Critical Making & Media Studies


In my last semester of undergraduate, I did an independent study with Mark Olson where we read selected texts around the broad themes of critical making and media studies. While in total we only went through ~9 texts, the readings and discussion with Mark has significantly impacted how I think about my work as an human computer interaction researcher and technologist. Even now, I still seek out work related to media theory, critical making/design, etc. and see it inform my research in many ways.

Here, I list the texts we explored and other texts that have since been similarly influential. I share with hopes that I can recommend cool texts and also  receive recommendations for other texts I can read!
 
  • Program or Be Programmed - Douglas Rushkoff
  • The Human Condition - Hannah Arendt
  • Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects - Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby
  • Adversarial Design - Carl DiSalvo
  • Tactical Media (Introduction) - Rita Raley
  • How a Prototype Argues - Alan Galey & Stan Ruecker
  • Wicked Problems in Design Thinking - Richard Buchanan
  • Reassembling the Social (Introduction + Part 1) - Bruno Latour
  • What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design - Peter-Paul Verbeek

Other texts that drive my research:

  • A Cyborg Manifesto - Donna Haraway
  • Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene - Donna Haraway
  • A Symbiotic View of Life: We Have Never Been Individuals -  SF Gilbert
  • Design Fiction: A Short Essay on Design, Science, Fact and Fiction - Julian Bleecker