Beautiful Networks is a transdisciplinary studio course that focuses on systems and networks.
We studied how different patterns of organization arose in various realms of our environment
and society, and we also explored how human collaboration with other living and nonliving systems could contribute to forward–thinking ideas of sustainability. The aim of the course as to bring students up to date in their respective creative practices by introducing the new modesl and strategies of observation and problems solving used by "systems" thinkers across fields and throughout the globe.
Over the course of the term, we went from focusing on the systems we personally were familiar with and then continued to expand by looking at the environments in which we exist, by observing insects and wildlife ecologies, by using Los Angeles as a learning tool for human behaviour in cities, and by partaking in lectures and exercises around somatics – body and mind movement and a sensory understanding of the world.
Readings
The literature for this course was not only pertanent to the course objectives, but has served
extreme relevance as a media design student who has to take into consideration how the research and projects we do here in the MDP relate to the greater world as a whole.
Web of Life by Fritoj Capra
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software by Steven Johnson
In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World by John Thackra
Guests/ Speakers/ Tours
M.A. Greenstein, Ph.D. – Art Center faculty, art critic, educator, expert in somatics
Robert Strout – ACCD faculty, painter, psychologist/neurologist
TED.com – Craig Venter, Janine Benyus, Neil Gershenfield, James Howard Junstler
CalTech Computer Vision Lab
Blog!
Our class maintained a blog throughout the course of the term. We posted our projects, experiments, reflections and personal discoveries. You can visit the site to understand more about the course.