Fall 2024 – IMA Course Listings

Storytelling for Project Development +

Sharon De La Cruz | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.291 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: November 5, 2024

This course challenges how you use technology to tell a story. We will start with storytelling linear basics and progress towards non-linear storytelling and new media arts considerations. This course is helpful for participants who want more grounding in storytelling, want to strengthen their voice, and are interested in building worlds beyond the one we currently experience. This course considers a range of mediums but does not expect you to be an expert in any; it allows you to experiment and explore different mediums throughout the semester.

We will spend the beginning of the semester researching and engaging in small assignments based on storytelling basics, primarily focused on writing and prepping storyboards and scripts, basics of visual design, and interaction design. Our midterm will ask the class to retell the same story by translating a prose text into the medium of your choice. The last section of the course will focus on a survey of new media storytelling. Students will concentrate on a final project which asks them to present a story (original or adopted) via the medium of their choice. Final projects are critiqued based on storytelling techniques discussed in class, clarity of story, and presentation. You do not have to come in with a project in mind; however, if you do, there will be plenty of space in your final assignment to explore it, considering the techniques practiced in class.

After Creative Coding (Topics in Media Art) +

MK Skitka | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, New, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: November 5, 2024

This seven-week course challenges students to extend their knowledge of creative computing into the exciting realm of embodied interfaces. Building upon the fundamentals taught in Creative Computing, this course will explore the design and implementation of interactive systems that integrate the body as a controller of technology.

Going beyond the limitations of traditional mouse, keyboard, and screen interactions, we will investigate how movement, gesture, and physical interaction can be used to create engaging and meaningful user experiences. Through a combination of lectures and hands-on workshops, students will gain a deeper understanding of:

Sensor Technologies and Physical Computing: Working with sensors (e.g., accelerometers, gyroscopes) to capture and interpret human movement and environmental data.

Movement Analysis and Interpretation: Techniques for analyzing movement patterns, extracting meaningful features, and mapping them to computational processes.

Performance and Embodiment in Technology: Investigating how technology can facilitate new forms of expression and performance.

The course will culminate in one proof of concept project utilizing one of the techniques explored in class.

Prerequisites: Completion of Creative Computing or equivalent experience with Arduino and Javascript p5.

Topics in Media Art: After Creative Coding +

MK Skitka | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, New, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

This seven-week course challenges students to extend their knowledge of creative computing into the exciting realm of embodied interfaces. Building upon the fundamentals taught in Creative Computing, this course will explore the design and implementation of interactive systems that integrate the body as a controller of technology.

Going beyond the limitations of traditional mouse, keyboard, and screen interactions, we will investigate how movement, gesture, and physical interaction can be used to create engaging and meaningful user experiences. Through a combination of lectures and hands-on workshops, students will gain a deeper understanding of:

Sensor Technologies and Physical Computing: Working with sensors (e.g., accelerometers, gyroscopes) to capture and interpret human movement and environmental data.

Movement Analysis and Interpretation: Techniques for analyzing movement patterns, extracting meaningful features, and mapping them to computational processes.

Performance and Embodiment in Technology: Investigating how technology can facilitate new forms of expression and performance.

The course will culminate in one proof of concept project utilizing one of the techniques explored in class.

Prerequisites: Completion of Creative Computing or equivalent experience with Arduino and Javascript p5.

Topics in Media Art: Open Call +

Blair Simmons | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

This class is for students interested in making, displaying and installing art for interactive media art exhibitions. This class will prepare you to apply for and develop work for open calls and everything else that happens after you are selected. The class will have an opportunity to exhibit a group show in a real NYC gallery towards the end of the semester. The students will collaborate to title, describe and document the works in the show. They will also have an opportunity to do a public talk back about their work, organize a reception and add a piece to their portfolio.

Topics in Media Art: Politics of Code +

Joerg Blumtritt | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Current description based on NYUAD iteration of the course (https://github.com/jbenno/nyuad_politics_of_code). Please be advised this is in the process of being-updated by the instructor.

Deconstructing the design and implementation of software as a political medium and re-building functional alternatives.

Code is political. It is a means of political processes and activism. It is political inherently by the ethical choices often hidden in the black box of The Algorithm. In the course we aim to deconstruct the design, implementation, and data of software as a political medium. We will work through political applications such as simulations, ownership of intangible assets, predictive policing, algorithmic recommendations, suggestions, and filters, social networks, and the blockchain.

Along with an introduction to the related political theory and media studies, students will work on several hands-on projects to offer actual or speculative alternatives to the existing systems. To that end, this course will include several workshops in JavaScript, Python, and other tools.

Topics in Media Art: Living Archives: Finding Stories of Peoples, Plants and Places +

Tanika Williams | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, In-Person, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Can a plant tell the story of your people and the planet?

This course aims to facilitate student relationships to the planet through the construction of personalized genealogies from family narratives, historical migrations, and plant relationships. Plants, like people, are intelligent life forms that hold memory and transmit knowledge. Students will study edible medicinal plants (herbs) to unlock their expertise on the past, present and future of the planet and its peoples. Participants will learn how to grow medicinal plants, employ ethical research practices, and develop their family archives.

Students will begin by examining various ways plants establish communities across the planet and studying the complex chemical and social lives of plants. Next, learners will parallel postcolonial theories of plants and peoples to connect the ways plants, like humans, seeded themselves across the globe for survival. Finally, students will incorporate primary sources from the family narrative, oral history, and government archives to help students visualize botanical imprints on their ethnic, racial, and national identities.

Learners will survey the research of botanists, horticulturalists, folk medicine practitioners, and urban gardeners. The works of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Jamaica Kincaid, and Fred Moten will provide the course’s literary foundation. The art practices of Fred Wilson, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Alison Janae Hamilton, and Deb Willis will create avenues for social art exploration. Importantly, students will read research from a cross section of postcolonial theorists challenging Western cartography and naming conventions of land.

About Tanika Williams: www.tanikawilliams.net

Topics in Media Art: Interactive Multi-Screen Experiences +

John Henry Thompson | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

We experience screens daily in many forms: in our hands, on our desktops, on walls and public installations as we travel. This course will explore the creative possibilities of real-time interactive and reactive art on screens in various forms. Using the recently developed p5VideoKit we will create standalone installations. p5VideoKit is a new library of live video effects – building on p5js – presented as a dashboard for mixing video in the browser. This library allows the user to apply visual effects to live video from connected cameras and sensors or streaming from devices on the internet. p5VideoKit is open source and can be extended with the user’s p5js code for a plethora of visual effects and interactivity. One possible application of p5Videokit would be a public facing installation allowing anonymous people on the street to use their hand held devices to interact with large street facing screens, thereby collaborating on real time creation of “digital graffiti”.

Building on ICM, students will learn how to adapt simple sketches into components of p5VideoKit so that algorithms can be quickly composited and orchestrated into more complex works. Students will also learn how to edit and share code beyond the p5js editor, use nodejs/javascript to automate deployment of installations, and remotely configure dedicated computers with long running installations. Several dedicated computers and screens will be available to preview installations on the floor and street facing areas of the 370 Jay Street campus.

Prerequisites: ICM or equivalent coding experience.

About John Henry Thompson: http://johnhenrythompson.com

Topics in Media Art: Comics +

Tracy White | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, In-Person, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Open to anyone who wants to create comics regardless of drawing experience. Drawing experience UNNECESSARY! In this course students will learn the building blocks of comics – the myriad ways to pair words and images, panels, borders and color – by doing weekly assignments, in class drawing exercises and studying specific graphic novels, comics books and digital/interactive comics.

The last two weeks of class will be devoted to a specific project that can be combined with work in another class. Comics are a powerful medium to tell personal stories, narrative medicine stories, as a tool for advocacy, and for producing a riveting tale of your choosing. We will discuss how comics can be used for entertainment as well as a tool for change. Mostly we will MAKE COMICS.

Please bring:

A notebook of your choosing to class.
A uni ball black pen, fine tip.

Topics in Physical Computing: Large Scale Kinetic Installation +

Phil Caridi | IMNY-UT.240 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Have you ever wanted to make something bigger than a tabletop? Do you like art that physically moves? Well if you answered yes to those questions then this is the class for you. Working in large site-specific formats is always an enticing proposition, this course is designed to bring students through the process of scaling a concept into a large-scale kinetic installation. Working individually at first and then moving into group work this class also teaches how to collaborate, communicate, and compromise to reach a common goal. Students will engage in a hands-on approach to designing, budgeting, and building an installation.

Prerequisites: Intro to Fab or Intro to DigiFab

Topics in Media Art: Stories of Illness: Graphic and Narrative Medicine +

Daniel Ryan Johnston | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Narrative holds a central role in the discourse of health, illness, caregiving, and disability. It also holds an increasingly growing role in clinical practice, research, and health education. This course examines its role in both Graphic Medicine and Narrative Medicine. Students will interrogate health culture through readings, observational exercises, and weekly creative practice. Additionally, students will create a final project, in any medium, communicating stories about health, medicine, and the experience of illness.

Topics in Physical Computing: DIY Energy +

Jeffrey Feddersen | IMNY-UT.240 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Energy is in everything, from the most ephemeral thought, to the rise and fall of civilizations and the evolution of the universe. Energy is the “universal currency” (Vaclav Smil) but also “a very subtle concept… very, very difficult to get right” (physicist Richard Feynman). It is precisely this combination of significance and subtlety that motivates the Energy class.

Understanding energy is useful, important, and fun. This class will help you see energy quantitatively and intuitively, and use that knowledge to make art, get your projects working better, and interpret the world around you.

How? Building on skills introduced in Creative Computing, we will generate and measure electricity hands-on in order to see and feel energy in its various forms. We will turn kinetic and solar energy into electrical energy, store that in batteries and capacitors, and use it to power projects. We will develop knowledge useful in a variety of areas, from citizen-science to off-grid installations, and address topics such as climate change and infrastructure access through the lens of energy. Students will build a final project using skills learned in the class.
Prerequisites: Creative Computing

Topics in Media Art: IRL/URL Performing Hybrid Systems +

Tiri Kananuruk | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

This course is a unique collaboration between the Collaborative Arts and IMA Tisch departments, and CultureHub based at La Mama. During the pandemic many performing artists moved their work online, leading to an increasing acceptance of experimental practices that their predecessors developed in on-line work for the past 30 years. In Experiments in Hybrid (IRL/URL) Performance, students will have the opportunity to design, prototype, and present collaborative projects that build on this tradition, blending both physical and virtual elements. Over the course of the semester, students will have the opportunity to study at the CultureHub studio where they will be introduced to video, lighting, sound, and cueing systems. In addition, students will learn creative coding fundamentals allowing them to network multiple softwares and devices generating real-time feedback systems. The class will culminate with a final showing that will be presented online and broadcast from the CultureHub studio.

Modeled as an accelerated intensive on methods of collaboration, students will work together in groups of 4 to produce new performance work to be presented to an invited in person and online audience. Participation in class discussions and in-class movement workshops are mandatory, and always based on each student’s physical ability. All body types and abilities are welcome and needed for this course to be successful.

Topics in Media Art: Video Art +

Motomichi Nakamura | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Video art is a time based media art form which emerged during the late 1960’s as video cameras and recorders became available to the general public.

Video art is a time based media art form which emerged during the late
1960’s as video cameras and recorders became available to the general
public. In this class we will look at both the history of video art as
well as new ways of implementing video and time based media
installation today. The course will cover topics of projection,
augmented reality, video sculpture, public art and interactive
installation through a series of lectures and workshops. How do we
create video artworks that are emotionally engaging with the audience
while they truly represent who you are as an artist? What is a
harmonious balance between art and the technologies we use? Through a
series of weekly experiments and assignments, students will work with
projection, video mapping and combine with various media to hack time
based media into meaningful works of art. Class will be divided
between lectures, guest speakers and critical discussion/presentation
of work.

Topics in Media Art: Real-Time Social Spaces +

Aidan Nelson | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Over the past 18 months, we have seen many aspects of our lives thrust online. Increasingly, we are working, learning, socializing with family and friends, attending live performances and more through 2D grids of video feeds on platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet. These communication tools have become essential for remote communities to connect, yet fail to replicate many of the most engaging, messy and human aspects of our in-person experience. What happens when we break out of this grid and explore new forms of real-time social interactions online using webcam video and audio?

Some recent explorations in this realm (including gather.town, topia.io and ITP/IMA’s own YORB.itp.io) have shown the promise of spatial metaphors in creating engaging real-time social interactions online. In this course, students will create their own series of experimental social spaces that explore these questions: how does the shape and nature of our environment affect the way we communicate? What unique forms of real-time expression and sharing might be possible online (and only online)? How might we design experiences for the unique social dynamics we want to support?

Students will be exposed to principles of spatial design as well as a series of open source Javascript tools for arranging live webcam video and audio in the browser. They will use p5.js and p5LiveMedia to create a series of playful and experimental video chat applications in 2D and 3D environments.

Topics in Media Art: Design Skills for Responsible Media +

Art Kleiner | Juliette Powell | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Generative AI and other digital media affect people in unexpected
ways. This is a course in the skills of responsible design and development of all forms of
media covered by IMA and ITP. We will look critically at the belief systems that affect
design, and will build skills for assessing the unexpected implications and consequences
of any new digital project, including generative AI projects. Together, we will create
personal and group processes to bring these issues safely to the surface, and create
standards and guardrails (a “calculus of intentional risk”) that you can apply to your own
work and to work you do in the future.
This course is structured around three comprehensive group assignments:
1. Group project: Produce a case study of an ethical dilemma in a real-world tech
company, based on news reports and other sources. How did this dilemma come
about? How did the company respond? What could they have done differently?
We will discuss these cases, and others, in class.
2. Group or solo project: Produce work in any format [not too elaborate] that brings
an ethical issue to light.
3. Solo project: Propose a design practicum – a set of ethical standard – that would
help you evaluate the impact of one or more pieces of your own work (or
someone else’s you know well). Use this “calculus of intentional risk” to explore
how you would change the design and use of these projects.
The class lectures will cover themes related to these three assignments, drawing on the
instructors’ extensive research in the fields of organizational and technological ethics and
responsibility. The recently published book, The AI Dilemma: The 7 Principles of
Responsible Technology, will be one resource for the class. We will also draw on work
on responsible technology going on elsewhere throughout NYU.

Topics in Media Art: Electronics for Inventors +

Pedro Galvao Cesar de Oliveira | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, New, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Today we are no longer solely connected to the digital world through computers. The result of this push to connect the digital and the analog world is the increasing necessity for low cost, low power, and self-contained electronics.

This undergraduate course is an applications-driven introduction to electronics for inventors. Through a hands-on approach, students will learn basic concepts about analog circuits, digital devices interfaces, and low-cost code-free electronics.

Topics will include basic principles of electricity, as well as an understanding of electronics components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, audio amplifiers, and timers.

Prerequisites
Prerequisites include an open mind, interest for electronics, the drive to make, and Physical Computing.

Topics in Media Art: Computational Image Deconstruction +

Alan Winslow | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

This class explores how as creatives, we can take the wealth of data that each still image contains and re-purpose it. In the first few weeks of the course, students will develop an understanding of technical and creative photographic techniques through lectures, hands-on assignments, and critiques. As the class progresses, students will develop a series on a particular topic of interest (portraits, architecture, street photography). Using p5js we will explore simple scripts to extract information or manipulate the images (what are the most represented colors in the photos? What are the RGB values that make up the image? Can we add movement to the picture?). At the end of the course, students will present their series.

Prerequisite: Creative Computing
About Alan Winslow: www.alanwinslow.com

Topics in Media Art: Digital Bodies +

Snow Fu | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Digital Bodies is an intermediate 3D imaging studio course that examines and explores the current technological applications and conceptual implications of post-photographic digital human simulations. We will regularly study the work that deals with digital bodies by contemporary artists and photographers such as LaTurbo Avedon, Chen Man, Quentin Deronzier, Hyphen-lab, Hayoun Kwon, and Gregory Bennett, and many digital art platforms in various categories, such as artificial human imaging, digital fashion models, and deepfake. We will be discussing the various theories relating to the idea of cyborgs and post-human conditions. Students will be learning 3D imaging skills for building, scanning, appropriating, and customizing prefabricated body models from multiple resources, exploring their movements that both imitate and go beyond the limits of reality and expanding conceptual themes. Besides the technical exercises, students are encouraged to create semester-long self-directed research and a final project using the imaging technology they’ve learned. Artist visits, field trips, and exhibition visits will also be arranged online or according to the public health safety situation. The exhibition of the student’s final projects will be arranged at the end of the semester. *The class is suitable for students with basic skills of 3D imaging in Maya.

Topics in Media Art: Alter Egos +

Ali Santana | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, In-Person, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Alter Egos is a course that embraces abstract storytelling, improvisation, resourcefulness, ritual, performance and self-expression through art and technology. Students will develop original characters based on a series of stream of conscious exercises around identity. They will explore various creative techniques, including costuming, sound design, and multimedia collage while experimenting with unique methods of self expression via audio/visual performance.

Students will assemble recycled materials, field recordings, emerging tech and textiles into costumes, props and digital worlds that embody their invented personas. This course will culminate as a live event showcasing audiovisual performances by participants in costume as their Alter Egos.

Class discussions will examine notions of identity, technology, community, health, privacy and encourage participants to venture outside of their comfort zone to radically imagine new approaches to creative expression.

Prerequisites: Communications Lab: Hypercinema
Instructor Website: http://www.alisantana.com

Topics in Media Art: Big Ideas in the History and Future of Technology +

Theodora Rivendale | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, New, No Tags, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

This class will provide students with a critical perspective on contemporary issues in media technologies and discuss the history, controversies, consequences, and ethical questions in emerging media. The first half of the class charts a history of media technologies from the 1940s to the present, focusing on the idealogical and social conditions that led to the creation of the technologies that exist now. The second half examines possible futures, and the tools we can use to predict (and build) those futures.

Instructor Website: http://alden.website

Topics in Media Art: Recursive Art +

Shuang Cai | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, Art and Design (Old Structure), Computation and Data (Old Structure), Design and Fabrication (New Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, New, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

This course description is a concise summary and embodiment of the content, objectives, and structure of an educational course. The creation of this course description was initiated from the need to compile the information for the instructors, students, and administration staff. By writing this course description, the instructor is practicing one type of recursive creation process where the creation is a direct representation of the process of creation. This course description also aims to demonstrate how recursion isn’t confined to programming alone; it’s a fundamental idea that can be found in diverse fields, including this very course creation process.

In this course, you will look at theories around recursive philosophy, recursion as an algorithm, recursion as a programming philosophy (function-oriented programming), and various recursive works. You will think really hard alone and learn to communicate your thinking with others. You will do and make puzzles and reflect the method in your own creations through a series of small experiments.

Why recursion:

it challenges traditional problem-solving approaches. In situations where there are numerous methods to achieve comparable outcomes, while thinking about ethical practice within any creative endeavor, the course aims to delve into the underlying meaning and purpose of the work undertaken. Recursion, in this context, embodies a form of process-oriented thinking. By exploring recursive processes, you are encouraged to question established norms, fostering a deeper understanding of the motivations driving their creative endeavors.

Topics in Media Art: Politics of Code +

Joerg Blumtritt | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Current description based on NYUAD iteration of the course (https://github.com/jbenno/nyuad_politics_of_code). Please be advised this is in the process of being-updated by the instructor.

Deconstructing the design and implementation of software as a political medium and re-building functional alternatives.

Code is political. It is a means of political processes and activism. It is political inherently by the ethical choices often hidden in the black box of The Algorithm. In the course we aim to deconstruct the design, implementation, and data of software as a political medium. We will work through political applications such as simulations, ownership of intangible assets, predictive policing, algorithmic recommendations, suggestions, and filters, social networks, and the blockchain.

Along with an introduction to the related political theory and media studies, students will work on several hands-on projects to offer actual or speculative alternatives to the existing systems. To that end, this course will include several workshops in JavaScript, Python, and other tools.

Topics in Media Art: Living Archives: Finding Stories of Peoples, Plants and Places +

Tanika Williams | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, In-Person, Spring 2025, YES

Last updated: October 11, 2024

Can a plant tell the story of your people and the planet?

This course aims to facilitate student relationships to the planet through the construction of personalized genealogies from family narratives, historical migrations, and plant relationships. Plants, like people, are intelligent life forms that hold memory and transmit knowledge. Students will study edible medicinal plants (herbs) to unlock their expertise on the past, present and future of the planet and its peoples. Participants will learn how to grow medicinal plants, employ ethical research practices, and develop their family archives.

Students will begin by examining various ways plants establish communities across the planet and studying the complex chemical and social lives of plants. Next, learners will parallel postcolonial theories of plants and peoples to connect the ways plants, like humans, seeded themselves across the globe for survival. Finally, students will incorporate primary sources from the family narrative, oral history, and government archives to help students visualize botanical imprints on their ethnic, racial, and national identities.

Learners will survey the research of botanists, horticulturalists, folk medicine practitioners, and urban gardeners. The works of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Jamaica Kincaid, and Fred Moten will provide the course’s literary foundation. The art practices of Fred Wilson, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Alison Janae Hamilton, and Deb Willis will create avenues for social art exploration. Importantly, students will read research from a cross section of postcolonial theorists challenging Western cartography and naming conventions of land.

About Tanika Williams: www.tanikawilliams.net

Politics of Code (Topics in Media Art) +

Joerg Blumtritt | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

Last updated: October 10, 2024

Current description based on NYUAD iteration of the course (https://github.com/jbenno/nyuad_politics_of_code). Please be advised this is in the process of being-updated by the instructor.

Deconstructing the design and implementation of software as a political medium and re-building functional alternatives.

Code is political. It is a means of political processes and activism. It is political inherently by the ethical choices often hidden in the black box of The Algorithm. In the course we aim to deconstruct the design, implementation, and data of software as a political medium. We will work through political applications such as simulations, ownership of intangible assets, predictive policing, algorithmic recommendations, suggestions, and filters, social networks, and the blockchain.

Along with an introduction to the related political theory and media studies, students will work on several hands-on projects to offer actual or speculative alternatives to the existing systems. To that end, this course will include several workshops in JavaScript, Python, and other tools.

Screen Experiences (Topics in Media Art: Interactive Multi) +

John Henry Thompson | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

Last updated: October 10, 2024

We experience screens daily in many forms: in our hands, on our desktops, on walls and public installations as we travel. This course will explore the creative possibilities of real-time interactive and reactive art on screens in various forms. Using the recently developed p5VideoKit we will create standalone installations. p5VideoKit is a new library of live video effects – building on p5js – presented as a dashboard for mixing video in the browser. This library allows the user to apply visual effects to live video from connected cameras and sensors or streaming from devices on the internet. p5VideoKit is open source and can be extended with the user’s p5js code for a plethora of visual effects and interactivity. One possible application of p5Videokit would be a public facing installation allowing anonymous people on the street to use their hand held devices to interact with large street facing screens, thereby collaborating on real time creation of “digital graffiti”.

Building on ICM, students will learn how to adapt simple sketches into components of p5VideoKit so that algorithms can be quickly composited and orchestrated into more complex works. Students will also learn how to edit and share code beyond the p5js editor, use nodejs/javascript to automate deployment of installations, and remotely configure dedicated computers with long running installations. Several dedicated computers and screens will be available to preview installations on the floor and street facing areas of the 370 Jay Street campus.

Prerequisites: ICM or equivalent coding experience.

About John Henry Thompson: http://johnhenrythompson.com

Building Creatures for Interactive 3D (Topics in Media Art) +

Yuliya Parshina-Kottas | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), New, No Tags, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2024, YES

Last updated: August 5, 2024

In this hands-on 3D course, we will design, model, rig, texture and animate fantastical creatures to populate digital landscapes. Using Blender as our primary software, we will master techniques for creating animation-friendly topologies, explore a variety of rigging methods, paint unique textures, work with Physically Based Rendering (PBR) materials, and bring our creatures to life with Blender’s animation tools. Our workflow will focus on exporting content for popular 3D engines and frameworks, such as Unity, Unreal Engine and Three.js.

Live Web (Topics in Media Art) +

Aidan Nelson | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, In-Person, Programming and Data (New Structure), Spring 2024

Last updated: August 5, 2024

The web is an amazing platform for asynchronous communication such as email, social media posts and audio/video sharing. Over the last decade with faster connections, powerful computers, always on and connected mobile devices, synchronous or live communications have become more viable. Streaming media, audio and video conferencing and realtime chat give us the ability to create new forms of live interactive experiences for participants.

In this course, we’ll focus on the types of content and interaction that can be supported through web based and live interactive technologies as well as explore new concepts around participation. Specifically, we’ll look at new and emerging platforms on the web such as HTML5, WebSockets and WebRTC using p5.js, JavaScript and Node.js.

3D Foundations for Interactive Projects (Topics in Media Art) +

Yuliya Parshina-Kottas | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.XXXX |
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, New, No Tags, Spring 2024

Last updated: August 5, 2024

This hands-on course provides an introduction to fundamental 3D concepts, with a focus on creating assets for interactive projects. Students will master the basics of 3D modeling, UV mapping, texturing/shading, lighting, rigging, and animation, using Blender as their primary software. We will explore industry standards and best practices for multidisciplinary 3D collaborations as well as practical methods of applying learned skills to other 3D software.

Topics in Media Art: 100 Days of Making +

Karalyn C Lathrop | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024

Last updated: March 12, 2024

100 Days of Making offers students the opportunity to pursue a creative passion and develop or refine a skill over a 100-day period. Students choose a topic of interest and produce an expression of that topic every day for 100 days. Class time is spent discussing student progress, reflecting on the students’ creative journey and the importance of practice.

Topics in Fabrication: Contemporary Sculpture in the Digital Age +

Maya Pollack | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.0000 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, New, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure)

Last updated: March 12, 2024

Why, in an era dominated by the digital, do physical objects endure? In this fabrication course, delve into the philosophical and practical considerations that underpin the enduring significance of sculpture in an increasingly virtual world. This course not only explores the tactile and spatial dimensions of sculpture but also prompts a critical inquiry into the unique qualities of physicality and how this not only persists but responds to our digital age. Throughout the semester, students will develop practical skills in class sessions, engaging in a variety of material studies and projects. They will produce three formal, finished, and meticulously documented works, drawing from the diverse materials and forms available in the ITP/IMA Shop. Including woodworking, metalworking, mold making, vacuum forming, laser cutting, spray painting, finishes, and 3D sewing/soft sculpture. Students are welcome to integrate skills, materials, and techniques acquired from other classes. In addition to hands-on studio prompts, students engage in class discussions, critiques, and gallery visits. Assignments are designed to build art making skills, and explore the conceptual and formal properties of sculpture. This course aims to foster a deep engagement between individual making and the context it resides within theory, art and tech history, prompting students to consider how the technological revolution has reshaped our understanding of physical spaces and experiences, and the role sculpture can play to examine, reflect, and create the world today.

Topics in Computation and Data: Mobile Application Development +

John Henry Thompson | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.220 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024

Last updated: March 12, 2024

One of the most transformative consumer products in history, the iPhone remains the standard bearer for great design and user experience. With the latest versions of iOS and iPhone, Apple puts depth sensing and augmented reality in our pockets. How do we take advantage of this incredible platform to produce our own compelling experiences?

This course will be a hands-on workshop where we explore the world beyond generic apps and push the boundaries of what’s possible on iOS hardware. Each week, you’ll be asked to complete a programming exercise meant to foster your understanding of iOS application development. We’ll leverage existing open source libraries to quickly build out your app with features such as real time communication and cloud storage.

We aim to create distributed instruments for computed expression.

Full-time access to an iOS device and a Mac laptop computer running the latest operating system and development tools are required.

Prereq: Some programming experience (such as ICM) and willingness to learn Apple’s Swift programming language.

Prerequisite: Creative Computing (IMNY-UT 101)

Real-Time Media +

Carrie Sijia Wang | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.285 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Art and Design (Old Structure), Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure)

Last updated: March 12, 2024

This course focuses on designing, developing and delivering real-time, performative work using audio and video elements. The class will have an emphasis on using MaxMSPJitter and other tools to create performative experiences that dynamically combine interactive elements such as video, sound, and code, allow for the unfolding of engaging narratives, and generate compelling visuals in real time.

We will look at various examples of both multimedia performances and installations, explore how we can apply the technologies we have learned to design real-time systems, and discuss methods we can use to make our work more engaging.

The class is three-fold and divided into tech tutorials, discussions of existing examples, and in-class performances.

Playful Experiences +

Gregory Trefry | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.290 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure)

Last updated: March 12, 2024

Forget the screen. People want to be part of the action. They don’t want to watch detectives and control superhero avatars. They want to solve the mystery and be the hero. They want to experience it. We see this craving for playful experience in everything from immersive theater to escape rooms to the Tough Mudder to gamified vacation packages. Designing live experiences for large audiences that demand agency offers a distinct set of challenges, from how much choice you give each participant to how many people you can through the experience. We’ll look at examples from pervasive games to amusement parks to immersive theater, examining both the design choices and technology that make the experiences possible. Along the way we’ll create large, playful experiences that put the participant at the center of the action.

This class focuses on the particular design problems of large-scale games and playful systems. In this class students develop a foundation in design fundamentals from which to approach the problems of design particular to experiential entertainment. We will analyze existing digital and non-digital games and playful experiences, taking them apart to understand how they work. We will also work on a series of design exercises that explore the social, technological, and creative possibilities of play.

The class will be broken into three sections: People, Time and Space. People will focus on experiences that coordinate the actions of a large number of participants. Time will focus on experiences that stretch out in time and begin to integrate with our everyday lives. Space will ask you to design an experience that takes advantage of physical space and integrates other elements of the class.

Introduction to Machine Learning for the Arts +

Daniel Shiffman | IMNY-UT.224 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Programming and Data (New Structure)

Last updated: March 12, 2024

Prerequisite: Creative Computing (IMNY-UT 101) OR equivalent coursework.

An introductory course designed to provide students with hands-on experience developing creative coding projects with machine learning. The history, theory, and application of machine learning algorithms and related datasets are explored in a laboratory context of experimentation and discussion. Examples and exercises will be demonstrated in JavaScript using the p5.js, ml5.js, and TensorFlow.js libraries. In addition, students will learn to work with open source pre-trained models in the cloud using Runway. Principles of data collection and ethics are introduced. Weekly assignments, team and independent projects, and project reports are required.

Internet Famous +

Zoe Fraade-Blanar | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.201 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure)

Last updated: March 12, 2024

Looking to become famous on the internet? Getting attention online may be easy, but controlling it is a lot harder. As traditional celebrities continue to struggle with their digital images, a wave of micro-celebrities and influencers has rushed to fill the gap with viral content, product suggestions, memes, and conspiracy theories. This new breed of stars rules a media landscape where anyone can be their own manager or PR department – for a price.

This class examines the transformation of celebrity from a 19th-century sales gimmick into the formidable cultural, social, and technological force it is today. It explores what happens when fame is freed from its traditional magazine and TV gatekeepers, delving into issues of media manipulation, fan management, commercialization, exploitation, cancel culture, and the surprising importance of cute cat pictures. And we’ll also experiment with the raw tactics and techniques of stardom for anyone looking to chase their own celebrity dreams.

Front-End Web +

Lenin Compres | IMNY-UT.228 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024

Last updated: March 12, 2024

This course will provide a foundation for understanding modern web development with a focus on front end technologies and accessing public data. The forms and uses of these technologies are explored in a laboratory context of experimentation and discussion. This studio stresses interactivity, usability, and the quality and appropriateness of look and feel.
Students will create two web applications, including one that leverages public APIs and Javascript libraries. The goal of the course is for students to learn how to think holistically about an application, both by designing a clear user experience and understanding the algorithmic steps required to build it. Assignments are arranged in sequence to enable the production of a website of high quality in design and engineering.

Creative Approaches to Emerging Media +

Ami Mehta | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.205 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), Project Development and Research (New Structure)

Last updated: March 12, 2024

We live in a world where we have more data, computational power, and access to digital connectivity than ever before. But how do we make sense of the promise inherent in this reality while holding space for the challenges that it presents for different groups and communities? How do we situate the technologies that we have come to take for granted? And more importantly, how do we leverage an artist’s perspective to creating active responses that interrogate and hint at the potential for different futures?

This course examines emergent technological fields, spanning topics like data collection/representation, digital archives, artificial intelligence, social algorithms, and automation and asks how the technologies inherent to each can be leveraged for artistic response, creation, and critique.

While this course is primarily conceptual and art theory-based, the content covered will be technical in nature and students will be tasked with making three creative responses to the content in the tradition of the new media, digital, and conceptual art worlds.

Category: Studies (aka Seminar) OR Computation and Data
Prerequisites – Creative Computing (IMNY-UT 101) or equivalent programming experience

Topics in Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces: Adapting Everyday Items +

Holly Cohen | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.248 |
2 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Elective, Fall 2024

Last updated: March 12, 2024

For individuals with disabilities, custom adaptations can be critical for a myriad of activities, including work, play, daily living, and actively participating with family and community. Recent advancements in affordable DIY technologies have created opportunities for individuals and communities to build, modify, and adapt countless everyday items. This course examines accessibility and barriers to inclusion, the field of custom adaptations, and the open source and maker communities working together to deliver affordable solutions. Students will develop weekly prototypes as well as a final project.

Topics in Media Arts:Communications and Technology +

Shawn Van Every | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Elective, Fall 2024, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure), Tech and Society (New Structure)

Last updated: March 12, 2024

From alphabets to virtual realities, this course will explore the development, reaction, and long term impact of various communication technologies. How have these technologies, such as writing, printing, the telegraph, television, radio, the internet and beyond, transformed society? And what changes can be observed both today and tomorrow? After students look closely at past and current inventions, students will speculate on the future of communication in a connected world by proposing their own transformative technology. Readings and discussion will cover communication theory, technical processes, creative applications, and critical investigation. Writing assignments will be paired with practical assignments where students will be challenged to bring their analysis and ideas to life. The web will also be utilized as a test bed for experiencing and experimenting with various forms of communication both old and new.

This course will be part seminar and part studio. In the seminar portion of the class, time will be spent engaging in short lectures, critical discussions, and reviews of both reading and writing assignments. In the studio portions, students will participate in hands-on creative and technical activities, share and evaluate project ideas, and present practical assignment work. Throughout the class, students will be encouraged to learn through play, experimentation, collaboration, and exploration. Both individual and group work will be assigned.

Topics in Media Arts: AI for Creatives +

Tyler Peppel | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024

Last updated: March 12, 2024

A survey and hands-on workshop on AI augmentation of creative communication.

We will get hands-on with AI tools for photography, design, art, writing, UX, illustration, and video.
We will produce, critique, and exhibit creative work that tests the creative capabilities of these new AI tools.

Questions we will consider:
How does AI influence the creative process?
How does this new human/machine collaboration challenge my role as a creator?
Who is creating these new tools and how do they work?
What is the longer-term impact of AI technologies on the creative professions?
Our goals are to understand AI technology, use it to produce creative work, and use what we learn to influence the larger conversation about creativity and AI.

Will AI diminish or enhance human creativity? It’s up to us.

Topics in Media Arts: Typography and Technology +

Kelli Anderson | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024

Last updated: March 12, 2024

When we see the shape of an uppercase serif letterform, we may subconsciously be reminded of the Roman Empire. What we may not consciously realize is that this association has its roots in the technology used to make these letters, thousands of years ago. Serifs are a wedge-shaped artifact that occurs when a chisel hits stone—the tool used by the Roman Empire to carve their letterforms into monuments called capitals (now a word synonymous with “uppercase” due to this same history.) Though some debate exists among historians, it is widely believed that “capital” letters get their geometric shape from the constraints of the tool of the chisel itself. To understand how the wide stylistic variety of letterforms arrived in our font library (and to understand where our own hazy associations with letterforms originate), one must look to the technology which produced them. From the exigencies of the sign painter’s brush to the psychedelic warping of 1960s Phototype to the 8-bit pixel-based typefaces found in 80s video games, letterforms contain the technological history of the world in microcosm. The subtle choices in each typeface’s form bear the imprint of their moment’s philosophical, technological, and visual conditions, capturing an era’s zeitgeist with a miraculous economy of expression. The letters that we use today are more than 2,000 years old—persisting longer than any other artifacts in common use—but have undergone dramatic fluctuations alongside tech’s major physical transitions from stone to paper to metal to celluloid to digital information. Parallel to this technological history, letters shifted context from cuneiform to letterpress to Linotype to phototype to digital screens in a continual reinterpretation of the the fundamental question “what is a letter?” In the 1970s, technologists and computer scientists found themselves grappling with this same fundamental question as they carried letterforms over into the digital realm: What are letters? Are they fixed visual information? Or are they an idea—a set of executable, gestural instructions? Are letters best understood as reconfigurations of a set of modular parts— building-block components rather than the choreographed gestures of calligraphy? Are they the organic product of the human hand or the output of a system? Early digital technologies wagered “is this what computers are for?” with typefaces in tow—choosing which aspects of the old analog world to reconstruct—in deciding what attributes to port-over. The world we live in today has been impacted by how technologists answered these questions. Questions which, just as easily, could have been answered differently. This course will begin from a place of reflection on our own lived associations with typographic morphology. We will then explore the possible technological origins of those associations while reflecting upon how [what seemed like] tiny digitization decisions delivered us the typographic reality we inhabit today. Students will be asked to look to history for “reasons” for typographic form (which is fun!) But we will also practice looking to history for alternate futures—to examine the “dead ends” that might have otherwise been and daydream about where these paths lead. Typographic technological history offers a manageable jumping-off point for such a thought experiment. This thought experiment scales up to larger problem-solving (and conceptualization) skills related to understanding the implications and effects of tech.

Topics in Media Art: New Portraits +

Alan Winslow | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.XXXX |
2 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), New

Last updated: March 12, 2024

“Portraiture stands apart from other genres of art as it marks the intersection between portrait, biography, and history. They are more than artworks; when people look at portraits, they think they are encountering that person,” says Alison Smith, chief curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

For thousands of years, artists have used cutting-edge tools and resources to create portraiture, giving viewers a glimpse into the subject’s life. A successful portrait embraces technology to bring the viewer closer to the subject but is not overshadowed by it.

In this course, we will delve into portraiture through the lens of volumetric capture using the Depth Kit system. Through hands-on assignments, students will learn the entire pipeline of volumetric capture, from configuring the system to capturing our subjects and final output. Simultaneously, we will focus on fundamental aspects of portraiture, such as lighting, storytelling, production techniques, and historical foundations.

The course will explain the techniques and considerations involved in creating volumetric portraits. We will explore various approaches to capturing subjects, employing advanced technologies to record their presence in 3D. Students will gain proficiency in the Depth Kit system to produce high-quality volumetric portraits that can be integrated into different mediums, including game engines, augmented reality (AR), or traditional 2D outputs.

Prerequisite: Comm. Lab (IMNY-UT 102)

Topics in Media Arts: Intro To Wearables: Adorning the Head and Face for Communication +

Daniel Ryan Johnston | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024

Last updated: March 12, 2024

This course is designed to provide an introduction to designing wearable technology for the head, face and upper body. It will also present an overview of interaction design for the body. The class will begin with an introduction to nonverbal communication through upper body adornment as well as gesture. Next, the class will move into an E-textile 101 breakdown where we will create a simple circuit using soft materials and other sewable components (hand sewing only). After gaining an understanding of sewable electronics, the class will be working with a Nano 33 IoT along with other components. Over the weeks the class will explore the available example Arduino code in order to create interactions with LEDs and light/motion sensors. Throughout the course, the class will analyze everyday interactions and explore ways of creating wearables that interact with and communicate non-verbally to the world around us.

The course will culminate with a final project and presentation that will incorporate the tools and concepts discussed in class.

Prerequisite: Creative Computing (IMNY-UT 101)

Topics in Media Art: Projection Mapping 101 +

CHIKA | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Elective, Fall 2024

Last updated: March 12, 2024

We, humans, have been fascinated by beautiful light for centuries. How can we transform light into Art and Technology? Are we able to discover and express ourselves through the process of making?

“Projection Mapping 101” is a unique hands-on class building skills to create a projection mapping project and learn the evolution of Light Art and Technology.

The students will identify their concepts and audience engagement through project exercises: Origami Mapping, Graffiti Mapping, International Projection Mapping Contest, etc. We will discuss a conceptual process, creating a prototype to complete their project. The goal is to develop students’ unique voices through this artistic process. They are encouraged to expand a larger project and incorporate new techniques they learn from other classes.

Introduction to 3D Printing +

Xuedi Chen | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.244 |
2 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Design, Elective, Fall 2024, physical

Last updated: March 12, 2024

Prerequisite – Communications Lab (IMNY-UT 102) OR equivalent coursework.

3D environments and objects are powerful prototyping tools. This class will introduce the basics of 3D modeling techniques in Rhino and students will learn to create assets for prototyping and 3D printing. The class will take an industrial design approach to design and build with specifications and materials in mind. Students will learn to think, plan, design, and produce well thought out objects to fit their specific needs. (examples: motor mounts, enclosures, wearables etc.)

IMA Cohort: Community is a Practice +

Blair Simmons | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.99 |
9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Elective, Fall 2024, Foundation, Foundation, online

Last updated: March 12, 2024

IMA Cohort: Community is a Practice provides incoming IMA students with an opportunity to consider the IMA program, and their role within it. This zero-credit course is based around in-class activities, discussions, viewings, texts, and lectures that begin from the students’ varying perspectives and ultimately provide a grounding within the tenets of the IMA program.
IMA is an interdisciplinary program that draws students from across the United States and around the world. This course functions as an opportunity for students to consider the knowledge that they already have, the contexts in which that knowledge is situated, and how students can relate to and work with classmates who come from their own diverse contexts and backgrounds.
Students will be guided through discussions, viewings, and visits from other members of the university. Because this is a zero-credit course and there are no assignments outside of class, student participation and engagement in these activities is especially important.

Topics in Media Art: Content Strategy +

Juliette Powell | Art Kleiner | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Elective, Fall 2024, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure)

Last updated: March 12, 2024

This is a course about how to develop an idea and bring it to the world, using a variety of digital media. Students will create 3-4 pieces of work that relate to each other and form a portfolio of content — communicating effectively with real audiences using real media platforms. The curriculum covers content strategy, basic narrative, and translating that narrative into multimedia. We’ll look at successful (and unsuccessful) examples of content strategy, often based on headlines of the day or deeper themes, and show how to emulate the best of it. By and large we will be working with digital formats with which students are already familiar, but this class should help bring their skills to another level of impact. We’ll work in teams, starting with students’ own ideas. Students will craft a portfolio of complementary short pieces, some in text and some in multimedia, that can build awareness. We will also cover how to judge effectiveness and impact.

Topics in Media Art: eTextiles & Physical Computing +

Staff | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.0000 |
2 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Elective, Fall 2024, New

Last updated: March 11, 2024

The eTextiles and Physical Computing course will focus on the practical application of electronics in textiles. Students will learn by doing, spending their time building circuits, soldering, programming, learning various textile construction techniques, and integrating sensors and controls into fabrics. The course aims to teach how both physical computing and textile technical skills to create interactive textile projects.

Prerequisite: Creative Computing (IMNY-UT 101)

In this course, eTextiles are a major focus. Students will learn to incorporate electronic circuits into textiles using conductive materials like fabrics, yarns, and threads. The curriculum will cover various topics through hands-on applications — for example, students will create fabric RFID tags with conductive fabrics while learning about electromagnetism and electronic components. Additionally, topics will include (but is not limited to) 555 timers, fabric speakers, analog soft circuits, sewing, weaving, and more, giving students a comprehensive understanding of how to create and use electronic textiles.

Topics in Media Art: Critical & Expansive Audio +

Todd Whitney | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.75 Ready to Schedule (Do not edit) YES, Elective, Fall 2024

Last updated: March 11, 2024

Our day-to-day lives don’t give us many opportunities to reflect and listen. But against the digital deluge, radio & podcasting have emerged as storytelling mediums that capture our imaginations and force us to pay attention to our world in ways we otherwise wouldn’t.

This course provides an exploration into the world of podcasting and audio narratives. We’ll explore the storytelling craft through sound and expand audio traditions by creating our own series of stories and soundscapes. We’ll dive into journalistic and longform narratives to learn from them and offer critical approaches to build our own storytelling traditions. Students will work on becoming thoughtful storytellers by interviewing, recording, script-writing, editing, and soundscaping audio stories that relay the experiences of the people and perspectives around us.

Along the way, students will find their own voices, offering their unique takes on the world strictly through sound.

Quick Introduction to Physical Computing +

Dan O'Sullivan | IMNY-UT.103 |
1 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, Foundation, Foundation, Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

Prerequisite: Prior classwork or experience programming – May not have taken Creative Computing (IMNY-UT 101).

Physical Computing is an approach to learning how humans communicate through computers that starts by considering how humans express themselves physically. In this course, we take the human body as a given, and attempt to design computing applications within the limits of its expression.

To realize this goal, you’ll learn how a computer converts the changes in energy given off by our bodies (in the form of sound, light, motion, and other forms) into changing electronic signals that it can read and interpret. You’ll learn about the sensors that do this, and about simple computers called microcontrollers that read sensors and convert their output into data. In the other direction you will learn how to actual physical things in the world with devices like speakers, lights and motors. Finally, you’ll learn how microcontrollers communicate with other computers.

To learn this, you’ll watch people and build devices. You will spend a lot of time building circuits, soldering, writing programs, building structures to hold sensors and controls, and figuring out how best to make all of these things relate to a person’s body.

Note: This course is for students who have not taken Creative Computing (IMNY-UT 101) but who have prior classwork or experience programming. Taking this course enables the waiving of Creative Computing (IMNY-UT 101) in order to take higher level courses in Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces which otherwise have Creative Computing (IMNY-UT 101) as a prerequisite.

Topics in Media Art: Three.js for Makers +

Brian Ho | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, 9.9 YES, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, New, Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

“In this increasingly online world, the internet has proven to be a powerful tool that can connect us with one another, host meaningful experiences, and provoke critical thinking. In this class, students will have an opportunity to learn about breaking out of the 2D web page and the fundamentals of working with 3D on the web.

This course hopes to introduce new avenues for creative expression and experimentation via the web and promote learning practical web development skills through experiential learning. Students will use Three.js to create dynamic and immersive web-based experiences that push the boundaries of what is possible online.

The course is intended for technologists who have no programming or computer science background but are interested in 3D exploration on the web. Nothing more than a basic understanding and familiarity with CSS, HTML, and Javascript is required.”

Topics in Media Art: How To Be a Professional YouTuber +

Dave Wiskus | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

Everyone wants to be a YouTuber, but building a business as a digital creator is about more than just being an online celebrity. In this course, students will learn how to build a YouTube channel, from titles and thumbnails to video production to sponsor relationships to analytics and collaborations. We will examine what it takes to build a sustainable business around online video, learning from real-world examples and applying them to the students’ own YouTube channels.

Topics in Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces: Large Scale Kinetic Installation +

Phil Caridi | IMNY-UT.240 |
4 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

Have you ever wanted to make something bigger than a tabletop? Do you like art that physically moves? Well if you answered yes to those questions then this is the class for you. Working in large site-specific formats is always an enticing proposition, this course is designed to bring students through the process of scaling a concept into a large-scale kinetic installation. Working individually at first and then moving into group work this class also teaches how to collaborate, communicate, and compromise to reach a common goal. Students will engage in a hands-on approach to designing, budgeting, and building an installation.

Prerequisites: Intro to Fab or Intro to DigiFab

Topics in Media Art: The Art of Perception +

Duncan Figurski | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), New, Spring 2024, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure)

Last updated: October 20, 2023

“How does our auditory and visual perception influence our understanding and interaction with the world? In this course, we will delve into the science and application of these senses, employing this knowledge as a foundation to create new works and challenge our perception of familiar ones.

Each week, we will dissect a particular aspect of our senses, investigate works that have capitalized on this understanding, and produce new creations that stretch the boundaries of our sensory comprehension. Drawing on fields from cognitive psychology to media theory, from psychoacoustics to philosophy, this highly interdisciplinary course will pull from a breadth of research to form a holistic perspective on how we perceive the world.

This course will be technology agnostic, instead emphasizing a format based on critique, any technical aspects will be taught in online tutorials outside of class. Students should be comfortable with sharing and discussing their work in class.”

Topics in Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces: Interaction as Art Medium +

Yeseul Song | IMNY-UT.240 |
4 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Physical Computing (New Structure), Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

While traditional forms of art such as painting and sculpture only expect intellectual communication with the spectator, interactive arts consider the audience as active participants and directly involve their physical bodies and actions. Interactive art invites its audience to have a conversation with the artwork or even be part of it. Well designed interactions add new meanings to the artwork and enhance effective and memorable communication with the viewer through their magical quality.

Artists have achieved interactivity in their art through different strategies based on various technologies. For example, some projects have physical interfaces such as buttons and knobs, some projects react to the audience’s presence or specific body movements, and yet others require collaborations between the audience as part of the interaction process. Some artwork involves interactions that require a long period of time for the engagement. In many of these interactive art projects, interaction methods are deeply embedded into the soul and voice of the work itself.

In this class, we will explore interaction as an artistic medium. We will be looking at interactive media art history through the lens of interaction and technology to explore their potential as art making tools. Every other week, you will be introduced to a new interaction strategy along with a group of artists and projects through lectures, discussions, and a field trip. During in-class labs and a mini hackathon, you will learn about relevant technologies and skills for the interaction strategies and build your own project to be in conversation with the artists and projects. You will also explore and discuss the future of interactions and how interactive art can contribute to innovations in interactions, and vice versa. You will also learn about how to contextualize, articulate, and communicate your project in an artistic way.

Technical topics covered in class include but are not limited to: physical computing, sensor research, sensor programming, interaction design, and body tracking using cameras (on p5.js), using depth cameras.

Learning Objectives
Critically approach and examine different interaction strategies in interactive artwork
Obtain sensibilities and techniques to translate abstract idea into interactive form (installations, objects, or systems) that is engaging to the audience
Experiment with innovative forms and artistic possibilities of interaction
Effectively utilizes computer programming, electronic circuit design, and sensors to complete an interactive project
Practice contextualizing and articulating artistic creations
Prerequisite

Creative Computing (IMA) or equivalent knowledge.

Course Requirements

This class meets once a week for 3 hours for 14 weeks. Class meetings consist of lectures, demos, in-class labs, reading discussions, feedback sessions for assignments, and group activities. There will be a mini hackathon and a field trip. Students are expected to actively participate in class, participate in discussions, prepare lab materials such as physical computing components, create their own projects, and turn in weekly assignments. Students are encouraged to book office hours with the instructor, GA, or ITP residents to ask questions, connect better with the class, and/or seek support.

Topics in Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces: Energy +

Jeffrey Feddersen | IMNY-UT.240 |
4 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

From the most ephemeral thought to the rise and fall of civilizations, every aspect of your life, and indeed the universe, involves energy. Energy has been called the “universal currency” by prolific science author Vaclav Smil, but also “a very subtle concept… very, very difficult to get right” by Noble physicist Richard Feynman. It is precisely this combination of importance and subtlety that motivates the Energy class. Maybe you fear the existential threat of anthropogenic climate change, or maybe you just want your physical computing projects to work better. Either way, the class will help you understand energy quantitatively and intuitively, and incorporate that knowledge in your projects (and perhaps your life).

How? Building on skills introduced in Creative Computing, we will generate and measure electricity in order to see and feel energy in its various forms. We will turn kinetic and solar energy into electrical energy, store that in batteries and capacitors, and use it to power projects. We will develop knowledge useful in a variety of areas, from citizen-science to art installations, and address topics such as climate change and infrastructure access through the lens of energy. Students will build a final project using skills learned in the class.

Prerequisites: Creative Computing

Instructor Jeffrey Feddersen Website: https://www.fddrsn.net/

Topics in Media Art: Generative Art with the Unity Game Engine +

Dave Stein | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, 9.9 YES, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), New, Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

This course will provide an overview of important topics of generative art. On a weekly basis we will cover a new topic, review examples of work within this topic and discuss their influence in generative artworks as well as in a broader art context.

In addition, we cover the fundamental concepts of the C# programming language and its application within the Unity game engine. C# is a widely used, very fast and efficient programming language and can perform significantly faster than P5 and Processing. As such, creating generative art projects using Unity and C# will make our projects faster with higher definition and larger detail than a typical Javascript sketch.

This course is designed for students who want to continue their creative coding practice and are interested in more advanced coding techniques while building their knowledge of C# and Unity. Students should have a solid understanding of programming concepts such as arrays, classes and objects and be comfortable with creative coding (such as with P5).

Topics in Media Art: Politics of Code +

Joerg Blumtritt | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, New, Spring 2024, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure), Tech and Society (New Structure)

Last updated: October 20, 2023

Current description based on NYUAD iteration of the course (https://github.com/jbenno/nyuad_politics_of_code). Please be advised this is in the process of being-updated by the instructor.

Deconstructing the design and implementation of software as a political medium and re-building functional alternatives.

Code is political. It is a means of political processes and activism. It is political inherently by the ethical choices often hidden in the black box of The Algorithm. In the course we aim to deconstruct the design, implementation, and data of software as a political medium. We will work through political applications such as simulations, ownership of intangible assets, predictive policing, algorithmic recommendations, suggestions, and filters, social networks, and the blockchain.

Along with an introduction to the related political theory and media studies, students will work on several hands-on projects to offer actual or speculative alternatives to the existing systems. To that end, this course will include several workshops in JavaScript, Python, and other tools.

Topics in Media Art: Storytelling for Project Development +

Sharon De La Cruz | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), Project Development and Research (New Structure), Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

This course challenges how you use technology to tell a story. We will start with storytelling linear basics and progress towards non-linear storytelling and new media arts considerations. This course is helpful for participants who want more grounding in storytelling, want to strengthen their voice, and are interested in building worlds beyond the one we currently experience. This course considers a range of mediums but does not expect you to be an expert in any; it allows you to experiment and explore different mediums throughout the semester.

We will spend the beginning of the semester researching and engaging in small assignments based on storytelling basics, primarily focused on writing and prepping storyboards and scripts, basics of visual design, and interaction design. Our midterm will ask the class to retell the same story by translating a prose text into the medium of your choice. The last section of the course will focus on a survey of new media storytelling. Students will concentrate on a final project which asks them to present a story (original or adopted) via the medium of their choice. Final projects are critiqued based on storytelling techniques discussed in class, clarity of story, and presentation. You do not have to come in with a project in mind; however, if you do, there will be plenty of space in your final assignment to explore it, considering the techniques practiced in class.

Topics in Media Art: All Resistance is a Creative Act: Art and Activism +

Eden Chinn | Ciaran Short | IMNY-UT.281 |
2 Point, 9.9 YES, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

Why are art and design important to an activist framework? How do groups (such as political parties, nonprofits, social justice collectives, among others) create single cohesive brand identities for supposedly “faceless” entities? How do individuals demonstrate their place in the collective through advocacy, purposeful demonstration, and self-branding? In this course, students will generate media art inspired by the study of signature images from social movements (focusing on Civil Rights, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQIA+, Pro Choice, and Women’s movements). Students will learn about the history of images from social movements, and analyze how these images have both generated and demonstrated sociopolitical change. In their final projects, students will apply what they have learned by either creating a campaign video, series of posters, or branding kit for a given media activism campaign, or by writing a research paper on a media activism campaign, analyzing the research it is based on, and preparing a report about the relevancy and effectiveness of the research vis-à-vis the goals of the campaign. Students are also encouraged to analyze their own experiences/perceptions of social movements outside of the scope of materials covered in class.

Topics in Fabrication: Re-Plasticing +

Molly Ritmiller | IMNY-UT.251 |
2 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

The central focus of this fabrication class is ‘replasticing.’ Replasticing: the act of remaking/reforming single use plastic into new objects.

In addition to learning about plastic’s properties, various forms and history, students will also learn how to fabricate and 3D Print PLA Plastic, DIY recycle and use extruders and injection molds to recast “waste” plastic in their class projects. Students will then take a close look at the waste stream in NYC and Brooklyn, and research the end-of-life cycle for plastics.

The class will culminate in a collaborative project contributing to and creating new solutions for the Tandon Makerspace in managing their excess of PLA 3D print waste. Solutions can be anything from designing recycled plastic objects and tools, to systems for community engagement and efficient processing of the PLA scraps in the Makerspace.

By creating opportunities for communities to have access to DIY recycling, we will re-imagine waste; re-configure design practices; and re-value plastic’s potential in a circular economy.

Prerequisites: Intro to Fabrication

Topics in Media Art: Shared Minds +

Dan O'Sullivan | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.9 YES, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, New, Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

What capabilities does computational media have for depicting and conveying the experience of our minds? In using the new possibilities of machine learning networks to create media, what should we take or leave from cinema, social media and virtual reality?

In this course we will start out by turning inward to reflect on how our mind transcends time and space and how artificial neural networks might better capture the multidimensional space of our thought. We then turn to using cloud networking and databases to share our thinking with other people across time and space. Finally we need to flatten everything back into 4D interfaces that, while being stuck in time and space, can reach our embodied, emotional and experiential ways of understanding of the world.

The class will operate at a conceptual level, inviting students’ empirical, psychological and philosophical investigations of the nature of their experience and how to convey it with art and story. It will ask students to look critically at existing computational media’s tendencies to bore, misinform, divide or inflame its users.

But this is also very much a coding class where students will prototype their own ideas for new forms of media first with machine learning models like Stable Diffusion using Huggingface APIs or Colab notebooks, and then with networking and databases using Firebase or P5 Live Media, and finally with 3D graphics using the threejs library. Students can substitute other coding tools but game engines will not work for this class. The coding is in javascript, with touches of python, and is a natural sequel to Creative Computing.

Big Ideas in the History and Future of Technology +

Theodora Rivendale | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.203 |
2 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, In-Person, Spring 2024, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure), Tech and Society (New Structure)

Last updated: October 20, 2023

Big Ideas: The History and Future of Technology
This class will provide students with a critical perspective on contemporary issues in media technologies and discuss the history, controversies, consequences, and ethical questions in emerging media. The first half of the class charts a history of media technologies from the 1940s to the present, focusing on the idealogical and social conditions that led to the creation of the technologies that exist now. The second half examines possible futures, and the tools we can use to predict (and build) those futures.

Instructor Website: http://alden.website

Topics in Media Art: Performance in Virtual Space +

Oliver-Rose Truxillo | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

Focusing on motion capture (ak. MoCap), this class introduces basic performance skills alongside 3d graphic manipulation to create real-time virtual experiences. In this class we will have the opportunity to virtually build sets, interact with props, and design unique characters to tell stories or engage with audiences. Utilizing Optitrack Motion Capture system and Unreal Gaming Engine; we will create, rig, animate, and perform as avatars.

Fluid Bodies +

Snow Fu | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.0260 |
4 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), New, No Tags, Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

Digital Bodies is an intermediate 3D imaging studio course that examines and explores the current technological applications and conceptual implications of post-photographic digital human simulations. We will regularly study the work that deals with digital bodies by contemporary artists and photographers such as LaTurbo Avedon, Chen Man, Quentin Deronzier, Hyphen-lab, Hayoun Kwon, and Gregory Bennett, and many digital art platforms in various categories, such as artificial human imaging, digital fashion models, and deepfake. We will be discussing the various theories relating to the idea of cyborgs and post-human conditions. Students will be learning 3D imaging skills for building, scanning, appropriating, and customizing prefabricated body models from multiple resources, exploring their movements that both imitate and go beyond the limits of reality and expanding conceptual themes. Besides the technical exercises, students are encouraged to create semester-long self-directed research and a final project using the imaging technology they’ve learned. Artist visits, field trips, and exhibition visits will also be arranged online or according to the public health safety situation. The exhibition of the student’s final projects will be arranged at the end of the semester. *The class is suitable for students with basic skills of 3D imaging in Maya.

Topics in Media Art: Geopositioning Genealogy: Personalizing Histories of Plants, Peoples and Places +

Tanika Williams | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, In-Person, Spring 2024, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure)

Last updated: October 20, 2023

Can a plant tell the story of your people and the planet?

This course aims to facilitate student relationships to the planet through the construction of personalized genealogies from family narratives, historical migrations, and plant relationships. Plants, like people, are intelligent life forms that hold memory and transmit knowledge. Students will study edible medicinal plants (herbs) to unlock their expertise on the past, present and future of the planet and its peoples. Participants will learn how to grow medicinal plants, employ ethical research practices, and develop their family archives.

Students will begin by examining various ways plants establish communities across the planet and studying the complex chemical and social lives of plants. Next, learners will parallel postcolonial theories of plants and peoples to connect the ways plants, like humans, seeded themselves across the globe for survival. Finally, students will incorporate primary sources from the family narrative, oral history, and government archives to help students visualize botanical imprints on their ethnic, racial, and national identities.

Learners will survey the research of botanists, horticulturalists, folk medicine practitioners, and urban gardeners. The works of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Jamaica Kincaid, and Fred Moten will provide the course’s literary foundation. The art practices of Fred Wilson, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Alison Janae Hamilton, and Deb Willis will create avenues for social art exploration. Importantly, students will read research from a cross section of postcolonial theorists challenging Western cartography and naming conventions of land.

About Tanika Williams: www.tanikawilliams.net

Topics in Media Art: Useless Machines +

Blair Simmons | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, 9.9 YES, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Spring 2024, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure), Tech and Society (New Structure)

Last updated: October 20, 2023

Useless Machines is about redefining “usefulness.” Through making, we will explore what it means, on an ideological, political and historical level, to create something ‘useful’ or ‘useless.’ We will play with these definitions and explore how these objects serve to be humorous, critical, disruptive and at times… useful.

We will study ‘useless’ machines throughout history, which will provoke conversations and disagreements around the implications of existing and emerging technologies. The students will design ‘useless’ machines for their final project. Examples of ‘useless’ machines are drawn from Kenji Kawakami’s The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions, Dunne & Raby’s Speculative Everything, Stephanie Dinkins’ Conversations with Bina 48, https://esoteric.codes/, CW&T, Mimi Ọnụọha’s Missing Data, Jacques Carelman’s Catalog of Impossible Objects, viral videos/objects and much more.

Instructor Blair Simmons Website: www.Blairsimmons.com

Topics in Computation and Data: Nature of Code +

Lenin Compres | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.220 |
4 Point, 9.9 YES, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, New, Programming and Data (New Structure), Spring 2024

Last updated: October 20, 2023

Can we capture the unpredictable evolutionary and emergent properties of nature in software? Can understanding the mathematical principles behind our physical world help us to create digital worlds? This class focuses on the programming strategies and techniques behind computer simulations of natural systems. We explore topics ranging from basic mathematics and physics concepts to more advanced simulations of complex systems. Subjects covered include physics simulation, trigonometry, self-organization, genetic algorithms, and neural networks. Examples are demonstrated in JavaScript using p5.js.

Prerequisites: Creative Computing

Instructor Daniel Shiffman Website: https://natureofcode.com/