product design history

Signature Assignment

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

For your Signature Assignment, you’ll be applying improv techniques to a particular problem. The problem can be personal, political, environmental, social, or a variety of the above. Diagnose the problem and decide how various improvisational skills can be used to better the situation. This 1500-word essay will be part narrative description, part research, and part analysis.

Example problems to diagnose:

How could a particular struggle in your art or design practice be helped by the philosophy of ‘yes, and…’? How can establishing the ‘who, what, and where?’ help abate the proliferation of fake news? How can ‘facing the facts’ foster more community on campus? In activist groups?

Research: While this essay will have a narrative component, detailing your own experiences with improv, this is also a research paper. You will need to include four sources and two annotations. If you decide to write about a topic from your personal life, be sure you understand the greater thematic elements at play so you can find relevant sources and include multiple points of view.

For instance, if you are writing about your perfectionism in studio, you can research how psychology, philosophy or world religions have grappled with this common problem. You could also research specific topics in your major. How do improv techniques align or conflict with your discipline?

Those of you choosing a political or social issue will perhaps have an easier time coming up with research topics, but remember that you must include your own experiences with improvisation and explain how they apply, or could be applied, to this issue. You may also need to write how improvisation does not serve your paper topic.

Below is a review of some of the concepts* we practiced this term:

Yes, and...

Giving gifts

Accepting reality/Facing the Facts

Establishing the Who, What, & Where

The 'If blank is true, then what else is true' pattern

Labeling broad and playing specific

Listening instead of planning

Taking risks

Surrendering your own ideas for the group

Clunky and clear is better than clever and vague

Taking care of each other

Status in relationships

*These are not all of the techniques we explored. If you think of another improv technique and want to integrate it into your essay – please do!

Assignment Requirements:

Minimum of 6 pages/1500 words. Use at least 4 quality sources and integrate these sources into your final paper.

Write 2 annotations, as outlined in the Source Worksheet <doc>. Rough Draft for Peer Review. 2nd Draft emailed to Instructor ([email protected]) Students will post their final draft on their Learning Portfolio for this class and "submit" the final draft as "Signature Assignment". There must be an element of document design - proper formatting and integration of media. Please see the Signature Assignment Rubric <pdf> Final Pointers:

-If appropriate, feel free to use the articles we read in class as sources for your research.

-Be sure you chose a particular issue, struggle, or experience. Don’t generalize

For example:

Being a product designer is like saying ‘yes, and...’ to life = general

On my internship, I was what we call ‘blocking’ in improv - not participating, disagreeing, and looking at the clock. Then, I said yes to my colleague’s suggestion. I was irritated at first, but it turns out his wood and earthy designs for the flatware were much more aligned with the aesthetic the client was looking for. = specific