Data are produced through practices of making, partitioning, compartmentalizing, seeing, representing, etc. An experiential (i.e. practice-based) understanding of how data are created, situated, and used reveals that data are not something given from the world or necessarily indexically connected to it, but are constructed artifacts worth critical investigation.
Human experience is the starting point for critical and creative practices of making across the College of Arts, Media and Design: making the built environment, designing expressive artifacts, sharing performances, or storytelling through news and media, for example.
CAMD research and teaching advances understanding of practices being reshaped by AI
A core strength of CAMD disciplines is their emphasis on process and practice. By emphasizing the interactive nature of data and AI – understanding data as constructed artifacts situated in human contexts, and engaging with AI as a technology that is actively shaped through our encounters with it and that shapes how we interact with data – CAMD disciplines can privilege a process- and practice-oriented approach that is frequently unaccounted for in other disciplines.
Critical evaluation of AI tools and systems is essential to bypassing the hype and doomsday predictions surrounding AI. As a college focused on critical and creative practice, we approach these tools with an open mind but a critical eye for the ways that technologies may “flatten” human experience and diversity, compromise matters of authority and intellectual property in cultural industries, and unfairly exploit human labor, materials, and artifacts for economic or political advantage.
AI is both one more tool in the long human history of world-making, and a novel set of capacities to be explored. While AI cannot automate creativity, it can be part of creative workflows and aid brainstorming, prototyping and ideating. CAMD faculty experiment with the benefits and limitations of using computational processes in creative and critically reflexive ways.
Upcoming events
Wed, Jan 28, 2026
12:30 — 1:30 pm
Wed, Feb 18, 2026
12:30 — 1:30 pm
Mon, Mar 16, 2026
12:00 — 1:00 pm
AI-Media Strategies Lab
The AI-Media Strategies Lab – AIMS Lab – focuses on the use of AI technologies in media industries, providing evidence-based recommendations to organizations, and producing research leveraging methods such as surveys, focus groups, experiments, and data analysis.
AI Projects Showcase
More Modality, More AI
CAMD, AI at CAMD
Computer-Supported Cooperative Work Conference 2025 <br> By Menglin Zhao
Boogaloo Bias
AI at CAMD, CAMD
Have you ever wondered how facial recognition technology succeeds so well at identifying suspects in criminal cases? The answer: It doesn’t.
Building a Visual Metaphor Machine
CAMD, AI at CAMD
What if we could take a raw dataset and harness AI to generate a portrait of the data? The Visual Metaphor Machine project is an initiative that aims to redefine the boundaries of data exploration and visualization.
AI Webinar Series
Center for Transformative Media, AI at CAMD
This webinar series examines artificial intelligence as a cultural medium rather than merely a technical tool, exploring how AI shapes communication, creativity, governance, and everyday life across diverse contexts.
Building a Visual Metaphor Machine
CAMD, AI at CAMD
What if we could take a raw dataset and harness AI to generate a portrait of the data? The Visual Metaphor Machine project is an initiative that aims to redefine the boundaries of data exploration and visualization.
AI Webinar Series
Center for Transformative Media, AI at CAMD
This webinar series examines artificial intelligence as a cultural medium rather than merely a technical tool, exploring how AI shapes communication, creativity, governance, and everyday life across diverse contexts.
More Modality, More AI
CAMD, AI at CAMD
Computer-Supported Cooperative Work Conference 2025 <br> By Menglin Zhao
Boogaloo Bias
AI at CAMD, CAMD
Have you ever wondered how facial recognition technology succeeds so well at identifying suspects in criminal cases? The answer: It doesn’t.
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AI Webinar Series
Center for Transformative Media, AI at CAMD
This webinar series examines artificial intelligence as a cultural medium rather than merely a technical tool, exploring how AI shapes communication, creativity, governance, and everyday life across diverse contexts.
More Modality, More AI
CAMD, AI at CAMD
Computer-Supported Cooperative Work Conference 2025 <br> By Menglin Zhao
Boogaloo Bias
AI at CAMD, CAMD
Have you ever wondered how facial recognition technology succeeds so well at identifying suspects in criminal cases? The answer: It doesn’t.
Building a Visual Metaphor Machine
CAMD, AI at CAMD
What if we could take a raw dataset and harness AI to generate a portrait of the data? The Visual Metaphor Machine project is an initiative that aims to redefine the boundaries of data exploration and visualization.
AI Curriculum
Specialized Program Tracks
Customized Certificates: Data Mining and Engineering; Media Industries (Journalism focus); International STEM Certificate (for F1 visa students)
Admission Process
Option to select online format based on job needs
Industry Integration
Co-op and Internship Opportunities: 20 students assigned to companies for co-ops; 3 PhD students at IBM; Remote, part-time internships
Academic Pathways
MS Degree Integration: Automatic admission into partnered MS degree; 4 credits count toward MS; Additional coursework required for full MS degree
The minor in creative computing is designed to equip students to use code as a medium for art, design, and games, focusing on the expressive, aesthetic, and reflexive dimensions of programming. It introduces students to computational forms of creative and critical thinking, bolstering Northeastern University’s offering of humanics-centered courses. Two courses are required, along with two electives. This undergraduate program is in-person and housed in the department of Art + Design (Media Arts ARTD courses)
Courses
ARTD 2340: Introduction to Computational Creative
PracticeExamines concepts of computational creative practices, focusing on the use of computational processes for the creation of interactive and generative experiences. Includes computational procedures and concepts for creative purposes such as automation, recursion, and data processing. Students use data and mathematical procedures to generate images, express ideas, and create meaning. Offers students an opportunity to gain practice-based experience with the benefits and limitations of using computational processes; make creative computational projects using code and/or other media such as photography, video, performance installation, etc.; and reflect on what computers can and cannot do well.
ARTD 3490: Data Art and Hactivism
Explores the practices and politics of data collection and processing for creative and critical output. Studies how to collect online data with and without APIs and how to process textual data using Natural Language Processing techniques. Examines the practices currently used in social web technologies by making creative projects. Addresses the ethical issues of data collection and privacy, as well as the practical, technical, and social problems that can arise during the processing of social data.
Data Creation and Literacy Courses
- JRNL 3700: Data Storytelling
- COMM 2105: Social Networks
- COMM 2510: Social Media Analytics
- ARTD 2340: Introduction to Computational Creative Practice
- ARTD 3490: Data Art and Hacktivism
- JRNL 3610: Digital Storytelling and Social Media
- MSCR 2600: Cloud, Close, (Drop)Box
- MSCR 3420: Digital Media Culture
- MUSC 2320: 40,000 Years of Music Technology
- MUSC 3352 Sounding Human
- ARTH 1001 Visual Intelligence
- ARTG 5110: Information Design History
- JRNL 1150: Understanding Today’s News
- JRNL 2350: The History of Journalism: How the News Became the News
- Data Visualization and Information Design courses (ARTG)
- Critical AI and Historical Context Courses
New AI-Focused Courses
- JRNL 6460: AI in Media Industries
- ARTG 6460: Human-Centered AI (part of the university’s Graduate Certificate in AI)
Existing Minor Programs
- Interaction Design minor (Art + Design)
- Creative Computing minor
- Creativity in Theory and Practice minor
Publications
View a curated list of essays and perspectives from CAMD faculty exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence with art, design, media, and creative practice.
Learn more about CAMD research and innovation