Reconsidering the Margin: Places of Meeting, Spaces of Transformation

3 units

The financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent recession exposed the frailty of conventional modes of practice. The freezing of credit markets set off a contraction of increasingly bureaucratized creative fields such as architecture and fine arts and led to massive layoffs and underemployment. This extreme disruption coincides with an ongoing governmental disengagement from social assistance. The combination of the surplus of talent left by immobilized corporate practice and the vacuum created by a retreating government presents an opportunity to reconsider practice for a new generation in a way that engages a broader set of issues and problems. The seminar builds upon existing relationships and a body of previous engagement in the Pagedale community while laying the groundwork for new action. This seminar challenges traditional modes and focuses of creative effort to arrive at a radical new form for creative practice. By challenging common assumptions and using creative production to confront the challenges facing residents and decision-makers, the course seeks to break down physical and disciplinary boundaries to achieve a radical new production. The seminar will include the following: examination of entrenched assumptions by students and community members through reading and discussion; involvement in the community, including volunteer work and civic participation; research into pressing issues that will culminate in a creative project; and dissemination of information to both classmates and the community as a whole. This course is open to disciplines outside of architecture. Students in Art and Social Work are encouraged to register. The course will meet periodically in the community. This course fulfills the Urban Issues or MUD Track elective requirement.