AIM 2

Project 1

Due Dates:

Week 3 (2/12) Research presentation

Week 4 (2/19) Project worksheet

Week 4 (2/19) Ideation 1: sketches

Week 5 (2/26) Ideation 2: mashups

Week 6 (3/5) Progress presentation

Week 7 (3/12) Finished project

“Looking for construction methods to form efficiently shaped structures is like attempting to hit the centre of a pre-existing target with a rifle. The search for sculptural form, however, is more like shooting a shotgun against a wall and drawing bull's-eyes around all the holes.”

-- Mark West, Architectural Design

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

-- Albert Einstein

Project 1 will be a layered approach to creating an interactive website as a process of inquiry. In other words: instead of launching a completed body of content for audience consumption, you will use the web medium to explore interactivity as a method of developing and refining concepts conversationally.

This project will be designed so that it depends on interactions with your target audience. Your approach will be to gather a concrete body of research, to venture into unknown intellectual territory, and entice your audience to respond with enough intensity that your own perspective can be changed!

Target audience

You will need to enlist the services of 1-3 target audience members who would be willing to be participants. More than 1 is recommended, so that you are not too dependent upon one person's punctuality, and to broaden the scope of incoming contributions. The nature of these interactions will be solved by your design plan, but can include live conversation, electronic conversations, activities, etc.

Components

Research presentation (due Week 3, 2/12)

You will give a 5-7 minute presentation to the class about any topic of your choosing. Show us online readings and resources, videos, analog materials, etc. You will also articulate your personal investment in this topic.

Primary and secondary resources are encouraged. Needless to say, Wikipedia (a tertiary resource) is a good starting point for personal use, but does not suffice as a credible source an any sort of persuasive presentation.

Project worksheet (due Week 4, 2/19)

Here you will begin to outline your plan for enticing the efforts of your target audience, and solving the design problem of opening “unknown territory” for yourself – to create space for another person's contributions.

Ideation 1: sketches (due Week 4, 2/19)

“Sketches” should be understood in this context as multiple approaches toward an idea – via intuition and experimentation – instead of making one single, well-understood product. The point is to broaden your own awareness of intellectual and aesthetic possibilities related to your own topic, rather than to specifically solve known problems.

Sketches can include:

• a series of photos

• a series of graphic design layouts

• a group of carved objects

• several architectural drawings

• a series of lo-fi animations

• several audio compositions

• several theatrical vignettes

• a series of poems or short stories

• a series of code experiments

Sketching should be a tool for making discoveries (in other words, realizations not yet anticipated). If there are too few sketches, this endpoint becomes unlikely.

Ideation 2: mashups (due Week 5, 2/26)

Using your sketches and any materials from your research presentation, create 5 visual layouts in Photoshop, Illustrator or even HTML. Like the first ideation phase, the objective is to unburden yourself from the pressures of solving specific problems and to hopefully discover something new and useful through loose explorations.

Progress presentation (due Week 6, 3/5)

This will be a casual presentation, and will hopefully include the contributions from your target audience members – since the finished Project is due one week later! This way, we can discuss your potential strategy for enfolding these contributions, and permitting the project to respond appropriately.

Finished project (due Week 7, 3/12)

Your project will be presented as a website (using the HTML5 basic template). I recommend that your site includes choice excerpts from your research findings, and provides links to your original sources.

Any research media – text or otherwise – that is not your own MUST be fully credited and include a link to the original source (if online). Online videos may simply exist as embeds from remote sources, without additional text. All design elements must be your own work, including background images.

Grading scale

10% Research presentation

10% Project worksheet

10% Ideation 1: sketches

10% Ideation 2: mashups

10% Progress presentation

50% Finished project

This project is worth 25% of your total class grade.