Classes + Assignments

Week 8: End of Semester Plan

liza
January 10, 2020

Important Links:

Welcome back

Please be sure to read all of this closely. We will go over it in our first class meeting, but you are responsible for reading all of the details.

Where we are

Everyone has a different situation and set of circumstances. We don’t think it is appropriate or helpful for our class goals to require full class meetings online. That being said, connection and community are more important than ever as we are in our little corners of isolation.

Here are some of the assumptions we kept in mind as we retooled the course:

  • We are human. This is an extraordinarily challenging time. Your physical, mental, and emotional health are the priorities.
  • Some of us may be caring for ourselves and/or others at various points.
  • Not all of us might have access to the internet all the time because we have roommates who also need bandwidth, we use our phone as a hotspot, etc.
  • Not everyone will have access to the same tools and materials.

Our Plan

For the remainder of the class, you will propose and complete a project that responds to the class themes, readings, and/or questions. You know yourself and circumstances the best. You should propose a project that you feel you can complete within the constraints of the course timeframe. We will work with each one of you to tailor the project. We will grade everyone based on their individual progress.

All Virtual, All the Time

Zoom Ettiquette

  • Mute your mic if you are not talking.
  • Keep your camera on the whole time during a class meeting so we know you are actively participating. Let us know if your camera doesn’t work.
  • Find an appropriate physical space to participate in zoom calls. We’re all cramped in with pets, babies, roommates, and/or partners who will almost certainly enter the picture at one point or another. That’s ok! Just be aware that you are on a video call and let the others around you know.
  • Use “Gallery” view (not “speaker” view)
  • Chat in slack so it sticks around.

How This Will Work

  • All assignments will be posted and submitted through the course website and Slack. We will not use Canvas.
  • We have 6 more class sessions. The first five we will meet for short check-ins and the last class will be short final presentations.
  • We will meet once a week on Zoom for 30 minutes at the beginning of our regularly scheduled class. 
  • Following that time frame, we will hold office hours until 6:40 pm EST. You must sign up for office hours beforehand. If you cannot make office hours at that time, we will work with you to reschedule, but we ask this be a last resort.
    • These are optional.
    • Please sign up for one or two  ten minute slots.
  • We expect you to be active on Slack as part of your participation grade. See below.

Schedule

  • WEEK 8 – 3/31: Course reset + Intro to Final Project
    • The rest of the semester
    • Final Project RFP
    • Arduino debugging (optional)
  • WEEK 9 (4/7) – Class Check-in 1
    • Class stand
    • Due on 4/7: RFP for final project
    • Due on 4/9: Peer feedback on RFP
    • Other:
      • You will receive a decision on your RFP by 4/11
    • Slack posts
  • WEEK 10 (4/14): Class Check-in 2
    • Class stand
    • Due: 
      • Any deliverables you set for yourself
      • Slack posts
  • WEEK 11 (4/21): Class Check-in 3
    • Class stand
    • Due: 
      • Any deliverables you set for yourself
      • Slack posts
  • WEEK 12 (4/28): Class Check-in 4
    • Class stand
    • Due: 
      • Any deliverables you set for yourself
      • Slack posts
  • WEEK 13 (5/5): Final Presentations
    • TBD – we’ll wait to see what makes the most sense

Weekly Class Stands

  • We will go around as a class and give updates on your project. Everyone will have 2-3 minutes to tell us?
    • What you finished in the last week
    • What you are working on this week
    • Where you are blocked

Slack

  • In between class meetings you are required to participate in weekly Slack chats by posing/responding to questions, posting resources you find interesting, and offering feedback. We ask that you post 2-3 times per week.
  • Each week we will have 2-3 Slack “hosts”. Your job is to keep the conversation going by asking questions and asking folks to respond. Here is the schedule:
    • Week 8 (3/31) – Hongci, Liz, Jordan
    • Week 9 (4/7) – Shradha, Cloe, Valerie
    • Week 10 (4/14) – Sree, Zhiyi, Zisiga
    • Week 11 (4/21) – Chuyi, Joseph, Yue
    • Week 12 (4/28) – Erin, Kalyani

Final Project

We have created an RFP or Request for Proposal that you will use to propose and complete your final project. In short, you can create a project about anything you want that is related to the intersection of computation and textiles. It can be any format. This is all we will work on for the remainder of the semester.

RFPs are common ways of submitting your work for residencies, grants, exhibitions, and more. ***We do NOT expect you to submit an extremely polished RFP that takes weeks or months to prepare.*** You can consider this more of a work-in-progress that we expect you to spend a quarter to a half day on in addition to brainstorming project time. If you find another RFP you want to respond to, you are welcome to submit that instead! We’ve included a list below of some we’ve applied to. 

Here is how this process will work:

  1. April 7: RFP Due. Submit your RFP by 7 pm EST on April 7.
  2. April 9: Peer Evaluation Due. You will receive an anonymous RFP to review. You must complete the evaluation survey by April 9 at midnight EST. (It will be similar to the eligibility quiz below.)
  3. By April 11: RFP Status Sent. We will send you the status of your RFP with any comments. It will either be: Accepted, Accepted with revisions, Rejected (full rewrite required). Note: We will take peer feedback into account to make this decision, but the ultimate decision is ours.
  4. May 5: Project presentations are due the last day of class. Format TBD.
  5. May 7: Final Documentation due.

A few suggestions to get started:

  • Think about your constraints. Give yourself concrete constraints – they can be liberating! 
  • Revisit the exercise we did in the first class. This could be a place to get started for questions. As a side note, we designed this as an exercise in building constraints, so you could adopt or adapt this as a generative framework.
  • Create a project that responds to a reading or other piece of work. If you are having trouble coming up with a question or topic, look at the readings and resources. Choose one or more, then articulate your own ideas to the questions they are asking or responding to within the context of the class. 
  • Adapt the tool project. If you would like more specific guidelines, you are welcome to complete the Tool project instead of coming up with your own since we decided to scrap this under the circumstances.
  • If you are not sure if your project idea is relevant to the class, think about these questions:
    • Why do you consider this project to be a meaningful exploration of the intersection of computation and textiles?
    • In what ways does your project inspire dialogue about current or historical issues at hand, including the relationship between textiles and computation? 

Eligibility Quiz

Before your submit, please do a self evaluation using this eligibility quiz. You should answer “yes” to all questions before submitting:

  • Does your proposal refer to at least 2 readings from our resources list?
    • No
    • Only One
    • Yes
  • Does your proposal connect, in some way, to the history, practice, and/theory of computation? 
    • No
    • Yes, its not a major part of the project, but its there
    • Yes, its a major part of the project
  • Does your proposal connect, in some way, to the history, practice, and/theory of textiles? 
    • No
    • Yes, its not a major part of the project, but its there
    • Yes, its a major part of the project
  • Have you selected and mentioned an audience(s) for your project?
    • No, I don’t know who the intended audience for my project is. 
    • Yes, I am making a very specific object, ‘zine, website, literature review, etc. that has a clear and specific user/audience in mind
    • Yes. My audience is broad but I’ve identified who it might include and have taken consideration to them when developing the project

RFPs

Examples 

And these directories have other ideas and institutions to consider:

  • NYFA
  • National Endowment for the arts
  • Arts and business council of NY
  • LMCC 
  • Manhattan cultural  council
  • Textile Society of America 
  • Women Arts

Evaluation and Final Grade Calculation

Updated Calculation:

  • 25% Project 1
  • 25% Final Project (RFP, Final Deliverable, Documentation)
  • 50% Participation (Slack, Check-ins, Peer reviews) + Attendance + Assignments
  • Total 100%