NYSCC SOAD
Teaching
Project/Assignment Descriptions and Outcomes
Examples from Speculative Illustration and Design
Zine sketch 1
Every Monday to you will turn in a singular sketch that speculates on current trajectories of science and technology to illustrate future objects, artifacts, products, services, social & political structures, etc.. These sketches will be compiled into a weekly zine and at the end of the semester a catalog. In order to do that all sketches will need to be scanned at 300dpi and submitted digitally via Canvas.
Helpful resource: https://www.futureforall.org/
These sketches will be used to generate discussion about current trends of science and technologies towards preferred futures.
Examples from Speculative Illustration and Design
Zine sketch 1
Every Monday to you will turn in a singular sketch that speculates on current trajectories of science and technology to illustrate future objects, artifacts, products, services, social & political structures, etc.. These sketches will be compiled into a weekly zine and at the end of the semester a catalog. In order to do that all sketches will need to be scanned at 300dpi and submitted digitally via Canvas.
Helpful resource: https://www.futureforall.org/
These sketches will be used to generate discussion about current trends of science and technologies towards preferred futures.
Glitch Breaking Visual Codes Investigations
Your assignment is to create a series of 6 images that investigate 6 individual glitch phenomena. 1-2 of the glitches need to be actual glitches, the rest can be glitch aesthetics found via software / digital process. These investigations will be implemented in your next 100 point assignment.
When we return from spring break you will also present to the class your discoveries and processes of your fav. process. With the hope that you expand your colleague's visual vocabulary/possibilities.
Future Societies: Non-Normative Approaches to Illustration Design
Your assignment is to carefully research and think critically about a current technological or scientific development that radically reshapes our society in the future. You need to create a 1-2 page description that world builds a society that answers several of the questions: What is the political environment? What is the social economics of your society? How has life changed due to radical science/technology? How has fashion changed? What role does gender & race play? What is our relationship to the environment, and where is your society/narrative set?
After your research and world-build as detailed as possible. You then are to create a movie poster depicting your future society that was reshaped due to radical technological/scientific advancements. Your poster needs to be 24x30 inches @ 300dpi. You can use a plethora of techniques including hand-drawing, illustrator, photoshop. (Note elements could change based on accessibility to technology / online or in-person.) Your poster needs to implement and utilize non-normative approaches (similarly to the work we looked at in class with futurism & dada) to illustration and design as well as glitched elements.
Counterfactual: Narrative / Research
Your historical moment in time needs to be supported by 5 pages of research, this does not need to be all text. This can include images of objects, fashion, photographs from the time period/event, news clippings, user comments on a blog, extra. Your narrative / historical research needs to be approved, before furthering the project.
UPDATE: I wrote this in response to one of your colleagues, thought it might help everyone. What is due Tuesday is a part proposal and part research document. You need to pick a historical event/fact and make a change. What are the results of that change? So part of the proposal could be you speculating on what the results of the change would be while trying to support these claims with your research. Apart of this research document could also be speculative sketches and photo references/montage. You're developing a visual and verbal history of a moment that never happened. This is all to help your world to build and think through artifacts, facts, and speculations for the project.
Counterfactuals for Alternative Realities
Your assignment is to develop a narrative that explores a counterfactual to a historical fact. Your historical moment in time needs to be supported by 5 pages of research, this does not need to be all text. This can include images of objects, fashion, photographs from the time period/event, news clippings, user comments on a blog, extra. Your narrative / historical research needs to be approved, before furthering the project (see timetable below).
Check out these artists! http://kahnselesnick.biz
"Another well-established form of a thought experiment is the counterfactual. A historical fact is changed to see what might have happened, if… It is sometimes used in history to understand the importance of key events and their influence on how the world turned out. A famous example is how the world might have been if Hitler had won World War II, a theme explored in many works of fiction. For writers, it is an interesting way of creating an alternative present because the reader can understand how that alternate world might have come about. For design, it can provide a fresh alternative to future-based thinking by presenting parallel worlds as thought experiments rather than predictions. But it can be slightly cumbersome because of the need to set up the story before people can engage with the project."
The narrative/research will be used to develop one of two projects using either SparkAR (Links to an external site.) to create a series of 3-6 filters that illustrate different aspects of your narrative or Spoke by Mozilla (Links to an external site.)to develop a 3D space to explore the narrative, for an example a museum exhibition detailing the now changed "historical event".
To turn in your filters, you will publish a private link to try the filter out as well as photographs of you or your family using the filter. The constructed space in Spoke will exist as a room that you will provide a link for us to explore during the critique.
UPDATE (April 27th)
The most important thing for the Counterfactuals for Alternative Realities project is the ideas and alternative realities built that develop because of the counterfactual. Remember that speculative designers don't always build the entire reality that is alternative futures, they design artifacts/objects/images/illustrations and narratives that speak to the greater world of the alternative future. With this being said, I wanted to open up the type of objects. If you’re having trouble with Spark AR or Spoke, then make a series of 3-6 illustrations instead, or a mixture of AR and VR(spoke). If you submit a series of artifacts that speak to your counterfactual, then I am open to them being anything. For example, a remixed object, a faked radio show, video, a sound art piece, a new design of currency, a poster, an altered photograph.