Project, Create a "Recipe"

Introduction

A recipe is a form of virtual reality.



Stop and think about that one for a second.



It communicates with someone in the future and tells them how to cook something.

A recipe, as it is an asynchronous form of communication, must presume many things about its recipient:

  • taste (that is, what they enjoy from a culinary perspective)
  • access to and facility with cooking technology
  • ability to read a given language
  • ability to understand direct instructions (turn the oven on to 350° F)
  • ability to understand indirect instructions (wait until the outside is golden brown)

Because of these different factors, I am using a “recipe” rather than “tutorial” or “instructions” as the metaphor for this project.

In (non-asynchronous) programming, you give a computer a list of instructions, that it then must perform those instructions in order, and those instructions must be exact in order to prevent errors or crashes. Therefore, you must, to a certain extent, put yourself in the position of the computer and how it sees and processes things.

Your goal, is to create a piece of media (interactive, print, screen-based or otherwise), performance, or any other means by which to provide a sequence of steps that someone can use to learn a given skill, ability, or game.

Objective(s)

  • Gain a further experiential understanding of programming by understanding what it is like for other people to experience being given instructions that feel as though they are clear to you. In other words, gain a further understanding of how computers understand instructions by instructing humans to do something.
  • Work on a more explicitly “creative” project that hinges upon your idea and how you present it rather than a technical skill you may be unfamiliar with.

Final Submission

  • A digital record of your project that is uploaded to the spreadsheet. It should be of sufficient quality relative to its given medium. That is to say print media should be above 150dpi. Videos should be at least 720p (ideally at least 1080p 30fps).

  • Any materials needed for the day of critique. That is to say, any print media is printed out with a copy submitted to me, any performances are recorded by some means, any installations are documented. A folder containing all notes, sketches, preporatory materials and early iterations.

Requirements

  • Your project must, at some point, create a sequence of instructional steps. However creatively, abstractly, or poetically you express your project, you must provide a series of steps for the viewer, user, or player to traverse. I’d encourage you to think about the linearity of these steps and the decision tree that is traversed, but again, some kind of steps are necessary.
  • The instructional component of your project must have a defined length of time. If you want people to play a game for some amount of time after you tell us how to play or require us to travel somewhere else please make sure you set that up in advance with me.

No Shuriken Mode Challenges

(No Shuriken Mode comes from here)(Please note that, doing these do not guarantee a better grade or extra credit by any fixed or demonstrable amount, but if you’re doing or approaching these things, you’re probably doing well. The point is that, like not using shurikens in Shadow Dancer, it is more difficult, and increases your proximity to the material. All this being said don’t hurt yourself and consider your other assignments and mental and physical health. Additionally, if you are not feeling challenged by the class or an assignment, and these suggestions are not sufficient for you, please le me know.)

  • Work with another student in the class to create a (relatively?) simple card game which you demonstrate to the class, and then we break out into groups and play.
  • Take the class to a dance studio or gym or some other space to instruct us how to perform a task like a handstand.
  • Contract someone you know or use Fiver to hire someone to perform the instructional portion of a video or bring this person to class to “host” your project.

Grading Rubric

  • 50% → Concept → I will consider the strength of the idea itself, as well as your articulation of this idea. Did you create a presentation? Did you make great drawings? Did you do a parody of a Shark Tank pitch? Did you write a long and clear essay? Is it clear that you reviewed videos that were presented on this page and thought about and mentally metabolized them? Did you listen to a 99% Invisible episode related to the subject matter you selected? Whatever the case, this will be an evaluation of the energy and thoughtfulness of the idea itself and the way in which you explain and walk through your idea(s) to me and the class as you work through your project.
  • 50% → Execution → This is the “follow-through” or how you take your idea and realize it. Did you learn a new skill? Did you rent a room or find an alternative space on campus? Did you take something you gained in another class and bring it here? This will be an evaluation of the technical quality of your project (based on its medium), the clarity of converting the concept into the realization, and the efficacy of the final project.

Considerations

  • No “classic-style” board games → If you want to make something approaching a game, I would strongly suggest not creating a board game where you roll dice to move a set amount of spaces to a common goal. This has a lot of issues tied up into that I just don’t want to deal with from a game design perspective. If you are totally itching to do this we can work through it, but I strongly suggest not (for this specific project).
  • You are not restricted by medium → Hopefully it is clear by the above requirements but I am not asking for an AdobeXD prototype, a video, a performance, a pilates class. I am asking you to be creative and create an idea that was not there before.
  • Full send → Go for it! Do a weird thing, do a funny thing, do an ambitious thing!
  • This is about your concept → The idea, and it’s execution are of paramount importance here. If you for example code an entire (simple) game in this time, that’s cool but it is not about technical proficiency.
  • If you need help→ please ask! If you want someone to record your performance, you need an okay DSLR to record the video or sound recording equipment, you need help with a technical aspect of your project...any and all of the above and ideas I have not mentioned. Please try to be clear about asking when we talk about ideas.
  • How learning works→ One of the other things I’d ask you to think about whether you agree with the below video or not is to think about how you learn, situations where you learned something in a way that felt interesting or transformative, or times you’ve perhaps told someone how to do something and how they did or did not respond to your instructions.

Examples (Student Work)

"How to Act in the Workplace..." by Eliel Pacheco

Databending 101 by Will Rogers

Have You Seen This Place? by Nicholas Beltran

Examples (non-studenet work)

How to Fix a Cracked iPhone Screen by HowtoBasic HowToBasic’s videos are kind of a masterclass in video editing. It looks as though they are still doing well, but they hit at a very particular moment when YouTube was becoming a practical resource and it was able to function as an inversion of a resource like eHow or other explicitly practical tutorial videos. Additionally they take advantage of the thumbnail system of YouTube in an ingenious way.

I’m not asking you to spend as many resource as it looks like they often spend, destroy, and yell at but I am presenting this as an inversion or parody of the idea of what we perceive as instructional as a way of “teaching” something else or providing humor.

Hearthstone’s Tutorial (to be clear this is not meant to be an endorsement of Activision Blizzard as a company)

Hearthstone has somewhat of a unique problem in that it is a digital card game (it involves variance or randomness) with a potentially complicated game system. Additionally, many forms of strategy in card games people tend to find counterintuitive (not taking actions to help you later, playing cards that look “bad,” etc.). To solve this they created a tutorial that helps walk you through the game by providing a less random experience and essentially telling you what to do. Eventually, by fighting less aggressive CPU opponents you gain a sense of accomplishment to move forward.

"Make a spicy cabbage today" by @tandangyu135" I first came across this account a couple of years ago, and recently had this video in my feed. While not a traditional cooking tutorial, and not ultimately practical, it highlights the often mundane quality of cooking tutorials by using visual tropes from other media; notably action cinema and anime.

“Old School” First Levels of Games

Relevant Steps

  • 10/06/2025 → Introduction!
  • 10/13/2025 → Check-in (individual) One-on-one discussions to the class on your initial idea.
  • 10/20/2025 → Check-in (class) Presentations on the current state of your idea and your progress on the project.
  • 10/27/2025 → Check-in
  • 11/03/2025 → Test Runs. For this week, we’ll present a prototype, dress rehearsal or run through of your project as if it is done, knowing that you have time to work on it
  • 11/10/2025 → Final Presentations & Response Assignments
  • 11/17/2025 → Response Readings & Possible re-staging of pieces