Infoscapes Brief

course abstract:

(mind the blue part at the end, it is missing in your earlier digital version)

Inuit "TomTom"

We live in the age of information. 

Three quarters of our waking time is spent receiving information, the majority of which is electronic. Every day we are literally being overwhelmed by information. Does it bring us knowledge?  Too much information is a lot like no information. Does it make our lives more meaningful or is it depriving us from elementary experiences of the “here and now”? In this class we will explore various ways of perceiving and conveying information. Traditionally, and still, information is exclosed through visual and auditive tools, but can information also engage our other senses? Can we translate information into a spatial, sensory experience? What sort of information could that be?

assignments: 

PART 1: RESEARCH BY DESIGN Students are given very short case-study assignments to explore various ways to interpret and translate information from one sensorial experience to another. Think of: Synesthesia Examples: The sound message (bracelet); sound ---> visual ----> tactile Mondriaan’s Victory Boogiewoogie ; sound--->visual

PART 2a: DESIGN Design an “urban intervention” wich reveals (phenomenological) “information”. Turn an implicit phenomenon into an explicit experience. Architecture, technique, the public audience play an important role in the installation.

PART 2b: REALISATION Make your installation in a way that it can be experienced convincingly and tested. If neccessary, the design is further improved according to the test results. Be inventive: improvise or simulate to reach the desired effect.

Presentation

Case study presentation is internal. Interim design presentation to professionals in the field. Final presentation is a departmental review.

Examination

Students are expected to attend each studio at the designated time. Students, who for some legitimate reason cannot attend class, should inform the course instructor in advance of the times they will be absent. The final mark will be decided on the grounds of:

-case study presentation
-determining a design direction
-individual and group participation
-quality of presented work

-overall design quality

-degree of presence 

Aims

-To introduce students to installation design, interactive design and information design

Students will be able to:

- use discussion and reading as a strategic tool for new insights into design 

- translate abstract or unnoticed information

- conceive new and attractive ways to re-interpret natural phenomena and to examine it through [physics] experiments.

- transform experience and observation into visual and physical prototypes. 

- execute their design to the extend that it can be tested.

-evaluate their own design and that of others in a way that it contributes to the improvement of the design.