Fall 2018
Instructor: Dr Joëlle Bitton
joelle.bitton@zhdk.ch
Guest Lecturer: Verena Ziegler
verena.ziegler@zhdk.ch
Teaching Assistant
martin.dusek@zhdk.ch
Office hours: Thursdays 12.30 - 14.00 (by appointment)
Each class session runs on Mondays, from 8.30-10.30, in room 4K11. Starting in week 2 and continuing for the rest of the semester, two teams of two students will give 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 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.
COURSE OUTLINE
From the second week, each course will be structured around two presentations of twenty minutes each and class discussions, with occasionally an additional lecture from the instructor or guest lecturer.
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.
Readings-based presentation 20%
Projects-based presentation 20%
Final essay 30%
Class participation 20%
Any assignment that remains unfulfilled receives a failing grade.
ASSIGNMENTS
- 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
- Classic Slides presentation
- etc.
The presentation should include a 3-pages written discussion, made available to the class and instructor by Friday 12pm 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.
The reading-based presentation should include answers to these questions: who are the authors? where do they work? what concepts do they propose? what year was the document published? what was the context at the time of publication? what are other contemporary theorists and practitioners perspectives on the authors proposal? what influence did the proposal have? what was your research process to go over your findings? how can you apply the proposed ideas in your design work or others' design work? how can you challenge the ideas presented?
The project-based presentation should include at least 5 projects illustrating each topic, that are gender-balanced, from various countries of origin. Projects can be taken in design, art, ethnography, science and other disciplines. What 'taxonomy' can you provide to categorize the 5+ projects? How these 5+ projects help get a sense of the field that you're presenting? How do they relate to the topic of the week and the readings of that week?
- Final Essay
The essay is a final 3000-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).
The topic of the essay is chosen by the student in relation to a class assignment and proposed by Week 8 in half a written page explaining the topic and the questions at stake, and in the form of presentation (1mn) to the class. The final essay has to be submitted by December 17.
The paper should be written in English.
COURSE MATERIALS
Readings are made available in the shared IAD server per session.
Additional readings can be proposed to underline a particular aspect and should be considered.
CALENDAR
Week 1 - Monday, 01.10.18 - Aesthetics
Lecture: Historical overview I - Screens 1994-2007
Discussion around words: phenomenology, ontology, epistemology, gestalt, aesthetics, hermeneutics, experience
Reading:
- Hartmann, Klemmer, Takayama. 2006. "How Bodies Matter: Five Themes for Interaction Design". In DIS 2006.
Week 2 - Monday, 08.10.18 - Actions
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")
by
Project Topic:
- Performance & Activism
by
Week 3 - Monday, 15.10.18 - Your place in the world
Readings:
Lindtner, Silvia, Bardzell, S. & Bardzel, J. 2016. “Reconstituting the Utopian Vision of Making: HCI After Technosolutionism”. In CHI ‘16.
Suchman, Lucy. 2011. "Anthropological Relocations and the Limits of Design". In Annual Review of Anthropology. 40:1–18.
by
Project Topic:
- Private & Public Space
by
Week 4 - Monday, 22.10.18 - Systems
Readings:
Bown, Oliver, Gemeinboeck, P. and Saunders, R. 2014. "The Machine as Autonomous Performer" in L. Candy and S. Ferguson (eds.), Interactive Experience in the Digital Age: Evaluating New Art Practice, Springer Series on Cultural Computing, pp.75-90.
Burnham, Jack. 1969. “Systems and Art”. In Arts in Society. 6:2. University of Wisconsin, Summer/Fall 1969. 194-204.
by
Project Topic:
- Net Art & Software Art (incl.Blockchain)
by
Week 5 - Monday, 29.10.18 - Materiality
Lecture: Verena Ziegler
Readings:
Susanne Kuchler. "Technological Materiality Beyond the Dualist Paradigm"
Hui, Yuk. 2014. “Form and Relation. Materialism on an Uncanny Stage”. In Intellectica. 1:61. 105-121.
by
Project Topics:
- Wearables & Material research
by
Week 6 - Monday, 05.11.18 - The Cyborg in me
Readings:
Bettelheim, Bruno. 1959. “Joey: A ‘Mechanical Boy,’” in Scientific American, March 1959, 116–127.
Nass, C and Moon, Y. 2000. "Machines and Mindlessness: Social Responses to Computers", in Journal of Social Issues. 56:1. 81-103.
by
Project Topics:
- Artificial Intelligence
by
Week 7 - Monday, 12.11.18 - Trafic
Excerpt from Jacques Tati. Trafic. 1971.
The Walkman Effect
Starosielski, Nicole. “Warning: Do Not Dig’: Negotiating the Visibility of Critical Infrastructures.” Journal of Visual Culture 11, no. 1 (April 1, 2012): 38–57.
by
Topics:
- Sonic Art
- Smart Cities
by
Week 8 - Monday, 19.11.18 - Modern Times
Lecture: Historical overview II - Modern Times
Movie excerpt: The Clock
Turner, Fred. 2005. "Where the Counterculture Met the New Economy: The WELL and the Origins of Virtual Community". In Society for the History of Technology.
Youngblood, Gene. 1970. Expanded Cinema. P. Dutton&Co, Inc. Excerpt.
--- no student presentation --
Session runs in parallel with Design History seminar 1st semester. Room change.
Essay Proposal Deadline:
On half-page, present the topic area with reference to literature, an abstract of approx. 8-10 sentences, and the rough structure of the essay in key points. You'll present in class your essay proposal in a couple sentences (1mn each).
Week 9 - Monday, 26.11.18 - Matrix
Readings:
Nick Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter, G. 2009. "Immaterial Labor: A Workers’ History of Videogaming" in Games of Empire : Global capitalism and Video Games. Univ. of Minnesota Press.
Irani, Lilly C., and M. Six Silberman. 2013. “Turkopticon: Interrupting Worker Invisibility in Amazon Mechanical Turk.” In CHI ’13.
by
Topics:
- Game & Realities
by
Week 10 - Monday, 03.12.18 - The Body
Readings:
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. pp16-39.
Malafouris, Lambros. 2008. "At the Potter’s Wheel: An Argument for Material Agency" in C. Knappett, L. Malafouris (eds.). Material Agency. Springer Science+Business Media.
by
Topic:
- Bio Hacking & DIY medicine
by
Week 11 - Monday, 10.11.18 - Disruption
Readings:
Feynman, Richard F. 1960. “There’s plenty of room at the bottom”. In Engineering and Science Magazine. 23. February 1960. 22–36.
Hip Hop 2.0
by
Topic:
- Disobedience
by
Week 12 - Monday, 17.12.18 - Hacking Values
Seminar. Program tba.
No student presentation.
Essay Deadline: 17 December 2018 (posted on IAD server)