Postgraduate Course: Histories and Futures of Technology (DESI11073)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course provides an introduction to the cultural and technical context for Design Informatics. The course addresses key historical and contemporary developments across digital media and the network society and plots the primary themes, initiatives and technologies that have informed the present conditions in which a design practice is bound to digital technologies and the flow of data. The lecture series will explore the role of data throughout the paradigms of desktop publishing, world wide web and mobile computing, moving toward ubiquitous systems that involve environments and material artefacts. Students will also receive practical support through a series of workshops that are intended to provoke creative responses to specific design problems. Involvement in these workshops will establish the skill sets for the development of a significant piece of group coursework that responds to the themes within the module.
Course Aims
This course will:
1. Expand students' understanding of digital media, network technologies and new technologies, and their relevance to all forms of contemporary design.
2. Develop a critical perspective upon the cultural implications for design informatics based upon historical, theoretical and practical precedents.
3. Develop skills in the use of digital technologies and extend existing design skills within a research-based framework of enquiry. |
| Course description |
As above
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2020/21, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 60 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 50,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
146 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course will be assessed under the Edinburgh College of Art Assessment 100% coursework. Students are expected to develop practical perspectives upon the series of lectures and create a significant piece of coursework that demonstrates these ideas.
Learning outcomes will be assessed as coursework through a digital portfolio containing:
your mid-term as well as final presentation slides (from 10-15min presentations) that develop the context of your practical work,
a 2 minute video demonstrating the design,
and a 1000 word report that evidences your research, engagement with theory and your progress and findings throughout the course of the module. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback/feedforward is provided verbally at designated points during the course in form of tutorials, and following mid-term presentations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- 1. Theory: demonstrate an awareness of theoretical and practical developments that underpin design informatics and extend a personal and critical perspective through the production of written and practice based work.
- 2. Practice: demonstrate an ability to develop a language and methodology toward the production of design artefacts that integrate aspects of digital systems and are informed by conceptual and cultural concerns.
- 3. Research: understand a research problem and apply appropriate methods for negotiating it, including an analysis of both literature and design precedents to support a personal enquiry.
|
Reading List
Indicative Bibliography
Castells, M. (1996) The Rise of the Network Society (Second Edition). Oxford: Blackwell.
Dourish, P. (2001) Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction. MIT Press.
Haraway, D. J. (1995) Cyborgs and symbionts: living together in the new world order, in C. H. Gray (ed.) The Cyborg Handbook, xi-xx, New York: Routledge.
Hayles, N.K. (1999) How We Became Posthuman, University of Chicago Press
Kern, S. (1983) The Culture of Time and Space1880-1918. Harvard University Press
Latour, B. (2001) Reassembling the Social, Oxford University Press.
Mitchell, W. J. (1996) City of Bits. Cambridge. MA: MIT Press.
Rheingold, H. (2002) Smart Mobs, The Next Social Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Basic Books.
Shirky, C (2009) Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Penguin. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Design,Informatics,Digital Media,Digital Culture |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Bettina Nissen
Tel:
Email: bnissen@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Jane Thomson
Tel: (0131 6)51 5713
Email: jane.thomson@ed.ac.uk |
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