INFO 651
Critical Technical Practices

Online syllabus: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/people/sengers/Teaching/sts634/index.php

Topic

"Those who mistrust the machine and those who glorify it show the same incapacity to utilize it. Machine work and mass production offer unheard-of possibilities for creation, and those who are able to place these possibilities at the service of a daring imagination will be my creators of tomorrow." --- Guy Debord

This seminar explores building information technology as a form of critical inquiry. As computer science and human-computer interaction come into contact with traditionally nontechnical disciplines such as art, design, and cultural studies, new tensions and opportunities arise.

What will this mean for technical research? How do humanistic and artistic insights affect traditional technical methodologies and alter the questions that are being asked? What new technologies are being developed, and how do they differ from the results of purely technical research?

We will answer these questions by looking at research projects in social, tangible, and ubiquitous computing. We will compare traditional technical research with research based on interdisciplinary techniques such as tactical media, art as research, critical design, conceptual design, and innovative user-centered design.

Students from all fields are welcome. The course provides opportunities to contribute from a variety of disciplines; its baseline assumption is some ability to read technical papers as well as basic comfort with the humanities at an undergraduate level.

You can download the syllabus in print-friendly format.

Texts

You will need to order from your favorite vendor (for example, the Campus Store) the following books:

• Paul Dourish. Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
• Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby. Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects. Basel, Switzerland: August / Birkhaeuser, 2001.
• William Gaver, Ben Hooker, and Anthony Dunne. The Presence Project. London: Royal College of Art, 2001.
• Malcolm McCullough. Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004.
• Nato Thompson and Gregory Sholette, eds. The Interventionists: Users' Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004.

All other readings will be made available in class or on-line. Please note that many of the readings that are available on-line are only available if you access the links from within Cornell networks.

Schedule

In order to support a broad set of student interests and communication among them, the readings are organized according to a Chinese Menu system. Each week, there are a set of core readings that are required for all. In addition, students do readings from either Selection A (usually more technical/HCI-focused readings) or Selection B (usually more conceptual/arts-oriented readings). Students must sign up for either Selection A or Selection B by Thursday of the week before (those who have not signed up by then will be assigned a selection at the whim of the instructor). In Thursday's class, the readers of each selection will have 10 minutes to discuss the selection amongst themselves and then present the highlights of these articles to the other students. You may not sign up for the same selection all semester; i.e., you must sign up for Selection A at least once and for Selection B at least once.

Alterations to this schedule may be made over the course of the semester in response to student feedback and interests.

Topic	Readings	Classes
Introduction
Introduction to course	Core Readings Selection A Selection B Related Readings		Aug 24 Read and discuss Weiser's Coming Age of Calm Technology
What is a critical technical practice?	Core Readings Agre: Toward a Critical Technical Practice Dourish: Where the Action Is, excerpt from Preface, pp. vii-ix Sengers et al.: Reflective Design Wilson: Art and Science as Cultural Acts Selection A Mitchell et al., eds.: The Influence of Art and Design on Computer Science Research and Development Selection B Grudin: Three Faces of Human-Computer Interaction Related Readings Søren Pold: The Critical Interface Boehner et al: Critical Technical Practice as a Methodology for Values in Design Agre: Computation and Human Experience	Aug 29 What is a critical technical practice?	Aug 31 Unpack the relationship of arts, critique, and HCI
Ubiquitous/Pervasive Computing
Introduction to Ubicomp	Core Readings Dourish, Where the Action Is, "A History of Interaction", pp. 1-23 Weiser: The Computer for the 21st Century Abowd and Mynatt: Charting Past, Present and Future Research in Ubiquitous Computing Thackera: Design Challenge of Pervasive Computing Selection A Want et al.: Bridging Physical and Virtual Worlds with Electronic Tags Davies and Gellersen: Beyond Prototypes Selection B da Costa: PigeonBlog (explore site) Dobson: Blendie Hirsch / Institute for Applied Autonomy: iSee Preemptive Media: Zapped! (explore site) Related Readings Edwards and Grinter: At Home with Ubiquitous Computing Burrell et al.: Context-Aware Computing Schienke: On the Outside Looking Out Mann et al: Living as Cyborgs	Sep 5 The world of ubiquitous devices	Sep 7 Unpacking technical and social issues with ubicomp
Viewing Ubicomp Through Architecture	Core Readings McCullough: Digital Ground, Chapters 1, 4, 5, 7 Selection A Rodden and Benford: The evolution of buildings and implications for the design of ubiquitous domestic environments Selection B Sepulveda-Sandoval: Digital Shelters Related Readings Harrison and Dourish: Re-Place-ing Space: The Roles of Place and Space in Collaborative Systems	Sep 12 Analyzing Digital Ground	Sep 14 What does an influence from architecture look like in ubicomp?
Critical Design	Core Readings Dunne and Raby: Design Noir Selection A Gaver and Martin: Alternatives Selection B Wodiczko: Interrogative Design Related Readings Paulos and Beckmann: Sashay	Sep 19 Using design to critique design	Sep 21 Building on critical design
Critically- Informed Design in HCI	Core Readings Gaver et al: Presence Project Selection A Hutchinson et al: Technology Probes Selection B Paulos and Jenkins: Urban Probes Related Readings Gaver and Dunne: Projected Realities Gaver, Dunne, Pacenti: Cultural Probes Gaver et al.: Cultural probes and the value of uncertainty	Sep 26 Bringing critical design into HCI	Sep 28 Analyzing the uptake of critical design in HCI Paper proposal workshop Homework: Short paper proposals due.
Interlude: Thinking About Critical Intervention
Mapping Critical Intervention	Core Readings The Interventionists Selection A Hallnas and Redström: Slow Technology Selection B Ball: The Great Sideshow of the Situationist International Related Readings Krzysztof Wodiczko: Dis-Armor Garabet et al: Exploring design through wearable computing art(ifacts) Lundberg et al: The Snatcher Catcher	Oct 3 Cataloguing strategies of intervention Homework: Select any one project from The Interventionists to research in more detail. Come to class prepared to describe in about 5 minutes the project and the critical strategy it pursues.	Oct 5 Exploring models for intervention
Embodied Interaction
Let's Get Physical	Core Readings Ishii and Ullmer: Tangible Bits Dourish: Where the Action Is, Chapter 2: Getting In Touch (25-53) Klemmer et al.: How Bodies Matter Selection A Selection B Related Readings Penny et al: Traces: Embodied Immersive Interaction with Semi-Autonomous Avatars Penny: Virtual Reality as the End of the Enlightenment Project Fitzmaurice et al: Bricks		Oct 12 What changes when we put our bodies at the center?
Social Computing	Core Readings Dourish: Where the Action Is, Social Computing (pp. 55-97) Selection A Chalmers et al.: Social Navigation and Seamful Design Selection B Benford et al.: Designing for the Opportunities and Risks of Staging Digital Experiences in Public Settings Hirsch and Henry: TXTMob Related Readings Paulos and Goodman: The Familiar Stranger	Oct 17 Defining social computing Homework: Short papers due	Oct 19 Thinking about desgining for social contexts Final projects brainstorming
Embodied Interaction	Core Readings Dourish: Where the Action Is, Chapters 4-6 (pp. 99-188) Selection A Chalmers and Galani: Seamful Interweaving Selection B Thomsen: Embodied Interfaces and Mixed Realities Related Readings Novak and Thomsen: drawing spaces	Oct 24 Putting it together: social + tangible = embodied interaction	Oct 26 How embodied interaction might change our ideas of computing Final projects workshop Homework: Filled-in final project idea forms
Co-Interpreting Experience
Participatory Design as Critical Intervention	Core Readings Boedker et al: Computer support for cooperative design Mogensen: Towards a Provotyping Approach in Systems Development Asaro: Transforming society by transforming technology Selection A Iversen, Kanstrup, Graves Petersen: A visit to the 'new Utopia' Brandt: Designing Exploratory Design Games Selection B Kac: Negotiating Meaning Related Readings Beck: On participatory design in Scandinavian computing research Hansen: Contemplative interaction Wu et al: Participatory design with individual who have amnesia	Oct 31 The critical potential of participatory design	Nov 2 What does PD look like today? Homework: Written proposals for final project
Affective Presence	Core Readings Boehner et al.: How Emotion Is Made and Measured Sundström et al.: eMoto Romero et al.: Tableau Machine Selection A Picard: Towards Computers that Recognize and Respond to User Emotion Selection B Dror: Counting the Affects Related Readings Lindström et al.: Affective Diary Sengers et al: The Enigmatics of Affect Isbister et al.: Sensual Evaluation Instrument Gaver: Provocative Awareness Wright and McCarthy: Technology as Experience	Nov 7 What is affective presence?	Nov 9 Dealing with the ineffability of affect
Co-Interpreting Experience	Core Readings Gaver et al: Ambiguity as a Resource for Design Aoki and Woodruff: Making Space for Stories Boehner and Hancock: Advancing Ambiguity Sengers and Gaver: Staying Open to Interpretation Selection A Lederer and Heer: All together now Bossen and Dalsgaard: Conceptualization and appropriation Selection B Kline and Pinch: Users as Agents of Technological Change Related Readings Raijmakers et al.: Design Documentaries Dourish: The Appropriation of Interactive Technologies Kaye et al: Communicating Intimacy One Bit at a Time Redström: Towards user design? Gross and Do: Ambiguous Intentions Wyatt: Non-Users Also Matter (from: Oudshoorn and Pinch, Why Users Matter, on reserve) Ascott: Towards a Field Theory for Post-Modernist Art Pinch and Bijker: The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts	Nov 14 Designing for open interpretation	Nov 16 (How) does it make sense to design for appropriation, given that people appropriate anyway? Final projects workshop
Conclusion
Project Workshop	Core Readings Selection A Selection B Related Readings	Nov 21 Homework: Together with your project team, prepare an oral presentation of your project to explain your thinking and results so far to the class.
Project Workshop / Wrap-up	Core Readings Ehn: Manifesto for a Digital Bauhaus Selection A Selection B Related Readings Harrison et al.: "It's Just a Method!": a pedagogical experiment in interdisciplinary design	Nov 28 Oral presentations	Nov 30 Oral presentations / Where to from here?
Dec 11: Final Projects Due
Dec 15: End-of-semester Party (Optional)

Assignments

You will do weekly one-page reading responses, which are due on our wiki by Monday at midnight. These responses have two components:

1. One-paragraph description of one of the week's readings, that summarizes the argument made and the evidence being used in support of that argument.
2. Ca. one-paragraph response to the reading. You may choose the form of your response; some examples are:
   • Discussion of an issue or problem raised by that reading that you find interesting.
   • A link to a related news article or short piece from outside of class.
   • A comment on or contribution to someone else's reading response.

Reading responses are graded on a pass/fail basis. During the course of the semester, you may skip 2 of them without penalty.

You will write two papers for this class. The first will be 10 pages, on a topic you choose related to the course content. The second will be a long paper on a group project you develop with teammates from the course. Each group project will involve the design, implementation, and evaluation of some technology as a form of critical technical practice.

Alterations to these assignments are always possible upon approval of the instructor.

Grading formula:

• Weekly Responses: 10%
• Short Paper: 25%
• Long Paper: 45%
• Oral presentation: 5%
• Class and on-line discussion: 15%

Grading is not just a matter of numbers, but also of judgment. The instructor reserves the right to adjust grades by up to half a letter grade based on knowledge of your performance not summed up in this tidy formula.