Teaching

MUSC-2540 Special Topics in Rhythm Studies

Modalities of Rhythm I

This course provides musicians and non-musicians alike an overview of the multimodal dimensions and applications of rhythm for performative, communicative, therapeutic, spiritual and social purposes. Students will gain hands-on experience with research methods for analyzing patterns of behavior, including observation, phenomenology, ethnography, and participatory design methods, offering them an opportunity to increase their understanding of audiences’ and stakeholders’ motivations and expectations. Through listening, vocalizing, embodying, transcribing and visualizing different rhythms, students will be able to develop their ability to understand complex polyrhythms and apply these skills to their own musical compositions. Hands-on practice involving digital audio workstations, drum machines and programming interfaces, as well as participation in a final performance involving the playtesting and evaluation of new musical interfaces is expected.

ARTG-6310 Advanced Topics in Design for Behavior and Experience

Modalities of Rhythm II

This course examines the potential of rhythm as a medium for human-computer interaction and computer-mediated communication. Students will gain hands-on experience with research methods for analyzing patterns of behavior, including observation, phenomenology, ethnography, and participatory design methods, offering them an opportunity to increase their understanding of audiences’ and stakeholders’ motivations and expectations. Students will develop skills employing iterative prototyping methods and conducting their own design experiments to test their original hypotheses in the Urban Griots Collaborative. The course will have a strong focus on the exploration of rhythm as a natural phenomenon that is core and central to the human experience (not only to music), and a range of educational theories and praxes as welll as embodied and performative perspectives of design will be explored during the course.

ARTG-3463 Experience Design 2

This course continues ARTG 3462 processes and strategies for creating compelling human-centered experiences. It emphasizes experience design as a strategic design practice that advances organizational objectives and engages stakeholders by crafting compelling, future-oriented relationships between people and products. Students will work in cross-disciplinary teams and employ design research, rapid prototyping and iterative processes to realize creative and inventive projects. Students will develop portfolio projects that demonstrate their ability to use emerging methods and design for complex, open-ended challenges.