Class Time: Weekly, Wednesday @ 1:30 – 3:30 P.M.
Classroom: Computer Lab
Computational Media refers to using computers to do something with or through media of various kinds, and often implies interactivity. Programming is how we tell computers what to do (when you want them to do something other than run, say, Office, or browse the net).
And it’s at this point that most people stop. “I don’t wanna be a programmer!!!” Surprise! You already are. Programming is just creating a list of instructions to get something done – and we do that all the time. “I want to eat some bread, but I’m out, so I need to get some bread, so I have to get dressed, find my keys, remember where I parked the car, oops, I’m almost out of gas, have to get some gas, now I can head to the store where I’ll find bread. Then I’ll put some bread in a basket, go to the cashier, give away some money, remember where I parked the car, drive home, go to my room, remember that I left the bread in the car, go back to the car to get it, then back to my room. Eat bread.”
That’s programming.
Computers aren’t as smart as we are, so we need to spell things out in a very specific way. In this course, we’ll be focusing on using the object-oriented programming language native to Adobe’s Flash software, called ActionScript 3.0. We’ll be using the Flash authoring engine to create rapid prototypes, as well as learning practical production techniques and developing experience in team thinking and team-work.
The reason we’ll be using Flash is that it’s a common design and development tool, it is optimized in many ways for interactive media across multiple distribution platforms, the player is pretty much ubiquitous (except on iPhones), and ActionScript is a well-developed reasonably high-level programming language that will let you do things quickly and then apply what you’ve learned to other languages, such as Java. Additionally, we’ll be able to take advantage of its non-programming environment, including the timeline, the stage, the graphic interfaces, and the extensive developer community.
The goal is not to become programming wonks, although some of you may enjoy discovering your inner wonk. Most of what you need to know you’ll learn in the first 4-5 weeks of the class. The rest of the time, you’ll be applying what you know, and picking up the specifics you need to accomplish more and more sophisticated projects. The goal of Creative Computational Media is for you to become fluent enough in technical environments to enable you to participate creatively with teams developing current and next-gen interactive applications.
Adobe Flash CS3 – you need access to a copy of this software, and if it were me, I’d take advantage of the significant educational discounts you can get at places like www.journeyed.com or www.academicsuperstore.com and others and get myself a copy. You’ll be able to use the computer lab computers, but remember, there will be a lot of students vying for computers during the all-important crunch times.
Some sort of backup storage device. You’ll be making reasonably large files, and taking a lot of time to do so, and you really, really, REALLY don’t want the only copy of your project to be on a computer that crashed. Get a few USB jump drives (www.newegg.com has piles of them – just saw a 16 gig jump drive for about 70 bucks, but smaller ones are fine too) or other external backup drive. Just remember that 1) things always crash, and 2) you will have been ABOUT to make a backup just before they do. Be smart and be prepared. Back up often to different places.
There will be regular readings in the course text, as well as additional texts to be distributed or found on the Web. There will be a few small papers, and lots of in-class discussion on the readings. Come prepared to participate.
In the course of the course you’ll tackle a fair number of small projects, a good-sized midterm project, and a significant final project. At least a few projects will have team or group elements. It is possible that the final project may be associated with work that you need to do for another course. Details on the projects and requirements will be distributed in class.
On the successful completion of this course, students are expected to be able to: