A new avenue for expression
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) awarded 212 degrees at Commencement this year. But only 10 were from an entirely new program. Artists, architects, and entrepreneurs were in the first cohort of Art, Design and the Public Domain (ADPD), a new “area concentration” within the traditional Master in Design Studies (MDesS) program. (There are seven other MDesS concentrations, including conservation, history, ecology, sustainability, and real estate.) The new program is a flexible, interdisciplinary pathway for midcareer artists, designers, architects, and others. The idea is to blend art practice with the academy, and let each world enrich the other. Afterward, let these creators make the entire public domain — the physical and the virtual — their studios at large. Within design, this idea of art as public engagement is called “spatial practice.” “The built urban environment [is] a great hope and opportunity for its inhabitants,” said Krzysztof Wodiczko, who coordinates the new two-year program....