What is the experience of everyday life for urban living today? How can an investigation of the quotidian (the weather, breakfast foods, behavior on sidewalks, dirty jokes) lead to a new understanding of contemporary issues such as ethics, representation, and historical value? This class will revisit the investigative strategies of the 1937 British Mass Observation movement that aimed to create a composite portrait of life through a cross-section of collected interdisciplinary observations. We will work as an interdisciplinary group of observers, collecting findings through diverse techniques of observational research (including those of social science, art, and literature) culminating in a variable-format archive of researches into the everyday. Making + Meaning: History calls into question our assumptions about time and space that form our concepts of history, in particular design history and cultural theory. We will ask what makes, and distinguishes, facts and values. We will imagine alternative futures and consider what it means to “make” our present. Concepts such as contingency, teleology, and progress will be introduced. The course places particular emphasis on imaginaries of time and space that not only make themselves felt in how history is told, but also affects how we encounter other histories. Students are encouraged to integrate the knowledge they acquire from their studio and seminar experiences in this Making + Meaning course.