Excavating the Book: Don’t Mind if I Do

Thursday, March 26, 4–7 p.m.
Friday, March 27, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Organizing Fellows

Emma Chubb, Smith College Museum of Art
Lily Gurton-Wachter, English Language & Literature
Jessie Magyar, Smith College Museum of Art
Emily Norton, Design Thinking Initiative

Project Description

A book can be many things and take many forms. Participants in this two-day, short-term Kahn project will address questions at the intersection of contemporary art, book studies, design thinking, and disability studies. The project is organized in conjunction with SCMA’s spring exhibition, Don’t mind if I do. A collaboration between artist Finnegan Shannon and curator Lauren Leving, this nationally touring exhibition playfully inverts the common museum-going experience by focusing on access and interactivity. Visitors to the show get comfortable in seating arranged around a conveyor belt, from which they can pick up and play with a selection of small artworks made by eight artists.

This short-term project considers how the ideas and modalities of Don’t mind if I do might translate into book form or help us rethink what constitutes a book.

While our primary consideration will be imagining Don’t mind if I do in book form, we welcome any participants who are trying to think outside the box about a book project. Some questions we will ask are: how might the visceral feeling of an experience, like an exhibition, expand into other more permanent modes, such as a book? How might we play with the book form to create an intentional reader experience? What does an attention to reader access demand from the book form? What do books make accessible, and how do they present challenges to accessibility?

Fellows will attend the Miller Lecture in Art with Finnegan Shannon, “Learning How to Desire” on Thursday, March 26. On Friday, March 27, participants will visit the exhibition, the Kahn Institute, and the Design Thinking Initiative and delve more deeply into the project.

Submit your statement of interest by Thursday, February 19.

For disability access information, accommodation requests, or to request a sign language interpreter, contact kahninstitute@smith.edu.