This studio, Making Kin: Material Explorations in Friendship and Belonging, centers kinship as a method for making. For example, the notion of ‘friendship as entanglement’ lends itself to fiber-based artworks—of intertwined threads and interlocked fibers. Touchable objects made of silicone and hair would create an intimate haptic viewer experience. Archival and performative approaches to making are direct ways of exploring love and belonging. In this course, studio assignments encourage diverse approaches to kinship-making using conceptually-driven methods. Demonstrations are provided as needed to support students’ independent projects. Interpersonal relationships have within them certain embedded codes of behavior and privilege that inform how one is to think, feel, and relate. Those participating in forms of queer belonging often challenge the hegemony of marriage and the couple, and trouble the meaning of family, yet they do so outside the customs and laws that undergird kinship and affective relations. This studio begins with lesser-known forms of belonging with examples from the 19th century Oneida Community, Polyamory, Relationship Anarchy, and the concept of Expanded Affinities as a model of relating that means to redistribute care and extend our sense of belonging. Donna Haraway’s concept of the Cthulhu and s/f (string figures) provides terminology to think through interspecies and eco-relationships. bell hooks, Lauren Berlant, Laura Kipnis, and Dean Spade offer texts both for and against love. Authors Corinne Manning and Eve Sedjwick write on queer desire. Artistic examples include those from Jes Fan, Carlos Motta, Neo Muyanga, Wu Tsang, Ana Hoffner, Every Ocean Hughes, Corinne Teed, Boudry and Lorenz, and Sophie Calle.

This 3-credit studio course focuses on the integration of polyvocal studio practice and collaborative research, using the Mesoamerican concept of plática (heart-straightening talks) as a method to foster relationality, understanding, and communal growth. Students will explore a fusion of traditional academic and Indigenous research methodologies, critically challenging the colonial structures that often limit or inhibit studio practice. Some focus will be dedicated to exploring the transformative power of individual and collective rituals and ceremonies in shaping a rigorous inquiry process. Through weekly *pláticas*, hands-on studio work, and collaborative research, the course will function as a co-created learning community, examining how individuals within a group can collectively generate meaning, shape artistic outputs, and communicate across multiple voices. Students will engage in both individual and group projects while reflecting on the intersections of art, research, and community, considering how knowledge is produced, shared, and decolonized. By the end of the course, students will create artworks and research projects that reflect a shared journey of self-reflection, relationality, and the unpacking of colonial pressures. The course also emphasizes the ceremonial and ritualistic as pathways to fostering deep communal dialogues on co-creation and co-communication. Through learning from each other, students will deepen their engagement with others, advocate for social causes, and contribute to community-based arts practices.