Critical making is hands-on hardware practice as a form of reflection & analysis: a way of thinking through what (& how) computing & digital media mean by understanding how they work, building on the literature of media studies & the digital humanities. By turning from software to hardware, to the physicality of computation & communications infrastructure, we will take objects apart, literally & figuratively, & in the process will learn to interpret & to intervene — using prototyping, reverse engineering, hardware hacking & circuit bending, design fiction, electronics fabrication & other approaches — in the material layer of digital technologies.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks