School
for
Poetic
Computation
In this class, students will play, critique and make artistic games. These can generally be characterized as simple, conceptually-based and personal interactive experiences. Unlike mainstream games, artistic games highlight individual narratives, emphasizing self expression, non-linear logic and creative inquiry. Using the free and widely supported Unity Engine, students will learn the basics of programming, 3D modeling (using the built-in ProBuilder plugin) and environmental storytelling, with no prior experience required. This will give students the technical and conceptual framework necessary to build their own “world,” one where they set the rules for a change. Final projects could address identity, agency, mental health and negotiating the distance between the self and other—though are not limited to these themes. My interest in this topic is highly personal, as I got into game engines during a time in my life when I was undergoing some health issues. Having a space to set the rules and exercise some agency felt empowering during a time when I was experiencing a loss of control over my own body. This is also how I generally got into art making. I have previously volunteered with art therapy groups working with the elderly, in order to tap into this connection between art and mental health. As I got more into game engines, it made sense to tie this interest into my teaching, especially once I noticed how many students were experiencing issues around anxiety and self perception, and lacked the tools to express themselves.
This class may be for you if:
This class may NOT be for you if:
Viktor Timofeev is an artist based in New York. Timofeev’s multidisciplinary practice is informed by personal experiences, speculative imaginings and everything in between. Working across game-engines, video, painting, installation and sound, Timofeev combines these mediums to create semi-fictional environments in which narratives related to immigration, mental health and technology unfold.
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Blake Andrews is a game designer, illustrator, animator, and instructor living in New York. They have taught game design at both Bloomfield College and Pratt Institute. Since graduating from New York University’s Game Design MFA program, Blake has been involved with installations and events at Babycastles, Wonderville, and Red Parry. The Babycastles installation, Ribbit’s Frog World, involved several large indoor pits of mud.
Blake’s games are confrontational both mechanically and narratively. They frequently use a distinct low fidelity, crude, cartoon style. Their hundreds of small games are hosted on websites like Glorious Trainwrecks and itch.io.
Outside of digital games and art, Blake shows an enthusiasm for alternative controllers. One of their collaborations with Frank DeMarco, Scrapeboard, has the player scraping a real skateboard, without wheels, on metal pads in order to defeat enemies like Kool Man. Scrapeboard has been featured at alt.ctrl.gdc, a Puma release party, a LilyPichu video, and in The New Yorker.
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Ryan Kuo lives and works in New York City. His works are process-based and diagrammatic and often invoke a person or people arguing. This is not to state an argument about a thing, but to be caught in a state of argument. He has used videogame engines, chatbots, web and graphic design, productivity software, and writing to produce circuitous and unresolved movements in which objects are lost and found in white escape routes.
His work has appeared at the Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC), M+ (Hong Kong), Queens Museum (NYC), bitforms gallery (NYC), TRANSFER (LA), left gallery (Berlin), and Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (Cambridge), and has been published in ,Artforum,, ,Art in America,, ,BOMB,, and ,Rhizome,. He was a 2022 Knight Arts + Tech Fellow and a resident at the Center for Afrofuturist Studies (Iowa City), Pioneer Works (NYC), and the Queens Museum Studio Program (NYC).
He holds a Master of Science in Art, Culture and Technology from MIT. He is not a programmer.
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Lawrence Lek 陆明龙 is a London-based artist, filmmaker, and musician working with video game engines, simulation, and architecture. He is known for advancing the concept of Sinofuturism with immersive installations that explore spiritual and existential themes through the lens of science fiction. Featuring a rotating cast of wandering characters, his works are noted for their dreamlike narratives, evocative imagery, and preoccupation with technology and memory. As a musician, Lek composes soundtracks and conducts live audio-visual mixes of his films, often in collaboration with other artists. His ongoing open-world game projects develop organically, with new editions incorporating their sites of exhibition and performance. These include Nepenthe (2021-), 2065 (2018-) and Nøtel (2015-). Soundtrack releases include Temple OST (The Vinyl Factory, 2020) and AIDOL OST (Hyperdub, 2020). His work has been shown widely in museums, galleries, and urban settings around the world, and also took part in SFPC’s ‘Expressive Design with Videogames’ class.
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Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (b. 1995, london) is a Berlin/London-based artist. They received an BA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London in 2019. Brathwaite-Shirley works predominantly in animation, sound, performance, and video game development. Their practice focuses on intertwining lived experience with fiction to imaginatively retell the stories of Black Trans people. Danielle’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions and performances at institutions such as Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (2024), LAS, Burghein berlin 2024, ,Studio Voltaire (2024), SCAD, Savanna (2023) Artnight Dundee (2023) Villa Arson, Nice (2023) Fact, liverpool (2022) David Kordansky, LA (2022) Project Arts Centre, Ireland (2022); Skänes konstförening, Malmö, Sweden (2022); Arebyte Gallery, London (2021); QUAD, Derby, England (2021); Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (2021); Focal Point Gallery, London (2020); Science Gallery, London (2020); and MU Hybrid Art House, London (2020). Their work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin (2022); Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich (2019); Les Urbaines, Lausanne (2019); and Barbican, London (2018).
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Applications open until Applications closed on August 4, 2024.
You can expect to hear back from us about the status of your application on . Please email us at admissions@sfpc.study with any questions you have.
For 10 classes, it costs $1200 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule weekly or monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.
SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.
For more information about what we look for in applicants, scholarships, and other frequently asked questions, please visit our applicant FAQ.
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