The school for poetic computation is a school organized around exploring together the creative and expressive nature of computational approaches to art and design. The school’s focus is on writing code like creative writing — focusing on the mechanics of programming as well as demystifying as much as possible the tools, techniques and strategies for making art via code. We are interested in how to program things that leave the screen and move into physical space, interacting with people through material-tactile expression. In this way, the school will focus on hardware, experimental interaction design, and computational ways of sensing movement, touch and gesture. We are interested in craft, and the idea that every writer needs space and time to hone their trade. Our school aims to provide a safe haven – so you could get acquainted with the craft at your own pace, make it your own, find that part between your true creative process and the craft. This takes time, encouragement, the right push at the right time, conversations with colleagues, and more time. This is a school for teaching. Every student who comes here will be asked to also teach, both to their classmates, but also in the form of workshops and outreach. We want to spread the things we care about as far and as wide as we can. The goal of the school is to promote completely strange, impractical and magical work — not the sort of things that are about building a portfolio for finding a job, but the sort of things that will surprise and delight people and make you think you don’t want a job. However, we like to think employers will like this kind of work. This is not a program to get a degree, there are large programs for that. This is not a program to go for vocational skills, there are programs for that.
This is a program for self initiated learners who want to explore new possibilities. This is a program for thinkers in search of a community to realize greater dreams.