Description and objectives

This course investigates how contemporary technologies can inspire novel forms of art-making. Media artists and designers have been utilizing computers for innovative creative expression since the late 1960s; the recent proliferation of low-cost consumer grade devices with advanced sensing, display, and computing capabilities, such as smart phones, AR and VR headsets, IoT-enabled devices, drones, 3D printers, and microcontroller kits, makes possible a new era of creative exploration. The field of “creative coding” emphasizes the goal of expression, rather than function (although these goals are often intertwined), and creative coders combine computational skill with creative acumen. Students will learn current techniques for creating interactive multimedia software, and by the end of the course students will have a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities that emerge when using new technologies for expressive purposes.

The course will capitalize on the diverse backgrounds of the students in the class (design + computer science) and student projects will be collaboratively developed in small teams. Each of the three required projects provides an introduction to creative coding programming paradigms for the web, for audio composition, and for virtual reality platforms. Specifically, we will use use Javascript, Max, and the Unity3D game development environment. To contextualize these projects, we will read widely from both seminal texts in multimedia and recent proceedings from computer science and media arts conferences.

Schedule

Module 1: Introduction to VR and Unity3D
 

Week 1

Course overview & logistics: syllabus; schedule.
Content introduction: intro to course; intro to EVL and VR
Team formation: questionnaire.
CAVE2 demonstrations by Arthur Nishimoto.

Readings + Videos:

Jeffrey Shaw, The Legible City, 1988-91.
Maurice Benayoun, World Skin: A Photo Safari in the Land of War, 1997; Presentation at Tools for Propoganda, 2000.
Skip Rizzo, Medical Virtual Reality, 2014; Virtual Reality Applications to Address the Wounds of War, 2013.
Hunter Hoffman, Virtual Reality Pain Reduction, 2015; SnowWorld, 2003.
Marcos Novak, Liquid Architectures in Cyberspace, 1991.
Char Davies, Osmose, 1995.

Week 2

Intro to 3D modeling (models, materials, textures, editing, export) with Kamil and Arthur.

Assignment (due 1/25 at 11:59pm):

1. Meet with your teams to discuss project ideas.
2. As a team, post your three or four best ideas (one idea per team member) on Piazza. For each idea:
   a) describe the idea in a paragraph or two;
   b) provide a simple sketch of the idea (using your favorite design software or even just a photo of a drawing).
3. Complete the Blender “still life” assignment: Blender Assignment, Blender scene file.

Readings + Videos:

Blender Essential Training with George Maestri on Lynda.com

Week 3

Intro to Unity (unity overview, editor, primitives, materials, textures, terrain, prefabs)
Scripting

Intro to Unity

Readings + Videos:

Unity 5: 3D Essential Training by Adam Crespi/ Ch. 1, 2, 4
Unity Manual
Unity tutorials
Assignment (due 2/1 at 11:59pm):

Unity Assignment

Week 4

Intro to Scripting (variables, functions, triggers, collision detection, sounds, colors)

Intro to Scripting

Readings + Videos:

Unity 5: 3D Essential Training by Adam Crespi/ Ch. 3, 7
Unity Scripting / Ch. 1-9

Assignment :

Teams project / Final concept / Assets / Unity scene

Week 5

Unity Interaction, Materails, Colors

CAVE2 Demos, Examples, Template with Arthur Nishimoto

Intro to Interaction

Readings + Videos:

Unity Scripting / Ch. 11-20
Download Unity template for CAVE2 Environment
CAVE2 Unity tutorial documentation

Assignment :

Project 1 / CAVE2 Unity scene

Week 6

Testing in CAVE2

CAVE2 Unity Tutorial

Interaction & Components

Assignment :

Project 1

Week 7

Testing in CAVE2 & Review Project 1

Assignment :

Project 1 Submission Guidelines

Examples from Leonardo

 

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Module 2: Introduction to Data Visualization and Javascript
 

Week 8

Intro to D3.js

Code examples and references from class

https://d3js.org
https://github.com/d3/d3/wiki
http://bl.ocks.org/
http://jsbin.com/sulitudoja/edit
MDN SVG reference
MDN CSS reference

Week 9

Manipulating data in D3

Example datasets

https://www.reddit.com/r/datasets/
https://data.cityofchicago.org
https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets.html
http://wordnet.princeton.edu
http://norvig.com/mayzner.html

Code examples from class

Hover to show name: http://jsbin.com/vewamu/edit
Click buttons to move circle: http://jsbin.com/xekiri/edit
Constantly moving circle: http://jsbin.com/beguxa/edit
Easing function examples: http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/248bac3b8e354a9103c4
Complete list of HTML DOM events: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events

Assignment:

A short write-up that includes the following information:

- The data that you plan to use;
- Your main concept that describes the goals for your data visualization project;
- What it will look like;
- How it will use interaction and animation;
- How you will divide you efforts to design and code up the project.

Week 10

Interaction and Animation in D3

Data visualization inspiration
http://www.visualcomplexity.com
http://flowingdata.com
http://datastori.es
http://fellinlovewithdata.com
http://www.dataisnature.com
http://manovich.net
http://infosthetics.com
http://blog.visual.ly
http://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful
http://vintagevisualizations.com
http://benfry.com/projects
http://fathom.info
http://offenhuber.net/comment-flow

Spring Break

Week 12

Review Project 2

 

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Module 3: Intro to Audio Programming and Max, Anıl Çamcı
 

Week 13

Intro to Max
Signal processing basics

Class Max Composition

Assignment :

Audio Project 1

Week 14

Audio composition in Max

Synthesis Max Patch

Week 15

Audio composition in Max

Spatialization, Delay and Stochastics patches

Assignment

Project 3

Week 16

Review Project 3 (Final Presentations are on April 26)

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Students

Design

Carolina Alatriste    Danielle Brinkman    Kyle Dalton    Jacqueline Guataquira    Heesung Kim    Joseph Kim    Kailei Malauskas    Alexander Marck    Hyein Park    Alex Sommerville    Christel Tiu    Elizabeth Villarreal    Ronnie Voss    Beiruo He   

Computer Science

Vinit Kumar    Francisco Gonzalez    Morgan Osborn    Randy Tejeda    Tejus Bharadwaj    Karen Bykowski    Gautam Krishnan    Varshini Sampath    Manu Thomas    Malvika Kumar   

Required materials & software

— Laptop computer

— External hard drive to save your back up files. Students are required to store and backup their files appropriately and an additional data storage is strongly advised for back-up.

— Piazza account: piazza.com/uic/spring2016/cs491des400.

— Cycling '74 Max (don't download until we tell you, unless you want to go ahead and buy it on your own.).

— D3.js (Download and install before Week 8).

Lab fee

There is a $125.00 required laboratory fee for this course, which is used for the course supporting materials, and supplies (copies, media storage, supplies for presentation etc.)

Evaluation and requirements

Your final grade will be based on your performance on the group project, evaluations of team member performance (peer evaluation), attendance and participation.

On-time class attendance is mandatory. It is not possible to make up or compensate for missed class sessions. More than two unexcused absences will result in a reduction of the final grade by one letter grade; with every additional unexcused absence, the final grade will drop by an additional grade. Some of the discussions and exercises are done and graded in-class so you must attend class to receive these points.

For best in-class participation, you should complete required readings and tasks before class (will be specified in the study guide in each module). Be prepared for a lot of hard work: be prepared to code, often, and much outside of the class. This course will be difficult but also very much in-depth and useful to prepare your creative portfolio.

There is a lot of self-study required as our lecture time limited as well as our lab time, and the goal is to maximize that time. Each session will have required pre-reading and post-reading. The instructor reserves the right to add online tutorials, lectures and video sessions to class lectures and homework.

You must submit all assignments via UIC Box unless otherwise instructed on the deadline specified for each assignment. Assignments must be professionally prepared with recommended computer applications. Unless otherwise stated, assignments must be submitted electronically to the UIC Box.

Projects more than 5 days late will not be accepted. Be sure to submit the work well ahead of due time. Excuses like website or computer error will not be accepted after the due date.

‘Incompletes’ will only be granted according to University policy.

A = Consistent growth as well as excellent work that consistently goes above and beyond what is required.
B = Above average growth as well as above average work.
C = Average growth as well as average work.
D = Dissatisfactory growth and incomplete work.
E = Dissatisfactory growth, incomplete work, and poor attendance.

The numeric breakdown for the final grade follows:

20% Project 1
20% Project 2
20% Project 3
20% Shorter assignments
20% Attendance and participation

This course uses the University’s Blackboard LMS (Learning Management System). This system is available at http://blackboard.uic.edu/. The LMS is a required and integral part of the course. Grading information and progress will be made available via Blackboard and students are expected to regularly check it.

Any individuals with learning disabilities or special needs must make the instructor aware of them prior to the due date of the first major assignment. Those who require accommodations for access and participation in this course must be registered with the Disability Resource Center. Please contact DRC at 312/413-2183 (voice) or 312/413-0123 (TTY). http://www.uic.edu/ depts /oaa/disability_resources /contact.html

If you wish to observe your religious holiday, which is in the conflict with mandatory academic attendance, you should notify the instructor by the tenth day of the semester of the date on which you are requesting an absence.

You are responsible for understanding what constitutes academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty is an extremely serious offense. All cases of academic dishonesty will be dealt with in accordance with the policies of the University as published in the Undergraduate Catalogue and the University of Illinois at Chicago policy on Academic Honesty at: http://www.uic.edu.ucat/cat1315archive/index.shtml

Recommend readings

ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH), 2015 and earlier. (Available from ACM through UIC digital library)
Leonardo, 2015 and earlier (Available from MIT Press through UIC digital library)
Proceedings of the ACM conference User Interface Software and Technology, 2015 and earlier (Available from ACM through UIC digital library)
Proceedings of CHI, the ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2015 and earlier (Available from ACM through UIC digital library)
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Electronic Art, 2015 and earlier (Available online)
Selected readings from The New Media Reader, edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort, MIT Press 2003.
Peripheral Vision: Bell Labs, the S-C 4020, and the Origins of Computer Art, Zabet Patterson, MIT press, 2015.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas Hofstadter, Basic Books, 1991.
Unity Game Development Essentials Kindle Edition by Will Goldstone.
Unity 3D Game Development by Example Beginner’s Guide by Ryan Henson Creighton
Learning C# Programming with Unity 3D by Alex Okita.
Beginning Visual C# Express: A Computer Programming Tutorial by Philip Conrod and Lou Tylee.

Resources

Unity3D: https://unity3d.com/get-unity
Unity website: http://unity3d.com
Unity Asset Store: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com
Unity Scripting Reference: http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference
Unity Tutorials: http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials
MaxMSP: https://cycling74.com
D3.js: http://d3js.org
Three.js: http://threejs.org
Lynda.com Training Tutorials@UIC: http://accc.uic.edu/service/training
Box@UIC, http://accc.uic.edu/service/box
Blackboard, http://blackboard.uic.edu

Policies

No cell phone usage in the lab. You are responsible to turn your cell phone off prior to the class. No non-class materials loaded into the computers. No food or drink in the computer labs. No surfing the Internet during lectures. Reconfiguring the system on Cyber-Commons / CAVE2 unusable for other courses and may result in dismissal from the course.

Disclaimer

Projects created in this course may be used by the Colleges for purposes of promotion for students, the School or the University in general. The School may also use these materials for instructional purposes in future courses.