This course consists of a series of three workshops, which explore contemporary positions in Communication Design, taught by specialists / working professionals from industry. Each workshop is 5 weeks long and examines a specific topic in detail. Topics include (but are not limited to) type in space; digital typography and prototyping; and design systems. Further details of the individual workshops will be posted soon. Students are expected to engage in all three workshops and must be present for the duration of the semester.

How would we use technology to imagine new ways of preserving potatoes? Or, if the spicy chili pepper goes extinct, how would technology remind us of the textures and tastes of a Sichuanese hotpot kitchen? Could you even imagine tacos in a world without corn? Emigrant Food Futures, a unifying evolution of gastronomy, aims to bring together cultural perspectives of how we can prototype new ideas behind the way we produce, package, transport, plate, cook, consume and dispose of food. In this course, students will understand the context and realities of immigrants and their food in the United States. Students will learn from topics like food extinction, climate change, agriculture, farmers knowledge and the current socio-political environment. Students will put into practice expressive points of view about the past, present and future of society in relation to food. In this course, students will be given short readings, podcasts, articles, documentaries and recipes as weekly assignments. There will be discussions, guest lectures, online cooking workshops and constant critique to inspire student concepts while improving their technical skills and design practice. Students will be expected to work on prototyping, development and deployment of their concepts.

The Physicality of Machine Learning focuses on utilizing the systematic study of algorithms and turning them into a functioning model that can be implemented and actualized in the “real” – physical world. This course will be focusing on introducing students to different types of machine learning models, learning various algorithms and models that can uncover complex patterns, utilizing ready-made software, and learning how to implement them into a physical production method. Students will work in a variety of media depending on their own backgrounds and interests. In this course, students will learn how to interact with text, images, and 3D-based machine learning models and subsequently bring these created work into the physical world.

This course investigates the expanding definition of portraiture in the age of virtual communication. No longer bound to a painting on the wall, modern portraits are ever more omnipresent: from selfies and filters to video conferencing and avatars, we hang up new representations of ourselves on countless digital walls. This course will guide students to challenge these new symbols of identity through creating their own generative portraits. We will explore the boundaries of computational imagery through critical questions: How do we artificially mirror our faces, actions, emotions, or thoughts in a digital portrait? How do the creators of these portraits own and incentivize our participation? How do deepfakes and other advances in fake image technology affect how we see others and ourselves? Using a combination of artificial intelligence, computer vision, and data processing, students will create static and moving portraits in weekly projects. They will use their own data as the starting canvas and progress to interactive portraits that respond to the audience, culminating in a class portrait gallery as a final project. The course will use Python, OpenCV and other Python-based machine learning libraries. Familiarity with Python and basic programming concepts is required.

"In a world where access to speed is access to transcendence, point of view is particularly a narrative gesture. The point of view of landscape is no longer still, is instead a matter of practice and transformation." — Susan Stewart A Portable Nature is a collaborative course between students from Parsons School of Design and Bennington College. It begins with the notion that nature is a constantly evolving and negotiated experience between humans and their environments. What we consider to be ‘natural’ is cultural, simultaneously managed and imagined, idealistic and antagonistic in turns. A ‘portable nature’ expands upon this idea to explore how a multitude of natures can be transported and transformed, or communicated to be experienced and cared for by someone from a different place. In this course, we will study these mutable aspects of nature. The pairing of Bennington and New York City presents two distinct natures -- neither more natural than the other. Through observation and small design interventions, students will explore the ‘nature’ of their respective locations and experiment with how this can become ‘portable’. Through narrative gestures, students will try to understand and encounter the malleability of space, time, and place.

The industrial revolution with its focus on efficiency and quantity took the craft workers out of the equation. While much of the world's economy had relied on artisans before this, 'making' has returned to individuals and communities now with an extension of technology. xFab introduces fundamentals of making through electronics and fabrication for students to produce a wide range of creative work. The lectures will focus on materials and tools as used across cultures, geographies and timelines. We will critically analyze the making histories within which many groups are marginalized, missing representations of grassroots makers in current narratives and infusion of for-profit ethos in open movements. The course will introduce current tools and techniques charted through multiple historical and social perspectives. The class adopts a hands-on approach to modern fabrication methods, electronic circuit modeling and design. The students will use the lecture materials as background paired with foundational knowledge of machines that they will access at the Making Center. At the end of the class, the students will develop fluency in readily incorporating a variety of materials and fabrication techniques into their practice, and create projects under various socially and culturally relevant themes.

This course teaches visualization of ideas through 3D modeling, computer animation, and digital sound production by using the digital realm as an autonomous tool while exploring digital aesthetics. It examines viewport aesthetics, hyper-unrealism, deliberate aliasing, 8-bit and pixel art, data-moshing, glitch art, the uncanny valley, vaporwave, algorithmic architecture, machinima and more. The course's emphasis will be on Cinema 4D, exploring animation without keyframes, using build-in simulation and dynamics systems, MoGraph, MoCap, Thinking Particles, Xpresso node system, and Python. As an extension of the procedural production process, Reason will be used to create autonomous music and soundscapes through Euclidian patterns and an algorithmic drummer sequencer. The final project, a short digital animated film, will be considered for screening at the Supernova Digital Animation Festival in Denver, September 2021 or 2022.

This course teaches visualization of ideas through 3D modeling, computer animation, and digital sound production by using the digital realm as an autonomous tool while exploring digital aesthetics. It examines viewport aesthetics, hyper-unrealism, deliberate aliasing, 8-bit and pixel art, data-moshing, glitch art, the uncanny valley, vaporwave, algorithmic architecture, machinima and more. The course's emphasis will be on Cinema 4D, exploring animation without keyframes, using build-in simulation and dynamics systems, MoGraph, MoCap, Thinking Particles, Xpresso node system, and Python. As an extension of the procedural production process, Reason will be used to create autonomous music and soundscapes through Euclidian patterns and an algorithmic drummer sequencer. The final project, a short digital animated film, will be considered for screening at the Supernova Digital Animation Festival in Denver, September 2021 or 2022.

This course investigates the potential of coding as a form of self-expression. The dominant forms of computationally-driven digital media operate by defining our identities for us and mining our selves as data. This course seeks to evaluate and experiment with the potential of code and the interface as media for self-definition and artistic practice. Artists and writers throughout history have explored the means by which their art forms construct, deconstruct, subvert and disseminate individual and group identities. Through readings, discussions, writing and project-building we will explore how code, the interface and the Internet create engines, visions and networks of the self and selves. Readings will engage a variety of creative and critical perspectives on representations of the self and identity from contemporary poetry, fiction, history, critical theory, and visual art. We will study how writers and visual artists harness their chosen forms to represent and imagine individual, lived and collective experience. We will read critical texts that situate the "I" within computational media, and examine how data and computation drive our culture, and by extension our sense of self. The central question of this class we be: what does it mean to have a voice as a writer of code? How can a program or application express and include new perspectives and point-of-views through its programming, data architecture and visual design? All acts of coding reflect the assumptions, biases, experience and ideologies of the coder on some level, often leading to outcomes that are termed unconscious, unintended or unexpected. This class will seek to bring these biases and ideologies to the direct and conscious level, and collectively develop approaches for building more inclusive and polyvocal forms of code, data, visual and interactive experience. The basics of code will be introduced through Processing/P5js and we will embark on projects that speculate on, represent, express and imagine the possibilities of coding new voices and perspectives.

Are you a designer? Then you have to know how to make great videos! From Google to IDEO, video documentation and evaluation became the standard practice throughout their design projects. It is extremely crucial for the creative persons to utilize videos and filmmaking in their creative process from the ideation, iteration, experimentation to presentation. Students will learn how to use videos as a TOOL to help elevate a simple idea into a successful project. They will experiment with various types of creative videos such as video sketches, video prototype, video documentation to a pitching video. It will be scrappy, fast pace with hacks and short-cuts that get the students into making great videos. The class will cover the essentials and fundamentals of filmmaking, then introduce you to the more advanced cinematic techniques and storytelling. All levels are welcome, 99% making, in class demos and professional guest lectures.

Through a close historical analysis of branding systems, set design, fashion, language and character construction, students will investigate the manner in which Black and African-American identities appear in popular film, television and music. We will compare the visual complexities surrounding cultural representations in shows such as: The Jeffersons, A Different World, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Insecure and Lovecraft Country, while also identifying their significance in mainstream culture. We will unpack the ways popular media can guide our visual and material choices and provide a basis for our conceptual thinking and social critique in relation to people, places and objects. In this hands-on-studio course, students will investigate the history of imagery, typography, color and pattern displayed in Black visual culture. Students will be encouraged to develop work across media and explore new tools, methods, and techniques in the creation of digital and print-based responses. As we proceed throughout the semester, we will explore the following questions: What are the photographic and illustrative depictions of Blackness? What is African American vernacular? What are the differences in sitcoms versus serious dramas? How can sound be used to reinforce aspects of representation? What is our understanding of Black identities?

This course consists of a series of three workshops, which explore contemporary positions in Communication Design, taught by specialists / working professionals from industry. Each workshop is 5 weeks long and examines a specific topic in detail. Topics include (but are not limited to) type in space; digital typography and prototyping; and design systems. Further details of the individual workshops will be posted soon. Students are expected to engage in all three workshops and must be present for the duration of the semester..

This class will look at emergent systems both in research and applications, covering cellular automata, artificial life, and simulations. We will examine how emergent behaviour relates to games and machine learning as well as the natural world. Using examples like pandemics in World of Warcraft, Conway's Game of Life, and Ian Cheng's live simulations, we will model our own agents and examine their behavior in game engines and other platforms.

Can artists and designers use technology to simulate life? Through software, can we capture and re-create the unpredictable and emergent properties of the living world — it’s structures, dynamics, colors, patterns, and textures? Algorithms describe the mathematical principles governing our physical world, while also allowing us to imagine and build parallel digital worlds. This class centers around the idea of using computational tools to digitally “sketch” and animate lifeforms and ecosystems. Students will combine traditional methods such as photography and found footage with novel techniques such as photogrammetry and machine learning to generate a unique personal archive of natural textures, shapes, and patterns. Using AfterEffects, students will learn how to animate their personal archive with organic motion graphics, focusing on effects such as noise, turbulence, and particle systems. Through coding tutorials students will study the “algorithmic beauty” of various natural phenomena (plant growth, shell structures, animal behaviors, etc.) and learn basic programming strategies behind computer simulations of natural systems. Programming topics covered will include vector-based movement, genetic algorithms, and cellular automata. Finally, through a series of guest lectures, students will become familiar with diverse practitioners (designers, artists, creative technologists, etc.) exploring the forefront of artificial life, bio-simulation, as well as the aesthetics and poetics of algorithmic media. This is a hands on technical course that will introduce a broad range of digital tools, including AfterEffects, Runway ML, Houdini and Processing/p5.js. A general familiarity with 2D animation or code is encouraged, but not required. No specific software prerequisite is required.

This course consists of a series of three workshops, which explore contemporary positions in Communication Design, taught by specialists / working professionals from industry. Each workshop is 5 weeks long and examines a specific topic in detail. Topics include (but are not limited to) type in space; digital typography and prototyping; and design systems. Further details of the individual workshops will be posted soon. Students are expected to engage in all three workshops and must be present for the duration of the semester..