Creative Computing Studio

CS 4644

I. CATALOG DESCRIPTION

Capstone computer science course at the intersection of the arts and technology. Intensive immersion in different approaches to digital arts such as game design, interactive art, digital music, and immersive virtual reality. Students work in teams toconduct an end-to-end integrative design project. A grade of C or better required in CS prerequisite 3724.

Pre: 3724 and senior standing (3H, 3C).

Course Number: 4644

ADP TITLE: Creative Computing Studio

II. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Having successfully completed this course, the student will be able to:

  • Design a solution to a significant open-ended problem in a creative discipline that uses computation.
  • Develop strategies for innovation involving creative and technical disciplines working together.
  • Evaluate or assess a proposed solution to a problem in this domain.
  • Function effectively in teams, identifying the issues of problem discovery and definition, problem solving, values, team-work, ideation, presentation, and critique when working across disciplinary boundaries.
  • Coordinate meaningful representations across various modes and media, in narrative and non-narrative forms, and in relation to specific genres such as interactive games, animation, virtual environments, sculpture, and projected display.
  • Document and present (using written, oral and visual means) the design process and the results from a proposed solution to a problem in this area.

III. JUSTIFICATION

The course is a capstone to computer science’s “Creative Computing” track. The track and the course target the integration of computer science with applications drawn from the domain of “digital art”, broadly defined. This project-based capstone design experience will give computer science students the opportunity to learn to collaborate with practitioners from other disciplines with radically different goals, values and approaches. The technical work in this track emphasizes facility with various media, integrated design of software and content, and thinking outside the box. Thus, as new cultural forms emerge that utilize digital technologies, students from this course will have an appropriate foundation to participate, or with further work at the graduate level, lead.

Course is designated as a 4000 level course since it has a prerequisite of a 3000 level course, requires the experience and maturity of a senior, and is intended to culminate a course of undergraduate study in creative computing.

IV. PREREQUISITES AND COREQUISITES

Senior standing is required because this course provides a “capstone” design experience for students, presuming a level of maturity and a breadth of previous CS coursework that is typical of seniors. CS 3724, Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction, is a pre-requisite because students need a basic understanding of the issues involved in designing and evaluating human-computer interfaces, as is provided in this course.

V. TEXTS AND SPECIAL TEACHING AIDS

Wilson, S. INFORMATION ARTS: INTERSECTIONS OF ART, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003, 969 .

VI. SYLLABUS

Percent of Course

1. Orientation and methodology10

2. Process35

  • problem finding / problem solving in different disciplines
  • team work
  • ideation / presentation / critique
  • structural methods
  • art of review
  • the art of the demo
  • art as innovation process

3. Technical skill development20

  • representation across various modes and media
  • projection
  • interaction
  • multimedia integration

4. Problem finding in domain area 20

Such as:

  • art forms (algorithmic art, conceptual art, robotic art, public projection)
  • cross-cultural applications of technology
  • games (MMUDs, first-person, narrative enactment)
  • electronic music
  • hyper-fiction and hyper-poetry

5. Creative domain evaluative criteria and issues15

  • aesthetics (of different disciplines, cultures, times)
  • representation
  • meaning creation
  • media
  • irony
  • tension between commercial and fine arts
  • provocation
  • spectacle

____ 100

Percent of course100 100

VII. OLD (CURRENT) SYLLABUS

NA

VIII. CORE CURRICULUM GUIDELINES

NA