How is art impacted as creativity becomes rationalized and absorbed by managerial philosophies? This course will examine this theme and techniques to access ungoverned courses of life through readings and discussions about cultural theorists, sociologists, educators and philosophers, and through the development of a personal emancipatory practice. (Image courtesy of Steve Jurvetson on flickr. License CC-BY.)
Instructor(s)
Gabriel Kahan
Howard Chen
MIT Course Number
4.S33
As Taught In
Spring 2015
Level
Graduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
Over the last 40 years, new managerial technologies in Western democratic societies have emerged to dominate our perceived and lived reality. Demands for autonomy and a creative life, which have been the touchstones for artistic endeavors, have been readily absorbed into management philosophies, becoming normative values for self-management and entrepreneurial innovation. Is this art's triumph or demise? Can we imagine other worlds beyond our managed reality and propose forms of living not yet captured by the rationality of network capitalism? We will explore the "creative" figure and how it can shape renewed critical expressions in fields such as technology, design, science, philosophy, etc.