Interrogative Design Workshop
MIT's Interrogative Design Workshop asks whether designers and artists can act as modern equivalents of the Athenian parrhesiastes, the fearless speaker who challenges political power with unsolicited criticism. Students examine how public space design might protect and extend that tradition of frank speech under contemporary restrictions on public expression. The workshop format centers on design studio exercises and critique sessions rather than lectures, pushing participants to produce proposals for interventions in public space that embody or provoke open civic speech. Materials come from MIT OpenCourseWare and include the course's readings and studio assignments as posted by the instructor. The course sits within MIT's architecture curriculum and treats design as a political and rhetorical practice, not just a formal one.