UWAS-C0054 - Simulating the Post-Disaster, 14.01.2021-18.02.2021

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Please note! Course description is confirmed for two academic years, which means that in general, e.g. Learning outcomes, assessment methods and key content stays unchanged. However, via course syllabus, it is possible to specify or change the course execution in each realization of the course, such as how the contact sessions are organized, assessment methods weighted or materials used.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The learning outcomes are 1) training to think and probing to live in an outlandish terrain, 2) understanding the basics of Critical Design, 3) engaging critically with our current lifeworld and understanding the need for a radical change by questioning the narration of the present.

Credits: 5

Schedule: 14.01.2021 - 18.02.2021

Teacher in charge (valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022): Maria Villa Largacha

Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Gloria Lauterbach, Tim Smith, Maria Villa Largacha

Contact information for the course (valid 21.12.2020-21.12.2112):

Teacher of the course: Gloria Lauterbach, gloria.lauterbach@aalto.fi

Teacher in charge: Alejandro Pedregal, alejandro.pedregal@aalto.fi


CEFR level (applies in this implementation):

Language of instruction and studies (valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022):

Teaching language: English

Languages of study attainment: English

CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD

Content

  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    Our main intention of the course is to create one post-disaster scenario together by trying to visualise its trope in detail. To do so, we first look at critical events and turning points in history (e.g. discovery of the environment as a strategic military target, 1930s dust bowl, Biosphere 2) and compare those with the current climate crisis and its consequences. Approaches from Critical Design will help us bridging the current lifeworld narration with the one of our simulated future.

    Once we are in this scenario, we will focus on the role design will have in this new lifeworld, how it may change and what importance it may have for humans and non-humans.

  • Applies in this implementation:

    The course wants to strengthen the understanding that every era has its own horizon. Preferably, comprehending “a sustainable future” as a vital future, our task today is neither to bury nor to orbit (as in remix) past times. Instead, I suggest to drag the past along to complement the horizon of today. This polyphony will help us understand the climate crisis (one possible disaster) as a more systemic challenge.

    In a next step, we focus in groups on ways out of the disaster, how we can imagine life afterwards (the post-disaster).
    Critical Design will help us to narrate, simulate or simply create one post-disaster scenario.


Assessment Methods and Criteria

  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    Project work (60%), participation in class (20%), attendance (20%)

Workload

  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    Lectures 40h, individual work 50h, group work 35h, reflection 10h;

    80% attendance required

DETAILS

Study Material

  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    Peter Sloterdijk: Sphere I-III

    Donna Haraway: Staying with the Trouble

    Writings by Martin Buber

  • Applies in this implementation:

    The lecture slides I will upload in mycourses (course homepage) before every session.
    I provide the reading material for each session in mycourses; those texts I would like you to read before the class (compulsory) so that we can discuss the material together in class. The texts shall also support and inspire your group work in the later stages of the course.

    I am always available for questions via email and during the sessions. We will have enough breaks and time for discussion.


Prerequisites

  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    None

SDG: Sustainable Development Goals

    7 Affordable and Clean Energy

    8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

    9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

    11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

    12 Responsible Production and Consumption

    17 Partnerships for the Goals

FURTHER INFORMATION

Details on the schedule

  • Applies in this implementation:

    First session, 14.01.21

    Introduction of course and participants
    Lecture (topic: historical events in the 20th Century such as use of poison gas in I and II WW, Dust Bowl 1930s)

    Individual offline work

    Discussion


    Second session, 21.01.21

    Lecture (topic: the 20th Century expressed by artists/contemporaries, articulated by writers) Individual offline work
    Discussion


    Third session, 28.01.21

    Lecture (topic: looking at the past from the perspective of today via Peter Sloterdijk, Donna Haraway etc.)
    Individual offline work
    Discussion

    First group work (forming groups, warm-up)


    Fourth session, 04.02.21

    Lecture (Critical Design/Bazon Brock)
    Discussion
    Group work (how can we articulate the today as contemporaries? Which threads of past events/eras are necessary to revive and tell in our/or other words today to understand e.g. the climate crisis and its scale? What tools do we have? What are our tools to imagine?


    Fifth session, 11.02.21

    Lecture
    Individual offline work

    Discussion
    Group work (creating one post-disaster scenario with different foci)


    Sixth session, 18.02.21

    Presentation of group work/discussions 

    Reflection of course and topic


Rules of Conduct - Students´ Rights and Responsibilities (in force from 1 August 2020)

Aalto University Code of Academic Integrity and Handling Violations Thereof