CRW FALL 2021
1. Introduction:
What are some of the goals of Design? What does design include: clothing / fashion design, interior / architectural design, the ways food is secured and prepared, as well as systems of production as well as consumption? To what extent is design about promoting consumption above all else — particularly through advertising? Can different forms of design embody and promote different values? If so, which ones?
2. Postwar period (1945-present) and the rise of consumerism in a period of increased wealth, security, and well-being: Reading from The Great Acceleration.
3. The world after 9-11 Toward global homogeneity or increased division and inequality? Consumer vs citizen? Reading from Jihad vs McWorld
4. Gaia and the environmental movement
5. The threat of Climate Change: Reading from Uninhabitable Planet, The Ministry for the Future
6. International treaties / promises / inaction + doubt / denial Readings from Merchants of Doubt
7. What to do with waste? plastics, e-waste, nuclear waste Reading: plastic ocean
8. Enclosure vs commons: the global commons? Natural resources as rights? Reading from One World
9. Vicissitudes of intellectual property: copyright, patents, and monopolies. Open source, copyright, copyleft
10. Biotech: owning life? Monsanto, Human Genome project, Cloning? Reading: “Linux for Lettuce”
12. Tech Giants, social media, memes, monopolies + disinformation : Reading: Lina Khan: “Amazon’s Anti-trust Paradox”
13. Surveillance: State Surveillance / Surveillance Capitalism. The “War on Terror”, China’s minorities, Marketing information. Readings from Shoshana Zuboff, “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”
14. The “other 90%” + enabling change through collaborative work + empowerment of women and the disenfranchised Reading from Join the Club
15. student readings
16. student readings / review class
looking back from the future?
Critical Reading and Writing 2 - 2563 - PLEN 1021 - A
Thursdays 7:00 pm - 9:40 pm Parsons 2 W 13th 501
Instructor: Christian Hubert Hubertc@newschool.edu