Computational Thinking for DC

Course Content & Materials

Resources for Help / Troubleshooting

Throughout the semester you should take advantage of the instructor's office hours, the teaching assistant's office hours, and the Digital Culture tutoring service for any issues you have related to course material and/or software use and installation.

Office hours with Seth and Yanjun are by appointment. Use links and email addresses at the right to let us know you want to come to office hours.

ASU Community of Care

Seth Thorn: seth [dot] thorn [at] asu [dot] edu
- Th 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM, by appointment
- https://asu.zoom.us/j/7130372627
- DC Tutor signup form: https://forms.gle/zns2v2ycLorwL7797

Week 1: Rhythms / Patterns + Arduino

Overview of First Class

Review syllabus and course requirements
Tinkering with computational media
Use Arduino IDE to upload code to the Circuit Playground Express
Max Objects: [bang] [counter] [number] [select] [key] [metro] [toggle]

How to use your Circuit Playground

Follow these instructions to upload the AME 112 code to your Circuit Playground. You only have to do this once.

Download this week's patches.

Use these helpful keyboard shortcuts to speed up your patching.

Week 2: Wind Chime (Algorithmic Sound)

Week Outline

Computing Concepts
- Probability; Logical and Mathematical Operators; Audio
Max Objects
- [random] [drunk] [message] [scale] [slide] [mtof] [kslider]
- Mathematical and logical operators: [+] [/] [%] [>] [<]
- MSP Objects: [click~] [cycle~] [gain~] [play~] [buffer~]

Recording bell sounds at Cosanti, the gallery and studio of Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri. These recordings are contained in the folder "cosanti_bells" and will be used for this week's homework assignment.

Week 3: Mood Light (Algorithmic Light)

Week Outline

Go over Homework #2, "Buffer_and_Play" and "Digital_Wind_Chime" patches from Week 3.
Computing Concepts
- Modularity
- Algorithms and Time
- MIDI, Bits and Bytes
- HSV Color Model
Max Objects
- [gate] [send] [receive] [midiin] [pack] [itable] [p] [preset] lists

Binary numbers - we'll discuss these in class this week.

Improvised "fire" algorithm made with two [itable] objects, one for controlling hue and the other for controlling brightness. See patch "8_iTable_and_Preset.maxpat"

Week 4: Accelerometer (Tilt)

Week Outline

Max Objects: [int] [uzi] [&&]
Accelerometers: Tilt
16-bit integers, signed and unsigned integers
Logical AND Operations
Abstractions / arguments
Low-pass filtering with [slide]
Floating Point Math

The accelerometer on the Circuit Playground Express.

Week 5: Accelerometer (Motion)

Week Outline

Accelerometers: Motion
Normalization
Motion Mapping
Operations on signals: *~
New Objects: [bucket], [clip], [loadbang], [unpack], [nodes], [speedlim], [meter~], [send~], [live.gain~]
Free sound packs from Adobe you can download: http://offers.adobe.com/en/na/audition/offers/audition_dlc.html

Week 6: Arcade Games

Week Outline

Look at all available features of the Circuit Playground
Review midterm prompt / optional group formation (max: 2)
Learn about Simon and come up with a list of smaller functions that we can string together to build this game. (Group work in class to build basic functions).

How many of you are familiar with the game "Simon"? This week we're going to think about how we can use Max MSP and the Circuit Playground to create our own version of it. This may involve some more complex coding, but what I really want you to learn is a simple idea: how to divide bigger programming problems into smaller ones.

Wikipedia article on Simon

Simon on the Circuit Playground

Classic Brio Board Game with embedded Circuit Playground

Week 7 & 8: Midterm Prep / Review

For the next two weeks, I'll be helping you get started with ideas from your midterm proposals in class. Here are some of the amazing ideas from students in the Fall 2020 course:

Halloween:
- Scary door knock sensor
- Reactive Jack-o-lantern Light
Responsive Media / Music
- "Breakbeat Playground" drum machine
- Music Visualizers
- "Party Hardy" party detector
- Calming night lights
Smart Home Devices
- "Home Circuitity" device protector
- Acceleration / Deceleration indicator
- Noise complaint machine
- Pet rabbit escape detector
Games / Arcade Games
- Ring Toss
- Stack 'Em
- Bop it!
- Playground Pet
- Juggle Game
- Whack-a-mole
- "Keep it level"
- Star Wars Light Saber
- Flight Simulator
Wearables
- AdafruitWatch
- Balance detector

Topics covered in class Week 7.1, Fall 2020:

Automatically turning off previously-illuminated Neopixel using [bucket]
Programming Live input drum machine sequencer using [counter], [select], [gate], [int]
Using capacitive touch sensors
Programming approach to games: start with basic mechanics of your game first. Deal with Circuit Playground input/output later
Programming Stack 'em

Topics covered in class Week 7.2, Fall 2020:

Audio over threshold for period of time
Time interval between button presses; double clicks; both buttons simultaneously
Presets: saving light patterns with [preset]; sequencing light patterns for animation
Audio analysis for music visualizers
Keeping a tally or count using [incdec]
Whack-a-mole; [incdec]

Patches built in class in order of presentation.

Week 9: Images & Video

Week Outline

Introduction to Jitter, a suite of objects included with Max MSP for video and image processing
Objects: [jit.matrix], [jit.pwindow], [jit.window], [jit.noise], [jit.cellblock], [jit.unpack], [jit.pack], [jit.brcosa], [jit.rota], [jit.op], [jit.scalebias], [jit.movie], [jit.slide], [jit.xfade], [qmetro]
[jit.op] with one matrix
Message variables. Example: (brightness $1)
Pixel Math
RGB Color Model; 8-bit Color
Using [/] and [%] for two-dimensional, sequential grid filling

Something you can do with the Jitter objects you learn in Week 9. See patch "5_Jitter_setCell.maxpat"

Week 10: Live Video & Motion Analysis

Week Outline

Live Video Input
[jit.op] using two matrices as input; masking
Math behind Crossfading / Mixing
Matrix statistics using [jit.3m]
Frame Differencing
Motion-activated Generative Video
Motion-activated Live Video Masking
Objects: [jit.grab], [jit.rgb2luma], [jit.scissors], [jit.glue], [jit.lumakey], [jit.3m]
Additional [jit.op} operators: +, avg, absdiff

Week 11: Generative Design / Animation

Week Outline

Main topic: [jit.lcd]
Generative Design: algorithmic generation (by sets of rules) of animations, models, artwork...
Feedback: Feeding the output of a system back into the input of system.
[jit.lcd] + other Jitter objects

Week 12: Jitter Review

Jitter Review in Class

Week 13: Audio Analysis

Week Outline

Introduction to digital audio and related terms (ADC, DSP, DAC...)
Bit depth and sampling rate
Logical and mathematical operations on audio signals
Amplitude, frequency, and filtering
Analysis of audio signals / spectral analysis
New Objects: [scope~] [number~], [*~], [dspstate~], [degrade~], [>~], [clip~], [peakamp~], [snapshot~], [spectroscope~], [noise~], [cross~], [gate~], [zerox~], [selector~], [fzero~] [ftom], [umenu].

Computational Thinking: Digital Audio Primer

Week 14: Audio Synthesis

Week Outline

Grain Generators and Granular Synthesis
Installation of Max Packages
Impactful Audio Effects: use of filtering and reverberation
Wrappers and Abstraction
Mapping and Parameter Linkage
Objects: [groove~], [info~], [live.gain~], [line~], [yafr], [M4L.bal2.~], [waveform~]

Week 15: Audio / Video Review

Week Outline

Review and final project help.

Demonstration of "0_Media_System_with_Granular_Synthesis" patch. Movement improvisation by Halley Willcox. Also demonstrates projection mapping (a technique we haven't learned - take more AME classes!)

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