62-150 - Intro to Media Synthesis and Analysis

About

New creative industries are empowering new modes of collaborative consumption, creation and reuse of media. This often relies on successful collaborations between cross-trained artists, designers and technologists as well as critical reflection on distribution, participation, interaction and audience. This course is designed to prepare engineers and scientists to work in these contexts. By the end of the course, students will be able to think critically across several media theory paradigms; formulate the intent of their creative work; articulate relationships to art/design practice and theory; and respond insightfully to creative outcomes. The goal is not just to make creative media rich outcomes but also to think critically about their production.

Organized as a series of related modules, students will be progressively introduced to art and multimedia, critical media and the preparation of new media Experiences. Modules will introduce core concepts through foundational texts, in-class exercises, collaborative projects, and group critique. Students will ground concepts such as critical design, computational performance, embodiment, emergence, composition, participatory interfaces, and media editing through hands-on, applied exploration. Lab sessions will also support the development of new skills and practical development of digitally mediated content. Students will have the option to focus on either sound or visual synthesis skills during these labs.

Learn more at the course site: https://daraghbyrne.github.io/mediasynth2016/