NYU Steinhardt — MPAP Music Technology Program
Creating with Interactive Media
(graduate-level course, taught Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025)
A study of the principles and practice of interactive media; surveying strategies, aesthetics, techniques, and software. We will undertake a historical examination of the concept of interactivity through a mix of lectures, demonstrations, readings, viewings, listenings, student projects/presentations, class discussion, critique, and analysis of existing works. Assignments may cover contemporary forms of interactive media including video mixing, speaker diffusion, interactive web applications, gaming, and telepresence.
Week 1: Introduction
- Course Overview and Syllabus Review
- Discussion: Defining Interactivity; The Five Agents of Interactivity as Tools for Analysis
- Readings:
- Auslander, Philip – Introduction to Liveness: Performance in a Mediatised Culture (2008)
- Soler-Adillon, Joan – The Intangible Material of Interactive Art: Agency, Behavior, and Emergence
- Assignment: Written responses (see Brightspace for prompts)
Week 2: Sonic Augmented Reality
- Lecture: Soundscape, Field Recording, and Sound Walking
- Demo: Echoes.xyz
- Activity: Group discussions on sound walk locations and approaches
- Readings:
- Cox, Christoph and Christina Kubisch – Invisible Cities: Interview with Christina Kubisch (2006)
- Westerkamp, Hildegard – Soundwalking (2001)
- Russolo, Luigi – The Art of Noises (1913)
- Assignment: Group work outside of class
Week 3: Sonic Augmented Reality
- Activity: Meet in groups at sound walk locations; conceptualize your sound walk and assign tasks
- Assignment: Complete remaining group work outside of class
Week 4: Sonic Augmented Reality
- Activity: Share sound walks in class
- Readings and Written Response:
Reflection prompts: Control vs. Exploration, Virtuosity in Electronic Music
- Sonami, Laetitia – NIME Address at Goldsmiths (2014)
- Rebelo, Pedro – Haptic Sensation and Instrumental Transgression (2006)
- Moore, Richard F. – The Dysfunctions of MIDI (1988)
Week 5: Control/Exploration
- Lecture: Novel Controllers and Interfaces (Hands and Gloves)
- Demo: Prototyping interactions using MIDI and sensors/microcontrollers in Max
- Assignment: Explore Max video tutorials provided in Brightspace
Week 6: Control/Exploration
- Lecture: Exploratory Interfaces
- Demo: Intro to OSC, Wekinator for machine learning of gestural control
- Assignment: Create a prototype using inputs like MIDI, serial, OSC, or API data to control outputs (see Brightspace for details)
Week 7: Control/Exploration
- Activity: Share controller projects
- Demo: Jitter & Processing basics
- Assignment: Create a simple video mixer that interpolates between at least two effects in Max/MSP. Source original video content.
Week 8: Sound and Moving Image
- Lecture: Analog Light & Sound; Video Mixing; 3D Rendering; Web-based VR environments
- Demo: Complex video patch using Max/MSP/Jitter
- Assignment: Create a short video sketch, VR experience, or 3D-rendered object (due Week 9)
Week 9: Sound and Moving Image
- Activity: Share video projects
- Demo: API integration, p5.js & Node.js
- Assignment: Final project proposals (due Week 11)
Week 10: Final Project Development
- Discuss: Final project prompts and ideas
- Lecture: Ambisonics and spatial audio history
- Demo: Spatial audio in 7.1.4 in the MARL Audio Lab using Envelop for Live, ICST Ambisonics
Week 11: Final Project Proposals
- Discuss: Student project proposals (~10 minutes per student)
- Assignment: Work on final projects (due Week 14)
Week 12: Final Project Workshop
- Workshop: Group 1 projects
- Plan: Class concert (poster design, promotion, guest access form)
- Assignment: Prepare tech rider for final project (due Week 13)
Week 13: Final Project Workshop
- Workshop: Group 2 projects
- Plan: Class concert (tech check-in and logistics)
Week 14: Class Concert at 370 Jay St. Audio Lab
Enjoy your break!
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NYU Steinhardt — MPAP Music Technology Program
Advanced Computer Music Composition
(graduate-level course, taught Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024)
This course focuses on artistic creation with digital audio, honing both technical and aesthetic skills. Students work through exercises using a variety of platforms, learn to critique and help improve each other’s work, and explore unfamiliar techniques and styles to extend and enrich the idioms of their prior practice. Particular attention is paid to developing fluency with Max/MSP and Ableton Live. Students analyze landmark compositions from the history of computer music as well as contemporary electronic genres. Course culminates with a public performance of student work.
Week 1: Introduction and Course Overview
- Introductions, Course Overview, Syllabus Review
- Assignment:
- Download Max software
- Download example patch folder and check out examples
- Tutorial: The Absolute Basics Series by Andrew Robinson
Week 2: Synthesis
- Lecture: Early Synthesizer Designs, “East Coast” vs. “West Coast” Synthesis, Types of Synthesis (Additive, Subtractive, FM, WaveTable)
- Demo: Max Basics; Types of Synthesis Demonstrated in Max/MSP
- Discuss: Ideation & Iteration
- Assignment: Composition #1 due in two weeks (Week 4)
Week 3: Synthesis
- Studio B Demo: Hands-on learning with analog synthesizers
- Classroom Demo: Mocking up analog synthesis in Max/MSP
- Assignment: Continue Composition #1
Week 4: Control & Exploration
- Share: Composition #1
- Lecture: Control Types (MIDI, OSC, CV, Data Streams); Trading Control for Exploration; Artist Examples
Week 5: Control & Exploration
- Lecture/Demo 1: What is MIDI and How Do I Use It?
- Demo: Simple MIDI Controller Mapping in Ableton Live
- Lecture/Demo 2: Rebecca Fiebrink, Wekinator, and Collaborations with Laetitia Sonami
- Demo: Complex Controller Mapping Using MIDI Controller with Max/MSP and Wekinator
- Readings:
- Moore, Richard F. – The Dysfunctions of MIDI
- Rebecca Fiebrink and Laetitia Sonami – Eight Years
- Written Response: See Brightspace for prompt (due Week 6)
Week 6: Control & Exploration
- Demo: Syncing MIDI Clocks Across Ableton Live, Max/MSP, MIDI Controllers, and Hardware
- Assignment: Composition #2 – Control/Exploration (get a head start)
Week 7: Data Sonification & Biomusic
- Lecture/Demonstration: MIDI, OpenSoundControl (OSC), and Wekinator
- Assignment: Composition #2 – Control/Exploration (due Week 8)
Week 8: Recording & Sampling
- Share: Composition #2
- Demo: Intro to Data Sonification Using TwoTone.io
- Readings:
- Graves, Milford – Book of Tono-Rhythmology
- Dewar, Andrew – Alvin Lucier’s Music for Solo Performer
- Yoon, Soyoung – Do a Number: The Facticity of the Voice
- Written Response: See Brightspace for prompt
Week 9: Recording & Sampling
- Lecture/Demo 1: Data Sonification Using TwoTone.io and Weather Data with OpenWeather API and Node.js in Max/MSP
- Demo 2: Spatial Audio/Ambisonics Presentation Using Envelop for Live
- Assignment: Composition #3 – Data Sonification (due Week 10)
Week 10: Recording & Sampling
- Share: Composition #3
- Discuss: Final Project Assignment
- Readings:
- Oswald, John – Bettered by the Borrower: The Ethics of Musical Debt
- Cutler, Chris – The Road to Plunderphonia
- Smith, Sophy – From John Cage to Kool Herc: A Brief History of Turntablism
- Written Response: See Brightspace for prompt (due Week 11)
Week 11: Final Projects
- Guest Lecture: Geng PTP on Sampling and Artistry in NYC
- Assignment: Final Project Proposal (1-page written proposal, due Week 12)
Week 12: Final Projects
- Workshop: Final Projects in Progress
- Discuss: Tech Rider Requirements, Class Concert Promotion and Invitations
- Assignment: Continue working on final projects
Week 13: Final Projects
- Workshop: Final Projects
- Plan: Class Concert (Tech Check-In and Logistics)
- Assignment: Submit project update on Brightspace
Week 14: Final Projects
Assignment: Written Reflection (submit on Brightspace, due 1 week from concert)
Class Concert: Performances at 370 Jay St MARL Audio Lab
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