The Politics of Making

—Art, Technology, Ideology

Part 2.

PLANTSCAPES

“The Politics of Making” aims to support applied arts students in reaching beyond the conventional divisions between art/science, craft/technology, and applied arts/engineering. ‘Technology’, a seemingly neutral term, in fact, was invented in the 19th Century as an exclusive knowledge domain that implies hierarchies of values (privileging economic growth), geography (privileging the West), and gender (privileging the masculine). These unspoken biases have created hierarchical structures not only in the ways of everyday life but also in the arts. Technology-engaged art fields—such as media arts and device arts—have been exclusive fields of investigation that had their insiders and outsiders set already from the beginning. Today’s interests in post-digital art-and-technology approaches are making space for new and unconventional material-based and experimental practices to enter the scene. This seminar aims to reveal some of these access points to the students and encourage the students to explore expanded definitions of technology and techno-aesthetics. Each semester is organized around a different thematic focus.

In the summer semester, framed by the keyword PLANTSCAPES, we will be exploring plants in the contexts of critical making and art and technology practices. Plants have been long used for obtaining wood, paper, fibers, natural dyes, pigments, cork, rubber, and many other materials, and have always been subject to controversies throughout history. However, in recent years, new issues around the politics of plants have emerged especially due to the planetary crisis, developments in bioengineering, and the emergence of new materialist thought. This seminar aims to provide access to the various debated issues around plants, introduce relevant art and design works, and support students to develop their own artistic approaches to the subject. Weekly lectures will tackle specific topics such as growing as making, colonial planting, flora and femininity, feral ecologies, transgenic plants, biohacking, plant intelligence, and space farming, among others. The lectures will be supported with in-class activities, group discussions, group feedback rounds, and one-to-one advising. Students will be guided towards finding their individual artistic project ideas throughout the semester and each student work will be treated individually to develop at its own pace. The semester will conclude with a presentation and group discussion on the exploratory works-in-progress.

Prerequisites: No prior knowledge or experience is expected, but hands-on knowledge and experience in textiles or other handcrafts is favorable. An interest in experimentation in new territories is necessary.

Assessment: Students are expected to attend the classes, actively participate in the course activities, and develop an artistic project idea throughout the semester.

Students that register for this course should also register for "S03604 Künstlerische Projektarbeit - Textiles / Art and Science."

The course is open to a maximum of 8 participants.