Syllabus
Weather Worlds - ITPG-GT.2992 - NYU ITP/IMA - Fall 2018
Instructors: Karolina Sobecka, Chris Woebken
09/04-10/23/2018, Tues 3:20pm to 5:50pm
Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP)
NYU - Tisch School of the Arts
721 Broadway, 4th Floor (The class is in the Conference Room)
New York NY 10003
Course Description
Weather Worlds is a studio course that explores the role that design plays in public engagement on climate disruption. In this outcome-focused course the students will design pop-up public engagement interventions for the 24th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP24), which will take place in December 2018 in Katowice, Poland. The designs will be created in consultation with Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. The aim is to create blueprints for design approaches that can be adapted and replayed in different contexts and settings to create interventions sensitive to and inclusive of local challenges and participation. A handoff that includes a local re-interpretation of the design is a key aspect of this approach.
In this semester’s Weather Worlds studio we will focus on the impacts of climate change on food systems and vice versa - on the impact of our food systems on climate. We will design interventions through which participants confront how by simply eating they connect to supply chains, networks, and institutions that extend well beyond their families, communities or countries. Specifically the interventions will connect the international COP conference participants with the local polish food-system-and-climate-impact intersections. Understanding the paths that the carbon we ingest takes through the myriad material configurations and their sociotechnical orderings exposes the fundamental interconnections between the matter of our bodies, carbon emissions impacts on climate, and the agricultural, infrastructural, consumption, valuation and information systems that we have put in place. It further lets us consider what can be done about it, from local context-specific issues to global policy.
The partnership with the humanitarian sector will broaden and amplify the impact of this project, facilitating and developing engagements worldwide. This course produces a Weather Worlds platform that will investigate forms of experimental pedagogy, communication, and participation in engaging the public and multiple stakeholders on issues linked to climate disruption.
Core Partnership
The course is designed with a partnership with Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, a global team which links science, policy and humanitarian practice. The Climate Centre will bring a real-world challenge to our students, provides feedback during the design process and is an opportunity for the student work to have worldwide impact and application.
Learning Outcomes
• Explore new roles for design and new forms of critical engagement through collaborative work across disciplines
• Critical evaluation and design iteration
• Integrate analysis from different fields
• Design participatory engagements around complex societal questions and impact responsibility
• Critical evaluation and design iteration
• Introduce speculative thinking as well as rigorous experimental design to their practice
Course structure
The course could be structured as a 7 week class (2pt class)
Graduate and undergraduate students are welcome
The outcome of the class will be presented with Red Cross facilitation at COP24 and in other climate related conferences and events worldwide.
Instructors
Karolina Sobecka
PhD candidate at Kunstuniversität Linz and Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW Basel.
Chris Woebken
Co-Founder, The Extrapolation Factory
Speculative design practitioner, educator, and co-founder of the Extrapolation Factory, a participatory-futures studio.
Visiting instructor
Pablo Suarez
Associate Director for Research and Innovation
Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
With support from humanitarian colleagues
Deliverables
Co-creative speculation kit ready to be used at UN Global Climate Conference in Katowice, PL 8/9. Dec [students work in groups of 2]
Contribution to the Weather Worlds library of techniques, methods, resources and references
Process Documentation including co-creative sessions, interpreted speculative prototype, grounding research and deployment documentation
Dossier Documentation (Project Description (350 word minimum), Instructions, 5 Images, A video where applicable, Proper citation of all sources)
Materials
We will be making things and building objects. Expect to spend $100 in physical fabrication and prototyping materials.
Critiques
Every student is expected to participate in critiques and class discussions. Critiques are essential to the design process inside and outside of this class. You are expected to apply critical thinking, ask questions, and formulate and explain your opinion. The more active the discussions we have the more rewarding and ultimately fun the class will be.
Grading
The assignments in this class will include a multiple week deliverable focused project. All work assigned in this class will have the potential to be portfolio work. Student's overall grades will be a mixture of assignments (30%), final project (50%) and participation (20%).
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory during project critiques, individual status meetings, and every student’s end of semester public presentations. If you miss an individual status meeting, it is your responsibility to exchange a time with a fellow classmate, or contact the instructor to reschedule.
Unexcused absences will affect your grade. One absence is allowed; after that, your final, overall, numerical grade will drop by 5 percent (1/2 a grade point (e.g. A to an A-)) for each additional absence.
Tardiness will affect your grade. For every 15 minutes of tardiness, your final, numerical grade will drop by 0.5 percent.
Contact the professor at least 24h in advance by email if you will not be in class.
Absence to observe religious holidays will not be penalized, and the students should give prior notice as described above.
Responsibility
Students are responsible for all assignments, even if they are absent. Late assignments, failure to complete the assignments for class discussion and/or critique, and lack of preparedness for in-class discussions, presentations and/or critiques will jeopardize your successful completion of this course. Late assignments will be penalized 0.5% of final grade for each day late.
Participation
Class participation is an essential part of class. To fulfill the Participation requirement (20% of final grade) students must be active in class discussions and group work, asking or responding to questions. For participation to be meaningful, it is important to keep up with reading, assignments, project development, and actively participate in group work, as well as come to class on time.
Electronic Devices
Use of electronic devices (phones, tablets, laptops) is permitted when the device is being used in relation to the course's work. All other uses are prohibited in the classroom and devices should be turned off before class starts.
Moses Statement
If you are student with a disability who is requesting accommodations, please contact New York University’s Moses Center for Students with Disabilities at 212-998-980 or mosescsd@nyu.edu. You must be registered with CSD to receive accommodations. Information about the Moses Center can be found at www.nyu.edu/csd. The Moses Center is located at 726 Broadway on the 2nd floor.
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