Technology A Studio, Fall 2019
Class description, excerpted from full syllabus:
To define technology, and therefore what we intend to study in this course, is mostly a futile endeavor. The definition is constantly changing to align with the present culture at the time of question, and with the orientation of the individual or group developing the definition. A classic example: the printing press and the sheets of writing it produced was once considered a cutting edge technological tool, whereas today physical books are increasingly passed over in favor of digital information in the form of images and sounds as well as words, which is widely accessible beyond barriers of space or time.
From this line of thought, we could refer loosely to technology as one or several system(s), composed of actors utilizing one or several tool(s), in order to satisfy a unique goal, intention, or desire. What that system looks like, and the number and nature of the actors, tools, and intent that make up that system, can vary widely, perhaps infinitely.
This ever evolving and interpretive definition of technology is the inspiration for this section of Technology A. Over the course of this semester, we will develop a theoretical and historical understanding — or at least framework of questioning — of technology as a system made of various kinds of users, tools, and flows of interactivity. After first mapping out what this system might look like, we will then delve into the system and explore its functionality from the point of view of one of its compositional elements to investigate it from a more subjective and sentient standpoint. Finally we will then challenge that very understanding, utilizing a design approach that may be speculative, dystopian, counterproductive, or other.
That is the plan. However, the goals of this class are to support and nurture your own unique approaches to design and research. So I hope to treat this syllabus, and thus the framework of the class generally, as a type of living document that responds to and interacts with the class’s interests and needs.
Reading list:
Alex Libergesell, “Technology, Design, and Convergence”Bernard Tschumi, Six Concepts
Alexander Galloway, The Unworkable Interface
Benjamin Bratton, The Black Stack
Bernard Tschumi, Manhattan Project
Chaos Design
Christian Nold, Biomapping
dana boyd, “Socially Mediated Publicness”
Giorgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec, Dear Data
Janet Cardiff, Walks (video, information)
Kevin Kelly, Remixing
Multiple, I Read Where I Am: Exploring New Information Cultures
Noortje Marres, “There is Drama in Networks”
Nora Kahn, “Seeing, Naming, Knowing”
Roy Ascott, “Is There Love in the Telematic Embrace?”
Ruben Pater, The Politics of Design: A (Not so) Global Manual for Visual Communication
Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology, Introduction
Subjective Atlas of Palestine
The Informed Life Podcast, Jeff Susna on Cybernetics
Tiziana Terranova, “Network Dynamics”
Umberto Eco, “The Encyclopedia of the Labyrinth”
Cross-Disciplinary Design Studio, Spring 2020
*to come