The self-defined Final Project, serves as preparation for the MFA in Design and Technology Thesis Process, which begins in the third (fall) semester of work. The final individual project should be accompanied by a 5 to 10 page paper that describes the project’s research, precedents, evidence, and methodology as well as offer some conclusions about the design problem that was studied.
As a reminder, a Design and Technology thesis is:
i. A singular subject concerning Design, Technology and the Human Condition (Society);
ii. A subject that is debatable, controversial, thought-provoking;
iii. Where evidence and precedents are presented through arguments for or against the thesis (recognizing opposing points of view is critical);
iv. Evidence is made by the design student in a set of iterative experiments and finished projects to prove or disprove the thesis
v. Students should consider the context (historical, domain/field specific), content (concept and execution) and contribution (to the field and/or a group of people) of their thesis.
vi. This is a “mini-thesis” and the project scope needs to be small enough for the period of time allotted for all phases of the project: research, development, ideation, iteration/methodology testing, prototyping and final project. Documentation of the project should be through the use of websites or production notebooks and/or sketchbooks.
Assignment 3 Objectives:
1. Defining the central problem and design questions for your project
2. Your project can be made in any medium but it must address the broad definition of interface and the impact of design and technology on the production of the project.
3. Your research must combine both observational, primary and secondary research
4. You need to present your project on at least three delivery platforms.
5. The design questions of your project should be a continuation of ideas that you have explored in this studio or the C&C lecture.
6. What is the Big Idea that undergirds your project and its documentation?
7. What kinds of conclusions have you reached?
8. Can your project be exhibited in a public arena? Create your work so that it can become public.
PROCESS
Stage 1- Problem definition, Analysis and Research, Sketching, Ideation:
Nov 13th- Begin exploring domains
Explore Personal Motivations/Interests
Questions and/or Motivations:
Make a list of 2-4 primary questions that explain what it is that you are trying to discover. OR, illustrate the primary motivations for your work with design and technology. Your primary questions or motivations may contain a set of sub-questions/motivations as well.
Domains:
What are the domains/fields with which your project engages? List keywords, terms, phrases, concepts, industry-jargon, tags that illustrate these domains. What relationships exist between these domains? Illustrate the domains your project deals with in a Venn diagram.
Illustrations:
Prepare Include illustrations of your domains, interests, and/or motivations. Include keywords, tags, industry-jargon etc.... see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venn_diagram
500-1000 words / 1-3 Venn Diagrams
Nov 15th- Continue exploring domains, more research. Library Visit:
Precedents and Research
Homework:
What are examples of work that share something in common with your motivations? These precedents can be contemporary or historical, can be drawn from the realms of design, technology, sociology, psychology, etc. In preparing this section of your document, please include the following information for each precedent discussed:
• title of work and author/designer/artist
• brief description of project
• relevance of the project to your motivations
Illustrations:
Overlay Precedents on your Venn Diagrams
500-1000 words / 1-3 Venn Diagrams
Nov 20th- No Class
Nov 22th- Tofurky Day No Class
Nov 27th-
10 minute presentations.
Homework:
Apply motivations to a concept(s)
Summary:
Write a narrative description of the project(s). What is it, who is it designed for, what is it designed to do, what kind of technology does it explore, why should we care about it, where will we see or what is the project’s life beyond the classroom, how does it make a difference?
Illustrations:
Overlay your project on your Venn Diagram
500-1000 words / 1-3 Venn Diagrams / Other related images
Nov 29th-
10 minute presentations.
Homework:
Illustrate the Process. Illustrate how your concept would functions. Include: a narrative description of your process, key methods, sample sketches, user experience storyboards, diagrams, IA, Technological Solutions etc.
500-1500 words / 1-3 Venn Diagrams / Other related images
Stage 2-
Staging, Protyping, Experimenting, Iteration:
Dec 4th-
10 minute presentations.
Illustrative the Prototype, User Experience, and/or Recipe for Construction
Homework: Illustrate your ideal user experience. Provide refined IA illustrations, showing user experience and data flow. Build a recipe for making the concept.
500-1500 words / 1-3 Venn Diagrams / Other related images
Dec 6th-
User Feedback
Homework:
Conduct interview with potential users. Collect data on who your users' thought's matched your concept or predictions.
500-1500 words / Other related images
Dec 11th-
10 minute presentations.
Homework:
Combine, Redesign, Update document
Dec 13th-
10 minute presentations.
Homework:
Combine, Redesign, Update document
Stage 3
Documenting Postmortem
Dec 18th-
Crits
Turn in 5-10 page document which meet the above objectives. Turn in MLA reference and resources.
Dec 20th-
Crits
Turn in 5-10 page document which meet the above objectives. Turn in MLA reference and resources.
Produce a postmortem on your final project and make a formal presentation to your studio.
This post-mortem should be written in the form of a 5 to 10 page paper with Chicago Manual of Style references and documentation with a minimum of 20 sources of primary and secondary research. The final paper should posted to your site and should include an analysis and conclusions of the following:
1. Strengths (what did the solution do very well?)
2. Weaknesses (what could be done to improve the design?)
3. The design process (What were some of the key moments/decisions during the process? What were trouble spots?
4. Research precedents for your work. Whose work could be considered to be at the level of your peers? What can be learned from the projects of your peers? How are you countering or extending their work or the work of your precedents? Include visual examples of the projects described.
5. What can you conclude both from your experiments and the ones that you studied? What are open questions remaining to be answered?
6. Would your project make a good exhibition piece? Where would it be seen? If appropriate, submit your project to venues where it can be appreciated/critiqued by your peers..
Readings and Research to be collected in 5-10 page document with proper Chicago Manual of Style references
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+++FINAL PAPER OUTLINE: +++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I. ABSTRACT
II. INTRODUCTION
III. BACKGROUND (artist statement)
IV. CONCEPTS (impetus/motivation/ /design/technology goal or socially-oriented goal)
V. RELATED WORK (situating in context/ identification of peers)
V1. METHODOLOGY (identification of techniques and valuation of approach)
VII. IMPLEMENTATION (both idealized design and prototyped solutions)
VIII. RESULTS (analysis, critical reflection, real-world application)
VIIII. CONCLUSION & FUTURE WORK (contribution)
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+++FINAL PAPER GUIDE & NOTES: +++
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1.
The paper would be a 5 -10 page research paper and should be posted to the student's Interface Studio website. Two copies of the papers should be printed out. One copy should handed into C&C lab instructors and one copy to the Interface Faculty.
2.
Because the paper will be written as an artist's statement that is also serving as the background and impetus for the Interface Studio final paper, you should reasearch and situate your work in the larger context of the kind of art/design you are producing for your final project in the Interface Studio. Questions to address are: Who are your peers? Who has made work that is like yours? Who are inspirations and precedents? With whom are you in dialogue? What are the pressing questions in your field/domain that needs to be addressed? How are you making a contribution to this field?
3.
The paper should include an analysis of the methodology and any conclusions and insights that were reached for the Interface solo project production.
4.
Papers should cover the following questions:
a. Strengths (what did the solution do very well?)
b. Weaknesses (what could be done to improve the design?)
c. The design process (What were some of the key moments/decisions during the process? What were trouble spots? )
d. Research precedents for the work. What can be learned from the projects of your peers/precedents? How are you countering or extending their work or the work of your precedents? Include visual examples of the precedents described. (Illustrations do not count toward the page length requirement).What can you conclude both from your project and the precedents that you studied? What are some open questions that your project attempted to solve that remain to be answered?
e. Would your project make a good exhibition piece? Where would it be seen?
f. If appropriate, submit your project and your writing to venues where it can be seen, appreciated, and critiqued by your peers and mentors.
5.
Citing Style: Chicago (Turabian) Manual of Style references and documentation with a minimum of 20 Works Reference and Works Cited of primary and secondary research are required. Precedents for your work resides not only on the Internet but also in books, magazines, journals, dissertations, etc.. You can use either in-text citation OR footnotes/endnotes. If appropriate, use document formats for peer-reviewed journals such as ACM. If you use Refworks (see the library page of my.newschool.edu) this will be a fairly painless process.
6.
The papers will be graded by BOTH C&C lab and Interface Major Studio Faculty. The separate grades for the papers are figured into the overall student's final semester grade in both C&C and Interface Major Studio. Just as a clarification: the grading process will not include careful sentence by sentence correction. Writing is rewriting. Students should get in the habit of writing every day. STUDENTS SHOULD TAKE THEIR PAPERS to the University Writing Center at 65 Fifth Avenue whether they have a native command of the English language or not. Writing Center tutors will be able to help them with general problems of their papers. Sentence-level correction should be done by having someone else, like a fellow student or trusted friend, proof-read the paper. Use of spell-checker is required-although this technology cannot always be trusted so the students should proof read the final version of the paper several times.
7.
At the end of the grading process, both papers should be handed into the department for review. There will be a designated box in the 10th floor office at 2 West 13th Street for this purpose. Papers will be available in the 10th floor office for pick-up at the end of the winter break.
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