Our goal is to map China. But rather than making maps through calculations or grids, we will be mapping China conceptually and theoretically. This is to say that in studying China’s regions, physical geography, political territories, cities, counties, and people, our goal is to develop skills for thinking about China spatially. With thousands of years of recorded history and a political system oriented to progress and national development, China is often imagined in terms of linear time. However, from ancient walled cities to the Mao-era work-unit system to the more recent migrations of rural labor, understanding how political, commercial, and social spaces are organized is essential for understanding China’s past and present. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC or IPC; GCS elective The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China; Social Science Focus Environmental Studies 200 level; Humanities Interdisciplinary or other Advanced course ( 18-19: Critical Concepts or Topic).
In this course, we will see how people in China have used psychology to build a modern nation and promote modern values. Beginning in the early 20th century, we will encounter missionaries trying to replace superstition with science, reformers challenging gender relationships, and intellectuals who critiqued the Chinese character. As we move through the century, we will trace how various people have applied psychological techniques for very different purposes: creating healthy citizens for a new state, instilling a revolutionary spirit, managing corporate employees, and raising exemplary children. During the semester, each student will conduct textual and/or ethnographic research about an aspect of psychological expertise or mental health in contemporary China. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. Fulfillment: CORE STS; GCS Elective: Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Social Science Focus Anthropology 200 level.
How did people in ancient and modern China understand health and treat illness? Historically and now, has “Chinese medicine” been an insular or open system? What can health perceptions and healing practices tell us about historical changes in China and its changing relationship with the world? Drawing on insights from the history of medicine and medical anthropology, this course explores health and healing in China through five chronologically organized units and one diachronically comparative unit. We will consider the cosmological, philosophical, and sociological factors that shape different visions of health. We will examine how local and global political processes affect healing practices and their perceived legitimacy and investigate what illness and remedy-seeking experiences reveal about the wider contexts in which medical activities take place. Prerequisite: CCSF-SHU 101L GPS
Examples of complex organizations include hospitals, schools, places of employment, the government, the military, churches, and prisons. Where do those organizations come from? What accounts for organizational success and failure? How can we make organizations better for individuals and society? This course examines different types of organizations, organizational goals and outcomes, institutional authority and structure, organizational change, and organizational fields. Most importantly, the goal of this course is to expand your knowledge and understanding of the relationships between organizations and society. You will learn to develop a critical lens and an analytical framework that can apply to understand specific complex organizations. This course will help you to think about how you might better survive and thrive in our organizational world! Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing. Fulfillment: Social Science core or Sociology focus 300 level.
This course introduces urbanization in China in the context of the East Asian region and globalization. By examination of the development of selected cities and discussion of experimental urban themes, this course aims to depict prevalent patterns of urbanization at appropriate levels, such as neighborhood types, metropolitan areas, and regional urban agglomeration. We examine traditional forms of settlement and place more recent urban phenomena in a broader historical perspective. We explore relevant political traditions and forms of planning administration to reveal underlying social, economic, cultural and environmental circumstances at work, while learning tools and methods of spatial analysis that can be applied to the study of cities all over the world. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC; Social Science Foundational course or Urban Studies 200 level; Humanities 18-19 Critical Concepts; GCS The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China.
This course invites students from diverse backgrounds and provides an accessible introduction to the burgeoning field of Computational Social Science (CSS). We aim to explore research design and data skills at the intersection of social sciences and digital innovations. This course emphasizes using big and rich social digital data to understand and explain societies and human behaviors. We introduce fundamental topics in CSS, including digital trace data collection, social network analysis, and text-as-data, using the R programming language. Besides discussing the new opportunities of CSS, this course also highlights critical topics, such as data ethics and data-driven bias. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Core AT; Social Science Foundational Course; Social Science Methods Course.
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.
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
This seminar examines the causes and consequences of poverty and rising inequality around the globe. Students will study the ways in which poverty and inequality are shaped by multifaceted contexts; understand the theories underlying strategies and programs which address key poverty and inequality issues faced by many developed, developing and least developed countries; and learn about different countries’ experiences addressing their own poverty and inequality issues. We consider philosophies of global justice and the ethics of global citizenship, and students are expected to critically reflect upon their own engagements with poverty relief activities and aspirations for social changes. Students should be prepared to tackle advanced social science readings, analysis, and writing. Open to seniors, and to other students with instructor’s permission. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. Fulfillment: Social Science Focus Political Economy/Sociology 300 level.
Contemporary art can seem perplexing, yet when viewed as a progression of ideas and aesthetic strategies that respond to societal shifts, a certain logic emerges. This course traces movements in North American and European art from 1945 to the present through a study of primary and secondary texts, artwork examples, and historic context. In lectures, discussion and activities, we will investigate how artists went beyond primarily object-based works to explore expanded notions of what art can be and the interaction between the artwork and the viewer. The ways institutional frameworks, media and technology, politics, and social relations, informed contemporary art practice will also be examined. At the end of this course, students should be able to identify contemporary art movements, key artists, and relevant artworks and create compelling arguments around these works. They will also be able to articulate the conceptual and visual strategies employed in these pieces, recognize connections and differences across movements and have a basic knowledge of the milieu in which they were produced. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Introductory course (18-19: survey).
This course examines how ideas of gender and sexuality have shaped the production and consumption of visual culture from the late nineteenth century. We will examine a variety of visual and material texts that shape, criticize, and/or negotiate with contemporaneous gender and sexual norms. Focusing on these expressions’ cultural and historical specificities, the students will assess gender and sexuality—and as an extension, the notions of normality, healthfulness, and self—as ideas that continuously evolve in response to social discourses. The course proceeds roughly chronologically. It starts with the nineteenth-century Euro-American context, in which modern ideas of gender and sexuality began to circulate authoritatively in medical and legal terms. It then moves onto more globalized contemporary perspectives that critique and/or expand the pronouncedly “Western” conceptions of identity and identity categories. Prerequisite: None.
The goal of the first half of the course is to build a basic understanding of how information about traits is encoded in our genes, how this “blueprint” is interpreted by cellular machinery to build a complex human being, and how our heredity has resulted in our evolution. In the senond half of the course, we will continue the exploration of how environment, experience and random errors affect the process of building our traits, what happens when these processes fail, and the promise and possible peril of genetic technologies for human life. Fulfillment: CORE ED (with CCEX-SHU 137)
This course is an introduction to the problems and methods of contemporary philosophy. Topics may include: 1. What is the relationship between mind and body? 2. Can belief in the existence of the external world be justified? 3. Are there any good arguments for the existence of God? 4. Can we act freely if everything that we do is determined by laws of nature? 5. Is there a theory of how we ought to live? Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Foundational/Introductory Courses (18-19: Critical Concepts).
This Praxis course is an exploration of contemporary and traditional artistic printmaking practices, with an emphasis on expanding notions of conventional printmaking techniques and forms. Students will be introduced to various printmaking techniques, and experiment with traditional and non-traditional forms, in conjunction with their histories and consider what constitutes a hand-made print in an artistic framework. Students will gain an understanding of printmaking – its history based in China, development across the globe and inventive contemporary practices which include sculptural forms. They will learn techniques, modes, forms, and applications of printmaking – with an emphasis on relief prints (stamps and wood cuts) – in a conceptual framework of contemporary printmaking practices and global visual culture. Note: attendance in the first class meeting is mandatory, otherwise you will be dropped from the course. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: This course satisfies IMA/IMB elective.
This course aims to train students to think philosophically about our rapidly changing—and ever more intimate—relationship with machines. We focus in particular on the following subjects: artificial intelligence, robots, cyborgs, automation and science fiction speculation. Prerequisite: Global Perspectives on Society (GPS) Fulfillment: CORE STS; Humanities Interdisciplinary or Advanced course; IMA/IMB elective.
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.
This course introduces students to the use of statistical methods. Topics include: descriptive statistics; introduction to probability; sampling; statistical inference concerning means, standard deviations, and proportions; correlation; analysis of variance; linear regression, including multiple regression analysis. Applications to empirical situations are an integral part of the course. Pre-requisites: None Fulfillment: This course satisfies the following: Major req: BUSF, BUSM, ECON, CS, DS Foundational course; Social Science: methods course; IMB Business elective.
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.
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.
In Information Technology in Business and Society, students learn the fundamental concepts underlying current and future developments in computer-based information technology – including hardware, software, network and database-related technologies. They will also acquire proficiency in the essential tools used by today’s knowledge workers and learn how these can be used to help solve problems of economic, social or personal nature. Throughout the course, they will be exposed to a range of more advanced topics which may include big data, information privacy, information security, digital piracy and digital music. Pre-requisites: not open to freshman. Fulfillment: This course satisfies BUSF/ BUSM Business Elective, Business Analytics Track; IMB Business Flexible Core.
This course surveys Asian art and architecture from the earliest civilizations to the present day through several themes. It focuses more on the arts and monuments from China, Japan, and India but also introduces those from Korea and Southeast Asia. We will study how artistic traditions transmit and develop in distinctive yet interconnected societies in Asia, as well as how those traditions interact with specific political, religious, social, and cultural contexts in which they grow. Issues investigated include (but are not limited to): the spread and metamorphosis of Buddhist art, the artistic exchanges between the “East” and the “West” (and the formations of the ideas of the “East” and the “West”), the production and consumption of art as related to various forms of power such as political authority, social hierarchy, and gender, and the “Asian-ness” in the contemporary world. Prerequisite: None.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
“How do humans and other animals obtain knowledge about the world? It is easy to take perception for granted, but complex processes (only partly understood) underlie our ability to understand the world by seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling it. This is not because the scientific study of perception is new. In fact, perception has fascinated philosophers, physicists, and physiologists for centuries. Currently, perception is a central topic in psychology, cognitive science, computer science, and neuroscience. How do scientists approach perception? We seek to discover lawful relations between perceptual experiences and the physical world and to develop models of the processes and mechanisms in the brain that produce these connections. In this course, in the lectures, we will discuss fundamental problems in perception (primarily vision), and in the lab sessions, you will learn about standard experimental methods and their use in the study of perceptual processes and to give you first-hand experience in conducting original research. As part of these activities you will learn to write experimental reports and to think critically about the relation between theory and experiment. You will also be exposed to the use of computers in perception research. Indeed, there will be considerable use of computers in the course, with part of the goal being to provide you with basic computer skills.” Prereq: None Fulfillment: CORE ED
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 will be an introduction to studio art for students, to traverse both cultural and temporal barriers of visual arts. Students will examine the content of artwork, and build various skills to translate ideas into reality. Class time will be devoted to individual projects and critiques, lectures, and group discussions. This course is open to all students with or without an art background. Note that attendance in the first class meeting is mandatory, otherwise you will be dropped from the course. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: general elective
Painting is an incredibly versatile medium and its dynamic evolution across cultures and through millennia continues up until the present. The medium’s relevance and capacity for reinvention are evidenced in the work of a number of contemporary painters who have incorporated inventive materials and/or methods into their practice to both push its limits and explore contemporary concerns. In this class, students will get an introduction to the fundamental technical, formal, and conceptual principles of painting. Using watercolor, gouache, and acrylic, students will explore color theory, composition, texture, form, and surface using a wide range of techniques. Through selected readings, students will also examine the theoretical questions and historical precedents that have informed painting’s development, see how they relate to or have been challenged by the work of contemporary painters and be able to connect select concerns to their own practice. In addition to acquiring basic technical skills and conceptual know-how, students will also gain competency in art critiques and writing artist statements. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: general elective
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
In this course we combine both analytic and embodied learning about human movement practices. We will learn selected computational and physical movement sensing techniques (webcam-based, wearable-based, and commercial motion capture technologies). We will combine guest and student-led presentations and activities that involve us in movement while learning structures and history of selected movement practices such as dance and circus arts. We will do four sprint projects of approximately one week in length (each semester projects differ, but may include examples such as PoseNet/MoveNet, Creating a Fitness Tracker, Rhythm Game, Non-humanoid MoCap avatars), alternating with work on a class choreographic project and individual research and writing of a paper on a movement practice. Prerequisite: Creative Coding Lab or equivalent programming experience. Fulfillment: IMA/B Elective.
Increasing possibilities brought about by emerging forms of technology and decreasing costs of connecting people to things have not only enabled technological innovations, but have also opened the door to new applications, business models, products and services. Experimentation and calculated risk taking are keys to successfully harnessing the possibilities of today’s most cutting-edge technologies and innovative methods to first build, understand and then redefine how humans and products interact. In this course, student ‘co-founders’ will conceive of and market a new media, physical or technology product designed to fit a market while also allowing them to accelerate and validate a sustainable business model. Students will ‘get out of the classroom’ and put these products into potential customers’ minds. The course will touch upon topics such as how to design a minimum viable product, design a business model, talk and work with customers, and develop a product community. Prerequisite: None.
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.
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
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)
“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. Through 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, music industries, and the tech sector.” Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA elective; IMB Business Flexible core course.
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.
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)
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.
Considers the trajectory of changes in the production, circulation, and reception of Korean popular music from the turn of the twentieth century to the latest K-pop hits across successive political, social, and economic junctures, with regard for major themes such as nationalism, race, gender, technology, and globalization; and investigates music culture in relation to hybridity, authenticity, transculturation, cyber-culture, and fandom, among other subjects Prereq: None Fulfillment: Humanities Introductory Course (18-19 Topic Courses).
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This course explores the scientific foundations of current environmental issues and their implications for public policy. The syllabus is divided into sections that each examines a current environmental theme in depth. The first sections investigate the composition of the atmosphere and the chemical processes that cause air pollution, ozone depletion, and global warming. Moving to the study of water, the course explores the properties of this unique solvent and the effect of various aqueous pollutants. The course also includes an investigation of energy from chemical reactions, our continuing reliance on fossil fuels, and the potential of alternative energy sources. The laboratory experiments are closely integrated with the lecture topics and provide hands-on explorations of central course themes. Throughout the course we also will examine how scientific studies of the environment are intimately connected with political, economic and policy concerns.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
A site for IMA NY Students to find equivalent courses outside of IMA NY
For most students joining IMA in Fall 2022 and beyond, there is a new program structure that affects the categorization of courses on this site:
Any class in any IMA major elective category (ie "Art & Design") refers to the IMA program structure previous to those entering in Fall 2022. If you are in the class of 2026 (most entering Fall 2022 or later), any course in an IMA elective category are generic IMA electives in the new structure.