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School for Poetic Computation Opens This Fall: Coding for Beauty


August 26, 2013 | Kyle Chayka

A group of four individuals, each armed with a variety of different skill sets within computer science, math, art and design, are collectively seeking to reinvent the way that programming is taught. Their School for Poetic Computation is structured differently than many other recently opened private coding schools. Rather than focusing solely teaching a skill, the school takes openminded approach to their curriculum to explicitly explore ways in which programming can be used for simpler things “such as pleasure, beauty or surprise.”

Each of the school’s founders expresses a great interest in promoting works and ideas that otherwise may appear strange or perhaps impractical to most. Their motto is “more poems less demos.”

The School for Poetic Computation is an artist run school launching this fall in New York. A small group of students and faculty will work closely to explore the intersections of code, design, hardware and theory — focusing especially on artistic intervention. It’s a 10 week program, a hybrid of residency and research group, that will happen multiple times per year to be a powerboost for creativity.

Oh, and the faculty isn’t too shabby either, as Zach Lieberman (one of the school’s instructors) has previously created and developed Eyewriter”  with Evan Roth, a unique piece of hardware that allows otherwise disabled graffiti writers to express themselves with eye movements.

Selected from a group of over fifty applicants, fifteen participants of the school will each pay about $5,000 to spend ten weeks on creative projects of their own design. More info here.

(Photo: Taeyoon Choi/sfpc)