About
We often go from point A to B without noticing rich opportunities for artistic cultural expression even with smart phones and GPS guides. d.Maps: Design Cultural Maps, is a residential-based “d.school” seminar aimed at designing and implementing applications for multi-media maps.
Our seminar explores ways to create, share and discover meaningful cultural experiences around us through design thinking.This multidisciplinary seminar will encourage a diverse team of students to expand their expertise on tracks of art, anthropology, design, HCI, music, psychology and urban studies.
Topics to be discussed include design thinking, the future of mobile mapping, art in the iPhone era, mobile music, the nature of artistic behavior and cultural environmentalism. This experimental project-based seminar will challenge you to identify needs for mapping art and rapidly prototype solutions using still photography, audio and video media.
The resulting product of our seminar, among many prototypes, will be an iPhone app used for a unique arts-immersion trip to New York City during Spring Break (Stanford students may apply here). A follow up residential seminar during Winter quarter at Kimball will explore the phenomenon of New York city as a cultural mecca (attendance in the winter course will be mandatory for Spring trip attendees).
Example Questions
How do different perspectives, ranging from the individual to environmental level, influence our interactions with art? Why do dimensions of layering, routing, and time scales impact our experience with art? What is the role of technology in creating, sharing and discovering meaningful art in our everyday lives?
Scope
Potential problem spaces we’ll design for include the lack of inspiring art in our everyday lives, cultural blandness, limitations of the current GPS mapping paradigm, and the inability to easily map meaningful experiences.
Project Function
Using the design process, students will create map prototypes by manipulating the function below.
Track(s) + Dimension(s) + Media = Cultural Maps Expression
For each mapping project you will focus on isolating variables of this function to address clear points of view and narrow use cases.
The overarching track uniting our seminar will be design thinking. However, we’ll draw from a number of disciplines to enrich your expertise as you design maps.
-ART: Perspectives will be mixed with colors from practical to historical. Be prepared to make art. A bias towards new art experiences is encouraged. We’ll look at how media is changing art production, distribution, and consumption.
-ANTHROPOLOGY: We are humans…but an eye towards the marginalized, underprivileged, and extreme will drive us to face global problems we’ve expressed since art was first documented.
-DESIGN: Human centered design will be the centerpiece of our seminar. We’ll be employing the d.school design process while developing our own methodologies.
-HCI: Interactions with computers are emerging towards directions like ubiquitous computing and augmented reality. Be prepared to hack. Our job is to redesign the way people experience art.
-MUSIC: Our daily experience is filled with music but some times we’re not tuned in. We’ll explore the nature of soundscapes and how they impact art.
-PSYCHOLOGY: Psychology will help us understand and test theories of human behavior. We aim to curate and build on research related to the intersection of art and behavior change.
-URBAN STUDIES: We’ll inquire deeply into the nature of cities and the techniques used to modify urban environments using art. By examining the role of new media in urban environments, we’ll explore issues of hypermediation and interconnectedness in dense urban networks.
We’ll address three primary dimensions of art during the dMaps seminar: layering, routing, and time scales.
-LAYERING: How many layers go into art? Are there layers of meaning in art? What happens when you layer art on top of something else? Layering is fundamental to art. Think “thickness.”
-ROUTING: How do you connect art visually? What is the purpose of connecting art? Does a certain path to art change your experience? We can now connect a web of artistic inspirations using mobile mapping technology in ways never before possible. Think “relationships.”
-TIME SCALES: What is the difference between looking at art once versus the sight of many years? How does art change over our lifetime? What role does time play in changing the way we create, share, and discover art? We will think both short and long term throughout our exploration of mapping art. Think “temporal experience.”
We’ll create, share and discover artistic cultural experiences through photos, audio, and video media.
Framework
Like all d.school courses, this is an active, experiential seminar. Our use of design methodologies will be an implicit part of all course material and projects. By the end of the seminar you will cycle through this entire process multiple times and hopefully continue to use design thinking on future projects too!
-SATURATE : MEDIA EXPERIENCES
You will conduct empathy and need finding in the field during each project using a variety of techniques including interviews with extreme and oddball strangers. Our seminar will always be looking for opportunities to share insights from the physical realm through a variety of digital mediums. We will actively use blog, wiki, and social media interfaces every week. Most guest lectures from Stanford affiliates will be aimed at saturating you with new inspiration for your point of view(s).
-SYNTHESIZE : SALON
After collecting insights, you will synthesize, define and ideate around a specific point of view. Seminar discussions and conversations with outside guests will be used as opportunities to reflect and iterate on your point of view in an informal salon format. Industry representatives will be invited to help address practical execution tips to help you protoptye in the next phase.
-REALIZE : STUDIO
This is an advanced practicum where project sessions will operate like a design studio. Assets and space will be used to create a media realization lab. During realize sessions you will be actively testing your prototypes.
Deliverables
-BRING MAP: Find a meaningful map (intentionally vague) and bring it to our first seminar. DUE SEPT 21ST
-EXPERIMENT 1: Empathy challenge announced in our first seminar. DUE SEPT 24TH
-EXPERIMENT 2: Build at least 1 non-digital map prototype for your favorite person from experiment 1. DUE SEPT 28TH
-WEEKLY WIKI/BLOG POSTS: Synthesize weekly insights DUE EVERY THURSDAY
-MINI PROJECT 1: Create map focused on layering using photos DUE OCT 5TH
-MINI PROJECT 2: Create map focused on routing using audio DUE OCT 15TH
-MINI PROJECT 3: Create map focused on time scales using video DUE OCT 29TH
-MINI PROJECT 4: TBD
-CORE PROJECT: Student proposed map ranging from self-initiated to scaffolding DUE NOV 19TH (Before Thanksgiving break!)
-TRACK(S) PRESENTATION: Synthesize learnings and insights from the course relating to your track(s). Your blog/wiki posts should inform you throughout the seminar. You will present this to the professor(s) who are providing you units for the seminar and publish on our website. DUE NOV 30TH
1 unit = 2 of 7 Blog/Wiki Posts + 2 of 5 Projects + Track(s) Presentation
2 units = 4 of 7 Blog/Wiki Posts + 4 of 5 Projects + Track(s) Presentation
3 units = 7 of 7 Blog/Wiki Posts + 5 of 5 Projects + Track(s) Presentation
Evaluation
-BLOG/WIKI POSTS: 10%
-PROJECTS: 70%
-TRACK(S) PRESENTATION: 10%
-SEMINAR PARTICIPATION: 10%
Expectations
-RISK: You will need to take risks during this seminar and break out of your comfort zone. If you’re not uncomfortable at some point during the seminar, we’re not pushing you hard enough.
-BIAS TOWARDS ACTION: We’ll learn by doing in this class. Do first, ask for forgiveness later.
-MINDFUL OF PROCESS: If there’s anything you should take away from this seminar, it should be the process that you can replicate in other fields.
-UNCERTAINTY: This is about real world experiences filled with ambiguity, not single answers. You should face uncertainty with the design process in one hand and your own creativity in the other.
-TEAM: We will work together as a team to prototype and iterate everything, including the seminar on the fly. We will reap the success and failure of the product we ship at the end of the quarter.
-ATTENDANCE: Come to the seminar. It’s important! If you miss a day there’s really no way to make it up or get excused. Of course, if you’re sick, stay home. But otherwise, join us each session.
-PUNCTUALITY: I expect you to arrive to our seminar on time. This is part of your participation grade (that way, we can motivate people to make the extra effort).
-SEMINAR VISITORS: In general, visitors are okay if they have cleared it with me 24 hours in advance. Invite your friends and industry contacts, yes, but run it by me early if possible.
-FACEBOOK & TWITTER: Be prepared to share your research and prototypes with the public on an ongoing basis. Commenting and re-tweeting will be part of your participation grade (that way, we can motivate people to make the extra effort).
-CONTACT: You should feel free to contact me via phone, email, or texting (best channel).
-READING ASSESSMENT: I’m not a fan of reading quizzes, but I’ve concluded they are a necessary evil. I’ll test for the big ideas and relationship of big ideas, not for details.
-DISTRACTIONS: Please do not surf the web, do email, or text message during seminar lectures or discussions. If I sense that people are tuning out because of laptops, I may ask everyone to close up computers during these times.
-CONTRIBUTE: If you see a way you can help the seminar succeed, please step up and let us know. We’re exploring this new area together, and I welcome your initiative.
Sponsors
