In-Person

Critical Experiences

Sarah Hakani | IMNY-UT 206 | Thur 09:00am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay Street Room 450 Meetings:14
4 Point, Art and Design (Old Structure), Elective, In-Person, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), No Tags, Project Development and Research (New Structure), Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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​​Critical Experience is an experiential journey through a research driven art practice rooted in care, community, and somatic inquiry. This class is based on the premise that there are many ways to know things and we can draw upon these ways of knowing and our desire to know in order to nurture a creative practice grounded in research, clear intention, and a critical lens. Critical here means: discerning, eager to participate differently, cast new light on, re-examine, course-correct.

You will be guided through traditional research methods (library and interview techniques, citations, informal ethnographies) and experience design while also being asked to cultivate intentional awareness of your own positionalities, communities, personal strengths, emotions, and desires through experimentation, hunch following, rituals, and contemplative practices.This class was created for or artists/designers who are interested in participation/interaction and its relationship to social practice, critical design, and change-making as well as individuals curious about knowing what moves them.

Why experience? The work in this class will be looked at through the lens of its ability to transform (a user, participant, audience, viewer). Interactivity is one way of doing that, but through the lens of experience design, all art is temporal and embodied.

Capstone

Blair Simmons | Christina Dacanay | Rashida Kamal | Allison Parrish | Syllabus | IMNY-UT 400 | TBD Meetings:14
4 Point, Elective, Foundation, In-Person, No Tags, Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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The Capstone Studio course asks students to produce an interactive project (with documentation), a research paper, and a personal portfolio.

The interactive project will illustrate students’ unique interests as well as evidence of competency within the field of interactive media production. Students are encouraged to develop their project around a theme previously explored in their work. Projects will be presented and critiqued repeatedly throughout the capstone process to peers, faculty, and industry professionals. A final presentation of the interactive project will be delivered late in the semester.

The research paper (4000-5000 words) will focus on at least one aspect of the interactive project: e.g. culture, theory, philosophy, or history, the project context, and/or production methods. For example, students may write about their project’s reception by a set of specific users, or by users who are part of a larger culture, society, or market. It is important that students think beyond the project itself and situate it in a broader context accessible through research. The research paper will include an annotated bibliography of the books and other resources they used for their research.

Students will also be guided in the production of an online portfolio to showcase their work and accomplishments to the outside world. Graduates will be evaluated by their portfolio when applying for jobs, graduate school, artist residencies, grants, and the like. Portfolios will be tailored to the demands of each student’s future goals and target audience.

Prerequisites: Only available to graduating students!

Comics (Topics in Media Art)

Tracy White | Syllabus | IMNY-UT 281 | Tues 12:20pm to 3:20pm in 370 Jay St, Room 408 Meetings:7-First Half
2 Point, Elective, In-Person, Media and Entertainment (Old Structure), Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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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.

Introduction to Assistive Technology

Holly Cohen | Syllabus | IMNY-UT 241 | Mon 5:20pm to 8:20pm in 370 Jay Street, Room 316C Meetings:7-First Half
2 Point, Elective, In-Person, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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Assistive technology is a term that includes a wide variety of technologies for people with disabilities. This two-point survey course is designed to provide students with an overview of the field of assistive technology. Field trips, readings, and guest speakers will provide students with an understanding of current research and development as well as processes used in determining appropriate technologies. Weekly assignments and a final research project.

Intro to Fabrication

Molly Ritmiller | Syllabus | IMNY-UT 242 | Thur 09:00am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay St, Room 410 Meetings:7-First Half
2 Point, Elective, In-Person, No Tags, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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Time to get your hands dirty. Prototypes need to be created, motors have to be mounted, enclosures must be built. Understanding how things are fabricated makes you a better maker.

But hardware is hard. You can’t simply copy and paste an object or working device (not yet anyway), fabrication skills and techniques need to be developed and practiced in order to create quality work. You learn to make by doing.

In this class you will become familiar and comfortable with all the ITP/IMA shop has to offer. We will cover everything from basic hand tools to the beginnings of digital fabrication. You will learn to use the right tool for the job.

There will be weekly assignments created to develop your fabrication techniques. There will be in class lectures, demos, and building assignments. Emphasis will be put on good design practices, material choice, and craftsmanship.

The Code of Music

Luisa Pereira | Syllabus | IMNY-UT 222 | Mon 12:20pm to 3:20pm in 370 Jay St, Room 408 Meetings:14
4 Point, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, In-Person, No Tags, Programming and Data (New Structure), Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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This course explores how sound, code, and interaction can merge to create musical experiences that invite listeners to shape the music, not just hear it. Students create a series of browser-based musical systems that respond to users, incorporate randomness, and draw patterns from existing music.

We begin by creating a series of audio-visual interfaces—an instrument, a score/mixer, and a loop-based piece—that invite deeper listening through play. Incorporating elements of sound and music production, these projects turn tools normally hidden in the studio into interactive spaces where listeners, performers, and audiences can engage with music in new ways. From there, we dive into the inner workings of music, examining how sound organizes into rhythm, melody, timbre, and harmony, and how these patterns can be expressed in code. Students design interactive studies on each musical element, reimagining tools like drum machines, sequencers, and synthesizers into experimental, playful, or educational systems that incorporate creative coding, machine listening, and machine learning techniques. 

Classes combine lectures, coding tutorials, listening sessions, design exercises, and discussions of existing interfaces. Throughout, students bring their own musical sensibilities into the work while developing their creative coding skills using p5.js and Tone.js. Students regularly share work and receive feedback, using input from the class to develop and iterate on their ideas. The semester culminates in an interactive or generative piece that builds on the semester’s studies, documented through sketches, demos, and code.

About Luisa Hors: www.luisapereira.net/

Prerequisite: Creative Computing (IMNY-UT 101)

Networked Media

Sam Heckle | Syllabus | IMNY-UT 223 | Tues 3:40pm to 5:10pm in 370 Jay St, Room 409>Thur 3:40pm to 5:10pm in 370 Jay St, Room 409 Meetings:14
4 Point, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, In-Person, No Tags, Programming and Data (New Structure), Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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The network is a fundamental medium for interactivity. It makes possible our interaction with machines, data, and, most importantly, other people. Though the base interaction it supports is simple, a client sends a request to a server, which replies; an incredible variety of systems can be and have been built on top of it. An equally impressive body of media theory has also arisen around its use.

This hybrid theory and technology course will be 50% project driven technical work and 50% theory and discussion. The technical work will utilize JavaScript as both a client and server side programming language to build creative systems on the web. Technical topics will include server and client web frameworks, such as Express, HTML, CSS, templating, and databases. The theory portion of the course will include reading and discussion of past and current media theory texts that relate to the networks of today.

**** it is HIGHLY recommended you take Front End Web Development (or have equivalent front end web development experience) to get the most out of this course. We will be going over fundamentals of HTML/CSS but it would be useful to have prior knowledge ***

Prerequisite: Creative Computing or equivalent programming experience.

Introduction to Digital Fabrication

Maya Pollack | IMNY-UT 252 | Mon 09:00am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay St, Room 410 Meetings:14
4 Point, Design and Fabrication (New Structure), Elective, In-Person, No Tags, Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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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.

Experimental Photography

Ellen Nickles | Syllabus | IMNY-UT 232 | Thur 12:20pm to 3:20pm in 370 Jay St, Room 408 Meetings:14
4 Point, Elective, In-Person, Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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What are all the ways that you saw or made a photograph this week? How are those ways similar and different? How do those pictures function in your life and in society? What is a photograph? This course repeatedly asks these questions by using emerging computational tools to design alternative forms of making and interacting with photographs. The forms and applications of these tools, such as those for creative coding, physical computing, and AI, are explored weekly in technical tutorials and hands-on workshops. These are informed by discussions of critical debates in photography and various practitioners working with photographs, past and present. The homework includes readings, short writing responses, and photography assignments. Prerequisites: Comm Lab: HyperCinema (or similar coursework exploring communication and storytelling with digital tools) and New York’s IMA Creative Computing (or similar coursework with creative coding using the p5.js JavaScript library and programming for physical computing using Arduino microcontrollers). Note that prior experience with physical computing using the Arduino platform is required for this course. Please feel free to contact the instructor if you have any questions about the course.

Designing Interfaces for Live Performance

David Rios | IMNY-UT 243 | Mon 12:20pm to 1:50pm in 370 Jay St, Room 409>Wed 12:20pm to 1:50pm in 370 Jay St, Room 409 Meetings:14
4 Point, Elective, In-Person, physical computing, Physical Computing (New Structure), Physical Computing and Experimental Interfaces (Old Structure), Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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This course is designed to provide students with hands-on experience working with sensors and other electronics to design interfaces for a live, on stage, audio and visual performance at the end of the semester. Using Arduino, Ableton Live, and TouchDesigner, students will explore the expressive properties of physical hardware, sound, and live visuals. The forms and uses of physical computing, audio, computational media, and its application are explored weekly in both a hands on laboratory context, as well as weekly discussions of readings and existing performances.

Prerequisites: Creative Computing, Communications Lab: Hypercinema

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

Tanika Williams | Syllabus | IMNY-UT 260 | Friday 12:20pm-3:20pm Meetings:14
4 Point, Elective, In-Person, Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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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

Chatbots for Art’s Sake

Carrie Sijia Wang | IMNY-UT 233 | Tuesday and Thursday 2:00pm-3:30pm Meetings:14
4 Point, Computation and Data (Old Structure), Elective, In-Person, Spring 2026, Undergraduate
Last updated: October 30, 2025
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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.