Tutorials
The twelve-week teaching schedule: what happens in each tutorial, what to prepare, and what leaves the room.
Twelve weekly tutorials, one per machine, run every week by Idris Fenn. Each one lists what to bring, what happens in the room, and what carries forward into the assessment it feeds.
Field Notes on a Machine You've Already Used
Fieldwork at a parking meter, before any framework is introduced — the discipline of describing a transaction before diagnosing it
Week 1 · 22 February 2027
Minimal Machines Workshop
Taking a vending machine transaction apart into its smallest decision points, in groups
Week 2 · 1 March 2027
Queue Behind You
Timed fieldwork at a ticket machine — noticing the exact moment urgency changes a decision
Week 3 · 8 March 2027
Assignment 1 Studio
Work-in-progress showing of the field audit, with peer feedback aimed at each other's least-certain decision point
Week 4 · 15 March 2027
When the Machine Says No
Case studies of airport kiosk error states, and what recourse (if any) they name
Week 5 · 22 March 2027
The Vulnerable User
Building a duress-accessibility checklist from a de-identified hospital check-in case
Week 6 · 29 March 2027
Assignment 2 Studio
Presenting incentive maps in progress — the class stress-tests each other's evidence before submission
Week 7 · 5 April 2027 incentive
Watching Yourself Be Watched
Fieldwork noting every moment a self-checkout machine treats the shopper as a suspect
Week 8 · 12 April 2027
Who Gets Stuck
Auditing a public transport fare gate for the bodies and situations its default path doesn't fit
Week 9 · 19 April 2027
Comparing Two Machines
Fieldwork comparing two competing EV charging kiosks for the same service
Week 10 · 26 April 2027
The Worst Case Study
The semester's harshest teardown — a pay-toilet or turnstile kiosk with no alternative, real urgency and real embarrassment
Week 11 · 3 May 2027 incentive
Final Project Clinic
The last studio before submission — each student defends the one incentive their redesign refuses to remove
Week 12 · 10 May 2027 incentive