syllabus
MAS.962 Future Craft: Emerging Processes for Object Design
Leonardo Bonanni and Amanda Parkes in collaboration with Prof. Hiroshi Ishii
contact: futurecraft@media.mit.edu
Fall 2007
G Level course
9 Credits
Wednesdays 10-1
Room E15-135 (Medialab Cube Conference Room)
Assignments: weekly readings, design projects + blog entries, Final project.
No Prerequisites
“The responsibility for the relationship between industry and culture falls, in the modern world, on the shoulders of design. The product is the mediator between manufacture and the consumer, and its design is the container of the message that is mediated.”- Penny Sparke from Design in Context. Quarto, London, 1987.
Objects are bound to the state of craft: the materials, processes and cultures of design and production. Craft refers to the skilled practice of making things, which is shaped as much by technological advancements as by cultural perspective. Future Craft considers how the processes of design and production can be used to reflect new social values and to change dominant cultural practices, addressing design as both a process and a result of a process, influenced by technological developments, the socio-economic constraints of the manufacturing process, and the cultural context that gives rise to the need for objects.
This course will outline a future state of craft through a studio-based critical exploration of processes of contemporary craft and emerging themes in design. Each week we will explore the scope of influence of design through reading, discussion and hands-on prototyping of objects – products, furniture, and fashion – to create a discourse reflecting how methods for creation and production link directly to objects as artifacts of culture. Throughout the course we will strive to make new things by uncovering new ways of making. Early examples of craft-influenced design innovation will serve to establish a framework for the evolving relationship between craft and design. We will then explore major themes in contemporary design, including the advent of smart materials and processes. Global thinking will frame craft in terms of supply chain, sustainability, design for development and open design processes. We will end with a discussion on product ethnography and cultural probes, investigating how our perception, interpretation and expectation of objects is also evolving.
The course will be a mixture of studio design work, both in and out of class, and lectures, readings, discussion and critique. Students will be introduced to a variety of fabrication techniques and will produce object-scale prototypes. The course will also feature a field trip to a factory and guest speakers. Through a combination of producing objects and engaging in critical reflection, students will be encouraged to develop a design practice which innovates technically in process and materials as well situates their work in the context of contemporary culture and technology
September 5: Introduction to the Class
Discussion of class material, extended syllabus, and format of class and course requirements.
September 12: Design and Craft in the Industrial Age
In order to set the stage of exploring and critiquing new cutting edge design processes and culture, we must first understand the origins of modernist principles of design. Many of the design methodologies which we now take for granted emerged during the early 20th century when the status quo was transforming from hand craft into industrial craft. The changing needs of society, both functionally and ideologically, shaped multiple emerging movements in regards to production processes and critical thinking towards the purpose and place of design in cultures. Before the Industrial Revolution, most goods were produced locally and sustainably by skilled craftsmen who were additionally responsible for what we would today call research, design, marketing and sales. Industrialization cleaved craft into distinct professions, including designers, as part of the larger Taylorization ideal. Together with the economic advantages of mass production, modern design was formed in part as an embrace of the un-skilled labor of the factory and the elevated status of the designer. We will look at how industrialization spawned modern design and the product development of today.
Assignment: Product Autopsy: Dissect an object
-Banham, R. Theory and Design in the First Machine Age. New York: Praeger, 1967. (select chapters).
-James-Chakraborty, K. Bauhaus Culture: From Weimar to the Cold War. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2006. (select chapters)
-Le Corbusier/Pierre Jeanneret. “Five Points towards a new architecture”. Originally published in Almanach de l’Architecture moderne, Paris 1926.
-Loos, Adolf. “Ornament and Crime”, Ariadne Press, 1997. (original publication 1908).
September 19:Open Source Design
Software and Hardware are often developed according to open-source models, where the basic know-how necessary to participate is standardized and freely distributed. Several attempts have sought to democratize the development of physical objects as well. Open-source industrial design can facilitate brainstorming, manufacturing design and marketing among other things. On the other hand, there are numerous skills involved in the design of most objects, often requiring the involvement of multiple experts. How can the basic knowledge for physical design be as widespread as open-source software? What aspects of design can be dislocated from proprietary research and development? How important are secrecy and surprise to the success of a design? This course will consider the benefits and limitations of open-source models applied to the design of physical products, culminating in a critical participation in current physical open-source models. We will also feature a brief overview on blogging, youtubing, flickring and other open-source strategies useful for the rest of the term.
Guest Speaker: Mako Hill, Ubuntu
Assignment: Download instructions from an open-source/DIY website and carry them out, document the process (improvements encouraged)
-Raymond, E. The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary. O’Reilly Media, Inc. 2001. (selected chapters)
-Gershenfeld, Neil. FAB: the Coming Revolution on your Desktop - From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication. New York: Basic Books, 2005. (selected chapters)
-Goetz, Thomas. “Open-Source Everywhere.” Wired Magazine, 2003.
-Sabella, J. “Craftivism: Is Crafting the New Activism?” Columbia Chronicle Online Edition, Summer 2006.
September 26: Making Materials Smarter
As the fundamental component for production and craft, the development and adoption of new materials has always set the stage for invention and innovation in products. While material scientists create compounds with new chemical, electrical and chemical properties, it is up to designers to translate the functionality of these materials into objects and applications which were not possible to be envisioned before the material’s creation. This week explores the process of designing a material as a functional object in itself. Through a series of case studies which demonstrate how new categories of products arose specifically from the invention of a new material, we will consider emerging materials (smart materials, nanomaterials, composite materials) as inspiration for defining new categories of functionality or interaction.
Guest Speaker: Marcelo Coelho, MIT MediaLab
Assignment: Invent a material (composites allowed).
-Ashby & Johnson, C. Materials and Design: The Art and Science of Material Selection in Product Design. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 2002. (selected chapters)
-Brownell, B. “Transmaterial”. Princeton Architectural Press, New-York (2006).
-Fenichell, Stephen. Plastic: the Making of a Synthetic Century. HarperCollins 1996. (selected passages)
October 3: Bigger, Slower, Cheaper
Moore’s self-fulfilling law, intellectual property and market dynamics have engendered a product design culture which is continuously seeking to make smaller, more powerful and more expensive electronics. At the same time, design for development, green design and open-source favor inexpensive, easily interchanged and transparent product design. This course considers how much technology is necessary and how to substitute complex processes and materials with simpler ones while promoting brand and product identity. ‘Slow’ movements are discussed to identify the desirable aspects of de-technologizing as part of making and living.
Guest Speaker: Dr. Rich Fletcher, Tagsense Inc.
Assignment: De-technologize an existing object and improve it.
-Illich, I. Tools for Conviviality, Fontana 1979.
-Petrini and Padovani, Slow Food Revolution, Rizzoli 2006.
-Fuad-Luke, A. ‘Slow design’ - a paradigm shift in design philosophy?’ Bangalore, Design by Development 2002.
October 10: Mass Craft: Technological Influences & Digital Design, Customization & Parallel Practices
Much of the unseen craft in contemporary manufacturing and fabrication processes derives from the techniques developed to produce goods in multiples and for the masses. Innovation in these processes can be a result of cross-pollination between disciplines, taking inspiration from the methods and materials of one industry and applying it to another. At the same time, the desire remains to have products emerge that are unique and customized to each individual’s taste remains, the aim for the truly ‘crafted’ object. This week probes new approaches to this quest, ones that have found solutions by borrowing ideas from diverse fields and holistically rethinking systems of production in light of advancements in digital design tools and technologies.
Guest Speaker: Sergio Dulio
-Hodge, Brooke, ed. Skin & Bones, Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture, Thames and Hudson, New York, 2006. (selected essays)
-Testa, Peter. Carbon fiber prototype tower. http://www.peter-testa.com/
-Issey Miyake & Dai Fujiwara: A-POC Making, Vitra Design Museum Catalog, 2004.
-Hippel, Eric von. “Toolkits for user innovation : the design side of mass customization”. Cambridge, Sloan School of Management, MIT, 1999].
October 17: Life Cycle Analysis
Global supply chains have favored products with a one-way ‘cradle-to-grave’ life cycle. At the same time, many modern objects could not exist without globally integrated supply chains that bring together markets, manufacturing and materials from around the Earth. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) considers direct and indirect effects of a single object’s manufacture, use and disposal in an effort to optimize supply chains and reduce environmental impact. LCA considers the environmental costs associated with the extraction of raw materials, the production of objects, their use and ultimate disposal with an aim to reduce resource flows through re-use, re-manufacturing and re-cycling. The ‘buy local’ movement is presented as a marketing-based alternative and to inform other ways of designing around global life cycle.
Assignment: Design an object and its life cycle.
-Giudice, F., LaRosa, G., Risitano, A. Product Design for the Environment: a Life Cycle Approach. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2006.
-Hertwich. “Consumption and Industrial Ecology” Vol. 9, 1-2 - Special Issue on Consumption and Industrial Ecology - Winter-Spring 2005
October 24: Design for the Environment
‘Green’ design describes anything from recycled materials to organic processes and a woodsy aesthetic - without significantly reducing demand on environmental resources. ‘Cradle-to-grave’ lifecycles can be extended by ‘recycling,’ but current methods almost always result in the ultimate destruction or disposal of materials. By carefully considering the alternatives to current disposable, single-use products it may be possible for materials to gain value over time, to be ‘up-cycled.’ Equipped with an understanding of life-cycle analysis, the goal of this course will be to brainstorm alternatives to consumption-based objects.
Assignment: Create an up-cyclable object/up-cycle an object
-McDonough, W. and Braugart, M. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things. New York: North Point Press, 2002.
-Roger, Heather. Gone Tomorrow: the Hidden Life of Garbage. New Press, 2006.
-Pawley, Martin: “WOBO: a new kind of message in a bottle”, chapter in Pawley, Martin. Garbage Housing, Krieger Pub. Co., 1975.
October 31: Form, Function and the new Body
Human-centered design has emerged as one of the tenets of contemporary design, and studies in ergonomics have taught designers to revere the form and abilities of the body as the standard for analysis in interaction. Yet our notion of the body is changing. New technologies are allowing our bodies to become enhanced, augmented, expanded in functionality and altered in form, while ubiquitous & embedded technologies in nanoscale proportions are allowing our devices to become more and more a part of us with increasing mobility and pervasiveness. In addition to this convergence, new tools for creation are allowing designers to explore biomimickry in their design process in more transformative and temporal ways. This week explores how our changing concept of the body alters how we strive to design for ourselves and how this changes the nature of universal design.
-Skin, Surface, Substance. Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. (selected passages: Lupton, Ellen: Skin: New Design Organics; Tobias, Jennifer: Artificial Skin: Ingrown and Outsourced; Intelligence + Touch)
-Crantz, Galen. The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design. W. W. Norton & Company; January 2000.
-Holt, Steven & Skov, Maria. Blobjects and Beyond: The New Fluidity in Design, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2005. (selected chapter: From the Human Form Flows Fluidity)
November 7: Giving Products Personality through Behavior
Within culture, objects distinctly represent a reflection of self, the design and choice of objects follows naturally with our desires to be aligned with a particular quality to present ourselves to each other and relate to the world as a whole. As part of their process, designers have the ability to create and maniupulate the perceived view of their designs through a set of abstract qualities, in materiality, behavior, or temporal states of interaction. This week explores the deconstruction of this craft of the designer, abstracting perceptual qualities into a vocabulary of design elements complemented with an expanding array of new technologies for designers to employ for behavioral transformability.
Assignment: Design a series of objects with a consistent functionality but with multiple perceptual variables whose combination skews the object’s perceived presence.
-Braitenberg, Valentino. Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology. Cambridge, MIT Press, 1984. (selected chapters: The Human Spirit in a Computer Culture, Changing the Subject and Finding the Object)
-Turkle, Sherry. The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. the MIT Press, Cambridge, 2005. (selected chapters)
-DiSalvo, Carl, Gemperie, Francine. “From Seduction To Fulfillment: The Use of Anthropomorphic Form in Design”. ACM Press, DPPI 2003.
-Terzidis, K. Expressive Form: A Conceptual Approach to Computational Design. London: Spon Press, 2003. (selected chapters)
-Raffaello D’Andrea, “The Table” and “The Robotic Chair” http://www.mae.cornell.edu/raff/InteractiveDynamicArt/InteractiveDynamicArt.htm
November 14+21: Product Ethnography & Cultural Probes
Product Design often preaches the value of ‘need’ based design, positioning products as answers to desires designated by the end user, with the assumption that user observation becomes an integral part of the the process of design. While this remains useful in its convention, new emerging trends such as ‘critical design’ and ‘cultural probes’ are demonstrating that there is a category of products which can be designed and put to use to bring to light previously undemonstrated needs and desires. As tools for ethnographic investigation, these ideas raise issues about how designers determine ‘need’ and how and what products should be produced, something that becomes particularly problematic when exploring technological devices whose functionality demands no specific form, the ‘blacked box’ product. This week explores how designers can use the methods of ethnography as appropriated for their discipline, both as a tool in the design process and to reflect back on objects made.
-Gaver, W, Dunne, A., Pacenti, E. “Design: Cultural Probes”. Interactions, ACM Press, 1999.
-Boehner, K., Vertesi, J., Sengers, P., and Dourish, P. 2007. “How HCI Interprets the Probes.” Proc. ACM Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI 2007.
-Dourish, P. Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction. Bradford Books, 2004. (selected chapters)
-Llunblad, S. & Holmquist, L. E. “Transfer scenarios: grounding innovation with marginal practices” Proceedings of CHI 2007, (p.737 - 746) ACM Press, 2007.
-Dunne, Anthony. Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience, and Critical Design. MIT Press, Cambridge, 2006. (select chapters)
November 28 + December 5: Discussion and Progress Review of Final Project
Propose and prepare the presentation of a project that takes craft into account as part of the business model, product, social impact, or some other facet of the product design scope. Prototypes, print/web/video marketing, business plans, and publications are acceptable.
December 12: Final Project Presentation and Juried Review