Category: CourseDescriptions

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CourseDescriptions Thesis

Thesis (2009 Spring)

Instructor: Kevin Slavin

This course is designed to help students define and execute their final thesis project in a setting that is both collegial and critical. It is structured as a series of critique and presentation sessions in which various aspects of individual projects are discussed: the project concept, the elaboration, the presentation, the process and time-table, the resources needed to accomplish it, and the documentation. Critique sessions are e a combination of internal sessions (i.e., the class only) and reviews by external guest critics. Students are expected to complete a fully articulated thesis project description and related documentation. Final project prototypes are displayed both on the web and in a public showcase either in May or the following semester.

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CourseDescriptions MethodsOfMotion

Methods of Motion (2009 Spring)

Instructor: Gabe Barcia-Colombo

This class explores methods of storytelling through animation. We examine a range of techniques including pixillation, stop motion, collage, abstract and cartoon animation. We apply a variety of tools such as iStopMotion, After Effects, Flash and Motion. There are five animation short animation assignments and one final project. Students are encouraged to experiment. Drawing skills are not necessary though students are required to maintain a weekly sketchbook. A basic knowledge of digital video is a plus.

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CourseDescriptions DesignForEmergingPlatforms

Designing for Emerging Media Platforms (2008 Fall)

Instructor: Richard Ting

Zune is the new social music listening experience, Last.fm scrobbles your music library, Nokia devices come with unlimited music for a year, Nutsie lets you sling your iTunes library to your mobile phone, Netflix movies will be streamed directly into LG HDTVs, and Hulu is serving up fresh TV programming directly into your web browser. Suffice it to say, media consumption habits are being disrupted and enhanced by emerging technologies everyday. As designers living in this hyper-connected world, we are well positioned to dream up digital experiences that were never before possible. This course explores the unique aspects of designing experiences for emerging media platforms which require special attention given to ubiquity, accessibility, and social connectivity. Students in this course are challenged to re-define the future of the digital music listening experience in the first half of the semester, and then challenged to re-define the future of interactive tv on the web and/or mobile for their end of semester presentations. The class follows a rigorous design methodology that teaches students how to go from idea to conceptual prototype. Students work in small project teams of 3-5. Weekly classes are divided in two sections; the first to discuss topics relevant to emerging media design such as next generation user interface design, social media theory, open API development, mobile technologies, and multi-channel content distribution. Following each week’s topic, students are expected to present their project updates with open class discussion in the form of critique sessions. Students are expected to prototype a final project so prior experience with basic electronics, physical computing, web programming, and prototyping software (Adobe Flash is helpful, but not required.) The final project requires a working prototype with supporting design documentation. Executives from the advertising, media, and consumer electronics industries are invited to class to provide guest critiques and to speak about future trends within Emerging Media.

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CourseDescriptions CraftingWithData

Crafting with Data: Revelations, Illusions, Truth and the Future (2008 Fall)

Instructor: Robert Faludi

Contemporary interaction designers and artists often manipulate scientific, historical, commercial and social information. Literacy in design, art or engineering requires the complement of literacy in data. This class makes a powerful additions to your skill set of programming, visual design and electronics. Students become conversant in the tools available for extracting insightful information from real-world samples. In this class we learn about the “lies, damn lies and statistics” that are encountered in our daily information feeds. Basic training is provided in a variety of handy methods for interpretation and manipulation of data, yet no math beyond some simple arithmetic is required for completing this course. Materials are visually oriented, and the focus is on concepts rather than on mechanics. Exercises include analyzing maps, building physical models and exploring information via accessible computer simulations. Short projects teach how to understand where data comes from, what it looks like and what it means. Students learn how to transform data in ways that avoid distortions, reveal truths and grandly illuminate their ideas.

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CourseDescriptions FlashOfFlash

Flash of Flash (2008 Fall)

Instructor: Muon Thi Van

This course is an introduction to ActionScript 3 as an object oriented language and the tools used (Flash, Flex, AIR) to develop applications running into the Flash player with a particular focus on its creative potential. The approach is to develop a complete application every class from concept to developing and testing. Topics include user interaction and the concept of events and listeners, animation and sprite manipulation, audio, video and use of Adobe components, dynamic data support and the net and xml packages, text manipulation and the text engine.

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CourseDescriptions RestOfYou

Rest of You (2008 Fall)

Instructor: Dan O’Sullivan

This class explores the possibilities of subtle interaction with computers. Conventional computer interface tends to accommodate conscious, explicit, intentional communication. Many unconscious cues and actions that are valued in ordinary human expression are ignored or filtered by computer-mediated interactions. Relinquishing a conscious gatekeeper can be associated with such uncomfortable subjects as subliminal manipulation, subconscious repression, even a loss of free will and the insanity defense. On the other hand going past conscious control can be associated with achieving virtuosity in the arts and athletics, acquiring insight into your personality, and engendering trust in conversation. The classes alternate issues of prototyping actual devices. In this course students build on software and hardware tool kits to create hands-on experiments tapping less conscious parts of your experience. The prototyping exercises include using cell phone as personal sensor logger and visualizing the results; sensing autonomic nervous responses such as heart rate; and trapping and analyzing language use on your computer. Group work is encouraged. The last part of the semester we concentrate on final projects. ICM and Physical Computing are prerequisites to this course.

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CourseDescriptions LiveWeb

Live Web (2008 Fall)

Instructor: Shawn Van Every

The World Wide Web has grown up to be a great platform for asynchronous communication such as email and message boards. More recently this has extended into media posting and sharing. With the rise of broadband, more powerful computers and the prevalence networked media devices, synchronous communications have become more viable. Streaming media, audio and video conference rooms and text based chat give us the ability to create content and services tailored to a live audience. During this course, we focus on the types of content and interaction that can be supported through these technologies as well as explore new concepts around participation with a live distributed audience. In this course, we look at new and existing platforms for live communication on the web. We leverage existing services and use Flash, PHP, AJAX and possibly Processing/Java to develop our own solutions. Experience with ActionScript/Flash, PHP/MySQL and HTML/ JavaScript are helpful but not required.

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CourseDescriptions DesignForConstraints

Designing for Constraints (2008 Spring)

Instructor: Amit Pitaru

Whether we design an application for the small touch-pad of a cell phone, a game for an elderly user, or produce art through a self-defined conviction, our work is often driven by constraints – some chosen, others imposed. With digital technologies, one other constraint is our own ability to keep up with the ever-shifting tools that we use. Does this perpetual learning-curve stifle our creative process? Or in contrast, can an abundance of technical know-how cloud a simple vision? The goal of this course is to make work that is fueled by the positive constraints (our audience, our vision) rather then the damaging ones (our lack of ability to know everything about the tools we use). Through weekly assignments, we draw ideas and production techniques from art, game design, music (sound-art), cognitive science and universal-design, towards an understanding of how to carry our initial ideas through a development process, without compromising quality and clarity of vision. For a final assignment students are asked to create a project for a specific target audience, defined by age/gender/race/culture and ability. The goal is to allow oneself a space for exploration while working towards a focused result. Some ideas for projects may include simplifying an application for the growing elderly population (can grandmama really use that fancy Nokia phone?), a software game based solely on audio (ever played doom without a monitor in a dark room?), or an art-piece that clearly conveys your artistic intentions with a digital medium (think of interactive art that’s not utterly frustrating/annoying for gallery goers). In either case, we test our work early and often (starting mid semester), learn to identify problems, and solve them through an iterative design process. When needed, software examples are programmed using Processing. We also use simple p-comp modules to quicken exploration (such as custom keyboard emulators). A fair understanding of ICM and P-comp is required, as you will be asked not to spend the majority of your energy learning new technologies, but rather make best of what you already know. That’s one of the course constraints.

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CourseDescriptions DynamicWebDev

Dynamic Web Development (2008 Spring)

Instructor: Chris Sung

How does one move away from creating static websites and toward building active, evolving hubs of activity? This class will cover the design and implementation of the “dynamic” website in two distinct but related contexts: the technical aspects of manipulating content “on the fly”, and the end user experience of interacting in this type of setting. Particular attention will be given to social and community-based web interaction. The production environment will consist of the MySQL database and the PHP programming language. Students can expect to develop a firm knowledge of database design and optimization, the SQL query language, and the use of PHP to create dynamic activity of both orthodox and unorthodox nature. Late-semester topics will focus on interfacing this environment with other technologies such as JavaScript and Flash, along with data population and site architecture methodology. Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience is required. Students are also expected to have fluency in HTML or to come up to speed with it outside of class. Class requirements will include homework assignments to reinforce each week’s concepts while simultaneously contributing to the student’s “toolkit” of code and design principles. There will also be a midterm project, and a final project of the student’s choosing. Given the wide range of applications that would benefit from a web-accessible database, students should feel free to use their project(s) from this class to support or enhance projects from other classes.

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CourseDescriptions HybridityGlobalization

Hybridization in Culture and Globalization (2007 Fall)

Instructor: Sam Howard-Spink

This course explores the concept of “hybridization” from its roots to contemporary manifestations in remix/mashup culture, and asks if hybridity is the key to unlocking the puzzle of globalization. We rely equally on theory and examples of practice, with an emphasis on musical cultures and industries worldwide. The course proceeds along two parallel lines of enquiry: (i) cultural blending per se, in which something new is created from the fusion of two or more distinct forms, and (ii) as a current theory of globalization, which offers a way of challenging the mutual exclusivity offered by the traditional models of “cultural imperialism” versus “the clash of civilizations.” Specific topic areas include competing models of cultural-economic globalization, the modern “individual creator” contrasted with the postmodern “prosumer” (producer/consumer) in a “participatory culture,” debates over originality and authenticity, the legal and political implications of efforts to restrict (re)mixing through mechanisms such as copyright, and examples of practice including hiphop and mash-ups, Brazilian tropicalia and favela/carioca funk, Japanese anime, and Indian cinema or Bollywood.