Project planning

The project development is a major part of the Multimedia Authoring course, and is required in order to successfully conclude the course. Ideally, these projects should be additionally presented at Media Lab Demo Day (26/5/2011) – this is the level we’re aiming for. Some comments regarding the project:

1. Focus areas of the course:

• generative aspects of multimedia design and the authoring process;
• interaction design;
• the control of media elements in interactive projects;
• broad range of media elements, with emphasis on controlling media behavior through code.

2. Themes of the course:

• Text
• Generative graphics – 2D vector graphics
• Generative graphics – particle systems
• Generative graphics – 3D and textures
• Image processing
• Video
• Computer vision
• Sound
• Audiovisuals
• Touchscreen devices
• Further explorations with physical computing and natural UI (in connection with other courses at Media Lab)

3. There are two required modalities of presentation:

• The web; and
• Presentation within course sessions.

4. There are two presentation moments (on the web and within the sessions):

• Project proposal (at least one image/sketch and a short text description) – 6/May/2011; and
• Final project presentation – 13/May/2011 (web presentation can come later).

5. Project evaluation and approval:

• Evaluation is on a “pass/fail” basis.
• As is usual practice in Media Lab, attendance of 80% is required. Extra work can be set up to compensate for lower attendance.
• Both presentations, in both modalities, are necessary to obtain “pass”.
• Discussion of proposal is necessary to move to final project.
• Final project has to comply with proposal to be considered successful; any changes should be subject to discussion.

6. Web presentation location:

• Web presentation can be hosted anywhere on the web or at Onni (intranet), including in this blog.
• At least the project name, an image and a link to the project should be posted in this blog (in both presentation moments), so that all the references to the projects can be found in one place. A link to your own page is recommended.
• A single URL (for example, a single blog post) should ideally be used for both Web presentations. The second one should update the first, leaving the planning documentation further in the description, as part of the history of the project.

7. Web presentation requirements for the final project presentation:

• A video – I will record the project presentation on video and make it available later on Vimeo (unless the student objects), so that can be used; otherwise, any other video of the project could be used; and
• A short text description.

8. Tools that can be used for the project development:

• openFrameworks and Flash/FlashBuilder/ActionScript are the main technologies for the course, and will be supported; or
• Any other tool for creative coding can be used, provided that it meets the focus areas and themes of the course (however, technical support is not guaranteed for other tools). In this case, this should be clearly stated on the project proposal, and the project proposal has to be discussed taking that into account.

9. Projects can be developed by individuals or by groups. Requirements for groups:

• Everyone in the group has to do some coding;
• The amount of work has to be proportional to the number of elements that compose the group (ideally not more than two); and
• There has to be additional project planning, presented on the project proposal, stating the roles, responsibilities and work loads clearly of the project members; this will be reviewed during final project presentation.

10. Projects can be combined with other courses:

• Provided they are complementary (for example, another creative coding course would not be complementary).
• Again, this should be mentioned and discussed at project proposal presentation.

11. Sharing the code:

• Please make the source code to your projects available for download at your project presentation page.
• It’s fair to share the code when we are dealing with open source technologies (particularly in an education context).