Week 5: Information as Ideology

In preparation for tomorrow's lecture have a look at David McCandless's excellent site: Information is Beautiful and Manuel Lima's site: Visual Complexity. Either offers a great place to start an exploration of critical visualisation.

from visualcomplexity.com

Research skills video tutorials: online now+

If you would like to continue to sharpen your skills at finding articles and other materials relevant to your research topic, have a look at the Vic Library's new online tutorial videos (here).

Tardigotchi: steampunk, postdigital, or??

Tardigotchi_English from Studio Bureau on Vimeo. Concept, Design and Fabrication of Tardigotchi by SWAMP and Tiago Rorke. Read more about the Tardigotchi project here.

Steampunk and the E-baroque: background + assign. reading

Week 4: assigned reading is here. For more background on this week's topic, visit The Steampunk Workshop and the wikipedia entry for Steampunk; also of interest, explore the 'history' of the Telelectroscope

Draft thesis statement: bring to tutorials on Friday

Please bring your best attempt at a thesis statement / argument for your investigation to tutorials on Friday. Read the project brief for Assignment 2 for specific examples of what a thesis statement should look like.

Assignment 2: brief

The brief and guidelines for the second assignment have been posted. Note the examples of each required component highlighted in yellow.

Howling at the Moon: thoughts on the everyday

This week's topic: the everyday: in preparation for Wednesday's lecture, please read the excerpt from Nicholson Baker, The Mezzanine and Howling at the Moon: The Poetics of Amateur Product Reviews .

Cat Genie, Self-Flushing, Self-Washing Cat Box

One Source

Don't forget to bring one potential source (the citation at least) to lecture tomorrow. Also remember to do this week's reading: W. Bostwick, How (not) to write like a designer, from Core77 2 Feb. 2009 (you can find a pdf on this blog or in the R-drive).

#POSSIBLEPAPPERTOPICS

Can't think of a research topic? [consider one of these] 
failure in the design process // panopticism and social media // aura and the resurgence of craft // the digital everyday // sustainability and product lifecycles // green design or green-washing // mass customisation and the death of the designer // consumer-crafted identities // e-baroque and the return of the curve // gaming and social activism // processing and the scripting of design // the design of gender // the gendering of design // the history of ergonomics // ecological design // hyperreality in 21st century design // craft and design // spectacle and the image in design // war and design // ornament and crime // postmodernism as design mashup // intellectual property and the copyleft movement // the rise of the digital nomad // cyberspace and the googlocracy // privacy and social media // viral marketing and the post-brand era // wireless computing and the internet of things // science fiction and design....

Helpful tips for creating annotated bibliographies

You can also find the PDF on under Briefs + Tools

What is a scholarly source?

As you beginning developing your Annotated Bibliography, don't forget that you need 4 out of 5 of your sources to be "scholarly". What does that mean? Have a look here or here or have a search here.

Week 1, theme: critical design

Join us in LT1 tomorrow at 11.30am to find out more about 'critical design' and how it might help you THINK about what you do differently...

[and you'll find out more about this dog...]

Tutorial streams: sign up now!

CCDN271: Design as Inquiry -- tutorial sign-up sheets have been posted outside of LT1. If you can't get into a stream that works with your course schedule, email margaret.petty@vuw.ac.nz or stop by Margaret's office, 4.10 Wigan.