Form = Content · Systems Dramatize States · Discovery over Expression
Curriculum, assignments, session plans, and theory materials for DCDA 30833, an upper-division elective on code as an expressive medium within the humanities.
Offered Spring 2027 · MW, 80-minute sessions · 15 instructional weeks + finals
The course site is published from this repository via GitHub Pages —
index.html is the student-facing home page and the authoritative
index of assignments.
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
labs/ |
Low-stakes exercises isolating one technique each (Labs 0–13) |
projects/ |
Synthesis assignments (Projects 1–6, Final Project, Final Portfolio) |
live_coding/ |
Per-session teaching plans for every teaching week |
context/ |
Syllabus, schedules, policies, pedagogical foundations, build status |
theory_sheets/ |
Cheat sheets — color, drawing, sound, generative art, interactive poetry |
sketches/ |
Live p5.js recreations of precedent works, embedded on the site |
slide_decks/ |
Decks for the conceptual framing weeks |
readings/ |
Bibliography and viewings |
templates/ |
Student repo / portfolio starter |
proposal/ |
Approval-process documents — a historical record, not the live course |
assets/ |
Page template, stylesheet, media |
old_files/ |
Archive |
Four materials, one method. Each unit constrains a parameter, lets rules place the events, and asks what the system reveals.
| Weeks | Unit | Assignments |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Structure & Surface — HTML/CSS as systems, then time | LAB 0, LAB 1, PROJECT 1 |
| 3–4 | Chaos & Control — randomness, then constraint | LAB 2, LAB 3, PROJECT 2 |
| 5–6 | Color & Gesture — one hue, palette as prison, mark-making | LAB 4, LAB 5, PROJECT 3 |
| 7–8 | Language & Text — text as shape, AI as material, interaction | LAB 6, LAB 7, PROJECT 4 |
| 9–11 | Sound & Time — envelope, rhythm, generative systems | LAB 8, LAB 9, PROJECT 5 |
| 12–13 | Data & Society — mapping, and what mapping costs | LAB 10, LAB 11, PROJECT 6 |
| 14–15 | Synthesis — translation, failure, final studio | LAB 12, LAB 13 |
| Finals | Exhibition & Publication — May 10–14 | Final Project, Final Portfolio |
Each unit runs Lab → Autopsy → Project: labs isolate a technique, the autopsy reverse-engineers a precedent as a system to take apart, and the project synthesizes both.
- Syllabus — the delivery syllabus, on the TCU template
- Semester Schedule — instructor reference
- Student Calendar — week by week, with dates
- AI in This Course — AI as material, not vending machine
- Collaboration in Computer Art — course reading
- Theory Foundations — the pedagogical basis
- Build Status — what is authored and what remains
The .md files are the source of truth; the .html files are generated.
bash build.sh # regenerate HTML from Markdown (requires pandoc)
bash check-links.sh # verify internal + external linksTo add an assignment: write the .md, add a convert line to
build.sh with the week's swatch color, flip the tile in
index.html, rebuild, and push — Pages publishes automatically.
The full procedure is at the bottom of build_status.md.
Week swatch colors: structure #c1352b · motion #2f4b9b · randomness
#f2c12e · emergence #3f8a4f · color #6b4a9e · gesture #e0792e · text
#2f8f86 · poetry #d56a8f · sound #a8408b · data #4aa8c4 ·
translation #8a5a3c · finals #7a3b5c
This course uses an ungrading model. No assignment carries points or a percentage weight. Students receive qualitative feedback throughout and, at the end, submit a portfolio with a self-evaluation proposing their final grade.
This course moves away from "self-expression" and toward system discovery. Code is not a tool for executing a pre-planned image; it is a medium for dramatizing behaviors, probabilities, and logic. Constraints are treated as engines rather than limits — a restricted palette, a single hue, a rule without randomness, each producing more invention than an open field would.
"Poems don't have meaning. They dramatize states of thought and states of feeling."