Courses

IIMC-550: (Virtual) Reality Check – Olivia Mole

This Integrated Media workshop introduces VR, AR and Mixed Reality as tools to create art with a particular focus on three-dimensional virtual space. Through readings, discussions, workshops, and tutorials, students will learn to harness  virtual experiences as part of their artistic practice. 

IIMC-560: Sound as Object – Brian Griffith

A research and production workshop using experience, performance, sound  as our material. We will make one or more object/s and/or performance/s, so please introduce us to your related readings, concerns, projects and skills and we will see what we can make together. We’ll touch on the following skills to create new work: project development, computer programming, networking, basic electronics, audio and video production, and any skills that you bring to our workshop.

IIMC-590: Computation Reconsidered – Kai Luen Liang

How can computation be reconsidered within the critical contexts of an art practice? In the first half of the semester, the student will be introduced to the aesthetic possibilities of combining art making, computer programming and digital technology. The classes will explore the fundamentals of programming and the more advanced techniques of screen based image processing, and computer graphics. During the second half of the semester, the students will investigate physical media, installation and interactive design. The focus of the class assignments will be the expressive capabilities of the human body in a sensor-based environment. The core concepts will involve a dialogue between physical action and digital information. A final group project will implement the body, sensors, and micro-controllers using computer programs written in class.

IIMC-635: Algorithmic Practices – Kai Luen Liang

Algorithmic Practices I: Computer Media Approaches to Art and Installation; aka How to Think About Making Things and Writing Code The roots of computation and algorithm are in mathematics; computers and media technology are now in the hands of technologists whose sole purpose is commerce: it is with these tools we need to make art. Because of this situation, convincing a computer to do what you want requires thinking in ways that may seem alien to your idea of work in the arts, but in fact there are paths, methods, and approaches that are entirely friendly to open-ended artful creativity. Of crucial importance wil be working up ways to visualize a mediated installation/situation on (literally) paper so that it can be communicated to your collaborators, and then implemented in actual matter. Students will learn how a computer works, the rudiments of coding in C++ and Java using Arduino and Processing.

IIMC-690: Integrated Media Project & Critique – IM Faculty

Members of the faculty and fellow students participate in the Integrated Media Studio & Critique. In the fall semester, the students work with the faculty to develop an Integrated Media project. Each week in the spring semester, one student or collaborative team gives a formal presentation of their Integrated Media project to be followed by an extended discussion with the their peers and faculty. This is a rigorous but supportive forum for considering technology-based artworks, and discussing current trends and issues in the field of new media. There will also be opportunities for hands-on workshops and demonstrations of new technology and new media during the fall semester.

IIMC-521: Code As Object – Kai Luen Liang

Computer code is often thought of as purely functional: a way to make computers do things. However, it can also be an object of study in its own right, to be interrogated through aesthetic, political, and social lenses. Through readings, lectures, projects and critique, this class will introduce the fundamental concepts of coding and provide a framework for thinking about code in art and as art. Students will finish the class with basic coding skills and new ways of thinking about coding as an art form.

IIMC-620: Lens Space Code – Hillary Kapan (not offered in the 2019-20 academic year)

A six week technical course in which students will make a simple working piece utilizing code written in the Processing programming language. This course introduces the creation and use of code modules which will be fitted together to form a working piece. Each student will create a piece that uses the modules learned in class. The piece may be anything time-based, and can include participatory aspects, interactivity, and other approaches. Topics/modules include acquiring camera data, using that data for triggers, timing, user interaction, thresholding strategies, display of graphical items (video, images, and text), and basic playing of sound files. Each student will create their own variation on the following flow. Programming building blocks (constructs, such as if-then, loops, and arrays) will be introduced briefly and in such a way that students can make both immediate and repeated use of those building blocks. In the process, students will learn ways in which those building blocks can be connected. No prior programming experience required.