The practice and theory of contextual instrument design for use in musical expression is explored. Students create new instruments and performance environments using a variety of physical interaction paradigms, programming practices, and musical processes emerging from the UC Berkeley Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT). Building on the methodologies established in Music 158A, the course develops aesthetic, analytic and technical skills through discussion, empirical study, and collaborative engagement.

Trying to bridge the gap between artists and critics, this exciting course engages in the critical making of digital literature together with the writing of scholarly essays on related topics. “Electronic Literature: A Critical Writing & Making Course” is a hybrid class that combines humanities literary analysis with the teaching of digital tools and resources through practical, hands-on work.

Many products of human invention — political speeches, product reviews, status updates on Twitter and Facebook, literary texts, music, and paintings — have been analyzed, not uncontroversially, as “data”.