Contemporary Culture

A WORLD OF MATTER

Einführende Diskussion zur Veränderung von Raumproduktion im Spannungsfeld von Plattform-Kapitalismus, Umweltzerstörung, Klassismus 2.0 und digitaler Emanzipation.

LABORATORY OF POSTHUMANIST ARCHITECTURE

In a time characterised by extraction, conflict and crises – what critical tools do we hold to imagine better futures? Layered and expanding systems of social inequity manifesting in various forms of discrimination, racist violence, climate change, and wealth disparity are producing what Mark Fisher refers to as a ‘malaise,’ a feeling that there is, and can be, ‘nothing new;’ That there may be ‘no alternative’ to the philosophical paradigms that dictate extraction, exploitation and individuation.

The Visual Cultures Module for the Winter Term 2023–24 will concern strategies for imagining new forms of social bonding and community building. In the ‘Laboratory for Posthumanist Architecture’ we will consider what it means to de-centre the human in the ways we live, think, and practice. By focusing on posthumanism, an approach that disrupts, questions, and invites new paradigms of world-making, we will seek to collectively ‘trouble’ binary thinking to discuss new ways of addressing human’s relationship to the natural world. Popularized within the fields of philosophy and critical theory by critics such as Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti – posthumanism is increasingly becoming not just a set of vague ideas and beliefs, but something that can be practiced and applied in structural, spatial, and material ways. The Laboratory for Posthumanist Architecture will address what it means to translate posthumanist philosophy on concrete terms in the realm of architecture.

Situated between the discursive fields of architecture, contemporary art and theory, the module will create a structure for critical reflection, collaborative discussion, and material practice through seminars, reading groups, public lectures, workshops, and screenings. Examples from art, architecture, and activism will be shared to discuss what to do with critique – supplanted by bi-weekly public programmes with renown thinkers and practitioners from around the world, each engaging with designing, curating, making, and imagining for better futures and new conceptions of the human.

Students will be required to work both independently and collaboratively in an active and discursive atmosphere. With the support of department lecturers and tutors, each student will be asked to produce a creative group project conceived throughout the course, which shows practice-based interpretations and reflections on the ideas raised throughout the module’s duration. Students will also be asked to work together to conceive of a final group exhibition. This collective intervention will respond to the module’s guiding query: How can we imagine and experiment with Posthumanist architecture?

Contemporary Culture
Univ.Prof. DI Mag. Dr. Peter Mörtenböck

Monday, 14:00-16:00
Date: 09 October 2023
Location: Seminarraum AC0440

For further details please see link below