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)
People
Brigitte Felderer
Curator / Cultural Theorist , Vienna
Brigitte Felderer works as a curator and cultural theorist. Her projects and texts focus on themes within the field of cultural history, media history and history of science and have been shown respectively published internationally. One of her last projects „The Last Things in Life. An Exhibition about Death and Mourning 1765-2015“ has been shown at Hofburg Innsbruck 2015/16.
- Title / Function
- Head of Department
- Field of Expertise
- Theory
- Telephone number
- +43 1 711 33 – 2778
- brigitte.felderer@uni-ak.ac.at
Project
Matters of Relationships
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.
- Title / Function
- Visiting Artist / Summer Term / 2020
- Field of Expertise
- Fine Arts, Film/Video and Electronic Music
- Links
- www.karinfisslthaler.com
Paulina Flores
Designer, Mexico
My life and profession are guided by the search for personal growth through different types of projects that contribute to a new reflection of our behavior towards others, for the development and strengthening of communities or organizations. I am interested in the promotion of the arts, design and the importance of cultural heritage as a collective memory and a fundamental element of the social fabric.
- pauflodlt@gmail.com
Project
documenta 2017
Project
Aus dem Rahmen
Project
Die Labile Botschaft
Project
Fair.versity 2016
Markus Gebhardt
Artist, Vienna
The artist and art-therapist grew up in Germany and lives currently in Vienna. He is mainly interested in deviant forms of cohabitation with a special focus on gender issues and queer culture. With his projects, he is carving out nuances of mutual understanding. The superordinate aim of his work is, to raise consciousness towards the beauty of diversity and its various possibilities for the co-existence within our society.
- Title / Function
- Alumni
- Field of Expertise
- Art and Art Therapy
- gebhardt.markus@yahoo.de
Michel Gölz
Applied Anthropologist, Vienna
Michel has studied Anthropology and is interested in applying theory to contribute to positive societal transformations. He: - speaks the languages of different disciplines and works towards a productive relationship of theory and practice. - Uses methods from the Arts to include citizens in the urban planning process. - Builds fictions of alternative living models to give an idea of where we are and where we want to go.
- Title / Function
- Alumni
- Field of Expertise
- Anthropology
- michel_goelz@yahoo.de
David Grüner
Artist and Visual Creator in Installation/Performance/Concept Art, Vienna
Coming from the mixed backgrounds architecture, philosophy and graphic-design, having worked in collectives on exhibiting in Hamburg, now operating in another collective working on similar topics based in Vienna.