Does graphic design generates surplus value? What role does symbolic capital take in art and design ? What is the nature of the relationship between growing and accumulation?  We will try to elucidate the meaning of  "commons" by analysing the various theories of radical democracy. We will create collective works with their own slogans and images. "We prefer works with meaning, where the signified grows beyond the signifier, the semantics beyond the syntax; works that show direction, show us life and explain it to us, works that are pedagogical and even demagogic. In short: works which tell us who the good guys are and who are the bad  - and where they hide." (Manifesto: “Watching paint dry”, Malena Garavaglia, Trieste, 2008).

Students from other faculties or universities will be given a place on the course subject to room capacities. 

The course is practical. Presence and participation are required for its successful completion. There are no tests.

Oliver Marchart: Conflictual Aesthetics – Artistic Activism and the Public Sphere. Sternberg Press, Berlin 2019.

Marjane Satrapi: The Complete Persepolis. Pantheon, New York 2004.

Lucienne Roberts, David Shaw, Rebecca Wright, Margaret Cubbage: Hope to Nope – Graphics and Politics 2008-18. The Design Museum, London 2018.