Creative Computing Institute's 2020/2021 Diploma in Creative Computing.
Lecture/workshop slides and wiki for Unit 1 of theInformation
- All term dates - N.B. if you are doing a degree at UAL you are in Higher Education.
- Lecturer: Joel Gethin Lewis.
- Location: Creative Computing Institute, in person at Camberwell, London and online via Collaborate Ultra on ual:Moodle.
- Contact me via the UAL Creative Computing Institute Slack.
- Weekly Unit 1 remote teaching times are every Tuesday 0930-1300 via Collaborate Ultra on ual:Moodle.
- You are expected to undertake independent study of about 25 hours per week - spread across all the courses you are taking in the Diploma.
- Tutorials take place every Monday. These tutorials are for you to discuss anything you'd like - from the how the course is going, to your own practice, to work placements or anything else. My aim is to have at least two tutorials with every student on the diploma every term.
- Remote session 1: Mondays 1030-1300.
- Remote session 2: Mondays 1400-1730.
- Please see the Unit 1 Wiki Tutorial Schedule for details of when your next tutorial will be.
- If your next tutorial is too far away, or you have a more urgent question, please message me on the UAL Creative Computing Institute Slack.
- Unit 1 Moodle - see the Unit 1 Moodle for links to Collaborate Ultra links to our remote sessions.
- Lecture and Workshop slides
- Please see the Unit 1 Wiki for all non-lecture notes, reading lists and other resources.
- Take a look at the student/crowd sourced set of notes on all of Block 1 from last years Diplomats!.
- The Library Services Web pages aim to provide quick access to a range of relevant high quality e-resources. Benelia Salmon is the Academic Support Librarian for CCI: [email protected]. Please contact her at the email address above if you have any questions regarding library resources or if you wish to book a one-to-one session on library information and research skills. You can find more information on CCI specific library resources in your Creative Computing Institute subject guide.
- LinkedIn Learning (formally Lynda.com) is also a great resource for learning software packages, coding or even 3D tools like Blender. You can find a link to LinkedIn Learning on https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/.
- https://wiki.cci.arts.ac.uk/ is the Wiki for all of CCI, lots of resources and tutorial there about equipment, software and content on Physical Computing, Creative Code and Digital Making.
Code of Conduct
You can find the UAL Disciplinary Code For Students here: Disciplinary Code For Students.
You can find our code of conduct here: code_of_conduct.md, it was cloned from [https://github.com/processing/p5.js/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md](the p5.js code of conduct).
Golan Levin also offers a useful thought from his children's school:
When communicating, ask yourself:
- T – is it True?
- H – is it Helpful?
- I – is it Inspiring?
- N – is it Necessary?
- K – is it Kind?
Block/Term Structure
The Diploma in Creative Computing is split into two blocks of teaching. Block 1 takes up the entire Autumn term and half of the Spring term. Block 2 follows on, taking the second half of Spring term and the entire Summer term.
Block 1 consists of three units:
- Unit 1: Creative Coding and Creative Computing Frameworks - taught by me.
- Unit 2: Introducing Computational Futures and Artificial Intelligence - taught by Murad Khan.
- Unit 3: Creative Practice: Visual Coding and Physical Computing - taught by Matthew Plummer-Fernández.
Block 2 consists of three units:
- Unit 4: Coding for Collaborative App Development - taught by me.
- Unit 5: Working and the Digital Creative Industries - taught by TBC.
- Unit 6: Creative Practice: Computational Environments - taught by Murad Khan.
Learning Outcomes and platforms for doing so
Please read UAL's guidance for students on how they will be assessed. TLDR: you will be assessed on the following 5 assessment criteria (quoting from UAL's page - I REALLY recommend watching the video here if you haven't already):
- Enquiry
- Enquiry is about active learning and reflection. It’s how you explore, research and learn about your subject. Enquiry is central to all creative learning at UAL.
- Knowledge
- Knowledge is about gathering information and enhancing understanding. It’s how you inform your work, explore diverse cultures and connections and appreciate what you do in a wider context.
- Process
- Process is about your journey of learning. It’s how you take risks and experiment. And how you keep the creative momentum going — developing ideas from start to finish.
- Communication
- Communication is about telling the story of your learning and making. It’s how you share your learning with an audience, presenting and explaining your work to different people.
- Realisation
- Realisation is about the work you create and how this reveals what you’ve learned. It’s taking a look back and evaluating the work you’ve produced.
N.B. The Diploma is assessed to Level 5 Assessment Criteria Descriptors - see the link to the PDF at the bottom of this page.
At the end of this block (midway through the 2022 Spring term) you should have the following outcomes, with subheadings for methods and platforms we will use to do so. To be clear, I want you to obtain knowledge and then use that to make projects. My aim is to have every student graduate with new creative computing core knowledge and a portfolio of projects that relate that new creative computing knowledge to their chosen BA subject elsewhere at University of the Arts London (UAL).
Unit 1 / Block 1: "Creative coding and creative computing frameworks"
- Code creative computing assets in relevant languages (Knowledge, Process)
- Understand the use of key frameworks for creative computing (Knowledge, Process)
- Use online tools to collaborate and support your creative computing projects (Enquiry, Communication)
Teaching Style
I want to spend as much time working through problems and discussing them together, rather than you listening to me lecture. Each Tuesday's teaching session will be structured in the following way:
- Hour 1: 0930-1030: Explore/engage - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- Hour 2: 1045-1145: Experiment/play - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain.
- Hour 3: 1200-1300: Watch/listen - absorb a lecture from me, in preparation for next weeks session.
You are expected to undertake independent study of 25 hours per week over the three units that you will be taught every block.
Assessment
At the end of Block 1 (halfway through the Spring Term) and at the end of Block 2 (at the end of the Summer Term), you will be assessed individually. The two units I teach (Unit 1 and Unit 4) are assessed in the same way, via multiple choice test and practical exam. Each part is worth 50% of the unit mark. In the multiple choice test you will be presented with a 20 questions relating explicitly to course content. You must choose between up to 4 potentially correct answers per question. You will be given 1 hour to complete the 20 multiple choice questions. In the Practical Exam you will be individually asked to write a basic program to demonstrate the application of creative coding to a set problem. You will be given 2 hours to complete the Practical Exam.
I would STRONGLY encourage you to complete the mocks when I issue them for both Units 1 and 4 multiple choice/practical exams - not just to practice them, but to practice SUBMITTING your work - last year I had several students fail exams because they submitted the wrong files for their practical exams, or didn't submit their multiple choice tests correctly.
You can find the first year of the Diploma Unit 1 Multiple Choice test here and the first year of the Diploma Unit 1 Practical exam here.
Units 2 and 5 are assessed via an essay.
Units 3 and 6 are assessed via the submission of a 5 minute video and accompanying PDF document.
Experiment/Play exercises
In addition to the formal assessment at the end of Blocks 1 and 2, we will be participating in weekly Experiment/play workshops. We will discuss and work on the weekly exercises in groups of three on Monday afternoons during the Experiment/play hour. The weekly Experiment/play exercises won't be assessed, but will be in your interest to complete.
The Experiment/play exercises will be based on excerpts from Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain.
This of idea of small technical exercises was inspired by Caitlin Morris and her advice:
Remind students that technical exercises can be the root of a bigger idea. I’ve had students submit small sketches along with their introductory exercises under the prompt of “if I worked on this for another month/year, what could it become?”. Some really beautiful ideas emerge and I’ve found that it makes students more concept-attentive in their weekly projects, as well as providing some groundwork for larger final projects.
Throughout the term, you will be working in pairs. This is a technique known as Pair Programming. You may change pair partner as often or sparingly as you like.
Following the latest research, I've decided to shift us from pairs to threes. After all, three is a magic number.
Block 1, Unit 1 schedule:
Week 1 - Tuesday 28th September 2021 (week 39 of 52) - Introduction
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 1000-1100: Introduction lecture - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, watch my introduction lecture on the course, creative coding, JavaScript and specifically p5.js. Slides for reference.
- 1100-1200: via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle particpate in the Introduction workshop - signing up for websites, introducing yourselves and having a discussion about the unit and course.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 1 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle absorb a lecture from me on Counting and Remembering, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 2 - Tuesday 5th October 2021 (week 40 of 52) - Counting and Remembering
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 1 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 1 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture and our discussion in the previous hour - exploring p5.js website, forum, reference and examples.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 2 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, absorb a lecture from me on Drawing and Colouring, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 3 - Tuesday 12th October 2021 (week 41 of 52) - Drawing and Colouring
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 2 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 2 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Color (sic) exercises and Graphic Elements exercises.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 3 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, absorb a lecture from me on Deciding, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 4 - Tuesday 19th October 2021 (week 42 of 52) - Deciding
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 3 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 3 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Conditional Testing exercises.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 4 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, absorb a lecture from me on Repeating, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 5 - Tuesday 26th October 2021 (week 43 of 52) - Repeating
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 4 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 4 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Iteration Exercises.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 5 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, absorb a lecture from me on Listing and Randomising, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 6 - Tuesday 2nd November 2021 (week 44 of 52) - Listing and Randomising
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 5 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 5 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Arrays exercises and Unpredictability exercises.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 6 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, absorb a lecture from me on Timing, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 7 - Tuesday 9th November 2021 (week 45 of 52) - Timing
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 6 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 6 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Time and Interactivity exercises.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 7 - uvia Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, absorb a lecture from me on Classing, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 8 - Tuesday 16th November 2021 (week 46 of 52) - Classing
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 7 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 7 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Text and Language exercises.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 8 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, absorb a lecture from me on Images and Simulating, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 9 - Tuesday 23rd November 2021 (week 47 of 52) - Images and Simulating
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 8 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 8 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Images exercises and Simulation exercises.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 9 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, absorb a lecture from me on Images and Simulating, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 10 - Tuesday 30th November 2021 (week 48 of 52) - Mock exams
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 9 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 9 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, mock programming challenge and mock multiple choice exam issued.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 10 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, absorb a lecture from me on openFrameworks and C++, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 11 - Tuesday 7th December 2021 (week 49 of 52) - Remote learning - introduction to openFrameworks and C++
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 10 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 10 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture and our discussion in the previous hour.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 11 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, absorb a lecture from me on Computer Vision in openFrameworks, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 12 - Tuesday 11th January 2022 (week 2 of 52) - introduction to Computer Vision in openFrameworks
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 11 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 11 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture and our discussion in the previous hour.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 12 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a lecture from me on where next, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.
Week 13 - Tuesday 18th January 2022 (week 3 of 52) - Where next?
See the Unit 1 Moodle for a link to the Collaborate Ultra Session for this week.
- 0930-1030: Explore/engage 12 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
- 1045-1145: Experiment/play 12 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture and our discussion in the previous hour.
- 1200-1300: Watch/listen 13 - via Collaborate Ultra on Moodle, absorb a lecture from me on TBC. Slides for reference.
Further sessions are TBC, depending on multiple choice test and practical exam timings, and other unit's assessment timings.
Thanks
Thanks to Matthew Plummer-Fernández, Murad Khan, Matt Pyke, Andy Cameron, JT Nimoy, Alex Fefegha, Anna Troisi, Ben Kelly, Cathy Hoste, Charlotte Webb, Julia Makivic, Kenneth Lim, Matt Jarvis, Melisa Simpson, Phoenix Perry, Rebecca Fiebrink, Sheldon Brown, Tom Lynch, Eva Wilkinson, Vali Lalioti, Indira Knight, Alice Stewart, Ben Stopher, Mick Grierson, Georgina Capdevila Cano, Alan Warburton, Rebecca Ross, Jaap de Maat, Lauren McCarthy, Kyle McDonald, Jonathan Harris, Zach Lieberman, Jessica Bland, Rick Walker, Graham Bennett, Toby Milner-Gulland, Liam Walsh, Golan Levin, Greg Smith, Mark Lundin, Xiaohan Zhang, Lia, Joshua Goldberg, Rosa Menkman, Daniel Shiffman, Tega Brain, Caitlin Morris, Harri Lewis and Rune Madsen.