Prototyping Electronic Devices +

Deqing Sun | Syllabus | ITPG-GT.2845 | Fri 09:30am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay St, Room 410 Meetings:14
Last updated: March 24, 2025

The most difficult part of prototyping is not the building process, but the process of deciding how to build. If we choose proper technology for prototypes, we can improve their robustness and simplicity.

This course will cover available and affordable technologies for ITP students to build prototypes. The course will start with soldering, wiring and LED basics. Then students will design an Arduino compatible board in Eagle, get it fabricated, assembled. And then using the debugger to dig deeper to understand how a microcontroller works.

The class will also cover multitasking, signal processing, communication, document writing and advanced skills beyond the Intro to Physical Computing class.

Each session will have lectures followed by in-class practices with guidance. The 14-week long assignment is called Do It Once – Do It Again. Bringing an idea or ongoing projects is highly encouraged.

This course requires Physical Computing or equivalent experience.

Prerequisite: Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)

Understanding Networks +

Tom Igoe | Syllabus | ITPG-GT.2808 | Tues 09:30am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay St, Room 412 Meetings:14
Last updated: March 24, 2025

Interactive technologies seldom stand alone. They exist in networks, and they facilitate networked connections between people. Designing technologies for communications requires an understanding of networks. This course is a foundation in how networks work. Through weekly readings and class discussions and a series of short hands-on projects, students gain an understanding of network topologies, how the elements of a network are connected and addressed, what protocols hold them together, and what dynamics arise in networked environments. This class is intended to supplement the many network-centric classes at ITP. It is broad survey, both of contemporary thinking about networks, and of current technologies and methods used in creating them.

Prerequisites: Students should have an understanding of basic programming. This class can be taken at the same time as, or after, Intro to Computational Media or an equivalent intro to programming. Some, though not all, production work in the class requires basic programming. There is a significant reading component to this class as well.

Learning Objectives

In this class, you will learn about how communications networks are structured, and you will learn how to examine those structures using software tools. By the end of this class, you should have a working knowledge of the following concepts:

* The basics of network theory, some history of the internet and the organizations and stakeholders involved in its creation and maintenance
* The Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model and standard internet protocols such as Internet Protocol (IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) , Universal Datagram Protocol (UDP), and Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP). 
* Network addressing, private and public IP addresses
* What hosts, servers, and clients are and a few ways in which they communicate
* What a command line interface  (CLI) is and how to use the tools available in one
* The basics of internet security
* How telecommunications networks are similar to other infrastructural networks, like power and transportation, and how they are different.

Hedonomic VR Design: Principles and Practices +

Michelle Cortese | ITPG-GT.3025 | Thur 09:30am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay St, Room 409 Meetings:14
Last updated: March 24, 2025

To be a VR creator, it’s not enough to learn the hard skills—it’s also our responsibility to prime ourselves for the human impact of our work. As a means to design VR that is both enjoyable and accountable, this class proposes we borrow design principles from Hedonomics, a branch of ergonomic science that facilitates pleasurable human-technology interaction. Through the Hedonomic Pyramid, we’re able to section our thinking off into regions (Safety, Function, Usability, Pleasure and Individuation) and map out industry-tested VR design guidance for each. The result is a hierarchical checklist of proven principles, specifications and practices—that promote a culture of inclusive and holistic design—built to serve as a quickstart guide to designing accountable VR interfaces and systems. This class, divided into units that represent each level of the Hedonomic pyramid, will unpack both technical and conceptual strategies for creating VR, from visual interface fidelity to avoiding locomotion cybersickness to designing safer social VR spaces.

Intro to Fabrication +

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 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.

Dynamic Web Development +

Dynamic Web Development introduces the fundamentals of building “full stack” web applications. This course will focus on modern, client- and server- side web technologies and provide practical methods for approaching web development for creative and functional applications. The core technologies used in this course are HTML5, JavaScript, Node.js with the Express framework, and MongoDB database. Students will learn to design, develop, and deploy web applications and gain the necessary skills to extend and explore web development independently.

Prerequisite: ICM

The Body Everywhere and Here (Topics in ITP) +

Lisa M Jamhoury | Syllabus | ITPG-GT.2380 | Sat 11:40am to 6:10pm in > Sun 12:10pm to 6:10pm in Meetings:S-Special
Last updated: March 24, 2025

For an estimated 300,000 years, human experience has been rooted in the physical body. In the past two decades, we’ve evolved to engage through digital mediations—video calls, text messages, social profiles—where presence is fragmented, and embodiment is abstracted. How do we design digital experiences that acknowledge and activate the body rather than ignore it?

This weekend course explores embodied interaction in digital spaces through both theory and practice. We will examine the history and politics of motion capture, the role of presence in mediated environments, and the ways computers perceive and package the body. The course will include group discussions of influential works in the development of real-time embodied interaction, including those by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, Susan Kozel, Myron Krueger, and Laurie Anderson. Students will work in groups with computer vision and real-time motion data to build interactive experiences that explore digital forms and their spatial impacts.

Emphasizing accessibility and experimentation, this course will focus on using low-fidelity and inexpensive tools that are easy to get up and running with, making them ideal for rapid prototyping and creative exploration. ICM-level programming experience is required.

Design Research +

This course will focus on a range of human-centered design research and innovation workshop methodologies including Design Thinking, LEGO Serious Play, Lean UX, Google Ventures Sprints, Gamestorming, Futurecasting, and Service Design. Students will look for design opportunities within the unprecedented challenges that we are currently facing as global citizens. Students will define a problem space based on the drivers that they’re most interested in exploring and will have the option to work alone or form small design research teams. They will learn how to conduct primary and secondary research, creating deliverables such as personas, journey maps, concept canvasses, and prototypes. Students will be required to apply design research approaches and workshop methodologies, develop and test a rapid prototype and then share their work in a final presentation.

Textile Interfaces +

Kate Hartman | Syllabus | ITPG-GT.2030 | Sat 11:00am to 5:15pm in > Sun 11:00am to 5:15pm in Meetings:S-Special
Last updated: March 24, 2025

Want to make an interface that can be squished, stretched, stroked, or smooshed? This course will introduce the use of electronic textiles as sensors. Focus will be placed on physical interaction design – working with the affordances of these materials to create interfaces designed to invite or demand diverse types of physical interaction. This course does not require knowledge or love of sewing – a variety of construction methods will be introduced. It will rely on a physical computing approach, with Arduino being used to read sensor values. Working with a breadth of conductive and resistive materials, students will learn to design and create bespoke alternative interfaces that can live in our clothing, furniture, and built environments.

Prerequisite: Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)

On Becoming: Finding Your Artist Voice +

Tanika Williams | Syllabus | ITPG-GT.3023 | Fri 09:30am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay St, Room 412 Meetings:7-First Half
Last updated: March 24, 2025

On Becoming is a two-part professional development course. Finding Your Artist Voice (part one) filters your fears and apprehensions so you can declare your creative process and practice courageously. The seven-week system will help you proclaim your artistic identity, theoretical underpinnings, and trajectory with clarity, precision, and commanding written language. Students will build personalized masterplans and workflows to facilitate measurable professional growth while learning to catalog and archive their work. Students will develop a working artist biography, artist statement, and fully documented work samples. For the final project, students will be supported in selecting and submitting a post-graduate fellowship, residency, grant, or open call!

The Medium of Memory +

Simone Salvo | ITPG-GT.3019 | Wed 09:30am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay St, Room 413 Meetings:7-First Half
Last updated: March 24, 2025

What is the medium of memory? In this 14-week studio class, we will dig into this question through creative storytelling. Starting from a lens-based practice, this class will introduce traditional and bleeding-edge documentary methods to inform our own varied approaches to activating archival material. Through weekly “readings” (articles, podcasts, films), written reflections, and creative assignments, we’ll explore:

• how technology has impacted our relationship to memory;
• how visual interventions can can surface alternative narratives;
• how to make under- and unrecorded histories visible, and call into question the power dynamics embedded in “official” records; and
• how we might recast objects and sites of memory-keeping, like heirlooms, journals, and memorials, as a mode of engaged preservation.

Mid-way through the course, students will identify either personal or collective histories to open up to their own individual creative reexamination, memorialization, or transformation––each producing a final project with the technology and approaches of their choosing that serves to answer the question we started with––what is the medium of memory?

Performing Online +

Molly Soda | Syllabus | ITPG-GT.3022 | Mon 09:30am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay St, Room 410 Meetings:7-First Half
Last updated: March 24, 2025

This course explores the ways that we perform on and for the Internet. We’ll take a look at how artists have used social media, live-streaming, and multi-user online spaces as a site for performance. Students will conduct their own interventions with the web as a virtual stage.

Note: Performance is a broad and amorphous term! You are encouraged to take this course even if you do not consider yourself a performer or someone who wants to be in front of a camera.

Visual Journalism +

Yuliya Parshina-Kottas | Syllabus | ITPG-GT.2071 | Fri 09:30am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay St, Room 409 Meetings:14
Last updated: March 24, 2025

This course is designed to provide an overview of multimedia storytelling in the service of journalism, with a focus on visual narratives. We will explore a variety of digital and physical story formats, deep-dive into information design principles, create visual explainers and data visualizations based on original reporting, touch on the best practices and ethics of journalism and work on collaborative exercises and assignments. The goal of this class is to help you leverage your current skills to report, develop, design and build a fully-realized news story.

Time +

Jeffrey Feddersen | Syllabus | ITPG-GT.2040 | Thur 09:30am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay St, Room 407 Meetings:14
Last updated: March 24, 2025

“A computer is a clock with benefits” writes Paul Ford in Bloomberg’s issue dedicated to code. Time, at once fundamental and mysterious, is of course a basic part of any time-based media, but uniquely more so for programmed media that can evolve as it runs. In this course, we’ll reflect on the deep mysteries of time while also building hands-on skills that will improve our command of temporal media and technologies.

Specific topics will range from the marvelous engineering of historical clocks and orreries through modern computer architecture. We’ll draw inspiration from a technological tradition stretching back at least 2000 years to the Antikythera Mechanism that includes humanity’s earliest efforts to understand temporal patterns in nature. Practically, we’ll build mechanical and software clocks; experiment with time-series data and time protocols; and survey techniques for digital signal processing and software state transitions.

Students will improve their skills in:

– Extracting meaning from data in time-series sets, like sequential sensor readings in a physical computing project or a public API;
– Creating experiences with a beginning, middle and end; a narrative arc;
– Getting to the “metal” in microcontrollers and CPUs;
– Integrating real-time clock modules and network time protocols with projects;
– Using programmatic timelines and variable ‘tweening’ to add grace and sophistication to our creations

Students will execute production assignments throughout the semester. Students should have taken or be taking physical computing, a programming course, or have equivalent experience.

Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media (ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048) & Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)

Fabricating Mechanical Automatons (Batteries Not Included) +

Josh Corn | Syllabus | ITPG-GT.3034 | Thur 09:30am to 12:00pm in 370 Jay St, Room 408 Meetings:14
Last updated: March 24, 2025

How do we make things move, produce sounds, or maybe even emit light without batteries? Through this course, each student will design their own purely mechanical automaton. We will learn how to use simple materials and tools to hand prototype mechanisms in their early stages. CAD software will be used to refine the designs and then a series of traditional and digital fabrication tools (various wood shop tools, laser cutter, CNC, 3D printers, etc.) will be used to produce the final pieces. We will learn how to work iteratively in the shop through weekly exercises, and a midterm and final project.