MAPD4210 Design and Culture Course description

Issues concerning design and culture require designers to adapt a broad, humanistic point of view. In this course the students will enhance their knowledge and awareness of cultural values and meanings, and their impact on design. Design is widely acknowledged as an increasingly multifaceted field, which involves communication and interaction between people and material culture. Communication is complex and language is the key to creating meaning. Design comprises several forms of articulations and in this course the students are challenged to use and interweave visual, materialized and verbal articulation to create new meaning. The course introduces strategies for integrating research methods for fostering aesthetic awareness, empathy criticality and reflexivity, to be activated in development of products or services for chosen cultural context.

Admission to the Master's programme.

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved advanced level in the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student has:

• knowledge about culture and its role, both from a personal and professional perspective
• knowledge of central cultural terms and cultural values
• attained knowledge on methods that involve interactions between people and material culture
• has a good understanding for how aesthetic awareness, reflexivity, and criticality works as crucial factors in informed design practices

Skills

The student is able to:

• reflect critically on the role of design in a cultural context
• challenge established perspectives and norms in the field
• integrate cultural perspectives into the development of a product
• use aesthetic methods to enhance communication of the design process and the results
• use various forms of articulation to give non-verbal data meaning
• interweave different forms of knowledge from practice and theory

General competence

The student has a developed understanding for:

• the relevance of knowledge of cultural values and meanings, and their impact on design
• sustainable responsibility and autonomy for cultural issues in design

Lectures, excursion, workshop, various platforms for discussion and reflection (involve presentations and feedback), self-study.

The following required coursework must be approved before the student can take the exam:

• Project description (design pitch) with a defined research field, aim(s), research question (optional) and methodological approach (500-700 words and visualizations integrated in the text)
• Participation in a desk critique; (i) communication of the project, (ii) constructive feedback of the projects to fellow students

Individual or group portfolio examination. The portfolio consists of:

• Product in optional/relevant media.
• Research-based design project/proposal (2500-3000 words and visualizations integrated in the text).

The examination result can be appealed

No restrictions.

Grade scale A-F.

Two internal examiners. External examiner is used periodically.