2020 Syllabus — Measuring the Great Indoors

Course Description

This course will explore techniques for working with data from the physical world, with the aim of understanding and manipulating dynamic, interactive environments. Students will use hardware (sensors, microprocessors, computer vision cameras), software (IFTTT and Processing), and their own powers of observation to characterize and design phenomenological aspects of “the great indoors.”

Investigating interior spaces and the range of human experience afforded by digital technologies is especially relevant right now. We are all home-bound, interacting primarily through video chats that flatten our 3D world to a 2D screen. Our investigations will explore how we can heighten our connection to the physical world, and each other, while we are stuck indoors. Our goal will be to design digital interactions — like spatial user experiences, or physical telepresence — that engage the five senses and all three dimensions.

Our “home base” for these investigations will be…our homes, which afford possibilities for connection across space and time. We will use data from the outside world, like weather or stock prices, to modify the indoor environment. And we will explore ways to connect with each other digitally beyond the screen.

While this course involves technical aspects of building science and digital technologies, our primary aim is to encourage students to consider dynamic spatial and environmental qualities in their design work.

Goals

• Understand and explore techniques embedding sensors and actuators in the built environment.
• Understand cybernetic systems and human computer interaction with the aim of reading and manipulating dynamic, interactive environments.
• Question how modern day digital systems (smart home sensors, Amazon Echos, Computer Vision Cameras, live projection, etc) influence habits, flows, cultures, and behaviors.

Course Content

The semester will be organized around short assignments that invite students to experiment with different tools, techniques, and ways of thinking. Lectures and lab sessions will provide the conceptual and technical basis for each assignment. Digital tutorials will review basic applications before moving to the complex. Some assignments will be individual; others will involve teamwork. Regular journal entries are encouraged to build habits of observation and reflection. Required and suggested readings will be posted to the course website, and discussed in class.

Course Website

The course website on Medium [https://medium.com/measuring-the-great-indoors] will be the hub for all course information and resources. Lectures, assignments and readings will be posted here, and students will upload their assignments to — and present them from — the site.

Course Materials

Students are expected to purchase their own materials for the course. See below for a shopping list of required hardware. Students may purchase additional hardware from the “suggested” list below, or speak to the instructor about other hardware that is not listed below. We recommend assembling the required hardware during the first weeks of the semester to allow time for shipping.

Hardware List

Required

• Computer (w/ sound and webcam)
• KASA smart plugs ($15)
• Projector — This projector — $50 OR This projector — $90

Suggested

• Phillips Hue or other smart light ($50)
• Wireless Tags or other sensor network ($65+)
• Amazon Echo or other smart speaker ($34)

Course Schedule

The schedule below is subject to change. Refer to the course website for the latest version.

Grading and Assessment

• This class involves experimentation, and students should be prepared for hardware failures, software bugs, and more. Assessment will be based on student effort and process in addition to the final product.
• Work is to be completed at the beginning of class on the due date and uploaded to Medium prior to the start of class. Late work may receive a reduced grade.
• Grades for groupwork are assigned to the group. On rare occasions, individual grades may be awarded for exceptional or deficient performance within a group. All group members must participate equally in group presentations.

Grading Criteria

Attendance

It is important that you attend every class. Regular attendance is necessary to understand the material and successfully complete the assignments.

An absence is “excused” if you are sick and submit a doctor’s note, or have a serious issue that causes you to miss class, such as a family emergency. All other absences are “unexcused.” Students may have up to two unexcused absences per semester. Students with three or more unexcused absences will have their final grade reduced, and may fail the course.

If you know in advance that you will be absent for any reason, email the instructors to make arrangements to complete make-up work.

Policies and Academic Integrity

• If you require an accommodation for a disability, please let the instructor know as soon as possible. Some aspects of the course may be modified to facilitate your participation and progress.
• All students are held to the academic policies of the University.
• In this course we will work in a collaborative and open manner freely sharing information, ideas and resources. However, assignments and presentations that are indicated as individual efforts must adhere to a high standard of academic integrity. In any case, in any context, representing another’s work as your own is dishonest.
• Students who miss deadlines due to valid extenuating circumstances may submit the required work at a later date, as agreed upon with the instructor. University regulations limit such circumstances to serious personal illness and death in the immediate family. Unexcused late projects will not be accepted. Incomplete projects will be evaluated in relation to their degree of completion, and a student will be allowed to present such work only with instructor approval. Lectures and demonstrations cannot be repeated. There is no excuse for late submittals, late attendance at reviews or pin ups, due to printer or computer problems. You have to organize your output ahead of time or find other resources outside the college to complete your work on time. Late work will be accepted only at the discretion of the instructors and is subject to a 5% grade deduction for every 24 hours past the deadline.

Resources

The texts below will be on reserve in the Library. Required and suggested readings are noted in the Course Schedule. PDFs of readings will be posted to the course website.

Computing

• Samuel Greenguard, The Internet of Things (MIT Press, 2015)
• Malcolm McCollough, Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing (MIT Press, 2005)
• Dan O’Sullivan and Tom Igoe, Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers (Thompson Publishing, 2004).
• Casey Reas and Ben Fry, Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers (MIT Press, 2014)

Architecture and Urban Design

• Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built (Penguin Books, 1994).
• Mark Weiser, “The Computer of the 21st Century,” Scientific American, September 1991. [link]
• Kazys Varnelis, Networked Publics (MIT Press, 2012)
• Keller Easterling, The Internet in 4D
• William H Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (The Conservation Foundation, 1980).

Design

• Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction and Social Dreaming (MIT Press, 2013)
• Yvonne Rogers, Helen Sharp, and Jenny Preece, Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction (Wiley, 2011)
• Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2002)
• Bill Moggridge, Designing Interactions (MIT Press, 2007)
• Sara Hendren, What Can a Body Do? How We Meet the Built World (Riverhead Books, 2020)

Sensory Phenomena, Building Science

• James Gibson, “Affordances,” in The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (Routledge, 2014)
• Barbara Erwine, Creating Sensory Spaces: The Architecture of the Invisible (Routledge, 2016)
• Lisa Heschong, Thermal Delight in Architecture (MIT Press, 1979)
• Daniel Barber, Modern Architecture and Climate: Design Before Air Conditioning (Princeton Architectural Press, 2020)