If/Only: design, technology and society 2020
INTERACTION DESIGN THEORY SEMINAR 4th semester

Spring 2020

INSTRUCTORS

Stefano Vannotti, stefano.vannotti@zhdk.ch

Office hours by appointment

Class sessions include a lecture/discussion each Monday from 13.00-15.00 ZT in 4.K16 (last day in 6.F01).

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES

The seminar proposes a critical examination of political components of design as it articulates technology and society.
Design is often understood on the surface as an activity producing more or less useful or ornamental things - outside the scope of its entanglements with questions of policy, trade, labor, gender, resources, power structures. Yet, designers can hold an agenda in these matters and designed artefacts and systems can affect how people live, communicate and act. This seminar thus proposes to uncover the material dimension of politics. Through case studies, observations of situations, film excerpts, exercises, guest lectures and essays, we will look at those entanglements as well as address systems that may not seem 'designed' as such but that present components of being planned and organised for a particular purpose.

The 12 sessions of the seminar are structured around 3 sections:

Spaces, Artefacts and Politics held by Verena Ziegler
Complex Systems & Power Structures held by Dr Joëlle Bitton
by Stefano Vannotti

EXPECTATIONS AND GRADING

The seminar proposes a critical conversation, addressing political components of design and their influence on human life. Methods of discussion, observation and critical thinking are practiced throughout.
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.

Class participation 20%

In-class assignments 30%

Final Essay 50%

Any assignment that remains unfulfilled receives a failing grade.

ESSAY

The final assignment should develop a question from the topics dealt with during the semester and include these in form of a critical or argumentative essay. Start with asking a question that you can answer from arguments collected in readings and discussions.

Extent of the essay about 2500 words with references and bibliography.

The essay can be written in German or English.

Essay deadline: uploaded to the IAD server on 02.06.20. No extensions.

COURSE MATERIALS

Readings are made available in the shared IAD server.

CALENDAR & SESSIONS

Session 01 – 02.03. Spaces and Politics

Introduction of course outline

Georges Perec, “The Street,” in Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, (London: Penguin, 2008).
William H. Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, 1980; Chapter "The street" p. 54-60

Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles, BBC 1972, http://vimeo.com/22488225.

William H. Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_-nBr2MuBk.

Michel Foucault, “Der Panoptismus” in Überwachen und Strafen: Die Geburt des Gefängnisses (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2008).

Questions to answer in preparation to the seminar:

Try to map out (or highlight in the text) the Essays trajectory opinions and characteristics.

Session 02 - 09.03. Spaces

Presentations of practical exercises

Michel Foucault, “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias”, Architecture /Mouvement/ Continuité, October, 1984; (“Des Espace Autres,” March 1967 Translated from the French by Jay Miskowiec)

Didier Faustino, https://didierfaustino.com

Readings to be read in advance, preparation of presentations of observations and preparation of notes.

Session 3 - 16.03. Artifacts and Politics

Langdon Winner, “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” in The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986).
Bruno Latour, “Where are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts,” in Shaping Technology / Building Society , ed. Wiebe E. Bijker and John Law (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992).

Readings to be read in advance and preparation of notes.

Session 04 – 23.03 - The Design of Trade

Commodities & entanglement

▪ Cassandra Mark-Thiesen, “Labour Recruitment in the Nineteenth Century: The Place of Practicality” (Ch. 2). In Mediators, Contract Men, and Colonial Capital: Mechanized Gold Mining in the Gold Coast Colony, 1879-1909, University of Rochester Press, 2018.

▪ Giorgi Riello, "The Globalization of cotton textiles. Indian Cottons, Europe, and the Atlantic World, 1600–1850". In Prasannan Parthasarathi and Giorgio Riello, eds, The Spinning World: A Global History of Cotton Textiles, 1200-1850 (Oxford, 2009).

▪ Mi You. (2018). Silk Roads, Tributary Networks and Old and New Imperialism. Extra States: Nations in Liquidation. C. Edwards and i. Fokianaki. Antwerp, Kunsthal Extra City.

Readings to be read in advance and preparation of notes to be sent by Monday morning before class. You're expected to inquire about the authors and to research the background of the topics for discussion in class.

Session 05 – 06.04 - Decolonizing Technologies

SSL Nagbot. Feminist Hacking/Making: Exploring New Gender Horizons of Possibilities. The Journal of Peer Production. January 2016.
Irmgard Emmelhainz. Decolonization as the Horizon of Political Action. e-flux journal #77. November 2016.
Victor Papanek. Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, New York, Pantheon Books. 1971. (Chapter 4)
Rehema Baguma. Teaching HCI and Research in local HCI problems in Uganda: Current Status and Recommendations. HCIxB. 2017.

Readings to be read in advance and preparation of notes to be sent by Monday morning before class. You're expected to inquire about the authors and to research the background of the topics for discussion in class.

Session 06 – 06.05 Complex Systems & Power Structures

Alex Williams & Nick Srnicek. 2013. "#Accelerate: Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics". in Robin Mackay. Armen Avessian. #Accelerate: The Accelerationist Reader. Urbanomic 2014 / MIT press 2019 (pp347-362).
Louise Amoore. Algorithmic War: Everyday Geographies of the War on Terror. In Antipode Vol. 41 No. 1. 2009.
Brian Larkin. The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure. In Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2013. 42:327–43.

Readings to be read in advance and preparation of notes to be sent by Monday morning before class. You're expected to inquire about the authors and to research the background of the topics for discussion in class.

Session 07

Session 08

Session 09

Session 10

Session 11

Session 12