CREATIVE PROGRAMMING 2

🔻 JUMP TO THE COURSE CALENDAR 🔻

Instructor	Jeff Thompson (please call me Jeff)
Time/location	Tuesdays, 9am–1pm, Morton 203 (aka `The Studio`)
Email	jeff.thompson@stevens.edu
Student hours	Mon/Tues 2–3pm, Morton 208

In this intermediate course, you'll apply the fundamental technical and creative ideas you learned in Creative Programming 1 towards projects that push your skills and result in work you're really excited about! We'll also make projects that take a variety of forms, including printed zines, video, and live performance. We'll end the semester with a long-form, open-ended final project of your choosing.

Our goals for this semester are for you to...

Build confidence in the coding fundamentals you've already learned and apply them to new situations
Use additional programming concepts and languages (and some non-coding tools too)
Explore a range of creative contexts for programming, including fine art, commercial projects, and performance
Start to identify what kind of work is most interesting to you
Make larger and more complex projects that require research, prototyping, and polishing...
...and that are exciting for you and that you're proud to include in your portfolio
Connect what you make to larger trends and issues in computing

Of course, this only scratches the surface of what's possible with code! I encourage you to connect what we're doing in this class with your other interests (music, creative writing, dance, data vis, AI, digital fabrication, etc) and push assignments as far as you can.

Other class materials can be found in the syllabus.

REQUIRED MATERIALS

Programming is awesome because (once you have a computer) nearly everything is free, but not all programming projects end on your computer screen. We will be making a variety of projects this semester, some of which will require you to buy materials and/or pay for printing in the VA&T Fab Lab.

This semester, you will need...

Laptop and charger (bring every week!)
Sketchbook/notebook and something to write/draw with (also bring every week!)
Working webcam on your computer and/or and external camera
DuckBills on your card for printing in the Fab Lab
Various supplies, depending on the focus of your projects

COURSE CALENDAR

MOST ANNOYING THING EVER

DATE	WHAT WE'LL BE DOING
Jan 24	Make the most annoying thing possible, install Visual Studio Code

GENERATIVE ZINES

DATE	WHAT WE'LL BE DOING
Jan 31	Writing text with ChatGTP, working with `p5.js` locally
Feb 7	Javascript for print, fonts and type, printing and binding
Feb 14	Making PDFs, finish generative zines

LIVE VISUALS

DATE	WHAT WE'LL BE DOING
Feb 21	Camera and controller input, cueing scenes
Feb 28	Projector setup, mini-rehearsals
Mar 7	Perform your projects!
Mar 14	Spring break, no class!

TIKTOK VIDEO

DATE	WHAT WE'LL BE DOING
Mar 28	Raster images, accessing pixel values, image filters
Apr 4	Exporting frames, adding UI overlays, command line basics, using `ffmpeg`

YOU VOTE, WE LEARN!

DATE	WHAT WE'LL BE DOING
Apr 11	Building games with `p5.js`
Apr 18	Finish game and write final project pitch

OPEN-ENDED FINAL PROJECT

DATE	WHAT WE'LL BE DOING
Apr 25	Final project 1 (and HTML/CSS)
May 2	Final project 2 (and more HTML/CSS)
May 11, 9–11am	Final critique

jeffThompson/CreativeProgramming2