Stuff: Design/Everyday Objects

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In 2010, scholar Daniel Miller published Stuff under the premise that “things make us, just as must as we make things.” Yet the designed objects that surround us everyday—from plates and chairs to clothes and tools—are regularly overlooked. This course examines design and craft as central, rather than marginal, to the history of art and the formation of everyday life. Focusing on designed objects, the class asks how categories such as “art,” “decorative art,” “craft,” and “design” have been defined, debated, and transformed across time and cultures. Particular attention is paid to the role of technology—both hand and machine—in shaping the aesthetics, materiality, function, and accessibility of objects within the built environment. Each class centers on a single case-study object, from furnishings and textiles to tools and domestic wares, using close visual and material analysis to situate these objects within broader social, economic, and cultural contexts. Moving across historical periods and global geographies, the course considers how the things that surround us both reflect and structure human experience, revealing design and craft as sites of innovation, power, labor, and meaning.