Lecturers
Roman Kirschner
, Florian Brugisser, Kaspar König
Guest
Theun Karelse
Timeframe
Corona update: The module takes place over 5 weeks, from 24.03.20 to 24.04.20.
Initial information before Corona curfew: The module takes place over 6 weeks, from 17.03.20 to 24.04.20, from Tuesday to Friday, 9.30-17.00 - 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 individually or in a team of three students at most.
Room
Corona update: At home 
Initial information before Corona curfew: ZT 4.K16. (on some few days: 5.K07). Additionally, we have a reservation of 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, they 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?) behavior 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 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 about intervening in complex systems. In addition, students learn how to connect spatial and conceptual complexities and structure their approach in relation to their project goals while iteratively adapting their methods. Students will work in groups and in a form of self-governed organization developed specifically for this course.
Schedule
Kickoff Q&A sesssion on Tuesday, March 24, 12:15-13:00
Zoom with Theun, Wednesday, march 25, 10:00
to be developed on the fly due to the cicurmstances.
meetings on zoom: https://zhdk.zoom.us/j/4710337215
Literature
1
: Theun Karelse: Spatial Interaction Random Forests Reader.
2: Donella Meadows: Leverage Points - Places to Intervene in a System.
3: Franinovic & Kirschner: Microbiospherians. (to come)
Technical Inputs
1
: Image & Video Processing (Blob Tracking / OpenCV)
2: Computer Vision (YOLO & Pose Estimation)
3: IoT and Communication Protocols (OSC, MIDI, MQTT)
4: Data Analysis / Sensor Networks (Data Aggregation)
Mentoring
We will prepare doodles for mentoring with time slots of different length 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
- First Concept (everybody)
- Second Stage (informal and optional – some approaches might not be presentable at this time. But if you want your project to be discussed by the whole group, present it here! Otherwise show up for a mandatory mentoring the same or the following day.)
- Final (this really counts!)