Final Project

 Public Research or Spatial Intervention Project

Working in teams, students will choose an urban location where a specific environmental, economic, or social issue needs addressing. Students will compose a research question about the specific issue, place, and impacted community (including human and non-human species) they select. Students will examine examples of public social science research projects and spatial interventions as part of their research and project planning. Each team will create and conduct a public research project (investigation) or design and participate in spatial intervention (subversive transformation) that takes place at the site of investigation.

Individual Contributions: Each student needs to contribute to all stages of the project: concept and proposal, preliminary research, public project planning including media making, documentation, and a final in-class presentation. During final presentations, each member of the group needs to present on one aspect of the project for 5 minutes (each group of four-five members will have 20-25 minutes to present their material to the rest of the class). There will also be time for questions and discussion after presentations. One member of each group should be assigned to field questions and lead a post-presentation discussion.

Final Project Components: 

Proposal

Create a short project proposal that includes your research question and a brief discussion of the issue your project will address. Indicate where your project will take place, whether your project will take the form of a spatial intervention or a public research project, what audience you hope to research / community you hope to engage, and what you hope to achieve with your project. List any props, media, or materials you’ll need to conduct your project.

5% of final grade

Annotated Bibliography

Use your annotated bibliography to record research on: environmental, economic, or social issues; intervention strategies and research methods; impacted communities; and / or sites where your project will take place. Include a minimum of 2 sources per group member. APA format.

Consult assignment guidelines and template for more details.

10% of final grade

Public Research Project or Spatial Intervention

In order to be successful, your investigation or intervention must:

1) Be designed to incite change, generate awareness of, create a critical conversation, or gather community input about the social, economic, or environmental issue you select. Your project can center around a problem and its causes or focus on solutions. 

2) Integrate the designed and natural elements of the site into the intervention or strategically leverage space to reach community members / research subjects.

3) Incorporate new media or material that works to (temporarily or permanently) transform a space or subvert its normative function. 

Consider: Who is your audience? What is the specific goal of your project(raise awareness, produce tangible change, inspire participation)? How can you strategically use the materials and structures of the space? What methods, strategies, and creative methods can you devise that will make your intervention or investigation impactful and memorable? What is each team member’s role and how do you collaborate effectively to utilize each person’s skills? Finally, how do you encourage participation or engage spectators?

10% of final grade

Documentation and OpenLab Project Site

A section of an OpenLab project site will be created by each group, containing an introduction to the project and its purpose, an annotated bibliography and citations for all additional sources consulted, planning and promotional documents related to your investigation or intervention, documentation of the public project in the form of a photo essay, anticipated (short and long term) outcomes of your project including the impact on audiences and the urban / natural environment, and reflections on actual outcomes (successes and failures).

5% of final grade

In-class Presentation

Each group will prepare a 20-25 minute presentation on their final project. You should display your work on the OpenLab project site and discuss all the project phases. Every member of the group must participate in the presentation. Importantly, the presentation is a moment to conduct a reflection on the different stages of development, performance, and documentation. Think about the successes and shortcomings of the performance. Why were certain aspects successful and why did certain aspects fall short of expectations? What might you have done differently if you could do it again? The presentation is not about convincing the audience that the performance was a complete success. Rather, it is about showing that you can think critically about your own work.

Preparation:

  • Create speaking notes: a bullet-point list of topics on a piece of paper so you don’t go off topic while speaking.
  • Use concepts from the course readings and lectures to conduct a meta-analysis of the development, performance, and documentation process. Cite specific readings, guest lectures or site visits to frame your observations or make comparative analyses.
  • Time yourself and practice presenting ahead of time. Five minutes will seem longer when you are speaking in front of a group of people. You also want to practice to make sure you are staying on topic and you are able to express everything you need to say in the period of time provided.
  • Work collaboratively. Make sure each member in your group understands their role.

5% of final grade