Schedule

Week 1: September 4th

• Introduction to the course.
• What is the postnatural?
• Introduction to project 1: Arts of Noticing
• Exercise

Readings (no need to read for this week but these are some references that the lecture is drawing from)

• Haraway, D. (2015). Anthropocene, capitalocene, plantationocene, chthulucene: Making kin. Environmental humanities, 6(1), 159-165.
• Davis, H., & Todd, Z. (2017). On the Importance of a Date, or Decolonizing the Anthropocene. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 16(4).
• Crutzen, P. J. (2016). Geology of mankind. In Paul J. Crutzen: A Pioneer on Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Change in the Anthropocene (pp. 211-215). Springer, Cham.
• Adams, M. (2019). Anthropocene doesn’t exist and species of the future will not recognise it. The Conversation.

Week 2: September 11th

• Visit to Tandon Makerspace
• Project 1 check in
• Poetics and politics of data.
• Introduction to project 2: Measuring Device.
• Microcontroller/sensor review.
• Reading for discussion (they are on NYU classes):
  • Tsing, A. L. (2015). The mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press. Part 1 (pages 17-43, see NYU classes)
  • Odell, J. (2017). How to do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. https://medium.com/@the_jennitaur/how-to-do-nothing-57e100f59bbb (if you’ve read this post already, I put a chapter from the book on NYU classes that gives more detail.)
  • Supplementary: Odell, J. (2017). Notes of a Bioregional Interloper. https://openspace.sfmoma.org/2017/10/notes-of-a-bioregional-interloper/ 

Week 3: September 18th

• 6.30-8. Field trip 1: Kayaking the Gowanas Canal.
• Project 2 check in.
• Revision of physical computing resources and demo.
• Readings for discussion:
  • Bratton, Benjamin H., Natalie Jeremijenko, Laura Forlano, and Dharma Dailey. Suspicious images, latent interfaces. Architectural League of New York, 2008. (to page 44 or go to the end of the essay if you are into it!)
  • Catherine D’Ignazio, 2017 blog post: What would feminist data visualization look like? 

Supplementary: Feminist Data Visualization Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein. Online: http://vis4dh.dbvis.de/papers/2016/Feminist%20Data%20Visualization.pdf 

Friday, September 20th • 12:00 PM. Field trip 2: Global Climate Strike with Greta Thunberg. 1 Federal Plaza, New York City, NY 10013

Week 4: September 25

• No class.
• Recommended: visit the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial
• Readings to do:
  • Scott, J. C. (1998). Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. Yale University Press. (Introduction and Chapter 1).

Week 5: October 2nd

• PROJECT 2 DUE.
• Guest critic and speaker: artist Terike Hapooja

Week 6: October 9th

• Introduction to project: Clock
• New phenologies and postnatural time
• Technologies and time exercise.

Week 7: October 16th

• Proposed project review. Please come to class with research and a concept for discussion.
• Risograph workshop.
• Reading to discuss:
  • “The Times and the Seasons: Sky Media II (Kairos)” Chapter from: John Durham Peters. “The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media.” 
  • James Bridle, (2019) “Phenological Mismatch” Eflux. Online: https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/becoming-digital/273079/phenological-mismatch/
  • Ted Chiang, Exhalation, 2019.

Week 8: October 23rd

• PROJECT 3 DUE
• Guest critic and speaker:  Dr Elizabeth Henaff

Friday Oct 25th, 12.30-2.30: Field Trip Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment plant. 

Week 9: October 30th

• Post natural collections + archives.
• Introduction to project 4.
• Overview of tools and technologies for working with collections like the iNaturalist APIs and Flickr image scraping.

Week 10: November 6th

• Guest talk from iNaturalist.
• Project check in.
• Reading to discuss:
  • Mattern, S. (2016). Cloud and Field. Places Journal.
  • Pell, R. W., & Allen, L. B. (2015). Bringing Postnatural History into View. American Scientist, 103(3), 224-227.

Week 11: November 13th

• PROJECT 4 DUE: THE COLLECTION

Week 12: November 20th

• Critic and guest speaker: Public Lab
• Arts of Noticing Presentations (4 students)
• Final project check in

November 27th: Thanksgiving

Week 13: December 4th

• Final Project 1 reviews (11 students)
• Reading discussion:
  • Anab Jain, More than Human Centered Design, Interaction 18. Talk online: https://vimeo.com/255010942

Week 14: December 11th

• FINAL DUE
• Final class discussion and feedback.