Design Center: Design's Reverberations: Ripple Effects of Innovative Ideas

Catalog description

When an idea is implemented to effect change, what happens to its context? This course provides students from different backgrounds with the opportunity to think through multiple dimensions of and orientations to the notion of solving a problem through making and theorizing. Through the lens of design-driven processes, the class will delve deeper into the conditions in which problems are solved and place focused attention on domino and ripple effects of effecting change. Students will uncover what may be brewing underneath the surface of a given context, such as the residual impact of historic events, changes to the topographical landscape of a neighborhood, connections between individual behavior change to the growth of niche cultures, sensorial shifts in the environment due to climate change, emerging instabilities in a system sparked by the implementation of an idea, amongst others. Students will use present-day contexts, such as neighborhoods or particular initiatives, as points of departure to answer the questionswhen an idea is implemented to effect change, what happens to its context? Students in this course will gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of instigating change to inform their ethos and practice.