🔻 JUMP TO THE COURSE CALENDAR 🔻
| Instructor | Jeff Thompson (please call me Jeff) |
|---|---|
| Time/location | Tuesdays, 9am–1pm, Morton 203 (aka The Studio) |
| 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.
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
| DATE | WHAT WE'LL BE DOING |
|---|---|
| Jan 24 | Make the most annoying thing possible, install Visual Studio Code |
| 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 |
| 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! |
| 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 |
| DATE | WHAT WE'LL BE DOING |
|---|---|
| Apr 11 | Building games with p5.js |
| Apr 18 | Finish game and write final project pitch |
| 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 |