H79.2780 Lecture 4 Credits
Instructor(s): Demircioglu Cihandide
The design process is a constant search to make powerful use of aspects of motion and gesture. On the other hand, motions are not simply physical acts: what does it mean to create a motion socially? How does it change the design process? Whether it be product design, choreography, reconstructive surgery,marketing or new media design understanding the social thinking patterns and shaping the perception of the audience are some of the essential parts of the design process. This class looks at the social scene in various fields before and after some new designs were introduced and critiques how the approach to this kind of body of work has shifted through these new works. Some of these examples are Yann Marussicha’s performance piece Bleu in which he has altered the way people think about externalizing the internal in body based work, Faruk Malhana’s new product design of the traditional Turkish tea glass which has aimed to shift the way of people approach the act of drinking tea, Pepsi’s “Next Generation” campaign in which a new look at the traditional cola was introduced and Stelarca’s work where our notion of body-machine interaction was challenged. This class is both a critical seminar and a production class. We look at examples from various fields and critique them but at the same time there are in class and homework production exercises that aim to increase the creativity of the students. Because of the inter-disciplinary nature of this class students from any background are encouraged to take it. No specific prior production skills are necessary. Students are encouraged to collaborate and are also shown to use the skills they already have (this can be anything from programming to knitting, to writing) in the particular way the exercise will require. Students are expected to experiment and use the assignments as tools to explore different design approaches.
