Master in Design Studies (MDesS)
Among the remarkable developments in contemporary culture has been the convergence of practices that once unambiguously belonged to art or design but which today happily share methods, means and concerns. Of particular importance are practices that seek to engage with the public and social realm--physical or virtual--with a view to shaping and transforming human action and historical experience. The phrase "spatial practice"--once a term of idiosyncrasy that applied to the margins of architectural activism--has become a confident and widely-used term to describe a variety of architectural and artistic engagements with the city and society and with aesthetic practice in general. In many ways it defines the new and moving boundary of the design discipline.
The new MDesS program in "Art, Design and the Public Domain" seeks creative and ambitious individuals from all backgrounds and academic disciplines with a keen interest in contemporary issues of urban, historical, aesthetic, and technological culture and with a predilection for intervention, exhibition, and public work. This program also seeks practicing architects, artists, filmmakers, and cultural producers wishing to 'switch gears' and develop a practice of creative and imaginative speculation, or art-related work, with an emphasis on sophisticated thinking, advanced fabrication methodologies and techniques, and social and aesthetic engagement. This program is designed to both accommodate graduated MFAs as well as to serve in lieu of a traditional MFA program in an orthodox art academy. The Graduate School of Design has a wide variety of assets in cultural theory, applied computation, fabrication, art-related practice and speculative design. The GSD shares excellent links with Visual and Environmental Studies, film, and literature departments, and innovative new collaborations with international programs in the political and experimental arts. The program strongly welcomes unconventional proposals for study that address emerging issues in (the history of) technology, science, performance, industrial design, typography, and all aspects of the changing social and cultural environment.
Directors: Martin Bechthold and Sanford Kwinter
Area Coordinator: TBA
Associated Faculty and Programs:
Svetlana Boym (Comparative Literature; GSD)
Giuliana Bruno (Visual and Environmental Studies; Film)
Benjamin Buchloh (Art History)
David Edwards (Biomedical Engineering; Le Laboratoire, Paris)
Sanford Kwinter (GSD)
Carrie Lambert-Beatty (Art History; VES)
Michael Meredith (GSD)
Helen Molesworth (Harvard Art Museum)
Institute for Spatial Experiments, Berlin
Ecole des Sciences Politiques, Arts Politiques, Paris