School
for
Poetic
Computation
The tools we use are not neutral - they affect the things we make. Not just in what's possible, but in what is easy. This class is about understanding how to design tools that encourage their users to be creative - that encourage them to try new things and explore. In this class, we'll be trying out a lot of different tools, and critically analysing how they work. And then we'll make one of our own.
Images courtesy of teachers.
LLM usage is neither encouraged or forbidden — this is a class about encouraging human creativity, but we want you to use the workflows you’re familiar with.
Most digital tools we use are designed for productivity. The standard model of user experience design assumes that users start with a problem, and want to solve it with an minimum of thought and effort. The tools that fit this model are useful... but they aren't very creative.
This class examines the "creative tool" — the idea of a tool which enables users to be creative. To make new things, in ways that they haven't worked before. To mess around. To explore, not to be productive.
In this class, we'll be getting our hands dirty using new tools, and then discussing how they work, the context and communities they sit in, and how they make us feel when we use them. And we'll also be making our own small tools, to put this understanding into practice and getting a direct experience of the compromises of reality.
This class may be for you if you:
This class may NOT be for you if you:
V is a creative technologist and game designer. She is interested in using technical systems in new and surprising ways, and in marrying the digital and the analogue in ways that lift them both. In 2024, she launched Downpour, an app which allows anyone to make videogames on their phone by collaging together photos and text into interactive hypertext experiences. As a kind of digital zine making tool, it's especially effective when combined with physical crafting and analogue drawing. She has previously worked with Punchdrunk and Niantic, and was one of the founders of the festival of games and play Now Play This.
she/her
Nick Murray is a producer, game-maker and artist making socially-led narrative work focusing on loss, collective memory and digital cultures. This often takes the form of games, interactive poetry and performance. Using speculative futures and collectively understood pasts, Nick creates games with the aim of bringing together distinct communities of people around participation and conversation.
Nick was one of two Winter Residents at Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol (February-March 2026).
Nick’s solo show Return to Dreamphone, exploring local and communal archiving, and the tributaries of the River Brent, was exhibited at Barham Park Studios (March 2025).
Formerly, Nick was lead producer for Now Play This at Somerset House, Director of Playing Poetry and associate producer with Penned in the Margins. In 2023 Nick was selected as part of Film London’s Lodestars cohort, celebrating innovative film and game-makers across the capital. Nick was ACAVA artist-in-residence at Barham Park 2024-25.
Nick holds a BA in Fine Art (Central Saint Martins) and an MA in Situated Practice (Bartlett School of Architecture).
they/them
Applications open until Applications closed on August 10, 2026.
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 5 classes, it costs $750 + 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.
Interested in more learning opportunities at the School for Poetic Computation? Join our newsletter to stay up to date on future sessions and events, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Support our programming through scholarships. Get in touch over email.
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