CHICAGO

SPACES OF UTOPIA:
CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE ENVIRONMENT
An inter-disciplinary class led by visiting artist Nils Norman between the Department of Visual Arts and Environmental Studies program of the University of Chicago in conjunction with the SMART Museum's exhibition "Beyond Green", curated by Stephanie Smith

8 city tours around Chicago
Class meets every friday at different locations from september 30 to November 18 2005.
The class consists of 15 graduate and undergraduate students from different departments of the University, including Economics, English Literature, Visual Arts and Environmental Studies.

TOURS

WEEK ONE – Friday, 30 September

Meeting Site: Midway Studios (6016 Ingleside Avenue – Room 217)

Introduction to course

Critical Mass Bike Ride 5.30pm... You will need a bike! (out of class event)

WEEK TWO – Friday, 7 October

Meeting Site: The Smart Museum of Art (5550 S. Greenwood Avenue)

Tour of Beyond Green with curator Stephanie Smith

Tour of Dan Peterman's Experimental Station

Walking Woodlawn tour led by Dan Wang

Tour of First Presbyterian Church Community Food Center Development Project organised by Growing Power


Required Readings:
Brett Bloom and Ava Bromberg, Belltown Paradise/Making Their Own Plans, Whitewalls, 2005 [Seminary Co-op]

Dan S. Wang, Downtime at the Experimental Station: A Conversation with Dan Peterman, Temporary Services Publication, 2004 (entire text) [Chalk].

Marco d’Eramo, The Pig and the Skyscraper: Chicago a History of our Future, Verso, 2002 (Metacity: Market Missionaries Besieged in Fort Science) [Chalk].

WEEK THREE – Friday, 14 October

Meeting Site: Little Village Justice Organisation, 2856 S. Millard Av

Toxic Tour of Little Village led by the Little Village Justice Organisation

Required Readings:
Tom Finkelpearl, Dialogues in Public Art, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2000
(“Introduction: The City as Site”) [Chalk]

Nils Norman, An Architecture of Play: A Survey of London’s Adventure Playgrounds, Four Corners Books, 2004 (entire text) [Seminary Co-op]

Nils Norman, The Contemporary Picturesque, Book Works, 2000 (entire text)
[Seminary Co-op]

David Harvey, Spaces of Hope, University of California Press, 2000
("Spaces of Utopia") [Seminary Co-op]

WEEK FOUR – Friday, 21 October

Meeting Site: The Resource Centre, 1325 E. 70th Street. 2.30pm

Tour of the Resource Center's recycling, composting and community gardening initiative with the director Ken Dunn
Tyner White will give us a presentation of his various scavenged wood products, musical instruments and toys
Classmate Sara Black will talk about her collaborative project Material Exchange

Required Readings:
Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, Basic Books, 2004.
(Chapter 1, “The Transformation of Everyday Life”) [Seminary Co-op]

Henri Lefebvre, The Urban Revolution, University of Minnesota Press, 2003
(Chapter 1, “From the City to Urban Society”) [Seminary Co-op]

(out of class event)
Thursday 20 OctoberJean Luc Godard's Alphaville.
DOC cinema 7pm


WEEK FIVE – Friday, 28 October

Meeting Site: 1741 n. western. The blue line, get off at Western. 2.30pm

Tour of the Acme Artists Community Center and Housing initiative, with Laura Weathered
Algren and the Anarchists: A tour of Wicker Park, the site of novelist Nelson Algren's work www.nelsonalgren.org and the home to the martyred Haymarket defendants by historian/critic
Warren Leming www.coldchicagocompany.org

Critical Mass Halloween Ride 5.30pm Daley Plaza. (out of class event)

Required Readings:
David Harvey, Spaces of Hope, University of California Press, 2000
(Chapter 9, “Dialectical Utopianism”) [Seminary Co-op]

Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class, Basic Books, 2002
(Chapter 12, “The Power of Place”) [Seminary Co-op]

Francesco Careri, Walkscapes: Walking as an aesthetic practice, Editorial Gustavo Gili, 2002
(Chapter 1, Walkscapes) [Chalk]

Janet Wolff, Feminine Sentences: Essays on Women and Culture,
University of California Press, 1991
(Chapter 3, The Invisible Flaneuse: Women and the Literature of Modernity) [Chalk]

(out of class event)

Wednesday October 26, 7:00 p.m. International House
DAVID HARVEY speaking on his book, A Brief History of Neoliberalism
Thursday October 27, 4:30 p.m SS 122, 3CT Distinguished Lecture Series, Theorizing the Present
DAVID HARVEY, Cosmopolitanism and the geographies of freedom


WEEK SIX – Friday, 4 November

Friends of the Chicago River Tour
Meeting Site: Midway Studios

Required Readings:
Robert Smithson, Collected Writings, ed Jack Flam,
University of California Press, 1996
("A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic New Jersey," {1967}) [Chalk]

Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class, Basic Books, 2002
(Chapter 14, “Technology, Talent and Tolerance”)

Walter Benjamin, Charles Baudelaire: A lyric poet in the era of high capitalism, Verso,1985
(Chapter 2, "The Flaneur")


WEEK SEVEN – Friday, 11 November

Walking Tour of The Kinzie Industrial Corridor with artist Melinda Fries
Meeting Site: 1958 W. Walnut St. 2.30pm

Required Readings:
Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class, Basic Books, 2002
(Chapter 16, “Building the Creative Economy”) [Seminary Co-op]

Henri Lefebvre, The Urban Revolution. University of Minnesota Press, 2003
(Conclusion) [Chalk]

Simon Ford, The Situationist International: A user's guide, Black Dog Publishing, 2005.
(Chapter 1)


WEEK EIGHT – Friday, 18 November

Meeting Site: Metra Station 55th st

Exploration of the Pedway with class recitals
Public Art in the Loop:Chicago's Outdoor Museum a tour by Terry Sullivan from Chicago Walking Tours
A virtual tour of Millennium Park
(If you have an MP3 player please download the tour for free before coming to class and bring it on the day. Or pay $5 at the park to rent a virtual tour) Cancelled

Required Readings:
Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class, Basic Books, 2002
(Chapter 17, “The Creative Class Grows Up”)

Rosalyn Deutsche, Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics, MIT Press, 1996
(Agoraphobia)



The Class

Sara Black
Alta Buden
David Hernandez
Kasia Houlihan
Andrew Kromer
Teage O'Connor
Jess Orfe
Liz Santori
Cat Scharon
Noah Schwartz
Nick Simmons
Bethany Strout
Megan Tormey
Emily Zobel

TA: Kristin Greer Love


Class Assignments