In Integrative Seminar 2, the skills acquired in Integrative Seminar 1 are expanded through the introduction of a wide variety of research methods–both digital and analog–and in projects that are shared with Integrative Studio 2. Students use digital tools and online platforms along with fieldwork to extend the research and creative problem-solving undertaken in class. Using methods such as interviews, visual research, online sources, libraries, experiments, and first hand observation, students are exposed to the multiple ways in which a topic can be researched. This course offers options that align with the research approaches used within the different schools at Parsons, as follows: Community Engagement How do we experience design? What does it mean to engage in a community -- in a city, with a group, in shaping an organization, in reconfiguring a service -- as a designer? Under this theme students will begin to unearth the complex systems that connect design to behaviors. Constructed Environments How does the built environment shape our contexts and, by extension, our understanding? What potential lies in an interior's design? How does a product instruct a user? When does a building determine action? Students will explore the interconnectedness of large-scale thinking with on-the-ground user experience to explore the complexity of a designer's engagement. Fashion How does fashion speak? What information do we derive from a seemingly simple, yet utterly complex system of material, image, body, history and site within the social and global sphere? Students will engage with such complexities while interrogating new ways to approach topics such as form, beauty and sustainability. Visual Culture How are messages embedded in visual culture? How, in turn, are photographs, videos, illustrations, performances, graphic novels, sculptures, technological innovations - and more - used to communicate an idea or position? And what might it mean to make something that doesn't fit into any one category as we know it? Students will explore interdisciplinarity, collaborative making, the productivity of creative failures, and more. Open to: Parsons First Year students. Open to Sophomore, Junior and Senior students with permission only.

In Integrative Seminar 2, the skills acquired in Integrative Seminar 1 are expanded through the introduction of a wide variety of research methods–both digital and analog–and in projects that are shared with Integrative Studio 2. Students use digital tools and online platforms along with fieldwork to extend the research and creative problem-solving undertaken in class. Using methods such as interviews, visual research, online sources, libraries, experiments, and first hand observation, students are exposed to the multiple ways in which a topic can be researched. This course offers options that align with the research approaches used within the different schools at Parsons, as follows: Community Engagement How do we experience design? What does it mean to engage in a community -- in a city, with a group, in shaping an organization, in reconfiguring a service -- as a designer? Under this theme students will begin to unearth the complex systems that connect design to behaviors. Constructed Environments How does the built environment shape our contexts and, by extension, our understanding? What potential lies in an interior's design? How does a product instruct a user? When does a building determine action? Students will explore the interconnectedness of large-scale thinking with on-the-ground user experience to explore the complexity of a designer's engagement. Fashion How does fashion speak? What information do we derive from a seemingly simple, yet utterly complex system of material, image, body, history and site within the social and global sphere? Students will engage with such complexities while interrogating new ways to approach topics such as form, beauty and sustainability. Visual Culture How are messages embedded in visual culture? How, in turn, are photographs, videos, illustrations, performances, graphic novels, sculptures, technological innovations - and more - used to communicate an idea or position? And what might it mean to make something that doesn't fit into any one category as we know it? Students will explore interdisciplinarity, collaborative making, the productivity of creative failures, and more. Open to: Parsons First Year students. Open to Sophomore, Junior and Senior students with permission only.

In Integrative Seminar 2, the skills acquired in Integrative Seminar 1 are expanded through the introduction of a wide variety of research methods–both digital and analog–and in projects that are shared with Integrative Studio 2. Students use digital tools and online platforms along with fieldwork to extend the research and creative problem-solving undertaken in class. Using methods such as interviews, visual research, online sources, libraries, experiments, and first hand observation, students are exposed to the multiple ways in which a topic can be researched. This course offers options that align with the research approaches used within the different schools at Parsons, as follows: Community Engagement How do we experience design? What does it mean to engage in a community -- in a city, with a group, in shaping an organization, in reconfiguring a service -- as a designer? Under this theme students will begin to unearth the complex systems that connect design to behaviors. Constructed Environments How does the built environment shape our contexts and, by extension, our understanding? What potential lies in an interior's design? How does a product instruct a user? When does a building determine action? Students will explore the interconnectedness of large-scale thinking with on-the-ground user experience to explore the complexity of a designer's engagement. Fashion How does fashion speak? What information do we derive from a seemingly simple, yet utterly complex system of material, image, body, history and site within the social and global sphere? Students will engage with such complexities while interrogating new ways to approach topics such as form, beauty and sustainability. Visual Culture How are messages embedded in visual culture? How, in turn, are photographs, videos, illustrations, performances, graphic novels, sculptures, technological innovations - and more - used to communicate an idea or position? And what might it mean to make something that doesn't fit into any one category as we know it? Students will explore interdisciplinarity, collaborative making, the productivity of creative failures, and more. Open to: Parsons First Year students. Open to Sophomore, Junior and Senior students with permission only.

In Integrative Seminar 2, the skills acquired in Integrative Seminar 1 are expanded through the introduction of a wide variety of research methods–both digital and analog–and in projects that are shared with Integrative Studio 2. Students use digital tools and online platforms along with fieldwork to extend the research and creative problem-solving undertaken in class. Using methods such as interviews, visual research, online sources, libraries, experiments, and first hand observation, students are exposed to the multiple ways in which a topic can be researched. This course offers options that align with the research approaches used within the different schools at Parsons, as follows: Community Engagement How do we experience design? What does it mean to engage in a community -- in a city, with a group, in shaping an organization, in reconfiguring a service -- as a designer? Under this theme students will begin to unearth the complex systems that connect design to behaviors. Constructed Environments How does the built environment shape our contexts and, by extension, our understanding? What potential lies in an interior's design? How does a product instruct a user? When does a building determine action? Students will explore the interconnectedness of large-scale thinking with on-the-ground user experience to explore the complexity of a designer's engagement. Fashion How does fashion speak? What information do we derive from a seemingly simple, yet utterly complex system of material, image, body, history and site within the social and global sphere? Students will engage with such complexities while interrogating new ways to approach topics such as form, beauty and sustainability. Visual Culture How are messages embedded in visual culture? How, in turn, are photographs, videos, illustrations, performances, graphic novels, sculptures, technological innovations - and more - used to communicate an idea or position? And what might it mean to make something that doesn't fit into any one category as we know it? Students will explore interdisciplinarity, collaborative making, the productivity of creative failures, and more. Open to: Parsons First Year students. Open to Sophomore, Junior and Senior students with permission only.