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STUDIO III COMPUTING WORKSHOP |
readings schedule help questions |
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INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Fall 1997 Studio III Computing Workshop. This computing workshop is a required component of the Studio III course for the Master of Landscape Architecture degree at the University of Pennsylvania. It will be a forum for the development of computing skills necessary to successfully participate in the studio as well as in later professional life. The course will have three components. The first will primarily focus on the development of skills required to actively participate in the Internet. Following an introduction to the computing resources in the GSFA and University, this portion will include work with images and creation of sites on the World Wide Web. By the end of this component, you should be able to create a fairly sophisticated site on the WWW and be able to understand some of the opportunities and limitations of working in this medium. The second portion will look at spatial databases; how to access them and present the information in them to support a design process. This will involve a look at some of the functionality of a Geographic Information System (GIS). We will use Microstation CAD software and ArcView GIS. The third component will look at construction and land modeling. A decision has not yet been made in terms of software to be used, but it will likely be the InRoads road alignment software, the TerraModel land modeling software, or a combination of the two. This course will not seek to make you into experts in any particular piece of software. Rather, you will be introduced to a range of software and media and will be encouraged to explore how they might work together to become effective design and presentation tools. This theme of interoperability and the use of a range of digital media types will be emphasized throughout the course. For your final projects you will be asked to pull together work from a variety of media into a coherent, compelling presentation. This will require you to move between different kinds of software in a fluent manner. Whenever possible the course will use data available on the West Philadelphia neighborhood for both examples and weekly assignments. Weekly assignments will be given that both review material covered in the class and anticipate material to be covered the following week. It is important to complete these assignments on time if you expect to keep up with the class. We will be using the computer and presentation facilities of the GSFA Computing Center as an integral part of the class. It is mandatory that you attend class in order to complete the weekly assignments. GRADES Grading will be based on the completion of weekly assignments, class attendance, participation in classroom discussion and the completion of a final project. Your grades for the Computing Workshop will be factored into your Studio III grade. READINGS All of the readings will be available on reserve in the Fine Arts Library. Software manuals and user guides will also be available in the GSFA Computing Center. While not absolutely necessary, the readings will provide important supplemental material and examples of successful projects that use the concepts we will cover in the class. |
| WEEK | DATE | TITLE | TOPICS |
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| 1 | 4 Sept. | Intro/Internet I | course introduction, GSFA computing facilities, e-mail accounts, file management, WWW, Netscape, client-server, HTML intro |
| 2 | 11 Sept. | Internet II | raster images, Photoshop intro, scanning, image formats, more HTML |
| 3 | 18 Sept. | GIS/Spatial Databases I | geographical features, West Phila database |
| 4 | 25 Sept. | Internet III | web authoring tools, Pagemill intro |
| 5 | 2 Oct. | Information Architecture | typography, color, interface design, narrative sequence, etc. |
| 6 | 9 Oct. | GIS/Spatial Databases II | Intro to ArcView GIS - Projects, Views, Themes |
| 7 | 16 Oct. | GIS/Spatial Databases III | ArcView cont. - Tables, Attribute data, Charts |
| 8 | 23 Oct. | GIS/Spatial Databases IV | ArcView cont. - Layouts. Finding spatial data on the web |
| 9 | 30 Oct. | 3D Modeling I | 2D, 2.5D, 3D Modeling. Intro to FormZ |
| 10 | 6 Nov. | 3D Modeling II | More FormZ |
| 11 | 13 Nov. | 3D Modeling III | More FormZ |
| 12 | 20 Nov. | 3D Modeling IV | Form Z. Final Projects |
| 13 | 27 Nov. | Thanksgiving -- no class | |
| 14 | 5 Dec. | Final Project | |
| -- | 11 Dec. | Final Review |
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last update: 11 Nov. 1997 |