I’m applying for the Speculative Design major at UCSD…
aside from the UCSD visual art homepage, I can’t find any student work posted anywhere online…nor any graduate work…
Is anyone here currently in the Speculative Design program that can share their experience thus far? How do you like it? Does it have a specific emphasis on certain skill sets or techniques? The description of the major sounds alluring but it also sounds incredibly vague and I’m having trouble finding out more about the program!
Any advice or info would be great! Thanks…
@yahyah88 , this is a really stale thread, so I’m not sure if you’re still looking for info… but my daughter and I met with an advisor at UCSD when we visited campus a few months ago, so we got a bit more insight than is available online. Basically, you’re right that it’s fairly vague, in part because it’s a new program that hasn’t had a graduating class yet. The course requirements are drawn from existing visual arts coursework; the only truly distinctive part of the Spec. Design program is the Capstone course, which hasn’t actually been taught yet. (Hence no student work visible…) The first year that class will be taught will be 2017-18, when the first Speculative design graduating class reaches their senior year.
My daughter ended up deciding that the design track within Cognitive Science was a better fit for her - the Speculative Design philosophy was attractive conceptually, but in practice it was basically a broad-based visual arts program with an ambitious and interesting but as-yet-untested capstone project. But for a student who was already going to be a visual arts major, it could be a nice way to take that emphasis to the next level.
I know you already had to choose your major two months ago, so I’m a day late and a dollar short here, but for what it’s worth, that was our impression. 