Please note! Course description is confirmed for two academic years, which means that in general, e.g. Learning outcomes, assessment methods and key content stays unchanged. However, via course syllabus, it is possible to specify or change the course execution in each realization of the course, such as how the contact sessions are organized, assessment methods weighted or materials used.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
In this course you will be introduced to some of the key problems, provocations and possibilities that emerge from what are increasingly-recognized to be porous and indeterminate boundaries between human and non-human worlds.
We are not going to solve the challenges of climate change and mass extinction in this course. However we will experiment with methods of following Donna Haraway, working with the trouble's that we face in collaborative, artistic projects. You will also acquire tools with which to critically-analyze theoretical texts, artworks and case studies in what Nils Bubandt and Anna Tsing et al. have called The Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. And you will be asked to reflect upon these processes in your individual written assignments.
Credits: 5
Schedule: 03.03.2021 - 07.04.2021
Teacher in charge (valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022): Lucy Davis, Pia Euro
Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Lucy Davis, Pia Euro
Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation):
CEFR level (applies in this implementation):
Language of instruction and studies (valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022):
Teaching language: English
Languages of study attainment: English
CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD
Content
Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:
Regarded during much of the modern era as cheap nature, industrial food or passive raw materials, there is of late a recognition, (or rather, a recollection) of the vital, dynamic, roles that all sorts of non-humans, 'living' or 'non living' play in the shaping of our worlds. There is also a recognition of the hybrid, mutable characteristics of entities that modernity has understood as invidual bounded species (including our own).
These recognitions are paradoxically, making a comeback in theories of modern societies at the very same time that the planet faces capital-led climate and mass extinction crises of unfathomable dimensions.
Which transdisciplinary tools and inspirations might artists draw from studies human-non-human interconnections and more than human lives as means and as methods to respond, with some degree of positivity, to the critical challenges of our time?
And what might be some of the politics of doing so?
Assessment Methods and Criteria
Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:
In order to pass this course you need to be present for 80% of the class
Course work and participation.
Activities InsideCourse Time: Lectures & in-class exercises (20%)
This includes compulsory participation in experiential exercises as well as attendance at excursions and workshops in class time and the noting of these in your course journal.
Activities Outside Course Time (20%):Readings independent exercises and project preparation. Work outside course participation in subsequent in-class reading-group presentations and discussions
Final Practice-Based Assignment (60%)
Breakdown:
-A group creative project (final presentation end of semester 30%)-An individual reflexive/critical essay about your creative practice project (30%).
Workload
Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:
42h Contact teaching, 93h independent work.
In part two you will apply the tools and experiences gained in part one in order to co-develop a version of the practice-based group research project that you proposed at the end of the first course.
DETAILS
Study Material
Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:
Provided in syllabus.
Prerequisites
Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:
Ecology in Theory, Practice & Everyday Life 1
SDG: Sustainable Development Goals
5 Gender Equality
10 Reduced Inequality
11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
12 Responsible Production and Consumption
13 Climate Action
14 Life Below Water
15 Life on Land
- Teacher: Davis Lucy
- Teacher: Euro Pia