{"id":5293,"date":"2017-09-11T06:39:42","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T11:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/?p=5293"},"modified":"2017-11-18T09:59:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T15:59:51","slug":"electronics-sculpture-arduino-mechatronics-art-syllabus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/11\/electronics-sculpture-arduino-mechatronics-art-syllabus\/","title":{"rendered":"Syllabus sharing: Electronics and Sculpture, a class with arduino, mechatronics, and art at UWM"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Arduino Uno microcontroller<\/p><\/div>\n

This term sees my first time teaching a full semester of\u00c2\u00a0Arduino<\/a> in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Most geeks will know that the Arduino is an open source microcontroller for physical computing projects. Easy break down: whereas multimedia and code art classes (in Processing<\/a> or Max<\/a> or openFrameworks<\/a>, for example) might have students make generative or interactive work that utilizes anything which already communicates with your computer via USB or bluetooth or the internet (a kinect for body tracking, a Wii for dancing, web cams, mics, or data streaming from sources online for input; printers, projectors, speakers or screens for output), the Arduino<\/a> (and things like it) allows for non-standard, analog interfaces: flex sensors, light cells, or sonar for input, for example, motors, lights, fans, or solenoids (to control water or air) for output.<\/p>\n

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a student favorite: Danny Rozin’s “Wooden Mirror,” which depicts real-time, reflected video in rotating wood chips. Click<\/a> for video with awesome sound. Danny was my prof!<\/p><\/div>\n

Most of my students have little or no background in coding, and even fewer have any experience with electronics when they sign up… meaning, this syllabus will work as an introduction. That said, I offer it at the 300-level, so that my digital art students will understand bits and bytes, audio and video, how computers “think,” and my other artists will be able to bring their skills with crafting images or objects (etc) into the mix. I also “stack” it with a 400-level class, so grad students, or advanced students that want to take it a second time, can add another dimension of creativity and criticality.<\/p>\n

If you can’t tell, I’m excited about it.<\/p>\n

I’m sharing three documents with the inter-webs. One is the core syllabus<\/a>; another is the advanced syllabus<\/a>; and the last is the calendar<\/a>. They are all\u00c2\u00a0under a CC-by license (Creative Commons Attribution)<\/a>, meaning, you can do whatever you want with them (use, distribute, remix, etc), so long as you credit me and acknowledge the license I used, link back to this page, and do not prohibit anyone else from doing said same.<\/p>\n

The semester arc goes something like this:<\/p>\n