will work in teams to design digital learning resources and experience designs at the intersection of music, coding, arts, and technology. The course will begin with an introduction to emerging trends in learner engagement and design-based research, especially related to web- and mobile-based musical experiences and principles of making music with new media. Innovations in and applications of musical creativity, interactive technologies, user-centered design & engagement, scaffolded learning, creative learning, pedagogies of play and making, and educational entrepreneurship in Chinese contexts will also be explored. The market for creative educational experiences in afterschool settings for youth in China is exploding. For-profit educational service companies are competing and searching for differentiated, learning experiences in music, coding, and creative project based learning that will attract high-paying parents looking for the best supplemental education for their children. This practical, hands-on course will explore questions such as: How can we design engaging, creative learning experiences that are relevant to the cultural goals and needs of today’s youth in China, while laying the foundation for creative learning for the workforce of tomorrow? What are engaging, effective creative learning resources, and how are they best implemented in Chinese learning settings? How can we take advantage of young people’s near ubiquitous love of music and technology to facilitate creative learning? Students will work together in teams and paired with a partner audience of learners and teachers in Shanghai drawn from local and regional international schools (e.g. Alibaba’s Cloud Valley), local afterschool programs (e.g., Music Lab), and cultural partners (e.g., Shanghai Symphony). Together they will assess the needs and opportunities of partner students and teachers, and engage in a two-stage iterative and reflective co-design process prototyping custom learning resources and experience designs with their partner end users. At the end of the course, students will present and demo their learning resources as part of a public showcase to an external audience of partners, educators, technologists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and experience designers in Shanghai. Prerequisites: None.
IMA students are welcome to fill out the non-major course request form if they are interested in taking this course (this is the workflow we use for all interested non-photo majors).
This course systematically examines downtown New York City neighborhoods, businesses, institutions and communities. Using new media technology, such as 360 degree photography and video, augmented reality, and spatial sound, students will document histories that have unfolded around New York University’s Greenwich Village campus: the evolution of Bowery, changing Chinatown, the diminishing family-owned businesses; disappearing sub cultures of the East and West Village; Italian, Jewish, Dominican and Puerto Rican enclaves in the Lower East Side. The students learn how to work together in teams and with families and institutions, and how to gain access to other cultures, using new media.
Prerequisite: Photography & Imaging II, or permission of the department. This course considers the creative possibilities of a variety of documentary strategies. The editing of images, their structuring into an essay form, the interpretation of their various meanings, and the impact of the documentary essay on the world are all discussed. Students are assigned a range of problems that explore visual description and interpretation ranging from the photojournalistic to the autobiographical. In addition each student devotes a significant amount of time to producing a single-subject documentary project. Classes are lecture-demonstration with critiques of student work and regular presentations of documentary photographs made throughout history, in different cultures and for different reasons, including the personal and the societal. Each student must have a still camera or a video camera. This course requires a nonrefundable lab fee.
Data is ubiquitous. Yet, it’s often invisible. In this course, we will explore ways to create physical data visualizations using contemporary design and digital fabrication tools. Students will learn how to collect data, find interesting patterns, design creative digital models and build tangible pieces using laser cutters, 3D printers and woodworking tools. We will visualize everything from street performers in Washington Square to Instagram influencer trends. Topics related to creative coding, Arduino, artificial intelligence, projection mapping and traditional art-making techniques will also be discussed.
This course introduces object-oriented programming, recursion, and other important programming concepts to students who already have had some exposure to programming in the context of building applications using Python. Students will design and implement Python programs in a variety of applied areas.
Prerequisite: V22.0201 and V22.0310. There are many cognitive tasks that people can do easily and almost unconsciously but that have proven extremely difficult to program on a computer. Artificial intelligence is the problem of developing computer systems that can carry out these tasks. We will focus on three central areas in AI: representation and reasoning, machine learning, and natural language processing.
Students will learn about the theoretical foundations of machine learning and how to apply machine learning to solve new problems. Machine learning is an exciting and fast-moving field at the intersection of computer science, statistics, and optimization, with many consumer applications such as machine translation, speech recognition, and recommendation. Machine learning also plays an increasingly central role in data science, enabling discoveries in fields such as biology, physics, neuroscience, and medicine. In the first part of the course, students will learn about supervised prediction methods including linear and logistic regression, support vector machines, ensemble methods, and decision trees. In the second part of the course, students will learn about methods for clustering, dimensionality reduction, and statistical inference.
Machine learning is an exciting and fast-moving field of computer science with many recent consumer applications (e.g., Microsoft Kinect, Google Translate, Iphone’s Siri, digital camera face detection, Netflix recommendations, Google news) and applications within the sciences and medicine (e.g., predicting protein-protein interactions, species modeling, detecting tumors, personalized medicine). This course introduces undergraduate computer science students to the field of machine learning. Students learn about the theoretical foundations of machine learning and how to apply machine learning to solve new problems. Assuming no prior knowledge in machine learning, the course focuses on two major paradigms in machine learning which are supervised and unsupervised learning. In supervised learning, we learn various methods for classification and regression. Dimensionality reduction and clustering are discussed in the case of unsupervised learning
The use and design of data structures, which organize information in computer memory. Stacks, queues, linked lists, binary trees: how to implement them in a high level language, how to analyze their effect on algorithm efficiency, and how to modify them. Programming assignments.
This course covers the principles and design of operating systems. Topics include process scheduling and synchronization, deadlocks, memory management including virtual memory, input-output and file systems. Programming assignments.
Prerequisites: Data Structures (CSCI-UA 102); Discrete Mathematics (MATH-UA 120); and either Calculus I (MATH-UA 121) OR Math for Economics I (MATH-UA 211). An introduction to the study of algorithms. Two main themes are presented: designing appropriate data structures, and analyzing the efficiency of the algorithms which use them. Algorithms for basic problems are studied. These include sorting, searching, graph algorithms and maintaining dynamic data structures. Homework assignments, not necessarily involving programming.
Students that have successfully completed CSCI-UA 467 Applied Internet Technology are not eligible to take CSCI-UA 61 Web Development and Programming. This course will provide a practical approach to web technologies and programming. Students will build interactive, secure and powerful web programs. This course will cover client and server side technologies for the web.
Students learn how to design algorithms to solve problems and how to translate these algorithms into working computer programs. Experience is acquired through programming projects in a high level programming language. CSCI-UA 101 is intended as a first course for computer science majors, and for students of other scientific disciplines. Programming assignments.
The use and design of data structures, which organize information in computer memory. Stacks, queues, linked lists, binary trees: how to implement them in a high level language, how to analyze their effect on algorithm efficiency, and how to modify them. Programming assignments.
This course covers the internal structure of computers, machine (assembly) language programming, and the use of pointers in high-level languages. Topics include the logical design of computers, computer architecture, the internal representation of data, instruction sets, and addressing logic, as well as pointers, structures, and other features of high-level languages that relate to assembly language. Programming assignments will be both in assembly language and other languages.
Prerequisite: Three years of high school mathematics or equivalent. No prior computing experience is assumed. Students with computing experience should consult with the computer science department before registering. Offered every semester. 4 points. This course introduces students to both the practice of web design and the basic principles of computer science. The practice component of the course covers not only web design but also current graphics and software tools. The principles section includes an overview of hardware and software, the history of computers, and a discussion of the impact of computers and the internet.
Students that have successfully completed CSCI-UA 479 Data Management and Analysis are not eligible to take CSCI-UA 60 Database Design and Implementation. Introduces principles and applications of database design and working with data. Students use python as they prepare, analyze and work with data; SQL to study the principles and implementations of relational databases; and are introduced to other database paradigms such as NoSQL. Students apply these principles to computer systems in general and in their respective fields of interest.
Data Science for Everyone is a foundational course that prepares students to participate in the data-driven world that we are all experiencing. It develops programming skills in Python so that students can write programs to summarize and compare real-world datasets. Building on these data analysis skills, students will learn how draw conclusions and make predictions about the data. Students will also explore related ethical, legal, and privacy issues.
Introduction to Data Science offers the fundamental principles and techniques of data science. Students will develop a toolkit to examine real world examples and cases to place data science techniques in context, to develop data-analytic thinking, and to illustrate that proper application is as much an art as it is a science. In addition, students will gain hands-on experience with the Python programming language and its associated data analysis libraries. Students will also consider ethical implications surrounding privacy, data sharing, and algorithmic decision making for a given data science solution.
This course serves to familiarize the student with the fundamentals of typography. Typography forms the basis of our contemporary communication. Students will gain design abilities based on analogue techniques as well as digital software. The class explores letterform design & moves subsequently to typesetting exercises performed using the letterpress printer & computer. Compositions exploring typography as color, form, & image will be examined for visual impact as well as meaning. The history of typography is incorporated beginning with Guttenberg in the 1400’s through the classic designers of the 17th & 18th centuries, type-design through Russian Constructivism, the Bauhaus, & Modernism to contemporary digital type design.
This class acquaints the student with the fundamentals of Design by focusing primarily on layout, composition & color through use of the grid. The grid is a fundamental building block for publication design (print & digital), website design, & animation design. This class focuses primarily on Graphic Design but proposes basic concepts that can be extrapolated into other design fields. Classes will be client & solutions-based and will assume a professional career orientation. Additionally the class will provide a current overview of what’s happening in the contemporary design world through field trips, readings & presentations.
Assignments, critiques, & demonstrations related to the specific level on which the course is being given. The use of the computer to augment & expand conceptualization & expression has provided the artist with some of the most important new means for visual thinking since the Renaissance invention of perspective. Students learn how to use the computer as an extension of the visualization process & its specific applications in both two-dimensional & three-dimensional art.
Introduction to Programming for Games is a course that introduces students to the concepts, problems, and methods of computer programming, and how these apply to the creation of video games. Throughout the semester, students will have weekly programming assignments, first using Processing with the Java programming language, then the Unity3D Game Engine with C#. There will be a midterm game in Processing and a final game in Unity. The course assumes no prior programming knowledge, and is designed to touch on the basic principles of digital design in form of computer code. There will be an emphasis on programming fundamentals; they will be motivated through the lens of designing and producing video games.
Games 101 is the foundational course for the NYU Game Center. The focus of Games 101 is game literacy – a shared understanding of games as complex cultural and aesthetic objects. The class will incorporate lectures, discussion, readings, and writing assignments, but the primary activity of the class is critical play – playing games in order to better understand and appreciate them. The class will cover games on and off the computer, including classic and contemporary board and card games, sports, and games on the PC, internet, and consoles.
Understanding Story is a class composed of lectures, discussions, screenings, readings, critical and creative writing, group critiques and presentations. The course is designed to expose the student to the fundamental principles of storytelling across a spectrum of mediums, including the written story, playwriting, film, poetry, dance, games, photography, fine art and music. How do all these different art forms tell stories? How can the student apply what is learned to their own creative work? History and theory of story will be studied and used to inspire personal and creative work in order to better understand how story can most successfully be expressed in different mediums and reach its audience.
Collaborative Arts Lab engages students across disciplines and schools in a layered process of inquiry, dialogue, and creative research in response to different issues of urgency in our community. Each semester, a theme is chosen for the course which serves as both the introduction to the frame for research and the introduction to the class group. This semester, the course will be rooted in performance as a frame to examine what culture is built around the body as subject and explore perceptions of art based on the body and different physicalities. You will work individually and in groups in movement-based exercises, as well as in other artistic mediums, to explore social, historical, and cultural contexts, analyze existing research, develop questions for creative inquiry, and experiment with new ways of thinking about the body as subject and as inspiration for the creative process. This course has no prerequisites and welcomes students from all schools and from all/any creative backgrounds – writers, dancers, actors, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, designers, photographers, etc. Students will be expected to create works together, and each student will have the opportunity to integrate different creative forms into their class projects.
This course will explore the basic tools of digital imaging. We will cover the three main Adobe products for creative imaging – Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. Through a series of short assignments we will look at various graphic design and layout ideas using Illustrator and InDesign and will touch on the wealth of image enhancement techniques afforded by Photoshop. The short assignments introduce the basics of design, typography and compositing images. Students have the opportunity to complete a small project of their own for the end of the term. Class time will be divided between lectures, critiques, and work in class sessions. This course is not intended to completely cover the software listed, but will give students a fundamental understanding of the possibilities of digital imaging. While the majority of the class focuses on print media (images, books and magazines), we discuss the growing importance of screen output. We do not have time to cover specific web or media projects, but will address transferable skills and understanding. We will incorporate some Adobe apps to augment the desktop applications. Additional reading materials will be distributed during the semester. Students should have access to the Adobe Creative Suite through the NYU license.
This is an intensive, hands-on workshop addressing the complex challenges of game design. The premise of the class is that all games, digital and non-digital, share common fundamental principles, and that understanding these principles is an essential part of designing successful games. Learning how to create successful non-digital games provides a solid foundation for the development of digital games. Students will analyze existing digital and non-digital games, taking them apart to understand how they work as interactive systems. A number of non-digital games will be created in order to master the basic design principles that apply to all games regardless of format. This course is subject to a non-refundable department fee, please see the Notes section for more detail.
This class is an overview of the field of video games that approaches them from several theoretical and critical perspectives. No special theoretical background or prior training is needed to take the course, but to have had a broad practical experience with and basic knowledge of games is a distinct advantage. Also, an interest in theoretical and analytical issues will help. You are expected to actively participate in the lectures, which are dialogic in form, with ample room for discussion. The course will prepare the student to: – Understand and discuss games from a theoretical perspective – what are the components of a game? – Apply new theories and evaluate them critically. – Assess and discuss game concepts and the use of games in various contexts. – Analyze games, and understand and apply a range of analytical methods.
Hollywood in your palm. That is what this combination of lectures, screenings, demonstrations and practical production workshop will offer to the students in this course. There will be several professional guests making presentations and Q&A sessions from the mobile phone filmmaking industry. In addition to the historical and critical overview of the emergence and exponential growth of global cell phone cinema, students will shoot all footage on cell phones and download them for computerized editing. The final project will be under three minute shorts. Projects will include all genres of film and television: news, mini-documentaries, animation, music videos and narrative shorts. Completed student projects will be suitable to be posted on the Internet and entered into domestic and international mobile phone film festivals. For example, two minute long improvisations of Bollywood Style Music Videos shot on Cell Phones by the students have been projected at the Tribeca Cinemas as part of the New York Indian Film Festival. It is suggested but not compulsory that students bring to the class a cell phone capable of recording video.
In this course, students focus on client-side programming. Assignments are arranged in sequence to enable the production of a website of professional quality in design and production. This studio stresses interactivity, usability, and the quality and appropriateness of look and feel.
This course allows students to harness the power of visual language in order to convey messages and meaning. The elements of visual foundation that will be covered include components (color, texture, image and typography), composition, and concept. Although non-digital mediums will be addressed, the understanding and use of industry-standard software is also a primary goal.
In this studio, students will learn to produce and render high-quality 3D models. Upon completion of this course, students will have a solid understanding of the fundamentals of modeling, texturing, animation and lighting using industry standard software. Students may create content for video games, web, film, or other interfaces.
Motion graphics can be found in a wide range of media: broadcast, web, animation, and film to name a few. This course will allow students to explore the elements of time and space to convey messages and meaning through type, image, and sound for the screen. Individual creativity will be stressed as well as the understanding and use of industry-standard software for developing motion graphics. | Prerequisite: DM-UY 1123
From interacting with the latest device to cogently communicating complex data, user experience design (UX) is a discipline given increased prominence by the inescapable human relationship with technology. We will cover the UX design process as it relates to interactive interfaces found in websites, mobile apps, hardware, and events.
This course is an orientation to the essential concepts and practices of digital audio. It is a creative and theoretical foundation studio that combines an orientation to sound and listening with fundamental techniques of digital audio production: recording, editing, and mixing. The course covers topic areas such as microphone and field recording techniques, recording studio best practices, audio editing, DAW (digital multi-track) production, and mixing.
In this class, the creative process will be investigated in order to generate ideas for art, design, technology, and business endeavors. The course will show how ideation, design research & thinking, and prototyping can inspire, inform, and bring depth to what one ultimately creates. Students will expand their arsenal of design research skills, learn how to think critically about their audience, content, form, and processes, as well as, understand the importance of utilizing more than one research and design strategy.
This course provides an overview of image making and presentation techniques, from still to moving. Students will also be introduced to experimental image making. This course will cover introductory still and video camera use, as well as how to begin integrating image within media. Students will gain practical and analytical skills through workshops, assignments, critiques, technical instruction, readings, screenings, and discussions.
This course provides an overview of documentary film and video history and theory, centered on hands-on production. The course will include readings, workshops, screenings, discussions, assignments, critiques, and technical instruction around documentary and pseudodocumentary forms. | Prerequisite: DM-UY 2263
In this course, students complete a coordinated sequence of short projects that add up to a finished, live-motion video project. The course strongly emphasizes the relevance of particular tools and techniques to the specific project Concepts are introduced through the screening of historical examples, from 1895 to the present. The course format is modeled on professional standards and workflow for preproduction, production and postproduction. | Prerequisites: DM-UY 2263
An examination of the great debate concerning the effects of mass media and mass communication on our society. Analysis and application of major perspectives and approaches used in formulating modern theories of mass communication.
Introduces students to the study of media, culture, and communication. The course surveys models, theories, and analytical perspectives that form the basis of study in the major. Topics include dialogue, discourse, mass and interpersonal communication, political economy, language, subject-formation, critical theory, experience, and reception. Liberal Arts Core/CORE Equivalent for Societies and the Social Sciences.
This course introduces students to key concepts in the history of media and communication, and to the stakes of historical inquiry. Rather than tracing a necessarily selective historical arc from alphabet to Internet or from cave painting to coding, the course is organized around an exploration of case studies in context. Liberal Arts Core/CORE Equivalent for Societies and the Social Sciences.
This course will investigate the dominant critical perspectives that have contributed to the development of Environmental Communication as a field of study. This course explores the premise that the way we communicate powerfully impacts our perceptions of the “natural” world, and that these perceptions shape the way we define our relationships to and within nature. The goal of this course is to access various conceptual frameworks for addressing questions about the relationship between the environment, culture and communication. Students will explore topics such as nature/ wildlife tourism, consumerism, representations of the environment in popular culture and environmental activism.
An exploration of television as a medium of information, conveyor and creator of culture and a form of aesthetic expression. Course examines the historical development of television as both a cultural product and industry.
This course covers key issues, theories, and concepts in the field of visual culture, focusing on the social role of images and visuality (the power relations of looking, being seen and unseen). Topics include modern forms of visuality and visual technologies, concepts of spectacle, museums and image collections, image icons, taboo images, how images relate to memory, how images circulate through various social arenas such as art, advertising, popular culture, comic books, news, science, entertainment media, video games, theme parks, architecture, and design.
Critical making is hands-on hardware practice as a form of reflection and analysis that draws on the literature of media studies and digital humanities. We turn to the physicality of computation and communications infrastructure, taking objects apart both literally and figuratively to understand how they work. In the process we learn to interpret and intervene in the material layer of digital technologies, using prototyping, reverse engineering, hardware hacking and circuit bending, design fiction, electronics fabrication, and other approaches.
Examines the emergence of video games as sites of contemporary cultural production & practice. Special attention is given to the symbolic & aesthetic dimensions of video games, including their various narratives forms and sub-genres, & concentrates on their interactive dimensions. The course provides insight into the emerging trends in the interface between humans & media technologies. The course also situates video games within the business practices of the entertainment industries.
In 2010, WikiLeaks, in a partnership with some of the most important news publications, began releasing thousands of classified diplomatic cables sent between the U.S. State Department and consulates and embassies around the world. Three years later, Edward Snowden leaked top secret information about surveillance activities by the NSA. More recently, the Panama Papers became the biggest data leak in the history of journalism. These events signal the beginning of the big leak era, which this course will focus on. We will analyze the role of media concentration and technological innovation as twin driving forces in the inception of this big leak era over recent years. We will study the consequences of these changes at three different levels: (i) the legal consequences for whistleblowers; (ii) the resulting birth of global networks and partnerships that expose technical, cultural and economic limitations in the traditional media; and (iii) the geopolitical implications, as a breach in one government ́s security apparatus is a victory for that government ́s opponents. Finally, we will confront one larger question: whether the big leak era means that transparency will (could?) replace fairness as journalism ́s main paradigm. .
This course explores Tango as an aesthetic, social and cultural formation that is articulated in interesting and complex ways with the traditions of culture and politics in Argentina and Latin America more generally. During the rapid modernization of the 1920s and 1930s, Tango (like Brazilian Samba), which had been seen as a primitive and exotic dance, began to emerge as a kind of modern Field available for additional information in footer primitive art form that quickly came to occupy a central space in nationalist discourse. The course explores the way that perceptions of a primitive and a modern converge in this unique and exciting art. In addition, the course will consider tango as a global metaphor with deeply embedded connections to urban poverty, social marginalization, and masculine authority. .
This course examines the role played by media events & spectacle in the shaping of belief, attitudes, & actions, with particular attention paid to the concept of the masses & its changed meaning over time. The course examines concepts of mass culture, the decentralization of cultural forms, & the rise of convergence culture. It explores the history of the media event & the theories that have shaped it, & the role of spectacle in society from the Renaissance to modern society to the age of digital media.
This course examines the fast-changing landscape of global media. Historical and theoretical frameworks will be provided to enable students to approach the scope, disparity and complexity of current developments. These frameworks will be supplemented with the latest news and developments. In short, we ask: what is going on in the hyperlinked and hyper-turbulent realm of blogs, Buzzfeed and The Sydney Morning Herald? Key issues examined include: shifts in patterns of production, distribution and consumption; the implications of globalisation; the disruption of established information flows and emergence of new information channels; the advent of social media; the proliferation of mobile phones; the ethics and regulation of modern media; the rise of celebrity culture; the demise (?) of privacy; the entertainment industry and its pirates; Edward Snowden and the NSA; and the irrepressible octogenarian Rupert Murdoch. The focus will be international, with an emphasis on Australia.Ultimately, the course will examine the ways in which global communication is undergoing a paradigm shift, as demonstrated by the Arab spring and its uncertain legacy, as well as the creeping dominance of Google, Facebook and Twitter. In other words Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
This course offers students a foundational understanding of the technological building blocks that make up digital media & culture, & of the ways they come together to shape myriad facets of life. Students will acquire a working knowledge of the key concepts behind coding, & survey the contours of digital media architecture, familiarizing themselves with algorithms, databases, hardware, & similar key components. These technological frameworks will be examined as the basic grammar of digital media & related to theories of identity, privacy, policy, & other pertinent themes.
The meanings of health & disease are shaped not only by scientific & Medical discourses, but by media, communication, & the cultures of health. This course examines the impact of media & health cultures on what counts as normal & pathological, how medical environments are understood & experienced, popular tactics for communicating & contesting biomedical information, public understandings of biotechnology, & how media representation & popular culture help to shape understandings of disease & health. readings, films (& other sources) will be drawn from a variety of genres, including epidemiology, public health, anthropology, history, communication studies, & medical memoir.
In this course, we will explore queerness as identity, practice, theory, & politics, all through the lens of popular culture. Our approach will be grounded in theories, methods & texts of communication & media studies, thus it will serve as a complement to other queer theory & culture courses offered across the university. Readings will include both theoretical texts & case studies both historical & contemporary. Students will complete the course with a critical understanding of what it means to be & “do” queer in contemporary culture. Students will also be equipped to bring queer analytical tools to their everyday & professional encounters with popular culture.
This course will examine “social media” from a cultural perspective, with a focus on how media technologies figure in practices of everyday life and in the construction of social relationships and identities. This course is based closely on one offered in New York by Professor Laura Portwood-Stacer, but we will examine many of the issues in the context of Central and Eastern Europe and compare the “Western” experience of social media with the situation in the post communist world. Although many of our readings will deal with Social Network Sites (SNSs), we will attempt to form an expansive definition of what constitutes “social media.” We will also work from an expansive definition of “technology,” considering the term in a cultural sense to include various practices and tools used to communicate in everyday life. The course will also look closely at the impact of social media on journalism and activism, including a dissection of the recent debates on the power of social media to transform these fields.
The course acquaints students with Latin American theories, practices, and representations of the media. Departing from a critical approach to Habermas’s theory of the public sphere, the course traces the arc of the media in Latin America from independence to the post-neoliberal era and the so-called “Media Wars.” Students engage in current incendiary debates about the role of the media, the new media law, and the complex relationship between the media, politics and the state.
The course investigates dominant critical perspectives within the field of Environmental Communication, the premise of which is that the way we communicate powerfully impacts our perceptions of the “natural” world, and that these perceptions shape the way we define our relationships to nature. We access various conceptual frameworks for addressing questions of environment, culture, and communication. Students explore topics such as nature/wildlife tourism, consumerism, representations of the environment in popular culture, and environmental activism.
This course will examine “social media” from a cultural perspective, with a focus on how media technologies figure in practices of everyday life & in the construction of social relationships & identities. We will work from an expansive definition of what constitutes “social media,” considering social network sites, smartphone apps, & online games, among other technologies. The course itself will involve communication in social media channels in addition to the traditional seminar format, thus we will be actively participating in the phenomena under study as we go.
This course investigates the mediation of music & music-like sounds in both private & public life. Commercial venues, from restaurants to rest rooms, pipe Muzakl into its spaces; radios broadcast more music than any other content today; soundtracks imprint the texture of signifying associations for television shows & films; we carry personal playlists on mobile music players; & musical media & technological, ideological & metaphysical dimension; as well as the relation of music to mass media (radio, television, the internet) & the film and music industries.
The course on “Media, Activism & Democracy” aims at, first, introducing students to the complex and fascinating topic of civil society activism; second, at illustrating them the linkages between activism and media; third, at showing them the impact of civil society’s advocacy on contemporary political systems. In a nutshell, the course aims at providing students with a closer understanding of the civil society activism-media-politics conundrums at the national and global levels.
The course addresses issues and perspectives in global communication, a rapidly evolving field. Students critically assess shifts in national, regional, and international media patterns of production, distribution, and consumption over time, and critically analyze the tumultuous contemporary global communication environment. Topics include national and global media consolidation, cultural implications of globalization, international broadcasting, information flows, law and regulation, and emerging technologies. The focus of the course is international.
The course introduces students to the basic structures and practices of media in Europe and their relationship to everyday social life. Specific case studies highlight current trends in the production, distribution, consumption, and regulation of media. Topics include: national and regional idioms in a range of media genres, from entertainment to advertising and publicity, to news and information; legal norms regarding content and freedom of expression; pirate and independent media; and innovations and emerging practices in digital media.
This class reads architecture and the built environment through the lenses of media, communication, and culture, departing from the proposition that spaces communicate meaningfully and are in conversation with the social. From Gothic cathedrals to suburban shopping malls to homes, factories, skyscrapers and digital cities, students acquire a vocabulary for relating representations and practices, symbols and structures, and for identifying the ideological and aesthetic positions that produce settings for everyday life.
This course provides an overview of critical thinking on contemporary media production, media outcomes and media systems. Introduce theoretical approaches and practice used to analyze the content, structure, and context of media in society. We will explore factors shaping media texts, including: politics, economics, technology, and cultural traditions. The dominant critical perspectives that contribute to our understanding of media will be read, discussed, and employed. The course has three broad objectives: 1. Develop a critical awareness of media environments, 2. develop a familiarity with concepts, themes and theoretical approaches of media criticism, and the terms associated with these approaches and 3. develop an ability to adopt and adapt these frameworks in your own analyses of mediated communication.
A veritable buzzword globalization refers to several newly emerged trends. To name the three most visible ones these are the economy, culture and politics. Media do not only describe and interpret globalization but also are its important part. A study of globalization is inherently diverse and eclectic. So is this course. Students will read, watch, analyze and discuss. In class discussions and writings they are expected to engage questions connected to globalization, culture and the media. Through a series of lectures and discussions the course explores how the process of globalization transforms the media and examines the impact of new technologies on global communications. Emphasizing the transnational context of media and culture the course approaches global media and cultural production from a wide range of theoretical frameworks relevant to contemporary condition.
This course examines the emergence of the Internet as a commercial business. It pays particular attention to the various business models and practices employed in media-related enterprises, tracing their development from the late 1990s to the most recent strategies and trends. Case studies include the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), portals, search engines, early game platforms, the Internet presence of traditional media organizations, and social network platforms.
This course introduces students to key concepts in history of media and communication, and to the stakes of historical inquiry. Rather than tracing a necessarily selective historical arc from alphabet to Internet or from cave painting to coding, the course is organized around an exploration of case studies in context.
An introduction to the professions of marketing, promotion, and advertising, with an emphasis on industry structure, branding, integrated marketing communication, effective techniques, and changing communication strategies.
This interactive, discussion-oriented course addresses the politics and tactics underlying five broad categories of media activism: media interventions at the levels of representation, labor relations, policy, strategic communication, and “alternative” media making. The course surveys the existing scholarship on media activism, and undertakes close analyses of actual activist practices within both old and new media. We examine a wide-range of digital media as well as local, national, and global media activist institutions.
Few values have been as unalterably disturbed as privacy by developments in new media and other information technologies. This course presents an inquiry into the impact of information and digital communications technologies upon privacy and its meanings. In order to examine at a deep level technology’s place in society and the complex ways that technology and privacy each shape the other in interactive cycles of cause and effect. Philosophical analysis is balanced with significant contributions by legal scholars, computer scientists, social scientists, and popular social critics.
This class examines the intersecting dynamics of media genres and geo-linguistic cultural markets in the configuration of global and regional media flows. It looks in particular at the way media genres travel and how their circulation raises issues about the cultural power of certain media narratives in specific historical, political and social conditions of consumption. We will examine the battle for national, regional, and global media markets as a struggle for the ’Slegitimate’ cultural and political view of the world expressed through information (news), scientific discourse (documentaries), and popular culture (films, tele novels, reality television, music) to understand the complex global flow of television programs and films.
This course examines the role of media in the history of empires and revolutions and the history of media empires. It focuses on the investment in media forces by both empires and revolutions, and the tendency of media to form empires that are subject to periodic ’revolution’ in the marketplace with the contexts of colonization, decolonization and globalization. Media discussed include prints, paintings, photography, journalism, fiction, cinema, the Internet and digital media.
This class addresses how colonialism and postcolonialism are shaped and mediated through images and the gaze. The dynamics of colonial history motivate and shape colonial and postcolonial perceptions and influence their patterns of global circulation when the boundary between the world out there and the nation at home is increasingly blurred. Course surveys a range of image texts through various media (photography, television, cinema) and sites (war, the harem, refugee camps, prisons, disasters); nationalist mobilization, counter-insurgency, urban conflict, disaster management, the prison system, and the war on terror.
Analysis of factors inherent in the persuasive process, examination and application of these factors in presentations. Hours are arranged for student evaluation and practice.
The application of various systems of communication analysis to specific behavioral situations. Through the case-study method, students apply communication theories and models to practical, everyday situations.
This course will track the various manifestations of media amateurism over time and medium, while also exploring theoretical concerns and cultural discourses that surround their work and social construction, especially in relation to notions of professionalism, community, networks, artistic practice, collectivism, and marginalization.
This course is an analysis of changing trends in marketing ranging from corporate social responsibility to guerrilla and viral marketing. Discussion of theoretical concepts are applied through fieldwork and project-based learning. Guest lectures on emerging topics are featured.
Public relations means different things to different things to different people but it has one undeniable element: communication. This course is concerned with arranging, handling, and evaluating public relations programs. Students work with actual case histories and deal with contemporary topics such as the use of the computer in public relations.
This course focuses on techniques of communication in public relations including creation of press releases, press packets and kits, and developing public relations campaigns.
This course teaches students who have a basic understanding of advertising techniques how to develop a complete advertising campaign across a range of media for a product, service or nonprofit organization.
An examination of the art of debate using current issues of public policy & social justice. Students will learn the skills of critical thinking, evidence evaluation & persuasion. Hours are arranged for fieldwork & student evaluation.
An overview of the history and cultures of print. Examines typography communication and the persuasive power of print. Topics include print ’revolution’ in early modern Europe, printedness and the public sphere, as well as contemporary relationships between print and digital media. How are digital media making it possible to see new things about print? What can e-books tell us about books?
This course examines the role and history of photography within the historical landscape of media and communication. Special emphasis on the accumulative meaning of visual archives, tracing how images reconfigure and establish cultural territories across a variety of texts and media. Investigates and contrasts the mimetic visual strategies within western and nonwestern traditions, looking at historical and contemporary images in a variety of forms.
This course explores the ways people create, maintain, and augment the meaning of gender, developing insight into understanding gender ideology and the media representation of gender. The course examines how ideas about gender shape our communication practices, and how our practices of communication produce gender.
This course examines theories, technologies, and practices of listening in the modern world. How has our experience of sound changed as we move from the piano to the personal computer, from the phonoautograph to the mp3? How have political, commercial, and cultural forces shaped what we are able to listen to, and how we listen to it? Finally, how have performers, physiologists, and philosophers worked to understand this radical transformation of the senses?
This course examines the proposition that contemporary war should be understood as media. War has become mediatized and media has been militarized. This course treats war and political violence as communicative acts and technologies and focuses on how they shape our understanding and experience of landscape, vision, body, time and memory.
This course examines globalization as it is inscribed in everyday practices through the transnational traffic of persons, cultural artifacts and ideas. The course will focus on issues of transnational mobility, modernity, the local/global divide and pay specific attention to how categories of race, gender and ethnicity intersect with transnational change.
Explores the various political and philosophical debates within western Marxism. Pays particular attention to the influence of the cultural turn in twentieth century Marxist thought on feminism, postcolonialism, and theories of mediation. Themes include: the commodity, alienation and reification, surplus value, culture, ideology, hegemony and subjectivity.
Examines the basic tenets and operative principles of the global copyright system. Considers the ways in which media industries, artists, and consumers interact with the copyright system and assesses how well it serves its stated purposes: to encourage art and creativity. Special emphasis on the social, cultural, legal, and political issues that have arisen in recent years as a result of new communicative technologies.
This course examines the relationship between mediated forms of communications and the formation of identities, both individual and social. Attention paid to the way mediated forms of communication represent different social and cultural groupings, with a particular emphasis on gender, race, ethnicity, class and nationality.
An inquiry into the ways that technology — mechanical, electronic, analog, and digital — shapes and is shaped by cultural, political, and social values. Students become acquainted with key concepts and approaches to understanding the interplay of technology and society (e.g. technological determinism, social construction of technology, actor networks, affordances) and how these have been applied to such cases as the clock, the automobile, the assembly line, household technology, the telephone, and more recent communication technology.
This course examines the broad range of activities associated with the globalization of media production, distribution, and reception. Issues include: the relationship between local and national identities and the emergence of a ’global culture’ and the impact of technological innovations on the media themselves and their use and reception in a variety of settings.
This course focuses on the essentially communicative aspects of American government, including the preparation of candidates, the electoral process, political advertising and public relations. It also includes the use of strategic communication to influence political agendas, the formation of public policy, and the process of political debate.
This course presents a critical analysis of the development, principles, strategies, media, techniques, and effects of propaganda campaigns from ancient civilizations to modern technological society. The course focuses on propaganda in the context of government, religion, revolution, war, politics, and advertising, and explores implications for the future of propaganda in the cybernetic age.
This course will examine the emergence of advertising as a form of communication, its influence upon other forms of mediated communication and its impact upon culture and society.
An examination of the great debate concerning the effects of mass media and mass communication on our society. Analysis and application of major perspectives and approaches used in formulating modern theories of mass communication.
This course is an introduction to digital media, focusing on networks, computers, the Web and video games. Theoretical topics include the formal qualities of new media, their political dimensions, as well as questions of genre, narrative, and history.
The course approaches video games through the lens of political economy. This means examining games foremost as commodities, transactional goods through which various modes of economic life occur. This course is designed to introduce students to the structure and economics of the game industry since its emergence in the 1970s, particularly across the United States, China, and Japan. Special attention is brought to the dramatic industry changes catalyzed by digital distribution, mobile gaming, live streaming, and other contemporary developments.
An introduction to the theoretical approaches & methods used to analyze the content, structure, & contexts of media in society. Students will develop a familiarity with concepts, themes, & approaches in media criticism, & they will develop an ability to adopt, adapt, & employ a variety of methodologies for the analysis of mediated communication.
Explores how people form relationships with locales they occupy, how they attach meanings to spaces to create places, and how experiences of inhabiting, viewing, and hearing those places shape their meanings, communicative practices, cultural performances, memories, and habits. Themes include: mapping and the imagination; vision and space, soundscape, architecture and landscape; new media and space/time compression; space and identity; spatial violence; and spatialization of memory. Satisfies Core Cultures & Contexts for non-MCC Steinhardt students.
In this course students will build form the skills they learned in 3D Modeling and 3D Animation to produce 3D for Interactive Applications. Projects may be geared to scientific, engineering or entertainment applications according to individual skills and professional aspirations. | Prerequisites: DM-UY 2133
How do games tell stories? How can we move beyond the traditional narrative in games? Is there a more holistic approach that embeds the story deeply into the interaction? In this class, students will begin to answer these questions by analyzing games and developing their own experimental narrative games. | Prerequisite: DM-UY 2153
Today’s applications are increasingly mobile. This course teaches students how to build mobile apps for Android or iOS devices, as well as how to deploy them in app stores. The history of mobile computing is also explored. | Prerequisite: DM-UY 2193
This course explores various image editing techniques and outputs, utilizing various styles of text, including fiction and non-fiction. The assignments foreground how text influences viewers’ perception of images, and how images can enrich a body of writing. Students will use a range of production skills to create work — using After Effects for animation, HTML/CSS for website creation, book and print design, and archival printing methods. All projects are accompanied by readings that provide historical and theoretical grounding to support the concepts explored through practice. An emphasis on refining technical and aesthetic photography skills are central throughout the semester. Prerequisites: DM-UY 2183 or DM-UY 2263
This class introduces the principles of 2D and 3D computer-game design. Students learn the range of game types and understand their conceptual building blocks. Students complete a structured sequence of assignments toward the completion of a new-game design. Students prepare, through a staged sequence of assignments, a fully worked-out design for an original game. Criteria include storyline quality, graphics quality and appropriateness of design to the game concept originality. For games with an educational or instructional purpose, clarity and effectiveness for the target audience is considered. | Prerequisite: DM-UY 1133
In many political movements, the festive emerges as a major force shaping alternative social practices, forms of gathering, being together, and moving together. These alternative modes of being in collectivity are actively redefining the political. This sense of collectivity becomes particularly evident in the aesthetics of the Global South and its Diasporas. Consequently, this course explores the festive’s role in forming political movements beyond the traditional scope that reduces it to a simple byproduct of social life. It also explores how the pandemic has forced us to reimagine what coming together means. Taking Latin American and Caribbean aesthetics as an initial case, this seminar engages in a detailed interpretation of performances that challenge traditional definitions of both the festive and the political. A wide range of performance practices, such as carnival parties, sound systems, cabaret shows, popular dance styles, artworks, organized slave riots, and indigenous uprisings, shape the modes students will engage in theory and practice. For this course iteration, we will focus on questions around Black and Indigenous relations to carnival performance, structures of mutual aid as festive practice, and how they enact utopian modes of communal life, and how these modes of communal life redefine current understandings of art and politics. The class involves field trips, visits to several performance events, and conversations with artists and organizers who use the festive as a political tool to engage in political action in NYC. Questions regarding race, gender, and class will be directed to the philosophical, anthropological, and historical texts paying close attention to their involvement in the formation of colonial oppression. Performance studies’ methodologies will serve as the guiding mode to articulate these questions.
4 points – will count toward general education requirements (Humanities) Social, political, and economic upheavals produce shattering transformations in human life, yet some of the most significant artistic works in literature, visual arts, theatre, film, and music have been created under these extreme circumstances. The focus of this course is on developing an interdisciplinary approach to an understanding of the arts, artists, and the artists’ response as a catalyst for social and political change. We will explore the history of various practical crises and examine how they have influenced art and artists. Some of the examples include the works of Czechoslovakian films during Soviet Occupation, Protest Theatre during Apartheid South Africa, Shostakovich’s Trio during Soviet Era, underground music scene in present day Iran, Cindy Sherman’s photography in the USA, Croatian artist Sanjan Ivekovic and Bangali writer Taslima Nasrin’s. We will also look at some examples of propaganda artists and their work as well, artists like Morteza Avini in Iran and Liu Wenxi of China. By investigating the artist’s understanding of political, social, and economic forces that impact upon art and their own lives we will examine this question: What are the complex dynamics that are involved in the emergence of movements in the arts?
Making Webisodes is an intensive 14 week course which combines lectures and workshops in which students create unique and compelling content for the web and then learn how to post that content on the web. Students will explore the basics of film production and online webisode distribution, working with – concept creation – writing – directing – acting – production design – camerawork – sound – editing – online tracking tools and social media – web monetization and advertising. The webisode is an exploding new art form. Web series, embedded ads, 5 second hooks, snapchats, vines and viral videos all present a variety of new media approaches within the entertainment industry, business, lifestyle, and politics. Webisodes are short visual presentations that either entertain us, directly sell us product, indirectly sell us product, or shock and engage our perspective, as in political propaganda videos. Lectures provide students with an overview of the emerging web series industry, concentrating on how the webisode is used to hook the audience, generate hits, and drive customers to websites and/or online advertising. Workshops then employ practical exercises to help the students conceive and create their own unique webisode, which can be narrative or non-narrative, fiction or non-fiction, experimental or satire, personal or political. The goal is to use the resources at hand and create instant media – webisodes. As the students produce their webisodes, they will learn by doing and they will be provided with practical knowledge of the art, craft, and commerce of webisodes.
Students conceive, produce, direct, and edit a short film exploring the Paris experience with smartphone technology. A survey of cellphone cinema history leads to the study of visual storytelling principles and techniques, which students apply through practical exercises. Choosing among available short film genres (experimental, documentary, portrait, essay, fiction), students are trained through every stage of the movie making process: pitching the idea, scripting and storyboarding, shooting, and editing. Each student finishes the course with a facility in smartphone video technology as well as a coherent film record of his or her particular vision of Paris.
A site to help IMA NY students find equivalent courses
For students joining IMA in Fall 2022 and beyond, our new program structure affects the categorization of courses on this site.
Classes listed in the “IMA Major Electives” categories refer to the old IMA program structure. If you’re under the new IMA program structure, these courses count as general IMA Electives for you. Your program structure is noted on your academic advising spreadsheet.
Students on the new program structure can search the Interchange for courses. If you’re looking for “IMA Major Distribution” courses, you'll find them listed here: