Hack it! Advanced Rapid Prototyping (Classroom, Synchronous & Asynchronous E-Learning)
About This Course
The course “Hack it!” Advanced Rapid Prototyping offers an exploration of “how to make (almost) anything” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Bits and Atoms) with analog and digital tools, as well as developing a creative and resilient mindset to create and share experiments and learning.
The world around us is almost entirely processed and manufactured, it means, it’s been designed. We all impact the world directly, yet few understand how we can change it, altering our bodies, behaviours, communities, objects, environments, and systems. “There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a very few of them. And possibly only one profession is phonier. Advertising design, in persuading people to buy things they don't need, with money they don't have, in order to impress others who don't care, is probably the phoniest field in existence today”. “Design for the real world” Victor Papanek.
How can we learn how to design things we need; with the resources we have?
What You'll Learn
• Develop critical thinking skills to analyse the social, cultural, economic, and political impacts of designing and manufacturing.
• Foster ethical awareness and sensitivity towards the ethical dilemmas and responsibilities of citizens, not only as mere consumers but also as creators.
• Examine the historical development and evolution of past industrial revolutions, and what “progress” means in the 21st century.
• Investigate the role of designing and making, the power dynamics, and how privileges are distributed.
• Explore the interaction between climate change, manufacturing, innovation, research and education.
• Engage in case studies and practical hands-on exercises related to real-world contemporary challenges.
• Foster effective communication skills for engaging in informed debates using “Critical Design” as a medium.
By the end of this course, participants will have gained creative confidence in engaging with seemingly simple, yet systemically profound implications of making, both with low tech and high tech. They will be equipped with the technical knowledge, moral understanding, and emotional ruggedness that prototyping requires.
Entry Requirements
Anyone interested in applying rapid prototyping tools for ideation. Participants may come from a range of disciplines and industries.