Using the reading Tania assigned you as a starting place (see below), you will create a 1000-word opinion piece that reacts to the ideas in that article. Think about how the article as a whole, or some topic within it, is arguing for, or against, design in transition.
A constraint to this assignment: You may not use the phrase "I think" nor any variation of that phrase.
See this overview of writing a critical essay.
Drossscape by Alan Berger (Landscape Urbanism)
Mapping Social Messes in Elsewhere Mapping (Cartographies)
Why Problems Like Homelessness might be easier to solve than manage (Malcolm Gladwell)
Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital by Robert Putnam
Clutter, Writing and Design by Steven Baker in Emigre, vol 35, 1995
What is Digital Cinema? by Lev Manovitch
Play Anything by Ian Bogost (Adapted Essay from his book, Play Anything)
Introduction to Alone Together by Sherry Turkle
The Science of Design: Creating the Artificial by Herb Simon
Design Ethics and Technological Mediation by Peter Paul...
Writing a Case Study: Case studies are a type of writing and/or research that aims to understand and explain a phenomena or pattern. They are used in many fields to promote critical thinking and to understand a problem better. They are not meant to solve the problem, but instead to provoke an analytical discussion. In this assignment, you are being asked to look at the work of one of our contributors as a case study and to extract from that examination a larger argument about how design is in transition.
Prompt: Using the contributor who's name Tania supplied to you (see below), write a case study of the person + their work and how that is evidence of some aspect of the them of Volume 38 (Flux: Design in Transition.) You should plan to use 1 specific project from their work as a specific example of this relationship. You should also do outside research to validate your ideas for the importance of...
Prompt:
Looking at the familiar experiences of our own life and work can provide important opportunities to unpack the complex ideas and arguments embedded in critical writing. We will use Debbie Millman’s “Look Both Ways” as inspiration for developing personal, illustrated essay that describes the intersection of your personal interest area and the topic of Volume 38: Flux: Design in Transition
Process:
Step 1: Start with the presentation that you made at the beginning of the semester (or choose another topic that you are currently interested in) and identify how that might relate or intersect with the current topic of Volume 38 of The Publication.
Step 2: Freewrite your initial ideas about how this intersection might be formed. What are you initial inclinations? What do you intuit about the topic as it relates to your own work and experience
Step 3: Spend 2-3 days taking notes and observing instances and evidence of your ideas in the world and in your everyday experience. Try to find patterns,...
