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Last Two Years
Applications (ITPG-GT.2000) - Red Burns, Todd Holoubek, Nancy Hechinger
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
This introductory class is designed to allow students to engage in a critical dialogue with leaders drawn from the artistic, non-profit and commercial sectors of the new media field, and to learn the value of collaborative projects by undertaking group presentations in response to issues raised by the guest speakers. Interactive media projects and approaches to the design of new media applications are presented weekly; students are thus exposed to both commercial as well as mission-driven applications by the actual designers and creators of these innovative and experimental projects. By way of this process, all first year students, for the first and only time in their ITP experience, are together in one room at one time, and as a community, encounter, and respond to, the challenges posed by the invited guests. The course at once provides an overview of current developments in this emerging field, and asks students to consider many questions about the state of the art. For example, with the new technologies and applications making their way into almost every phase of the economy and rooting themselves in our day to day lives, what can we learn from both the failures and successes? What are the impacts on our society? What is ubiquitous computing, embedded computing, physical computing? How is cyberspace merging with physical space? Class participation, group presentations, and a final paper are required. -
Comm Lab: Animation (ITPG-GT.2002) - Marianne Petit, Gabe Barcia-Colombo, Molly Schwartz, Eyal Ohana
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
This course explores the fundamentals of storytelling through animation. Students will create two short animation pieces over the course of seven weeks. The first part of the course is devoted to the stop motion sing Dragon Stop Motion. The second part of the course is devoted to digital collage animation using After Effects. Drawing skills are not necessary for this class, however, you will keep a sketchbook. Basic video and sound skills are required. This two-credit course will meet the last seven weeks of the semester.
Comm Lab: Video and Sound (ITPG-GT.2001) - Marianne Petit, Gabe Barcia-Colombo, Staff
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
This course explores the fundamentals of sound and video. Students will learn the basics of both audio and video recording using audio field recorders and a variety of cameras (from the Panasonic Xacti through the Canon 5D D-SLR) as well as editing and exporting in Final Cut Pro. Students will work in teams to produce both an audio soundscape and a three-minute video short. This two-credit course meets for the first seven weeks of the semester. -
Comm Lab: Visual Language (ITPG-GT.2005) - Katherine Dillon
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
The goal of the course is to provide students who are new to the principles of visual design with the practical knowledge, critical skills and confidence to effectively communicate their ideas. The course outline includes: principles of visual design, typography and layout, logo and brand design, color theory, interface and instruction design, information design, design process and critical thinking. There will be a series of assignments that apply the principles presented in class. The assignments will be presented and critiqued in the following class. Completion of the assignments and participation in the class discussion is required. Students must maintain a blog where they post their weekly assignments. Please come to the first class with an example of a favorite website that we can analyze.
Sections 1 and 2 of this two-point course meet for the first seven weeks of the semester; section 3 will meet in the last seven weeks of the semester. Course Syllabus -
Comm Lab: Web (ITPG-GT.2003) - Ioana Staicut, Liesje Hodgson, Joshua Knowles, Rune Madsen, Zevensuy Rodriguez, Staff
Offered: Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013
The web has become the most basic technology of interaction – between people and machines, people and data, and, most importantly, people and other people. Though the core web interaction is simple – a client sends a request to a server, which replies – services of incredible sophistication and scale have been built around it. In this class, students will learn to lay out a web page; make the page responsive to the user; embed a form for taking user input; and create a simple server to receive, store, manipulate, and return that input. Students will use HTML+CSS, the design language of the web; Sinatra, a programming language specially designed for interactive web services; and JQuery, a a Javascript tool for making web pages more interactive. This two-credit course meets in the first seven weeks of the semester -
Introduction to Computational Media (ITPG-GT.2233) - Zannah Marsh, Daniel Shiffman, Daniel Rozin, Christopher Kairalla, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Matt Parker, Liesje Hodgson, Daniel O'Sullivan, Staff
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
What can computation add to human communication? Creating computer applications, instead of just using them, will give you a deeper understanding of the essential possibilities of computation. The course focuses on the fundamentals of programming the computer (variables, conditionals, iteration, functions, and objects) and then touches on some more advanced techniques such as text parsing, image processing, networking, computer vision, and 3D graphics. The Java-based 'Processing' programming environment is the primary vehicle for the class. The course is designed for computer programming novices. Although experienced coders can waive this class, some programmers use ICM to acclimatize to the ITP approach and for the opportunity play further with their project ideas. Weekly assignments are required throughout semester. The end of the semester is spent developing an idea for a final project and implementing it using computer programming. Course Syllabus -
Introduction to Physical Computing (ITPG-GT.2301) - Rory Nugent, Thomas Igoe, Benedetta Piantella, Daniel O'Sullivan, Scott Fitzgerald, Dustyn Roberts, Staff
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Summer2 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Summer1 2012, Fall 2013, Summer2 2013
This course expands the students' palette for physical interaction design with computational media. We look away from the limitations of the mouse, keyboard and monitor interface of today's computers, and start instead with the expressive capabilities of the human body. We consider uses of the computer for more than just information retrieval and processing, and at locations other than the home or the office. The platform for the class is a microcontroller, a single-chip computer that can fit in your hand. The core technical concepts include digital, analog and serial input and output. Core interaction design concepts include user observation, affordances, and converting physical action into digital information. Students have weekly lab exercises to build skills with the microcontroller and related tools, and longer assignments in which they apply the principles from weekly labs in creative applications. Both individual work and group work is required. Course Syllabus -
13 Products in Search of an Audience (ITPG-GT.2979) - Kristen Taylor
Offered: Fall 2013
This class is about how to design products, services, and experiences that dignify the user in their implementation and lead to a true measure of success: long-term engagement and repeat interactions. We work through how to establish and continue relationships between users, taking as our inspiration theory, poetry, prose, and thirteen important online products or services. The class assumes a high level of comfort with non-linear thinking and proficiency in social network interactions, applying that knowledge to product design and implementation.
3D Sensing and Visualization Seminar (ITPG-GT.2900) - Kyle McDonald
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2012
This course will explore recent developments in 3d scanning technology and the tools and techniques for collecting, analyzing, and visualizing 3d data. Once relegated to the realm of academic and military research, 3d scanning has recently been made available to amateurs through DIY implementations like DAVID laser scanner, or, in the case of Kinect, through open source reverse engineering of cheap consumer hardware. We will cover different methods of 3d input, including structured light, LIDAR, time of flight, stereo matching, and optical triangulation -- and focus on techniques for organizing and collecting data, creatively visualizing it, and using it in an interactive context. This course will be taught using openframeworks, a C++ toolkit for creative coding. While the class will be highly technical and code-heavy, there will be a strong emphasis the poetic potential of this new form of input.
This two-point course meets for the first seven weeks of the semester. Course Syllabus -
A Conversation on the Self in 3 Acts (ITPG-GT.2501) - Nancy Hechinger
Offered: Fall 2013
This structure of this class is different from any other ITP class to date. It is three separate, but thematically-connected one-point courses. You may take one, two or three of the courses for up to 3-points.
What you will do in this class :
It is a seminar, so there will be discussion, research and readings. Some of these will be assigned, some you will discover.You'll collect interesting stuff into a Resource Companion of readings, links, video, poems, essays, etc.
Then you prepare and and lead a public Conversation/Colloquium with the whole NYC-based ITP school community. There will be 3 school-wide events: in the 5th, 8th and 11th week of the semester. Of course, you will record and document the conversation.
Then the team will upload it to the class site so that students in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi can take part an online conversation for the following week. Also on the site will be the Resource Companion you have already created.
There will be 3 investigations and conversations on a single theme during the semester. Each point includes: one introductory class at the beginning of the semester for everyone, plus the 3 weeks that your group is investigating and producing the conversation. You will be put into a group that will be responsible for on the of the Conversations in all 3 of its manifestations.
There are fundamental questions that philosophers, artists, writers, scientists and ordinary people have asked for millennia that have been part of what has been called the Great Conversation in western and eastern cultures. In the context of all the changes in society caused by technology, it makes sense to look at some of these questions in the context of today.
The theme of the 3 conversations will be The Self and Others. Here are some of the issues we will discuss. Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living. Today we might reframe the question, "Is the over-examined life even living?" The value, the waste, the indulgence, the usefulness of the quantified self. Can we escape ourselves....What is the self? The body, the mind, the soul? What is mine, what is yours? If I look after myself and mine, will that lead to a just state? Or does common good grow out of my participation in another way? With all the advances in technology today these questions all have special resonance: identity, privacy, IP,memory, morality, limits to freedom and so on. -
Advanced Animation Studio (ITPG-GT.2923) - Eyal Ohana
Offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2013
Animation is the magic of giving life to objects through motion. Whether in linear storytelling, or in interactive experiences where another sense of wonder is achieved. Together with visual design, motion can be a powerful tool for storytelling, information visualization as well as for compelling interfaces.
This course is focused on advanced animation techniques and principles, to further add character and expression, to animated objects.
We learn the differences between linear and real-time, or generative animation, and how we can harness both to create a seamless experience. The discussion includes the integration of such animations, across different kinds of platforms, such as, installation based, web, and mobile. The main tool to be used is Adobe After Effects, and experimentation with code generated animation using processing is also demonstrated and encouraged. This is a production class, with short studies, and two main projects at mid and end term, required. Prerequisite: is ITPG-GT 2002 Comm Lab: Animation or equivalent knowledge in basic animation and video production. Course Syllabus -
Aesthetics of Automation (ITPG-GT.2503) - E Roon Kang
Offered: Fall 2013
From Movable Type to the Internet, our desire to automate the work has been a major driving force behind many technological advancement. Thanks to these technologies, we are living the world that is extremely efficient and scalable, but as a result, we became alienated from the process of making. Often, we find the process humanly impossible to comprehend, due to our lack of sense for such scale or complexity. Yet, many aspects of our life is dictated by these automation processes and as a result, they automate us.
In this fast-paced studio/theory class, we will discuss various concepts that are loosely related to the theme: the duality inherent in the relationship between technology and design, in the world full of automation. Topics will include: abstraction, mass-consumption, data logging, privacy, persistence, default and power structures, synchronization, pervasiveness, etc.
Students are expected to explore the topics given each week and create quick and small projects around the idea. Possible projects including, but not limited to: performance, sculpture, interactive installations, and generative art. Students are encouraged to break boundaries. Basic knowledge in creative computing is assumed, and we will be using various prototyping techniques including Processing, HTML/CSS and Javascript, and/or Adobe Creative Suite.
Weekly lecture will cover relevant readings and works by other artists, followed by casual presentation and discussion. Students will be given opportunity to develop and finalize one of their projects for the final. -
Affordable 3D Printing and Design – Ready for Your Studio (ITPG-GT.2505) - Micah Ganske
Offered: Fall 2013
While in school students have access to some of the best 3D-printing technology currently available at a very affordable price. After graduation, however, access to this high-end technology becomes prohibitively expensive. This course aims to prepare students for life without a "media lab" and will leave them with all the basic knowledge needed to incorporate affordable 3D-printing into their work after graduation.
Students will become familiar with the hardware and operation of machines like the MakerBot Replicator and learn how to overcome the limitations of these consumer-focused machines. With correct planning, these machines can be used to create and prototype large scale objects which normally would require expensive, commercial equipment. Weekly assignments will have students creating the various parts needed to assemble a " robot" of their own design, complete with moveable articulated joints and sculpted details. The aim of this ongoing, light-hearted project will be to teach students all the necessary design tricks needed to create complex structures and objects of any type with a high-grade of finish. While a familiarity with 3D design will be of help, the course will give students of all disciplines and skill levels, the tools to bring 3D printed objects into their studio practice.
This two-credit course will meet the last seven weeks of the semester. -
Always On, Always Connected (ITPG-GT.2958) - Shawn Van Every
Offered: Spring 2013
With their always on and always connected nature, mobile devices (phones) have become the center of our connected self. They offer us the ability to access the network anywhere at anytime enabling us to sharing our experiences and to share in the experiences of others at a distance. In addition, they are starting to emerge as the hub of an emerging set of smart personal accessories such as watches, glasses and jewelry.
In this class, we'll examine the current state-of-the art in mobile technology with a focus on developing applications which leverage the built-in sensors and media capabilities. We'll also study the new breed of accessory such as the Pebble Watch and heads up displays as well as new forms of mobile device such as Google Glass.
In particular we'll start out learning how to develop Android applications with Java utilizing Eclipse and the Android SDK. We'll then look at developing applications for the new set of Android powered devices.
ICM level programming experience is required. Course Syllabus -
Animals, People and Those In Between (ITPG-GT.2936) - Marina Zurkow
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
This class will use animals, humans, and other creatures as a way to think about art-making and character representation . Claude Levi-Strauss' observation that "Animals are Good to Think" is the starting point from which we will make, discuss, and examine the ways in which art works imagine the interrelationships between the human, the animal, and our environment. If we can only perceive these things through mediation (media representations), then how we represent them is the fundamental question, reflecting our ideologies, prejudices, hopes, and fears. Do we speak for animals, and if so what are we saying for them? Are they friends, pets, environmental equals or beasts? How are hybrid monsters (chimera) created and what do they mean? How do we understand our places as subjects in a landscape or a datascape? How can anthropomorphic cuteness be subversive? This class focuses on questions of intention, relation, and subjectivity, through critical engagement with representations of people, animals, monsters, and mutants, in their respective environments. The class is further focused on the use of character in context, via toy design, robotics, animation, video, image generation or data visualization. There will be introductory texts on character development, and generally an emphasis on literary, philosophical and natural history texts. Course Syllabus -
Appropriating Interaction Technologies (ITPG-GT.2507) - Kyle McDonald, Lauren McCarthy
Offered: Fall 2013
This course explores the structures and systems of social interactions, identity, and representation as mediated by technology. We will investigate ways that technology can be used to augment, subvert, alter, mediate, and ultimately deepen interaction in a lasting way.
How do the things we build and use limit and expand the way we understand and relate to each other? We'll explore this question by building new tools and creating new situations for breaking us out of existing patterns, and discussing contextual examples from media art, performance art, psychology and pop culture. Technologies explored will include computer vision (face/body/eye tracking with openFrameworks), data representation and glitch, browser extensionsand plugins (in Chrome), computer security, mobile platforms, and social automation and APIs (Facebook, Twitter, Mechanical Turk).
Students will develop projects that alter or disrupt social space in an attempt to reveal existing patterns or truths about our experiences and technologies, and possibilities for richer interactions. Different tactics for intervention and performance will be explored, first through a set of short prompts or experiments, and then through a larger, more thorough intervention.
Technical requirements:
A conviction that creative people can derail society for the best, a deep love for code, and a willingness to explore uncomfortable situations. You should at least have taken Introduction to Computational Media or have similar experience with programming. -
Appropriating New Technologies (ITPG-GT.2937) - Kyle McDonald
Offered: Spring 2012
Technology is malleable, and our future is undecided. What do you want
your world to look like? This class will focus on creating the future
by creatively appropriating new technologies.
The class will cover the history and social context for new
technologies, and discussions about how we adopt them. The primary
tool we'll be using is openFrameworks: a C++ toolkit designed by a
global community of media artists, with an emphasis on real time
interaction. Because it's C++, it provides an easy bridge to a huge
variety of low level tools like OpenCV and FaceTracker -- which makes
it easier to develop otherwise impossible projects, like the
EyeWriter, or to explore cutting-edge ideas like real time face
substitution. In this class, we'll work with technologies surrounding
face tracking, eye tracking, 3d scanning, computer security, privacy,
and sharing. We'll spend a lot of time understanding the intricacies
of openFrameworks, with the goal of creating seamless, mind-blowing
experiments, installations, and performance pieces that hijack new
technologies to create the future we want to see.
Prerequisites: A conviction that creative people can genuinely derail
society for the best, and the ability to geek out with code when
necessary. You should at least have taken Introduction to
Computational Media or have similar experience with programming.
Art of the Archive (ITPG-GT.2907) - Michael Connor
Offered: Fall 2011
Archives are not neutral; they are contested sites where important social and cultural debates take place. In recent decades, artists have played an important role in such debates. To cite one example: the massive store of surveillance documents amassed by the Stasi in the former East Germany has provided today's readers with a history of the underground performance art scene behind the Iron Curtain. What was once a cog in the wheel of the police state has become a document of radical artistic practice. As new technologies permit new ways of storing information and categorizing knowledge, archives are likely to play an increasingly important role in shaping society's self-image. This class explores how artists can help shape this image through the creation and critique of archives. Students appropriate archival materials to create new works; they also prototype new kinds of archives. Examples discussed in class include archival projects by visual artists (Andy Warhol, Cory Arcangel, The Atlas Group, Antonio Muntadas, Minerva Cuevas, Trevor Paglen, Raqs Media Collective, Susan Hiller) as well as online archives from Ubu to archive.org to Wikipedia. Course Syllabus -
Automata: Telling Stories with Machines (ITPG-GT.2509) - Nick Yulman
Offered: Fall 2013
Since antiquity, people have been fascinated with automatically controlling physical movement, light and sound to imbue inanimate objects with lifelike qualities. This course will explore the concept of automation, its history in the arts and industry and cover techniques for building and controlling automated devices.
We will look at historical and literary examples of automata, discuss their technical execution and cultural context, and explore their roles as precursors to sound recording, cinema and interactive media. Technical topics will include designing mechanisms for automating movement, working with various types of motors, solenoids and relays, programming automated routines using microcontrollers and software, and interfacing with popular automation protocols like MIDI and DMX. Beyond technology, we will try to understand what qualities give autonomous machines a sense of personality and invite users to graft narratives onto them.
In addition to producing midterm and final projects, students will complete a variety of smaller conceptual and technical studies to help build a toolkit for designing and programming automated systems. We will also visit one of the world's largest collections of mechanical musical instruments and automated figures to see functioning historical examples in person. -
Basic Analog Circuits (ITPG-GT.2728) - Eric Rosenthal
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013
Today's mostly digital world also requires a basic knowledge of analog circuits. In this course students learn about the basic principles of analog circuits design and operation. Students learn about discrete components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes and transistors as well as integrated components such as operational amplifiers. In addition, students become familiar with the operation of basic electronic test equipment such as digital multimeters, oscilloscopes, function generators. The instructor lectures on, and demonstrates, basic analog concepts so that students can form a basic rule of thumb understanding of analog circuits, concepts and components. In the lab, students can integrate analog solutions into their project work. Course Syllabus -
Be Here Now: Wares for Sharing (ITPG-GT.2898) - Joo Paek, Sonali Sridhar
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012
Humans first developed tools for survival, then for personal pleasure and finally for social engagement. These three phases are the topic of this course, in which we will research and design for how natural human impulses shape our current social tools. With a focus on physical activities, functional garments, location tracking, and social media students will create new products or services that aim to embrace the very moment in history we're living in. The final assignment will be for individuals or groups to present their concept in a convincing manner using proof materials such as sketches, user scenarios, design boards, demo videos and working prototypes as needed. Course Syllabus -
Bicycles for the Mind (ITPG-GT.2511) - David Nolen
Offered: Fall 2013
Steve Jobs in a 1990 video for the Library of Congress famously referred to computers as "bicycles for our mind". This statement was uttered in the heyday of personal computing - not the ubiquitously networked state of 2013. But in a culture driven towards app stores, startups, and dubious lumbering towards something called code literacy do these words still ring true? It's difficult to dismiss the accessibility of Apple's iPad but have we come any closer to Alan Kay's DynaBook? In the New York Review of Books article "The Chess Master and the Computer", Gary Kasparov wrote "Weak human + machine + better process was superior ... to a strong human + machine + inferior process." This could be interpreted as a darkly pessimistic version of Jobs' uplifting words. Or not. By examining critical texts, contemporary practice in pedagogy, art and business, and some forgotten dreams perhaps we can hope to better navigate the whitewater of technological progress.
This two-credit course will meet every other week of the semester. -
Big Games (ITPG-GT.2454) - Gregory Trefry
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
What happens to games when they escape the boundaries of our tabletops, desktops and living rooms? From massively multiplayer online games to mobile games that turn the city into a gigantic game grid, super-sized gaming opens up new spaces in which to play and seeps into the interstices of our days. Whether these games are measured in terms of number of players, geographical dimensions or temporal scope, they represent a new trend in which the 'little world" created by a game threatens to swallow up the "real world" in which it is situated. This class is a hands-on workshop focused on the particular design problems of large-scale games. In this class students: develop a foundation of basic game design understanding from which to approach the specific issues particular to big games; analyze existing digital and non-digital large-scale games, taking them apart to understand how they work as interactive systems; and work on a series of design exercises that explore the social, technological, and creative possibilities of large-scale games. Course Syllabus -
Big Screens (ITPG-GT.2680) - Daniel Shiffman, Mimi Yin
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
This class is dedicated to experimenting with interactivity on large-scale screens. Students will work in pairs to develop one project over the course of the semester, culminating with a showing at InterActive Corps' 120 X 12-foot video wall at their corporate headquarters on 18th St. and the West Side Highway. A mock-up of the system is available at ITP for testing. Class time is divided between independent project development, critique, technical demonstrations, and field trips to IAC. Registration for this course will happen through a separate lottery which you will enter in pairs. Course Syllabus -
Biomechanics for Interactive Design (ITPG-GT.2924) - Dustyn Roberts
Offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2013
This class is designed to equip students with basic knowledge of biomechanics and human movement, as well as of sensors that can be used to track, visualize, or measure different aspects of it. The study of human movement dates back before the days of da Vinci, and readings covered throughout the class will give students an appreciation of the evolution of this field as an art and a science. Materials covered in class will range from basic anatomy and vocabulary used to talk about motion, limits of human athletic performance, balance, how human joints function and how muscles create movement, human factors in product design, etc. The lectures will serve as a foundation for a midterm project in designing a system to track, measure, or visualize some aspect of gait, and a more open-ended final project that will deal with exploring human motion through a physical system or expressing understanding of biomechanics through other mediums like video, sound, generative artwork, and more. Both individual and small group work will be required. Prerequisite: Intro to Physical Computing Course Syllabus -
Biomimetic Design (ITPG-GT.2513) - Gabriella Levine
Offered: Fall 2013
Biomimetic designs are used both practically and conceptually to provide solutions to a wide range of environmental and technological problems. Designers have developed an assistive arm modeled off of an elephant trunk that moves in three-dimensions to handle things as delicate as eggs; Architects have built houses from organically grown material; And engineers have developed robotic snakes to explore underwater pipelines for leaks and find hidden secrets in the Pyramids of Egypt.
This 7-week course will take a design-based approach to exploring biomimicry as an inspiration for interactive interfaces. Through lectures, workshops, and hands-on prototyping, we will investigate how natural forms and functions can inspire unique technological solutions. We'll address topics such as re-imagining social networks, mapping urban spaces, and redesigning user interfaces. We will think critically about natural systems and use it as the starting point for our own design development and prototyping. We will work collaboratively to build prototypes that combine hardware, software, and fabrication.
We will complete two projects, the final of which will comprise a physical product that integrates bio-inspired design with tangible interfaces. Throughout the course, we will document our work online & offline.Students will be encouraged to use Processing, Arduino, digital fabrication techniques, sensors, and electromechanical actuation.
This two-credit course will meet the first seven weeks of the semester. -
Bodies and Buildings (ITPG-GT.2959) - Jennifer van der Meer
Offered: Spring 2013
Why is it so hard to care for our planet and ourselves. We seem hungover from a century of prosperity and ingenuity, unable to invent economic models that create jobs, improve health, and restore the earth. Eager ITP students are better equipped than MBAs to envision and hack our way out of this trap, but often lack an understanding of the mega forces of business, regulation, and bad cultural habits that keep us from saving ourselves. But don't despair! We'll get busy, and make things again – but also provide you with conceptual scaffolding upon which to build your worldchanging ideas.
Our tools of understanding include deep design thinking, and systems thinking. By focusing on two systems in particular: human bodies, and the buildings that humans make, we will examine the environmental and social impacts of the economic systems. Bodies are in trouble right now – despite reaching the peak of productivity the US now leads the world in the rampant growth of chronic diseases that lower life expectancy, and reduce life quality. Buildings are not in enough trouble – they account for the largest source of both electricity consumption (68% of global use) and greenhouse gas emissions (48% of global emissions) in the world.
In this course we will discover what Dana Meadows calls "leverage points" as places to intervene that would transform the system as a whole.
Areas for investigation include:
· Data-driven accountable health care
· Behavior as the new wonder drug
· Data liquidity and the patient data movement
· Mindfulness vs. the quantified self
· Spimes - the internet of things
· LEED, passive houses, benchmarking
· Failures of the cleantech revolution
· Generative architecture Course Syllabus -
Boxes and Lines for Rods and Cones: Video Programming in Max (ITPG-GT.2935) - Scott Fitzgerald
Offered: Spring 2012
Building on the skills learned in "Intro to Dataflow Programming" this course will explore the possibilities of real time video compositing and manipulation. Somewhat different from audio and signal manipulation, video control in Jitter is based around matricies. We will discuss how video works in a matrix, issues around optimization of video formats and live feeds, and how to setup patches that are ready for performance and installation. We will also explore some of the related OpenGL and 3D tools. While the "Intro to Dataflow" course used Pd, we will be working with the Jitter package in Max/MSP. The concepts we will be covering can be applied to other dataflow environments, like Quartz Composer and Gridflow for Pd, though it is not as directly applicable as Pd to Max. The prerequisite for this two point course, which meets the second seven weeks of the semester, is "Intro to Dataflow Programming", which meets the first seven weeks, (or equivalent experience). -
Cabinets of Wonder (ITPG-GT.2470) - Nancy Hechinger
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012
If you were inventing a museum today, what would it look like? Who would be there? What would its main purpose be? 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. Museums were a great experiment in learning in a public place, a 3D space? How is that different from learning in a classroom? Is learning still a primary goal? 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 and not lose what's special about them? The class is an exploration, observation and theory class with some design mixed in. 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 dioramas, reviews) There will be guest speakers from Museums and exhibit design firms, and a few 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. -
Citizen Cyberscience (ITPG-GT.2939) - Francois Grey
Offered: Fall 2012
What does it mean to be a scientist? For much of the 20th century, the answer to this question was a man in a white lab coat with a Ph.D. and crazy hair. Amateur scientists existed, but with a few notable exceptions in fields like astronomy and archaeology, they had little chance to make a contribution to cutting-edge research.
In the past decade, the Internet has begun to disrupt this model of professional science. Citizens can now make real contributions to cutting-edge science projects that involve studying everything from pulsars to proteins, using their PCs, laptops or mobile phones. This is a trend called citizen cyberscience.
This course introduces a variety of ways to do citizen cyberscience, including volunteer computing, volunteer thinking and volunteer sensing. It explores the contributions and the motivations of the volunteers who participate in such projects, as well as the sort of scientific and social impact that these projects are having. During the course, the goal for the students is to design and implement a citizen cyberscience project, in collaboration with scientists in several departments at NYU.
NYU has just announced plans to create a Centre for Urban Science and Progress – the sort of science that impacts every citizen. To highlight this, the course will feature a number of guest speakers and offer a set of projects on the theme of 'urban science meets citizen science'. Topics will range from analyzing the city's traffic data to monitoring the demographics of local elections to studying the genetic makeup of bugs in your own home. Course Syllabus -
Collective Narrative (ITPG-GT.2960) - Marianne Petit
Offered: Spring 2013
This two-point workshop is centered on the examination and creation of collective storytelling environments. We will examine a wide-range of storytelling spaces including participatory and user-generated environments, site-specific works, community based arts practices, and transmedia storytelling. Weekly assignments, field trips, and student presentations. This course will meet for the first seven weeks of the semester. Course Syllabus -
Collective Storytelling (ITPG-GT.2706) - Marianne Petit
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012
This two-point workshop is centered on the examination and creation of collective storytelling environments. We will examine a wide-range of storytelling spaces including participatory and user-generated environments, site-specific works, community based arts practices, and transmedia storytelling. Weekly assignments, field trips, and student presentations. This course will meet for the first seven weeks of the semester.
Course Syllabus -
Comics (ITPG-GT.2925) - Tracy White
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
Comics are more than a narrative form they are a communication medium. Using words and images to tell a story is a skill that is applicable to almost everything we do. In this class you will learn the language of traditional comics so you can hone your storytelling ability, and clarity of thought. We will breakdown the sequential narrative process into the techniques necessary to develop a compelling tale and look at how the audience and the medium help to shape the final presentation of our ideas. Students work on several projects to build up their skills that will culminate in the creation of a short feature comic written/drawn/programmed by each student that can be based on a previous assignment. This class does not teach specific programs or programming rather this class provides an opportunity for students to thoughtfully and creatively apply their skills toward specific assignments. You do not need to be a trained artist to take this class you do need to be willing to take chances with your work. This two-point course will meet for the first seven weeks of the semester. Course Syllabus -
Computation and Fashion (ITPG-GT.2961) - Mary Huang
Offered: Spring 2013
This class is about the intersection of computation, software, and fashion design.
We will explore clothing design and production with digital tools like laser cutting, 3D printing, and scanning as well as traditional clothing construction techniques. The course will investigate unique approaches in materials, user interface, data, and process from Issey Miyake to Nike. Involving concepts from art, manufacturing, and product, the field of fashion and technology presents exciting possibilities for expanding on centuries of craft.
Class structure will be small workshop assignments culminating to a final project.
(Skills in Processing, web development, sewing, or 3D modeling are handy but not required.) Course Syllabus -
Computational Cameras (ITPG-GT.2546) - Daniel O'Sullivan
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012
Computers should see. We depend most heavily on light to sense the world. As our experience is increasingly mediated through networked computers, it is not surprising that cameras have become an integral part of them. These camera/computer combinations have become small, cheap and ubiquitous in laptops, cellphones and microcontrollers and have gained coverage of every corner of life. This class looks at the possibilities and the computer software for getting a hold of the signals coming in from these cameras. Unfortunately what is trivial for our vision system is really hard in software. This class attempts to side step these very difficult problem of computer vision by working in fairly contrived environments such as art installations, eye tracking rigs, and ant farms. First the class will cover programming required to process or analyze each pixel of the incoming image for such things as background removal, finding edges, or tracking objects. As a sensor, the video camera is appealing; delivering up to 36 million bytes every second compared to maybe 3 bytes from a keyboard but this volumen of data also presents a nice coding challenge for students. After covering the basics of pixel manipulation, the class will turn to higher level libraries for things like face tracking, multitouch, Wii, Kinect and augmented reality. The course uses Java in the Eclipse environment which is a good next step from the Processing environment. We look at implementing these techniques across platforms, including the desktop, the cellphone and even on a microcontroller. The class requires ICM or similar programming background. Course Syllabus -
Conceptual Art (ITPG-GT.2886) - Georgia Krantz
Offered: Spring 2011
This course will examine the history of Conceptual art: its roots in Fluxus, Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism; the emergence and unfolding of the movement from 1966-1972; and the impact of the movement on successive generations of artists to the present day. Examining Conceptual art is messy for many reasons, not least because "it's conceptual" is a popular response to any art made of unconventional materials or difficult to understand. The course will situate Conceptual art with regards to the diverse artistic practices and theoretical and cultural paradigms through which artists, critics and scholars have framed and debated its dynamics. Course Syllabus -
Connected Documentary (ITPG-GT.2926) - Ben Moskowitz
Offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2013
The term "documentary" was coined by John Grierson, father of the documentary film, as the "creative treatment of actuality." The web opens up massive potential for completely new kinds of documentaries: films that constantly update themselves with breaking information, are shaped by users, or are made more persuasive through personalization.
In this course, you'll conceive, shoot, and code a short-form, connected documentary of your own. We'll be using the popcorn.js web video library to link and incorporate data from open APis, Facebook, and the wider web. You don't need to be a filmmaker or a developer, strictly speaking—just creative, bold, and interested in formal innovation.
This two credit course meets for the first seven weeks of the semester.
Course Syllabus -
Constructing Generative Systems (ITPG-GT.2534) - Todd Holoubek
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012
Generative Art creates a process of evolution, where most art imitates life, generative art has a life of it's own. Artists, designers, architects have use generative methods for creating many times without knowing. How is it that we can create something that resonates with the user on a level that cannot be quantified. It is by providing the work with the means to have a life of it own. These are the generative methods. Techniques that are subtle, yet have the greatest effect: simple rules that dictate the shape or function of a work adding to it an inherent complexity that is both beautiful and intelligent. In this class we will cover the generative methods and use them as tools for creating. Course Syllabus -
Conversation, Cooperation, Collaboration (ITPG-GT.2515) - Clay Shirky
Offered: Fall 2013
People work and play in groups, so anything that changes the way groups form or interact will change the way people work and play. In the last decade, the social aspects of networked devices have moved from being regarded as an interesting side-effect to being one of the core design issues of the present era. The importance of shared online effort, from github and StackOverflow to Google Hangout and 4chan, is allowing us to re-think how and when people converse, cooperate, and collaborate.
In this seminar, we will study what makes the design of software for group use special, and hard. The work of the class is a series of readings about social design problems generally (Prisoner's Dilemma, Tragedy of the Commons), alongside class discussion of interesting social spaces (github, Omegle, Branch, Discourse, Weird Twitter). You will examine existing social spaces and present your findings to the class, imagining how you might improve or degrade the social aspects of those sites. The final project will be a design proposal for a novel social space or service, or for a significant alteration of an existing one. -
Cooking With Sound (ITPG-GT.2940) - T3db0t Hayes
Offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2013
What is it about the propagation of compressed air waves that gives rise to such a vast panoply of history, culture, ideas and artworks? What exactly does sound consist of, and how can we use (and abuse) it? Utilizing sound in our projects is a lot like cooking: we find and make ingredients, manipulate them, mix them together, bake at 400º, serve. Cooking With Sound explores the phenomenon of sound from the ground up, investigates its history, practice and potential as a medium for art, communication, and pleasure, and provides students the skills and knowledge for forming and shaping these potentials. Topics include acoustics and the physics of sound (and how a single vibrating string gives rise to music theories around the world), the digitization of sound (and how you can do it yourself with a handful of resistors), sound as art medium and its interpretation and criticism, and the many various tools and techniques for wielding this ephemeral yet eternal wonder. Course Syllabus -
Creating Community Environments (ITPG-GT.2838) - Kristen Taylor
Offered: Fall 2011
Why do we nestle into some communities immediately and feel out of place in others? Can you create a niche online group that is welcoming to all and yet accomplishes specific goals? In CommunITP, we do fieldwork to discover how collaborative actions happen. We think about markets and audiences, looking for ways to create receptive environments for interactive work. Along the way, we research language markers, design cues, griefing, upcycling, excellence, and craft as we focus on the agency of objects and the targeted representation of ideas. Readings range from single-serving sites to ecofuturist short stories to Irish poetry; we use Tumblr blogs to respond to readings and share observations with text, images, and video. Heavy emphasis on small group work in class meetings leads to you redesigning a community feature for the midterm and expanding on that work for the final project that is evaluated by a guest crit panel and the class. Students have compared this class to "grooming bonsai trees." Find out why. Course Syllabus -
Creating Digital Games (ITPG-GT.2887) - Matt Parker
Offered: Spring 2011
This will be a class exploring the challenges of creating digital
games. We will explore the process of iterative game design and its
relation to video game development through the creation of a few very
focused game prototypes. Projects will be built in Processing, but
the concepts discussed with be applicable to all digital game formats.
We will go over how sprite sheets can be used to animate characters,
different kinds of collision detection, level construction, and simple
tricks that can make game elements seem intelligent. Final projects
will either be playable via the web, Android devices, or as
installation games. Finally, there will be discussions and guest
speakers to explore games as culture and begin to explore their power
and potential. Assignments will consist of readings, presentations,
game playing and development.
Data (ITPG-GT.2927) - Mark Hansen
Offered: Spring 2012
Far from virtual, inert quantities, data exert real forces in the physical world -- They are incendiaries wielding the power of once-secret diplomatic cables, mores initiated with the flip of a privacy setting, and physical laws shaping urban structures with the quiet, persistent action of zoning regulations. Data are bribes, calls to action, and objects of coordination. Data build. Data destroy. Data renew. Data rarely act in isolation, gaining power through combination, "join"ing forces and moving into new terrain. Their presence is thought to guarantee transparency, their absence is seen as suspicious, and restrictions on their movement appear to be temporary, at best. This course will deal in data, its collection, processing and interpretation. It is not meant to be a study in data visualization, per se, although we will spend a lot of time looking at data. We will examine a mix of techniques from the "data arts and sciences," crossing, for example, statistics, computer science and media art. Work for this course might not have a visual component at all, but could instead represent a new way to organize, search or publish data. It might be a novel data collection strategy, a joining mechanism that crosses databases, or even a new statistical model and formal learning procedure. In short, we will examine the idea of data as "material" supporiting creative practices. Prerequisites: Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience. Prior knowledge of statistics or experience with data analysis is not required. Lessons will emphasize R and Python. Note: This two-point class will meet for the last seven weeks of the semester. -
Data Representation (ITPG-GT.2888) - Jer Thorp
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013
The world is awash with data. In the last few years, a collision of technologies has allowed us to record massive amounts of information. The question that we are faced with now is: How can we make sense of it? In this course, we explore traditional analysis and visualization techniques, alongside novel strategies and exploratory methods. We build tools to navigate through huge data sets, and will learn how to represent data in visual, audial, and physical form. Students work in Processing to design and build their own unique data representation projects. Course Syllabus -
Data Science Storytelling (ITPG-GT.2517) - Hilary Mason
Offered: Fall 2013
We have access to more data and better and more powerful tools than ever before, and yet high-quality analysis is still largely the domain of professional data scientists. This course will cover those techniques for exploring data, cleaning it, and uncovering and communicating meaningful stories, while understanding concepts like error metrics, bias, and data product development. We'll primarily focus on technical and algorithmic techniques for practically navigating through data to draw interesting conclusions. While data visualization is a tool used in the service of data science, this is not a data visualization design class. Students will work through analyzing a few data sets as a group before selecting a final project where they complete an analysis and
present the resulting story to the class. Students will become familiar with the Python programming language (specifically iPython notebook).
This two-credit course will meet the first seven weeks of the semester. -
Data Without Borders: Data Science in the Service of Humanity (ITPG-GT.2941) - Jake Porway
Offered: Fall 2012
We are living in the dawn of the big data era, a time in which the vast digitization of our world has created incalculable amounts of information that is now being used to drive our every decision, from what movie we decide to watch this weekend to how we navigate the globe next year. Though data can be immensely transformative, much of the efforts in data science are still focused on first-world gains, such as optimizing ad networks or recommending restaurants. As designers, developers, and scientists, it is not only incumbent upon us to understand how to analyze, understand, and tell stories with data, but also to think about its use in meaningful and socially conscious ways. This class will train students in the basic tools and trade of data science through exploration of a socially conscious data project. Students will learn to scrape, merge, and clean data with Python, perform statistical analysis and use machine learning algorithms in R, and visualize and explore data with R and D3. In addition to training students as junior data scientists, we will discuss the important social issues around data provenance, privacy, and the responsibility that comes with making claims from data.
Design Expo: Making Data Useful (ITPG-GT.2274) - Nancy Hechinger, Clay Shirky
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2013
Increasingly we live in a world alive with sensors and data. The big data, sensor network, and transparency movements have left us with a supply-side glut of potential useful free data that is lying fallow.
Today, we are only at the beginning discovering how to put this data to work to improve our lives and the world around us. How can we use this to improve life, local community and the world at large?
How might data, and particularly the data that makes civil society run– bus schedules, election cycles, political information, first-hand reporting, volunteer logistics – make for a better and more community-oriented place to live?
How might this data help us understand the past, the present and predict the future with more precision, and how might an individual's personal data be used to help filter and make information more relevant in different contexts or situations.
What are key problems this data can be used to help solve, what new troubles can we anticipate it creates? -
Design for Editions (ITPG-GT.2519) - Thomas Gerhardt
Offered: Fall 2013
How do you take a project made at ITP and turn it into a product? From electronics projects on Kickstarter to bespoke leather goods and bike hardware, all successful products have one thing in common, they can be made reliably over and over again at high quality. In this class, 'Design for Editions' we will explore issues surrounding creating art and design objects so that they can be made more than once, by someone other than their creator; be that a limited edition of 10 or a full production run of 10,000.
In two week segments we will look at: what is repeatability, designing for repeatability, creating process, specification/quotes, and quality control. In each segment students will produce a mini project focused on the current topic, look at examples of real world creators, and present their work to outside critics. The class will host guest lecturers and go on studio/factory visits in the NYC/Brooklyn area.
The last six weeks of the class will be devoted to a final project whose outcome will be a fully specified product ready for production. Possible final projects could run the gamut from high-end design objects to art installations or custom electronics modules. Students are encouraged to bring in-process or past projects to develop further over the corse of the class. -
Design for the Real World: Women in Haiti (ITPG-GT.2962) - Despina Papadopoulos
Offered: Spring 2013
Design For the Real World: Principled Design for We Advance University
This class give students an opportunity to work as a design and development team on a real project to develop an online community to bring information and resources to women in Haiti. Design principles and methodology will be learned within the context of this work. The project, already underway, is an online portal that seeks to address the needs of Haitian women and create a platform for empowerment and knowledge sharing.
Students will develop innovative prototypes around:
Content: educational and entertainment, listing of resources, emergency alerts, marketplace
Delivery: best practices for open source platforms, text messaging, online radio, mobile theater, scalable model that can be applied to other countries
Engagement: strategies for attracting users, creating partnerships, spreading the word
The project is in an early stage and students will have the opportunity to significantly contribute and shape its direction and overall structure.
By the end of the term students will present solutions to the 'client', that is the primary stakeholders of We Advance University: led by the NGO We Advance (http://weadvance.org/) and Femme en Democratie (http://fed.org.ht/) with support from the State Department.
Course Syllabus -
Design for UNICEF (ITPG-GT.2758) - Jorge Just
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund; http://unicef.org) takes on issues affecting the health, well-being, and opportunities of children and youth around the world. UNICEF's reach is wide -- it is the #1 purchaser of pencils, procures a billion dollars of vaccine a year and, in 2010, responded to emergencies in half of all nations. An increasingly important part of its mission is finding creative ways to address issues that negatively affect young lives. Design for UNICEF will focus on a relevant topic, such as disaster relief, nutrition, or the lives of adolescent girls. You will work in groups to research and design new tools and innovative extensions to existing efforts related to the topic. Your projects can use high or low/no technology and take the form of mock-ups/design proposals, or working prototypes. At the end of the semester, you'll present your work at UNICEF HQ to staff and invited guests. This class is all about rapid iteration and refinement, proposing and rejecting ideas, lots of collaboration, and coming to terms with the difficult and frustrating challenges of designing for people who are far away, facing problems that are very big. Course Syllabus -
Design Frontiers in Biology and Materiality (ITPG-GT.2816) - Amanda Parkes
Offered: Spring 2011
Biological organisms and systems are essentially living machines. Digital technologies allow us to create a control structure with computational predictability and precision. What happens, however, when designers begin to incorporate the self-determined internal control structure of a biological system as part of a design strategy? This course offers a new approach to materiality, positing that all matter is dynamic but exists within a continuum of control ranging from passively temporal (wood, water) to electronically active (photovoltaics, thermochromics) to biologically alive (plants, tissue). This course presents alternative design strategies for creating computational interfacing with living matter and state change of natural materials. Students are introduced to the world of the bio lab from a designer's perspective, both conceptually and practically. We examine the state-of-the-art in artistic experimentation with biological systems such as the genetic manipulation projects of Eduardo Kac, or the carbon nanotubes grown into architectural structures of Ryan Wartena. We also examine more DIY approaches to living systems integration and interactivity with biological systems. Students use a hands-on approach in their design process, with biological sensing as input and indicators or material state change as an alternative method of information display, for example. This course is designed to further our computational relationship with the natural world pushing forward ideas in sustainability, interactivity, energy production and the emerging relationship between the designer/artist and the bio lab, approaching biology as an open frontier for digital design.
Course Syllabus -
Designing Conversational Spaces (ITPG-GT.2889) - Clay Shirky
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012
The Design of Conversational Spaces starts with the observation that conversation is everywhere online, but that its quality ranges from excellent to execrable. The negative end of that scale is astonishingly bad – moronic rants, off-topic rambles, vitriolic attacks. ("dude just stfu nobody watches ur videos just gtfo out of you tube oh no were hurting his little feelings i feel soo bad".) It's enough to make you wish for the enforced public silence of 20th century media. Yet not all online speech suffers this fate; many sites manage to host not just civil but productive conversations, from the talk pages on Wikipedia to the design conversations on github to political debate on Comment is Free. Programmers have contentious but respectful conversations on StackOverflow and #winprog; crafters on Etsy and Ravelry; mathematicians on Polymath; pop artists on DeviantArt. This class is about the design of environments that support or encourage good conversation. We explore what makes comments on YouTube so bad, and on Ravelry so good, a bundle of differences that includes the scale of the audience, the commitment of the participants to each other and to shared enterprise, and the willingness and ability of the participants police violations. The class is designed to explore three forces that affect online conversation: Forces that set conversational context (scale, homophily, identity) Forces that guide conversations (visual and verbal cues, social rules) Forces that restrict conversations (membership, karma, moderation) These will be your toolkit for thinking about conversational design. The goal of the course is to sketch out a "pattern language" for the kinds of choices designers make when creating conversational or interactive interfaces or tools, and to understand the inevitable tradeoffs involved. Course Syllabus -
Designing for Digital Fabrication (ITPG-GT.2890) - Daniel Rozin
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013
The ability to digitally fabricate parts and whole pieces directly from our computers or design files used to be an exotic and expensive option not really suitable for student or designer projects, but changes in this field in the past 5 years have brought these capabilities much closer to our means, especially as ITP students. ITP and NYU now offer us access to laser cutting, CNC routing, and 3D stereolithography. In this class we will learn how to design for and operate these machines. Emphasis will be put on designing functional parts that can fit into a larger project or support other components as well as being successful on a conceptual and aesthetic level. In this class we will discover methods to design projects on CAD applications for total control of the result, and we will develop algorithmic ways to create designs from software (Processing) to take advantage of the ability to make parts and projects that are unique, customizable, dependent on external data or random. The class will include 3 assignments to create projects using the three machines (laser, router, 3D) and the opportunity to work on a final project. Course Syllabus -
Designing for Live Performance (ITPG-GT.2521) - Andrew Lazarow
Offered: Fall 2013
For centuries, great works of music, theater, and dance, have combined art and science to make integrated performances that move audiences. Today, we are seeing major changes as artists experiment with video and real-time interactivity to draw audiences even deeper into the performance, and enhance the shared experience of the moment. This class explores conceptual approaches to design, contemporary software, prototyping frameworks, and data flow programming to provide student designers with the cutting-edge tools necessary to confidently collaborate with writers, directors, and performers. Structured as a studio course, students will make designs for iconic theater pieces, and collaborate with working artists to design original projects. -
Designing Social Platforms (ITPG-GT.2922) - John Kuiphoff
Offered: Summer2 2011, Summer2 2012, Summer1 2013
Most social media platforms follow a similar recipe. A user signs up, creates a profile, contributes / shares content, posts comments, builds a reputation, etc. What makes each social media platform unique is the object of conversation, the intended purpose and the participatory culture that arises from its use. In this course, we will learn how to design and develop a fully functional social media platform using HTML, CSS, jQuery, PHP and MySQL. An emphasis will be placed on creating applications that operate both on desktop computers and mobile devices. In addition, topics related to information architecture, interface design, cloud computing and leveraging existing web services will be discussed. Previous programming experience is helpful, but not required. Course Syllabus -
Developing Assistive Technology: Field Service Learning (ITPG-GT.2842) - John Schimmel
Offered: Spring 2011
Assistive technologies are the tools people with physical, sensory and mental disabilities use daily to interact, navigate and communicate with the world around them. In this class, students are assigned to develop working solutions for local rehabilitation institutions and organizations; projects are developed on augmented reality for visual disabilities, Nintendo Wii for physical therapy and touch screens for post-stroke therapy. Students are expected to have a solid understanding of programming (Flash, Javascript and Processing) and physical computing as well as ability to communicate their ideas clearly to non-technical users. Participating students meet as a group bi-weekly for this two-point class.
Course Syllabus -
Digital Imaging: Reset (ITPG-GT.2550) - Eric Rosenthal
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
Digital cameras and printers are making photography more ubiquitous and more useful than ever. This course is a workshop that looks at changing the rules for capturing and printing digital imagery. By gaining a better understanding of the engineering fundamentals and limitations of digital photography, students can produce breathtaking images with all the benefits of digital media but with an image quality that rivals film. Students experiment using low cost, hands-on tips and tricks in software and hardware to capture high dynamic range, expanded color, night color, 3D, time lapse, and stop motion images using a digital camera and printer. While using mostly off-the-shelf tools, these experiments require students to dig down to see the nitty-gritty of today's and tomorrow's technologies for digitally sensing, encoding, compressing, transmitting and displaying images. Course Syllabus -
Digital Spaces: Imagining Worlds in Realtime 3D (ITPG-GT.2963) - Tabor Robak, Aaron Meyers
Offered: Spring 2013
In this course we'll explore Realtime 3D as a medium for artistic expression and develop our own interactive experiences that take place in virtual spaces. We'll critically survey a broad selection of Realtime 3D works, from traditional video games to more experimental interactive experiences. To create our own worlds, we'll be using Unity3D, a free full-featured 3D game engine.
For the first half of class, a series of weekly exercises will introduce different topics in Unity including 3D models, textures, shaders, lighting and animation. We'll be writing code in C#, Unity's preferred language, but students may choose to use JavaScript as well. For the second half, students will work on a larger final project that conveys some kind of narrative through interactions in a virtual space. Group collaborations are encouraged.
Students are encouraged to adapt source material from a broad range of sources. We'll look at off-the-shelf motion capture animation from sites light Mixamo, creating models using 3D scanning with a Kinect and middleware solutions from the Unity Asset Store. Course Syllabus -
Disruption and the Maker Movement (ITPG-GT.2971) - Art Kleiner, Thomas Igoe
Offered: Spring 2013
In the past few years, hands-on learning and do-it-yourself making have taken off in electronics and fabrication of soft and hard goods. This represents a new case of a perennial enterprise dynamic: Disruption. That's what happens when an established industry is confronted by a new technological way of doing things, and all habits, business models, and attitudes must change.
In this case, the established industry that is being disrupted is.... industry itself. The driving forces behind this sweeping change include increasing sophistication, ease-of-use, and accessibility of digital fabrication software and hardware tools; the lowering of costs of components and raw materials; the rise of wages around the world, making outsourcing a less viable alternative; affordable overnight and short-term shipping; information sharing on the internet; and an ecological imperative that encourages a more effective use of materials and energy.
Advocates of the maker movement are bullish on its potential for changing the way all industry operates -- including the way we design, make, sell, and distribute things, and even the way we learn about industrial production. On one level, this disruption seems inevitable and predetermined. However, the speed, breadth, and impact of this change are all uncertain. We have seen many highly viable technologies have little or no impact; and some have changed every aspect of the world. Will digital fabrication be the next search engine, or the next Segway?
The aim of this class is to examine the potential size and impact of the maker movement and to consider the unexamined consequences of it. In assignments and discussion, students will articulate what the movement means to individuals, where it may lead industry and institutions, and how it could affect the fabric of industry. In the process, we will study existing knowledge about the dynamics of disruption, the cultural changes involved with changing technology, and the relationship between dynamic manufacturing and conventional manufacturing processes. Then we'll check our assumptions with research about the current reality of the movement.
This will be a discussion and research class. In-class discussions will be fed by assigned readings, students' research and interviews, and possibly invited guests. Final projects can include in-depth reports explaining the subjects at hand; well-researched scenarios about the possible directions this might take; or designs for methods, or practices or tools related to the subject at hand. Course Syllabus -
DIY Health (ITPG-GT.2908) - Steven Dean
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
Traditional medical care focuses on fixing sickness but doesn't do a very good job of helping prevent it. Self-care solutions that help us take better care of ourselves have the potential to improve our health and well-being, and may keep us from experiencing the consequences of chronic disease, or even reversing it. The sensor and self-tracking revolution is changing our understanding of data and ourselves. We need new systems that collect, understand and interpret this data to help us know ourselves better and make better choices in light of that knowledge. How might we design a self-care system that engages us in our own monitoring, goal setting, experimenting, reflecting and understanding as it relates to our bodies, minds, emotions, relationships and environment? Since self-care applies to all of us, you will focus inwardly on your own needs and situations. The goal of the course is to design a self-care system that helps us take stock of ourselves by exploring ways to measure, reflect and act upon our health and lifestyle. We make interactive interfaces, visualizations and feedback systems that use existing technologies and methods to support our health and well-being. Students employ design techniques to develop problem statements, generate concepts, prototype, and then test and refine your solutions to evolve them into high-fidelity prototypes that use sketches, scenarios, videos and user journeys to convey the complete user experience. The emphasis is on the lightest weight prototype, which works through the solution over actual implementations in software and hardware. Significant portions of class time are set aside for teamwork, designing and critique. Course Syllabus -
DNA, Genes and Genomes (ITPG-GT.2919) - Yasser Ansari
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012
Beginning with Gregor Mendel's masterful study of inheritable traits in pea plants and the groundbreaking discovery of the three-dimensional structure of DNA, this class sets out to uncover the biological mechanisms at play and the specialized equipment and protocols being used in today's laboratories, studios, and garages. The emerging biohacking and DIY Bio movements of today are heavily built on scientific breakthroughs that have occurred only recently. Over the course of the semester, we will study the principles underlying many of these key breakthroughs like the development of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), the generation of the first recombinant DNA molecules (genetic engineering), and the rise of shotgun genome sequencing (DNA sequencing) all in an effort to better understand modern biology -- from DNA to genes to genomes. Class work will include individual exercises, in-class labs (Bacterial transformations using E. Coli and Green Fluorescent Protein for example), assigned readings, and group presentations. Additionally, students will be asked to develop their own projects inspired by the concepts covered. The ultimate goal of this class is to equip students with enough knowledge and skill to explore biologically driven concepts and projects with confidence. Although topics from molecular biology will be covered, no previous knowledge is required. Course Syllabus -
Drawing on Everything (ITPG-GT.2964) - Shantell Martin
Offered: Spring 2013
The objective of this course is to explore analog and digital drawing not only as a static exercise, but also as a tool for performance installation and collaboration. The course will explore different methods for expression and capturing output. Examples include drawing under camcorders, digital projection, digital drawing software, and simple code platforms. Students will gain the skill and confidence to draw in real time using a variety of different mediums, improve their improvising skills, and learn to perform without delay. Course Syllabus -
Drawing without Ego (ITPG-GT.2406) - William Sullivan
Offered: Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
Drawing is often the beginning of relaying an idea. It constitutes the most intimate form of making and is the testing ground for new thoughts. "Drawing without ego" means letting go of fears of what you think drawing should be, and just letting it happen – feeling comfortable enough to use drawing as an alphabet to build thoughts visually, like language is built from letters. The course encourages the student to experiment and develop a visual idea, more than to create finished work. Assignments include sketching out proposals for new work – storyboarding, etc. – building a visual vocabulary through various forms of improvisation, as well as the more conventional practice of drawing from the model and still life. Students bring their knowledge of interactive telecommunications to drawing and find ways to let drawing enter into their design work. In this introductory drawing class students are urged to draw anything they want, exploring the freedom of expression that comes from playing with one's imagination and memory and creating convincing imagery with or without references. The class will have informal critiques, and will visit galleries to look at contemporary art. Weekly assignments are required.
This two-credit course will meet the first seven weeks of the semester. Course Syllabus -
Dynamic Web Development (ITPG-GT.2296) - Christopher Sung, John Schimmel
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013
Course Syllabus -
Electronic Design and Prototyping (ITPG-GT.2904) - Paul Rothman
Offered: Summer2 2011
Have you tried squeezing a breadboard circuit into a wearable? Designed a toy that kids instantly ripped apart? Created an instrument that malfunctioned on stage? Simple proof-of-concept prototypes are a great way to explore new ideas but sometimes, more advanced prototyping and fabrication techniques are needed to achieve a polished end result. Knowing the appropriate tools and components for a given project can really make a difference in transforming an idea from your sketchbook into a solid piece of hardware. This class demonstrates how to design projects that are physically smaller, easily reproducible and more reliable. Topics will include understanding schematics, part sourcing, PCB design, surface mount components and soldering, modular systems, enclosure design and more. The course is designed to act as a kind of lab section in support of other physical computing based classes such as Wearables, NIME, Toy Design, Wildlife Tracking and others. Students are encouraged to have projects in mind to work on but there will be weekly/bi-weekly assignments to demonstrate skills learned in class. Class sessions will consist of lectures, hands-on demos and workshop time. Previous knowledge of electronics is strongly recommended as the course material assumes basic understanding of electronic components and circuits. -
Embodied Play (ITPG-GT.2942) - Phoenix Perry
Offered: Fall 2012
How does interactive design create powerful emotional experiences? What are keys to engaging the mind at the affective stage of awareness? As computing becomes more physical, creators have an opportunity to connect with audiences in new ways. Using the body as the canvas for play, we explore tactics for unlocking affective experiences. Delving into the basics of embodied design, students will develop, prototype and test experiences with the primary aim of creating a profound emotional state. Any software/hardware is acceptable for this class as the design principles covered are universal. However, we will be using Processing, Unity, and C# with a wide range of controllers for the example lessons in class. Upon completing the class, students will present a finished piece of work with the aim of creating a specific emotion.
Topics include:
Affective Computing, 3rd Wave HCI, Affective Design, Unity Basics, C#, Gesture Design, Machine Learning & Gesture Training, Kinect, Wii, OpenNI
Technical Experience:
Take this class with a basic understanding of Object Oriented Programming to get the most out of it. However, if you do not have any programming skills, you are welcome to take the class and hand in design prototypes made with paper or other craft supplies until we finish the unity section of the course. Course Syllabus -
Embodying the Other: Human Beings, Speech, Gesture (ITPG-GT.2730) - Anna Deavere Smith, Nancy Hechinger
Offered: Fall 2012
As humans we know each other through speech and gesture, time spent with each other, shared histories and geographies. But how can we really know another person.It's hard with someone we know well... much less someone who is not at all like us, who is a stranger, whose worldview may be totally different from our own, who may be our enemy. This is a studio class/workshop to engage these questions which have such urgency in the world today. It's about politics, society and art, how we-- as performers, storytellers, interaction designers-- can explore with our conversation, our intelligence, our whole bodies, and creative spirit might work to discover how to embody and feel with the other. This class is a joint offering with Performance Studies and ITP. Eight students from each.
The class is a studio/workshop class. It will meet for 7 sessions on Sundays, 12-6. Dates and place to be determined.
Emerging Processes in Video Art (ITPG-GT.2977) - James George
Offered: Spring 2013
Emerging Processes in Video Art is a four point course exploring the application of new technology to video art. The theme 'video as data' will underpin the curriculum - beginning with pixel level video processing and advancing to shaders, computer vision, mobile video, and depth-camera filmmaking. Complimenting the technical curriculum, students will be exposed to history and ongoing dialogue surrounding algorithmic processes in video art and cinema. The course will be taught in openFrameworks, a C++ creative coding platform with extensive video processing capabilities.
During the course students will produce new artistic works, each based on a conceptual prompts and technical constraints. Course Syllabus -
Energy (ITPG-GT.2466) - Jeffrey Feddersen
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
"Energy has been called the "universal currency" (Vaclav Smil) but also "a very subtle concept… very, very difficult to get right" (Richard Feynman). Building on skills developed in physical computing, we will, through generating and measuring electricity, gain a more nuanced and quantitative understanding of energy in various forms. We will turn kinetic and solar energy into electrical energy, store that in batteries and capacitors, and use it to power small projects. Several sessions will include hands-on labs. We will develop skills useful in a variety of undertakings, from citizen science to art installations, and address a range of topics through the lens of energy. Students will build a final project using skills learned in the class." Course Syllabus -
Evolution as a Creative Tool (ITPG-GT.2523) - Patrick Hebron
Offered: Fall 2013
The natural world demonstrates that the evolutionary process provides an unparalleled mechanism for the design of complex systems. This course will investigate how evolutionary design tools can be incorporated into software without ceding the artist's creative role to pure probability.
This course will look at genetic algorithms, genetic programming and self-organizing systems from two interrelated perspectives: software architecture and user-interface design. On the programming side, we will study key design patterns, data structures and serialization techniques used in implementing these systems. For the design component, the class will function as a collaborative project development studio, working to innovate novel interfaces that harness the power and temper the unpredictability of emergent systems.
This course is intended for experienced programmers. Examples and collaborative work will be written in C++ with Cinder as a supporting application framework. -
Evolution of Post-Print Media (ITPG-GT.2891) - Art Kleiner
Offered: Spring 2011
The nature of media is changing, and none is changing more rapidly than the media of print: the newspaper and magazine. In this course, drawing on the experience of one magazine (strategy+business) which is rapidly evolving, we're going to look at the basic issues of an industry in change: The way that such practices as advertising and circulation are evolving, and the necessary steps that leaders in media must take to stay on top of them. The class sessions will draw upon a wide variety of guest lecturers, but we will also focus on three student projects. 1. A brief report on a trend affecting print media 2. A report on a new business model and how well it is working. 3. A prototype/proposal for a media feature or enterprise.
Course Syllabus -
Face It (ITPG-GT.2525) - Daniel Shiffman
Offered: Fall 2013
In this all day workshop, we will examine the human face. We'll look at the differences between face detection and face recognition as well as demonstrate examples that implement blink detection, smile detection, and tracking the contours of the face. In addition, we'll look at some image processing techniques for face morphing. Examples will be demonstrated in Processing.
This one point course will meet twice. The first day will be an all day workshop looking at code examples that will be held on Saturday, September 28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Students will then work on a mini-project which they will present the following week on Friday, October 4 from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. -
Fandom: Pop Subcultures in a Digital Age (ITPG-GT.2965) - Zoe Fraade-Blanar
Offered: Spring 2013
What is fandom? A group of dedicated consumers? A social community with a cause? An embarrassment? Until the early 90's these questions were strictly the property of academic theorists. Then the internet arrived, and suddenly, whatever else fandom might be, it was also big business. As the stigma associated with fan cultures continues to decrease, thanks, in large part, to the rise of the tech sector, fandom's true economic clout is being felt for the first time in its long and varied history.
This is the new world of consumer-based fandom: Entertainment firms scramble to launch new superhero movies, clothing retailers are gradually embracing crowdsourcing, and insurance company spokespeople have millions of fans. The class will investigate the historical and sociological implications of fandom as it emerges from the shadows, starting from early music and religious movements through to current-day Maker communities. From what was once a subversive veneration of trash culture, we'll explore how the newly-lowered barrier to fandom is allowing fans to experiment with new identities, picking and choosing which ones will contribute to their own personal brand.
What are the circumstances that cause identity-building in fans and the associated trappings of content creation? How can we as designers and technologists create in such as way as to invoke the delight and enchantment necessary for the conversion from mere consumer to rabid fan? We will examine how to inspire a productive fanbase by analyzing brands ranging from Apple to PBR to the Cheezburger networks and situations spanning from Professional Wrestling to Tom Petty...and every meme in between. Along the way, we'll confront what it means to be a fan, both as creators in search of an audience and as innovators in search of like-minded peers.
Fandom: it's not just for nerds anymore. Course Syllabus -
Fashion Technology: Installation and Invention (ITPG-GT.2909) - Amanda Parkes
Offered: Fall 2011
As the genre of wearable computing matures beyond the realm of novelty, its most powerful instantiation lies not in the garments of our everyday lives, but in works at the extreme edge of creativity and human augmentation. Technology embedded in fashion offers expanded methodologies to enhance fashion's role as a purveyor of identity and a mode of communication. This course offers a new approach to combining the tools of wearable computing with additional forms of media to enable altering forms of expression and connectivity for interactive installation, performance and public interventions. The course begins with the historical underpinnings of fashion as display (eg, Coco Chanel's original salon, history of the runway), fashion as political voice (eg. Giacomo Balla's futurist suits, Lucy Orta) and fashion as experience (eg. 1960's neo-concretist Lygia Clark's immersive hoods). Contemporary fashion projects are explored including cutting edge runway design, window and store display, and theatre and immersive environments examining fashion's role in the construction of narrative and fantasy and how technological augmentation can work to recontextualize the relationship between the body, clothing and the environmental experience. Guest speakers include: Cintra Wilson, the New York Times Critical Shopper and fashion social critic: Ebenezer Bond, runway and fashion installation producer; and Andrea Lauer, costume designer for Elizabeth Streb Dance Company.
The course combines reading, discussion and critique with hands-on projects constructing augmented garments and installations. Students learn the basics of sewing, fashion construction and wearable electronics with the Arduino Lilypad building on existing prior knowledge of physical computing. For the second half of the course, students work on a project with a real world client, either theatrical or commercial, with the possibility for installation in a professional environment.
Prerequisite: Introduction to Physical Computing -
Fast, Easy, Complicated and Powerful Web (ITPG-GT.2885) - Daniel Phiffer
Offered: Spring 2011
The Web has long been celebrated for its revolutionary potential, giving individuals access to a global audience once reserved for wealthy media barons. We now have an unprecedented expressive capacity, using fast and easy online tools, available for little or no cost. This course makes an assessment of how these tools have evolved in response to actual users. It is a story of cobbled together software, most of which shipped flawed, but has been incrementally improved and iterated upon. We will investigate the biases and quirks that shape these readily available tools of expression. How have user interface design, web standards, source control, and bug tracking played a role in this process? Who are the people writing the code, how do they respond to the needs of users? The course will ask students to take critical look at the tools that underpin our everyday experience of the Web, while also exploring how to get the most out of them. Students will learn how to build sites with WordPress that "don't look like a blog," but also examine how colloquial design patterns like blogs might be received by site visitors. Throughout, we will study and hack and misuse casual content management, asking how we might enhance the revolutionary competence of its users.
Section 1 of this two-point course will meet for the first six weeks of the semester; section 2 will meet for the second six weeks of the semester.
Course Syllabus -
Flying Robots (ITPG-GT.2966) - Paul Bartlett
Offered: Spring 2013
Flying robots, aka Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones, are growing in number and influence in military use. In parallel, the hobbyist community is developing DIY methods, making flying robots more accessible to more people. What is yet to become common is for these DIY aircraft to carry out visions rather than simply take pictures. This course aims to provide the conceptual and technical foundation for using flying robots for visionary purposes. Here, technology is the tool. The air vehicle is the paintbrush, the poster, the camera; visible to some degree but not the purpose. The first step is to strip down the employment of a flying robot to its essence, as a means to gather information or take action at a distance, using an autonomous agent. The group will discuss and expand the current thinking on feasible, worthy objectives for flying robots, from art to science, from observation to communication, from performance to activism. Throughout the course, these conceptual topics will be a backdrop for hands-on projects using accessible technology.
The projects will investigate:
• Performing a task with a flying robot
• Moving information and decision-making
• Making a craft fly autonomously
The projects will be performed in small teams and will require conceptualization, system design, and mechanical, electrical and coding work. The types of small aircraft could include quadcopters, blimps, planes, or less conventional platforms. Flight controls will be done using the Arduino-based ArduPlane and ArduCopter, or other embedded computing platforms. The online DIY/hobbyist community will be used as a resource. Each week, class will include a brief lecture and discussion followed by demonstration and debugging of projects. Course Syllabus -
From Pixels to Polygons: Coding 3D Worlds (ITPG-GT.2928) - James George
Offered: Spring 2012
This course introduces programming 3D geometry to create images interaction between physical and virtual space. We'll learn how to generate geometry with code, import and control animated models, shader and lighting design, interfacing with hardware and networks, and projection mapping onto physical objects. Emphasis will be placed on the narrative potential of imagining virtual environments and their interaction with physical space. The course will be taught in Unity3d, a powerful, free and industry-standard game production environment. All coding will be done in Javascript. This two-point course will meet in the first seven weeks of the semester. Course Syllabus -
Fun Theory (ITPG-GT.2943) - Katherine Dillon
Offered: Fall 2012
This seven-week course will test the premise that making an experience fun will influence positive behavior. This class is inspired by (but not tethered to) thefuntheory.com, an initiative of Volkswagon. We will look at the research related to the psychology of behavior and try to answer the question - is incentive-based design effective? After researching theories on behavior motivation each student will identify a problem or issue that they hope to influence. Students will document the problem, develop a concept to influence the behavior associated with that problem and prototype (or build) their solution. They will test their solution and draw conclusions from the experiment. Projects can attempt to influence social change at a large, social scale or at a personal level. The unifying theme behind the projects will be that they intend to inspire positive change. We will look at examples of persuasive technology and the research of BJ Fogg, Dan Lockton and others.
This two-credit course will meet the first seven weeks of the semester. -
Future of the Infrastructure (ITPG-GT.2297) - Art Kleiner
Offered: Fall 2011
Can the future be foretold? No, but the long-term outcomes of present-day actions can be foreseen -- and, as the 2008 economic crisis showed us, lack of foresight can have grave implications. Using a technique called scenario planning, students consider the present and future ramifications of knotty, large-scale problems related to the evolution of the internet and other aspects of the telecommunications infrastructure. In exploring this, we touch upon the global economy, demographics, international politics, environmental concerns, and other large-scale issues. Scenario planning is a rigorous but highly engaging technique, in which people share information and judgment to create a picture of the future larger than any individual could produce alone. The technique has been used since the mid-1950s decades to distinguish certainties from uncertainties, and to learn to be prepared for multiple eventualities. Students will conduct original research on significant trends, use those trends to develop compelling, plausible stories about possible futures, and present the futures - and the strategies they suggest - to a public audience. As part of the process that we co-develop, the class explores theories about system dynamics, organizational and societal change, the causes of economic failure and success, and the nature of technology. Course Syllabus -
Games and Play in Education (ITPG-GTT-GE 2500) - Frank Migliorelli
Offered: Spring 2012
Introduces theories of learning, learning through play, & the role of technology in education. Students will encounter a wide variety of game genres through critiquing & playtesting current & historic video games. Students will do preliminary game design with history, theory, learning outcomes & learner characteristics in mind. This special edition of this course will focus on designing playful learning exhibits for the New York Hall of Science and is jointly offered by ITP and the Digital Media Design for Learning Program. Introduces theories of learning, learning through play, & the role of technology in education. The course will be co-taught by Frank Migliorelli, ITP alum and DMDL adjunct faculty, and Dr. David Kanter, Director of the Sara Lee Schupf Family Center for Play, Science, and Technology Learning at the New York Hall of Science.
ITP students who wish to take the course for 4 units should contact the Steinhardt School Educational Communication and Technology (EDCT) program at firstname.lastname@example.com to add a 1 point independent study (EDCT-GE 2300 section 4).
Germline: DIY IGM Arts (ITPG-GT.2967) - Adam Zaretsky
Offered: Spring 2013
DIY GERMLINE IGM ARTs encourages students to begin to practice re-design of human heredity through transgenic methods. Intentional Genetically Modified Human Genome Arts questions style and innovation in our genepool through a critical hands-on examination. The class begins by redefining where and how we interface with life, through some of the following hands-on wet laboratories --
1: Bioinformatics :: Literary Studies
2: Bacteriology :: Tranformed Painting
3: Ethology :: Art for All Phylla
4: Body Art :: Developmental Biology
5: Food Science :: Gastronomic Arts
6: Ecology :: Ecoart
In combination, the bioart labs will approximate a Do-It-yourself (DIY) protocol towards artistic Intentional Genetic Modification of the Human Genome (IGM.)
Readings and discussions are directed towards cultural issues such as gene patenting, population diversity, new reproductive technologies and nature/culture boundary issues as they pertain to IGM. The analysis is directed towards the state of present day and near future Post/Trans-Human Engineering. The exploration of the issues and techniques of the study of life will aid and inform our expressive productions. In particular, the ethics of living transgenic humans as art and/or science production will be approached.
Creative bioresearch is a personal expression of explorative experience. This class is for the production of living arts addressing the future of genetically modified humans. The combination of in-depth study and living art commentary should make this an intriguing class for anyone who is generally curious about life in particular. Artists from all mediums, those of the medical arts, sciences and social sciences are all encouraged attend.
On successful completion of this course, you will have had:
• Conducted independent and original research that uses the tool of life for self expression.
• Critically evaluated your work and the works of others through non-normative bioethics.
• Gained an ability to discuss biotechnological issues from first hand non-scientific experience.
Giant Stories/Tiny Screens (ITPG-GT.2830) - Daniel Liss
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012
What kinds of video narratives does the Internet allow or encourage? How does the intimacy of millions of viewers sitting alone at home change the possibilities for public story-telling? What thrives? What fails? And why? And maybe most importantly: what kinds of stories get told, when the financial pressure of needing a vast audience is removed? We explore existing work (including talks with some of the leading makers in the field) and create our own - with a goal of challenging traditional media and crafting the kinds of stories we ourselves would like to see. Part production (a brief overview of camera/editing technique) part studio, this class explores the ways technology can enhance and inspire the creative act. Prerequisite: H79.2004 Communications Lab or equivalent Course Syllabus -
Glitch (ITPG-GT.2944) - Kyle McDonald, Jeremiah Johnson
Offered: Fall 2012
"…our control of technology is an illusion, and … digital tools [are] only as perfect, precise, and efficient as the humans who build them." - Kim Cascone
"If it works, it's obsolete." - Marshall McLuhan
How do the tools and media we use affect the work we create? What biases are embedded in the software and data formats we take for granted? In this class we will reverse, invert, and deconstruct prescribed workflows. We'll empower ourselves by digging into the intricacies of different formats. We'll explore the limitations of our tools, and exploit the strange behavior at those limits. We'll also spend a significant amount of time understand the history and theory behind glitch and noise, through enlightening readings, discussion, and exercises.
While this class will cover a variety of low level, technical topics, there are no prerequisites, and there is no single tool, environment, or language that we will focus on. We will instead aim for a more process-oriented approach, and students will be challenged at every level of technical expertise.
This two-credit will meet the first seven weeks of the semester. -
Government 3.0: Rethinking Governance and Re-Imagining Democracy for the 21st Century (PADM-GP 2425) - Beth Noveck
Offered: Fall 2013
Joint with Wagner
We live in an era of unprecedented technological innovation with ingenious new advances for achieving clean energy, eradicating disease and providing greater wellness, more equitably and effectively delivering education, and improving the quality of human existence and expression. At the same time, we are experiencing clear deficits within centralized institutions of government and civil society: deficits of agility, innovation and capacity.
These traditional institutions are failing to tap into the diversity of expertise and experience of individuals and communities, rendering us less able to quickly discover, recognize, implement and scale innovative approaches to pressing problems and making it impossible to translate technological innovation into social progress.
Our current system of centralized government institutions is designed for an earlier age of limited, one-way communication. Consider:
Our 18th century model of voting for representatives doesn't maximize the flow of personal or community preferences from people to government.
Our19th century addition of professional bureaucracy doesn't maximize the flow of expertise, widely distributed in society.
Put another way, we can't make the best decisions in government on how to improve people's lives if we limit public participation and feedback to voting every few years. And we can't adequately take advantage of people's talents, abilities and desire to play a role in governing if we relegate their service to civic engagement disconnected from the real power, money and decision-making.
Governments appropriate plenty for innovation in society. They fund research grants; invest in broadband infrastructure; support science education. But they spend next to nothing on reinventing government institutions by informing and empowering citizen to participate. There is no other industry, and not one as big as the public sector, that doesn't regularly improve on its core business model.
New technology has the potential to transform governance and produce a more open and participatory political culture with effective institutions that engender trust.
New technology makes collaborative problem solving possible. In this course, we explore how we might use technology -- from big data to social media -- to redesign our systems of governance to devolve power from centralized, hierarchical institutions and evolve more robust collaboration among individuals, groups and institutions including government and the media.
Through blogging assignments, discussions and a final design project, participants will apply what we learn about innovation to the issues about which they are the most passionate. Course Syllabus -
Hacking Higher Ed (ITPG-GT.2968) - Daniel O'Sullivan
Offered: Spring 2013
Exciting innovation is happening in the area of higher education. This class will ask students to look at ways to reinvent higher education to increase its accessibility and exceed the current quality of the experience. Students will survey current experiments such as Udacity, Khan Academic, O'Reilly, Code Academy, Meetups, TED Talks, General Assembly, Hackerspaces. Guest speakers working in this space will join the class discussions. Students will create the working parts of an educational institution including curriculum, scheduling, lectures, discussions, community and assessment using such tools as blogs, video streaming, architecture and budgets. ITP disrupt thyself. Course Syllabus -
HTML5 (ITPG-GT.2892) - Daniel Kantor
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012
Ideas Taking Shape: Product Design (ITPG-GT.2945) - Patricia Adler
Offered: Fall 2012
Ideas Taking Shape will explore the language of physical things - how form, materiality, symbolism, and context, express an object's message.
Henry Ford said, "every object tells a story, if you know how to read it".
This course will expand students' design vocabulary and sensitivity. By raising awareness of design choices made in existing objects, we start to understand their language. Enabling students to express physical computing ideas with more intention and personality. Going beyond simply putting electronic components into a box.
Each class focuses on a different aspect of product design, through lectures, hands-on workshops, and weekly assignments.
Design is an iterative process, we will explore all stages involved in the evolution of expressing a concept as an object. Look at historical and contemporary design practices for style and fabrication context. Study human behaviour and ergonomics, to make informed interaction decisions - for example, how should something you talk into look different from something you touch. We will learn to sketch and prototype for design ideation. Ultimately unifying all learned design semantics into a final project, that engages and clearly communicates its story to an audience.
Identity and Evasion (ITPG-GT.2893) - Christina Goodness
Offered: Spring 2011
What is identity in 2011? And can we escape it?
When a baby is born, evidence of that new person's identity is a tiny collection of data, unstable until "certified" and given a tracking number by the state. As we live our lives, the collection becomes larger, less centralized, with ownership belonging to many parties but in no one place. Our identities are abstracted yet intensely personal. Until just a few hundred years ago, individuals could outrun past identities, and effectively hide secrets for millennia. What is identity, what does identification mean, and what does it mean to be identified by someone else? Who ultimately now owns the data that identifies us? Is our identity our ultimate work of art? What tools do we have to change which identities? How can we evade our identities? How do we use multiple identities and why? Can we outrun our data? When does the proxy self – the pose, the imitation, the costumed body, physical address, email address, Google profile, DNS record/website, IMSI, ICC-ID, social network pr ofile, academic file, employer file, state id, SSN – when does it become too potent and overtake the author? This class will examine these questions by studying current systems that validate identity – personal, family, community, collegial, consumer, educational, national, networked, international. Initial design exercises and the final assignment will be focused on around historical methods for creating alternate identities, specific technologies that are used to create, hold or protect identity, and specific tools that can be used to evade, mask, break or destroy the integrity of identity. Course Syllabus -
Interaction Design: Making Technology Play Nice (ITPG-GT.2295) - Zoe Fraade-Blanar
Offered: Fall 2011
Electronics were created for making electricity move around in interesting ways. Human brains were created for running away from lions. Where they meet we have Interaction Design, the study of how to make these two sworn enemies shake hands. Controlling their relationship is the key to happy users, no matter how wonderful the technology under the hood: from vending machines to Facebook, some beautiful interfaces are terrible and some ugly ones are great. During this class we probe why that is through an investigation of human-computer interaction, usability and good interface design, and how they all fit into an Agile project plan. We examine working examples of interaction in nature and ways of importing them into a variety of media contexts and applications. Along the way students design large-scale individual and group concepts using wireframes, userflow diagrams and mockups, and delve into the amazing oracle that is Usability Testing. Final projects are presented in front of the New York Times User Experience and Product Research Department and other invited guest critics. Course Syllabus -
Interpretive Exhibition Design: Creating Experience in the Museum Space (ITPG-GT.2894) - David Harvey
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
Interpretive Exhibition Design is the creative process by which spaces become designed environments in which the visitor is engaged in an orchestrated experience—one which inherently and explicitly imparts meaning and perspective, engages the emotions, may offer contemplation, encourage curiosity and afford discovery and learning. The creation of exhibition experiences in the museum, and alternative spaces, is a growing and fascinating field; one which increasingly draws upon new interactive technologies, and seeks to encourage social dynamics. Understanding the interpretive role of design as a mediator between content and the audience, is helpful in both planning and deciphering underlying messaging and values embedded in any exhibition experience. The interpretive exhibition design process is important in developing a deeper appreciation for and understanding of expression in art, science and the natural world, time and history, society and of ourselves. This course is a hands-on introduction to this kind of exhibit design: the interpretive process of creating experience in the museum space. Professionals from a range of institutions will come to the class to speak or take us on field trips in their institutions to expose the class to a range of experiences within their exhibition environments; relating how and why they are conceived and created. We will take a critical look at how effectively they realized their design intent and imagine other alternative possibilities. The class will form an understanding of the range of the museum-based exhibition experiences, and a deeper understanding of the underlying interpretive exhibition design process. We will bracket this range of experience design with a visit to a commercial exhibition venue and a commercial art gallery. Students will keep a diary of their experiences and observations, and notes on the design process based on each visit, and this will be used as a basis for a midterm presentation. For the final project—deconstructing an exhibition experience— an exhibition will be chosen as a case study, giving consideration to all the design elements and their role in creating a potentially powerful and unique experience in the museum space. Students will present to a group of guest museum professionals at the American Museum of Natural History . Course Syllabus -
Into the Third Dimension (ITPG-GT.2527) - Matt Parker
Offered: Fall 2013
While dynamic two-dimensional content is common place, there is very little dynamic three dimensional content. "3D" movies and videos only simulate depth; unlike objects in the real world, what you see is not affected by your perspective. In this class we will look at some existing three dimensional/volumetric displays, such as LED Cubes, Lumarca, Oculus Rift, Dynamic Wall, Holodome, POV Display, and more. Students will learn about how these displays work, learn their strengths and weaknesses, experiment with making content for some these displays, and even attempt to build some of them. Finally, students will work in teams to create their own volumetric displays. -
Intro to Dataflow Programming (ITPG-GT.2929) - Hans Steiner
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012
Graphical dataflow programming languages like the Max family (Pd, Max/MSP, jMax, etc.) provide an intuitive approach to media programming and manipulation. This paradigm is based on mapping out the flow of the data, which more closely mirrors the experience of realtime media. This course introduces dataflow programming in Pure Data aka Pd: it starts with the basics of the language itself, core control structures and math, storing data and getting it in and out, working with various media formats, and ends with how to organize large projects. The Max paradigm is compared to text-based languages like Processing to develop an idea of their differences and similarities, as well as respective strengths and weaknesses. This course is structured around learning by doing, so students have regular assignments to explore the ideas covered in class, as well as a small final project. This course uses Pd, but it covers core concepts of the Max family, so the knowledge is directly applicable to Max/MSP. This two point course which runs the first seven weeks is designed to be paired with either "Programmatic Audio" or "Boxes And Lines For Rods And Cones", both offered in the second seven weeks of the semester. This two-point course will meet for the first seven weeks of the semester. Course Syllabus -
Introduction to Assistive Technology (ITPG-GT.2969) - Marianne Petit
Offered: Spring 2013
Assistive technology is a general term that includes a wide variety of technologies for people with disabilities. This two-point survey course is designed to provide students with an overview of the field of assistive technology. Field trips, readings, and guest speakers will provide students with an understanding of current research and development as well as processes used in determining appropriate technologies. Weekly assignments and a final research project. This course will meet for the first seven weeks of the semester. Course Syllabus -
Inventing the Future of Media (ITPG-GT.2910) - Ien Cheng
Offered: Fall 2011
Get ready to invent the future of media. The media industry is undergoing unprecedented disruption and reinvention amidst the digital revolution. The goal of the course, which interleaves study and practice, is to equip you to invent the future of the media based on a holistic understanding of how a wide range of media products and businesses have worked in the past and are working – or not working – in the present. As a final project, you outline a plan for a new media business that features a prototype of an innovative user experience and a viable business model. The course is structured around the roles or use cases of media – for instance to inform, to entertain, or to connect us to each other – rather than around increasingly obsolete distinctions between media platforms. We look at each use case in three ways: by surveying the history of how each role has been served by the media in the past, by doing a case study of an established company that is "reinventing" a traditional media product for the future, and doing a corresponding case study of a disruptive or "de novo" upstart. Our approach is holistic, exploring how content, distribution, interactivity, business models, and organizational models relate to each other. We combine historical studies, business case studies, industry reports, guest lectures from media industry executives, and, above all, direct experience and analysis of user experiences. Throughout, we focus on technology and user experience design as key aspects of media change and innovation. We also touch on the role of government regulation. The course culminates in the final project. You take ideas that you have been brainstorming from the first class and develop them into plans and prototypes for new media businesses based on research, user testing, and ingenuity. The ability to "sketch out" and prototype a product and imagine how it might be created and experienced in the real world is the most important prerequisite. Likewise a willingness to make connections across traditionally separate areas of media and try new ideas is critical. Experience in the media industry, and with business or strategy planning, is helpful but not required. Course Syllabus -
ITPediatrics (ITPG-GT.2911) - John Schimmel
Offered: Fall 2011
"The essence of childhood, of course, is play, which my friends and I did endlessly on streets that we reluctantly shared with traffic." - Bill Cosby.
In hospitals, children with disabilities and illnesses share their play space with medical equipment, doctors, nurses and often living away from their family. Their days are spent at school inside the hospital, but also receiving treatments, therapy and sometimes surgery. However, spontaneous moments of excitement and laughter with friends throughout the day makes living in a hospital often seem like a second home. ITPediatrics will focus on child life at local children's hospitals; collaborating with music and art therapists to create experiences for residents that support developmental and therapeutic activities. The class will discuss the issues of living away from home, going to school, maintaining friendships, communicating with family, receiving medical treatment and playtime. Students will work in groups collaborating with Occupational Therapy students from NYU's Steinhardt and with therapists from the hospitals. The class will discuss accessibility switches and single switch access to devices like iPads, digital cameras and computers. Requirements for the class are Introduction to Physical Computing and Introduction to Computational Media. Course Syllabus -
Kinetic Sculpture Workshop (ITPG-GT.2970) - Daniel Rozin
Offered: Spring 2013
It has been exactly 100 years since Marcel Duchamp created what is considered the first kinetic sculpture (Bicycle Wheel). Over these 100 years artists from all over the world have used almost every conceivable material and technology to create kinetic sculptures that are powered by wind, sun, water, electricity and human power. In the past 25 years digital technology has been added to the chest of tools at the disposal of artists, and kinetic sculptures can now be smart and respond to their surroundings and interact with their viewers or even with people on the internet. Indeed kinetic sculptures can even visualize ever changing datasets on the net. Our way of thinking at ITP as well as the tools we use (physical computing, programming, rapid prototyping, design development, networks) position us at a very interesting intersection, very suitable for creating new forms of kinetic sculpture.
In this workshop students will have an opportunity to work on a few short term projects as well as develop and fabricate a final kinetic sculpture.
The workshop will include readings and research as well as guest presentations. -
Laboratory of the Self (ITPG-GT.2895) - Quinn Norton
Offered: Spring 2011
This course will explore the relationship between the body and the self, both in theory and in hands-on application. We'll begin by learning the basic physiology that links perception to memory and action. How does your mind and body react when you get a coffee, or see a text on your phone? How do you get from there to drinking the coffee or replying to a friend? The process of perception, cognition, and action underlies how we relate to the world, and ultimately, who we believe we are.
The first half of the class culminates in a midterm self-monitoring project. Examples of projects include monitoring heart rates, glucose levels, or music and mood. Students will report on what the data they've collected tells them about their body and their understanding of their individual self.
The second half of the class examines the history and state-of-the-art of human modification, from both a technical perspective, and how the practice of body modification has changed society. We'll discuss ancient changes, and the latest and greatest cybernetic advances, along with bio-ethics and a bit of cyborgian philosophy. For the final projects, students will engage in a self modification project, which will be presented at the end of the term. By the end of the class the student will have a basic understanding how their own perceptions and memory are formed, how this gives rise to their sense of self-- and how to change it. Course Syllabus -
Learning Bit by Bit (ITPG-GT.2836) - Heather Dewey-Hagborg
Offered: Spring 2011
From mailing a letter to shopping online to walking down a city street, applications of machine learning have penetrated our daily experience. Our faces, our voices, the emails we write, the products we buy, the content we choose, all constitute our data portrait: aggregates of information that are meticulously sifted, sorted and searched by algorithms behind the scenes.
This class takes a critical tour of the technologies that learn from this data. We look at the information that defines us and how it is analyzed using techniques common to biology, computer science, robotics and surveillance.
We cover both the theory and the implementation of machine learning techniques that are commonly used today in applications of text analysis, web search, classification, and content suggestion. We discuss the concept of a data portrait and how heuristics and inductive bias shape the way we are seen. Finally, we apply these techniques to create projects of our own.
This class involves weekly blog responses to readings of advanced technical and theoretical texts, as well as in and out of class work on individual and group projects engaging with the concepts. Class discussion is a vital component of the class and students must be willing to engage in weekly discussions about both readings and projects. Students are encouraged to implement projects in a variety of media but must be comfortable programming in Java.
Prerequisite: H79.2233 Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience.
Course Syllabus -
Live Experimental Interactive Television (ITPG-GT.2840) - Shawn Van Every
Offered: Fall 2011
What happens when interactive technology is used live by hundreds or even thousands of individuals simultaneously? How do you create engaging and interactive content through television which is traditionally a passive, lean back medium? Through this class, we will be exploring those questions by developing live television shows. In the first part of the semester we will do a series of experiments using emerging technology for audience interaction with live broadcast content: sms, chat, phone calls, video conferencing, networked objects and the like. Particular attention will be paid to how these technologies may be used in the context of a live show with a large audience. The second portion of the semester will be centered around the development of a live program from concept to broadcast and beyond. Students will be working in small groups to develop and produce a live broadcast television show. Course Syllabus -
Live Image Processing and Performance (ITPG-GT.2422) - Roger DuBois, Joshua Goldberg_M
Offered: Summer2 2011, Summer2 2012, Spring 2013, Summer2 2013
This course teaches the ins and outs of using imagery in real-time, whether in a performance or installation context. The class will use a variety of software manipulate visual media (time-based, still, vector, and rendered) in real-time to allow students to develop interesting real-time systems. While the focus of this class is on using imagery for visual work (mainly a software package called Jitter), it also looks at how to integrate interactive elements (sound, physical interfaces, etc.) into an integrated practice. Class time is spent on interface design and software development issues as well. The class explores some interesting capabilities of the software in terms of real-time computer vision, projection mapping, generative graphics systems, and media transcoding. Throughout the class students develop and share ideas on live performance and interactive installation as a medium for visual expression, and learn the software tools necessary to put these ideas into practice in the form of idiosyncratic performance systems. A final presentation in the form of a group performance will be arranged. Students should have some working knowledge of Max/MSP before taking this class, although class projects can be executed on a variety of platforms.
Course Syllabus -
Makematics: Turning Computer Science Research into Creative Work (ITPG-GT.2947) - Gregory Borenstein
Offered: Fall 2012
Artists build on top of science. Today's cutting edge math and computer science research becomes tomorrow's breakthrough creative projects.
Computer vision algorithms, machine learning techniques, and 3D topology are becoming vital prerequisites to doing daily work in creative fields from interactive art to generative graphics, data visualization, and digital fabrication. If they don't grapple with these subjects themselves, artists are forced to wait for others to digest this new knowledge before they can work with it. Their creative options shrink to those parts of this research selected by Adobe for inclusion in prepackaged tools.
This class is designed to help you start seizing the results of this research for your own creative work. You'll learn how to explore the published academic literature for techniques that will help you build your dream projects. And you'll learn how to use those techniques to make those projects a reality.
Each week we'll explore a technique from one of these research fields. We'll learn to understand the original research and see how to implement it in code that you can use in your projects. You'll learn to use the marching squares algorithm to detect fingers or make 3D models into something you can laser cut. You'll learn how to use support vector machines to train your own object detector or analyze a body of text. We'll cover a series of such topics, each of which has a wide range of applications in different creative media.
This class will be taught in Processing and assumes ICM-level familiarity with programming.
This two-credit course will meet every other week. -
Making Pop-Up Books and Paper Engineering (ITPG-GT.2884) - Marianne Petit
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
This two-point workshop covers the basics of paper engineering techniques (including folds, layers, dials and pull-tabs) to make movable designs that can be incorporated into your work. Weekly assignments and a final project. This course will meet for the first seven weeks of the semester. Course Syllabus -
Making Things for Kids (ITPG-GT.2529) - Lia Martinez
Offered: Fall 2013
Making Things for Kids is a class designed to discover and develop skills for creating digital toys for kids. We'll learn about the different ways that children play, and look at characters, stories, toys and playgrounds. We will discuss how technology has changed how children play (or has it?) Doodling, sketching out, ideating and prototyping will be a big part of the class. The final project will be made in collaboration with your target market -- kids!
This two-credit course will meet the first seven weeks of the semester.
Materials and Building Strategies (ITPG-GT.2025) - Peter Menderson
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
You've built a foam prototype. Your project idea is now out in the open sitting on a table where you and your teammates can look at it. It's not quite what you thought it would be when you made your first rough sketch, there's even something a little goofy about it, but then there's also that interesting curve that you hadn't envisioned. Your teammates have also noticed some things that you hadn't thought of. You see where you can reshape the foam to make the prototype both look and work better. You've made your first step; you've moved your project forward. Removing barriers to creative problem solving and learning the steps for advancing a project are the dual purposes of this course. You're asked to make things over and over during your time at ITP. This class helps you to break out of 2-d screen and keyboard thinking and take advantage of the discoveries that inevitably occur when you're thinking in 3-d by manipulating materials with your hands, observing the results, and refining successive iterations of your idea. From techniques for prototyping and making small objects to fabrication methods for kiosks, you'll get hands-on experience with a variety of materials and methods. You have an idea for a wearable device? Mock it up with the sewing machine. You're thinking about a squeezable children's toy with sensors? Make a mold and cast some sensors inside soft rubber. You want to build an installation? Make a foam core model of the space and get a valuable preview of your project installed. During the course you'll be introduced to building in a variety of materials. You'll make objects of wood, foam, plastic, metal, clay, plaster, rubber, paper and fabric. You'll move a project from sketch to prototype to presentation and learn to incorporate the lessons of the process into your final product. By taking notice of the unexpected your original concept will evolve, and amplified by those revelations it will surprise you and delight your audience. Course Syllabus -
Materials and Experimental Design (ITPG-GT.2912) - Assaf Eshet
Offered: Fall 2011
This course explores the use of unique materials in applied design and manufacturing. An important part of designing a new product is to understand the added value that can be achieved by exploiting new materials and scientific opportunities. The course presents an overview of cutting edge materials, working closely with the Material ConneXion library in NY, enabling the students to familiarize themselves with new potential components in their work. Students learn the manufacturing and production processes of various products and learn the importance of implementing materials into products with performance, aesthetics and sustainability in mind. Students explore material trends; conduct research; learn about material constraints; examine visual and tactile properties and prototype their own materials to create innovative products. Course Syllabus -
Mechanisms and Things That Move (ITPG-GT.2624) - Dustyn Roberts
Offered: Spring 2011
This class is designed to equip the student with a basic knowledge of
mechanical engineering, materials, and component selection for
practical use. Emphasis will be placed on finding and using
affordable,everyday components for the hobbyist. Real-world, professional level components and technologies will also be covered in case studies and
class examples. From kinetic sculptures to modern architecture, from
product design to interactive art, learning how to create sound
mechanical interfaces between inputs and outputs to a system helps us
interpret and interact with our environments. There is little use in
building effective circuitry for physical computing if the mechanism to be controlled is too weak to handle the task set forth for it. Systems can also be optimized and protected from expensive over-engineering with a basic knowledge of mechanics and materials. A breadth of topics will be covered ranging from how to attach couplers and shafts to a motor to converting between rotary and linear motion. Many topics will be presented in the form of competition, challenges, or group projects. Weekly lectures will be supplemented by in class demos and out of class lab
work. Both Individual and group work will be required.
Prerequisite: Intro to Physical Computing
Course Syllabus -
Methods of Motion (ITPG-GT.2448) - Marianne Petit
Offered: Spring 2011
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, and Flash. 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. Course Syllabus -
Mo-Graph (ITPG-GT.2902) - Gabe Barcia-Colombo
Offered: Summer2 2011
This course offers an introduction to motion graphics. Students work with 2d photoshop imagery and animation in after effects. The course focuses specifically on graphic design, typography, interstitial animation and video graphics for the web and/or broadcast. Throughout the summer session students experiment with masking, image manipulation, and video effects in order to create an original portfolio of work. No previous experience is required and experimentation
and creativity is highly encouraged.
Mobile Web (ITPG-GT.2938) - Sean Montgomery
Offered: Spring 2012
The miracle of mobile computing has arrived. Exceedingly powerful computers, seamlessly networked and with a variety of in-built sensors... all right in your pocket.
This course will be a fast-paced, project-focused course to learn mobile programming in 7 weeks. We'll use the cross-platform compatible, html/javascript-based PhoneGap libraries to program Android phones. While the course will exclusively use Android as an example platform, the skills acquired will be broadly transferable to other platforms, including iOS.
Topics will include:
Using HTML / CSS / Javascript to write apps
Accessing device events and notifications
Monitoring built-in sensors (accelerometer, GPS, compass)
Local file storage
Media capture and playback
Extending PhoneGap with plugins (SMS, Bluetooth, etc.)
Students will complete weekly exercises and a final project of their devising. Bring your computer and your Android phone if you have one. A limited supply of Android handsets will be available for students to work with. This two point course will meet in the first seven weeks of the semester. Course Syllabus -
Narrative Lab (ITPG-GT.2261) - Douglas Rushkoff
Offered: Fall 2012
This seminar and laboratory considers the impact of interactivity and technology on traditional narrative structure, and explores new methods for conveying the essential narrative elements in non-linear and interactive forms of art, entertainment, and communications. Throughout, we will be formulating approaches to traditional narrative in interactive contexts, as well as piloting new narrative constructs developed for non-linear media. Each class meeting is broken up into two parts. The first is a seminar discussion examining an aspect of traditional narrative, and the way it is threatened or rendered obsolete in an interactive context. The second takes the form of workshop exercises and short projects through which alternative narrative forms specifically suited for an interactive environment are conceived, prototyped and evaluated. Students also work on longer-term experiments in interactive narrative, developing rule sets through which emergent narratives may form. These
may take forms ranging from augmented theater, interactive comics, and video games to robots, installations, software, amusement rides, or prototypes for as-yet undefined media. Readings will include Aristotle, McKee, Ibsen, Brecht, Marie Ryan, Scott Mcloud, Rushkoff, Carse, Huizinga, Burroughs, and a few current game theorists.
Course Syllabus -
New Interfaces for Musical Expression (ITPG-GT.2227) - Greg Shakar
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
The course focus is on the design and creation of digital musical instruments. Music in performance is the primary subject of this class. We approach questions such as "What is performance?" "What makes a musical interface intuitive and emotionally immediate?" and "How do we create meaningful correlations between performance gestures and their musical consequences?" Over the semester, we look at many examples of current work by creators of musical interfaces, and discuss a wide range of issues facing technology-enabled performance - such as novice versus virtuoso performers, discrete versus continuous data control, the importance of haptic responsiveness as well as the relationship between musical performance and visual display. Extensive readings and case studies provide background for class discussions on the theory and practice of designing gestural controllers for musical performance. Students design and prototype a musical instrument - a complete system encompassing musical controller, algorithm for mapping input to sound, and the sound output itself. A technical framework for prototyping performance controllers is made available. Students focus on musical composition and improvisation techniques as they prepare their prototypes for live performance. The class culminates in a musical performance where students (or invited musicians) will demonstrate their instruments. Prerequisites: H79.2233 (Introduction to Computational Media) and H79.2301 (Physical Computing). Course Syllabus -
New York City: A Laboratory of Modern Life (ITPG-GT.2776) - Gabe Barcia-Colombo
Offered: Summer2 2011
It is the inherent social nature of people and of creativity that makes New York City so important to the arts. Whether it's high-brow or low-brow, high culture, or street culture, New York City remains an important international center for music, film, theater, dance and visual art. This workshop focuses on creating mixed media art inspired by and created for New York City. Over the course of the session, students study the "cultural economy" of the city, through an in depth examination of current New York based photographers, filmmakers, and installation artists. Students will then create four unique pieces of their own, inspired by these artists and energized by the social nature of the city. These pieces take the form of photography, audio art, documentary video, and site-specific public installation. Class time is devoted to lectures, guest speakers, field trips and critique. Basic video and audio editing will be covered in lab sessions. Readings include "The Warhol Economy" by Elizabeth Currid, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs, and "Take the F" by Ian Frazier. Course Syllabus -
Noticing (ITPG-GT.2973) - Robert Faludi
Offered: Spring 2013
Artists, designers, inventors and scientist all need to see things that are new—often that no person has ever seen before. Yet our brains are designed to direct our attention to a thin stream of operational tasks. We screen out the shoes of the person across the subway and the leaves on the trees above our heads. We don't pay much attention to the interplay of shadows or consciously hear the soft squeaking of distant doors. In conversations we rarely attend to what goes unsaid, though vital information often lurks in the omissions. The seeds of a brilliant work might lie in detecting a simple gesture. We only need to notice it. This class is a workshop that teaches techniques and tools for noticing—seeing, hearing and comprehending what might otherwise pass us by. In a series of focused classes we explore the observation process in an abundant array of domains, from cognitive psychology to ethnography, drawing to data collection, user research to police work. Projects include sketching, user studies, experimental research, ideation, observational exercises and techniques for reaching that moment we all crave when something unexpected and terrific bursts forward into our consciousness. The class culminates in a final work inspired by one of your brand-new discoveries and honed with the help of the observational techniques and tools learned in class. Students should leave with their eyes and minds opened to the inspirations that surround us all.
This two-credit course meets for the first six weeks of the semester.
Course Syllabus -
Open Source Animation: DIY Motion Capture (ITPG-GT.2948) - Nick Fox-Gieg
Offered: Fall 2012
This class will use open-source software to solve interesting problems in animation, with a focus on integrating depth, motion-capture, and other kinds of live performance data into traditional film production workflows. We'll pay special attention to the Kinect, which (among other things) is the first motion capture system ever sold at Best Buy--but in order to fully realize its promise for our purposes, we'll have to get it talking to mature commercial animation software like After Effects and Maya. If the tools we need don't already exist, then we'll need to write our own. The end product of the class will be a complete animated short film and the software tools that help realize it--you can explore anything from pure visual music to narrative character puppetry. Our initial exercises will use AfterEffects, JavaScript, and Processing, but we can explore many other
options depending on student interests. It'd be helpful to start the class with either some prior filmmaking or programming experience--but you don't necessarily need to know anything about 3D CG to do cool stuff with motion capture. -
Parametric Design for Digital Fabrication (ITPG-GT.2921) - Marius Watz
Offered: Fall 2013
Recent developments in digital fabrication have shifted the focus from conventional manufacturing processes to a new model based on scripted parametric forms. By modeling objects and structures as generative software processes rather than as static models, it becomes possible to produce highly complex forms for customized on-demand fabrication. In this course we explore strategies for parametric modeling including generative systems, data-driven form processes and user interaction. The focus is on creating structures that can be manufactured as physical objects using 3D printing, CNC milling laser cutting. Our main tool is Processing, supported by other CAD tools to aid in preparing models for fabrication.
Performing Identities (H79.) - Anna Deavere Smith
Offered: Fall 2013
With Performance Studies
Acting for Non-Actors... A practice class in which acting techniques will be used to explore fictional and real performed identities. Students do not have to have acting experience. Class will end in a performance for an invited audience.
This class is offered out of Performance Studies but is also open to ITP students. The goal is to have at least half of the students be from ITP. Acting techniques will be used to explore fictional and real performed identities. Students do not have to have acting experience. Class will end in a performance for an invited audience. This class will be very useful if you are interested in narrative of any kind--interactive or linear storytelling, games or invented worlds. Be Aware: the class will take place on weekends (saturday or sunday TBD). Each class will be about 4 hours long, so it will only be 9 classes. If you sign on, you are expected to come to every class--that's a commitment. Not easy. But on the other hand: you get a unique experience--to work intensely and deeply with a world-reknowned artist and performer. -
Persuasive Design (ITPG-GT.2531) - Katherine Dillon
Offered: Fall 2013
In subtle and not-so-subtle ways technology is influencing our behavior – from buying more books on Amazon than we intended to, to helping us change bad personal habits to leveraging the voices of many– technology presents an opportunity to be an agent of influence. This seven-week course will explore how technology can be used to influence behavior. We will look at a number of behavioral theories including incentive–based design, gamification and social influence. We will review case studies on how these techniques have been used to effectively affect behavior.
After researching theories on behavior motivation each student will identify a problem or issue that they hope to influence. Students will document the problem, develop a concept to influence the behavior associated with that problem and prototype (or build) their solution. They will test their solution and draw conclusions from the experiment. Projects can attempt to influence social change at a large, social scale or at a personal level. The unifying theme behind the projects will be that they intend to inspire positive change.
This two-credit course will meet the first seven weeks of the semester.
Piecing it Together (ITPG-GT.2533) - Eric Hagan
Offered: Fall 2013
Designing and building physical objects can feel like putting together a puzzle without the box top. Even if you have all the pieces, an extra challenge lies in figuring out how they fit together. Digital fabrication tools make it possible to newly imagine and produce pieces that allow us to recreate or modify the "puzzle" as we see fit. Utilizing historic farm equipment (e.g. windmills, clocks, grain harvesters) as design inspiration, we will explore the possibilities of digital fabrication tools to solve issues of fastening, synchronicity, replaceable parts, repeatability, and modification of existing designs. A central goal of this class is to come to terms, and work productively, with the limitations of these otherwise revolutionary digital fabrication tools—particularly in regards to materials, scale, and aesthetics. By the end of the semester, students will be familiar with Adobe Illustrator, 2D and 3D CAD software, laser cutting, CNC routing, and 3D printing. No prior fabrication or design background is required for this course. -
Playful Communication of Serious Research (ITPG-GT.2974) - Helene Alonso
Offered: Spring 2013
In this class taught by the Director of Exhibit Interactives & Media at the American Museum of Natural History, you will learn how to create interactive exhibits that explain complex concepts. You will work with an NYU researcher whose work interests you, and who would be interested in explaining his/her research to a general public audience. Then working in small groups you will create an interactive to explain the NYU Researcher's work on science, history, art and other fields. Here you will learn how to adapt ideas to interaction, technology, spaces, audiences and experience types. The work will also mirror the collaboration in exhibit work between designers and curators.
Course Syllabus -
Poetry Everywhere (ITPG-GT.2535) - Gabe Barcia-Colombo
Offered: Fall 2013
Poetry Everywhere is an immersive production class which seeks to put poetry in unexpected New York City public spaces. The class will partner with the New York State Poet Laureate Marie Howe to stage a series of poetic interventions in public space in the form of augmented reality, interactive installation and large scale projections. Over the course of the semester, students will work alongside poets to create installations and animations for city streets, subway tunnels and building façades. Students will create three projects, at three different scales, each inspired by a different poem or poet. Possible projects include animation, mobile applications and text visualization with the final being a one night large scale projection onto a public building in New York City. Class time is devoted to lectures, guest readings, field trips and critique. -
Political Uses of Social Media (ITPG-GT.2930) - Clay Shirky
Offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2013
The relationship between politics and media has always been complex --the rise of newspapers accompanied the rise of democracy; radio and TV have always been tools of propaganda, and so on. This course asks the question "What difference does it make that citizens have access to social media?", which is to say media tools that let them synchronize their opinions, coordinate their actions, and document the results. Though there will be background readings in the relationship between media and politics (Habermas, Rossanvallon, Galloway), most of the course will focus on discussions of political events of the last decade where the insurgents (and, increasingly, the governments) used social media to attempt to alter the outcome. These will include the ouster of Estrada in the Philippines, the Belarussian 'flash mob' protests, the South Korean 'Mad Cow' protests, the Tea Party, the Arab Spring, and the Occupy movement. There will be weekly readings on the topic of political uses of social media, and a mid-term and final paper. You will also work in groups to observe and discuss the operations of a contemporary group seeking political change, and using these tools. -
Pop Up Window Displays (ITPG-GT.2956) - Gabe Barcia-Colombo
Offered: Fall 2012
In New York City, every storefront window has the possibility to tell a story, spark a conversation or inspire an interaction. This workshop will focus on creating innovative interactive pop up installations designed for public window displays. A successful window is one that clearly delivers a message directly to the public. How do we create interactive displays that engage the public with a distinctive voice or style? Over seven weeks, students will concept, prototype and build an interactive experience meant to be installed in a storefront or commercial display. This course will explore lighting, design, and budgeting of durable interactive window installations. Previous fabrication or programming experience is encouraged.
This two-credit course will meet the first seven weeks of the semester. -
Powerful Ideas: Useful Tools to Understand the World (ITPG-GT.2906) - Nancy Hechinger
Offered: Fall 2011
There are some concepts that are like the constellations: you can use them to understand and navigate the world, solve problems, invent new stuff-- ideas like geometric progression, proportion and scale,change over time,etc. All have heuristic power, and many go beyond this to provide real methods for stronger thinking. Some can be learned via "guided insight" and some require real practice. Alan Kay and Nancy Hechinger have talked off and on over the last 20 years about a curriculum that would focus less on transmitting facts to students and more on helping them learn these powerful tools--the Powerful Ideas. We're starting it now! Here's how this course works: at least once a month, Alan Kay introduces one or more of these powerful ideas & the class proposes their candidates for Powerful Ideas as well as deriving questions that kids of different ages might ask that would lead to one of them. In the weeks that Alan is not here, Nancy leads the class in discussions of how people learn at different ages, and students, working alone or in groups,come up with ways to enable kids to learn the big concepts. We connect with a nearby elementary school (+ possibly a middle school) to test out ideas with kids, and document what we're learning. Students present their work to Alan on his subsequent visit to the class. This is an experimental class, and encourages quick prototyping of ideas and intense exploration in how people learn. We focus on Powerful Ideas in science and math, since they are arguably the worst taught subjects, the ones most disconnected from the way ideas are generated in their fields.
Principled Design: Dealing with Wicked Problems & Social Change (ITPG-GT.2874) - Despina Papadopoulos
Offered: Fall 2011
Wicked problems—a term coined by Rittel and Webber in 1973—are defined as those problems whose solutions are not true or false, but better or worst, and in fact have no immediate or ultimate test of a solution, are unique and the very problem itself can be considered a symptom of another problem. The very nature of these problems demands a multi disciplinary approach and the formulation of a coherent strategy in approaching them. Classic examples of wicked problems include economic, political and social issues and intersect many fields and disciplines. As technology and design play an increasingly important role in understanding and addressing issues surrounding international development and social change it is important to develop a considered framework and process. Portable ultrasound monitors result in better pre-natal care in remote areas but they also enable early gender detection and are therefore responsible for many cases of gendercide. Ethics, policy, design and technology considerations are all part of developing a "solution" that addresses this problem. In this class we model such a framework and through weekly assignments and readings we explore its fundamental components. We examine the various disciplines (ethics, economics, policy-making), principles (accountability, transparency, transferability, trust, respect), trends (knowledge exchange, 21st century statecraft, aid fatigue), and stakeholders (citizens, activists, corporations, NGOs) that are part of this model as well as the relationships between them and how they relate to the various tools that are being used in this space (cell phones, smart phones, open data, social media, data visualization). We do this while going through each part of the design process while tackling a specific issue. As part of our approach we conduct research, collaborative design sessions, develop personas, scenarios, develop concepts, taxonomies, and design iterations, starting with paper prototypes and continue to refine both the concept and design decisions. Although the class is hands on with production exercises that culminate in a unified response to a specific problem, students are expected to follow and respond to weekly readings. Guest "stakeholders" from the UN, NGOs and activists give students access to these actors in order to better inform their research and design decisions. -
Printing Code (ITPG-GT.2949) - Rune Madsen
Offered: Fall 2012, Spring 2013
In this course students explore the use of computational techniques to produce physical prints, focusing on the intersection between graphic design and creative coding. Class time will be divided between exploring design topics like colors, grids and typefaces, and applying these towards computational topics like randomization, repetition and generative form.
Weekly readings include relevant writings from the history of graphic design (Josef Muller-Brockmann, Paul Rand), articles from the history of computation (Vannevar Bush, Douglas Englebart, Martin Krampen) and everything in between (Sol Lewitt, Edward Tufte, etc).
Weekly homework can be produced using the digital printers at NYU's Advanced Media Studio, however students are encouraged to utilize whatever physical printing techniques they prefer, that being stencils, letter press, silk screen, weaving or home-made printers.
The class aims not only to teach the students how to create physical prints via code, but also to have something interesting to say about it.
The class requires ICM or similar programming background. Course Syllabus -
Procedural Design in Abstract Gameplay (ITPG-GT.2537) - Phoenix Perry
Offered: Fall 2013
How do games tell stories? Can traditional narratives works well in games? Or is there a more holistic approach that embeds the story deeply into the interaction model? Ian Bogost created a framework for such games - procedural games, or art games. In these games, the structure itself becomes a storytelling device. How does it feel to live day to day in a situation? What are the play mechanics we use the advance the narrative of our own lives? The goal of the procedural designer is to cause the player to stop and reflect about a given situation during or after play, without concern for resolution or effect. Procedural games share more in common with art house movies than mainstream games and are finely tuned experiences flying in the face of traditional game design. In this class, students will study a range of these kinds of games and be expected to create a reflective game experience by the end of the term.
Topics Include: Unity, Unity's 2D toolkit, sprite sheet creation.
Coding Experience: Ideally, students will have taken at least one class in Processing or Open Frameworks. We will learn c# within the Unity engine to create our games. If you have a basic understanding of programming in any language, including javascript, you are also welcome. -
Product Poetry: Designing Inter-experience (ITPG-GT.2914) - Peng Zhao, Gary Natsume, Silas Warren
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012
In this class, students will question the meaning and values that inform existing consumer products and examine the ways users perceive them, interact with them, and assimilate them into their daily lives. The class emphasizes ethnographic research, conceptual and technical exploration, and interaction programming. Using methods of direct and indirect communication between object and user, students will deliver a new layer of meaning or value to a specific consumer object of their choice.
The objective of the class is to consider the following:
-Why do I need a new product?
-What does it mean to me?
- What type of value does it bring to the world?
The class is a design-oriented, hands-on creative program. Participating students will work on one theme over the course of the semester and are expected to produce an interactive prototype of their concept by semester's end. The final deliverable should demonstrate the physical and digital aspects of the user experience.
There are two aspects to the class, one is to form a conceptual story around the experience, and the other is technical implementation to deliver the experience. Quick and rough iterative prototyping is encouraged to help inform concept ideation and possible design decisions from early stage of the class.
The process of the class is divided into three stages:
1. User study and research
2. Design concept ideation
3. Implementation and refinement
The class instructors will support and lead the students by introducing industrial design methodology, rapid interaction prototyping techniques and examples from their professional practice while encouraging exploratory creative freedom. Course Syllabus -
Programmatic Audio (ITPG-GT.2931) - Hans Steiner
Offered: Spring 2012
Digital audio has a vast array of possibilities far beyond music playback. Data sonification reinforces visualization. Processing sound can give you data like a sensor. Foley sounds to make a video sound alive. A soundtrack generated from the same data as the video tightly links the two. Extract data from music and make algorithmic responses. Realtime digital audio processing lets you synthesize a huge array of sounds, create your own sampler, and build your own musical instrument. All completely open ended, you define how it works. Sound provides an alternate channel of communication to other sense, with its own strengths and weaknesses. Humans are able to hear minute differences in time, its the most time sensitive sense. Huge amounts of audio processing happen in the background of our brains, we will hear our name mentioned in a crowded room with no effort. This class will introduce how sound works in the computer, our brain, and the physical world. In parallel, it will introduce how to shape, analyze and control sound. The aim is to provide a basic knowledge of principles and practices of digital audio from a creative perspective. While digital audio involves heavy math, this course presents a working knowledge over the normal detailed math approach to digital signal processing for audio. Pd has its roots in realtime audio programming and that is the core of the class. You will end up with a launching point for further learning, especially in interactive, non-narrative sound. The final project is an interactive or generated piece that uses or makes sound. This course uses Pd, but much of this knowledge is applicable to Max/MSP as well. The prerequisite for this 2 point course, which meets the second seven weeks of the semester, is the two-point course "Intro to Dataflow Programming", which meets in the first seven weeks, (or equivalent experience). This two-point course meets for the second seven weeks of the semester. -
Project Development Studio (Danny Rozin) (ITPG-GT.2564) - Daniel Rozin
Offered: Spring 2012, Fall 2013
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 obtain 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. -
Project Development Studio (Marina Zurkow) (ITPG-GT.2742) - Marina Zurkow
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
This is a workshop for students to develop an existing project idea. It is a combination of self-directed study, with the structure of a class and an opportunity for peer learning. This particular studio is appropriate for projects in the areas of installation art with a focus on the moving image, non-linear or multi-channel video and animation, and site-specific projects. Each class time is a chance to work on your project, share project development and critique. Students devise and then complete their own weekly assignments updating the class wiki regularly. They also present to the class every few weeks. Topics of shared interest are presented by a member of the class, or by the instructor. The rest of the meeting time is spent in breakout sessions with students working individually or in groups of students working on related projects. Course Syllabus -
Project Development Studio (Physical Interaction) (ITPG-GT.2542) - Thomas Igoe
Offered: Spring 2011
This class an environment for students to work on their own project ideas that may fall outside the topic areas of existing classes. This particular studio is focused on projects involving extended physical interaction.
Students are required to present a project description on the first day of class. They then work together with the class and the instructor to develop a production plan for their project. Weekly class meetings consist of critique and feedback sessions on individual or group projects, and breakout sessions with students working individually or in groups of people working on similar projects. When technical topics of general interest emerge, the they will be covered in class. Students are expected to show their projects multiple times during the semester, test the projects in stages, and get feedback from both class members in class and from the audience for whom their projects are intended outside of class. Course Syllabus -
Puppets and Performing Objects (ITPG-GT.2950) - Ithai Benjamin
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
While grocery shopping, have you ever wanted to talk to a cucumber? Make out with a red radish or pet a pizza? You can. Following the idea that puppets are "any performing object" and that objects can be useful as stand-ins for human beings, this class explores anthropomorphism, character development, narrative and performance. Through weekly assignments and a final project, we will bring life to objects that we create, transform or find. Drawing inspiration from different styles of mainstream and experimental art, entertainment and puppetry we will develop original concepts of our own. Exercises explore a range of technologies and materials, from simple sock puppets to body puppets, mechanisms, robots and animatronics. We'll spend time looking at how to successfully integrate interactive elements from other realms such as music, SFX, physical interfaces, etc. into our performances. This is a hands on class. Performance or puppetry skills are not required. You must bring your imagination and willingness to experiment and come up with creative solutions to class assignments. At the end of the semester students will showcase their best work and put on a crazy show! Course Syllabus -
Reading and Writing Electronic Text (ITPG-GT.2778) - Adam Parrish
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
This course introduces the Python programming language as a tool for reading and writing digital text. This course is specifically geared to serve as a general-purpose introduction to programming in Python, but will be of special interest to students interested in poetics, language, creative writing and text analysis. Weekly programming exercises work toward a midterm project and culminate in a final project. Poetics topics covered include: character encodings (and other technical issues); cut-up and re-mixed texts; the algorithmic nature of poetic form (proposing poetic forms, generating text that conforms to poetic forms); transcoding/transcription (from/to text); generative algorithms: n-gram analysis, context-free grammars; performing digital writing. Programming topics covered include: object-oriented programming; functional programming (list comprehensions, recursion); getting data from the web; displaying data on the web; parsing data formats (e.g., markup languages); and text visualization with Processing. Prerequisites: Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience. Course Syllabus -
Recurring Concepts in Art (ITPG-GT.2586) - Georgia Krantz
Offered: Fall 2011, Spring 2012
As a response to developing technologies, artists working in areas of new/digital media are continually inventing new concepts for self-expression - interactivity, the passage of time and resolution, just to name a few. Yet these concepts are new only in the sense that they are being adapted to new media. For example, the notion of interactivity, frequently observed as original and specific to the user-interaction component of computer-mediated works, was equally, if differently, specific to Gianlorenzo Bernini's 17th-century Baroque sculpture and architecture. Indeed the very concept of new media, and the concomitant implication of critically significant artistic development, applies throughout history. Oil revolutionized painting in the Renaissance, as did house-paint (on canvas) in the 1950s; in the 1910s, the found object indelibly altered definitions of art, the importance of the object being subsumed by that of the concept in the 1960s. This course examines how artists working before the boom of digital technology utilized other media, techniques and approaches to effect formal, conceptual and experiential dynamics comparable to those being investigated by new media artists today. The objective of the course is to provide students with not only knowledge of the immensely rich history of artistic creativity, but also a platform through which that knowledge might be utilized to reconsider new media strategies of artistic expression. It is the goal that through observation, discussion, reading and projects (both written and hands-on), students acquire mental tools to approach their own work with an expanded understanding of artistic possibility. Organized thematically, each class focuses on a different concept derived from the field of new media production and examined with regard to artistic precedents. The course focus primarily, though not exclusively, is on 20th/21st-century art. It is conducted as a combination lecture/discussion class. Critical theory is incorporated into the readings and discussions, but this is not strictly a theory course. The course has been conceptualized and designed to enhance understanding through a variety of means, from basic observation, to exploratory conversations, to more rigorous thinking informed by lectures, readings and focused discussions. Course Syllabus -
Redial: Interactive Telephony (ITPG-GT.2574) - Christopher Kairalla
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
ReNatured (ITPG-GT.2951) - Marina Zurkow
Offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2013
"Nature" is a construct that needs to be reexamined. Making work about "nature" can take place anywhere; the entire world is "natural," while none of it is.
"Nature" contains animals, plants, weather, people, airplanes, computers, microbes, stars, asphalt, and even unicorns and fairies - the agents that comprise our world-view.
This course combines public art interventions with urban nature, making new poetics about the natural world and our place within it. We will use the NYU area as our field study station, and make guerilla (unsanctioned) public art experiments that challenge the dominant assertions about "nature."
In the past 25 years, much has been written to contest Enlightenment Era (and Romantic) ideals about the nature/culture divide, and about humans' separation from the rest of the natural world. While both Hallmark cards-style sentimentalism and extreme environmentalists preserve the human/nature divide, ample multi-disciplinary work is being done to propose a different set of relations between humans and the earth at every level. We see the demonstration of a complex mix of non-human and human agency at work in ecology, popular journalism, art, poetry, and in academia – including science studies, animal studies, and even medieval studies.
"Renatured" takes this idea as an organizing construct:
"Life," the theoretical biologist Lynn Margulis wrote in 1995, "is a network of cross-kingdom alliances."
The first part of the course covers new writings in ecology, science studies, vibrant matter, and ecocriticism and a new look at artistic strategies to address "nature;" followed by two areas of focus, each with a public project:
Interagents: humans, plants, fungi, and non-human animals
Interagents: humans and the climate.
This is a studio class in critical creativity. Technologies are up to the students' discretion, but might include computers, paper, or dirt.
Selected readings include Epicurus, Bruno Latour, Timothy Morton, Jane Bennett, Kate Soper
Subject matter will include invasive species, nonhuman sentience, machine wilderness, DIY and guerilla actions, and interspecies relations
Research Studio: Algorithms (ITPG-GT.2932) - Heather Dewey-Hagborg
Offered: Spring 2012
In this research-based studio class students will choose an advanced computational topic to explore in depth. Work will be self-directed and monitored by weekly writing and bi-weekly class presentations with extensive feedback sessions. Students will be expected to exhibit a high degree of motivation in choosing and pursuing their research topic. Students will choose a narrowly defined topic within their chosen subject area to research in depth, implementing examples in code, explaining the fundamentals in class and summarizing relevant research papers.
Sample research topics include:
"the use of Hopfield neural networks for image recognition"
"evolving self organized maps"
"simulating realistic plantlike growth"
"the use of grammar in machine generated text".
Students will begin by preparing a broad survey and literature review of their chosen subject. They will then craft plans for how to accomplish specific goals in the semester timeframe, culminating in final project presentations which will include implementations in code for demonstration. This class is platform independent but requires advanced knowledge of one or more programming languages. Students should come to the first day of class with a research topic in mind. Research topics may or may not be tied to specific student projects like thesis.
Course Syllabus -
Rest of You (ITPG-GT.2568) - Daniel O'Sullivan
Offered: Fall 2011, Spring 2013
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. 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 then 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. Course Syllabus -
Sculpting Data into Everyday Objects (ITPG-GT.2933) - Esther Cheung
Offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2013
This course challenges students to combine Processing, Rhino 3D modeling and digital fabrication towards making an everyday data object. Some examples of everyday data objects might include: an ashtray shaped from lung-cancer statistics, a drinking glass based on clean water depletion, a lipstick case showing the growing number of women in parliament. While the first half of the course will focus on creating 3D data visualizations in Processing and Rhino 3D modeling, the second half will concentrate on integrating Processing and Rhino, as well as fabrication using the laser-cutter and 3D printer. Course Syllabus -
Sensitive Buildings (ITPG-GT.2916) - Robert Faludi
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012
This is a class is about creating smart habitats for city dwellers. Students will conceive and prototype large scale device networks to benefit the tenants of a 28-story, 325-unit landmark apartment building on Central Park South in Manhattan. The high-rise owners have once again invited ITP to develop a variety of prototypes that enhance the livability, ecology and community of their apartment building. The class has been newly restructured into three parts: We'll start by touring the building to learn about its infrastructure, inhabitants and context. This begins our Observation and Design phase in which students will employ behavioral studies, user-centered design and ethnography; paired with tenant interviews and other techniques that inspire first-rate innovations. Next we will quickly cover deploying Wireless Technology to connect interactive devices. Finally, we'll return to the site with prototypes that explore project possibilities, installing these proof-of-concepts and observing the real-world results. We'll take what we've learned into Final Projects that have the potential to be deployed at scale and considered for long-term sponsorship. This 1939 building's recent renovation created lower-level green roofs, various upgrades for energy efficiency and a historically restored facade. It has been described as, "state-of-the-art green architecture before the term was coined." The building's motto is "Where The Park is Part of the Plan." Our class is provided with access to unoccupied units, and opportunities to connect with current residents. The owners generously allow full supervised access to building infrastructure from roof to basement including ventilation, plumbing, heating, elevator and energy systems. Students get an extraordinary chance to invent and deliver big benefits for residents using active observation techniques as they develop interactive networks on a towering scale. Course Syllabus -
Sensor Workshop (ITPG-GT.2522) - Thomas Igoe
Offered: Spring 2012
Good physical interaction design relies on listening to physical action well. In this class, students will focus on the input side of physical computing by researching various sensors and sensing methods and developing examples for their use. Conceptually, this class sits in between the physical interaction design focus of Intro to Physical Computing, and the electronics focus of Analog Circuits.
Topics include:
- how to interface sensors to digital systems
- calibration
- how to convert the electrical output of a sensor into the terms of the energy it senses
- computational techniques for interpreting a sensor's datastream
- datalogging techniques
- environmental sensing
The class will assemble a library of sensor applications for interactive applications, and apply this research to applications in their classes at ITP.
There will be a number of one-week exercises that students will complete to demonstrate sensor techniques discussed in class. In addition, students will be responsible for a major sensor research project in which they will explain the operating principles of a given sensor and present a working example of the sensor in use. These research projects will be presented throughout the second half of the semester, and collected into an online reference site. There is no final application project, but students will be evaluated on the application of their research (or that of other students) in production projects developed for other classes. - how to interface sensors to digital systems
Site-specific: The History and Process of Making Temporary Public Art Projects (ITPG-GT.2620) - Marina Zurkow
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012
Site suggests contexts that are spatial, temporal, narrative, and populated. Site-specific works require a frame for participants, a set of stories and a point of entry. More than art within "the framework" of an art institution, site-specific, interactive and community-based works require rigorous levels of observation, interrogation, and participation. Whether in the physical or the virtual public, frame and context are primary considerations in the work you produce. This class is part studio and part refection, using contemporary art examples and writings that engage and critique the local and the global, invert locale and involve the everyday as well as traditional urban studies of observation. The studio portion of the class will either utilize an existent space in New York, or work towards the development of proposals for a fictional grant for lower Manhattan. Course Syllabus -
Small Is Beautiful (ITPG-GT.2976) - Francois Grey
Offered: Spring 2013
Proteins are poetry
Atoms are art
If you didn't know that
Here's where to start
This course aims to introduce the aesthetics of the nano-world as revealed by scanning probe microscopes. These instruments are used to study and manipulate objects on the atomic and molecular scale. They do not "see" objects using photons, like their optical microscope cousins, but rather "feel" them, with exquisitely sensitive nanoscale probes. This works in much the same way that an old-fashioned gramophone needle senses a vinyl disc. This form of microscopy was invented in the 1980s, and catalyzed the booming field of nanotechnology. A specific hands-on goal of this project is for students to work alongside scientists to record scanning probe microscope images and share them on the internet, so that citizen scientists can enjoy the beauty of the nano-world as well as help analyze scientific data. An example of the sort of practical outcome the course aims at is the project Feynman's Flowers.
An underlying objective of the course is to help promote within nanotechnology the same spirit of "open science" that has enabled astronomers to engage the public in the analysis of all sorts of telescope imagery, from measuring craters on Mars to classifying images of distant galaxies. This two point class meets every other week. Course Syllabus -
Social Activism Using Mobile Technology (ITPG-GT.2800) - Nathan Freitas
Offered: Fall 2011
We all know how mobile phones and ubiquitous computing have changed communication and networking in our personal lives, but do you understand the affect they have had on political and social justice movements around the world? More importantly, do you know how this has been done, so that you can apply these techniques when your own moment to raise your voice comes? While Obama Vice-Presidential SMS announcement was a milestone for politics in the U.S., activists and organizations around the world have been using mobile phones for years to get their message out, organize their communities, safely communicate under authoritarian eyes and save lives in times of crisis. Through studying historic, global uses of mobile technology and then teaching you how to use and apply these techniques, this course will give you the power 2B THE CHNG U WNT 2 C. The source will study and apply the use of SMS capture and broadcast systems (FrontlineSMS/RapidSMS), mobile crisis & event reporting tools (Ushahidi, VoteReport), Bluetooth broadcast systems, pirate Wifi mesh nodes, helmet-cam mobile phones and wearable UMPC/NetBook video broadcast systems. The course will also study about security and privacy of mobile phones and the possibility for open-source telephony. While the focus will be on the cutting edge, we'll also review the historic importance of police scanners, HAM radio, walkie talkie radios and other "old school" tools that have played important roles in the civil rights movement, the environmental movement and more. Actual organizations, causes and activists will be invited to speak to the class (both in-person and via Skype from around the world) to offer their stories and observations. Opportunities to work on projects with these movements will be presented to students. Some experience programming mobile devices (J2ME, iPhone, Android) will be useful, but not necessary. Experience in setting up at least one web server/application or blog system preferred. Having a cause you work or identify with or at least something you care about will be very important.
Case studies to include:
- The use of SMS message forwarding and multimedia attachments to share the Philippines version of the Nixon tapes.
- Streaming live video from Mt. Everest and the Great Wall of China (while hiding from the police)
- Secure, Anonymous, Private Mobile Phones via open-source Cryptophone software and Google Android
- Reporting in Crisis: Kenya, Congo and Gaza eyewitness acount tracking via SMS and Smartphones
- Election Protection: making sure your vote counts - activism for the common citizen
- Crowd Control: Organizing and directing mass mobilizations through Twitter and SMS
- Virtual Telephony: Asterisk, Google Voice, Skype and more, and why making phone numbers virtual and disposal matters
- From Tsunami's to Twitter: did you know the first micro-blogging via SMS that mattered happened in the aftermath of the 2005 tsunami? Course Syllabus -
Social Facts: Motivation (ITPG-GT.2518) - Clay Shirky
Offered: Spring 2011
Social Facts centers on two questions. The first is, how do we function in groups? Group effort presents significant coordination problems, problems that have to be overcome even to do anything as simple as getting everyone in the same place at the same time. Getting a group to function as a relatively cohesive unit means getting its members to set aside enough of their autonomy, and to come to regard their membership in the group as important. The second, related question is, why do we function in groups. Group life is often unpleasant – it can be frustrating or boring in the extreme, and yet we often chose group membership over individual action when given the choice, whether on Monday morning or Friday night. What are the motivations that lead people to give up enough autonomy to participate in group action, either extrinsic (seeking fame and fortune) or intrinsic (feelings of accomplishment or appreciation of others.) Readings are drawn from classic sociological literature (Emil Durkheim, Mark Granovetter, Robert Axelrod) and from recent observations about mediated groups (danah boyd, Dan Hill, Clay Shirky); course work involves readings, class discussions, observation of existing groups, and three papers discussing the design of group interaction.
Course Syllabus -
Sound and The City: Sound and Urban Intervention (ITPG-GT.2834) - Daniel Perlin
Offered: Spring 2011
Sound + The City is a studio course designed examine design and artistic strategies for sound in the urban context of New York City and its five boroughs.
This course is divided into two parts. First, we examine the characteristics of sound and its borders: what, if any, are the differences between sound, noise and music? What makes sound? How can sound effect the way people engage and perceive public spaces? What, if any, are the separations between aural spaces and the visual. Aside from an examination of the physical attributes of sound itself, this first section involves presentations and research into the diverse histories sound art and sound design within the contexts of urban environments.
With this in mind, this research is directed towards the second phase of the course: the production of a sound- based work that is to be proposed for public space in New York. Emphasis is given on situating sound both spatially and temporally, understanding the work in terms of site specificity as well as its location within the larger discourses and histories of sound, design and urbanism.
Technical prerequisites are basic sound programs such as Audacity or any basic knowledge of some form of sound-making tools. Course examples may be given using Max/MSP, PD, Processing, Open Frameworks, Logic, physical computing etc., but only to illustrate concept. The focus is on the content and context of the works, and participants will be responsible for defining the best tools for the deployment of their ideas.
Final works are presented as working prototypes/designs or full deployments of the sound interventions. This studio includes a midterm concept critique and final critique by guest architects, artists, designers and sound designers.
Course Syllabus -
Spatial Media (ITPG-GT.2756) - Jared Schiffman, Jeff Crouse
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
Spatial Media explores both the design and technical issues involved in the creation of interac- tive spaces. Students will examine several specific spaces as sets of interactions and reactions (inputs/output) that can be molded, enhanced, and subverted to create focused narratives. The class will be built around an iterative design process, with an emphasis on building and docu- menting technical and nontechnical prototypes. Technical topics include vision-based sensing systems, display integration techniques, and interactive graphics programming. Students work in groups to complete two large projects over the course of the semester. Projects are evaluated on both the quality of the design and the success of implementation. Additionally, there are weekly assignments that challenge students to consider a wide variety of spaces that are ripe for transformation through the integration of interactive media. Since this class involves pro- gramming on an intermediate level, a working knowledge of Processing or C is a prerequisite. Course Syllabus -
Tech Crafts (ITPG-GT.2952) - Sofia Catarina Mota
Offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2013
Combining high and low tech, in this course we'll explore the combination of smart materials and circuitry with traditional materials and crafts. We will cover embedding electronics in paper projects like books, pop-ups, and sculptures. We'll explore several soft circuits techniques for integrating electronics in textile creations. And we'll play with our food, giving it unusual properties such as touch sensing and illumination. All the while approaching circuitry as a craft in itself and using smart materials, electronics and conductive traces as aesthetic components.
Topics and techniques covered in this course include: laying out circuits on paper or fabric, handling folds and bends, making connections between hardware and other softer components, painting circuits with conductive ink, using mundane materials as tech components, adding illumination to delicate constructions, and using fruits, vegetables and drinks as sensors. And we'll work with a vast assortment of materials such as electrotextiles, different conductive tapes, EL wire/tape/panels, UV and heat reactive materials, conductive acetate, heating elements, luminescent materials, and conductive paints and glues. Course Syllabus -
The Art of Graphics Programming (ITPG-GT.2901) - Patrick Hebron
Offered: Fall 2012
In this course, we will study the capabilities of graphics programming and specifically the OpenGL platform so that, in our creative work, we can apply these technologies with greater freedom and clarity. As a creative and technical medium, computer graphics draws upon the rich legacies of the visual arts and cinema, but can also be seen as an emerging artistic medium with its own unique properties and possibilities.
Topics include: Drawing primitives, complex geometries and point clouds; transformations and matrices; perspective and orthographic cameras; textures and lighting; GPU optimizations and GLSL shaders.
Matching code samples will be provided in Processing, OpenFrameworks and Cinder. The course will be taught primarily in Processing, with C++ support during office hours.
Students will be encouraged to develop a graphics application through the course of the semester and alongside the developing technical topics, culminating in a final project. Possible projects include an interactive/gaming experience or short motion picture created using software developed in the class.
This two-credit course will meet every other week. -
The Da Vinci Code (ITPG-GT.2934) - Yael Kanarek
Offered: Spring 2012
What's between Leonardo Da Vinci and code? In this seminar-studio course we tap into the polymath mind of the genius artist-engineer. His 7000 pages organized in codices serve as a creative framework for surveying contemporary digital art. We will built the syllabus collaboratively mining topics from Da Vinci's notebooks. We'll compare the universe Da Vinci lived in with the universe we live in to consider a deeper insight into how the technologies we develop change how we know and experience the world. As an "unlearnt" man, Da Vinci's ravenous interests grew out of methods of observation, experimentation and invention. As we review digital art practices in the areas of his study and inventions warfare, flight, anatomy, robotic, geometry, architecture, painting and more, we will focus on exercising our own capacity to invent. Every week we will conceive a new object or approach, from the practical to the outrageous. These inventions will be drawn in the style of Da Vinci's manuscripts. Course Syllabus -
The Hospital Experience: Foundations of Care (ITPG-GT.2543) - Marianne Hardart
Offered: Fall 2013
This course will give students an introduction to the hospital environment and patient experience. Through site visits, readings and guest speakers, students will gain a general understanding of the organizational infrastructure of a large academic medical center, the elements within this structure that facilitate and/or impede a patient's access to information and care, and the opportunity to start thinking about how communication technologies can re-shape people's healthcare experience.
This two-credit course will meet the first seven weeks of the semester.
The Musical Sequence: Expression through Repetition (ITPG-GT.2917) - Paul Rothman
Offered: Fall 2011
Since the 13th century, repetition has been an important device in musical composition. In the 20th century, it became a mainstay of jazz, rock/pop and electronic music. This course will survey the use of programmed repetition in art, with a central focus on music. Historical and cultural uses in various forms of music (ostinato, riff, vamp, lehara) and modern technological approaches will be explored. Students will use both hardware (analog circuits and Arduino) and software (Processing, Max/MSP and DAWs) platforms to create their own sequencing systems and works. The class will look at the compositional uses of sequencing as well as various technologies developed in the past 60 years. Project output doesn't need to be musical (lighting, mechanical or video projects are encouraged) but music is the framework in which topics will be discussed. Assignments will revolve around readings, designing devices (physical and digital) and creating works that utilize a sequence. Course Syllabus -
The Nature of Code Studio (ITPG-GT.2480) - Daniel Shiffman
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
This year the course will be taught in an experimental manner. Students will be asked to learn the material each week through self-study. Online interactive video lessons and a free online textbook (http://natureofcode.com) will be provided. There will also be periodic live-streamed lessons. The class will meet over two periods to allow time for project development, question and answer sessions, supplemental lessons, guest speakers and field trips. Students will not be expected to attend the entire double period each week as we will break into smaller groups for workshop exercises and project critiques. All the material for the course will be available online for anyone who wants to follow along, however, you must be registered for the class to attend the weekly class meetings (just like any other class at ITP.)
Can we capture the unpredictable evolutionary and emergent properties of nature in software? Can understanding the mathematical principles behind our physical world 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 forces, trigonometry, fractals, cellular automata, self-organization, and genetic algorithms. Examples are demonstrated using the Processing (http://www.processing.org) environment with a focus on object oriented programming.
Prerequisite: H79.2233 Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent programming experience. Course Syllabus -
The Nature of Code: Cosmos Edition (ITPG-GT.2545) - Daniel Shiffman
Offered: Fall 2013
In this all day workshop, we will investigate strategies and techniques for visualizing and simulating the universe. We'll look at data sets related to stellar cartography for as well investigate shaders and other advanced graphics techniques for creating the visual look and feel of outer space. Examples will be demonstrated in Processing but students can use any environment they like.
This one point course will meet twice. The first day will be an all day workshop looking at code examples, and will be held on Saturday, September 21 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Students will then work on a mini-project which they will present the following week on Friday, September 27 from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.. -
The Pattern In the Noise: Intro to Statistics and Data Analysis in R (ITPG-GT.2918) - Jake Porway
Offered: Fall 2011
With the increasing digitization of world, we are faced with an ever-growing amount of data available at our fingertips. As designers, developers, and scientists, it is incumbent upon us to understand how to analyze, understand, and tell stories with that data in meaningful and correct ways. In this course we will explore the lifecycle of data analysis, from collecting and cleaning datasets to statistical studies of that data. Students will learn about basic statistical concepts, such as sampling, measuring uncertainty, finding correlations in datasets, and basic pattern recognition, all within the context of the R statistical programming language. Programming experience is preferred but not required. This two-point class will meet for the first seven weeks of the semester. Course Syllabus -
The Temporary Expert: Research-based Art and Design Practice (ITPG-GT.2547) - Marina Zurkow
Offered: Fall 2013
If your artistic practice is a hybrid and based on something "out in the world," you will want to imaginatively synthesize research, whether you work with neuroscience, surveillance, war strategies, fungi, or musical notation systems. Cultivating a "Research-based Practice" requires an artist/designer to be a pioneer, a detective and a psychic all in one. You have to meet not only allies but also with the "opposition," and enlist the aid of experts and supporters who might find your practice "strange." Before you find your POV, you have to take on many perspectives.
What does it look like to make work in, through and as research? How do you follow a hunch? Engage experts and passersby to explore both legitimate AND preposterous leads? Be expansive? How do you leave your own trail of documentation that can contribute to a body of knowledge beyond the products of your own art? These forms of research may mix a variety of scientific and intuitive methods. The artist/designer is free to employ speculation, open-endedness, and irony; to use design as a way to probe or even provoke the chosen fields of inquiry.
There isn't a protocol for art and design expressions, so you have make your own.
The class is devoted to the question of how to initiate and investigate research and incorporate it intelligently and sensitively into your work. This class is about developing your own idiosyncratic and well-documented means of pulling threads, following leads, and becoming fearless about asking for help and others' expertise. You become a temporary expert.
Through hands-on practice, case studies, guest speakers from both art and science, and readings on ethnography, research, and the idea of a public, we will explore method, documentation and presentation of your research, and the merits of both success and failure.
Student work is divided into two 3-week research areas and one final 6-week research project. All topics will have historical, technological and social components to explore. Research includes ethnography, interviews, published papers, media, video, drawing, visiting archives, and at least three face-to-face meetings with strangers for each of the assignments. We will look at artist and designers whose work is based on research, and ones whose work IS the research (art in the form of lecture, field notes, tours, experiments, etc).
Thesis (ITPG-GT.2102) - Abigail Simon, Greg Shakar, Heather Greer, Kathleen Wilson, Alison Cornyn, Katherine Dillon, Despina Papadopoulos, Sergio Canetti, Nancy Hechinger, Eric Rosenthal, Gabe Barcia-Colombo, Georgia Krantz
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013
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.
Time (ITPG-GT.2826) - Che-Wei Wang
Offered: Spring 2011
The ways we keep time are the ways we are kept. One might argue that
humans ideated timekeeping and now we take it for granted. Without
clocks we can't enjoy the benefits of social synchronicity. But with
them, we are unwillingly constrained to arbitrary increments that
guide our countless decisions. This class uses technology as a way to
rethink and recapture the ways we keep time. Over the first half of
the semester, we prototype a series of time keeping devices around a
set of themes. Blindness, bio-mechanics, materials, space+location,
isolation, synchronicity, and collaborative time. Each class begins
with the delivery of tools to help construct various types of
timepieces along with reviews and discussions. Video, software,
motors + mechanisms, electronic signaling and communication tools are
covered each week in relation to how they can be used to re-imagine
time-keeping. Classes later in the semester are tailored to provide
technical and conceptual support for final projects. Course Syllabus -
Toy Design and Sustainability (ITPG-GT.2897) - Assaf Eshet
Offered: Spring 2011
This design course introduces the students to the different aspects of sustainability and it's potential in the design of toys. From the personal throughout the social and environmental impact the challenge of using the natural surroundings we live in to develop eco-friendly toys is a current challenge of the toy design community. Students learn to use sustainable materials and their advantages, optimize, reduce, save, renew and be conscious of their creations and try to reach a common ground between technology and ecology. It is an attempt to go beyond "green" - to create toys that last and reinvent themselves. How can we simplify, maximize and stretch the play value of a toy? How can a toy be played over and over again and be considered a classic? How do we go beyond globalization and get closer to the power of the "local" and learn more about a kid's needs and abilities rather than limit our creativity for the sake of retail demand and large corporations?
The course will encourage the students to develop their conceptual thinking, view point on sustainability and the importance of play. Throughout the course students will synthesize their thoughts and communicate them using hands-on prototyping.
The class will include two short projects that require physical prototype and a longer final project that will include a presentation of the design strategy along with a working prototype. Course Syllabus -
Understanding Networks (ITPG-GT.2808) - Thomas Igoe
Offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
Interactive technologies seldom stand alone. They exist in networks, and they facilitate networked connections between people. Designing technologies for communications requires an understanding of networks. This course is a foundation in how networks work. Through weekly readings and class discussions and a series of short hands-on projects, students gain an understanding of network topologies, how the elements of a network are connected and addressed, what protocols hold them together, and what dynamics arise in networked environments. This class is intended to supplement the many network-centric classes at ITP. It is broad survey, both of contemporary thinking about networks, and of current technologies and methods used in creating them. Prerequisites: Students should have an understanding of basic programming (Intro to Computational Media or equivalent). Familiarity with physical computing (Intro to Physical Computing or equivalent) is helpful, but not essential. Some, though not all, production work in the class requires programming and possibly physical and electronic construction. There is a significant reading component to this class as well.
Possible topics include:
* topologies: how to think about them (nodes and links), how few workable ones there are, and how there's no topology so stupid it isn't in use some place.
* addressing and routing: what a namespace is, three ways to generate a name (nesting, serial uniqueness, random pseudo- uniqueness), the difference between smart and dumb networks, why the phone network and the internet differ even though they use the same wires
* protocols: envelopes and contents, the stack and the reference lie, end-to-end principles, reliability vs. speed tradeoffs
* scale: more is different, scale breaks otherwise workable systems, makes redundancy and degeneracy critical, tends to push systems
* a discussion of security and its effects
Possible exercises include:
* Basic socket communication, both software and embedded hardware versions
* Client-server programming
* A group protocol/messaging exercise
* An HTTP/RESTian model exercise Course Syllabus -
Urban Experience in the Network Age (ITPG-GT.2920) - Adam Greenfield
Offered: Fall 2011
Humanity became a majority-urban species for the first time at the end of 2007, and the rate at which people are abandoning the countryside for the cities is still accelerating. The human future is therefore an urban future, and most of the technologies you're ever likely to develop or use will need to be understood in the context of the high-density, highly complex environments we think of as cities. At the same time, though, the urban form itself is mutating in response to the emergence of new technological potentials. This course inquires into the ways information technology for gathering, storing, displaying, transmitting or taking action is changing urban form, metropolitan experience, and the construction of civic subjectivity. We'll approach these questions via direct, physical inquiry into the city around us, coupled to a wide reading in the literature of architecture and urbanism. Armed with the insights we glean from these activities, we will consider emergent technological systems and their implications for the life of cities. The coursework combines thematic readings, lectures, and discussions with physical explorations of the urban fabric. Students will keep a blog or online journal of responses to class activities, discussions and assigned readings; there is at least one team project in the course of the semester, to be presented at midterm, and a final project. -
User Experience Design (ITPG-GT.2275) - Katherine Dillon
Offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2013
This class will focus on how to create interfaces that get people to take the action you intended them to take and how to make that interaction a compelling experience. We will look at a wide range of examples of interaction design and explore different approaches to solving user experience problems across a number of platforms and at a wide range of scales. The class format will include lecture, student presentations, class discussion in-class design exercises and some guest lectures. The class will be very hands-on with assignments each week that focus on a particular aspect of user experience design including research, wire-framing, prototyping, critique and user testing. Tools will include pen and paper, BalsamIQ and Omnigraffle. Students will be active participants in the class and all assignments will be discussed and reviewed in class. Students should come to every class with a computer and sketchbook. Course Syllabus -
Video and the Open Web (ITPG-GT.2899) - Ben Moskowitz
Offered: Spring 2011
Most web video is wrapped in a proprietary layer and served cold. It's hard to build apps on top of video services, hard to remix video content, and hard to bring genuine innovation to market. Video is the only web medium that's basically read-only. It's time to change that.
This class will introduce a legal and technical framework for understanding open video. Guest speakers from Mozilla, PCF, Wikipedia, and elsewhere will share advances in platforms, protocols, and politics.
This class will also challenge you to think creatively about the potential of web video, and connect the dots between open technology and media democracy. Why is a more video-saturated web in tension with openness? How can we foster more flexible distribution channels in the face of hardening platforms? Are platform operators fairly balancing the concerns of content owners with new forms of speech like remix? How are network infrastructures and economics of content delivery changing to accommodate video?
Students will take part in weekly discussions, contribute to a group blog, and tackle some approachable open video hacking (people of all skill levels welcome). Students will also propose and produce a term project that innovates using open video principles.
Course Syllabus -
Video for New Media (ITPG-GT.2256) - Gabe Barcia-Colombo
Offered: Summer1 2011, Summer1 2012
In 1967 the Sony Portapak became the first portable video system available to the public. Suddenly motion pictures became accessible to artists, experimenters and social activists, not simply Hollywood production companies. The introduction of the Portapak had a great influence not only on the development of ITP but also on the way we create, consume and distribute media today. How do we create video that is non-linear yet compelling, interactive yet engaging? The goal of this class is to provide an overview of both the history of video, and its relevance to present day new media. Topics covered include aesthetics and concepts, camera usage, editing, lighting, as well as an introduction to interactive video software such as Jitter and Isadora. Through a series of weekly experiments and assignments, students gain experience with video blogging, short format documentary style, post linear narrative, interactive video installations as well as theatrical video design. Previous video experience is not required and experimentation is highly encouraged!
Video For The Web (ITPG-GT.2256) - Craig Protzel
Offered: Summer2 2013
Whether shot with an iphone and pieced together through a $.99 app or filmed on a Canon 5D DSLR and meticulously arranged through high-end editing software, video of all shapes and sizes exist throughout the web. Given the accessibility of tools, how do we create video that is non-linear yet compelling, interactive yet engaging? The goal of this class is to introduce students to the fundamentals of video production and storytelling through the context of short form content intended for the web. Specific genres covered will include trailers, promos, educational videos, documentaries, journalistic pieces, and web series. In the first three weeks of the class, students will learn the basics of both audio and video recording using a variety of cameras and audio recorders. Specific topics covered will include scripts and storyboards, camera usage, editing, lighting, and sound. Students will develop, produce, and finish 3 separate short form pieces of content based on conceptual prompts and technical constraints. The second half of the class will focus specifically on interactive applications of video on the web. A variety of use cases will be covered and students will be encouraged to concept and develop their own final web-based video project. Some web development will be covered but this is not a web development course. Guest speakers from companies/organizations including HBO, Vimeo, and the Boston Globe will join us to share first-hand industry experiences. Overall, course work will include reading assignments and 4 short-form video projects. No prior technical skills are required. -
Video Sculpture (ITPG-GT.2722) - Gabe Barcia-Colombo
Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Summer1 2013
Video is the new marble. In this class we breathe new life into video as a medium for creating engaging interactive physical sculpture. Video is no longer a flat screen based medium. How do we create video sculptures that move, emote and react to our presence? The course takes video off the screen and into the world of three-dimensional space in the form of site-specific and or physical installations. Through a series of weekly experiments and assignments, students work with projection, tiny LCD screens, physical sensors and interactive software to hack video into interactive sculptures in the tradition of Nam Jun Paik, Tony Oursler and Camille Utterback. Class is divided between lectures, guest speakers and critical discussion/presentation of work. Previous knowledge of video production / editing is not required, but a mad scientist-like lust to bring video to life is highly encouraged. Course Syllabus -
Visualizing JS (ITPG-GT.2953) - Stewart Smith
Offered: Fall 2012
Waving at the Machines (ITPG-GT.2954) - James Bridle
Offered: Fall 2012
We are living in a world that has not fully absorbed the societal and individual implications of networks and new technologies, but is already saturated with the vernacular implementations of these things. These seminars will focus on examples of these technologies and their effects, and on how we may group and communicate them, using the example of the New Aesthetic, a project of recognition and classification. In this class students will explore the many variations of technologically mediated and co-produced artworks, artefacts and experiences, and build individual practices of categorisation and communication. The goal of the course is to enable and advance critical thinking around new technologies in all their manifestations, and develop the tools of practice, visualisation and communication required to perform this thinking. Students will be expected to develop their own methods of communicating this experience in the form of their choice, through writing, speaking, making or curation, with a view to informing their own work in the future. -
When Strangers Meet (ITPG-GT.2762) - Kio Stark
Offered: Spring 2012
Even the simplest exchange among strangers can contain a tangled accumulation of meanings: what transpires may have physical, emotional, social, political, technological and historical dimensions. This class takes an analytical approach to unraveling and understanding these charged moments. In the process of the studying how and why strangers interact in public, we address some of the abiding themes at ITP—urban behavior, spontaneous interaction, the pleasure of the unexpected, how technology can mediate and/or enable human experience—and we make a close and thorough examination of how they play out in this narrow slice of human experience. This approach is designed to bring students to a more concrete understanding of these larger abstract ideas. Classwork consists of readings, class discussions, field assignments (a series of assigned interactions with strangers that the students will document and discuss) and an analytical final paper. Students learn how the interactions of strangers have changed historically (and why), what the experience of interaction with strangers means to the participants, how strangers 'read' each other, how they initiate interactions, how they avoid interactions, how they trust each other and how they fool each other. Readings range from seminal works on urban sociology and public behavior (Georg Simmel, Stanley Milgram, Erving Goffman, Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte, Elijah Anderson) to more lyrical examinations of strangers in cities (Tim Etchells, Italo Calvino, Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, Edgar Allan Poe) to recent neuropsychiatric discoveries about trust, mimicry, and flash judgments. Because stranger interactions are at heart a means to interrupt the expected narrative of the everyday, we consider the works of artists and thinkers who show how such disruption, surprise, spontaneity, and play are fundamental to the pleasure and substance of urban life, for example: the Situationists and their descendents, Sophie Calle, Marina Abramovic, Francis Alys, Graffiti Research Lab, Robert Rauschenberg, Survival Research Labs. We also explore recent art/technology projects that specifically engage strangers, such as Familiar Strangers, the Listening Station, PostSecret, Oddible, Loca: Set to Discoverable, Following/the Man in the Crowd, Mobile Feelings, and others. Course Syllabus -
Wildlife Observation Tools: Interaction in the Wild (ITPG-GT.2824) - Thomas Igoe
Offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2012
Wildlife tracking and observation presents a number of technological challenges.These challenges are related to common interaction design problems with humans, so understanding and mastering them is valuable experience for interaction designers. For zoologists, anthropologists, and veterinary researchers, understanding the technologies behind their tracking equipment, and the methods that technology designers use to develop these tools can benefit their research.
The goal of this class is to give students an introduction to the technological challenges associated with observing and tracking wildlife in remote environments. As a focal case study, students are presented with the practical problems faced by professorAnthony Di Fiore's primate research group, which is involved in studying several nonhuman primate species in the Amazon region of Ecuador. Students will discuss the research group's workflow, survey the state of the art in animal tracking, and work in groups to develop interactive prototypes to address one or more specific challenges facing tropical wildlife biologists.
In order to realize the goals of this class, students will be introduced to current tracking tools and remote observation tools, including radiocollars, camera traps, GPS receivers and other emerging technologies. This semester, we will place a greater focus on radio communications and tracking technologies and on understanding mapping technologies, to help focus projects on tracking applications. This class is part introduction and part interaction design lab with real-world end users. The goal is not only to understand the challenges, but to help develop solutions that could be used in the field in Ecuador and other places. Course Syllabus -
Write Once, Access Anywhere (ITPG-GT.2876) - Corey Menscher
Offered: Spring 2011