Weekly curation-and-critique of new-media projects builds a practitioner's reference library and critical vocabulary

The ‘Looking Outwards’ assignment format, used in Golan Levin’s 60-212, has students make weekly research reports — based on Internet research — discovering and briefly analysing new-media projects outside their existing knowledge. Sustained across the course, this habit builds: (1) awareness of the field’s existing works, (2) knowledge of which tools practitioners actually use, and (3) a routine of locating and contextualising one’s own practice relative to others’. The format is transferable outside the course: it embodies the practice of being a working creative-technology practitioner who continuously scans the field rather than working in isolation.

Examples

Find one generative-art piece you have not seen before; embed a screenshot; write a short critique covering what the project accomplishes, what you admire, what you would change, and what tools it appears to use.

Assessment

Over two weeks, find and critique three projects. For each, identify the computational technique used and at least one prior work it is in dialogue with. Reflect on how the cumulative set expands your aesthetic reference points.