Assignments:

Readings, if not linked here, can be found in our shared Course Materials folder

Due Week 2

In preparation for the guest lecture by Susannah Drake, read up about these two of her projects:
Bight Coastal Urbanism
Gowanus Canal Sponge Park

and background information about the Gowanus Canal SuperFund site:
Cleanup Pilot Project at Gowanus Canal
A Community Guide to EPA’s Superfund Program
Feasibility Study Gowanus Canal

Due Week 3

  • using the swabs and sample tubes provided in class, take samples from 3 different locations and visualize them with your lab partner using the microscope we assembled in class.
    • deliverable 1: turn in a “photo reel” of 24 images for each sample, varying the location on the slide, the lighting intensity and direction. Highlight your 3 favorites as Edit1.jpg, Edit2.jpg, Edit3.jpg
    • deliverable 2: write up a lab report describing the experiment, including location, type of sample, methods used, and your interpretation of what you have imaged.
  • reading: Introduction to Ian Cheng’s book Emissaries Guide to Worlding (in our shared Drive folder)
  • go see Ian Cheng’s exhibit BOB at Gladstone Gallery
  • deliverable 3: select one or more images from each of the sites you sampled and, based on these images, write a short “worlding” story about each site. Each story should be at least 250 words long.

Suggested Readings

New Yorker - Rewriting the Code of Life by Michael Specter

MIT Journal of Design and Science

Edward Tufte “Visual and Statistical Thinking” pgs 1-15 (in our shared Drive folder)

Robin Sloan - Sourdough

Dunne & Raby - Speculative Everything

Extrapolation Factory - Operators Manual

Rolling Stone - The Pandora’s Box Congress (1975) by Michael Rogers

Edward Tufte “Seeing Around” (in shared Drive folder)

Suggested Podcasts:

Gastropod - Secrets of Sourdough