Next week I will be teaching at Media Lab Helsinki (Aalto University, School of Art and Design). I will teach part of the Designing Interaction with Electronics course, 8-10/September.

A description of the course:

The course provides a journey of design process from developing concepts to prototyping interactions. During the course, an intensive workshop is held for a week to learn how to build prototypes using software programming and electronic assembling. The rest of the course is organized by 2 hours weekly workshops and lectures. After a theme is given, students will work on developing concepts within groups and planning for prototypes. Actual prototyping experience consists of two phases. The students will be asked to present their work in progress after the first phase. Feedback from guests and other audiences should be applied to the second. The final prototypes will be presented in the Xmas demoday in Media Lab.

Prototyping environment – Arduino, Adobe Flash and Nokia N900

The course will be coordinated by Michihito Mizutani, I will teach the Flash component of the course.

More information at the Media Lab website:
http://mlab.taik.fi/studies/courses/course?id=1808
and Michihito’s Paja blog:
http://mlab.taik.fi/paja/?p=1249

In August, I developed 3 “learning objects” related to Flash and ActionScript, entitled “Multimedia Development”:
http://multimediadev.wordpress.com/

This is similar to an online course (although allowing for self-exploration), and somehow adapts some of the lessons I’ve been teaching in my latest Flash-related courses. It has been commissioned by Tallinn University. Check it out if you want to learn Flash/ActionScript 3, or if you are just curious. Feedback is welcome.

The theme of the lecture is Multimedia Project Management, which will be centered around a generic new media project proposal.

Project proposal (a possible structure):

• Summary / scope of the project
  • Statement from the client / brief / request for proposal
  • Was there a possibility to re-open / question the brief or request?
• Concept and approach
  • Diagrams and/or sketches
  • Inspiration and benchmarks
  • Relevant past own work
  • User/audience/market studies, if available; description of target audience
• Project team
• Schedule, deliveries, milestones
• Cost/budget
• Limitations/special conditions/technical requirements (if relevant)
• Possibilities for future developments
• Conclusion

References:

• England, E and Finney, A., 2007. Managing Interactive Media: Project Management for Web and Digital Media, Harlow: Addison-Wesley.
• Moggridge, B., 2006. Designing Interactions, Cambridge: MIT Press.

Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nunocorreia/sets/72157623249650673/

The projects can be found in this link (source code included):
http://mlab.taik.fi/mediacode/coursefiles/course_2010_01/projects/
[updated]

I’ll be teaching the Multimedia Authoring course at Media Lab Helsinki, Aalto School of Art and Design, from today until 5/February 2010.

More info about the course (and the previous editions I’ve taught) can be found at this blog: http://mlab.taik.fi/mediacode/

From 21/9/2009 to 1/10/2009, I’ll be teaching the Digital Interactive Audio 20h course @ Tallinn University, as part of the Interactive Media and Knowledge Environments master program.

The course will focus on audio theory and digital audio recording / editing (using Audacity).

MAIN LINKS:
- Course program
- Schedule

AUDACITY LINKS:
- Home / download
- Manual (new, still incomplete)
- Manual (old)
- Wiki

AUDACITY TUTORIALS:
- http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Tutorial_-_Your_First_Recording
- http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Tutorial_-_Mixing_a_Narration_With_Background_Music

ADDITIONAL AUDIO THEORY LINKS:
- http://www.mediacollege.com/audio/
- http://startproducingmusic.com/category/audio-theory/

LINKS TO AUDIO RESOURCES AND STORAGE:
- soundcloud
- freesound
- findsounds
- music related – myspace, last.fm
- others/generic file sharing – dropsend, yousendit
- recording – Vocaroo (via Maibritt)

BREAKDOWN OF PROGRAM:
21/9 – introduction to audio theory and digital audio
22/9 – sound editing, import and export
23/9 – mixing and recording
24/9 – effects
25/9 – exercises, discussion on assignments
—–
29/9 – test, project development
30/9 – project development
1/10 – projects presentation

ASSIGNMENTS:
1. paper on introduction to sound, to be written during 29/9 session (text sent by e-mail)
2. recording and optimization
3. creative assignment
3.1 mixing the recording for a functional purpose – example: podcast
3.2 audio and effects creativity assignment – example: podcast trailer/ad
deadline for assignments – 30/9 (links to sound files sent by e-mail)

PODCAST ASSIGNMENT DETAIL:
Part 1 – recording, optimization, mixing
1. Record the voice component of the podcast (in English language), with the best conditions available.
2. Optimize that recording.
3. Mix it with a background track, creating a podcast.
4. Export it for distribution on the web.
5. The end result should be clear and appealing.
6. The total podcast should be between 2 and 4 minutes.
7. A list should be made of all effects applied and values changed (“effects history”).
Part 2 – creative use of audio
1. Create a 30 seconds trailer or advertisement for the podcast.
2. Use different effects and multiple sounds.
3. The end result should be persuasive and engaging.
4. Optimize the resulting file.
5. Export it for distribution on the web.
6. A list should be made of all effects applied and values changed (“effects history”).
Delivery and presentation
1. Audacity files should be well organized and tidy, making use of tracks and labels.
2. The following files should be delivered:
- original recording,
- podcast and podcast trailer audacity files, and dependent files, all included in a single zip file,
- podcast and podcast trailer final web files,
- podcast and podcast trailer “effects history” lists.
3. Files should not be sent by e-mail, but as links.
- Files should be uploaded to a server, a blog, or other social networking site.
- The links to those files should be sent by e-mail.
- Ideally, the files and results of the assignment should be presented in a organized and descriptive way (example: as a web page or blog post).
- That way, only one link would be sent, where all the files could be found and contextualized.

ADDITIONAL LITERATURE:
- My “sound” collection on LibraryThing

REQUIREMENTS:
- 80% attendance

Videos of the project presentations can be found here:
http://www.vimeo.com/album/193318

And photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nunocorreia/sets/72157623540732937/

More info about the course (and the previous editions I’ve taught) can be found at this blog: http://mlab.taik.fi/mediacode/

For more information on these courses, please visit my teaching blog “Media+Code”:

http://mlab.taik.fi/mediacode