tl;dr; Students will be asked to share a series of discoveries (code samples, articles, libraries, etc) that will benefit the group. Students will be asked to research and existing content every other week throughout the semester.

Documenting Precedent Research

Throughout the course, you are encouraged to go beyond the course materials and uncover new ideas and techniques related to the designing and deploying reactive spaces. To incentivize this self-directed exploration, it is a graded component of this course.

Depending on that week’s directive, you may be asked to find and document one of the following:

• an example project, speculative proposal or commercial product that is exciting, innovative or inspirational;
• a library or extension (python, tox file, etc) that could be used in a project for the course;
• a technical tutorial that provides guidance on implementing some aspect of architectural-scale computing or fabrication;
• articles or best practice that provides guidance on deploying large-scale interventions;
• a research paper or underlying technology that relates to the course topics;
• code samples that illustrate a solution, workflow or technical strategy.

Learning Objectives

As part of the exercise, students will:

• develop a visual fluency to help you create, describe and pitch new works;
• build familiarity with projects and approaches that are relevant to the course;
• identify and critically review technical solutions that relate to the course;
• help co-create a set of exemplars to draw on as part of their own creative projects;

Deliverables:

Add your documented example to the #precedent as a new post on slack (see below). The discovery should include a link to the resource, it’s creators, and a short narrative (100-200 words explaining why someone else should pay attention to it)

Submitting your work:

You’ll submit your precedents on Slack. Each discovery should be submitted separately.

To submit your work:

• Open Slack and navigate to the #precedent channel
• In the text box (bottom), click the + on the left hand side. Choose the option to ‘Create a new post’
• In the post editor, the title should match the name of the project
• Add some text about your discovery. This should start with: a) link(s) to the project website b) a list of original creators/artists, c) relevant images or embed videos (see below).
• When you have added your post, click the Share button on the top right.

Template and documentation

In each post, embed a video and/or images of the project, and write a short critical reflection on the project (about 100-200 words) in which you cover the following:

1. Overview: Briefly describe the project (a couple of sentences) and who made it.
2. Discovery: Describe why did you select it, what did you learn, why is it interesting to you?
3. Relevance: Describe why you believe someone should pay attention to it

Remember: Create a separate post for each example.

Grading

Discoveries will be graded as pass/fail:

• 0 - Unsatisfactory - Incomplete or failing work. The example does not fit within the constraints of the project, is not relevant to the course or does not demonstrate any comprehension, reflection or analysis on it.

• 50 - Satisfactory or better - Meets or exceeds the minimum requirements for the exercise; Highlights a good example within the scope of the exercise AND shows adequate research and reflection.

This will be applied to EACH discovery.

To guarantee you pass the assignment, make sure you have:

• Used the correct format and channel for your post on Slack
• Added each discovery as a separate post on Slack
• Appropriately titled and given credit to the creators of the project/work
• Have included at least one link to the resource
• Written between 100-150 words on the discovery and it’s relevance (not copy-paste descriptions!)
• Made an effort to reflect on the discovery and it’s relevance/utility
• Written clearly, effectively and critically

More information can be found in the Grading, Feedback and Policies section

Constraints

• No two students may submit the same work. Claim early.
• Avoid examples already in the Resources section of the course site or that are covered in class.