Physical Interactivity and Interaction Design School Guide         < identical page to bookmark>

Interactivity Consultants regularly surveys Physical Interaction / Interactivity design curricula around the world. As yet, no one name exists for this emerging art and design discipline. Terms to look for in school programs include: Intelligent / Interactive Product Design; Physical Computing; Tangible Interfaces / Media; and the word "microcontroller." The following schools introduce Physical Interactivity with widely varying rigor and success.

Prospective students:
Examine student projects—are purpose and functionality communicated in plain English and images? Ask what computer scripting/programming language(s) you'll be introduced to, and why one and not another? Read course descriptions. Confusing jargon may hint that a program has not yet developed a clear academic focus. Here are features to look for.

> criteria we look for <                                                          > what we summarize <

GRADUATE PROGRAMS
Chicago Art Institute   IVREA    IIT  ID   NYU  ITP   Pasadena Art Center
MIT Media Lab   Parsons   Royal College   UCLA   UMEA

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS
Parsons   Chicago Art Institute   UCLA

(coming attractions)
Berkeley Institute of Design

Note: as you browse our collection of physical interactivity curriculum links, a single new window will open, the contents changing as you click new links. Try resizing this window to a tall thin rectangle along the left side, sizing the other window to fill the rest of your monitor on the right.

In addition to traditional art and design curricula, ideally students will:

• Learn to develop and professionally present user scenarios
  
• Be introduced to a "high level" programming language in the first semester, to achieve literacy for design, presentation, and prototyping. The thought processes involved lay the foundation for all subsequent interaction design.
  
• Learn to prototype interactive concepts for one-of-a-kind art installations, or to demonstrate ideas to employers and funders, who need only "get the idea." Engineering staff will redesign "by the book" if a designer can demonstrate "proof of concept."
  
• Be trained at the technical level of a "well informed hobbyist" to create functional prototypes good enough for "proof of concept", and physically interactive art projects.
  
• Be introduced to "electronics for artists and designers", and taught to use inexpensive hobbyist microcontrollers, sensors, network connections, small low-voltage motors, vibrators, fans, lights, audio, video, etc.
  
• Learn enough to "hack" consumer products that do "some of the things they need"
  so students can harness applicable existing product functionality (speech activated lamp dimmers, heart rate monitors, etc.) as inputs to software tools such as Macromedia Director (where higher level audio, video, and user input can be easily scripted). In this way, complex functional designs can be prototyped rapidly and user tested, without "reinventing the wheel."
  
• Have access to an "artist and designer friendly" physical interactivity lab where students are free to experiment, pulling apart and "hacking" inexpensive consumer products to recombine functionality in new ways.
  

We summarize (where available and/or possible) links to:

• galleries of student work
  Work students produce is the true measure of any program's success; many present samples on their web sites. Techniques for effective documentation and communication of concepts should be part of any mature curriculum.
• curriculum
  Overview of what a student can expect to study, and what will be expected of him or her
• classes
  Listings from the particular program
• facilities
  Resources the program provides specific to interactivity and interaction design education

We update information and resources continually. If you find an inaccuracy, or know of programs or links you believe should be included, please e-mail us at:
dbadmin@InteractivityConsultants.com

Art Center's Media Design Program, Pasadena, California USA;   MFA degree
student projects   curriculum   classes   faculty
"The MDP is a two-year, six-term graduate M.F.A. program that remixes the concerns of experience, interactive, and graphic design as transmedia design strategy and practice. In our laptop-based wireless studio, MDP graduate students orchestrate old, new, and emerging media to create rich experiences in the form of cultural interventions, communication tools, interactive entertainments, and brand environments. In the MDP, design research is key, both research for design, and design as experimental research. Our graduates distinguish themselves as practitioners, visionaries, entrepreneurs, and the thought leaders of the profession."    —text from link above

Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA;   MDes, MDM, PhD
project gallery   classes   facilities  faculty
"Our graduate curriculum is the world's most highly focused and intensive program for learning advanced methods and for exploring new theories of design. The development of separate research and professional degrees addresses the new commitment of the field to the importance of design research, while recognizing an increasing demand for professional education at the mastery level."

MDes Degree Program curriculum
"The MDes program is a professional program terminating with a design project demonstrating the application of new theories and processes to contemporary and developing problems."    —Text from link above

MDM Degree Program curriculum
"The MDM is a professional degree for mid-career designers, focusing exclusively on advanced methods and frameworks for those already trained and highly experienced in design."    —Text from link above

PhD Degree Program curriculum
"The PhD is a degree culminating in a dissertation that extends the body of knowledge about design theory and process. ID was the first design school in the United States to offer a PhD degree program in 1991."    —text from link above

MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts  USA;  MS, Ph.D. degrees
sample research projects   curriculum   classes  faculty
"The Media Laboratory opened its doors in the Wiesner Building, designed by I.M. Pei, in 1985. In its first decade, much of the Laboratory's activity centered around abstracting electronic content from its traditional physical representations, helping to create now-familiar areas such as digital video and multimedia. The success of this agenda is now leading to a growing focus on how electronic information overlaps with the everyday physical world. The Laboratory pioneered collaboration between academia and industry, and provides a unique environment to explore basic research and applications, without regard to traditional divisions among disciplines."    — Text from link above

Tangible Media Group   projects   at MIT Media Lab, USA
"We live between two worlds: our physical environment and digital space. The Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab focuses on the seamless couplings between physicality and virtuality"    — text from link above

Interactive Telecommunication Program New York City, USA;   MPS Degree
Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
gallery   spring student show   curriculum   classes  faculty
"ITP -- the Interactive Telecommunications Program -- is a pioneering graduate department in the study and design of new media, computational media and embedded computing under the umbrella of interactivity. The department encourages students to create new forms of communication through the exploration of social applications, physical computing, interactive games, multimedia art, sound, video and much more while focusing on user interaction. Founded in 1979, the department has come of age in a time of profound change in the technologies and capabilities available for expression and communication."    — Text from link above

Design & Technology, Parsons School of Design, New York City, USA;  MFA, BFA degrees
projects  facilities  faculty
"...Design and Technology is a think-tank, a research laboratory, a studio, a coffee shop. Faculty and students in the BFA and MFA programs engage in collaborative problem solving in which design is a mechanism for developing strategy, knowledge organization, business structure, and social consciousness. It provides fertile ground for investigation of the aesthetic and intellectual challenges created by technology. Coursework and tools include web, programming and scripting, robotics, animation, interface design, broadcast design, and cognitive psychology. The program is supported by a 40,000 square foot facility of state-of-the-art technology, and a friendly faculty of New York City's leading digital designers."    — Text from link above

BFA Degree Program   curriculum   classes
"...The aim is to produce creative works that could not have been executed - or even envisioned - without the use of digital technology. This program supplements studio work with digital exploration, including such areas as web, programming and scripting, robotics, animation, interface design, broadcast design, and cognitive psychology. Design and Technology is available as a direct entry major or as an alternative Freshman Track leading to another studio major at Parsons. The curriculum is modeled after Parsons' own MFA in Design and Technology, and shares leadership and faculty with the Masters program. A key feature of Design and Technology is exploration of new ways to use technology, from animated "paintings" to devices that create hybrid forms of music and art when "played" by the user..."    — text from link above

MFA Degree Program   curriculum   classes
"...Whether the student is interested in the commercial world, academe, or fine arts, graduates take into the world far more than an expanded technology skill-set; they bring the creative, intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual ability to shape the future in meaningful ways. The Design and Technology Program explores the relationship between digital technology and the creative process. Areas of emphasis include Multimedia, Physical Computing, Animation, and Broadcast Design. This is a studio program with an emphasis on the critique. Students complete individual and collaborative studio projects that demonstrate aesthetic and intellectual refinement as well as technical mastery. The program and its curriculum are closely linked to the real world, and students are actively engaged in real design projects for social change."    — Text from link above

Royal College of Art Interaction Design London, United Kingdom;   MA degree
2003 student show   curriculum   facilities   faculty
"As new technologies develop, new fields of design emerge. This department is a pioneer in the field of interaction design – the design of interactive products, services, systems and experiences. Although the department is concerned with emerging technologies, its focus is on people. How does one go about creating information and communication technologies that will enrich the texture of everyday life? In other words, how does one design things that people will use and enjoy?"    — text from link above

Art and Technology Studies Chicago, USA;   BA, BFA, MFA degrees
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
student projects   facilities   faculty

BA / BFA program   curriculum   classes
"The Art and Technology Studies department is an interdisciplinary program in which students explore the application of both standard and emerging technologies to art making in the widest possible context. Students in art and technology gain practical, hands-on experience and develop both a solid historical and theoretical background in the field. Learning to work with the important ideas behind art and technology opens up a wide range of professional opportunities, preparing students for future technological changes and intellectual challenges. Areas of study encompass interactive multimedia, imaging, immersive VR, computer animation, kinetics, electronics, robotics, machine control, precision metalworking, responsive objects, neon, holography, digital sound and video (including multi-channel sound and multi-screen projection), electronic media-based installation, biotech, telecommunication, and Internet-based art..."    — text from link above

MFA program   curriculum   classes
"The process of invention is integral to art and technology studies. Because emerging technologies bring about new forms, artists in these areas can rely on few traditions. Faculty and students in art and technology studies not only create new aesthetic experiences, but also the very means by which they are achieved. The creation and manipulation of images, sound, text, music, voice, and movement often require new software and new methods of integration with other technologies. Faculty members are artists and inventors familiar with the continual advances in an arena that is composed as much of science as it is of art. Areas of study include computer imaging, digital video, digital sound, interactive media, computer animation, three-dimensional modeling, computer holography, computer-controlled kinetic sculpture, interactive installations, neon, computer-aided and algorithmic composition, and telecommunication arts..."    — text from link above

UCLA Design | Media Arts, Los Angeles, USA;   BA, MA, MFA degrees
gallery    classes    facilities    faculty

BA curriculum
"...The program begins with the study of basic design elements and processes: form, color, drawing, letterforms and typography, visual technologies, and the manipulation of photography and video through image capture technologies. Historical perspectives and social issues are also introduced. At the upper division level, studio courses explore current uses of interactive media, new directions in visual communication design, including the study of time and motion, as well as virtual form and space in computer generated environments. Through a balance of courses in theory, criticism, and practice, students develop an understanding of design principles. Most courses are taught as studios of no more than twenty students, which encourages individual growth and fosters a sense of community within the department."    — Text from link above

MA, MFA curriculum
"The two-year Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Design| Media Arts fosters mature, professional-quality work utilizing the most current technologies in the field of media design. The exploration of visual communication in a digital format leads to new concepts and understanding regarding color, form, shape, and motion. The program focuses on developing an individual thesis project that incorporates in-depth research and theoretical exploration of a topic, culminating in a final exhibition of work. Students have the opportunity to participate in ongoing research projects that may form the basis of their thesis work. Sample topics include design of the interface, design of virtual environments and information spaces that integrate visual elements with sound, movement, time and space."    — Text from link above

Interaction Design Institute IVREA Ivrea, Italy;   MA degree
gallery    curriculum    classes   faculty
"Integraction-Ivrea offers a single educational programme - a two-year Masters Programme in Interaction Design for participants from a broad range of disciplines and cultures. The goal of the programme is to develop innovators and leaders in the field of interaction design. Students in the programme engage in an immersive, research-based, project-oriented design curriculum. The programme is conducted in English."    — Text from link above

Interaction Design UMEA Institute of Design, UMEA, Sweden;   MA degree
2003 student projects    curriculum    facilities   faculty
" Developments in information technology have challenged industrial design tradition by demanding a shift of emphasis from the idea of “product-as-object” towards the notion of “product-as-event” where the dynamic and interactive qualities of products and services need to be better understood in the context of human behaviour. This shift of focus has inspired us to develop our interaction design programme and to initiate new areas of design research."   — Text from link above

Berkeley Institute of Design University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
This program is still in the process of being formed
"We are creating a new design institute because the world around us is being reshaped by information technology. We are witnessing the evolution of the built environment into the interactive environment, whose design requires a new kind of designer. The challenge is to design complex behaviors for artifacts, and to integrate them into systems that provide a coherent experience for the individual. BID, the Berkeley Institute of Design, incubates a new design discipline spanning computer science, architecture, industrial and mechanical engineering. We are establishing an interdisciplinary research center and graduate program in design affiliated with the CITRIS Center (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society). CITRIS is a $300M state- and privately-supported initiative with UC Berkeley as leader. BID is expected to provide a two-year Masters degree program and a research program offering the Ph.D. degree. Note: these degree programs are not yet approved."   — Text from link above