Assigned Date: Monday, Aug. 29, 2022
Due Date #1: Monday, Sep. 12 – 1pm (30 mins before class)
Due Date #2: Tuesday, Sep. 13 – 11:55pm
Assignment
You have been hired by Algo Arts Incorporated (AAI). This is your dream job. The company creates computationally artistic products, installations, and user experiences, spanning the complete spectrum of Computing in the Arts, as seen here, and in Part I of our textbook.
As a new hire, you are in a six-month probationary period. During this period, you are required to demonstrate / engage your “superpowers”, in order to show to your new colleagues, and superiors… what you can do for the company. Ultimately, you are hired to bring value to the company, and so you need to be able to demonstrate your strengths.
As a first step you are asked to you are asked to create an elevator pitch for a project idea.
In addition to the above, also see Part 3 of our textbook. In particular, follow leads / look up the creatives found in pp. 253-257, for potential project ideas and inspiration. The more time you spend ideating, the better your project idea will be. Do not just quickly converge on something, just because you had this idea for a while now… Look up some things, learn more, expand your creative thinking and inspiration. Then your idea will be much more powerful, and excite people more. That is your goal…
Details:
Your pitch should define / capture the inspiration and space for a new user experience that the company may create in the near future. Your ability to do this well may translate to great success for the company (and you, of course).
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.
In terms of content:
- Make sure you mention the class, your name, assignment number, and the date.
- Describe the artistic side of your project idea – what inspires it, the aesthetic experience it creates, and so on.
- Describe the technical side, i.e., talk about the technology needed (e.g., sensors), what programming environment or environments will be used to eventually create it, and so on. Remember – by the end of the semester we will have a functional prototype (but NOT the complete project, necessarily – just enough to demonstrate its importance). Of course, for smaller projects, developing the complete idea may be fine and/or expected.
- Upload your video to YouTube, and make it accessible only via a link (not public).
Submit the link to your video – using this form (Due Date #1).
Evaluate the videos of your classmates – using this form (Due Date #2).
Grading
Your grade will be based on (a) how well you follow these instructions and the depth/quality of your work, and (b) how thoughtfully you evaluated your peers’ contributions.