Syllabus

Course Description

The current course description is as follows:

A focused inquiry into the nature of interaction for entertainment, persuasion, recreation, or human enrichment. Discussions and readings include sociology, anthropology, game theory and urgent topics such as developments in artificial intelligence. Students gain an understanding their role as creator, participant, viewer, and user. Adafruit’s Circuit Playground Express and Python are introduced as the technological substrate for their investigative work.

The highlighted line is my own emphasis. This is to indicate that we are not doing that. This semester we'll focus on the interactive possibilities of TouchDesigner. This will be without code.

Course Objectives

  • Understand the vocabulary and practice of interaction in design and related fields where similar principals apply.
  • Question and interrogate the presumptions of the field and how they relate to our larger contemporary culture.
  • Critically engage with urgent technological developments as they relate to us personally and as a larger culture. (AI, Quantum Computing).
  • Gain facility with TouchDesigner as way to increase the breadth of your creative practice and to provide aesthetic residue of the ideas we are investigating.

Expectations

  • You will be on time for class On class does not simply mean being in the classroom when class starts, but in the room and physically and meantily prepared to engage with the material. This may require you to be effectively five minutes early.
  • Limited phone usage Please refrain from checking your phone during class time. If you have an urgent or persistent personal matter please let me know.
  • Ask questions (early!) . You will not understand everything in class. Thatistotally okay. Asking questions will help you to understand things as well as help me assess what it is you are understanding or not. Disregard the idea that you are stupid” if you ask questions.
  • Do homework I am structuring the class in such a way that I expect you will work outside of class to develop your understanding of the concepts and technology we explore.

Required Materials

  • A working computer or laptop with TouchDesigner and Adobe Creative Cloud or similar design software Projects in this class do not explicitly require you to use these programs, though proficiency with them is expected as a part of the Graphic Design curriculum. Expectations will of course, be different if you are not in Graphic Design. If you do not have access to a laptop, the school can assist with this, the earlier you inform me the better.

Attendance

As you know, Purchase College, SUNY, specifically the School of Art + Design, has a rather oppressive attendance policy (emphasis my own):

There are no excused absences in the School of Art+Design. Three or more absences in any course will result in a failing grade. Excessive tardiness may count as absences. Please see your course syllabi for more details.

This is mostly a good thing, in that it places emphasis on being in class together. However, the realities of life may make this policy feel more draconian than what it was intended to be. Please observe these practical policies:

  • Be on time for class, within 10 minutes of the class's start time, or you will be marked as late (unexcused).
  • Leaving class early without a reason that we mutually acknowledge and agree upon before class, counts as being late.
  • Three latenesses is equivalent to one absence.

I conversely will observe the following policies:

  • I will send an advanced warning to everyone if I’m in danger of being late, and by approximately what amount. This will more than likely be through email.
  • If you arrive late (unexcused or excused) and need to walk through material from class I will make time during a break, in-class work time, or a one-on-one outside of class.

Grading (The Class)

My general policy for grading is as follows:

When you don't give an "eff", that's when you get an F!

This is to say, if you do the work, you will generally pass the class. If you are looking for a superlative grade, then you must do superlative work.

This includes some, non-zero, amount of subjectivity in grading, but is generally outlined in the assignment descriptions.To facilitate this, you will receive some amount of "je ne sais quoi" points on projects for purely subjective reasons (i.e. a cute cat in a poster), otherwise I will try to retain what objectivity I can in grading based on the rubric of a given assignment.

If you are looking for Purchase College's Grades and Grading Policies you can find them here.

Grading (Assignments)

Your assignments will generally include:

  • Projects → These are a larger part of your grade and are, proportionally, larger projects. They will take longer to complete and will involve some amount of conceptual and technical synthesis.
  • Exercises → These will generally be smaller projects where the outcome is very clear. This might be, in the interest of learning a technique (software or otherwise) and is mainly to provide a kind of, residue that you performed the task.
  • Reading Responses → You may be asked to prepare written and typeset responses to readings to share with smaller groups and the class. As this class is within a design program, you will be asked to design and typeset these responses (ie these are not book reports). They will be graded in the same category as an "exercise."

Structure (Individual Classes)

We will begin each class with one of the following

  • Show 'n' Tell you will be asked to talk about anything for five minutes. This could be your favorite tv show, a trip you went on, work in another class. If you take longer than five minutes I will ask you to continue next class.

  • Stoopid Time This is new idea I am trying this semester. People will be assigned to ask and answer "stupid" or absurd questions.

  • Warm-up We will take some time to look at a concept or technique in TouchDesigner and triage any problems that appear in class.

  • Discussions We will take some time to talk through a reading, viewing, or piece of art/design. You will be asked to make a designed response to it, or get into small groups and talk and then talk to the class.

  • Presentations/Reports/Meetings/Work Time We will take time to update each other on our progress on projects, or work on them. I may also use this time to talk about specialized topics.

  • Review Homework We will review what is due next week, and what things may have been forgotten or moved around.

Structure (Semester)

As far as projects this semester they will be:

  • Creating a "button" using your newly acquired knowledge to create something that is, in effect, a button.
  • An Individual (A.I.) You will work, ideally in groups, to design and produce assets for a game, which I will produce the code for. You will communicate with me as both a professor and to prompt me with content, and directions.
  • A "recital" for TouchDesigner you will create a piece with TouchDesigner, based on our conceptual discussions, your interests, and our demos. You will produce a piece for a class show.
  • Written and designed responses some folks with each discussion will be asked to produce a written and designed response to a reading we have.

Required Statements

I am required to include the following statements in my syllabi. I will mention additionally how to locate this material in class, as well as in the printed syllabi.