| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | ||
| 1 | Presentation of the theme, syllabus structure and assignments | No assigned readings |
| Production of Objects | ||
| 2 | Discussion: We will discuss different definitions of modeling and relations between models, diagrams and objects. We will examine connections of obedience and modeling within the current realms of captitalist production. |
Milgram, Stanley. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. Harper & Row, 1974, pp. 1–13, 153–165. Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley. Sabotage: The Conscious Withdrawal of the Workers’ Industrial Efficiency. I.W.W. Publishing Bureau, 1916. Stallybrass, Peter. “Marx’s Coat.” In Border Fetishims: Material Objects in Unstable Spaces. Edited by Patricia Spyer. Routledge, 1997. ISBN: 9780415918572. Model (reading): Kwinter, Sanford and Umberto Boccioni. “Landscapes of Change: Boccioni’s “Stati D’animo” as a General Theory of Models.” Assemblage, no. 19 (1992): 50-65. Media juxtapositions: Stiles, Jackson. “Apple Accused of ‘Sabotaging’ Old iPhones.” The New Daily, December 31, 2015. Optional: Miller, Daniel. “Materiality: An Introduction.” In Materiality. Duke University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780822335429. [Preview with Google Books] |
| 3 | Studio: Introduction in assignments and discussion on the practice of modeling | No assigned readings |
| Production of Space | ||
| 4 | Discussion: We will interrogate production of space as defined by H. Lefebvre. We will explore planning and mapping as two different and sometimes even opposed mechanisms of spatial production? |
Corner, James. “The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention.” In Mappings. Edited by Dennis Cosgrove. Reaktion Books, 1999. ISBN: 9781861890214. Knabb, Ken, ed. Situationalist International Anthology. Revised & Expanded edition. Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006, pp. 1–14, 43–46. ISBN: 9780939682041. Upton, Dell. “The Grid and the Republican Spatial Imagination.” In Another City: Urban Life and Urban Spaces in the New American Republic. Yale University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780300124880. Elden, Stuart. “There is a Politics of Space because Space is Political: Henri Lefebvre and the Production of Space.” (PDF) Radical Philosophy Review volume 10, number 2 (2007) 101–116.
Media juxtapositions: Lamorisse, Albert. Le Ballon Rouge (1956). Parts 1–4. YouTube. Hitler in Paris. (June 22, 1940). YouTube. Model (reading): Rycroft, Chris H. and Martin Z. Bazant. “Lecture 1: Introduction to Random Walks and Diffusion.” (PDF) Department of Mathematics, MIT. February 1, 2005. |
| 5 | Studio: Modelling studio, presenting the list of people to be contacted. Developing the first assignment. | No assigned readings |
| The Agencies of Production | ||
| 6 | Discussion: We will explore the agency of growth and efficiency in the era of uncertainty. |
Daston, Lorraine J. and Peter Gallison. Objectivity. Zone Books, 2010, pp. 11–16. ISBN: 9781890951795. Levi-Strauss, Claude. The Savage Mind. The University of Chicago Press, 1966, pp. 1–33. ISBN: 9780226474847. Latour, Bruno. “A Collective of Humans and Nonhumans.” In Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies. Harvard University Press, 1999, pp. 174–215. ISBN: 9780674653368. Daipha, Phaedra. “Decision-making under Uncertainty.” In Masters of Uncertainty: Weather Forecasters and the Quest for Ground Truth. University of Chicago Press, 2015, pp. 1–24. ISBN: 9780226298689. [Preview with Google Books] Modeling (overview): Burke, Christopher, Erik Kindel, and Sue Walker, eds. Isotype: Design and Contexts 1925–1971. Hyphen Press, 2014. ISBN: 9780907259473. |
| 7 | Studio | No assigned readings |
| Production of Democracy | ||
| 8 | Dicussion: We will discuss concepts of multitude, agonistic pluralism and autogestion as possible models for radical production of democracy. |
Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri. “The Multitude against Empire.” In Empire. Harvard University Press, 2001, pp. 393–415. ISBN: 9780674006713. Mouffe, Chantal. “What is Agnostic Politics?” In Agnotstics: Thinking The World Politically. Verso, 2013, pp. 1–19. ISBN: 9781781681039. ———. “For an Agnotstic Model of Democracy.” In The Democratic Paradox. Verso, 2009, pp. 80–105. ISBN: 9781844673551. Lefebvre, Henri. “Theoretical Problems of Autogestion.” In State, Space, World: Selected Essays. Edited by Stuart Elden and Neil Brenner. Translated by Gerald Moore. University of Minnesota Press, 2009, pp. 138–152. ISBN: 9780816653171. [Preview with Google Books] Model (reading): Hobbes, Thomas. “Of Common Wealth.” In Leviathan. Penguin Classics, 1982. ISBN: 9780140431957. |
| 9 | Studio: Studio time. (See 2nd modeling experiment description.) | No assigned readings |
| 10 | Studio: Discussion and preparation for the second assignment. | No assigned readings |
| Production of Nature | ||
| 11 | Discussion: We will discuss meanings and relations of sublime and uncanny in the current context of ecological production. |
Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny. Penguin Classics, 2003, pp. 123–162. ISBN: 9780142437476. Smith, Neil. “Production of Nature.” In Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space. 3rd edition. University of Georgie Press, 2008, pp. 53–59. ISBN: 9780820330990. [Preview with Google Books] Picon, Antoine. “A Productive Countryside.” In French Architects and Engineers in the Age of Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780521123693. Asafu-Adjaye, John, L. Blomquist, et al. “An Ecomodernist Manifesto.” (PDF) (2015). Model (reading): Guattari, Felix. The Three Ecologies. Athione Press, 2000, pp. 23–70. ISBN: 9780485006087. |
| 12 | Studio | No assigned readings |
| Production of Flows | ||
| 13 | Discussion: We will discuss socio-political agendas behind distributional and communicational processes across different scales and media. We will interrogate the notion of emptiness and disconnection as models of resistance within the dense realms of networked society. |
Easterling, Keller. “Disposition.” In Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space. Reprint edition. Verso, 2016. ISBN: 9781784783648. Latour, Bruno. “Spheres and Networks. Two Ways to Reinterpret Globalization.” Harvard Design Magazine 30 (2009): 138-144. Bauman, Zygmunt. Liquid Modernity. Polity, 2000, pp. 98–110. ISBN: 9780745624105.
Media juxtapositions: Zuckerman, Ethan. “How to Listen to Global Voices.” TED Talks. July, 19, 2010. YouTube. Modeling (overview): Tinkler, Keith J. Introduction to Graphy Theoretical Methods in Geography (Concepts and Technqiues in Modern Geography; no. 14). Geo Abstracts, 1977. ISBN: 9780902246683. |
| 14 | Studio: Preparation for the midterm review | No assigned readings |
| Production of Algorithms | ||
| 15 | Discussion: We will unfold the notion of network value and discuss how it is being generated through the current dynamics of cognitive capitalism. |
Benkler, Yochai. “Introduction: A Moment of Opportunity and Challenge.” In The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Yale University Press, 2007, pp. 1–28. ISBN: 9780300125771. Wolfe, Chartles T. “From Spinoza to the Socialist Cortex: Steps Toward the Social Brain.” In Cognitive Architecture. From Bio-politics to Noo-politics. 010 Publishers, 2011, pp. 184–206. ISBN: 9789064507250. [Preview with Google Books] Wark, McKenzie. A Hacker Manifesto. Harvard University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780674015432. [Preview with Google Books] Critical Art Ensemble. “Electronic Civil Disobedience, Simulation, and the Public Sphere.” (PDF) In Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media. Autonomedia, 2001. ISBN: 9781570271199. Model (read): Pasquinelli, Matteo. “Google’s PageRank Algorithm: A Diagram of the Cognitive Capitalism and the Rentier of Common Intellect.” In Deep Search: the Politics of Search beyond Google. Edited by Konrad Becker and Felix Stalder. Studien Verlag, 2009. ISBN: 9783706547956. |
| 16 | Midterm Presentation - speculate, intersect, fail | No assigned readings |
| Production of Everydayness | ||
| 17 | Discussion: We will discuss the concept of habitus and everydayness as a set of personal behavioral patterns and collective rituals. We will analyze production of everydayness through interactions with familiar objects. |
Bourdieu, Pierre. “Structures, Habitus, Practices.” In The Logic of Practice. Stanford University Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780804720113. [Preview with Google Books] Lefebvre, Henri. “The Theory of Moments.” In Critique of Everyday Life. Verso, 2014. ISBN: 9781781683170. de Certeau, Michel. “Making Do: Uses and Tactics.” In The Practice of Everday Life. 3rd edition. University of California Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780520271456. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. “Why We Need Things.” In History From Things: Essays on Material Culture. Edited by Steven Lubar and W. David Kingery. Smithsonian Books, 1995. ISBN: 9781560986133. Mackenzie, Adrian. “The Affect of Efficiency: Personal Productivity Equipment Encounters the Multiple.” (PDF) Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization 8, no. 2 (2008): 137-156. |
| 18 | Studio: MIT Museum visit | No assigned readings |
| Productive Bodies | ||
| 19 | Discussion: We will discuss processes and systems through which bodies are normalized, controlled and manipulated. |
Foucault, Michel. “Docile Bodies.” In Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. Vantage Books, 1995. ISBN: 9780679752554. Mauss, Marcel. “Techniques of the Body.” In Incorporations. Edited by Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter. Zone Books, 1992. ISBN: 9780942299298. Brecht, Bertolt. Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. 13th edition. Edited by Steve Giles, Marc Silberman and Tom Kuhn. Translated by John Willett. Hill and Wang, 1977, pp. 69–76, 136–147. Caillois, Roger. “Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia.” (PDF) Translated by John Shepley. October 31 (1984): 17-32.
Media juxtapositions: Original Films of Frank B. Gilbreth. 1945. Society for the Advancement of Management. YouTube. Sense and the City: Dynamic Public Spaces Workshop Modeling (overview): Taylor, Frederick Winslow. The Principles of Scientific Management. Harper & Brothers, 1919. |
| 20 | Studio | No assigned readings |
| Production of Time | ||
| 21 | Discussion: We will discuss different constructs of time and interrogate ways how they shape phenomena of (self) productiveness and efficacy. We will examine what models of time we rely upon and how we can subvert them. |
Rifkin, Jeremy. Time Wars: The Primary Conflict in Human History. Reprint edition. Touchstone Books, 1989, pp. 88–120. Mumford, Lewis. Technics and Civilization. Harbinger Books, 1963, pp. 9–59. [Preview with Google Books] Kubler, George. The Shape of Time: Remarks on the HIstory of Things. Yale University Press, 1962, pp. 31–61. Groys, Boris. “Comrades of Time.” e-flux. Journal #11, December 2009. Modeling (overview): Rosenberg, Daniel and Anthony Grafton. Cartographies of Time: A History of the Timeline. Princeton Architectural Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781616890582. [Preview with Google Books] |
| 22 | Penultimate—devlop & build. Student presentations. | No assigned readings |
| Production of Memory | ||
| 23 | Discussion: We will discuss construction and deconstruction of memory and potential models of overcoming trauma. |
Lucero-Montaño, Alfredo. “On Walter Benjamin’s Historical Materialism.” Astrolabio, Revista Internacional de Filosofía, Vol. 10, pp. 125-131, 2010. Derrida, Jacques. Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. Translated by Eric Prenowitz. University of Chicago Press, 1998, pp. 1–23. ISBN: 9780226143675. [Preview with Google Books] Marot, Sebastien. Sub-Urbanism and the Art of Memory. AA Publications, 2003, pp.8–32. ISBN: 9781902902234. Bergson, Henri. Matter and Memory. Revised edition. Translated by N. M. Paul and W. S. Palmer. Zone Books, 1990, pp. 133–177. ISBN: 9780942299052. Winnicott, D. W. “Playing: A Theoretical Statement.” In Playing and Reality. Tavistock Publications, 1971, pp. 38–52. [Preview with Google Books] Modeling (reading): Winnicott, Donald W. “The Use of an Object.” (PDF) The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 50 (1969): 711. |
| 24 | Studio | No assigned readings |
| 25 | Studio: Studio time instead of the lecture and consultations before the final review. | No assigned readings |
| 26 | Final Review | No assigned readings |
| 27 | Presentations of the final projects. Documentation of student work and overall curation of the models collection. | No assigned readings |
| 28 | Final discussion and planning of the publication | No assigned readings |
Readings
Course Info
Instructors
Departments
As Taught In
Fall
2016
