Past Critical Studies Programs and Lecturers

Cranbrook Academy of Art [SPRING] Edition Lecture Series 2010

Dana Schutz, “An Evening with Dana Schutz”
Stuart Candy, “Fragments of Future Worlds: The Art and Design of Experiential Scenarios”
Charlie White, “The Discomfort of Looking”
Ezra Shales, “Craft's Social Life”
Sam Hecht and Architect Kim Colin, “Product as Landscape”
Heran Bas, "An Evening with Hernan Bas"
Peter Gluck,"Fear of Architecture: Re-crafting a Broken Process"
Shannon Stratton, “Gestures of Resistance”
Dick Hebdige, "After Punk, After Love: From Malcom McLaren to Takashi Murakami"
Harmony Hammond, "An Evening with Harmony Hammond"
Jessica Jackson Hutchins, “Hours and Ours”

Cranbrook Academy of Art [FALL] Edition Lecture Series 2009

Lane Relyea, “When Exhibition Sites Become Scenes”
Alex Schweder, “Its Form Will Follow Your Performance”
Richard Barnes, "Animal Logic"
Michael Rotondi, “No-D”
Kate Bonansinga, “Making it Relevant: The University Art Museum in the 21st Century”
David Taylor, “Working the Line: Photographs of the U.S./Mexico Border”
Mark Dion, “Survey of Recent Endeavors”
Lane Relyea, “From Spectacular Commodities to Bricolaged Objects”
Sarah Thornton, “Seven Days in the Art World and Beyond”
Mark Pascale, “Print Matters”
Walter Hood, “Urban Landscapes and Provocations”
Eric Mattijssen, “On Beauty and Happiness”
Gina Reichert and Mitch Cope, “Neighborhood”
Lane Relyea, “Cosmopolitans and Nomads: The (Net)work of Art in the Age of Compulsory Circulation”
Debbie Millman, “Why We Brand, Why We Buy”

Critical Studies / Humanities Program 2008 - 2009
Civic Engagement in Art Practice: Outside the Solo Studio

Daniel Heyman with Shereef Akeel,
"Portraits and Lawsuits: Lifting the Hoods on Torture. A collaboration with artist Daniel Heyman and law firms Burke-O'Neil, LLC and Akeel & Valentine, PLC".
Charlie Todd, “Improv Everywhere: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places”
Reed Kroloff, “Design and Civic Responsibility”
Paul Wittenbraker, “Civic Studio and the Plastic City”
Nato Thompson, "Grassroots public based practice"

Critical Studies/Humanities Program 2007-2008
Producing Culture: Creators and Creativity in the Contemporary World

George Ritzer “Art, McDonaldization, and the Globalization of Nothing”
Carl Pope Jr.“Carl Pope: Public Projects”
Robert Hobbs “Making Networks Visible: Reflections on the Art of Mark Lombardi”
Timothy Morton “The Cultural Logic of Early Environmentalism”
Tom Otterness “The Public Artist as New Town Crier”
Cynthia E. Smith “Design for the Other 90%: A Curator’s Perspective”
Constance C. Bodurow and Grace Lee Boggs in conversation “Re: Designing Detroit: Theory and Practice”
Maria Elena Buszek “Extra/ordinary: Craft Culture and Contemporary Art”

2006-2007 Critical Studies/Humanities
Size Matters: Perception at the Edge of Space

James Crutchfield "Pattern Discovery"
Lee Anne Hurt " The Huacas of Machu Picchu: Choreography, Communion, and Liminality in Inca Ritual"
Janet Kauffman "Big Ag and Landscape – on Background as Foreground, on Plot as Ground"
Pamela Lee "The World is Flat, The End of the World: Takashi Murakami and the Aesthetics of Post-Fordism"
Alva Noë "Action in Perception"
Paul Pfeiffe "In Conversation"
Erwin Redl "Scaling Light"

2005-2006 Critical Studies/Humanities
Nostalgia: Temporal Hybrids and Rifts

Svetlana Boym "The Future of Nostalgia"
Brian Evenson "Dark Turns of an Imaginary Past: Dissective Nostalgia"
Matthew Goulish "Throw a stone into the sky high enough so it will not come back(nostalgia)"
Jennifer Michael Hecht " A History of Doubt"
Andreas Huyssen " Nostalgia for Ruins: Authenticity, Modernity, and Piranesi"
Julie Mehretu "Putting the World Back in the World"
Dario Robleto "Southern Bacteria"
Noa Steimatsky " Ruinous Terrains in Post-War Cinema"

2004-2005 Critical Studies/Humanities
Resisting Monoculture

Lynn Crawford "Fortification Resort"
T. J. Demos "The Aesthetics of Exile"
Allan deSouza "ReCovering Vision"
Coco Fusco "ELS SEGADORS (The Reapers)"
Robert C. Morgan "Wired Against Intellect: The Question of Art's Survival"
Michael Parenti "Empires: Past and Present"
Shari Spiegel "Economic Discontents"
Elliot Wilhelm "World Cinema"

2003-2004 Critical Studies
The Nature of the Real

Julia Driver "The Matrix Experience Machine"
James Elkins "Tears of Eros"
Hal Foster "Medusa and the Real"
Alva Noe "Enacting the Perceptual World"
Fred Wilson "Reinterpreting Reality"

2003-2005 Humanities
Agents of Change

Carol Becker "Museums and the Neutralization of Culture"
Rebecca Brown "The Activist Virginia Woolfe"
Warrington Colescott " Satire as Method"
Paul Wittenbraker "The Civic Studio"

Critical Studies

Critical Studies is an academic program and a requirement for a degree that is developed each year to respond to the most current intellectual climates within contemporary art, design and architecture. With an awareness that form is also content, the program presents lectures, debates, discussions, films and seminars. Critical Studies program engages students in dialogue, writing, presentation, and conversation about some of the most significant issues facing artists today. Without a formulaic curriculum, the program invites all types of thinkers - artists, designers, philosophers, activists, historians, scientists and writers - to present models and ideas as a way to link one’s studio practice with larger and more diverse communities, national and international.

2010 [FALL] Edition Lecture Series

In its second season, the [FALL] Edition Lecture Series at Cranbrook Academy of Art reflects the current variety of contemporary creative practice with a series of evenings exploring all forms of innovative inquiry. Designed as part of the academic program at Cranbrook Academy of Art, the lectures are open to the public—inviting the community to share in the ideas and discussions of the Academy.

All lectures begin at 6:00 pm in Cranbrook Institute of Science Auditorium and are free, unless otherwise noted. Parking is free in the parking deck to the west of the entrance.

Tuesday, September 21
Christopher Ho
Cranbrook 2010 Visiting Critical Studies Fellow
“Curating”
Part of the fellowship series, “Critical Curating and Contemporary Modes of Collaboration”
Sponsored by the Critical Studies Program

Tuesday, September 28
Cesare Peeren
Architect, 2012Architecten
“SuperUse”
Sponsored by the 3D Design Department

Tuesday, October 5
Jeanne Gang
Founder of Studio Gang Architects
“High and Low”
Sponsored by the Architecture Department

Tuesday, October 12
The Rothbart Brothers
Creators of Found Magazine
“Found Magazine's Backyard Brawl”
Sponsored by the Photography Department, 2D Design Department + the Professional Practices Series

Tuesday, October 19
Elissa Auther
Associate Professor of Art, University of Colorado
“String, Felt, Thread: The Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art”
Sponsored by the Fiber Department

Tuesday, October 26
Christopher Ho
Cranbrook 2010 Visiting Critical Studies Fellow
“Collaboration”
Part of the fellowship series, “Critical Curating and Contemporary Modes of Collaboration”
Sponsored by the Critical Studies Program

Thursday, November 11
Jonathan T. D. Neil
Executive Editor, the Drawing Center
"Modernity, Postmodernity, Sustainability"
Sponsored by the Critical Studies Program

Wednesday, December 8*
Glenn Adamson
Head of Research and Graduate Studies, Victoria and Albert Museum
“Affective Objects: Crafting Intimacy in Contemporary Design”
Co-sponsored by Cranbrook Ceramics and Metalsmithing Departments and the Detroit Institute of Art
*Please note: this lecture is at 7pm the DIA Auditorium (John R Entrance) and is free and open to the public.