ARTH 357-B Studies in the History of Craft and the Decorative Arts: Irish Critical Materialities - critical perspectives on spaces, places, and things

• Tuesdays and Thursdays, 16:15:-17:30 pm
• LS 208 
• Instructor: Molly-Claire Gillett

This introductory interdisciplinary course will examine a series of Irish ‘things’ – objects or spaces including craftwork and other designs, geographical regions or elements of the built environment, for example urban spaces.  It will focus on one particular thing each week – for example, an illustrated manuscript; an uncompleted housing project or ‘ghost estate’ which became prevalent during the Irish recession of the late 2000s; a bog (wetland) as a cultural as well as natural ecosystem; and a piece of lace, tracked from its maker in rural Ireland to the body of Queen Victoria. Rather than using these spaces, places and things simply to illustrate the history of Ireland, this course will explore how they played (and play) an active role in framing and determining that narrative. Weaving together scholarship from materiality studies and cultural geography, craft studies, design theory, ecocriticism and more, it will consider each thing within its historical and cultural context, but also in the sense of its ‘vibrant materiality’ – its origin, materials, life cycle, and agency. These case studies will present an opportunity to look closely at issues such as vernacular architecture and sustainability, design as a political instrument, materiality and memory in the diaspora, and the use of material interventions into ‘Irishness’ to forge a more inclusive plurality of Irish identities. Students will be encouraged to draw on their own disciplinary backgrounds, both for in- class discussions and for their final assignment. The latter will focus on one Irish ‘thing’ of their choice and may be submitted either as an essay or as a research-creation work.