Art and Computation

Bringing Art & Poetics to Computers

Most programs bring computers to art and design. We do the opposite: we bring RISD's tradition of material exploration, experimentation, and critique to computation.

This means treating code, algorithms, and computational systems as creative materials with their own affordances and constraints. It means humanizing technology—making it experimental, ethical, sustainable, deeply creative.

We're not a CS department. This is RISD's approach to computation: merging material-based making with computational thinking.

Making & Studio Culture

You learn by making real things. Build websites and games. Work with robots and AI systems. Visualize data. Create 3D worlds. Design custom digital tools and creative pipelines. Make prototypes, working systems, physical-digital hybrids. Tools you actually use. Art that functions.

This is a studio department—hands-on, collaborative, iterative.

We emphasize:

• Building over using - Make your own tools rather than master existing software
• Experimentation over polish - Iterate, break things, figure it out
• Material thinking - Understand systems by working directly with them
• Making that matters - Projects with real stakes, real audiences, real function

The AI Shift: From Universal Software to Custom Micro-Systems

AI is fundamentally changing how software gets made—moving from universal tools built for millions to bespoke systems built for one person, one project, even one problem. Instead of mastering existing platforms, you'll generate solutions tailored to your specific creative questions.

This is what we sometimes call "jig theory": purpose-built digital tools with short lifespans. Quick, light, disposable. Software as temporary prosthetic rather than permanent infrastructure. Artists already think this way—hacking, improvising, working through constraints. Now you can fabricate computational jigs without years of learning syntax.

AI doesn't replace the artist. It multiplies creative agency. And the market for this is exploding. Designers who can build digital systems will have endless opportunities as demand for bespoke software skyrockets. We're preparing you to be at the forefront of this designer boom—building new processes for problems that don't exist yet.

Threading: How Everything Connects

"Threading" means weaving together making, critique, cultural context, material understanding, and learning how to learn. Nothing exists in isolation.

You don't just learn syntax—you understand the material stack, from code to files to operating systems to electricity. You study computational paradigms historically and conceptually: symbolic logic, cybernetics, neural networks, networked systems, generative models, speculative alternatives. You see how artists like Sol LeWitt, Vera Molnár, Nam June Paik, and Casey Reas used computation as a creative medium.

And you learn computer vision alongside surveillance politics. Build generative systems while examining authorship and agency. Work with AI while questioning environmental impact and embedded biases. Technical capability and critical awareness develop together—you become someone who shapes computation rather than just operates it.

Threading also means building habits of self-directed learning: using tutorials, AI tools, documentation, and peer collaboration to extend your practice beyond the classroom. You learn how to keep learning.

Radical Interdisciplinarity

Computational skills unlock multiple pathways:

• Art practice - Galleries, museums, residencies, experimental work
• Design careers - UX, interaction design, computational design, creative technology
• Tech industry - Google, Adobe, gaming companies, startups
• Hybrid practices - All of the above, or something you invent

The same foundation supports all of it. Many of our students do more than one. This isn't narrow pre-professional training—it's preparing you to work across contexts and invent new ones.

Curricular Flexibility

Art & Computation has one of RISD's most open curricula:

• Lots of electives - Shape your own path
• Cross-departmental work - Combine with any other RISD program
• Multiple focus areas - Follow your interests as they develop
• Room to experiment - Try things, change direction, explore

The curriculum is designed to evolve based on student interests and faculty research. You're not fitting into a fixed program—you're helping define what the program becomes.

Examples: Where Students Go

Brian Oakes - Fine artist working in sculpture, electronics, fabrication, and sound. Recent residency at Pioneer Works, exhibition covered in The New York Times. Returned to RISD to lecture to current CTC students.

Jon Chen - Explores physical-digital integration, internet culture, cyberfeminism, interface design. Interned at Google Creative Labs and NYTimes R&D while at RISD. Bridges computation with cultural critique and storytelling.

These are just two pathways. Students shape their own.

AAC Major vs. CTC Concentration: What's the Difference?

RISD offers two ways to study computation: the Art & Computation major and the Computation, Technology, & Culture (CTC) concentration. They're fundamentally different experiences.

The CTC Concentration: A Light Introduction

CTC is a 15-credit (5-course) interdisciplinary concentration open to students in any major. You take CTC-2101 Introduction to Computation, a senior seminar, and three electives from an approved list. It's designed to give you computational literacy and critical frameworks for understanding technology—a solid introduction to coding, creative software, and digital culture. Think of it as breadth: exposure to computational thinking without going deep.

The AAC Major: Full Immersion

Art & Computation is a complete undergraduate major built around depth, studio practice, and creative agency with computation. You're not sampling—you're diving in.

What makes the AAC major different:

• Priority enrollment - AAC majors get first access to courses and studios, ensuring you can build the curriculum you need
• Core studio sequence - Work closely with faculty across multiple semesters, developing sustained computational practice and critique
• Deep customization - Lots of electives mean you shape your own path: art practice, design work, tech industry preparation, or a hybrid you invent
• Studio culture & community - You're part of a department, not just taking courses. Peer collaboration, shared workspace, ongoing critique, collective learning
• Material depth - Go beyond surface-level tools. Understand computational systems from the ground up: algorithms, data structures, machine learning, physical computing, graphics, networked systems
• Faculty mentorship - Direct relationships with faculty who guide your trajectory, connect you to opportunities, and help you build a sustained practice
• Shaping the future - As RISD's newest department, AAC majors actively define what this program becomes. Your interests and projects help set the direction

Bottom line: CTC gives you computational literacy. AAC makes you a computational practitioner. If you want to work with computation as a creative medium—not just understand it—the major is the path.

Why Now: Technology Needs RISD (and Vice Versa)

The tech industry desperately needs RISD's approach—materiality, experimentation, critique, ethical thinking. AI companies need people who ask hard questions. Design tools need builders who understand creative process. Digital culture needs artists who can work computationally. And fine art needs to engage with the dominant medium of our era. Computation isn't just a tool—it's the material condition of contemporary life.

By joining Art & Computation, you don't just use technology—you build it, humanize it, question it, expand it.

The Opportunity

We're RISD's first new undergraduate department in 30 years. That means:

• You help shape it - Your work, your interests, your questions define what this becomes
• Things move fast - New courses, new equipment, new partnerships develop based on what students need
• Direct access - Small program means close work with faculty, visiting artists, industry connections
• Ground floor - Be part of building something, not just joining something finished

This is your chance to define the future of computation, technology, art, and design at RISD. Not top-down. Together.