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Week Three

“Material Power”

This week, we explore power in its material form through the layered sediments of design ethos, inheritance, and lineage. Like the strata of earth, these materials carry histories—both visible and buried—that shape how power moves through design, labor, and culture. What layers have settled into our ways of working? What materials or methods have been passed down, and who has the power to shape their stories?

In Class Activities

Pre-Work Discussion
• discuss one key takeaway and 2–3 questions you’d like to explore

Activity: Design Ethos & Lineage Mapping (↗ link to Google Slides)
• How does your personal, cultural, and educational lineage (“homes”) shape the materials you use? What materials do you find yourself returning to in your work?

Before Next Class

Pre-Work: Technological Power (↗ link to Google Drive)
• Read/Watch/Skim for 1-2 hours
• Come prepared to discuss one key takeaway and 2–3 questions you’d like to explore

Medium Post: Design Ethos & Lineage Mapping
• See description below

Design Ethos
& Lineage Mapping

Design, like power, is inherited. The materials we use, the processes we trust, and the aesthetics we value are shaped by a lineage of sorts—passed down through education, culture, industry, and personal experience. In this activity, you will map your design lineage through the metaphor of “home”—a place, person, or tradition that grounds your practice¹. By tracing where your materials, methods, and influences come from, you will reflect on what you’ve inherited, what you carry forward, and what you might leave behind or reclaim.

Step 1: Define “Home”
On the shared digital canvas (link to Miro), start by defining “home.” You can interpret this in the personal sense, or in the professional design sense. Label and define this in the center of your frame.

This could be:

A physical place (a childhood space, a city, a studio, a craft tradition)
A person or group (a mentor, a cultural community, a family trade)
A cultural community (of shared values, ways of working)

Step 2: Defining The Axis
The X-Y axis on your frame represents a possible framework for your mapping activities.

Y-Axis: Time → Vertical Movement

The bottom represents your earliest exposures to design, materials, and making (childhood, family traditions, first encounters with creative tools).
The top represents materials, techniques, or influences you are currently exploring or recently learned about.

X-Axis: Inheritance & Influence → Horizontal Movement

The left represents inherited traditions—what was passed down to you through family and cultural communities.
The right represents influence and exposure to design traditions through education (formal and self-taught) and professional norms.

Step 3: Early Roots (bottom)
What materials, techniques, or design values were present in early in your design trajectory?

What were the first materials, tools, or techniques you encountered?

Who or what introduced you to them (family, school, culture, environment)?

Step 4: Education & Training (right)
How did formal or informal learning (school, self-teaching, mentorships) introduce new materials or shift your design approach? What were you encouraged (or discouraged) from using?

What skills, materials, ways of knowing or working have been emphasized in your education (k–12, college)?
Have professional experiences or exposure to industry standards reinforced or shift your making and knowing choices?

Step 5: Considering Home (left)
What materials, processes, or influences are you actively drawn to now? Can you trace these interests back to past experiences or exposures?

What might you surface and reclaim as part of your design ethos?
Are there materials, methods, or influences you want to now actively look into or carry forward?

Step 6: Tracing Connections
Use lines, arrows, or visual motifs to trace relationships across your map. This step helps you visualize how various forces have influenced your design ethos over time.

Medium Reflection: Cycles, Patterns, Shifts
After completing your map, reflect and write about what you’ve discovered. Use the prompts below to guide your response:

What materials, techniques, or values from your design “home” do you want to carry forward?
Are there any parts of your lineage that feel limiting, excluded, or missing?
Are there traditions, tools, or methods you want to reclaim, reintroduce, or challenge?
How does your design lineage influence what you see as powerful or legitimate in design? Where might you want to shift that understanding?

This reflection should synthesize insights from the pre-work materials and take the form of a short visual essay: 1–3 paragraphs accompanied by 5–7 captioned images, published on your Medium.

Final Steps:
Upload your Medium post and add your link to the class spreadsheet by Friday at Midnight EST for A4 or Sunday at Midnight EST for B4.

¹ This is in reference to a workshop titled “Throwing The Bauhaus Under the Bus” by Silas Munro and Ramon Tejada.