News/Research

All Woman Team Critiques Optimization Culture in NWMEDIA 190: Critical Practices

15 Jun, 2019

All Woman Team Critiques Optimization Culture in NWMEDIA 190: Critical Practices

A feature by Saemmool Lee, originally published on the CITRIS News website, showcases the work of students from our ever popular NWMEDIA 190: Critical Practices (now NWMEDIA C166).

The all-women team created a product that ostensibly scans your hand for biometric data, before dispensing a placebo pill billed as appropriate to your needs. The project critiques our culture's obsession with supplements and optimization.

The article importantly highlights how classes such as Critical Practices allow students to learn to use a suite of new tools, as they're introduced to maker spaces across campus, such as the CITRIS Invention Lab.

“For the longest time, I never thought of myself as a technical person,” says Spektor. “The more I started spending time down there, the more I started learning, and the more I could ask questions. It’s just a great feeling to be with a team and in a community of people surrounded by interesting projects and folks who are so smart and working on amazing things and pushing through problems all the time.”

Read the article here.