COMP 230 Pollinator Drones, Wish Factories, and Robotic Dogs: ‘What-if’ Scenarios as Drivers of Creative Production and Imagination
As humankind stares down a number of unprecedented global challenges, the need for creative, radical thinking is imperative. In this interdisciplinary studio, students will develop a series of detailed and speculative projects inspired by boundary-pushing artistic and technological practices. The course will examine precedents from contemporary art, media, engineering, performance, design, and technology that offer responses to a wide range of “what-if” scenarios. The primary goal of the class will be to guide students as they develop a methodology for making creative and responsive work—one that relies on provocation and imagination as driving forces. Class projects will be designed to develop critical thinking and research skills, art-making and visual communication capabilities, and will call for speculative, even fantastical, responses to complex sites and situations. Technological and data-driven approaches, including data analysis, modeling, and scenario planning, will be integrated into the class assignments, encouraging cross-disciplinary collaborations between computer science and media arts students. Instructional assignments will explore a range of materials, scales, and research methods, and will encourage students to develop their abilities to hone and express innovative responses to complex societal and relational questions. The final series of class projects will address the uncertainty of climate change as a contextual framework, and final proposals may range from site-specific art installations to new applications for robotics; from creating futuristic soundscapes to designing experiences in VR. Site visits and guest lecturers will extend students’ connections with selected Los Angeles sites and their contexts, the understanding of a broad set of perspectives and values, and real-world examples of collaborative, cross-disciplinary projects. Not open to First Year Students. Permission of instructor required.
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ARTS 230