School
for
Poetic
Computation
OOPS! Off-Purpose Software in which the OOPS! stands for Operation Parodied Structure. In which the OOPS! stands for Oneiric Protocol Simulated, in which the OOPS! stands for Oscillating Presentation Slides, in which the OOPS! stands for–well, you get it. OOPS! This class is about interface comedy. Allegedly. Each week we’ll take one platform from the Google Workspace suite (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms) and treat it less like a tool and more like a performance venue, a poetic constraint, a sketch comedy prop. Or all three. OOPS! We’ll misuse features that usually go unnoticed: version history as revisionist memoir, autofill as timing device, data validation menus with no valid options. Participants may write Google Apps Script to amplify the joke or ignore scripting altogether and simply push the interface’s built-in behaviors to their breaking point. The approach draws from Monster Factory, a YouTube series by Griffin and Justin McElroy, where the brothers push video game character customization to absurd extremes. Using only in-game tools, they create glitchy, surreal figures like Tony Hawk???? in THUG Pro, flattened beyond recognition, or Rock “The Dwayne” Johnson in WWE 2K14, a deformed boulder of a man whose limbs collapse inward during a suplex. OOPS! is for anyone curious about what a platform assumes, how it frames interaction, and what happens when you follow instructions a little too literally. Think of it as live documentation of systems misunderstanding themselves. Or vice versa. OOPS!
Images courtesy of teachers.
Participants should be curious about why everyday platforms behave the way they do. By “platforms,” we mean Google Workspace tools (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms) that quietly structure how we write, organize, present, and collect.
Expect to spend 2–4 hours per week experimenting with a different platform. Assignments may include tasks like submitting a form that can’t be submitted or telling a story using only version history. In the final two weeks, time spent outside of class may increase slightly as participants prepare a final project: a cursed Shark Tank pitch using any platform to sell an idea that shouldn’t exist.
This class may be for you if you:
This class may NOT be for you if you:
Heheheheherdimas appropriates the affordances of technology to simulate trances, rituals, and other existential crashes. Hehehehehe bends platforms unhehehehehelpfully, until they hehehehehesitate and crash under the weight of their own interface logic. This bio itself is experiencing formatting instability. So is Heheheheherdimas. Hehehehehe holds an MFA from Yale School of Art, where hehehehehe spent just enough time staring at screens to convince them to stare back. Hehehehehe now works as an Assistant Professor at VCUarts, where hehehehehe teaches students to trick infrastructure, stage malfunctions, and occasionally hoodwink each other. Hehehehehe.
he/him
· website
· twitter
· instagram
Rasim Bayramov (b. 2000, Baku, Azerbaijan; based in the U.S) is a designer who through their work try to explore ideas of comfort, connection, and detachment through reinterpreted rituals, bureaucratic infrastructures, physical ephemera and post-post soviet simple technologies. They try to make it happen through websites, interactive and standalone installations, print, videos, performances and sculptures that invite others to experience these combinations, transforming the human body into a collective interface. They received their BSc in Industrial Design from the Middle East Technical University and their MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. So far, their work has included 8 webcams, 6 ethernet and power cables, 9 screens, 13 laptops, 14 phones, 2 red cups, 5 QR codes, 1 old TV, paper, 5 pears, a keyboard, a mouse, 8 transparent acrylics, 64 carpet tiles, 1 thermal printer, 1 receipt spike, 1 cash exchange window, and 3 flowers.
they/them
· website
· instagram
Stories, once created, will never end. Same as the tales of the digital world. Weitong “ShanMu” Sun (born in Jinan, China) is an experimental artist who explores live simulation, digital storytelling, artificial intelligence, and the methodology of programming languages. Her practice explores the complexity of emerging technology and computation as an alternative narrative container. Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as Black Brick Project (NYC, US), Instinc (Singapore), Rubicon (Australia), ICAVCU (Richmond, VA), and others. She earned an MFA in Kinetic Imaging from Virginia Commonwealth University and holds a BS in computer science with minors in Mathematics and Arts from the University of Delaware. She is teaching Creative Code & Electronics at VCUarts Kinetic Imaging.
she/they
· website
· twitter
· instagram
Applications open until Applications closed on August 3, 2025.
You can expect to hear back from us about the status of your application on August 19, 2025. Please email us at admissions@sfpc.study with any questions you have.
For 7 classes, it costs $900 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule 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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