Your physical presence and civic participation in the class are extremely important. Three unexcused absences will lower your final grade by a letter (A→B, etc). If you’re ill, or if you know you will have a planned/professional absence, please let me know before the beginning of that class session: I can be very understanding and accommodating about planned and necessary absences, family circumstances and/or medical issues when you inform me beforehand in a professional manner.
Your attendance and participation on critique days is of the utmost importance, even if your project is incomplete, because these sessions help you understand our class standards, expectations and criteria for good work. Even if your own project is unfinished, you are still expected to have courage, show up, and contribute productively to the class discussion.
This class should be a friendly, safe environment for everyone. Carnegie Mellon is firmly committed to intellectual honesty, freedom of inquiry and expression, and respect for the dignity of each individual. Acts of discriminatory harassment or intimidation by a student directed toward any member of the community will not be tolerated. Behavior in this course is expected to be consistent with the following policies:
- CMU Reasonable Person Principle
- CMU Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Policy
- Hacker School Social Rules
This course may present content that includes nudity and imagery, language, or dialogue that may offend students. In viewing and discussing works of art, we encourage the broadest possible tolerance consistent with United States law.
Freedom of speech is the foundation of our communities and our nation. The works we view or produce in this class may awe, illuminate, challenge, unsettle, confound, provoke, and, at times, offend. We defend the freedom to create content and exhibit such work anywhere in the world, and we recognize the privilege of living in a country where creating, exhibiting, and experiencing such work is a constitutional right.
To exhibit a work of art is not to endorse the work or the vision, ideas, and opinions of the artist. It is to uphold the right of all to experience diverse visions and views. If and when controversies arise from the exhibition of a work of art, we welcome public discussion and debate with the belief that such discussion is integral to the experience of the art. Consistent with our fundamental commitment to freedom of speech, however, we will not censor exhibitions in response to political or ideological pressure.
Too often complaints are made through calls to the Dean or Trustee, and the educator is the last to be informed of the charge. If you feel offended by course content, please first contact the professor privately in writing. In your email or letter, please address the following questions:
- To what in the work or assignment do you object?
- What do you believe is the theme or purpose of this work?
- What do you feel might be the result of viewing, reading or learning about this work?
- Is there a work of equal value that you would recommend which would serve as an alternative to the work in question?
Materials are considered innocent until proven guilty. Allegedly offensive materials will not be removed until after the review process has completed.
Students should have access to a personal laptop with an up-to-date operating system. Example projects will generally only be given for OSX or Windows operating systems, and not both, so be prepared to be flexible. An iOS smartphone may also be helpful for some projects. A sketchbook or notebook is also highly recommended.
I will always prefer that you make the assignment interesting to you — if necessary, by creatively bending the rules or re-interpreting the assignment. My assignments are starting-points, prompts and propositions. Think beyond them.
Our class is fast-paced. When you submit work late, you lose, because you miss the chance to share, show off, discuss and get feedback on your amazing project.
Officially, assignments are due on critique days. A few days after assignments are due for critiques, I grade them. If your assignment is not uploaded and documented online by that time, then it is officially considered “too late” and will lose a letter grade, assuming you eventually submit it.
Assignments in this course will be graded Excellent, Good, Needs Improvement, or Unacceptable. The following rubric, by Prof. Kristin Hughes, explains the meaning of these terms.
- Collaboration in this course is encouraged, but not required. Some assignments may lend themselves to collaborations more than others.
- Students who wish to collaborate should inform the professor as early as possible.
- Collaborations are generally limited to pairs (not trios or quartets) of students.
Our course places a high value on civic responsibility that includes, but is not limited to, helping others learn. In this course, we strongly encourage you to give help (or ask others for help) in using various toolkits, algorithms, compilers, debuggers, libraries, or other facilities. Please note the following expectations:
- In this class, it’s OK to give and receive help. 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. One can usually tell when one is about to cross the line. Ask yourself whether you are teaching someone to fish, or merely giving them the fish.
Credit is perhaps the most important form of currency in the economies of commons-based peer production and open-source media arts. You must cite the source of any code you use, including open-source arts-engineering toolkits (and addon libraries) such as Processing, openFrameworks, etc.