Inter-Disciplinary Seminar at The Cooper Union
Ashford began the Inter-Disciplinary Seminar in 1996 in order to introduce undergraduate art students to the debates that question the disciplinary setting for art’s production in contemporary culture. He taught the class until 2011, collaborating with over the years, Julie Ault, Miwon Kwon, Walid Raad, Saskia Bos, Andrea Geyer and Colleen Asper. The course was designed to provide a rigorous critical forum working between students’ artistic concerns and the experiences of visiting speakers. Class content centered on presentations by artists, theorists, activists, designers, poets, writers, curators, gallerists and others involved in visual culture. These presentations were open to the entire Cooper community and to the public. Speakers would submit a packet of research that would be distributed, and students were expected to engage with the weekly presentations through classroom discussion, critical reading and written response. The IDS has since become a school-wide setting where the categories of art’s production and distribution are opened up to re-invention. As a lecture-driven class, it has no linear structure other than the ongoing critical thinking each speaker will bring, and the urgency and thoughtfulness brought to each session by the students.
Syllabus_(link)
