Fundamentals of Computational Media Design

Readings

Required Books

Standage, Tom. The Victorian Internet. New York, NY: Walker and Company, 1998. ISBN: 9780802713421.

Carter, Rob, Ben Day, and Philip Meggs. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 4th ed. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. ISBN: 9780471783909.

Britt, David, ed. Modern Art: Impressionism to Post-Modernism. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2008. ISBN: 9780500238417.

Readings by Lecture

LEC #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction
2	Paper and making marks on it Typography, technology, and perception	Carter, chapter 7
3	Look at type, on hard- and softcopy In-class exercise, “making letters”	Carter, chapter 1 (please bring Carter to class today)
4	Video screening: Helvetica by Gary Hustwit
5	Discuss essay 1	Standage, chapters 1-5
6	Continued discussion of type	Carter, chapters 2-4 (please feel free to read further)
7	Continued discussion of essay 1
8	Temporal and sequential media
9	Discuss exercise 1	Standage, chapter 6 through epilogue
10	Guest lecturer: Walter Bender Color: physics, psychophysics, and aesthetics	Britt, chapter 1 Jacobson, N., and W. Bender. “Color as a Determined Communication.” Explore Apple Computer’s color pages
11	How electronic displays work and why we care
12	Guest lecturer: Walter Bender Color: physics, psychophysics, and aesthetics (cont.) Discuss OLPC XO (One Laptop Per Child) hardware and the Sugar environment
13	Discuss OLPC XO machine design
14	Hand out XOs Discuss first Python/Pygame example programs
15	Modern art	Britt, chapters 2-3
16	Discuss exercise 2
17	More modern art	Britt, chapters 4-5 (feel free to read further if you wish)
18	Discuss sound on the XO	Manuals for CsoundXO and CsoundXO Python (see exercise 3)
19	Discuss essay 2
20	Discuss essay 2 (cont.)
21	Discuss exercise 3
22	Discuss exercise 4 / essay 3
23	Discuss essay 3 (cont.)
24	“Final project clinic” In-class exercise: GTK Csound (aka exercise 5)
25	To be announced
26	Presentation of student work — invite your friends!