Intro to Computational Media

Esther Drill
email: esther.drill@verizon.net
Class time: Thursday, 12:30-3:00 pm
Office hours: Thursday, 3:30-4:30 pm and Friday, 4:00-6:00 pm
ICM main website: http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/ICM
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Upload assignments here by the night before class!

Schedule of classes

Week 1 - September 4
Intro to Intro to Computational Media
    Introductions
    Computational media--what is it?
    ITP's approach to programming
    Syllabus & Structure of class
    Quick intro to Director environment
    Basic loop - exitFrame
    Event-based programming, MouseDown, KeyUp, etc.
    If there is time... If statements
Handouts - Director basics, Jessica's Director how-to
Example - firstclass.dir [right-click (pc) to "save link" to your machine or click-and-hold (mac) to "download" link to disk]
Assignment - Interact with the mouse

Week 2 - September 11
Variables and Iffy statements
    What is a variable? Way for computer to remember things
    Different kinds of variables: global, local, number, string, etc.
    Dealing with variables: Initialization, etc.
    If...Then...Else statements
    The Art of Debugging
Handouts - week 2 handout
Example - secondclass.dir [right-click (pc) to "save link" to your machine or click-and-hold (mac) to "download" link to disk]
Assignment - Interact with a text field
Reading - Pattern on a Stone

Week 3 - September 23
Loop-de-loop
    Repeat loops - Repeat with and Increments
    Repeat while
    Lists and arrays
Handouts - week 3 handout
Example - 3 examples [right-click (pc) to "save link" to your machine or click-and-hold (mac) to "download" link to disk]
Assignment - Use a variable with a repeat loop

Week 4 - September 25
Organization
    PseudoCode
    Handlers, functions
    Passing Parameters, returning values
    Points and Rects

Handouts - week 4 handout
Example - 2 examples [right-click (pc) to "save link" to your machine or click-and-hold (mac) to "download" link to disk]
Assignment - Set up some handlers

Week 5 - October 2
Distribution & Optimization Plus a little Digital Video
    Other scripts in Director besides ExitFrame
    Manipulating Text
    Digital Video (and Sound)
    Distribution
    Optimization
Handouts - week 5 handout
Example - 3 small examples [right-click (pc) to "save link" to your machine or click-and-hold (mac) to "download" link to disk]
Assignments - Midterm project proposal with some pseudocode
Create something with small filesize but BIG impact
Have fun with sounds and movies
Reading - Understanding Comics

Week 6 - October 9 Midterm project proposals

Week 7 - October 16
Midterm presentations

Week 8 - October 23
Computational Media, Take Two
    Introducing Perl
    Perl programming environment
    Unix
    Benefits of Perl
    Compare and contrast Perl and Director
      Working with forms in web pages
      How to get and send data - GET/POST
Handouts - week 8 handout
Examples - 2 examples
Assignment - Interact with forms on a web page. You can do an analysis of the user based on what he inputs into form.

Week 9 - October 30
Perl & Lingo get together
    Communicating across the Network with Lingo
    NetLingo - getNetText, netId
    Talking to your own perl scripts
    Talking to others' cgi scripts
Handouts - week 9 handout
Examples - 3 examples
Assignment - Open the lines of communication with perl & lingo

Week 10 - November 6
XTRAs
    Xtra overview
    Serial Xtra
    Soujnd Xtra
    Other Xtras
Handouts - week 10 handout
Examples - 2 examples
Assignment - Find an Xtra that sounds interesting and report back
Assignment - Interact with an Xtra
Assignment - Final project proposals
Reading - Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Week 11 - November 13
Propose final projects

Week 12 - November 20
Final projects in progress

Week 13 - December 4
Final projects in progress

Week 14 - December 11
Show final projects!

Reading - books will be available at bookstore

Pattern on the Stone, W. Daniel Hillis
Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud
Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly
The Image of the City, Kevin Lynch

Class requirements and grading

35% assignments
25% final project
15% paper
25% class participation, attendance, punctuality