Final Project

Outline

Theme: … endings … beginnings …
Due: Friday 19th September, 23:55
Mark weighting: 25% total
Exhibition details: see below
Submission: Text/PDF upload in Wattle with code submitted in GitLab
Policies: see the policies page
Learning Outcomes Assessed: Learning Outcomes 1, 2 and 3. Learning outcome 4 should influence your interpretation of the theme, and be represented in the artistic, interface and programming aspects of your artefacts.

The first 3 assessment tasks this year are called “Portfolio Item 1”, “Portfolio Item 2” and “Portfolio Item 3”. The written works and artistic responses you create will form part of your portfolio of works for EXTN1019B, along with your Final Project. All of your works will be available to view at the end of year exhibition. For an example and for inspiration, you can view the 2024 cohorts works here.

TEMPLATE: Fork and clone the template for your final project

Theme: … endings … beginnings …

The 2025 Creative Computing Final Project requires you to create an interpretation to the theme “… endings … beginnings …“.

The ANU Extension Program is coming to an end. Your journey through secondary education is coming to an end. It may feel as though a number of critical world systems are coming to an end. There are philosophies which view endings as part of cyclic processes that generate new beginnings. Your project will implement your interpretation of this theme. You may focus on endings, on beginnings, or on the connective ellipsis “…“ which represents cyclic processes of renewal.

You will create one major artistic response related to this theme — but you are welcome to create a number of responses. You will need to explain how your responses align with the theme. In your project submission, you should have one major response and project documentation that reflects your exploration of the theme as represented in your major work.

Description

The end of the school year is approaching, and so is the EXTN1019 final project. As we’ve foreshadowed all along in this course, your final project deliverable is an interactive creative code artefact for an end-of-year creative code exhibition.

Your goal is to provide an engaging performance/user experience which communicates your interpretation of the theme: … endings … beginnings ….

Specification

Your final project submission has four parts:

an interactive/evolving/dynamic creative code artefact that is engaging for 3-5 minutes
a README.md file explaining how to interact with your work or how it evolves or dynamically transforms over time
in Interpretation.md, include a brief [400 words] explanation of your interpretation of the theme and how your creative code artefact expresses this. This should emulate the kind of “interpretation guide” you find beside artworks in a gallery. Include the artist name, the title of the work (does not have to be the same as the theme), year, theme, interpretation [400 words], and credits (if you incorporate additional material generated by others, including generative aspects)
project documentation, preferably as a PDF project-documentation.pdf – there is no word limit to your project documentation, but a minimum expectation of 500 words. Your project documentation is not for publication. See below for details about what to include.

Creative code artefact

Your creative code artefact needs to:

run smoothly in a web browser - preferably Firefox
be interactive or evolve or dynamically transform over time
produce visual and audio output
it is recommended that you build on (at least) one of the ideas you submitted for your portfolio, or works from over your 2 years of creative computing

You should still be working with your interpretation of the theme: … endings … beginnings …, just like you have been for the portfolio. If you’re unsure about your ideas for whatever reason, then feel free to ask a question either in class or on Teams.

Project Documentation

A project is a: “time-bounded piece of work undertaken to meet specific goals or objectives”

Or it may be a : “creative endeavor that enables an individual to express ideas and emotions through various mediums”

Our project will try to address both definitions.

Project documentation may include:

Statement of project goals, objectives or outputs
Declaration of start and end times
Project inputs and required resources
Scope of work (what is included and what is excluded)
Plan of work and delivery schedule
Critical or influential decisions and decision points
Designs, sketches, brain-storming, doodles
Screen shots of work-in-progress
Reflections on project progress, changes and outcomes
Your GitLab commit history

You do not need to supply all of this: just ensure that you self-assess using the supplied rubric to ensure that you are meeting the requirements of this assessment task.

Submission process

You must submit all the necessary files (code, image/audio/video files) by committing and pushing them to GitLab by 11:55pm on Friday 19 September. You must push your code to your fork of the final project repository. You must submit the link to your repository to Wattle under the “Final Project” assessment item.

Marking criteria

The marking criteria are connected to the course learning outcomes (LOs), and you will be assessed how well your project addresses the following criteria:

D1 Interaction design (connected to LO #1 & #2)

Do your methods of interaction/evolution/dynamic transformation create a deeply engaging/deeply moving experience for the user/audience?

D2 Artistic output (LO #2)

Does the visual aesthetic (animations, colour, composition, texture, shaders, objects) enhance the communication of your interpretation of the theme? AND/OR Does your choice of sonic output (rhythm, timbre, effects, pitch, dynamics) enhance the communication of your interpretation of the theme?

D3 Critical Exploration of the Theme (LO #1 and #3)

how is the theme represented in / communicated through the artistic output
does the interaction / evolution enhance the communication and user experience of the theme?

D4 Implementation (LO #3)

Have you selected the most appropriate programming concept(s) to implement your ideas?
Does your code work as detailed in the README? Are there any obvious bugs/janky bits?

D5 Project Documentation (LO #2)

What did you plan? What did you achieve: tell the story and provide evidence with your project documentation

Year 12 Final Project Assessment Rubric

	A Grade (9-10)	B Grade (7-8)	C Grade (5-6)	D Grade (3-4)	E Grade (0-2)
D1 [20%] Interaction Design LO #1 and #2 README.md and sketches	considers interaction/evolution/dynamic transformation as a feedback loop between user input and visuals/sound. Uses this feedback to design an engaging experience for the user/audience (relates to D3 and D4)	explores several interactions/modes of evolution/dynamic transformation over time, includes critical reflection of design (selection of appropriate interaction/responsiveness)	explores several interactions/modes of evolution/forms of dynamic transformation over time designs, but no critical reflection of alignment with theme	minimal exploration of interaction and/or evolution/dynamic transformation over time (only explores one interaction type)	very limited exploration of interaction or responsiveness or evolution or dynamic transformation over time
D2 [20%] Artistic Output LO #2 sketches	highly creative artistic output which includes sophisticated interactivity, or compelling dynamic transformation. Artefacts demonstrate clear evolution of design with well justified decision-making and critical exploration of the theme (below). (relates to D3 and D4)	great creativity in developing a response to the theme, including evolution/dynamism/interactivity. Artefacts show clear evolution of design with well justified decision making	satisfactory artistic output which includes several variations or stages of evolution	some visual output considered, but not much variation or evolution	very limited output, or no output
D3 [20%] Critical Exploration of Theme LO #1 and #3 interpretation.md and sketches	interacting with the work makes the viewer think differently about the theme—wow factor	theme is explored through the artefact/experience, including references to prior art	theme is clearly presented, but is not deeply integrated into the overall artefact/experience	very superficial mention of the theme (e.g. theme is only represented by text on screen)	the theme is not represented in the artistic output or interaction design
D4 [20%] Technical Quality LO #1 and #3 sketches	no major bugs, significant evidence of work by the student including something right at the edge (or beyond) the techniques we covered in this course, good abstraction, deep understanding of coding structures and techniques	no major bugs, significant evidence of work by the student and engagement with techniques we covered in this course, coding techniques used effectively and efficiently	no major bugs, but lacks significant ambition on the technical side or, strong engagement with techniques through combining three (or fewer) code sources without significant changes, satisfactory use of coding structures	it sort of works, but it’s super janky or it works, but represents very limited changes to prior work, ad hoc use of coding structures and techniques	it doesn’t work at all or it is not the student’s work, coding techniques and structures used inappropriately
D5 [20%] Project Documentation LO #2 project documentation files, gitlab commit history and internal program comments	project documentation illustrates the project design, conceptualisation, progress and outcomes achieved, including scope or direction changes, critically analysing the reasons for the changes with deep self-reflection, through a wide range of evidence	project documentation includes project design decisions, planning, progress and outcomes achieved, including scope or direction changes, analysing the reasons for the changes, through a solid range of evidence	project documentation shows the project goals, plan and outcomes achieved, noting any reasons for project changes, through a satisfactory range of evidence	project documentation describes the project goals, plan and outcomes, through a limited range of evidence	limited project documentation noting the project goals and limited planning, through a very limited range of evidence which may not be related to the project delivered

FAQ

“how do you add citations and bibliographies in Markdown”

This guide shows you how: https://arshovon.com/blog/cite-in-markdown/

Your Markdown should looks like this:

Raji, et al[^Raji_2021], discuss the dangers of Artificial Intelligence ..

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**Bibliography**

[^Raji_2021]: Raji, Inioluwa Deborah, Emily M. Bender, Amandalynne Paullada, Emily Denton, and Alex Hanna. “AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark.” arXiv:2111.15366 [Cs], November 26, 2021. http://arxiv.org/abs/2111.15366.

Jekyll will render this as follows:

Raji, et al¹, discuss the dangers of Artificial Intelligence ..

Bibliography

Raji, Inioluwa Deborah, Emily M. Bender, Amandalynne Paullada, Emily Denton, and Alex Hanna. “AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark.” arXiv:2111.15366 [Cs], November 26, 2021. http://arxiv.org/abs/2111.15366. ↩