Workshop

The Spring 2025 series of four workshops follow a through-line of critical polymathy: using the synthesis of different perspectives to give us a better look at popular technologies and production techniques.

These events will take place at the Ahmanson Lab every other Wednesday starting February 26th from 3pm-4pm during Spring 2025. See below for our topics.

^{This program is open to all eligible individuals. USC operates all of its programs and activities consistent with the University’s}^{Notice of Non-Discrimination}^{. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.}

Current Semester

Fall 2024

Feb 16 2023

Historical Event Modeling in Board Game Format

When: 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Where: Ahmanson Lab | Leavey Library, 3rd floor (LVL 301)
Event Type: Workshop

Attendees will be guided on ways to model a historical event in board game format. The emphasis will be on the emotional experience of the event - and common pitfalls in creating interactive content.

Oct 12 2022

AI & Art

When: 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Where: Ahmanson Lab | Leavey Library, 3rd floor (LVL 301)
Event Type: Workshop

In this workshop, we'll be exploring artificial intelligence and art by introducing participants to text to image generators like Dalle 2 and Stable Diffusion. This is a great opportunity to learn about how these tools can be used to create amazing works of art, and to get a feel for the creative potential of AI.

Workshop description written by OpenAI's GPT3.
Workshop image created with Dalle 2.

Nov 30 2022

Procedural Audio & Music

When: 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Where: Ahmanson Lab | Leavey Library, 3rd floor (LVL 301)
Event Type: Workshop

This workshop will introduce participants to procedural audio, the generation and composition of sound (and music) through programming. Students will learn digital signal processing and will build a simple synthesizer or song. No prior coding experience required!

Workshop image created with Dalle 2.

Nov 2 2022

Generative Art & Graphics

When: 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Where: Ahmanson Lab | Leavey Library, 3rd floor (LVL 301)
Event Type: Workshop

This workshop will cover the basics of creating generative art and digital graphics. Participants will learn how to use Processing, a software library that enables artists and designers to create graphics and interactive applications quickly and playfully. No prior coding experience required!

Workshop image: "Folk Recursion" by Aaron Reuland (a_soluble_fish). CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Sep 8 2022

Historical Maps & Machine Learning

When: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Where: Ahmanson Lab | Leavey Library, 3rd floor (LVL 301)
Event Type: Workshop

Please join us Thursday September 8, 2022 from 12 pm – 1 pm in Ahmanson Lab in Leavey Library the to learn about tools that can be used to transform historical maps into research data using machine learning. Katie McDonough from the Turing Institute and Valeria Vitale from the University of Sheffield will be presenting an overview on machine learning and map text annotation tools to explore the potential of this workflow to generate data and metadata for and from digitized historical maps. Use cases will focus on National Library of Scotland’s Ordnance Survey Maps and Library of Congress’s Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and will include an example of using these tools for crowdsourcing.

Workshop image created with Dalle 2.