I've got an art degree!
Well, sort of...
I just finished an art course on an MOOC platform and got a certificate for it. Let me tell you how was it like.
In case you didn’t know, I am a big fan of MOOCs, online education and affordable options (because, who’s not?). I’ve been playing around with different platforms lately, but Coursera caught my attention with some of their options, specially their certificates and specializations. Each of them are about USD $ 50, which is really affordable, and even if you don’t get a certificate, the platform itself is really decent.
For the past months, I’ve been going through the Introduction to Computational Arts, from State of New York University. The course itself covers a little introduction to computers and to programming, where they dive into Processing (Java-based) as a way for generative art. Then they go into Adobe’s Photoshop and GIMP as image editing with several techniques. Later they switch into sound theory and Audacity, Logic and Soundation, including MIDI processing. And finally, they tie it all up together into a final project.
Across all of these tools, they develop the concept of a piece and the messages behind them, while also guiding the students into creating their first critiques, developing the right vocabulary and looking at the right aspects of a piece. They also helped us out in creating a first online portfolio.
All in all, it was a good and demanding experience. At first the projects didn’t take much of my time but after some weeks the exercises became really thoughtful and complete.
Hopefully I’ll be able to apply this new knowledge somewhere! But still, just the experience was mind-opening and I would definitely recommend it.