Douglas Rosman

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.

This studio course investigates the creative possibilities in programming, from interactivity to information visualization. Students explore software art, generative systems, simulations and emergent behaviors, interactive narratives, and other code-based forms. Lectures and demonstrations provide a conceptual, aesthetic and technical foundation in programming as a creative practice. Techniques and concepts are presented through the open-source web-based creative coding library p5.js, along with an introduction to HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Midterm and final projects will build on in-class workshops, technical exercises, critical readings and discussions.

This course explores what it means to engage in dialogue with an AI prompting system, focusing on the design of multi-modal interfaces and their effects on both the quality of interaction and the creation of prototypes and artifacts. Students will experiment with different 'languages' for AI communication, such as voice (tone, cadence, emotion), bodily gestures, and environmental factors (light, sound, humidity), as ways to influence¿and be influenced by¿AI behaviors. Through a series of hands-on experiments, the course navigates the space between biological ('human') and cultural ('AI') processes, offering new perspectives on hybrid outcomes co-generated by these interactions. The aim is to foster a critical understanding of emerging AI systems, positioning students to engage with AI thoughtfully rather than as a mere technological tool.
The course builds on Cultural and Feminist Studies, as a way to depart from the dichotomy human/AI, and move towards their understanding as entities that collaborate and promt each other. References include Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto, Langdon Winner's politics of artifacts, which addresses the ways in which technology embeds social and cultural values; Rosi Braidotti's work on Posthumanism. Theoretical foundations will be accompanied by the discussion of existing practices and past interactions, including the work of John Funge, Sherry Turkle, Meredith Broussard, and the study of other formats, linked to the design of bots for social media use.
Across the semester, there will be a range of assignment asking students to explore the impact of different non-normative `languages¿ -such as body, sight, the environment, on the crafting of new dialogic modes with AI.

This course explores what it means to engage in dialogue with an AI prompting system, focusing on the design of multi-modal interfaces and their effects on both the quality of interaction and the creation of prototypes and artifacts. Students will experiment with different 'languages' for AI communication, such as voice (tone, cadence, emotion), bodily gestures, and environmental factors (light, sound, humidity), as ways to influence¿and be influenced by¿AI behaviors. Through a series of hands-on experiments, the course navigates the space between biological ('human') and cultural ('AI') processes, offering new perspectives on hybrid outcomes co-generated by these interactions. The aim is to foster a critical understanding of emerging AI systems, positioning students to engage with AI thoughtfully rather than as a mere technological tool.
The course builds on Cultural and Feminist Studies, as a way to depart from the dichotomy human/AI, and move towards their understanding as entities that collaborate and promt each other. References include Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto, Langdon Winner's politics of artifacts, which addresses the ways in which technology embeds social and cultural values; Rosi Braidotti's work on Posthumanism. Theoretical foundations will be accompanied by the discussion of existing practices and past interactions, including the work of John Funge, Sherry Turkle, Meredith Broussard, and the study of other formats, linked to the design of bots for social media use.
Across the semester, there will be a range of assignment asking students to explore the impact of different non-normative `languages¿ -such as body, sight, the environment, on the crafting of new dialogic modes with AI.

'Artificial Intelligence' (AI) has infiltrated many corners of our lives. Once used primarily to identify, track, and predict things in the world, AI (a convenient shorthand for 'machine learning') has now become generative - producing images, language, and anything else that can be parsed as data. Through a hands-on curriculum, students will explore AI tools to create images, video, audio and more, and will approach these AI systems as tools to augment a creative practice, as well as a medium and material in themselves. This course foregrounds experimentation and play as a means to develop a critical understanding of AI and the ethical implications of its use in creative production (and beyond), engaging in discourse around ideas of authenticity, authorship, and labor. Ultimately, students will leave this class with a broad understanding of how AI operates in the world today, and what it means to incorporate this technology into a creative practice.
The course will be technically rigorous, emphasizing a broad exploration of generative AI tools including but not limited to: text-to-image models like Stable Diffusion, text-to-video, Large Language Models, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), and generative audio. Although having coding experience will benefit students, this course emphasizes flexibility with technology and software over coding proficiency. Readings and screenings will draw from the work of artists and thinkers like Sofia Crespo, Memo Akten, Mario Klingemann, Hito Steyerl, Trevor Paglen, Joy Buolamwini, Sarah Meyohas, Anna Ridler and Alex Mordvintsev who have been engaging critically with AI since the mid-2010s.
Students will work individually and collaboratively on smaller scale projects early in the semester, producing and sharing works each week. The course will culminate in a larger scale final project and critique. Students will also maintain a 'sketchbook' documenting their experiments and methods throughout the semester.

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.

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.