SAMPLE SYLLABUS

WEEK ONE

Themes: Bauhaus basics, Rule-based design methodologies, role of computer in design methodology, Concrete Art, Bit International, design that bridges art with science, the search for a computer aesthetic

  • Read: Max Bill, “Structure as Art? Art as Structure?” Digital Design Theory p.39.
  • Read: Bruno Munari, “Arte programmata.” (Arte cinetica. Opera moltiplicate. Opera aperta). Digital Design Theory p.28.
  • Read: Margit Rosen: “The Art of Programming”  in A Little-Known Story about a Movement, a Magazine, and the Computer’s Arrival in Art: New Tendencies and Bit International, 1961–1973, (Cambridge: MIT, 2011). p.27-47.

WEEK TWO

Themes: Utopia, Birth of personal computer, Graphic User Interface, Object-Oriented Programming, code


WEEK THREE

Themes: How tools affect design methodologies; Algorithmic approach to art/design;  Serial Art; Emphasis on process rather than finished artifact

  • Read: Karl Gerstner, “Programme as Computer Graphics,” “Programme as Movement,” “Programme as Squaring the Circle,” Digital Design Theory p.30.
  • Read: Wim Crouwel, “Type Design for the Computer Age,” Digital Design Theory p.42.
  • Read: Sol LeWitt, “Doing Wall Drawings,” Digital Design Theory p.48.
  • Read: Ben Fry and Casey Reas, “Processing . . . ,” Digital Design Theory p.98.
  • Checkout: Conditional Design
  • Read: The Alien Style of Deep Learning Generative AI
  • In-class: Conditional Design Exercise

WEEK FOUR

Themes: Birth of Hacker Culture, Politics of Programming, Tinkering and Mass Making


WEEK FIVE

Themes: Privacy, copyright, friendship, politics


WEEK SIX

Themes: Interface background and future, computers and design, mechanical vrs biological, code literacy

  • Read: “Alan’s Kay’s role in the development of personal computers: a graphic novel”
  • Read: Alan Kay, “User Interface: A Personal View,” Digital Design Theory p.75.
  • Read: Muriel Cooper, “Computers and Design,” Digital Design Theory p.64.
  • Read: April Greiman, “Does It Make Sense?” Digital Design Theory p.62.
    Read: Hugh Dubberly, “Design in the Age of Biology: Shifting from a Mechanical-Object Ethos to an Organic-Systems Ethos,” Digital Design Theory p.111.
  • In-class: Interface Exercise

WEEK SEVEN

Themes: Open Source, Participatory Culture, Peer Production, Community Building

  • Skim: “Cathedral and the Bazaar” by Eric Steven Raymond (p.1-23)
  • Read: “Chapter 3: Peer Production and Sharing,” from Yochai Benkler: The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006). 
  • Read: Chapter 1 from Henry Jenkins: Participatory Culture in a Networked Era (Polity: 2015).
  • Read: “Chapter 9: Conclusion” from David Gauntlett: Making is Connecting (Polity: 2011).  
  • Read: “Community” from Helen Armstrong and Zvezdana Stojmirovic: Participate: Designing with User-Generated Content (Princeton Arch: 2011).
  • In-class: Participatory Exercise 

WEEK EIGHT

  • Due: Post literature map and project proposal to the blog 
  • Midterm discussion: Meet individually to discuss project abstracts and research plan/ literature review.

WEEK NINE

  • No class: Spring break

WEEK TEN

Themes: Internet of Things, Nanotechnology, Networks

  • Visiting Designer to lead an IoT Workshop

WEEK ELEVEN

Themes: Internet of Things, Nanotechnology, Networks


WEEK TWELVE

Themes: the augmented human, technology and disability, inclusive design, big data


WEEK THIRTEEN

Themes: AI, machine learning, singularity, creativity, hybrid thinking


WEEK FOURTEEN

  • No class: Spring holiday

WEEK FIFTEEN

Themes: AI, machine relationships, post-human design, social bonds


WEEK SIXTEEN

  • Student presentations of paper content .
  • Exam Week: Final papers due.