73453 - Design Methods T (L-Z)

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Moduli: Marco Mancuso (Modulo 1) Elena Brigi (Modulo 2)
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Industrial Design (cod. 8182)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module the student through the comparison with a real case of design problem and, starting from the re-brief, can identify the margins of results obtainable, prefigure the prerogative research path and the design process to be adopted.

Course contents

The critical design methodology module aims to make people reflect on the themes of design culture in all its forms, investigating methods and operational practices consistent with the design of an artefact. The module aims to provide students with a series of tools to look at design in relation to its most speculative forms and through an interdisciplinary view of the worlds of art and critical thinking.

The theoretical part of the module (Prof. Mancuso) aims to provide students with a critical methodology for looking at design in interdisciplinary areas between design and contemporary art, through the use of digital technologies and scientific research. Through the vision of materials and critical analysis of case studies, projects and works, the reading of philosophical and literary sources, the invitation of guests and return processes in the classroom, the first module focuses its attention on the correlation processes between different elements of design on the border between bodies, objects and environments, thus analyzing methods, aesthetics, languages, tools, practices and technologies, hardware, software and wetware implemented by artists and designers to imagine and design new non-hierarchical balances between human beings and the surrounding non-human and non-organic element. Through processes of observation of scenarios and contexts, mapping of sources, analysis of the phases of conceptualization and realization of the works, development of the concept, use of techniques and materials, different methods of collaboration with professionals, institutions and companies, involvement of communities and territories, the module aims to highlight a new approach to interdisciplinary design in contact with technological innovation and scientific research that is able to respond to the complexity of contemporary and future society.

The laboratory part of the module (Prof. Elena Brigi) provides

Readings/Bibliography

Antonelli Paola, Tannir Ala, (a cura di), Broken Nature. Design Takes on Human Survival, catalogo della XXII Triennale di Milano (1 marzo – 1 settembre 2019), Electa, 2019

- Bayer Herber, Gropius Walter, Gropius Ise, Bauhaus, 1919-1928, The Museum of Modern Art, 1938

- Braidotti Rosi, Hlavajova Maria, Posthuman Glossary, Bloomsbury, 2018


- Chiapponi Medardo, Ambiente: gestione e strategia. Un contributo alla teoria della progettazione ambientale, Feltrinelli, 1997

- Coles Alex, Design and Art. Documents of contemporary art, The MIT Press, 2007

- Eco Umberto, Come si fa una tesi di laurea, La nave di Teseo, 2017

- Ferrando Francesca, Il postumanesimo filosofico e le sue alterità, Edizioni ETS, 2016

- Guattari Felix, La Cecla Franco, Le tre ecologie, Sonda, 2007

- Guattari Felix, Caosmosi, Costa & Nolan, 1996

- Haraway Donna J., Manifestly Haraway, Minnesota University Press, 2016

- Harman Graham, Ontologia Orientata agli Oggetti. Una nuova teoria del tutto, Carbonio Editore, 2021

- Hope Cat, Ryan John Charles, Digital Arts: An Introduction to New Media, Bloomsbury, 2014

- Ingold Tim, Making. Antropologia, archeologia, arte e architettura, Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2019

- Latour Bruno, Non siamo mai stati moderni. Saggio di antropologia simmetrica, Eleuthera, 1995

- Maldonado Tomas, Arte e Artefatti. Intervista di Hans Ulrich Obrist, Feltrinelli, 2009

- Mancuso Marco, Arte, Tecnologia e Scienza. Le Art Industries e i nuovi paradigmi di produzione nella New Media Art contemporanea, Mimesis Edizioni, 2018

- Mancuso Marco, Intervista con la New Media Art. L’esperienza dell’osservatorio Digicult tra arte, design e cultura digitale, Mimesis Edizioni, 2020

- Marchesini Roberto, Post-Human. Verso nuovi modelli di esistenza, Bollati Boringhieri, 2002

- Merleau-Ponty Maurice, Fenomenologia della percezione, Bompiani, 2003

- Morton Timothy, Realist Magic. Objects, Ontology, Causality, Open Humanities Press, 2013

Teaching methods

The interactive and desk research method will be adopted. Lectures will alternate with conversations with guests, workshops and testing moments. The teacher will have the function of guiding and coordinating the activities based on the self-determination of the contents.

Assessment methods

Part of the theoretical lessons will be dedicated to the development in the classroom of critical methodology tools for specific devices produced by the students. The papers will be the basis for assessing the acquisition of skills in line with the objectives of the course. The laboratory part includes classroom activities, intermediate assessments and a final exam that will evaluate the output designed by the students.

Teaching tools

The course will be held in the classroom and online, through: Frontal lessons (presentations / slideshows); Classroom activities and reviews / discussion of the critical methodology tools provided (presentations / slideshows by students and choral discussion and with the teacher); Monographic and seminar lessons with invited guests; Laboratory activities

Office hours

See the website of Marco Mancuso

See the website of Elena Brigi