New Course Proposal - IAT 321-3 Kinesthetic Space
S. Kozel, T. Schiphorst, School of Interactive Arts and Technology
January 28, 2005
Revision C
Calendar Information
Course Number: IAT 321-3
Course Title: Kinesthetic Space
Credit Hours: 3 Vector: 2-0-1 (Lecture-tutorial-laboratory)
Course Description
Takes an embodied approach to design and artistic practices. An understanding of kinesthesis and kinesthetic methodologies is introduced by combining theory and practice. Students use their bodies as starting points for understanding the logic of artistic, social and architectural space, plus the space of signs and devices. Their projects are based on enhanced or transformed physical and perceptual awareness, and are complemented by theoretical discourse in the area of dance, cyborg theory, architecture and technologically mediated space. Classes are part seminar and part physical workshop.
Prerequisite: none
Recommended:
Corequisite: IAT 301 Interactive Media Design is recommended.
Special Instructions: None.
Course(s) to be dropped if this course is approved:
None
Rationale for Introduction of this Course
As one of the core requirements of the Performance and Media Arts stream, this course provides IAT students with a rigorous examination of perception and embodiment as they affects the design of performances, installations, experience design, or web design. It introduces key readings from the perspectives of performance, cyborg theory, embodiment, urban design, architecture, and music and asks students to situate their own practices within a wider cultural and theoretical framework. It thus strengthens not just their creative processes, but their writing and analytical skills. It is a pivotal course for preparing them for their final year.
Will this be a required or elective course in the curriculum; probable enrolment when offered?
This course will be required for all PMA students. Enrolment is estimated at 50-100 students per year.
Scheduling and Registration Information
2005-3
Which of your present CFL faculty have the expertise to offer this course? Will the course be taught by sessional or limited term faculty?
Of our present faculty, the following have the expertise to offer this course:
Susan Kozel, Associate Professor
Thecla Schiphorst, Associate Professor
It is anticipated that new faculty hires will be able to teach this course.
Are there any proposed student fees associated with this course other than tuition fees?
No.
Is this course considered a `duplicate' of any current or prior course under the University's duplicate course policy? Specify, as appropriate.
No.
Resource Implications
Note: Senate has approved (S.93-11) that no new course should be approved by Senate until funding has been committed for necessary library materials. Each new course proposal must be accompanied by a library report and, if appropriate, confirmation that funding arrangements have been addressed.
Provide details on how existing instructional resources will be redistributed to accommodate this new course. For instance, will another course be eliminated or will the frequency of offering of other courses be reduced; are there changes in pedagogical style or class sizes that allow for this additional course offering.
This course has been offered for 3 years. The equipment resources are already in place. The classroom resources include the configurable studio teaching space with the suspension grid.
Does the course require specialized space or equipment not readily available in the department or university, and if so, how will these resources be provided?
As with many PMA courses, we await the configurable studio teaching space that should be equipped by Sept 2005. This course needs the suspension grid currently in room 300, a version of which is to be re-constructed in the new studio teaching space.
Does this course require computing resources (e.g. hardware, software, network wiring, use of computer laboratory space) and if so, describe how they will be provided.
No new resources are required that are not anticipated by existing plans for increasing classroom and lab space at the Surrey Campus.
Course Outline
Classes are part seminar and part physical workshop. Movement improvisations anchor the readings in body knowledge. Topics covered will include: detailed understanding of kinesthetics and the body as a kinesthetic sensing organism; multi sensory mapping of a social space well-known to the students; consideration of an urban space in terms of senses, flows and hyper-reality; evaluation of sound, smell and vision as way of navigating through space; the morphing of the human body into a cyborg body; liquid architectures and sound.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will:
* have enhanced their physical and perceptual awareness of social and cultural space
* identify how perception and embodiment affect the design of performances, installations, experience design, or web design.
* possess a broader range of concepts from cultural theory and apply them to their artistic process
* design and produce a media enhanced performance, installation or interface with a kinesthetic focus
* write a production document integrating theory and practice
Learning Activities and Evaluation:
Activities consist of class-based discussions and physical improvisations (including use of a harness to explore basic suspensions and shifts of perception arrived at through inversion and horizontality) (30%); a team project (30%); and an individually submitted production document (40%).
Texts, Resources & Materials
Required:
a course pack will be prepared consisting of extracts from:
Spiller, Neil, ed. The Cyber-Reader: Critical Writings for the Digital Era. 2002. London and New York: Phaidon.
Stone, A.R. 1995. The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Koolhaas, Rem. 1994. Delirious New York. New York: The Monacelli Press.
Blom and Chaplin. 1988. The Moment of Movement. London: Dance Books.
Murphy, Michael. 1992. The Future of the Body. New York: Tarcher/Putnam.
Mitchell, William. 1996. City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Hayles, Katherine. 1996. How we became posthuman : virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.