Critical Making (Graduate)

Spring 2022

Syllabus for Spring 2022

A syllabus is nothing more than a plan. And, as the recent past has made abundantly clear, even the most well-developed plans change. Be sure to work from the version on Box for the most up-to-date information.

Course Information

Credit Hours: 3

Degree Plan: Prescribed elective; this class can count as the PhD coding requirement if the student completes a code-based project for Project 2.

Instructor Information

I am Dr. Kim Brillante Knight and my pronouns are she/her or they/them. I ask that students address me as Dr. Knight or Professor Knight in our interactions. In addition to serving as the instructor of this course, I am the Area Head of Critical Media Studies in ATEC.

I am also the project director for Fashioning Circuits, a Public Humanities project that engages wearable tech, domestic technologies, and computational craft. We meet weekly on Fridays and you are welcome to join us.

Ways to reach me

Dr. Knight’s Office Hours

  • Drop in Wednesdays, 2pm – 3:45pm, via MS TEAMS
    • Quick questions or check-ins via one-on-one video/text chats.
    • I’ll post when I’m “open” on our class TEAM and you can sign up by commenting.
  • By appointment Wednesdays, 4pm – 5:00pm, on MS Teams.
    • Individual meetings to discuss your progress in the class, the program, and so forth.
    • Book a 30-minute appointment at [redacted]
  • If these days & times do not work for you, please email me with a request for an appointment and a list of days and times you are available. This option generally requires a few weeks’ notice.

Dr. Knight’s Contact policies:

  • I generally respond to email and other messages during working hours (8am – 5pm), Monday through Friday.
    • If I do not respond after 2-3 weekdays, check my email address and re-send it. If it was on Teams, make sure you sent me a direct chat, or if it was in a group chat or a channel, be sure to “@” me. Sometimes email falls through the cracks and I welcome the reminder.
  • Use official UTD email or MS Teams only. If you are asking me a question or telling me something on TEAMS, be sure to use the @ symbol and my name so that I receive a notification.

Fashioning Circuits Open Hours

Depending on the public health situation, the goal is to have weekly drop-in hours in 1.801b for you to come by and work on projects. More about this TBA as the Omicron surge subsides.

The Place Where We Meet

In-person discussion sessions are scheduled in Room ATC 2.914 of the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building at UT Dallas. We will also meet frequently in ATC 1.801b

UT Dallas stands on land originally settled and occupied by the Caddo, Wichita and Comanche people. We recognize the history of UT Dallas begins with the forced removal of the indigenous people through the legacy of colonization.

The historic Caddo people were the leaders of the Caddo Nation, an organized confederacy of at least 25 smaller tribes. The Caddo Confederacy was active until the 1800s and numbered 250,000 at the height of their existence. The Hasinais were among the 25 tribes of the Caddo Confederacy. Tejas is the Spanish spelling of Tayshas, the Hasinai word for those who are friends. The Caddo Confederacy was commonly known to the Spanish as “The Tejas”. Texas is the English spelling of Tejas.

In 1855, the Caddo people were forcibly removed from the land they had originally settled and lived on for generations. They were relocated to the Brazos Indian Reservation, making room for the Peters colony. In 1859, they were again forcibly removed and relocated to the Washita River in Indian Territory in what is currently Caddo County, Oklahoma. The Caddo Nation of Oklahoma is a federally recognized tribe located in Binger, Oklahoma, which is made up of descendants of the historic Caddo tribes.

For more information about the indigenous peoples forced off this land by colonization, see https://multicultural.utdallas.edu/about-us/

Course Description

Much has been made of maker culture in recent years. However, mainstream media, maker faires, and Silicon Valley thinkpieces often uncritically celebrate maker culture without acknowledging or accounting for its oppressions and erasures. Any democratizing or liberatory potential can only be realized by attending to the history and social and environmental contexts of making.

In this course, we will explore the join between critical thinking and making, referred to as “critical making.” Scholars of critical making variously emphasize process, community, and/or end-product as the primary goal of this set of practices. We will explore the tensions between these various goals while we situate technological practices of Do It Yourself and communal making as a social phenomenon with a history that precedes the digital and extends beyond the borders of the United States. 

The class will, at times, intersect with Fashioning Circuits, the public Humanities project that Dr. Knight co-founded and for which she is the ongoing Director. You can learn more about Fashioning Circuits at http://fashioningcircuits.com

Project I and all of our in-class workshops will center on soft circuits as a medium. Each class meeting is divided between discussion of theoretical readings and workshops that lay the groundwork for your exploration in electronics, coding, and sewing. You will have the option to propose another medium for the final project.

Course Goals

In this course, students will:

  • Become familiar with the theoretical discourses and debates around making.
  • Become familiar with basic concepts of various forms of making, including digital, analog, and craft.
  • Collaborate in writing and making.
  • Engage in critical making in social and cultural contexts

Required Texts and Materials

You will also need the following:

  • a UTD email account (that you check at least once per day during the week)
  • MS Teams on a desktop/laptop or a mobile device
  • A UTD Box account http://utdallas.app.box.com
  • Arduino installed on your laptop. If you don’t have a laptop, you can check one out from ATEC or the UTD library. See me if you need more info.

Recommended Texts and Materials

  • Banzi, Massimo. Getting Started with Arduino. ISBN 978-0-596-15551-3
  • Margolis, Michael. Arduino Cookbook ISBN 1449313876
    • the library has two electronic copies of this book
  • Sayers, Jentery, ed. Making Things and Drawing Boundaries. ISBN: 978-1517902858
    • Also available as chapter-by-chapter .pdfs through JSTOR

Course Policies

Attendance

There are no required class meetings for this course. Instead, one of the course grades stems from “engagement,” including how you engage with course materials and class media, assignments, me, and one another. For more information, see the Engagement assignment sheet.

Accommodation

If you have a disability that requires accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendment Act -2008(ADAAA), please present your letter of accommodations from the Office of Student AccessAbility and meet with me as soon as possible so that I can support your success in an informed manner. If you would like to know more about the University of Texas at Dallas, Office of Student AccessAbility, please contact the office at 972-883-6104 or email: studentaccessability@utdallas.edu. Their office is located in the Student Service Building (SSB), suite 3.200. All discussions with them are confidential.

If you learn a bit differently but do not qualify for, or have the resources to seek, an accommodation, there are still ways I can support your success. Be sure to let me know so we can creatively approach your experience in this class.

Online Due Dates

Project I and Project II will be turned in in-class. Otherwise, work in this class is turned in online.  Annotations are due before class begins at 1pm. Other assignments should be turned in no later than 11:59pm on the date listed, unless otherwise noted. My preference is that you convert documents to .pdf before turning them in.  

Late work

Due dates have been set to help scaffold your coursework in a manageable way, and so that I can plan time to give you feedback. You should make an effort to turn in all work on-time, in the format outlined on the assignment sheets. If you need an extension on something, you have three freebies. If you are out of freebies and need an extension, talk to me about it. I can be flexible when you are communicating with me.

Academic Honesty

Academic dishonesty, i.e. plagiarism and other forms of cheating, will be reported to the Dean of Students. The Dean of Students office will investigate the claim, interview any students involved, and determine an outcome. Possible disciplinary action by the university may include failing the assignment, failing the course, expulsion, etc. If you have any questions regarding the proper use of outside sources or the distinction between plagiarism and sampling/remix/adaptation, I encourage you to meet with me.

Names and Pronouns

Many people might go by a name in daily life that is different from their legal name. In this class, we seek to refer to people by the names that they go by. Pronouns can be a way to affirm someone’s gender identity, but they can also be unrelated to a person’s identity. They are simply a public way in which people are referred to in place of their name (e.g. “he” or “she” or “they” or “ze” or something else). In this classroom, you are invited (if you want to) to share what pronouns you go by, and we seek to refer to people using the pronouns that they share. The pronouns someone indicates are not necessarily indicative of their gender identity.  

Online Identity

This class may ask students to participate in various forms of public writing. Writing in public has several advantages for student learning. It creates a closer analogue to offline environments and allows for the creation of writing that is designed to be shared with an external audience, instead of only an instructor. It also allows students to learn from each other. However, some students may have legitimate privacy concerns about participating in publicly accessible assignments. These students may choose to participate in public assignments under a pseudonym, or assumed name. If you wish to request this accommodation for any reason, please contact me immediately.

The Classroom Community and Your Well-being

Our many discussions and online assignments will require vigilance to ensure that we are always preserving an atmosphere of mutual respect in which everyone is welcome to learn. Disagreements may arise and consensus may not be possible. We can, however, respect each person’s right to express an opinion and right to have the opportunity to learn. However, one’s “right to an opinion” does not include language or behavior that is harmful to others. Name calling, harassment, or menacing behavior will not be tolerated.

Classroom Conduct Requirements Related to Public Health Measures

UT Dallas will follow the public health and safety guidelines put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), and local public health agencies that are in effect at that time during the Fall 2021 semester to the extent allowed by state governance. Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Executive Order GA-38 prohibits us from mandating vaccines and face coverings for UT Dallas employees, students, and members of the public on campus.

However, we strongly encourage all Comets to get vaccinated and wear face coverings as recommended by the CDC. Check the Comets United: Latest Updates webpage for the latest guidance on the University’s public health measures. Comets are expected to carry out Student Safety protocols in adherence to the Comet Commitment. Unvaccinated Comets will be expected to complete the Required Daily Health Screening.  Those students who do not comply will be referred to the Office of Community Standards and Conduct for disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct – UTSP5003.

A note from the instructor on masks: I will wear a mask for every single one of our class meetings. This is partly to protect myself (I am fully vaccinated, but have high risk factors; plus, I don’t want long covid), to protect my loved ones (immunocompromised and too young to be vaccinated), and to protect you (heck, I may be asymptomatic and spreading it; which is why I’ve also scheduled weekly proactive tests). I am an award-winning instructor and you deserve my full attention in teaching this class. If I feel unsafe, or am worried about you infecting one-another, you will not get the best classroom experience that I can offer you. 

So, I will wear an N95/KN95/KF94 mask, every class meeting, for the entire time. As a courtesy to your fellow students and me, I would appreciate it if you do the same. The only way we will stay safe and get to have an entire semester of in-person classes is if everyone is doing their part to battle this public health emergency.

Course Recordings

I may record meetings, or partial meetings, of this course, typically when we are going over assignment instructions and the like. Our typical class meetings to discuss readings or viewings will not be recorded as there exists a comparable asynchronous option for engagement.

Any recordings will be captioned and made available to all students registered for this class as they are intended to supplement the classroom experience. You are expected to follow appropriate University policies and maintain the security of passwords used to access recorded lectures. Unless the Office of Student AccessAbility has approved a student to record the instruction, you are expressly prohibited from recording any part of this course. Recordings may not be published, reproduced, or shared with those not in the class, or uploaded to other online environments except to implement an approved Office of Student AccessAbility accommodation. If the instructor or a UTD school/department/office plans any other uses for the recordings, consent of the students identifiable in the recordings is required prior to such use unless an exception is allowed by law. Failure to comply with these University requirements is a violation of the Student Code of Conduct.

University Policies

Please visit http://go.utdallas.edu/syllabus-policies for the University’s policies regarding all courses.

Course Requirements and Grading

Grading Scale

See the Assignment Instructions folder on Box for assignment-specific grading criteria.

EvaluationLetter GradeDescription
ExcellentA, A-Work that is thought-provoking, novel, and well-crafted. The work extends our thinking into new territory. The form and content enhance one another.
GoodB+, B, B-Work that is thought-provoking or novel, and well-crafted. The work extends our thinking, or wades into new territory. The form enhances the content.
FairC+, CWork that is well-crafted. The form connects to the content.
FailingFWork that is never turned in, off-topic, or out of alignment with the minimal requirements for the assignment or course.

Assignments

See the Assignment Instructions folder on Box for more details.

Engagement – TBD%

Preparation and presence, which include focus, asking questions, and specificity. Annotations and other preparatory homework are part of your engagement.

Project 1 – 20%

Students will work to create a small-scale maker’s project, in make-along fashion. The goal is to foster familiarity with electronics, coding, and sewing. Students will be evaluated on their willingness to engage in the process, troubleshooting, and successful execution of the project. 

Project 2 – TBD%

Students will work individually or in groups to create a larger-scale, final maker project. The goal with this project is to move beyond basic familiarity and produce a project that draws upon our readings and attempts to make an intellectual statement or social intervention. Students will be evaluated on the idea, execution, and relationship between form and idea. A variety of forms can be used for this project, but the project should include some element of material media, physical computing, or computational craft. PhD students who are using this class to substitute for ATCM 6304 must include an element of coding in their final project. For all students, the final project will include a proposal and a short paper. More information will be available by mid-term.

Grade Weighting

As you can see, only 20% of your course grade is currently fixed. For the remaining 80% you will assign the grading weights, with the caveat that no assignment can be worth less than 10%.

Freebies

Each student starts the semester with three “freebies.” Freebies can be used to skip part or all of a week’s engagement activities, or as grace days to turn in assignments late. If you miss an engagement activity or turn in one of these assignments late, I will automatically apply any remaining freebies unless you write to me to ask to save them.

Mid-term Assessment

You can expect a middle-of-the-term progress report that includes a preliminary grade in Engagement. Other assignments will be graded as soon as I can after they are initially turned in. Please note that my administrative responsibilities sometimes mean it can be several weeks before you receive feedback. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Schedule

How to read this schedule:

  • Weeks are Sunday to Saturday, with discussion meetings on Tuesdays
  • The “Prepare” section will help you get ready for the weekly annotations, discussion, and workshops. In other words, this is your homework to do before Tuesday at 1pm. 
  • Starting in Week 6, there is an “Explore” list in the Prepare section. Your classmates will be presenting on these media and art objects in class meetings. You are not expected to be familiar with all of them, but choose one to watch, play, or examine. We will draw on these in discussion sessions or engagement papers, but you do not have to annotate them.
  • Annotations are due each week on Tuesdays at 1pm, regardless of whether you plan to attend discussion session or take the asynchronous option.

Week One: Jan 18 – 22 Introduction

  • Prepare
    • Pre-semester survey
  • Tuesday, Jan 18
    • 1pm – 3:45pm
      • Course Overview
      • Workshop: Envisioning Engagement
  • Saturday, Jan 22
    • Pre-semester survey if you did not do it earlier:

Week Two: Jan 23 – 39 Defining Critical Making

  • Prepare
    • Read and annotate
      • Chachra, Debbie. “Beyond Making.” Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities. Edited by Jentery Sayers, University of Minnesota Press, 2017, pp. 319-321. Box.
      • Ostherr, Kirsten. “Introduction: Applied Media Studies: Interventions for the Digitally Intermediated Age.” Applied Media Studies. Edited by Kirsten Ostherr, Kindle ed., Routledge, 2018. Box. You only need to read through page 14 of the chapter.
      • Sayers, Jentery. “Introduction: I Don’t Know All the Circuitry.” Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities. Edited by Jentery Sayers, University of Minnesota Press, 2017, pp. 1 – 17. Box.
      • Recommended if you have never taken a class with me, or if it has been a while
        • DiYanni, Robert. “Reading Responsively, Reading Responsibly: An Approach to Critical Reading.” Box.
  • Tuesday, Jan 25
    • 1pm Annotations of “Beyond Making,” and/or “I Don’t Know all the Circuitry,” and/or “Applied Media Studies” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm
      • Discussion Session
      • Workshop: Quick Make
  • Friday, Jan 28
    • Possibly of interest:
      • 12pm – 1pm Fashioning Circuits Workshop on using the Glowforge laser cutter to make a loom (1 of 4 workshops to become trained on the laser cutter. Email atanur.andic@utdallas.edu to be added to the meeting.
  • Saturday, Jan 29
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • Especially recommended for PhD students thinking through methodology & method:
    • Graham, Lindsay. “Applied Media Studies and Digital Humanities: Technology, Textuality, Methodology.” Applied Media Studies. Edited by Kirsten Ostherr, Kindle ed., Routledge, 2018.
    • Ratto, Matt. “Critical Making: Conceptual and Material Studies in Technology and Social Life.” The Information Society: An International Journal, vol. 27, no. 4, 2011, pp. 252-60.
    • Ratto, Matt, Sara Ann Wylie, and Kirk Jalbert. “Introduction to the Special Forum on Critical Making as Research Program.” The Information Society, vol. 30, 2014, pp. 85 – 95.
    • Rosner, Daniela. “Introduction: Why Fabulate Design?.” Critical Fabulations: Reworking the Methods and Margins of Design. MIT Press, 2018, pp. 1 – 21. 
  • Hertz, Garnet, ed. Critical Making. Telharmonium Press, 2012.
    • See, especially, Csikszentmihalyi’s “Sixteen Reflective Bits” for insights on global critical making.

Week Three: Jan 30 – Feb 5 Making Publics

  • Prepare
    • Read and annotate
      • DiSalvo, Carl. “Design and the Construction of Publics.” Design Issues, vol. 25, no. 1, Winter 2009, pp. 48 – 63. Box.
    • Complete Grade Weighting Survey
  • Tuesday, Feb 1
    • 1pm Annotations of “Design and the Construction of Publics” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm
      • Discussion Session
      • Workshop: Fashioning Circuits Virtual Orientation
  • Friday, Feb 4
    • Possibly of interest:
      • 12pm – 1pm Fashioning Circuits Workshop on using the Glowforge laser cutter to make a loom (2nd of 4 workshops to become trained on the laser cutter. Email atanur.andic@utdallas.edu to be added to the meeting.
  • Saturday, Feb 5
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • Dunne, Tony and Fiona Raby. Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. MIT Press, 2013.
  • Knight, Kim Brillante, Laura Pasquini, and Jessica Knott. “Weaving Critical Theory, Fashion, Electronics, and Makerspaces in Learning: Fashioning Circuits – A Case Study.” Interactive Learning Environments. 15 Nov. 2018.
  • Ratto, Matt, and Megan Boler, eds. DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media. MIT Press, 2014.

Week Four: Feb 6 – 12 Making History

  • Prepare
    • Read
      • Open Softwear pps 76 – 82, 94 – 97 Box.
        • Basic structure, variables, void setup, void loop, brackets, semicolons, commenting code, variable types and declarations, the digital pins, the analog pins
    • Read and annotate
      • Sullivan, Elaine, Angel David Nieves, and Lisa M. Snyder. “Making the Model: Scholarship and Rhetoric in 3-D Historical Reconstructions.” Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities. Edited by Jentery Sayers, University of Minnesota Press, 2017: pp. 301 – 318. Box.
      • Content warning: enslavement and violence against Black persons
        • Benjamin, Shannon Greene. “Pedagogy of the Post-Racial: The Texts, Textiles, and Teachings of African American Women.” Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International, vol. 4, no. 1, 2015, pp. 24-50. Box.
  • Tuesday, Feb 8
    • 1pm Annotations of “Making the Model” and/or “Pedagogy of the Post-Racial” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm (ATC 2.914 and MS TEAMS)
      • Discussion Session
      • Workshop: Introduction to Arduino
        • concepts: hardware, software, Interactive Development Environment (IDE), sketches, commenting, variables
  • Friday, Feb 11
    • Possibly of interest:
      • 12pm – 1pm Fashioning Circuits Workshop on using the Glowforge laser cutter to make a loom (3rd of 4 workshops to become trained on the laser cutter. Email atanur.andic@utdallas.edu to be added to the meeting.
  • Saturday, Feb 12
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • Brown, Elsa Barkley. “African-American Women’s Quilting.” Signs, vol. 14, no. 4, Common Grounds and Crossroads: Race, Ethnicity, and Class in Women’s Lives, Summer, 1989, pp. 921-929
  • Earhart, Amy E. “Can we Trust the University? Digital Humanities Collaborations and Historically Exploited Communities.” Bodies of Information: Intersectional Feminism and the Digital Humanities. Edited by Elizabeth Losh and Jacqueline Wernimont, University of Minnesota Press, 2018, pp. 369 – 90.
  • Essinger, James. Ada’s Algorithm: How Lord Byron’s Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age. Melville House Publishing, 2014.
  • Oldenziel, Ruth. Making Technology Masculine: Men, Women, and Modern Machines in America 1870 – 1945. Amsterdam University Press, 1999.
  • Sayers, Jentery. “Prototyping the Past.” Visible Language, vol. 49, no. 3, 2015, np.
  • Schwartz, Michelle and Constance Crompton. “Remaking History: Lesbian Feminist Historical Methods in the Digital Humanities.” Bodies of Information: Intersectional Feminism and the Digital Humanities. Edited by Elizabeth Losh and Jacqueline Wernimont, University of Minnesota Press, 2018, pp. 131 – 56.
  • Tamboukou, Maria. Sewing, Fighting, and Writing: Radical Practices in Work, Politics, and Culture. Rowman and Littlefield, 2016.

Week Five: Feb 13 – 19 Indigenous Making

  • Prepare
    • Read and annotate
      • Garcia, Ector and Lisa Vinebaum. “The Museo Textil de Oaxaca: “A Live Space for the Textile Arts”: Interview with Ana Paula Fuentes.” Textile: Cloth and Culture, vol. 14, no. 1, 2016, pp. 122 – 35. Box.
    • For synchronous-online or asynchronous, you will need access to a multimeter. You can get one for very cheap (less than $10) at Harbor Freight, or less than $20 at Micro Center in Plano.
  • Tuesday, Feb 15
    • 1pm Annotations of “The Museo Textil de Oaxaca” and/or “Threads of Hope” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm (ATC 2.914 and MS TEAMS)
      • Discussion Session
      • Workshop: Power!
        • Concepts: Voltage, amperes, resistance, Ohm’s Law, multi-meter
  • Friday, Feb 18
    • Possibly of interest:
      • 12pm – 1pm Fashioning Circuits Workshop on using the Glowforge laser cutter to make a loom (4th of 4 workshops to become trained on the laser cutter. Email [redacted] to be added to the meeting.
  • Saturday, Feb 19
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • Murray, Padmini Ray and Chris Hand. “Making Culture: Locating the Digital Humanities in India.” Visible Language, vol. 49, no. 3, December 2015, pp. 140-155.
  • Wilson, Julia Bryan. “Threads of Protest.” Fray: Art + Textile Politics. University of Chicago Press, 2017, pp. 107-80.
  • Allen, Tania and Sara Queen. “Beyond the Map: Unpacking Critical Cartography in the Digital Humanities.” Visible Language, vol. 49, no. 3, 2015, np.
  • Baker, Patricia L. “Twentieth-century Myth-making: Persian Tribal Rugs.” Journal of Design History, vol. 10, no. 4, 1997, pp. 363 – 74.
  • Nakamura, Lisa. “Indigenous Circuits: Navajo Women and the Racialization of Early Electronics Manufacture.” American Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 4, December 2014, pp. 919-941.
  • Prain, Leann. Strange Material: Storytelling through Textiles. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2014.

Week Six: Feb 20 – 26 Making Space, Making Place

  • Prepare
    • Read
      • “Troubleshooting” from Getting Started with Arduino (3 pps) Box.
      • OpenSoftwear Ch 5, pps 37 – 41 (5 pps) Box.
        • section “Soft prototyping with LEDs”
      • Open Softwear Ch 9, 85 – 94 (10 pps) Box.
        • Doing Math, Logical Comparisons, Logical Operators, Constants
    • Read and Annotate
      • Hendren, Sara. “All Technology is Assistive: Six Design Rules on Disability.” Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities. Edited by Jentery Sayers, University of Minnesota Press, 2017, pp. 139 – 48. Box (look for Sayers-MTDB-CompleteBook.pdf)
      • Rogers, Melissa. “Making Queer Feminisms Matter: A Transdisciplinary Makerspace for the Rest of Us.” Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities. Edited by Jentery Sayers, University of Minnesota Press, 2017: pp. 234-48. Box (look for Sayers-MTDB-CompleteBook.pdf)
      • Prain, Leann. “Telling Community Stories through S.T.I.T.C.H.E.D.: An Interview with Climbing PoeTree.” Strange Material, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2014, pp. 89 – 93. Box.
      • Possible warning: published in 1989 and may contain outdated terminology and framings of race.
        • Brown, Elsa Barkley. “African-American Women’s Quilting.” Signs, vol. 14, no. 4, Common Grounds and Crossroads: Race, Ethnicity, and Class in Women’s Lives, Summer, 1989, pp. 921-929. Box.
    • Review Project 1 Assignment Instructions and begin gathering supplies if you have not already (including textile supplies needed)
  • Tuesday, Feb 22
    • 1pm Annotations of 1 or more readings due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm
      • Discussion Session
      • Workshop: LEDS beyond blinking: tri-color LEDs; serial vs. parallel LEDs; fade and forloopiteration;
        • concepts: serial vs. parallel wiring; pulse width modulation; mathematical operators
  • Friday, Feb 25
    • Possibly of interest:
      • 12pm – 1pm Fashioning Circuits Workshop (1 of 1) on using the button maker. Email atanur.andic@utdallas.edu to be added to the meeting.
  • Saturday, Feb 19
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper

  • Martin, Kim, Beth Compton, and Ryan Hunt. “Disrupting Dichotomies: Mobilizing Digital Humanities and the MakerBus.” Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities. Edited by Jentery Sayers, University of Minnesota Press, 2017: pp. 251 – 6.
  • Bryan-Wilson, Julia. “Queer Handmaking.” Fray: Art + Textile Politics. University of Chicago Press, 2017.
  • Buechley, Leah, Jennifer Jacobs and Benjamin Mako Hill. “LilyPad in the Wild: Technology DIY, E-Textiles, and Gender.” Textile Messages: Dispatches from the World of E-Textiles and Education. Peter Lang Publishers, 2013, pp. 147 – 57.
  • Gauntlett, David. Making is Connecting: The Social Meaning of Creativity from DIY and Knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Polity Press, 2011.
  • Jefferies, Janis. “Crocheted Strategies: Women Crafting their Own Communities.” Textile: Cloth and Culture, vol. 14, no. 1, 2016, pp. 14-35.
  • Knight, Kim Brillante. ““Wearable Interfaces, Networked Bodies, and Feminist Sleeper Agents.” The Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities. Edited by Jentery Sayers, Routledge, 2018.
  • Knight, Kim Brillante. “Making Space: Feminist DH and a Room of One’s Own.” Global Outlook: Digital Humanities, “Thought Pieces,” 2017, np.
  • Stalp, Marybeth. Quilting: The Fabric of Everyday Life. Berg Publishers, 2007.
  • Yergeau, Melanie. “Disability Hacktivism.” Computers and Composition Online, Special Issue on Hacking the Classroom, edited by Mary Hocks and Jentery Sayers, online ed.,
  • Toupin, Sophie. “Feminist Hackerspaces as Safer Spaces?” .dpi Feminist Journal of Art and Culture, no. 27, n.d., online.

Week Seven: Feb 27 – Mar 5 Project I Workshop

  • Prepare
  • Tuesday, Mar 1
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Workshop (ATC 1.801b)
      • Concepts: sewing tools; cutting fabric; sketch components; sew soft circuits using LilyTwinkle board, battery holder, and LEDs
  • Friday, Mar 4
    • Possibly of interest:
      • 12pm – 1pm Fashioning Circuits Workshop (1 of 4) on using the Heddle loom. Email [redacted] to be added to the meeting.

Week Eight: Mar 6 – 12 Project 1 Workshop Continued

 Spring Break Mar 13 – 19

Week Nine: Mar 20 – 26 Digital Making

  • Prepare
    • Read
      • OpenSoftwear Ch 9, section “Types” pps 82 – 85 (4 pps)
      • OpenSoftwear Ch 6 “Using Analog Pins” (8 pps)
    • Read and annotate
      • Kafai, Yasmin and Kylie Peppler. “Transparency Reconsidered: Creative, Critical, and Connected Making with E-Textiles.” DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media, edited by Matt Ratto and Megan Boler, MIT Press, 2014, pp. 179 – 88.Box
      • McBrinn, Joseph. “‘The work of masculine fingers’: The Disabled Soldiers’ Embroidery Industry, 1918–1955.” Journal of Design History, vol. 31, no. 1, February 2018, pp. 1 – 23. Box.
  • Tuesday, Mar 22
    • 1pm Annotations of “Transparency Reconsidered,” and/or “Masculine Fingers,” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Class canceled
      • Discussion Session
  • Friday, Mar 25
    • Possibly of interest:
      • 12pm – 1pm Fashioning Circuits Workshop (4 of 4) on using the Heddle loom. Email atanur.andic@utdallas.edu to be added to the meeting.
  • Saturday, Mar 26
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)
    • Optional: Last day to turn in Project 2 pitch

Dive Deeper:

  • Parker, Rozsika. The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. IB Tauris Press, 2010.

Week Ten: Mar 27 – Apr 2 Making Justice

  • Prepare
    • Read and annotate
      • Bryan-Wilson, Julia. “Threads of Protest.” Fray: Art + Textile Politics. University of Chicago Press, 2017, pp. 107-80. Box.
        • Content warning: stylized craft depictions of torture in some of the images on pages 161 – 170.
  • Tuesday, Mar 29
    • 1pm Project 1 Due  – turn in in class
    • 1pm Annotations of “Threads of Protest” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm
      • Discussion Session (meet in 1.801b or online)
      • Workshop: Project II Proposal
  • Friday, Apr 1
    • Possibly of interest:
      • 12pm – 1pm Fashioning Circuits Workshop (1 of 3) on using the 3-D printer. Email atanur.andic@utdallas.edu to be added to the meeting.
  • Saturday, Apr 2
    • Last day to turn in required Project 2 Proposal
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • Robertson, Kirsty. “Rebellious Doilies and Subversive Stitches: Writing a ‘Craftivist’ History.” Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art. Edited by Maria Elaina Buszek, Duke University Press, 2011, pp. 184-203.
  • Wilson, Julia Bryan. “Introduction: Textile Politics.” Fray: Art + Textile Politics. University of Chicago Press, 2017.
  • Greer, Betsy, ed. Craftivism: The Art and Craft of Activism. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2014.
  • Burisch, Nicole. “From Objects to Actions and Back Again: The Politics of Dematerialized Craft and Performance Documentation.” Textile: Cloth and Culture, vol. 14, no. 1, 2016, pp. 54-73.

Week Eleven: Apr 3 – 9 Critical Baking

  • Prepare
    • Baking?
      • Should we bake something? It seems like we should…
    • Read
      • OpenSoftwear Ch 9, section “Types” pps 82 – 85 (4 pps)
      • OpenSoftwear Ch 6 “Using Analog Pins” (8 pps)
    • Read and annotate
      • Abarca, Meredith E. “A Place of their Own: Appropriating the Kitchen Space.” Voices in the Kitchen: Views of Food and the World from Working-Class Mexican and Mexican-American Women. Texas A&M University Press, 2006, pp. 18 – 49. Box.
      • Casey, Emma. “From Cookery in Colour to The Great British Bake Off: Shifting Gendered Accounts of Home-Baking and Domesticity.” European Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 22, no. 5-6, 2019, pp. 579-94. Box.
      • Marek, Elissa Underwood. “The Post-Incarceration Kitchen: Food-Based Community Organizing and Employment after Imprisonment.” American Studies, vol. 57, no. 3, 2018, pp. 57-79. Box.
  • Tuesday, Apr 5
    • 1pm Annotations of “A Place of Their Own,” and/or “From Cookery,” and/or “Post-Incarceration Kitchen” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm
      • Discussion Session
      • Workshop: analog sensors and serial monitor
        • concepts: variable types, serial.print, serial.println, if / else statements
  • Saturday, Apr 9
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Dive Deeper:

  • Dejmanee, Trish. “The Food Network’s Heartland Kitchens: Cooking Up Neoconservative Comfort in the United States.” Critical Studies in Television, vol. 14, no. 1, 2019, pp. 74 – 89.  

Week Twelve: Apr 10 – 16 Making Science and Technology

  • Prepare
    • Order any supplies needed for Project II
    • Read and annotate
      • Nguyen, Josef. “Make Magazine and the Social Reproduction of DIY Science and Technology.” Cultural Politics, vol. 12, no. 2, July 2016, pp. 233-252. Box.
      • Knight, Kim. “Danger, Jane Roe! Wearable Data Visualization and Feminist Praxis.” Bodies of Information. Edited by Jacqueline Wernimont and Elizabeth Losh. Box.
  • Tuesday,
    • 1pm Annotations of “Make Magazine” and/or “Danger, Jane Roe” due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm
      • Discussion Session
      • Workshop: buttons and switches; sound and vibration
        • concepts: buttons, switches, piezo speaker, vibration motor
  • Saturday,
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Week Thirteen: Apr 17 – 23 Project II Workshop I

  • Tuesday, Apr 19
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Workshop Project II
  • Saturday, Apr 23
    • Project Update Due if you did not attend synchronous session.

Week Fourteen: Apr 24 – 30 Project II Workshop II

  • Tuesday, Apr 26
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Workshop Project II
  • Saturday, Apr 30
    • Project Update due if you did not attend synchronous session

Week Fifteen: May 1 – 7 Project II Presentations

  • Tuesday, May 3
    • Project 2 Object Due
    • 1pm – 3:45pm Project II Presentations
  • Saturday, May 7
    • Engagement paper due (if you did not attend discussion session)

Finals Week: May 8 – 14

  • Tuesday, May 10
    • Project 2 Paper Due