4.313 | Fall 2016 | Undergraduate, Graduate

Advanced Studio on the Production of Space

Assignments

Readings Presentation — Thinking Through Models

Each student will be required to present weekly readings once during the semester. The readings are organized around 11 topics (see the class calendar). Each thematic group contains 3–4 readings and an associated reading on a model that corresponds with the weekly theme. Students who are presenting will be asked to use readings to critically rethink the agency behind each model. Also, they will be required to find an artistic practice or project that corresponds to the specific topic and model.

Requirements:

Students are required to give a presentation and lead a discussion on the given topic.

Objectives:

The objective is to deliver presentations with clarity, confidence and poise, and to engage other peer students in discussion and give constructive feedback.

Due date: to be defined during the first week of lectures.

There will be 10 weekly student presentations and students are required to sign up for the theme in the first week of the class.

Example student presentations:

The Production of Democracy (PDF - 3.1MB). (Courtesy of Raafat Majzoub. Used with permission.)

The Production of Nature (PDF). (Courtesy of an MIT student. Used with permission.)

ASSIGNMENTS DUE DATES
Modeling Experiment (I) Session 7
Modeling Experiment (II) Session 12
Midterm Presentation Session 16
Penultimate Session 22
Final Review Session 26

The Collective Goal — Curating the Model Collection and Remodeling the Existing Publication Formats

The logic and the organization of the class assignments throughout the semester enables gathering up to 40 models clustered around specific topics. The model collection thus emerges from the semester-long research and practice of individual and collective speculation, experimentation and critical discussions about modeling. It is an aggregate of accidental and intentional, historical and contemporary examples of systemic interferences in cultural, technological and scientific models of production. Designed as a multi-layered terrain of different political and social agendas embedded in objects and modes of production, the collection is far more than a bare corpus of material and theoretical artefacts. It is an immersive object-oriented environment for generating unexpected encounters between different media, modeling approaches and methodologies. Throughout the semester we will host a series of discussions and workshops with designers and experts from from SA+P publications department and MIT Press in order to see how the curating the collection can be transferred into a new model of publication.

Midterm Presentation — Speculate, Intersect, Fail

At this point we will have opened a broad spectrum of models and associated topics. Students are thus required to make a selection of one model (or models) that would be used in the development of their final project.

Requirements:

  • Students are required to come up with an argument that supports their choice.
  • They are required to make 3 different speculative scenarios that interfere with the common use of the chosen model. If they chose to continue working with the model from the previous assignment, they are encouraged to intervene/perform/play with the physicality of the models.
  • Students are required to make a presentation (up to 10 min.) about their modeling speculation.
  • Students are required to upload modeling documentation on the class blog.

Objectives:

The objective of the midterm review is to exercise timely decision-making based on critical thinking and coherent project planning. Another objective is to learn how to mutate, integrate, intervene, reproduce, or (re)use existing models and objects in new situations. Final objective is to receive a constructive feedback from the peer students and reviewers on the paths each project proposal might take.

Due date: Session 16

Modeling Experiment (I) — Infiltrate and Explore the Other Systems of Space and Knowledge Production

Students are required to get in touch with a member of the research community that they find interesting and ask him or her about their personal most useful, interesting and inspiring model. It is advised to choose people that are not directly related to student’s fields of interest or practice. Once the model (tangible or intangible, conceptual or physical) is on the table, students are asked to test it and observe if it is in any way applicable on situations and phenomena within our general list of the class topics (Objects, Space, Democracy, Nature, …). Students are expected to produce an original visual material that embodies this interrogational trajectory (or it’s most interesting sequences).

Requirements:

  • Students are required to make a short visual presentation (up to 10 min.) about their findings.
  • Students are required to upload modeling documentation on the class blog.

Objectives:

The objective of this assignment is to experiment with abstract and relational thinking, to advance communication and presentatiion skills and to extend our “disobedient modeling” network across different fields and domains.

Due date: Session 7

Note that people are busy and sometimes slow in answering emails, so please plan your communication and the following activities on time.

Modeling Experiment (II) — Basic Modeling Research and Critical Media Transitions

Students are required to find a model from their respective fields of interest or practice and trace back its genealogy. For example, the concept of surveillance as explained by Michel Foucault is modeled through the 18th century panopticon prison project by Jeremy Bentham, but this idea can be traced back to the middle age iconographical models of “all-seeing eye of God.” After students find a model, they will be required to translate it into different media/from from the one it was originally envisaged. The final product can be a diagram, map, paper mock up, photo series, video piece, performance, etc.

Requirements:

  • Students are required to make a short presentation (up to 10 min.) about their model.
  • Students are required to upload modeling documentation on the class blog.

Objectives:

The objective of this assignment is to exercise critical thinking by translating information from one medium to another and to formulate a visually and spatially compelling strategy to convey a concept. The assignment methodology is based on the regressive/progressive method by Henri Lefebvre, which connects analysis of the present with historical research and speculative projections of the future. 

Due date: Session 12

Penultimate — Develop & Build

Students are required to present their final project proposals. They are asked to discuss the technical possibilities and needs for the project’s realization and not less important – project documentation. We will have Madeleine Gallagher (ACT media associate) in the class responsible for the technical assistance and equipment.

Due date: Session 22

Final Review — Present

Students will have to complete the lifecycle of a project from conception to design/construction, to articulate an artist’s statement and formulate a visually and spatially compelling presentation strategy.

Requirements:

  • Students are required to make a presentation (up to 15 min.) about their project and offer a constructive and coherent feedback to the reviewer’s comments.
  • Students are required to upload full documentation of their project on the class blog (production process, final project).

Due date: Session 26

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