Elective

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: 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: 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: 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 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 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.

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.

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: 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: 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 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 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

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 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/

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.

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.