Digital Currents Take 2
(Summer 2009)
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Digital Currents Take 2 |
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Instructor: John Flynt Teaching Assistants: John Hart, Yulia Kushner, Carolyn Michaels, and Graham Roberts Administrative concerns: Marcia Flynt (303-492-4974) Location: ECCR 143 |
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The camp begins on July 6 and goes Monday through Friday until July 17.
The day begins at 12:30 pm. Each session lasts until 3:30. Credit for the summer is contingent upon daily attendance and completion of projects. Be on time. Be ready to go to work and have fun.
Each daily work session is divided into three parts. (See the illustated schedule.) One part involves graphical arts. Another involves math. A third involves programming. For each project, you start by familiarizing yourself with the project and exploring the art and mathematics related to it. The mathematics you work with focuses on the application. When you work on ActionScript, you explore how to add behavior to the project's art or extend the mathematics associated with the project. Likewise, you can extensively modify the art associated with a project.
There are four central projects for the session. During the first week, you work with the first two. During the second week, you work with the final two. Everyone in the camp must develop a version of each of the projects. In addition to the primary projects, there are four others that you may work on if you have completed the other projects and want to extend your experiences.
As you go, you find the project that interests you most. You designate this as your final project. You can work on this project more extensively than the others, applying skills you have learned as an artist, a mathematician, and a programmer, to enhance it.
After you complete your final project, you turn your work over to the instructor, who will post it in the Projects page of the program website. (See the link below.) Your project will then be available for display during the final day of the camp, when a special session will be added and you can present your work to friends or family. During this session, you will be able to demonstrate your work and explain the concepts, skills, and techniques you have dealt with.
Everyone must choose and present a final, so from the first day on think about what interests you most and what you find easiest and most rewarding to work with. When you choose a final project, you must complete a specification sheet for it. The specification sheet allows you to write brief discussions of you concept, the math you have used, the programming you have applied, and the art you have developed.
Since there are four projects and nearly four times that many participants in the camp, those who have chosen the same project are free to compare notes or work in tendem. The purpose of the teams is not to create group projects but to allow you to work along side others who have chosen the same project for morphing.
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| Date | Agenda |
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| Monday, July 6 | Introduction to the Digital Currents |
| Tuesday, July 7 | Population Doubling |
| Wednesday, July 8 | Population Doubling |
| Thursday, July 9 | Slopes, Pythagoras, and Physics |
| Friday, July 10 | Slopes, Pythagoras, and Physics |
| Monday, July 13 | Ice Melting |
| Tuesday, July 14 | Probability |
| Wednesday, July 15 | Begin Final Project Specification |
| Thursday, July 16 | Catch Up, Refine, Review, Morph |
| Friday, July 17 | Finish Final Project, Practice Presentation |
| ------- | Optional Additonal Work |
To complete this camp successfully, daily attendance is required, along with completion of each of the labs and the arcade project.
Try to work along with the instructor and keep in tune with what others in the camp are doing. Complete the projects as instructed. Stay within the context of the labs rather than trying to do anything from scratch. One of the objectives of the class is to allow you to explore what "morphing" is about. If you are interested in Flash game development, for example, it is standard practice for developers and artists to work from a pre-existing game to a new, morphed, version.
The University of Colorado provides a solid set of policies regarding the conduct of classes. If you have any concerns at all that fall into this area, please talk with the instructor. Keep in mind that courtesy is important, and any type of substance abuse within the classroom is not acceptable. Your experiences at camp should be pleasant and relaxed, so if anything is bothering you about anything, let the instructor know. Generally, come to the camp to participate, be productive, have fun, and learn.
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The Digital Arcade provides a place in which you can display the project you select as you key project for the camp. Use the progress sheet to record your accomplishments on each project. |
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There are a total of eight starter projects for the camp.
The components for the camp are as follows:
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Population Doubling Level 1 Application |
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The specification is a document you produce that formally presents both a preliminary version of your presentation and a plan for your final days of development activity. It is a plan for how to take one of the starter applications and turn it into an individualized artifact, one that gives expression to your artistic visions, mathematical understanding, and programming skills. As a preliminary version of the presentation, the specification allows you to develop ideas concerning a manifesto, applied mathematics, art, and programming. As a plan of action, it lays out the scope of your activities during the final days of the camp. You must complete this document before you proceed with the final phase of activity, and your instructors must give their approval to it. |
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