Manufacturing Landscapes of Disorder

ArTechS Intervenstion School 2021
November 2nd - December 16th 

Tuesdays + Thursday - 16.00 > 18.00 CET
In English

Look through a window. What do you see?

Take a look as if it would be one of the old master's landscape paintings. How have humans shaped what you see and how did it shape you? You see nature through your window. What kind of nature is it? Civilization is built on nature. Do you see nature growing in the cracks of it? Humans appropriate nature in manifold ways and yet, nature remains harsh, wild, threatening. What relation between society and nature do you see through your window? Humans built up orders. Who benefits from these orders and who suffers from it? Look outside the window again. What kind of landscapes of order do you see? Many of these orders uphold inequalities and irreversibly destroy nature. How could landscapes of disorder look like? The disorder of an urban jungle could be more attractive than any monoculture. How do we manufacture landscapes of disorder that are suitable for a sustainable now?

"Manufacturing Landscapes of Disorder" is the third edition of the ArTechS Intervention School which reaches out and intervenes into society through artistic practice and transformative research. 30 persons from diverse backgrounds bring their broad range of perspectives, experiences, knowledge, competences and academic disciplines to the ArTechS School and learn with and from each other. We will cut across technology and arts and merge them for a sustainable now - which we are creating together.

The ArTechS Intervention School is a highly interactive course with workshops and individual coachings. Coming from our own perspectives, cultures, artistic or technical disciplines we conduct a discursive research and design of a social-ecological transformation. We analyse and reflect about the orders that are around us and develop interventions in our neighborhood by which we manufacture landscapes of disorders. Our final project will be a presentation in public space and a publication that collects our investigations and transforms them into a summary of our perspectives and ways of actioning and thinking.

The Artechs school offers you an academic certificate of performance (6 ECTS) and covers your expenses for materials up to 200 Euro.

Students from all academic disciplines are invited to apply. Individual applications as well as applications as a group of max 3 persons are possible. Your application should include a short motivation letter and a CV. Deadline for your application is 24 Oct 2021.

Key Facts

When?
The course starts on Tuesday, 02 Nov 2021 14.00 and consists of 14 meetings for 2 hours/120 minutes each. It finishes on Thursday, 16 December2021. In addition, there are two meetings which are individually scheduled.

Where? 
| In your "Neighbourhoods" and via a Video Conference | 

The ArTechS Intervention School will take place online via a video conference based on Zoom. Therefore, please make sure that you are able to participate with video and audio. Offering the workshop online allows for an international workshop, therefore the spoken language will be English. You will manufacture landscapes of disorder in your "neighbourhoods" as well as across the borders of your respective neighbourhoods/societies/environments/etc.

How will we "Manufacture Landscapes of Disorder"? 
| With heads, hands and hearts |

We inspect our daily practices such as our use of concrete technologies, the role of arts and  science in society and our entanglement in our local neighbourhoods. Building upon this, we reveal how individuals and societies are manufacturing an order that upholds inequalities and irreversibly destroys nature. We analyse the reciprocal relations between technology, individuals, nature, society and democracy to understand how the existing exploitative constellations have been formed and how they are reproduced. The participants use their analysis to explore numerous forms of artistic expressions through which they will make their analysis public in an individual (-or group) presentation and a publication of the whole course. In addition, they will explore ways of resistance and formats of artistic interventions in order to promote the change of individual actions and societal structure.

How is it taught? 
| High engagement and interaction between the participants | 

The ArTechS School promotes exchange and joint actions in digital as well as real life. This is why all participants are actively involved in the course again and again. Unlike many other digital courses, this course lives from interactivity - dare to show yourself and contribute to the conduction of the entire course through individual, small and large group work as well as group-dynamic activities - only few lectures will be given. In order to achieve this high degree of interactivity, please make sure that you are able and willing to participate in the video conference of the course with audio and video. In addition,  all meetings are intensely prepared and followed up with exercises by the participants through which they will intervene in their everyday-life. The single meetings build strongly up on each other so that the participants unveil the landscapes of order that surround us step by step and gradually manufacture landscapes of disorder.

How is it examined? 
| 6 ECTS Points - Course Assessment | 

The course is credited with 6 ECTS points. The course assessment totals 100 points // 5 points per meeting for the preparation and/or follow-up activities - 14 meetings total 70 points // artistic intervention research - 30 points

How can I integrate the course in my own study program? 
| Certificate of Performance |

A certificate of performance (Leistungsnachweis) will be issued upon successful examination at the end of the course. This certificate can be used to credit the course in your own study program - for instance as an elective or with some justification/paperwork/luck as a compulsory elective. In this case you must clarify the details with your university.

Who is allowed to apply? 
| Students and recent Graduates as Individuals or as a Group |

Enrolled students and recent graduates of all universities and graduate levels are eligible to apply. Female students, queer students, students from the global south, students with children and students with disabilities will be favored. It is also possible to apply as a group of up to three persons.

Persons who study or have recently graduated in the arts or engineering are especially encouraged to apply. This includes all disciplines of the arts, including theater play, performance, music, dance etc. as well as all disciplines of engineering such as mechanical, chemical, environmental, civil engineering etc.

What financial support is granted? 
| 200 Euro Grant for 30 Participants |

30 participants will receive a grant of up to 200 Euros to cover the material costs linked to the artistic works that they will conduct. The grant will be transferred into a bank account after the successful completion of the ArTechS School. Bank fees, especially for transfers outside of the SEPA Area and/or the European Union, might reduce the grant.

What to include in the application? 
| Motivational Letter and CV |

The application consists of a short CV and a motivational letter of 300-500 words in which you describe 1) who you are, 2) why you want to participate, 3) what do you see when you look outside of your window, 4) what landscape of disorder you want to manufacture and 5) if you will be able to participate at all dates or which dates you will miss and 6) if you have the technical capacity/willingness to show yourself in a video conference. Please send only one (!) PDF document via email to andre.baier@tu-berlin.de If you apply as a group of up to three persons, please answer the questions above accordingly for each person and describe yourself briefly as a group and sent in only one application per group.

What is the deadline? 
24 Oct 2021

When are the selection results sent out? 
26 Oct 2021

We will take a preliminary decision on Mondy, 25 Oct 2021. In case of open questions etc. we will reach out to you on this day. On Tuesday, 26 Oct 2021 we will send out emails of acceptance and non-acceptance. The school starts the following Tuesdy, 02 Nov 2020.

What are the selection criteria?
The participants are selected in such a way to ensure a broad diversity of all participants.

Who organises the school?
| TU Berlin | HMdK Stuttgart |  DAAD | 


The ArTechS Intervention School is organised by the following partners: TU BerlinStudy Reform Project Blue Engineering and Sustainability Certificate for Students - HMdK StuttgartCAMPUS GEGENWART. The school is funded through DAAD - German Academic Exchange Service with funds of the Federal Foreign Office Germany.

Whom to contact in case of questions? 
| Julia Wirsching and André Baier|

For any kind of question please write an email to Julia Wirsching - Wirsching.hensche@hmdk-stuttgart.de and to André Baier - Andre.Baier@tu-berlin.de

 

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