How We Unravel the Code

Where are we? And where we will go? has become a considerable issue faced by all, including the craft, design and art field. We are, and the world is coming apart at the seams and we have to reposition ourselves and start mending, appreciating our limits and fragility of the world we inhabit from the natural, social, political to the technological world. To change our modes of thinking with the necessary transformation of a new economy, a just society, healing the deep social fractures, we have to activate a community of Creative Change Makers. Think about using designing as a ‘verb’- as a dynamic action learning for change making in a complex world, and approach it as an evolutionary process.

“In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You are trying to create a new model and make the old one obsolete.” ― Buckminster R. Fuller


09/30 · IN CLASS

4:00-5:00 PM EST

6:00-9:00 PM EST

*Setting up your Creative Process Journal (CPJ), email Chauncey Zhang xzhang03@mica.edu with questions.

  • CPJ Requirements
    • Results of in class-workshops, reflections and research
    • Weekly posts from September 30 – October 28
    • Daily posts during the week of Oct 13-16 International workshop 
    • Posts, Oct 12 – 23 DDW, post 6 venues + report
    • Posts, Oct 21st workshop Fashion Tech Farm + TU/e Wearable Senses Lab
      • –– Research posts (input)
        • Gather research- from International workshops readings and themes
        • Gather at least 6 venues you will visit at the DDW with short reflection why, make connections with your own research
        • Post reflections on readings
        • Bibliography and direct links
        • Thoughts on these inputs
      • –– Process documentation (factory)
        • Persistent photo-documentation of experiments and process of all workshops – snapshots are ok
        • In-progress research
      • –– Final documentation and presentation (output)
        • Revise front page of CPJ
        • Post final report DDW
      • –– Maintain organization
    • Tutorial: Setting up and using WordPress for your CPJ

CPJ

  • Create a WordPress site for you CPJ.
  • Set up a front page that explains your site.
  • Establish a menu structure.
  • Style the site to your liking.
  • Add a link to your CPJ in your profile.
    • Be sure to include the full URL (http://mycpj.com).
    • While you are on this page, confirm that you have a good profile image loaded. Your profile picture pulls automatically from your google account when you log in. If you don’t have an image loaded, you can add one on this page or in your google account. Please use a recognizable image of yourself to make it easier on all of us to learn all names.
  • Begin input into your CPJ.
  • Make a first post in response to the Annie Albers On Weaving reading, some additional readings for your own perusal, Expanded Version : On Weaving and the Transformative Power of Weaving.
    • Keep your posts organized using categories and tags.
    • Check out the International workshop briefs + DDW information for contexts and readings.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES


10/07 · INTRODUCTION OF INTERNATIONAL R&D +  DDW

4:00-5:30 PM & 6:30-9:00 PM EST

  • Dutch Design Week introduction
    • Independently research 6 venues you will visit online and how it is connected to your personal research. Post list on your CPJ with a written paragraph of why.
    • Check out DDW at TAC venue, Kurina Sohn, Unraveler ‘16.
    • Check out Design Academy Eindhoven, graduate show.
  • International Workshop WdKA and St Lucas introduction; sign up, read through all materials + articles, wiki site, awkward connection with one person in your group by FaceTime, Skype, Zoom etc. before Oct 13 meeting.
  • International Workshop TU/e and Fashion Tech Farm introduction, Encoding Environment by Marantha Dawkins, read through all materials. For those who are using Rhino/Grasshopper please download it for free with your email and check it out  and try it out, use Lynda.com

Marantha is a designer and scholar exploring urban futures, resources, and infrastructures. Practicing through landscape, computation, and fabrication to conduct biosynthetic experiments toward new ecologies; she broadly studies and designs adaptations and interventions in changing climates and landscapes. Marantha previously taught at Carnegie Mellon University in the School of Architecture and in the IDeATe program. She is currently a PhD student at UVA in the Program for the Constructed Environment, where she focuses on wet ecosystems. She holds a Master of Urban Design from Carnegie Mellon University and a professional degree in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University.

  • Make sure you have informed your instructors about your absence during the week of Oct.12-16

READINGS/PODCASTS

  • The Sympathy of Things (excerpt) by Lars Spuybroek
  • * Write a post on your CPJ in response to the Spuybroek Reading
  • Additional Optional Readings:
  • Douglas Rushkoff talks about thinking about the role of tech in the way we think in binaries.Douglas Mark Rushkoff is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture, and his advocacy of open source solutions to social problems. Though created by humans, our technologies, markets, and institutions often contain an anti human agenda. Douglas Rushkoff, digital theorist and host of the NPR-One podcast Team Human, reveals the dynamics of this antihuman machinery and invites us to remake these aspects of society in ways that foster our humanity.

10/12 – 10/16 · INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP

Workshop/Marathon 1

Monday 12 October > Tuesday 13 October

From technical workshop to curious prototype
Starting time: 12 OCT – 21:40 CET/15.38 (3:38 PM) EST
End time: 13 Oct -16.00 CET/10.00 ET US
Share results: 13 Oct -16.00 CET/10.00 ET US – 17.00 CET/11.00 ET

Rest Regroup Recuperate Recharge

13 Oct -17.00 CET/11.00 ET US >  14 Oct 16.00 CET/10.00 ET

Workshop/Marathon 2

Wednesday 14 October > Thursday 15 October

From curious prototype to presentation
Starting time: 14 Oct – 16.00 CET/10.00 ET US
End time: 15 Oct -16.00 CET/10.00 ET US
Share results: 15 Oct -16.00 CET/10.00 ET US – 17.00 CET/11.00 ET

Online/Hybrid Presentation

Friday night/afternoon 16 October

Starting time: 18.00 CET/12.00 ET US
End time: 20.00 CET/14.00 ET US

  • International Workshop Week Willem de Konning Academie, Rotterdam, NL and St Lucas School of Arts Antwerp, BE
    • Introduction of workshops
    • See program in WIKI
    • Electronics workshop, Paul Mirel
    • Work in Group
    • Meet to reflect
    • Production of prototype
    • Presentation
    • Post the whole week on CPJ

Please sign up for the discord link and make contact with your peers in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Discord invite link: https://discord.gg/dqVwdPP

Here are the links:

http://ps.wdka.nl/digitalcraft/index.php/Unrvl2020
You are all able to create your own account to log in and add your own info.

http://ps.wdka.nl/digitalcraft/index.php/Unrvl2020#Oct_12_-_Awkward_Zoom_Room

Technical workshop information

http://ps.wdka.nl/digitalcraft/index.php/Unrvl2020#Oct_13_-_Telepresent_Greetings_.26_the_Telepresence_of_Touch

Circuit Playground Express is there any other hardware that would be good to acquire for the workshop?

Please add your names + email addresses here:
http://ps.wdka.nl/digitalcraft/index.php/Unrvl2020#Participating_Students

Feel free to update your own contact info here and add other colleagues when missing:
http://ps.wdka.nl/digitalcraft/index.php/Unrvl2020#Participating_Faculties


ADDITIONAL READINGS/PODCASTS

  • On Being with Krista Tippett
  • Anil Dash
  • Tech’s Moral Reckoning
  • “A wildly popular blogger, tech entrepreneur, and Silicon Valley influencer, Anil Dash has been an early activist for moral imagination in the digital sphere — an aspiration which has now become an urgent task. We explore the unprecedented power, the learning curves ahead, and how we can all contribute to the humane potential of technology in this moment”
  • Anil Dash is the CEO of Fog Creek Software. He also founded Makerbase, Activate, and the non-profit Expert Labs, a research initiative backed by the MacArthur Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which collaborated with the Obama White House and federal agencies.

10/17 – 10/23 ·  INTERNATIONAL R&D + DDW

At your own pace!

  • Dutch Design Week (DDW) visit on your own, write a report.
  • Don’t be afraid to wonder off your path! POST DISCOVERIES ON YOUR CPJ
  • Report is due on Oct 28th, post on CPJ
  • These are prompts not directives:
    • · Think about what you are questioning?
    • · What is your topic of interest?
    • · What inspired you?
    • · What is your research question?
    • · What is the state of design, craft and emerging technology in this complex world?
    • · What have you learned?
    • · After the DDW what will you pursue, describe what might you make. Outline some steps regarding research, prototyping, and possibilities of production.

10/21 ·  PATTERNS

Oct 21st from 9 – 4pm US time zone and 15:00 – 22:00 NL

  • Encoding Environments, by Marantha Dawkins.
  • International Workshop TU/e and Fashion Tech Farm, peer workshop, read through all materials. For those who are using Rhino/Grasshopper please download it for free with your email and check it out  and try it out, use Lynda.com
  • Marantha is a designer and scholar exploring urban futures, resources, and infrastructures. Practicing through landscape, computation, and fabrication to conduct biosynthetic experiments toward new ecologies; she broadly studies and designs adaptations and interventions in changing climates and landscapes. She previously taught at Carnegie Mellon University in the School of Architecture and in the IDeATe program. She is currently a PhD student at UVA in the Program for the Constructed Environment, where she focuses on wet ecosystems. She holds a Master of Urban Design from Carnegie Mellon University and a professional degree in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University.
  • Dear Workshop Participants:
  • Please sign up and meet your fellow artists/designers in Eindhoven at the Tu/e. The workshop Encoding Environments will be held on Oct 21st , so please contact your peers beforehand!
  • Dear Workshop Participants,
  • For the upcoming Grasshopper workshop on the 21st of October I was kindly asked to setup a discord server for communications. Here we can introduce ourselves a little, make announcements, stream screens and use voice chat. It’s also a more international oriented tool.
  • All other (practical) information will be shared at a later moment.
  • I’m already looking forward to the workshop.
  • If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or you contact person for the workshop.

10/28 ·  RECAP

4:00–6:00 PM EST

  • Recap, reflections on where we are? Where will we go?
  • Due date report DDW venues post on CPJ
  • UNRVL_20
  • What else can we do for you? 

HOMEWORK

11/04

  • Make any needed revisions/additions to your project post on the class website
  • Complete and post all documentation to your CPJ
  • Upload any images you want to share to the class image drive

STAY IN TOUCH AND LET US KNOW IF WE CAN ASSIST!