Mark / Make / Work is a communal exercise in exploring social engagement through art practices. This class examines the mechanisms of cultural interventions by contemporary and historical art movements. We will examine transgressions of literal and metaphorical barriers - political, societal, geological, ecological, internal. The central question of the class is, in other words, how does art shape our lives on an individual and societal level? How does art inform our individual and cultural identities?

The generative drift is an exploration of alternative studio practices. In this introductory course, we will be surveying and responding to a range of new mediums, (im)material sources, and transcultural artists. Inspired by our semester-long collectively directed ramble, students will gain experience with new studio processes and create multiple small projects culminating in one final project. We will use projected image, sound, performance, found materials, and traditional mediums. Discussion of weekly readings and lectures will be paired with experiential labs.

This year-long course offers a multidisciplinary approach to better understand human energy extraction and consumption, a key contributor to climate change. How do human extraction and use of fossil fuels contribute to climate change, and who has benefited and suffered as a result of increased fossil fuel use over the last century? What are the political economic forces - including the power of multinational corporations, politics of public policies, and popular apathy and protest - that perpetuate status quo systems of fossil fuel production and use?

Not available at this time.

What is learned by reading Queer Ecologies alongside Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood? What does Over the Hedge have to do with environmental racism (Hamilton)? In short, these texts ask us to consider what it means to have a racialized and sexualized identity shaped by relationships with environments. We will ask: How is nature gendered and sexualized? Why? How are analytics of power mobilized around, or in opposition to, nature?