Kristin McWharter

A class to develop games and immersive media experiences that reflect your creative voice. Over 15 weeks, 'Intro to Games and Immersive Media' introduces a broad range of analog and digital game design techniques spanning from table top to virtual reality games. This course introduces students to game-making as a form of artistic practice, teaching foundational techniques and tools to develop analog and digital games that reflect their own creative voice and vision. No previous game-making skills are required, but students with an interest in games, or augmented and virtual reality technologies, will be guided through aesthetic and technical foundations in various aspects of game design and immersive media.
By the end of the semester, students will have created complete games or immersive media artworks ready to present in their portfolio.
Readings and screenings will vary but typically include Mary Flanagan, Eric
Zimmerman and Katie Salen Tekinbas.
Course work will vary but typically includes weekly reading responses, a mid-term, and a group final project. Students can expect to complete several exercises that explore a number of gaming media including working with game engines such as Unity or Unreal, character development and animation and motion capture. Students will complete a final culminating project in the form of a game or immersive media artwork.

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 studio course challenges students to rethink conventional ideas of 'the future' using design, gaming strategies, and visualization methods to create compelling alternatives. Through live-action role play (LARP) and guided reflection, students collaboratively design an emergent world over the course of a semester. Each session introduces new challenges, pushing students to respond to evolving scenarios while considering their ethical implications. The class combines LARP tools, game strategy, design principles, scenario planning, and speculative design to explore speculative ideas and create immersive, thought-provoking futures. The course structure is episodic, encouraging creative problem-solving and ethical engagement throughout.
Some of the artists/ designers/ futurists / studios we will study in this course include artist, researcher, game designer Carina Erdmann, artist and designer Ash Eliza Smith who employs storytelling, worldbuilding, and speculative design to craft new realities. Chris Woebken and Elliott Montgomery's Extrapolation Factory explores experiential futures through workshops and object visualizations. Stuart Candy, a futurist, also contributes to the field. We will review and discuss works such as *War Game*, a future-set simulation; Alternate Reality Games at UChicago with Fourcast Lab; and *Papers*, a playful LARP that explores corporate culture.
Course work will include weekly practical and research based assignments: students will develop visualizations of spaces, objects, or graphics that bring to life their proposals related to scenarios for the game scenario and gather knowledge of a range of new technologies and the future scenarios they imply.

This studio course challenges students to rethink conventional ideas of 'the future' using design, gaming strategies, and visualization methods to create compelling alternatives. Through live-action role play (LARP) and guided reflection, students collaboratively design an emergent world over the course of a semester. Each session introduces new challenges, pushing students to respond to evolving scenarios while considering their ethical implications. The class combines LARP tools, game strategy, design principles, scenario planning, and speculative design to explore speculative ideas and create immersive, thought-provoking futures. The course structure is episodic, encouraging creative problem-solving and ethical engagement throughout.
Some of the artists/ designers/ futurists / studios we will study in this course include artist, researcher, game designer Carina Erdmann, artist and designer Ash Eliza Smith who employs storytelling, worldbuilding, and speculative design to craft new realities. Chris Woebken and Elliott Montgomery's Extrapolation Factory explores experiential futures through workshops and object visualizations. Stuart Candy, a futurist, also contributes to the field. We will review and discuss works such as *War Game*, a future-set simulation; Alternate Reality Games at UChicago with Fourcast Lab; and *Papers*, a playful LARP that explores corporate culture.
Course work will include weekly practical and research based assignments: students will develop visualizations of spaces, objects, or graphics that bring to life their proposals related to scenarios for the game scenario and gather knowledge of a range of new technologies and the future scenarios they imply.

This seminar introduces topics, theories, strategies, and histories fundamental to the two complementary areas of Art + Technology / Sound Practices (AT/SP). Designed as an immersion into the department's intertwined legacies and curriculum, it is intended for first-year AT/SP graduate students, but open to all in the Graduate Program. The seminar is taught by two faculty who represent the AT and SP areas, each providing a focused approach in small-group settings.
Art + Technology: Hito Steyrel, Kelly Pendergrast, Jenny Odell, Wendy Chun, Antonio Negri, Raqs Media Collective, Olia Lialina,Trevor Paglan, Olia Lialina, Rafael Lozanno Hemmer, Micha Cardenas, Harun Farocki, Liam Gillick, Ian Cheng, Casey Reas, Auria Harvey, Stephanie Dinkins.
Sound: Samson Young, Mendi + Keith Obadike, Alvin Lucier, Eliane Radigue, Laetitia Sonami, Imai Norio, Christina Kubisch, Pamela Z, Cauleen Smith, Christoph Cox, George E. Lewis, Seth Kim-Cohen, Julia Eckhardt, Pierre Schaeffer, Jean-Luc Nancy, Joseph Grigely, Dylan Robinson.
Weekly readings and discussions are required, as well as informed responses to artists¿ works presented. students will present work for critique and fully particpate in critique sessions.

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.