Core: Arts, Design and Technology (CADT-UH)

This course explores how technology and machines have influenced human life across the ages. It further explores how technology has influenced the fields of arts and design and investigates this inspirational source for new technological developments. Lecture and discussion will be the breeding ground for concept development of new machines: Every student will realize a prototype of a machine executing a certain task. This hands-on project will be complemented by case studies, reading assignments, workshops, excursions, and one-on-one meetings with the professor. The course builds knowledge about futuristic developments and their use and influence from past to present, including questions concerning ethics and values. Students will leave the course with a completed project to be displayed in an exhibition and a personal philosophy of Arts, Design, and Technology.

Is creativity a gift or a skill? Can creativity be learned? Because creativity is deeply personal, this course will address these questions through individual and collective experiences. The heart of this course is the Personal Creativity Project - an opportunity for students to practice creativity by designing and executing a project of their choice. The project may be on any topic, from art and music to computer programs and business model development. The project will be complemented by reading assignments (completed prior to class), class discussions, and one-on-one meetings with the instructor. Students will leave the course with a completed project and a personal philosophy of creativity, based on the fusion of readings, study, discussion, and experience. The course provides a great deal of freedom for learning and does not provide step-by-step instructions. As a result, the successful completion of this course will require a significant amount of self-motivation.

It is easy to have an idea of the effects of significant loss of vision or hearing by closing our eyes or by wearing earplugs. What about a significant loss of the sense of touch? The answer might not come readily due in part to the subtle, effortless function of this sense. Far from being just an immediate skin sensation, touching is intimately blended into embodied experiences that are affectionate, expressive, personal, and interpersonal. The haptic modality is our fundamental mode of access to the physical world. This course provides a multidisciplinary, cross-cultural introduction to the dynamics and salience of the human sense of touch and traces a continuous thread through a number of fundamental questions and critical approaches related to human haptics. A variety of interpretations, disciplines, and experiences exploring the symbolic, cultural, ethical, social, and technical aspects of touch will be discussed. Topics include social and cultural development, memory, learning, digital design, tactile therapies, human computer interaction, multimodal interaction and sensory substitution, and privacy and security.

This course introduces students to the basics of how computers "think" and some of the inherent limitations of computers. How do programs (software applications) make computers behave intelligently and allow them to solve problems effectively for a wide range of applications and fields, from art and other media to education, medicine, and the core sciences? How do we use computer programs to process, structure, and manage information, create and manipulate digital media, and search and gather information relevant to any particular topic? How do computer programs operate virtually, creating the World Wide Web of the modern digital age, and how does all of this affect issues related to security and privacy in the wired world we live in today? Students are asked to create innovative programming solutions to a set of problems and develop applications focused on the social good for their final project. The programming language of choice is Python, a relatively easy programming language with powerful visual, text processing, and graphics capabilities. No prior programming experience is required.

Many problems in science, business, and politics require heuristics, problem solving techniques that often work well but give imperfect guarantees. This course teaches heuristics as they apply to the design of scientific experiments, the resolution of economic or political negotiations, and in the construction of engineering devices in hostile environments. Students will work in small teams that will solve puzzles, conduct cross-cultural experiments, and build protocols for a competitive auction game. Students will use and learn computational tools, but the course has no programming prerequisite. The intent is to make you better able to face complex problems in any field you choose.

Design seems to be omnipresent, but what is it? This course (whose title is Latin for usage, beauty, and stability) explores how design influences our life and investigates the fundamentals of "good design." It takes a look at the status quo of the use of design in media, objects, and architecture, and observe its influence on art and technology from past to present. Design tools and processes will be highlighted. Based on the fusion of readings, study, discussion, and experiences, over the course of the semester students will develop an understanding of how mutually reinforcing and beneficiary a mix of Arts, Design, and Technology can be. Lecture and discussion will help develop the design of a bricolage: Every student will realize a product prototype to be displayed in an exhibition and a personal philosophy of about Arts, Design, and Technology.

In November 2014, Volvo Race's boat Vestas did not find her way to Abu Dhabi port and got stranded on a reef in the Indian Ocean instead. What went wrong? Is it still possible to get lost today, in the age of ubiquitous and democratized GPS? What does it mean to find one's way? How do different environments create unique problems, as well as provide solutions? How do we find those solutions ourselves, and how can we intervene in the design of our working and living environments, in the design of our navigational practices, in order to avoid getting lost? What tools do we have? How do they work? What can we learn from navigation before GPS? Informed by new technologies, the demand for sustainability, and the inputs from cognitive studies, "wayfinding" has grown to become a field of research in its own right, related to both architecture and design. It studies the ways in which people orient themselves via the organization of sensory cues from the external environment. The course explores visual design components and theoretical ramifications and will include workshops on campus signage systems, with a focus on accessible design.

Are art and science really in conflict with each other, as is often thought? Is science dispelling mystery and consigning us to a world of dreary reductionism? This course answers such questions with a resounding no. There is, in fact, neither conflict nor antagonism between the realms of art and science. Indeed, the two complement and complete one another in ways that only artful narrative can fully reveal. A poet, through metaphor, builds bridges from entangled inscapes of thought and emotion to a place of shared understanding. A good narrative science writer must do the equivalent with the often recondite minutia of modern scientific exploration. It has become ever more essential for writers to report back from these new and wild frontiers with clear, intelligible, and descriptive prose. Students in this course will develop their vocabularies of both science and writing, learning to seize upon the parallels between the writing process and sound scientific method: trial, error, repetition, and, perhaps most importantly, daring.

This course analyzes what we understand as "music." Drawing on music of different styles from all over the world, seminar members will explore what constitutes musical meaning, how it is produced, and how music expresses feelings. Taking advantage of the multicultural nature of NYU Abu Dhabi, students will explore the cultural and universal mechanisms at play when we listen to and understand music. A lab portion of the class guides students through basic musical elements such as notation systems, scales, and simple compositional techniques.

Giorgio Vasari defined Mannerism in terms still used today in Art History: in the wake of the Renaissance masters, copying became the standard way to learn. But what do we really learn by copying? Would a contemporary mannerism fit in today's world, dominated by visual information? How then does creativity work? How does change happen? Why did we wait half a century before having personal computers in colors other than beige? Why do we seem oblivious to the manufactured filters mediating our observation of nature itself? What are the trade-offs when we delegate creative choices to Google's algorithms? What separates the artists of the past and the brand consultants of today? This course addresses the role and limits of copying as students explore many facets of graphic design, visual communication, and artistic value. The vibrant visual culture-in-the-making of Abu Dhabi and the UAE provide an ideal background for such explorations. Students will elaborate on the tension (real or perceived) among today’s artists, designers, and scientists, while discussing why a multidisciplinary mind is fundamental for contemporary attempts to re-design the world around us.

What is the value of human life? How is human value socially constructed in particular political, economic, and cultural contexts? When one society honors athletes and movie stars more than factory laborers, does that mean people with fame, wealth, and beauty are inherently more valuable? How do individuals create value and meaning in their lives in different contexts? This class will deconstruct the historical definition of human value across a variety of cultures, from foragers to contemporary global capitalist society. We will examine human value in terms of such themes as worth, utility, beauty, status, wealth, and fulfillment, via close engagement with texts, visual arts, mass media, and advertising. A practical component of the class will challenge students to explore concepts surrounding human value through a variety of artistic media, from sketching to sound recording and photography. No previous background or training is required.

How does one attempt to write or portray the self? If we associate that practice with traditional memoir and self-portraiture forms, what happens when subjectivity is fundamentally unstable or under attack? Is the genre also simultaneously deconstructed? How is subjectivity literally made and remade through the exploration of new forms? In this course we will look at text and image projects across cultures, eras, locations, and across art forms that raise questions about the self and the collective, representation and memory, and about the remarkable as well as the everyday. Sometimes the doubt about attempts at portrayals is philosophical, but it may also be cultural-historical and context-dependent. To explore this question, and to develop skills in art, to experiment with the studio habits of artists, and to generate our own poetics of memoir/anti-memoir we will generate text and image experiments that both create and investigate an anti-memoir body of work.

Has a book ever knocked you out? Has a story stuck with you for years? Has an image stopped you cold? Are you changed by these encounters? This course explores, examines, and activates the elusive and subjective motor for creative work. It begins with material that has directly impacted the professor's life and work as a theater artist. Later, students will share igniting materials from their own experiences. The aim: to incite the imagination, culminating in an original work. Where do you turn for inspiration? Can you engage your fears in pursuit of your goals? How do you flip your script to make progress? Departure points include artists, writers, filmmakers, thinkers, and theater makers such as Judith Malina, Allen Ginsberg, Art Spiegelman, Francis Bacon, Edmund White, Anne Carson, David Markson, Italo Calvino, Pedro Almodovar, Jean Genet, Andy Goldsworthy, Banksy, CG Jung, Franz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Patricia Peters, theoretical physicists, Black Lives Matter, and even occasional recipes. When it comes to inspiration, can a good meal change everything?

In the 3.8 billion years since life began on Earth, nature has evolved. Inspired by this process, humans have replicated key design features to develop novel materials, devices, and structures in fields such as the arts, design, engineering, and the social sciences by replicating key design principles and features. This course asks how biology has inspired human design and thinking across different cultures and fields. Students will examine various examples in engineering, art, architecture, music, and social science to discuss how the human capacity for analogical reasoning has enabled the transfer of properties, mechanisms, and ideas from biology to design principles such as shape, surface, structure, making, information-processing, and social behavior. Using bio-inspired products such as gecko tape, Velcro, self-cleaning surfaces, and neuromorphic chips for inspiration, students will develop their own designs to address some of the 21st century's most pressing issues, such as energy, water, environment, food, and health.

Citizen, Writer: Prague: It's said the pen is mightier than the sword; this course will introduce skills needed to make that true. In our world of tangled problems, writing confidently, creatively, and persuasively can empower your participation as a citizen concerned with finding solutions toward equality, justice, and the civic discourse essential to bettering humanity. Drawing from a multidisciplinary perspective, focused on global issues but rooted in the historical context of Czechia, students in this J-term course at NYU Prague will study and practice multiple formats, experience the value of formal debate, and think strategically to engage via traditional or social media. Prague's rich history will offer many lessons from its quest for freedom, from Vaclav Havel's poetry and the Velvet Revolution, to the role of rock and roll music and the subversive graffiti of the Lennon Wall, and much more. In addition to site visits and guest speakers, our class will draft personal manifestos, craft opinion pieces, and create a collaborative project focused on foundational civic issues that can empower you and other would-be citizen-writers. This course will be offered in January-Term 2025.

Is automation a science or a tool? Muslim contributions in automation, overlooked in the history of science, were long regarded as means for caliphs and the rich to impress the masses. But Muslim engineers excelled in creating complex automated systems, using them as gifts to foreign leaders, as public attractions, or to augment religious ceremony such as daily calls to prayer. Mainly powered by kinetic energy, these automata drew on scholars' deep knowledge of hydraulics and complex levers and included musical instruments, horologia, automated drinking fountains, and clocks that told time using complex audiovisual tools. This course draws on historical sources and foundational science to explore Muslim advancements in automation. What roles did translation play as Muslim scientists encountered and documented the work of previous scholars? What were the basic automatic systems they developed and how do they compare to current technologies? How did they draw on environmental resources to develop automated systems without the need for non-renewable energy? Students will address such questions as they explore implications for their own projects in design and engineering.

How do we feel about robots? With technological developments in capability, performance, autonomy, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness, robots have arrived in everyday life. This course considers the history and ethics of human-robot interaction and explores unsolved hurdles we face as robots assume a ubiquitous presence in our lives. How are robots currently integrating into human-centered, civic industries such as education, heath, and smart cities? What roles might robots play in the future of these industries? What are the economic and labor implications associated with robotic integration? How will consumers respond to the increased use of robots in daily life? How have popular media representations over the last century influenced the way we experience these changes? Topics will also include the miniaturization of robots and their use in situations such as focused drug delivery within the human body, save-and-rescue missions, or military combat. Students will assemble and program several Lego Mindstorm robots capable of carrying prefabricated objects and will also assemble a small house.

Photo albums are meaningful, unique creations. Infused with intangible memories, they tangibly show specific, select moments of the past - some mundane, others poignant. Highly personal, photo albums also reveal shared encounters and assert human universals. How and by what means do our personal photo albums thus compile collective identities and histories? What stories lie behind their making? What narratives arise - formulaic or unexpected - when related or disparate photographs are organized or randomly displayed in the unifying context of photo albums? This course employs art practice and theory to investigate the curation of vernacular photography in family photo albums. Looking at the global history and contemporary manifestations of these practices, and drawing on NYUAD's Akkasah Center of Photography, it asks: What are the motivations, challenges, and implications of commissioning or taking, collecting, or curating photographs of one's family or oneself? How do we approach such collections as viewers? Who makes, owns, and passes down albums - to whom, for whom, and why? Students will also create photo albums as a generative means of understanding this practice.

From its invention in 1839, photography has been heralded as objective. Few doubt the veracity of a photo-finish, an endoscopic medical image, a traffic camera's violation report, or a surveillance shot of a crime scene. Photographs bear witness to the Mai Lai massacre, the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, the Sahel famine of the 1980s, and refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war. Though most readily embrace such visual testimony, we might also cede Susan Sontag's point that photos are a "species of rhetoric" that "simplify" and "create the illusion of consensus." In what ways do a photographer's choices of what to include and exclude suggest self-conscious framing from a specific vantage point? What ethical questions emerge from this tension between the medium's supposed objectivity and the photographer's admitted subjectivity? Students will explore ethical scenarios in photojournalism, travel photography, street photography, portraiture, and commercial photography as they confront questions about consent, privacy, representation, citizen responsibility, and propaganda. Coursework includes response papers, case study reports, photo-critiques, photography tasks, and photo essays.

Tradition and Transition in Kerala: How can we track culture in transition? Paradoxically, heritage and ritual can reveal social change, while contemporary art and architecture can reflect deep histories. Research in expressive culture invites ethnographic experiments in multisensory data collection (e.g. videography, soundscapes, recipes), polyvocal collaborations (e.g. with interlocutors, between disciplines), and multimodal presentation (e.g. images, interactive media, performance). Such documentation can make visible otherwise imperceptible processes, from neglected histories of marginalized communities to the slow violence of environmental destruction. Our fieldwork in Kerala, India - long a laboratory for syntheses of global influences - includes: architecture connecting to the UAE and beyond through longstanding religious and trade networks; rites such as spectacular Theyyam ceremonies; and exhibitions where artists confront complex sociopolitical challenges. Students explore the politics of heritage and the ethics of representation as we build a virtual exhibition. Whether as prospective artists, social scientists, policy designers, or coders, students devise novel ways to share social research. This course includes a regional academic seminar to India. This course will be offered in January-Term 2025.

What would a world without plastic look like? How does the world look because of it? Plastic Fantastic looks critically at plastic's ubiquity in global consumer cultures. Students will consider plastic's predecessors and contemporary alternatives and engage with a range of topics, from the environmental politics of plastic debris in oceans, to the ethics and values of plastic surgery, to the proliferation of cheap plastic toys and fashion trends. Based on these discussions, and inspired by the original meaning of the Greek term plastikos (to grow, to form), the class will develop and create a product using recycled plastic waste in NYUAD's Plastic Recycling Research Lab. In addition to the completed project, students will leave with a personal philosophy of Art, Design, and Technology as well as a sense of how mutually reinforcing and beneficiary a mix of these fields can be for future problem solving.

Make Art Here: How does location provoke an Art Action? In addition to the location we are in, what about the previously experienced locations do we carry with us? How might the sound of the wind impact your writing? Does the view out your window instigate how depth perception is represented in your work, or color palette? MAKE ART HERE in Prague will center a consideration of public space, and how history might serve as a resource for contemporary art making practices. We will visit public parks and gardens, performances, museums, neighborhoods of interest and arts institutions generating contemporary work across mediums. Students may switch mediums between projects, and are invited to explore time based art (music, performance, etc.) as well as fine arts (painting, drawing, collage, etc.). Students enrolled in this class can expect to walk a great deal and to attend evening and morning events. This course offers a curated, immersive experience in art-making, woven inextricably into the city of Prague. This course will be offered in June-Term 2025.

The wheel's origins remain a mystery. Did it evolve in the Mesopotamian city of Uruk, humanity's first urban society, around 3500-3375 BCE? Or did a Boleraz copper miner in the Carpathian Mountains, around 4000 BCE, invent a pair of wheels connected by an axle in order to move a heavy ore basket? Why, despite having the potter's wheel and trade with Mesopotamia, did the Nile valley not use wheels until the pharaohs adopted war chariots around 1600 BCE? Why did the wheel, which came into use in 3 BCE, disappear in the Middle East a few centuries later, even though the arid climate kept roads clean for most of the year? Why was wheeled transport absent in pre-Columbian America, considering that ancient Mexicans had invented wheeled toys on axles? Did the wheel spread across regions as an idea or a technology? What can its historical evolution teach us about innovation and durability, about why some technologies adapt and others fail or are lost? Students will tackle such questions as they explore how the wheel's applications were shaped by religion, war, social hierarchies, gender bias, economic efficiency, and the local terrain - all while developing projects of their own.

How has our relationship with building materials shaped human civilization, and in return, how does our use of materials actively reshape the planet we live on? Materials have played a major role throughout human history, from providing basic clothing and shelter in prehistoric times, to fueling the industrial revolution, and enabling today's global consumer culture. In the process, material use and discovery have given rise to many branches of science and commerce, resulting in even greater demand for more material. The consequences on society and the environment haven't always been positive. This course explores our relationship with material as engineers, scientists, consumers, and traders. Basic laboratory sessions on material characterization will explore material processing techniques ranging from simple resin casting to advanced 3D printing.

How can artistic online collaboration and performance be used to close gaps in space, time, and in physical and cultural distance? How can the internet be an effective medium for multidisciplinary intercultural artistic expression? The current pandemic has created a strong reemergence of online performances. The recent explosion of freely-available content in social media platforms (literally) from around the world has created an unprecedented opportunity to (re)evaluate online performance as a medium and as a means for intercultural artistic collaboration. In this course we will address live online performance and will explore its possibilities for intercultural artistic collaboration. This will be achieved by creating a series of live online performances, by viewing similar work by other artists, through seminal readings in the field, and talks by selected guests.

How does "silence" help to define our sense of being and existence? Across different cultures, various philosophies of art, science, and society have viewed and thought about silence differently. This course invites students to think about and experience silence by asking three fundamental questions: 1) What does it mean to be silent? (Literally and metaphorically); 2) Does silence shape our lives? And if so, how? 3) Can we have an active relationship and recognition with silence just as we do with sound or action? Drawing on multi-disciplinary sources from around the world to explore the philosophical frameworks and thought systems that have engaged in the study and observation of silence, the syllabus will include works of art, literature, theater, films, architecture, and music, which students will engage via a mix of seminar, lecture, and studio methods of teaching, to enable the creations of their own artistic responses to their experience of silence and the material presented in class.

What constitutes innovation in medical technology? Is it always necessary? How is its value determined? How would we know if innovation has peaked, or reached a point of diminishing returns? What do global perspectives reveal about medical devices and healthcare in general? In what ways are cultural contexts important to consider? How can the med-tech innovation process address issues of diversity, inclusion, and accessibility? This course takes up the above questions through several case studies and examples, including bioprinting and COVID-19 vaccines -- two topics with current relevance -- as well as two of the most important historical med-tech innovations that have gone wrong in the past: The Malaria Project and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. How can current design and innovation avoid repeating past mistakes? Working in cross-disciplinary teams, students will engage in design projects that will apply what we have learned from this course and address some of the paradoxes present in our ongoing quest to design healthier bodies and societies.

What is Autofiction?: As a disputed term, full of (rich with?) ambiguities, is it more about narrative's responsibility toward veracity or the possible shortfalls of our expectations toward narrative forms and their relation to truth? What stories already inhabit and influence the words we use? What stories are difficult to contain and convey in those words? What of transcultural, translingual and exophonic modes? In this class, students will explore these and related questions through writing a series of creative pieces that explore their own voices (and languages), and how writing can shape the place and the position one may inhabit. This highly interactive course will play out in three movements: 1. Language play, confronting words as a medium. Short spurts of action writing focus on "self" in specific local contexts. What is "I" in this place or for this story? What other vehicles, besides words, transmit meaning?; 2. Voice (point of view). Empathy, advocacy, ethics. Who am I in/for this story that is of others? Explore translingualism; 3. Story. The arc of plot, the text's economy. Translation as an orchestration of diverse resources. A final portfolio showcases individual creative production.

Can Art Save Lives? The Health Benefits of the Arts and Arts Therapies: In what ways can participating in the arts enhance mental, physical, social, civic, and public health? This course offers a dynamic, interdisciplinary exploration of how the arts and arts therapies are used in healthcare, cultural institutions, rehabilitation centers, schools, and communities to support health and wellbeing. Drawing on local examples of practice in London and across the United Kingdom, together with insights from advocates for the arts and wellbeing from other countries, students examine the transformative potential of the arts in supporting and improving lives in practice and policy. Through both individual and group creative activities in class and in the city, students will gain firsthand experience with the arts as a vital tool for fostering health, care, and well-being. Activities include arts-based activities in the class, lectures from local practitioners, and visits to cultural and health centers that have had a longstanding commitment to uniting the arts and wellbeing. This course will be offered in January-Term 2025.

This course covers life writing in the broadest sense. It shows how personal biography informs the study of history and society, and addresses the question: Do lives emerge from the societies in which they happen, or can individuals guide or articulate a broader cultural moment? Starting with the traditional idea of life writing using archival sources, it moves to 'pen portraits' or mini-biographies, and representations from life. It is a 'doing' course that teaches techniques such as archiving the present, decoding images, autofictive characterization, elucidating information through interviews, discovering human stories 'hiding in plain sight', and the writing of creative nonfiction. Students will first learn methods for finding a narrative, and study representations of figures such as Barack Obama, Doris Lessing and Mohandas Gandhi. Students will then engage in groundwork to locate stories of the past and present in the UAE, and learn how a sense of place may inform the context of biography. 'How To Write From Life' results in narrative nonfiction writing and a creative piece centered on text and images.

What role does the domestic sphere play in how life is lived in the public sphere? What can we learn from the power relations of the domestic sphere to propose more inclusive public spaces? Who is entitled to be a host, and who must remain a guest within public spaces? Can design, art, and space- making be used to subvert the power dynamic between hosts and guests? What role does storytelling play in the constructions of our ideas of home and place? How has the role of the home as a space of belonging shifted during the pandemic? This course will provide students with a participatory, communal learning environment (a living room) to explore these questions and challenge their understanding of hospitality, guest and host, public and private, displacement and belonging. The course will explore forms of care and learning both in formal pedagogical spaces at NYU Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island campus and at the artistic led learning environments in Dubai in the framework of the Tree school, an experimental pedagogical project at Alserkal Arts Foundation. Students will reflect on the key course themes in their own lived experiences as primary sources of knowledge and points of reference. The course will culminate in a collectively curated public event.

Theory of the Digital: What is the nature of the digital technology that surrounds us today? What are the philosophical and cultural stakes of ubiquitous computation and data processing? This course introduces students to the digital in a hands-on manner meant to show that the digital was philosophical and cultural from the beginning. The course centers on three digital concepts and their consequences: information, the computer, and the neural network. This trajectory allows us to trace the rise of digital technologies from tools for science to a vast global infrastructure. Hands-on lab work will make the theoretical material concrete, bringing direct insight. The course has the goal of bringing technical and cultural awareness into sync for the digital citizen today. This course will be offered in June-Term 2025.

What does it mean for the body to be a source of knowledge? How do we come to know the world from a situated perspective that connects us to the accrual of past history and the shifting landscapes of future trajectories? Is 'knowing thyself' through the body a necessary condition for decolonization? What sense of 'attunement' emerges from remembering the body as more than itself? This course offers an investigation into these questions by unpacking the idea of the body archive using critical pedagogy and a combination of social science and art approaches. By drawing on interdisciplinary academic texts from sociology, critical theory, feminist and gender studies, cultural studies, as well as, artistic practices of archiving, the course offers different possibilities for thinking through, constructing, and critiquing the idea of the body archive. Drawing on the network of Haraka Experimental Lab for Arab Art and Social Thought under al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art at NYUAD, students will engage in situated discussions with academics, artists, and archivists during field trips to Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi.

What is innovation? Can such a concept be meaningful without understanding the contexts in which it arises? Certain innovations, such as cars, have shaped social development and the evolution of human cultures. Others are more discrete. Why is a plastic bottle's diameter standardized to a specific value? What is the ideal height for a door handle, or a stair? Such micro-innovations hide in plain sight yet are instrumental in our lives. This course will help students define and explore "contextual innovation," especially in science and technology. Undertaking practical fieldwork in Abu Dhabi, students will leverage the city's unique cultures to generate empathetic, culturally-competent, and context-specific innovations across industries and fields. Readings will include theoretical approaches from design and engineering, sociology, and anthropology. Case studies will include historical examples such as cars and electricity, as well as contemporary examples from global corporations such as Apple and Uber. By semester's end students will have co-developed a framework for empathetic, contextual innovation translatable to other projects in their careers.

How can changing our diets play a role in saving planet Earth? What does food production contribute to climate change? Did the Anthropocene begin with the industrial revolution, or is it part of the longer history of agricultural development? This course examines relationships among food, technology, and society, paying special attention to the impact of foodways on anthropogenic environmental change. Combining global perspectives from public policy, history, and environmental studies, the course explores the evolution and long-term security of food production, cooking technologies, and livelihood strategies in China, the UAE, Nepal, and the western United States. Units will address the history and evolution of food staples like soy, wheat, rice, corn, potatoes, and peanuts; the political economy of meat production; and the promise and perils of technocratic solutions to global food security, especially with regard to pesticides/fertilizers, industrialized farming, and energy use. Along with reading and discussion, students will grow, forage, and shop for food, cook and eat meals, and collaborate on the design and development of an NYU Abu Dhabi cookbook for the future.

Can we imagine a world without scent or our sense of smell? Can the presence or absence of smells alter our perception, experience and memories of a place? How might scent signify class, wealth, and power? In 2021, the world's first digital fragrance was created and encoded as an NFT. What does this process of disembodiment mean for the future of olfaction? How did the pandemic change attitudes towards scent? How might we design a future for scent? Scent constitutes an important component of tangible and intangible heritage. Scents have a long history as important commodities, ritual items, and consumer objects. This course will explore scent as an element of design, urbanism, and placemaking. We will study the history of smell in human society, and the role of design and technology in creating, containing, and diffusing scents. Finally, we will imagine speculative futures of scent and olfaction. Students will research the scent landscape of London by engaging in practical smellwalks as they map their experiences and develop their olfactory language and imagination of possible scent futures. The course will conclude with a final collective design project and exhibition.

How do we connect with sound? What roles can sound play in cognition and emotion? How can sound affect our moods? How does technology impact our experience of music? How can recording technologies enhance the impact of sound on the brain in the production of affect? One goal of the entertainment industry is to connect emotionally with audiences, and the medium most used to strengthen this connection is sound. Knowledge of music, acoustics, computer science, and psychology allows music technologists to create effective soundscapes in various contexts. This course focuses on the role of sound as a narrative medium to evoke emotional responses in cinema. Students will engage with research in psychology, neuroscience, acoustics, and other fields, while acquiring skills in field recording, multitrack sound editing, post-production, and musical acoustics. Using their phones and free downloadable software, students will create an immersive sonic storyboarding of the city of Los Angeles based on their field recordings from multiple locations in the city.

Photography and Witnessing: What does it take to be a witness rather than look at events passively, without feeling compelled to respond? What are the ethical, political, cultural, legal and personal stakes in witnessing? Can photographic images turn us into witnesses and motivate us to respond to what we see, or do we have to witness an event personally to be spurred to action? This seminar uses contemporary Berlin as a striking case study for how images are used (in memorials, museums and public life) to confront viewers with pictures so that they take responsibility for a shared but often contested future. Through the creation of image-based projects in small, rotating teams, students learn how images can either document or distort the past, compel us to action or numb us, and either be tools or obstacles for individuals or groups to be socially and politically recognized. Readings include key texts from the history and theory of photography, some texts on the political and social use of images, as well as important critical responses to iconic images. This course will be offered in January-Term 2025.

What makes a city special? What makes a place attractive, gives it energy, economic dynamism, cultural appeal, and a particular feel or even buzz? Is it top-down planning by civic leaders and architects? Is it the mix of peoples and cultures mobilizing at the grassroots? Or is it some combination of strategies, peoples, and happenstance? Today as more and more of the global population resides in cities, the question of how to create community in the context of urban living has gained urgency for policymakers, urban designers, and everyday people. This course will explore the dynamism of Manhattan through the emerging framework of "placemaking." Placemaking refers to collaborative efforts to shape the places we inhabit in order to foster the conditions for community. Placemaking can vary in scope and scale from a small local park to a major tourist destination. This class, in tandem with a sister class on Dubai, will examine placemaking through key concepts, starting with the bigger city and ending with the local public spaces. Students will engage in the critical and comparative study of Manhattan and Dubai through field-based research projects culminating in a placemaking proposal for Manhattan.

Arts for Transformation: The Case of Cambodia: How can arts and culture drive transformation and healing in post-conflict societies? And how can they contribute to heritage preservation, historical narrative shaping, and contemporary expression in such settings? This course explores the role of the arts in reconstruction, revitalization, reconciliation and peacebuilding. We will examine the methods and tools that prove successful and consider why other approaches fail. Using Cambodia's complex history as a case study, we will investigate how shifting narratives, cultural governance, social welfare, and the cultural economy intersect to shape the arts ecosystem. Through meetings with local artists in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap; site visits from the World Heritage site of Angkor temple complex to the Tuol Sleng Genocide museum, students will gain insight into the social, cultural, economic, and political factors that shape and drive Cambodia's dynamic and transformative arts scene. This course includes a regional academic seminar to Cambodia. This course will be offered in January-Term 2025.

Reporting (on) Migration: How does media coverage shape migrant experience, representation, and policy development? What are the ethics of reporting on displaced populations? What critical frameworks shape our understanding of how populations in host countries understand the influx of migrants? What roles are played by media and social media in influencing policies and acceptance or rejection of migrant populations? This course on migration reporting takes as central case studies the so-called refugee crisis of Syrians in 2015 and compares it with the Ukrainian migration crisis of 2022, examining how media discourse may have impacted the way populations fleeing wars were viewed and responded to. Students will learn techniques of feature writing and discuss journalism ethics. The class includes a seminar in Greece, with the class International Peace-building and Education with Prof. Dana Burde, to meet with displaced populations and work in partnership with Refocus Media Labs, an organization that specializes in training refugees in migration reporting. Students will produce a written story while in Greece in addition to several other writing assignments in Abu Dhabi. This course includes a regional academic seminar to Greece. This course will be offered in January-Term 2025.

User Experience Design is a process through which the needs and expectations of the intended audience are met in the creation of products, applications and experiences. Students in this class are exposed to the UX design process starting with problem discovery and definition and ending with designing and testing solutions. Questions that the students will address in the class include: How do I identify a problem worth solving? How do I ensure the end user’s needs and expectations will be met? What are my ethical responsibilities as a product designer and how do I address them? What does it mean to design an inclusive product or experience? How do I ensure the products I create will be wanted and used? These questions will be addressed through discussion, research, examination of case studies and hands-on design exercises aimed to provide students with the critical thinking and practical skills for identifying problems worth solving and creating solutions that are compelling and effective. Topics covered in the course include design research, behavior and perception science, visual design and testing strategies.

What will the future of human and robot interaction look like? How can new technology and robots inspire human creativity and help us grow artistically? How can we use the intersection of art and tech to pursue research? Einstein said, "Play is the highest form of research." By exploring technology through art and movement, how can we further research? This course provides students the tools and knowledge to integrate robotics and new technology into their creative practice as artists and researchers (no prior experience required). Students will design and create a final project exploring the intersection between art and robotics and tech in various forms. Depending on the scale of the project, students will work together as one big group or smaller groups. Students have the opportunity to present their projects at the massive MOTB Dubai Shopping Festival.

Climate change impacts are both affected by and worsen the many inequalities in Indian society. A combination of extreme heat and rapid cycles of drought and flooding is devastating the livelihoods and futures of millions of small and marginal farmers in rural India, who bear the heaviest burden of global warming while being least responsible for it. Can farmers with deep knowledge of traditional agricultural practices and little access to global research on climate change be documentary filmmakers and climate activists? How can the stories they tell of their lives not only sharpen awareness of the crisis but contribute to solutions for sustainable living applicable locally and globally? What happens when communities tell stories from the inside? How are their stories about the environmental crisis and its impact on their lives distinctive from those generated by Big Media? This course will historicize the formation and impact of community video collectives in India and globally. This will be followed by three site visits in different parts of India. Students in this practice-based course will observe the production and distribution of community film and media in these three sites. Note: Pending feasible international travel conditions, this course will include a seminar in India.

What is creativity? How does it manifest? How does it make us feel, both when we are creative as well as when we encounter others' creativity? Creating delves into these topics through a multi-faceted, hands-on exploration in the city of Berlin. Students will visit with various interactive media artists, studios, and musicians to learn firsthand how various practitioners think of, and engage with, creativity. Students will also explore daily exercises in lateral thinking, imaginative play, mindfulness, flow states, opening to experience, and more. Through discussion, readings, and research, students will focus on the emotions of creativity and will identify works that move them, exploring why. Students will also be tasked to incorporate all they’re learning into their own creations by making things daily. This making isn’t limited to one paradigm or medium, but several audio/visual platforms will be introduced to provide some tools for students to use. Students will be encouraged to explore various mediums though, and even be inventive in their choice of medium! The course will culminate in a mini-symposium, surveying what students explored and made during the class.

This course explores what it means to be situated in a particular Site. Do places have a spirit and identity? What causes an artist to respond to a place in a particular way? Light, landscape, sound, climate, all inform the artifacts created by the ‘makers’ in different cultures and time periods. Powerpoint presentations, readings, site and museum visits will help the students explore fundamental questions about the impact of Site on artists, objects, architecture and performance. Students will be presented with a series of challenges, or problems, where they are asked to respond to a specific site. We will read texts written by visionary thinkers and artists such as Rosalind Krauss, Nancy Holt, Robert Smithson. We will also delve deeply into site specific artworks produced by artists in the last 100 years, with a focus on Land Art, Performance and Urban interactions.

What does it mean to find one’s voice; and how expansive is the voice beyond its use for everyday communication? How do we recognize our own voice amongst other voices that move around and through us? Both a tool for self-expression and a form of social activism, the voice is a multidimensional material that has an expansive meaning across different cultures, genres, social and political movements as well as within religious practices. Drawing on voice studies and practice-based research, this course will explore the voice as both a vehicle for individual self-expression and a vehicle for entities who might speak "through" us, such as supernatural beings, ancestors, collective movements, and others. We will consider discourses that seek to expand notions of the experience of ‘finding’ and surrendering one’s voice; look at glossolalia (“speaking in tongues”) and translation, and the ethics of speaking on another’s behalf and the ideologies of using one’s voice as a form of activism. Students will draw upon their own cultural heritage to produce autoethnographic reflections on the voice, examining theories on trance, babbling and non-verbal communication within interspecies relations

The Chair is the most iconic piece in the history of furniture. Chairs have been in every aspect of our lives for thousands of years, we touch chairs with our entire bodies yet we've become so used to them that we hardly notice their presence. Chairs represent an effort to balance utility and beauty, comfort and status. Chairs offer us a link to the past and a glimpse into the future. This course will explore how the design and making of chairs have been affected by and reflect changes in technology, materials, manufacturing processes, aesthetics, ergonomics, and economic and social conditions over time. Why are some chairs considered iconic? What do different modes of sitting reveal about a society and its people? Are some forms of sitting superior to others? What do chairs tell us about human behavior and attitudes toward posture? This course will critically examine the principles of "good design" by studying chairs and their makers throughout history and envision the future of design practice. Students will practice the design process and learn analog and digital prototyping tools and apply those skills in hands-on and tangible design projects.

Art and Climate Change: Can, Should, How?: Climate change effects, economics, climate injustice, ecosystems, health, and food insecurity -- this course examines 'how' and 'can' and 'should' the arts take on the difficult and complex subject of regional and global climate change through art-making. How does art provide an opening to difficult and complex subjects? How can one establish a meaningful dialogue with the viewer/public? Art has the capacity to inspire and provoke. It possesses the ability to establish an emotional bond and elicit a response from the viewer/public. Could you be seen as a storyteller, crafting a visual narrative? What about the role of art in evoking nostalgia and generating a sense of wonder? The utilization of formal tools such as scale, perspective, color, mixed media, and emerging technologies is pivotal. Do you work alone or collaborate? Students will not only be introduced to and instructed in conventional approaches to understanding art, but will also be encouraged to explore the interdisciplinary tools that surround them. The course fosters and supports a more holistic approach to art-making. Students will visit the NYUAD Gallery exhibition, Horizon, as well as off-campus museums and select regional sites to examine how visual narratives are created to tackle complex issues with art.

What role does the movie camera play in the art of storytelling? The earliest prehistoric cave paintings portray events as a series of images, implicating space and time. The movie camera has the capacity to corral space and capture time. Is this the source of film's disarming power as a medium for visual storytelling? What are specific attributes of the camera's action that exploit this power? Why is one shot more dramatic than another? How does a choice of camera style inform the story's pace? Students will explore these questions, and more, comparing the effects created by the variety of ways a camera corrals space into narrative meaning. For students interested in telling stories visually, the course will encourage more authority in their camera choices. At each stage of our exploration, students will be assigned exercises (1-3 min videos shot with a Smartphone) to provide the first-hand experience in creating some of the effects we explore in class. Our source material will include essays, interviews, podcasts, full-length feature films, and select film clips, past and present, from every region of the world.

Much has been written about the relationship between cities and walking but less so in the context of African cities. This interdisciplinary course looks at urban theory about walking and everyday urbanism and applies it to Sub-Saharan African cities in general and Accra in particular. What makes African cities unique? How do legacies of colonialism affect them? How does walking in the city affect one’s experience and view of it? How do Accra residents experience their city? How is one’s experience of the city gendered? We will address these and other questions through theories of African urbanism, colonialism and globalization’s effect on urbanity and urban culture, and gendered access to public space. Through these materials – academic studies and theories, non-fiction essays, documentaries, films and short stories – we will acquire a critical vocabulary which we use to assess the various Accra locations we visit on field trips. The observations from walking in the city form the basis for the writing assignments in combination with the academic ideas and concepts and provide students a chance to enhance their non-fiction and academic essay writing skills.

Hip-Hop, the Cosmos and Artificial Intelligence: What is the relationship between scientific discovery and the creative process? Intended for students in both the humanities and sciences, the course explores the concepts and structure of modern physics with connections to music, focusing on jazz improvisation and hip-hop. Fundamental techniques from machine learning will be used to help students construct computational models capable of music generation in these genres, and understand how such models connect to current topics such as quantum mechanics, general relativity, particle physics, dark energy and big bang cosmology. Students will work through a series of Python notebooks that generate musical output while exploring the computational analogies to modern physics, leading to a final project that is complete recording of new music produced by the student. No prior coding experience is required.

Ecopoetics: In the Land of the Tiger: What is the relationship between self and nature? How do we make ourselves at home in the world when the idea of home is continually under threat? In this age of the Anthropocene, how can literature and art-making respond to the global challenges we face? This multidisciplinary course will explore the intersections between ecology, conservation, film, and literature. In an immersive experience in the Western Ghats of India, one of the most biogeographically unique places on the planet, and home to over 800 wild tigers, we will observe wildlife and understand the challenges of conservation in a country teeming with 1.4 billion people. Alongside trips to the Nagarahole National Park in Karnataka and walks in ancient Shola forests, we will explore traditions of literature that offer a unique frame of humans in nature that go beyond mere pastoralism. The final part of the course will call for an eco-poetic reflection - an exploration of a topic (oral and written) that has elements of both the ecological and the lyric, emanating from an encounter of our time in the landscape of the Western Ghats. This course includes a regional academic seminar to India. This course will be offered in January-Term 2025.

What is the essence of curation, both within and beyond the traditional museum setting? How can we curate with a focus on active audience participation in the age of Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC)? This course will introduce students to the core principles of participatory curation, enriched by insights derived from both research and practical applications. Students will work in pairs to redesign the main exhibition at the Shanghai Museum of Glass and document their collaborative efforts in a curatorial portfolio. Alongside this course project, students will engage in immersive field trips to local museums and cultural institutions, developing skills in ideation, conceptualization, prototyping, gathering user feedback, and integrating Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) in curatorial projects.

Place writing offers a unique avenue for connecting with specific geographical locations through the art of literature. Why is it important in the context of the current ecological crisis? How does literature of place allow us to engage with questions of belonging, emplacement, and displacement ? Can the literature of place reinvent the way we inhabit the world? This immersive and interdisciplinary course confronts students with the challenges and possibilities of place writing. We will explore the question of place through various literary genres that emphasize ways of writing built on the subjective experience of an urban landscape, including nature writing, geopoetics and psychogeography. Using Paris as a laboratory, students will experiment with literary devices related to these genres in various writing contexts, from letters and reports to poems, oral histories, blogs, and social media posts. We will review debates about the “spatial turn” in literature and in non-fiction writing, and reflect on our own gaze: how do we write about a place that has new social and cultural norms? That is at once local and global? The class culminates in a work of creative non-fiction that explores Paris in its multidimensionality.

Paper Arts: A History and Practice: How does the production of a material influence the art forms developed from it? How does a material’s accessibility determine who its artisans are? How does a material’s affordability influence the traditions formed around it? This course addresses these questions through a practice-based focus on the materiality and production of paper and paper crafting as a global art form. Beginning with the invention of paper, the paper craft movement has traditions and roots on all continents that have been openly shared and handed down through generations. This course is divided into several subject areas: the history of paper and paper making, paper folding, paper cutting, paper engineering, paper automata, and the contemporary DIY electronics, fabrication, and paper craft movements. It will also include field trips to local artist studios and paper mills. Each subject area has associated readings, hands-on exercises, and a final creative work that addresses all the forms explored.

How can we ethically produce migration stories that will respect the complexity and humanity of immigrants, while actively avoiding oversimplification? Can ethical storytelling create a measurable transformative impact in societies? In this course, students will explore the intersection of Latino migration and mental health, using ethical storytelling as a guiding principle. Through practical hands-on experiences, students will acquire essential skills in documentary production. They will learn techniques for conducting interviews, capturing compelling footage, and skillfully editing a short film. Students will craft a powerful visual narrative that will amplify the voices of marginalized migrants. In addition to conducting fieldwork, students will engage with subject matter experts, including community organizers, scholars, and media professionals. These experts will provide valuable guidance and expertise, enriching the student's understanding of the complexities surrounding migrant communities. At the end of this course, students will discover how the power of storytelling can cultivate empathy, challenge stereotypes, and contribute to a more inclusive and compassionate society.

Photographs are endowed with a unique power to immerse us in other people’s stories, engage us emotionally, inform us, raise public awareness, and serve as a catalyst for action. But what exactly is it about some photos—for instance, Nik Ut’s Napalm Girl, Stuart Franklin’s Tank Man, or Alberto Korda’s portrait of Che Guevara—that makes them uniquely alluring and memorable? What can we learn from the iconic images of our times that can help us to construct compelling photo essays? What can the masters of photography teach us about making images that captivate us and inspire us to action? By analyzing examples of effective storytelling, students will learn to better understand the building blocks of a strong visual essay. The course will help students to discover their visual voice and develop their own visual language. They will also reflect on the ethical implications of their workflow. It will be taught through classroom discussions, photo critiques, field trips, editing sessions, and photo workshops. Students will be assessed on the completion of five short photography assignments and three photo essays. At the end of the course, they will present a portfolio of their coursework.

This course will explore the spectrum of theater, performance and performative installation making while taking autobiography and the self as a starting point. It will explore the self not only in its current state as a human being but also as an animal, object, and imagined superhero. In doing that, the context will always be a reference to start since no one and nothing stands alone in real and imagined life. In this practice-based course, the students will think, research, write, conceptualize, try, rehearse and perform.

Embark on a transformative journey of inquiry and exploration in “Gamified Learning”. Can the art and science of video games transcend digital boundaries to forge a better world and drive social impact? Students are invited to undertake an interdisciplinary exploration, unraveling the connections between gaming, education, and societal impact. Beyond the craft of video game development, the course is designed to lead students through the theoretical foundations underpinning gamified learning experiences, from game-based learning to the psychology of play. We ask: How can gamified learning empower us to understand and impact the world around us? This course, featuring six modules and culminating in a collaborative video game project. This journey aims to equip students not only with the skills to create games but also to explore the profound impact of gamified learning on the world around them. The course project doesn't require prior programming skills. Students use online game creation tools (StudyCrafter, Scratch Game Design, Unity, etc.) to create their own game. Are you ready to grapple with these big questions and explore the transformative potential of gamified learning?