Upcoming Courses
A comprehensive list of all past and present courses that apply to the minor are available here.
View the course catalog for all LCOD (Code as a Liberal Art) and cross-listed courses. Initial registration for Fall 2023 begins Monday, March 27.
Fall 2023
In this hybrid theory/practice seminar students will both critically examine, and learn how to craft, the code that drives computational machinery, focusing on its relevance to the domains of the liberal arts: the humanities, the arts, and the social and physical sciences. Students will learn the fundamentals of computational systems and ways that they relate to critical thinking and creative practice including: “distant reading” and the digital humanities, the production of generative artwork, techniques in data forensics, and methods for investigating algorithmic bias. Coursework will include weekly exercises using Python & Javascript. No prior coding experience is required. Students will need to bring a laptop computer to class, and can check one out from the university if necessary. This class fulfills the core requirement for the Code as a Liberal Art minor. [Read more]
Code as a Liberal Art
Filipa Calado
MW @ 2:00-3:40pm
This fall we’re offering two versions of this course: one in Python, and the other in Javascript. This course provides an introduction to the foundational building blocks of software development, such as variables, control structures, data structures, and modular code organization. Coursework consists of hands-on weekly programming exercises, and semi-weekly readings offering insight into the culture, politics, and history of computer programs. [Watch our promo videos below or click here to read more: Python version, Javascript version]
Code Toolkit
Dan Moore & Duncan Figurski
Live Coding
Melody Loveless
TTh @ 2–3:40pm
Live coding is the creative practice of writing and editing computer programs as multimedia performance. Also referred to as real-time or on-the-fly programming, the result is a feedback loop in which the performer manipulates the code of a running system to modify its output, often in an improvisational style. This class introduces students to live coding as an interdisciplinary approach to making digital artwork, with a survey of live coding methodologies, artists, and techniques. [Watch Melody discussing the class below, or click here to click here to read more]
Digital Network Infrastructure
Charlie Muller
MW @ 4-5:40pm
While digital objects are often imagined to exist in an immaterial or virtual cyberspace, code and data actually exist in material forms and places in the physical world: data centers, routers, wired and wireless data flows, and physical computers in our homes, pockets, and public spaces. This hybrid theory/practice seminar will take these physical infrastructures of the digital as our primary objects of inquiry, developing both critical analysis and hands-on techniques to test, build, and intervene in these networks and data circulations. We will examine objects such as mesh networks, offline networks, sneakernets, wireless routers, and portable network kits. This course will include project work experimenting with various techniques in network hardware and protocols. No prior experience with these technologies is required. [Read more]
The Algorithmic Sublime
Frank Shepard
F @ 9-11:40am
The sublime as a philosophical concept refers to that which exceeds rationality: the incomprehensible beauty and horror of the spirit and the natural world. In this course, we will read texts in philosophy, media studies, religious studies, visual culture, futurism, and the environmental humanities to develop a deep understanding of how the unfathomable is rendered operable by algorithms and digital media. We will consider examples including quantum computing, “Big Data” and the cloud, generative artworks, machine learning, and techniques in climate modeling, as well as fears of a looming AI apocalypse known as “the Singularity”. Coursework will include programming exercises. No prior coding experience is required, although prior exposure via classes such as “Code Toolkit” will be helpful. [Read more]