[Chicago] Design for Empowerment Extended: Chicago

[Benj. N. Sugar]

Hey ChiPy!

I'm going to be offering an informal class at CivicLab (http://civiclab.us...­) called Design for Empowerment: Extended that I thought folks on this list might be interested in.  Announcement below.  Please forward wildly and with abandon.

On Nov. 12, 2013, CivicLab will be launching an informal class called Design for Empowerment Extended: Chicago. DFEX: CHI is an extension of the Design for Empowerment class originally offered at the MIT Media Lab by Professor Leah Buechaly of the High Low Tech Group. A brief summary:

Technology is increasingly shaped and developed by everyday people who design, build, and hack their own devices. The goal of this class is to understand, contribute to, and support these creative communities. We will focus on tools that enable non-experts to design and build computational and electronic artifacts. Along the way we will investigate software toolkits, hardware toolkits, open-source technologies, fabrication processes, and new manufacturing and distribution models. We will explore these tools and communities with the following questions in mind: How can technology and design both raise and lower barriers to empowerment? How can low cost technologies be co-opted and combined to create high tech solutions to real world problems? How can you identify and describe a healthy community, and how can we create tools which foster healthy communities?

A more in depth overview of the class can be found here: http://dfexchi.eventb...­

A tentative syllabus with a basic outline of the course can be found here:http://whichlight.com...­

Hope to see you there! If you have any questions feel free to contact me through the forum or personally at benjamin [at] civiclab [dot] us