In this hands-on course led by artist Marisa Morán Jahn and architect/MIT professor Rafi Segal in partnership with Guggenheim Museum, students will explore the aerial engineering of wind and how the architectural structural forms respond to light, pattern, and color. Students will additionally gain experience in hands-on studio production, rapid prototyping, user testing, collaborating across disciplines and each other, and working with external partners. A series of overlapping geometric volumes and voids, Kite City taps into the human desire (and hubris) for flight — from Icarus to da Vinci to the Wright Brothers to Chinese lanterns. As part of this course, students are expected to compile research before the start of class.

Is democracy in crisis, or is it our practice of democracy? Normative representative democracy has seen a drastic rise in polarization, legislative gridlock, and civil unrest, which has stifled its ability to address the coalescing economic, social, and environmental crises. But what if we subverted the democratic paradigm of who designs and who decides? What if we reimagined the systems and processes of how we decide on policies and collective pathways forward? This course is a collaboration with the Innovation for Policy Foundation and aims to expand the presence of designers within deliberative and participatory policy-making. The course will introduce the historic foundations of social governance and decision-making, the issues that have led to the crisis of democracy, and the current innovations within the field (participatory budgeting, deliberative democracy, etc.) Then, students will be exposed to case studies of designing deliberative and participatory policy-making initiatives. Students will then work on projects that explore how design interventions can play a unique role in addressing the challenges of democracy.

This Project based studio will focus on the intersection of food, design, and systems thinking. This Class looks through the lens of the multifaceted food system to develop scalable and actionable design outcomes that discover and respond to ruptures in the food system. Each iteration of this studio elective will address a particular theme as it pertains to food design. This year’s theme will be Food Waste. Outcomes will be comprised of prototypes and small scale design interventions.

In this multidisciplinary collab students will obtain dog fur from your local grooming center and learn the technique of felting. Developing their own material they will be expected to create designs for products, garments or accessories. Once designs have been developed they will learn the basics of how to create an experimental brand and a visual concept to present their hyper-local product: one where material is sourced, developed and designed in NYC.

This Project based studio will focus on ideas and work surrounding any and all of forms of Design and The Performing Arts. Students will be asked to seek and nurture collaborations with other students, faculty, and artists within the New School community or with other institutions. Collaborations locally and remotely are encouraged within both The Performing Arts and Design. Students can explore traditional or non traditional media as well as new and emerging digital and social media in their Collab projects. Once explored, outcomes, schedules, and final deliverables will be created and agreed upon by both the student(s) and faculty member. Projects can emerge from individuals or in small groups of students. Today there is a deep and sincere need to celebrate and embrace creation and human connections in all forms. We want to be able to connect and express ourselves emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually. We will look at ways we can connect, create and share with others what we manifest toward all forms. Works and ideas will be supported to explore and express via art, music, film, poetry, objects and environments including mixed media and multiple platforms and outputs.