IMA Summer 2023 course offerings (undergraduate courses):

ITP / IMA Media Fee Disclaimer: Please be advised, ITP / IMA courses are assigned a $274.00 Media Fee, which applies to ITP / IMA students as well as non-departmental students. For Summer term, the Media Fee is charged on a per-class basis. This fee grants students Equipment Room check-out privileges, as well as access to the physical computing shop and machines in our departmental space in 370 Jay / 4th floor. The Media Fee is non-refundable.

Topics in Fabrication – Sec. 1: Fix It/Mend It/Keep It

IMNY-UT 250 – 1 (5904)

Molly Ritmiller

Tu/Th 3:00pm – 6:30pm (05/23 – 06/29) – 6W1

In this course, students will learn various methods of maintaining and fixing objects as a form of fabrication. From textiles (darning, patching, shishiko, sewing) to physical object repair (furniture fixes, diy joinery methods, electronics repair), the class will explore the act of care as a creative practice (which also increases the value of an item). These methods will become a means for not only making things new, but also making new things. Through these mending processes, we will re-situate the existing ecosystem of produced objects and “waste” things to be instead precious and durational companions. While learning forms of physical mending, we will also consider some of the theoretical resonances of mending and fixing through texts such as Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and We Have Never Been Modern.

Topics in Media Art – Sec. 1: Making Data Tangible

IMNY-UT 260 – 1 (5927)

John Kuiphoff

Tu/Fr 10:00am – 1:30pm (07/07 – 08/15) – 6W2

This hands-on course will explore ways to tell compelling stories using data and emerging media/fabrication tools. Students will learn to collect data, find interesting patterns, design digital models, and construct physical artifacts using laser cutters and 3D printers. We will visualize everything from subway busker tactics to real-time influencer trends. In fact, we will literally hold the output of that data in our hands. In addition to learning fabrication tools, students will be encouraged to apply their unique interests and skill sets to their data visualization projects (music, video, performance, creative coding, etc.).

Bioart as Biopolitics–Genomics and Identity

IMNY-UT 260 – 2 (6298)

Heather Dewey-Hagborg

Mo/We 3:00pm – 6:30pm (05/22 – 07/05) – 6W1

What does biology have to do with art? Bioart is a discipline in which artists use life itself as a medium for creative experimentation and reflection on the social implications of cutting edge biological science. Biopolitics describes the ways in which DNA and other forms of biological knowledge combine with the accumulation of data to segment, categorize, and predict our behavior. In this course we will take a tour of the materials and techniques utilized by artists in the emerging field of biological art, with a focus on genomics and its political and social implications.This hybrid art and science class will introduce concepts in personal genomics, genetic engineering, speculative design, bioart, biopolitics, critical engineering, and bioethics as sites for activism and artistic exploration. Students will learn how DNA extraction and sequencing works, how to analyze real genomic data, and will incorporate this in creative and critical projects. Regular readings and in-class discussions will supplement artistic projects.

ITP Summer 2023 course offerings (Graduate classes):

These sections are open to all NYU students, except Freshman and Sophomore UGs. NYU Students may self-register in Albert, no permission required.

Visiting students, please email george.agudow@nyu.edu for steps on how to register for summer courses.

Pass/Fail Disclaimer: Please be advised, ITP courses are graded pass/fail. It is your responsibility as a non-ITP student to check with your home program to be sure a pass/fail ITP course may be credited toward your degree requirements.

ITP / IMA Media Fee Disclaimer: Please be advised, ITP / IMA courses are assigned a $274.00 Media Fee, which applies to ITP / IMA students as well as non-departmental students. For Summer term, the Media Fee is charged on a per-class basis. This fee grants students Equipment Room check-out privileges, as well as access to the physical computing shop and machines in our departmental space in 370 Jay / 4th floor. The Media Fee is non-refundable.

Intro to Fabrication

ITPG-GT 2637 – 001 (5604)

Philip Caridi

Mo 12:00pm – 3:00pm (05/22 – 07/03) – 6W1

Time to get your hands dirty. Prototypes need to be created, motors have to be mounted, enclosures must be built. Understanding how things are fabricated makes you a better maker. But hardware is hard. You can’t simply copy and paste an object or working device (not yet anyway), fabrication skills and techniques need to be developed and practiced in order to create quality work. You learn to make by doing. In this class, you will become familiar and comfortable with all the ITP shop has to offer. We will cover everything from basic hand tools to the beginnings of digital fabrication. You will learn to use the right tool for the job. There will be weekly assignments created to develop your fabrication techniques. There will be in class lectures, demos, and building assignments. Emphasis will be put on good design practices, material choice, and craftsmanship.

Project Development Studio

ITPG-GT 2564 – 001 (5609)

Ellen Nickles

Tu/Th 12:00pm – 3:00pm (07/06 – 08/15) – 6W2

Project Development Studio provides students an environment to develop existing project ideas that may fall outside the scope of currently offered classes. The course offers the necessary structure and timeline to complete a self-directed project as well as the opportunity for peer learning. This particular studio is appropriate for projects in the areas of interactive art installations, creative coding, web-based applications, physical computing, and digital fabrication. Technical skills in these areas will not be taught. Rather, the philosophy of the course is learning through doing, and the majority of student work time will be spent in actual design and production, which will be structured and guided by the instructor.

Class meets twice a week for 3 hours each session. Each week students will devise and complete their own assignments and post their progress online. Class meetings mix time to work on assignments (individually or in groups on related projects), to share skills and resources, to share project development, to user test and exchange feedback, and to conference with the instructor. The course will culminate with a final project presentation.

Topics in ITP: Design for Responsible Tech

ITPG-GT 2378 – 1 (5611)

Art Kleiner / Juliette Powell

Tu/Th 12:00pm – 3:00pm (05/23 – 06/29) – 6W1

Digital media creators need to learn how to raise issues and design solutions to ethical problems. Belief systems and harmful consequences are coded into every piece of software. This is a course in the skills of responsible design and development: Looking critically at your own work and others’ work, recognizing the unintended implications and consequences of that work, creating personal and group processes to bring these issues safely to the surface, adjusting the work to be less harmful, and participating in the evolution of standards and guardrails. ITP students will need all of these skills as they progress through their careers. In the course, we’ll look at cases showing how companies handled ethical dilemmas, including Google, Snapchat, and Tiktok – and an emerging theory of what makes digital media responsible. But the course doesn’t just cover the theory in an academic sense; it gives students practice in putting the theory to use and helping to test and refine it. This course mixes academic research and project work. It is structured around three comprehensive group assignments and a final project.

Synthetic Architectures

ITPG-GT 2177 – 001 (5614)

Jonathan Turner

Tu/Th 3:00pm – 6:00pm (07/06 – 08/15) – 6W2

For better or worse humanity is heading down the virtual rabbit hole. We’re trading an increasingly hostile natural environment for a socially networked and commercially driven artificial one. Whether it’s the bedrooms of YouTube streaming stars, the augmented Pokestops of Pokemon Go, the breakout rooms of a Zoom meeting, or even the “airspace” of Airbnb; we are witnessing a dramatic transformation of what occupying space means. The socially distanced measures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have only accelerated this societal embrace of the virtual.

So where are these dramatic spatial paradigm shifts occurring? Who owns and occupies these spaces? Who are the architects and what historical and ethical foundations are they working from? What world do they want to build for humanity and where does the creative individual fit into it? Will it be a walled garden, a role-playing adventure or a tool for creating more worlds?

The course will ask students to embrace the role of virtual architect, not in the traditional brick-and-mortar sense of constructing shelter, but in terms of the engagement with the raw concept of space. However this virtual space must be considered and evaluated as a “site,” that is activated and occupied by real people and all the limitations of physical space that they bring with them from the real world. This is the foundation of synthetic architecture; simulated space met with biological perception.

This conceptual architecture is free from the confines of physics but host to a whole new set of questions: How do we embrace the human factors of a dimensionless environment? How do we make or encourage meaningful interactions within the limits of current technology? New models of interaction must inform and shape the architecture of virtual space – what does that look like? How can architecture and aesthetics inform the creation of virtual environments and immersive narratives? How do we acutely consider the psychological and social impacts of the worlds we design and what is the metaphorical ground plane to make sense of this virtual world, unbound by physics?