Quick links, including email links, office hours, and lab hours, are all available from the “Instructors” tab above in the course menubar.
What follows is a more detailed introduction to the people delivering this class to you this semester. We are a team, and will be working together to deliver this experience to you.
I am the professor who built and is now iterating this course. I am also the instructor of record for this course. If you have any significant problems, administrative or technical, you will need to come to me about them.
I am excited to work with you, and guide you through the journey of beginning to code!
Please feel free to leverage my office hours. I would love it if each and everyone of you who are in Missoula could come by sometime in the first few weeks to introduce yourself. For those of you who are distance learners, please take a moment to look at my website (michaelmusick.com) and consider sending me an email about yourself, along with something to help me get to know you better, like your own website, or links to your creative work.
With all of that being said, I want to point out that I am incredibly busy. I will work to respond to your questions and problems as quickly as I can. E-mail is the second best way to get a hold of me. I will check my e-mail at least once per day. My office hours are THE BEST way to get help from me. They will be posted and updated in the “Instructors” tab of this website.
Bio
Michael Musick is a media artist, creative technologist, composer, performer and improviser. His current practice and research is collected under The Sonic Spaces Project which aims to create, explore, and define sonic space ecosystems; a type of eco-art and interactive music system. This project aims to explore principles of complex systems, natural ecosystems, cybernetics, and emergence, through interactive music systems. Michael has additional research interests in installation art, soundscape, and creative improvisation. As a performer, he uses a computer as his instrument to understand, process, amplify, and play with any sounds occurring within the performance space.
Michael is currently at the University of Montana as an Assistant Professor of Media Arts. In addition to continuing his own research, Michael is teaching courses within Digital Arts and Technology. These courses focus on preparing students to contribute to an evolving world using code and modern technology as creative extensions for their own artistic voices and ideas.
Prior to Montana, Michael was at New York University, where he earned a PhD in Music Technology. There, he was part of the Computer Music Group within MARL (NYU’s Music and Audio Research Lab) and the Citygram research group. Prior to NYU, he earned an M.A. in Media Arts from the University of Michigan, where he began his work with performance systems while continuing his studies in creative improvisation and multi-media performance. Michael also has a background in tuba performance and recording arts; holding performance degrees from The University of Southern California (M.Mus ’09) and The University of Colorado (B.Mus ’07). Originally from Arvada, Colorado, Michael is a lover of the mountains, snow, and wandering among the aspen or pine trees.
For more information please visit his personal site at michaelmusick.com .
We will have a Teaching Assistant. When this person contact is available, I will email the class. I will also post their information in the “Instructors” tab.
If you are unable to solve problems on your own or through the course “issues forum” (more to come on that later), you should e-mail the TA for help.
In addition to the TA, Media Arts continues to provide help to all online students through the 127 Media Arts Lab in McGill. This lab is staffed by wonderful MFA students who are prepared to answer your questions, or help you figure out how to answer your questions.
Lab hours, along with Lab Assistant information will be posted in the “Help” tab.