This workshop invited students to explore the computationally-enhanced urban landscape, and how digital information is utilised as a creative medium to generate speculative and innovative artefacts. The students were challenged to answer through their practice important questions related to the city of Nanjing, and create scenarios for sensing and augmented systems, investigating how new media and communication technologies can be used to enhance our understanding of our surrounding urban space. An important criterion was for students to provide a platform for merging the past and the future, the physical with the virtual, and the individual with the collective. During this 9-week module, advanced topics in programming and media design were covered, including 3D modeling and animation, programming, physical computing, locative media and telecommunication systems, game engines, and Augmented Reality (AR).
The students’ first task was to select a site within the city of Nanjing and do a thorough investigation by theoretical research on sensing and augmented cities, psychogeography, design thinking, and field research practices, in order to understanding the location, its needs and problems, and identify imaginative concepts for their media developments. Following that, each group started building its concept by utilizing contemporary artistic and technological tools and methods for creating innovative digital media work. During the development phase, the students created a range of artefacts, from original artworks, 3D models, videos, animations, databases, and sensing systems. The tools that were mainly used include: Photoshop, SAI, Blender, 3DsMax, JavaScript, Arduino, Unity3D, Vuforia, Mapbox.
The final works provided a rich range of outcomes; here, a few of them are summarised:
Module Leader: Stavros Didakis (Associate Professor, University of Plymouth)
Supporting Lecturers: Ma Jiangwei, Yuzhou Zhu, Ziqiao Wang (Nanjing University of the Arts)
Students: