MAS.S60 Critical Matter: Emotive Design from Fashion to Urban Scale

MAD Professor Behnaz Farahi explores critical design and emotion in new MIT Media Lab course.

Aug 28, 2025

A person stands with arms on their hips, wearing a sculptural, glowing garment that emits blue and white light. The piece has layered, organic patterns resembling rippling waves or carved topography. The wearer’s face is shadowed, creating a dramatic focus on the illuminated design across the chest and shoulders.

What if design were not just about form or function, but a vehicle for interrogating critical issues of our time? How might we engage design as a medium for affective connection and critical reflection? Could design be critical? Not only “critical thinking” but also "critical feeling" by interrogating what you feel and why you feel the way you feel. How can we understand emotion not as sentimentality, but as a force that shapes relationality, structures power, and reveals hidden social dynamics?

Instructors: Behnaz Farahi, Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences; Asahi Broadcast Corp Career Development Assistant Professor
MIT Course Numbers: MAS.S60
Units: 3 0 9
Time: Monday 2-5pm
Place: E14-493

This course is limited to 20 students. If you are seriously interested in joining, please fill out this sign-up sheet using this link.