What can an object tell us about the world? What can the world tell us about an object? As students and practitioners in creative media, investigating the world around us is a core part of an art/design/tech practice. This course focuses on a specific research approach for doing so: the Implosion Method (developed by Joseph Dumit based on Donna Haraway’s work). Over the course of this two-weekend workshop, we will individually and collectively critically examine, break down, rearrange and communicate as Haraway says, the “sticky economic, technical, political, organic, historical, mythic, and textual threads that make up [an object’s] tissues.” Students will choose an object in the first class and over the course of a week will follow the Implosion Method process, culminating in a presentation of findings the following weekend. The implosion methodology will be supplemented by lectures, group conversation, hands-on activities and skill building of complementary research methods. The final presentation will be to communicate findings and learnings through a multimedia or art/design/tech-based form. By working through the implosion method, students will build skill sets in methods and tools for 1) conducting research in the media studies/creative tech/art fields and 2) structuring and communicating the information they collect by creating a media-based representation. This class is for students interested in fostering, developing, starting, or deepening a research-based art practice with topical interests in how technology relates to society, social issues, and ethics.
ITPG-GT.2345.1 () | Instructor: Lydia Jessup | Sat 12:20pm to 6:20pm / Sat 12:20pm to 3:20pm | Meeting Pattern: S-Special | Start Date
Masks have been used around the world since antiquity for ceremonial and practical purposes, as devices for protection, disguise, entertainment and bodily transformation, made to be worn or displayed. Sociologist Erving Goffman wrote about the everyday life as a masked theatrical performance. The performative aspect of our lives today is ever so present in our use of social media, where we present a curated version ourselves for the immediate visual consumption of others. In our `Selfies`, we can assume a multitude of identities and characters. Recent tools and platforms have evolved social media portraiture to an art form and have created new opportunities for artists to create and distribute interactive augmentations, forming new relationships between artists and viewers. This class explores the developing language of social media portraiture enhanced by Augmented Reality. Students will: - review masks in art history, leading up to today - ideate, design and develop an interactive mask (AKA effects/lenses/filters) - learn to use the Meta Spark software to create AR effects. This course requires CL: Hypercinema or equivalent experience.
ITPG-GT.2044.1 () | Instructor: Ziv Schneider | Sat 12:20pm to 6:20pm / Sun 12:20pm to 3:20pm | Meeting Pattern: S-Special | Start Date
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.
ITPG-GT.3022.1 () | Instructor: Molly Soda | Sat 12:20pm to 5:20pm / Sat 12:20pm to 4:20pm | Meeting Pattern: S-Special | Start Date
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)
ITPG-GT.2030.1 () | Instructor: Kate Hartman | Sat 12:20pm to 4:50pm / Sun 12:20pm to 4:50pm | Meeting Pattern: S-Special | Start Date
This course will serve as an incubator to imagine a speculative product advertisement in the year 2030. In films like Blade Runner, or Her adverts fill the world and become an important aspect of exposition for the film. And in the real world, works such as Alisha Wormlsey, Alexandra Bell, and Hank Willis Thomas begin to re-imagine advertisements as an art practice in society today. Our work will begin to speculate on near-future objects in which topics such as communication, energy storage, transportation can begin to be re-imagined in the next industrial revolution. Using 3D tools, students will gain experience in speculative design thinking, industrial design modeling, product lighting, and custom post-production methods. The final project will be a product advert that will be designed to promote a speculative design entirely made from 100% Biodegradable plastics. The course will look at the ready-made objects all around us as a launching pad. We will be starting with modeling an object in detail. Using Moi 3D, Maya, Render Engine TBD, After Effects, and premiere over the course of the semester. I will go through some of the latest tools within the VFX industry and support this course with a series of artists who have re-imaged the role of cultural production. The final will be an advertisement poster and animation.
ITPG-GT.2357.1 () | Instructor: Kordae Jatafa Henry | Tues 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
Is it a plaything? Sculpture? Nostalgia? A Product? Art toys exist at the center of a unique Venn diagram. Each student in this class will develop an original limited-edition art toy. We will cover toy fabrication, character design, material selection, packaging design, and art toy culture. The class will be fabrication heavy, there will be weekly assignments, and a final project.
ITPG-GT.2196.1 (22545) | Instructor: Ben Light | Tues 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
This course traces along the multispecies ethnographic and feminist techno-scientific scholarship of Anna Tsing and Donna Haraway, both of whom are informed by folk and indigenous oral traditions of Animism. We will work with David Abram’s definition of Animism, which he describes as a “perceptual experience” of objects, plants, animals and other phenomena as active, dynamic, and participatory: in other words the acceptance that we can “never directly experience any phenomenon as definitely inert or inanimate.” Working within these traditions, we will engage with biomaterials through communal growing and fabrication using bacterial cellulose, mycelium, lactobacilli, yeast, and more. Each week we will go over a different biomaterial growing process while considering our unique positions within multispecies relations and interspecies storytelling. During the course students will participate in research that is somatically based, and writing as a generative pathway to create their own multispecies allegories and exploratory projects. Students will leave the class with a situated design or creative project within multispecies worldbuilding that incorporates novel fabrication techniques. The materials we will cover in this class have a myriad of applications such as: being cast into 3D printed or CNC'd molds, integrated with physical computing, speculative worldbuilding, and compostable/environmentally conscious design practices. We will look over and talk about the work by artists such as: Natalie Jeremijenko, CAConrad, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, David Abram, Anicka Yi, Bo Zheng, Una Chaudhuri, Agnieszka Kurant and Ernst Karel.
ITPG-GT.2346.1 () | Instructor: Erin Cooney | Syllabus | Fri 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
The goal of this course is to provide students who are new to the principles of visual design with the practical knowledge, critical skills and confidence to effectively express their ideas in a visually pleasing and effective way. Over the course of 7-weeks an overview of the many tools and techniques available to convey an idea, communicate a message and influence an experience will be presented, discussed and applied. Topics covered in the course include: typography, color, composition, branding, logo and information design. This class is intended for students who do not have formal graphic design or visual arts training but recognize the powerful impact of visual decisions in their work. COURSE OUTLINE Class 1 – Principles of Visual Communication Class 2 – Typography Class 3 – Letterforms Class 4 – Color Class 5 – Composition Class 6 – Logo and Brand Design Class 7 – Information Design Each meeting a new topic will be presented. The format will be a class discussion with a focus on examples of the theme for the week. Each topic will have a related assignment that will done by each student individually and presented and critiqued in the following class. For students new to or with limited skills in Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator there will be a series of informal weekly workshops led by residents to teach the basics and answer questions on use of the software. Completion of the assignments and participation in the class discussion is required. Students must maintain a blog where they post their assignments.
ITPG-GT.2005.3 (5801) | Instructor: Su Hyun Kim | Thur 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2005.2 (5803) | Instructor: Katherine Dillon | Fri 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2005.1 (5802) | Instructor: Katherine Dillon | Fri 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
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.
ITPG-GT.2997.1 (22552) | Instructor: Dave Derby / Heidi Brant | Fri 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
Juxtaposed to traditional comics, Experiential Comics combines emergent tech, unconventional comic book art/structure, and game engines to offer users a more immersive, continuous storyworld experience. Challenging the status quo of classic and contemporary digital comics, students will explore new technologies/world-building techniques better suited to craft innovative comic book narratives and formats --worthy of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Students will ingest a brief history of classic and digital comics formats, collaborate with comic book artists to design engrossing characters, engage in world-building sessions, play with Unity/Unreal engines to generate avatars/ virtual environments, work with actors in motion capture/volumetric capture studios, learn the latest iteration of the Experiential Comics format, and share their unique expressions of Experiential Comics in a final presentation. Throughout a 7-week period, the course will be divided into 7 themes 1) The Disconnection of Digital Comics 2) Classic and Unconventional Comics Continuity 3) Marvel vs DC vs Insert Your Universe Here 4) Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies 5) Capture & Creation 6) Infinite Engagement and Unlocking Immersive Format 7) Experiential Comics Presentations. Each weekly class will be divided into two halves 1) Exploration of Theme/Discussion 2) Process, Practices, & Play. This course requires CL: Hypercinema or equivalent experience.
ITPG-GT.2072.1 () | Instructor: Tony Patrick | Thur 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
Today’s internet, made up of mostly text documents and two-dimensional images and videos, is the result of historical limitations in bandwidth, graphics processing and input devices. These limitations have made the internet a place where the mind goes, but the body cannot follow. Recent advances in motion capture devices, graphics processing, machine learning, bandwidth and browsers, however, are paving the way for the body to find its place online. Experiments on the Embodied Web will explore the new realm of embodied interactions in the browser across networks. The course will include discussion of influential works in the development of online embodied interaction, including the works of Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, Susan Kozel, and Laurie Anderson. Together we’ll explore pose detection across webRTC peer connections in p5.js and Three.js. Experience with Node, HTML and JavaScript is helpful but not required. ICM level programming experience is required. Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media (ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048)
ITPG-GT.3013.1 () | Instructor: Lisa M Jamhoury | Tues 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
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.
ITPG-GT.3025.1 () | Instructor: Michelle Cortese | Thur 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
Computers are able to understand human speech better than ever before, but voice technology is still mostly used for practical (and boring!) purposes, like playing music, smart home control, or customer service phone trees. What else can we experience in the very weird, yet intuitive act of talking out loud to machines? The goal of this course is to give students the technical ability to imagine and build more creative uses of voice technology. Students will be encouraged to examine and play with the ways in which this emerging field is still broken and strange. We will develop interactions, performances, artworks or apps exploring the unique experience of human and computer conversation. Students will learn how to use text-to-speech and speech-to-text technologies, voice assistant devices, generative text techniques, open speech APIs, Node.js, and conversational UI design. There will be weekly assignments leading up to a final project. ICM or comparable programming experience required.
ITPG-GT.2988.1 () | Instructor: Nicole He | Thur 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
The 17th century philosopher Spinoza described \"wonder\" as a state of suspension in the mind, a paralysis resulting from a confrontation with something wholly new, disconnected from past experience such that judgements of whether it is good or bad are not possible. At this moment in time, we are caught in such a state of suspension with digital technologies. Creating computer applications instead of simply using them will provide you with a deeper understanding for the essential possibilities, limitations and unknowns of computation. The first half of Introduction to Computational Media focuses on the fundamentals of programming the computer (variables, conditionals, iteration, functions, and objects) and includes a basic introduction to HTML5/DOM. The JavaScript-based \'p5.js\' programming framework is the primary vehicle for the class. All sections assume no programming experience at all. The second half focuses on applying fundamental programming concepts to generate and manipulate various media including imagery, sound and text and data. This course assumes a working knowledge of JavaScript and the \'p5.js\' programming framework. Students who already have experience with programming in JavaScript and p5.js may join the course in the second half. Pre-requisite: ICM: Code or equivalent programming experience.
ITPG-GT.2048.3 () | Instructor: Allison Parrish | Tues 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2048.1 () | Instructor: Mimi (Yue) Yin | Tues 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2048.4 () | Instructor: Mimi (Yue) Yin | Thur 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2048.5 () | Instructor: Luisa Pereira | Mon 12:20pm to 2:51pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2048.2 () | Instructor: John Henry Thompson | Wed 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2048.6 () | Instructor: Ellen Nickles | Thur 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2048.7 () | Instructor: Ellen Nickles | Mon 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
If social change begins in the imagination, how then can creators better envision and render the more just and beautiful worlds we want to make? Storytelling has the power to be an alchemical force for revolutionary change. Together, we seek to interrogate and apply interactive storytelling as a technology we can deploy in service of our collective liberation. In this course, we pair a study of story as liberatory praxis with a hands-on grounding in emerging tech tools that allow viewers/players to take an active role. Interactive storytelling technology in video, audio, and text powerfully situates viewers inside constructed narrative worlds. Creators in these emerging media gain the capacity to design choices and respond accordingly, propelling imagination toward agency and enhancing empathic connections between viewers/players and characters. What will it mean to use these tools to tell deeper stories that ask urgent questions about how we want to live in the world?
ITPG-GT.2349.1 () | Instructor: Stephen Backer / Chika Okoye | Syllabus | Thur 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
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.
ITPG-GT.2637.1 (5877) | Instructor: Ben Light | Thur 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
In this course, we will explore how to create narratives that leverage our lesser used senses like touch, taste and smell as well as lesser-known ones like space, time, balance and scale. We will dig into the history of experiential storytelling, starting from immersive theater and Smell-O-vision to cutting-edge haptics and mind-bending illusions of proprioception. To help center this back in practical applications, we will also explore how this evolving art is commonly used in exhibition design, experiential marketing and brick and mortar retail. The class will be a healthy mixture of game theory as well as experienced based learning (meaning there will be a couple field trips and multisensory VR projects to explore). A basic knowledge of game engines is ideal but not mandatory because we will be using predesigned templates in Unreal engine to be experienced and manipulated in real-time through virtual reality hardware.
ITPG-GT.2347.1 () | Instructor: Winslow Porter | Tues 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
This course aims to provide students with the analytical skills to interpret current trends, policies and problems into futuristic (5+ years) product proposals and the thought leadership and communication skills to clearly articulate and pitch those ideas. Projects can range from how prolonged quarantine will impact home exercise to the future of entertainment in self driving cars. Students will research and explore an opportunity space of their choosing where they will infer future problems from current trends then create a speculative solution. They will package their product thinking into a pitch deck and present back to the class. The class format will include lecture, in-class and out-of-class design exercises that apply the concepts covered in the class lecture and a final presentation and critique. COURSE OBJECTIVES At the completion of this course, the students will: Conduct research and analysis of current trends Learn frameworks and skills to help interpret current trends into future problems and opportunities Communicate their thinking by creating clear and compelling taxonomies, personas and user journeys Create a series of detailed user journeys of their solution Know how to create a storytelling pitch deck with a user centered focus
ITPG-GT.2348.1 () | Instructor: Ryan Fedyk | Mon 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
We are experimenting with a change to Thesis with this pilot class. The idea is to extend thesis over both semesters, each with a 2-point class that meets every other week. Part 1 focuses on research and concept development. Students will have the time to explore deeply into their areas of interest, narrow their focus and, finally, develop a concept and plan for their final thesis project. They will be structured assignments throughout on research methodologies and concept development techniques. They will end the semester with a paper and a plan for design and production.
ITPG-GT.2098.1 () | Instructor: Adaora Udoji | Tues 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2098.2 () | Instructor: Steve Downs | Tues 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2098.3 () | Instructor: Sharon De La Cruz | Tues 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2098.4 () | Instructor: Juliette Powell | Tues 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2098.5 () | Instructor: Luisa Pereira | Tues 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2098.6 () | Instructor: Sarah Rothberg | Tues 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2098.7 () | Instructor: Stefani Bardin | Tues 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
This course is designed to provide an overview of visual storytelling in the newsroom. We will explore a variety of narrative formats and design principles, learn about reporting techniques for visual stories, touch on the best practices and ethics of journalism and work on collaborative exercises and assignments.
ITPG-GT.2071.1 () | Instructor: Yuliya Parshina-Kottas | Mon 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
This multidisciplinary course allows students from a variety of backgrounds to work together to learn about and develop assistive technology. Partnering with outside organizations, students will work in teams to identify a clinical need relevant to a certain clinical site or client population, and learn the process of developing an idea and following that through to the development of a prototype product. This course provides an overview of some of the assistive technologies currently used by people with disabilities to participate in life’s activities, including those used for computer access, mobility, and activities of daily living (ADLs). Working in small groups, you will work with a mentor with a disability to solve a problem by creating a tech solution making the problem easier to deal with. We have a number of ongoing projects such as developing interactive activities to improve balance of preschoolers with hearing impairments and cochlear implants, or working with a deaf woman in Argentina to develop a tool that can allow her to participate in group discussions. Other projects may include working with people with physical and sensory disabilities. This course provides you your own evidence of the benefit of using client centered design with input from multiple professionals.
ITPG-GT.2446.1 (22572) | Instructor: Anita Perr / Amy Hurst | Wed 6:45pm to 9:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Throughout history, musicians have channeled their creativity into outrageous fashion statements and invented personas: think MF DOOM, Sun Ra, Ghostface Killah, Daft Punk, Leikeli47 and Rammellzee. By embracing their alter egos in extreme and outlandish ways, artists have found their authentic creative voices. This course will introduce participants to the art of masquerade using their resourcefulness to create costumes from found materials, and performance as an exploration in creative expression using new media and technology. Students will be introduced to ideas surrounding abstract storytelling, experimental audio + video production, and A/V performance using a combination of technical and hands-on approaches. This course requires CL: Hypercinema or equivalent experience. Prerequisite: CL: Hypercinema (ITPG-GT 2004)
ITPG-GT.3024.1 () | Instructor: Ali Santana | Mon 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This introductory class is designed to allow students to engage in a critical dialogue with leaders drawn from the artistic, non-profit and commercial sectors of the new media field, and to learn the value of collaborative projects by undertaking group presentations in response to issues raised by the guest speakers. Interactive media projects and approaches to the design of new media applications are presented weekly; students are thus exposed to both commercial as well as mission-driven applications by the actual designers and creators of these innovative and experimental projects. By way of this process, all first year students, for the first and only time in their ITP experience, are together in one room at one time, and as a community, encounter, and respond to, the challenges posed by the invited guests. The course at once provides an overview of current developments in this emerging field, and asks students to consider many questions about the state of the art. For example, with the new technologies and applications making their way into almost every phase of the economy and rooting themselves in our day to day lives, what can we learn from both the failures and successes? What are the impacts on our society? What is ubiquitous computing, embedded computing, physical computing? How is cyberspace merging with physical space? WHY ARE WE HERE? -To see how the many things you might learn at ITP might be applied in the world (across many different fields), and to develop your own nuanced point of view on those applications -Think through the lens of designing engaging experiences -To build a shared language with your cohorts - about ITP, about your interests, about emerging technologies and ideas -To practice to collaboration in a way that emphasizes generosity, curiosity and communication -To practice a process of observation and articulation as a starting point for a design process. -To be inspired by different possible visions for your future. -To get a glimpse of the foundational character of the program: experimentation, play, thoughtfulness, emergence, interdisciplinarity, collaboration, criticality -To co-create a culture in which you have a sense of belonging / agency through your own ability to participate in its making WHAT HAPPENS IN CLASS? -Groups facilitate an experiences for the class, in response to the prior week’s guest -Small group discussions -Distribute invitations, made by you, to experiences in NYC -Hear from Guest Speaker -Short Q&A/ Final discussion with Guest
ITPG-GT.2000.1 (5660) | Instructor: Adaora Udoji | Tues 6:40pm to 9:10pm / Sat 10:45am to 11:45am | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
With recent advances in hardware and software, millions of us now carry unprecedented spatial computing and world-sensing technologies in our pockets. Notably, the latest technologies extend beyond simple recognition into areas of comprehension and semantic understanding. And yet despite these advancements, most augmented reality experiences still closely resemble those from previous decades – 3D content overlaying the camera feed. Few experiences explore the full possibility space enabled by the latest technologies. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore a wide range of technologies and techniques for augmenting reality on iOS. Emphasis will be placed on experimentation – exploring the boundaries of what’s possible, embracing unpredictability, and hacking things together in unexpected ways. Topics will include spatial audio, computer vision, scene understanding and semantics, speech recognition and synthesis, music recognition (ShazamKit), haptics, body tracking, and more. Should Apple release its AR headset prior to the course or during the semester, we’ll find ways to incorporate the device into the class. For design and development, we'll use Apple technologies – ARKit, RealityKit and RealityComposer. 3D modeling skills are helpful but NOT required. While we'll cover the basics, students should expect to spend additional time outside of class learning Swift and other related programming concepts. Full-time access to an iOS device (LiDAR-enabled is ideal but not required) and a Mac laptop running the latest operating systems are required.
ITPG-GT.2356.1 () | Instructor: Sebastian Buys / Nien Lam | Wed 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
So much of life is circumstance, being in the right place at the right moment in time. Can we shape a life or at least a few brief moments of one by designing a space for it to inhabit? In this course, we will treat space as a time-based medium and ask how experiential spaces can generate narratives that are lived rather than told. We will look to a broad range of storytelling traditions to interrogate four so-called “space-narrative” forms: Wandering The Desert, Processions, Circles and Territories. Through play, discussion and technical and conceptual workshops, we will ask and attempt to answer some of the following questions: What constitutes a space? How do we experience a space over time? How does space shape our experience of time? How can space shape both a personal and collective narrative? We will build spaces with lighting, projection, sound and physical objects. Class time will be split between group improvisation exercises, playing-testing and critiquing projects. The class will culminate in a showing of work at the end of the semester.
ITPG-GT.2342.1 () | Instructor: Mimi (Yue) Yin | Syllabus | Fri 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Storytelling is a powerful method of communicating messages and engaging an audience. Whether you are building an expressive narrative world, documenting existing work, or pitching a new project, a carefully crafted story is a powerful way to connect with others. How do new technologies change the way we tell stories? Communications Lab: Hypercinema will examine new forms of communication and storytelling through an investigation of time-based media. This course will cover principles of interpersonal communication, media theory and collaborative storytelling through a series of weekly assignments and labs. Over the course of the semester students will become comfortable with the basics of time-based media, and examine the contexts in which this media exists in society, both historically and in current practice. Topics include: sound art, animation, immersion and interactivity, and real time 3d game engine environments.
ITPG-GT.2004.1 () | Instructor: Gabe Barcia-Colombo | Tues 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2004.2 () | Instructor: Gabe Barcia-Colombo | Wed 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2004.3 () | Instructor: Marianne Petit | Tues 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2004.4 () | Instructor: Pedro Galvao Cesar de Oliveira | Tues 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2004.5 () | Instructor: Matt Romein | Tues 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2004.6 () | Instructor: Aidan Nelson | Mon 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
A new world is emerging at the intersections of machine learning and physical computation that will offer wide-scale access to bringing intelligence to everyday devices and spaces at extremely low costs. In this course, students are offered the opportunity to become pioneers in a new field of hardware machine learning as they are introduced to the most used machine learning platform in the world (TensorFlow) that has been embedded into an incredibly small microcontroller, called TinyML. Students will learn about building with machine learning, the ethics and societal impacts of ML, and how to start realizing creative computation through ML-based physical computing.
ITPG-GT.2339.1 () | Instructor: Rikard Lindstrom / Ari Melenciano | Wed 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Cybernetics is the study of how we shape and are shaped by systems. What can it teach us about the ideological and sexual reproduction of gender and sexism? How does sex become gender and what are the politics surrounding who gets reproduced? This class is a hybrid coding, critical theory, and art production class. We will explore how social regulatory systems are encoded into technological platforms and disentangle how they produce social pressure and govern behavior through coding exercises, somatic exercises, discussion, and project making. In this class, we will not shy away from difficult conversations and work closely together to cultivate a space of openness and mutual support. Discussion and project-making are core to this class. Together we will express ideas through code, computational consent, and read the work of scholars such as Donna Haraway, Ruha Benjamin, Paul Preciado, Silvia Federici, & Audre Lorde. Students will be encouraged to develop their own research interests and explore their personal histories. When projects are discussed, we will practice communicating ideas through presentation as a medium and will co-create a culture of constructive feedback.
ITPG-GT.2074.1 () | Instructor: Melanie Hoff | Mon 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
In the 1960’s and 70’s, club culture was a social phenomenon that introduced new forms of technologies, experiences and designs. In this course, students will study a variety of different cultures (from social, to visual to sound) from pre 1600s to present day. These learnings will realize historical patterns and psychologies displayed throughout the decades. These social investigations are generally practiced through a United States lens, but students will also be invited to explore how similarly communities were developed around the world due to a variety of parallel conditions. Relationships between counterculture movements and visual and sonic creations will be examined. Students will then experiment with audio-visuality and study how light, sound and color and other senses are used to design an experience within different spaces, particularly spaces for entertainment. Students will be invited to launch 370 Jay St's performance garage in development of their own temporary club environments. Technologies introduced in this course would then include Cinema4D, MaxMsp (and potentially Touch Designer), Ableton, and Photoshop.
ITPG-GT.2047.1 () | Instructor: Ari Melenciano | Thur 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
The ability to digitally fabricate parts and whole pieces directly from our computers or design files used to be an exotic and expensive option not really suitable for student or designer projects, but changes in this field in the past 5 years have brought these capabilities much closer to our means, especially as ITP students. ITP and NYU now offer us access to laser cutting, CNC routing, and 3D stereolithography. In this class, we will learn how to design for and operate these machines. Emphasis will be put on designing functional parts that can fit into a larger project or support other components as well as being successful on a conceptual and aesthetic level. In this class, we will discover methods to design projects on CAD applications for total control of the result, and we will develop algorithmic ways to create designs from software (Processing) to take advantage of the ability to make parts and projects that are unique, customizable, dependent on external data or random. The class will include 3 assignments to create projects using the three machines (laser, router, 3D) and the opportunity to work on a final project.
ITPG-GT.2890.1 (22580) | Instructor: Daniel Rozin | Thur 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Inspired by the Japanese art of Chindōgu, this class will introduce a playful and whimsical approach to learn industrial design. In this 14-week studio format class, students will develop gadgets, inventions, and electronic devices that present absurd solutions to problems, while learning concepts and techniques of design ideation, prototyping, model making, CMF (color, material, and finishes), and manufacturing. This is a production heavy four-credit course, where students will learn about industrial design and tangible interactions. Prerequisite: Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)
ITPG-GT.2052.1 () | Instructor: Pedro Galvao Cesar de Oliveira | Thur 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Is augmented reality technology about to enter the mainstream? AR platforms have finally become widely accessible to artists, designers, and technologists thanks to recent advances in mobile performance and a new collection of powerful computer vision techniques. As such, the medium offers rich possibilities for experimentation and a chance to rethink how we experience the intersection of the physical and digital. In this course, students will acquire an understanding of basic concepts and techniques necessary to design, prototype, and build simple AR experiences - with a consideration of not just visual but also aural AR. We’ll focus on the design/UX of AR experiences as well as the technical foundations necessary to actually code these experiences. We’ll supplement design/coding exercises with an overview of the history of AR and discuss a broad range of use cases. Our tool of choice will be WebXR, but we will go over prototyping techniques outside of these platforms to speed up the design process.
ITPG-GT.2037.1 () | Instructor: Irene Alvarado | Syllabus | Mon 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This course covers the next several years of evolution in technology, culture, and other trends. It uses scenario planning, a technique for considering complex interrelationships that can’t be predicted, distinguishing predetermined elements from critical uncertainties, and exploring the underlying patterns that influence events. Students will conduct original research on significant trends, use those trends to develop compelling, sophisticated, plausible stories about possible futures, and present the futures – and the strategies they suggest – to a public audience. The course will take place at a pivotal moment of historical uncertainty: recovering from a global pandemic, with AI and other digital technologies crossing a threshold, and dramatic political and economic tensions. All of these, and more, affect media development - and are deeply affected by them. The goal of the course is to enable you to make more robust decisions now in the face of uncertainty — applicable to planning for technological change, starting a business, plotting a career or making major life decisions. This class has developed a longstanding following at ITP because it helps us make sense of complex issues without oversimplifying them. In a climate of candid, respectful discussion and debate, the class explores theories about system dynamics, long-wave organizational and societal change, and economic and technological development. Addendum from former student: As I wake up to the serious news of Ukraine, I am reminded of the prediction that I and my classmates Jerllin Cheng and Susanne Forchheimer made while taking a class at NYU-ITP called "Future of New Media," taught by the great Art Kleiner , which is easily one of the most important classes I've ever taken in my life. In this class, Art taught us the craft of prediction in order to make tech art/products that speak to the near future. It was 2014, and using his strategic workflow, he asked our class to predict what would 2020 be like. Although no one predicted a pandemic, some did predict things likes smart homes etc. But our group was bold enough to predict a "Cyber Cold War," given Russia's annexation of Crimea and other developments in China going on during the time of the class. Our presentation went into interesting detail that speculated the end of an open internet, and a further lockdown of borders and increase in video chats for that reason (which did happen in 2020 but for the pandemic), but let's hope that is not the case now! Certainly no fear-mongering happening here- just wanted to share that we made a pretty good prediction and that Art Kleiner's method is incredible (buy his books). Our hearts are with Ukraine and the world.
ITPG-GT.2297.1 () | Instructor: Art Kleiner | Fri 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
As game and interaction designers we create systems and choices that can either prey upon our psychological foibles or help us avoid decision pitfalls. It is our responsibility to understand how we decide, to consider the ethics of the systems we create and to practice designing systems in a purposeful manner. Game Design & The Psychology of Choice will provide interaction and game designers with an understanding of the factors that influence behavior and decision-making by looking at the intertwining of cognitive psychology and economics through the development of behavioral economics. These disciplines study behavior on the individual and group level, often revealing some of the why behind the rules of thumb and folk wisdom that game designers come to intuitively. But understanding the why—why we fall into decision traps; why certain tradeoffs tax our brain more than others; why we are overconfident about our abilities; why certain decisions make us uncomfortable—allows us to more purposefully apply our design craft, both in and out of games. Finally, as a class, we will take what we learn about how we think and create series of game experiences based around key cognitive science concepts. Assignments may include: •Mod a cognitive science experiment into a game or experience •Analyze and present a game through the lens of cognitive science and behavioral economics •Create game or experience based around a particular insight from cognitive science or behavioral economics
ITPG-GT.3028.1 (22584) | Instructor: Jennifer Lim | Mon 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
The 17th century philosopher Spinoza described \"wonder\" as a state of suspension in the mind, a paralysis resulting from a confrontation with something wholly new, disconnected from past experience such that judgements of whether it is good or bad are not possible. At this moment in time, we are caught in such a state of suspension with digital technologies. Creating computer applications instead of simply using them will provide you with a deeper understanding for the essential possibilities, limitations and unknowns of computation. The first half of Introduction to Computational Media focuses on the fundamentals of programming the computer (variables, conditionals, iteration, functions, and objects) and includes a basic introduction to HTML5/DOM. The JavaScript-based \'p5.js\' programming framework is the primary vehicle for the class. All sections assume no programming experience at all. The second half focuses on applying fundamental programming concepts to generate and manipulate various media including imagery, sound and text and data. This course assumes a working knowledge of JavaScript and the \'p5.js\' programming framework. Students who already have experience with programming in JavaScript and p5.js may join the course in the second half. Pre-requisite: ICM: Code or equivalent programming experience.
ITPG-GT.2233.1 (5672) | Instructor: Mimi (Yue) Yin | Tues 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2233.2 (5673) | Instructor: John Henry Thompson | Wed 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2233.3 (5670) | Instructor: Allison Parrish | Tues 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2233.4 (5772) | Instructor: Mimi (Yue) Yin | Thur 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2233.5 (5674) | Instructor: Luisa Pereira | Syllabus | Mon 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2233.6 () | Instructor: Ellen Nickles | Thur 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2233.7 () | Instructor: Ellen Nickles | Mon 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
All computing is physical. We work with computational systems by taking action with our bodies, on devices. The construction of computing devices, and their use, consumes raw materials and energy as well. In short, the virtual always has physical consequences. This course is about how to design digital devices for our bodies\' capabilities. 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. Finally, you’ll learn how microcontrollers communicate with other computers. The platform for the class is a microcontroller, a single-chip computer that can fit in your hand. The core technical concepts include digital, analog and serial input and output. Core interaction design concepts include user observation, affordances, and converting physical action into digital information. Students have weekly lab exercises to build skills with the microcontroller and related tools, and longer assignments in which they apply the principles from weekly labs in working devices. Both individual work and group work is required.
ITPG-GT.2301.1 (5678) | Instructor: Daniel Rozin | Wed 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2301.2 (5679) | Instructor: David Rios | Wed 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2301.3 (5677) | Instructor: Tom Igoe | Wed 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2301.4 (5676) | Instructor: Yeseul Song | Wed 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2301.5 (5849) | Instructor: Daniel Rozin | Wed 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2301.6 () | Instructor: Jeffrey Feddersen | Wed 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2301.7 () | Instructor: Tom Igoe | Wed 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Libraries like TensorFlow.js and ml5.js unlocked new opportunities for interactive machine learning projects in the browser. The goal of this class is to learn and understand common machine learning techniques and apply them to generate creative outputs in the browser. This class will start with running pre-trained models and re-training models in the browser using high-level APIs from ml5.js, as well as explore the Layer APIs from TensorFlow.js to create models from scratch using custom data. This class will also cover preparing the dataset for training models. At the completion of this course, students will have a better understanding of common and popular machine learning models, how do they work, how to train these models, and their use case to creative projects. The output of the class will be examples of interactive ML web applications. The topics that will be covered are Image/Sound/Doodle Classification, Face/Pose Recognition, Image Style Transfer, pix2pix Image Transformation, and Image Synthesis. The techniques and neural networks we will use and build include Transfer Learning, Convolutional Neural Network, Generative Adversarial Network, Reinforcement Learning, and more. Prospective students are expected to have taken an ICM (Introduction to Computational Media) course, or have equivalent programming experience with JavaScript, HTML, CSS. About Yining Shi: http://1023.io
ITPG-GT.2465.1 () | Instructor: Yining Shi | Fri 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
In this course students create digital musical instruments and do a live performance using them. Over the semester, we look at examples of current work by creators of musical interfaces, and discuss a wide range of issues facing technology-enabled performance - such as novice versus virtuoso performers, discrete versus continuous data control, and the relationship between musical performance and visual display. Readings and case studies provide background for class discussions on the theory and practice of designing controllers for musical performance. Students design and prototype a musical instrument - a complete system encompassing musical controller, algorithm for mapping input to sound, and the sound output itself. A technical framework for prototyping performance controllers is made available. Students focus on musical composition and improvisation techniques as they prepare their prototypes for live performance. The class culminates in a musical performance where students (or invited musicians) will demonstrate their instruments. Prerequisites: ITPG-GT.2233 (Introduction to Computational Media) and ITPG-GT.2301 (Physical Computing) Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media (ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048) & Intro to Phys. Comp. (ITPG-GT 2301)
ITPG-GT.2227.1 (22589) | Instructor: Luisa Pereira | Mon 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This course is about how to tell stories with your projects. Like a classic linear story, we’ll start at the beginning with the question of how good stories are told. We’ll learn about classical storytelling techniques and conventions from a variety of cultures, genres, and media. Next we\'ll explore what various tech and media can and can\'t do in the context of story. We’ll end the semester throwing linearity out the window to create cohesive, rigorous narrative experiences with clear audience/viewer entry and exit, that engage with the tropes and conventions of non-linear storytelling. The class will include some original writing, but students who don’t think of themselves as writers are highly encouraged to join as well as students who do. We’ll learn about narrative tools like plot, character, form, subtext, symbolism, POV and lots of other delights that will enable you to create stories and adaptations for your assignments. Students Do: During classtime, students will participate in discussion, small group work, reflective in-class writing, and presentations. We will also have guest speakers and project workshops with guest critics. Weekly homework assignments will consist of reading, watching, listening, and potentially attending events outside of classtime to support conversations and activities during class. Student projects will involve group work/play with projects riffing on assigned existing stories and narratives. For example, a specific canonical story, poem, myth, parable, or film plot may be used as a narrative jumping off point for these assignments. Some of these projects may involve some light narrative writing. Structure: This is a 14 week class. Unit 1: Narrative structures. In this unit we dig into what it means to tell a story. Some of our major themes include: • What are the most commonly used story structures in media such as the novel, graphic novel, film, TV, and theater—and what expectations do they set up for the audience? • What are the techniques, tropes, and conventions of both western and nonwestern storytelling traditions? • What are some approaches that are in dialogue with or rebel against these traditions? • How do we understand and manipulate the audience’s narrative expectations? • What makes a story ‘work’ / how do we define a good or successful story? Unit 2: Using tech to tell a story, or not In this unit we will do something that in other contexts is a terrible idea—we will start with the technology. We’ll explore briefly what counts as technology and why and how we make the choice to use it or not. • What might we do with sensors, motion, projection, AR/VR, paper, film, light, voice etc in the context of the storytelling knowledge we’ve gained in Unit 1? • What unique storytelling conventions might be available to us as makers? • What kinds of objects, interfaces, situations, and places can be experienced as narrative? Unit 3: Non-linear storytelling In this unit we will play with situations in which the creators deliver the narrative in a non-linear form. • How do we use the viewer’s relationship/familiarity with conventions of linear storytelling to engage them in a non-linear narrative? • What are the storytelling conventions we see used in media beyond the page, big screen, and stage, where non-linearity is a common feature, and what can we learn from them? For example, AR/VR, video games, social media, site specific and immersive performance, and museum design. • How could we make a story that works in more than one direction? • How do we play with the audience’s expectations? • How do we create seamless and innovative user journeys through narrative experiences Connection: Taught previously at ITP including this class (Fall 2020)
ITPG-GT.2076.1 () | Instructor: Kio Stark / Mia Rovegno | Thur 6:40pm to 9:10pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This course is a survey of programming strategies and techniques for the procedural analysis and generation of text-based data. Topics include analyzing text based on its statistical properties, automated text production using probabilistic methods, and text visualization. Students will learn server-side and client-side JavaScript programming and build single-page web applications as well as bots for social media networks. Additionally, this course will also include examples on how to interface with the latest open-source and commercial machine learning models for text and image generation. The writing of this course description may or may not have been assisted by one of these so-called "AI" models The course will include weekly homework coding exercises and an open-ended final project.
ITPG-GT.2536.1 (22592) | Instructor: Daniel Shiffman | Wed 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Digital tools of all kinds are deeply embedded in how our society operates. Innovations in basic communication, data processing, image manipulation, and even financial systems have transformed our social worlds and our artistic practice. This became even clearer and more present during the global pandemic, where, during times of social isolation, digital and networked tools almost fully replaced in-person social life. This course will examine the ethical and esthetic implications of a digital and networked world through the lens of socially engaged art and explore how digital tools are and can be used in socially engaged art practice, where art and creative work intersect directly with people and civic life. This includes discussion of how digital and networked tools both increase and complicate physical, economic, and cultural accessibility, and the ethical and social implications of the newest technologies, including AI, Web3, and quantum computing. We will work on how digital tools have been used in socially engaged art and how they could be used further, guided by the understanding that working digitally with socially engaged concepts means both using digital tools within projects AND interrogating the inner workings of how digital practices operate socially and culturally. We will also have some meetings and activities in public spaces, field trips to organizations such as Eyebeam and Genspace, and guest lecturers. Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have questions about taking the course, or the course content.
ITPG-GT.2156.1 (22600) | Instructor: Clarinda Mac Low | Tues 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Narrative holds a place in discourses of health, illness, caregiving, and disability, carrying and conveying the densely detailed, nuanced, and complex threads of personal emotion, social experience, and cultural meaning that accompany all instances of these subjects. Narrative also plays a growing role in clinical practice, research, and health education, as increasingly registered in the burgeoning field of Medical Humanities. This course introduces students to texts, practices and major works in the emergent fields of Graphic Medicine and Narrative Medicine, using traditional humanities methods of critical reading and analysis as well as experimental and creative methods including field observation and art-making in a variety of media. Building upon a series of practice-based assignments throughout the semester, students will complete a final project that exemplifies some of the ways narrative and graphic design foster understanding and knowledge in contexts of illness.
ITPG.1 () | Instructor: Marianne Petit | Thur 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This course introduces machine learning for art and creativity. It is a broad survey of the tools, techniques, and theory needed to understand emerging AI technology and re-appropriate it for critical inquiry and creative exploration. The contents include an accessible introduction to how modern neural networks function and their real-time and non-real-time applications, as well as an overview of current state-of-the-art techniques in deep learning. We\'ll build interactive systems which incorporate real-time learning into creative code environments such as Processing, p5.js, openFrameworks, Max/MSP, and PureData, as well as control software instruments which produce music and visual art. We will also explore the frontiers of generative models such as GANs and autoencoders, showing how these methods can learn how to synthesize complex and information-rich images, sounds, and text. Course materials will be based on the tools and instructional guides being developed on ml4a.github.io, along with a suite of deep learning libraries that perform important and novel tasks. A high-level, non-comprehensive introduction to coding machine learning in Python using modern deep learning frameworks like PyTorch and Tensorflow will be included. An introduction and overview of RunwayML will also be part of the course. Students will be provided with all of the code and supporting materials. Although this course has no official prerequisites, students will find it useful to catch up on fundamental computer science skills, including using a terminal and coding basic Python. One or more optional sessions for students who wish to catch up on or refresh these skills will be offered within the first two weeks.
ITPG-GT.2994.1 (22604) | Instructor: Gene Kogan | Wed 12:20pm to 2:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
\"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)
ITPG-GT.2040.1 () | Instructor: Jeffrey Feddersen | Tues 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
The smartphone is not only the primary site for digital communication and consumption, it also hosts emerging forms of media production. Let's investigate the potential of the mobile touchscreen as a creative instrument! This is a project based course, and we will explore by creating and testing a series of functioning web-based toys - including drawing apps, character creators, and writing tools. You can expect to sharpen your skills in javascript and design.
ITPG-GT.2068.1 () | Instructor: Max Bittker | Thur 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
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.
ITPG-GT.2808.1 (22603) | Instructor: Tom Igoe | Tues 09:10am to 11:40am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Project-based development studio incorporating dramaturgy techniques, user/audience planning, and social/contextual awareness. You bring in a project. We explore how to make it more engaging through paying close attention to medium, context, and details. Students bring existing project ideas and we investigate various methods and ways to make and direct experience within the infinite combinations of contexts of the present moment together. This particular studio is just as appropriate for projects in the areas of interactive art, programming, physical computing, XR as it is in the areas of performance, sculpture, and sound walks (everything). Everything you make is time-based the moment a user interacts with it (even a painting). All time-based work can be thought of in terms of how a user is led (or not led) through it. I call this directing. We will apply various techniques of story-telling and world-building equally to seemingly “non-narrative” projects as we do to traditional-narratively structured projects. No matter what you are working on, I believe that you are a maker / director of experience. You are making / directing with intent (whether you know it or not). Your user (audience, tester, public, patron) brings with them the entirety of their life’s experience. Your intent cannot possibly meet every user's lived experience. It is your job as the maker / director to draw a circle that encompasses both. This is the studio’s lens. Students will be directed to make using placeholders instead of waiting for perfection to manifest. Step one will tell you what step two is. We will pay rigorous attention to detail, while holding close to the notion that art-making thrives in adaptability. We will critique using various, structured, co-facilitated methods. Let’s pay close attention. Let’s learn through failure. Let’s listen to what we are making. And let’s listen to each other. Here we go.
ITPG-GT.2352.1 () | Instructor: Andrew Schneider | Mon 3:30pm to 6:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date