Our Courses
First year courses & learning outcomes
Fall quarter
CT 1A/1B: Creative Interventions: A Colloquium in Contemporary Media
Community colloquium on topics in contemporary creativity and creative practices. How does creative work—both in the arts and in broader social and professional contexts—address its most challenging problems? How does creative labor intersect with other forms of labor to address power and inequity in society? Guest lecturers address the critical contexts—including racism, ableism, patriarchy, and other structures of power—for cultural work, and how those contexts—which are inseparable from the discipline of art-making and curation in 21st-century technological contexts—can be transformed. [1A is offered in-person; 1B is offered online.]
Learning Outcomes
Contextualizing Creative Practice (Introduced)
Understand contemporary creative practices in their contexts: relating them to the impactful practices of our contemporaries and predecessors; contextualized by theory, history, and ethics in the arts, design, and media.
10: Understanding Digital Design
Introduction to digital design practices. How do contemporary design technologies and applications shape creative practice and expressive work? Students will explore digital design tools and working methods, across a range of formats and mediums, through a project-centered framework. Technologies and projects will be presented in conversation with visual design fundamentals, and a wide variety of historical and contemporary art and design works. Digital technologies for publishing and exhibiting work online will also be introduced.
Learning Outcomes
Digital Literacy (Introduced)
Gain literacy in creative tools for digital expression, and in the effective use of technology in arts and design: including digital platforms and algorithms, AI- and algorithmic arts and design tools, and emerging technology in a variety of media.
Strategies for Creative Practice (Introduced)
Learn strategies for bringing complex work to completion, individually and collaboratively, across a variety of media, including written, image- and sound-based, performance-based, and socially engaged media.
11: Digital Media Perspectives
The proliferation of digital media since the early 2000s has shaped the way that we engage with every aspect of society. New social, political, economic, and creative forms have emerged, and so have our ways of relating to technology and each other. In this course, we will survey a variety of digital media works, learning to analyze the expressive potential of a wide range of creative technologies. By the end of this course, students will have gained a deep understanding of the digital media landscape and its capacities (and limitations) toward creativity and social impact.
Learning Outcomes
Media Studies (Introduced)
Critically comprehend media and media culture, potentially I ncluding institutions, creative labor and labor practices; the ethics of data, information, and digital platforms; with a focus on digital media’s diverse impacts on dialogues surrounding tradition, culture, and racial, social, and environmental justice.
Contextualizing Creative Practice (Introduced)
Understand contemporary creative practices in their contexts: relating them to the impactful practices of our contemporaries and predecessors; contextualized by theory, history, and ethics in the arts, design, and media.
Winter quarter
1A/1B: Creative Interventions: A Colloquium in Contemporary Media
Community colloquium on topics in contemporary creativity and creative practices. How does creative work—both in the arts and in broader social and professional contexts—address its most challenging problems? How does creative labor intersect with other forms of labor to address power and inequity in society? Guest lecturers address the critical contexts—including racism, ableism, patriarchy, and other structures of power—for cultural work, and how those contexts—which are inseparable from the discipline of art-making and curation in 21st-century technological contexts—can be transformed. [1A is offered in-person; 1B is offered online.]
Learning Outcomes
Contextualizing Creative Practice (Introduced)
Understand contemporary creative practices in their contexts: relating them to the impactful practices of our contemporaries and predecessors; contextualized by theory, history, and ethics in the arts, design, and media.
20: Introduction to Creative Coding
Introduction to applications of code and computer languages in creative expression. Students modify prototypes from existing arts and media works, in a “hands-on” and activity-focused learning environment. Explore “coding” as an expressive and impactful tool in society, and in digital art practices. Languages and applications will vary by instructor.
Learning Outcomes
Digital Literacy (Introduced)
Gain literacy in creative tools for digital expression, and in the effective use of technology in arts and design: including digital platforms and algorithms, AI- and algorithmic arts and design tools, and emerging technology in a variety of media.
Strategies for Creative Practice (Introduced)
Learn strategies for bringing complex work to completion, individually and collaboratively, across a variety of media, including written, image- and sound-based, performance-based, and socially engaged media.
Spring quarter
1A/1B: Creative Interventions: A Colloquium in Contemporary Media
Community colloquium on topics in contemporary creativity and creative practices. How does creative work—both in the arts and in broader social and professional contexts—address its most challenging problems? How does creative labor intersect with other forms of labor to address power and inequity in society? Guest lecturers address the critical contexts—including racism, ableism, patriarchy, and other structures of power—for cultural work, and how those contexts—which are inseparable from the discipline of art-making and curation in 21st-century technological contexts—can be transformed. [1A is offered in-person; 1B is offered online.]
Learning Outcomes
Contextualizing Creative Practice (Introduced)
Understand contemporary creative practices in their contexts: relating them to the impactful practices of our contemporaries and predecessors; contextualized by theory, history, and ethics in the arts, design, and media.
100: Digital Platforms: Observations and Practices
Introduction to the digital storage and transmission of information, as the core of arts and design in web-based and other digital media. What are the functions of digital archives, digital image population, and digital sound, in virtual and live data access? How can interactions between the collection, representation, and curation of data transform and distort perceptions of “truth”, and of our relationships to social and technological possibility? Student work will engage a range of media types to test and explore the impact of platform technology on the dissemination of art and design.
Learning Outcomes
Digital Literacy (Introduced)
Gain literacy in creative tools for digital expression, and in the effective use of technology in arts and design: including digital platforms and algorithms, AI- and algorithmic arts and design tools, and emerging technology in a variety of media.
Media Studies (Introduced)
Critically comprehend media and media culture, potentially I ncluding institutions, creative labor and labor practices; the ethics of data, information, and digital platforms; with a focus on digital media’s diverse impacts on dialogues surrounding tradition, culture, and racial, social, and environmental justice.
Contextualizing Creative Practice (Introduced)
Understand contemporary creative practices in their contexts: relating them to the impactful practices of our contemporaries and predecessors; contextualized by theory, history, and ethics in the arts, design, and media.
120: Intermediate Creative Coding
Project-driven practicum in arts and design applications of computer languages. Students will apply new coding approaches in ongoing individual and collaborative projects, including those set in motion in prior Creative Technologies courses. Students learn to code “from scratch”, rather than through the modification of protype examples.
Learning Outcomes
Digital Literacy (Introduced)
Gain literacy in creative tools for digital expression, and in the effective use of technology in arts and design: including digital platforms and algorithms, AI- and algorithmic arts and design tools, and emerging technology in a variety of media.
Strategies for Creative Practice (Introduced)
Learn strategies for bringing complex work to completion, individually and collaboratively, across a variety of media, including written, image- and sound-based, performance-based, and socially engaged media.
Cultivation of Collaborative Growth (Introduced)
Cultivate a mindset of curiosity, dialogue, and growth, with respect to one’s work and process, and its social and ethical impact. We learn from mistakes as well as triumphs—ours and others’—as we work toward meaningful creative work and social change.
Second year courses & learning outcomes
Fall quarter
101: Persuasion and Resistance: Power in Contemporary Digital Media
How does power flow in contemporary media? How do media environments reproduce power relations in society? How do audience, genre, medium, and other contexts impact our reception of a message? Explore contemporary theory and practice of media, applied to topics like commercial and institutional promotion, advertising, and activism, enabling a critical view of media in its social, cultural, and political contexts. Projects combine scholarship and creative work to invite students’ imagination of a media world in which learning, dialogue, contemplation, fun, and play can help enable flourishing and just communities.
Learning Outcomes
Media Studies (Demonstrated)
Critically comprehend media and media culture, potentially I ncluding institutions, creative labor and labor practices; the ethics of data, information, and digital platforms; with a focus on digital media’s diverse impacts on dialogues surrounding tradition, culture, and racial, social, and environmental justice.
Contextualizing Creative Practice (Practiced)
Understand contemporary creative practices in their contexts: relating them to the impactful practices of our contemporaries and predecessors; contextualized by theory, history, and ethics in the arts, design, and media.
Social Practice and Engagement (Introduced)
Learn to engage in informed social practices, shaped by reflection on individual and collective identity, and informed by the pursuit of sustainability, equity, justice, a world that works for all of us and our communities.
Winter quarter
110: Sensors, Signals, and Interaction
Introduction to computing for physical and sensory interaction, including machine-based sensors for audio, vision, and motion, and their uses in designed participatory experiences. How sense-like functions in hardware and software compare and relate to the physiology of sensation and perception on which they are modeled? What are the implications of sensory interaction, ableism, disability, and accessibility? Student projects explore collaborative approaches to the production of interactive digital art and design.
Learning Outcomes
Digital Literacy (Demonstrated)
Gain literacy in creative tools for digital expression, and in the effective use of technology in arts and design: including digital platforms and algorithms, AI- and algorithmic arts and design tools, and emerging technology in a variety of media.
Strategies for Creative Practice (Practiced)
Learn strategies for bringing complex work to completion, individually and collaboratively, across a variety of media, including written, image- and sound-based, performance-based, and socially engaged media.
125: Collaborative Production Practicum
Project-driven practicum in technology-engaged creative collaboration in a range of hardware, software, and media contexts. Students develop a project while reimagining and questioning assumed relationships betweeen technology and application. Course materials traverse creative collaboration comprehensively: from envisioning a project scope, to grant-writing and other fund-raising; from concept planning and storyboarding to budget-, time- and project-management; from understanding intellectual property, bureaucracy and “red tape” to promotion and audience engagement practices. Students may use their final project in this course as a basis for their capstone.
Learning Outcomes
Strategies for Creative Practice (Demonstrated)
Learn strategies for bringing complex work to completion, individually and collaboratively, across a variety of media, including written, image- and sound-based, performance-based, and socially engaged media.
Cultivation of Collaborative Growth (Practiced)
Cultivate a mindset of curiosity, dialogue, and growth, with respect to one’s work and process, and its social and ethical impact. We learn from mistakes as well as triumphs—ours and others’—as we work toward meaningful creative work and social change.
Social Practice and Engagement (Practiced)
Learn to engage in informed social practices, shaped by reflection on individual and collective identity, and informed by the pursuit of sustainability, equity, justice, a world that works for all of us and our communities.
Spring quarter
195: Creative Technologies Senior Studio
Students culminate the Creative Technologies degree by assembling artist/designer statements, curating their portfolio, learning a range of professional practices in the presentation of a body of work. Prepares graduating seniors to share creative findings, voice, and vision, commencing public life as artists, designers, and curators who take leadership in the complex communities and information landscapes of the 21st-century.
Learning Outcomes
Strategies for Creative Practice (Demonstrated)
Learn strategies for bringing complex work to completion, individually and collaboratively, across a variety of media, including written, image- and sound-based, performance-based, and socially engaged media.
Cultivation of Collaborative Growth (Demonstrated)
Cultivate a mindset of curiosity, dialogue, and growth, with respect to one’s work and process, and its social and ethical impact. We learn from mistakes as well as triumphs—ours and others’—as we work toward meaningful creative work and social change.
Social Practice and Engagement (Demonstrated)
Learn to engage in informed social practices, shaped by reflection on individual and collective identity, and informed by the pursuit of sustainability, equity, justice, a world that works for all of us and our communities.
CT Special Topics courses
160: Fabrication and Production Studio
Studio-based practicum in digital design in three-dimentional spaces, with an emphasis on transforming virtual and workshation spaces into actual physical objects. Introduces online fabrication tools (varying by instructor) for output to printing services, laser cutters, 3D fabrication machines & digital looms. Explore concepts in product design, creative production partnerships, and the implications of physical design for economic justice, community empowerment, climate justice and conscientious ecological impact.
Learning Outcomes
Digital Literacy (Demonstrated)
Gain literacy in creative tools for digital expression, and in the effective use of technology in arts and design: including digital platforms and algorithms, AI- and algorithmic arts and design tools, and emerging technology in a variety of media.
Contextualizing Creative Practice (Demonstrated)
Understand contemporary creative practices in their contexts: relating them to the impactful practices of our contemporaries and predecessors; contextualized by theory, history, and ethics in the arts, design, and media.
Cultivation of Collaborative Growth (Practiced)
Cultivate a mindset of curiosity, dialogue, and growth, with respect to one’s work and process, and its social and ethical impact. We learn from mistakes as well as triumphs—ours and others’—as we work toward meaningful creative work and social change.
161: Narration and Participation: Modes of Representation in 20th- and 21st-century Media
Story-building, participatory creativity, and performance in a wide range of time-based arts and design. Models for storytelling are drawn from film, television, music, theater, gaming, and other media, including collective improvisatory practices, mixed transmission environments from game-based narration to hip-hop. Special emphasis is placed on activist, experimental, and counter-hegemonic narration, Black, Indigenous, feminist, and queer contributions to contemporary arts, design, and performance practices.
Learning Outcomes
Contextualizing Creative Practice (Demonstrated)
Understand contemporary creative practices in their contexts: relating them to the impactful practices of our contemporaries and predecessors; contextualized by theory, history, and ethics in the arts, design, and media.
Cultivation of Collaborative Growth (Practiced)
Cultivate a mindset of curiosity, dialogue, and growth, with respect to one’s work and process, and its social and ethical impact. We learn from mistakes as well as triumphs—ours and others’—as we work toward meaningful creative work and social change.
Social Practice and Engagement (Practiced)
Learn to engage in informed social practices, shaped by reflection on individual and collective identity, and informed by the pursuit of sustainability, equity, justice, a world that works for all of us and our communities.
162: Immersive Reality Studio
Studio-based and collaborative introduction to immersive reality, augmented reality, and other virtual/actual hybridities. Students focus on using low-barrier software and platforms to create augmented and virtual reality experiences that enrich our understanding of the affordances, challenges and opportunities present in emerging design spaces.
Learning Outcomes
Digital Literacy (Demonstrated)
Gain literacy in creative tools for digital expression, and in the effective use of technology in arts and design: including digital platforms and algorithms, AI- and algorithmic arts and design tools, and emerging technology in a variety of media.
Cultivation of Collaborative Growth (Demonstrated)
Cultivate a mindset of curiosity, dialogue, and growth, with respect to one’s work and process, and its social and ethical impact. We learn from mistakes as well as triumphs—ours and others’—as we work toward meaningful creative work and social change.
Social Practice and Engagement (Practiced)
Learn to engage in informed social practices, shaped by reflection on individual and collective identity, and informed by the pursuit of sustainability, equity, justice, a world that works for all of us and our communities.
163: Queer Art
For generations young queer and trans people have seen California as a safe haven. Queer Art explores the state’s vital queer art communities as a cultural phenomena, primarily through one-on-one interviews with contemporary queer artists in California. In the face of rising homophobia and transphobia in many parts of the country, this course affirms that queer artists and students are not alone, and that they have made and continue to make an irreplaceable impact in the cultural sphere. As many of us live and work at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities, Queer Art will take care to center and make visible the work of BIPOC LGBTQIE+ artists, including those with disabilities, and many others. All students are welcome and encouraged to take the course and learn more about queer culture and queer cultural impact.
The goal of this class is to introduce and develop literacy in the field of queer art. This includes learning about queer artists and their artworks, learning how to research queer art, and how to utilize critical-thinking while encouraging engagement in and understanding of the art itself. Students are required to watch video interviews with contemporary queer artists and respond to the videos in asynchronous discussion. The course consists of two modules per week, and there will be weekly one-page writing activities and quizzes. Through a combination of lectures, visual presentations, films, readings, short quizzes and discussion boards, students will gain the skills and knowledge to become conversant in Queer Art. For their final project, students will use the skills they have developed throughout the course to conduct their own interview with a queer artist of their choosing, collectively developing their own queer art archive.
Learning Outcomes
Contextualizing Creative Practice (Demonstrated)
Understand contemporary creative practices in their contexts: relating them to the impactful practices of our contemporaries and predecessors; contextualized by theory, history, and ethics in the arts, design, and media.
Social Practice and Engagement (Demonstrated)
Learn to engage in informed social practices, shaped by reflection on individual and collective identity, and informed by the pursuit of sustainability, equity, justice, a world that works for all of us and our communities.
164: Machine Collaboration: Creativity in Posthuman Practice
“Machine Intelligence” entered a new epoch in 2023, building on foundations of machine creativity and machine learning dating back three quarters of a century. After a leap in the accessibility and responsiveness of resources like ChatGPT, as well as SoundDraw, Hypotenuse AI, and other music- and art-generating platforms, the shape of creative work in society is indelibly modified. But how? What gulfs remain between generative AI and vital cultural production? How are intersections and meeting-points across those gulfs managed ethically, and to what (effective) results? What are the implications of machine creativity for cultural production writ large? Seminarians explore these and other topics by alternating between engagement with critical AI scholarship and journalism (even weeks) and machine-collaborative creative practice (odd weeks), toward a final project in either category.
Learning Outcomes
Media Studies (Demonstrated)
Critically comprehend media and media culture, potentially I ncluding institutions, creative labor and labor practices; the ethics of data, information, and digital platforms; with a focus on digital media’s diverse impacts on dialogues surrounding tradition, culture, and racial, social, and environmental justice.
Contextualizing Creative Practice (Demonstrated)
Understand contemporary creative practices in their contexts: relating them to the impactful practices of our contemporaries and predecessors; contextualized by theory, history, and ethics in the arts, design, and media.
Social Practice and Engagement (Practiced)
Learn to engage in informed social practices, shaped by reflection on individual and collective identity, and informed by the pursuit of sustainability, equity, justice, a world that works for all of us and our communities.
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