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2 September – 1 December, 2025
Section A: Thursdays, 13:15 – 17:15 in EV 5.709
Section B: Tuesdays, 13:15 – 17:15 in EV 5.815
Section AA: Wednesdays, 17:45 - 21:45 in EV 5.709
Also: Discord, email, and the internet!
Dr. Pippin Barr
Associate Professor and Department Chair
Department of Design and Computation Arts
pippin.barr@concordia.ca
www.pippinbarr.com
Office hours: Wednesdays 13:00-14:00 (with some overflow when needed)
Teaching assistant: Michael Vlamis
Sabine Rosenberg
Computation Lab Coordinator
Department of Design and Comptuation Arts
Office hours: CLAB Hours (EV 6.705)
Teaching assistant: Kamyar Karimi
We acknowledge that Concordia University is located on unceded Indigenous lands. The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters on which we gather today. Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations. Today, it is home to a diverse population of Indigenous and other peoples. We respect the continued connections with the past, present and future in our ongoing relationships with Indigenous and other peoples within the Montreal community.
The Department of Design and Computation Arts is committed to fostering an equitable and positive learning experience for all students, staff and faculty, free from discrimination based for example on race, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, religion, ethnicity, age, etc. We value diversity and difference, and strive together to create safer spaces in our classrooms, studios, and labs, where all students can fully engage in scholarly and artistic pursuits, knowing that harmful behaviour (e.g. harassment, microaggressions, intolerance, disrespectful language, etc.) is unacceptable. We believe that celebrating difference is fundamental to supporting an academic community where innovation, creative exploration, and intellectual freedom can flourish.
Learning to program is at the heart of understanding computation. In this course we cover an introduction to the key elements of programming, all while emphasizing experimental and playful approaches to software aesthetics. Students will spend time both learning the basics of how to program while also producing their own original work in a studio environment.
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Most weeks will include a number of lecture videos and notes covering a specific topic in programming for students to follow in their own time before that week’s class time.
Each class will being with a discussion period in the classroom. This will generally include:
Most classes will include a time-limited and evaluated in-class challenge for students to complete in pairs. Asking for help during the challenge is allowed and encouraged.
Some weeks will include a period of trying out each other’s work. Students will be assigned a set of other student work to respond to in a short written response.
There will be studio time during which the instructor and TA will be available for specific student requests for assistance in person or via the class Discord.
Attendance of the studio period is highly encouraged to take the time to connect with the instructor and TA and to work in the group setting. You learn by doing and you learn by getting help.
There will be three graded projects, called “jams,” during the course. Each will be used as an opportunity for students to practice and develop their programming skills with room to express their own ideas.
The instructors will be live on Discord for extra hours during the week explicitly to support students with questions about programming topics, activities, exercises, projects, and anything else of relevance.
Students are not expected to have any existing familiarity with programming. However, excitement and willingness to learn are a must!
Students are further expected to be fully committed to engaging with programming as not just a technical but as a creative practice, constantly working to see ways in which the technical skills they are learning can be deployed in expressive and interesting ways and articulating those ideas both in code and speech/writing.
Moodle will be used for students to watch videos, submit work, and to receive grades and feedback.
You’re reading this course outline on GitHub. You can either read it as a website by going to:
https://pippinbarr.com/cart253/
or as the actual GitHub repository it not-so-secretly is by going to
https://github.com/pippinbarr/cart253/
Students will also create their own repository on GitHub to save, track, and present their coursework. (Actual submission will be via Moodle, for privacy reasons.)
Discord will be used as our common space for this course. Everyone will use their real name (or a recognizable nickname) as their nickname on the Discord so that we can get to know each other.
Specific evaluation requirements will be provided when assigned. See the Schedule for timing.
Students have the right to write in French at Concordia. Pippin can read French fairly well, but cannot offer substantive feedback on writing skill itself. Given that this is a programming course, you are welcome to name variables and functions in French as well as to write comments in French.
Late work of any kind will lose one letter grade per day late, beginning immediately after the deadline (e.g. if it is two days late, work that would have received a B would lose two letter grades and receive a C+).
🔥 Please get in touch with the instructor before a deadline passes if you think you won’t make it 🔥
The most common offence under the Academic Code of Conduct is plagiarism, which the Code defines as “the presentation of the work of another person as one’s own or without proper acknowledgement.” This includes material copied word for word from books, journals, Internet sites, professor’s course notes, etc. It refers to material that is paraphrased but closely resembles the original source. It also includes for example the work of a fellow student, an answer on a quiz, data for a lab report, a paper or assignment completed by another student. It might be a paper purchased from any source. Plagiarism does not refer to words alone – it can refer to copying images, graphs, tables and ideas. “Presentation” is not limited to written work. It includes oral presentations, computer assignments and artistic works. Finally, if you translate the work of another person into any other language and do not cite the source, this is also plagiarism.
In Simple Words: Do not copy, paraphrase or translate anything from anywhere without saying where you obtained it. (Source: Concordia’s Academic Integrity Website)
When creating projects in code, make sure you attribute all elements that are not your own work, including images, sounds, and especially other people’s code (provide notes and links to the original work either in a README, at the top of your script, on in the same place as the usage)
It is course policy that no student will use AI tools or similar to produce their work. There is a great conversation to be had about these tools and we should have it, but the bottom line is that this course is about learning to code, not having it done for us.
The practical work done in this class will take place on a lab computer or on your own computer, with course software installed on it by you. This course does not require a significantly powerful machine beyond the ability to run a text editor and a web browser.
(Click through for week-by-week information about what we will cover in the course.)
(Click through for the standardized information from D/CART that is included as part of all course outlines.)
All individuals participating in courses are expected to be professional and constructive throughout the course, including in their communications. Concordia students are subject to the Code of Rights and Responsibilities which applies both when students are physically and virtually engaged in any University activity, including classes, seminars, meetings, etc. Students engaged in University activities must respect this Code when engaging with any members of the Concordia community, including faculty, staff, and students, whether such interactions are verbal or in writing, face to face or online/virtual. Failing to comply with the Code may result in charges and sanctions, as outlined in the Code.
Content belonging to instructors shared in online courses, including, but not limited to, online lectures, course notes, and video recordings of classes remain the intellectual property of the faculty member. It may not be distributed, published or broadcast, in whole or in part, without the express permission of the faculty member. Students are also forbidden to use their own means of recording any elements of an online class or lecture without express permission of the instructor. Any unauthorized sharing of course content may constitute a breach of the Academic Code of Conduct and/or the Code of Rights and Responsibilities. As specified in the Policy on Intellectual Property, the University does not claim any ownership of or interest in any student IP. All university members retain copyright over their work.
In the event of extraordinary circumstances and pursuant to the Academic Regulations, the University may modify the delivery, content, structure, forum, location and/or evaluation scheme. In the event of such extraordinary circumstances, students will be informed of the changes.