BA Thesis Concept Seminar

BA concept seminar structure:

Instructors:

Dr Joëlle Bitton
Dr Björn Franke
Dr Antonio Scarponi
Office hours by appointment

The module takes place over 2 weeks, from 08.01.18 to 19.01.18, from Monday to Friday, 9.30-17.00 in room 5D02 - see calendar below for detailed sessions.
Class sessions include lectures, discussions, mentoring sessions, in-class exercises, assignments and independent study blocks.
Projects are conducted individually or with team of two students at most.

(1) Overview and Objectives

Students will develop a conceptual and practical exploration for their final BA thesis and present the experience they aim to create in the form of a 5-page essay, a blog documenting the 2-weeks progress and a prototype.

The concept seminar addresses notions in preparation for their final thesis work:

- what does it mean to make a statement, a contribution
- how to expand a thesis disposition towards a process of idea generation, translation and execution

Several exercices will allow to test out the scale of the thesis.

(2) Course Outline

The 2 weeks are divided into two parts: an investigative week with quick exercises and iterations, and a second week with more independent work where students can advance their prototypes, engage in field study and test out some ideas.

See below for a detailed calendar.

(3) Expectations and Grading

Grades will be based on class participation, documentation (journal), essay and final work.
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.

Essay 40%

Prototype 30%

Journal Documentation 20%

Class participation 10%

Any assignment that remains unfulfilled receives a failing grade.

(5) Deliverables

Final Essay

The essay is a 5-page 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 essay expands the thesis disposition with observations and conclusions drawn from the two weeks BA concept seminar.

Prototype

The prototype is the manifestation of your ideas into a service, a product, a method, a user's experience, etc.

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

Calendar

Week 1	Monday 8.1	Tuesday 9.1	Wednesday 10.1	Thursday 11.1	Friday 12.1
Morning 9.30 - 12.30	Brief Introduction about the module Quick Round: Presentation of Intents / Ideas Exercise 1: 20 ways of description	Exercise 2: 10 ways of investigation	Exercise 3: 10 ways of manifestation	Individual Discussions	Ad-hoc lecturers presentations based on student projects
Afternoon 13.30 - 17.00	Follow-up: Pick 2-3 and develop	Follow-up: Pick 2-3 and develop	Follow-up: Pick 2-3 and develop	Individual Discussions	Exercise 4: Situate
Week 2	Monday 15.1	Tuesday 16.1	Wednesday 17.1	Thursday 18.1	Friday 19.1
Morning 9.30 - 12.30	Mid-Presentation: where are you now? what is your road map?	Field / Practice Study	Field / Practice Study	Field / Practice Study	Final Presentations: progress and 'pretotype'
Afternoon 13.30 - 17.00	Field / Practice Study	Field / Practice Study	Mentoring (on request)	Field / Practice Study	17.00 5-page essay deliveries