73453 - Design Methods T (L-Z)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module the student is able to understand the key issues of product design. Through theoretical lessons introducing the logic of the project, the student is able to reflect on the procedural nature of the design activity and on useful tools to manage the various stages of the process. Through exercises, the student is able to face a path of analysis and design research applied to specific design contexts.

Course contents

The course aims to make people reflect on the themes of design culture in all its forms, investigating the methods and operational practices consistent with the design of an artifact. The module aims to provide students with a series of tools to look at design in relation to its more speculative forms and through the gaze of critical thinking.

The form of Prof. Mancuso aims to provide students with a critical methodology for looking at design in the interdisciplinary fields between design and contemporary art, through the use of digital technologies and scientific research. Through the vision of materials and critical analysis of designers, artists, projects and works, the reading of sources, the invitation of guests and classroom feedback processes, the first module focuses its attention on the processes of correlation between different design elements ontology on the border between bodies, objects and environments, territories and resources, analyzing methods, aesthetics, languages, tools, practices and hardware, software and wetware technologies 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 part of Prof. Brigi's module 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 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

Frontal lessons (presentations / slideshows); timely reviews of the progress of students' work on specific exercises; collective reviews of the progress of the students' work foreseen for the various teaching modules (presentations / slideshows by students and choral discussion with the teacher); Monographic lessons and seminars with any invited guests

Office hours

See the website of Marco Mancuso

See the website of Elena Brigi