Fall 2017
Instructor: Dr Joëlle Bitton
joelle.bitton@zhdk.ch
Office hours: 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 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 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.
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 Monday 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 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 and proposed by Week 8 in the form of a short paragraph (100 words) explaining the topic and the questions at stake. I will inform the student if the topic is accepted in that week. The final essay has to be submitted by Week 12.
The paper should be written in English.
COURSE MATERIALS
Readings are made available in the shared IAD server.
CALENDAR
Week 1 - Wednesday, 20.09.17 - Aesthetics
Reading:
Hartmann, Klemmer, Takayama. 2006. How Bodies Matter: Five Themes for Interaction Design. In DIS 2006.
Week 2 - Wednesday, 27.09.17 - 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 - Instability
Week 5 - Wednesday, 18.10.17 - Instability II
Week 6 - Wednesday, 25.10.17 - 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 - Wednesday, 1.11.17 - 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 - 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.
Week 8 - Wednesday, 29.11.17 - 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)