Mixed Reality City

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8776 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA

Thursday 3:00-6:00

Gund Hall Room 522

Graduate School of Design

Harvard University

Fall 2013

Instructor: Yanni Loukissas

Guest Instructor: Matthew Battles

Introduction

The contemporary city is constituted by multiple overlapping, intermixing realities articulated across built form and imagined space, individual experience and collective memory, embodied sensation and digital mediation. Often, these multiple realities are invisible or illegible, with certain narratives dominating particular environments. However, realities always leave traces, to be excavated and reconstructed. The Mixed-Reality City is an exploratory research seminar and workshop in which students pursue studies of urbanism-in-the-making through means and methods emerging in the digital arts and humanities, including: data narrative, digital ethnography, adversarial design, and critical technical practice. The course focuses in equal parts on unpacking discourses and developing interpretative digital artifacts.

This year, the course will examine the mixed-reality of natural and artificial environments, principally in the Northeastern United States. Projects will focus on historical and contemporary controversies over troubled natural or wild places and phenomena by exploring their associations and effects within cities. The class will pursue questions about the co-construction of the natural and the artificial as well as feral presences in cities: places and phenomena once domesticated, now returned to nature. Moreover, we will examine the relationship between natures and networks. What happens to technology in the wild? Can technology itself become feral?

We will read authors, such as Bruno Latour, Kevin Lynch, Michel DeCerteau, Leo Marx, Donna Haraway and William Cronon, who explain the mixed-reality of cities in their own ways. We will also engage the work of media artists and designers who make a practice out of intervening into controversies: Natalie Jeremijenko, Sara Wylie, Kelly Dobson, Leanne Allison, Jeremy Mendes, Phoebe Sengers, and Carl DiSalvo. The Mixed-Reality City is a highly participatory class. Students will be expected to actively contribute to discussions and project critiques. At the beginning of the term there will be a rapid series of exercises in writing, mapping, and precedent analysis. Towards the end of the term, students will focus on lengthy final projects to interpret and intervene in mixed wild and constructed places in cities.

The course is open to all graduate students at Harvard and associated institutions. While there are no prerequisites, students are expected to bring basic skills in digital media. The Mixed-Reality City is hosted by metaLAB (at) Harvard, a research unit of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, focused on experiments in the arts and humanities.

Basics

This course will be run in a seminar/workshop format, composed of a mixture of brief presentations and a considerable amount of discussion involving every student in the class. It is essential that you be prepared to participate at all times. Class typically meets once a week on Thursdays, 3:00-6:00. Attendance is crucial at weekly meetings. If you must miss a class for any reason, please email well in advance. If you miss more than one class, it may significantly affect your grade in the course.

Exercises

The course will begin with three open-ended experiments to identify and map controversies over the nature and value of city wildscapes. This early focus on controversies is intended to surface the mixed-realities present in cities and, in particular, reveal how varied discourses construct conceptions of “the wild,” in different ways. The course is substantially informed by research in the field of Science, Technology, and Society, which has long studied controversies as a means of revealing the construction of scientific knowledge and technical expertise.

Weekly Readings/Watchings/Listenings/Discussions

The historical and theoretical portion of the course is guided by weekly readings. Film screenings and audio listenings are recommended but not required. It is expected that each student substantively engage these materials weekly and be prepared to deeply discuss each work in class. The first weeks generally attempt to pair material relevant to the group’s exercises; the later weeks generally focus upon contemporary topics that aim to inform each student’s final projects. In weekly reading responses consider the following:

1. Reflect upon the reading itself.

Who is the author? Who is the author writing against? What domain are they writing in? Who is the intended audience? What evidence does the author use? How strong is the central argument of the reading? What concessions does the author make, if any? What does the author not consider?

2. Situate the reading in the context of other texts.

These may be texts that we have looked at during the term or which you are personally familiar with. How does this reading reinforce, extend, or call into question the arguments raised by other authors or vice versa? What new insights or evidence supports the author’s argument?

All readings will be made available as PDFs over the course of the semester on the course website, unless otherwise noted in the syllabus.

Precedent Studies

The subject matter of this course is constantly evolving, and as such, it is crucial that we also work together to track new developments, develop historical perspective and enhance each other’s learning. Towards this aim, each student will be required to write a brief case study (ca. 500 words) critically analyzing a contemporary or historical project of relevance to the course. Think of these as short essays to help us build a collection of shared references and inspirations for your final projects.

Final Project

The final project will be a media design experiment. It will draw upon themes and techniques you or others have explored earlier in the semester. You can choose to use existing tools or develop your own forms of technical (or nontechnical) mediation. Projects will be reviewed by critics in a juried presentation/critique.

Technology Expectations

This course is media and technology intensive. It is expected that all students have some familiarity and experience working with digital media. However, students will be encouraged to learn by doing, and to share skills with each other. The emphasis of this course, however, is not on learning technical skills per se, but rather on being able to make whatever use you can of the media technologies at hand for artistic practice.

Experimental Context

This course and the work that you will create is an experiment. It is important to keep in mind that all of us will be inventing elements as we go, and this process of discovery and development is part of the excitement. Consequently, it’s also important to understand certain things will fail, break and not turn out as planned, and to embrace these hiccups as part of working in a collaborative, laboratory environment.

Academic Integrity

The GSD seeks to maintain a learning and working environment characterized by academic integrity and fair access to educational resources. The GSD expects all students to honor these principles. Actions that violate these principles include the following, and may be the basis for disciplinary action: a. Cheating on examinations, either by copying the work of other students or through the use of unauthorized aids: b. Fraudulent presentation of the work of others (either written or visual) as one's own work (plagiarism) c. Simultaneous or repeated submission without permission of substantially the same work (either written or visual) to more than one course: d. Alteration or misrepresentation of academic records.

Evaluation

Participation in class: 40%

Final project: 30%

Warm-up exercises: 15%

Precedent studies: 15%

Schedule

Note: This syllabus and schedule will likely change throughout the semester to adapt to student interests, course composition, etc. Please always check this website for the most up-to-date version.

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Week 1 :: September 5 :: Introduction

In Class Readings

Elkins, James. “How to Look at a Culvert." In How to Use Your Eyes. 2000.

Edwards, Paul. “How to Read a Book”

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Week 2 :: September 12 :: Mixed-Reality Cities

Required Readings

* Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City

*Wordsworth, William. “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802.”

* De Certeau, Michel. “Walking in the City" and “Spatial Stories." In The Practice of Everyday Life. Translated by Steven Rendall. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.

* Latour, Bruno and Hermant, Emilie. Paris: Invisible City. 1998. (INTERACTIVE)

Recommended Readings

* Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology

* Sterling, Bruce. The Viridian

* Marx, Leo. The Machine in the Garden

* Feenberg, Andrew. Questioning Technology.

* Tenner, Edward. Why things bite back: technology and the revenge of unintended consequences.

* Latour, Bruno. Aramis, or the Love of Technology

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Week 7: October 17: Feral Technologies, Part 2

Experiment 2: Feral Technologies Controversy Mapping

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Week 8: October 24: Understanding Non-human Actors

Experiment 3: Mixed-Reality Image of the City

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Week 9: October 31: Provocations

Experiment 4: Precedent Analysis

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Week 10: November 7: Mid-Term Review

Final Project Proposal

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Week 11: November 14: Guest Talk + Discussion / Project Critiques

Dietmar Offenhuber

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Week 12: November 21: Guest Talk + Discussion / Project Critiques

TBD

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Week 13: November 28: Thanksgiving

No Class

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Week 14: December 5: Prelim-Review (Optional)

Working Session

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Final Review: December 19: 10am-2pm in Gund 522

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03448: The Mixed-Reality City (DES 0344800)

Architecture
Seminar Workshop - 4 credits - Limited enrollment
Thursday 3:00 - 6:00 Gund 522

Instructor: Yanni Alexander Loukissas <yanni@metalab.harvard.edu>
Office Hours: 2:30-4:30pm Gund Hall Room 414

Guest Instructor: Matthew Battles <matthew@metalab.harvard.edu>

Introduction

The contemporary city is constituted by multiple overlapping, intermixing realities articulated across built form and imagined space, individual experience and collective memory, embodied sensation and digital mediation. Often, these multiple realities are invisible or illegible, with certain narratives dominating particular environments. However, realities always leave traces, to be excavated and reconstructed. The Mixed-Reality City is an exploratory research seminar and workshop in which students pursue studies of urbanism-in-the-making through means and methods emerging in the digital arts and humanities, including: data narrative, digital ethnography, adversarial design, and critical technical practice. The course focuses in equal parts on unpacking discourses and developing interpretative digital artifacts.

This year, the course will examine the mixed reality of natural and artificial environments, principally in the Northeastern United States. Projects will focus on historical and contemporary controversies over troubled natural or wild places and phenomena by exploring their associations and effects within cities. The class will pursue questions about the co-construction of the “natural” and the “artificial” as well as feral presences in cities: places and phenomena once domesticated, now returned to nature. Moreover, we will examine the relationship between natures and networks. What happens to technology in the wild? Can technology itself become feral?

We will read authors, such as Bruno Latour, Kevin Lynch, Michel DeCerteau, Leo Marx, Donna Haraway and William Cronon, who explain the mixed-reality of cities in their own ways. We will also engage the work of media artists and designers who make a practice out of intervening into controversies: Natalie Jeremijenko, Sara Wylie, Kelly Dobson, Leanne Allison, Jeremy Mendes, Phoebe Sengers, and Carl DiSalvo. The Mixed-Reality City is a highly participatory class. Students will be expected to actively contribute to discussions and project critiques. At the beginning of the term there will be a rapid series of exercises in writing, mapping, and precedent analysis. Towards the end of the term, students will focus on lengthy final projects to interpret and intervene in mixed wild and constructed places in cities.

The course is open to all graduate students at Harvard and associated institutions. While there are no prerequisites, students are expected to bring basic skills in digital media. The Mixed-Reality City is hosted by metaLAB (at) Harvard, a research unit of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, focused on experiments in the arts and humanities.

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Required Readings
* Lynch, Kevin. 1960. The Image of the City. Cambridge: MIT Press. (PDF) Pages 1-13, 46-49
* Wordsworth, William. “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802.” (Online)
* De Certeau, Michel. “Walking in the City" and “Spatial Stories." In The Practice of Everyday Life. Translated by Steven Rendall. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. (PDF)
* Latour, Bruno and Hermant, Emilie. Paris: Invisible City. 1998. (INTERACTIVE) | (PDF) Pages 1-31.

Recommended Readings
* Yaneva, Albena. Mapping Controversies in Architecture
* Lynch, Kevin. 1976. What Time is this Place? Cambridge: MIT Press: 65-89,163-189, 243-247
* Appleyard, Donald. 1976. “Many Cities in One,” in Planning a Pluralist City. Conflicting Realities in Ciudad Guayana. Cambridge: MIT Press: 204-232

Guidelines
The historical and theoretical portion of the course is guided by weekly readings. It is expected that each student substantively engage the required materials (at a minimum) and be prepared to discuss each work in class. (Use the article, “How to read a book” to guide your reading) The first weeks generally attempt to pair material relevant to the group’s exercises. For each week in which required reading is assigned, you should write a (~500 word) reflection on one or more of the texts. Post your reflection as a comment in the discussion section. In your responses consider the following:

1. Reflect upon the reading itself.
What is the argument of the author? How strong is it? What concessions does the author make, if any? Who is writing? Who is the author writing against? What domain is she/he writing in? Who is the intended audience? What evidence does the author use? What does the author not consider?

2. Situate the reading in the context of other texts, projects or events.
These may be texts or projects that we have looked at during the term or which you are personally familiar with. How does this reading reinforce, extend, or call into question the arguments raised by other authors or vice versa? What new insights or evidence does the author bring to light?

All readings will be made available online or as PDFs over the course of the semester on the course website, unless otherwise noted in the syllabus.

James Barron's New York Times article about the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy discusses the effects of the storm on New York, surrounding states. Specifically, the article cites the damage the storm inflicted upon transportation infrastructures, residents, and businesses in the New York area, and in the reach of the storm damage beyond the city and state. Barron brings up examples of politcal actors and their roles in addressing people and places affected by water damage, on a national and local level, and relatively objectively discusses their involvement in the storm cleanup. Also, this article compares the effect on New York to other natural disasters that have occured in the past (a blizzard in 1888, WWII, etc.) and manifestations of diaster: subway shut downs, utility crews, hospital evacuations, losses and cost of repairs, cultural event cancellations.

Syllabus

Mixed Reality City

View From The Road

2012 HURRICANE SANDY -- Super Storm NY: What Really Happened

Media Dossier: Images

Cover Photo

Week 2 :: Mixed-Reality Cities :: Reading Response :: Due 9.12 at 9:00am

Project Description: Hurricane Sandy Barrels Region, Leaving Battered Path

Media Dossier: Articles

Future Driver-less- cars ( what we see inside them?)

Or