Assigned Date: Friday, Aug. 27, 2021
Due Date: Wednesday, Sep. 15
Due Time: 30 mins before class
Contents
Assignment
Potential Context
The NSF grant for “CUE Ethics: A Curricular Design Community for Broadening Participation through Computing in the Arts” aims to build a community of universities and colleges with the common goal of creating curriculum for undergraduate programs in the arts and computing. Creating detailed curriculum and curricular frameworks is a long term goal, creating the community is the immediate goal under the NSF program requirements.
To build an interdisciplinary, multi-campus community dedicated to Arts+CS, the vision of the grant proposal was for the campuses to collaborate on a real, significant art project.
Details
As a second step to the semester project, you are asked to create an elevator pitch for a project idea. This project – if selected by our “company” – will developed by you and a team of peers (up to 3 people) by the end of the semester.
Your pitch should consist of the following:
- A title for the project (tentative – it may evolve)
- A concise description of the project. Two to three sentences will do.
- A longer description focusing on the target audience.
- A paper prototype (some drawings on paper are perfect – for now). You want a paper prototype that’s low-fi (low fidelity), so that this prototype is easy to create and evolve, BUT – at the same time – it captures the salient (i.e., most important) features of your proposed system. Do NOT spend a lot of time / effort to create it, e.g., in Photoshop, or (even worse) a prototype in computer code.
Video (3 mins or less)
Create a 3-mins (or less) video of your pitch presentation. Here you can find some nice and quick guidelines on how to create such videos.
Upload it on Vimeo or YouTube (or other permanent video service).
Description / Annotation (per video):
Write a short (one paragraph, or so) description / annotation for your video. Also, include the URL of the video. If possible include a representative photo from the video (a picture is worth a thousand words). For example, see here.
Your annotation needs to capture what this video is about (see above). It has to be to the point, i.e., avoid generalities and verboseness. Get to the point.
Try to concisely capture the essence. Your ability to identify and communicate pertinent information concisely and completely to others… will be a gift to / “superpower” in your career.
Outline to Follow:
Your annotation (for your video) needs to:
- Be about half a page (a little longer is OK). It should include:
- Description (Title, Developer, Year): Identify the artist / developer (you), the title of the work (tentative is OK – REMEMBER: “If it doesn’t have a name, it doesn’t exist”), and anything else that can give us a deeper appreciation about its place, time, and origin.
- Genre (if known): If the work falls into a particular genre, name it here (e.g., “interactive expressionism”, “interactive techno minimalism”, “motion capture and dance”, “computer game / first person shooter”, etc.). It is OK to create a meaningful genre name (like I did here), as long as it helpful / descriptive of the proposed work.
- What: What is the work about? What does it do? In a few sentences (2-3?), try to capture the essence of the work (i.e., complete and to the point). Is there a significant context within which this work exists (e.g., imaginary world creation, museum piece, gallery installation, data visualization, interactive sound installation, music hall performance, etc.)? Is it a dance piece? Is it a game? Is it participatory / interactive (i.e., the artwork exists because participants interact with it, or it would exist regardless – even if participants were not present).
- Why: Why was this work developed, i.e., what was the motivation behind it, the artist’s (i.e., your) intention, or what does it do to / for the audience (including emotional, or aesthetic reactions / effects). What is the artist (i.e., you) trying to say / do here? What is the deeper meaning behind it (if known)?
- How: How is this work going to be developed? What technology or technologies will be used? Here list the tools / technologies used / necessary (including sensors, programming language(s) to be used, software environments / libraries, other hardware / equipment necessary, etc.). I.e., if your project is selected by the “company”, what technologies you and your team will have to use.
NOTE: You must use the above outline. While the above cannot possibly fit every proposal out there, it provides enough structure / prompts for you to create a meaningful annotation for your elevator pitch. Remember us – your audience. By reading your description, we should be able to understand the gist / significance of your proposal… without having to watch the whole video. If we have to watch the video to understand the work’s significance (technology used, etc.), then you need to put a little more work in your description – that’s your job, not ours. REMEMBER: You are trying to “sell us” something, so put in the effort to make it easy to understand and appreciate. This is a great skill for life…
Consider asking someone else to read your descriptions / annotations to give you feedback (before you submit them for grade / evaluation) – this always pays off.
Evaluation
Your work will be evaluated by your peers for its merit across the following dimensions:
- Artistic merit of proposed project.
- Technical merit of proposed project.
- Synthesis – how well are the artistic and technical intertwined / combined to form the proposed project (are they both integral, or is one superfluous).
- How carefully you followed assignment instructions.
Additional instructions on how to evaluate the work of your peers will follow.
Submissions
- Use MS Word, Google Docs, Dropbox Paper, or similar to create your document, with all the above information.
- At the top of the document, include your name, class, and homework number, and date, well formatted.
- Save as PDF – very important.
- Make sure video URL is literally quoted (e.g., https://youtu.be/vNwYtllyt3Q), so it can be clicked in your PDF.
- Upload PDF on OAKS.
Grading
Your grade will be based on (a) how well you follow these instructions and the depth/quality of your work, and (b) how carefully and thoroughly you evaluated your peers’ contributions.
Addendum
Desirable Qualities for Teammates
Remember the following professional dispositions… they will make you successful in your team (and beyond!!!):
- persistent means to stick with a task until it is completed even when the task seems difficult and even when you have doubts about your ability to complete the task.
- self-directed means to learn new tools, techniques, etc. on your own to complete a task, even when the tool/technique is only minimally used or discussed in class and you may not receive additional credit just for learning it.
- adaptable means to adjust to new events, circumstances or demands by modifying your tools, techniques or strategies, even when doing so will take extra time and effort on your part which may or may not be rewarded.
- collaborative means to work with other people as a group, exchange, share and discuss ideas, thoughts, feedback and solutions to a given problem or task.
- responsible means to satisfactorily complete all the requirements of the task within the given deadline.
At the end of your probationary period (which – perhaps not surprisingly – coincides with the end of the semester 😉 ) you will be evaluated by your peers for your contributions to the semester project along these dimensions – among others.