Words As Objects

This course will explore the materiality of language: the many ways that language can have weight and objects can be "read." Through studio assignments, readings, presentations, and discussions, students will investigate the idea of language as a tangible material that can be cut, bent, painted, reproduced, animated, and scattered, as in the work of such modern poets and artists as the Noigandres Group, Marcel Broodthaers, Jenny Holzer, Adrian Piper, and Ed Ruscha. In each instance, both our perception of meaning through language and our haptic experience of materials is altered through its engagement with the other - and with the reader.