Every Day Everyday Climate Change (APA2181.02)

Marina Zurkow, MFA Teaching Fellow

Daily practices connect makers over a duration of time to concepts, issues, and forms we care about. These practices are constrained by a set of guiding principles or frameworks, and are iterative by design. Because of the consistency of work (every day), a daily practice can change us and open us up to new ideas, techniques, and feelings. Daily practice as a concept is used in art-making, and also in theories of behavior change. This class brings both together, to create sustained experimental interventions (in public.)

In Daily Climate Change, students design daily practices related to climate change communication, behavior change, and participatory design. For example, a practice can focus on inter/personal or multi-species relations, a social justice campaign, or persuasive design for behavior change around a particular “wicked problem.” We proceed to create a complete, contained iteration of work every day in under 45 minutes. Work is shared and self-evaluated each week.

As we iterate in this 40-day daily practice, ideas and techniques evolve, and we learn to endure boredom and “failure;” we produce less preciously, and “think with our hands.” We also develop documentation techniques that leave a vivid trace of our efforts.

In this class we will also look at the work of people for whom daily practice has been integral to their work, including scientists, artists, spiritual practitioners, journalists, and hobbyists. Workshop time each week will be devoted to participation in short iterative design exercises in small groups.

No prior art-making experience is necessary for this course. All students are required to keep a daily record on a digital platform (i.e. Tumblr), linked to the class blog. Come prepared to make a daily commitment to this practice, regardless of weather, travel or other exigencies! There is no final for this class but the work will conclude with a required written self-reflection on process and outcomes.

All students will keep a blog or doc, linked to the class google drive.

Learning outcomes: iterative and constraint-based design, a deeper understanding of self-defined climate change challenges, exposure to persuasive design and climate change psychology, durational work, documentation.

Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 2
F 8:30-12:10 (second seven weeks)
Maximum Enrollment: 14
Course Frequency:
This course is categorized as Advancement of Public Action, All courses, Visual Arts, and tagged , , , , .