Talk

Art and Craft Lectures: Ezra Shales

I ♡ Factory Art

Are you an academic who views factory manufacturing with contempt? Come start the twelve-step process to recovering respect for ordinary manufacture and repetitive labor and recognizing that anonymity is cool.

Ezra Shales savors the productive confusion that lies at the intersection of design, craft, and art in everyday life. His most recent book, The Shape of Craft (2017), prompted a reviewer to identify him as a “philosopher of the factory floor.” He teaches the history of design and craft at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has a Ph.D. from the Bard Graduate Center and an M.F.A. from Hunter College. Heis currently writing introductions for new editions of David Pye’s seminal books The Nature of Design (1964) and The Nature and Art of Workmanship (1968).

Art and Craft Lectures is a cross-disciplinary lecture series at the Art and Craft department. This lecture series highlights the breadth and depth of the art practices that the Art and Craft department encompasses. Each lecture will feature current issues pertaining to and spanning the five areas: Art and Public Space, Textile, Ceramics, Print and Drawing, Metal and Jewellery.

Ezra Shales has been invited by Ceramics.