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Collective Play Spring 18 Syllabus

See course description below.

Resources

  • Class Google Group. I will be adding you after the first class.
  • Class Google Drive Folder. Resources from class, assignments.
  • All code examples will be pushed to this github repo.
  • Most code examples will also be available in the p5 web editor.

Tools

Design Strategy 1: Every man for himself

Week 1: Hello World: Real-time Inputs

Question(s)

  • What is collective play?
  • How is collective interaction different from individual interaction?
  • How do you know you've designed a successful interaction?
  • Is "willingness to participate" a personality trait?
  • Is this a programming class?

In-Class

Assignment: Hello World

  • Brainstorm Inputs
  • Sign-up to implement 2 inputs.
  • Bring 5 things to draw with next week.
  • Wear clothes you can get dirty...forever.

Week 2: Expressive Outputs

Question(s)

  • What does it mean to be expressive?
  • What are the parameters of expression in:
    • Painting
    • Spoken Word
    • Singing

In-Class

Assignment: Express yourself

  • Re-work your hello world example to be more expressive
  • Please bring ear-bud headphones for your mobile device to class next week.

Week 3: Meaningful Outputs

Question(s)

  • What does it mean to be meaningful?
  • Semantics is the study of the meaning of words or lexical meaning. What about non-lexical semantics?

In-Class

Assignment: Say what you mean

  • Group Assignments
  • Groups of 4: Create a semantic framework for 1 of your expressive projects.

Week 4: User-test / Crit Semantic Expression Assignment

Preview Partnering??

Assignment: Post-Mortem

  • Fill out this worksheet. Each team has a tab.
  • What worked.
  • What didn't work.
  • Any surprises?
  • What could you have done differently? And what effect would it have had?
  • Iterate on your design with 1 simple change.

Design Strategy 2: Pairing

Week 5: Influence or Interference?

Question(s)

  • When does influence turn into interference?
  • Is it more fun to cooperate or undermine?

In-Class

  • Exercises:
    • Human Ouija Board
  • Mashing up inputs into pairs.
    • Examples
      • Ouija
      • Twist and Shake

Assignment: Mash-up

  • Groups of 2: Create a paired interaction that optimizes for how closely you have to be in sync with your partner.

Week 6: User-test / Crit Mash-up Assignment

Preview Queuing

Design Strategy 3: Queuing

Week 7: Waiting versus Anticipating

Question(s)

  • What's the difference between taking turns and having a conversation?

In-Class

  • Keeping track of who's turn it is
  • Example: Dear John
  • Taking turns drawing, writing text, making noise.

Assignment

  • Groups of 3: Make a queuing project.

Design Strategy 4: Group Effort

Week 8: Losing the Individual to the Group

Questions

  • When do you want to be (in)visible?

In-Class

  • Play "Taking Turns" projects
  • Analyze (in)visible responses.

Assignment

  • Design and run a human-only (no technology) interaction.
    • Be clear about what relationship dynamics you're exploring: e.g. open-ended, confrontation!
    • Be clear about what emotional dynamics you're exploring: e.g. self-consciousness and validation
  • Think out of the box of our class. Try something outside. Try something with 30 people. Try something that takes an hour!
  • Document the event.
  • Post-mortem what you did: What did you expect to happen? What actually happened? What could you tweak to get a very different outcome?
  • Post your documentation to your blog.

Week 9: Losing the Individual to the Group

In-Class

  • Play test "Jog Wheel"

Assignment

  • Re-design, run, document and post-mortem take 2 of your human-only interaction.
  • Prepare a short presentation of your findings.
  • Include some early thoughts on how you might apply your findings to a digital expression of the ideas you're exploring.

Weeks 10-12: Final Project Development

  • Week 10 Present human play test results
  • Week 11 In-Class User Testing
  • Week 12 Final Presentations

Course description

Rules of play shape competitive games from checkers to football. But how do the rules of interaction shape non-competitive play? In this course, we will explore, code and test design strategies for playful group interactions.

Some of the questions we will ask and attempt to answer:

  • What encourages participation?
  • Can we work together as a group if “every man is for himself”?
  • When does influence turn into interference?
  • Are leaders necessary? Is it possible to lead from behind?
  • What’s the difference between taking turns and having a conversation?
  • What participate if individual effort is subsumed under collective output?
  • Does democracy = inclusion?
  • What happens when the slowest person sets the pace?

Interaction inputs we will play with will include: mouse, keyboard, mobile device sensors, and microphone. Outputs will include, visuals, text and sound. We will use p5, websockets and node.js for real-time interaction. Class time will be split between playing with and critiquing examples and translating design strategies into code and logic.

Pre-requisites

ICM or the equivalent.

Grading

  • 40% for showing up (on time!) and participating with curiosity and enthusiasm.
  • 40% for homework.
  • 20% for the final project.
  • More than 2 unexcused absences qualifies you for a failure.
  • 2 lateness of 15 minutes or more qualifies as 1 unexcused absence.