BSc (Hons) Creative Computing

This module will introduce the fundamentals of programming and object orientation, including the following basic ideas of programming, including variables, memory and assignment statements, control through conditional statements, loops, functions and procedures, objects and classes, instance variables and methods, arrays, user interaction, interaction between objects, inheritance, polymorphism.

This module is an introduction to the basic concepts essential in the design and implementation of client-side web-based applications; it will cover a basic introduction to the Web, followed by more detailed lectures and labs on current best good practice with technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript.

This module gives a broad introduction to the creation of digital media and rich media websites and applications. It covers both the technical issues of programming with media, and the contextual topics of project management and designing applications to a particular commercial (or other) brief.

This module will cover the technical fundamentals of computing techniques used in digital media with a particular focus on graphics.

Topics will include manipulating images for creative contexts, image processing, application of 2D and 3D geometry for animation and interaction, creating simple physics simulations.

Students will practice this knowledge through a series of practical and creative exercises, undertaken throughout the module. These will be undertaken using an appropriate programming environment with graphics capabilities.

This module will cover the technical fundamentals of computing techniques used in digital media with a particular focus on sound and music computing.

Topics will include applying and manipulating digital audio media for interactive contexts, sound synthesis theory and fundamentals, basic signal analysis techniques, and rudimentary digital signal processing in an audio buffer.

Students will practice this knowledge through a series of practical and creative exercises, undertaken throughout the module. These will be undertaken using an appropriate procedural environment with supported audio libraries.

This module is intended as an introduction to creative practice. Students work individually or in groups to conceive, develop and produce finished practical software projects in creative computing, making the fullest possible use of their creative and coding skills. Each project is uniquely specified to allow students the fullest possible creative choice, and projects are mentored by module leaders to ensure that they are at the appropriate level, and to provide students with specific programming and practical suggestions where required. All student projects must feature the creative use of digital media technologies through applied programming

In addition to allowing students to develop their skills in a chosen area of interest, this module encourages students to make coherent judgments regarding the application of their computing skills as they develop and reinforce their technical knowledge through creative projects.

This is the first of two modules delivered in collaboration between our Centre for Academic Language and Literacies (CALL) and your academic department. Learning will be comprised of a lecture series coordinated by CALL and available online via your virtual learning environment or face-to-face if you want to come to campus. Weekly seminar series will be delivered by your home academic department and together you’ll work through the course activities and tailor them to your subject. 

These modules are designed to allow you to understand your own identity and how this has been constructed, take agency over your learning and development and understand how the environment around is changing and developing in the future. These are some of the core elements of a Goldsmiths’ education and reflect the 8 strategic principles which all of our degrees have been designed to reflect and include. 

At the end of the modules, you’ll have learnt how to read critically, evidence your arguments and relate ideas and practices to individual career interests. In the second term, you’ll learn how to formulate research goals, identify themes, concepts and theories relevant to addressing research questions, conduct effective investigations to establish and defend focused, persuasive arguments, and locate and fill gaps in logic.

These are all key building blocks to allow you to make the most of your time at Goldsmiths academically, socially and allow you to begin planning your learning and career development.

This is the second of two modules to be delivered in collaboration between our Centre for Academic Language and Literacies (CALL) and your academic department. Learning will be comprised of a lecture series coordinated by CALL and available online via your virtual learning environment or face-to-face if you want to come to campus. Weekly seminar series will be delivered by your home academic department and together you’ll work through the course activities and tailor them to your subject.

These modules are designed to allow you to understand your own identity and how this has been constructed, take agency over your learning and development and understand how the environment around is changing and developing in the future. These are some of the core elements of a Goldsmiths’ education and reflect the 8 strategic principles which all of our degrees have been designed to reflect and include.

At the end of the modules, you’ll have learnt how to read critically, evidence your arguments and relate ideas and practices to individual career interests. In the second term, you’ll learn how to formulate research goals, identify themes, concepts and theories relevant to addressing research questions, conduct effective investigations to establish and defend focused, persuasive arguments, and locate and fill gaps in logic. 

These are all key building blocks to allow you to make the most of your time at Goldsmiths academically, socially and allow you to begin planning your learning and career development.

Creative embedded systems and the use of microcontrollers are of increasing interest to artists, musicians, choreographers, and other creative practitioners for the creation of artworks and other forms of novel computational interaction.

There are many potential applications, 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.

This module will provide a starting point for you to develop an understanding of microcontrollers and how they fit into a wider computing and artistic context. You'll learn basic physics, electronics, programming with a strongly typed compiled language, and software engineering.

This module will lead to an extended project, giving you the opportunity to develop and implement new creative ideas utilising computation for creative expression. 

This module focuses on the technology underpinning client-server applications. This includes relational database systems, mainly from a development perspective, offering an introduction to data modelling and database implementation in SQL and alternatives such as No SQL The focus is on applications of relational and non-relational databases and techniques relevant to the creation of dynamic web applications such as form handling and templating. It includes practical work related to programming client-server web applications with a focus on principles and up to date practices.

Increasingly, computer systems in research and industry, and particularly the machine learning systems that underpin modern Artificial Intelligence, are designed to leverage large amounts of data.

This data is rich and various and may include anything from the results of clinical trials to information gleaned from analysing millions of tweets to understanding how people talk positively and negatively about politics.

In this module, you'll learn how to develop systems that operate in, and make use of such data-rich environments. This module builds on other material in the programme such as mathematics and databases. 

This module will show you how to work with data in various ways:

• Capturing data from a variety of sources
• Visualising data in compelling, informative ways
• Processing data to make it useful and shareable
• Reasoning with data to test hypotheses and make parameterised predictions

You'll also implement and apply basic machine learning methods. The module will also introduce you to a new language and programming environment that is well-adapted to languages for these applications.

This module will allow you to develop an intuitive understanding of the expressive power of computation and reinforce important mathematical and programming concepts through engaging and creative work.

You will be introduced to a variety of generative techniques through analysing the work of other artists and studying code examples. Possible techniques you will use include phase modulation, uses of the sine function, additive synthesis, stochasticism, perlin noise, and extensive variation through parametrisation. 

This module gives you the opportunity to learn the basics of creating multi-platform interactive experiences with a modern game engine. 

You'll be grounded in the fundamentals of game engine development with an emphasis towards exploring the potential of game engines for creating interactive or narrative-driven visual experiences.  

At the end of the module, you'll be able to create simple games and interactive experiences and publish them across platforms. 

Students will study advanced topics in generative graphics with a focus on understanding and applying effects using shaders:

• Generating 3D environments from 2D perspective models with matrix transforms
• Understanding Geometry, Textures, Lighting
• Complete OpenGL pipeline
• Frag Shaders
• Vertex shaders
• Procedural rendering methods

In doing this they will apply perceptual knowledge acquired in Perception and Multimedia and mathematical skills acquired in Numerical Maths.

Students will cover a range of topics relating to sound, perception, signal processing and music information retrieval:

• Advanced audio and music perception: frequency, pitch, and harmony; melody; rhythm; spatial perception
• Audio signals: sampling, aliasing, quantising, compression
• Fourier analysis and working the frequency domain
• Digital signal processing: signals and systems, linearity and time-invariance, convolution, filters, reverb, EQ, filter design
• Signal processing programming
• Perceptually-motivated features for audio analysis, information retrieval, and recommendation

Topics will be practically explored through a series of lab assignments and final project in which students apply what they have learnt to creative ends.

This module covers the basics of working with interactive and generative sound in the context of computer games and immersive experiences.

You will learn how fundamental concepts in sound design and digital audio, such as audio samples, signal generators, mixers and audio effects can be used within a modern game engine to create rich and immersive sonic and/or musical experiences.   

At the end of the module, you will be able to create simple sound-oriented games and interactive experiences and to publish them on different platforms. 

Building on their experiences in Creative Computing Project 1, this module develops practical and research skills for realising medium-scale C++ projects in the contexts of the arts and creative industries. Working individually or in groups students will conceive, develop and produce substantial practical software projects in creative computing. These works are expected to make the fullest possible use of their creative and programming skills and must feature the creative use of digital media technologies through applied programming.

Through this work, students will become familiar with a variety of C++ development environments and will learn how to research relevant open source libraries and use them through reading APIs and source code. Additionally, students will study a range of practical skills which are key to managing large code bases over long periods of development.

Our academic departments are developing exciting elective ideas to allow you to broaden your education, either to develop vocationally orientated experiences or to learn more about contemporary society, culture and politics. You’ll be able to choose safe in the knowledge that these modules have been designed for non-subject specialists and to bring students from different disciplines together. For example, you may want to take introductions to areas such as Law, Education, the digital industries, the creative industries,think like a designer or understand the history and politics behind our current affairs.

The final year project is organised into stage 1 and stage 2 modules.

The project modules provide an opportunity for you to apply the skills, knowledge and expertise that you have acquired throughout the course to a single and coherent body of work.

You can focus on any area of work that interests you, as long as it is related to the creative industries and is a substantial project with clear objectives.

This stage of the project - the prototyping module - supports ideation, research, scoping and proof-of-concept stages of the project. In stage two (see next module for detail) you'll focus on developing the final project deliverables.

Deliverables for this prototyping module may include a proposal, project plan, literature review, and the presentation of a working prototype.

Example projects include a software tool for creative work, portfolio of creative studies, an installation, a digitally enabled performance, a digital game or toy. The project outcomes will serve as a showcase for your talents and could launch a professional career in industry. 

You'll have to manage your own time and set regular objectives relating to background research, methodology, software design, implementation, testing and evaluation. 

Final Project in Creative Computing is an opportunity for students to apply the skills, knowledge and expertise that they have acquired whilst studying Creative Computing to a single and coherent body of work. The project allows students to follow an initiative that appeals to them, but the project must remain relevant to the Creative Industries; the outcome will be the most substantial project that they have had to develop as part of their studies. Example projects include a software tool for creative work, a portfolio of creative studies, an installation, a digitally-enabled performance, a digital game or toy. The project outcomes will serve as a showcase for student’s talents and could launch a professional career in industry. Students will have to manage their own time and set regular objectives, undertaking project analysis, design, implementation and evaluation.