Undergraduate Overview

This course will introduce students to basic techniques of working with sound as an artistic material. As a prerequisite for many of the department's upper level offerings, the class is designed to familiarize the student with both the technology and the historical and aesthetic background relevant to our facilities and courses, to the field of 'sound art' and experimental music in general, and to the application of sound in other disciplines (video, film, performance, installations, etc.) Equipment covered will include microphones, mixers, analog and digital audio recorders, signal processors and analog synthesizers. Hard-disk based recording and editing (ProTools) is introduced, but the focus is on more traditional analog studio technology. The physics of sound will be a recurring subject.

Examples of music and sound art, created using similar technology to that in our studios, will be played or performed and discussed in class. The listening list will vary according to the instructors' preferences. Readings are similarly set according to the instructors' syllabus: some sections employ more or less reading than others, contact specific instructors for details.

Students are expected to use studio time to complete weekly assignments, which are designed to hone technical skills and, in most cases, foster artistic innovation. Some of these projects can incorporate outside resources (such as the student's own computers and recordings), but the emphasis is on mastering the studio.

This course will introduce students to basic techniques of working with sound as an artistic material. As a prerequisite for many of the department's upper level offerings, the class is designed to familiarize the student with both the technology and the historical and aesthetic background relevant to our facilities and courses, to the field of 'sound art' and experimental music in general, and to the application of sound in other disciplines (video, film, performance, installations, etc.) Equipment covered will include microphones, mixers, analog and digital audio recorders, signal processors and analog synthesizers. Hard-disk based recording and editing (ProTools) is introduced, but the focus is on more traditional analog studio technology. The physics of sound will be a recurring subject.

Examples of music and sound art, created using similar technology to that in our studios, will be played or performed and discussed in class. The listening list will vary according to the instructors' preferences. Readings are similarly set according to the instructors' syllabus: some sections employ more or less reading than others, contact specific instructors for details.

Students are expected to use studio time to complete weekly assignments, which are designed to hone technical skills and, in most cases, foster artistic innovation. Some of these projects can incorporate outside resources (such as the student's own computers and recordings), but the emphasis is on mastering the studio.

This course will introduce students to basic techniques of working with sound as an artistic material. As a prerequisite for many of the department's upper level offerings, the class is designed to familiarize the student with both the technology and the historical and aesthetic background relevant to our facilities and courses, to the field of 'sound art' and experimental music in general, and to the application of sound in other disciplines (video, film, performance, installations, etc.) Equipment covered will include microphones, mixers, analog and digital audio recorders, signal processors and analog synthesizers. Hard-disk based recording and editing (ProTools) is introduced, but the focus is on more traditional analog studio technology. The physics of sound will be a recurring subject.

Examples of music and sound art, created using similar technology to that in our studios, will be played or performed and discussed in class. The listening list will vary according to the instructors' preferences. Readings are similarly set according to the instructors' syllabus: some sections employ more or less reading than others, contact specific instructors for details.

Students are expected to use studio time to complete weekly assignments, which are designed to hone technical skills and, in most cases, foster artistic innovation. Some of these projects can incorporate outside resources (such as the student's own computers and recordings), but the emphasis is on mastering the studio.

Consider how object based movement creates both meaning and tone, and how movement functions much like non-verbal communication. We'll attempt to approach the technical matters of controlling motion from the aesthetic perspective of an animator or a dancer. The course introduces basic techniques for creating moving parts appropriate for a broad range of creative and material practices. Technical matters covered through exercises include motors, speed control, fabrication of moving parts and simple circuits for motor control. Self-determined projects will demonstrate mastery of skills and concepts.

This team-taught introductory studio provides a foundation for creative work across contemporary media practices. Students explore how systems, tools, and materials co-exist in an expansive ecosystem of technical possibility, to be mixed and used to create works that engage with technology as tool, medium, and terrain for playful exploration.
Through hands-on workshop modules, individual projects and possibilities for collaboration, the course introduces approaches drawn from creative coding, electronics, 3D, games, and related media to create responsive, time-based, and interactive audiovisual works. Creative misuse, tinkering, hacking, probing and breaking are strongly encouraged. Students gain a broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, histories, and key areas of inquiry necessary for informed artistic engagement with technology.
Weekly sessions combine technical instruction with conceptual framing, encouraging students to develop their own ideas while introducing the broader AT/SP curriculum, pathways, and areas of practice. No prior experience required.

This team-taught introductory studio provides a foundation for creative work across contemporary media practices. Students explore how systems, tools, and materials co-exist in an expansive ecosystem of technical possibility, to be mixed and used to create works that engage with technology as tool, medium, and terrain for playful exploration.
Through hands-on workshop modules, individual projects and possibilities for collaboration, the course introduces approaches drawn from creative coding, electronics, 3D, games, and related media to create responsive, time-based, and interactive audiovisual works. Creative misuse, tinkering, hacking, probing and breaking are strongly encouraged. Students gain a broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, histories, and key areas of inquiry necessary for informed artistic engagement with technology.
Weekly sessions combine technical instruction with conceptual framing, encouraging students to develop their own ideas while introducing the broader AT/SP curriculum, pathways, and areas of practice. No prior experience required.

Neon is a medium of light, color, and atmosphere-at once iconic in commercial signage and radical in contemporary art. This course introduces students to the history and practice of neon, from early experiments to its use by contemporary makers. In the Light Lab, students will learn essential methods of tube bending, wiring, and installation, while also exploring neon's significance as both a craft tradition and a contemporary artistic medium.

We will look at how artists such as Bruce Nauman, Keith Sonnier, Joseph Kosuth, and Cerith Wyn Evans transformed neon into a language of sculpture, architecture, and experimental art. Readings on light, vision, and color theory will provide both scientific and conceptual grounding for studio practice. By the end of the semester, students will have created an original neon work that reflects their own creative vision.

What are the concerns that drive one's creative practice? How does one set the terms for its future development? Sophomore Seminar offers strategies for students to explore, reflect upon, and connect common themes and interests in the development of an emerging creative practice that will serve as the basis of their ongoing studies at SAIC and beyond. Students will examine historical and contemporary influences and contextualize their work in relation to the diverse art-worlds of the 21st Century. Readings, screenings, and field trips will vary each semester. Presentations by visiting artists and guest speakers will provide the opportunity for students to hear unique perspectives on sustaining a creative practice. One-on-one meetings with faculty will provide students with individualized mentorship throughout the semester. During interdisciplinary critiques, students will explore a variety of formats and tools to analyze work and provide peer feedback. The class mid-term project asks students to imagine a plan for their creative life and devise a self-directed course of study for their time at school. The course concludes with an assignment asking students to develop and document a project or body of work demonstrating how the interplay of ideas, technical skills, and formal concerns evolve through iteration, experimentation and revision.

Prerequisite: Must be a sophomore to enroll.

This class goes beyond the idea of ?surround sound? to consider the possibilities and challenges inherent in presenting sonic compositions to listeners through something other than the default left and right loudspeakers. From the spatial illusions of stereo and ambisonic arrays to tiny, tinny speaker fields, techniques for designing and experiencing multichannel, spatialized sound work will be explored. Emphasis will be given to emerging technologies and experimental techniques. DIY approaches and accessible tools, such as those available for VR sound, will be explored on the path to a practice that foregrounds the presentation of sound in space. A case for mono will be considered.

Some of the artists whose work we will explore include Janet Cardiff, Natasha Barrett, Iannis Xenakis, Florian Hecker, and Tristan Perich. Readings will include artist statements as well as technical manuals for relevant tools.

Weekly assignments are designed to emphasize specific technical or aesthetic concerns such as issues of electronic and acoustic power, multichannel playback formats, spatial audio in virtual reality, audience experience and the ?sweet spot?. One to two portfolio projects will be created and presented in class in two formal critiques.

This course introduces students to the fundamental materials of music composition, the structures used to shape these materials, and techniques and strategies students can use to create fully formed pieces of music. Referencing traditional and experimental practices from many cultures and histories, we examine the basic musical elements of rhythm, meter, tonal organization, harmony, and timbre. These are applied in a digital studio environment via sampling, sound synthesis, looping, and live recording using Apple's Logic digital audio workstation.
Musical works by artists from diverse backgrounds and identities are analyzed to understand how these materials and concepts are used to sculpt emotional expressions, narrative forms, abstract constructions, or conceptual statements. Students work with these references, elements, and materials to make their own work in genres of their own choice. No style of music is off limits.
Course work will vary but typically includes participation in weekly experiments and the presentation of self-devised projects at midterm and the end of the semester. Students work with the materials, structures, and techniques introduced to make their own work in genres of their own choice.

What can analog electronics teach us about making art in a world shaped by digital systems? This hands-on studio explores circuits as creative tools, focusing on sound, light, and motion as expressive media-without relying on code or software. Students can step outside the shadow of AI and mass computation to explore a more intimate relationship between materials, energy and creativity-while experimenting with performance, interactive objects, audiovisual instruments, and installations. Alongside studio practice, we will look at artists who have expanded the possibilities of analog media and study pioneering tools such as the Sandin Image Processor, a patch-programmable analog computer. Students will be invited to connect these histories and techniques to their own practices through the creation of a final project. No prior experience is required-only curiosity, imagination, and a willingness to learn.

Students will investigate scent as an expressive medium. They will have access to the ATS Perfume Organ and specialized lab equipment. Course content includes basic aromatic blending, hydro-distillation extraction techniques and how to impregnate scent into various media. At least TWO works of Olfactory Art are to be completed. The last one is considered the FINAL and should be an opus ready for gallery/performance/experiential application.Students should leave this class with the ability to thoughtfully engage Olfactory Work as practitioners, researchers and thinkers within personal, historical, theoretical and conceptual contexts.

This course focuses on the relationship of sound to moving image, and introduces post-production techniques and strategies that address this relationship as a compositional imperative. Thorough instruction is given on digital audio post-production techniques for moving image, including recording, sound file imports, soundtrack composition and assembly, sound design, and mixing in stereo and surround-sound. This is supplemented by presentations on acoustics and auditory perception. Assigned readings in theories and strategies of sound-image relationships inform studio instruction. Assigned projects focus on gaining post-production skills, and students produce independent projects of their own that integrate sound and moving image.

Artists include Chantal Dumas, Walter Verdin, Deborah Stratman, Lucrecia Martel, Martin Scorcese, Abigail Child, Frederic Moffet, Gyorgi Palvi, Francis Ford Coppola, Gary Hill, and others. Writings in theory include texts by Michel Chion, Rick Altman, and others.

The student?s independent image-and-sound work is foregrounded and supported; supplemental assigned projects include sound sequence composition and ADR recording and mixing.

This studio-seminar will explore noise as a creative and critical force in experimental music, sound art, and digital media. Through a hybrid practice of making/thinking, we examine noise in relation to the environment, political space and protest, embodied practices, and technology.

Students work across performance, media, electronics, and everyday materials - investigating noise as signal, disruption, and expression. Readings introduce key ideas from scholars like Jacques Attali, Legacy Russell, and Steve Goodman. Listenings will closely analyze the practices of artists like Lou Reed, Moor Mother, Merzbow, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Clipping, and Wolf Eyes.

Through hands-on projects, students create their own noise-based works exploring techniques such as: glitch and databending, audio and visual feedback, synthesis and processing, generative software systems, and more.

The course includes weekly discussions, technical demos, and 3-4 portfolio projects. It culminates in a live performance, installation, or sonic intervention that is developed in phases with peer feedback and faculty support over the course of the semester.

No prior experience required.

Neon Light & Ceramics introduces students to hybrid practices that combine neon glasswork and ceramic structures in sculptural and installation contexts. Students will learn foundational neon techniques¿glass bending, gas/voltage properties, wiring, and installation styles¿alongside ceramic methods for creating supports, housings, and interactive elements. Weekly rotations between the Neon Lab and Ceramics studios provide students with equal immersion in both materials. The course emphasizes hands-on skill building, conceptual development, and experimental applications, culminating in a final exhibition-ready neon and ceramic artwork. Through this course, students will expand their technical versatility and explore light and form as interdependent sculptural media.
We will look at mid-century neon artists such as Cryssa, Lucio Fontana, Nam June Paik, and Martyelle Rayse, as well as contemporary work by Elaine Cameron Weir, Anselm Reyle, Ceryth Wyn Evans, Andrea Bowers, Shezad Dawood, Ivan Navarro, Blair Thurman, Jason Rhodes, Mary Weatherford, Glenn Ligon, Jochen Holz, Lionel Dinis Salazar and Jonathan Omar (Döppel Studio), and Demian DinéYazhi¿. Readings and selected text to include: Gyorgy Kepes¿ Light and Design, ¿Light as a Creative Medium¿ (1967); Wassily Kandinsky, ¿Psychological Workings of Color¿ (1911), and selections from Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi¿s Learning from Las Vegas (1972).
At the end of the course, students will have conceptualized, designed, and executed an exhibition-ready neon artwork, gained a working knowledge of industry standards and installation techniques, and assessed how the medium of light functions in their artistic anthology

Neon Light & Ceramics introduces students to hybrid practices that combine neon glasswork and ceramic structures in sculptural and installation contexts. Students will learn foundational neon techniques¿glass bending, gas/voltage properties, wiring, and installation styles¿alongside ceramic methods for creating supports, housings, and interactive elements. Weekly rotations between the Neon Lab and Ceramics studios provide students with equal immersion in both materials. The course emphasizes hands-on skill building, conceptual development, and experimental applications, culminating in a final exhibition-ready neon and ceramic artwork. Through this course, students will expand their technical versatility and explore light and form as interdependent sculptural media.
We will look at mid-century neon artists such as Cryssa, Lucio Fontana, Nam June Paik, and Martyelle Rayse, as well as contemporary work by Elaine Cameron Weir, Anselm Reyle, Ceryth Wyn Evans, Andrea Bowers, Shezad Dawood, Ivan Navarro, Blair Thurman, Jason Rhodes, Mary Weatherford, Glenn Ligon, Jochen Holz, Lionel Dinis Salazar and Jonathan Omar (Döppel Studio), and Demian DinéYazhi¿. Readings and selected text to include: Gyorgy Kepes¿ Light and Design, ¿Light as a Creative Medium¿ (1967); Wassily Kandinsky, ¿Psychological Workings of Color¿ (1911), and selections from Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi¿s Learning from Las Vegas (1972).
At the end of the course, students will have conceptualized, designed, and executed an exhibition-ready neon artwork, gained a working knowledge of industry standards and installation techniques, and assessed how the medium of light functions in their artistic anthology

Public Sound and Space explores situating sound-based art practices, including performance and installation, into public space. Projects are conceptualized and developed in response to specific locations found in and around Chicago, determined by students in coordination with the instructor. The course examines public space and architecture through historical and contemporary sound practices, as well as the non-art uses of sound and its employment in public space. Technical workshops emphasize sound projection, acoustics, and mixing for complicated sonic environments and playback systems. In collaboration with the Public Light and Space course, students will work in pairs to mount a large-scale sound and video work to be projected onto the Merchandise Mart, a significant building in the Loop. Bi-monthly in-class meetings between Public Sound and Space and Public Light and Space will catalyze collaboration, hold technical and conceptual critiques, and accommodate workshops to address sound and image workflow. Facilitated by Art on the Mart, an art initiative presenting international artists, the work will be on view daily for 6 weeks capturing an audience of roughly 300,000 people.
We will study the works of artists including Susan Philipsz, Park McArthur, Ryoji Ikeda, Cevdet Erek, and Cameron Rowland. Readings include Miwon Kwon, Niall Atkinson, and others.
In addition to the collaborative Art on the Mart project, students will research, propose, and develop a public sound work in response to a site of their choosing for the final.

This is a class is hardware hacking for audio applications (and a little video as well). No previous electronic experience is assumed. Basic soldering skills will be learned through building contact microphones and coils to sniff electromagnetic fields. We will then open up a range of battery-powered 'consumer' technology (radios, boom boxes, electronic toys), observe the effect of direct hand contact on the circuit boards, experiment with the substitution of components, and listen to unheard signals running through the circuit. Knowledge acquired through this process will be applied to building circuits from scratch (oscillators, amplifiers, fuzztones, sequencers etc.), both from documented designs and as invented by yourselves.

Video and audio playback and performance as relevant to the class projects. Readings from the required textbook, Handmade Electronic Music -- The Art of Hardware Hacking.

Numerous projects to be completed in and out of class; final project based on course material.

This course explores the foundations of modular analog synthesis, working hands-on with oscillators, amplifiers, and filters to create original sound works. Students will use both vintage and contemporary equipment to learn frequency and amplitude modulation, sequencing, frequency shifting, and other core processes that shaped the history of electronic music.

Historical case studies situate these techniques within the work of pioneering composers such as Stockhausen, Radigue, Koenig, Subotnik, Oliveros, and Spiegel, connecting classical studio methods to contemporary practice. Weekly compositional projects encourage students to apply specific technical strategies while developing their own aesthetic approach. By the end of the course, students will have produced a portfolio of analog compositions that reflect both technical fluency and creative exploration in modular synthesis.

Experimental Mixed Reality explores how virtual and sensory media transform physical space through mobile devices, head-mounted displays, and other spatial computing technologies. Students experiment with artistic strategies for augmenting bodies, objects, and environments, revealing hidden dimensions and choreographing hybrid encounters.

The course emphasizes experimental and DIY approaches to mixed reality, introducing accessible creative coding, web-based tools, and 3D scanning alongside selective use of commercial platforms. Projects may include site-responsive augmented reality, virtual environments, or performances and installations that move between physical and virtual space.

Mixed reality practices are situated within contemporary art through artists such as Mark Skwarek, Nancy Baker Cahill, Tamiko Thiel, Tender Claws, and Claudia Hart. No prior experience with mixed reality or coding is required.

Through lectures, readings and demos this studio class will focus on the use of e-textiles in art, design and fashion, with a focus on user-centered design, fashion applications, and embodied, tactile and sensory e-textiles with the potential for therapeutic, stimulating and engaging applications. Topics will include different types of sensing systems for stretchable/flexible/soft textiles with compatible sensors and electronics, as well as the opportunities and challenges of e-textiles in the areas of fashion and interior design. The class will cover reliability, sustainability and future trends. Professional practice field trips within the Chicago region will cover developing ventures in technology, art or wearables.
Students will be introduced to techniques for building electronic components using non-traditional and soft materials and programming for Arduino to integrate sensors into expressive forms, expand their understanding of wearable technology history through readings and artists working at the intersection of technology and the body and improve their ability to synthesize ideas and to see a project through from research to final presentation and to consider the best form of presentation.
Readings, lectures and screenings will vary.

Example of suggested readings:
Haptics by Lynette Jones, 2018
Smart Textiles: fundamentals, design, and interaction by Stefan Schneegass (University of Stuttgart) and Oliver Amft (University of Passau), 2017
Crafting Wearables: blending technology with fashion by Sibel Deren Guler, et al., 2016
Wearing Embodied Emotions: a practice based design research on wearable technology by Secil Ugur, 2013

Course work includes weekly reading responses, a mid-term, and a final project. Students can expect to produce a body of work consisting of 3-5 finished pieces during the semester.
Departmental consent required: junior level and up preferred.
Please send brief paragraph why you wish to take this course, portfolio 5-10 images of work relevant to this class, and a list of classes you have taken in fashion and/ or art & technology.

Through lectures, readings and demos this studio class will focus on the use of e-textiles in art, design and fashion, with a focus on user-centered design, fashion applications, and embodied, tactile and sensory e-textiles with the potential for therapeutic, stimulating and engaging applications. Topics will include different types of sensing systems for stretchable/flexible/soft textiles with compatible sensors and electronics, as well as the opportunities and challenges of e-textiles in the areas of fashion and interior design. The class will cover reliability, sustainability and future trends. Professional practice field trips within the Chicago region will cover developing ventures in technology, art or wearables.
Students will be introduced to techniques for building electronic components using non-traditional and soft materials and programming for Arduino to integrate sensors into expressive forms, expand their understanding of wearable technology history through readings and artists working at the intersection of technology and the body and improve their ability to synthesize ideas and to see a project through from research to final presentation and to consider the best form of presentation.
Readings, lectures and screenings will vary.

Example of suggested readings:
Haptics by Lynette Jones, 2018
Smart Textiles: fundamentals, design, and interaction by Stefan Schneegass (University of Stuttgart) and Oliver Amft (University of Passau), 2017
Crafting Wearables: blending technology with fashion by Sibel Deren Guler, et al., 2016
Wearing Embodied Emotions: a practice based design research on wearable technology by Secil Ugur, 2013

Course work includes weekly reading responses, a mid-term, and a final project. Students can expect to produce a body of work consisting of 3-5 finished pieces during the semester.
Departmental consent required: junior level and up preferred.
Please send brief paragraph why you wish to take this course, portfolio 5-10 images of work relevant to this class, and a list of classes you have taken in fashion and/ or art & technology.

Color is essential for artists and designers, carrying meaning and shaping choices in materials, techniques, and combinations. This course delves into color's physicochemical properties and its impact on light and human perception. Each session merges color theory with hands-on creative experimentation. Participants will explore color sources from plants, minerals, animals, and synthetic materials, applying them to diverse surfaces to transform their meaning. Led by artist Jan Tichy and scientist Maria Boto, the course fosters creative growth by blending theoretical and scientific insights into color, broadening the scope of artistic research and conceptual color exploration.
This course will introduce artists and designers renowned for their use of specific coloring techniques, situating their work within a broader historical context. We will explore how contemporary creators, such as Atelier NL, have revived traditional coloring methods, while others, like Faber Futures, are pioneering the use of innovative materials. Additionally, we will examine the work of artists like Ann Veronica Janssens and Olafur Eliasson, whose practices focus on manipulating viewers' perception of color. The exploration of structural colors will begin with the traditional use of natural elements, such as feathers and insects, seen in the work of artists like Jan Fabre and Damien Hirst, and extend to cutting-edge innovations in color nanotechnology, exemplified by artists such as Anish Kapoor. As a visiting artist, we would like to invite Matthew Schreiber, who worked at Holographic Images after studies of holography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Royal College of Art in London, to talk to the students about use of holography in contemporary art.
Coursework will be based on weekly assignments involving readings and self-reflection on specific aspects of color. Students will actively apply their newly acquired knowledge to their experimental assignments. They will be encouraged to integrate the tools and concepts learned into their own practice, gradually developing a final project. 

This kinetics course will explore the activation of art projects with materials that flow, inflate, pump, pour and move in unique ways. Demonstrations will introduce: basic electronics, pneumatics, air-muscles, inflatables, pumps, motors, actuators and the necessary means to power these devices. This course will explore materials and their unique properties when activated by these processes. Students will learn various techniques to animate and control art projects, including the use of the Arduino micro-controller and sensors.
Throughout the course, screenings and readings will introduce students to artists who work with kinetics, robotics and related fields. Artists shown and discussed in class include: Theo Jansen, Rapheal Lozano-Hemmer, Chico Mac Murtrie, Rebecca Horn. Students will be introduced to organizations, galleries and networks that support this type of art work including ARS Electronica, Rhizome and Bitforms gallery.
A series of workshops and smaller assignments will expose students to the potentials of these devices and processes in art making. Next, students will develop projects that utilize one or more of the systems covered in class. Students will be guided in project proposal development where ideas will be explored in group discussions. Mechanical and electronic fabrication techniques will be further explored through project development. Completed projects will be evaluated in group critiques.

Computer vision allows machines to see and understand their environment. This course will equip students with the practical skills and critical theory needed to both employ and critically engage these techniques. Processing images and video with code, real-time body tracking and object detection with machine learning will be emphasized. Techniques and concepts are presented through the creative coding library p5.js, and through node-based tools like TouchDesigner. Students will explore and critique contemporary applications ranging from automated mass surveillance to interactive installations. A final project will build on in-class workshops, technical exercises, critical readings and discussions.

Light is a material that can be shaped to express ideas, create experiences and increase the communicative potential of objects and spaces. Through a combination of lectures, demos, fields trips and most of all, hands-on lab work, students develop a degree of self sufficiency in the design, construction and prototyping of illuminated objects, physical graphics and environmental lighting. Students learn basic electronic and electrical circuit design, lamp specification and experiment with illumination technologies including incandescent, LED and cold cathode (neon).

In this course we will work in collaborative teams to produce projects to enter the first annual Biodesign Challenge, a competition to envision the future of synthetic biology.

Synthetic biology is the design and construction of life itself; the engineering of living organisms as biological machines. The field consists of scientists, industries, artists, and citizens using known fundamentals governing how biology works on a submicro-level in order to create meaningful alterations to how life functions. This hybrid studio/science course will introduce students to the theory and techniques of microbial genetic engineering while placing it in a larger cultural, ethical and artistic context. Students will learn and explore the basics of biology of all living organisms with an emphasis on single celled organisms, supported by lab work with bacterial cultures, DNA extraction and manipulation, polymerase chain reaction and gel electrophoresis. Fluency with these lab techniques will enable critical consideration of research and experimentation in biological science and in art and design. Studio projects will focus on designing systems and experiments to utilize this technology conceptually and creatively.

The course will culminate in a design summit in New York City, an exhibition of winning projects, and a publication in print and online.

Drawing Machines is a studio course that introduces the use of mechanical apparatus and digital technology to produce drawings, paintings and sequential images. Course participants will experiment with ways that their creative expression can be produced using rules based systems, chance operations and disembodied practices. These methods of translation will be used as starting places for studio based outcomes using pen plotters, CNC machines and other mechanical devices. Prior experience with digital modes of making is useful but not required.
Drawing Machines will explore both historical and contemporary developments in technology that have made it possible for artists, designers and architects to use mechanical devices to express their ideas and produce images. Readings, screenings and examples will engage course participants with a range of critical and theoretical positions towards machine made and systems based forms of production. Artists will include Alberto Aguilar, Arno Beck, Daniel Catt, Sougwen Chung, Andee Collard, fingacode, Licia He, Jean-Pierrre Hébert, Eva Hesse, Carl Lostritto, Jennifer McCoy, Manfred Mohr, Vera Molnár, Wangechi Mutu, Lisa Orth, Casey Reas, Marcelo Soria Rodríguez, Sonia Sheridan, Maksim Surguy, Sol Le Witt, Emily Xie and more.
Course participants will produce a body of work drawn from their personal creative interests using analog rules based systems, coded instructions and machine made outcomes.

This project-based course explores empathy and discovery through the framework of the posthuman, drawing from the diverse disciplines that define this field. By examining the core concepts of posthumanism, students often gain new perspectives on what it means to be human, the nature of humanity under threat, and the vital lessons we can glean from non-human life forms. Conceptual inspiration for projects will come from survival systems, body modification, and our non-human sentient relatives. Project possibilities are extensive, ranging from functional exoskeletons to screen-based avatar performances and abstract works. Students will present proposals in the second class meeting and will complete one or two fully realized projects using technology-based media. Past student work has included wearable instruments, perception-altering animal-hybrid suits, and anti-gravity animations.

Weekly readings will cover diverse topics such as embodiment, hybrid identities, body modification, contemporary medical advancements, and the concept of 'fleshy data.' Each class session is structured to include a lecture or presentation, a discussion or concept workshop, and dedicated project work time.

In this advanced setting, students of all technical proficiencies are welcome; big ideas paired with beginner skills are as supported as underdeveloped concepts with advanced skills. Robust support will be provided for students at every technical level.

Public Light and Space explores how artists use light to shape public environments, creating works that invite interaction, alter perception, and transform shared spaces. The course engages with histories and theories of public art while critically examining the dynamic role of light in selected movements and practices. Students will conceptualize and plan site-responsive projects for specific locations across Chicago, with attention to methods such as digital projection, controlled light sources, and light-responsive materials.

The course offers a distinctive opportunity: a collaboration with Public Sound & Space (led by Austen Brown) to produce new large-scale projection and sound works for Art on the Mart, the monumental projection site on the historic Merchandise Mart building. Each student team will design an original artwork to be exhibited nightly for six weeks, reaching an audience of nearly 300,000 viewers.

A sequence of technical workshops supports skill development, while visiting artists, critics, and community members provide feedback throughout the creative process. The semester culminates in the public debut of student works on one of the world's largest projection canvases.

As a growing, hybrid form of art, experimental video games deal and intersect with themes of politics and society, architecture, design, storytelling; they subvert common commercial tropes of popular games, and more. Students will play, analyze, and discuss a variety of recent and older games, increase their literacy with the field, and apply the ideas learned in creating their own games or interactive digital artworks. Access to a Mac or Windows computer for playing and developing games is required. Workshops will be taught for the Twine and Unity 3D (C#) game creation tools. No prior experience required.

This course examines the impact of new technologies on the aesthetics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Issues explored in the course include the structure of synthetic pictorial spaces, creating art in a global scale, responding to images of pure light, the aesthetics of motion, behavior in virtual environments and the experience of interactive artworks. In some cases the emphasis is on a particular new medium and the multiple artistic approaches to it; in other cases, the emphasis is on particular artists and their experimental work. Main lecture topics include: Moholy-Nagy's work, early radio and the impact of auditory images, kinetic art, robotic art, telecommunication art, computer art, digital photography, virtual reality, telepresence, holographic art, and bio art Readings include texts by featured artists and historians including Dieter Daniels, Rudolf Frieling, Philip Auslander, as well as original texts by the instructor. Course work will include weekly reading assignments, in-class discussions, a midterm research proposal, a 15-page research paper, and a final presentation.

This seminar focuses on the presentation of technological and sound works in exhibition and live performance contexts. It is a required seminar for second-semester AT/SP graduate students. Students will develop skills for presenting their work in a professional manner to maximize the public's encounter with media installations, live performances with media and/or sound components, video/sound screenings or installations, conceptual art works, and alternative curatorial scenarios.
We will survey a number of artists' works specifically as they were presented in exhibitions or events, and include visiting professionals who are experts in exhibition installation, media arts presentation, and live performance production. We will specifically draw on SAIC staff for these expertise.
Students will present their work and that of others in small- and large-group exhibitions and presentations both on and off campus.

This seminar focuses on the presentation of technological and sound works in exhibition and live performance contexts. It is a required seminar for second-semester AT/SP graduate students. Students will develop skills for presenting their work in a professional manner to maximize the public's encounter with media installations, live performances with media and/or sound components, video/sound screenings or installations, conceptual art works, and alternative curatorial scenarios.
We will survey a number of artists' works specifically as they were presented in exhibitions or events, and include visiting professionals who are experts in exhibition installation, media arts presentation, and live performance production. We will specifically draw on SAIC staff for these expertise.
Students will present their work and that of others in small- and large-group exhibitions and presentations both on and off campus.

This course is meant to provide an informal critical backdrop for those working within the broad range of art and technology. Students meet once a week to present and discuss their work. The faculty leader facilitates the dialog, which is designed to aid students to formulate their ideas and articulate a critique of their own work as well as that of their peers.

In this interdisciplinary Graduate Kinetics and Robotics Workshop course, the main focus is on student development of independent creative research of robotic or kinetic projects, in a setting where students can receive structured group feedback. Early on in the semester, grads will give 20 min artist presentations introducing their practice to the class. Throughout the semester, there would be scheduled individual advising sessions. Additionally, during the semester there will be focused technical workshops driven by the needs of the graduate student¿s creative research. The whole class will come together in scheduled sessions for two structured group critiques of each student¿s artwork. This workshop focuses on your studio work, challenging the way you research, make, present and discuss artwork.

Research will be supported by screenings and readings on various artists working in this genre including artists such as Choe U-Ram, Chico Mac Murtrie, Rapheal Lozano-Hemmer. As well as writings from Donna Haraway, and contemporary and historical selections from Leonardo Journal. Additionally, we will look at outcomes from major annual international exhibitions including; ARS Electronica and ISEA, and explore strategies for applying to these venues. Required visiting artists talks and gallery or museum visits will further enrich the course dialogue.

Assignments will include readings and online research, artist presentations. Students are expected to participate in a robust discussion around motion-based art. This course will provide the freedom of independent creative exploration framed in the context of developing a robotic or kinetic art project. Each student will be required to develop a creative project that engages concepts and ideas discussed within the course. Students will present these projects for critique throughout the semester.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.