- Drawing with Machines (60-225, 10 Units, IPO)
- Times: Tue/Thu, 7:00–9:50pm; plotting on Fridays
- Dates: January 16 – April 25, 2024
- Location: CMU College of Fine Arts, Room CFA-303
- Carnegie Mellon University School of Art & IDeATe Program
- Professor Golan Levin, golan@andrew
- Github Repository: https://github.com/golanlevin/DrawingWithMachines
Your grade will be based on your professionalism in (1) completing work, and in (2) communicating responsibly about your attendance, as follows:
- Do The Assignment Checklists. There is zero mystery about how your work will be graded in this course. Every assignment has a clearly defined list of very simple tasks. A task is either done, or it is not. Do all the tasks and you will receive full credit on the assignment. Your semester grade will be determined by counting how many assignments earned full (or near-full) credit, according to a Labor-Based Grading Contract.
- No Ghosting. If you need to miss class, inform the professor at the earliest possible opportunity. You are welcome to communicate with me by email, Discord, Twitter, or text message. Absences, while regrettable, are permissible; "no call, no-show" events, however, are not:
- Your first "no call, no-show" event will reduce your semester grade by one letter (A→B).
- Your second "no-call, no-show" event will cause you to fail the class.
Full details about these requirements are below.
- Overview
- Tools and Materials
- Attendance
- Grading and Evaluation
- COVID-19 Policies
- Academic Integrity
- Code of Conduct
- Freedom of Speech
- Take Care of Yourself
- Land Notice
This is an intermediate/advanced studio course in experimental drawing, generative art, computational design, and mechatronic mishegoss. Working at the boundaries of creative code, automation, physical materials, and gestural mark-making, we will explore personal and peculiar new approaches to digital imaging; the development of ultra-niche workflows as a mode of creative practice; and the use of algorithms and machine collaborators as nontraditional intermediaries between mind, hand, and paper. Drawings will be created using AxiDraw plotters and a variety of other specialized machinery. Interested students should have JavaScript and/or Python programming experience equivalent to an introductory course such as 15-104, 15-110 or 15-112.
Units in this course include: rule-based art and conditional design; computational and generative form; synthetic automatism, chance and stochastic composition; and real-time interaction and contingency. Through rigorous exercises in freestyle computing, participants will develop skills in the control of machines such as (e.g.) AxiDraw, Line-Us, Scribit, Rotrics, and Universal Robots to govern line, texture, tone, shape and mass in a variety of wet and dry drawing media.
At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:
- Be proficient in creating computer programs to execute drawings with plotting machines, using a variety of different programming toolkits.
- Demonstrate familiarity with the repertoire of artists, designers, works and activities around algorithmic art with robots and mechatronic plotters.
- Understand the role of computation in making drawings that explore concepts of procedurality and generativity.
- Understand how to document and present creative work online and in person.
- Physical Drawing Machines
- Conceptual Drawing Machines (Rule-Based Art)
- Introductory Tooling
- Exercises with Lines
- Hatching and Fills
- Shapes and Clipping
- Field (Flows and Feedback)
- Personal Project (e.g. Material Conditions, Animation, Color, Type, Data, Real-Time Control)
- 8A. Proposal
- 8B. Prototype
- 8C. Final Project
- Card Exchange (ungraded)
What prior knowledge must students have in order to be successful in this course?
- This is an intermediate/advanced studio course, intended for students who have already had at least one semester of elementary programming (in any language). Students must be familiar and comfortable with computer programming fundamentals, such as iteration, conditional testing, functional abstraction, static and dynamic memory structures, and object-oriented programming, as taught in a course like 15-104, 15-110, or 15-112.
- Students are expected to have had some prior experience with a creative coding toolkit for the arts, such as p5.js or Processing.
- This is a polyglot course, taught using a combination of JavaScript, Java, and Python. Students fluent in only one language may need to do some additional preparation.
- A strong foundation in mathematics, especially including geometry, algebra, and trigonometry, will be very helpful.
- There are no specific extra time committments outside of regularly posted meeting times. However, students should plan to use specialized plotting equipment outside of class time — most likely, on Fridays, Saturdays, and/or Sundays. Note that, just as with a hand-drawing, some plots can take a very long time (e.g. 10 hours) to execute.
This course uses the following software tools to share information:
- A Discord Server, for posting your work, as well as for course announcements, and informal communication.
- Email. Important announcements may appear by email; ignore them at your peril.
- A Google Calendar, http://bit.ly/golancoursecalendar, with key dates.
- Zoom. Although this course is expected to be IPO (In-Person Only), it is possible that some sessions may be conducted remotely, if/as necessary or appropriate.
You will likely execute your assignments using the plotter equipment at in CFA-303. However:
- If you happen to possess your own plotter equipent, you are welcome/encouraged to use it.
- If you happen to have access to hardware elsewhere on campus which can be used for mark-making (such as the robot arms in the School of Architecture dFab, or the School of Art CNC router), you are welcome/encouraged to do so — but you're on your own to seek assistance with that equipment if you need it.
- We have several tiny Line-Us plotters which may be signed out with the professor's permission. If you are traveling or quarantined, you may request to borrow one.
During spring 2024, CFA-303 is available for plotting during the following times:
- Tuesday and Thursdays, after 5pm (i.e. during class)
- All day Fridays (the professor and/or TA may be present)
- All day Saturdays and Sundays (you'll need your room key)
- Monday/Wednesdays, 8am-Noon, 2pm-7pm
- Tuesday/Thursdays, 8am-Noon
The room is busy MW Noon-2pm; MW 7pm-10pm; TR 12:30-5.
- Personal Sketchbook. It is extremely wise to plan your projects on paper before writing any code. Above all, this is a drawing course. In support of this, you are required to maintain a personal sketchbook for this course. The professor may conduct a spot check to ensure that you have your sketchbook.
- Laptop. Students should have access to a personal laptop.
- Software. Recent, well-updated installations of Mac OSX, Windows or Linux are all acceptable operating systems. However, although all of the programming toolkits with which we work are free and cross-platform, it is possible that example projects may only be provided for Mac OSX. This is a polyglot course; the programming environments used for example projects and sample code will be a mixture of p5.js (JavaScript), Processing (Java), and Python.
- Camera. Students should have access to some sort of camera to document their work. A smartphone with a camera is acceptable.
All students will be given a standard kit containing the following materials, gratis:
- PROVIDED: One Strathmore 300 Series Bristol pad (270 g/m), 9"W x 12"H, smooth surface (not vellum), 20 sheets (Product #342-9)
- PROVIDED: One Itoya Original Art Profolio - 9"W x 12"H, Black, Portrait, 24 Pages portfolio book
- PROVIDED: Two PILOT G-2 Rolling Ball Gel Pens, Fine Point (0.7mm), Black
- PROVIDED: One Sharpie Permanent Marker, Ultra Fine Tip, Black Ink
- PROVIDED: One Gelly Roll White Pen (1.0mm), or Uni-Ball Signo Gel Impact White Pen (1.0)
- PROVIDED: One Mesh Bag by Artist's Loft pencil case
- PROVIDED: One room key for CFA-303. You will need this if you plan to use the plotters on a weekend. You are expected to return this to the School of Art "Key Return Box" (near the South elevator) at the end of the semester. There is a hefty fee if you lose this key.
Please be sure to put your name on your belongings. The above kit is an absolute minimum baseline of a few common supplies you will need. Apart from these, although some limited supplies exist in our classroom, you will be expected to obtain your own art supplies, such as pens, pencils, markers, and paper, according to your individual interests.
You will likely want to experiment with other media. If you are looking for other recommended supplies for pen-plotting, please see the excellent list at Drawingbots.net. Obtaining art supplies should not present a financial hardship. Last year, the CMU Student Senate, led by undergraduates from the School of Art, made it possible for students to get funds for art supplies using the Special Circumstance Request Form.
- Please clean up after yourself. Our classroom needs to be in a usable condition for other classes.
- We have valuable equipment in CFA-303. If you are the only person in the room and you need to step out, don't leave the door unlocked.
- No food or drink. This is both a drawing course and a creative coding course. Greasy food and spilled liquids are incompatible with both fancy paper and laptop computers.
- If you don't feel well, please stay home.
Please note the following. According to official CMU policy:
- "Faculty have the right to establish attendance policies."
- "Faculty are not obligated to re-teach material due to a student missing class."
Your presence, collegial conduct, and civic participation are of paramount importance. That said, I also recognize that students may occasionally need to miss class for a variety of reasons (e.g. illness, religious observance, job interview, family emergency, etc.). The attendance policy for this course is simple:
If you are unable to attend a class session, send a message to me prior to Roll Call. You may message me by email, Discord, Twitter, or text message. Generally Roll Call is 5-10 minutes into class. My phone number is provided in the #key-information channel of our class Discord.
I can be extremely understanding and accommodating about planned and necessary absences, family circumstances, and/or medical issues when you inform me in a timely and professional manner. Such absences will have no impact on your final grade.
When you send me a message informing me of an upcoming absence, I don't need to know the detailed reason. It is courteous and sufficient to offer a general explanation, such as "I'm not feeling well". However, I recommend that you do not tell me "...because I need to do homework for another course". Making your priorities plain in this way will not affect your grade, but it may earn my contempt.
If you must miss a significant number of sessions, please come and discuss the issue with me; I would like to try to find a way to support you. There is no specific limit on the number of allowable excused absences, but if you miss too many sessions, your ability to satisfactorily complete required classwork (and thus, your grade) will inevitably suffer.
I don't require notification if you just need to step out for a few minutes in the middle of class (e.g. to use the restroom, collect yourself, take an urgent call, etc.)
You are responsible for what happens in class whether you’re here or not. Organize with the me and/or your classmates to get class information and material that you have missed. If I am informed of your absence with more than one hour's notice, I may be able to help you by recording/streaming my presentation; however, please note that I offer no guarantees about this.
If I (the Professor) am unable to come to class, I will send a message so that students can plan accordingly. I expect the exact same courtesy from you. Failing to communicate responsibly about your absences — in other words, ghosting, or "No-Call, No-Show" events — is not acceptable in this course, and subject to the following policy:
- Your first No-Call, No-Show event will reduce your semester grade by one letter (A→B).
- Your second No-Call, No-Show event will cause you to fail the class (B→R).
There are very few situations in which a person is literally unable to send a brief message. That said, the following list of incapacitating emergencies (of you or a loved one) are—of course—acceptable excuses for a No-Call, No-Show absence:
- Death of a family member, loved one, or friend
- Serious injuries or accidents that pose a high risk to wellbeing
- Hospitalization
- Physical assault
- Police arrest
- Housefire
Students are responsible for notifying the professor as soon as possible, even in a justified No-Call, No-Show situation — i.e. a delayed notice of absence. Depending on the severity of the situation, the notice period should not exceed three days from the day of absence.
Sometimes, students who haven’t completed their projects choose to skip class during critiques, because they are too embarrassed to come to class empty-handed. This type of absence is stupendously self-destructive. Please have courage. Your participation on critique days is essential, even if your own project is incomplete or missing, because these sessions and conversations help you understand our class standards, expectations, and criteria for good work. If you are empty-handed, just say so; it happens. Even if you are without a project, you are still expected to contribute productively to the class discussion.
Focus is precious—both yours and others'. Physical presence means nothing if you’re “checked out”; your mental presence is extremely important. During the professor’s lectures or guest presentations, distracted participation is prohibited. You are expected to be able to function for a few hours without texting, emailing, chatting, or doing work for other courses. Additionally, your own distraction is demoralizing to those around you. If I observe you doing these things, or distracting others, depending on the circumstance, I may have no choice but to correct you publicly.
Grades will be calculated with a labor-based grading contract. This contract uses objective factors (such as the number of projects you complete, and how thoroughly you complete them), to compute your grade.
In this course, your grades boil down to fulfillment. Projects always have a list of supporting requirements. These are very straightforward to fulfill, but if you fail to meet these, you will have points deducted. Nearly every project assignment will ask you to do some combination of the following:
- Create a unique post for your project, in our course Discord.
- Upload a static image of your project, such as a screenshot or photograph.
- Upload a photo of your notebook sketches for the project, if applicable.
- Upload dynamic documentation of your project (such as an animated GIF or video recording), if applicable.
- Write a few sentences about your project, describing its development process. In your writing, include some critical reflection and analysis of your project: In what ways did you succeed, and in what ways could it be better?
Related to our course policies on Academic Integrity, you must also:
- Name any other students from whom you received advice or help. If you had collaborators, explain how the work was distributed among the collaborators.
- Cite and link to the sources for any code, external libraries, or other media (e.g. photographs, soundtracks, source images) which you used in your Project. Citing your sources is super important, folks. Err on the side of generosity.
There are 10 graded assignments this semester, listed above ("Unit Topics and Assignments"). This includes the seven weekly assignments (1-7), followed by the three components of the Personal Project (proposal, prototype, final). Each of these ten Assignments contributes 100 points each, determined by whether its sub-tasks are complete or not. Your final grade will be calculated as follows:
- A: 750-1000 Points
- B: 600-750 Points
- C: 500-600 Points
- D: 400-500 Points
- R: <400 Points
As you can see, it is potentially possible (in principle) to miss 2 entire projects, and still earn an A in this course.
Generally I will not award fractional points for a given subtask; either it is done or it ain't. For example, if an assignment awards "10 points" for writing a few sentences, I will usually (except in truly egregious circumstances) award the full 10 points if you did this task, regardless of how insightful or well-written your sentences are.
My Opinion of Your Work is Not Your Grade; Your Grade is Not My Opinion of Your Work. Earning good grades is roughly correlated with, but not the same thing as, being a good learner.
I may or may not "like" your work. But I am just one person, and despite my 30 years of experience in this field, my taste is irrelevant. I have been known to dismiss student projects that later proved to be highly influential and significant. I have sometimes brought in outside critics whose opinions I deeply respect, who prove to have totally different (but equally valid) opinions about student projects. And I have even been known to change my own mind about student projects quickly and often.
That said, there are a few aspects of your professional conduct that set you up to actually learn stuff. These things may seem simple and obvious, but it’s sometimes surprising how few students seem to get these right:
- Be good. Have a positive attitude.
- Be present. Show up to all of the course sessions, on time.
- Be diligent. Submit your work punctually, and with clear documentation.
- Be responsible. Communicate with me if you have a problem.
- Be helpful. Help your classmates when they’re stuck.
- Be generous. Make helpful contributions to discussions.
- Be fearless. Work outside your comfort zone. Give yourself permission to weird.
- Be conscientious. Pay attention to details of craft and execution. Put your heart in the work.
- Be persevering. Become resourceful about getting the assistance you need.
- Be curious: Are you asking questions as you work?
- Be tenacious: Are you forging through difficult problems without giving up?
- Be rigorous: Are you crafting with purpose, precision, and attention?
- Be brave: Are you exploring methods outside the obvious and predictable?
Whether or not you adhere to these recommendations will not affect your grade. So, why bother? Well, when students do follow these recommendations, they learn a lot more.
Students who do these things are also more likely to make a good impression. This means that I am more likely to do things like:
- ...admit them into a future course from my waitlist.
- ...recommend them to another professor whose waitlist they're on.
- ...arrange an Independent Study course with them.
- ...introduce them to outside professionals (e.g. for internships).
- ...write letters of recommendation for them.
Our class is fast-paced. When you submit work late, you miss the chance to share, show off, discuss and get feedback on your work.
At times this semester, your creative projects may be evaluated by outside experts who review your work in class or online. If your assignment is not visible by the time those persons do their reviews, then your work is officially considered “too late” and may not be able to obtain meaningful feedback.
In general, I do not accept late work. I would much prefer that you move on to the next unit, without being additionally burdened by a distracting backlog of overdue projects. The flexibility built into our labor-based grading contract should allow you to miss a project or two without penalty to your grade.
That said, my grading policies for late work can depend on the specific project. For example: I may accept late work when there's no critique scheduled for that assignment, or if it is very important that you accomplish an assignment to master certain skills.
Critique is an act of care. In art school, it is one of the highest forms of care we can give each other. Outside of art school, if people don't find your work compelling, they will not tell you so; they will simply move on to something they like better. Critiques in an art school are a gift — a context in which you can receive feedback from "inside the house". Take them seriously and give a good faith effort to help your peers.
We are a diverse group. Some of us are artists, some of us are designers, some of us are scientists, some of us are engineers, and most of us are hybrids of these things. It is impossible to have one single standard we can use for "what is good", but perhaps the following can suffice. When critiquing a project, Would you want to tell someone about it (or show it to someone)? Why or why not?
I don't always have time to provide in-depth feedback for all students during critiques. If you would like more feedback on your projects, ask me.
COVID-19 is still with us. As of January 2024, the new JN.1 variant is estimated to be highly transmissible, and is circulating widely. You are encouraged to wear a mask if possible, especially as we come back from holiday travel. A supply of facial coverings as well as sanitizing wipes can be found near our room's entrance.
Please evaluate your own health status regularly and refrain from attending class and other on-campus events if you feel unwell. You are emphatically encouraged to seek appropriate medical attention for treatment of illness. In the event of any contagious illness, please do not come to class or to campus to turn in work. Instead, notify me by email about your absence before class, so that accommodations can be made.
If you are absent, you are responsible to obtain any information you missed. That said, students who are unable to attend class in person may request that a session be recorded and/or streamed over Zoom. I offer no guarantees that I will be able to accommodate such requests, nor any guarantees about the quality of any recordings. For non-lecture events (demonstrations, discussions, critiques, workshops, work days), it may be impossible to document the session satisfactorily.
Recordings of class sessions, if they are made, are covered under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and must not be shared with anyone outside the course. The purpose of these recordings is so students in this course (and only students in this course) can watch or re-watch past class sessions.
Your behavior as a responsible member of the new media arts community is very important — as demonstrated, for example, by properly citing your sources and borrowed code, and crediting those who have helped you. These expectations and obligations are addressed here, in our course Academic Integrity Policy.
Credit is the most important form of currency in the economies of commons-based peer production and open-source arts. You are expected to cite the source of any code you use. Please note the following expectations and guidelines:
- Use Libraries. In your Projects, the use of general, reusable libraries is strongly encouraged. The people who developed and contributed these components to the community worked hard, often for no pay; acknowledge them by citing their name and linking to their repository.
- Be Careful. It sometimes happens that an artist places the entire source code for their artwork online. You should probably avoid this code. But at the very least, you should be very, very careful about approaching such code for possible re-use. If it is necessary to do so, it is best to extract components that solve a specific technical problem, rather than those parts which operate to create a unique experience. Your challenge, if and/or when you work with others’ code, is to make it your own. Doing so without proper citation would be actionable plagiarism.
Our course places a very high value on civic responsibility that includes, but is not limited to, helping others learn. In this course, I strongly encourage you to give help (or ask others for help) in using various toolkits, algorithms, libraries, or other facilities. Please note the following expectations:
- In this class, it’s OK to give and receive help. In fact, it’s better than OK! But students who receive help from someone else are obliged to acknowledge that person in their project report, clarifying the nature of the help that was received.
- We are all teachers. Students with advanced skills are expected to help others, yet refrain from doing another’s work for them. You can usually tell when you’re about to cross the line: Ask yourself whether you are teaching someone to fish, or merely giving them the fish.
- When in doubt: give credit to the people who have helped you.
The assignments in this course are primarily intended to be executed by individuals. That said, I am in favor of students collaborating if such collaborations arise organically and can be conducted safely. Please note the following expectations:
- Notify the Professor. It’s helpful for me to know who is working with whom. Students who wish to collaborate should jointly inform the professor as early as possible.
- Describe who did what. Written reports for collaborative projects should describe how your effort was distributed.
- Only collaborators from this class. Your project collaborator, if you have one, must be in this class. You may not collaborate with people from outside the course (e.g. your housemate).
- Avoid co-dependency. You may not collaborate with the same person (i.e. submit assignments jointly) for more than two projects.
- Pairs only. The third person never does anything.
I am committed to providing an educational experience that is free of harassment and intimidation for everyone in this course—regardless of aspects like gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, handicap or disability, physical appearance, body size, race, color, ethnicity, nationality, ancestry, religion, creed, or technology choices. I will not tolerate any form of harassment and/or discriminatory, oppressive, suppressive, or violent behavior. I expect all of the participants in our course community to adhere to this code of conduct—including me, the Professor.
If someone engages in harassing behavior, I may take any action deemed appropriate in the Carnegie Mellon University Policy against Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault, Discriminatory Harassment, or other community policies. If you experience or witness harassment, threatening behavior, suppressive behavior, or have any other concerns, I encourage you to speak up, say something, and/or let us know immediately.
It is my intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well served by this course, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit. I will gladly honor your request to address you by the pronouns and name you specify.
I commit to make individual arrangements to address disabilities or religious needs (e.g. religious events in conflict with class meetings). Please advise me of these requirements early in the semester so that I may make appropriate accommodations.
It's possible that this course may present content that includes nudity and imagery, language, or dialogue that may offend some students. In viewing and discussing works of art, we encourage the broadest possible tolerance consistent with United States law.
Being in an art school, you should expect to be exposed to content that challenges your moral, ethical, and aesthetic values. In the unlikely case of extremely graphic content, I will warn the class in advance, but please let me know privately if there are types of content that you find upsetting.
Your well-being is more important than your performance in this course. Please do your best to maintain a healthy lifestyle this semester by eating well, exercising, avoiding drugs and alcohol, getting enough sleep and taking some time to relax. This will help you achieve your goals and cope with stress.
An important part of the college experience is learning how to ask for help. Asking for support sooner rather than later is often helpful. If you or anyone you know experiences any academic stress, difficult life events, or feelings like anxiety or depression, we strongly encourage you to seek support. The following resources are available:
- Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS) Counseling: +1-412-268-2922
- Resolve Crisis Network (UPMC): +1-888-796-8226
- On campus CMU Police: +1-412-268-2323
Carnegie Mellon University is situated on land that has been continuously inhabited for over 16,000 years, serving as a home to members of the Adena, Hopewell, Monongahela, Lenape, Shawnee, Wyandot, Tisagechroami, Delaware, and Mohican communities before becoming a territory of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Iroquois Confederacy included the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora people, whose relationships with the land continue to this day. The Seneca name for Pittsburgh is Dionde:gâ.