Code Toolkit: Python, Spring 2023: Schedule

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Weekly plan: class notes, assignments, etc

• Week 1 (Weds, January 25) — Thinking like a computer?

  • Introductions
  • About the course
  • What is a program?
  • The Processing Development Environment ("PDE")
  • Drawing with numbers
  • The window as a grid of pixels

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes
  • Welcome slide presentation (link to come)

  Homework

  • Homework assignment, due Tues, January 31, 8pm

• Week 2 (Weds, February 1) — Adding variance

  • Variables
  • Arithmetic (+, -, *, /)
  • Introduction to random()

  Reading (to discuss in class today)

  • Lev Manovich. The Language of New Media, Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2002. Chapter 1 (pages 18-55). Please note that I am only asking you to read chapter 1 of this text (pages 18-55). The rest of it is also great, and I've included a PDF of the entire thing. But I only plan to discuss chapter 1 in class. If you have already read this (I have assigned it in some other classes) then you might consider reading the Prologue and Introduction, or any other chapter that you think would be interesting for you.
    Reading response due Tues, Jan 31, 8pm in the reading response Google Doc; we will discuss for 30-40 minutes in class.

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes
  • Slide presentation (link to come)

  Homework

  • Homework assignment, due Tues, Feb 7, 8pm

• Week 3 (Weds, February 8) — Adding interactivity

  • Code blocks and frames (setup() and draw())
  • Debugging (with println())
  • Mouse interaction (mouseX and mouseY, pmouseX and pmouseY)
  • map()

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes

  Homework

  • Homework assignment, due Tues, February 14, 8pm

• Week 4 (Weds, February 15) — Making things move

  • Conditionals if and else
  • Keyboard interaction
  • Motion

  Reading (to discuss in class today)

  • Miriam Posner, "JavaScript is for Girls" [or a PDF here]
  • Janet Abbate, "Coding Is Not Empowerment", from Your Computer is On Fire, MIT Press, 2021
  • Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu and Lauren Kirchner, "Machine Bias", ProPublica, 2016. [or a PDF here].
  
  Reading response due Tues, February 14, 8pm in the reading response Google Doc; we will discuss for 30-40 minutes in class.

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes

  Homework

  • Homework assignment, due Tues, February 21, 8pm

• Midterm project assignment.
  Assigned Wednesday, February 15.
  Due dates: Monday, March 27, 8pm for peer review; Wednesday, March 29 for in-class presentation & discussion; and Friday, March 31 for submission of final draft.

• Week 5 (Weds, February 22) — Adding repetition

  • Loops

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes

  Homework

  • Homework assignment, due Tues, February 28, 8pm.

    Please note: there is a reading to prepare for discussion in class next week. See below. The text is related to the midterm, and so will hopefully help you think about that as we approach the due date for your midterm project propsoal.

• Week 6 (Weds, March 1) — Working with many things (lists)

  • Data structures: lists

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes

    Reading (to discuss in class today)

    The readings for today offer us a chance to go deeper into thinking our thinking about what this thing called data visualization really is, to think about it's various biases and controversies, and what it does well. I hope it will help you think about what you might work on for the midterm project.
    
    

  • "Data Visualization", from Matthew Fuller's Software Studies: A Lexicon
  • Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein, "Unicorns, Janitors, Ninjas, Wizards, and Rock Stars," from Data Feminism, MIT Press, 2020

    Reading response due Tues, February 28, 8pm in the reading response Google Doc; we will discuss for 30-40 minutes in class.

  Homework

  • Homework assignment, due Tues, March 7, 8pm.

    Please note: there is a reading to prepare for discussion in class next week. See below. As last week, this text is related to a midterm option, and so I hope will help you think about your plan for that.

    Also please note, your midterm planning document is also due on March 10. Please refer back to the midterm assignment for details.

• Week 7 (Weds, March 8) — Timing, state, and modularity (functions)

  • Timing
  • State: a new way to use variables
  • Functions: for project planning, reusability and modularity (To be addressed briefly this week; we will continue the discussion next week.)

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes
  • Slides from reading discussion of Galloway text

  Homework

  • Homework assignment, due Tues, March 21, 8pm.

  Reading (to discuss in class today)

  Note: due Tues, March 7, with this week's homework, for discussion on Weds, March 8.
  • Alex Galloway, "Gamic Action, Four Moments", chapter 1 (pages 1-38) from Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. If this is too long, you can focus on the introduction (pages 1-8) and the section titled "The Play of the Structure" (pages 25-38).
  • (Optional.) Claus Pias, The Game Player’s Duty: The User as the Gestalt of the Ports

• No class on March 13 or 15. Have a restful and restorative Spring Break

• Week 8 (Weds, March 22) — Midterm project work and review as needed

  • Midterm project work

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes

• Week 9 (Weds, March 29) — Midterm project presentations and discussion

  • Midterm project presentations

• Week 10 (Weds, April 5) — Python outside of Processing

  • Introduction to Python outside of Processing with VS Code and the command line
  • Another data structure: Dictionaries

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes

  Homework

  • Homework assignment

• Final project assignment to be presented here. Assigned Wednesday, April 12;
  due: Monday, May 15, 8pm; for in-class presentation and discussion on Wednesday, May 17, and final draft submission by Friday, May 19.

• Week 11 (Weds, April 12) — Data serialization: for storage and communication

  • Data serialization with JSON
  • File input and output

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes

  Homework

  • The only homework for this week is to make sure that you can get the examples from the class notes working. In particular, examples III, IV, and V. If you have trouble with any of that, please let me know.

• Week 12 (Weds, April 19) — Network protocols

  • Networking and the web

  Class artifacts

  • Class notes

  Reading (to discuss in class today)

  Note: due Tues, April 18, 8pm (with week 11 homework) for discussion on Weds, April 19.
  • Alex Galloway and Eugene Thacker, " Protocol and Counter-Protocol", 2003

  Homework

  • The only homework this week is to make sure that you can get the code from our class lesson working. That's the code in the above class notes up to step 4, adding a size property to both myCreature and creatureList.

• Week 13 (Weds, April 26) — Saving data in a database

  • Working with a simple SQLite database to implement an API
  • This week we'll work on a networking exercise, and we'll move the lesson about working with a database to next week.
  • Final project concepts due for feedback via email

  Class artifacts

  • Notes to come

  Homework

  • Homework assignment to come

• Week 14 (Weds, May 3) — Final project work

  • Final project work: Networking

  Class artifacts

  • Final project steps

• Week 15 (Weds, May 10) — Final projects

  • Final project presentations and discussion
  • More work together on networking with Python

  Note: 3-4 people will need to present today so that we can get through everyone next week.

• Week 16 (Weds, May 17) — Final projects

  Final projects due via Google Drive upload & Zoom presentation.

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