course summary:

Artful design of interactive music software. Programming, audiovisual design, as well as software design for musical tools, instruments, toys, and games. Strategies for designing and building music software, with emphases on audiovisual interactive systems, aesthetics, and the philosophy of artful design. Course work includes several programming assignments and a "design your own" final project. Prerequisite: experience in C/C++ and/or Java.

256a topics include:

• principles of artful design
• building real-time software systems (integrating audio, graphics, interaction)
• toy + game design
• interaction design
• social design
• a practical philosophy of shaping technology