Course Syllabus

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Introduction

This course introduces the students to fundamental methods of Generative Arts and Design. The first half of the course focus on both constructive and search-based approaches and the second half focus on data-driven approaches, mainly using Neural Network techniques. Every week we will discuss a new method, including how to apply them to generate artifacts in domains such as visual arts, music, architecture, video games, etc.  Methods will be implemented with Javascript and P5.js (Processing).

Prerequisites

CMPS12B: Introduction to Data Structure.
I expect that you are comfortable programming in one programming language and that you know basic data structures as well as the classic algorithms associated to them. Knowing Javascript is not expected in this course, but I assume you can quickly learn it as we discuss the methods. 

Teaching Staff

- Instructor

Lucas N. Ferreira (lferreira@ucsc.edu)

Office Hours: E2-280, 1:00-3:00pm Mondays (or by appointment).

- Teaching Assistant

Max Kreminski (mkremins@ucsc.edu)

Office Hours: E2 393, 10am-12pm Fridays (or by appointment.)

Textbooks

Lectures

Days & Times: TuTh 01:00PM-04:30PM

Location: Soc Sci 2 179

- Week 1

Assignment 1: Music Visualization with Particle Systems

- Week 2

Assignment 2: Terrain Generation with Perlin Noise

- Week 3

Assignment 3: Interactive Artist NPC with Generative Grammars

- Week 4

Assignment 4: Evolving Cars

- Week 5

Assignment 5: Music with Markov Chains

Final Project: Proposal

- Week 6

- Week 7

- Week 8

Grading

Your grade is broken down as follows:

  • Class Participation (in-class exercises): 10%
  • Programming Assignments: 50%
  • Final Project: 40%

The mapping from Letter grade to score is the following:

  • A+ = 100-97%
  • A = 97-93%
  • A- = 93-90%
  • B+ = 90-87%
  • B = 87-83%
  • B- = 83-80%
  • C+ = 80-77%
  • C = 77-70% 
  • D = 70-60% 
  • F = 60-0%

Assignments

There will be 5 programming assignments in Javascript/p5.js due weekly on Thursday at 12:30pm.

- Submissions

Assignments will be submitted on Canvas as zipped project folders containing all of the necessary HTML/Javascript code. 

- Late Policy

Late submissions of assignments will be penalized 25% off and will be accepted no more than 1 week late.

Final Project

The final project is intended for you to create an expressive and interactive experience with all the concepts learned during the course.

Course Summary:

Date Details Due
Tue Jun 25, 2019 Quiz L1 - Exercise 1: Create Your Github Repository due by 4:30pm
Thu Jun 27, 2019 Quiz L2 - Exercise 1: Host a webpage locally due by 4:30pm
Quiz L2 - Exercise 2: Make your webpage dynamic due by 4:30pm
Tue Jul 2, 2019 Quiz L3 - Exercise 1: 2D Random Walker due by 4:30pm
Thu Jul 4, 2019 Assignment Assignment 1: Music Visualization with Particle System due by 12:30pm
Tue Jul 9, 2019 Quiz L4 - Exercise 1: CA Random Ruleset due by 4:30pm
Quiz L4 - Exercise 2: Probabilistic CA due by 4:30pm
Thu Jul 11, 2019 Assignment Assignment 2: Terrain Generation with Perlin Noise due by 12:30pm
Thu Jul 18, 2019 Assignment Assignment 3: Interactive Artist NPC with Generative Grammars due by 12:30pm
Sat Jul 27, 2019 Assignment Assignment 4: Evolving Cars due by 11:59pm
Tue Jul 30, 2019 Assignment Final Project: Proposal due by 12:30pm
Sat Aug 3, 2019 Assignment Assignment 5: Music with Markov Chains due by 11:59pm
Thu Aug 15, 2019 Assignment Final Project: Implementation and Documentation due by 9:59am