She asks: “Is it a triumph to be empowered by something that capitalized on disempowered women?”

I love this question. It doesn’t have a clean answer. MacNicol knows that. She’s not looking for permission or absolution. She’s sitting with the discomfort of knowing that pleasure and pain can occupy the same frame, that beauty can emerge from something dark, and maybe we don’t have to resolve that contradiction.

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Fall Studio Seminar is a 12 week online guided learning experience. It’s part book club, part writing workshop, part art history class, part creativity lab.

Every week, paid subscribers will get a structured guide with readings, assignments, and discussion questions. We’ll read each others work and help each other improve and think deeper. On alternating weeks, I’ll continue publishing my usual free essays, so the rhythm stays steady. Together, we’ll read, reflect, write, and make things. The paid subscriber chat will be our seminar table.

There are three courses. You can take them all or as few as one:

• ART (ART): Critical Histories of Seeing and Storytelling

• DESIGN (DSN): Systems, Decisions, Design Intelligence

• WELLNESS (WEL): Living as Inquiry

ART: Critical Histories of Seeing and Storytelling

How do art and stories shape the way we see and make the world?

Description:

This course investigates the intertwined histories of visual culture and narrative form. Students will consider how images and stories have shaped collective imagination and individual creativity.

Learning objectives:

• Analyze key works of art and literature within their historical and cultural contexts

• Understand the relationship between seeing (image) and telling (narrative)

• Develop critical writing that connects theory, history, and personal observation

Texts:

1. How Art Made the Work, Nigel Spivy

2. The Story of Art Without Men, Katy Hessel

3. Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges

4. Ways of Seeing, John Berger

Assignments:

1. Text reflection essays

2. Group discussion

3. Final essay

4. Visit a museum, share field notes from visit in subscriber chat

DSN: Systems, Decisions, Design Intelligence

How do we design systems (digital, cognitive, organizational) that help humans make better choices and understand the world?

Description:

This course explores how design, psychology, and technology intersect to shape human decision-making and knowledge systems. Students will examine theories of bounded rationality, heuristics, and design intelligence while engaging with contemporary discussions in design and tech.

Learning objectives:

• Understand key psychological frameworks for decision-making and bias

• Evaluate contemporary approaches to knowledge systems and decision intelligence

• Develop written arguments that synthesize theory, research, and design critique.

Texts:

1. Thinking in Bets, Annie Duke

2. The Scout Mindset, Julia Galef

3. Bounded rationality, Herbert Simon

Assignments:

1. Text reflection essays

2. Group discussion

3. Final essay

4. Create art digitally

WEL: Living as Inquiry

What does it look like to cultivate a sustainable scholarly and creative practice?

Description:

This course treats personal wellbeing and attention as a legitimate site of academic inquiry, examining how practices of embodiment, leisure, and attention sustain creative and intellectual life. Students will explore what it means to I’ve well in the midst of constraint with an emphasis on lived experiences: cultivating consistent wellness practices and reflecting together in discussion.

Learning objectives:

• Explore wellness practices that shape attention, creativity, and resilience

• Consider the relationship between enjoyment, flow, and meaningful work.

• Reflect deeply about yourself and hopefully learn a lot

Texts:

1. Saving Time, Jenny Odell

2. I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself, Gretchen Felker-Martin

3. On the Shortness of Life, Seneca

Assignments:

1. Text reflection essays

2. Group discussion

3. Final essay

4. Create art by hand (traditional methods)

I hope you’ll join me. I’ll run the seminar from Sept 17–December 9th. Become a paid subscriber to join the seminar and access the weekly schedule with the readings and assignments:

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