Interactive Performance Technology: Course Schedule
DANCE 3560 / THETR 3690 / MUSIC 3441
Spring 2011
Instructor: Allen Fogelsanger
Office Hours: Wednesdays 12:20-1:10 Schwartz 428
Department of Theatre, Film & Dance
Cornell University
Spring 2011 Schedule
Tuesdays will tend to be devoted to going over programming assignments and explaining new Max objects and new computing ideas, while Thursdays will tend to be the day that movement assignments are due, and the day for quizzes on the programming and for discussion of readings and creative issues. Until Spring Break all students will be required to do both programming and movement composition; thereafter the projects are collaborative and students may divide up responsibilities among the members of their group. The final collaborative project will be the focus of the last four weeks of the course, and will be presented publicly a few days after classes end. Information about grading can be found on the course work page.
Programming assignments require using Max 5 Help and Documentation that is available as part of Max 5 and additionally online. The online help documents do not open the tutorial patches, which are absolutely necessary; these come with the Max 5.1 download package. Working through tutorials needs to be done by class on Tuesday, but some assignments are to make patches of your own: these patches are due by midnight Sunday so that the instructor has time to look over them and possibly debug them by class on Tuesday. You are encouraged to e-mail the instructor any time for help; he'll get back to you at his earliest opportunity. It's best to e-mail a copy of your patch so he can see exactly what you've done so far.
Movement assignments will simply require thoughtful composition; they will not be graded on aesthetic quality.
Quizzes on programming will be patches that don't work and must be repaired.
Readings may be found by following the links on this page or in the bibliography, which furthermore includes complete citations. Readings followed by "CUL" are available to the Cornell community through the Cornell University Library and require CUWebLogin. Some files, including pdf files and QuickTime movies, may take some time to download to your computer. If you want to find out more about something covered in one of the assigned readings, check the course bibliography for links that may offer further information.
Paper: there's only one and it is due by midnight on Sunday after Week 12. Take 8-12 pages to develop a response to some subset of the readings and/or discussion.
- Week 1
-
- Tuesday, January 25, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Thursday, January 27, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Reading assignment:
- In class:
- Making interactive movement: group improvisation
- Discussion
- Continue working throughout the Max 5 Tutorials on the Basics
- Week 2
-
- DUE BY MIDNIGHT, SUNDAY, JANUARY 30 (but will be accepted until 6 a.m. Monday morning), via e-mail to alf6:
- Programming assignment:
- Continue working through the Max 5 Tutorials on the Basics
- Take the first two Max 5 Tutorials on MIDI: Basics & Note Management
- Make a patch that plays a scale with a single click--it is possible to do this with a bang button, a metro object, a counter object, a makenote object, a noteout object, and addition and subtraction, or less, but you may do it anyway you'd like, just please write it from scratch
- Make a patch that turns (some part of) your computer keyboard into a MIDI musical keyboard, for instance you could make the QWERTY keys play a scale if YOU played those keys one by one in order. The following objects may be of use, depending on how extensive you wish to make the patch's capabilities, though you don't necessarily need to use them and you may use others: addition, bang, division, funbuff, gate, inlet, key, keyup, loadbang, message, modulo, multiplication, noteout, number, outlet, patcher, prepend, split, table, toggle, unpack
- Clean up the previous patch using send, receive, and subpatches
- Tuesday, February 1, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Thursday, February 3, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Reading assignment:
- In class:
- Quiz on programming
- Creating simple movement for group improvisation
- Discussion
- Week 3
-
- Tuesday, February 8, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming assignment:
- Work through Jitter Tutorials Topics:
- Jitter - What is a Matrix?
- Attributes - Editing Jitter object parameters
- Work through Jitter Tutorials 1-5, 19-20
- In class:
- Thursday, February 10, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Movement assignment:
- Reading assignment:
- In class:
- View excerpt of Variations V
- Using random processes to generate more movement
- Discussion
- Week 4
-
- DUE BY MIDNIGHT, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 (but will be accepted until 6 a.m. Monday morning), via e-mail to alf6:
- Programming assignment:
- Work through Jitter Tutorials 21-23 & 25
- Make Jitter output a bounding box movie that follows the dancer in SoloNoSound.mov, and which produces sound that reacts to her. With an Apple computer you may option-click on the link to download the movie onto your computer so you may work with it.
- Tuesday, February 15, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Thursday, February 17, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Movement assignment:
- Make 1 minute of movement using a random process
- Reading assignment:
- In class:
- Quiz on programming
- Generating interaction from set movement
- Discussion
- Week 5
-
- Tuesday, February 22, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming assignment:
- Work through MSP Tutorials Topics:
- Introduction
- How Digital Audio Works
- How MSP Works - Max Patches and the MSP Signal Network
- Audio I/O - Audio input and output with MSP
- Work through MSP Tutorials 1-6
- In class:
- DUE FOR CLASS, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24:
- Choreography assignment:
- Make a one-minute movement piece for at least two people
- The performers must be able to attend Thursday's class
- Thursday, February 24, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Movement assignment:
- Present a well-rehearsed performance of your movement piece due today
- Reading assignment:
- In class:
- View presentations of movement pieces
- View excerpts from Forsythe: Improvisation Technologies
- Generating interaction from recombination
- Discussion
- Week 6
-
- DUE BY MIDNIGHT, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27 (but will be accepted until 6 a.m. Monday morning), via e-mail to alf6:
- Programming assignment:
- Work through MSP Tutorials 13-17 (skip the last two exercises of Tutorial 17)
- Use your computer's built-in microphone to record at least one soundfile.
- Build a Max patch that takes input from your computer's built-in camera (or your own external camera) and uses either the groove~ object or the sfplay~ object to allow you to manipulate your soundfile (and any other soundfiles you choose) by making movement your camera picks up.
- Tuesday, March 1, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Thursday, March 3, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Movement assignment:
- Show a revised and extended version of the movement piece presented Week 5
- Reading assignment:
- In class:
- Quiz on programming
- View presentation on movement pieces
- Generating movement material similarly to Forsythe
- Discussion
- Hints on next week's programming assignment
- Week 7
-
- Tuesday, March 8, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming assignment:
- Choose a Max topic for further examination. Read the relevant tutorials and help documents. Build a patch that realizes some aspect of computer interactivity that interests you.
- In class:
- Thursday, March 10, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Movement assignment:
- Make a 1-minute movement piece that uses the patch made for Tuesday
- Reading assignment:
- Winkler: Composing Interactive Music: Techniques and Ideas Using Max. CUL eBook. Read the following:
- pp. 21-37 (this is chapter 2 [Interaction: Defining Relationships between Computers and Performers] within part I [Introduction, History, and Theory]);
- pp. 313-322 (the sections
New Controllers and Multimedia Performance Systems
and Making Music through Movement
in chapter 10 [Interactive Multimedia and New Controllers] within part IV [Advanced Techniques and Concepts]).
- In class:
- View interactive movement pieces
- Discussion
- Week 8
-
- DUE BY MIDNIGHT, SUNDAY, MARCH 13 (but will be accepted until 6 a.m. Monday morning), via e-mail to alf6:
- Programming assignment:
- Expand last week's patch in the ways suggested in class. Clean it up and give it comments so that other users can easily understand what it does and how it works.
- Tuesday, March 15, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Thursday, March 17, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Planning assignment:
- Come up with at least two collaborative interactive projects you'd like to work on, and what you'd like to contribute to each
- Reading assignment:
- In class:
- Discussion
- Assignment of collaborative groups and projects
- Spring Break: Saturday, March 19 - Sunday, March 27
-
- Week 9
-
- Tuesday, March 29, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming/Composition assignment:
- Collaborate on a two-minute interactive movement piece
- In class:
- Rehearsal time for the collaborative assignment
- Help with the collaborative assignment
- Thursday, March 31, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming/Composition assignment:
- Fix the two-minute interactive movement piece
- Reading assignment:
- In class:
- Show and critique collaborative assignments
- Suggest revisions
- Discussion of readings
- Week 10
-
- Tuesday, April 5, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming/Composition assignment:
- Revise last week's two-minute as suggested on Thursday
- In class:
- Rehearsal time for the collaborative assignment
- Help with the collaborative assignment
- DUE FOR CLASS, THURSDAY, APRIL 7:
- Programming/Composition assignment:
- Finish the two-minute computer-interactive movement piece
- Thursday, April 7, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Performance assignment:
- Present a well-rehearsed performance of your finished collaborative piece due today
- Reading assignment:
- In class:
- Discussion
- Decide final projects and groups
- Week 11
-
- Tuesday, April 12, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming/Composition Assignment:
- Either some developed movement material or an outline of the piece
- Some part of the patch working
- In class:
- Help with the five-minute collaborative final projects
- Thursday, April 14, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming/Composition assignment:
- Fix the work from Tuesday
- Reading assignment:
- In class:
- Show and critique the projects
- Suggest revisions
- Discussion of readings and paper topics
- Week 12
-
- Tuesday, April 19, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming/Composition Assignment:
- Outline of the piece and most of the movement material
- Most of the programming working
- Take into account revisions suggested on Thursday
- In class:
- Help with the five-minute collaborative final projects
- Thursday, April 21, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming/Composition Assignment:
- Fix the work from Tuesday
- In class:
- Show and critique the projects
- Suggest revisions
- Week 13
-
- DUE BY MIDNIGHT, SUNDAY, APRIL 24 (but will be accepted until 6 a.m. Monday morning), via e-mail to alf6:
- Paper assignment:
- 8-12 page paper in response to readings, classwork, and discussions; topic chosen in consultation with instructor
- Tuesday, April 26, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming/Composition Assignment:
- A finished version of the choreography
- A working version of the programming
- Take into account revisions suggested on Thursday
- In class:
- Help with the five-minute collaborative final projects
- Thursday, April 28, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming/Composition Assignment:
- Fix the work from Tuesday
- In class:
- Show and critique the projects
- Suggest revisions
- Week 14
-
- Tuesday, May 3, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Programming/Composition Assignment:
- The finished version of the choreography
- The finished version of the programming
- Take into account revisions suggested on Thursday
- In class:
- Help with the five-minute collaborative final projects
- DUE FOR CLASS, THURSDAY, MAY 5:
- Programming/Composition assignment:
- Finish the five-minute final project computer-interactive movement pieces
- Thursday, May 5, 12:20-2:15, Schwartz SB10
- Performance assignment:
- Present a well-rehearsed performance of your finished collaborative piece due today
- In class:
- Show and critique the projects
- Prepare for public showing
- Review course
- Public Showing
-
- Monday or Tuesday, May 9 or 10, 7:00 p.m., Schwartz SB10
- Allow two hours during the day for set-up for public showing
- Public showing of final collaborative projects