Context topics courses examine the application of design through multiple critical and cultural lenses. Topics for the course, chosen at the discretion of the instructor, could include media, the body, ecology, economics, politics, technology, history and other areas that may be addressed through multiple distinct discursive approaches. In each case, the topic in question is examined as a field of actual or potential design practice rather than as a static horizon for objective research. Requirements include writing among outcomes.Designing for Human Needs: Past, Present and Future:Humans have been designing their world since they first found caves to shelter in or put
two hands together to sip water from a stream. Water, food, shelter, communication,
mobility, health, sport, leisure and pleasure—these are primal human needs and they
are not going to change. What will change is the way we respond to these needs
through the design of our objects, environments and systems. Studying history provides
a rich storehouse of forms, styles, ideas and strategies from which to learn for the work
we do today and the work we will create tomorrow. Innovation by definition requires
knowledge of the past. In Designing for Human Needs: Past, Present, Future, we will
become aware of how designers have responded to human needs in the past so that
we can design more effectively, meaningfully and sustainably in the present and plan for
the future.

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