The Politics of Making

—Art, Technology, Ideology

Part 3.

CLOUDS, MIST, DUST

“The Politics of Making” is a seminar series, which 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, was invented in the 19th Century as an exclusive knowledge domain that implied particular hierarchies of values. Consequently, technology-engaged art fields—such as new media arts—had been exclusive fields of investigation with 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 series aims to reveal some of these access points to the students of applied arts and encourage the students to explore expanded definitions of technology and techno-aesthetics. Each semester is organized around a different thematic focus.

The WS 2021 seminar, titled CLOUDS, MIST, DUST, focuses on ethereal materials and invisible forces in nature. We will be exploring the intangible clouds, mist, fog, steam, vapor, dust, and smoke as artistic materials in the contexts of critical making and art and technology practices. Weekly lectures will tackle the politics of natural and anthropogenic clouds. By looking at exemplary works in art, design, and architecture, we will extract past, current, and future controversial issues around the subject, e.g. the ownership of clouds, the relationships of intangibles to the current planetary climate crisis, the emission culture and pollution matters, among other issues. The weekly lectures will be supported with in-class activities, material experiments, and one-to-one student advising. Students will be guided towards finding their individual artistic project ideas throughout the semester. Each student's work will be treated individually to develop at its own pace. The semester will conclude with a presentation of the exploratory works-in-progress.

Prerequisites: No prior knowledge or experience is expected, but hands-on knowledge and experience in textiles or other handcrafts are 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.