Postgraduate Courses

This course introduces students to the conceptual fundamentals of computational media and arts, technologies behind computational media and arts, and software and hardware tools used in computational media and arts production. It will cover principles of visual communication, design aesthetics, image and video synthesis, audio editing, animation and game design, etc.

From screenplay through post-production, students are immersed in the collaborative animation pipeline. In this course, students will utilize a variety of animation tools and techniques to tell a compelling story and experience the diverse roles within the animation industry through storyboarding, editing and completion of a short animated film.

This course covers the most fundamental knowledge and techniques of Chinese calligraphy and its important role in the modern technological advances. The history and various styles of calligraphy, history and principles of making rice paper, seal making and its role, and best-known calligraphers are introduced. Students will first learn and practice writing Chinese calligraphy on rice paper and then use deep learning tools to transfer interesting calligraphy styles. Students will develop projects, such as programming to generate or drive robots to write calligraphy. There will be guest lectures by well-known Chinese calligraphers and researchers in digitizing and modernizing Chinese calligraphy. A trip is planned to visit the best-known rice paper factory (红星宣纸厂) in Jingxian, Anhui, where all Four Treasures of calligraphy are located.

This course focuses on the arts and design of visual communication and expression with emphasis on both theory and practice. Students will learn about the design principles and techniques in visual communication and expression, develop good visual senses and relevant research skills that can inspire and enrich the creative and production process of projects that enable students to communicate and express visually and effectively.

This course explores interactive storytelling as cinematic, narrative and interactive art forms. It focuses on the art and techniques of visual storytelling that can interact thematically with the audience in meaningful ways. Students will learn about the key aspects of filmmaking and can apply narrative and interactive principles to storytelling in playable media and platform.

This course examines the practice and theory of 3D computer graphics in the context of visual arts. Students will acquire the technical skills of both traditional 3D animation software programs as well as emerging real-time 3D engines, and gain a critical understanding of its technology and history. Technical instructions will be given to cover all aspects of 3D animation production, including modeling, texturing, shading, animation, lighting, and rendering. Both pioneering and emerging artists working with 3D computer images will be introduced. Lectures and discussions on other related media, including photography, film, sculpture, and installation art will also be included.

This course serves as an introduction to understanding interactive art and the new media art scene in general. In addition to an overview of art history concerning active audience involvement in an artwork, the course will offer a practice-led approach allowing the students to experience modalities and challenges of interactive installations. Apart from hands-on program, the course contributes to critical thinking, reflection, contextualization, and understanding different types of audience interaction modes and interfaces. The core principles and methodologies of interaction design will be introduced. In addition to that, the problematics of preservation and also presentation of the interactive artworks in the exhibition space will be addressed.

In this course students use well established creative coding frameworks, specifically designed for artists to program graphics, sound and interaction for generating creative work. Students will initially experiment with basic generative techniques for graphics and will then be introduced to genetic algorithms, simple machine learning for interaction, using robots to draw on paper, generating NFTs of the work they create and many more emerging technologies in order to express themselves creatively.

This course introduces students to the concepts, theories, and interaction techniques in AR/VR/MR/XR. It covers both the fundamental concepts and design theories and the state-of-the-art interaction techniques in the field. In addition, students will work independently or in teams to design, develop, and evaluate AR/VR/MR/XR prototypes. In sum, by the end of the class, students will have a solid grasp of the fundamental concepts, design principles and research gaps in AR/VR/MR/XR and gain hands-on experience in designing and evaluating AR/VR/MR/XR prototypes.

This course introduces students to assistive technologies designed for people with different types of disabilities and the aging population. Students will learn how to leverage computational media and arts (e.g., VR/AR, AI-enabled interactive media and arts) to design assistive technologies to address accessibility challenges and evaluate their performance and user experience with the target population.

As Machine Learning (ML) permeates numerous aspects of culture, industry, and scholarship, it is crucial for the next generation of computational artists to be ML-literate, possessing the ability to critically evaluate and apply this rapidly evolving technology. Through hands-on experience with cutting-edge ML tools, students will hone their skills in this domain and establish critical perspectives on the strengths and limitations of current methods. This course employs free, open-source ML toolkits, enabling students to become familiar with various classification and regression models, RNNs, Convolutional Neural Networks, Transfer Learning, large language models, Text-to-Image generators, and more, for the purpose of implementing art projects. Each week, pertinent computational artworks utilizing various techniques are introduced, analyzed, and discussed.

Topics in aesthetic computing include generative art with focus on automatic generation of various styles of abstract art. Students engage in developing creative showcase projects, including program solving using visual languages, innovative visualization, generation of aesthetic images and digital art / AI art showcases. Assessment includes attendance in the class, technical presentations and report writing.

This course introduces art and media students to the various online social media platforms, as well as the fundamentals of producing artistic and creative media content in collaborative group projects. The course covers a wide range of interesting topics related to art and creativity techniques and functions on social media platforms, including but not limited to: digital storytelling, games and gamification, immersive art technologies, presentation, and advertisement. By the end of this course, students will have a better understanding of art and creativity on social media platforms.

This course introduces students to programming skills and selected topics for virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) projects. Students will initially learn basic programming skills relating to modelling, motion controllers, animation, rendering, navigation, networking using Unity3D. Next, students will be exposed to selected topics in VR and AR, including multi-modal interactions, collaborative interactions, visual perceptions in AR, etc. By the end of the course, students will be able to create their own interactive VR and AR creative applications as a course project (games, storytelling, VR experiences, etc.).

This course focuses on creating art projects using virtual reality (VR) technology. Students learn the fundamentals of VR-related frameworks, tools, and hardware, with specific emphasis on using a game engine to create immersive content and interaction. Students also get familiar with the historical development and contemporary examples of VR art and relevant theoretical topics, including simulation, virtual body, spatial sound, etc. The course content will include lectures and tutorials, and will be supplemented by visiting speakers, discussions and readings to provide diverse perspectives. By the end of the course, students will complete a creative VR project either individually or in teams.

This course provides an in-depth introduction to algorithms and interfaces that bridge sketching and modeling, with a particular focus on tools that support the conceptual design of shape and creation of artwork at a variety of scales. We will explore the full pipeline of concept to fabricated shape. Topics to be covered include: 2D and 3D representations, non-photorealistic rendering, sketch processing, image synthesis, sketch-based modelling, fabrication, pen and touch, and XR interfaces. We will also cover classic and cutting-edge papers published on top computer graphics and HCI venues. We will discuss how these techniques and systems benefit art and design, and vice versa.

The course provides an overview into the doctoral research processes and introduces research tools for conducting art-based research. The students will explore relevant literature, familiarize themselves with methodologies, and learn how to do critical analysis of artistic practices. The course will help students advance their art-based research and teach them how to approach their practice in a systematic way. The main outcome of the course is to apply the gained understanding in improving one's own research plan for guiding one's doctoral research and funding of it.

This course provides students with the necessary knowledge and skills to critically evaluate the role and use of emerging computational technologies in Art, Media, and Heritage. These technologies include Generative AI, Natural Language Processing, Sentiment Analysis, and others. Students will learn to select and assess these technologies based on their ability to best support the core values of art creation, media production, and heritage applications through various coursework. The course will feature real-world experience, case studies, and guest speakers to provide students with a practical understanding of these technologies. Furthermore, students will receive hands-on technical training through weekly or bi-weekly practical activities. Eventually, students will develop innovative content or applications for exhibition or real-world collaboration.

Creating immersivity in virtual reality allows creators to have an engaging experience in creating arts, animation, or visual assets for building virtual world. The way of creating is significantly different compared to traditional methods of creating. In this studio-based course, students will be introduced creating methods using different immersive authoring tools in VR, such as QuillVR and Gravity Sketch; and have opportunities to practice the sketching, assets building, animation and pipeline building for world building projects.

Pre-visualization is an important stage for time-based and real-time projects. In this course, the instructor will introduce different pre-visualization and storyboarding techniques covering cinematic language and stage art language for screen-based projects and VR/AR projects. Traditional methods of storyboarding focusing on gaining cinematic knowledge will be introduced; and applying that, emerging techniques for storyboarding in VR will be covered with pre-visualization projects.

The course provides a comprehensive overview of the main digital sound manipulation and synthesis and their application in the design of interactive music systems. At the end of the course, students will have a solid knowledge of Pure Data, a visual programming language that can be incorporated in a number of interactive environments. Additionally, a number of research topics in the field will be explored.

An independent research project carried out under the supervision of a faculty member.

A regular series of seminars presenting research problems currently under investigation. Graded P or F.

A regular series of seminars presenting research problems currently under investigation. Graded P or F.

Master's thesis research supervised by co-advisors from different disciplines. A successful defense of the thesis leads to the grade Pass. No course credit is assigned.

Original and independent doctoral thesis research supervised by co-advisors from different disciplines. A successful defense of the thesis leads to the grade Pass. No course credit is assigned.