Interdisciplinary Art and Design Practices

The Interdisciplinary Art and Design Practices Seminar investigates art and design work in the interdisciplinary modalities of contemporary culture, the city, and the planet. As artists and designers respond to challenges of global magnitude and their local impacts, engage with cross-cultural and often conflicting conditions, and operate in disparate economic and societal realms, the need for increased engagement and collaboration is paramount. The complexity present in the context of action–economic, social, political, cultural, and ecological– frequently requires interdisciplinary approaches accompanied by cross-pollinating knowledge and skill sets.

Stemming from socially engaged art and design practices, this seminar aims to develop artistic tools and approaches that challenge disciplinary boundaries that crossover and interact with communities, policymakers, institutions, and various experts and help cultivate new forms of interdisciplinary knowledge.

As art and design practices move from art in public space to art in public interest (Miwon Kwon, One Place After the Other), their participatory and relational makeup can generate platforms and agencies that question dominant culture, construct new practices, establish new subjectivities, and subvert existing configurations of power (Chantal Mouffe, Agonistic Politics and Artistic Practice). Today, amid the climate emergency, militarized conflicts, mass migration, and deep-rooted inequalities of class, gender, and race, we need to reimagine visions, strategies, and pragmatic processes that allow new forms of life to flourish and attended care to others at the center (Judith Butler, Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable?).

With so much at stake, this semester the Interdisciplinary Art and Design Practices will center on care: “maintaining, continuing, and repairing our ‘world’ so that we can live in it as fully as possible” (Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, Matters of Care). Drawing on references from theory and practice, we will explore how artistic practice can critically engage with its surroundings and shape diverse visions and narratives of care across various scales and contexts–from the individual body to the collective, and from domestic spaces to a broader ecology–while examining the “connections that bind us, allowing us to see and acknowledge our shared experiences” (Tina Campt, Listening to Images).

Participants in the course will explore artistic tools and methods within their performance context and develop projects at the intersection of art, design, and activism. The course includes assignments, workshops, and a lecture series co-hosted with the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative at the Harvard Divinity School, featuring discussions with artists, designers, curators, activists, and philosophers, including Anissa Touatti, Andrew Herscher, Emanuele Coccia, Elke Krasny, Jumana Manna, and Tatiana Bilbao.