Alumni programme

The department of Social Design – Arts as Urban Innovation takes an active interest in the steps and development the alumni make after graduating. Supporting both to the alumni and the current students, we organize public events and excursions in which the growing expertise of the alumni feeds back into the study discourse and into projects.

Two of the alumni gave presentations of their current projects at the Social Design “Krampus Kränzchen”. Ulduz Ahmadzadeh presented her project “Fremdkörper - The social life of Strange” focusing on the public debate on the self-determination of women; Titled “Scale down”, Joanna Zabielska’s talk laid out her search for balance between personal projects and paid jobs, built on choices faced by an urban planner who never expected to end up in field of exhibition design. A creepy and fun punch party honouring Austria’s Krampus tradition followed the lively discussions.

Under the title: “DEMOCRATIC GYMNASTIC” Cosima Terrasse gave an alumni talk within the frame of the “Oskar nimmt Platz” project. Through two of her Social Design projects (“Admirabel - Was kostet” and “Hunde aller Talente”), she presented Objekt 19's social Lab “Liebes Kreta”. The lab intends to soften the impact of urban processes and to be a bridge between the working-class district (Favoriten) and the cultural area of Brotfabrik-Wien through participatory practices.

Dilruba Erkan’s talk “Tiny Nipple: an investigation from gentrification to social design” presented her research currently conducted at the University Panthéon – Sorbonne focused on “symbolic displacement”. She also presented a qualitative investigation into “Liebes Kreta” and its impact on inhabitant’s place attachment.

Alejandra Loreto shared her experiences of places in three different countries: her home country Venezuela, Austria and Côte d’Ivoire, where she is working now in an architecture office. She discussed concepts such as place identity, memory and their relationship with the built environment.

On May 25th the Social Design students and alumni went on a joint excursion to Perg in Upper-Austria, to gain insights and impressions of the area of 2019’s "Festival der Regionen" focusing on “Social Warmth”. In addition to the option of participating in the festival’s open call, there will be a direct cooperation of the SD-Studio with Airan Berg, the festival’s director.

Time

ongoing

Location

Vienna

Team

Monika Farukuoye

Social Design alumni