Proseminar in Art, Design and the Public Domain

In this course, students will develop independent art and design work and explore possible subjects for final projects in the Art, Design and the Public Domain concentration. The proseminar will serve as a space for student experimentation, intended to foreground the emergent interests and methods of participants. Through readings, precedent studies and critique sessions—all student-led—the course will build towards a shared set of questions about the changing meaning and importance of public realms—physical and/or virtual. In the first half of the proseminar, students will select and share relevant examples of theory and practice as a means of framing their own intellectual and artistic interests. In the second half, students will focus primarily on the development of art and design experiments, with opportunities to test these projects with outside critics, practitioners and publics. The structure of the proseminar will be creatively interrupted by invited talks and workshops from significant artists and designers whose work contributes to the discursive life and well-being of the public domain. In order to encourage the broader GSD community to engage with the critical themes and questions of Art, Design and the Public Domain, sessions with invited guests will be open to the entire school. The proseminar will also be occasionally diverted by field trips to important sites of public art and design practice as well as prominent working studios.