Lecturers

Dr. Roman Kirschner
, Verena Ziegler and 
Joël Gähwiler

Guest

Kaspar König

Timeframe

The module takes place over 5 weeks, from 19.02.18 to 22.03.18, 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

ZT 4.K15. The room is only ours every tuesday until friday. There will be theory classes in this seminar room every monday, so leave the space in perfect condition on friday evening!

Additionally, we have a "sub"-reservation of the Modellbauwerkstatt from the 7.3 until the 29.3. Those who have access can work there at a small capacity.

Overview and Objectives

The module 'Spatial Interaction' engages students with the notion of space from a specific metabolic perspective: we will look at Toni as if it was an organism with specific needs for its daily survival. This includes physical aspects like e.g. energy supply, food consumption, waste disposal, streams of people, but also processes in the domain of information, like internal and external communication, knowledge about its states, maintaining conceptual boundaries and transfers, directing internal and external perceptions, etc.., and last but not least social aspects like e.g. who uses the building and benefits from it and who is enabling the services and deals with which sort of tools, energies and information.

Given the complexitiy of Toni-Areal as a building and ZHdK with its different art disciplines, departments and administrational units, it is necessary to pick the right level of observation/intervention. This zone of interest could encompass ZHdK as a whole, just deal with a "Fachrichtung", focus on public spaces/corners/corridors/back alleys etc., specific events (SAR conference, workshop, etc.) or periods during the day (sunrise, coffee break, etc.), specific rooms (Aula, theater spaces) and so on.

Students most of all learn about the constraints of working in and with public space and the tools/methods to track people's interactions and environmental changes. In addition, they learn how to connect spatial and conceptual complexities and structure their approach in relation to their project goals while iteratively adapting their methods.

Schedule 8 (!!! STILL IN PREPARATION !!!)

Phase 0: Kick-off, Inputs

Phase 1: Research, Idea Finding, First-tests, Group Building

Phase 2: Prototyping, Construction, Real-World-Application/Interventions, Iterations for Improvement

Phase 3: Preparation of the final presentation/Exhibition

Phase 4: Feedback, Analysis, Documentation

Kick-Off

• Presentation of the topic
• Examples
• Explanation of the structure of the course (how are practical, conceptual and technical layers interwoven?)
• Discussion of the challenges ahead

Conceptual Inputs

1. Introduction
   1. Approaches: Networks/Flows vs. Metabolism
   2. Space of everything?
   3. Navigating complexity, social space and its implication
2. Biosphere 2 and its meshwork of diverse performances
   1. Example of explorative, spatial research in complex environment
   2. Relationship Ecosystem-Technology
   3. "Innerview Effect"
   4. Relationship Projection-Performance
   5. Learning from experience in total immersion

Technological Inputs

1. Image & Video Processing (Blob Tracking): 1/2 Tag
2. Computer Vision (Open CV & Open Pose): 1/2+ Tag
3. Communication Protocols (OSC, MIDI, MQTT) 1/4 Tag
4. Sensor Networks (Data Aggregation) 1/4+ Tag

Exercises

1. Extended Conceptual Speed-Dating
2. Spatial Analysis
3. Space-Activity-Matrix

Mentoring

We will prepare doodles for the indicated mentoring days 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. Attention: One block of mentoring (March 12-13)  is mandatory! On these two days each group or individual has to come to at least one mentoring session.

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 come to the mandatory mentoring the same afternoon or the following day.)
• Final (this really counts!)

Literature

Bourdieu, Pierre (1989) Sozialer Raum, symbolischer Raum. In: Dünne J., Raumtheorie - Grundlagentexte aus Philosophie und Kulturwissenschaften, Suhrkamp 2006, 354-368

Flusser, Vilém (1991) Räume. In: Dünne 2006, 274-258

González de Molina, Manuel, et al. (2014) The Social Metabolism: A Socio-Ecological Theory of Historical Change, Springer

Mol, Arthur P. J., et al. (2018) Zur Umweltsoziologie der Netzwerke und Flows. In: Groß M. (ed) Handbuch Umweltsoziologie. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 140–153

Nelson, Mark, Pushing our limits, University of Arizona Press

Perec, Georges (1997) Species of Spaces, Penguin

Reider, Rebecca (2009) Dreaming of the Biosphere: the theater of all possibilities, University of New Mexico Press

Weinstock, Mark (2013) System City: Infrastructure and the Space of Flows, Architectural Design 224

Whyte, William H. (1980) The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, Project for Public Spaces

Zabel, Bernd, et al. (1999) Construction and engineering of a created environment: Overview of the Biosphere 2 closed system, Ecological Engineering 13, 43–63