Of particular importance are practices that seek to engage with the public and social realm. The phrase “spatial practice” has become a widely-used term to describe a variety of architectural and artistic engagements with the city, society and with aesthetic practice in general. In many ways it defines the new and moving boundary of the design discipline.

The MDes program in Art, Design, and the Public Domain seeks creative and ambitious individuals from all backgrounds and academic disciplines with a keen interest in contemporary urban, aesthetic, political and technological culture with a predilection for intervention, exhibition, and public work. This program also seeks practicing architects, artists, filmmakers and cultural producers wishing to ‘switch gears’ and develop art-related work, with an emphasis on sophisticated thinking, advanced fabrication methodologies and techniques, and aesthetic and social engagement.

This program is designed to both accommodate graduated MFAs or serve in lieu of a traditional MFA program in an orthodox art academy. The GSD has a wide variety of assets in cultural theory, applied computation, fabrication, art-related practice and speculative design. The GSD also shares links with the departments of Visual and Environmental Studies, Film and Literature, and has innovative new collaborations with international programs in the political and experimental arts. The program strongly welcomes unconventional proposals for study that address emerging issues in (the history of) technology, science, performance, industrial design, typography and all aspects of the changing social and cultural environment.