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.
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.
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.
“Useless Machines is about redefining “usefulness.” Through making, we will explore what it means, on an ideological, political and historical level, to create something ‘useful’ or ‘useless.’ We will play with these definitions and explore how these objects serve to be humorous, critical, disruptive and at times… useful. We will study ‘useless’ machines throughout history, which will provoke conversations and disagreements around the implications of existing and emerging technologies. The students will design ‘useless’ machines for their final project. Examples of ‘useless’ machines are drawn from Kenji Kawakami’s The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions, Dunne & Raby’s Speculative Everything, Stephanie Dinkins’ Conversations with Bina 48, https://esoteric.codes/, CW&T, Mimi Ọnụọha’s Missing Data, Jacques Carelman’s Catalogue of Impossible Objects, viral videos/objects and much more.”
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.