Mid-crit

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The mid-crit is getting nearer. Here is some important information.

I have booked the lecture hall B1 the whole day, i.e. Friday Nov 9 between 10.15-17.00. A detailed schedule will be announce mid-week (sometime after the coordination meeting with the executive group and project group leaders on Tuesday Nov 6).

As has been mentioned several times before (for example during one or indeed several of the very last activities in the start-up phase of the course, at the two coordination meetings that your project leader has attended, as well as in blog posts last month (for example here and here)), we require your personal individual presence at this event - all day (not just part of the day, for example when your group is presenting). 

I have also, at several occasions (see the two blog post above), asked you to notify me if there are collisions with other courses. I have offered to personally get in touch with other teaches and negotiate/ask them to move their activities if a sizable number of students take that other course - but no one has gotten in touch with me and asked me to do that.

If only you (or perhaps just a few more students) take another course which collides with this event, you should prioritize this course over the other course on this one occasion. Do note that Nov 9 is the only scheduled event and indeed the one and only occasion between Oct 11 and Dec 5 when the course Future of Media requires you to be someplace special sometime special.


As to the event itself, each group will have a maximum of 10 minutes to pitch their basic ideas and also brag about all the work you have done this far (read literature, interviewed hotshots or ordinary people, done focus groups, surveys, drawn sketches, built mock-ups or prototypes, created a storyboard for a movie etc). Each group will altogether have a guaranteed 20 minutes reserved for the presentation and for discussion of their work (or perhaps a few more minutes if time allows for it).

Do note that the emphasis at the event is on the soundness of your concept and your ideas. A successful presentation and a benign reception can be seen as a go-ahead to continue your work on the path you have (already) taken. Another alternative is of course that you get feedback that encourages you to veer some from the direction you are heading in (ranging from timid suggestions and fun ideas to forceful "recommendations" that you most certainly should take into account).


We have invited three external guests ("guest critics") for this event - see below. They will listen to each group's presentation/pitch and then query and discuss your work. Students from other groups are of course also welcome to chip in and ask questions!


Do note that this is also the premier occasion for you to get an idea about what (all) other groups are doing in the course. Perhaps you will realize that there is a need to coordinate your work with another group (for example if you overlap, or if there is a "natural" progression or fit (or contradiction) between your topic and that of the other group). This will for example also have implications for the order in which we will schedule groups to present their projects at the final presentation (Dec 7).

Our three external guest critics for this occasion are Åke Walldius, Milad Hossainzadeh and Anders Malmström:


About: Åke Walldius is a researcher in Human Computer Interaction at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). He earned his Ph.D. in Cinema Studies at Stockholm University after having worked for 20 years in video production and information visualization. He is team leader for the Socio-technical Practices team at the Media technology an Interaction design Group and is an appointed expert in standardization. His main interests are socio-technical visualization, genre analysis and design pattern composition and use. Åke has been responsible (2008) and co-responsible (2007, 2009, 2011) for the course Future of Media at the Media technology programme at KTH.

About: Milad Hossainzadeh is a young architect and entrepreneur who was born in Iran. He grew up in Sweden and has lived in London where he graduated from UCL The Bartlett School of Architecture. He is currently based in Stockholm, working at the leading Scandinavian architectural firm White. He shares his time as a member of Urban Land Institute and the recent startup of BLINK - a transnational think tank for responsive ideas of changes in lifestyles, cities, cultures and economies. Milad gave the lecture "Thinking inside the box from outside!" in our course on Oct 10.

About: Anders Malmsten started his career in media as a journalist in the early 1980's, working as a reporter and editor in several daily newspapers in Sweden. In 1993 he was appointed project leader for developing Dagens Medicin (Medicine Today), a newsweekly aimed at the medical profession. Dagens Medicin became a success in Sweden and Anders Malmsten headed the launch in Denmark, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands and Poland in the 1990's. In 1999, Anders was awarded The Great Journalist Award, Sweden's most prestigious journalistic award, for the launch of Dagens Medicin. In 2002, Malmsten left Dagens Medicin to start his own consultancy and worked for several Nordic magazine publishers as well as governmental organizations and corporations. After Bonnier's acquisition of two groups of magazines in the US in 2006 and 2007, Malmsten was recruited back to Bonnier to start Bonnier International Magazines, focusing on licensing Bonnier's magazine titles and the development of new markets. Anders gave the lecture "Digital and global magazines will change the future for magazines publishers" in our course on Sept 7.

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