Shared Minds

Catalog description

"What capabilities does computational media have for depicting and conveying the experience of our minds? In this course we will start out using 3D graphics to depict the conventional physical reality that appears before us. Then we will turn inward to reflect the multidimensional reality of our minds, using artificial neural networks. Finally we return to embodied interfaces connected with cloud networking and databases to share with other people. The class will operate at a conceptual level, inviting students’ empirical psychological and philosophical investigations of the nature of their experience and how to convey it with art and story. It will ask students to look critically at existing computational media’s tendencies to bore, divide or inflame its users. But this is also very much a coding class where students will prototype their own ideas for new media first with 3D graphics using the threejs library, and then with machine learning models like Stable Diffusion using Huggingface APIs or Colab notebooks and finally with networking and databases using Firebase or P5 Live Media. Students can substitute other coding tools but game engines will not work for this class. The coding is in javascript, with a possible touch of python, and is a natural sequel to Introduction to Computational Media." Prerequisite: ICM / ICM: Media ( ITPG-GT 2233 / ITPG-GT 2048 )