Modes and Models of Making

Published September 1, 2016

Project Description

make a decision
make dinner
make war
make love
make maps		 make (an) opportunity
make a discovery
make a difference
make a speech
make an impact		 make a movie
make a pilgrimage
make noise
make forecasts
make a mess

In this yearlong Kahn project we are interested in exploring how the idea of "making" infuses our sense of the world. What does it mean to make something? Is making a mode of knowing? Why are some kinds of production driven by desires for innovation, others for commitments to habits and ritual? Why are some forms of making risk-averse and others risk-seeking? How do different disciplines approach answers to these questions?

make a scene
make music
make do
make plans
make the case		 make history
make money
make change/make change
make your bed
make (designer) babies		 make molecules
make an entrance
make waste
make time
make a point

Fundamental to daily life, and especially intellectual life, are our ideas about, practices of, and dreams for making things--be these things material, ephemeral,'‘real' or imagined. Moreover, the role of technology is pressing ever more firmly upon us to reassess what, and how we share knowledge, circulate inventions, define ourselves as humans (who make things at all!). In this project invite considered reflection on what kinds of things have been, or are now worth making, and how models for thinking about creativity and craftsmanship shape why certain things (and not others) get made, re-made, and un-made. Are there ways of conceptualizing the constraints and possibilities of cultural, political, economic and environmental events for creating, preserving, or changing the world?

make amends
make mistakes
make conversation
make light		 make a joke
make whoopee
make merry
"make it work"		 make out
make it last
make haste
make a mark

Projects are invited from any disciplinary or cross-disciplinary perspective. We welcome collaboration within the seminar as well as beyond it. We encourage participants to consider projects that involve making physical and digital things, along with making ideas, making conversation, and making noise.

Project Fellows

  • Jon Caris, Environmental Science & Policy
  • Susannah Davis '18, Engineering
  • Kayla Foney '17, Africana Studies
  • Suroor Gandhi '18, Physics
  • Alexandra Keller, Film and Media Studies, Organizing Fellow
  • Laura Krok-Horton '17, Architecture
  • Dana Leibsohn, Art, Organizing Fellow
  • Cornelia Pearsall, English Language and Literature
  • Kylie Power-Sullivan '17, Studio Art
  • Maria Rueda, Spanish & Portuguese
  • Fred Schaffer, Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
  • John Slepian, Art
  • Nancy Sterbach, Spanish & Portuguese
  • Fraser Stables, Art
  • Lester Tome, Dance
  • Frazer Ward, Art
  • Hui Yan '17, Art History/Philosophy