Our first reading assignment consists of a couple short texts. Please download them using the links below, (print if possible,) read, and respond. Your response should be 3-4 paragraphs, which can be typed directly into a post or handwritten in your research notebook. If you decide to hand-write please just post an image into a new post.

Here are the readings:
Helen Armstrong, “Introduction: Revisiting the Avant-Garde” from Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field (2009): ArmstrongIntro

Bruno Munari, selected chapters from Design as Art (1966): Munari_DesignAsArt

Here are the questions to which you should respond:
According to these authors, what role should design play in society? What distinguishes the field, or fields, of design from other creative occupations? Why should designers concern themselves with unsolvable theoretical questions? What role does technology play in shaping design? What are the most urgent problems facing designers today? How, and why, is a designer responsible for solving these problems?

Please post your responses before class on the 8th. And please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or issues. You can send a message through OpenLab or email me: mlange@citytech.cuny.edu

Our first objective for this course, which is sort of just an extension of the first class session, will be to create a short video introduction.

While we are unable to all come together to meet in a single room, we can try to use the resources we do have to create something of that interpersonal experience. The goals for this exercise will be to tell everyone a little bit about yourself, and meet everyone else that you’ll be working with through the semester.

Please record a short video providing the following information:
– Your name and preferred name
– Where you are filming the video (Go somewhere interesting but wear a mask if filming in public!)
– How far along you are in school, how long you’ve been attending City Tech, your primary interests in the COMD program
– Your greatest hopes for the start of 2021
– A theory that you have, or have heard recently…it can be about anything, but should ideally be impossible to prove.

Video files tend to be large. You’ll need to upload to YouTube, Dropbox, Vimeo, etc., then embed the link into a New Post by clicking the + box, locating Video, then selecting “Link”. (We’ll review Posting instructions in class on Feb. 1)

Finally, the most important part of the assignment: Watch all of your peers’ videos! You may need to check back through the next few days if you upload yours right away.

Here is mine. Hope you enjoy: