Postgraduate Course: Histories and Futures of Technology (DESI11073)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course offered in Semester 1 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 in the first half of the module that are intended to provoke creative responses to specific design problems. Involvement in these early workshops will establish the skills sets for the development of a significant piece of individual coursework that responds to the themes within the module. In addition students will be required to record research material through a weblog (blog).
Module Aims
The module 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.
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| Course description |
Not entered
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
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Seminar/Tutorial Hours 50,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
146 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This module will be assessed under the Edinburgh College of Art Assessment 100% coursework. Students are expected to develop personal practical perspectives upon the series of lectures and manufacture a significant piece of coursework that demonstrates these ideas. An intensive workshops will produce a significant demonstrator of technical skill associated with a formative theoretical framework, before the larger individual piece which will constitute 60% of the module.
Learning outcomes will be assessed by coursework through presentations that articulate a theoretical framework for their practical work, submission of a design artefact (actual, digital or combination), and a submission of a URL that links to a blog that evidences their research, progress and findings throughout the course of the module.
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| 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.
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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 | Prof Chris Speed
Tel: (0131 6)51 5747
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr Mathieu Donner
Tel: (0131 6)51 5740
Email: |
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