Cool Course: Critical Making

During a recent meeting of her Critical Making course, NYU Steinhardt Clinical Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication Cyd Cipolla turned off the lights so that students could better appreciate the spiked choker that undergraduate Aidan Donev was wearing around his neck. Illuminated with blue, red, and purple NeoPixels, it played “Red Light” by Siouxsie and the Banshees, one of Aidan’s favorite bands.

As his classmates looked on and listened to the music, Aidan shared how he programmed and coded his colored NeoPixels and speaker for his final project. Each student in this hands-on Steinhardt Department of Media, Culture, and Communication course engages with software and hardware to create a technology-based product.

On the day of the presentations, Cipolla’s students circled a conference table cluttered with blinking lights, circuits, and wires as they showed off their creations one by one—mini robots, illuminated clothing, and devices that play music, spin, and even create art.  

With no engineering or other technical prerequisites, the course aims to make science and technology more accessible to nonspecialists by fostering collaboration. 

“The expectation is that they have no coding or making experience,” Cipolla says. “They should have a level of curiosity, and they should be willing to be frustrated by the work they're doing.”

Cipolla notes that there may be barriers to pursuing computer programming, engineering, and 3D printing even as a hobby, especially among those who may recognize that they’re from groups underrepresented in those fields.

“The larger question becomes, how do we make science and technology more inclusive where people of all levels of education and understanding can feel welcome?” she says. “I feel like if you are being asked to use technology on a regular basis, you should be allowed to learn how it works.”

The final projects mark a culmination of months of lab work where students learn programming and coding with NeoPixels, servo and DC motors, sensors, and microcontroller boards.

“I had zero experience in coding and robotics. I came to the first class worried that I had signed up for something beyond my abilities,” says another student, Harper Lin. For her final, Harper painted and programmed an animatronic eye to rapidly shift left and right as a social commentary on anxiety.

Along with the lab work, the syllabus includes readings and discussions on concepts such as cyborg theory, science and technology studies, and accessibility in crafting and maker spaces.

“I learned that tinkering with the physical material of technology is essential for anyone seeking to understand the societal, cultural, and political implications of the technologies we use every day,” Lin adds.

While every student experienced success, they also faced roadblocks. Objects didn’t change color as expected; robots moved in a circle, but not left or right; devices worked before class, but not in person. On presentation day, students turned to each other and Cipolla for real-time troubleshooting, celebrating as lights finally changed or a robot began spinning.

“I have them play collaborative games at the very beginning of the semester, and do exercises that encourage them and force them to work together,” says Cipolla. “We are in a collaborative working space. So when we’re in the lab, the directive is to ask each other for help, point things out to each other, and share the things that you figured out.”