Social Interaction of the Class

Some of you are concerned that asserting your opinion in the class, or participating in provocative discussion will harm your grade. Please be assured that this is not true. Although grading in a creatively based class does involve a level of subjectivity, I work very hard at the point of grading, to evaluate the work, the effort, and the comprehension of the course content. I do not view this class personally, I view it professionally. Although I genuinely like this class very much, that is a consideration that is secondary. The main point is that teaching has a purpose - which for me, is to stimulate growth - creatively and intellectually, and to introduce you to a way of thinking and working that will contribute to your life as you go forward. I do try to prod you in both gentle and more direct ways. It comes from an overall perspective that I work to balance. The balance is between how much of the stimulus comes from me, and how much comes from all of you towards each other.

As you know, I value attendance highly, as I think much of what happens in this class is based on process that evolves over time. I laid that out in the fist class and I think you have seen that develop over the course of the semester. But in the end, attendance and class participation are only 35% of the grade. Here for your review is the grading system from the syllabus:

Research, attendance and participation 35%
In class assignments 30%
Final project 35%

But the other criterion that I value and believe is part of the process of learning, is fun. In game design, the idea is called creative play. What I hope you will understand about this class, is that all of it - discussion, production, ideas - are integrated into an overall creative play - an environment where I hope profound learning is a by-product of experience.

The central kernal of the class is your own experience - how this process may reveal some inner aspects of yourself, and how that can be translated into a creative tool and become part of your language. The composition of that kernal is emotional, psychological and social - all aspects of human identity. The more you are able to take hold of this process and bring your own honesty and openness to it, the more you will get out of it. You have all done a wonderful job so far, it has been extremely interesting to be involved with you this semester. When we get together to critique the projects, and the class as a whole (as I appreciate your feedback as well), this understanding will be the lens of evaluation.

Multiple Elements

Things that can be included in your projects. Using many elements and integrating them into an organic whole is the challenge.

Maps, charts, printed guides
Sound
Instructions
More than one location
The bus as location
Physical activity
Virtual activity
Physical + Virtual activity at the same time
Hand-crafted elements - sewing, drawing, rubbings
Digital Material - video, web sites, radio, GPS
Cell phones
Elimination of one sense (blind-folds, head-phones)
The archeologic debris of the area
Team activity
Cats

Wodiczko

Krzyysztof Wodiczko, in his book Critical Vehicles, discusses his art work over the span of his career, all of it highly political in nature. What Wodiczko focuses on is designing for human interaction, and human relationship. What he higlights is the binary of power: victor/vanquished. This type of binary analysis of social space can easily be understood in relation to race and gender. What is interesting about his Prophet's Prothesis, is the idea of a doubling - the real person and the media double, both simultaneously walking through the city. Here we have the Derive or Drift retranslated through the integration of media. Inside/outside, real/virtual. These types of binaries fuse together so that the doubled experience creates a whole. Conceptually very interesting. One could even conceive of the doubled self - the real and virtual as a ying/yang.

On p. 13, his design summary could be considered a manifesto. He has articulated a social problem that he is trying to solve through design.

What we have said in this class, is that design solves problems. One must first identify the problem and then create the design to solve it.

Back to Heterotopias

We started our class with an essay called "Of Other Spaces" and the argument can be made that the mixed reality spaces that are created by the simultaneous experience of real place and the metaverse of Cyberspace is a third, heterotopic space - a time out of time, and a place out of place.

If you add some form of technology to your projects, you extend the space of the project; alter it, change the sequence of time and experience.

A brief summation by Rickie Sanders, Professor of Geography, Temple University:

In his paper, “Of Other Spaces” Michel Foucault called attention to the centrality of space in the 20th century. Indeed it has surpassed history as the great obsession of our time. In his paper he moves along a theoretical trajectory which builds on a medieval hierarchical notion of space, substitutes it with a modern theory of extended space, and ultimately displaces both with the postmodernist claim to site. The site, is both central to the culture and at the same time, set aside – the cemetery, the prison or the hospital – mirrored in the actions that take place there.

Understanding Space

All of you have picked a place for your final projects. The creative part of the assignment is to design a project/event/happening/performance/encounter in that place that activates the space. To do that, you have to bring together three things: some aspect of the history or dynamic of the place that you have researched, some aspect of your own experience and some experience of the interrelationship of the buildings, events and interactions that make up that space.

... and you need to read p. 28 in the Mapping Cyberspace reading on Theorising Space. Rob Kitchin lays out the history of how space has been thought about - Aristotelian - space is static, hierarchical and concrete; Newtonian - space is an absolute grid, within which objects are located and events occur; Leibnizian - space is fundamentally relational and defined in terms of those relationships; Kantian - space is conceptualized as a form imposed on the world by humans.

Manifestos

Some examples, far out and not:

Joseph Beuys, German conceptual artist: http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/jbeuys-manifesto.html

Fluxus manifesto: http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/index.html

White Manifesto by Lucio Fontana, "We are continuing the evolution of art."

The Italian Futurists wrote many manifestos. They wrote manifestos on everything from art to clothing. http://www.italianfuturism.org/manifestos/

This show in Chelsea (Oct. 23 - Dec. 20) has some beautiful work which translates Zapatista manifestos into musical scores (each letter of the alphabet which is also a note, becomes that note, and everything else is a pause/silence.) Kent Gallery, 541 West 25th Street http://www.kentgallery.com/index.html

The Dogme95 film-making manifesto that I mentioned in class http://www.dogme95.dk/the_vow/index.htm

You'll love this one: The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism, Thomas Marinetti 1905 http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/manifesto.html

The Situationist Manifesto http://www.infopool.org.uk/6003.html

And this is the manifesto that will help you with the entire assignment and final project The Manifesto of Possibilities http://wiki.bbk.ac.uk/Buildingcultures/index.php/Manifesto_of_Possibilities

Hipcast Moblog

powered by Hipcast.com