DOM-E1023 - Discourse in Design, Lecture, 14.9.2021-20.10.2021
This course space end date is set to 20.10.2021 Search Courses: DOM-E1023
Topic outline
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Classes are mainly on campus, with a few online sessions (see schedule).
Link for online participation: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/61405307592This course is an introduction to contemporary theories and discussions within visual communication design. Special attention is paid to the nature of knowing and knowledge in different domains, and the notion of designerly and material knowledge. Relevant theories in other fields beyond design theory are also discussed, along with their potential contribution to design practice.
In addition to lectures and discussions in class, the course consists of working in independent reading groups, where thematic course literature is explored through reading, writing and conversation.
For complete course information, see the Syllabus and/or the links on the menu.
The course is led by professor Arja Karhumaa, who you can reach at arja.karhumaa@aalto.fi or 040 570 7777.
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Classes are mainly on campus, with a few online sessions (see below).
Link for online participation: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/61405307592Week 1
TUESDAY 14th Sept 9.15–17
Space: Design Factory, Stage
led by ARJA & AMELIE- TOPIC: Course introduction. How does learning happen on this course? What is discourse and what to do with it?
- Course practicalities + Ice breakers
- Establishing principles of Reading Group work.
- CLASS EXERCISE: Mapping questions together. Listening to each other. Relay interview.
WEDNESDAY 15th Sept 9.15–12
Space: Design Factory, Stage
led by AMELIERead in advance: - Intercept from the Academy, Interview of New Academy by Mika Savela, Finnish Architecture review, issue 2/2018
- CLASS EXERCISE: Your practice. What do you do when you do what you do?
- ASSIGNMENT Introducing the text installation assignment for reading groups.
Week 2
TUESDAY 21th Sept 10.15-12.00 NOTE! Exceptional time
Space: online, https://aalto.zoom.us/j/61405307592
led by ARJARead in advance:
Mills, Sara (1997/2004). Introduction. In Discourse. Routledge. (25 pages + you can skim chapter 3 in the same pdf if you get interested)- LECTURE: Discourse. Authorship. Practice (Part I). Discussion.
WEDNESDAY 22th Sept 9.15–12
Space: U3
led by ARJA- LECTURE: Discourse. Authorship. Practice (Part II). Discussion.
- INTRODUCTION to Reading I: Discourse and authorship in design practice.
The group meeting and summaries are to be accomplished before Tuesday 28th. - Flinga board: Practice
Week 3
TUESDAY 28th Sept 9.15–12
Space: online, https://aalto.zoom.us/j/61405307592
led by ARJA & AMELIE- UNPACKING Reading I: Discourse and authorship in design practice.
- ASSIGNMENT Discussing the upcoming text installation.
- Flinga board: Quotes from mixed breakout rooms
WEDNESDAY 29th Sept 9.15–12
Space: U3
led by ARJA- LECTURE: Visual communication as episteme. Discussion.
- INTRODUCTION to Reading II: Design and knowledge.
The group meeting and summaries are to be accomplished before Wednesday the 6th.
Week 4
TUESDAY 5th Oct 9.15–12
Independent work- PDF LECTURE: Modernity. Follow instructions and leave your comments+questions.
- Groups: Independent work on the final exhibit.
WEDNESDAY 6th Oct 9.15–12
Space: U3
led by ARJA- UNPACKING Reading II: Design and knowledge.
- INTRODUCTION to Reading III: The (new) materiality of design. The group meeting and summaries are to be accomplished before Tuesday the 12th.
Week 5
TUESDAY 12th Oct 9.15–12
Space: online, https://aalto.zoom.us/j/61405307592
led by ARJA- UNPACKING Reading III: The (new) materiality of design.
- LECTURE: Introductions to new materiality
WEDNESDAY 13th Oct 9.15–12
Space: U3
led by AMELIE- Groups meet individually with Amelie. Discussing the assignment and reparing for the text installation.
Week 6
TUESDAY 19th Oct 9.15–17
Space: U3
led by ARJA & AMELIE- Feedback session on the course work so far.
- ASSIGNMENT Groups working on their text installation files.
WEDNESDAY 20th Oct 9.15–12
Space: U3
led by ARJA & AMELIE- Final group talks and discussions.
- Planning the installation building + opening on 1 November, and dissembling on 12 November.
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Reading groups:
A Holiday Team: Veera Kesänen, Hares Bassil, Nina Grönlund, Eero Urala
Bread: Petra Zajácz, Paula Rautanen, Aziza Lo, Katri Astala
Chandelier Discourse: Elina Ahonen, Juha Koivusalo, Noa Joulin, Pihla Lemmetyinen
De-: Ulla Eronen, Markus Grönlund, Muniba Rasheed, Laura Soini
Enjoyment Book Club: Aino Salo, Anastasiia Balagurova, Iisa Pappi
Fantastic Fudge: Sofia Mejia, Pinja Mäentaka, Anjori Tandon, Anna Mäkelä
Giant Cerebrums: Milja Komulainen, Veera Kemppainen, Adelaida Avila
H: Jen Sanderson, Ossi Kannosto, Kai Nordfors, Aleksanda Czupryna
The reading groups are an opportunity to read, write and discuss various themes all with your peers. Your reading group will discuss provided thematic literature in three different meetings. After the group meetings, each theme will be unpacked in class.
Your group will organise meetings independently but according to this schedule:
Reading I: meeting before unpacking on Tuesday 28 Sept
Reading II: meeting before unpacking on Tuesday 5 or Wednesday 6 Oct
Reading III: meeting before unpacking on Tuesday 12th OctYour group
Think of a name for your group that starts with your group letter. This is just for the fun of it and the purpose for easy identification.
Blog
Establish a simple blog for your group online. The platform can be chosen freely. Send a link to Arja.
Meetings
Your reading group will have three meetings during the course to discuss the provided literature together. Reserve two hours for each meeting. Think of spaces that would work best for having a conversation on what you’ve read. The liveliest discussions often occur in informal and cosy spaces: libraries, cafes, homes.
Introductions + summaries
For each meeting, both an introduction (600–1000 words) and a summary (any length) will be shared in the blog. The introductions are published 24 hours before the meeting and read by all group members before meeting. Summaries will be published before the following unpacking class.
IMPORTANT: In all blog posts, always state clearly
- introduction or summary
- the number/theme of the reading
- your name and date of publication
For example: Introduction, Reading III The (new) materiality of design) by Arja, 14 Sept 2021
In addition to text, introductions and summaries may include images, illustrations, diagrams, video etc.
The course of a meeting
- Before a meeting, all group members read the literature provided for this session AND write an introduction each.
- 24 hours before the meeting, introductions are published in the blog and everyone reads them before the meeting.
- In the meeting, everyone has all the provided literature at hand (on screen or on paper).
- After the session, everyone will prepare an individual summary of the ideas they developed during the discussion, and publish it in the blog before the unpacking class.
After the meetings
In unpacking classes, prepare to tell about the work of your reading group to others. You do not need any presentation materials, but make sure you are prepared to share for example your most interesting findings, most burning questions, most difficult topics, etc. of your previous meeting.
Doing your introduction
- The introduction is to be published in the blog 24 hours before your meeting.
Important! Always state clearly: introduction or summary, the number/theme of the reading, your name and date of publication.- Already when reading, make notes of things that are interesting, exciting, difficult, problematic or otherwise notable.
- When possible, get acquainted with information on the writers and the backgrounds of the texts. Make use of a dictionary to clarify words and concepts relevant to the text but unfamiliar to you.
- The introduction should not be a synopsis of the texts. Instead, you should compile themes that interest you and your thoughts about them. You can bring forth questions, opinions, provocations, critical ideas and suggestions for topics of discussion. The point is that your introduction would raise and inspire discussion.
- The introduction should be around 800–1000 words and can also include images/diagrams etc. You can use subheads.
Doing your summary
- The summary is to be published in the blog before the unpacking class.
Important! Always state clearly: introduction or summary, the number/theme of the reading, your name and date of publication.- When in the meeting, keep constant notes. Don’t rely on your memory: It’s useful to write down your thoughts immediately after the meeting. You can record the meeting if you want, but note that transcribing the audio is slow.
- The idea is to write down the gist of the discussion from your own point of view. What did you bring home from the discussion? Did you get answers to any of your questions, or even more questions? Did the discussion change the ideas you got from the text and how?
- There is no assigned word count for the introduction. The main point is to write down and reflect on the most important findings you got out of the group discussion.
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Reading I: Discourse and Authorship in Design Practice
Chapter 2: Authority, ownership, originality (p. 29–54) (25 pages) from Bennett, Andrew (2005). The Author. Routledge.
Rock, Michael (1996): Designer as Author
Further reading (entirely voluntary):- Foucault, Michel (1969). What is an Author?
- Chapter 1 The ’death’ of the author (p. 9–28) from Bennett, Andrew (2005). The Author. Routledge.
- van der Velden, Daniel (2006). Research and destroy. In Albinson et al. (eds.) Graphic Design Now in Production.
- Scotford, Martha (1994). Messy history vs. neat history: towards an expanded view of women in graphic design. In Visible Language, 28:4.
Reading II: Design and Knowledge
Pages 16–48 from: Drucker, Johanna (2014). Graphesis. Visual Forms of Knowledge Production. Harvard University Press. (32 pages)
Mills, C.W. (2008/1958)) The Man in the Middle. In Summers, John H. (ed.) (2008). The Politics of Truth. Selected Writings of C. Wright Mills. Oxford University Press. (10 pages)
Further reading (entirely voluntary):- Metahaven, Can Jokes Bring Down Governments?
- Leslie Atzmon, Visual Rhetoric– What we mean when we talk about form in Eye Magazine
- C.W. Mills: On Intellectual Craftmanship
- Chapter ”Into the Meme Pool (you parasite my brain)” in Gleick, James (2011) The Information. Fourth Estate. (13 pages)
Reading III: The (New) Materiality of Design
Vossoughian, Nader (2017). Workers of the World, Conform! (6 pages)
Raff, Jan Henning (2019). Theories to understand graphic design in use: the example of posters. In Triggs, Teal & Atzmon, Leslie (eds.). Graphic Design Reader. (8 pages)
Further reading (entirely voluntary):
New Materialism(s). Entry by Kameron Sanzo (2018). in Genealogy of the Posthuman: www.criticalposthumanism.net- Introduction from Coole, Diana & Frost, Samantha ((2010). New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics. Duke University Press.
- Bogost, Ian (2009). What is Object-Oriented Ontology? A definition for ordinary folk.
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Before reading
- Look at the text before reading it
- view text properties, such as length and structure, find important points and parts of text
- decide what you read and in what order (not always worth reading all the text and not always reading from beginning to end)
- Decide what you read in more detail and what you see,
- Decide what you do not read at all
• Decide to read only certain sections of the text or read some sections before reading other sections. For example, in a scientific article, you should first read the abstract and conclusions, and then only read the introduction, methods, and results.
• Decide to stop reading if the content of the reading is not important to the purpose of the reading
• Activate your previous knowledge. Think about what you already know about the subject of the text, the structure of the text, and the author's intentions.
• Summarize what you learn from text glancing.
• Based on this skimming and glancing, do your first assessment of what the text contains.
While reading
• Read the text flexibly according to your goals, either completely or selectively.
• Read especially the sections that you think contain important information. Information is selected based on your prior knowledge, text structure, author style or glancing.
• Skim the text to form an overview.
• Read easy text automatically and quickly. Zoom in on your thinking and reading level when you notice a harder or more interesting point.
• Read aloud if the text is difficult to understand or difficult to focus on. Try saing difficult parts of the text in your own words.
• Repeat the text you just read to keep it in working memory. Repeat the thought that came to your mind as you read, or even write it down.
• Find related words, concepts, or ideas in the text to build the main idea of the text. Look for important information in the text. Combine different parts of the text.
• Look for meaning in the text and, if necessary, argue against the text message.
• Try predicting what the text will contain next.
• Take notes.
• Take a break to consider the text or your notes. Also, take a break from reading according to your own concentration, when you find your concentration waning.
• Draw conclusions from the text. Interpret the text.
• Read comprehensively and express emotions as you read.
After reading
• After the first reading, re-read either carefully from beginning to end, looking for specific information, or looking at it.
• Review the text in your mind to improve your memory of it.
• Write the main points of the text on the paper.
• Create a consistent summary of the text.
• Ask yourself and test your own learning of the content of the text.
• Think of possible situations and examples where you could use the information.
• Even after a long time since reading, return to the text and reflect on its contents.
• Review and rethink your understanding of the text.
• Modify your understanding of the text.
Translated from the Finnish original 'Taitava lukeminen'
- Look at the text before reading it
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