Title: Topics in Media Art – Sec. 001: Useless Machines Units: 4.0 Instructor: Blair Simmons (bis233@nyu.edu) Session: 3W1 (First 3-Week Session) Schedule: Mo/Tu/We/Th 12:00pm – 2:55pm (05/23 – 06/13) Albert Listing: IMNY-UT 260 – 001 (6603) Course Description: Useless Machines is about redefining “usefulness.” Through making, we will explore what it means, on an ideological, political and historical level, to create something ‘useful’ or ‘useless.’ We will play with these definitions and explore how these objects serve to be humorous, critical, disruptive and at times… useful. We will study ‘useless’ machines throughout history, which will provoke conversations and disagreements around the implications of existing and emerging technologies. The students will design ‘useless’ machines for their final project. Examples of ‘useless’ machines are drawn from Kenji Kawakami’s The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions, Dunne & Raby’s Speculative Everything, Stephanie Dinkins’ Conversations with Bina 48, https://esoteric.codes/, CW&T, Mimi Ọnụọha’s Missing Data, Jacques Carelman’s Catalog of Impossible Objects, viral videos/objects and much more. |
Title: Topics in Fabrication – Sec. 001: Fix It/Mend It/Keep It Units: 4.0 Instructor: Molly Ritmiller (mer497@nyu.edu) Session: 6W1 (First 6-Week Session) Schedule: Mo/We 6:00pm – 8:55pm (05/23 – 07/06) Albert Listing: IMNY-UT 250 – 001 (6624) Course Description: In this course, students will learn various methods of maintaining and fixing objects as a form of fabrication. From textiles (darning, patching, shishiko, sewing) to physical object repair (furniture fixes, diy joinery methods, electronics repair), the class will explore the act of care as a creative practice (which also increases the value of an item). These methods will become a means for not only making things new, but also making new things. Through these mending processes, we will re-situate the existing ecosystem of produced objects and “waste” things to be instead precious and durational companions. While learning forms of physical mending, we will also consider some of the theoretical resonances of mending and fixing through texts such as Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and We Have Never Been Modern. |