CS889 Advanced Topics in HCI (Winter 2025)

Human-Computer Interaction for Art and Creativity

Ideally, students should have some background or experience in studio arts, graphic design, or similar. This could be formal education (e.g., in high school, university, or community courses) or a hobby relating to art and design (e.g., amateur photography, painting, web design, or ceramics; even regularly visiting art galleries could be relevant). If you don't have formal background or experience, just tell me know why you're interested in taking the course. There's some flexibility.

Please contact the instructor with (1) a brief description of your related background or experience; (2) explain why you would like to enroll; and (3) confirm you're a CS graduate student or provide the name of your program.

An examination of human-computer interaction (HCI) research related to generating, supporting, and evaluating artworks and other creative artifacts or tasks. Weekly student-led research seminars and hands-on programming exercises will prepare students with the theoretical and practical background for a substantial final project.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge of HCI research topics, methods, and approaches focused on art and creativity.
A foundational understanding of art theories and awareness of contemporary artists and artworks.
Practical experience creating interactive audiovisual screen-based artworks using p5.js and JavaScript.
Skills for critiquing research papers and artworks, and presenting research findings and creative works.

Instructor

Daniel Vogel (dvogel@uwaterloo.ca)

Meeting Time and Location

Tuesdays 1 - 4pm in ECH 1237

ECH is "East Campus Hall", it's a low-rise building housing the Fine Arts Department. ECH 1237, also called the "Flex Space", is a large open studio space at the West end of the building.

📍 How to find the meeting room: When you're coming from DC, ECH is located just behind E7 and beside E6. The easiest way to find ECH 1237 is to enter at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery (UWAG) entrance, then go down a short hall, make a quick left and right around some lockers, and you’ll see the ECH 1237 door. Here’s a map with a pin at the UWAG entrance in ECH.

Course Communication

Course announcements and out-of-class questions are on MS Teams.
Submissions and grading are on LEARN.