Sculpture: Open Studio at The Cooper Union
In 1989 Ashford was asked by Hans Haacke, his former professor to teach an advanced studio class then labeled as “Sculpture.” Over the years Ashford re-designed the course repeatedly, as the condition of making and thinking changed. From 1990 until 2011 the class was taught with the use of a single assignment linking the members of the class into a related field of research: “Produce a work derived from the lives of everyone in the room” – “Design a Crime” – “Assume the identity of a Fan and produce an element of their life,” etc. Ashford changed the name of the class in 2006 in order to imagine an educational practice separated from the oppressive developments in academic “critique.” Course content is now organized around the production of the collaborative instruction between participants by examining individual artistic propositions that seem beyond the capacity to produce. In other words, the class is asked to work from untethered collective inquiry into the possibility of a yet unrecognized method of thinking and making. Accordingly, it is now called “Open Studio”
– Syllabus _Â (link)
– Propositions _Â (link)
– Docs _ download (forthcoming)
