Call for Students: Code Narratives
- Two-Week Session, Monday July 10th - Saturday July 22nd
- @ SFPC, 155 Bank Street, West Village, NYC
- 7pm - 9:30pm, Evening Classes
- Apply here!
SFPC’s Summer Intensive: Code Narratives will explore the practice of generative writing using Python. We will start by collecting source texts as the fuel for our generators, and learn how to parse them for the parts we want most using language processing techniques. Once we have our source material, we will experiment with our writing machines in a variety of narrative forms like screenplays, twitter bots, and multimedia works. Students will create several small generative text projects over the course of the session and finish with a prototype of something larger, with opportunities to show work to the larger SFPC community toward the end. No coding experience required, all levels welcome.
Who are the teachers?
- Allison Parrish (3 Classes) - procedural writer, programmer, Faculty at NYU ITP, creator of countless text-based projects including The Ephemerides, Our Arrival and the word game Rewordable
- Todd Anderson (Lead Organizer, On-Site Support) - digital poet and web artist, author of Hotwriting, a collection of playable digital poems
- Ross Goodwin (2 Classes)- creator of the AI screenwriter of Sunspring and It’s No Game
- Alexander Provan (1 Class) - writer/artist/publisher, editor of Triple Canopy
- Hannah Davis (1 Class) - programmer/data scientist/musician, creator of Transprose, a literature-to-music translation project
- Zach Lieberman (Lecture) - SFPC co-founder, OpenFrameworks co-creator
- Taeyoon Choi (1 Class) - SFPC co-founder, artist
- More teachers and speakers to be announced!
What will happen in these two weeks?
Classes are held in the evenings Monday-Friday from 7-9:30pm and the session will culminate in a party on the afternoon of Saturday July 22nd, where students can invite their friends and present their favorite generative projects.
Students will have full access to the space for the two weeks of the session to work on projects between classes and mentors wil be readily available for technical, conceptual, and artistic guidance. Read our Participate page for more information.
How do I apply?
You can apply to this session here.
We accept up to 15 students on a rolling basis. We will respond to your application within ~1 week of submission. Rolling admissions means there are fewer and fewer slots the longer you wait, so if you’re interested in the program get your application in early!
How much is tuition?
$1,500 USD for the 2-week program. You’ll also need to cover your own cost of living, including housing and meals (recent alumni report this to be in the range of $800 - $1400). Upon payment, your space in the class will be reserved. SFPC tuition goes directly to paying for the teachers, organizers, materials and space that make sessions like this possible. Unfortunately, due to small size of the overall budget, we can’t provide scholarship for intensive program. In the past, students were able to get help from their employer or school to cover the cost. Upon acceptance, SFPC can provide an invitation letter for you.
What if I can’t go, can I get a refund?
- Yes, we can give you 100% refund up to 5 days before class starts
- 50% refund after 5 days, until the first day of class
- No refunds can be given after the first day of class
What is expected of me?
- Come to all classes and thoughtfully engage with your classmates and teachers.
- We are looking for autodidacts from all backgrounds who are curious, generous and open.
- We welcome students with a broad array of technical experiences–no coding experience is required, but a basic comfort level with technology is preferred.
- B.Y.O.Laptop (Mac / PC / Linux)
Where is SFPC?
We are located at 155 Bank Street, in the courtyard of the Westbeth Artists’ Community in Manhattan’s West Village, New York City.
Contact Us
Feel free to contact lead organizer Todd Anderson (toddwords@gmail.com) with any questions about the Code Narratives session, or info@sfpc.io for any general questions about the school.
Image credits: Allison Parrish, Ross Goodwin, Todd Anderson
SFPC is filled with amazing people and an open mindset to learning, and doing. It has taught me different ways of thinking, ones that I would be sure to bring back to my endeavors outside of the art world.
I'm half way through the program and I'm already missing being here. SFPC was a much needed breath of fresh air in my hectic creative existence, an unlikely place to stop and remind myself what was it I was into in the first place.
SFPC messed up my life a little bit. Actually, I think it's going to mess it up a lot. Before this program I thought I knew what I was doing and what the shape of my life was going to look like. Now I don't and each day I wake up scared I won't get to be a part of a community like this again. Everyday also now brings a fresh but welcome creative terror to overcome. Also I think I may have ended up moving to New York accidentally.
SFPC is the best place you can explore your interest as much as you want and the place you start to write your own poem.
SFPC is not really a school or a course — it is more like a door into an extraordinary world. It is driven by passion, kindness and the thrill of teaching and learning. I would love to live those inspiring weeks all over again.
SFPC was amazing — life-changing even — i want to do all this stuff for the rest of my life!
I've never been consistently surprised and inspired as much as at SFPC.
If you think SFPC is what you think, that will be wrong. SFPC is a space for a group of people who badly want to try something new. SFPC will become a spirit embedded in your blood which makes you think things with a different angle, just like its motto: more poetry, less demo.
I learned a lot at SFPC. It was only a 2 week program last time, but I learned many things from other participants and got the chance to explore and fail freely. SFPC helped me to reshape the way I think. It's your turn.
School For Poetic Computation is equal parts The Factory, childhood blanket fort, and mad scientist's lab. I learned a ton from the teachers and the whole SFPC community in a huge collaborative and exploratory environment.
Attending SFPC is like walking into an all day buffet supplied with food from hyper-talented chefs. There's more than you could ever consume, naturally, and you will most likely find yourself requiring a digestion period, but holy crap is it tasty.
My takeaway from SFPC: Never settle for code that isn't at least a little bit magic
In SFPC I found a great community and it gave me the confidence to take on coding projects I couldn't have done before.
SFPC is the purest, most honest exchange of knowledge and experience among peers I have ever experienced. It is a supportive space where everyone learns from everyone, and bridges are built that continue to be strengthened for years to come. You won’t get a certificate or a title at the end of it, but I would be amazed if you ever looked at your world the same again. I haven’t.