Instructors:
Dr Joëlle Bitton
Dr Björn Franke
Dr Antonio Scarponi
Office hours by appointment
(1) Overview and Objectives
Students will develop a conceptual and practical exploration for their final BA thesis and present the experience they aim to create in the form of a 5-page essay, a blog documenting the 2-weeks progress and a prototype.
The concept seminar addresses notions in preparation for their final thesis work:
- what does it mean to make a statement, a contribution
- how to expand a thesis disposition towards a process of idea generation, translation and execution
Several exercices will allow to test out the scale of the thesis.
The 2 weeks are divided into two parts: an investigative week with quick exercises and iterations, and a second week with more independent work where students can advance their prototypes, engage in field study and test out some ideas.
See below for a detailed calendar.
Grades will be based on class participation, documentation (journal), essay and final work.
Contributing to constructive group feedback is an essential aspect of class participation.
Regular attendance is required. Two or more unexcused absences will affect the final grade. Arriving late on more than one occasion will also affect the grade.
Essay 40%
Prototype 30%
Journal Documentation 20%
Class participation 10%
Any assignment that remains unfulfilled receives a failing grade.
The essay is a 5-page essay with a diversity of sources and bibliography (classified by genre: book, book chapter, journal article, conference article, academic thesis, newspaper article, web article, etc).
The essay expands the thesis disposition with observations and conclusions drawn from the two weeks BA concept seminar.
The prototype is the manifestation of your ideas into a service, a product, a method, a user's experience, etc.
A separate 'Journal' is developed by each student that reflects on learnings from the seminar. It should be in the form of an online blog (ie. WordPress, Tumblr or other):
| Week 1 | Monday 8.1 | Tuesday 9.1 | Wednesday 10.1 | Thursday 11.1 | Friday 12.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morning 9.30 - 12.30 | Brief Introduction about the module Quick Round: Presentation of Intents / Ideas Exercise 1: 20 ways of description | Exercise 2: 10 ways of investigation | Exercise 3: 10 ways of manifestation | Individual Discussions | Ad-hoc lecturers presentations based on student projects |
| Afternoon 13.30 - 17.00 | Follow-up: Pick 2-3 and develop | Follow-up: Pick 2-3 and develop | Follow-up: Pick 2-3 and develop | Individual Discussions | Exercise 4: Situate |
| Week 2 | Monday 15.1 | Tuesday 16.1 | Wednesday 17.1 | Thursday 18.1 | Friday 19.1 |
| Morning 9.30 - 12.30 | Mid-Presentation: where are you now? what is your road map? | Field / Practice Study | Field / Practice Study | Field / Practice Study | Final Presentations: progress and 'pretotype' |
| Afternoon 13.30 - 17.00 | Field / Practice Study | Field / Practice Study | Mentoring (on request) | Field / Practice Study | 17.00 5-page essay deliveries |
Gabriel Bach
http://salemoche.ch/BA/
Alexander Blaschek
tinytako.tumblr.com
Severin Candrian
http://severin-candrians-ba-thesis-blog.webflow.io/
Adonis Bou Chakra
https://medium.com/@adonis.bouchakra
Nadine Cocina
https://nadineinteraction.tumblr.com/
Andreas Dobler
Lara Hänny
https://voces.squarespace.com/config/
Colin Lüönd
http://colinluond.ch/ba
Fernando Obieta and Claudio Rainolter
http://ba-konzept.blanktree.ch/
Mariana Pote
https://www.madeinnosense.org/journal/
Nadine Prigann
http://npbathesis.webflow.io/
Kyra Richner
https://maudekyrariiad.tumblr.com/
Fabrice Spahn
http://fabrices-thesis-blog.webflow.io/
Ramona Sprenger
https://definingcoexistence.tumblr.com
Jonatan Wetter
https://conceptseminar.wordpress.com