ARI 350R, ARC 350R, ARC 386M
Towards a New Interior

Instructor: Lois Weinthal
Time: TTh 12:30-2 pm
Office Hours: TBA
Office Room: SUT 2.118
Office Phone: 471-0731
E-Mail: weinthal@mail.utexas.edu

"Gravity tell us an orientation, where ground is, once this is established--with--in the interior of a space, the horizontal needs to be established. This involves the interior and exterior, assuming parallel walls from the interior, making us think we know our orientation to the outside."
Bruce Nauman, "Dream Passage"

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course borrows its title from Le Corbusier's Towards a New Architecture. The title suggests that a new discourse on interiors needs to be started. This seminar aims to provoke discussions about interiors and its relation to other disciplines. This seminar is not about the traditional practice of interiors, but rather, challenges it.

If we stay within the realm of the architectural vocabulary, we are limited in understanding the terms: inside, outside, between. This seminar will expand that scope, relying upon marginal areas of related disciplines such as painting, sculpture, writing, clothing, film, and other expressions of design and creative work that address issues of architecture and interiors. The goal is to establish a foundation that allows us to see interior spaces through these other disciplines and to see how they rely upon the interior in order to complete their own work. Please be aware that this seminar will not be conducted as a lecture course such as "the history of", but rather an exploration for the potential of where architecture and interiors can go. I would advice keeping an open mind in this seminar and not limiting yourself to only seeing and hearing specifically architecture.

TEXT: The text for the seminar is a collection of articles that will be available as a reader from Speedway Copying and Printing in Dobie Mall. A copy will also be on reserve in the library.

SCHEDULE: The course is divided into the following topics that start at the realm of the body and move out toward the exterior:

wk 1: Introduction to seminar
wk 2: Pragmatic Interior Descriptions
wk 3: Poetic Interior Descriptions
wk 4 & 5: Artists working on the interior
wk 6: Body
wk 7 & 8: Clothing and Appearance
wk 9: Domestic Spaces
wk 10: Politics and Domestic Spaces
wk 11 & 12: Interior on the Exterior
wk 13: Creepy Little Interiors
wk 14 & 15: Student Presentations

REQUIRED COURSE WORK: The course requires exploration and critical thinking of the above topics with reference to readings and research resulting in a combination of writing and design projects.