Workshop

In the U.S., the deregulation of the corporate surveillance industry and the executive branch’s disregard for judicial oversight have created institutional juggernauts with outsized power on culture, mind, economy, and society. In this workshop, students will learn about their digital rights, and how they can try to take agency and ownership of their own data.

This workshop is being held in conjuction with the event, "Here’s Looking at You: Interrogating Facial Recognition Tech" featuring Kelly Gates (Communication and Science, Studies, UCSD) and Simone A. Browne (African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas, Austin) the following Friday

Learn how 3D printers work, how to create and print your own 3D model, and how you can use the Ahmanson Lab's Makerbot Replicator.

Learn about 3D video capture.

New technologies allow developers to make efficient and versatile web applications for different use cases. After an overview of how modern web applications work, participants will learn how to make applications and data visualizations using Glitch and D3.js

A neural network is a set of algorithms, modeled on the human brain, designed to discover and "learn" patterns within massive data sets. These networks are powering a new generation of artificial intelligence and are responsible for radical recent advancements in facial recognition, surveillance, autonomous vehicles, and synthesized speech systems. Participants in this workshop will explore simple neural networks and learn how their algorithms work.

After a survey of generative design applications and tools, participants will explore algorithms that produce computational graphics and animations. Participants will learn the basics of writing code in order to create such algorithms using p5.js, a javascript library. No prior coding experience required!

This workshop will have participants examine the degree to which platform owners exert control over their users. We will discuss recent issues in free speech in social media governance in addition to anarchic worlds in video games and utopian open source development communities.

This workshop will introduce participants to Scalar, an authoring and publishing platform

used by faculty and students at colleges and universities worldwide to create born-digital, media-rich research projects and exhibitions. The first half of the workshop will include a presentation on the platform’s origins and aims as well as the conceptual framework underlying its features. The second half will include a hands-on overview of the platform’s basic functionality: adding media and text to Scalar projects.

This workshop will introduce the technology behind Brainstorm, a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) platform developed at the Ahmanson Lab that allows users to play games using EEG machines that detect brain activity. Participants will have hands-on experience making interactive generative art using this technology.

This workshop will introduce neural networks, a class of algorithms that governs the current period of artificial intelligence. After a discussion of it’s intellectual origins, we will discuss current events and issues on the topic. Participants will have hands-on experience coding these algorithms, and using these algorithms for a few different use cases.