2018-19 Digital Crafts 3rd year

Digital Crafts 3rd year: Cybernetics

Q 9 & 10

Classes held on Thursdays and Fridays. The rest of the week is reserved for independent working on your projects (one self-directed project per workshop)

Tutors: Ivan, Shailoh, Javier

Welcome to the 3rd year program of Digital Crafts. From September to December, you will be introduced to a wide range of skills, issues, critical perspectives and concrete examples relevant to the emergent field of digital crafts.

This year the theme is "cybernetics", so it is all about exploring regulatory systems — in biological organisms, in the political economy, and in networked technology. What do living creatures and complex systems have in common? How do organic and electronic feedback loops function? What kind of forms emerge from self-organized systems, and how can we use algorithms to generate forms, to make and break patterns? To what extent do we as humans have the potential to control systems? Cybernetics is a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory systems — their structures, constraints, and possibilities. Norbert Wiener defined cybernetics in 1948 as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine." In the 21st century, the term is often used to imply "control of any system using technology." In this course, we will be exploring the complex relationships between humans and machines, nature and technology. In reference to the seminal article, Metadesign, by Chileans biologists and philosophers Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, the authors affirm that the solution is not the technology, but how it is designed. We seek to challenge you to become critical of technology, and able to use technology to express critique. Every solution creates new problems: how will you position your work in a broader political, social and ecological context? How can you express critically the (use of) technology in your research and development?

Before the Christmas break, you will have developed a number of small group projects, and a final project in the form of a stand-alone presentation, with accompanying research documentation.

Deliverables:

Each project will have a packaged wiki page with proper documentation/ contextualization of the project. During the mid-semester review, your will need to discuss your direction for the final quarter.

Project 1: Cybernetic Prosthetic: you will present a self-directed work as a prototype of a new biological organisms-machine relationship, relating to reimagining technology in the posthuman age. The prototypes should be materialized in 3D form, and simulate interactive feedback loops that generate emergent forms. (max 5 people per group). DEADLINE: (..)

Project 2: From Devices to systems: sensors and sensitivity training. You will open the 'black box' of a technical device in an anatomical machine learning lesson, and you will also dissect and analyse a concrete instance of a complex system at work. How do devices and networked systems interact? Document and research all of the parts, how they work, where they come from. Redesign and add new circuits. Put it back together with a new function and added sensor feedback loops. The basic electronics should be fully functional. DEADLINE: (..)

Project 3: Complex Systems & the Anthropocene. How is technology linked to economical, political and ecological wicked problems and human-made catastrophes? Where is a line out? What are the tools of your craft? How to break the feedback loops? How is the supply chain linked to the device you are working with? Pick a problem or issue to analyse and engage with a complex ecological system. This is a writing assignment. DEADLINE: (..)

Final project you will present your research question, your planning, and a conceptual and technical experiment for a final project. You will intensely explore and develop over the following 6 weeks to present in the end term exhibition.

Schedule

Date	3rd years	4th years	Content / Experimentations	Related Reading	Deliverables / Deadlines
Sept. 6 (Thurs)	10:30-12:30 Kick-off and Introduction 13:30-17:00 Plenary Intro. 19.00 DRINKS with all of Digital Crafts team	13:30-17:00 Kick Off Intro: who are you? interests? skills? what would you like to learn? + prototyping exercise. Lecture on Cybernetics. Make Group A + B + groups of 5
Sept. 7 (Fri)	10.00-17.00	Interdependent work on Project 1: prototype sketch in groups of 5 + reading texts	Donna Haraway, Cyborg Manifesto; Norbert Wiener on Cybernetics
Sept. 13 (Thurs)	13.00- 15.00 Group A Texts discussion + present examples 15.00-17.00 Group A (Ivan) + Group B (Shailoh)	Ivan: minerals, plants, animals. Shailoh: machines, prosthetics and autopoesis	Braidotti, Posthumanism
Sept. 14 (Fri)		Finalize prototypes
Sept. 20 (Thurs)	13.00-17.00 Interaction Station Group Presentations Project 1, 13.00-14.00 Intro Project 2				Groups Presentations Project 1
Sept 21 (Fri)	10.00-17.00 Interdependent group work	Anatomical Machine Lesson: Open a 'black box': pick a machine and take it apart. Document and analyse all the parts.
Sept 27 (Thurs)	13 - 17.00u:	Workshop 1A: skills with Javier / Group B with Ivan/Shailoh
Sept 28 (Fri)	10 - 15.00u: Eindhoven Maker Faire	Fieldtrip
Oct 4 (Thurs)	13 - 17.00u: Interaction Station	Workshop 1B: skills with Javier
Oct 5 (Fri)
Oct 11 (Thurs)	13 - 17:00u: Interaction Station	Workshop 2A Skills 2 with Javier / Group B Presents Project 2 (Ivan/Shailoh)
Oct 12 (Fri)	10 - 13:00u: Interaction Station /	Group A Presents Project 2 (Ivan/Shailoh)+ Introduction Project 3
Oct 17-19 Wed-Thurs-Fri	Unravel the Code: workshop with students from Baltimore	Field Industry Research into systems
Nov 1 (Thurs)	9:00 - 18:00u: Interaction Station	Workshop 2B with Javier
Nov 2 (Fri)	full day: Interaction Station Presentations Project 3
Nov 8 (Thurs)	10.00-14.00 Intro to final projects
Nov 9 (Fri)	10.00-17.00 working on final projects
Nov 15 (Thurs)	9:00 - 21:00u: Interaction Station
Nov 16 (Fri)
Nov 22 (Thurs)
Nov 23 (Fri)
Nov 29 (Thurs)
Nov 30 (Fri)
Dec 6 (Thurs)	Suprise: Unboxing video of someone's project.
Dec 7 (Fri)	Suprise: Unboxing video of someone's project.
Dec 13 (Thurs)	LOCATION?	Opening Final Presentations
Dec 14 (Fri)
Dec 20 (Thurs)	Interaction Station	Feedback
Dec 21 (Fri)

Assignments

Written Assignment

+/- 1000 words answering #5. Please use 1-4 to jump start your writing process.

1. What is your craft? (define your discipline, method or approach)
2. What are the tools and media of your craft?
3. What are the borders of this practice? (what new media technologies have arisen / what is its future of the field))
4. Connect to a historical discourse and give concrete examples of contemporary practitioners
5. Define your position of your practice in relation to newer technologies.

Discussion: Sept 27 1st Draft Due: Oct 11 Final uploaded on the wiki: Oct 24th

Evaluation

Quarter 1 Evaluation

Deliverables:

DATE

Final +/- 1000 words Position Paper (defining the position of your practice in relation to newer technologies) uploaded to the wiki.

Presentation and Documentation of quarter work

DATE

• Image 1: What did you make?

(Show one image of your semester work that was the most inspiring)

• Image 2: What did you miss?

(What do you to connect to, bring in, or explore that is not covered by the curriculum)

• Image 3: What is your topic of interest?

(Explain though a visual what area you wish to further explore)

• Image 4: What is your medium?

(Explain what materials and tools you wish to use)

• Image 5: What is your question?

(Try to formulate one (preliminary research) question that will guide your investigation)

People

Add your names with link to your wiki here

Final Minor Meeting

schedule