This elective course for MA and RMA students actively teams up with ongoing research of [urban interfaces].

Since the beginning of the 20th century, cultural researchers have been concerned with how transport and communication technologies, rapid urbanization and massive social upheavals impact social mobility, civic engagement and modes of belonging. Today, globalization, the spread of information technologies in the urban domain, and the debate on participatory culture and civic engagement spur a further mobilization of urban culture, identity and publics. Both scholars as well as artists and designers enquire into how urban spaces invite collaborative and playful practices of resistance, appropriation and/or engagement. By productively exploring mutual similarities and differences in concerns, methods, concepts, and skills, [urban interfaces] seeks to investigate urban transformations in a methodologically innovative manner.

Students develop their own research in relation to current urban media, art and/or performance projects. In the course the potentials of collaborative research and of crossdisciplinary and creative methodologies are explored. The course includes a two-day pressure-cooker workshop in which students work in teams on an assignment for critical design.

This course is open for all students in the (R)MA programs in the Humanities.

Course details

Course code: MCRMV16045
Course description link