What will my studies look like in the winter semester? As a first semester student, how will I get to know other students while still staying safe? What will be taking place in-person and what will be taking place digitally? Questions like these are at the forefront of prospective students’ minds right now. Preparation and planning for the upcoming winter semester at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is running full speed ahead. Although the design of the semester is becoming more and more clear, there are some details that have not yet been finalized and these are often not visible from an outside perspective.

This is where the www.uni-weimar.de/wintersemester2020 website comes in: The site offers up-to-date information on preparations for the winter semester and details the efforts being made to offer as many courses as possible while still providing the necessary protection against infection.

To illustrate these measures and to inspire students to take part in this »somewhat unusual« winter semester, animation artist Aline Helmcke conceived a series of short clips for the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in September. These short funny clips illustrate the conditions that both first-year and more seasoned students have had to adjust to. Wearing a mask, physical distancing, regular room ventilation and digital teaching are all subjects in the series. More personal experiences in private or in classrooms also play a role in the clips. 

Aline Helmcke knows the university well. From 2016 to 2017 and 2019 to 2020, the visual artist and film maker held the Professorship of Multimedia Narration in the faculty of Art and Design at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and prior to this worked at the university as an artistic staff member. During the 2020 summer semester, she was an instructor who – like all other instructors – taught digitally. 

Aline Helmcke graduated from the Berlin University of the Arts with a degree in fine arts and then continued on to study animation at the Royal College of Art in London.  Her drawings, works on paper, films and moving image pieces have been displayed at exhibitions and festivals. They have also been exhibited at, among other places, the Nomas Foundation in Rome, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Banja Luka, the Hamburger Kunstverein and the Kunsthalle Erfurt Her animated films have been shown at festivals such as Cut Out Fest Mexico, Girona Film Festival, Transmediale Berlin and the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Films. » ahelmcke.com