Simulation and Games
Constructing a Model
Assignment: Write a proposal for your final project. This proposal might be around the system you were exploring in today’s class, or something totally different. As your readings for this week, please spend at least 10 minutes playing one of the games from the short list below,In your responses, please address the following questions:what are the similarities between the two games you played? What are the differences? what is the system being modelled in these games? What effects (if any) are you having on this system by playing? what parts of the system can’t you control? Are there parts of this game that are frustrating or energising?
What's the matter? Automata!
Setting up a System
Assignment: Come to class with a system that exists in your life, that you might like to explore in your final project. (you can change this in the future but it’s an important exercise). In addition come with one specific technology or coding skill that you would like to learn during the remainder of the class. This can be something we’ve touched on already that you like to consolidate, or something totally new. Your assignment this week is to write these things on your site, accompanying reading responses for the week. Write a paragraph on your website about the system, addressing the following questions: what factors control how the system behaves? (list as many of these as you can think of) how much control do you have over these factors? which are affected by external events vs internal control? are the effects short, medium or long term? how do some factors affect other factors are there any chaotic modes or feedback loops in the system
Seeking Arrangements
Displaying the data set
Assignment: using jQuery (and anything else you choose), display the data set you collected last week in a few different ways. Can you see patterns and relationships in the data? How do you link between different ideas? When you display the data a particular way, does it give you something you didn’t expect? What does it feel like to explore your data set?
Collecting Knowledge
Objects, Data, Libraries and Scraping
Assignment: Your curated (scraped/embellished) dataset should be composed of objects with properties and methods (e.g. not just a list of single words), formatted as an array of objects. Think about how you might sort the data, using: - making your dataset into a set of objects with methods - using different modes of classification - links between different groups of objects The sorting part you can do either as a webpage, or just using the command line.
Servers
Get and Post Requests
Assignment: Develop the server you made in class to handle both a GET request and a POST request.
What's the Internet?
Local Internet System
Assignment: Using some of the tools and techniques we’ve discussed in class, discover something about your own local internet system. do your own media archaeology/forensics use the tools we have (or find some other ones) You don’t need to write any code for this week’s homework (though you can if you like!). This is a great opportunity to try a technology you’re curious about, or go on an adventure.
Any Requests?
API
Assignment: make a website that interfaces to a remote API, and displays the information in a novel form. Your webpage should experiment with how the data from the API is displayed. How are you expected to use this information? How does your page change when the data from the API changes? What kind of experience do you want to engender in the person seeing this webpage?
The Vanilla Web
Shuffling Arrays
Assignment: make a website that shuffles a deck of cards using (at least) 2 different approaches conservation of matter: once a card has been dealt, it can’t be dealt again (unless it gets shuffled into the pack) ‘2 different approaches’ means significantly different approaches to the task, not just the same functions dealing 2 decks of cards. Once you’ve got the basics down, try something a bit more exciting. Make it deal Texas hold’em! Add some graphics! What happens when a card is dealt? Can you stack the deck in your favour? Try a sorting algorithm! Can you make something really weird? How the cards are shuffled, dealt, and displayed, and what kind of cards they are is up to you.
Hello, World!
Console Editing Tools
Assignment: Use the console editing tools we explored to re-imagine some websites that you use regularly. Experiment with a range of different console editing techniques, and produce at least 6 different snapshots. Publish these on your class site, along with a description of what you did, and a response to the readings.
