Course title:

Seeing

Course description:

Perception comes before interaction. Things collide, fields overlap, particles exchange energy, but we can only see them after that interaction produces something observable. By learning to recognising them through observation, we aim to make interactions visible, comprehensible and playful. With interactions we can purposefully design, strategically guiding the audience to the optimal experience. A door without a hinge can alone mean it is supposed to be pushed instead of pulled. A sound in a corridor can suggest we are in the right direction. A button in a website that respond positively can mean we successfully concluded the action.
We will mainly cover these interaction principles: Make possibilities visible; Make impossibilities clear; Every action creates a reaction; The relationship between control and effect; Some interactions accumulate, others reset; Small gesture, large effect; Invitation to interact. We will start with physical (tangible, visible), move to digital (controllable, repeatable), then invite students to recognize these patterns everywhere.
Through playful experiences we will learn to see principles of interaction, and translate to a visual output. We will be pragmatic, first we will play, then observe, then explore, and then think back how such interaction principles can be purposefully applied when designing.
Stimulate the observation of interactions everywhere, the translation to form and freedom to shape behaviours.
Exercise 1: Drop different tints on a cup of water / observe relationship between control and effect / photograph at different moments / use the available touchdesigner app and midi devices to mix colour through time.
Exercise 2: Press different objects into soft clay / watch it respond / record in slow motion / use available devices to play in reverse, explore distortion using sound.
Exercise 3: Blindfold listen to a sound, find and represent its intention using abstract drawing / summarize the sound in a single symbol / compose using one of the provided pattern logics, considering contrast and interval / manipulate the result in our provided app, looking for variation to stay engaging.
Deliver a poster highlighting the meaning of one interaction principle, with at least one external intervention (no flat printed posters allowed, think superposition, cutting, reshaping, layering, live performance, you name it).
Requirement: Will to experiment. Basic drawing skills in vector or crafts.
Optional: Install free version of touchdesigner https://derivative.ca/download to enable more students use the experiments at the same time. No technical knowledge necessary, we will share the ready-to-use files.
Note: Many experiments use only mouse and keyboard, but a total of 4 MIDI devices will be offered to play with sliders, switches, touch. “Bring your own MIDI device” is definitely allowed.

Bio:

André Felipe is a graphic designer, web developer, founder and curator of typo/graphic posters, an online gallery showcasing works by designers from over 40 countries worldwide. He has worked mainly with music clients with a strong appeal to visual representation. Personally guided by the pursuit of expression through form, simple graphics, and typography.
André is also the founder of Addd studio. Addd is an independent graphic design studio offering services such as logo, visual identity, art direction and code. A design studio dedicated to the electronic music scene, creating visual identities, logos, and artwork that translate sound into color, geometry, and motion.