Open lecture: Ezra Shales
23 april 2019
Discussions on Artistic Research
The lecture will eventually transform into something like a greek symposium with wine, snacks and discussions on Artistic Research between the audience, Ezra Shales and, the moderator, Andreas Nobel, lecturer at Beckmans and Professor of Furniture Design at Malmstens.
A wise woodworker once wrote, “research is very often an euphemism for trying the wrong ways first, as we all must do.” Such a matter-of-fact description has curious implications. Today’s jargon –‘iterations,’ ‘post-human theory,’ and ‘creatives’—begs us to define many assumptions. Can a commitment to materiality be mindful of contemporary marketplace and intellectual practices without sinking into such double-speak? “Whether theory is a vivifying essence which will enliven our inventive faculties, remains to be seen,” wrote the same provocative author, David Pye, in 1964. Is Ezra Shales concept of ‘pedestrian research’ a possible term for being more precise and disciplinarily specific in our aims and methods?
Time & place
When: Tuesday, April 23 at 16.15–17.00
Where: Beckmans College of Design at Brahegatan 10
About Ezra Shales
Ezra Shales teaches the history of design and craft at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has a Ph.D. from the Bard Graduate Center and an M.F.A. from Hunter College. He has recently published the book The Shape of Craft.
