Sheets used in the first workshop of the course Intervention Design at the Maastricht Academy of Media Design & Technology.

1. intervention design: an introduction

2. short introduction: who is theo ploeg?
theory about the netwerk society
assignment: a manifest for an new world
workshop 1 - a brief outline
introduction module intervention design

3. Fontys - FHJ - Internetjournalistiek - WG1 3theo ploeg, @theoploeg

6. blog for this course: www.buroneue.net/interventiondesign

7. my cat adorno

8. theodor adorno (1903 -1969)

9. fachmenschen ohne geist

10. designers as production labor?

11. 11jaron lanier (1960) in ‘who owns the future?’ (2013): I miss the future

12. design for the future

13. design as blend of theory and praxis

14. so what are you going to do?
‚Redesigning a situation by using
theory and praxis and with use of
current (old) methods of design
and new ideas, comparing them
both and design an intervention
to fill the gap.’

15. you are using the Intervention Design Process Model (IDPM)
• Select and analyse an area of interest.
• Apply theory (for example the four laws of
media) and describe the clash between the old
and new paradigms.
• Identify the problem in terms of environment,
media and target group.
• Investigate how the problem would be solved
using normal/current design.
• Investigate how the problem would be solved
using new ideas and insights.
• Compare both and design an intervention.
• Test and evaluate the intervention design.

16. the network society and media theory - kind of a fundament

17. marshall mcluhan (1911-1980)

18. <<understanding media>> (1964)

20. We invent a new
media
technology
The new media
technology
alters our sense
ratios
The altered
sense ratio
alters our
perception
The altered
perception
changes the way
we think
With a new way of
thinking we
create new models
of reality
New models of
reality give rise to
new inventions
McLuhan’s cycle of change
‘we shape our tools
and tools shape us’,
!
Marshall McLuhan
cycle of change

21. mcluhan's main thought #1: media are extensions of some human faculty

22. mcluhan’s main thought #2: the medium is the message

23. 23mcluhan’s main thought #3: walking backwards into the future

24. ‘societies have always been shapes
more by the nature of the media by
which men communicate than by the
content of the communication’
mcluhan as <<technologal determinist>>

25. 25acoustic space: liquid truth at the agora in athens

26. 26gutenberg galaxy

27. 27books are vehicles for objectivity and rationality

28. 28the global village

29. newspaper as hot medium: they feel like a hot bath

30. 30tv as cool, electric medium

31. 311960: US elections broadcast on tv

32. in Playboy (1969)
‘The computer thus holds out the
promise of a technologically
engendered state of universal
understanding and unity, a state
of absorption in the logos that
could knit mankind into one
family and create a perpetuity of
collective harmony and peace.’
the electronic age

33. macluhan’s advice: don’t drown in the media mahlström

34. observe, take distance, find patterns

35. herbert marcuse (1898-1979) lecturing at University of California

36. media as tools for generating <<eros>>

37. ‘The people recognize themselves in
their commodities: they find their
soul in their automobile, hi-fi set,
split-level home, kitchen equipment’
in ‘one-dimensional man’ (1964): people as extensions of media

38. 38repressive tolerance

39. repressive desublimation

40. media structure a
culture for our
growing need for
self-conscience
rationality and objectivity of
the system increases
our subjective
selves get more
alienated and
need self-
conscience
culture creates a
false reality
that feels like a hot
bath
we become objects
submitted to the
one-dimensional
structures,
thinking we are
subjects by
consuming eros
(repressive
tolerance)
(repressive
desublimation)
marcuse’s one-dimensional society

41. HvA - CMD - V1 - C&M - HC5 41tyler durden explains it al in <<fight club>> (1999)

42. mcluhan versus marcuse: which side of the coin?

43. observation #1: venice

44. observation #2: urban farming

45. observation #3: new currency

46. observation #4: new craftsmanship

47. observation #5: every idea has a niche

48. “the return of meaning”
What do they have in common?

49. book: <<anti-oedipus>> (1972)
deleuze & guattari: deterritorialization

50. book: mille plateaux (1980)
deleuze & guattari: nomadic rhizome

51. paper: <<meltdown>> (1996)
nick land: accelerationism

52. but of course only the real deal ; -)

53. 53the anti-human cyborg

54. 54assignment for today

55. assignment: manifest for a new world (in teams of five)
End of 2014 there is an outbreak of a virus that turns people into
zombies. A year later millions of people are infected.
Institutions like governments, banks, multinationals and
other business have disappeared. There are no public services
anymore. With the infected being controlled slowly safe
heavens are being established. Authority and all kinds of
systems and structures have been vanished.
!
It is your task to build a new society, based on the ideas you find
important. Because there is nothing left, you are free of any
burden from existing systems and ideas. Feel free to rethink
stuff we take for granted currently, thus rethink everything.
!
Goal: make a manifest for your new world (not how you are going
to handle things but you think is important). Visualize every
step you take and present them at the end. Back at 2pm.

56. homework? see blog!