Repository of classes, teachers & resources shared at Eyebeam's youth summer program, Digital Day Camp 'DDC17', a two week long youth art and technology summer intensive.
During DDC17, students worked alongside artist-educators engaging in hands-on workshops focusing on software, hardware, tools, careers in the field and social topics around this year’s theme of POWER. The theme responds to Eyebeam’s current residency cohort and their focus examining relationships between power and technology.
As new models of computation mix with older forms of governance, the shape of Power is transforming. We will challenge youth to apply creative thinking strategies across a range of tools and topics with the goal to develop critical, empowering and long-lasting relationships with technology encouraging youth to see their role in its future as agents of change.
- Overview, code of conduct and get to know you 'game' Human Computer
Paper Zines • by Taehee Whang
In this workshop, students will learn simple circuitry and zine making. Through drawing, paper folding/cutting, and circuit designing, students will also learn how to debug and troubleshoot circuits and think of design implications around creating functional circuits.
- Materials:
- Chibitronics LED Stickers
- Copper Tape
- Card Stock
- Scissors, tape, colored pencils, erasers
- Start by reviewing different examples of Zines and how they can be used to explain or share ideas like
- bubblesort, a zine which explains technical and computer functions
- Getting Started in Electronics which used hand drawn illustrations to show how circuits worked
- Review different methods for making zines and different diagrams for making circuits
- Note: We found it best not to spend too much time on the electronics and get right into making. The students would then approach the zine from a design perspective and lay out the copper tape. When the lights wouldn't work we'd then help troubleshoot and this proved a better opportunity to learn about circuits and how electricity flows.
- When troubleshooting, it's helpful to explain short circuits, open circuts and closed circuts.
Interconnected • by Kellyrae Aldridge
- Students will design their own gif on a custom-built platform that loops each participant's code. Each time one person changes a variable (color, scale, etc.), the numerical value of that change pushes through everyone else’s code (think the telephone game, but with code). Each person actively one another’s gifs in an exercise of collaboration and letting go of control. Paired with a mural project in which each person is given a magnetic tile and a handful of shared constraints (color, scale etc.) that allow each tile to match up in numerous variations. An exercise in giving up creative control. See instagram @codandcraft_org for example
- Art Historical Context: Two approaches to collective art practices: Dada performance, parades, and collages / Bauhaus art and design.
- Relationship to Power: Dada artists collectively-made artworks explored how mass media (radio, film) transformed how people acquired and expressed political and cultural power. At the same time, the Bauhaus school promoted collaborative design as a means towards building a more democratic, international, and equitable society.
- Discussion: collaborative art work in relation to design, social justice, and technology
- Materials: Large sheet metal backdrop (already constructed), craft paint, foam core, paint brushes, magnetic tape, computers
- GLC Gif Loop Coder
The Power of Storytelling • by Haley Shibble
- Students create their own narratives using interactive storytelling techniques through code and animation. Discussion will focus on how storytelling can be a powerful experience and the most effective techniques to share an engaging story with an audience.
- Learning goals & discussion topics: What makes a story engaging? How does storytelling give the us power? How can storytelling be interactive? How can this give the audience power?
- Skills covered: Storyboarding/character development, Animation (stop-motion & 2D) basic concepts, HTML/CSS, JavaScript
- Materials needed: "colorful cardstock, scissors, pencils, and painter's tape. imacs, ipads & phones.
- Software used: Stop Motion Studio for Android & for iPhone
3D Printing & Art Activism • by Morehshin Allahyari
-Technology can open up new perspectives, providing people with the means to challenge the structures, ideas, and institutions that maintain the status quo. But technological change is—almost by definition—tied to the functions of capitalism: a system that profits the few, often at the expense of civil liberties or the environment. For this course, we aim to challenge and take action around a technology filled with hope and promise: the 3D printer. After considering the metaphorical and practical implications of additive processes, and exploring the revolutionary spaces opened up by art activism, students will devise a series of practical and conceptual 3D-printable designs and projects that have radical implications. We will discuss and explore the potential of “disobedient objects” and their influence on social and political movements. We will reconsider activism as a form of change and question the notion of problem solving using dystopia, horror, and weirding as methodologies.
- Software used: MeshMixer
Make and Play Your Own Poetry Instrument • by Todd Anderson
- Use code and a wireless keyboard to make an audio-visual poetry for stage performance. In this class students will build poetry instruments and try to get good at playing them. By 'instrument' I mean an interactive work that can be played differently each time, has a learning curve and can be remixed and improvised when performed live. We will build our instruments using Javascript keyboard events to control the text on the screen, and also corresponding sounds, images and animations (depending on how deep you want to go).
- Class Syllabus including tools and software
3D Printing & Art Activism • by Morehshin Allahyari
- Continuing from the previous day, students share their recipies, learn MeshMixer and create their own 3D objects to be printed.
New Worlds: What Games Make Possible • by Nora Khan
- Games aren't all gore, violence, and brutal competition (not that there's anything wrong with that). In the first half of this class, Nora will walk Digital Day Campers through her perspective and thoughts on what video games and simulations, generally, do for us that other mediums fail at: suggest new worlds, new models for relationships, and new ways to be in the world. You can be a woman, or a man, or no gender at all. You can see your city from a totally different perspective (underground, above ground, strafing across buildings). We'll look at games across the spectrum, from narrative-based games and shooters to multiplayers, from Grand Theft Auto V to Dragon Age, Mortal Kombat to Gone Home, Borderlands 2 to Bayonetta. After looking at some of the countless ""new worlds"" games offer, the second half of the class will have us look at some Steam Games after setting up a personal account, play through a few levels, and then engage in a creative exercise to think of some new ideas on our own. The aim is to think and work through how a system can reformat and shape us, giving us important tools to go back out into the world with :)
- Materials: Computer, Steam and these games for playthrough and discussion
- Realm of the Mad God (Sick 8-bit retro-style MMO)
- Adventure Capitalist (Simulate capitalism, which we are all stuck in, sick)
- Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion (pretty scary)
- Super Crate Box (fun and cute)
- How Do You Do It? (disturbing and weird)
Critical Theory and Critical Thinking in the age of Hip Hop influenced Music, Film, and Comedy • by Michael K Taylor
- Sections:
- A brief introduction to Critical Theory basics in the context of historic European society class structures and a brief introduction to Critical Theory in the context of modern global society class structures with a focus on America. The creation of the Frankfurt School and it’s spread to America during WWII. European class structures and their influence on modern and American class structures (race, gender, sexuality & income.) ..Further resources for follup, the Yale Open School course on Critical Theory
- A brief introduction to histories of individual and community empowerment through Hip Hop using a few examples such as specific songs, groups, and movements from the East, West, and Gulf coasts. These contextualize various Hip Hop themes such as self-empowerment, freedom, radical collaboration, and class migration. May include the East and West coast versions of “Headed for Self Destruction,” Dave Chappell’s explanation for turning down 50 Million in the context of power within his own show, Lauren Hill’s lyrics about career vs. child bearing in “Zion,” Master P’s influence on creating “independent” labels and music, and Women MC’s.
- Compare/Contrast parts of Critical Theory and Hip Hop movements in the context of modern challenges for self empowerment, community empowerment, and class migration.
- Brief open introduction and discussion on recent technology that can be used to empower, beginning from free to expensive. Contextualize the importance of accessibility and strategy when using technology.
- Individual interests, current technology usage, and individual perspectives would be the content for students to begin a strategy for how they can use Tech individually and collaboratively.
- As a workshop, lesson would be brief introductions to these histories citing specific example and using specific writings. Because of the vocabulary density of some writings, or poetic language of rap lyrics, each would come with a brief summary. Hip Hop would be the primary comparison to CritTheory because of its modern history of creation and of using technology such as turntables, radio, & social media to reach interested audiences that do not share current locations.
- As a class, each section could last longer with more opportunity to reflect, dialogue, and converse about both the reading and observations from the students about issues they are concerned about and how theory and tech can be used to research and communicate their own perspective. Because considerations of application of knowledge are important, the lesson size would need to expand or decrease depending on time available. Also there would be the option of students democratically selecting which reading or topics to discuss with access for self study on non-discussed topics.
- (The instructor and lesson intend to stay neutral on specific politics while providing information and opportunity for students to speak and share their individual perspectives and experiences.)
- Tools: Copy Machine and/or digital device for reading. Printouts to take home or receive via email. highlighters, xerox for printouts
Power of Mobility: NYC Transportation Reimagined • by Selena Kim & Katie Temrowski
- Imagine a dystopian New York where public transportation system has lost all of its power to serve those who need it the most. Why would that be a problem? How would you go about solving this problem? What do you need to know to come up with an effective solution?
- In this three-hour workshop, students will learn about and apply design thinking in the speculative design scenario, then translate their solutions into an interactive 2D single scene game format built in Unity. It includes an introduction to Unity and hands-on coding in Javascript.
- Resources: Recommended but not required readings and videos relevant to workshop materials
- What is Unity? ..Intro Tutorial ..What is Unity?
- Why is mobility important? ..Subway Delay Results (NYTimes) ..Future of Transportation (Washington Post) ..Rise of Inequality (The Atlantic)
- What is design thinking? ..Introduction to Design Thinking (Youtube) ..Design Thinking Case Study (Harvard Business Review)
- Tools & Software: Unity, iMacs, Internet Access, Whiteboard, Paper and pen, and Post-it stickies
Salvage • by Amelia Marzec
- During this course students will repurpose discarded speakers to build their own musical instruments. They will be introduced to the arduino in order to program digital music.
- Skills learned: Soldering & desoldering, working with electronics and circuits and programming with the Arduino
- Software used will be using this example
Activism-oriented Twitter Bot • by Ari J Melenciano
- In this course we will build Twitter bots that can be used to engage users politically with tweets that reflect social injustices. This will be done through the text editor, Atom.
- Goals of this course include teaching students how to "hack" social media for activist purposes, how to build personal APIs, how to build a twitterbot, and gaining a basic understanding of coding.
- Resources Link to Ari's GitHub for this class Learn to make more bots
- Daniel Shiffman & 'The Coding Train' explain Node & Twitterbots!
- Darius Kazemi is the Twitterbot GURU! He explains how to make one here. He made the Stay Woke Bot code and instructions for that bot are here
- Tools to make twitterbots
- https://glitch.com/~twitterbot
- https://glitch.com/botwiki
- https://botwiki.org/tutorials/twitterbots/ and when you make them - share them with glitch!
- Examples of awesome bots
Creative Live Communications • by Jingwen Zhu
During Creative Live Communications, students will create their own online communication platforms. Students will be exposed to the current situation of monopolized social media platforms and will be encouraged to design and create their own communication platforms centered around playful interaction and sharing.
- Students will learn the basics of javascript programming and interaction design methods. The technical contents of the workshop will include: server-sided programming, frontend development and UX design.
- Syllabus online here
- Tools used: Arduino, Atom (or any other text editor), Chrome Browser, Terminal access to the computer.
- In class demo
- P5 web editor
- Code here
- Additional Resources
Automating Video • by Sam Lavigne
- In this workshop we’ll use Python and basic command line tools to explore the possibilities of manipulating video with code. We’ll treat video as a textual as well as visual medium, and focus on repurposing found footage to generate new compositions and narratives.
- Course overview here and software and tools used can be found here
Understanding the Internet • by Jonathan Dahan
- Through a series of embodied exercises students will replecate core components of the internet and the base structures that comprise it. This exercises is intended to provide a peek inside the black box, examine the history and decisions that were made in invention of the network and reimagine how it could have been constructed differently and what the possible outcomes could have been?
- Additional resources The Motherboard Guide to Not Getting Hacked
- Idea for this workshop is based on the previous work of Ingrid Burrington and Surya Mattu on their project Networks Land
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