- Electronic Media Studio: Introduction to Interactivity and Computation
- Carnegie Mellon University School of Art
- Professor Golan Levin
- Overview
- Course Description
- Learning Objectives
- Course Profile
- Key Topics
- Prerequisite Knowledge
- Course Relevance
- Course Goals
- Assessment Structure
- Learning Resources
- Extra Time Commitments
- Course Tags
- Administrata
- Prerequisites
- Credits Allocated
- Required Course Materials
- Communication Tools
- COVID-19 Accommodations
- Accommodations and Flexibility
- Health-Related Absences
- Civics and Attendance
- Attendance and Presence
- A Word About Unexcuses Absences in Critiques
- Rubrics and Grading
- General Expectations
- Grading Breakdown Summary
- Follow Your Passion
- Policies for Late Work
- Rubrics for Creative Projects
- Academic Integrity
- Summary of CMU Academic Integrity Policies
- Policies for Open-Ended Creative Projects
- Use of Free and Open-Source Code in Projects
- Policies Regarding Informal Collaboration
- Policies Regarding Formal Collaboration
- Code of Conduct
- Code of Conduct
- Inclusivity Statement
- Zoom & Remote Education
- Tools
- Zoom Fatigue
- Zoom Policies
- Zoom Requests
- Freedom of Speech Committment
- Dealing with Stress
- FERPA Statement
- Land Notice
Electronic Media Studio: Interactivity and Computation (60-210) is a practical introduction to programming and computational media production within the context of the arts. In this course, students develop the skills and confidence necessary to produce computational and interactive artworks, discuss their work in relation to current and historic praxes of digital art, and engage new technologies critically.
Intended as a first course for arts students, this class introduces computational craft skills through exercises in creative coding tools such as p5.js. Students will develop command over the basic vocabulary of constructs that govern static, dynamic, and interactive form, with the aim of applying these skills to problems in interactive art, computational design, and other creative explorations of transmediality, connectivity, generativity, and immersivity.
At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:
- Develop basic computer programs capable of responding to user interaction, using a variety of different creative coding tools.
- Discuss the repertoire of artists, designers, works and activities around interactive art, generative form, and computational design.
- Understand the role of computation in artworks that explore concepts of transmediality, connectivity, generativity, and immersivity.
- Understand how to document and present creative work online, and in person.
What are the key subject topics that this course will cover?
This course covers the practical application of computer programming techniques to the creation of expressive software art and computational form. Topics include generative art, interactive narrative, artificial intelligence, and immersive world-making.
What prior knowledge must students have in order to be successful in this course?
- General computing skills (such as browser use, word processing, image editing) are essential for this course.
- This course is intended for arts students and other with creative practices and visual communication skills.
How is this course relevant to the targeted student populations?
This course is relevant to students who are interested in:
- Exploring the use of computation in expanding our expressive vocabulary
- Designing procedural form for games, virtual environments, and other modes of creative expression
- Developing expertise in the aesthetic nuances and conceptual landscape of interactivity
- Understanding the practical and social assumptions that underpin code in culture
What are the overall goals of this course that students will achieve after completing it?
At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:
- Create computer programs capable of responding to user interaction.
- Demonstrate familiarity with the artists, designers, works and workflows centered around interactive art, generative form, and computational design.
- Understand the role of computation in artworks that explore concepts of transmediality, connectivity, generativity, and immersivity, and how these may be applied to the production of expressive and provocative new culture.
- Understand how to document and present creative work online, and in person.
How will students be assessed in this course: assignments, exams, final, presentation, project, etc.?
There are approximately 4-6 main assignments (software arts projects). Participation also plays an important role in the final grade.
What resources will be available for students: web pages, learning applications, texts, case studies, etc.?
Available resources include a specialized hardware, GitHub repositories, YouTube lectures, and a course web site.
Are there extra time commitments required outside of the regularly scheduled course meeting times?
No. However, students may wish to take advantage of the Professor’s posted office hours.
Keywords referencing general topics and/or course structure.
- Computational
- Creative Coding
- New Media Art
- Interdisciplinary
- Lab Component
- Research
- Maker
There are no specific course prerequisites for this course, but general computing skills (such as browser use, word processing, image editing) are essential. Students who already have some programming experience may prefer to take 60-212.
60-210 provides 10 units of academic credit.
- Sketchbook. It is extremely wise to plan your projects on paper before writing any code. In support of this, you are required to maintain a paper sketchbook for this course.
- Laptop. Students should have access to a personal laptop with a webcam. A reliable internet connection will also be extremely important.
- Software. Recent, well-updated installations of Mac OSX, Windows and Linux are all acceptable operating systems. This is a polyglot course; the programming environments used for example projects and sample code will include p5.js (JavaScript) and Unity3D (JavaScript or C#).
- Camera. Students may need some sort of camera to document their sketches. A smartphone with a camera is acceptable.
This course uses the following software systems to share information:
- Zoom and Discord, for remote meetings. A link and password will be sent to you.
- Email. The Professor will send emails once or twice a week. Please read them.
- WordPress website, through which you will publish your projects.
- A Google Calendar, http://bit.ly/golancoursecalendar
The effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic make schooling stressful and unpredictable for everyone. I’m utterly uninterested in this class being an additional source of stress. We are gathered to make creative work because doing so is a source of meaning, solace, hope, and self-betterment. Do the projects because your heart is in the work, not because you are concerned about grades.
We will have approximately 5-8 projects this semester. I would love it if you did all of them. But you may need a release valve if something goes sideways. You are permitted to miss one project without any penalty or special accommodation.
Typically I do not allow unexcused absences, i.e., an absence in which you neglected to contacted me before class (“I’m feeling ill today”, “I have a religious holiday”, etc.). However, owing to the kinds of unusual circumstances that may arise this fall, you are permitted one unexcused absence.
Please evaluate your own health status regularly and refrain from attending class and other on-campus events if you are ill. You are strongly encouraged to seek appropriate medical attention for treatment of illness. In the event you catch a contagious illness, please do not come to class or to campus. Instead notify me by email about your absence as soon as practical, so that accommodations can be made. Please note that documentation (a Doctor’s note) for medical excuses is not required.
It has been said: 80% of success is just showing up. Your presence and civic participation in the class are of paramount importance. You are responsible for what happens in class whether you’re here or not. Organize with your classmates to get class information and material that you have missed.
I can be very understanding and accommodating about planned and necessary absences, family circumstances, and/or medical issues when you inform me in a timely and professional manner. If you’re going to be absent or tardy, please contact the professor in a timely way regarding your situation. The best way to communicate about this is to send a message in the #Attendance channel in our class Discord, but email is also acceptable. If you’re ill, or if you know you will have a planned absence, please let me know before the beginning of that class session.
- Owing to the COVID-19 crisis, you are permitted one unexcused absence. Two additional unexcused absences (beyond the one allowed) will lower your final grade by one letter (e.g. A⟶B).
- Over 20 minutes of unexcused tardiness = one absence. The 1st incident will be noted but excused.
Focus is precious. Physical presence means nothing if you’re “checked out”; your mental presence is extremely important. During the professor’s lectures or guest presentations, distracted participation is prohibited. You can exist for few hours without tweeting, facebooking, chatting, texting, emailing, or doing work for other courses.
Sometimes, students who haven’t completed their projects skip class during critiques, because they are too embarrassed to come to class empty-handed. This type of absence is particularly self-destructive, and is one of the most objectionable things you can do in this class. Please have courage. Your participation on critique days is essential, even if your own project is incomplete or missing, because these sessions and conversations help you understand our class standards, expectations, and criteria for good work. Even if your own project is unfinished, you are still expected to contribute productively to the class discussion.
There are a few elementary things you can do to ensure that you receive a totally respectable grade in this course. These things may seem simple and obvious, but it’s sometimes surprising how few students seem to get this right:
- Be good. Have a positive attitude.
- Be present. Show up to all of the course sessions, on time.
- Be responsible. Communicate with your professor beforehand if you must miss a session.
- Be diligent. Submit all of the Deliverables, on time. And document them clearly and thoroughly. Follow instructions: do all parts of the Deliverables, paying careful attention to seemingly trivial requirements (such as categorizing your blog posts correctly, formatting your code properly, giving your blog post a title in the requested format etc.).
There are also some things you can do to earn a really great grade in this course:
- Be fearless. Work outside your comfort zone. Give yourself permission to weird.
- Be conscientious. Pay attention to details of craft and execution. Put your heart in the work.
- Be persevering. Become resourceful about getting the assistance you need.
- Be helpful. Help your classmates when they’re stuck.
- Be generous. Make helpful contributions to discussions.
This is art school. With very rare exceptions (I’ll be clear), I will always prefer that you make the assignment interesting to you — if necessary, by creatively bending the rules or re-interpreting the assignment. Our assignments are starting-points, prompts and propositions. Think beyond them.
Notwithstanding the above, you will always be expected to conform to certain basic expectations in regards to deliverables and documentation. Did you include an image of your project? Did you write the requested narrative? These expectations are non-negotiable.
When you submit work late, your experience will suffer: not (necessarily) because of some point-deduction scheme, but primarily because you will miss the chance to share, show off, discuss and get feedback on your work.
At times this semester, your creative projects may be evaluated by outside experts who review your work in class or online. If your assignment is not uploaded and documented online by the time those persons do their reviews, then your work is officially considered “too late” and will not be able to earn meaningful credit.
For minor projects, such as Looking Outwards blog posts: These should be uploaded and completed by the time that I get around to grading them, which is usually a few days after their stated due date. If not, I reserve the right to assign partial or zero credit to them.
- Generally I grade work a few days after the due date. I offer no precise details about this.
- Projects submitted after critiques (or, after external critics have performed their evaluations) may get a one-letter grade deduction, depending on circumstances, and will probably not receive written feedback, or may only receive significantly attenuated written feedback.
The purpose of our open-ended Projects is to provide well-circumscribed opportunities for you to make creative work with computers. Generally the Project prompts will invite you to explore a specific conceptual theme or set of computational techniques, but, unless stated otherwise, there is no correct solution, and no specific requirement for how to implement your idea. A Project also asks not just for a creative solution, but also for some creativity in defining and approaching the problem.
The open-ended Projects will be evaluated according to the following considerations:
- Curiosity: Are you asking questions as you work?
- Tenacity: Are you forging through difficult problems without giving up?
- Execution: Are you crafting with purpose, precision, and attention?
- Inventiveness: Are you discovering/exploring methods outside the obvious and predictable?
- Fulfillment: Did you meet all of the requested supporting criteria (such as providing scans of sketches, categorizing your blog post correctly, documenting your process, etc.)?
With Projects, it may not matter how much time a student spent making it. You may sometimes observe a very quickly-executed solution which succeeds because of its strong concept. Usually, however, the quality of a project is rewarded by extra attention to its craft.
Projects always have a list of supporting requirements. These are straightforward to fulfill, but if you fail to meet these, you will have points deducted. Nearly every Project assignment will ask you to:
- Create a unique blog post for your project, on our course website.
- Make sure your blog post is titled and categorized as requested.
- Embed your interactive project into the post, if this is technologically possible.
- Include a static documentation image of your project, such as a screenshot or photograph.
- Include scans or photos of any notebook sketches, if you have them. In the case of dynamic work, include dynamic documentation too: embed a YouTube, Vimeo demonstrating your project. Often, an animated GIF will be required.
- Write 100-200 words about your project, describing its development process. In your writing, include some critical reflection and analysis of your project: In what ways did you succeed, and in what ways could it be better?
- Embed or link to your code, if appropriate.
Related to our course policies on Academic Integrity, you must also:
- Name any other persons from whom you received advice or help. If you had collaborators, explain how the work was distributed among the collaborators.
- Cite and link to the sources for any code, external libraries, or other media (e.g. photographs, soundtracks, source images) which you used in your Project. Citing your sources is super important, folks. Err on the side of generosity.
Projects will be graded with scores of A,B,C,D, or F, as follows, and will be evaluated using the “Evaluation Guidelines” rubric at the bottom of this page:
- A (Excellent): You made something notable
- B (Good): You made something that fulfills all requirements
- C (Needs Improvement): You tried to make something
- D (Unacceptable): You didn’t even try
- F (Zero credit): You didn’t even show up
Your behavior as a responsible member of the new-media arts community is very important — as demonstrated, for example, by properly citing your sources and borrowed code, and crediting those who have helped you. These expectations and obligations are addressed here, in our course Academic Integrity Policy.
Carnegie Mellon University prohibits academic dishonesty. This includes plagiarism, and may consist of: submitting the work of someone else as one’s own; failing to cite assistance you received; or the failure to properly cite materials or ideas from other sources. Nearly all of these problems can be circumvented if you’re clear and generous in giving credit where credit is due. Please read the University Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism to understand the penalties associated with academic dishonesty at Carnegie Mellon University. I reserve the right to determine an appropriate penalty based on the violation of academic dishonesty that occurs. The penalty for plagiarizing may range from failure on the specific plagiarized assignment to failure in the class. If you have any questions about this policy as it relates to work you are doing in the course, please feel free to contact the professor.
For your open-ended, public-facing projects, there are no “correct answers”. Your curiosity, creativity, ingenuity and originality are prized.
You may borrow code or ideas from other sources, within the limits of “reasonable person” principles described below, provided you attribute your sources. Your work will appear, publicly, on the open Internet. Your projects will likely be discussed and critiqued in front of (and with the assistance of) your peers.
As studio art students, you are expected or invited to make extensive use of open-source libraries, tutorials, and freely-distributed code. When working in this way, much like a knitting circle, our classroom is structured around peer instruction, in which students are expected to help each other learn.
Credit is perhaps the most important form of currency in the economies of commons-based peer production and open-source media arts. You are expected to cite the source of any code you use. Please note the following expectations and guidelines:
Use Libraries. In your Projects, the use of general, reusable libraries is strongly encouraged. The people who developed and contributed these components to the community worked hard, often for no pay; acknowledge them by citing their name and linking to their repository.
Be Careful. It sometimes happens that an artist places the entire source code for their sketch or artwork online, as a resource from which others can learn. The assignments professors give in new-media arts courses are often similar; you may discover the work of a student in some other class or school, who has posted code for a project which responds to a similar assignment. You should probably avoid this code. At the very least, you should be very, very careful about approaching such code for possible re-use. If it is necessary to do so, it is best to extract components that solve a specific technical problem, rather than those parts which operate to create a unique experience. Your challenge, if and/or when you work with others’ code, is to make it your own. It should be clear that forking an artwork from someone’s page on GitHub, Glitch, OpenProcessing, etc., and simply changing the colors would be disgracefully lazy. Doing so without proper citation would be plagiarism.
Our course places a very high value on civic responsibility that includes, but is not limited to, helping others learn. In this course, we strongly encourage you to give help (or ask others for help) in using various toolkits, algorithms, libraries, or other facilities. Please note the following expectations:
- In this class, it’s OK to give and receive help. In fact, it’s better than OK! But students who receive help from someone else are obliged to acknowledge that person in their project report, clarifying the nature of the help that was received.
- We are all teachers. Students with advanced skills are expected to help others, yet refrain from doing another’s work for them. You can usually tell when you’re about to cross the line: Ask yourself whether you are teaching someone to fish, or merely giving them the fish.
- When in doubt: give credit to the people who have helped you.
The assignments in this course are primarily intended to be executed by individuals. That said, I am in favor of students collaborating if such collaborations arise organically and can be conducted safely. Please note the following expectations:
- Use proper social distancing. In light of the ongoing the COVID-19 pandemic, please respect University and other health guidelines regarding personal distance. Do not share computer keyboards, sit at least 6 feet apart, etcetera.
- Notify the Professor. It’s helpful for me to know who is working with whom. Students who wish to collaborate should jointly inform the professor as early as possible.
- Only pairs. Unless permission is explicitly granted by the Professor, collaborations in this course are restricted to pairs of students.
- Describe who did what. Written reports for collaborative projects should describe how your effort was distributed.
- Only collaborators from this class. Your project collaborator, if you have one, must be in this class. You may not collaborate with people from outside the course (e.g. your housemate).
- Avoid co-dependency. You may not collaborate with the same person (i.e. submit an assignment jointly) on more than two projects.
I am committed to providing an educational experience that is free of harassment and intimidation for everyone in this course—regardless of gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. I will not tolerate any form of harassment and/or discriminatory, oppressive, suppressive, or violent behavior.
Harassment may include, but is not limited to, offensive verbal comments, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption, inappropriate or non-consensual physical contact, unwelcome sexual attention, and/or refusing to accept the limits or boundaries set by another participant in our classroom. I further define suppressive behavior as any sort of communication that stifles or belittles another. Participants who have been asked to stop any behavior are expected to comply immediately. I expect all of the participants in our course community to adhere to this code of conduct–including me, the Professor.
Debate and free exchange of ideas is encouraged, but I will not tolerate harassment. If someone engages in harassing behavior, I may take any action deemed appropriate in the Carnegie Mellon University Policy against Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault, Discriminatory Harassment, or other community policies. If you experience or witness harassment, threatening behavior, suppressive behavior, or have any other concerns, I encourage you to speak up, say something, and/or let us know immediately.
Carnegie Mellon University is firmly committed to intellectual honesty, freedom of inquiry and expression, and respect for the dignity of each individual. Acts of discriminatory harassment or intimidation by a student directed toward any member of the community are inconsistent with this commitment and will not be tolerated. Consistent with the University’s Statement of Assurance, prohibited acts include harassment and intimidation motivated by discriminatory intent based on race, color, national origin, sex, handicap or disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, ancestry, belief, veteran status, or genetic information. Any such harassment or intimidation of or by a student should be referred to the Dean of Student Affairs for resolution.
It is our intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well served by this course, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit. It is our intent to present activities that accommodate and value a diversity of gender, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, and culture. I will gladly honor your request to address you by the pronouns and name you specify.
I commit to make individual arrangements to address disabilities or religious needs (e.g. religious events in conflict with class meetings). Please advise us of these preferences and needs early in the semester so that I may make appropriate changes to our plans and records.
We will begin the semester using Zoom for synchronous session, at a link I have emailed to you. We may also try Discord (which combines video chatting with a persistent Slack-like chat record) to see whether it meets our needs better. Please make sure that your Internet connection and equipment are set up to use Zoom and Discord, and able to share audio and video during class meetings.
"Zoom Fatigue" is a real and serious problem. To avoid it, we will generally not meet for the full 3-hour duration of our class in a videoconference! (Whew!) Instead, we will likely meet for 20-45 minutes, generally at 2:10pm. During the rest of class, we may (a) work individually on projects, with videoconferencing available (“quiet co-working”), (b) have one-on-one meetings with the professor, or (c) occasionally convene in small groups.
- Regarding sharing camera video: In this course, being able to see one another helps to facilitate a better learning environment, create a community, reduce isolation, and promote more engaging discussions. Additionally, seeing your faces REALLY helps me lecture more effectively and responsively. Therefore, our default will be to expect students to have their cameras on during lectures and discussions. However: I completely understand there may be technical, privacy, or personal reasons students would not want to have their cameras on. If you have any concerns about sharing your video, please email me as soon as possible and we can discuss possible adjustments. If you would like to hide your camera in general, I ask that you consider a compromise, such as placing scotch tape or a folded ziploc bag over the camera; this helps me know that you're present, while obscuring your details.
- You are welcome to use a background image in your video if you wish. Please keep these images family-friendly and non-distracting.
- In general, please keep your mic muted (unless you unless you are actively sharing with the class), in order to reduce stray noise. If you want/need to briefly speak up, you can press the space bar to momentarily unmute.
- You may use the “raise hand feature” to get attention, but I recommend actually raising your hand in the video if possible.
- You are also very welcome to ask or respond to questions in the chat; I will do my best to notice and respond to your remarks.
- You are welcome to use reactions (clapping and thumbs up), if it feels like the right thing to do.
This course may present content that includes nudity, and/or imagery, language, or dialogue that could offend some students. In viewing and discussing works of art, we encourage the broadest possible tolerance consistent with United States law.
Being in an art school, you should expect to be exposed to content that challenges your moral, ethical, and aesthetic values. In case of extremely graphic content we will warn the class in advance, but if you have a history of PTSD please let us know privately if there are types of content that are known to act as trauma triggers for you.
Freedom of speech is the foundation of our community and our nation. The works we view or produce in this class may awe, illuminate, challenge, unsettle, confound, provoke, and, at times, offend. We defend the freedom to create content and exhibit such work anywhere in the world, and we recognize the privilege of living in a country where creating, exhibiting, and experiencing such work is a constitutional right. To exhibit a work of art is not to endorse the work or the vision, ideas, and opinions of the artist. It is to uphold the right of all to experience diverse visions and views. If and when controversies arise from the exhibition of a work of art, we welcome public discussion and debate with the belief that such discussion is integral to the experience of the art. Consistent with our fundamental commitment to freedom of speech, however, we will not censor exhibitions or other presentations in response to political or ideological pressure.
Too often, the educator is the last to be informed of the charge. If you feel offended by course content, please first contact the professor privately in writing. In your email or letter, please address the following questions:
- To what in the presented work or assignment do you object?
- What do you believe is the theme or purpose of this work?
- What do you feel might be the result of viewing, reading or learning about this work?
- Is there a work of equal value that you would recommend which would serve as an alternative to the work in question?
Materials are considered innocent until proven guilty. Allegedly offensive materials will not be removed until after the review process has completed.
Take care of yourself. Please do your best to maintain a healthy lifestyle this semester by eating well, exercising, avoiding drugs and alcohol, getting enough sleep and taking some time to relax. This will help you achieve your goals and cope with stress.
All of us benefit from support during times of struggle. You are not alone. There are many helpful resources available on campus and an important part of the college experience is learning how to ask for help. Asking for support sooner rather than later is often helpful.
If you or anyone you know experiences any academic stress, difficult life events, or feelings like anxiety or depression, we strongly encourage you to seek support. Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS) is here to help: call 412-268-2922 and visit their website at http://www.cmu.edu/counseling/. Consider reaching out to a friend, faculty or family member you trust for help getting connected to the support that can help. If you or someone you know is feeling suicidal or in danger of harm to self or others, call someone immediately, day or night:
- CaPS Counseling: +1-412-268-2922
- Re:solve Crisis Network: +1-888-796-8226
- On campus CMU Police: +1-412-268-2323
FERPA (The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) is a federal law that protects the confidentiality of student records. It restricts others from accessing or discussing your educational records without your consent. In this section, we discuss why you have been asked to sign a waiver, which grants your consent to have your work shown online.
In a typical class, your homework (and other information delineating your academic performance) would not be visible to the public. Indeed, the FERPA law requires that you have the right to privacy in this regard. This is one of the main reasons for the existence of so many “walled gardens” for courseware, such as Autolab, Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard and Piazza, which keep all student work hidden behind passwords and paywalls.
An essential component of the educational experience in new media arts, however, is learning how to participate in the “Grand Conversation” all around us, by becoming more effective culture operators. We cannot do this in the safe space of a password-protected courseware module. Our work is strengthened and sharpened in the forge of public scrutiny: in this case, the agora of the Internet.
Sometimes students are afraid to publish something because it is of poor quality. They think that they will receive embarrassing, negative critiques. In fact, negative critique is quite rare. The most common thing that happens when one creates an artwork of poor quality, is that it is simply ignored. Being ignored — this, not being shunned or derided — this is the fate of mediocre work.
On the other hand, if something is truly great is published — and great projects can happen, and have happened, even in an introductory class like this one — there is the chance that it may be circulated widely on the Internet. Every year that I have taught this course, a handful of the students’ projects get blogged and receive as many as 50,000 views in a week. It cannot be emphasized that this is an absolutely transformative experience for students, that cannot be obtained without taking the risk to work publicly. Students can and do get job offers and build careers on the basis of such success.
Submitting work in a publicly-accessible format also (A) encourages good discipline in documenting your work (an essential aspect of practice in new media arts), and (B) makes it easier to share your work with external reviewers, which happens from time to time in this course.
All the above being said, there are plenty of reasons why you may wish to work anonymously, when you work online. Perhaps you are concerned about stalkers or harassment. Perhaps you wish to address themes in your work which might not meet with the approval of your parents or future employers. These are valid considerations. For these reasons, if and/or when your work appears on the public Internet, you will be given the opportunity to select a username which can help protect your anonymity.
The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University, and the city of Pittsburgh is situated on land that has been continuously inhabited for over 16,000 years, serving as a home to members of the Adena, Hopewell, Monongahela, Lenape, Shawnee, Wyandot, Tisagechroami, Delaware, and Mohican communities before becoming a territory of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Iroquois Confederacy included the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora people, whose relationships with the land continue to this day. The Seneca name for Pittsburgh is Dionde:gâ.