Hello,
In the introductory course on media design research in our department
I ask the students to perform the following exercise:
Artifact analysis
1. Find 2-3 material artifacts. Study them. Describe them (e.g
describe their parts/components in detail)
2. Represent their Affordances as well as their Constraints.
a. What do they tell us about the environment of the artifact?
b. What do they tell us about the structure of the artifact? (e.g. of
the way the parts are organized, its functionality, its sense-making,
or meaning?)
3. Is it an enabling artifact?
4. How would you translate the artifacts that you have described
above into artifacts for the digital dimension? In your translation,
please consider and describe the following factors:
a. Form
b. Interaction
c. Emotional investment, response
-------------------------------------
õõ õ õ õ
Dr. Lily Diaz
Professor, Systems of Representation
& Digital Cultural Heritage
University of Art and Design Helsinki
135C HŠmeentie SF 00560
Helsinki, Finland
+ 358 9 75630 338
+ 358 9 75630 555 (FAX)
On 16.1.2008, at 15.56, Victor Margolin wrote:
> I would like to respond to Amanda's account of his discourse
> analysis exercise for textile design students. This is exactly what
> is needed for designers of new technologies - software, GPS
> designers, and the like. These folks are creating devices that are
> radically changing the way we experience the world and there
> appears to be little reflection on how this is happening. Perhaps
> others who teach these tech students could adopt similar approaches
> that induce more reflection on the phenomelogical effects of the
> products they hope to design.
> Victor Margolin
> --
> Victor Margolin
> Professor Emeritus of Design History
> Department of Art History
> University of Illinois at Chicago
> 935 W. Harrison St.
> Chicago, IL 60607-7039
> Tel. 1-312-583-0608
> Fax 1-312-413-2460
> website: www.uic.edu/~victor
>
