EGMT 1510: The Extraordinary Everyday

Big events and spectacular happenings usually take center stage in our culture today. We are often attracted to the flashy, the amazing, all that is “fire” and “lit,” and sometimes even to the horrible and horrendous. Thankfully this is not where most of us spend most of our time. Instead, we go through life immersed in the everyday, the quotidian, the routine. What if there were a way to reenchant those ubiquitous objects, usual occurrences, and habitual practices that, despite all appearances, actually have much to offer and to teach us about the diverse ways we dwell in the world? For centuries, artists have sought to do precisely that. This course invites students to discover how culture can inform our experience of the everyday. How does a painting or a photograph make visible the invisible and usually unseen? Can a short story or a film encourage us to imagine the impossible and identify beauty in the banal? How might listening to music open our hearts and minds and help us become more attuned to the little things that we take for granted, but which are also able to inspire awe? Through our weekly discussions of works of modern and contemporary art of all kinds, along with a series of short “fieldwork” assignments, this class encourages students to resist the usual demands on their attention and become instead more sensitive observers, serious noticers, and more adept practitioners of the commonplace.