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DESGN-6690-2: DC: Context: Conceptions of Making

Fall 2020

Subject: Graduate Design
Type: Seminar
Delivery Mode: Online
Level: Graduate

Course Dates: September 02, 2020 — December 15, 2020
Meetings: Mon 12:00-03:00PM
Instructor: Emily McVarish

Units: 3.0
Enrolled: 11/17

Description:

This research and writing-based course will examine notions of making from a variety of historical, contemporary, critical, and cultural perspectives. Each week, we will take up a different word for make—create, construct, invent, produce, compose, assemble, generate, etc.—and discuss a reading that inserts us into a context of that term’s use by designers, writers, filmmakers, artists, architects, musicians, or philosophers. Through these readings, we will approach language as a medium that carries histories we can unpack, cultural associations we can build on, and conceptual distinctions we can wield. Independent research will develop connections between the contexts we study as a group and areas of personal interest and current relevance. Project proposals will extend a chosen term’s resonance through new applications.Context topics courses examine the application of design through multiple critical and cultural lenses. Topics for the course, chosen at the discretion of the instructor, could include media, the body, ecology, economics, politics, technology, history and other areas that may be addressed through multiple distinct discursive approaches. In each case, the topic in question is examined as a field of actual or potential design practice rather than as a static horizon for objective research. Requirements include writing among outcomes.

Pre-Requisites and Co-Requisites:

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