MA Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship: Computing Pathway

Theories of Capital critically examines key theories of social, economic, cultural and symbolic capital.  The module details these conceptual capital frameworks and compliments this theoretical foundation with application in the creative and cultural industries with a focus on government policy and the unique economic characteristics of the creative industries.  For example consumer consumption of status goods will be assessed using theories of symbolic and social capital. Emphasis will be given on the role of intellectual capital in policy. Students will learn the analytical rigour to critically assess creative and cultural industry policy and market structures.  Students will be able to translate theory into practice, and practice into theory.

This module will introduce students to a range of business modelling tools, and provide insight in to the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and enterprises. The module has evolved from NESTA’s Creative Pioneer Programme and will use the Modelling Techniques that were designed and have evolved from The Academy and Insight Out which provide approaches to commercialising creativity.

It will critically review the key characteristics of successful enterprises, entrepreneurs and leaders, within the cultural and more commercially focused creative industries. It will look at the range of business models that exist and review how best to build a financially sustainable organisation.

Students will be introduced to a range of techniques:

1. Relationship Modelling – this will assist students to understand the range of business models in the creative industries, and to create the most appropriate route to market; it will consider the relationship that the originator of the creative idea has to the production, distribution and the audience/customer/client; it uncovers the student’s relationship to “reward”.

2. Evidence Modelling – this model uses Marshall McLuhan’s Tetrad Model to review the likely impact of the idea; it helps makes the enterprise tangible and to ensure that the entrepreneur remains in control of the effects of their ideas. Using the modelling technique helps students to articulate their values and the benefits of their ideas.

3. Blueprint Modelling – an approach to creating an operating plan which will move their idea to market, articulating all of the activities and responsibilities required.
Consequence Modelling – using all of the knowledge from the modelling techniques, this will uncover the financial consequences of the decisions made. It will introduce them to basic financial modelling concepts, and ensure they are comfortable with the financial language of creative entrepreneurs.

The projects are intended to assess the full range of students’ abilities and to apply a range of learning outcomes which the programme enables students to develop. In particular, it enables assessment of the ability to design, develop and write an advanced practice-based research project using primary and/or secondary materials appropriate to the topic and according to the necessary conventions of scholarly work. It requires independent motivation and self-directed learning, under supervision, and enables students to demonstrate competence for critical analysis and sustained persuasive argument.

The dissertations are intended to assess the full range of students’ abilities and to apply a range of learning outcomes which the programme enables students to develop. In particular it enables assessment of the ability to design, develop and write an advanced research project using primary and/or secondary materials appropriate to the topic and according to the necessary conventions of scholarly work. It requires independent motivation and self-directed learning, under supervision, and enables students to demonstrate competence for critical analysis and sustained persuasive argument.

This module immerses participants in the latest developments around social media reporting and campaigning. This is a participatory module which mixes up-to-the-minute case studies with a hands-on exploration of the tools and concepts.

Students will become familiar with the affordances of digitally enabled crowdsourcing and participation as well as social media reporting, UGC verification, forensics and analysis

This module will introduce students to models of management, entrepreneurship and professional practice appropriate to creative, social or cultural organisations. It will examine the relationship between arts management practice, design thinking entrepreneurial practices and the culture in which that practice is situated. The module is in two parts, the first through presentations and seminars will equip students to develop a critical approach to both general management policy and practice and to practice has been developed to meet the characteristics and requirements of the arts sector. Students will be introduced to key ideas in organisational management from Weber to Handy and Belbin and current writing on leadership. Students will also be introduced to different forms of legal structures for organisations and basic issues relating to employment.

The second part of the module is the placement, which will work where possible as or like a knowledge transfer partnership scheme. One of the key aims of knowledge transfer partnerships to help businesses ‘improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base’. So, we understand this placement as not only an important learning experience for the student but also as an important link between companies (across sectors) and academe (Goldsmiths and its offer particularly). The placement may be attached to various projects - research and consultancy – ICCE and or the Design Department is engaged with and also continuing to develop but equally may be a new initiative.

A large amount of data is available in electronic resources, both offline and online. This module will give a broad introduction to techniques for gathering data from electronic sources, such as databases and the internet. It will cover both fundamental ideas and the use of some of the most important currently available tools. The module will also present tools and ideas for more effectively using the internet to communicate, visualise and generate news stories. 

TBC

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

This module immerses participants in the latest developments around social media reporting and campaigning. This is a participatory module which mixes up-to-the-minute case studies with a hands-on exploration of the tools and concepts.

Students will become familiar with the affordances of digitally enabled crowdsourcing and participation as well as social media reporting, UGC verification, forensics and analysis

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.