Specialization and Sample Elective Course Descriptions
Special Topics in Wholistic Perspectives
Wholophilia: Design as Practice of Wholeness
Wholophilia focuses on the understanding of design as a practice of wholeness and systems thinking. Students explore the often-neglected work of “love” (Agape, Eros, Philios) in relationship to design and develop a true sense of the world as “philomorphic” (form-loving) activity. Gain an understanding of the relationships between wholeness, love and design.
Mary Parker Follett
Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933) spoke of self-organization as a fundamental characteristic of life, of the creative power of difference, of “power-with” rather than “power-over” strategies, of crossfunctional teams and the importance of coordination and integration when compared with control. Students consider the social/historical/intellectual milieu of her work and how it relates to a contemporary context.
Experience of Place
Develop greater awareness of how interrelationships with the places people frequent affect health, effectiveness, the quality of designs and the relationship with the more-than-human world. Seattle – an evolving synthesis of its naturally occurring location, conscious and unconscious human design and relationship with its larger environment – is a particular focus.
Metaphor, Worldview and Change
Explore language as a reflection of worldview and a powerful leverage point for change. Students critique metaphors commonly appearing in organizational, community, environmental and civic life, and consider how to design their own communications to more effectively create the understanding they desire.
Special Topics in Design Theory and Practice
Design Approach: The Art and Science of Creative Change
Explore and experience design as an intentional co-creation process of being and acting in the world to facilitate personal transformation, societal change and organizational renewal. Learn a theoretical framework for imagining, conceptualizing and bringing into existence a desirable future appropriate for human purposes.
Visual Literacy Studio: Capturing Mental Images for Creative Thinking
Consider visual thinking an essential path to creativity and innovation. Participants explore signs and symbolic meaning experientially and theoretically and apply their learning to design communication. Through stimulating exercises, participants gain confidence in their ability to express themselves graphically and to use visual thinking as a technique for working out creative responses to design challenges.
Context-based Design
Students learn to approach design by distinguishing levels of context – environment, stakeholder need, design functionality and design architecture – and use relationships between levels to explore concepts important to design: value, sustainability, flexibility, effectiveness, efficiency, creativity and identification of resources.
Notating Imagination: Advanced Design Communication
Students explore notation, syntactically and semantically, as an emerging new area in advanced design communication and whole systems design. The focus is on notations as signs that mediate among several sets of concepts, traditions and approaches. Students seek out a specific context through which they notate and score their imaginative ideas.
Special Topics in Systemic Thinking
Systemic Thinking: The Art of Making Distinctions
Explore systemic thinking and concepts as a means for making more meaningful and useful distinctions in the service of improved communications, conflict resolution, collective design and decision making. Students explore notions of interconnectedness and interdependence, how these notions are moving from the leading edge into the mainstream and how people continually perceive difference and create distinctions.
Advanced Systems
Students deepen their facility with systemic thinking and its pragmatic implications for their own areas of interest. Learn a structural approach to understanding system formation and politics, change versus persistence and design concepts – effectiveness, flexibility, creativity and value. Particular themes are determined based on student needs and interests.
Back Main Curriculum Page
|
