50 Days of Making is a 1.0 unit course that offers students the opportunity to pursue a creative passion and develop or refine a skill over a 50-day period. Students choose a topic of interest and produce an expression of that topic every day for 50 days. For examples of past projects from the 100-days version of the class see here: https://itp.nyu.edu/classes/100days/. Class time is spent discussing student progress and reflecting on students’ creative journey. Note that this class is a heavy lift for 1.0 unit, so only committed students should consider registering for it. Failure to complete the 50-day challenge may result in an incomplete grade for the course.
ITPG-GT.2337.1 () | Instructor: Paula Ceballos Delgado | Thur 6:30pm to 8:45pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
This course will use the open source The COVID-19 Impact Project as an entry point to explore humanizing data on systemic inequity and injustice on a global and local scale. In this course we will: ● Explore and invent creative uses of data for advocacy and change. ● Discover how data flows from public github repositories and tools needed to visualize the data. ● Review other data-centric open source projects for the public good and discuss the questions they are trying to answer or problems they are trying to solve. ● Examine and draw inspiration from historical and contemporary data visualizations developed by advocates for social justice and the public good. ● Use data visualization as a scaffold to explore ways to support community driven mourning and memorialization after mass death events. Students can choose to participate as creatives, artists, javascript coders, p5js explorers, UI/UX designers, citizen journalists, data science explorers or social justice advocates. Course Outline ● Open Source Projects for the Public Good ● Data: Sourcing, Humanizing and Creating Visual Narratives from Data ● Storytelling with and from Data ● Data storytelling as a scaffold to support grief, ritual and memorialization after mass death events ** Students wishing to pursue their final projects beyond the class will be provided with information about resources at NYU for supporting student projects that amplify underrepresented narratives. ** Students wishing to continue their participation in The COVID-19 Impact Project after the course ends should notify us as we are seeking grant funding to implement viable concepts.
ITPG-GT.2379.1 () | Instructor: John Henry Thompson / Shindy Johnson | Fri 12:00pm to 3:00pm | Meeting Pattern: S-Special | Start Date
100 Days of Making is a 2pt course that offers students the opportunity to pursue a creative passion or interest and develop or refine a skill over a 100-day period. Students choose a topic of interest and produce an expression of that topic every day for 100 days. For examples of past projects see here: https://itp.nyu.edu/classes/100days/. The course meets every other week over the course of the 14-week semester. Class time is spent discussing student progress and reflecting on students’ creative journey. Students are encouraged but not required to start their project on or near January 1. There will be a meeting for enrolled students to discuss project ideas prior to the winter break. About Christina Dacanay: www.cdacanay.com About JJ Esquizo: http://www.juanjose.xyz/ & Instagram: @juanjose_xyz
ITPG-GT.2793.1 () | Instructor: Katherine Dillon | Thur 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-All Semester | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2793.2 () | Instructor: Karalyn C Lathrop | Mon 8:00pm to 10:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-All Semester | Start Date
IMALR-GT.404.1 () | Instructor: James Hosken | Tues 08:00am to 11:00am | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
IMALR-GT.404.2 () | Instructor: Karalyn C Lathrop | Tues 8:00pm to 11:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
2020 has amplified foundational flaws in our ecological, food, racial and environmental systems creating a persistent state of whiplash from crises, climate related catastrophes, racial injustice and industry meltdowns. While these areas may seem unrelated they actually exist within a Venn diagram of interdependency and influence where pulling a lever in one area directly impacts another area and the ability to shapeshift and adapt in the face of these rapid changes has become required for survival. This class will uncover the connections within these systems and use science, design and systems thinking to explore ways to create actionable interventions – either analog or digital – to address both the core problems and the collateral impact. Speakers from these industries: farming, restaurants, BLM, climate and ecological sciences - will present specific problems within these fields to the class in order to inspire the creation of small projects to tackle these issues. For example, interventions could be a particle sensor for a restaurant HVAC system, algorithms for precision agriculture, AI to mitigate racial profiling, data visualizations and infographics to illustrate pathways to better climate resilience.
ITPG-GT.2333.1 () | Instructor: Stefani Bardin | Wed 12:10pm to 2:40pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
In this course, students will explore and engage with Afrocentric design practices and countercultural theories when considering pedagogy, technology, community building, and speculative design. Through guided research, design exercises, conversations around readings and other media, students will be exposed to an omni-specialized and comprehensive methodological approach that cultivates radically imaginative futures. This course will introduce students to the philosophies and forms of Afrotectopia, a pioneering social institution developed out of ITP, and equip students with the skills to build thoughtful communities and spaces for creativity in and outside of the classroom. The course will culminate with students materializing their research into artifacts of the future (whether tangible like a physically computed object, intangible like a soundscape or short film, or experiential like a workshop or theatrical event) that realizes a new future and healthy societal order.
ITPG-GT.2326.1 () | Instructor: Ari Melenciano | Tues 8:00pm to 10:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
Light Emitting Diodes or LEDs are used creatively all around us. They have the ability to emit light at different colors and intensities instantly and from very tiny points. How can we make creative visual works out of these amazing devices? What construction methods can we use to make those works reliable? Big LEDs will cover the process of designing large LED systems. We will cover LED array hardware and how to map pixels from computer generated media onto them. We will go through every major part of the hardware - different styles of LED arrays, drivers and gateways, cables, data protocols, and how to safely power all of them. We will learn to use the pixel mapping softwares Enttec ELM and Madmapper. We will also cover the paperwork needed to furnish a professional LED installation, including drafting riser diagrams, plan, section, and elevation views, creating a bill of materials, and writing instructions for users and installers. This year\'s final project will be a site-specific LED sculpture installed in a public space at 375 Jay St. The installations will be able to display student chosen media that can be viewed for one minute. Students will work either in groups or alone and can choose from one of four installation options to present on: - A prepared square section of 2.0mm pitch LED video tiles (approx 256px x 256px, 2’-6” x 2’-6”) - A prepared low-resolution sculpture with diffused linear elements (approx 500px, 2’-6” x 5’-0” overall) - A student conceptualized LED video tile project - A student conceptualized low-resolution project Because of this year\'s pandemic, unprecedented changes have come to the professional world of LED installations. As a result, we will be using remote tools such as networked-based cameras, remote desktop applications, and virtual private network connections to watch and operate the final projects. We will spend class time setting these tools up together. The two prepared options for the final project will be installed and maintained by the instructor.
ITPG-GT.2481.1 () | Instructor: Aaron Parsekian | Thur 7:00pm to 9:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) provides low power wireless connections between devices, including but not limited to mobile phones, smart home devices, and wearables. Following the standardized protocols, it’s easy and efficient to develop low-energy wireless interactions using Bluetooth LE. This 7-week class introduces fundamental information about Bluetooth LE and provides hands-on practices for students to learn and understand BLE. This class is a good fit for students who are interested in designing and developing IoT devices, wearables, or who would like to learn more about physical computing. What will students do? The topics we will discuss in class will include wireless communications, hardware protocols, power management, etc. Students will get hands-on experience of designing and prototyping BLE projects individually or in groups. How will the course be structured? Each class will be a hybrid of lectures, demos, discussions, and hands-on workshops. For each class, the instructor will bring up different topics and share existing projects and research for the students to have an overall understanding of the topics. The topics will be followed by in-class practices where students will practice the techniques they’ve learned. In a remote class format, students will be divided into small groups to get their questions answered.
ITPG-GT.2089.1 () | Instructor: Jingwen Zhu | Thur 8:00pm to 10:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
This online asynchronous course introduces the fundamentals of building \"full stack\" web applications. It 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. The course will consist of a series of online videos, other online resources such as a class website with notes, feedback, forums/chat (discourse, slack, discord), as well as live office hours and/or help sessions with the professor and GAs. There will not be regularly scheduled class meetings.
ITPG-GT.2084.1 () | Instructor: Shawn Van Every | Syllabus | TBD | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2084.2 () | Instructor: Rubin Huang | Thur 6:30pm to 9:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
While the automation of religion may sound like science fiction, the foundation of this course is examples of physical religious robots already built and spanning most major religions. Their existence raises complex questions about spiritual assistive devices, religious jobs as work, technology as “miracles,” idolatry, transhumanism, sacrilegious robots vs secular robots, the role of rites for robots, and whether a robot can be a member of a religion. Religious robots confront us with the boundaries of personhood, and can provide insights of what that means for technology, spirituality, and society. The course will combine reading, writing, discussion, research and speculative design.
ITPG-GT.2092.1 () | Instructor: Kari Love | Thur 7:00pm to 9:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
IMALR-GT.402.1 () | Instructor: Katherine Dillon | Tues 8:00pm to 11:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
This asynchronous 7-week class focuses on design as a vehicle for change. As designers we have the opportunity to create products and experiences that can change perceptions, break patterns and introduce new methods and behaviors in ways that can have meaningful impact at both an individual and societal scale. This course combines the practical skills of UX design with the conceptual skills of behavioral psychology to provide a framework for designing products focused on initiating change. This class is for students with passion for an issue and enthusiasm to apply their creative and technical skills to solve real problems in meaningful ways.The course is both a seminar class and a production studio. CLASS FORMAT The class will be taught asynchronously meaning lectures will be available online, discussion will take place online and assignments should be submitted online. Students will be expected to be actively engaged in the online discussions that will be topic-based and include providing feedback on fellow student’s work. The final project can be done individually or with a partner. There will be weekly office hours for students to meet with the professor to ask questions, discuss work and participate in workshops that provide hands-on experience with the concepts covered in the lectures. These optional office hours will be scheduled to accommodate time zones.
ITPG-GT.2331.1 () | Instructor: Ari Melenciano | TBD | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2331.2 () | Instructor: Peiqi SU | TBD | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
How do you process data from connected devices? This class examines how to build systems to collect, process, store, and visualize data from connected devices. The class will review and discuss real world Internet of Things (IoT) systems using case studies and actual projects. We will build systems using Arduino hardware and open source software. We will discuss how IoT systems are built on commercial cloud infrastructure. Students will learn about IoT devices and the data pipelines for processing data. They will build an Arduino based device to send and receive data over WiFi using standard protocols like MQTT. Students will write code to move data from MQTT into a database. Students will learn how to query the database and present data as tabular data and graphs. To gain an understanding of an entire IoT system from device to application, we will start at a high level and then drill into each of the pieces -- we will: - Discuss sensor hardware and wireless options (WiFi, Cellular, LoRaWAN, LTE-M, etc) for moving data to the server - Discuss transport options MQTT, CoAP, AMQP, HTTPS, etc. - Examine SQL, NoSQL, and Time Series Databases - Look at tools and techniques for querying and visualizing data. - Collect and store sensor data using Amazon Web Services (AWS) Prerequisite: - Introduction to Physical Computing - Introduction to Computational Media (suggested) The class will be a mix of lecture, discussion, and building IoT systems. Real world examples and case studies will be used to demonstrate how IoT can be built.
ITPG-GT.2473.1 () | Instructor: Don Coleman | Thur 6:30pm to 9:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
In this course, students will be introduced to 3D rendering and modeling techniques within the context of international architectural practices. Students will be exposed to scholarship and research surrounding form, structure, aesthetics, and philosophies to engage in a design practice rooted in both societal context and experimentalism. Throughout the course, students will engage in theories around psychogeography and other design-oriented psychologies while studying international design practices through readings, guest lectures, and class-wide conversations. By the end of the course, students will develop their skills in comfortability engaging in an electromedia practice that moves from ideation and research into digitally rendered 3D environments. The course will culminate with students creating WebVR environments with their 3D renderings. This course will be taught in Cinema4D.
ITPG-GT.2324.1 () | Instructor: Ari Melenciano | Tues 8:00pm to 10:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
Fast Fun: Physical Controllers for Unity will guide students in the creation of game controllers for Unity applications. Leveraging simple circuits and easy communications protocols, students will create physical controllers to control their Unity creations. Strategies will be oriented towards quickly creating multiple, effective prototypes. An emphasis will be put on reusable, ecofriendly materials and methods that work in your bedroom as well as the shop or lab. This class will be part code workshop, Physical Computing review, and HCI/UX analysis. Discussions of readings will frame and give context to technical exercises.
ITPG-GT.2335.1 () | Instructor: Dominic Barrett | Tues 08:00am to 10:30am | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
In this experimental seven week seminar/studio, we’ll explore media meant to be experienced from a first person point of view (ie, training simulations, found footage horror, first person shooters, Go Pro videos, VR). This class will include a gentle introduction / brush-up of creative applications of Unity3d (culminating in the ability to create a simple 3d FPS style experience, subverting the “first person shooter”), as well as an introduction to a variety of techniques for crafting first person experiences. Ultimately, the final project you develop will use the medium/technology of your choosing, on the topic of your choosing, leveraging the affordances of first person POV. Class activities will include: discussion of readings and artworks, research and presentations on self-determined sub-topics of interest, technical demos, critique. If there is shared interest, we will do a live-streamed performance or other collective digital presentation of final projects. We will: Co-construct a shared critical language around first person POV media Read and discuss media and texts about: violence in gaming, empathy, embodiment, subjectivity, etc. Review or reinforce basic Unity skills Deeply engage with each other’s ideas, work, and points of view!
ITPG-GT.2083.1 () | Instructor: Sarah Rothberg | Tues 08:00am to 10:30am | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
This course is a survey of some of the more exploratory new directions AI is heading towards in the coming years and the creative applications these new developments may enable. More specifically, the class will explore the following three subtopics: 1) Realistic language models: Turing-test passing text generators like GPT-3 are writing whole paragraphs with human-level coherence. We will explore techniques for generating creative fiction and chatbots using both APIs and our own home-brewed NLP models. 2) Generative music: Since WaveNet in 2016, generative models of audio have gradually evolved to capture music and natural sound. How and for whom will top-10 hits in the future be made, and how will they be listened to? We will speculate about such questions and experiment with speech and audio synthesizers and new kinds of digital musical instruments. 3) Decentralized AI: What happens when we can do machine learning at scale without putting all the data in one computer? This seemingly trivial difference opens up all kinds of new possibilities, including AI co-ops and autonomous artificial artists. Each subtopic is accompanied by practical resources to use or implement these techniques for yourself, as well as an overview of the available and relevant tools associated with it, and will finish with a short project to apply them to a topic you\'re interested in.
ITPG-GT.2497.1 () | Instructor: Gene Kogan | Mon 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
People think in stories. They\'re how we make sense of the world. Professionally, it isn’t just artists who tell stories: activists, advertisers, and politicians all know that a compelling story can capture an audience in a way that arguments and statistics can’t. This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of narrative structure across a variety of media: written stories, movies, games, comics and graphic novels. Across these media, students will learn to identify the key elements that grab people\'s hearts and minds. Outside of class, students will focus on developing one interactive or transmedia project inspired by a work we study in class. Students will walk away with an understanding of, and practice working with, the principles of storytelling.
ITPG-GT.2334.1 () | Instructor: Jennifer Lim | Wed 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
On October 8th, 2015, a team in Ecuador identified 431 species of birds - the world record for number counted in a single day. Earlier that year in Myanmar, a scientist counted one Jerdon's babbler, the first in nearly eight decades. In December of 2019, eBird announced that its database held over 737 million bird observations. This morning, in Brooklyn Bridge park, I counted 38 house sparrows, 4 black-and-white warblers and an ovenbird. This course will consider birding as a practice, and will dive deep into the processes by which observations become data. As a collective, we will investigate how crowd-sourced data is transforming ornithology, and will explore ways to tell stories about the natural world through visualization and more radical forms of data representation.
ITPG-GT.2085.1 () | Instructor: Jer Thorp | Mon 08:00am to 10:30am | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second 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 () | Instructor: Ben Light | Wed 12:10pm to 2:40pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
A course where we will follow the computer rendering pipeline, and understand how shapes and images end up on our screens. The course will cover different steps of the process, but will focus primarily on shaders and how they can be used to program the graphics card and render out visuals. Topics will include meshing techniques and topology, the ins and outs of the different shading steps, and how graphics cards can be used for non-graphics computing. The course will primarily use web technologies (either p5.js or three.js) making it easy to view and share each other\'s work.
ITPG-GT.2091.1 () | Instructor: Elie Zananiri | Wed 6:30pm to 9:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
IMALR-GT.403.1 () | Instructor: Roopa Vasudevan | Tues 8:00pm to 11:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
With Machine Learning models are getting smaller, and microcontrollers are getting more computing power, Machine Learning is moving towards edge devices. This class explores the idea of how machine learning algorithms can be used on microcontrollers along with sensor data to build Physical Computing projects. In this class, we will learn about TensorFlow Lite, a library that allows you to run machine learning algorithms on microcontrollers. We will talk about common machine learning algorithms and techniques and apply them to build hands-on interactive projects that enrich our daily lives. Students will learn to use pre-trained models, and re-train the models with sensor data. We are going to talk about Image Classification, Transfer Learning, Gesture and Speech Detection. For each topic, we will first discuss its history, theory, datasets, and applications, and then build simple experiments based on the topic. Prospective students are expected to have taken Introduction to Physical Computing and Introduction to Computational Media course, or have equivalent programming experience with Arduino and JavaScript.
ITPG-GT.2050.1 () | Instructor: Yining Shi | Thur 6:30pm to 9:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are the current state of the art machine learning technology to synthesize imagery. In Making Visual Art with GANs students will use popular deep learning models to create images, videos, and interactive experiences. The focus will be on hands-on experimentation with style transfer, CycleGAN/Pix2Pix, and StyleGAN2-ADA in RunwayML and Google Colab. The course will cover the theory behind deep learning and GANs, using pre-trained models, dataset creation, and training custom models. We’ll look at ways to generate images and videos using Python, p5.js, as well as reacting to sound and motion inputs. Coding in Python is not required for this course, but a general knowledge of programming basics is encouraged.
ITPG-GT.2336.1 () | Instructor: Derrick Schultz | Mon 8:00pm to 10:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
Computers and Networks can more directly convey our experience of being in the world than traditional media. Class discussion will center around a psychological examination of that experience. Students will work on creating media to better depict our experience and networks to communicate it. The techniques in the class include three.js for creating environments, machine learning for generating imagery, webrtc for transmitting sound and video and cloud database services for storing it. This class picks up where Introduction to Computational Media leaves off.
ITPG-GT.2865.1 () | Instructor: Dan O\'Sullivan | Syllabus | Wed 12:10pm to 2:40pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
Transformative technologies (a.k.a. Transtech) are the wave of the future, yet many challenges remain before their use can become as effective and widespread as that of personal computers and cell phones today. This course will introduce students to this exciting field, starting with the examination of the potential for optimizing experience through mindfulness and meditation, the understanding of basic issues in obtaining and interpreting physiological signals, toward the aim of generating ideas for wearable transtech projects. Students will examine the ideas behind efforts to optimize human experience; practice different meditation techniques to experience the variety of cognitive and affective strategies they use and the varied effects they generate; explore the basic issues in obtaining and interpreting physiological data, and the use of brain stimulation methods such as TMS, dTCS, etc., and use this info to come up with ideas for wearable transtech devices. The class will be mix of lectures, exercises and demos.
ITPG-GT.2145.1 () | Instructor: Zoran Josipovic | Mon 12:10pm to 2:40pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
You affect others’ experience. Just by existing. If anyone has ever interacted with anything that you have ever made - you are a curator of experience. Curation means to care for. And all experience is time-based. From theaters to art installations to mobile apps to VR to games to thought experiments to fMRI procedures to elevators. You are an experience-designer. This is a class for experience-designers. If the world were clear, art would not exist. Time-based art and “theater” more specifically is a perfect manipulator of experience. Many creators of time-based art look for the “universal.” What happens in the minds of all truly happens. How can we use art to make our brains experience the same things? What behind-the-scenes work can we employ to manipulate experience? Film scoring works on us in ways we don’t perceive in the moment. Can we pay closer attention to this when making work? Sometimes what we have for lunch affects our experience of art more than the hours of labor that went into the most miniscule of decisions when making that art. Show don’t tell. How does the play take place in the room in front of us? How can public performance not be awkward? How do we experience a performance rather than watch it. Goals: Identify the reality / micro realities of your surroundings. Use what you identify to aid in curation of emotion with or without narrative (i.e. “art”) Format: Workshop / Laboratory / Post-mort. Students will be expected to make. Rapid prototyping and releasing early and often will become mantras for breathing life into performance ideas. How do we show not tell? How do we use science as a blueprint for staging? How do literal experiments become curated experiences for others? We will research. We will make. We will critique what we make. We will make again.
ITPG-GT.2032.1 () | Instructor: Andrew Schneider | Mon 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
This advanced experiential production course will introduce students to the latest techniques in 360 video recording and manual stitching, camera-paired Depthkit Cinema volumetric capture, DSLR photogrammetry/retopology, and a quick look at emerging virtual production systems using Blackmagic cameras in Unreal. Alongside an intense technical focus, the course will also deconstruct other experiential works that utilize similar experimental production designs to introduce the expectations demanded by professional productions. The course ultimately hopes to show viable paths for students to engage with immersive media capture pipelines, at an expert level, with an expanded sense of possibility and inspiration.
ITPG-GT.2065.1 () | Instructor: Matthew Niederhauser | Tues 12:10pm to 2:40pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
Over the past 3 years, we have seen many aspects of our lives thrust online. Increasingly, we are working, learning, socializing with family and friends, attending live performances and more through 2D grids of video feeds on platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet. These communication tools have become essential for remote communities to connect, yet fail to replicate many of the most engaging, messy and human aspects of our in-person experience. What happens when we break out of this grid and explore new forms of real-time social interactions online using webcam video and audio? Recent explorations in this realm have shown the promise of spatial metaphors in creating engaging real-time social interactions online. In this course, students will create their own series of experimental social spaces that explore these questions: how does the shape and nature of our environment affect the way we communicate? What unique forms of real-time expression and sharing might be possible online (and only online)? How might we design experiences for the unique social dynamics we want to support? Students will be exposed to principles of spatial design as well as a series of open source Javascript tools for arranging live webcam video and audio in 2D and 3D space in the browser. They will use WebGL (through the three.js library) to build 2D and 3D environments, and will be exposed to WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) and Node.js to add interactivity to those environments.
ITPG-GT.2327.1 () | Instructor: Aidan Nelson | Mon 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
Zoom has become one of the primary modes of gathering, communicating, and interacting with many of the people in our lives. This simple but robust tool has replaced the complexity found in typical day to day modes of engagement with tiny portals locked in a grid. Everyone is burnt out, everyone is tired of it, and everyone dreads the next Zoom meeting in their calendar. This class is all about bringing a sense of joy, fun, and experimentation to a platform that has lost much of its novelty. Over 7 weeks we will engage in a series of prompts and experiments to reimagine what kind of experiences we can have on Zoom, culminating in a collection of group performances and events open to invited guests. We will use tools such as OBS, ZoomOSC, Virtual Cameras, Virtual Audio, and more to learn how we can control and manipulate the core functions of Zoom. While these tools will go a long way in crafting these experiences, the class is also about sharing ideas and finessing our existing tools and skill sets to collectively experiment with what is possible and what is engaging.
ITPG-GT.2082.1 () | Instructor: Matt Romein | Thur 09:00am to 11:30am | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
We build computers based on an illusory view of ourselves and miss out on connecting with good parts. This class looks at how we can reach the rest of you, the unconscious, the implicit, the context beyond the text. The readings and discussions in this class draw on modern research such as neuroscience, behavioral economics, social psychology, embodied cognition, and evolutionary psychology. The production assignments look for opportunities in biosensing, data analysis and experiential media to interact with a fuller spectrum of your experience. ICM and PComp are prerequisites.
ITPG-GT.2975.1 () | Instructor: Dan O\'Sullivan | Syllabus | Wed 12:10pm to 2:40pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
This course provides a fresh look at new and revised curatorial, artistic and technological frameworks that explore the decoupling of art and technology from capitalist, colonial and draconian systems. By employing 'reverse engineering' as a conceptual tool for repair and repatriations, students will collectively rethink social, cultural and political systems pertaining to monetary, ethical, racial, human, machine learning structures via an artist and curatorially driven lens. The course will include a combination of seminars, guest lectures/ presentations, case studies and site visits. The course follows a 'think tank' model where critical reflection, readings, curatorial and practical assignments will culminate in a collective class project, which may take the form of a group exhibition, public program/ publication. Fostering an environment for the cross circulation of critical ideas, the course provides a compact and timely overview of a fast shifting and changing local, global and virtual ecosystem via the art and technology of our time.
ITPG-GT.2097.1 () | Instructor: Sara Raza | Mon 08:00am to 10:30am | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date
Listening is not something we do through hearing alone. Engaging with multiple perspectives, from Deaf studies and critiques of ableist hearing ideologies, to the possibilities and pitfalls presented through machine listening and imaginative sonic speculation, we will playfully deconstruct and question what it means to listen at all. Each week, readings will be assigned and students are asked to respond to prompts in the form of light-weight exercises that will orient most of our in-class discussion. Time will be spent discussing readings, presenting, and providing critique for each other’s projects in order to help draw connections between theory and practice. Through in-class presentations, we will encounter works by Christine Sun Kim, George Lewis, Pauline Oliveros and read from Jennifer Lynn Stoever, Tina Campt, and François Bonnet. The class has no technical prerequisites, and students are welcome to respond with works using tools and techniques from other classes (audio/video presentation, programming and physical computing, installation and fabrication, etc.). Through this work, we will unpack how the way in which we attend to the physical world and its inhabitants through our listening has real consequences. In much the same way our interpretation of the world is informed and influenced by factors outside of ourselves, our capacity to listen is conditioned through societal, political, economic, historical, and racial dimensions. We will disentangle listening from hearing and consider listening as a practice that begins not with how we hear sounds but how it allows us to (or prevents us from) interfacing and relating to our exteriors (and interiors). By the end of the class we will attempt to converge and coalesce our own ideas and perspective of what it means to listen. About Johann Diedrick: http://www.johanndiedrick.com
ITPG-GT.2328.1 () | Instructor: Johann Diedrick | Mon 8:00pm to 10:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
This course focuses on the Design, User Testing, and Production of the final Thesis project. Students will meet with the Thesis Advisor bi-weekly, often in small study groups or 1:1 meetings. Prerequisite: Thesis Part 1: Research and Development.
ITPG-GT.2099.6 () | Instructor: Stefani Bardin | Tues 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-All Semester | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2099.3 () | Instructor: Kat Sullivan | Tues 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-All Semester | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2099.4 () | Instructor: Luisa Pereira | Tues 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-All Semester | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2099.5 () | Instructor: Zoe Fraade-Blanar | Tues 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-All Semester | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2099.2 () | Instructor: Kathleen Wilson | Tues 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-All Semester | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2099.7 () | Instructor: Sarah Rothberg | Tues 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-All Semester | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2099.1 () | Instructor: Nancy Hechinger | Tues 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-All Semester | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2099.8 () | Instructor: Michael Naimark | Thur 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-All Semester | Start Date
Wireless technologies have become a very critical part of our lives. However, even for some electrical engineers, radio frequency (RF) related topics are considered to be somewhat governed by “black magic”. This course aims to provide an intuitive understanding of how RF circuits and systems work, and to help you utilize wireless technologies in a more predictable manner. Topics such as wave propagation, modulation, RF transceiver topology, and basic antenna design will be covered. Lab sessions are tailored to provide hands-on exploration of various RF circuits/modules and their real- world applications, such as wireless Arduino communications, antenna fabrication and testing, and oscilloscope / spectrum analyzer measurements. Basic circuit design and prototyping skills are preferred, but a review class is provided at the beginning of the course. Schedule (7 weeks) 2.5-hr lecture, plus 1.5-hr office-hour per week Class 1 Recap of fundamentals of circuit design, prototyping, and Arduino topics. Class 2 Basic wireless communication concepts – wave propagation and modulation (w/ in-class demonstrations) Class 3 Lab 1 – Signal measurements (oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer/software defined radio) Class 4 Basic wireless communication concepts – transceiver architecture and antenna (w/ in-class demonstrations) Class 5 Lab 2 – Simple transceiver (Arduino communication through ASK module) Class 6 Project – Antenna design and fabrication Class 7 Project – Antenna measurement and integration
ITPG-GT.2330.1 () | Instructor: Haotian Duan | Wed 7:00pm to 9:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 7-Second Half | Start Date
Across New York City’s universities, the Technology, Media and Democracy program will bring together journalism, design, and technical disciplines to understand the various threats to democracy, and attempt to address these challenges using technical and computational methods and techniques. Students have the opportunity to work with peers in other programs in journalism, engineering, media studies, design & technology at Columbia, Cornell Tech, CUNY and The New School to build ideas that advance an information ecosystem that nurtures democratic societies. The free press, journalism and the media are some of the most critical elements of our democracy, but have been increasingly under attack by political and market forces, and a social media landscape that has altered the way people interact and share information. These challenges include: dwindling resources and support for deep investigative journalism; legal, technical and even physical assaults of media organizations and journalists; challenges to credibility and reliability of information; and shifting business models and economics that threaten both local and national news organizations and coverage. This course will include various elements that will help frame the problem and build/prototype solutions that address a variety of issues. https://techpolicy.press Reading List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xoq92YRHNIVJV-74gwilZKVy-6yDTgAkfBDAll-oDO8/edit
ITPG-GT.2184.1 () | Instructor: Justin Hendrix | Mon 7:00pm to 8:30pm / Wed 11:00am to 1:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
IMALR-GT.401.1 () | Instructor: Andrew Lazarow / Despina Papadopoulos | Thur 08:00am to 10:00am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
IMALR-GT.401.2 () | Instructor: Andrew Lazarow / Despina Papadopoulos | Thur 8:00pm to 10:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This studio class will explore the in-between space of video, painting, installation, and new technologies. What unconventional methods can be employed to create a 3D model? What innovative strategies can be used to integrate 3D animated video and installation in a single work? How can an artist resolve the fundamental differences and build the connections between 2D moving images and 3D objects and space? Over the course of the semester we will introduce the basic 3D skills in Maya, and apply these skills to build a cohesive body of artistic work with 3 different outputs: Animated video, installation and augmented reality using Spark AR.
ITPG-GT.2096.1 () | Instructor: Ziyang Wu | Fri 08:00am to 10:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Auto Fictions is a studio class focusing on the creation of immersive, multi-path and interactive experiences based on personal narrative. Documentary art has included the art of installation for decades, but new technologies have given artists affordable tools that allow them to rapidly prototype and then refine immersive media experiences. The course centers on the creation of live experiences within a surround video mapped space that incorporates immersive audio and can include interactive elements. Autofictions is an interdepartmental course that may include students from Film, ITP and Theater disciplines. Students will create interdisciplinary production teams. Each team will make an original project and students will help each other create their work through intensive collaboration.
ITPG-GT.2066.1 () | Instructor: Kevin Cunningham / Carol Dysinger | Fri 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This course will explore the history and meaning of the ubiquitous concept of “cursed” media, and provide students with a survey of digital art tools for the creation of their own cursed animation, video, photography, music, and web art. Many people were first introduced to the concept of cursed media when it exploded into mainstream internet discourse in 2016 with the @cursedimages Twitter account, which posted found photos bound by their unsettling effect on the viewer. Cursed media predates this account, however, stretching back to medieval notions of cursed objects. We will demonstrate how throughout time, cursed media has functioned like a slip of the tongue that provides a window into the cultural unconscious, where we encounter uncensored thoughts and feelings about race, gender, class, and what it means to be human. From Amazon Muzak generators to Artbreeder’s GAN tools for image creation, from machine learning text generators to robots who work at Walmart, cursed media and tools for its creation bring into view the ways that that culture reacts to tension between the increasingly precarious position of human beings in the capitalist 21st century and the threat of human erasure by the powerful forces of nature. Students will be introduced to digital art tools for creating music, manipulating photography and video, working with 3d animation, and building web art. Students will attempt to create their own cursed media, and in the process will gain a deeper understanding of the unconscious biases and ethical implications of contemporary digital creation tools. About Cassie Tarakajian: https://cassietarakajian.com About Adam Rokhsar: http://www.adamrokhsar.com/
ITPG-GT.2088.1 () | Instructor: Cassie Tarakajian / Adam Rokhsar | Mon 12:10pm to 2:40pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
If you were inventing a museum today, what would it look like? Who would be there? What would its main purpose be? What would the audience experience? The first museums were called Cabinets of Wonder. Usually, a viewer with a guide, often the collector, would open doors and drawers to see what was inside--amazing things from different parts of the world, different times. They were windows on the world to places the visitors would probably never be able to go; to see things they would never otherwise be able to see. And now there’s television, movies, the internet, and travel. Why do people go to museums now? Will they in the future? Today, most museums seek to educate and to include more and more diverse visitors than they used to. How do people learn in public spaces? How do we know that they do? How can they make use of the new interactive technologies to support the experience and not lose what’s special about them? The class is an exploration, observation, theory, and design class for you to imagine the future of museums and exhibits. Museum and exhibit visits are your primary assignments for the first half of the course—usually accompanied by a reading. You will also make some record of your visit (including a sketchbook, a diorama, reviews). There will be guest speakers from Museums and exhibit design firms, and several field trips. In the second half of the course, you begin to imagine how you might reinvent a museum and develop a full-scale presentation of your own Cabinet of Wonder. About Emily Conrad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily/
ITPG-GT.2470.1 () | Instructor: Emily Conrad | Tues 7:00pm to 9:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
The goal of this class is to gain an understanding and proficiency with Computer Aided Design (CAD). We will become familiar with CAD software, mechanical design, and simulation. The class will cover common CAD modeling techniques. We will use our designs to get physical parts made as well as use them in virtual projects. We will create parts both real and impossible.
ITPG-GT.2086.1 () | Instructor: Ben Light | Thur 12:10pm to 2:40pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Rules of play shape competitive games from checkers to football. But how do rules of interaction, both stated and unstated, shape everyday life? What happens when there are no established conventions and the rules are being made up as we go along? And last but not least, can we invent and facilitate new social norms through unconventional uses of technology? In this course, we will design, code and test strategies for playful, serious, and bizarre group interactions drawing inspiration from daily life. We will interrogate both what it means to play and how individual identities and group behaviors emerge. What motivates participation? What hinders it? When does participation become oppressive? What's the difference between self-consciousness and self-awareness? Who has power? Who doesn't? Are leaders necessary? What’s the difference between taking turns and engaging in conversation? What happens when the slowest person sets the pace? What happens when there are no explicit rules? And how do we set the stage for breaking social conventions? Class time will be a mix of technical material, play-testing, improvisation and movement work adapted from acting and dance training. All projects will be done in groups of 2-4. We will work with both mobile sensors and traditional keyboard/mouse interaction with p5.js, socket.io and node.js to enable real-time interaction. Our challenge is to design technology-enabled interactions that encourage participants to be even more present in the physical world with each other.
ITPG-GT.2176.1 () | Instructor: Mimi (Yue) Yin | Thur 2:00pm to 5:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2176.2 () | Instructor: Mimi (Yue) Yin | Tues 09:30am to 12:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Language is more than just words and meanings. Language is material: it's paper and ink, pixels and screens, fingertips on keyboards. In this course, students will gain an understanding of how language's material manifestations are represented digitally, and learn computational techniques in order to create new work and new systems that challenge conventions in type design and page layout. Topics include asemic writing, concrete poetry, markup languages, character encodings, generative typography, and printing technologies (including pen plotters). Readings and lectures in the class draw from the fields of computation, critical theory, literary studies, art history, mathematics and graphic design. A series of production-oriented assignments lead up to a final project. In addition to critique, sessions will feature class discussions and technical tutorials. Prerequisites: Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience.
ITPG-GT.2051.1 () | Instructor: Allison Parrish | Fri 12:10pm to 2:40pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
The World Wide Web no longer stops at the edge of your screen. When it comes to products, if it powers up, it talks to another device. This class provides an overview of methods for connecting the physical world to web-based applications. We’ll consider what the emerging interaction patterns are, if any, and we’ll develop some of our own as needed. This class can be seen as a narrower and more interaction design-based complement to Understanding Networks. The latter class provides a broader overview of the dynamics of communications networks, while this class focuses specifically on the challenges of connecting embedded devices to web-based services. Neither class is a prerequisite for the other, however. This class will introduce network connection techniques for devices using networked microcontrollers and processors running an embedded operating system. Prerequisites: Intro to Physical Computing and Intro to Computational Media, or equivalent experience with the topics covered in those classes. Learning Objectives: Students will gain an understanding of the basics of network programming for devices with limited computing power. They will learn about current protocols for communication between devices and networked servers, and about the rudiments of security for that communication. Reading: There will be an article or two to read each week, to foster discussion about the design of connected things. Assignments: There will be several one-week software and hardware assignments to get familiar with different technologies and communications protocols, and one hardware and software final application project.
ITPG-GT.2565.1 () | Instructor: Tom Igoe | Tues 09:00am to 11:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
From the most ephemeral thought to the rise and fall of civilizations, every aspect of your life, and indeed the universe, involves energy. Energy has been called the “universal currency” by prolific science author Vaclav Smil, but also “a very subtle concept… very, very difficult to get right” by Noble physicist Richard Feynman. It is precisely this combination of importance and subtlety that motivates the Energy class. Maybe you fear the existential threat of anthropogenic climate change, or maybe you just want your physical computing projects to work better. Either way, the class will help you understand energy quantitatively and intuitively, and incorporate that knowledge in your projects (and perhaps your life). How? Building on skills introduced in Creative Computing, we will generate and measure electricity in order to see and feel energy in its various forms. We will turn kinetic and solar energy into electrical energy, store that in batteries and capacitors, and use it to power projects. We will develop knowledge useful in a variety of areas, from citizen-science to art installations, and address topics such as climate change and infrastructure access through the lens of energy. Students will build a final project using skills learned in the class. Prerequisites: Creative Computing Instructor Jeffrey Feddersen Website: https://www.fddrsn.net/
ITPG-GT.2466.1 () | Instructor: Jeffrey Feddersen | Tues 08:00am to 10:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
How do we design for immersive, cooperative, and playful experiences? Students in this course will look at immersive and experiential design through the lens of one type of experience: the Escape Room. We will explore different experiences, narrative structures, group dynamics, and game mechanics. Over 14 weeks students will explore how to design immersive and participatory experiences through cooperation, play, and problem solving. Though weekly assignments and exercises students will use a variety of methods to design cooperative narratives and experiences. Over the course of the semester we will explore different forms of digital and physical interaction. During the last few weeks of the semester students will collaborate to design, build, and operate an escape room experience. Prerequisites: Physical Computing and Introduction to Computational Media.
ITPG-GT.2491.1 () | Instructor: David Rios | Wed 08:00am to 10:30am | 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 | Tues 6:30pm to 9:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
When technology advances, teaching styles regress. Every new wave of technology touted as a boon to education -- radio, TV, DVDs, the internet -- has tended to revive the idea that the ideal class structure is the lecture, where faculty broadcast information to disconnected student recipients. Yet we\'ve known for decades that lectures are poor ways to create learning experiences, and that actively involving students--with the class, the teacher, each other--is far more effective. The thesis of Imagination and Distributed Learning is that the range of possible experiences available online is larger, more varied, and more interesting than most of what is on offer from colleges and universities’ online courses. Students will read teaching and learning research, and do field work where they set out to learn something online and reflect on the experience, and then set out to teach something online, and reflect on that experience. The goal of the course will be for students to build up alternatives to existing (and often quite dull) online educational practices today. The final project will be a proposal, plus designs or partial implementation, for online tools or experiences that will create experiences users can learn from. These proposals will be presented to a panel of people managing existing online programs at NYU and elsewhere.
ITPG-GT.2075.1 () | Instructor: Clay Shirky | Thur 12:10pm to 2:40pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Have you noticed that touchless devices and systems have become more prevalent these days? For example, automatic toilets, faucets, hand sanitizer dispensers, thermometers, and even paper towel dispensers have sensors that allow them to detect when they are needed. Have you seen interfaces where people can type with different body postures? How about musical instruments that you can play by waving your hands in the air? This course will focus on researching and designing intangible interactions. Intangible interactions are those that we engage in without involving direct physical contact. Intangible interfaces don’t have a tangible form that explicitly instructs us how to interact with them, and these interactions utilize other forms of feedback than those we feel through touch. While technologies used for intangible interaction–such as computer vision and sensors are now more available and accessible, knowledge around the design and implementation of effective intangible interactions is a much less documented subject. We will explore practical, artistic, and whimsical applications of intangible interaction and look at the ways it can enhance human-computer interactions in our everyday lives. For example, it can allow new ways to interact with educational exhibits, artifacts, and artworks. We will explore intangibility as a poetic medium that can open up possibilities for creating work that challenges human senses and perception. We will discuss what are cultural and social implications that we need to consider in designing intangible interactions. What does it mean for an interaction to be “intuitive” and what are some of the assumptions that are embedded into designs that we need to challenge? Technical topics that will be discussed in the class include: non touch-based sensors including optical sensors; proximity sensing; optimizing sensor readings on Arduino; extending capability of sensors with light pipes and lenses; body tracking with cameras ; signals; environmental sensing. Tags: intangible, interaction, artistic, poetic, physical, sensors, physicalcomputing, hci, research, art, environment, playful, fun
ITPG-GT.2055.1 () | Instructor: Yeseul Song | Wed 7:00pm to 9:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This course teaches the ins and outs of using imagery in real-time within a performance context. The class will use Max/MSP/Jitter to study various ways of manipulating visual media (video, still imagery, live camera feeds) in integration with various interactive elements (sound, physical interfaces, sensors) in order to create dynamic and replicable performance systems. We will look at ways in which images are represented by a computer in order to increase our understanding of these systems and expand our visual/digital palette. We will then apply that understanding to variety of different performance formats and contexts while discussing strategies and techniques for creating compelling performances. Students will be assigned a short solo performance based on the ideas of video collage, remix, and expanded cinema as well as a group project based on concepts of object theater & experimental animation. Students will propose and perform a longer form performance as part of a final presentation in the form of a group show that will be arranged by the instructor. In depth in class workshops centered around Max + performance practice and critique. Th 12:10pm - 2:40pm (01/31 - 05/09)
ITPG-GT.2422.1 (5624) | Instructor: Matt Romein | Tues 09:00am to 11:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
\"I want to be famous!\" For a decade, this has been the most common response to the question \"What do you want to be when you grow up?\" Influencers, TV stars, D-listers - the media has exploded with celebrities who could not have existed even 20 years ago. But who actually gets to be famous? It\'s certainly not always the most attractive, charismatic, or talented. Why shouldn\'t it be us? This production-centric class will create celebrities. We will study the underlying principles, tactics, and technologies that go into generating the phenomenon of fame, and the deliberate strategies of PR and cross-platform narrative that sustain it. We\'ll examine the evolution, neuroscience, and cultural positioning of celebrity in modern society. Then we will try it out on each other. And also maybe on some cats, puppies, and ferrets too. Let\'s demystify these questions of self-presentation, media attention, fan behavior, and of course, commercial profit. Celebrity isn\'t nearly as random as it appears!
ITPG-GT.2095.1 () | Instructor: Zoe Fraade-Blanar | Fri 12:10pm to 2:40pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This class is a project development studio for interactive music projects —that is, pieces of music that are not linear, but rather offer multiple dimensions for listeners to explore. Applications include generative music installations, novel instruments, participative performances, museum exhibitions, games, and tools for producing and teaching music. Students will take a project from concept to execution over several iterations, applying interaction design, creative coding, and music production tools and techniques. The project development process will include gathering aural and visual references, composing graphic/tactile notations, and creating focused studies to explore interaction with specific musical elements. This work will inform the design and implementation of a functional prototype which students will test, evaluate and refine to produce their final project. The first half of the semester, the class format will be a combination of lectures, design and coding exercises, and reading discussions. To support different kinds of projects, in-class examples will include desktop (Max/MSP, Ableton Live, Max for Live), web (Tone.js + p5.js), and physical computing frameworks (Arduino compatible micro-controllers). During the second half of the semester we will shift to a more self-directed approach, as students work on their final projects. Professional practitioners will come in to share their work in the field and give students feedback on their projects. Coming in with a specific project to develop is welcome; conceiving a project during the class is encouraged, too. Some experience in making or producing music will be useful, but is not required. ICM and Physical Computing or equivalent experience are required.
ITPG-GT.2475.1 () | Instructor: Luisa Pereira | Fri 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
How do we make something from nothing, and nothing from something? The idea of nothing, and optical illusions have been linked since the western discovery of zero lead to the beginning of linear perspective. In this course we will explore an array of optical illusions, ranging from traditional approaches to new technologies. Structured as primarily a studio course, we will work directly with Pepper\'s Ghost, disappearing acts, making solid objects appear transparent, invisibility, false sense of depth, and approaches to designing negative space. Assignments will include: • Readings and blog post responses. • Creating small-scale illusions with and without the aid of new technologies • Exercises in camera analysis and projection mapping • Calibrating camera values with projector values • Making user interactions invisible, and then transmittable • A Midterm: Creating a small scale prototype with controlled interactions • A Final: Designing a full scale prototype accounting for user interactions
ITPG-GT.2839.1 () | Instructor: Andrew Lazarow | Wed 8:00pm to 10:30pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Society has always dreamed about humans coexisting with automatons, robots and talking machines that fit into every facet of daily life. As a consequence of computation and the internet leaving the flat screen, alternative forms of human-machine relationships are increasingly becoming more ubiquitous. Designing for these new machines brings novel challenges and requires a different approach. From HAL 9000 to early automatons, this class presents an overview of the history, methods, technologies, and design challenges involved in building and living with Robots and Social Devices. This 4.0-point class is conceived as a hybrid format (Lectures + Workshops + Discussions). Discussions and explorations will emphasize the cultural, political, and technical. Over the course of the semester, students will interrogate and deconstruct examples of Robots (in sci-fi, popular culture, art installations, assistive tech, connected devices), and design their own systems by appropriating existing technologies. In this class, students will utilize Arduino Nano BLE Sense, RaspberryPis, OpenMV, Google AIY Voice and Vision. Physical computing and ICM are prerequisites.
ITPG-GT.2087.1 () | Instructor: Pedro Galvao Cesar de Oliveira | Wed 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Exhibition design is the art of marrying experience and information. The best does so seamlessly; the very best surprise and delight you along the way. In this class, you will explore the craft of interactive exhibition design through practice. Working in small groups, you will select an NYU researcher whose work is of interest to you and create an interactive experience that presents this research to a broader, public audience. In the process, you will learn to interrogate content and form, audience and environment, medium and message to create a meaningful and playful exhibit experience.
ITPG-GT.2974.1 () | Instructor: Brett Peterson | Thur 3:20pm to 5:50pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Forget the screen. People want to be part of the action. They don’t want to watch detectives and control superhero avatars. They want to solve the mystery and be the hero. They want to experience it. We see this craving for playful experience in everything from immersive theater to escape rooms to the Tough Mudder to gamified vacation packages. Designing live experiences for large audiences that demand agency offers a distinct set of challenges, from how much choice you give each participant to how many people you can through the experience. We’ll look at examples from pervasive games to amusement parks to immersive theater, examining both the design choices and technology that make the experiences possible. Along the way we’ll create large, playful experiences that put the participant at the center of the action. About Greg Trefry: https://www.giganticmechanic.com/our-team/#trefry
ITPG-GT.2467.1 () | Instructor: Gregory Trefry | Mon 08:00am to 10:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This is an environment for students to work on their existing project ideas that may fall outside the topic areas of existing classes. It is basically like an independent study with more structure and the opportunity for peer learning. This particular studio is appropriate for projects in the area of interactive art, programing, physical computing and digital fabrication. There are required weekly meetings to share project development and exchange critique. Students must devise and then complete their own weekly assignments updating the class wiki regularly. They also must present to the class every few weeks. When topics of general interest emerge, a member of the class or the instructor takes class time to cover them in depth. The rest of the meeting time is spent in breakout sessions with students working individually or in groups of students working on related projects.
ITPG-GT.2564.1 () | Instructor: Daniel Rozin | Wed 08:00am to 10:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Tangible interaction is a difficult topic in 2020. In the early months of the year, there were various calls for a move to a “touchless future” in an effort to counter the fear of infection from touching shared things. Even though more recent research suggests that transmission via inanimate objects (fomite transmission) is a low risk, the perceived fear and its effect still persists. Given this environment, what is the future for tangible interaction? This class will investigate that question. In this studio, students will survey the current state of practice in tangible interaction design, investigate different sensors and haptic controllers, and generate information that can be used by other practitioners. Class work will include: - literature review and summary, i.e. getting to know what\'s already in the field, collecting and summarizing examples of best practice on a public website - practical research and tutorial documentation, i.e. figuring out how to make a given control or interface, then documenting the process for doing it, and/or verifying someone else\'s tutorial through duplicating their work. For those students who are in New York and feel safe using the shop, there will be projects which will require shop work. For those who are remote, or who do not feel safe using the shop, there will be research, design, documentation, and verification work. Class will be structured as a series of multi-week group projects including research, experimentation, and documentation. Students will work in small teams of 2-3, and teams will meet with the instructor weekly. The full class will meet 4-5 times to introduce the field and the project, and to review the whole project. In between, students will meet with the instructor individually or in groups, during the scheduled class time or office hours. Examples of related work: * The UX of Lego Interface Panels, George Cave * Comparing Force-Image Schema dials (video) (paper), Jörn Hurtienne, Diana Löffler, Patty Gadegast, Steffi Hußlein * Enclosures, (tutorial) Ben Light * Distance Sensors, The Basics (tutorial and comparison), Noah Pivnick * Collision Course: an essay on the interface design of the USS John McCain\'s navigation system and how it led to the collision with the oil tanker Alnic, T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose, Robert Faturechi and Agnes Chang for ProPublica Students will gain skills in review and analysis of existing practice, in written and multimedia formats; design research and specification; and electronics and programming techniques related to this field.
ITPG-GT.2093.1 () | Instructor: Tom Igoe | Wed 09:00am to 11:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This class looks at \"creative signal processing\" in the same way we look at \"creative coding\" - celebrating our ability to manipulate signals - functions and blocks of information that travel across time, frequency, and space - in the wider context of human perception, communication, and culture. In this course, we will consider standard building blocks of signal processing - audio and image synthesis, time- and frequency-domain processing of audio signals, chromatic and spatial processing of images, and feature extraction for signal analysis - in the same context as human languages, writing systems, and cultures of generative and procedural design in music, performance, and visual art. The project scope for the course is designed to be flexible and open-ended, allowing for students to develop projects ranging from guitar effects pedals to audio-visual plug-ins to preprocessing workflows for machine learning to toolkits relevant to integrating real-time data into interactive performance systems. Students will be assigned a series of short exercises around each general theme, and will be expected to develop a semester-length project. The class will use the Gen architecture of Max/MSP/Jitter to prototype algorithms for C++ and GLSL, with explorations into other coding environments, hardware circuits, and physical explorations of signal processing along the way.
ITPG-GT.2332.1 () | Instructor: Luke DuBois | Mon 09:00am to 11:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This course will offer techniques for producing performances and multi-media broadcasts via video conferencing platforms. We will consider the politician’s use and abuse of performing arts and media strategies. Assignments, screenings and readings will trace the lineage of political performance and its mediation from François Delsarte’s 19th century system for oratorical expression to current live-feed montaging used in American political campaigns. Taking into account the use of visual mediation in both process and propagandistic product, we will look at how scientific management techniques such as stop motion filmmaking are used to maximize the effect of the politician’s every gesture and word. As live performances have shifted to online platforms in our quarantine era, how do we incorporate changing notions of liveness and social cohesion into artistic and political practice? We will examine the influence of the improvisational acting style promoted by reality TV to produce bombastic, and hence entertaining performances. In our public discourse authenticity is now associated with improv acting as opposed to traditional methods of rehearsing lines to be performed, now regarded as phony. Exploring the increasing use of Zoom, Instagram live and Tiktok by theater, dance and visual artists, we will analyze the impact of pre-recorded versus live stream video, as well as the appropriation of surveillance techniques inherent in these new media.
ITPG-GT.2329.1 () | Instructor: Liz Magic Laser | Wed 09:00am to 11:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
For better or worse humanity is heading down the virtual rabbit hole. We’re trading an increasingly hostile natural environment for a socially networked and commercially driven artificial one. Whether it's the bedrooms of YouTube streaming stars, the augmented Pokestops of Pokemon Go, the breakout rooms of a Zoom meeting, or even the "airspace" of Airbnb; we are witnessing a dramatic transformation of what occupying space means. The socially distanced measures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have only accelerated this societal embrace of the virtual. So where are these dramatic spatial paradigm shifts occurring? Who owns and occupies these spaces? Who are the architects and what historical and ethical foundations are they working from? What world do they want to build for humanity and where does the creative individual fit into it? Will it be a walled garden, a role-playing adventure or a tool for creating more worlds? The course will ask students to embrace the role of virtual architect, not in the traditional brick-and-mortar sense of constructing shelter, but in terms of the engagement with the raw concept of space. However this virtual space must be considered and evaluated as a “site,” that is activated and occupied by real people and all the limitations of physical space that they bring with them from the real world. This is the foundation of synthetic architecture; simulated space met with biological perception. This conceptual architecture is free from the confines of physics but host to a whole new set of questions: How do we embrace the human factors of a dimensionless environment? How do we make or encourage meaningful interactions within the limits of current technology? New models of interaction must inform and shape the architecture of virtual space - what does that look like? How can architecture and aesthetics inform the creation of virtual environments and immersive narratives? How do we acutely consider the psychological and social impacts of the worlds we design and what is the metaphorical ground plane to make sense of this virtual world, unbound by physics? About Jonathan Turner: http://www.jonathanwilliamturner.com/about/
ITPG-GT.2177.1 () | Instructor: Jonathan Turner | Fri 09:00am to 11:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
ITPG-GT.2177.2 () | Instructor: Jonathan Turner | Thur 09:00am to 11:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
Can we capture the unpredictable evolutionary and emergent properties of nature in software? Can understanding the mathematical principles behind our physical world help us to create digital worlds? This class focuses on the programming strategies and techniques behind computer simulations of natural systems. We explore topics ranging from basic mathematics and physics concepts to more advanced simulations of complex systems. Subjects covered include physics simulation, trigonometry, self-organization, genetic algorithms, and neural networks. Examples are demonstrated in JavaScript using p5.js. https://natureofcode.com/
ITPG-GT.2480.1 () | Instructor: Daniel Shiffman / Ellen Nickles / Nuntinee Tansrisakul | TBD | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
This class focuses on the art of computer graphics and image processing. We explore the concepts of pixilation, image representation and granularity and the tension between reality and image. Students are introduced to the tools and techniques of creating dynamic and interactive computer images from scratch, manipulating and processing existing images and videos, compositing and transitioning multiple images, tracking and masking live video, compositing and manipulating live video as well as manipulating depth information from Kinect. The class uses Processing.
ITPG-GT.2273.1 () | Instructor: Daniel Rozin | Thur 08:00am to 10:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
How could we reimagine and expand our interactions and relationships with voice-enabled devices? Artificially synthesized voice introduced personal devices beyond push buttons, twisting and swiping. Nonetheless, while mediating notions of service, facilitated access to knowledge, and digital companionship, currently voice assistants are often reduced to trivial, task-oriented power plays: order me this, turn on that, play these, entertain. The course will aim to reconsider voice assistants as subjects rather than objects and attempt to create more holistic relationships with them through speculative and critical design methods in unison with some programming and machine-learning.
ITPG-GT.2325.1 () | Instructor: Vytautas Jankauskas | Thur 08:00am to 10:30am | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date
WEB ART AS SITE addresses the history and practice of art made for and inseparable from the web, while teaching basic coding for the web. We explore key examples of web art from the early days of the internet through today, asking questions about this idiosyncratic artistic medium like: How do different forms of interaction characterize the viewer and/or the artist? What happens to our reading practice when text is animated or animates? How is an internet-native work encountered, and how does the path we take to reach it affect our reading? Who is able to see a work of web art, and what does access/privilege look like in this landscape? How are differently-abled people considered in a web artwork? What feels difficult or aggressive in web art, and when is that useful? How do artists obscure or reveal the duration of a work, and how does that affect our reading? What are the many different forms of instruction or guidance online? As we ask these questions, we exploit the internet pedagogically, collaborating online, playing with anonymity, and breaking the internet spaces we know. Students learn web coding through specialized online tutorials; most of class time is reserved for discussion (of web art and supplementary readings) and critique. Throughout the semester, students will produce two major works of web art. Students need only a standard laptop, and will not be expected to purchase any software or text (cost of materials: $0).
ITPG-GT.2094.1 () | Instructor: Theo Ellin Ballew | Mon 6:30pm to 9:00pm | Meeting Pattern: 14 | Start Date