Teaching
I teach! I really enjoy teaching and I spend too much time
inventing new classes, or new projects for existing classes. I keep
all of my material on Github.
You are welcome to use any of my teaching materials,
but please cite where you got them and include a link
to this website.
Introduction to Interactive Media
This is the only class I'm teaching that I did not create. As the
name suggests it's our basic introductory course to what we call
Interactive Media. Topics covered include technology (programming in
p5.js and electronics using Arduino), human centered design, and
critique of technology.
Since multiple teachers teach this course, we have a common
Wordpress blog
for the class, but I still keep my own lecture notes and other
materials in my own
Github repository
You are welcome to use any of my teaching materials,
but please cite where you got them and include a link
to this website.
Performing Robots
We build robots, and make them perform. We
learn the necessary technology,
discuss the ethics of using robots and
how robots are perceived on the stage and in public,
and spend lots of time building, testing, debugging, and refining
our robots. At the end we put on a public performance.
All the course material, as well as links to student Github
repositories, can be found in the
Github
repository
You are welcome to use any of my teaching materials,
but please cite where you got them and include a link
to this website.
Machine Lab
Using machines to build machines, learning about how
machines are made, and reading and discussing the
history of machines and our relationship with them
All the course material, as well as links to student Github
repositories, can be found in the
Github
repository
You are welcome to use any of my teaching materials,
but please cite where you got them and include a link
to this website.
Robota Psyche
The only class in which we don't build things. I created this class
during the COVID-19 pandemic as an alternative to Machine Lab
since all teaching was online and the intensive building required
by Machine Lab would have been impossible.
Robota Psyche was inspired by the book
Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology
by
Valentino Braitenberg
, a neuroscientist and cyberneticist. In this
short and very enjoyable book, Braitenberg leads the reader
through a series of thought exercises in which he develops vehicles
that, with combinations of sensors and actuators,
can be said to exhibit
behaviors such as aggression, love, foresight, and optimism.
While Braitenberg's book suggests hardware,
the process is easily transferable to software, with the great
advantage that once the code for a vehicle is written, it can be easily
duplicated, allowing for experimentation with large populations of
vehicles with similar or different "personalities". We can then
observe how the vehicles interact with each other and their
surroundings over time.
All the course material, as well as links to student Github
repositories, can be found in the
Github
repository
You are welcome to use any of my teaching materials,
but please cite where you got them and include a link
to this website.
Interactive Media in the World Robots
Interactive Media spans a large range of activities including but
certainly
not limited to website design and smartphone app development;
product design; new interfaces for musical expression; exhibit
design for museums and other institutions; kinetic art; interactive
art; immersive art; virtual and augmented reality; robotics;
and
education.
These activities could take place in individual or
collaborative artist studios,
classrooms, design companies, maker spaces, high tech startups,
libraries, and a host of other places.
While teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area I had access
to a great many spaces and practitioners, and could easily show
students examples of the kind of activities in which the could
utilize what we were teaching.
Here in Abu Dhabi either there isn't such a diversity of activities,
or I've not found it. Fortunately, not far away in Israel, I have
similar access to these spaces through family, friends, colleagues,
and collaborators.
NYU has a framework in which faculty can propose classes
to take place in other countries. In my course
Interactive Media In The World
we visit artist studios, design studios, Burning Man style maker
spaces, high tech maker spaces, exhibit designers, special effects
designers, museums, and other creative spaces. We also collaborate
with students in related classes and engage in a joint project.
All the course material, as well as links to student Github
repositories, can be found in the
Github
repository
You are welcome to use any of my teaching materials,
but please cite where you got them and include a link
to this website.