IFD:FIR SoS21

Projektmodul / Project Module
Fantasy is Reality: Interfaces for Hanging in There
Instructor: Vertr.-Prof. Jason Reizner
Credits: 18 ECTS, 12 SWS
Capacity: max. 15 students
Language: English
Date: Plenum: Tuesdays, 13:30-18:30; Consultations: Wednesdays by appointment
Location: Online
First Meeting:13 April 2021, 13:30
(Link to online meeting will be sent to accepted participants by email.)
BISON Course ID: TBA

Description

Fantasy is reality in the world today
I'll keep hanging in there, that's the only way
–Parliament, 1970


Heavy times demand not only solidarity, ingenuity and resilience from us all, but also the capacity to fantasize a different existence thereafter. While societal disruptions resulting from armed conflict, natural disaster, famine and pandemic have accompanied homo sapiens sapiens since time immemorial, the world at present finds itself in the midst of the first generation of ubiquitous global crises to unfold in the post-information age.

As a novel virus has upended established norms framing how we interact as social creatures in physicality, our abrupt thrust into everyday virtuality over the past year has evidenced our dependence on technologies that have made the quantum leap from science fiction fantasy to quotidian existence. From genomic sequencing to logistics networks to high definition videoconferencing, the contemporary digital infrastructure that underpins the systems keeping us hanging in there also provides a canvas to fantasize about what is yet to come.

This project module provides a platform for artists, designers and architects to hypothesize and explore design fictions centered on virtual, physical and post-physical interactions, cybernetics and participatory interfaces, with a view towards articulating speculative futures that prototype the tomorrow we dread and/or long for.

Through a series of lectures, workshops and targeted discussions, participants will address topics including post-human centered design, telepresence/telerobotics, network cultures, edge computing and distributed computing, machine learning, human and artificial intelligence, generative and autonomous systems, environmental sensing and smart citizenry.

Admission requirements

Enrollment in MKG/MAD MFA or MediaArchitecture MSc programs

Application and registration procedure

Application with CV and Statement of Motivation to jason.reizner [ät] uni-weimar.de

Evaluation

Successful completion of the course is dependent on regular attendance, active participation, completion of assignments and delivery of a relevant semester prototype and documentation. Please refer to the Evaluation Rubric for more details.

Eligible participants

MFA Medienkunst/-gestaltung, MFA Media Art and Design, MSc MediaArchitecture candidates

Platforms and Tools

This Wiki
BigBlueButton (as necessary)
Cisco WebEx
[Are.na]

Syllabus (subject to change)

TBA