Course Description

At the core of the New Voices, New Visions project is an interdisciplinary approach that introduces a new paradigm for teaching computer science. This new paradigm includes Native American Studies (NAS) and CS faculty working together to build a culturally appropriate curriculum. Central to the program is a new two semester course that uses a framework of art and culture to expose students to a rich set of computational applications. The course covers topics in digital media, computer programming, computer graphics, virtual reality, 3D modeling, animation, and distributed computing. During the year the students work with Native American artists in creating an innovative project that uses indigenous pedagogy to learn computer science principles and to produce a publicly viewable work of art. Our approach is to motivate the computer science concepts as the empowering underpinning for a culturally and artistically rich experience. By the end of the year the students have been exposed to a broad set of CS concepts, and the perspective of CS as a vehicle of empowerment, with the goal of inspiring them to pursue computer science studies and careers.

Throughout the course the students work with Native American artists and computer scientists in creating a virtual reality experience which integrates Native American imagery, iconography, sounds and aesthetics. The creation of the virtual world is the driver for introducing computer science principles and techniques. The students are given a vivid demonstration of the power of computer science, as well as reinforcement of their own growing expertise. The capstone of the course is a gala event and public display of their creation.

Implementation

During the 2006/2007 academic year, we introduced the new one year, two semester course at UNM. The course, Art and Computation, was cross-listed in Native American Studies (NATV 255) and Computer Science (CS390) and carried six credit units, three per semester. Eleven students were enrolled in the course. All of the students were Native American and all received scholarship funds through the NSF grant.

The curriculum was collaboratively developed by BU and UNM during the Summer of 2006 and subsequently refined as the course proceeded. The Access Grid allowed us to create a cyber-classroom between BU and UNM and the classes were delivered in highly distributed fashion. Individual classes throughout the year were led by Williams (UNM), Bresnahan (BU), Vigil (UNM), Cajete (UNM/Jemez), Brisson (BU), Giannitrapani (BU), Rettinger (UNM), Putnam (BU), and Jim Prewitt (UNM), as well as a number of guest artists.

The Access Grid (AG) technology is used as the main communication infrastructure for the project. It was used to create the virtual classroom between UNM and Boston University for the course, as well as for tutorials, researcher and technical staff meetings, meetings with the students and artists, etc.

The project for the course involves designing a virtual reality experience which takes advantage of the DAFFIE Virtual Environments system and Deep Vision Display (DVD) Wall, both developed by BU. During the summer of 2006, the BU team installed a DAFFIE system and DVD Wall at the High Performance Computing Center at UNM for use with this project. In the summer of 2007 a second such system was installed at the Jemez Pueblo for use by the Walatowa High Charter School students during the second year of the program.

The DAFFIE system allows for the rapid construction of virtual worlds from digital images, audio, 3d models and animations. The system is distributed and multiple participants at different locations can interact with the shared world and each other, visually via an avatar and by high (CD) quality, IP-based telephony. The DVD Wall is a commodity-based, stereo, tiled display that integrates the richness of computer graphics artwork with the compelling perceptual experience of 3D stereo graphics. Built from commodity components, the DVD Wall provides advanced display capabilities at a very affordable cost, making it ideally suited for classroom use.

Curriculum

The course pairs Native American Studies faculty with CS faculty to present computer science principles within a framework that emphasizes the indigenous perspective. The first semester focuses on basic computer science concepts, including an overview of systems and architecture, digital media, binary representations, sampling, computer graphics and animation, as well as the biophysical underpinnings of hearing and vision. The underlying concepts are coupled with lab exercises to increase the students’ basic computer skills. These topics are interwoven with topics on Native American narrative and iconography and how indigenous filmmakers, photographers and artists have been inspired by their visual cultural patrimony and how they are expressed in contemporary visual imagery. An early exercise in traditional Native American sand-painting establishes a framework for creating collaborative artworks, exposes students to the art of storytelling and teaches the students the process of conceptualization and visualization, as well as providing a source of imagery for the computer exercises. A later trip to Chaco Canyon, one of the most important Native American historical sites, provides an additional source of digital media, as well as providing inspiration for the semester final project.

Throughout the semester the students learn to use several computer applications for acquiring, processing and manipulating digital media: Audacity for sound and Corel for images. The digital media are integrated into a growing virtual reality piece displayed on the DVD Wall, primarily in 2.5D (planes in a 3D space) to avoid the complications of 3D during the first semester. The concepts of transformations, coordinate systems and linear algebra are introduced. The notion of plan and elevation representations of 3D objects is introduced and these ideas are used to have the students design and layout a virtual space using 3d primitives. The final project for the semester is then completed by mapping sounds and textures, collected and created through the semester, into the 3d space.

The second semester builds on the computer science concepts and skills that the students acquired in the first semester and introduces the students to more advanced concepts, including computer programming, animation, and 3D modeling. These concepts are applied to the virtual world to introduce motion dynamics and more complex 3-dimensional objects. The students begin the semester by learning the principles of temporal image sequencing – the mechanism underlying traditional 2D (cell) animation, film, video, and computer graphics. Programming concepts are then introduced using the Logo language and algorithms are used to create procedural animation. The version of Logo used in the class has been augmented with a Turtle3D package that allows the students to programmatically control objects (e.g., 3D Turtles) in a shared DAFFIE virtual environment and segues into 3D computer graphics, modeling and animation. Following an introduction to a number of more advanced concepts, including 3D modeling, luminosity, linear algebra, geometric transformations, and perspective transformations, the students learn to create 3D models and animation using the Autodesk Maya package. All of these techniques are used by the students to build the capstone project for the course.

Throughout the semester a series of Native American guest artists provide lectures on Native American storytelling, imagery, iconography and music, and how these can be woven into the final 3D virtual reality in a way which is sensitive to culture, language and religion. The lectures are coupled with a field trip to the Museum of Indian Arts and Cultures in Santa Fe to view the impressive and inspiring collections from the various tribes of the southwest. In the last four weeks the students work with the Native American artists and staff on the final virtual reality piece, incorporating the 3D models, imagery, sound, and programming learned throughout the year.

The academic year concludes with a gala event, using both the DVD Wall and Access Grid to showcase students’ work, promote interactions among project participants and their local communities and disseminate project information.

The syllabi for the first and second semesters are available, as are lesson plans for each of the topics covered. The lesson plans include educational goals, activities and reference materials. Most of the lecture classes were delivered as PowerPoint slide presentations. These slide presentations will be made available from our Web site in the summer of 2008. Images of the student work are also available from the NATV 255 Gallery.

Walatowa High Charter School

In the second year of the program a modified version of the course is being taught to seventeen 11th grade students in the Walatowa High Charter School at the Pueblo of Jemez. In preparation a DVD wall was installed and a teachers workshop was given at Jemez during the summer of 2007. Six of the UNM students who took the course during the first year are serving as teaching assistants for the high school course. Additionally, an advanced topics course with twelve students enrolled is being offered at UNM to those students wishing to continue their studies.