After successful completion of the course, students are able to deepen competence in design and production of three-dimensional objects through practical and theoretical exposure to foundations of artistic and material research. The set of skills needed for the design and production of the artistic works is transferred by means of various teaching formats, including vertical lectures, design reviews, improvisations and hands-on material experiments.
FROM SPACE TO WEARABLESIn the context of the artistic research project 'Trans-Bodied Knowledge' *, this course focuses on the process of translation of spatial bodily experiences to the design and production of haptic wearables. The spatial experiences will be approached through sound improvisations and acoustics, which will be based on graphic notation scores. Stemming from such embodied experiences, the wearables will be designed and fabricated based on fundamental material qualities and not on electronics. The sculptural wearables will act as playful, sensorial instruments: once attached to the body, they will mainly trigger the senses of touch and kinaesthesia and will stimulate the users’ movement and perception of space. The results will be showcased in a public exhibition in the end of the semester and the resulted wearables may be used for teaching purposes for ‘Trans-bodied Knowledge course – part 2: From wearables to space’ .
The multidisciplinary character of the seminar is highlighted by 5 tutors coming from various disciplines and consists of 4 interconnected, equally important contributions:
* “Trans-bodied Knowledge ” (web link) is an artistic research project hosted at the Research Unit of Three-Dimensional Design and Model Making - Institute of Art and Design - Vienna University of Technology and is led by the Senior Artist Efilena Baseta. The project has received funding by the Austrian Science Fund within the programme for artistic research (PEEK). In the framework of this project two educational activities are planned with two different groups of students:
Link to course video presentation TUbe: https://portal.tuwien.tv/View.aspx?id=10752~5c~UfDX6CWvnO
_Research framework
Digital technology is ubiquitous. We, as users, must be critical of it, profit from its strengths, and mitigate its adverse implications. Nowadays, the plethora of information channelled by digital communication tools mainly targets our sense of vision with the risk of neglecting the other senses, which are equally important for the perception of our environment and our connection with it. The research project “Trans-bodied knowledge” focuses on triggering those senses, generating knowledge through our body, and consequently promoting tacit knowledge. This visual overstimulation also has strong repercussions on pedagogy. Focusing on architectural education, new generations of students are more proficient in using digital design software to create virtual spaces but have fewer opportunities to fully engage with spatial and material aspects. Thus, it becomes more difficult to relate to aspects of scale and orientation. On the other hand, music education cultivates tacit knowledge that relies mainly on the human body. Constituting the body as a vital part of the learning process, this research highlights the equal importance of implicit over explicit knowledge. To achieve that, the students will be exposed to methods borrowed from music education and physical material processes. New sensory-based design processes will be explored to counterbalance the use of vision as the main design tool with the aim to enrich the students’ physical engagement with space perception. The aim of the project is to critically promote the physical nature of digital technology, which can bring people closer to themselves and their environment.
Independent research; workshops; work on site in the "Modelliersaal" as well as outdoor space; weekly meetings and feedback sessions; individual and independent development and presentation of physical prototypes and objects in the field of product design or sculptural artistic design; presentation of the results in the context of exhibitions; work in small as well as in larger groups.
_Course days
Weekly meetings on Tuesdays, Thursdays Fridays.
_Detailed Calendar (small changes may occur during the semester)
March
Friday 1/3 10:00-12:00: Introduction (Palma, Baseta) - Modelliersaal
Monday-Wednesday 4-6/3 10:00-14:00: Observation Workshop (guest) – mdw and Modelliersaal
Tuesday 12/3 10:00-12:00: Discourse 1 (Sommeregger) – Modelliersaal
Friday 15/3 10:00-17:00: Excursion (Marantos) – mdw
Tuesday 19/3 10:00-12:00: Discourse 2 (Sommeregger) – Modelliersaal
Friday 22/3 9:00-12:00: Improvisation 1 (Marantos) – mdw
April
Thursday 11/4 9:00-18:00: Material workshop 1 (Palma, Baseta) – Modelliersaal
Friday 12/4 10:00-12:00: Lecture (guest) – Modelliersaal
Tuesday 16/4 10:00-12:00: Discourse 3 (Sommeregger) – Modelliersaal
Thursday 18/4 9:00-18:00: Material workshop 2 (Palma, Baseta) - Modelliersaal
Friday 19/4 9:00-12:00: Improvisation 2 (Marantos) – mdw
Tuesday 23/4 10:00-12:00: Discourse 4 (Sommeregger) – Modelliersaal
Friday 26/4 9:00-12:00: Improvisation performance (Marantos) – mdw
Tuesday 30/4 9:00-18:00: Design workshop 1 (Palma, Baseta) – Modelliersaal
May
Tuesday 7/5 9:00-13:00: Desk-crits (Palma, Baseta) - Modelliersaal
Tuesday 14/5 10:00-12:00: Discourse 5 (Sommeregger) – Modelliersaal
Thursday 16/5 9:00-14:00: Midterm presentations– Modelliersaal
Thursday 23/5 9:00-18:00: Design workshop 2 (Palma, Baseta) – Modelliersaal
Friday 24/5 9:00-18:00: Design workshop 3 (Palma, Baseta) - Modelliersaal
June
Thursday 6/6 9:00-14:00: Desk-crits – Modelliersaal
Tuesday 11/6 10:00-18:00: Final delivery of wearable prototypes – Modelliersaal
Thursday 13/6 9:00-14:00: Internal performances (Marantos) - mdw
Friday 14/6 9:00-14:00: Internal tracking (Palma, Baseta) - Photostudio
Tuesday 18/6 9:00-14:00: Desk-crits (Palma, Baseta) – Modelliersaal
Tuesday 25/6 9:00-14:00: Final presentations – Modelliersaal
Wednesday-Thursday 19-20/6: Exhibition – (Future Art Lab, mdw)
_Places
The course takes place in collaboration with the department of ‘Composition Studies and Audioproduction’ of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw).
Hence, the course will take place at two locations:
Development of individual and team projects
Registration via TISS. Please send a portfolio (max 10 MB) to Efilena Baseta (efstathia.baseta@tuwien.ac.at) until the 19th of February at 11:59 am. Limited number for participants.
Certeau, Michel de (1984[1980]) The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven Rendall, Berkeley, CA: University of California Presshttps://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj3yue3vMuEAxVszQIHHYjkCBoQFnoECDUQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmonoskop.org%2Fimages%2F2%2F2a%2FDe_Certeau_Michel_The_Practice_of_Everyday_Life.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1dGI3Im7Nt6TcnEwv6JNF5&opi=89978449
Debord, Guy (1956) ‘Theory of the Dérive,’ in Situationist International Anthology, ed. and trans Ken Knabb, Berkeley: Bureau of Public Secretshttps://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/theory.html
Debord, Guy (2006 [1957]) ‘The Construction of Situations,’ in Situationist International Anthology, ed. and trans Ken Knabb, Berkeley: Bureau of Public Secretshttps://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/guy-debord-report-on-the-construction-of-situations
Jones, Caroline A. (ed.) (2006) Sensorium. Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Leroi-Gourhan, André (1993[1964]) Gesture and Speech, trans. Anna Bostock Berger, Berkeley: University of California Presshttps://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj2k-jYvMuEAxVk9AIHHQcFCY8QFnoECBUQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmonoskop.org%2FFile%3ALeroi-Gourhan_Andre_Gesture_and_Speech.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0J5sP6muI8OZgSBhfSJVIk&opi=89978449
McLuhan, M. (2017). The medium is the message. In Communication theory (pp. 390-402). Routledge.
Pallasmaa, J. (1996). The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. Chichester Wiley.ISBN 9781119941286
Pallasmaa, J., & Zambelli, M. (2020). Inseminations: Seeds for Architectural Thought. John Wiley & Sons.
Schrijver, Lara (ed.) (2021) The Tacit Dimension. Architecture Knowledge and Scientific Research, Leuven: Leuven University Presshttps://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1mgm7ng
No previous knowledge is required.
