Cornell AAP NYC’s pure gold lies in the electives. This is where you get a taste of the delectable offerings outside of the Ithacan tundra. One of which, I am glad to be enrolled in, is James Lowder’s critical investigation of NYC and the metropolis. Lowder is just one of many fantastic imports from the surrounding metropolitan area. His stomping ground? Cooper Union.
Each week the class files in, fifteen independent thinkers whose minds are overflowing with the unraveled texts of masterminds in art criticism and architecture, film and theory galore. Lowder, spitting gall and gab, throws out questions from the digital archive of emails he received at the toll of yesterday’s midnight. And the matches begin. Students clamor with questions of frustration–some coming from a place of misunderstanding–others coming from a fundamental difference in principle. Here, problematization of academia is a good thing. Each week has a spotlight thinker or theme, which a lone student or tag team of design-savvy sages work to present in a clear and analytic format.
For our final project, we are posed to propose a class–a full syllabus which is meant to open up the wound of theory to understand its anatomy in more colors and more detail. Luckily, we have hundred upon hundreds of names to base our studies off of. Its ramping up to be an exciting and generative finals season at Cornell AAP NYC!