ARC480H1 S1
Instructor: TBC
Meeting Section: L0102
Winter 2025

What does it mean to be a human agent interacting with and designing with technological agents? This course investigates and experiments with computation that are embedded all around us - in our built environment, on our bodies, and in the software tools our bodies use to design the built environment. Advances in design technologies have created intriguing new opportunities for designers to reimagine how people could interact with each other and with spaces. Architects, designers, and artists who engage with this interplay can create interactive and imaginative experiences where spaces and objects instigate questions about human behaviors and the integration of technology in society.

Using responsive physical computing and generative artificial intelligence, this course will investigate contemporary questions in human-computer interaction through theory, design projects, and critical analysis. Students will work in groups to design interactive installations and responsive objects that express attributes of aliveness, and in turn, analyze their design processes as case studies to better understand human behavior and creativity. The aim of the design projects are to be provocations, playful or poetic, that confront us with the question of - what makes us alive?

The students are expected to have prior experience with physical computing and Arduino through previous coursework, but are not expected to have prior experience with AI. It is highly recommended that students take the ARC385H1 Physical Computing course prior to enrolling in this class.