Fall 2020
Lecturer: Dr Roman Kirschner
roman.kirschner@zhdk.ch
NEEDS UPDATE! IN WORK!
ABSTRACT
COURSE OUTLINE
The class usually takes place on Mondays, from 8.30-10.30, on Zoom. Please pay attention to the schedule as there might be some exceptions. In each session two teams of two students will give a presentation: 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. Each student has to write a final essay based on a topic chosen by the student in relation to a class assignment and his/her practical work in the seminar 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.
Readings-based presentation 25%
Projects-based presentation 25%
Final essay 30%
Class participation 20%
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 reading-based presentation should include a 2-pages written discussion, made available to the class and instructor via email three days prior to the day of the class to ensure 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 presentation should be around 20 min (if there are 2 presentations/class and less in case there are more presentations/class).
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? - The presentation should be around 10 min (max 15 min.).
Final Essay
The essay is a final 1500-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 Class 8 in half a written page explaining the topic and the questions at stake, and in the form of presentation (1min) to the class. The final essay has to be submitted by Monday, December 9.
The paper can be written in English or German.
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
(NOTE: ideal wäre ein Termin für Einleitung, 8 Termin mit jeweils 2 Texten + 2 Case Studie Präsentationen, 1 Termin zur Vorbereitung der Essays mit Präsentation der Themen
Class 1 - 21.9. - Introduction
Class 2 - 5.10. - Bodies and Spaces
Class 3 - 12.10. - Material and Environmental Dynamics
Class 4 - 19.10. - Systems and Environments
Class 5 - 26.10. - Services and Infrastructure
Class 6 - 2.11. - Anthropocene
Class 7 - 9.11. - Wavescapes
Class 8 - 16.11. - Cybernetics: Conversation and Fabrics
Class 9 - 23.11. - Introduction to data and data literacy
Class 10 - 30.11. - Artificial Intelligence
Class 11 - 7.12. - Dopamine Economy + Surveillance Capitalism
Class 12 - 14.12. - Essay preparation
Personal feedback on your final essays will be given on January 15, 2020.
DESCRIPTION of the TOPICS and texts in the individual CLASSES
Class 1 - 21.9. - Introduction
Introduction to the course, explanation and organisation of tasks/dates
Guidelines for writing the final essay
Class 2 - Wednesday, 5.10. - Bodies and Spaces
Readings:
a) Hartmann, Klemmer, Takayama. 2006. "How Bodies Matter: Five Themes for Interaction Design". In DIS 2006.
b) Situated interaction / situated cognition (the 10 commandments of ecological psychology
presented by tbc
Project Topics:
- Multisensory spatial experiences
- Haptics and Space
- Sensing through scales (micro-meso-macro)
presented by tbc
Class 3 - Thursday, 12.10.- Systems and Environments
Readings:
a) Burnham, Jack. 1969. "Systems and Art". In Arts in Society. 6:2. University of Wisconsin, Summer/Fall 1969. 194-204.
b) Sprenger, Florian. 2019. "Epistemologien des Umgebens: Zur Geschichte, Ökologie und Biopolitik künstlicher environments". 9-30.
presented by tbc
Project Topics:
- Human-Environment Interactions
- Temporary spaces
- Outdoor Interventions
presented by tbc
Class 4 - Friday, 19.10. - Material and Environmental Dynamics
Readings:
a) Pickering, Andrew. 2013. "Being in an environment: a performative perspective". Natures Sciences Sociétés 21. 77-83.
b) Ingold, Tim. 2008. "Bringing Things to Life. Creative Entanglements in a World of Materials".
presented by tbc
Project Topics:
- Sourcing materials
- Material-Environment Interactions
- Artificial weather systems
presented by tbc
Class 5 - Saturday, 26.10. - Services and Infrastructure
Readings:
a) Starosielski, Nicole. 2012. "Warning: Do Not Dig’: Negotiating the Visibility of Critical Infrastructures." Journal of Visual Culture. 11:1. April 2012. 38–57.
b) Klinenberg, Eric. 2018. AUSSCHNITT. Palaces for the people. ??-??
presented by tbc
Project Topics:
- Speculative service design
- Biological services
presented by tbc
Class 6 - Monday, 2.11. - Anthropocene
Readings:
a) Latour, Bruno. 2018. "Das terrestrische Manifest". 21-25, 35-68.
b) I) Gombiner, Joel. 2011. "Carbon Footprinting the Internet“. In Consilience: "The Journal of Sustainable Development“. Vol. 5. 119-124
II) "‘Tsunami of data’ could consume one fifth of global electricity by 2025“. view article online
III) Cook, Gary. 2017. "Clicking clean: Who is winning the race to build a green internet?". view article online
presented by tbc
Project Topics:
- Energy low design
- Anthropocene (art & design)
presented by tbc
Class 7 - Monday, 9.11. - Wavescapes
Readings:
a) Husokawa, Shuhei. 1984. "The Walkman Effect". In Popular Music. 4. Performers and Audiences. 165-180.
b) I) Hessler, Stefanie. 2018. "Tidalectics: Imagining an Oceanic World view through Art and Science“. In Hessler (ed.). "Tidalectics". 31-34,43.
II) Tamatoa Bambridge and Stephanie Leyronas. 2018. "The Polynesian Rahui and Global Issues of Climate". In Hessler (ed.). "Tidalectics". 133-141.
or some introduction to Sonic Interaction Design from Karmen's book.
presented by tbc
Project Topics:
- Sound Art/Design
- The Commons
presented by tbc
Class 8 - Monday, 21.10. - Cybernetics: Conversation and Fabrics
Readings:
a) Pask, Gordon: A comment, a case history and a plan, in REICHARDT, Jasia (Hrsg.): Cybernetics, Art, and Ideas, New York Graphics Society 1971, 76–99
b) Beer, Stafford. 1962. "Progress Note on Research into a Cybernetic Analogue of Fabric", in Harnden, R. et al. (Eds.). 1994. "How many grapes went into the wine. Stafford Beer on the art and science of holistic management". 25–32.
presented by tbc
Project Topics:
- Responsive Environments
- Non-human conversation
presented by tbc
Don't forget on this date, 21.10 : hand in (half a written page) and present (1min) your proposal for the final essay!
Class 9 - Monday, 4.11. - Introduction to data and data literacy
Readings:
a) Economist, T. (2017). The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. The Economist: New York, NY, USA.
b) Nick Barrowman (2018): Why data is never raw (The New Atlantis, Summer/Fall edition: 129-135)
presented by tbc
Class 10 - Friday, 8.11. - Artificial Intelligence
Readings:
a) The Power of Self-Learning Systems - IAS - Demis Hassabis:
b) TBC Lovejoy - Novacene?
presented by tbc
Class 11 - Friday, 15.11. - Dopamine Economy + Surveillance Capitalism
Readings:
a) The Great Hack: the film that goes behind the scenes of the Facebook data scandal - Netflix - oder Guardian artikel..?
b) Has dopamine got us hooked on tech? | Technology | The Guardian / Simon Parkin
presented by tbc