Elective
Topics in Physical Computing: DIY Energy
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Physical Computing (New Structure), Spring 2025
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: Stories of Illness: Graphic and Narrative Medicine
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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 Media Art: Interactive Multi-Screen Experiences
2 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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: Politics of Code
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, In-Person, Spring 2025
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)
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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)
2 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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)
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), New, No Tags, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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)
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, In-Person, Programming and Data (New Structure), Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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)
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, New, No Tags, Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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 Computation and Data: Mobile Application Development
4 Point, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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)
Topics in Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces: Adapting Everyday Items
2 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure), Tech and Society (New Structure)
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
2 Point, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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
4 Point, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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
2 Point, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), New, Spring 2025
“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
4 Point, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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.
Topics in Media Art: Content Strategy
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), Spring 2025
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: 100 Days of Making
4 Point, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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
4 Point, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, New, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2025
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 Media Art: eTextiles & Physical Computing
2 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, New, Spring 2025
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
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
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.
Topics in Media Art: Shared Minds
4 Point, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, New, Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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: Generative Art with the Unity Game Engine
2 Point, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), New, Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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: Performance in Virtual Space
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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: All Resistance is a Creative Act: Art and Activism
2 Point, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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: Geopositioning Genealogy: Personalizing Histories of Plants, Peoples and Places
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, In-Person, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure)
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 Fabrication: Re-Plasticing
2 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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: Useless Machines
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure), Tech and Society (New Structure)
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
Big Ideas in the History and Future of Technology
2 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, In-Person, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure), Tech and Society (New Structure)
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
Fluid Bodies
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), New, No Tags, Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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 Computation and Data: Nature of Code
4 Point, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, New, Programming and Data (New Structure), Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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/
Quick Introduction to Physical Computing
1 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, Foundation, Foundation, Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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 Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces: Large Scale Kinetic Installation
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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 Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces: Interaction as Art Medium
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Physical Computing (New Structure), Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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: Politics of Code
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, New, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure), Tech and Society (New Structure)
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: How To Be a Professional YouTuber
2 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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: Storytelling for Project Development
4 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), Project Development and Research (New Structure), Spring 2024, Spring 2025
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: The Art of Perception
2 Point, Elective, Fall 2024, IMA Major Elective, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), New, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Studies/Seminar (Old Structure)
“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.”