Overview

Below is a basic outline of the activities you’ll engage in as part of this course.

Week 1: Introductions

The first week will coordinate teams across both courses in building a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities involved in exploring and producing unsettling, otherworldly technologies.

Week 2-9: Investigations

We will follow a three-week cycle of research, investigation, design and review. Each design exploration module will include an introduction lecture, a guest speaker, readings and screenings, discussions, technical workshop(s), desk crits and a final project critique. The projects will involve a speculative prompt for critical making.

Week 10: Synthesis

Following the investgations, we’ll take stock, reflect on the outcomes to date and examine where we’re at. This will lead to a synthesis of ideas into a proposal which blends the supernatural, space and technology as an installation/intervention.

Weeks 10-14: Application

The remainder of the semester will be used to build a set of responsive, networked prototypes for deployment for public conversations. The organization of schedules, build time, and delegation of tasks will be accomplished by the student teams.

At the end of the semester, collaborative teams will work together to identify a shared approach for a critically-informed responsive mobile environment, prepare a working prototype, and deliver supporting process and outcome documentation.

Detailed Schedule

Introductions

Note. Introductions and Investigation I are blended because we are remote for the first two weeks of class.

Investigations I: That Which is Hidden

Investigations II: Haunted Devices / Device Hauntologies

Synthesis

Application: Haunted [Smart] Houses