“Translating Spectral Encounters” is a2 credits course course offered by Art and Communication Practices at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. The course incorporates both with The Octopus Programme and the Spectral Encounters course attached to that programme.

The Octopus Programme is a guided research-based educational programme that encourages artistic research and production-based collaborations across academies and art institutions; students and professionals; diverse presentation modes; and processes of research and documentation in different geographies. While taking geopolitical, social, ecological, and educational urgencies and diversities into consideration, the course aims to process the outcome of the Octopus Programme as case studies with critical perspectives on artistic research and practices.

All the guest lecturers of the Octopus Programme, the joint curriculum of the Spectral Encounters course will be shared and used by the students to “get acquainted”, “analyse”, “compare”, and “perform or write” about the academic and non-academic artist practices from Europe, the Mediterranean, and Africa. 

The course is open to all the departments of the university. The language of the course is English. 

The course includes peer to peer educational secessions, online and class discussions, conversations with Octopus Programme artists, performative and/or written assignments. Assignments of the students will be edited and shared on the Octopus Programme’s website. The students will be evaluated throught their assignements and participations in the class.