BSc (Hons) Creative Computing

This course will introduce you to 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, and polymorphism.

This module introduces fundamental numerical tools to support computational and algorithmic inquiry, and to enable effective computational experimentation.

You will:

• explain the need for different number systems
• understand what a prime number is and perform arithmetic modulo prime bases
• appropriately use combinations of trigonometric or special functions
• represent abstract locations in vector coordinate systems, and derive and apply transformation matrices

You’ll be introduced to creative practice, and work to develop practical software projects in creative computing using your creative and coding skills.

Each project is uniquely specified to give you the fullest possible creative choice, and projects will be mentored by module leaders to ensure that they are at the appropriate level, and to provide you 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 you to develop your skills in your chosen area of interest, this module will encourage you to make coherent judgments regarding the application of your computing skills as they develop and reinforce your technical knowledge through creative projects.

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.

In this module, you'll cover the technical fundamentals of computing techniques used in digital media with a particular focus on graphics. Amongst the things you'll study are manipulating images for creative contexts, image processing, application of 2D and 3D geometry for animation and interaction, creating simple physics simulations.

You'll practice this knowledge through a series of practical and creative exercises that you'll undertake throughout the module. You'll carry these out using appropriate programming environment with graphics capabilities.

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 practice such as HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript.

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. 

In this module you will learn the technical fundamentals of computing techniques used in digital media with a particular focus on sound and music computing.

The topics you will cover 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.

You'll practice this knowledge through a series of practical and creative exercises, undertaken throughout the module, and will undertake this using appropriate procedural environment with supported audio libraries.

This module covers:

• Program development on a primary (Java) and secondary platform (Android)
• Fundamental data structures and algorithms
• Computational complexity, run-time efficiency
• OO design and implementation
• General features of programming languages eg type, abstract data types, the memory model, virtual machines, scope
• Libraries
• Specific language features: primitive and reference types, class and instance variables, overloading, string manipulation, input and output streams, serialisation, internet connectivity, error handling, generics, threads, memory management
• Advanced software techniques: concurrency, internet programming, GUI and event driven programming
• Android application development

This module focuses on the technology underpinning modern web, internet and client-server applications. This includes relational database systems, mainly from a development perspective, emphasising issues related to data modelling and database implementation in SQL and alternatives such as No SQL. It includes practical work related to programming client-server web applications with a focus on principles and up to date practices.

This module provides you with the opportunity to develop your own creative projects through a variety of means, by focussing on a particular approach, task, concept and platform. It will also take you through the entire production process, from user centred design, to proposal development and implementation. This will re-enforce abilities in project management, planning, critical awareness and design that you need to develop in order to create better software and creative projects.

You will be working individually and/or in groups to conceive, develop and produce finished practical software projects in creative computing, making the fullest possible use of your creative and programming skills. Each project is uniquely specified to allow you the fullest possible creative choice. Projects are mentored by the module leader to ensure that they are at the appropriate level, and to provide you 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 you to develop your skills in a chosen area of interest, this unit encourages you to make coherent judgments regarding the application of your computing skills as you develop and reinforce your technical knowledge through creative projects.

This module aims both to build on the skills and competences developed in the technical modules in the Creative Computing Programme at Level 4, as well as the critical and creative awareness fostered in the Introduction to Creative Practice module. Providing knowledge and skills to be used in exploratory fashion in the Creative Projects, this module will also allow you to develop your own creative practice in general. It will provide you with a detailed appreciation of human visual and audio perception, allowing you to explain the limitations of your own sensory gamut, and to be able to exploit similarities and differences between observers perceptual systems.

You will learn the fundamentals of signal processing and systems, including a programming language suited to the signal processing domain, and how they are applied in typical multimedia applications; andwill then be shown how to combine these signal processing techniques with an understanding of perception to produce multimedia information retrieval systems.

Topics include:

• Visual perception: cones, rods and the eye; optical illusions; colour vision; colour spaces and
• profiles; motion perception and Gestalt psychology.
• Animation: approaches to animation; perception in video and film; making animations; visualisation.
• Sound, hearing and music: sound and the ear; frequency, pitch and harmony; melody; rhythm;
• digital audio formats and compression.
• Signals: the nature of signals; special signals; audio signals and sampling; frequency, amplitudend phase; the Fourier representation.
• Systems: linearity and time-invariance; impulse responses and convolution; spectral analysis;
• convolution by spectrum multiplication.
• Audio and image filtering: EQ; filter design; subtractive synthesis; echo and reverberation; resampling; image representation; two-dimensional convolution and image effects.
• Multimedia information retrieval: retrieval, fingerprinting

Pervasive gaming and immersive theatre are two related fields that have enjoyed significant interest and growth over recent years.

This module provides an opportunity to create embodied experiences, ranging from pervasive games, to escape rooms and theatrical installations. As well as consolidating skills learnt in other modules, you will be taught a range of technical and soft skills necessary for producing large interdisciplinary projects.

This module provides you with advanced skills in designing interactive systems and an in-depth understanding of emerging practico-theoretical developments in interaction design.

The module is delivered as a series of workshops, lectures and seminars where you're introduced to a range of key technical skills for making interactive platforms, and develop an understanding of the role of prototyping though the embedding of technical work in the pursuit of a series of design briefs.

You'll be able to then use these technologies in your projects, and develop an understanding of the roles of software and hardware development.

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.

This course provides a broad introduction to machine learning and statistical pattern recognition. The very general topics will include supervised learning (generative/discriminative learning, parametric/non-parametric learning), unsupervised learning (clustering, dimensionality reduction), and learning theory (bias/variance tradeoffs).

The course will also discuss recent applications of machine learning (e.g., in computer vision, or other applications relevant to the research orientation of the department of computing).

Tutor: Dr Jamie Ward

Physical Computing is of increasing interest to artists, musicians, choreographers and other creative practitioners for the creation of novel artworks and also 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. In this module, you will learn how the environment, which is essentially continuous, can be monitored by analogue electrical and mechanical sensors. Computers, however, are digital machines programmed by software. One element which you will focus on, therefore, is the interface between the digital and the analogue.

This study will encompass basic physics, electronics, programming and software engineering. The practical objective of this module is the development of the skills you will need for designing and building interactive physical devices.