Decolonial Spatialities in the Digital Era

To understand the digital world’s impact on architecture today, it is fundamental to consider the role of colonialism in constructing the world as we know it. Colonialism has shaped and continues to shape how we relate with one another on various scales, in asymmetrical ways. From this critical departure, this seminar will focus on de-colonial approaches to exploring platform urbanism – or the digital platforms’ impact on the built environment. How can we de-colonizeplatforms to imagine more equitable futures?

Some issues addressed include crypto-currency urbanisms in the global south, Google Earth visualisations, the production of ‘the natural’ online, and the use of digital platforms in anti-colonial social movements. We will explore what it means to de-centre colonial-patriarchal assumptions of digital architecture towards expanded, more inclusive spatial and philosophical vocabularies.

We will engage writings from feminist, decolonial and postcolonial theory such as: Sylvia Wynter, Aimé Césaire, Walter Mignolo, Anibal Quijano, Emmanuele Coccia, Frantz Fanon, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Anna Tsing, Laboria Cuboniks and Donna Haraway. Examples from contemporary art, architecture, fiction and film will be shown throughout the course, and students will be encouraged to research in an inter and trans-disciplinary way to widen the scope of what architecture entails.

The seminar will be taught via group discussions, lectures, and excursions, which will include exhibition visits, walks, attendance at public events and maybe picnics. There will be group work throughout the course, but in order to complete the course successfully, each student will be asked to write a 5,000-word essay in English. In the seminar, we will also discuss different strategies for critical writing, and students will be given the support and equipped with the skills needed to write such an essay. Individual tutorials will also be possible, if necessary, to support the development of the final essay.

Special Seminar in Art and Design
Carmen Lael Hines, MA

Tuesdays, 14:00-18:00, in blocks
Start: 19 March 2024
Location: Seminarraum AC0440

For further details please see link below