Masks used as protection against the coronavirus have produced millions of tonnes of plastic waste. What if this waste could be recycled, even those masks contaminated by the virus? Two Bauhaus-Universität Weimar students could not stop asking themselves this question. Using a 3D printer, they showed what would be possible and created a toothbrush using recycled mask material. Their work is currently on display at the Marta Herford Museum or Art, Architecture, Design.

Thuringia’s largest contemporary art festival, Kunstfest Weimar, has begun and invites guests to experience art, film, music, theatre, drama and dance events and much more until 10 September 2022. Cooperative projects from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar are also part of the event.

Researchers at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar have been testing and analysing ways to improve the energy use in existing buildings and urban areas for years. We spoke to engineer Mara Geske, head of the »Energie« working group at the Building Physics Department, and asked her how we as individuals can reduce our energy use while at the same time improving our well-being.

The Building Physics Department has determined that unheated living spaces cool down to 7 or 8°C during an average German winter. Although a gas shortage in Germany is extremely unlikely to occur, proper heating and ventilation in the winter help to save energy and ensure a comfortable indoor climate.

With a total of six works from various artistic degree programmes at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, students and teaching staff will be presenting themselves at the renowned »Ars Electronica« media art festival in Linz from 7 to 11 September 2022. The installations, concerts and experiments were created in the »Media Art and Design« and »Media Architecture« degree programmes.

Vier Jahre lang haben Nachwuchswissenschaftler*innen an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar und an drei weiteren europäischen Hochschulen im Marie-Curie-Forschungsprojekt »urbanHIST – History of European Urbanism in the 20th Century« zur Geschichte einer europäischen Planung im 20. Jahrhundert geforscht. Ihre Forschungserkenntnisse zu Entwicklungen und zur Geschichte der europäischen Stadtplanung im 20. Jahrhundert vereint nun die englischsprachige Neuerscheinung »European Planning History in the 20th Century. A Continent of Urban Planning« im Print- und im Open-Access-Format.

Dem inter- und transdisziplinären Forschungsprojekt »Drei Zimmer, Küche, Diele, Bad. Eine Wohnung mit Optionen« widmet sich eine Neuerscheinung im Jovis Verlag. Das Projekt formuliert, verhandelt und erforscht Fragen an das Wohnen in der Zukunft anhand der Transformation einer leerstehenden Wohnung in einem denkmalgeschützten Gebäudeensemble aus den 1920er Jahren in Weimar.

Im Rahmen des interdisziplinären Bauhaus.Moduls »Ping.Pong.Pocket« haben Studierende im Sommersemester 2022 zwei recycelte Tischtennisplatten entworfen und gebaut, die zukünftig von Studierenden und Mitarbeitenden der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar genutzt werden können. Am Freitag, 12. August 2022, ab 16 Uhr, werden die Ping-Pong-Platten zunächst im Hof der Coudraystraße 11 und anschließend im Hof der Marienstraße 13 bei einem Turnier, Getränken und Musik feierlich eingeweiht. Interessierte sind herzlich auf ein »Match« eingeladen.

Martin Siegler, who is a research associate within the Professorship for Media Philosophy at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, has been awarded second prize in the humanities and cultural studies section of the 2022 German Study Prize for his dissertation on the subject of media articulations of human existence in emergency and catastrophe situations. Conferred by the Körber Foundation, this award honours outstanding work of particular social significance.

From this autumn, Prof. Dr. Andrea Dreyer (Professor of Art Education, Faculty of Art and Design) and Prof. Dr. Bernd Fröhlich (Professor of Virtual Reality Systems, Faculty of Media) will receive funding from the »Innovationen in der digitalen Hochschullehre« joint fellowship programme of the donors’ association (Stifterverband) of the German initiative to promote education, science and innovation (Deutsche Wissenschaft e. V.) and the Thuringian Ministry of Economics, Science and Digital Society. The state of Thuringia is supporting teaching concepts with up to €50,000 to encourage innovations in digital university teaching.

The Webis group involving Prof. Dr. Benno Stein (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar), Prof. Dr. Martin Potthast (Leipzig University) and Prof. Matthias Hagen (University of Halle) will cooperate with eleven other leading European research centres to develop an open web search infrastructure for Europe as part of the »OpenWebSearch.EU« project. The project aims to contribute to Europe’s digital sovereignty and to foster an open, human-centred search engine market. It is being funded with €8.5 million through »Horizon Europe«, which is the European Commission’s key funding programme for research and innovation.

In the winter semester 2021/22, students from the Faculty of Art & Design embarked on an in-depth exploration of complaints and the processes these trigger that are often contrary to the intention of the actual complaint within the module entitled »Complaint!ivism?«. The outcome is almost 200 individual entries that address this highly topical social issue from an art-theoretical and artistic perspective in a wide variety of formats.

Im Rahmen ihrer Sommertour besucht die Thüringer Gesundheitsministerin Heike Werner derzeit verschiedene Institutionen des Gesundheitswesens, Ärztinnen und Ärzte und Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler, um nach zwei Jahren Pandemie Bilanz zu ziehen. Den Auftakt beging die Ministerin am Montag, den 18. Juli an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Im Gespräch mit Frau Prof. Jutta Emes, vorläufige Leiterin der Universität, sowie Prof. Silvio Beier und weiteren Projektpartner*innen wurde der Erfolg des Pilotprojektes »SARS-CoV-2-Abwassermonitoring in Thüringen« (CoMoTH) ausgewertet. Trotz positiver Bilanz: Ob eine Anschlussfinanzierung des Projektes ab August 2022 bewilligt wird, steht noch nicht fest.

»Wer weiß? | Who knows?«: The summaery2022 had this deliberately ambiguous title and asked how, where and by whom knowledge is produced. Organized by the Faculty of Media, this year's annual show at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar was finally able to take place on campus again after a two-year pandemic.

On Monday 18 July, the Thuringian minister will stop off in Weimar as part of her summer tour. The extent to which waste water should be analysed all across Germany to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and other pathogens will be discussed during an exchange with Professor Silvio Beier and other partners from the pilot project »SARS-CoV-2 waste water monitoring in Thuringia« (CoMoTH).

This year, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s annual show has the intentionally ambiguous bilingual title of »Wer weiß? | Who knows?« and explores how, where and by whom knowledge is produced. Among the projects due to be showcased is »PARFORCE«, a partnership for virtual laboratories in civil engineering within which students from the Faculty of Civil Engineering have been working on the question of how virtual and remote-controlled experiments can be integrated into university practice. We spoke to course tutor Mahsa Mirboland from the Professorship for Complex Structures about the project and the work with the students.

This year, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s annual show has the intentionally ambiguous bilingual title of »Wer weiß? | Who knows?« and explores how, where and by whom knowledge is produced. The Faculty of Media is responsible for organising the summaery2022, hence it is only logical that the project that has lent it its name also has its origins there. In the interdisciplinary project »SHAKIN’ – Sharing subaltern knowledge through international cultural collaborations«, students from the Faculty of Media, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, and Faculty of Art and Design question the origin of knowledge, including knowledge that does not emanate from an academic environment but rather from practice. The participants also examine knowledge created by other media though – by machines, orally via YouTube or through bodily practices such as dance, for instance. We spoke with course tutor Jun.-Prof. Dr. Eva Krivanec from the Professorship for European Media Culture about the project and the work with the students.

On Friday, 15 July, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is hosting two key events as part of its summaery2022 annual show. At 12:30–6 pm, visitors are invited to explore fascinating experiments, go on lab tours and view computer simulations along the 300-metre SCIENCE MILE Q3 on Coudraystraße: Are houses made of straw sustainable? And what exactly does plaster have to do with the coal phase-out? And how does a virtual mechanics lab work? Afterwards, the OPEN LAB NIGHT 2022 will begin in Schwanseestraße with virtual reality, game design and 3D engineering. Until 10 pm, visitors can tour the computer science labs and speak with the scientists and students while they enjoy cold beverages, barbecued food and DJ music.

This year, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s annual show has the intentionally ambiguous bilingual title of »Wer weiß? | Who knows?« and explores how, where and by whom knowledge is produced. The project »Hyperobjects – radical visions of the future / the limits of our human imagination« is among those due to be showcased: twenty students from the fields of art education, product design, media art and visual communication have each devoted themselves artistically to their own hyperobjects, i.e. topics whose extent surpasses the understanding of space and time. The spectrum ranges from collective phenomena such as climate change, the relationship between nature and technology or the scarcity of resources to topics like anonymity, identity, time, death or loss that affect people in different ways. We spoke to the students Antonia Stella Pfadenhauer and Maximilian Götz as representatives for all course participants and asked them about their work and »knowledge«.

This year, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s annual exhibition has the intentionally ambiguous bilingual title of »Wer weiß? | Who knows?« and explores how, where and by whom knowledge is produced. The interdisciplinary project entitled »Lightweight Highrise Buildings – vertikale Stadtquartiere der Zukunft« is among the projects being showcased. A total of 17 Master’s students of architecture and civil engineering addressed the question of how sustainable, resource-saving and, above all, efficient building will be possible in the future. We spoke to the students Lara Engelke, Marc Bisselik and Robin Fechtel as representatives for all course participants and asked them about their work and »knowledge«.