Spatial Interaction FS2023

Lecturers

Dr. Roman Kirschner
 (RK), Luke Franzke (LF), Paulina Zybinska (PZ), Anthea Oestreicher (AO)

Guest

Andrea Zaccuri & Lorenzo Fassi: lecture in the framework of Interfacing Ecologies and our seminar about Terrapreta, Milano (IT).

Timeframe

The module takes place over 6 weeks, from 2. May to 9. June 2023 from Tuesday to Friday, 9.00-17.00 - see timetable below for detailed hours and classrooms. Class sessions include lectures, discussions, mentoring sessions, in-class exercises, assignments and independent study blocks. Projects are conducted in a team of four students at most.

Room

The seminar starts in 5.K10. The rest of the week we are in Viaduktraum (2.A05), yet, we will spend a lot of time at Stadionbrache and on excursion. During the whole seminar we can also use the Praxis Poolraum in the Werkstatt Modellbau Projekte ZT 2.E20-UU.

Overview and Objectives

The module 'Spatial Interaction' challenges students to deepen their practical and conceptual knowledge of human interactions in their immediate surroundings. Starting from a location in Zurich where public life and „tamed nature“ overlap, students will develop spatio-technical frameworks for situated interactions. The student projects will connect people and environmental processes with the aim of investigating local impacts of urban (or everyday?) behaviour as well as long-distance effects of individual actions. They will learn how to interface the present mesocosm (collecting environmental data, identifying relationships) and how to anticipate/experiment with advanced techniques like remote sensing or machine vision. Designing in such situations requires the development of strategies for public outreach and communication as well as basic knowledge of intervening in complex systems. Students will work in groups and in a form of self-governed organization.

Groups: 

1. Cheredeeva Victoria, Praxmarer Luis, Sutherland Matilda, Cowley Sonja

2. Galliker Manami, Muniz Gomes Wägli Lyvia, Good Carina, Kemper Lito

3. Linares Burbat Claudio, Eggstein Benjamin, Lohmann Audrey-Meret

4. Orfanou Antonia, Ascic Lukman, Hommel Loïc, Bischoff Lea

5. Vita Francesca, PJ Nanthatchaporn, Naegeli Matthias, Walther Elena

Schedule

Literature

1. Donella Meadows: Leverage Points - Places to Intervene in a System.

2. Debra Solomon and Caroline Nevejan: Soil in the city - The Socio-Environmental Substrate.

3. María Puig de la Bellacasa: Soil Times - The Pace of Ecological Care.

4. Meredith Sattler, Carolina Rodriguez. Translating Ecological Systems Models into Generative, Real-Time, Form-Based Visualizations.

5. Georges Perec: Träume von Räumen (Auszug dt.), Espèces d'espace (extrait fr.). (via email)

6. Natasha Myers: A Kria for Cultivating your Inner Plant.

7. Bourdieu, Pierre (1989) Sozialer Raum, symbolischer Raum. In: Dünne J., Raumtheorie - Grundlagentexte aus Philosophie und Kulturwissenschaften, Suhrkamp 2006, 354-368. (via email)

8. Franinovic & Kirschner: Microbiospherians. (via email)

Further Reading

1. Morton E. O'Kelly: Spatial Interaction.

2. Baccini, et. al.(2012) Metabolism of the Anthroposphere: Analysis, Evaluation, Design, MIT Press

3. González de Molina, Manuel, et al. (2014) The Social Metabolism: A Socio-Ecological Theory of Historical Change, Springer

4. Gillian Barker et al.: Entangled Life. Organism and Environment in the Biological and Social Sciences. (2014)

5. Jakob von Uexüll: Streifzüge durch die Umwelten von Tieren und Menschen. Ein Bilderbuch unsichtbarer Welten. (1956)

6. Massey, Doreen (2009) Concepts of space and power in theory and in political practice, Documents d'anàlisi geogràfica 55, 15-26

7. Mol, Arthur P. J., et al. (2018) Zur Umweltsoziologie der Netzwerke und Flows. In: Groß M. (ed) Handbuch Umweltsoziologie. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 140–153

8. Nelson, Mark (2018) Pushing our limits: Insights from Biosphere 2, University of Arizona Pres

Technical Inputs

Please have a look at the special page about Computer Vision from Bits & Atoms IV.

Mentoring

We will prepare doodles for mentoring with time slots of different lengths depending on the progress of the overall project. Reserve your slot and try to be on time. Questions can be asked anytime – also via email.

Presentations

1. Exercise Results (Spatialize, Vegetalize, Leverage Points) (5.5.)

2. Concept (16.5.)

3. Milestone presentation prototype 1 (26.5.)

4. Vernissage (7.6.)