Instructor: Mark Shepard
ARC 625
Fall 2023
DESCRIPTION:
This seminar introduces theoretical and historical topics relevant for research in the design of Situated Technologies. Our current research investigates Extended Reality (XR), a provisional term incorporating virtual, augmented, and mixed-reality technologies. This course will survey the cultural history of VR, AR and MR and examine their incorporation within contemporary XR platforms and systems, focusing on their ontological and epistemological implications regarding conceptions of “the real.” Readings in the history and theory surrounding these technologies will be combined with case studies of specific devices and apparatus for the representation, simulation and augmentation of space. Weekly discussions of the readings and case studies will form the basis for written responses posted to a dedicated online discussion forum. Issues drawn from these responses will form the basis for the development of speculative design projects incorporating XR techniques, methods and devices to be presented at the culmination of the semester.
