4.110
Design Across Scales and Disciplines
Inspired by Charles and Ray Eames' canonical Powers of Ten, explores the relationship between science and engineering through the lens of design. Examines how transformations in science and technology have influenced design thinking and vice versa. Provides interdisciplinary skills and methods to represent, model, design and fabricate objects, machines, and systems using new computational and fabrication tools. Aims to develop methodologies for design research of interdisciplinary problems. Additional work required of students taking the graduate version. Enrollment limited; preference to Course 4-B majors and Course 4 minors.
Spring 2013 · Design Across Scales, Disciplines and Problem Contexts
Topics
- Design Across Scales: Intersections between Design, Science, and Technology
- Design of Futures: Past Futures, Utopian Visions, and Tomorrows of Today
- Data Mining and Databases: CSV Database, Rapid Miner, XML, MySQL
- Design of Representation: Notation, Information, and Communication
- In-class Presentations: Assignment 1
- 2D and 3D CAD Tools: Autocad ® , Rhino ® , 3DSMax ® , SolidWorks ®
- Fabrication Workshop: Laser-cutting, 3D Printing, File Setup and Exchange
- Working Session: Assignment 2
- In-class Presentations: Assignment 2
- AI Tools: Programming Concepts, Optimization Methods, Example Applications
- Film Screening
- Design of Alternative Futures: Utopias and Dystopias in Science Fiction
- Interactive Environments: Unity 3D, Augmented Reality
- Working Session: Assignment 3
- In-class Presentations: Assignment 3
Readings
- Morrison, Philip, and Phylis Morrison. Powers of Ten: About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero . Scientific American Library, 1982.
- Daston, Lorraine, and Peter Galison. Objectivity . Zone Books, 2007. ISBN: 9781890951788.
- McLuhan, Marshall. “The Medium is the Message.” Chapter 1 in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man . Signet, 1964.
- Tufte, Edward. Envisioning Information . Graphics Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780961392116.
- Maeda, John. Creative Code: Aesthetics + Computation . Thames & Hudson, 2004. ISBN: 9780500285176.
- Giedion, Sigfried. Mechanization Takes Command: A Contribution to Anonymous History . Oxford University Press, 1948.
- Sakamoto, Tomoko, and Albert Ferré. From Control to Design: Parametric/Algorithmic Architecture . Actar, 2008. ISBN: 9788496540798.
- Minsky, Marvin L. The Society of Mind . Simon and Schuster, 1988. ISBN: 9780671657130.
- Wiener, Norbert. Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine . The Technology Press, 1948.
- Simon, Herbert A. The Sciences of the Artificial . MIT Press, 1981. ISBN: 9780262690737.
- Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play—Element in Culture . Beacon Press, 1971. ISBN: 9780807046814.
- Galloway, Alexander R. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture . University of Minnesota Press, 2006. ISBN : 9780816648511.
- Eisenstein, Sergei. Towards a Theory of Montage . British Film Institute Publishing, 1991.
- Gibson, William. Neuromancer . Ace Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780441569595.
- Lyotard, Jean-Francois. “Acinema.” In Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology: A Film Theory Reader . Columbia University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780231058810.
- Mau, Bruce, and Jennifer Leonard. Massive Change . Phaidon, 2004. ISBN: 9780714844015.
- McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things . North Point Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780865475878.
- Thompson, D’Arcy W., and Lancelot L. Whyte. On Growth and Form . Cambridge University Press, 1942.
- Ball, Philip. The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature . Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780198502432.
Prerequisites & course information
Subject meets with 4.111 Prereq: None U (Spring) 2-2-8 units. HASS-A
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2013
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.