Are there uses for Augmented and Virtual Reality design technologies beyond their primary role in creating entertainment products? Can these AR and VR tools be utilized to help create more livable and sustainable future? The primary audience for VR today is gaming, but there are a wide variety of industries that benefit from the application of VR and AR technologies in their professional processes. These include architecture, urban, interior, product and industrial design, and medical education. This Co-lab explores how VR and AR technologies can be applied to the design of more livable and sustainable cities. Each semester the students choose an abandoned or under-utilized, real-world site, and using AR and VR technologies - along with additional study in urban planning and design – create new and engaging environments. This course explores the history of immersive media; pioneers of VR; current applications of VR; the relationship between AR and VR, and extensions of VR that connect it to the real world. It also teaches principles of “placemaking” and developing communities using Smart City and APA (American Planning Association) guidelines as well as additional on-topic sources. Students will work in a variety of platforms depending on their own backgrounds and interests. Authoring platforms will be Unity and UnReal Engine and modeling platforms will include SketchUp, Blueprint, Playmaker, Rhino and 3D Studio Max.

Shima Seiki is a world-renowned manufacturer of computerized knitting equipment from Wakayama, Japan. This course introduces students to the basics of how to create digital programs for Shima Seiki WholeGarment(TM) and flatbed knitting machines. Students will be given a rapid introduction to the essentials of knitting and knit programming for a variety of applications. These intro sessions will replicate and demonstrate the basic templates and functions of the knitting machines. Required homework will allow students to practice and develop their knit programming skills. The second half of the course is devoted to group projects in collaboration with Ralph Lauren and focused on sustainability. Students will explore how digital knitting can create sustainably produced apparel products, using the latest in sustainable materials from Ralph Lauren. In proving how sustainable methods and materials can still fit the Ralph Lauren aesthetic, students learn how to design for a sustainable, digital future. The course provides the student with extended textile and technology skills. This course is in close connection to the Making Center's L2 Knit Lab: students are required to devote significant time outside of class to complete assignments in the Making Center.

The global pandemic of 2020 is a stark reminder of the essential human need to connect with each other, in person or remotely. But flat screens cannot replace the intimacy of touch and the feeling of presence when sharing a room. To challenge the current status quo, this studio course sets out to invent radically new interfaces for remote presence. We examine current state-of-the-art tools for collaboration, critically engage with a theory of communication channels, and learn how to design hard- and software interfaces that connect people over a distance. This project based-course will break the boundaries of current screen-based software, by linking physical objects and environments. Could we invent interfaces for remote presence that are calm, or immersive, or poetic, artistic, intimate, private or extremely public? Inspired by Gianni Colombo’s concept of elastic space, we will technologically stretch environments across distances, even through the course format. This is a collaborative class that is taught remotely between Parsons in New York and Atlas Institute at CU Boulder in Colorado. 15 students on each side will collaborate remotely and will build multiple working interfaces that communicate across time and space.

This course is a hands-on, practical workshop where students produce their own experiential, immersive stories. Exploring the intersection of narrative and design, students will collaboratively devise a series of immersive pieces, culminating in a public showcase. This work will examine the integration of games, performance, and production design, exploring their use in an immersive context. Students will have the opportunity to practice collaborative methods and gain real world experience, connecting with immersive artists working in the field. The goal of this course is to equip students with the skills to become creators in the immersive sphere, including producing, directing and creating experiential immersive pieces. While being a performer isn’t a prerequisite, students with an interest in storytelling or performance are strongly encouraged to join this class.

Sociologist Ruha Benjamin invokes Octavia Butler’s idea of “radio imagination” to describe a methodological touchstone for ethical engagement with technology tempered by an ability to listen to the sounds and stories of people. As the technologies of surveillance capitalism evolve, the goal of this course is to open a field of productive play for the radio imagination—a space to reimagine and rebuild our relationship with technology. This course will open our radio imaginations by first describing the field of play—exploring the history, politics, and physics of radio spectrum from transistors to 5G, and how transmission—radio and networks—has shaped, broken, and reshaped our stories, systems, cultures, disasters, and our vision of the future. We’ll get hands-on, learning how to build our own radios, to broadcast, receive, mirror, distribute, and play with transmission systems. We’ll experiment with FM broadcast and WiFi gear, build networks, and tell our stories over different frequencies on the airwaves. We’ll also explore the work of practitioners in the field who are working with communities to reshape their transmission and digital ecosystems by building demonstrable alternatives to extractive and predatory tech. We‚Äôll visit with community network builders, transmission artists, and advocates who are using radio imagination to push back against facial recognition, unconsentful data extraction, and technosocial control systems. We’ll share our ideas back with them to uplift a creative circuit that centers the sounds and stories of people.

Although computing power has risen drastically, we are now witness to the rise of an entirely new type of computation - quantum. The quantum computer can quickly complete calculations that take supercomputers much longer. IBM, Google, Alibaba, Microsoft etc. have debuted major quantum computing programs. IBM-Q (IBM’s project) is now accessible to the general public. The design industry will soon follow suit. Quantum skills are in demand, and this need is expected to accelerate. As artificial intelligence represented next generation skills 10 years ago and is one of the highest-paid careers today, quantum computing represents the future generation of hi-tech skill. The “Practical Quantum Computing” course will introduce quantum computing to students who want to experiment and strengthen their skills. No previous tech skills are required. The course will cover the fundamentals of quantum physics and quantum computing, including superposition, entanglement, interference, qubits, unitary operators, measurement and quantum circuit model. The students will create quantum circuits using Open Quantum Assembly Language (OpenQASM), execute the circuits using real IBM-Q quantum computers, and interpret the results. Students will learn to develop and program quantum computer software using an open-source framework- Qiskit. The course will investigate the application of quantum computing to art, design, education and business. Students will work individually and in groups on class projects. IBM will provide access to its quantum computer via the cloud. The class will visit the IBM quantum computer laboratories to gain first-hand information about the quantum computer. Again, no previous tech skills are required.

**Important: this course starts the week of January 13, 2020. All registered students should plan to be there on January 13.** This is an intensive that runs 1/13-1/17, 9AM – 6PM. Full attendance required. This COLLAB explores the vocabulary, technique, opportunities and challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration as an active creative process. The specific focus and application this semester will be the question of how we relate to the world around us - as it represents itself in sensory and tactile form - as well as the virtual world of the internet. Both in creation and performance, we will attempt to reflect, juxtapose and critically investigate the way the "real" and "virtual" world shape our perceptions. This course continues an inter-disciplinary collaboration that began between Parsons Design & Technology and Drama and now includes all other Parsons and New School Departments which will: -Apply performance principles to design based work. -Apply design principles to performance. -Create theatrical installations and performance art. The COLLAB will culminate in a public event.

Who defines data, and how accessible is it to an audience for which it is not intended? Publicly available information doesn’t always correspond with the priorities of a given research project or organization, but we can develop methods to fill in the gaps. In this course students will visualize both ground-sourced and publicly available data to support the mission of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy in the constantly fluctuating context of a Superfund Cleanup, NYC’s Green Infrastructure Plan, and a rezoning. We will interrogate the power dynamics implicit in data collection and information sharing, and consider methods to manipulate and draw inferences from incomplete data sources. As students develop an understanding of the global and local context of data fragmentation, they will parse through environmental data collected by the Gowanus Canal Conservancy and its partners. Coursework will introduce scholarship and precedents of data activism to inform our approaches to creating GIS maps, timelines and other infographics that GCC can use and share with its network of educators, students, and environmental stewards.

Five of New York City’s universities are partnering to defend and support journalism and independent news media --- one of the most critical elements of our democracy --- as they are increasingly under threat. This unique, first-of-its kind program and collaboration will bring together Cornell Tech, Columbia University, City University of New York, New York University, and The New School -- in partnership with the NYC Media Lab -- to investigate and understand the various threats to journalism and media, and attempt to address these challenges using design, engineering, and computational methods and techniques. The effort will gather graduate students with backgrounds and expertise in journalism, design, and engineering/technology from these institutions in a special course to kick off in Spring 2018. In addition to the course, a speaker series hosted at news organizations around the city will launch in October around the themes of the partnership, featuring influential figures from media and technology. Inaugural media participants that will host fall programming include The New York Times, CNN, BuzzFeed, and the HuffPost. See https://www.techmediademocracy.nyc for more information.

Working with Estee Lauder and the NYC Media Lab, this course will investigate the implications and possibilities of digital and virtual beauty. Using available animation, rendering, and XR technologies, groups will undertake projects that ask the question: "can the virtual be more perfect than the real?", And "do we want it to be?" Participants will learn about technical approaches as well as undertake experimental artistic investigations. Groups will speculate about practical applications to the real world (fashion, advertising, publishing, art). Teams will work closely with members of Estee Lauder's development team, as well as researchers from the NYC Media Lab, to build perspective and understanding on a variety of related philosophical and technical fronts. No prior experience is necessary, but be ready to dive in as this stuff requires dedication to master: the most important thing is a strong interest in the topic and a willingness to work hard!

Can play transform players? Can play be found inside the social forms of daily life? Can creative practice function as a form of research? Can the creative process itself become an object of play? Working with graduate students at Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design (KADK), we will explore these and other questions by creating objects of play that address the social forms of the art museum. More specifically, we’ll work with The National Museum of Denmark (NMD). The course will employ creative research strategies derived from social practice art, participatory design, the iterative design process, and other fields to expand notions of play. The course will begin with a series of three workshops (February 22, February 29, March 7), followed by a workshop in Copenhagen from Friday, March 13 through Friday, March 20. The course requires a $200 participation fee, and is by permission only. The class is co-organized by game studies scholar Jesper Juul (KADK), social practice artist Nancy Nowacek (Stevens Institute of Technology), and MFA Design & Technology faculty member John Sharp.

Positioning as an experimental UX/UI design studio, OnePlus is reimaging the future of the mobile interface with us. Throughout the semester, students will be immersed in the evolution of UX/UI design and exposed to real UX/UI design challenges that the mobile industry is facing in the speculative future. Students are responsible for researching these challenges in-depth and building radical prototypes with guidance and support from OnePlus's senior UX/UI team based in New York City. Selected teams will be offered an opportunity to work with OnePlus to include their projects as design experiments in the company's future phone release.

How can sound create space and hold form? What are the qualities of sound that help us feel its impact? How can sound drive mythology, story, and movement? In this studio class, students will work to name and carve out a creative practice that resides between music and artmaking. We will look at record labels and artist collectives that are thinking about the context in which their productions are experienced. The class will include performative lectures by invited artists, music producers, and DJs who are blurring the edges of sound, sculpture, installation, immersion, theater, and performance. The class will visit two experimental live shows over the course of the semester. The class will result in a final showcase at a performance venue in Brooklyn.