The c/c/c studio

The c/c/c studio (code/creativity/culture) is a research group within the School of Computing. Our goal is to create spaces for talking, thinking and making about the way that code (software), creativity (especially the arts) and culture (life) intersect in the modern world.

The fact that these things do intersect is hopefully not controversial in 2021; the challenge is to create opportunities to talk about it that make people care enough to pay attention. Musical livecoding (for examples, check out Ben’s vimeo page or LENS, the ANU laptop ensemble) is one example of the public display (and hopefully discussion) of code, but different intersections will interest different folks, so this is a challenge we need to address from multiple angles.

It’s also really important that we ask the deeper questions about the artefacts that we build, especially as computer scientists—even multi-disciplinary ones. Programmers are writing the rules which govern (literally in some cases) the way that society works, and we’re long past the point where we can say “what people do with this stuff isn’t my problem”. Code, creativity and culture are bleeding into one another more and more, and we’re excited about starting conversations about how it all works and what it means.

The c/c/c studio isn’t for luddites or techno-chauvinists; what we want to do is give everyone a reason to start talking about these code/creativity/culture intersections, and to raise the level of discourse about the opportunities and challenges.

Learn with us

Members of the c/c/c studio run several courses each year at the ANU focused on creative computing: we teach coding and creative practice together, and these courses are open to computing students as well as any student at the ANU.

If you’re a student right now, or will be soon, think about taking either (or both of):

• COMP1720/6720: Art and Interaction in New Media (course website, programs and courses) is a course about creating expressive and interactive art with code. In COMP1720/6720 you’re an artist and your canvas is the web browser with javascript and p5.js.

• COMP2710/6470: Laptop Ensemble (course website) is a course about creating new musical instruments and performances with computers. You’ll learn about music computing, digital synthesis, algorithmic composition and musical interface design. You’ll work with a ensemble of laptop musicians to compose and perform new music with Pure Data and the live coding system Extempore.

• COMP4610/6461: Computer Graphics is a later-year course which (as of 2021) will be coming under the c/c/c studio umbrella (Ben will be taking over as lecturer). If you’re looking for a deeper dive into modern graphics game engine techniques, then pencil it in your diary for S2 2021.

If you’re a student in the ACT high-school system going into year 11 in 2021, check out our ANU Extension Course in Creative Computing. This course combines elements of both of the above courses for students with experience in the creative arts or IT.

Research with us

The c/c/c studio is always looking for PhD or Master’s research students who have experience in a creative practice and computing and want to push the boundaries of code, creativity and culture. This could be you, so have a look around the website and reach out to one of our group members.

We also run projects for undergraduate and coursework master’s students. In general our project students have taken either Art and Interaction in New or Laptop Ensemble (or both) before starting an individual project course.