At the start of the programme, you will be introduced to the varied curricular, artistic and technical basics. In different modules and with varied data sets, you will learn a host of methods, skills and techniques. The modules are structured around instruction, coaching sessions, expert workshops, excursions and guest talks. From there you will then further delve into areas of particular interest to you and to your peers. Self-study plays an important role: you will have 24/7 access to the studios that act as a hub for your classes, exchanges with fellow students and independent work.
Each module contains days where you can discuss your ideas, designs, questions and problems with the DD+A coaches. They have a professional background and the experience to help you in areas including design, coding and data analysis. That means you will have guidance throughout the process and be able to refine your project continuously.
In addition to the project coaches, the DD+A curriculum features science, culture and industry experts. In the past, institutions such as the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Swiss Health Observatory (Obsan) have shared their data and questions as part of a module and helped the students process and interpret them. Working with various data experts is not only a catalyst for your data skills, it also prepares you for the job market.
Information Design / Data Visualisation
Information Design and Data Visualisation make a valuable contribution towards rendering societal, social and environmental phenomena visible. In the area of Information Design and Data Visualisation, you will learn to effectively communicate data and information through visual means. You will rely on a range of design methods and develop your projects in an iterative process from research to concept to design, realisation and implementation.
3D Visualisation
Using 3D modelling methods, you will develop a spatial understanding of data and design data artefacts for both physical and virtual spaces. You will build components for your projects in various workshops, all of which are conveniently located next to our studio. Among other things, you will have access to wood and textile workshops, 3D-printers and an Immersive/Virtual Reality Lab. 3D Visualisation entails experimentation with novel representation strategies and educational approaches to data-driven information, staging and communication in physical spaces.
Data Telling / Story Telling
To make information comprehensible and memorable, it must be put in context with the observer’s lived reality. Narrative concepts in a multi-dimensional visualisation of information enhance learning processes and facilitate a sustainable knowledge transfer. You will learn conceptual and rhetoric approaches to storytelling and to apply the associated concepts including exploration, explanation and curation.
Data Literacy
By acquiring Data Literacy, you will learn the confident, systematic and critical-reflective handling of data, databases and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). In addition to the basics of univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistics, you will learn about the process of analysing large data volumes and to competently engage with data analysts and data scientists. What is more, you will develop an affinity for data-ethical and -legal issues, learn to assess your own and other actors’ data practices, and develop the skill to reflect on the relationship of data and society as evident in contemporary data-based phenomena and projects.
Creative Coding
In Creative Coding, you will learn the basics of generative design and playfully develop interactive data visualisations. This will allow you to access the large data volumes of museum collections and social networks or visualise the weather using live data. Depending on your project and idea and assisted by your coaches, you might use tools such as thermal imaging and photogrammetry or solder sensors and rotary controls to a miniature computer to control your visualisation.
Graphic Design / Typography
In Graphic Design, you will learn the foundational design skills to effectively represent your data through infographics. Basic typography, static and dynamic layout approaches and the development of information hierarchies through design will help you to realise your projects.
Motion Design
Using motion design and animation, you can represent temporal and spatial change processes as information-carrying phenomena. You will experiment with animated and interactive narrative structures, learn the basics of informed motion design, create informative-narrative processes and use storyboard techniques to further refine and implement them.
Interaction Design
Interactive applications invite the recipient to explore virtual information independently. This form of engagement increases the observer’s interest and triggers emotions that boost the learning process. Building on the techniques of creative coding and other web tools, you will learn to design these sense-making interactions with data in a playful setting.
+++Modules
In the interdisciplinary +Reflect, +Focus and +Colabor modules, you will work in specific thematic areas and collaborate with students in other programmes of the School of Design, Film and Art to expand the horizon of your design and methodological practice and of your experience. To this end, you will be able to choose from an array of modules on subjects ranging from virtual reality to creative coding, performative material, and gender as a tool. At the end of the study year, the works and processes created in the +Calobor modules are presented in the framework of a festival that is open to the public.
