The course will introduce students to approaches to thinking critically about the nature of technology, about the practice of designing and creating artefacts (including processes and systems), the nature of things so created, and the roles they play in our lives and society. Particularly, this aims to unpack assumptions that “technology is the simple application of science, and that technology is all for the good” (Dusek 2006). This course will focus on four key questions (1) What is technology? How do we define it, study it, and understand it in relation to nature and society? (2) What is the impact of technology on society, culture, and ethics? How can we think about this impact? Where is technology beneficial, and where is it problematic? (3) In what ways is technology understood in design practice and design thinking?

The Project(s) Students will reflect on, analyse, interpret and apply to their own writing and projects, a primary body of discursive works located within, and related to the philosophy of technology as well as positions advanced in popular media.

The teaching in the course is conducted via a lecture series that will introduce the basic concepts within the philosophy of technology followed by a series of guest lectures that will address more specific concepts and theorisations, such as Actor Network Theory, as they have been applied in design practice and theorisation. Tutorials will be organised as topic-orientated seminars that will be presented each week by different student groups as part of the requirements for tutorial participation and Assessment 3. Assessment 1 will be an individual assessment that will focus on the representation of human-technology relations in popular culture as expressed via a series of selected films to be analysed and connected to a key piece of writing from the reading list, such as Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto. For Assessment 2 students will submit a scholarly essay on a selected theme.

Learning experience This elective will enable students to gain a more nuanced and critical understanding of the various conceptualisations of ‘technology’, and how these can impact everyday living as well as research methodologies and approaches to the design of artefacts, and the built and urban environment. Developing expanded frameworks of thinking around technologies, will assist students to develop more comprehensive design methodologies and further develop their own design sensibility. This knowledge can be applied in a range of other design studio subjects