Computation and Media (EMAR 160) (2023 - 2024)
An undergraduate course exploring the foundations of computational creativity through code (p5.js, arduino), taught through a somatic and affective framework attending to acts of sounding and acts of feeling (aurality, hapticity, and affectuality). 1. Student submissions for “Sentimental Objects”, a project which asked
students to remember a sentimental object (a page from a favorite
childhood book, a teddy bear, a patterned blanket and lumpy pillow, a
piece of grandma’s peach pie, a charm bracelet), render a simplified
illustration of their sentimental object using functions for shapes,
lines, colors, and custom functions, and describe the object using
sensory language.
2. Student submissions for “Movement Maps”, a project in which students
were asked to observe and reflect on some form of movement (their own or
another’s) and create a sketch in-motion inspired by thier movement
studies and elements of speed, direction, proximity, lines/shapes, and
others. After observation and reflection, students represented their
movement studies in a sketch that used 2D primitives and loops. The
pedagogical intention was to, early on, situate their own bodies as
dynamic, active mediums for conceptual inspiration in technical
learning.
3. Student submissions for “A Room of One’s Own”, a project in which
students, using WEBGL, were asked to create a room following themes of
history-through-memory or futures-through-dreams. Technical lecture inlcuded spatial acuity games engaging touch and trust, including “Falling Backwards” to learn about the z-axis, and “Trust Walking” to reflect on thematic orientations and trajectories.
4a. Segments of scaffolded touch-based, sensing/moving practices
embedded into the learning. “Trust Walking” was paired with a lesson on
WEBGL to intentionally explore spatial intent vs. acuity while and how
sensation shapes affect within space by subverting dominant sense
perceptions (i.e. vision).
4b. “Body Copies” was verbal notation
movement practice with a lesson on for loops in which students were
partnered as “leader” and “follower”. The partner who “led” created a
static, then dynamic pattern with thier bodies. The partner who
“followed” was asked to recreate the pattern through verbal direction,
rather than using vision to replicate. The intention was to cultivate
ease in articulating the parts-of-the-whole by slowing down, adjusting
our language and noticing what happens interstitially among the parts
(of our bodies, of our code).