CHID 496 A: Focus Groups

This focus group explores the relationship between text, language, and organic and mineral matter. Through works of visual art, music, and film, we will discuss the material origins of media and their ecological implications. How do animal skin, graphite, and wood pulp become the substance of a leather-bound book? What does it mean to think of mold as a graffiti artist or speech as a waste product? Selections from theorists of semiotics and communications will accompany weekly discussions around creative work that challenges the separation of linguistic and textual production from the more-than-human world. Drawing inspiration from these works of art, students will have the opportunity to create eco-texts of their own, which will be presented at the end of the course.