KICK-OFF VISUAL CULTURE MODULE

In recent years, novel forms of interaction and collaboration have been sweeping through economic, political and social life: peer-to-peer platforms, co-working spaces, crowdsourcing initiatives, resource sharing, self-managed spaces and digital commons. Experiments with new forms of production, use and participation have begun to advance a new culture of operations in which citizens are called upon to self-service the social, cultural and infrastructural fabric of societies. These processes raise critical questions that are increasingly being discussed in art and architecture: questions of digital mobility, logistified work, infrastructural power, affective exploitation and ecological destruction.

In the winter term 2024/25, the Visual Culture module examines the relationship between these developments and contemporary architecture and art. We refer to Michel Foucault’s influential essay “Other Spaces” when we argue that in the midst of dominant spatial practices, alternatives always emerge that produce other ideas and pave new, deviant paths. We want to address such alternatives to today’s dominant culture of operations and its problematics with a variety of teaching content and formats: Located between the discursive fields of architecture, contemporary art and theory, the module will provide a structure for critical reflection, collaborative discussion and material practice through lectures, seminars, reading groups, public lectures, workshops and screenings. Using examples from art, architecture and activism, we will discuss how forms of critical practice manifest themselves, what challenges they face and how they can be initiated.

Lecturers:

▶ PETER MÖRTENBÖCK
▶ HELGE MOOSHAMMER
▶ BENJ GERDES
▶ ANNA RESCH & SEBASTIAN JOBST (KONNEKTOM)
▶ LOUISA ENGEL & KOLA SLIWINSKA
▶ SILVESTER KREIL

For further details, please see TISS and the page TEACHING

 

Kick-off

Monday, 7 October 2024, 12:00-14:00

Seminarraum AC0440
TU Wien
Karlsplatz 13, 1040 Vienna