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Instructor: Dr Joëlle Bitton
joelle.bitton@zhdk.ch
Office hours by appointment
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: Thursdays 12.30 - 14.00 (by appointment)
Each class session runs from 9.30-12.30. Starting in week 2 and continuing for the rest of the semester, two teams of three students will give a two-person presentation every week. a presentation in each session: one based on readings and the other one based on art and design projects. Each presentation is followed by a discussion and/or an in-class assignment.
OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES
This seminar proposes to investigate the aesthetics of interaction design and the mediation of technologies in human perceptions of the world. With notions of cultural contexts, historical overviews, and case studies, we’ll discuss the key humanities concepts of representation, action and phenomenology. The students will gain a critical perspective on the tools they use to ensure a stronger appreciation of responsibility and awareness.
The seminar will explore refer to the following aesthetic languages:
Generativity, Creative coding, Net Art, Software Art, Performative and live interventions, Public and urban interventions, Game, Virtual and Augmented Realities, Companions and Conversation agents, Speculative and Bio Design, Disruptors.
We’ll address these aesthetics from the perspective of their origins, legacies and influence on everyday mainstream tools.
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From the second week, each course will be structured around a two -person presentation presentations of forty thirty minutes each and class discussions, with occasionally an additional lecture from the instructor or guest lecturer.
Two sessions will be led within the module Soft Architecture.
EXPECTATIONS AND GRADING
Grades will be based on the oral and written presentations and on class participation. 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.
Two-person presentations 30% Readings-based presentation 20%
Projects-based presentation 20%
Final essay 30%
Class participation 20% Journal/Blog 20%
Any assignment that remains unfulfilled receives a failing grade.
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The presentation should include a 3-pages written discussion, made available to the class and instructor by Friday Monday 9am , prior to the day of the class to insure a general discussion.
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- Final Essay
The essay is a final 25003000-words 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).
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The paper should be written in English.
- Journal/Blog
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):
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COURSE MATERIALS
Readings are made available in the shared IAD server.
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Week 1 - Wednesday, 20.09.17 Overview - The meanings of aesthetics- Aesthetics
Reading:
Hartmann, Klemmer, Takayama. 2006. How Bodies Matter: Five Themes for Interaction Design. In DIS 2006.
Week 2 - Wednesday, 27.09.17 - All over town- Action
Readings:
Dourish P. 2001. "Being-in-the-World: Embodied lnteraction". In Where the Action is, The Foundations of Embodied lnteraction. MIT Press. 127-144.
Kirsh, Maglio, "On Distinguishing Epistemic from Pragmatic Action" (lntroduction and "Epistemic uses of rotation")
Topics:
- Public Space
- Performance
Week 3 - Wednesday, 04.10.17 - Soft Architecture IInstability
Week 5 - Wednesday, 18.10.17 - Soft Architecture Instability II
Week 6 - Wednesday, 25.10.17 - Realities and Matrixes / My new generation Systems
Readings:
Burnham, Jack. 1969. “Systems and Art”. In Arts in Society. 6:2. University of Wisconsin, Summer/Fall 1969. 194-204.
Ackermann, Edith K. “Programming for the Natives: What is it? What’s In It for the Kids?”. In Child Research Net, Japan. September 28, 2012.
Topics:
- Net Art, Software Art
- Blockchain
Week 7 - Tuesday Wednesday, 1.11.17 - Play, Work, Play Matrix
Lindtner, Silvia, Bardzell, S. & Bardzel, J. 2016. “Reconstituting the Utopian Vision of Making: HCI After Technosolutionism”. In CHI ‘16.
Foucault, Michel, Martin, L. H., Gutman, H., & Hutton, P. H. 1988. Technologies of the self. A seminar with Michel Foucault. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Topic 1 Game & Realities
Topic 2 Artificial Intelligence
Week 7 - Wednesday, 22.11.17 - My new friends / Living things- Materiality
Text 1 Susanne Kuchler: "Technological Materiality Beyond the Dualist Paradigm" (up to p. 11)
Text 2 Form_and_Relation_-Materialism_on_an_Unc
Topic 1 Wearables
Topic 2 Smart City
Essay Proposal Deadline:
You'll present in class your essay proposal (3mn) which should include: the topic area with reference to literature, an abstract of approx. 8-10 sentences, and your rough structure / structure of the essay in key points.
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Week 8 - Wednesday, 29.11.17 - Disruptors and Disobedience
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Disruption
Text 1 Joey / Bettelheim
Text 2 Garnet Herz book
Topic 1 Bio Hacking
Topic 2 Disobedience
Essay Deadline: 8 December 2017 (sent by an email)