Cultural Studies
This lecture describes culture and cultural studies as one possible basis for understanding how design can shape or critique culture. This outlines the ways in which meaning is created from a social perspective and briefly touches on epistemology from an applied perspective. It then describes several techniques for understanding current cultural practices including ethnography, ethnographic interviews, and contextual studies.
Lecture Materials:
Readings:
- du Gay, P., Hall, S., Janes, L., Mackay, H, and Negus, K. (1997) Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman, Sage Publications. Chapter 1.
Riddle Questions:
Do the above Readings and then answer these questions.
- Describe the focus of the Sony Walkman's marketing campaign. How does this tie to culture?
- When you think of an iPad, what cultural meaning does it have?
Optional Readings:
- Dunne, A. and Raby, F. (2001) Design Noir, Chapter 1.
- Mitter, N., (2010) Speculative Design, Graduate Media Design Program, Art Center College of Design, www.speculativedesign.com
- Holtzblatt, K, and Jones, S., (1995) Conducting and Analyzing a Contextual Interview, In Readings in Human-Computer Interaction: Toward the Year 2000, 2nd ed., R.M. Baecker,et al., Editors, Morgan Kaufman, pp. 241-253.
- Spradley, J, (1980) Participant Observation, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
- Part 2, Step 2: Doing Participant Observation
- Part 2, Step 3: Making an Ethnographic Record
