Harvestworks, located in New York City, has announced that it is offering a full-week, 40hr, crash course in the basics of Cycling '74's Max/MSP and Jitter, run by veteran Max programmer Dafna Naphtali, Harvestworks engineer and teacher Zachary Seldess and Harvestworks' Deputy Director Hans Tammen. The course is designed for beginners who want to get a head start with this software package. The course may be especially appealing to artists living outside of New York City who don't have the opportunity to learn Max in their own hometown and who would enjoy a week in New York City.

The cost of the course is $1200, plus $75 for the annual Harvestworks membership that is required to take the course. The courses are Mondays through Fridays 10am to 6pm. Working in the computer lab after 6pm can also be arranged. Lecture demonstrations will alternate with practice time, and some of Harvestworks' Max-savvy interns can be available to assist during practice time. Workstations with Max/MSP/Jitter will be available, but it is also recommended that you bring your own laptop. The course will provide lots of practice and sample patches. Students enrolled in Max/MSP/Jitter related classes at Harvestworks are eligible for Cycling 74's educational discount when purchasing the software. The course is limited to 10 students.

In his interview on Cycling74's website, Hans Tammen gives a few insights into Max teaching at Harvestworks.

Max Crash Course Outline:

• Day 1: The Basics: Objects vs. messages vs. comments; ordering of operations; math in Max; scaling and mapping ranges of numbers; playing sound files.
• Day 2: Basics of modular programming; live audio input; recording sound files; simple data storage.
• Day 3: Controlled chaos; useful GUI objects; more data storage; basics of synthesis.
• Day 4: Interfacing with the outside world. Overview of MIDI, the HI object (game controllers), Wii controller, the Harvestworks Sensor Station, using a Wacom tablet. Wireless Miditron. Data storage.
• Day 5: Introduction to Jitter: Jitter matrix; basic matrix processing; playing and basic manipulation of QuickTime movies; basics of Open GL.

Details:

• Dafna Naphtali / Zachary Seldess / Hans Tammen.
• Mondays through Fridays 10am to 6pm.
• Section A: March 23 through 27.
• Section B: August 31 through September 4.
• Cost: $1275 (incl. Harvestworks Membership).