Senior Studio 2018: The Last Studio—The Syllabus
Professor Kristin Hughes & Professor Molly Wright Steenson, Carnegie Mellon School of Design
This is your last studio.
You came to CMU from many different places. You’ve shared a lot, you’ve worked tremendously hard, you’ve challenged yourselves, you’ve poured everything you have into the last four years.
What do you want out of this last studio? How might you celebrate what you’ve done and who you’ve become as a person and as a designer? What kind of meaningful mark would you like to make in your last undergraduate studio? Before you go onto what’s next, whether a job in design, technology, non-profit, whether you start a master’s degree, whether you stay in the US or move back home or to another place—we’d like for this studio to be a place where you can pause for a moment, take a moment to be kind to yourself and your classmates, and make this studio what you’d like it to be.
It’s The Last Studio. And it’s also just the beginning.
Resources for studio
This is your first stop, this Medium site. You will create weekly team updates on Medium, linked from here, and comment on each other’s work that you’ll post from your own group Medium pages.
You’ll find a Box folder, Senior Studio 2018, with links to readings and other resources. We may also ask you to upload various assignments to a Box folder when they are due.
You will also find resources in each week of the schedule below. Please visit in preparation for each class.
The course objectives and policies are here.
Groups
There are 18 groups in
Me, Myself, and I(nstagram): Tiffany, Kevin, Juliana, Emily
Christie and Albert: On Empathy
Culture Culture (Angee, Anqi, Sara Remi, Meredith, Tina)
Tangible Jam (Maggie, Adella, Jesse)
Gardening/repair culture/sustainability exhibition for kids (Faith, Gilly, Noah, Alex, and Ty)
Observation Contemplation on Being & Aging (Nina & Sharon)
Improving End-of-Life Care (Jeong Min & Popo)
Semantic Form (Max P., Benal, Jake)
Design for Medical Translation (Carolyn & Lily)
Schedule
This schedule is more than a schedule: it’s a chronicle of what we have and will do this semester. Please note that it is subject to change: you should revisit it before each class for updates.
WEEK 1: UNDERSTANDING—A CELEBRATION
January 17
Workshop with City of Play in Room 203: City of Play says of themselves, “City of Play produces alternative recreation, community events, and experiential designs that give you the opportunity to live deeply.” On Wednesday, they’ll lead a workshop in playing with modes of collaboration, deep listening, and teamwork.
Please eat something, leave your bag behind and wear something comfortable.
For our next class: One example of a self-directed project you’ve done
- Read for next class: Part 1: Thank You for Being Late (this will be in Box by the evening of the 18th)
- Do for next class: Start Assignment 1. See studio wall for call to action. This assignment is inspired by https://12kindsofkindness.com/
- How did mail art help you to express and share your personal values? Now that you see all the artwork, are there any surprises? Responses that caught you off guard? Inspired you? Reveal a vulnerability you often see in yourself? How might you respect the values in yourself and others that you find in looking at the mail artwork?
- Make connections visible with threads and use the provided tags to write personal reflections. No names necessary. Spend time at the wall with people you might want to work with this semester.
- With this in mind, how would you like to work this semester?
- Start to brainstorm about things you might want to investigate this semester.
- Don’t name each other (no doxxing!)
- Watch for next class: the Randy Pausch Last Lecture, “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” Even if you’ve seen it before, now’s the time to watch it again.
WEEK 2: SELF-DIRECTION
January 22
This week, we’ll talk about what it means to do a self-directed project, as we all share our values for the studio, and our ideas about what will make for a successful project.
We will be doing:
- Introducing BUILD, our project structure.
- Mail Art: In your Mail Art project, you’ve highlighted the intersections, interests, vulnerabilities, and connections that make you human, as you asked questions like: who are you now, who were you, and who do you want to be?
- Defining and sharing our values and expectations for this self-directed studio. Small group activity.
- Defining success criteria as a class for the semester. How will we critique and grade projects? When is the right time for feedback and in what form? What do you want from each other and from Molly/Kristin?
Define how we will celebrate the studio’s work at the end of the semester.
To read for next class:
- “Designing a Future Economy,” by the Design Council in the UK (in Box Readings folder, PDF)
To start doing:
- We will hand out Assignments 2, 3, 4, the framework for your project brief. These assignments will be due on January 31 by 7 am.
- For our next class on January 24, bring in your initial sketches, ideas, and notes on the BUILD framework and a rough problem statement.
January 24
Each team should have sketches/ideas/notes for BUILD framework and rough outline of problem statement.
We will be doing:
- In-class discussion and small group work on your initial thoughts on the BUILD framework and exercises and a rough outline of the problem statement.
To watch and read for next class:
- Read about Jon Rubin and his work, including reading about Conflict Kitchen (you’ve probably been there, we hope—it just closed last year). What goes into his work? What makes it art, design, activism? How does it change the communities he highlights?
- Watch this video of a 2013 talk by Tavi Gevinson. Pay attention to what she has to say about creativity, journaling, depression, and the importance of fangirling.
WEEK 3: THINKING IN TEAMS
January 29: Workshop
Jennifer Brook, an artist, design researcher and interaction designer will lead a workshop called “Prototyping Peace.” We will meet in Room 203. Please eat before you come and be on your game for this in-depth teambuilding and self-direction workshop.
January 31
Please note: Assignment 2, 3, 4 are due at 7:00am on January 31. Upload to Box folder by that time.
In class, we will have round robin reviews to discuss your team’s assignments 2, 3, and 4.
For you to consider: Look at this terrific program for grade school, junior high, and high school students: the Inventors Challenge. Are any of you interested in designing your own challenges like this for young people?
WEEK 4: ENCOUNTERS IN PRACTICE
February 5
We will be doing: a lecture with Kristin in class to sum up the first month and inspire team thinking. We will be discussing design exploration, research, and discovery—small actions that begin to move the needle.
To read for the next class: Small Change (Box)
Something for you to consider entering: http://downstream.city/ There are many great news sources for community development in Pittsburgh and beyond. Downstream aims to tell stories about the ways in which neighborhoods change. We see the evolution, but often know little about who brings it about, or how they do it. Because community development is complex, Downstream takes a long-form approach to storytelling. Its focus is not so much development projects, but rather the colorful characters and nuanced processes behind them.
The field of community development is one of the most ill-defined, misunderstood and utterly indispensable industries in our region. Illuminating the collective value and achievements of this field is certainly a priority here, but not at the expense of looking past its shortcomings. Everyone who contributes to these stories are kept anonymous, by default, unless they specify otherwise. Alcosan is downstream for a reason. Downstream — that’s where it all ends up.
February 7: in-class work day
WEEK 5: BUILDING OUT THE BUILD FRAMEWORK
February 12: an in-class work day
February 14
We will be doing:
- A lecture on participatory design and co-creation. Possible guest lecture, TBD.
- Recrafting problem statement: Small group activity
WEEK 6: MAKING IT HAPPEN
February 19: an in-class work day
February 21: special pre-Confluence review
NOTE: THIS REVIEW WILL NOT BE TAKING PLACE. We will have an in-class session work session instead.
[You will be presenting your work. We are working to invite several guests coming for Confluence to join our class a day early. This will be an important review, designed to highlight your strengths, process and ideas.
Your presentation will be on benchmarking: what have you learned to date through your actions? Presentations should include:
- Relationship to overall problem you are addressing
- Assumptions made prior to intervention/probe
- Type of provocation
- Challenges and risks
- Next steps (might include sketches, prototypes, experiments, installations, etc.)]
To read for the next class: Social Innovation by Young Foundation (PDF available via link)
WEEK 7: MAKING IT HAPPEN, PART 2
February 26
- Special session: Michael Alden, slam poet.
February 28
- We will be doing: An in-class, student-organized round robin critique, in which you will
WEEK 8: CONSTRAINTS AND FAILURES
“Failure is always the best way to learn”—Kings of Convenience
March 5
- We will be doing: a service design lecture with Molly
March 7
- We will be doing: a lecture with Tim Zak from the Heinz School of Public Policy: When Good Ideas Fail.
WEEK 9: SPRING BREAK, NO CLASS March 12 & 14
WEEK 10: BUSINESS MODELING
March 19 & 21
- We will be doing: in-class lectures and small group work on business modeling, speaker TBD
WEEK 11: FINDING YOUR BLIND SPOTS
March 26
- We will be doing: an investigation of ways to find out what we don’t know. How might we identify our blind spots? Tools to use include the social impact matrix.
March 28: work day
WEEK 12–13: PROJECT AND IMPACT
April 2 & 4
April 2: Silent crit
April 4: Work session
WEEK 13: 90% REVIEW
April 9: This will be an almost final review with outside critics. From here, you should learn more about what you’ll perfect before the end of the class.
In class on Monday, we will have critics from outside. From our perspective, it should be in further development of things that were presented this week on Monday for the silent crit.
We will give guests 15–20 minutes to familiarize themselves with the work. Following that, you will have five minutes to introduce your project (no slides/projectors), the problem you are trying to solve, the needs you are trying to meet, and up to 3 questions that you would like to ask the critics. Think of it as talking around your work — you will want to show artifacts and design work in progress.
You will then have an additional 10 minutes for discussion with your critics about your work for a total of 15–20 minutes per project. This is not a pitch or a final presentation, but see it as an opportunity to practice your five minute introduction to your self-directed capstone project.
Finally, PLEASE update blogs by Friday, 5:00PM.
WEEK 14–15: WORK WEEKS: FINAL PUSH
April 16 & 18; 23 & 25: Work weeks
Finish up your projects for final critique/presentation/celebration, as per what the studio determines in the first weeks.
WEEK 16+: THE LAST PRESENTATIONS & THE LAST SHOW
Hope you’re having a good Carnival & keeping warm. Here are guidelines for the presentations you’ll be doing on May 2. These are different than your final exhibition on the 8th,. We will invite SoD faculty to your presentations. Please note: you will need to rehearse your talk and you need to come in within the time limit so we can hear all of you.
Monday is a (much needed) workday. We are in the final stretches.
Senior Capstone
Final Presentations on May 2, 2018
On May 02, each team will present to the full class and our visiting critics. All members of your team must speak in your presentation.
You will have 7 minutes for your presentation. This means that you will have to rehearse your presentation and choose what to include and what to leave out — a hard decision for everything you’ve done this semester! What will be better served for your final exhibition on the eighth? What is better served to show in this presentation? You should use slides to support your talk.
- Start by introducing all of your team members. Then, provide the mission statement of your project. This should be two sentences long at a maximum.
- Then: Present the major, final artifacts of your project as a way of talking through the framing and goals. (3 minutes)
- How did you get there? Who did you talk to, visit, photograph, what did you prototype, build, make? Include at least one example of something you didn’t expect or that went wrong! If you are in a project that made a substantial pivot, talk about it briefly here. (3 minutes)
- Bring us back to the major final artifacts of your project and your project goals as you conclude. One way to think about this: If this were a movie, what would be the final scene?
- It is challenging to share the arc of your capstone project in a seven minute presentation. This isn’t the only way you will share your work, of course. You will be sharing your work and your exhibition on the eighth.
Capstone Grading criteria which includes presentation, final exhibit and peer evaluation is as follows:
Team presentation: Submission is clear, complete and compelling (40%), reflects rigorous research (30%), is creative and distinctive (30%).
Team exhibition (at a minimum, should consider the following):
— What problem/challenge your team focused on?
— Research (exploratory, generative and participatory)
— Stakeholder map
— What have been the key turning points in your process that resulted in the (xxxxx) that your team is currently evaluating and hoping to improve?
— What assumptions/ guidelines/constraints that guided process and final deliverable?
— Reflect on any key relationships/partnerships that have been impactful(positively or negatively) to date and why?
— How did existing approaches in other contexts and/or regions (local, regional, national, international) will inform your efforts, if at all?
— How will you know that your efforts are having the intended impact? What actions could others take as a result of your work?
— What are the high level next steps for your project (1 year, 5 year, etc.)?
Peer review: Attendance, meeting deadlines, contributions to team discussions, dealing constructively with criticism, exhibiting a full sense of commitment to your work — will be a key element in your evaluation.
April 30: practice your presentations
May 2: Final presentations
May 8: Final show, room 203, 4–6 pm (setup: 3:30, take down, 6–6:30)
