Category Archives: IMA Electives

All courses that count as IMA Major Electives

Experiential Comics: Interactive Comic Books for the Fourth (ITPG-GT 2072)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 7 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

ITPG-GT 2072-000 (11372)10/23/2025 – 12/11/2025 Thu12:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Early afternoon)at OnlineInstructed by Patrick, Tony

Fall 2025 Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Art & Design) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment)

Visual Journalism (ITPG-GT 2071)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 13 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

ITPG-GT 2071-000 (11373)09/05/2025 – 12/05/2025 Fri9:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Parshina-Kottas, Yuliya

Fall 2025 Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment)

Listening Machines (ITPG-GT 2043)

Credits: 2
Duration: 6 Weeks
Dates: Mon

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 6 Weeks

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) Spring 2026
Fall 2020 Fall 2021 Fall 2023 Fall 2024

Masquerade (ITPG-GT 2044)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
1 credits – 1 Week

Sections (Fall 2024)

ITPG-GT 2044-000 (15711)

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Physical Computing & Experimental Interfaces)
Fall 2020 Fall 2021

Designing Club Culture (ITPG-GT 2047)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2021)

ITPG-GT 2047-000 (23971)09/02/2021 – 12/14/2021 Thu6:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Evening)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment)
Fall 2020

Population Infinite:The Future of Identity (ITPG-GT 2041)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 6 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2020)

ITPG-GT 2041-000 (22623)09/02/2020 – 10/14/2020 Wed6:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Evening)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Germanidis, Anastasios · Oved, Dan

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies)
Fall 2020

Seeing Machines (ITPG-GT 2039)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 11 Weeks

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data)
Fall 2020

Performing Reality (ITPG-GT 2032)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 6 Weeks

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment)
Fall 2020

Prediction as Planning: Wayfinding for Future Thinkers (ITPG-GT 2033)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 7 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2020)

ITPG-GT 2033-000 (22634)10/22/2020 – 12/10/2020 Thu6:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Evening)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Shevin, Michelle

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies)

Electronics for Inventors (ITPG-GT 2036)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Tue

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Physical Computing & Experimental Interfaces) Spring 2026
Fall 2020 Fall 2021

Drawing It Together (ITPG-GT 2538)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
1 credits – 16 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2021)

ITPG-GT 2538-000 (22646)

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Art & Design)
Fall 2020

Desert of the Real: Deep Dive into Social VR (ITPG-GT 2461)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 11 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2020)

ITPG-GT 2461-000 (22642)09/08/2020 – 11/24/2020 Tue3:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Nassima, Igal

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment)

Machine Learning for the Web (ITPG-GT 2465)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Fri

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) Spring 2026

Textile Interfaces (ITPG-GT 2030)

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)

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
1 credits – 1 Day

Sections (Fall 2025)

ITPG-GT 2030-000 (20759)

Fall 2025 Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Physical Computing & Experimental Interfaces)
Fall 2020

Citizen Science: Biotechnology (ITPG-GT 2995)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 11 Weeks

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Physical Computing & Experimental Interfaces)
Fall 2020 Spring 2024

Making Media Making Devices (ITPG-GT 2998)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
1 credits – 1 Day

Sections (Spring 2024)

ITPG-GT 2998-000 (14762)

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Physical Computing & Experimental Interfaces)

Design Research (ITPG-GT 2997)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 6 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

ITPG-GT 2997-000 (11359)10/24/2025 – 12/05/2025 Fri9:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Derby, David · Brant, Heidi

Fall 2025 Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Art & Design)
Fall 2020 Fall 2021

Game Design and the Psychology of Choice (ITPG-GT 2161)

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

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2021)

ITPG-GT 2161-000 (22642)09/02/2021 – 12/14/2021 Mon3:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment)
Fall 2020 Spring 2024 Spring 2025

Computational Approaches to Narrative (ITPG-GT 2198)

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.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2025)

ITPG-GT 2198-000 (11387)01/21/2025 – 05/06/2025 Tue6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Evening)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Parrish, Allison

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data)