MEMORY PALACES

PREMISES

1. Our professional climates praise "creativity" or innovation within the bounds of disciplinary distinctiveness. If extra-disciplinary influence ("out-of-the-box" thinking) is rewarded, clarity and specificity in relation to traditional forms is often a requirement for sustained institutional support.
2. Collaboration, with those within or without your discipline, encourages externalization of internalized habits and assumptions, toward the end of clear and effective action and thought.
3. When we produce artifacts for art or science, we also produce discourses. Our methods (inherited or invented) influence the objects we produce, and contribute to the construction and maintenance of the professional disciplines by which we are evaluated and supported.

METHOD:

1. We will work on a subject area of common interest from our distinctive disciplinary perspectives. For this class, we have chosen the subject of space and memory - how memory is manifested in space, and how space informs and affects memory. Relevant subject areas include Pervasive Computing, Locative Media, Monuments, Museums, Performance, History, Architecture, and Archives.
2. In order to achieve careful understanding, lasting research and a platform of support for future projects, we will employ multiple methods of documentation throughout the course. These methods, some devised by instructors and others by students, will also enable some members of the class to achieve the quantifiable data they need for their own professional practice. At the same time, we will maintain a critical discussion about the effects and implications of these observational techniques. (No work will be subjected to documentation without consent.)
3. Students will work in teams through a series of project devised by the instructors. Groups will be expected to document their process and turn-in a website for each project solution.
4. Assigned readings will facilitate discussion about differing methods, language, and evaluative criteria across disciplines. Students will also be expected to participate in online participation and information sharing through blogs, social bookmarks, etc.
5. Outside experts will function as consultants and even as clients for specific projects.