BA concept seminar structure:
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Dr Joëlle Bitton
Dr Björn Franke
Dr Antonio Scarponi
Office hours by appointment
- The module takes place over 2 weeks, from 08.01.18 to 19.01.18, from Monday to Friday, 9.30-17.00 in room 5D02 -
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- see
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- calendar below for detailed
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- sessions.
Class sessions include lectures, discussions, mentoring sessions, in-class exercises, assignments and independent study blocks.
Projects are conducted individually or with team of two students at most.
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1) Overview and Objectives
Topic summary (a paragraph explaining the topic of the course)
Objectives set for the students: learning outcomes and expected deliverables
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(2) Course Outline
Brief structure of the course or module over the semester (how the module is organised week by week or if the course is designed in 3 parts, etc)
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
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how to expand a thesis disposition towards a process of idea generation, translation
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and execution
Several exercices will allow to test out the scale of the thesis.
(2) Course Outline
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.
(3) Expectations and Grading
See Example below:
Grades will be based on
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class participation
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, 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.
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Essay 40%
Prototype 30%
Group presentations 20%
Journal Documentation 20%
Class participation 10%
Any assignment that remains unfulfilled receives a failing grade.
(5) Deliverables
See Example below:
- Oral presentations
Students must independently prepare lectures on selected texts from the week. These can be presented in different formats.
Possible presentation formats are:
- Live sketching
- Demo with prototyping
- Slides presentation
- etc.
The presentation should include a 3-pages written discussion, made available to the class and instructor by Friday 9am, prior to the day of the class to insure a general discussion.
The paper should include title, author, date, context, summary, bibliography.
Additional sources can be added to inform the discussion if necessary.
- Final Essay
The essay is a
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5-
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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
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essay expands the thesis disposition with observations and conclusions drawn from the two weeks BA concept seminar.
- Prototype
The prototype is the manifestation of your ideas into a service, a product, a method, a user's experience, etc.
- 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):
- The journal should be structured in a generally comprehensible manner
- The lecture notes, including annotations, are stored
- Notes, sketches for each lesson should be included as well
Calendar
Week 1 | Monday 8.1 | Tuesday 9.1 | Wednesday 10.1 | Thursday 11.1 | Friday 12.1 |
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Morning 9.30 - 12.30 | Brief Introduction about the module Quick Round: Presentation of Intents / Ideas Exercise 1: 20 ways of description | Exercise 2: 20 10 ways of investigation | Exercise 3: 20 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 | Exercise 5: Presentations speed roundField / 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 |
Journals
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