The series of university lectures and discussions presents original materialisations of theory through the practice of design, and debates them in discussion groups and associated workshops. Materialisation means the concrete application of abstract ideas to innovate design processes (e.g. as part of research into social practice) and the mediation of theory through discipline-specific techniques and materials. The lectures and discussions are designed to present, analyze, and discuss examples from a variety of creative practices – in the expanded field of design – that manifest, develop, and change theoretical concepts and ideas. The examples are chosen for their material and technical innovation as well as for their cultural and conceptual significance. This means that design history and the history of ideas provide as much frameworks for understanding as do the studio practices that students have experienced at The New School. Such an expanded, critical interaction with samples and examples provides the basis for lectures and discussion groups. The multi-directional approach from theory to practice and from design to abstract idea is reflected in a cross-cultural dialogue for this course that will draw from both Western and Asian design and aesthetics. Influences from Asia on cultural production in the industrialised West determine the examples from diverse design and art practices as much as the impositions of industrial production on indigenous practices of making. The modules for the lectures and discussion sections take the form of debates (also with select guest practitioners), in which contrasts and oppositions are made productive for research and development, so that connections between design practice and abstract ideas generate critical approaches and visual/material inspiration. The course thereby assembles a material and lexical vocabulary to help students define their creativity. Students must register for both the lecture and discussion section of this course. [This ULEC is in category 3, Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Arts and Humanities.]