CPSC 599+601 Creative Computing

Course Introduction

Christian Frisson

2026-09-01

Welcome

to CPSC 599+601 Creative Computing!

Today’s outline

  • Introduction
  • Course Information
  • Installation

Introduction

What do we mean by Creative Computing?

Creative Computing Curriculum, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Creative computing supports the development of personal connections to computing, by drawing upon creativity, imagination, and interests.

Creative Computing (key computational thinking practices)

Creative Computing Curriculum, Harvard Graduate School of Education

  • Experimenting and iterating
  • Testing and debugging
  • Reusing and remixing
  • Abstracting and modularizing

Creative Computing (GI’s take)

Creative Computing (our take)

  • Learn by experience.
  • Experience major ways (modalities) of interacting with computing systems.
  • Feed your mental model of design spaces for each component.
  • Explore limits.
  • Create unexpected results.

A personal example

ChristianFrisson · Genesis model: snow steps? wasp swarm? wet fire?

Your personal examples?

Ever felt drawn by unexpected or emergent processes in your work?

Anybody wants to share?

Course Information

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

  • understand how to source and share creative code from/into online repositories (such as GitHub);
  • be able to build upon code developed in any appropriate development language (C++, JavaScript, Python);
  • understand when (not) to use generative AI;
  • know how to glue different modalities (audio, visual, touch, interaction) together with tools for sequencing and mapping;
  • creative interactive artifacts via various levels of fidelity;
  • fine-tune their skills in pitching creative ideas and showcasing creative artifacts.

Format

  • Half individual experiential hacks: for each Lecture with Studio, students individually hack interactive demos mostly from existing works (from a publication and/or GitHub) on the topic of the day (audio, vision, touch, interaction), then get to do an Interactive Presentation of their work (with a demo)
  • Half group projects: with low- to high-fidelity prototyping, then Interactive Presentation (with a demo), then Documentation (a small GitHub Pages website, plus optional publication draft for grad students - course is cross-listed)

Schedule

(Subject to change with notification - in D2L > Course Information > Schedule)

Week Tuesday Thursday
Week 1 (Aug 31 - Sep 4) Lecture (Course Intro) Lecture (Git: Versioning, Documentation, Integration)
Week 2 (Sep 7-11) Lecture (Accessibility) Lecture (Glueing Modalities: Sequencers, Mappers) + Mapping Tools Workshop 2026
Week 3 (Sep 14-18) (Personal) Pitch (Course Expectations and Project Ideation) Lecture + Studio (Audio: Synthesis, Sampling, Spatial)
Week 4 (Sep 21-25) Interactive Presentations (Audio) Lecture + Studio (Vision: Graphics, Video, Projection Mapping)
Week 5 (Sep 28 - Oct 2) Interactive Presentations (Vision) Lecture + Studio (Touch: Haptics)
Week 6 (Oct 5-9) Interactive Presentations (Touch) Lecture + Studio (Interaction: Input, Cameras, Sensors, Embedded Computing)
Week 7 (Oct 12-16) Interactive Presentations (Interaction) (Guest) Lecture (Gen AI) by Ahmed Abuzuraiq
Week 8 (Oct 19-23) (Group) Pitch (Project Ideation) (Group) Project (Low-fidelity Prototyping)
Week 9 (Oct 26-30) Interactive Presentations (Low-fidelity Prototype Showcase) (Group) Project (High-fidelity Prototyping)
Week 10 (Nov 2-6) None (Term Break) None (Term Break)
Week 11 (Nov 9-13) (Group) Project (High-fidelity Prototyping) (Group) Project (High-fidelity Prototyping)
Week 12 (Nov 16-20) Interactive Presentations (High-fidelity Prototype Showcase) (Group) Project (Final Version Prototyping)
Week 13 (Nov 23-27) (Group) Project (Final Version Prototyping) (Group) Project (Final Version Prototyping)
Week 14 (Nov 30 - Dec 4) Interactive Presentations (Final Version Showcase) Individual Reflections Due + (Group) Project Documentation Due + Lecture (Course Reflection)

Grading

Component Studio (Individual) Project (Group) Total
Interactive Presentations 20% (4 x 5%) 15% (3 x 5%) 35% (7 x 5%)
Pitches 15% (1 x 15%) 15% (1 x 15%) 30% (2 x 15%)
Documentation / 20% (1 x 20%) 20% (1 x 20%)
Individual Reflection 15% (1 x 15%) / 15% (1 x 15%)
Total 50% 50% 100%

Components

  • Lectures
  • Studios
  • Interactive Presentations
  • Pitches
  • Documentation

Bret Victor’s Research Agenda, Communications Design Group SF, 2014.

Lectures

  • Offer an introduction to creative computing concepts.
  • 4 Lectures (audio, vision, touch, interaction) are also assorted to Studios where students individually hack interactive demos mostly from existing works (from a publication and/or GitHub) on the topic of the day, then get to present Interactive Presentations next class.

Studios (Scope)

Hack an existing example or project to experience its design space and to pique (y)our interest.

Studios (Process)

  • Install a well-established tool suggested during the studio.
  • Explore artifacts (examples, patches, demos…) from the tool or GitHub.
  • Pick one artifact and modify it creatively:
    • Focus on changes that will affect experience along the modality of the day.
    • Make the modality implementation more complex.
    • Combine examples if you wish!
  • Prepare your interactive presentation.

Interactive Presentations (Distribution)

Each Interactive Presentation weights 5% and is presented in class (presentation with demos).

  • 4 x Studio (Individual): Audio (Sep 22), Vision (Sep 29), Touch (Oct 6), Interaction (Oct 13).
  • 3 x Project (Group): Low-fidelity Prototype Showcase (Oct 27), High-fidelity Prototype Showcase (Nov 17), Final Version Showcase (Dec 1).

Interactive Presentations (Content)

  • Clarify the provenance (what example(s) you used).
  • Explain your intent, design idea.
  • Describe your creative updates.
  • Overview what you might have done next with more time.

Pitches

Each Pitch weighs 15% and is presented in class (simple presentation).

  • 1 x (Personal) Pitch (Course Expectations and Project Ideation) (Sep 15)
    • What creative computing aspects drive you individually?
    • What kind of project you’d like to collaborate on later in a group?
  • 1 x (Group) Pitch (Project Ideation) (Oct 20)
    • What creative computing artifact do you want to create in a group?
    • What is your team composition and how will you plan your collaboration?

Documentation

  • The Documentation assessment consists in creating a simple static website (GitHub Pages) to showcase group projects, featuring content and sections to be further explained in class.
  • Students (particularly graduate students, as this course is cross-listed) can choose to also draft a related publication if they want to, or continue their group project as research projects throughout and after the term.
  • If they do so, students should obtain consent from both their supervisor and the course instructor for co-authorship inclusion at their discretion.

Individual Reflection

A small report with:

  • a retrospective on your own Course Expectations:
    • How did your Individual and Group Project Ideations evolve to a Showcase?
    • Did Studios and Interactive Presentations help experientially shape your progress?
  • peer reviews and self reviews after group projects:
    • If reviews indicate that members of the group did not contribute as fully as others, they may be given a lower grade for the project.
    • In these cases, the instructor will discuss the contribution discrepancy with the group to help determine the grade for each member of the group.

Policies

These policies are in the course outline that is our learning contract.

Course Communication

Students must use their UCalgary account for all course correspondence.

Please read these instructions before contacting the teaching team (instructor and teaching assistants):

  • Students should use in priority Microsoft Teams public conversations in the CPSC 599+601 Creative Computing Fall 2026 Teams team so that contents can benefit all students, except for private matters that should be sent via email only.
  • Students should contact the teaching team via email only for private matters, must specify “CPSC 599+601 Creative Computing” in the email subject, and they should include their full name and UCID in their request.
  • Instructors reserve the right to disregard correspondences that do not follow these requirements.

Missed Course Assessments

Students absent from an Interactive Presentations or Pitches will receive a grade of 0 for that presentation, unless alternative arrangements have been made (such as submitting a pre-recorded video of their presentation before the presentation day, or arranging for carrying over grades from next Interactive Presentations or Pitches, at the discretion of the instructor).

Unless alternative arrangements have been made, late submissions will be graded as follows:

  • After the deadline up to 24 hours late: -25%
  • After 24 hours up to 48 hours late: -50%
  • Over 48 hours late: -100% (i.e., not accepted)

Acceptable & Prohibited Tools & Resources

Generative AI is permitted as long as student disclose their use: student will need to mention each prompt and the tools / models they employed.

Prototype Fidelity (and GenAI)

Prototype Fidelity and GenAI (Insights)

ACM Interactions July-August 2026.

Prototype Fidelity and GenAI (Trend)

ACM Interactions July-August 2026.

Prototype Fidelity and GenAI (Table)

ACM Interactions July-August 2026.

Prototype Fidelity and GenAI (Disembodiment)

ACM Interactions September-October 2026.

Prototype Fidelity (Physicality)

What if our artifacts are physical?

John Sullivan, Marcelo M. Wanderley, Catherine Guastavino; From Fiction to Function: Imagining New Instruments through Design Workshops. Computer Music Journal (2022) 46 (3): 26–47

MUMT 620 2018 course assignment with John Sullivan and Collin Wang

Prototype Fidelity (Evolution)

Mathias K. (P1) and Mathias B. (P5)’s low-fidelity prototyping for MUMT 620 shaped their master thesis.

TorqueTuner (NIME’20)

MapLooper (NIME’21)

CIRMMT Viz (HCII’20)

Prototype Fidelity (Example)

Examples of modalities and tools

Supporting creative artifacts at the

Next steps

Software tools