Rune Madsen / Patrick Hebron

In recent years, we have seen a proliferation of new technologies and techniques in the media industry. This has had a profound impact on most content creators: Film directors are now challenged to think in more dimensions, sculptors need thorough knowledge about 3D scanning and printing, and designers are increasingly taking advantage of machine learning to design for complex systems. However, the tools we use to produce these new types of content are still modeled on manual processes that existed before the computer.

This is a class dedicated to researching and developing new production tools for digital media. Over the course of the semester, students will work in groups to identify an aspect of this theme to work on, lay out a plan for execution, and follow this plan to success. Students are expected to create roles within their group, come up with user stories, develop feature sets, perform user testing to validate their assumptions, and create documentation that explains how to use their tools. Class time will be dedicated to group demos and feature discussions, as students develop their ideas from simple prototypes to fully functional applications.