Knowledge Lab, 2015
School of the Art Institute
Chicago, IL
In the spring term of 2015 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I facilitated and instructed a class called Knowledge Lab: Entanglements with TA Noel Fetting-Smith. The following documentation presents our work together.
Using the Columbus building courtyard and garden as a classroom, students will consider ways that humans, plants, architecture and materials are enmeshed in complex ecological systems. We will focus on contemporary concerns in art and ecology through readings, field trips, presentations and the production of individual projects and collaborative research/making. During this spring term we will share a single goal: to drink a cup of tea together. To achieve this goal, we will research the history of the traditional tea pavilion structure across cultures, consider the history and production of tea vessels and the materials from which they are made, design and construct a tea pavilion using reclaimed materials imbued with history, consider the ritual and craft processes of building as a performed gesture, and research the botanical history of and grow our own plants for steeping.
