Open call from the »IN TUNE« research project: Apply now for workshop and experience alternative design processes
The practice-based research project IN TUNE invites students and academic/artistic staff at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar to a one-week research workshop exploring alternative design and production processes. The focus is on material-oriented and body-related working methods at the interface of craftsmanship, digital technology, and performative practice. Applications are open until 12 December 2025.
Drawing on theories of New Materialism and New Dramaturgy, IN TUNE approaches material as an active co-creator and design as a corporeal, open-ended process. At its core, the workshop investigates the dynamic interplay between material, body, technology, and social context – beyond notions of classical authorship.
The workshop combines craft-based and digital techniques, artistic research, and performative methods. Historical artefacts from the Bauhaus Archive serve as points of departure for a contemporary re-fabrication – they are reinterpreted, transformed, and placed within new material and narrative contexts. The focus lies on a practical and performative engagement with materials such as textile and wood, through weaving, steam bending, 3D scanning, and body-based exercises. The hands-on work in the workshops will be complemented by impulse lectures, excursions, and performative sessions.
IN TUNE understands itself as a collective space of learning and making, where sensory, theoretical, and technical forms of knowledge stand side by side. The goal is to explore design as a care practice and to experiment with new ways of cooperation, attentiveness, and responsibility.
Who can participate?
We are looking for designers, researchers, and students who wish to explore design as an open, body-based, and material-driven field of experimentation.
We particularly invite individuals who:
- work with material and movement, craft and technology;
- are interested in performative, speculative, or research-based design practices;
- seek to connect historical reflection with current questions of social and ecological transformation;
- enjoy interdisciplinary collaboration and collective processes;
- and are open to developing their own design approaches in dialogue with others.
There are two places available for students and two places for academic/artistic staff of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Participation requires a bachelor’s degree in architecture, design, or a related field. No specific technical skills are required – only curiosity, openness, and a willingness to engage physically and practically in the work.
Dates: 15 – 21 February 2026
Location: Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Workshop language: English
Application deadline: 12 December 2025
Please submit a short motivation letter (max. 1 page, in English) and a portfolio or work sample (max. 10 MB) by 12 December 2025 to: mara.truebenbach[at]uni-weimar.de
Your motivation letter should briefly address the following:
- Why would you like to participate in the workshop?
- What experiences or interests connect you to material, the body, or performative design?
- What would you like to explore or experiment with during the workshop?
For more information about the project: www.uni-weimar.de/in-tune
Questions about the application: Mira Müller mira.mueller[at]uni-weimar.de / Dr. Mara Trübenbach mara.truebenbach[at]uni-weimar.de