CSCI 199

Computers, Music and Art

When/Where

Section 5: TR 01:40-02:55PM / ECTR 203

Description

A course introducing the creative side of computing in the context of music, sounds, images, and other digital artifacts. Students will be exposed to media modeling and computational thinking in the liberal arts and sciences. Students will develop several digital artifacts.

Course is open to all majors. No previous programming experience required.

• Course syllabus
• Student wiki for lecture notes (requires password, opens new window)

Test Dates

• Test 1: Thursday, Sep. 27, 2007
• Test 2: Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007
• Final: 12-3pm, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007

Assignments

• Homework #1, Homework #2, Homework #3, , Homework #4.

Readings

• Richards R. (2001), "A New Aesthetic for Environmental Awareness: Chaos Theory, the Beauty of Nature, and our Broader Humanistic Identity". Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 59-95.
• Spehar, B., C.W.G. Clifford, B.R. Newell, and R.P. Taylor. (2003). "Universal Aesthetic of Fractals." Computers & Graphics, vol. 27, pp. 813-820.
• P. Prusinkiewicz and A. Lindenmayer (1990), "The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants", Springer-Verlag.
  • Also see Wikipedia intro to L-systems.
• ArtEscapes: Variations of Life in the Media Arts is an exhibition of art objects which are somehow dynamic and unpredictable, out of control, which can mutate and evolve, which can surprise us by an autonomy of their own and "try to escape" from their creators, giving us a flavor of aliveness.

Code

Images

• Based on Python Media Image API:
  • showImage.py.
  • changeImageCorners.py, changeImageRow.py, changeImageColumn.py, changeImageDiagonal.py, convertImageToNegative.py, convertImageToGrayscale.py, mirrorVertical.py.

Music and Sound

• jMusic - a programming library for sound and music applications in Java:
  • Documentation on jMusic, MIDI, and music notation.
  • Windows: Download Jython + jMusic bundle: jython and jMusic (4MB) or jython, jMusic and Java Runtime (16MB).
  • Mac OS X: Download Jython + jMusic bundle: jython and jMusic (4MB).
  • MIDI: bing.py, myFavoriteMelody.py, stochastic.py.
  • Audio: sonOfBing.py, audioReadWrite.py, audioVisualize.py, audioDrums.py (samples for hihat, open hihat, kick, and snare).
  • Change frequency: audioChangeFrequency.py (try with sample of a 440Hz sine wave)

References

• Fractal images, NEvMuse, AARON History.
• Python Media Image API and Python Media Sound API. Alse see JES help.
• Allen B. Downey, Jeffrey Elkner and Chris Meyers, "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist -- Learning with Python"
• Magnus Lie Hetland, Instant Hacking in Python (for non-programmers) and Instant Python (for programmers).
• Diane Knich, "Bringing Students Back to the Future", The Post and Courier, Monday, September 24, 2007.
• Zelle's Teaching Computer Science with Python transparencies: one slide per page and four slides per page (PDF).
• Sounds - find sound effects and musical instrument samples.
• Stock photos www.sxc.hu, morguefile.com.
• Textures www.mayang.com/textures, www.imageafter.com, www.spiralgraphics.biz.
• Color wheel for user interface design.
• Color design rules - rules of thumb about color.

Software

• Scratch environment for creating interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art.
  • Reference Guide, other resources
• Jython Environment for Students for MS Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and other platforms.
• Media tools for exploring media (download for Windows or for Max OS X). To run, extract the archive, then drag-and-drop file mediatools-v4-sa.image to the SqueakVM application.
• Irfan View image viewer - a useful image manipulation utility.
• Fractal image generators:
  • Apophysis freeware fractal flame editor for Windows, JavaMan - Mandelbrot Fractal Generator Java Applet, Into the Mystic - Fractals.
• Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.