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How can we use digital media to not only write about the
world but to also change how the world shows up for
us-to change how we see, hear and touch the world (and
senses beyond even these)? That is the central question for
this course, and it is the primary work of this course as well.

To focus that work, this course will take up the

selection of popsicles made a polluted water
concerns of environmental justice and climate
collapse. We find ourselves in a moment wherein our
individual and collective capacity to sense the environment
and environmental change is vitally important. How can we
render ourselves and others sensitive to the environment in
ways that generate meaningful responses to problems such
as environmental injustice and climate collapse?

Students will develop a research project built around

b y three design students from the
National Taiwan Universit y of the Arts.
the sensing capacities of a digital tool and directed
toward a local environmental issue. How can one deploy
microphones to investigate the presence or absence of
animal life in a particular location? How can one utilize arial
photography (e.g., a drone) to map access to green
spaces? How can one use social media (e.g., Twitter) to
trace the health concerns of individuals near damaged or
otherwise unhealthy environments? Student research
projects will culminate in a sophisticated and
compelling report composed to persuasively address
(and possibly redress) their chosen environmental
issue.

The course will engage readings such as How to Do Things

with Sensors (Jennifer Gabrys), Climate Changed (Philippe
Squarzoni), and The Mushroom at the End of the World
(Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing).
Photograph: Hong Yi-chen.