MA Computational Arts

The course will introduce you to a range of techniques and practices for creating interactive audiovisual software using generative techniques. This will include computational and process-based thinking, perspectives on audio and visual perception, algorithms for creating graphics and sound, advanced topics in computational media and project development. Every week a theme from art is introduced and then replicated and examined using code.

Objectives

• Provide the student with a fundamental understanding of code and modern computer literacy.
• Introduce and apply programming concepts and techniques using openFrameworks/C++.
• Approach programming from an artistic perspective.
• Allow for the emergence of open dialogue regarding the content being instructed.
• Invoke the student's interests to apply what they have learned outside of class.

On successful completion you will be able to:

•  Program interactive installations
•  Develop algorithms for generating images and sound
•  Reason about the aesthetics of computer art pieces 

Sample Syllabus:

• Introduction to art, tech, free software
• Introduction to openFrameworks
• Animation and intro to generative art
• Repeat, repeat, repeat: loops and arrays
• Number generators
• Images & video
• Algorithmic thiking
• Sound with maximilian
• Revision and guest artist
•  ----- project work -----

This module builds on Workshops in Creative Coding 1 by assuming that students have mastered the basics of C++ in introduces them to topics in computational arts such as: computer vision, machine learning / AI, networking, genetic algorithms, 3D graphics, emergence of complexity and more.

 Sample Syllabus:

• Emergence and object oriented programming
• Computer vision A (part 1)
• Computer vision B (part 2)
• Networked art with OSC messages
• Machine learning / AI
• Sound with maximilian (part 2)
• Projection mapping
• Genetic algorithms and other advanced generative techniques
• 3D graphics
• ----- project work ----- 

Other topics include:

• Data visualization
• Physics engines
• Mobile
• Shaders / GLSL
• Augmented reality
• DMX
• Delaunay / voronoi
• Art with typography
• Swarm intelligence
• Using 3rd party APIs

The Project in Digital Arts Computing is an opportunity for you to apply the skills, knowledge, expertise and creative direction that you have acquired whilst studying Digital Arts Computing to a single and coherent body of work. You'll follow a creative and technical initiative that appeals to you, for presentation in an exhibition setting. The outcome will be the most complex, detailed and thorough piece of creative work that you have had to develop as part of your studies.

This will showcase your talents, and could launch a professional career, or lead to further academic study. You'll have to manage your own time, setting regular objectives. You'll undertake project analysis, design, implementation and evaluation. You'll work on the project over the duration of the year supported by a combination of seminars, lab sessions and individual tutorials.

This module brings attention to the relations of computational arts practices. How do artists working with computation undertake research projects? How might computational art develop new theories of computation? What might computational art approaches (scraping, visualising, mapping, sonifying, mining etc.) bring to theoretical practices?

In this module, we consider theory at the intersection of computation and art; and we critique and generate material-discourses of computational art theory. Together we will explore the socio-material implications of computational arts practices, through examples and experiments, to generate alternative theories of computation.

This module is designed to offer advanced material for students who want to specialise in the area of applications in 3D environments and animation. It is geared towards research-led teaching, which would expose students to the most state-of-the-art 3D VR applications.

This course extends the principles of creative engineering for use in arts, games, and more general interaction scenarios so that students can develop their own projects through the use of computational approaches to audiovisual processing. The lessons will be taught using Javascript or C++. It is recommended that students have some experience with using Processing and some background in digital audio and/or digital image manipulation before taking this course. We will spend the first few sessions exploring Digital Audio Signal Processing. This will cover synthesis, sequencing, filtering, sample loading and playback, panning and rudimentary analysis. Following this we’ll be looking at audiovisual interaction using video and 3D graphics.

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This module gives an understanding of how game design mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics function within playable experiences.

By exploring how play fits into the larger field of possible gameful designs, students will gain conceptual fluency of concepts emerging in this evolving discipline. Using a playcentric approach to design, students will get hands-on experience creating and iterating experiences with players.

Using basic microcontrollers which emulate keyboard controls, students will fabricate basic interfaces for interactivity. This module explores tactics for interweaving mechanics into interactions, aesthetics into design choices and dynamics into successful HCI strategies.

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This module gives students an introduction to the art and craft of producing interactive fiction and delivering it on the Web. A historical overview of the field, from early examples of interactive narrative in theatre through books and film to computer-based interactive narrative, provides context for you to explore making your own works of interactive fiction, using engines for developing each of choice-based and parser-based narratives.

You will be expected to play through historical and contemporary works, critically assess them for effectiveness, and contribute to the playtesting and assessment of peers' work.

Physical Computing is of increasing interest to artists, musicians, choreographers, and other creative practitioners for the creation of novel artworks and for forms of computational interaction between these objects and people. 

There are many other applications of Physical Computing, for example in museums, ubiquitous and embedded computing, robotics, engineering control systems and Human Computer Interaction. A physical environment may be sonic, tangible, tactile, visually dynamic, olfactory or any combination of these.

The module will provide a starting point for you to build an understanding of microcontrollers, and how they fit into a wider computing and artistic context. It will cover basic physics, electronics, programming, and software engineering; alongside practical knowledge of tools such as laser cutting and 3D printing which are very commonly used in physical computing. This module will culminate in an extended project which will also give you an opportunity to plan a project over time, and make decisions as your project develops.

Physical Computing is an interdisciplinary area of computational art and design that blends conceptual thinking, programming, human factors, engineering, physics, a do-it-yourself (DIY) mentality, and physical crafting. This module introduces some of the intermediate prototyping, electronics and programming skills necessary for practitioners making interactive, computational physical artefacts and systems. It also introduces some more advances knowledge of physical prototyping and design, such as human factors, user experiences and user testing, and 3D modelling which are necessary to guide students in a co-evolutionary process of emergent computational art and design. Students on this module will apply these skills in their explorations of the physical making process and produce a series of interactive and physically animated experiences.

Students will work on developing a self-initiated project that explores advanced topics in the art of physical computing. These topics could include communication between embedded systems and other software, CNC fabrication such as 3D printing and laser cutting, and advanced strategies for sensing and “learning” which are useful across many types of electronic and mechanical systems.