Assessment

Project 1 30%
Project 2 30 %
Project 3 40%

Marks will be adjusted for attendance.

Project 1 (Due on Friday of Week 6 at 5:00 pm).

Choose one of the following options:

1. Make an art work (video, installation, web site, etc.) based on the “phenomenological reduction” idea. We suggest that the work should address the relationship between sound and image. The work should be accompanied by an artist’s statement describing the relationship between the work and phenomenology. This statement should be at least one page long.

2. Write an essay describing in detail the concept of the phenomenological reduction, with special reference to the ideas of philosopher Edmund Husserl. Discuss its possible application to art and/or design.

Project 2 (Due on Friday of Week 10 at 5:00 pm)

Choose one of the following options:

1. Make an art work in any medium that addresses the question of embodied technology, affordance, or improvisation. The issue of designing for human action should be addressed. We recommend that you make an interactive work, but this is not required. The work should be accompanied by an artist’s statement describing the relevance of the work to the topics covered in class. This statement should be at least one page long.

2. Write an essay describing the philosophical ideas of “being in the world” and “embodied perception”, with reference to the ideas of philosophers Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau Ponty.

Project 3 (Due on Friday of Week 15 at 5:00 pm)

Choose one of the following options:

1. Make an art work that addresses some philosophical debate about “strong” AI and/or the nature of consciousness. The work should be accompanied by an artist’s statement describing the relevance of the work to the topics covered in class. This statement should be at least one page long.

2. Write an essay about a question pertaining to consciousness. For instance, the question of whether consciousness can be described computationally, or whether it is really a brain process. You may also address questions about the philosophy of consciousness in Chinese culture.
   

Important note: You may not choose to write essays for all three assignments. At least one must be a creative project. The project can be experimental, but this is not required. You are free to work in any format, even to make a classical science-fiction film addressing the topic of machine intelligence (for assignment three).

Grading criteria

1. Presentation/craft.
2. Relevance of the projects to the ideas discussed in class
3. Accurate understanding of the philosophical material
4. Ability to address this philosophical material by means of creative projects
5. Difficulty of the task attempted.