An intellectual history of the School for Designing a Society

This dissertation traces the roots of an experimental art school for social change called the School for Designing a Society. It focuses on the history of a group of intellectuals, and their ideas, during the latter half of the twentieth century. The composer Herbert Brün (1918-2000) formulated many of the original ideas used by the school in concert with his students and colleagues at the University of Illinois. This study focuses on how their ideas about composition led to the founding of a school. It begins with the turmoil of World War II, which influenced experimental artists such as Brün; the development of cybernetics as an interdisciplinary field; the attempt of Brün and cyberneticians to offer an experimental interdisciplinary course in 1968. As the 1960s faded out, a new crop of music composition students rallied around Brün. They formed an ensemble and renewed the bridge to cybernetics; the ensemble achieved a high level of professionalism and toured internationally. Elements of Marianne Brün’s course on Designing Society, and Susan Parenti’s skill at organizing an experimental arts ensemble led to a 1992 proposal to start a school. Members of the ensemble needed a discursive context to engage the political and social consequences of experimental art production. Rather than scatter to various university jobs, or wrangle with the local University’s structure, the group decided to create their own school, off-campus. The School for Designing a Society thus arose out of a necessity that was generated by desire.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Policy Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Scott, Robert W.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Darder, Antonia
• Pak, Yoon K.
• Dhillon, Pradeep A.
• Ginsburg, Rebecca

• Desire
• Design
• Experimental
• Adorno
• Alternative Education
• American Society for Cybernetics
• Anticommunication
• Atonality
• Black Mountain College
• Biological Computing Laboratory
• Brün
• Composition
• Constructivism
• Cybernetics
• Folk School
• Freire
• Frankfurt School
• Highlander
• Heuristic
• Horton
• Illich
• Illinois
• Information Theory
• Language
• Maturana
• Music
• New Music
• Performers' Workshop Ensemble
• Politics
• Political Change
• School for Designing a Society
• Situationist International
• Social Change
• Society
• Systems Theory
• University of Illinois
• von Foerster

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2011 Robert White Scott.

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/24073

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/24073