April 8–9, 2022
This symposium, convened by Daniel Rose (1951) Visiting Assistant Professor Anthony Acciavatti, will draw together a group of designers, artists, and scholars to engage with objects through the senses, a popular pedagogical method of imparting knowledge and ethical values. These object lessons synthesize material and meaning into something greater than the sum of their parts. It is quite literally an exercise for the pupil “in arranging and classifying objects; thus developing a higher faculty than that of simply observing their qualities,” as described by Elizabeth Mayo in Lessons on Objects (1832). First developed by Swiss education reformer and theorist Johann Pestalozzi in the late-eighteenth century, object lessons became integral to the education practices pioneered by Friedrich Fröbel, Akshay Kumar Dutta, John Dewey, and Maria Montessori, to name just a few. Participants in the symposium have devised a lesson from an object that rewards scrutiny and resists simple classification. By holding an object, weighing it and observing its texture, looking at its components, and perhaps tasting and smelling or listening to it, each speaker will render an entire world of actions and processes that went into its making.
Session 1
Friday, April 8, 10am
Anthony Acciavatti—Our Menagerie of Object Lessons
D. Graham Burnett—The Dousing Rod
Gökçe Günel—A Colorful Static Hard Bristle Duster
Amie Siegel—Dynasty
Session 2
Friday, April 8, 2pm
Danielle Choi—Whirring, Worrying, Blending, Blurring
Lan A. Li—Inscribing Rubber Smiles
Adedoyin Teriba—Oríkì Orílẹ̀
Session 3
Saturday, April 9, 10:30am
Sylvia Lavin—The Unknowing Object
Rahul Mehrotra—The Tile from Mangalore
Session 4
Saturday, April 9, 1:30pm
Kajri Jain—Stainless
Nicholas de Monchaux—No Moon
Anthony Titus—Chromatic Undercurrents
All sessions take place in person on the fourth floor of the Yale School of Architecture at 180 York Street, New Haven, CT. Please register and check the website for information on visiting, including vaccination requirements.
Object Lessons is supported in part by the J. Irwin Miller Endowment.
