This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Fall 2023 - MACS265: Innovation Illinois

Assignment 5: Reading Response and Documenting UIUC Cultural Centers

Part 1: Reading Response

The readings this week are about the Biological Computing Lab and related movements and figures. Think about the variety of questions that generated energy for Biological Computing Movements, and select, list, and contextualize at least three different strategies that Heinz von Foerster and members of the BCL used to develop cybernetics practice. How were students figured into the BCL's innovations? And how can you tell that making spaces centered on and attending to student needs was important to the BCL? Using citations from the readings, write four questions that you could imagine asking members of the BCL today, more than 40 years after their groundbreaking work in cybernetics was initiated.

Part 2: Documenting UIUC Cultural Centers

1. Look over this week's calendar of events for UIUC's Cultural Centers. These include the program and event schedules for:
Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center (BNAACC) -- Asian American Cultural Center -- Native American House -- La Casa Latina -- Women's Resources Center -- Diversity and Social Justice in Education -- International Education -- Women & Gender in Global Perspectives Program -- Center for Global Studies. "Lunch on Us" events (where a free lunch is hosted weekly between noon - 1PM are held on Wednesdays at BNAACC (Food for the Soul--note dates for the Fall 2023 semester even as the headline hasn't been changed), Thursdays at La Casa Latina for all students), "Dinner on Us" events at Native American House on Tuesdays at 5PM, and Friday Forum + Conversation Cafe, Fridays at noon.

2. Select one event from the listed calendars above to attend for 45-60 min. this week. For your visit, document the following as qualitative data points:

Make note of the time/day of your visit, and what the event is, what the primary activity arranged for the event is, and who is speaking or featured for it. Describe what you see and hear from the speaker/activity featured.
Take note of how space is being used, and what the physical design and features of it are. How can you tell the space aims to accommodate students? Reflect on what's unique about the space to you and how others use the space.
Take 2 photos (a phone camera is fine) of some form of visual representation (from the event that represents it for you.
Write a few paragraphs to document your observations (not more than one page), and to explain the visual data selections and notes you took. How does the event reflect the project and debate surround "Land Grant" values? How do you think the designers of the space thought about inclusion and safety for its users?

Post your Reading Response and Lab Report to your Scalar page and send us (macs265teachingteam@gmail.com) the link by 12pm (noon) Monday.