PROJECT STUDIOS

The Digital Media program offers studio courses in which students work in small groups on faculty-led long-term research projects in the Wesley New Media Center. Project Studio, LCC 6650, is a required course, carrying 3 credits and involving 9 hours of lab work and 1 hour of group seminar meeting per week. It can be taken once or multiple times. Admission to any particular section of Project Studio is by permission of instructor.

Project Studios from 2011

ADAM Lab Project Studio

Assistant Professor Brian Magerko

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN FALL

The ADAM Lab this year will be focusing on " Creativity and Cognition" in spirit with the locally hosted 2011 ACM Creativity & Cognition. We will be focusing on two main projects this term, with the potential for related but tangential, student-led work:

Digital Improvisation

The Digital Improv Project is a multi-year study of the human cognition involved in improvisation and pretend play. This work focuses on employing cognitive psychology techniques to study real world improvisational behaviors. This study, in turn, is employed to inform the design and development of computational systems that can improvise with an interactive narrative setting. This work resulted in a digital improv piece, called Party Quirks, to be accepted and showcased at the 2011 Chicago Improv Festival.

Computational Remixing: Using Hip Hop Remixing to Teach Computer Science)

This work is an approach to engage and retain African-Americans in computing using music composition for the contextualization of computing practices. Will will begin the development of an audio composition environment, called EarSketch, which will enable high school students to create computational remixes (i.e. musical compositions that are comprised of code snippets that manipulate small musical samples and beats). This approach with its focus on hip hop remixes may (a) sidestep the cultural issues that computer games have had in the engagement of minorities and therefore be more successful in engaging these constituencies; (b) make computational music more accessible to those without classical training by operating on the more accessible hierarchical level of "loops" and "beats" as opposed to the finer-grained note and event level of classical Western composition; and (c) allow students to create culturally relevant artifacts that have a deep meaning to them.

Cultural heritage for/with Argon, an Augmented Reality Browser

Professor Jay Bolter

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN FALL

website

This Project Studio offers students the opportunity to explore the creative dimensions of an emerging technology: the "Augmented-Reality(AR) Browser." AR browsers are emerging as a new paradigm for mobile media design and delivery.Our research group, the Augmented Environments Lab (AEL), is developing a new browser and web infrastructure for the iPhone and eventually many other smart-phone platforms. AR is one of the key disruptive information technologies for the next decade, and the work of AEL is on the cutting edge of this trend.

Digital World & Image Group Studio

Assistant Professor Michael Nitsche

Interaction is a multi-layered and creative act of performance and self-expression. This project studio will concentrate on the expressive actions at work in interfaces and digital things. We will discuss, analyze, and form objects and ideas that apply concepts from Performance Studies to digital works. The course depends on theory, active critique, shared design, and practical implementation. To support a practice-based investigation, we will collaborate with art/ education partners who will serve as "clients" for our design studies. The studio is laid out for one year, and students are encouraged to register for the full duration. In practice, we will target to implement 2-3 proof-of-concept-prototypes.

Emergent Game Group Project Studio

Assistant Professor Celia Pearce

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN FALL

website

The Emergent Game Group {egg} was formed in 2006 by Georgia Tech Digital Media faculty member Celia Pearce to study the many facets of emergent cultures in multiplayer games and virtual worlds, and to explore design strategies that promote emergent social behavior. We frame our work as "design research," which integrates methods and theories from sociology and anthropology into design practice.

The {egg} is housed in the Experimental Game Lab on the first floor of the Technology Square Research Building.

eTV Project Studio

Professor Janet Murray

website

The eTV Project Studio for Fall 2011 will focus on two interrelated projects that build upon past work and are aimed at defining what interactive TV will look like 5 years from now:

1.Identifying interaction schema: identifying emerging interaction patterns in existing and prototypical eTV applications and classifying them.
Useful Skills: HCI/DM coursework/work experience; Writing and information organization; Media Studies coursework/media industry work experience

2.Prototyping of a new interactive TV application around particular content in partnership with a TV network (to be announced, but past examples include ABC, CNN Headline News, Cartoon Network, PBS).

Farming, Gardening, Foraging and The Internet of Things

Assistant Professor Carl DiSalvo

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN FALL

Small-scale farming, gardening, and alternative forms of agriculture such as foraging are receiving increased attention as complements or possible alternatives to industrial food production. At the same time, sensing technologies are becoming more accessible and the practices of sensing more familiar. This project studio sits at the confluence of these factors and explores the interaction design opportunities and issues of environmental sensing and the visualization of sensor data in the context of small-scale and alternative agriculture.

This project studio is designed to run over two semesters, with the first semester focusing on research and concept development and the second semester focusing on prototype development and documentation. If possible students should plan to take the project studio both fall and spring semester.

Synaesthetic Media Lab

Assistant Professor Alexandra (Ali) Mazalek

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN FALL

website

Students explore the field of tangible and embodied interaction, making use of physical sensing and tabletop interaction technologies to support creativity and expression that bridges the physical and digital worlds. Applications range across media arts, entertainment, sciences and educational domains. Weekly group meetings are held in the Synlab space in TSRB 209.

The Philosophy of Sport

Professor Ian Bogost

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN FALL

In this project studio, we will read and discuss key texts in the philosophy and theory of sport, including works by Gumbrecht, Crawford, Elias and Dunning, and others, as well as shorter essays by a variety of authors, with a focus on pieces related to computing and sports, particularly. Students interested in digital media applications relating to sport will benefit from this opportunity to read and discuss these background materials. This course will be conducted in a seminar style, and students will be required to read a great deal, discuss complex texts in class, and write responses and reviews of these materials.

Project Studios from 2010

ADAM Lab

Assistant Professor Brian Magerko

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN SPRING

website

Adaptive Digital Media (ADAM) Lab has the following ongoing projects to be involved in for the Fall and Spring semesters:

Digital Improv: a multi-year study of the cognition involved in improvisational theatre and the construction of digital improvisational experiences based on our findings. Current work includes narrative theory and improv, building a mixed reality improv theatre (complete with AI actors!), further empirical study of human actors, and a new study of "computational play."

DM / HCI / CS / CM students interested in intelligent agents, digital performance, performance theory, UI design for communicating with AI actors, and / or cognitive science should consider joining.

Educational Media: involves multiple projects in creating educational experiences that employ AI techniques for creating personalized educational DM experiences. Projects include:

* adaptive serious games (e.g. collecting data on human players to better understand how to build games that change game mechanics during play)

* a virtual coach project in a training system for medical residents who deal with patients in the ER with substance abuse issues

* a project on exploring the relationship between virtual worlds, scientific practices in climate change research, and inquiry-based learning that is culminating in an educational tool for NASA for teaching high school science teachers about paleoclimatology research in coral reefs.

We are especially in need of a videographer interested in producing video content for instruction in the NASA virtual ecosystems project.

DM / HCI / CM students interested in educational media and theory, intelligent tutoring, Flash development, dialogue authoring, videography, and virtual worlds should consider joining.

Digital World & Image Group

Assistant Professor Michael Nitsche

website

The "Digital" has become a quality of our everyday environments. Our homes, shops, and workplaces have changed into hybrid locations as the field of Ubiquitous Computing emerged. The new technologies not only unlocked new functionalities for military, education, or medical improvements but also provide new opportunities for spatial subversion. There is a rich underworld of hybrid spatial qualities beyond usability.

The goal of this course is to find new subversive qualities of particular places with the help of Digital Media and exploit them. We will look for the instabilities, the blind corners and hidden doors that formed as Digital Media morphed into physical landscapes. Then we will try to design settings that enhance these new opportunities.

The proposed method is to consider all interaction with Digital Media as acts of self-expression and to approach our inter-actions in any location as hybrid performances. That is why this course will emphasize Performance Studies as the way to deal with Digital Media in those hybrid surroundings. Our work will follow three steps: 1) We investigate how Digital Media changed and subverted seemingly familiar environments; 2) We manipulate the digital side to highlight the performative elements in hybrid space; 3) We re-launch the new hybrid into the "real world." We will not focus on any particular technology, but given the growing importance of smartphones, Android-based projects are likely, as are discussions of AR and new interfaces.

The course will consist of readings drawn from Performance Studies, Media Studies, UbiComp, and related fields. It will feature weekly design challenges (which can be irritatingly obscure). The goal is to launch 2-3 prototypes, which will be developed in teamwork.

Augmented Environments Lab Projects

Professor Jay Bolter

website

Locative apps for/with the AEL Augmented Reality Browser

This Project Studio offers students the opportunity to explore the creative dimensions of an emerging technology: the “Augmented-Reality (AR) Browser.” AR browsers are emerging as a new paradigm for mobile media design and delivery. Our research group, the Augmented Environments Lab (AEL), is developing a new browser and web infrastructure for the iPhone and eventually many other smart-phone platforms. AR is one of the key disruptive information technologies for the next decade, and the work of AEL is on the cutting edge of this trend. We are particularly interested in students with a background in web technologies such as Javascript, CSS, and php. But all students with various media backgrounds are welcome.

EGL Experimental Game Lab

Assistant Professor Celia Pearce

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN SPRING

website

The Emergent Game Group focuses on the study and creation of multiplayer games with a special emphasis on emergent social behavior. We will be working on three projects for the 2010-2011 school year with activities in the following areas:

Mermaids: Underwater fantasy MMOG:

This experimental game is meant to promote emergent behavior. Current activities include:

Game Design

Art and Modeling (including texture art)

Programming (Language/Engine TBD)

Story/Culture Development

5 Boroughs/Ellis Island:

Historical role playing game about immigration during the early 20th Century:

Game Design

Art and Modeling (including texture art)

Programming (Language/Engine TBD)

Writing/Content and Quest Development

OLIVE Experimental MMOG Development

Georgia Tech has recently received a set of licenses to the OLIVE Virtual World development environment. We are looking for 1-2 people to help develop experimental content for this platform. Activities will include:

Game Design

Programming

2D art and texture art

Newsgames

Ian Bogost

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN SPRING

website

This project studio continues ongoing work in videogames and journalism. In previous years, this research has explored the ways games and news intersect, and among its outcomes are the book Newsgames, coauthored by Ian Bogost and Digital Media PhD students Simon Ferrari and Bobby Schweizer, as well as several design prototypes for future newsgames. Research in these areas will continue, but the primary focus of this year's project studio is Cartoonist, an authoring tool for cartoon-like current event games to be used on local newspaper or broadcast websites. It helps journalists and editors construct games that draw communities to their local papers and that inspires readers to explore traditional coverage of local issues online or in print, on an ongoing basis. Research activities will include analysis of game design patterns in classic arcade and console games, identifying and working with local news professionals and organizations, and designing and constructing the Cartoonist system.

Public Design Workshop

Assistant Professor Carl DiSalvo

Explorations in Project Documentation

In this project studio students will explore forms of digital media project documentation, working from materials generated through previous Public Design Workshop projects. Specifically, students will work with materials created from growBot Garden workshops and events, and create a variety of digital media artifacts documenting these workshops and events, including video, animation, websites, and posters. In addition to producing artifacts, students will engage in readings and review of a wide range of existing documentation practices across Design, Art, and research fields such as Human-Computer Interaction and Science and Technology Studies. This project studio is most appropriate for students with skills or the desire to develop skills in information and communication design.

Synaesthetic Media Lab Projects

Assistant Professor Alexandra (Ali) Mazalek

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN SPRING

website

Students explore the field of tangible interaction and physical sensing technologies through independent or group projects. Applications focus on the media arts, entertainment and educational domains. Weekly research group meetings are held in the Synlab space in TSRB 209. http://synlab.gatech.edu

Project Studios from 2009

Designing the City as Learning Lab: Explorations in Participatory Sensing

Assistant Professor Carl DiSalvo

Registration for Fall 2009: LCC 6650D (82845)

website

How will robotic and sensing technologies affect public life in the city and how might we critically and creatively interpret and intervene in the design and development process? These questions motivate the City as Learning Lab project. In this project studio we will design speculative and critical prototypes, toolkits, activities and events to support cooperative inquiry and participatory design on the topic of urban robotics and sensing. Activities will include: visual and interaction design of print and online media; the design of physical artifacts and interactive systems; the development of programs for informal learning and fostering D.I.Y prototyping and design; and field research with local communities. In addition to these activities, there will be weekly readings in both theory and practice, and all students will be expected to contribute towards research papers and/or presentations.

This Project Studio is designed along a two-semester timeline. Fall semester will be devoted to background readings and research and design. In the Spring semester we will deploy and assess our designed artifacts and systems with local communities.

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN SPRING

Journalism and Videogames

Ian Bogost

Registration for Fall 2009: LCC 6650I (86174)

website

This project studio conducts research on the intersection of games and journalism. Despite the changes introduced by the web, journalism remains mostly the same online. News sites still publish written stories similar to those inked onto newsprint. They upload video segments like those broadcast for television. They stream monologues and interviews like those sent over the radio airwaves. The tools that make the creation and dissemination of news possible have become simpler and more accessible, but the process remains similar: stories still have to be written and edited, films shot and cut, radio recorded and uplinked.

The purpose of this project studio is to survey, document, and analyze all the historical, contemporary, and potential ways that videogames (and game-like media) have or can contribute to journalistic practice. We will strive to understand both "journalism" and "games" in the widest way possible, including news, editorial, journalism education, even media disciplines like entertainment and fashion. Likewise, we will consider traditional videogames, emerging genres, trends, interface techniques, and interaction models.

Participants are welcomed who are interested in either games or journalism or both, or any related domain. With questions, please feel free to contact Professor Ian Bogost at ian.bogost@lcc.gatech.edu.

THIS COURSE IS ALSO OFFERED IN SPRING

Advanced Narrative Schema

Professor Ian Bogost

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN SPRING

website

Advanced Narrative Schema project is for PhD Students working on Quals, Dissertations, or research projects in the area of interactive narrative. The weekly meetings will provide a framework for discussing work in progress and for collective consideration of key theories and artifacts.

Focus is the representation of narrative elements in computational form, and the coherent presentation and navigation of multisequential and multiform stories.

Experimental TV&News

Professor Ian Bogost

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED IN SPRING

website

Experimental TV and News structures prototyping of new forms of explanatory interfaces for broadband and convergence media platforms, focusing on reporting news, tracking news stories over time, and, most importantly,making sense of complex issues.

Possibly in conjunction with a PBS news show and/or a major repository of TV news.
Continuing projects: Interactive story interfaces, EPGs and WiiPG's (programming guides for the expanded content of new platforms, including navigation by Wii)

Some of these projects would be appropriate for HCI MS usability studies.

Students doing MS projects on related topics or wishing to continue related work begun in other courses are encouraged to apply.