mfa in applied craft and design

co-administered by oregon college of art + craft and

pacific northwest college of art

Theory of Objects, MFA Applied Craft + Design (Spring 2017, 2016, 2015)

2017, 2016, 2015 TEACHING: Oregon College of Art + Craft and Pacific Northwest College of Art, (jointly  administered program), Adjunct Faculty

Re-designed and taught required graduate seminar Critical Studies course for  the MFA in Applied Craft + Design

Course Description: The object inhabits an uneasy space within theory. This course explores how key theorists in a variety of disciplines think and write about the object(s). How are objects understood to be different or similar to things? How do key theorists examine tensions between the imagined and the real, the human-made versus the factory-produced artifact, or the agency of objects to act on or to connect humans? This seminar explores foundational texts by: Arjun Appadurai, Martha Buskirk, Glenn Adamson, Alfred Gell, Bruno Latour, Daniel Miller, Tim Ingold, Alison J. Clarke, Jenni Sorkin, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Thomas McEvilley, Garth Clark, Sherry Turkle, Akiko Busch, and Bill Brown, amongst others. Students will map theories about objects and things through a spectrum of disciplinary lenses, such as: art, art history, craft, and design, as well as anthropology, archaeology, architecture, literature, material culture, visual culture, and philosophy. Theoretical texts within and outside of assigned class readings will be used to collectively produce an analytical annotated bibliography, accompanied by a list of keywords, as well as a individually written pieces focused on an object of each students’ own choosing.