Aesthetics of Interaction

Fall 2017

Instructor: Dr Joëlle Bitton
joelle.bitton@zhdk.ch 

Office hours by appointment 

Class sessions include a lecture/discussion each session from 9.30-12.30. Starting in week 2 and continuing for the rest of the semester, two students will give a two-person presentation every week. 
 

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 explore 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 a two-person presentation of forty 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.

Two-person presentations 30% 

Final essay 30%

Class participation 20% 

Journal/Blog 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 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 2500-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.

• 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
   

COURSE MATERIALS 

Readings are made available in the shared IAD server.

CALENDAR

Week 1 - Wednesday, 20.09.17 Overview - The meanings of aesthetics

Week 2 - Wednesday, 27.09.17 - All over town

Week 3 - Wednesday, 04.10.17 - Play, Work, Play

Week 4 - Thursday, 12.10.17 - My Generation

Week 5 - Wednesday, 18.10.17 - Realities and Matrixes

Week 6 - Wednesday, 25.10.17 - My new friends

Week 7 - Wednesday, 22.11.17 - Living things

Week 8 - Wednesday, 29.11.17 - Disruptors and Disobedience