Hacking is nowadays a common practice among post-digital artists. By subverting systems, reverse engineering technologies, “hacking the world”, and advocating for open access technologies, we employ a top-down methodology that uses deconstruction as a method to “make” art.
Acknowledging Vilém Flusser's (1986) challenge to open the "black box," the course approaches technology as a cultural, political, and sensorial apparatus. We question the infrastructures behind contemporary technologies, unravel their toxic commodity chains, and challenge the potentialities of the apparatus while critically examining its role within contemporary techno-capitalism. Drawing on ecofeminism and feminist hacking, we explore alternative technological imaginaries rooted in care, situated knowledge, and collective forms of making.
Instead of consuming commodities off the shelf, we recycle materials. Instead of accepting the toxic afterlife of dysfunctional devices, we analyse the genesis of technologies and the establishment of control over their design, development, production, and distribution. In doing so, we demystify the actors who benefit from their application and licensing, as well as those who profit from opacity and designed obsolescence.
Built upon the belief that artistic practice can serve as a critical impetus for social change, this lecture understands hacking strategies and methods as tools for emancipation that, through artistic practice, develop alternative technological imaginaries within and beyond contemporary consumer capitalism.
Grundlagen des technologischen Gestaltens 1 is an invitation to those interested in intersecting their own perspectives with alternative politics of perception, fostering critical reflection on the need to demystify the technological apparatus.
Drawing on the themes of the lecture, students will learn the fundamentals of electronics and programming with microcontrollers—including Arduino, LilyPad, and ESP32—with the aim of developing these skills further through an interactive art project during the second semester. The course focuses on tangible human–computer interfaces, using unconventional materials such as ceramics, textiles, plants, fruits, and e-waste to create hardware.
Beyond building interactive objects, students will investigate how technology can mediate, extend, and transform bodily perception. Through experimental interfaces, haptic feedback, wearable technologies, and multisensory interaction, they will explore the body itself as an interface and technology as a means of expanding perception.
Students will be encouraged to develop their own artistic projects, expressing their critical perspectives while drawing inspiration from DIY, DIWO, and open-source communities.

Regular attendance, active participation and commitment in applying the contents of the lecture in an art prototype is a prerequisite for obtaining a mark. Examination: 80% attendance; 20% practical experiments/ prototype

Mandatory resources:
Reading:

Flusser, V. (2000). Towards a philosophy of photography (A. Mathews, Trans.). Reaktion Books. https://lab404.com/3741/readings/flusser.pdf

Flusser, V. (1988). Interview Osnabrück. YouTube. Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3z05kB_Qt8&t=180s&ab_channel=DavidSurman.

Reis, P. J., & Wuschitz, S. (2025). Hardware and eco-feminist art: Hacking and artistic practices towards ethical technology. transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839419328

Practical Resources:
Instructables: https://www.instructables.com/
Github: https://github.com/
Hackaday: https://hackaday.com/
Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/
Makezine: https://makezine.com/
Adafruit: https://www.adafruit.com/
Sparkfun Electronics: https://www.sparkfun.com/
Arduino Project Hub: https://projecthub.arduino.cc/
Pulsea: https://www.plusea.at/
How To Get What You Want: https://www.howtogetwhatyouwant.at/
Kobakant: https://www.kobakant.at/
Spielundobjekt: https://www.spielundobjekt.de
CODED BODIES: https://codedbodies.com/
Future Materials Bank: https://www.futurematerialsbank.com/

Recommended/inspirational:

Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter
and meaning. Duke University Press.
Bates, L. (2025). The new age of sex(ism): How the AI revolution is reinventing misogyny. Simon & Schuster UK
Bender, E. M., & Hanna, A. (2025). The AI con: How to fight Big Tech’s hype and create the future we want. Harper.
Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Duke University.
Coole, D., & Frost, S. (Eds.). (2010). New materialisms: Ontology, agency, and politics. Duke
University Press.
Crawford, K. (2021). Atlas of AI: Power, politics, and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence. Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300252392
Foster, E. K. (2019). Claims of Equity and Expertise: Feminist Interventions in the Design of DIY
Communities and Cultures. Design Issues, 35(4), 33–41.
Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the Trouble. Duke University Press.
Herzog, D. (2025). The new fascist body. Wirklichkeit Books
Hinton, P. (2014). “Situated knowledges” and new materialism (s): Rethinking a politics of location. Women: A Cultural Review, 25(1), 99–113.
McQuillan, D. (2022). Resisting AI: An anti-fascist approach to artificial intelligence. Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.56687/9781529213522
Mies, M., & Shiva, V. (2014). Ecofeminism (2nd ed.). Zed Books.
Parisi, D. (2018). Archaeologies of touch: Interfacing with haptics from electricity to computing.
Minnesota.
Parisi, L. (2004). Abstract sex: Philosophy, bio-technology and the mutations of desire. Continuum.
Reis, P.J. (2022). X Body: Embodying the “Black Box” in Carvalhais, M., et. al.(ed.s), “The book of X”. xCoAx, Porto: pp. 113-122. DOI: 10.24840/978-989-9049-26-0
Reis, P.J. & Wuschitz, S. (2024). Ethical Hardware Kit. In Driving Design. Collective approaches enriching design practices. Barcelona: Distributed Design Platform. ISBN: 978-84-120886-4-9
Ruckenstein, M. (2023). The feel of algorithms. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520394568
Reis, P. J., Wuschitz, S., & Torosyan, T. (2024). Coffee Table: An interactive installation. In Proceedings of xCoAx 2024: 12th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X (pp. 351-358). Fabrica, Treviso, Italy. https://doi.org/10.34626/2024_xcoax_030
Reis, P.J., (2025). Let’s Get Physical! Re-framing Love in Human-Machine Interactions. In 13 Reasons: Magazine for Multisensory Discourse and Parasitic Relations. Wolke Verlag ISSN 3053-8912
Russell, L. (2020). Glitch feminism: A manifesto. Verso.
Steyerl, H. (2025). Medium hot: Images in the age of heat. Verso
Wosk, J. (2024). Artificial women: Sex dolls, robot caregivers, and more facsimile females. Indiana University Press.