Lecture/workshop slides and wiki for Unit 1 of the Creative Computing Institute's 2020/2021 Diploma in Creative Computing.

Information

• All term dates - N.B. if you are doing a degree at UAL you are in Higher Education.
• Lecturer: Joel Gethin Lewis.
• Location: Creative Computing Institute, Camberwell, London and online!
• Contact me via the UAL Creative Computing Institute Slack.
• Weekly teaching times:
  • Week 1 of the 3 week rotation:
    • In person session 1: Monday 1000-1300.
    • In person session 2: Monday 1400-1700.
    • In person session 3: Tuesday 1000-1300 (taught by Alice Stewart).
  • Weeks 2 and 3 of the 3 week rotation:
    • Remote sessions: Monday 1000-1300.
• You are expected to undertake independent study of about 25 hours per week - spread across all the courses you are taking in the Diploma.
• Tutorials take place every Tuesday. These tutorials are for you to discuss anything you'd like - from the how the course is going, to your own practice, to work placements or anything else. My aim is to have at least two tutorials with every student on the diploma every term.
  • Remote session 1: Tuesdays 1000-1300.
  • Remote session 2: Tuesdays 1400-1700.
  • Please see the Unit 1 Wiki Tutorial Schedule for details of when your next tutorial will be.
• If your next tutorial is too far away, or you have a more urgent question, please message me on the UAL Creative Computing Institute Slack first, then see the Unit 1 Wiki Office Hours for details of my office hours, where you can book yourself in for a chat about anything you'd like. My office hours are every Friday from 0900-1100.
• Unit 1 Moodle - see the Unit 1 Moodle for links to pre-recorded lectures as well as Blackboard links to our remote teaching sessions.
• Lecture and Workshop slides
• Please see the Unit 1 Wiki for all non-lecture notes, reading lists and other resources.
• STOP PRESS! Take a look at the student/crowd sourced set of notes on all of Block 1.

Code of Conduct

You can find the UAL Disciplinary Code For Students here: Disciplinary Code For Students.

You can find our code of conduct here: code_of_conduct.md, it was cloned from [https://github.com/processing/p5.js/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md](the p5.js code of conduct).

Golan Levin also offers a useful thought from his children's school:

When communicating, ask yourself:

• T – is it True?
• H – is it Helpful?
• I – is it Inspiring?
• N – is it Necessary?
• K – is it Kind?

Block/Term Structure

The Diploma in Creative Computing is split into two blocks of teaching. Block 1 takes up the entire Autumn term and half of the Spring term. Block 2 follows on, taking the second half of Spring term and the entire Summer term.

Block 1 consists of three units:

• Unit 1: Creative Coding and Creative Computing Frameworks - taught by me and Alice Stewart.
• Unit 2: Introducing Computational Futures and Artificial Intelligence - taught by Alex Fefegha and Dr. Rebecca Fiebrink.
• Unit 3: Creative Practice: Visual Coding and Physical Computing - taught by Indira Knight and Alice Stewart.

In addition, Vali Lalioti will be supporting the online Diploma cohort for all units.

Block 2 consists of three units:

• Unit 4: Coding for Collaborative App Development - taught by me and Alice Stewart.
• Unit 5: Working and the Digital Creative Industries - taught by Alex Fefegha.
• Unit 6: Creative Practice: Computational Environments - taught by Indira Knight and Alice Stewart.

In addition Vali Lalioti will be supporting the online Diploma cohort for all units.

Learning Outcomes and platforms for doing so

Please read UAL's guidance for students on how they will be assessed. TLDR: you will be assessed on the following 5 assessment criteria (quoting from UAL's page):

1. Enquiry
   • Enquiry is about active learning and reflection. It’s how you explore, research and learn about your subject. Enquiry is central to all creative learning at UAL.
2. Knowledge
   • Knowledge is about gathering information and enhancing understanding. It’s how you inform your work, explore diverse cultures and connections and appreciate what you do in a wider context.
3. Process
   • Process is about your journey of learning. It’s how you take risks and experiment. And how you keep the creative momentum going — developing ideas from start to finish.
4. Communication
   • Communication is about telling the story of your learning and making. It’s how you share your learning with an audience, presenting and explaining your work to different people.
5. Realisation
   • Realisation is about the work you create and how this reveals what you’ve learned. It’s taking a look back and evaluating the work you’ve produced.

At the end of this block (midway through the 2021 Spring term) you should have the following outcomes, with subheadings for methods and platforms we will use to do so. To be clear, I want you to obtain knowledge and then use that to make projects. My aim is to have every student graduate with new creative computing core knowledge and a portfolio of projects that relate that new creative computing knowledge to their chosen BA subject elsewhere at University of the Arts London (UAL).

Unit 1 / Block 1: "Creative coding and creative computing frameworks"

1. Code creative computing assets in relevant languages (Knowledge, Process)

• JavaScript
• C++

2. Understand the use of key frameworks for creative computing (Knowledge, Process)

• p5.js
• openFrameworks

3. Use online tools to collaborate and support your creative computing projects (Enquiry, Communication)

• Slack
• p5.js editor
• GitHub

Teaching Style

I'll be teaching with a Flipped Classroom style. Simply put, I want to spend as much time working through problems and discussing together, rather than you listening to me lecture. Each teaching session will be structured in the following way:

• Hour 1: Explore/engage - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
• Hour 2: Experiment/play - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from the upcoming Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain.
• Hour 3: Watch/listen - absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me, in preparation for next weeks session.

You are expected to undertake independent study of 25 hours per week over the three units that you will be taught every block.

Assessment

At the end of Block 1 (halfway through the Spring Term) and at the end of Block 2 (at the end of the Summer Term), you will be assessed individually. The two units I teach (Unit 1 and Unit 4) are assessed in the same way:

Both units will be assessed in the same two ways - via multiple choice test and practical exam. Each part is worth 50% of the unit mark. In the multiple choice test you will be presented with a 20 questions relating explicitly to course content. You must choose between up to 4 potentially correct answers per question. You will be given 1 hour to complete the 20 multiple choice questions. In the Practical Exam you will be individually asked to write a basic program to demonstrate the application of creative coding to a set problem. You will be given 2 hours to complete the Practical Exam.

You can find last year's Unit 1 Multiple Choice test here and last year's Unit 1 Practical exam here. You can find last year's Unit 4 Multiple Choice test here.

Units 2 and 5 are assessed via an essay.

Units 3 and 6 are assessed via the submission of a 5 minute video and accompanying PDF document.

Experiment/Play exercises

In addition to the formal assessment at the end of Blocks 1 and 2, we will be participating in weekly Experiment/play workshops. We will discuss and work on the weekly exercises in groups of three on Monday afternoons during the Experiment/play hour. The weekly Experiment/play exercises won't be assessed, but will be in your interest to complete.

The Experiment/play exercises will be based on excerpts from the upcoming Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain.

This of idea of small technical exercises was inspired by Caitlin Morris and her advice:

Remind students that technical exercises can be the root of a bigger idea. I’ve had students submit small sketches along with their introductory exercises under the prompt of “if I worked on this for another month/year, what could it become?”. Some really beautiful ideas emerge and I’ve found that it makes students more concept-attentive in their weekly projects, as well as providing some groundwork for larger final projects.

~~Throughout the term, you will be working in pairs. This is a technique known as Pair Programming. You may change pair partner as often or sparingly as you like.~~

Following the latest research, I've decided to shift us from pairs to threes. After all, three is a magic number.

Block 1, Unit 1 schedule:

Week 1 - Monday 19th October 2020 (week 43 of 53) - In person learning 1 - Introduction

• 1000-1300 - Session 1 for Group A and Group Online, taught by me.

• 1400-1700 - Session 2 for Group B, taught by me.

• 1000-1300 (the day after, Tuesday) - Session 3 for Group C, taught by Alice Stewart.

• Hour 1: Introduction lecture - use the Unit 1 Moodle to watch my pre-recorded introduction lecture on the course, creative coding, JavaScript and specifically p5.js. Slides for reference.

• Hour 2: Introduction workshop - signing up for websites, introducing yourselves and having a discussion about the unit and course.

• Hour 3: Watch/listen 1 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on Counting and Remembering, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 2 - Monday 26th October 2020 (week 44 of 53) - Remote learning - Counting and Remembering

• 1000-1100: Explore/engage 1 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
• 1100-1200: Experiment/play 1 - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture and our discussion in the previous hour - exploring p5.js website, forum, reference and examples.
• 1200-1300: Watch/listen 2 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on Drawing and Colouring, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 3 - Monday 2nd November 2020 (week 45 of 53) - Remote learning - Drawing and Colouring

• 1000-1100: Explore/engage 2 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
• 1100-1200: Experiment/play 2 - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from the upcoming Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Color (sic) exercises and Graphic Elements exercises.
• 1200-1300: Watch/listen 3 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on Deciding, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 4 - Monday 9th November 2020 (week 46 of 53) - In person learning 2 - Deciding

• 1000-1300 - Session 1 for Group A and Group Online, taught by me.

• 1400-1700 - Session 2 for Group B, taught by me.

• 1000-1300 (the day after, Tuesday) - Session 3 for Group C, taught by Alice Stewart.

• Hour 1: Explore/engage 3 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.

• Hour 2: Experiment/play 3 - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from the upcoming Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Conditional Testing exercises.

• Hour 3: Watch/listen 4 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on Repeating, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 5 - Monday 16th November 2020 (week 47 of 52) - Remote learning - Repeating

• 1000-1100: Explore/engage 4 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
• 1100-1200: Experiment/play 4 - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from the upcoming Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Iteration Exercises.
• 1200-1300: Watch/listen 5 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on Listing and Randomising, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 6 - Monday 23rd November 2020 (week 48 of 53) - Remote learning - Listing and Randomising

• 1000-1100: Explore/engage 5 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
• 1100-1200: Experiment/play 5 - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from the upcoming Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Arrays exercises and Unpredictability exercises.
• 1200-1300: Watch/listen 6 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on Timing, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 7 - Monday 30th November 2020 (week 49 of 53) - In person learning 3 - Timing

• 1000-1300 - Session 1 for Group A and Group Online, taught by me.

• 1400-1700 - Session 2 for Group B, taught by me.

• 1000-1300 (the day after, Tuesday) - Session 3 for Group C, taught by Alice Stewart.

• Hour 1: Explore/engage 6 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.

• Hour 2: Experiment/play 6 - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from the upcoming Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Time and Interactivity exercises.

• Hour 3: Watch/listen 7 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on Classing, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 8 - Monday 7th December 2020 (week 50 of 52) - Remote learning - Classing

• 1000-1100: Explore/engage 7 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
• 1100-1200: Experiment/play 7 - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from the upcoming Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Text and Language exercises.
• 1200-1300: Watch/listen 8 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on Images and Simulating, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 9 - Monday 14th December 2020 (week 51 of 53) - Remote learning - Images and Simulating

• 1000-1100: Explore/engage 8 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
• 1100-1200: Experiment/play 8 - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture, our discussion in the previous hour and excerpts from the upcoming Code as Creative Medium: An educator's handbook by Golan Levin and Tega Brain - Images exercises and Simulation exercises.
• 1200-1300: Watch/listen 9 - used the course Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on Exams, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 10 - Monday 11th January 2021 (week 2 of 52) - Remote learning - mock exams

• 1000-1100: Explore/engage 9 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
• 1100-1200: Experiment/play 9 - mock programming challenge and mock multiple choice exam issued.
• 1200-1300: Watch/listen 10 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on openFrameworks and C++, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 11 - Monday 18th January 2021 (week 3 of 52) - Remote learning - introduction to openFrameworks and C++

• 1000-1100: Explore/engage 10 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
• 1100-1200: Experiment/play 10 - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture and our discussion in the previous hour.
• 1200-1300: Watch/listen 11 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on Computer Vision in openFrameworks, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 12 - Monday 25th January 2021 (week 4 of 52) - Remote learning - introduction to Computer Vision in openFrameworks

• 1000-1100: Explore/engage 11 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
• 1100-1200: Experiment/play 11 - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture and our discussion in the previous hour.
• 1200-1300: Watch/listen 12 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on where next, in preparation for next weeks session. Slides for reference.

Week 13 - Monday 1st February 2021 (week 5 of 52) - Remote learning - where next?

• 1000-1100: Explore/engage 12 - discuss the previous week's lecture, meditate, reflect, explain.
• 1100-1200: Experiment/play 12 - work on creative code exercises based on the previous week's lecture and our discussion in the previous hour.
• 1200-1300: Watch/listen 13 - use the Unit 1 Moodle to absorb a pre-recorded lecture from me on TBC. Slides for reference.

Further sessions are TBC, depending on multiple choice test and practical exam timings, and other unit's assessment timings.

Dedication

This unit is dedicated to the memory of JT Nimoy.

Thanks

Thanks to Alex Fefegha, Anna Troisi, Ben Kelly, Cathy Hoste, Charlotte Webb, Julia Makivic, Kenneth Lim, Matt Jarvis, Melisa Simpson, Phoenix Perry, Rebecca Fiebrink, Sheldon Brown, Tom Lynch, Eva Wilkinson, Vali Lalioti, Indira Knight, Alice Stewart, Ben Stopher, Mick Grierson, Georgina Capdevila Cano, Alan Warburton, Rebecca Ross, Jaap de Maat, Lauren McCarthy, Kyle McDonald, Jonathan Harris, Zach Lieberman, Jessica Bland, Rick Walker, Graham Bennett, Toby Milner-Gulland, Liam Walsh, Golan Levin, Greg Smith, Mark Lundin, Xiaohan Zhang, Lia, Joshua Goldberg, Rosa Menkman, Daniel Shiffman, Tega Brain, Caitlin Morris, Harri Lewis and Rune Madsen.