51-836 The Non-Selfie
12 units, Carnegie Mellon University
The NonSelfieusing the camera to record, probe, and understand ones own and anothers behavior This course is the opposite of the selfiebut it uses the camera to record human behaviorboth your own and anothers. Designers need to be good human observers in order to design for human needs. Designers also need empathy. This course aims to deepen sensitivity to others by first better understanding ourselves. Informed by Manfred MaxNeefs classification of fundamental needs and other relevant materials, we will create two indepth photoessaysthe first being a study of ourselves, the second being a study of someone who is unfamiliar to us. In the first half of this course, while looking at the tradition of selfportraiture in photography and other media, we will be making indepth photographic stories of ourselves. In addition to photographs, we may make scans of objects, include personal artifacts and anything else that may contribute to building an indepth selfportrait. In the second part of the semester, we will apply what we learned to a person who we do not know, in hopes of bringing new insights and methods to understanding for another. In addition, we will look at the rich literature that exists in documentary photography about representing the other. By the end of the semester, each students work will be made into a handmade Japanese stab book of two volumesa volume on oneself, and one on another. The skills learned in this course are immediately relevant to becoming a good designer.
Prerequisites: none listed
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