Startup Lab is designed as a course where students can Start Up a product, project, service, app, idea, etc--all of which we will explore under the umbrella of "experience". The course centers on design thinking, an approach that emphasizes making iterations of your idea as prototypes in increasing degrees of fidelity. Because of my area of expertise, the focus is on incorporating emerging tech, (such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, XR, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Worlds, and Spatial Audio) in how students think about what innovative and entrepreneurial steps they want to take in order to prepare for the future. The examples and guests will focus primarily on the businesses, industries, and possibilities of emerging technology. That said, if students do not want to design an experience that uses emerging technology, they do not have to, and I will support their project fully.
I firmly believe that Berklee students can and should be shaping the future of the entertainment industry, not only as highly sought after immersive and interactive audio and music professionals, but as the people in charge: as producers, directors, and designers of interdisciplinary entertainment and performing arts experiences that begin with our deep understanding of how what we hear creates experience.
We will use the excellent book, Storytelling Is Design, and also have VR/AR content as examples that everyone in the class will experience as homework (in the Berklee lab) and use as common touchstone texts in class. We will also examine the business/industry contexts for those examples. I’m aligning the course with various stellar guests who are coming to Berklee as visiting artists or for other reasons, as well as having virtual guests from big and small organizations and Berklee alumni. The course emphasizes transferable skills that you will be able to apply to what you want to Startup for your future.
Students will combine experimenting, designing, prototyping, practical planning, and creating to understand the workflow of producing immersive media experiences such as
immersive music video
performance in and with the new realities, and
immersive soundscapes.