Past Critical Studies Programs and Lecturers

Cranbrook Academy of Art [FALL] Edition Lecture Series 2009

Lane Relyea, “When Exhibition Sites Become Scenes”
Alex Schweder, “Its Form Will Follow Your Performance”
Richard Barnes, "Animal Logic"
Michael Rotondi, “No-D”
Kate Bonansinga, “Making it Relevant: The University Art Museum in the 21st Century”
David Taylor, “Working the Line: Photographs of the U.S./Mexico Border”
Mark Dion, “Survey of Recent Endeavors”
Lane Relyea, “From Spectacular Commodities to Bricolaged Objects”
Sarah Thornton, “Seven Days in the Art World and Beyond”
Mark Pascale, “Print Matters”
Walter Hood, “Urban Landscapes and Provocations”
Eric Mattijssen, “On Beauty and Happiness”
Gina Reichert and Mitch Cope, “Neighborhood”
Lane Relyea, “Cosmopolitans and Nomads: The (Net)work of Art in the Age of Compulsory Circulation”
Debbie Millman, “Why We Brand, Why We Buy”

Critical Studies / Humanities Program 2008 - 2009
Civic Engagement in Art Practice: Outside the Solo Studio

Daniel Heyman with Shereef Akeel,
"Portraits and Lawsuits: Lifting the Hoods on Torture. A collaboration with artist Daniel Heyman and law firms Burke-O'Neil, LLC and Akeel & Valentine, PLC".
Charlie Todd, “Improv Everywhere: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places”
Reed Kroloff, “Design and Civic Responsibility”
Paul Wittenbraker, “Civic Studio and the Plastic City”
Nato Thompson, "Grassroots public based practice"

Critical Studies/Humanities Program 2007-2008
Producing Culture: Creators and Creativity in the Contemporary World

George Ritzer “Art, McDonaldization, and the Globalization of Nothing”
Carl Pope Jr.“Carl Pope: Public Projects”
Robert Hobbs “Making Networks Visible: Reflections on the Art of Mark Lombardi”
Timothy Morton “The Cultural Logic of Early Environmentalism”
Tom Otterness “The Public Artist as New Town Crier”
Cynthia E. Smith “Design for the Other 90%: A Curator’s Perspective”
Constance C. Bodurow and Grace Lee Boggs in conversation “Re: Designing Detroit: Theory and Practice”
Maria Elena Buszek “Extra/ordinary: Craft Culture and Contemporary Art”

2006-2007 Critical Studies/Humanities
Size Matters: Perception at the Edge of Space

James Crutchfield "Pattern Discovery"
Lee Anne Hurt " The Huacas of Machu Picchu: Choreography, Communion, and Liminality in Inca Ritual"
Janet Kauffman "Big Ag and Landscape – on Background as Foreground, on Plot as Ground"
Pamela Lee "The World is Flat, The End of the World: Takashi Murakami and the Aesthetics of Post-Fordism"
Alva Noë "Action in Perception"
Paul Pfeiffe "In Conversation"
Erwin Redl "Scaling Light"

2005-2006 Critical Studies/Humanities
Nostalgia: Temporal Hybrids and Rifts

Svetlana Boym "The Future of Nostalgia"
Brian Evenson "Dark Turns of an Imaginary Past: Dissective Nostalgia"
Matthew Goulish "Throw a stone into the sky high enough so it will not come back(nostalgia)"
Jennifer Michael Hecht " A History of Doubt"
Andreas Huyssen " Nostalgia for Ruins: Authenticity, Modernity, and Piranesi"
Julie Mehretu "Putting the World Back in the World"
Dario Robleto "Southern Bacteria"
Noa Steimatsky " Ruinous Terrains in Post-War Cinema"

2004-2005 Critical Studies/Humanities
Resisting Monoculture

Lynn Crawford "Fortification Resort"
T. J. Demos "The Aesthetics of Exile"
Allan deSouza "ReCovering Vision"
Coco Fusco "ELS SEGADORS (The Reapers)"
Robert C. Morgan "Wired Against Intellect: The Question of Art's Survival"
Michael Parenti "Empires: Past and Present"
Shari Spiegel "Economic Discontents"
Elliot Wilhelm "World Cinema"

2003-2004 Critical Studies
The Nature of the Real

Julia Driver "The Matrix Experience Machine"
James Elkins "Tears of Eros"
Hal Foster "Medusa and the Real"
Alva Noe "Enacting the Perceptual World"
Fred Wilson "Reinterpreting Reality"

2003-2005 Humanities
Agents of Change

Carol Becker "Museums and the Neutralization of Culture"
Rebecca Brown "The Activist Virginia Woolfe"
Warrington Colescott " Satire as Method"
Paul Wittenbraker "The Civic Studio"

Critical Studies

Critical Studies is an academic program and a requirement for a degree that is developed each year to respond to the most current intellectual climates within contemporary art, design and architecture. With an awareness that form is also content, the program presents lectures, debates, discussions, films and seminars. Critical Studies program engages students in dialogue, writing, presentation, and conversation about some of the most significant issues facing artists today. Without a formulaic curriculum, the program invites all types of thinkers - artists, designers, philosophers, activists, historians, scientists and writers - to present models and ideas as a way to link one’s studio practice with larger and more diverse communities, national and international.

Cranbrook Academy of Art

Cranbrook Academy of Art [SPRING] Edition Lecture Series

In its inaugural year, the Academy’s Edition Lecture Series presents a program that reflects the current variety of contemporary thought and creative practice through the eyes of artist, critics and scholars.

All lectures begin at 6:00 pm in Cranbrook Institute of Science Auditorium and are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Parking is available in the structure to the west of the entrance.

Tuesday, January 19
Dana Schutz
Painter
“An Evening with Dana Schutz”
Sponsored by the Painting Department

Tuesday, January 26
Stuart Candy
Futurist at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies and Research Fellow at the Long Now Foundation
“Fragments of Future Worlds: The Art and Design of Experiential Scenarios”
Sponsored by the Humanities Program

Tuesday, February 2
Charlie White
Associate Professor and Director, MFA Program, Roski School of Fine Arts, University of Southern California
“The Discomfort of Looking”
Sponsored by the Photography Department

Sunday, February 7
3:00 pm
Ezra Shales
Assistant Professor of Art History, Alfred University
“Craft's Social Life”
Sponsored by the Ceramics Department

Sunday, February 14
3:00 pm
Industrial Facility
London-based design office of Designer Sam Hecht and Architect Kim Colin
“Product as Landscape”
Sponsored by the 3D Design Department

Tuesday, February 23
Hernan Bas
Artist
"An Evening with Hernan Bas"
Sponsored by the Painting Department

Thursday, March 4
Peter Gluck
Principal, Peter Gluck and Partners
"Fear of Architecture: Re-crafting a Broken Process"
Sponsored by the Architecture Department

Thursday, March 11
Shannon Stratton
Director and Chief Curator of Threewalls, Chicago
“Gestures of Resistance”
Sponsored by the Fiber Department

Tuesday, April 6
David Buckland
Artist and Director of Cape Farewell
“Burning Ice: Art and Climate Change”
Sponsored by Cranbrook Art Museum and Cranbrook Institute of Science as a part of "Artology: The Fusion of Art and Science at Cranbrook"

Tuesday, April 20
Dick Hebdige
Professor in the Art Studio Dept and Film & Media Studies Dept at UC Santa Barbara and Director, UC Institute for Research in the Arts Desert Studies Project
"After Punk, After Love: From Malcom McLaren to Takashi Murakami"
Sponsored by the 2D Department

Friday, April 23
4:30 pm
Harmony Hammond
Artist
"An Evening with Harmony Hammond"
Sponsored by the Sculpture and Fiber Departments

Monday, April 26
7:30 pm
Jessica Jackson Hutchins
Artist
“Hours and Ours”
Sponsored by the Ceramics Department