How can we make the class worth it.

I think there are 2 primary ways we can have a fruitful thesis session.

The first is to break us up into smaller groups that we can then discuss our ideas/thoughts with. Having a more focused group allows us to brainstorm a little quicker and focus on the a smaller subset of projects vs the larger hivemind of the group.

The second is to really get into critique. The art of critique isn’t something that happens too much at ITP and I think that thesis is deserving of it. It could be good to go over general guidelines and make sure that we all have a similar understanding of it but very important is the fact that we all just want to make sure everyone is making their best work. 💪💪💪

My thesis ideas.

Over the past few days I’ve gotten very deep into research about human interactions. I went down a rabbit hole looking into Harold Garfinkels “Studies in ethnomethology” which is the study of how individuals use everyday conversation and gestures to construct a common-sense view of the world. It’s a fascinating topic that I think ties in well to a lot of other projects of mine.

Another thread in the same world are breaching experiments where researchers attempt to study people’s expectations by subverting them.(a famous example is the person that enters the elevator backwards / everyone else in the elevator is facing the back and seeing how that person responds). These are also really interesting but I think there’s a fine line between a breaching experiment and a cringey youtube video prank. I think it would be interesting to dive more into this topic especially with the lens of thesis. How can I as a creative technologist break these norms, better understand my audience and try and create an alternate worldview.

A thesis idea I really enjoyed.

One of the thesis presentations I really enjoyed was Anh’s Vietnam. The presentation reframed how the western sphere (particularly America) viewed the country of Vietnam. was such that it completely made me rethink how I viewed Vietnam the country. There was a Anhs presentation was great and managed to keep the audience entertained the entire way through.