Transversal Design (Half Term-H1) (Spring 2026)

Instructor

Azra Akšamija and Svafa Gronfeldt

TA

Eliot Felde

Credit

3-0-3 G

Schedule

W 2-4

Location

9-255

As we transition from the Information Age to the Imagination Age, creative resilience, artistic intelligence, and other uniquely human traits will be vital for navigating highly complex and rapidly changing environments. Art and design are essential partners to science and technology in this context, driving transformational change and innovation that are integrative, inventive, and profoundly human.

This course blends artistic practice with DesignX’s innovation framework to introduce students to Transversal Design. This cross-disciplinary approach works across art, science, technology, ecology, and social systems to address complex, interconnected global challenges. Students will learn to view art and design as imaginative, cultural, and ethical forces that shape futures, not just solve problems. Through this lens, students will learn to work with uncertainty, emerging ideas, and speculative scenarios to create responsible, non-extractive projects and interventions.

This course invites participants to re-examine how they define and achieve success in times of rapid social and ecological transformation. Students will envision speculative projects, which may include creating artifacts, developing systemic thinking, and prototyping public communication. Final projects may utilize artistic media such as posters, videos, sound, poems, and/or performances.

This transdisciplinary class is a collaboration between ACT and the Morningside Academy of Design through DesignX. Students will design and present visual representations of the impact area they choose to explore and innovate.