Remade In China

Syllabus

Instructor Information

Marcela Godoy, Assistant Arts Professor of IMA
Room 937 – Room 822
Office Hours: Wednesday, 10.00 – 12.00 or by appointment
mg3273@nyu.edu 
For a quick way to find me, go to the IMA Slack and find the channel #remade-in-china-f21, follow this link to join.

Course Information

Semester: Fall 2021
Credits: 4
Pre-Requisites: Interaction Lab, Comm Lab, or Application Lab
Time: Wednesday 13.15 PM – 16.15 PM
Location: Room 823 – NYU Shanghai Pudong Campus

 Course Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • Students will reflect on perceptions of value and preciousness.
  • Students will improve social responsibility and citizenship skills.
  • Students will learn about ideation, research and development skills by experimenting and producing a range of samples, test pieces and models exploring materials, processes and ideas.
  • Students will learn to develop, articulate and express personal content, as well as ways to become self-directed and to sustain intellectual and creative growth.
  • Students will learn critical thinking through reflection exercises, writing assignments, presentations, participation in class discussions and critique.

Our Collective Goals:

  •  Maintain the NYU Shanghai Re-Maker Space
  •  Covert trash into a something extraordinary
  •  Get engaged with locals (communities + organizations)

Upon Completion of this Course, students will demonstrate:

  • Research and Development Skills
    Class projects will require students to research various factors and search for deep data in order to complete assessments of sustainability impacts across natural, human, and financial capital areas. Additionally, students will make things and propose solutions as a result of their research and critical thinking.
  • Collaboration Skills
    Most of the projects in this class will be team-based, requiring extensive interaction in accommodating various personality differences and managing the range of creative confidences. IMA is about collaboration and sharing, but this class will attempt to take it to a whole new level. We will think of ourselves as a design firm. Our goal is to become as knowledgeable as possible about our subject, and to come up with viable project ideas and prototypes that can be sustainable and fair business models generating a positive social impact for local communities. To get there, we’ll have to share the load. You will be expected to learn everything about plastic and plastic pollution, as well as to help your classmates learn. And you’ll be expected to provide constructive and critical feedback, to improve the overall quality of our work. Basically, you are going to have to talk and share.
  • Understanding Sustainability
    The readings, articles and videos will focus on all aspects of state-of-the-art understanding of sustainability. Students will constantly be required to assimilate the vocabulary of sustainability, as well as frameworks, and demonstrate both in their discussions and deliverables. Guest lectures will allow students the opportunity to interact with members of a Chinese community, as well as with sustainability professionals from a variety of backgrounds and with a variety of perspectives.
  • Creativity and Critical Thinking Skills
    All of the projects in this class will require innovative and dynamic problem solving initiatives. Project outcomes must demonstrate confident approaches with relevant and thought provoking solutions. Students are critiqued on the originality and creativity of their proposed solutions.

Course Structure

Learning will take place through lectures; guest speakers; regular reading assignments; interactive discussions in the classroom and online; student presentations; project critiques; group projects; hands-on activities; and review and reinforcement of critical knowledge and skills. Consider everything an experiment*. As your interests emerge, we’ll work to put you in touch with people who can specifically help you think through your projects. As such, this syllabus will continue to evolve over the next seven weeks. Expect change. It’s coming.
 
* Rule 4 in John Cage’s “10 Rules For Students and Teachers”

Individual Online Journal

Students are required to maintain an online journal as well as acquiring materials necessary to complete a proposal, project and report / presentation.

Grading

Your grade will reflect your level of participation in class offline and online, as well as your work on group projects along these fourteen weeks.

  • Class Participation – 10%
    Students are expected to come to each class fully prepared, having read through the texts or have watched the films assigned for the class – and thought about them carefully. Participation will be assessed on the basis of both the regularity and the quality of contributions. Students will be asked to initiate class discussions without prior warning and may be asked to perform this function more than once.
    Evaluation will consider:

    • Punctuality 20%
    • Engagement 20%
    • Classroom Interaction 20%
    • Preparation and familiarity with the readings 20%
    • Contribution to the team 20%
  • Individual Online Journal – 20%
    Contribution, quality of the content, consistency, and completeness of a journal documenting thoughts, references, findings, experiments, failures, success and progress.
    Evaluation will consider:

    • Quality of the content 30%
    • Quality of reflections 30%
    • Consistency 20%
    • Completeness 20%
  • Case Study Presentation – 10%
    Every student will present a case-study presentation during class. Themes are here, you must choose one the first day of class. The presentation should not be more then max. 20 slides (keynote, powerpoint or google slides). The presentation has to be submitted as PDF format in your journal and must follow the following naming standard: presentation-title_YourFirstName_YourLastName.pdf . If you used google slides, also embed the slides in your journal. See here some Rules for making a presentation.
    Evaluation will consider:

    • Subject Knowledge 25% 
    • Quality of the information 25%
    • Presentation/ Discussion 25%
    • Questions 25%

    Those who present in the first sessions will have less time to prepare and this will be taken into account in the assessment. View Rubric here.

  • Research and Development – 60%
  • Research 15%
    • Exhibition and Presentation of research (Wednesday, September 29) 15 % 
  • Development 45%
    • Presentation Presentation of experiments (Wednesday, October 27) 10 %
    • Presentation of the first prototype (Wednesday, November 17) 15 %
    • Presentation of the final prototype (Wednesday, December 8) 20%

See rubric here.

Grading Evaluation Scale

NYU Shanghai follows the same grading practices as NYU New York. The following grades may be awarded: A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, F. In general, A indicates excellent work, B indicates good work, C indicates satisfactory work, and D indicates passable work and is the lowest passing grade. F indicates failure. There are some additional grades—P for pass, W for Withdrawal—which are awarded administratively.