Afternoon

Introduction to Digital Fabrication +

Maya Pollack | IMNY-UT.252 |
Prerequisites: None | 4 Point, Afternoon, All, Design and Fabrication (New Structure), Elective, In-Person, Monday, New York, Spring 2025, YES
Last updated: November 15, 2024

Do you want to MAKE THINGS with your computer? Are you an artist, engineer, designer, sculptor or architect? Are you a few of those things? How are 3D scanning and 3D modeling different? What materials should I be using? Should I be 3D printing or CNC-ing this CAD file? What is a boolean operation and why is it my new best friend? This class will answer all of your questions. Don’t know what any of these things are? This class will answer those questions also.

By the end of this course, you will be familiar with all that digital fabrication has to offer. We will cover everything from laser to 3D to CNC. You will learn how to identify which digital fabrication technique works best for your projects. But more than that, you will learn what kinds of questions you should be asking in order to complete a project from start to finish. As technology advances at rapid speeds, digital making machines and software are changing just as fast. So instead of just being taught about the machines of today, you will also be given the tools to teach yourself the machines of tomorrow. Emphasis will be put on learning how to ask the right kind of questions to successfully finish a project.

What do you want to make? Let’s make it.

Physical Computing +

David Rios | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.245 |
4 Point, Afternoon, All, Elective, Physical Computing (New Structure), Spring 2025, Tuesday, YES
Last updated: November 15, 2024

This course expands the students’ palette for physical interaction design with computational media. We look away from the limitations of the mouse, keyboard and monitor interface of today’s computers, and start instead with the expressive capabilities of the human body. We consider uses of the computer for more than just information retrieval and processing, and at locations other than the home or the office. The platform for the class is a microcontroller, a single-chip computer that can fit in your hand. The core technical concepts include digital, analog and serial input and output. Core interaction design concepts include user observation, affordances, and converting physical action into digital information. Students have weekly lab exercises to build skills with the microcontroller and related tools, and longer assignments in which they apply the principles from weekly labs in creative applications. Both individual work and group work is required.

Prerequisites: Creative Computing, or equivalent knowledge/experience

Creative Computing +

Jack B. Du | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.101 |
4 Point, Afternoon, All, Elective, Foundation, Friday, Spring 2025, YES
Last updated: November 15, 2024

This course combines two powerful areas of technology, Physical Computing and Programming, and asks students to consider their implications.  It will enable you to leap from being just a user of technology to becoming a mindful creator with it.

The course begins with Physical Computing, which allows you to break free from both the limitations of mouse, keyboard and monitor interfaces and stationary locations at home or the office. We begin by exploring the expressive capabilities of the human body and how we experience our physical environment. The platform for the class is a microcontroller (Arduino brand), a very small inexpensive single-chip computer that can be embedded anywhere and sense and make things happen in the physical world. The core technical concepts include digital, analog and serial input and output.

The second portion of the course focuses on fundamentals of computer programming (variables, conditionals, iteration, functions & objects) as well as more advanced techniques such as data parsing, image processing, networking, and machine learning. The Javascript ‘p5’ programming environment is the primary vehicle. P5 is more oriented towards visual displays on desktops, laptops, tablets or smartphones but can also connect back to the physical sensor & actuators from the first part of the class.

What can computation add to human communication? The ultimate question of this class is not “how” to program but “why” to program. You will gain a deeper understanding of the possibilities of computation in order to see how it applies to your interests (e.g. art, design, humanities, sciences, engineering). In addition to weekly technical assignments there are blogging assignments, usually reacting to short readings, allowing you to reflect in writing about the nature of computation and how it fits into your life and into human society. 

There is an even workload each week of a technical production assignment and a writing assignment but none of them are big.  The course is designed for computer programming novices but the project-centered pedagogy will allow more experienced programmers the opportunity to go further with their project ideas and collaborate with other students.

Chatbots for Art’s Sake +

Carrie Sijia Wang | IMNY-UT.233 |
4 Point, Afternoon, All, Elective, In-Person, Monday, New York, Spring 2025, Wednesday, YES
Last updated: November 15, 2024

This course is designed to repurpose existing chatbot technologies and use them for the sake of art. Comprising technical labs, design workshops, thematic seminars, and creative project development, it offers an exploration of the historical, present, and future dimensions of conversational AI; and the various roles AI has played and could play in human society. Students will delve into the design elements of conversational AI, and learn to use different techniques— such as RiveScript, p5.speech, APIs, Markov Chains, and Language Models—to create functional and artistic chatbots. The course expects students to conduct research and complete creative assignments, encouraging them to express their unique artistic visions.

Electronics for Inventors (Topics in Media Art) +

Pedro Galvao Cesar de Oliveira | Syllabus | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Afternoon, All, Elective, New, Spring 2025, Tuesday, YES
Last updated: November 15, 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.

Video Art (Topics in Media Art) +

Motomichi Nakamura | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Afternoon, All, Elective, Spring 2025, Thursday, YES
Last updated: November 15, 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.

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

Daniel Ryan Johnston | IMNY-UT.260 |
4 Point, Afternoon, All, Elective, Spring 2025, Thursday, YES
Last updated: November 15, 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.