This seminar cum studio explores the relationship between what we think we know about things in the world and what these things say back to us. It will follow two trains of inquiry: (1) The relationship of knowledge to uncertainty: In the AI paradigm we are living in, knowing is only a short prompt or query away—in other words, knowing everything is at our finger tips. Yet, for millennia, philosophers and mystics have proposed a kind of knowing by unknowing: a letting go of our egos and our constant drive to understand and intellectualize our lived experiences. A shift from attention towards something more like receptiveness—a surrendering of our self—opens us up to what the natural processes reveal. (2) The shapeshifting of objects of knowledge: Science and art have sought to make sense of the world by establishing techniques and modalities of knowledge-building such as observation, manipulation, isolation, appropriate distance and so on. This has determined cultural, historical and contemporary ideas of truth, fact, reality, beauty, and creativity. But have we been open to the responsiveness of the world toward us? What would it mean to our ways of knowing to recognize that the objects of our study might be talking back to us? We will engage with theoretical and historical texts as well as art in a variety of modes and media, including literature, visual and performance art. We will also explore the questions of the course through a range of exercises, experiments and projects. In Meaning + Making: Theory, we address the relationship between theory and practice. This long-standing debate will be addressed through some of its historical and contemporary expressions. You will be challenged to develop their own balance between theoretical and practical work in text and making. We will ask, “what makes something a theory? What kind of a hierarchical relationship do you think exists between theory and practice? Why?” We will assess social, political, and historical phenomena of the material world through a critical framework of writing and making. In Making+Meaning classes, students are encouraged to integrate the knowledge they acquire from their studio and seminar pathways into this sequence.