New & Tactical Media Workshops

Syllabi & Resources for Students

Select a Course
01

Unity for Artists

Trust, Berlin
02

Hacking als Praxis ("Hacking as a Creative Practice")

HBK Braunschweig
03

Creative Coding and Electronic Mischief

School of Machines & Make Believe, Berlin
04

Unity 2-day Workshop

Akademie Schloss Solitude
05

AI Speculations

Design Investigations, die Angewandte × Google Research
06

Game Programming

Hunter College, CUNY — New York
07

Physical Computing

Hunter College, CUNY — New York
08

Simulations Workshop

Kunsthochschule Kassel
09

Other Courses & Advising

Oberlin College · The New School · Hunter College, CUNY
Questions about courses? Email me at studio@graysonearle.com
HBK Braunschweig

Hacking als Praxis ("Hacking as a Creative Practice")

In this course, we examine hacking not just as a technical exploit, but as a critical artistic and political practice. Students explore tactical media, subvert digital infrastructures, and unpack the hidden politics embedded in software, games, and networks. Taking inspiration from guerrilla projection, software modifications, and hardware tracking, we develop creative interventions that challenge authority, surveillance, and corporate logistics.

Student Publication

As a collective final outcome, students collaborated on a printed fanzine titled HACKEN. The publication documents their tactical research, subversions, and experiments. Browse the pages below or download the complete PDF.

Fanzine Page 1 Fanzine Page 2 Fanzine Page 3 Fanzine Page 4 Fanzine Page 5 Fanzine Page 6 Fanzine Page 7 Fanzine Page 8
Download Fanzine PDF

Schedule

Session 01: The Art of Subversion & Tactical Media

Week 1
Introduction to tactical media history. Case studies of artistic interventions (e.g., Bail Bloc, The Illuminator, RTMark). Understanding systems as artistic mediums.
Assignment Identify a physical or digital system in your daily life and document its rules, constraints, and points of vulnerability.

Session 02: Deconstructing Code & Algorithmic Authority

Week 2
Code as law and ideology. Analyzing the rules governing digital spaces, including game engines, physics systems, and police behaviors in simulations. Textual analysis of code.
Assignment Write a critique of a specific system rule or boundary in a popular software, website, or game.

Session 03: Physical Interventions & Guerrilla Projections

Week 3
Reclaiming public space. The logistics and aesthetics of guerrilla projection. Mobile projection setups, urban hacking, and public display safety/legality.
Assignment Design a blueprint for a mock public projection intervention focusing on a local political or social issue.

Session 04: Hardware Modification & Counter-Surveillance

Week 4
Subverting commercial electronics. Tracing logistics networks (GPS tracking, hidden audio, logistics transparency) and reclaiming consumer hardware for counter-narratives.
Assignment Create a proposal for tracing or subverting an opaque supply chain, tracking mechanism, or surveillance tool.

Session 05: Network Interventions & Digital Commons

Week 5
Alternative networks, net-art, and decentralized structures. Software tools for community resistance, mutual aid, and self-hosted communication.
Assignment Prototype a simple offline or mesh-network concept using open-source tools.

Session 06: Student Project Proposals & Critique

Week 6
Pitching project ideas. Peer-review of concept papers and blueprints. Refinement of technical approaches and artistic statements.
Deliverable Project proposal document (1 page + conceptual sketch).

Session 07: Development and Prototyping Workshop

Week 7
In-class hacking session. Individual troubleshooting of software, hardware, and physical assemblies. Iteration on prototypes.
Deliverable Functional alpha prototype of the intervention.

Session 08: Final Showcase & Public Discourse

Week 8
Exhibition and presentation of student hacks. Critical discussion of the social, political, and aesthetic implications of the works.
Deliverable Completed subversive intervention or prototype and documentation.
School of Machines & Make Believe

Creative Coding & Electronic Mischief

This course is about creatively misusing technology for art and activism, with a DIY/open-source approach. Students build their own tools, starting with basic electronics and 3D fabrication and working up to systems that connect hardware, software, and networks. The course ends with a final project that puts all of it together.

Class Exhibition

Below is a glimpse of the class closing exhibition at the School of Machines and Make Believe at ACUD in Berlin, showcasing the interactive installations and creative mischief developed by the students.

Class closing exhibition interactive experience
Interactive prototype created during the course.
A short video of the class closing exhibition at the School of Machines and Make Believe at ACUD in Berlin.

Schedule

Orientation: Welcome

Feb 3 & 5, 2026
Introduction to each other, course structure overview, installation check-ins, and goal alignments.

Session 01: Introduction to Arduino

Feb 10, 2026
  • Course overview and introduction.
  • What is electricity?
  • Introduction to Arduino hardware and pins.
  • Basic wiring and breadboards.
  • Blinking LEDs with digitalWrite().
  • Basic programming concepts: variables, constants, flow control.
Deliverable Working LED circuit with custom blink patterns.

Session 02: Inputs and Serial Communication

Feb 17, 2026
  • Conditional logic (if/else statements).
  • Reading digital inputs with buttons.
  • Understanding the floating state and pull-up/pull-down resistors.
  • Serial communication for debugging and monitoring.
  • Using the Serial Monitor to view Arduino output.
Deliverable Button-controlled circuit with serial feedback.

Session 03: Sound and Square Waves

Feb 24, 2026
  • How speakers and buzzers work.
  • Generating square waves with digitalWrite().
  • Understanding frequency and pitch.
  • Using the tone() function.
  • Building speaker circuits with piezo buzzers.
Deliverable Working sound generator with variable tones.

Session 04: Analog Input and Loops

Mar 3, 2026
  • Reading analog values with analogRead().
  • Understanding potentiometers and variable resistances.
  • Mapping values from one range to another with map().
  • Creating repetition with while loops.
  • Combining analog input with sound output.
  • Building interactive musical instruments.
Deliverable Potentiometer-controlled tone generator or simple synthesizer.

Session 05: Sensors, Servos, and Intro to Processing

Mar 10, 2026
  • Sensor showcase: ultrasonic distance sensor.
  • Introduction to servo motors and the Servo library.
  • Building a 2-DOF robot arm.
  • Introduction to Processing: installation and first sketch.
Deliverable 2-DOF robot arm; Processing installed with basic sketch running.

Session 06: Arduino ↔ Processing

Mar 17, 2026
Guest Instructor: Sarah Grant
  • Serial communication between Arduino and Processing.
  • Sending sensor data to control on-screen visuals (potentiometer → circle size).
  • Sending screen data to control hardware (mouse → servo angle).
  • Two-way communication with a call-and-response handshake.
Deliverable Two-way Arduino/Processing sketch (pot → circle size, mouse → servo).

Session 07 & 08: 3D Design & Fabrication

Mar 24 & 31, 2026
Guest Instructor: Sarah Grant
  • Introduction to 3D design and modeling.
  • Designing custom housings for electronics.
  • Slicing and 3D printing workflow.
  • Integrating hardware with printed parts.
Deliverable Custom 3D printed housing or component integrated with electronics.

Session 09 & 10: Projection Mapping with TouchDesigner

Apr 7 & 14, 2026
  • Introduction to projection mapping fundamentals.
  • Loading and configuring TouchDesigner.
  • Using kantanMapper for spatial mapping.
  • Assigning textures and media to projection shapes.
  • Aligning projections with physical objects.
  • Receiving OSC/MIDI data to trigger visuals.
  • Creating reactive installations.
Deliverable Projection-mapped installation triggered by physical sensors.

Session 11, 12 & 13: Final Project Workshop

Apr 21 – May 5, 2026
  • Final project development, assembly, and polishing.
  • Individual and group troubleshooting.
  • Instructor check-ins, testing, documentation, and presentation prep.
Deliverable Completed Final Project, ready for exhibition.

Final Exhibition

May 14, 2026
Exhibition of final installations and physical projects to the public.
Trust, Berlin

Unity for Artists

Enroll Questions about courses? Email me at studio@graysonearle.com
This 4-day intensive workshop is designed for artists and designers who want to use Unity 6 (a real-time 3D engine used widely in games, art, and architecture) to build immersive digital environments. No previous experience with Unity is required. In this no-code workshop students will learn how to create and inhabit virtual environments, focusing on environmental design, lighting, physics, and spatial audio.

Documentation

A preview of the environments, interactive prototypes, and outcomes from the workshop.

Student Examples

Schedule

Day 1: Foundations & Spatial Sketching

Navigation & Prototyping
  • Introduction: Unity 6, Universal Render Pipeline (URP), and the Real-time Rendering Pipeline.
  • The Sandbox: Interface navigation (Hierarchy, Project, Scene, Game, Inspector).
  • Physics & Logic: Basic 3D objects and Rigidbody physics.
  • Student share-outs.
Assignment Prepare project concept and sketches for your virtual environment.

Day 2: Building the World (Assets & Materials)

Populating & Styling
  • ProBuilder: Greyboxing the environment layout.
  • Navigation: Setting up the First Person Controller.
  • Asset Integration: Importing 3D models (GLB/FBX), using the Unity Asset Store.
  • Materials & Shaders: URP Lit Shader, Albedo, Normal Maps, Tiling, and Transparency.
  • Modular Design: Using Prefabs and ProBuilder for efficient world-building.
Assignment Complete the basic architectural layout and apply materials to your space.

Day 3: Atmosphere & Cinematic Storytelling

Lighting, Mood & Camera
  • Lighting Design: Directional vs Point/Spot lights, Light Layers, and Volumetric Clouds/Fog (Unity 6 features).
  • Spatial Audio: 3D Audio Sources, ambient wind/scapes, and Audio Reverb Zones.
  • Advanced Mood: Reflection Probes, Light Probes, and Skybox manipulation.
  • Unity Timeline & Cinemachine: Creating cinematic flythroughs and camera transitions.
  • Scripted Interactivity: Using provided scripts for triggers, rotations, and audio fades.
Assignment Create a 30-second cinematic flythrough with integrated spatial audio.

Day 4: Polish, Sound & Final Showcase

Deployment & Presentation
  • Post-Processing Mastery: Color Grading, Bloom, Motion Blur, and Film Grain.
  • Rendering & Capture: Using Unity Recorder to export high-quality video.
  • Final Group Review: Showcase presentations and peer feedback.
Deliverable Rendered cinematic presentation.
Akademie Schloss Solitude

Unity for Artists: Virtual Galleries & Environments

This workshop is a hands-on, intensive format for artists who want to use Unity for spatial planning or building digital-only worlds. We skip the heavy coding and focus on a drag-and-drop workflow that gets you building immediately. By the end of the workshop, you will know how to mock up a gallery space to scale, set up lighting, and pull real-world objects into your scene using photogrammetry.

Schedule

Session 01: Morning Session

10:00 – 13:00
Interface basics, navigating the 3D viewport, building room layouts and custom gallery shapes using ProBuilder, and setting up first-person navigation controllers.
Lunch Assignment (13:00 - 14:00) Go find something to scan around the grounds of Solitude using Polycam.

Session 02: Afternoon Session

14:00 – 16:00
Importing 3D photogrammetry scans, setting up materials and high-quality textures, configuring lighting configurations and studio rendering, and studio time to polish your interactive virtual galleries.
Deliverable Scale 3D gallery room containing imported real-world scans.
Design Investigations, Vienna × Google Research

AI Speculations

Archived — Winter Semester 2023
A semester at Design Investigations, run with the MURAL Group at Google Research. Students designed personal AI agents. I co-wrote the brief with Anab Jain and taught a workshop partway through the semester.

Design Brief

Design a personal AI agent.

Think of an agent as a node in the network, like a person. It does not have to be the kind that tells you the weather and plays your favourite song. It could be a guide, companion, curator, lover, alter ego, pet, politician, interrogator, provocateur. It could be an app, an object, a wearable, an avatar. You decide.

Work out what it opens up in your life and in your relationships. Then work out what it wrecks.

  • Whose values does it hold? Whose values does ChatGPT hold?
  • What relationships does it enable, short-circuit, or change?
  • What data is it trained on?
  • How does it behave? What personality does it have?
  • How do you interact with it?
  • What is its business model, and how does that shape what it does?
Before we start Bring one printed or sketched page to the kick-off showing what interests you in the topic. A sketch, a text, a project you liked. Enough to form teams around.
“I set before you two ways: You can use your technology to destroy yourselves or to carry you to the planets and the stars. It’s up to you.” Carl Sagan

Learning Program

Taught by Google technologists and outside guests, plus lectures and short workshops across the semester under #DILectures.

  • AI 101
  • Data, privacy, and security
  • Image generation: DALL·E, Stable Diffusion, GANs
  • Large language models: ChatGPT, Copilot, LLaMA
  • Audio generative models
  • Rapid prototyping and storytelling
“The viability of technology, like democracy, depends in the end on the practice of justice and on the enforcement of limits to power.” Ursula Franklin

Workshop Outcomes

Student work from my workshop. All of it was made with image and video generators.

AI Apologies

d(AI)ing

New Ways of Diplomacy

Tim, Viktor, Isi, Emilia

World leaders settle their differences with hot dogs, beer pong, and Twister.

Fight-night poster for a fictional political boxing match Magazine spread titled New Ways of Diplomacy
Two world leaders playing a tile game in a garden Politicians at a hot dog eating contest A cartoon monster politician beside a real one Group portrait of world leaders on a beach Two politicians dressed as cowboys in a desert A politician in Roman gladiator armour
Poetry slam, part one.
Poetry slam, part two.

Run Diffusion

Meda Retegan, Lara Huz
Run Diffusion, slide 1 Run Diffusion, slide 2 Run Diffusion, slide 3 Run Diffusion, slide 4 Run Diffusion, slide 5 Run Diffusion, slide 6 Run Diffusion, slide 7 Run Diffusion, slide 8 Run Diffusion, slide 9

The Nuteones Revolution

The Nuteones Revolution, slide 1 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 2 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 3 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 4 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 5 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 6 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 7 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 8 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 9 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 10 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 11 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 12 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 13 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 14 The Nuteones Revolution, slide 15

Boreman

A game about an office worker with nothing to do.

Boreman, slide 1 Boreman, slide 2 Boreman, slide 3 Boreman, slide 4 Boreman, slide 5

Inspiration & References

Where to start. Read what you can early on, and bring back whatever else you find.

Reading

  • ELIZA, where personal agents started
  • Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Can machines learn how to behave?
  • Sabelo Mhlambi, Ethics and Technology
  • Rachel Coldicutt, On Understanding Power and Technology
  • Blaise Agüera y Arcas & Benjamin Bratton, Why we need new language for artificial intelligence
  • AI Is Life
  • What Else Could Intelligence Be?
  • Towards a Poetics of Artificial Superintelligence
  • Vladan Joler & Matteo Pasquinelli, The Nooscope Manifested: AI as Instrument of Knowledge Extractivism
  • Mo Gawdat, Scary Smart
  • Meghan O’Gieblyn, God, Human, Animal, Machine

AI & 3D Design Projects

Art Projects

  • Tega Brain & Sam Lavigne, Synthetic Messenger
  • Holly+ — Holly Herndon
  • Sougwen Chung, Assembly Lines
  • Artists and Machine Intelligence
  • Malik Afegbua, The Elder Series
  • Memo Akten
  • Ian Cheng, Emissaries
  • Paolo Pedercini, AI-generated non-stop episodes of Friends
  • Forensic Architecture, Triple-Chaser
  • Kate Crawford & Trevor Paglen, ImageNet Roulette
  • American Artist, Sandy Speaks
Hunter College, CUNY

Game Programming

Archived — 2013 to 2017
An undergraduate studio in which students built playable games from nothing. Most wrote their own code and drew their own art, and every project below shipped as something you could actually sit down and play. The selection spans five years of the course.

Student Work

Nine games from across the course. Titles and descriptions are the students’ own.

Catching Stars

Cynthia Mendez

A 2D platformer with 100% original graphic art drawn by Cynthia, who also programmed the project.

A hand-drawn character leaping between watercolour clouds above a green landscape

Squirrel Quest

Joy Ling

A cynical first person shooter in which you play as a rival species of squirrel. Joy also made all of the graphics for this game.

Grey squirrels holding weapons beside a wooden sign reading NO REDZ

Crossy Road

Davig Tonge

A modern, minimalist re-creation of Frogger.

Flat-shaded coloured blocks crossing a grey highway in a minimalist 3D scene

Spring

Sean White

An FPS in which the player must find clues that lead to her escape from a strange and abandoned prison.

A derelict prison cell lit by a narrow torch beam, showing a rusted radiator and bed frame

Space Navigator

Daniel Kimsey

A spaceship simulation in which you must dodge randomly generated environmental obstructions.

A small ship threading debris across a red circuit-board nebula

Invader Orange

Alexandra David

Blast alien invaders in this FPS.

A red-haired character facing flying saucers and asteroids above translucent blue platforms

Re-Discovery

Anthony Kirshy

A narratively-driven game in which the player uncovers their past.

A burning timber hall seen through reeds at the edge of a river at dusk

Retrimewtion

Tram Tran

Play as a cat seeking its revenge. Made in Processing, all original artwork.

Two hand-drawn cats flying above a yellow car on a cartoon road

Collect the Cards

Ye Lu

A difficult physics game which requires the player to catch special cards.

A low-poly pink and green tree on a violet lake under a rainy sunset sky

Tagging the Old City

Duncan Glaser

A recreation of Duncan’s Lower East Side block from childhood. The interactive 3D virtual reality work invites participants to tag the old city.

A first-person view holding a spray can on a rooftop above a reconstructed New York street A large black tag sprayed onto a wall in the virtual city A wide street of tenement facades rendered in the virtual Lower East Side

Untitled

Donovan

Untitled

Jason Bollers
Hunter College, CUNY

Physical Computing

Archived
A studio course in building things that sense and respond. Students moved from breadboard exercises to finished objects and installations, including wearables, kinetic sculpture and sound work, and showed them publicly at the end of term.

Student Work

Touch-Reactive Costumes

Rebecca Poser

Costumes for a performance piece which react to touch between performers.

A costumed performer in a white cape with a glowing blue light at the chest Two silhouetted performers in horned headpieces reaching toward each other, a red light glowing between them A performer in a fibre headpiece with a warm orange light glowing at the torso

Evian Water Bottle Agitator

Andy Ralph

A mechanical/digital device that recreates the appearance of a water bottle resting on a car dashboard.

A water bottle resting on a wire stand rigged with electronics against a concrete wall Close view of water rippling inside the agitated bottle
Watch the documentation

Sonic Altar

Mathew Galindo

A sonic altar using 13 candles, each paired with a speaker. A light sensor attached to each candle modulates the speakers, producing a generative real-time composition reacting to the flickers of flame.

A wooden shrine holding thirteen speakers in a pyramid above a row of lit devotional candles The altar in a darkened room, candlelight reflecting off the speaker cones

Curtain

James Bayard

A computer vision system moves a mechanically controlled curtain to continually block a participant from seeing what lies beyond.

A red velvet curtain hanging from a motorised track in an empty white gallery A visitor standing beside the curtain as it tracks his position The curtain sliding along its track to stay in front of the moving visitor
Watch the documentation
Kunsthochschule Kassel

Simulations Workshop

In this two-hour class, we explore simulations as both a creative medium and a form of rhetorical expression, focusing on the concept of Procedural Rhetoric—the use of rules, systems, and processes to convey ideas and arguments. We examine how game engines and simulations have been used as tools for artistic expression and critical inquiry, drawing on examples like Ian Cheng's Emissaries. I provide a hands-on demo of Nicky Case's Emoji Simulator to introduce the fundamentals of creating and manipulating simple simulations.

Procedural Rhetoric Examples

Procedural rhetoric uses the interactivity and logic of systems to persuade or express meaning, shaping how players understand concepts through their actions and the rules governing those actions.

McDonald's Video Game
McDonald's Game by Molleindustria
Papers, Please
Papers, Please by Lucas Pope
The Sims
The Sims
Phone Story
Phone Story

Simulation as Art

With the term Simulations-as-Art I am referring to to the use of dynamic, interactive systems to explore complex, evolving ideas, often through the lens of computational processes. Artists create simulations that unfold in real-time, engaging viewers or participants in emergent narratives, systems of thought, or aesthetic experiences.

Emoji Simulator

Link to Emoji Simulator

  • Purpose: Emoji Simulator is typically used to represent systems, relationships, or processes through the use of emojis. These emojis act as lightweight, intuitive symbols that convey meaning quickly, often in a humorous or visually appealing way.
  • Flexibility: It can be used to convey abstract concepts (like ecosystems or social systems), create interactive systems, or for art and storytelling.

What are some scenarios or ideas to use with the Emoji Simulator?

Schedule

Part 1: Procedural Rhetoric & Simulation as Art

First Hour
Lecture on Procedural Rhetoric, rules as arguments, and emergent meaning. Discussion of Simulations-as-Art with examples from Ian Cheng, Jacolby Satterwhite, Brody Condon, and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley.

Part 2: Emoji Simulator Hands-on

Second Hour
Hands-on demo of Nicky Case's Emoji Simulator. Students brainstorm scenarios and develop their own basic simulations in groups.

Part 3: Independent Work

Workshop
Work on your simulations alone or in groups. I will come around and help out.

Part 4: Show and Tell

Conclusion
Present your simulations to the class.
Oberlin College · The New School · Hunter College, CUNY

Other Courses & Advising

Archived
Work from shorter courses and from students I advised individually. The through-line is the same one that runs through everything else here: take a system that is normally left alone — a currency, a building facade, a public conversation — and intervene in it.

Student Work

Decontextualizing the Dollar

Emma Yates · Money as Medium, The New School

Research and experimentation into decontextualizing US dollars. Serial numbers and other design elements were swapped with other notes, including notes of other denominations and national currencies.

A grid of thirty-six one dollar bills with serial numbers and design elements altered or swapped

Projection on Mudd Library

Lily Blender · Creative Interventions, Oberlin College

Abstract video projection-mapped onto Mudd Library at Oberlin College. The video was made using hand-drawn animations which were digitally augmented in After Effects.

An abstract line animation projected onto the side of a library building at night while students watch A softer luminous shape projected onto the same building facade as the crowd looks on
Watch the documentation

Political Sexism on Twitter

Rina Schiller · Honors thesis, Hunter College, CUNY

A web app that analyzes the use of sexist language against women in politics, in real time. The live site is no longer hosted; these screenshots are from the working version.

The app's home view: a US map with pinned tweets listed beneath it A side-by-side comparison view counting sexist tweets directed at two groups of politicians