Cities are our natural world, created by us and yet, in their constantly shifting complexity, almost beyond our grasp. Urbanization processes do not end at the city boundaries. Almost infinite networks, alienated communication, hasty consumption and conflicts of social marginalization or economic injustice determine our urban survival. Cities form contested spaces, whose present refers back to the past, whose power structures can be identified and also changed. It is important to predict the need for change well in advance but also to be able to react to acute crises great and small with fresh solutions.

Innovations are driven on a bottom-up basis. Not infrequently they arise at the margins of society, where established structures encounter influences from without, traditional responses no longer work, or safeguards apply to some but not to others.
The projects developed in the studio situation of our Social Design program show that societal innovation–meaning extraordinary results and unexpected approaches–becomes possible where different forms of knowledge and methods interact, where artistic acumen combines with creativity from the so-called hard sciences, where design, theory, architecture and the fine arts not only pool their strategies but also enter into confrontations and alliances that can be both risky and productive.

Innovative methods construct new meanings, strengthen responsibility and thus create the preconditions for identification with one’s own actions. Students who choose the Master’s in Social Design – Arts as Urban Innovation signal their determination to play a critical and active part in influencing society and a refusal to discount the future!

Curriculum

The master programme Social Design Arts as Urban Innovation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna is oriented towards graduates from diverse fields of study, thereby stipulating work in transdisciplinary teams as the central teaching and learning approach in the programme. On the basis of professional competences acquired in their respective previous studies, students become acquainted with transcending disciplinary codes and thinking and working in greater interrelationships. Art in synergy with project-related scientific methods and knowledge is seen as a tool for urban innovation.

Duration and Scope:
4 semesters / 120 ECTS 
Graduation: "Master of Arts" (MA)

Download the curriculum as a PDF:  Deutsch  English

People

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Monika Farukuoye

Artist / Film Maker, Vienna

Monika Farukuoye is an artist and filmmaker living in Vienna. Her interest circles around the creation and evolution of meaning, structures of the poetic and the artistic process per se. Her films, paintings and literary works question the delimitation of the personal self and its perceptions as well as the integrity and transgression of cultural barriers.

Former Staff member
Film
+43 1 711 33 3562
monika.farukuoye@uni-ak.ac.at

Karin Fisslthaler

Artist, Vienna

Karin Fisslthaler studied Experimental Design in the department of Fine Arts at the University of Arts in Linz and finished her PhD in Practice Studies in 2019. She works in the field of fine arts, film/video and electronic music (under the name of Cherry Sunkist). 
Many of her collage-works, videos and installations stem from her response to the way media and pop culture portray the human body and how that affects notions of representation, identity and acts of communication.

Visiting Artist / Summer Term / 2020
Fine Arts, Film/Video and Electronic Music
www.karinfisslthaler.com

Nina Pohler

Sociologist,

Nina Pohler is a Sociologist with a background in Socioeconomics and Urban Studies. Her research interests include urban studies, organization studies and economic sociology. As a trained software developer, she is also interested and involved in projects tackling the interrelation between technology and society. She is PhD Student in Sociology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, her PhD project is on coordination and valuation practices in alternative organizations.

Former Staff member
nina.pohler@uni-ak.ac.at
Twitter: @NinaPohler

Barbara Putz-Plecko

Artist, Vienna

Barbara Putz-Plecko is artist and professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna since 1997. As the Vice Rector of the University she is reponsible for research and quality management. Furthermore she is the chair of the Institute for Cultural Sciences and Art Education and head of two departments: the Textile Department and the Department for Art and Communicative Practices.

Former Staff member
Fine Arts
+43 1 711 33 – 2700
barbara.putz-plecko@uni-ak.ac.at
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