GMU:Designing Utopias: Theory and Practice

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Projektmodul
Lecturer(s): Christian Doeller
Credits: 16 SWS
Date: Thursdays 09.30-12.45
Venue: Room 204
BBB: https://meeting.uni-weimar.de/b/min-g3n-kqy-lol


Description:

This is a tool building seminar. Many of us today believe that we live in a dystopia. Our personal agency and autonomy have been slowly eroding. Many of the tools that were meant to liberate us -- the internet, computers, AI, biotechnology have turned against us. Is it possible to reimagine a future where humans take control of our own narrative or is it lost forever? Do we now learn to live in a dystopia or can we still dare to imagine a Utopia? In this seminar, We will borrow from the toolkit of hackers, designers, artists-collectives, activists and biohackers to learn the tools that they have imagined to create a utopia or fight dystopia. Our final project will critically examine these tools and techniques and attempt to reimagine or rebuild these tools.

Participants:


Sensor Tutorials:


Artists / Links:


Schedule:

November 17 – introduction

- utopia in the context of DIY technologies
- utopia and technical sensors as interfaces to environments
- utopia and the maker movement

November 24 – Arduino basics + Sensors

- breadboard connections
- analog / digital converter
- analog / digital input
- light sensor experiments

November 30 – Sensors (theory & hands-on)

- sensor starter kit presentations
- first ideas & experiments
- Jennifer Gabrys

December 1 – project ideas + text discussion

- presentation of ideas and experiments
- Byung-Chul Han: Shanzhai

December 8 – hands-on (I) + text discussion

- hands-on session

December 15 – hands-on (II)

- hands-on session

December 22 – Christmas holidays

December 29 – Christmas holidays

January 5 – updates

- present the current state of your projects
- further reading

January 12 – hands-on (III) + text discussion

January 19 – hands-on (IV) + private consultations

09:30 - 10:00 – name
10:00 - 10:30 – name
10:30 - 11:00 – name
11:30 - 12:00 – name
12:00 - 12:30 – name

January 26 – hands-on (V) + private consultations

09:30 - 10:00 – name
10:00 - 10:30 – name
10:30 - 11:00 – name
11:30 - 12:00 – name

February 2nd – final presentations


Topics:

Technology:

  • Getting started with Arduino
  • Connecting and reading different sensors
  • tools to capture real-time sensor data
  • tools to transform the collected data into different phenomena


Art & Thinking:

  • Contemporary (media) art positions that relate to the subject matter
  • Sensors as interfaces between beings and their environments
  • perceptual awareness and sensors as magnifying glasses of everyday processes
  • interactive prototypes and simple tools as interfaces to »the other«
  • Strategies in working with sensor technologies and input/output systems
  • Feedback mechanisms, cybernetic circuits
  • Relations between the physical and the digital


Literature:



Criteria for passing:

  • document exercises on the wiki, present them for the rest of the class
  • experiment, attend the classes and develop your own prototypes and experiments relating to the topic