Models for thinking and doing

How we came here … Media + Computing But how can you make stuff ….

Individual Genius Model Community of Practice Model

Being alive as human beings means that we are constantly engaged in the pursuit of enterprises of all kinds, from ensuring our physical survival to seeking the most lofty pleasures. As we define these enterprises and engage in their pursuit together, we interact with each other and with the world and we tune our relations with each other and with the world accordingly. In other words we learn. Over time, this collective learning results in practices that reflect both the pursuit of our enterprises and the attendant social relations. These practices are thus the property of a kind of community created over time by the sustained pursuit of a shared enterprise. It makes sense, therefore to call these kinds of communities communities of practice. Etienne Wenger 1998

Communities of practice What it is about – its joint enterprise as understood and continually renegotiated by its members. How it functions - mutual engagement that bind members together into a social entity. What capability it has produced – the shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artefacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.) that members have developed over time.

“Learning is, thus, not seen as the acquisition of knowledge by individuals so much as a process of social participation. The nature of the situation impacts significantly on the process.” So we are all part of multiple communities at school, with our friends but also special communities of music makers and film makers etc. “In this there is a concern with identity, with learning to speak, act and improvise in ways that make sense in the community. “ Wenger

Defining Social Capital Whereas physical capital refers to physical objects and human capital refers to the properties of individuals, social capital refers to connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them. In that sense social capital is closely related to what some have called “civic virtue.” The difference is that “social capital” calls attention to the fact that civic virtue is most powerful when embedded in a sense network of reciprocal social relations. A society of many virtuous but isolated individuals is not necessarily rich in social capital. (Putnam 2000: 19) Social capital consists of the stock of active connections among people: the trust, mutual understanding, and shared values and behaviours that bind the members of human networks and communities and make cooperative action possible. (Cohen and Prusak 2001: 4)

Creative Practitioners Skills Knowledge Innovation Community Reputation Contacts

Major themes / communities The Body Physical Computing Locative Media Performance Community Open Source Social networks Power Relationships Socially Engaged Practice Hacker Science Citizen Journalists Culture Database Culture Relational Aesthetics

Relational Art “An art taking as it theoretical horizon the realm of human interactions and its social context, rather than the assertion of an independent and private symbolic space” Nicolas Bourriaud

Feedback What was missing were multiple approaches to analyse a project and how it fits into a wider cultural context. Personal association - Experience Critical theories- Learn them The difficult thing is how to go from critical analysis to making really innovate things.