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Some Objections to Interactive Computer Art

1 November 2017 / general

Below is a list of objections to interactive computer-based art (e.g. such as the kind I create). These are notes I scribbled during a conversation over beers with the great David Rokeby sometime in 2010; they are his thoughts. If I recall correctly, David was sharing some stories about how his work was the target of all of the claims below. I just rediscovered these notes in an old sketchbook and thought they were (still) worth sharing. 


  • It can’t be art if it uses the computer, because the computer is intrinsically anti-humanist. (This critique was particularly common in the first two decades of computer art, roughly 1965-1985. See Taylor quote, below.)
  • Computer-based art is “not urgent”. In October 2008, Ekow Eshun closed the London ICA’s department of Live & Media Arts department, saying the form “lacks depth and cultural urgency”.
  • It’s “all about effects”.
  • Interactive art is impossible to evaluate with any objectivity, because it forces its participants into a subjective experience.
  • It’s always broken.
  • It can’t be conserved.
  • It’s not finite; therefore it’s not [completely] accessible, and can’t be evaluated.
  • There’s no “genius”, because the work is realized by the public.
  • It can’t be “eternal” because it’s slippery, changing and contingent. Often, each time an interactive artwork is presented, it must be recreated from scratch. Real art must be inert.
  • Art whose subject is pure sensory experience entails no depiction—it has nothing to “read”, no symbols to “decode”. It is not legible as art to critics and historians whose habit of working centers around deciphering (for example) narratives of power in figurative painting. (Doing so is a mainstream modus operandi in art history.)

Some readings came up during our discussion. These included:

  • Marshall McLuhann, “Through the vanishing point
  • Michael Naimark, “First Word Art / Last Word Art
  • Grant David Taylor, “When the Machine Made Art: The Troubled History of Computer Art 1963-1989
    • “The anti-computer response came from several sources, both humanist and anti-humanist. The first originated with mainstream critics whose strong humanist tendencies led them to reproach computerised art for its mechanical sterility. A comparison with aesthetically and theoretically similar art forms of the era reveals that the criticism of computer art is motivated by the romantic fear that a computerised surrogate had replaced the artist. Such usurpation undermined some of the keystones of modern Western art, such as notions of artistic “genius” and “creativity”…. Many within the arts viewed the computer as an emblem of rationalisation, a powerful instrument in the overall subordination of the individual to the emerging technocracy.”

The Rigor of CMU’s BCSA Degree

1 October 2017 / pedagogy
There are many different options for studying a combination of art+technology at Carnegie Mellon. Among these is the Bachelor of Computer Science, or BCSA. During admissions season, I receive many questions about the BCSA, including, occasionally, this one:
Q: I was wondering if a BCSA major would undergo a less rigorous computer science education than a typical CS major at CMU. I love the idea of an integrated double major, but I don’t want to fall behind the other computer science students.  

A. In my opinion, any student who can get admitted to both CS and Art is a real star. It’s extremely rare to have such a dual fluency, both algorithmically and visually. I confess that I cringe when I hear the idea that the BCSA is somehow less rigorous. If anything, the BCSA students are so brilliant, because they not only understand how to make things, and how things work, but they also understand what’s worth making, and why, and how to make it compelling. The BCSA program is designed to support this. That takes a different kind of rigor.

Ok, but specifics. I don’t think it’s accurate to say that the BCSA program’s requirements for CS are “less rigorous”. There are some differences between the CS Bachelors and BCSA — but that’s not one of them :) Rather than “watering down” its components, the BCSA was designed to eliminate redundancies and make more flexible elective options available, so that you can more effectively pursue your two interests, and their intersections. Here are two concrete ways that the BCSA does this:

The BCSA eliminates redundancies. Before we created the BCSA degree in 2008, CS+Art double-degree students had to take a humanities elective for their CS degree, and a humanities elective for their Art degree. The problem was, these weren’t permitted to be the same course! When we created the BCSA, we made it possible for a single humanities class to fulfill this requirement for both departments. There are lots of other examples like that.
 
The BCSA provides more customized, flexible approaches to the CS and Art disciplines. The BCSA degree trades off breadth in the individual sub-areas, for depth in the interdisciplinary intersection. Here’s an example: The CMU Computer Science department requires CS Bachelors students to take advanced electives in all 4 divisions of the department: Operating Systems, Logic/Proofs, Algorithms, and Applications. But most BCSA students are not particularly interested in Operating System design or abstract proofs! Instead, most BCSA students typically wish to study what the School of Computer Science calls “Applications” (such as computer graphics, computer animation, computer vision, computer music, robotics, and artificial intelligence). In order to support this focus, BCSA students are allowed to select CS elective courses from as few as just 2 of the 4 areas, if they want—and they actually have a higher percentage of CS electives in their curriculum than CS majors! (Of course, BCSA students who want to take electives in all 4 areas can, if they wish.) An analogous situation is true for the Arts requirements for BCSA students.
The BCSA and BS degrees share at least a half-dozen foundation courses, and believe me—these are very intense courses. Furthermore, if you carefully compare the Computer Science BS curriculum with the BCSA curriculum, you will see that the number of units that the BS versus BCSA students spend in Computer Science courses is actually very close:
So: that’s just 34 fewer units of Computer Science in the BCSA than in the BS. A typical class has either 10 or 12 units—so the difference between the BCSA and CS major is only about 3 classes’ worth of credits!
The BCSA is an exceptionally rigorous and challenging degree. In my opinion, it’s even more challenging than the CS bachelor’s, because it requires you to achieve excellence in both sides of your brain, and the connections between them.

Undergraduate Art+Tech Options at CMU: An Update

1 October 2017 / pedagogy, reference

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has been ranked #1 in new media arts, #1 in computer science, and #6 in fine arts, nationally, by US News & World Report (2016). As you might expect, therefore, there are a wide range of different degree options for combined undergraduate study in art+technology at CMU. This blog post presents a list of these options—accurate, to the best of my knowledge, as of summer 2018. Note that the “best” solution for a given student is an individual matter, and can even change over the course of a student’s undergraduate career.

As a leading research university with large and vibrant arts departments, Carnegie Mellon offers a rich environment for interdisciplinary study. Indeed, more than half of the undergraduates in the CMU School of Art are pursuing some kind of interdisciplinary add-on to their degree—whether a minor, double-minor, second major, double-degree, or hybrid “BXA” degree. I know and have personally advised students working in all of these ways, which are discussed below.

Carnegie Mellon is a very supportive environment for students who wish to pursue interdisciplinary studies. While this article enumerates degree options that combine arts and technology, CMU’s Office of Admissions maintains a more general list of interdisciplinary degree options offered throughout the university, in fields like computational biology, etc.

For reference, I’m a tenured full Professor in the CMU School of Art, where I teach computational and interactive media arts. I also hold additional (courtesy) appointments in CMU’s Schools of Design, Architecture, Computer Science, and Entertainment Technology, and I direct the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, CMU’s research lab for experimental arts. Through these appointments, I advise many students studying various combinations of arts+tech, hailing from a wide range of departments.

Please feel free to email me with questions. 

Contents:

This article was last updated 5 November, 2018.


• The CMU School of Art has internal concentrations in several areas, including electronic media. As a BFA major in Art, you are required to declare a concentration. You may create your own concentration, or you can select among four pre-existing options: (A) Drawing, Painting, Printmaking and Photography [DP3], (B) Sculpture, Installation and Site-Work [SIS], (C) Contextual Practice [CP], or (D) the Electronic and Time-Based arts concentration [ETB]. Most of the art students who are interested in fields like animation and game design pursue the ETB concentration in the School of Art. The ETB concentration includes coursework options (all offered within the School of Art) in topics like animation, game design, interactive art, video and performance art, visualization, digital fabrication, physical computing, and mechatronic/kinetic sculpture. Note that at Carnegie Mellon, a “concentration” comprises four courses, where each course is 10 or 12 units. The standard BFA degree in Art (regardless of concentration) is approximately 360 units.

The CMU School of Art is very progressive in its incorporation of new technologies, and provides its own (required) foundation course in computational thinking for all of its BFA students. A half-dozen of the School of Art’s full-time faculty employ code as an artistic material, in one manner or another; these faculty provide instruction in computer programming for the arts (sometimes called “creative coding”) using toolkits like Unity3DProcessing, p5.jsArduino, and Max/MSP. An example of such a course is “EMS-2”, or Introduction to the Electronic Media Studio II (60-210/212). EMS-2 is required for all second-year students in the School of Art, regardless of their their concentration—though we generally recommend that BCSA students (see below) and “pre-BCSA” students take EMS-2 in their freshman year. Note that there is no pre-requisite for EMS-2, and it can be taken out-of-sequence with EMS-1 (a foundation course in video, animation, sound, and other time-based media).


• CMU’s exciting IDeATe minors program offers eight different interdisciplinary minors and concentrations that cut across the university in lots of ways: Animation and Special EffectsGame DesignEntrepreneurship for Creative IndustriesIntelligent EnvironmentsLearning MediaMedia DesignPhysical Computing, and Sound Design. (Another minor, in Information Visualization, is expected to be approved in 2019.) These IDeATe programs are available to any undergraduate at CMU, regardless of their home department; several hundred students from all over the university are pursuing these options. Additionally, the IDeATe minors and concentrations are not mutually exclusive with the School of Art’s ETB concentration; short of double-counting courses (which is not permitted), you can definitely do both. (Note that at CMU, a “minor” comprises six courses.) Students interested in IDeATe minors are encouraged to contact Kelly Delaney, Assistant Director of the IDeATe program, at <kellydel@andrew.cmu.edu>.


• As an Art major, you can also pursue a minor in a wide range of technical fields. These include the Computer Science (CS) minorRobotics minorHuman-Computer Interaction minor, Machine Learning minorLanguage Technologies minor, Neural Computation minor, and Software Engineering minor, among many, many others. It is also possible to double-minor, meaning, to pursue two minors; for example, you could earn a minor in CS and also a minor in Game Design (through IDeATe).


• Reciprocally, CMU undergraduates majoring in Computer Science, Engineering, or other technical fields are strongly encouraged to obtain a minor in a second subject. Many CS students interested in the arts pursue a minor in the School of Art (or in another arts field), and a number are pursuing IDeATe minors, too. There is no requirement or expectation that the Art minor pursued by a CS student be in electronic arts, so this can be a good solution for technical students who wish to complement their studies with an art practice in more traditional media.


• CMU’s highly regarded Bachelor of Computer Science and Art, or BCSA, is an integrated double-major. The BCSA allows for study in Computer Science, in combination with study in one of the Schools of the CMU College of Fine Arts (Art, Architecture, Design, Drama, or Music). The BCSA is designed to be completed in four years, and requires about 380 units. There is lots of oversight, since every BCSA student has four advisors: Dr. Stephanie Murray (Director of the BXA Intercollege Degree Programs office); Dr. Tom Cortina (Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education, School of Computer Science); a faculty advisor from their CFA school (I’m the faculty advisor for BCSA students from the School of Art); and a full-time academic advisor from their CFA school (such as Mark Cato from the School of Art). I helped co-create the BCSA degree in 2008.

PLEASE READ. Some students believe that studying Computer Science is necessary in order to pursue their interest in animation or game design. This may or may not be the case. CS is assuredly a fascinating, useful, and challenging discipline— but be careful not to confuse (A) learning how to use existing animation software to make animations, (B) learning how to program interactive games/artworks/websites, and (C) understanding the theory of algorithms, computability and computation. The CMU School of Art and IDeATe programs offer a solid education in both (A) and (B)—including a respectable, arts-oriented introduction to programming and scripting (“creative coding”). Unless you’re also interested in (C), however, the BCSA may entail more Computer Science than you’re looking for.

Students interested in pursuing or applying for the BCSA are advised to contact Dr. Stephanie Murray, Director of the BXA Intercollege Degree Programs. It can be particularly challenging to get admitted into the BCSA, because you must be independently accepted into both the College of Fine Arts school (which requires a strong portfolio or audition) and the School of Computer Science (which requires extremely strong grades and—I’ll be honest—nearly perfect standardized scores, especially in math). Happily, internal transfer into BCSA (once you get to CMU) is also possible, and actually quite common; indeed, about 80% of the BCSA students are internal transfers, meaning that they transferred into the BCSA program at the end of their Freshman or Sophomore year. (The other 20% were accepted into BCSA right out of high school.) There are currently about two dozen BCSA students at CMU; the majority are combining CS with the School of Art, with the others pursuing combinations of CS with Architecture, Design, Drama and Music. Official information about the BCSA program and its curriculum can be found here, while I’ve published some personal observations about it here. And here are some facts and opinions about preparing a portfolio for BCSA admission—specifically for entry into the School of Art.

Internal transfers into BCSA can and do happen from either direction. To transfer into BCSA from the School of Art (or from another CFA school), you must demonstrate your proficiency in Computer Science by earning grades of B (or better) in the first few introductory CS courses (namely, 15-11215-122, and 15-150, generally in your freshman and/or sophomore years). If a student doesn’t earn a B or better in these introductory courses, then the BCSA program is probably not an ideal fit, and it may be best to consider another option, such as a CS minor.

To transfer into BCSA from the School of Computer Science, you should have a strong portfolio that demonstrates your sensibility in combining art and technology, and it’s recommended that you have taken (and done well in) at least two courses in your intended Arts discipline. Transfers into BCSA from Carnegie Mellon’s CIT (College of Engineering) have also been made, and are possible via an intermediate transfer to CS; all of the above requirements apply.

As of fall 2018, there are a small number of practical exceptions to the above information. Currently there are no [Acting+BCSA] or [Musical Theater+BCSA] options, because of the highly demanding rehearsal schedule in those Drama programs. (Note, however, that the School of Drama does allow the [Directing+BCSA] and [Stage Design+BCSA] options.) The [Design+BCSA] option does exist, but can be logistically challenging to pursue, because of the uniquely demanding schedule of the School of Design’s first-year program; if you’re interested in this path, you are strongly advised to contact Dr. Murray and Melissa Cicozi (Academic Advisor for Design Undergraduates) to best plan your options. For the moment, [Design+BCSA] status may be limited to students performing the transfer from Design to BCSA.

The CMU School of Computer Science offers bachelor’s degrees in computational biology, computer science, and (as of fall 2018) artificial intelligence. The newest of these, the BSAI program, is currently in a pilot stage and has restricted admissions. But in principle, it should soon be possible to pursue a hybrid BSAI+Art degree at CMU.


• Several additional “BXA” integrated double-majors allow students to combine other STEM fields with study in the arts, apart from Computer Science. For example, the BSA (Bachelor of Science and Arts) program allows for combinations of an arts discipline (Art, Architecture, Design, Drama or Music) with one of the natural sciences taught in CMU’s Mellon College of Sciences, such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, or Mathematics. There is also a B.S. in Music and Technology that spans the School of Music, College of Engineering, and School of Computer Science. Finally, a there are a variety of additional interesting intercollege degree programs that bridge, for example, the Sciences and Humanities. You may find a more up-to-date list of interdisciplinary undergraduate degree programs here.

As of spring 2018, Carnegie Mellon offers a new pair of hybrid degrees for combining Engineering and the Arts, jointly administrated by the College of Engineering and the College of Fine Arts’ BXA office. Owing to the special requirements of professional licensure for engineering degrees, these options work slightly differently than other BXA degrees. Students seeking to earn ABET licensure should pursue the “Bachelors of Engineering with the Second Major in Arts and Engineering”. On the other hand, students who want a degree that hybridizes arts and engineering, but who are not seeking to become licensed engineers, should pursue the BESA (Bachelor of Engineering Studies and Arts). Licensure is very important for certain kinds of engineering professions — you definitely want your bridges to be designed by licensed engineers! But licensure may be less relevant if your goal is to (e.g.) make mechatronic and kinetic sculpture. Students interested in these Arts + Engineering degree options are advised to contact Dr. Stephanie Murray in the BXA office.


• As a BFA student in the School of Art, you can pursue a second major in a technical field. For example, you could get a second major in Computer Sciencea second major in HCIa second major in Robotics, a second major in Statistics and Machine Learning, or a second major in many other departments. Please note that the double-major requires about 520 units, and you only get one Degree (in other words: you would earn a “BFA in Art, with a second major in Computer Science”). The second major in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is particularly popular with students interested in UX, UI, interaction design, and new media. Instructions for pursuing a second major in Computer Science can be found here.


• Complementing the School of Computer Science and College of Engineering, it may surprise you to learn that there are some rather technical, computationally-intensive degree options available through the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. These options are available as minors, and, in many cases, as second majors, and/or as the “H” option in a hybrid BHA degree. These include the minor/2nd-major/BHA in Statistics and Data Science; the 2nd-major/BHA in Information Systems; the minor/2nd-major/BHA in Cognitive Neuroscience; and a special new minor in Digital Humanities called Humanities Analytics. This program provides a combination of technical training (e.g., computer programming, “Machine Learning in Practice”) and training in humanities disciplines (e.g. “Intro to Critical Reading”). Students pursuing this minor learn processes by which they can analyze and derive insights from large databases of cultural objects, such as the application of social network analysis and natural language processing algorithms to historical archives of text. Humanities Analytics forms an ideal foundation for careers in data-driven journalism, among many other fields.


• It is also possible to pursue a double degree, also called a dual degree. This means you would earn (for example) a BFA degree in the School of Art, and a BS degree in Computer Science—two pieces of paper. This option requires about 560 units and generally takes 4½ or 5 years to complete. (Naturally you can still specify that your Art concentration is ETB, and you might pick up an IDeATe or other concentration/minor along the way). Not many students have pursued this option ever since the BCSA was introduced, but it’s possible. Instructions for pursuing a dual degree in Computer Science can be found here.


• It is also possible to pursue a Student-Defined Major (SDF) at Carnegie Mellon. There is a College of Fine Arts (CFA) Student-Defined Major, and also a University Student-Defined Major for degree programs that span multiple colleges. This is a great option for square-pegs-in-round-holes, and for other students who want to achieve something that is currently unachievable with any of the above structures. Students interested in the SDF should contact Kristen Kovak, CFA Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs, and Dr. Amy Burkert, University Vice Provost of Education. Note that there are also Student-Defined Majors in other colleges within CMU, such as the Student-Defined Major in the Dietrich College of Humanities.


• Interestingly, Carnegie Mellon also offers a Student-Defined Minor (SDMinor). Information on this option is scarce, but it appears on the university’s official application form (backup copy here). Students seeking the self-defined minor will need to meet the same requirements and complete the same procedures as those applying for the major. Informally, I’ve been told that no students happen to have pursued the SDMinor since the creation of the interdisciplinary IDeATe minors in 2013 (which appear to meet the need) — but it remains an option.


• It’s worth pointing out that there are also some little-known “4+1” accelerated master’s programs (AMP) which allow you to complete a Master’s degree in a single year. Ordinarily, Master’s degrees require two years, but these AMP degrees work by having some of your undergraduate coursework count towards the graduate degree. (They’re really more like 3½+1½.) One of the best-established of these 4+1 programs is the MHCI in the Human Computer Interaction Institute, which has its own AMP. Another is the CMU School of Architecture’s AMP for its Master of Science in Computational Design. Other 4+1 programs have been discussed “in principle”, and an enterprising student could, with sufficient preparation, potentially pursue a 4+1 with the BCSA and the ETC Masters of Entertainment Technology. This list is not exhaustive and other combinations may exist as well. Any 4+1 degree will require a great deal of careful planning, as courses generally cannot count towards two degrees simultaneously.


An Open Letter to the NEA

2 December 2014 / reflection, studio

Dear NEA Grants Officers,

Today I had the pleasure to review the NEA’s latest (2014) group of grantees. I wish you my heartiest congratulations on selecting such a large, diverse and unquestionably deserving group of grantees. We are thrilled, honored and privileged to have been selected for one of these awards.

In reviewing the grantees of the “Media Arts” category, to which we had originally applied, it became exceedingly clear that our proposed project would have had no chance in this category. I therefore express my sincere gratitude to you for transferring our application into a category in which it had any sort of fighting chance at all. Thank you.

I am, notwithstanding, concerned about the purview of the current category and the use of the term “media arts” to describe it. Of the 61 awards in this category, not less than 50 went to curated film festivals. Only five awards had any connection to interactive or computer-based arts whatsoever (BAVC, CAAM, NAMAC, Parallel Studios, and Tribeca Film Festival), and none of these have an exclusive or even predominant focus on digital arts, particularly digital arts research and production, with the possible exception of the event hosted by… the Tribeca Film Festival… that is concerned with helping filmmakers “interpret their work in digital platforms”. It is not an exaggeration to say that the awards in this category overwhelmingly went to organizations devoted to the presentation and maintenance of what I might call “mature 20th-century recorded media” — namely film, cinema, video, television, audio, and radio.

While the NEA’s grantees are unquestionably deserving, as I have said, I am concerned about who is not listed. Specifically, I am concerned that there is no NEA grants program which supports the work of the many United States artists working in the discipline(s) of emerging media. Such artforms might be things like (without an attempt to be comprehensive) interactive art, generative art, mechatronic and robotic arts, game arts, biological arts, app art, online & networked arts, and so on — and naturally, this list of media is constantly evolving.

I believe that the emerging media of today will become the “mature media” disciplines of the next century. Just as film and radio were born some 100 years ago, the interactive media being developed now are the hatchlings of what are rapidly developing into the rich art forms of the very near future. As an investment in the future of American arts, I hope that the NEA could realize the value of supporting these nascent forms and their struggling vanguard of practitioners. Just as the invention of film led to the multi-billion-dollar economy of Hollywood, the economic justification for such an investment in emerging media arts (if one requires it) should be clear, especially as the United States enters an era of increased global competition.

I believe it is essential to know where we have come from, yet also see where we are going. The NEA visibly supports and promotes the former, with (for example) a program dedicated to “Traditional Arts”; yet where is (by simple analogy) a grants program dedicated to “Emerging & Future Arts”? I fret that the only project in the Visual Arts category to even mention the word “computer” or “software” (among 70 grantees) is dedicated to restoring a 30-year-old sculpture by Nam June Paik.

If a consideration of emerging media is anywhere on the NEA’s table, I would be very glad to assist or consult in any way that I can, and/or to direct the NEA to others with expertise in these artistic disciplines.

Yours sincerely,

Golan Levin
Director, Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
Associate Professor of Electronic Art
Courtesy Associate Professor of Design
Courtesy Associate Professor of Computer Science
Courtesy Associate Professor, Entertainment Technology
Carnegie Mellon University
Twitter: @golan


Computing (almost) without Computers (Eyeo Code+Ed Session)

25 June 2014 / external, pedagogy, reference

Links and Notes from the Eyeo Festival Code+Ed SessionJune 10, 2014 

The following is a list of resources which you may find helpful in teaching introductory programming concepts and computational thinking. Wherever possible, these links list resources which are “computerless”, relying instead on paper and cardboard constructions, physical performances, etcetera. This list was compiled from a discussion session on “Teaching Computing without Computers,” held at the Eyeo Festival’s Code+Ed unconference, June 2014.

I apologize that this list is not more richly annotated. If you have additional suggestions, I’d be happy to hear about them for possible compilation here. Please contact me @golan on Twitter, or by email at golan at flong dot com. 


FORMAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS

CS Unplugged

From 0 to C Workshop by Ubi de Feo

Adventures in Modeling by Mitchel Resnick et al.
From “Adventures in Modeling: Exploring Complex Dynamic Systems with StarLogo” 


ALGORITHMIC DRAWING

Sol Lewitt Wall Drawings
There are hundreds and hundreds of these. Executing them has terrific pedagogic value.

Conditional Design & their Manifesto
Tons of instructional pencil-and-paper artwork/assignments

The Poster Factory by Studio Moniker (Jonathan Puckey and Luna Maurer)

Processing.A4 by Basil Safwat
A pencil-and-paper version of a classic Processing artwork

Peg Programming by Ed Burton

Wolfram’s CA Rules
A cellular automaton which can be executed with pencil & paper… initially anyway.

Paper Computing and PaperCamp by James Bridle


COMPUTATIONAL THINKING GAMES

Zoom Schwartz Profigliano
A metalinguistic, possibly Turing-complete spoken-word game.

Eleusis
A card game in which the players must guess or infer the rules. 

Lightbot 2.0
An interactive computer game that teaches programming concepts.

Code Monkey (Kickstarted game)
A family-friendly board game that introduces kids to programming concepts.

Mastermind (board game)

FermiPicoBagel
A mathematics digit game

Fluxx (card game)
Another card-game with rules that continually change

Kaxxt! Card game by Why the Lucky Stiff (@_why)
A card game which teaches programming concepts. 

African Pebble Games (Mancala)

Othello, Reversi, Go


OBJECTS

The Descriptive Camera by Matt Richardson

Cubelets by Modular Robotics

Cardboard Computer, Cardboard Plotter by Nicholas Roy

A Computational Model of Knitting, by @bitcraftlab
Alex McLean: “Textiles deserves a place as the origin of computation.”
Mitchel Whitelaw: “Free memory usually takes the form of the yarn ball.”

Binary adding machine sculpture
Math with Marbles, no electronics necessary.

“Push-pull” mechanical logic gates, built from LEGO

“System Blocks” by Oren Zuckerman, MIT Media Lab:

The Mechanical Facebook by Russell Davies

Sphero, Robotic ball


PERFORMANCES

Human-Powered Computer, by John Maeda (1993)
An accurate (if slow :) re-enactment of a computer’s operating system

The MP3 Experiment, by ImprovEverywhere (Charlie Todd et al., annually since 2005)
Emergent behaviors arise in a large-scale crowd, given synchronized audio instructions.

Flock Logic, by Susan Marshall and Naomi Leonard (2010, Princeton)
Dancers are given simple rules, emergent behaviors result.

The Human Cellular Automata, by Matthew Fuller (2000)
“Like a Mexican Wave in two-dimensions” 

AlgoRythmics
Sorting algorithms in dance.

The emergent behavior of synchronized crowd clapping


OTHER & MISCELLANEOUS REFERENCES

Visual sorting algorithms

Cooking for Engineers

“Draw it With your Eyes Closed” ed. by Paper Monument
Compilation of provocative, often conceptually-oriented arts assignments

IFTTT
Useful for configuring simple but powerful data relationships.

Rubik’s speed-cubing algorithms

Obkique Strategies by Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt

Mechanical Turk in the Classroom
Assignments e.g. Have students sign up and make the most money, etc.