Winter 2023
This term, first-year SASAH students in ARTHUM 1020 embarked on an “everyday life project” over the course of eight weeks, culminating in a work of art that captured or expressed some aspect of their experience. The literary critic Andrew Epstein describes an “everyday life project” as an experiment that’s “artificial” and “rule-bound,” which engages “in certain activities, usually for a set amount of time, with the goal of channeling attention to one or more aspects of everyday experience.” One notable example Epstein highlights is Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, an experiment in simplicity and self-reliance that sought to “make strange” the routines of daily existence. Similarly, this project encouraged students to disrupt their own routines and reflect on what they observed, particularly in relation to their attention. In displaying this work at Weldon, the aim is to extend the classroom lives of these projects and practices into the public “everyday” space of the library.
Hear more about the course from Teaching Assistant Tanner Layton (right), and view a selection of students' works below.
ELP Haikus
Xavier Janisse
Everyday Life Projects
How might the arts help us to confront the urgent reality of climate change? What function might the humanities serve when the terms of human life seem increasingly precarious? Our approach to these questions will be anchored by two insights spanning climate science and climate activism: first, to mobilize meaningful climate action we must learn to navigate the pitfalls of polarization and individualism; and second, fostering collectivity depends on our capacity for conversation. For conversational models, we will look to leading climate communicators and activist groups, but also to artists, authors, and scholars who have developed newly collaborative methods in response to ecological emergency. Drawing on these models, we will experiment with various communication and listening practices intended to establish common conversational ground in the classroom and beyond. This shared ground will in turn provide a platform for devising “climate action projects” that explore how best to integrate our climate commitments in everyday life.
Yasmin Hadizad
A Study of the Other
(poetry collection)
^ Scrawling the Internet:
A collection of poems, inspired by the everyday act of doomscrolling
Rowen Wells
^ it started off with deliberate observation
Samara Golger
^ The Art of Living in Southern Ontario
Xavier Janisse
"Natural Joy"
Sabrina Siscos
Fahrenheit Flowers
Khadeejah Abdul Khadir
Dear “London”
Olivia Matheuszik
Tia Chong
^ ELP: moving pictures
Sounds of London:
Audio and Hand-Written Logbook
Nicolle Schumacher
Sapna Vasishtha
D.B. Weldon Library
Exhibition Documentation:
Dr. Kate Stanley
Teaching Assistant: Tanner Layton
ARTHUM 1020E