Mentors

Dr. Joëlle Bitton
Jürgen Späth
Dr. Antonio Scarponi

Dr. Björn Franke

Verena Ziegler
Luke Franzke
Mona Neubauer
Clemens Winkler

Deliveries and deadlines

12 December 2017, 17.00

• Statement & project disposition (2-page essay)
  Make a stand: what contribution do you want to make?

19 January 2018: BA Thesis Concept Seminar - final session

• Development of intention (5-page essay)
• Initial project prototype
  
  

20 February 2018: Kick-off semester - progress session 1, 09.30 - 12.30

• Draft thesis structure
• Background/context research (literature review and related work, situating work in relation to theory & practice, field of contribution). 
• Advanced prototype
• Choice of mentoring team

23 March 2018, 17.00

• Written thesis - fully structured and 90% completed
  
  

28 May 2018, 17.00

• BA thesis and project documentation delivered (including updates and rewrites, with final reflection on practice)
  
  

31 May 2018, 14.00-18.00

• Exhibition review with mentors
  
  

5 June 2018 (tbc), 16.00

• Exhibition Vernissage 
  
  

7 June 2018 (tbc), 10.00 - 16.00

• Practice session for BA Finals
  
  

11 June 2018 (tbc), 09.30 - 15.00

• BA Finals
  
  

13 June 2018 (tbc): 10.00 - 13.00

• BA Finals feedback session

Attendance

Attendance to all presentations and workshop is mandatory for all BA-finals candidates, unless specified.
All monthly general presentations and finals are public to all BA IAD students and friends.

Monthly group presentations

Presentation of advancement of project as well as theoretical research, together with all students and all mentors:

20 February 2018: Kick-off - Progress session 1, 09.30 - 12.30

15 March 2018: Progress session 2, 13.30 - 16.30

17 April 2018:  Progress session 3, 09.30 - 12.30

15 May 2018: Progress session 4, 09.30 - 12.30

Thesis focus workshops

5 March 2018: Thesis structure review workshop, 13.00 - 15.00

27 March 2018: Exhibition workshop, 09.30 - 12.30

12 April 2018: Thesis colloquium, 09.30 - 16.30

17 April 2018: Video workshop, 09.30 - 12.30 (optional - only for those who will make videos)

7-9 May 2018: Video Production, Photo studio Room 3H.18, Details/Timetable directly distributed by Nicole Foelsterl (optional - only for those who will make videos)

Calendar Overview

Fall 2017 Courses

• Free Flow seminars
  21 Sept 'Urban Walk'
  10 Oct 'Nature Walk/Teaching exchange'
  22 Nov 'Train Ride'
  18 Dec 'Time travel' 
  
  
• Academic Writing Workshop 
  29 Sept, 5-6 Oct, 13 Oct, 18 Dec
  
  
• BA Thesis Concept Seminar 
  8-19 January 2018

Presentation guidelines           

 
Oral Presentation style

• 5 minutes presentation time on average 
• Present in English
• NO reading cards 
• Think of your presentation as a performance: try to not learn your text by heart, but rather practice enough that you can present with a natural conversational flow
• Slides are strongly recommended - other formats are possible - please check with us beforehand
• Don’t read all the text that is present on the slides, summarize your thoughts
• Go to the point, be concise, cut the non-essential parts in your speech
• Don’t lose time describing what is presented on the screen (we can understand by looking at the slides)
• Respect the time - don’t be afraid by the “short” time - it’s plenty enough if you keep to the essence of your ideas.
  If you use these minutes well, you won’t have to rush through what you have to say. Don’t think that all you have to say matters, you can always be more concise.
  
  

Slides style

• The text should be readable (font minimum at 24 or 36 pt), in a readable colour over a readable background.
• Don’t crowd your slides with text - usually keep it to 1 strong idea = 1 slide.
• For every statistics, photo, reference, quote, statement (including your own), you need to state the complete source and date in a readable caption.
• Be careful of typos in your text
  
  

 Computer and demo ready

• Prior to the start of the class or during the break, test your computer on the room projector & sound if you need it
• 2 minutes before the current presenter is finishing, be ready to start. Any time that you’ll get your computer ready once it’s your turn, it will be discounted from your overall time. Have your slides ready on screen, do not search for them in a folder.
  Be sure your computer is charged, that a screensaver is not running, that apps such as Mail, Flux or other interruptors are not running in the background
• Have a backup of your slides on the server in case you get a computer crash
• If you present videos or sounds during the presentation, have them embedded in your presentation or make sure the external links are loaded. Limit your video excerpts to 30 seconds or 1 minute at most.
             

Structure and outline of the final presentation

• First slide should feature: Your Name, Project title, School, Department, Mentors, Date
• Second slide is stating in 1-2 short sentences: your project summary (what is it?) and why it’s ground-breaking
• Third slide: describe your project a bit further to explain how it is operating (from a technology perspective or other): what are the interactions within the project, how do users experience it? You can present here as well a very short demo of your project if relevant.
• Related work: in 1-2 slides, present works that are precedents or related.
• Related work can pertain to various categories: for instance, related work in technology you’re using, in the aesthetics, in the concept, in literature/science-fiction, in history, in art, in design, etc… It could be many categories, pick the ones that are most relevant to show on your slides and mention up to 1-2 important ones in your oral presentation. Mention how your project pushes the topic further.
• Decision-making process
  How did you make the decisions you made?
  Define the 2-3 key moments in your process.
• User-studies
  Who are your users, how did you involve them and how their input helped you make decisions for your project?
• Reflection
  Challenges and pitfalls: what you didn’t manage to do or what you could have done better
• Potential impact & future directions

Feedback/Grading/Review