PSAM
5600

Currents

Parsons School of Design: School of Art, Media, and Tech

Non-Liberal Arts
Undergraduate Course
Graduate Course
Degree Students
Currents: Hopepunk & RunwayML
Fall 2025
Taught By: Sven Travis
Section: A

CRN: 4333

Credits: 3

Are you tired of the grim and the dark? Let’s change things up! Hopepunk emphasizes optimism, kindness, and resilience in the face of adversity. This course will take advantage of the leading-edge machine learning tool RunwayML to produce works of radical optimism, resistance through kindness, and the weaponization of kindness. By the end of this course the world will be a better place! RunwayML has been embraced by major design agencies and film studios to produce imagery, special effects, and animation for a wide range of projects. The first half of this course will focus on weekly assignments and experimenting with different elements of Runway. We will read examples of hopepunk by authors such as N.K. Jemisin, Becky Chambers, Ryka Aoki, and Emily St. John Mandel. Students will explore and experiment with RunwayML, applying it to their own work and to hopepunk-related assignments. During the second half of the semester students will undertake longer projects of their choosing. Students will be provided with unlimited accounts for RunwayML. This course is open to all New School students, with priority to Parsons Design and Technology students. No prior experience is needed, though enthusiasm for AI and making the world a better place is helpful.

Open to: All University graduate students, and undergraduate juniors and seniors. Some seats have been reserved for MFA and BFA Design & Technology students.
Prerequisites: No Prerequisites
Co-Requisites: No Co-requisites

College: Parsons School of Design (PS)

Department: School of Art, Media, and Tech (AMT)

Campus: New York City (GV)

Course Format: Studio (S)

Modality: In-Person

Max Enrollment: 15

Repeat Limit: 8

Add/Drop Deadline: September 9, 2025 (Tuesday)

Online Withdrawal Deadline: November 17, 2025 (Monday)

Seats Available: No

Status: Waitlist*

* Status information is updated every few minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 8:56pm EDT 4/2/2025

Meeting Info:
Days: Wednesday
Times: 7:00pm - 9:40pm
Building: TBD
Room: TBD
Date Range: 8/27/2025 - 12/15/2025