The path into the semester #8 – Staying creative until M18 reopens

The Maschinenraum is responding with expertise

Inspired by media reports and their own experiences, the students of the Maschinenraum initiative are collecting old hardware in order to repair it and make it available to schoolchildren and students: »Every now and again, we receive defective or decommissioned laptops that we overhaul for reuse. We are currently testing various software solutions to find a good compromise between user-friendliness and resource consumption,« an initiative representative explains. Anyone unable to access a computer but urgently needing one can contact maschinenraum-laptop[at]m18.uni-weimar.de. Several laptops have already been collected following an appeal and the initiative always welcomes further hardware donations. 

PORT Magazine is working on PORT 2020 and its merchandise

»The coronavirus pandemic has really restricted the way we work and we’ve had to restructure a bit to use digital communication and collaboration options instead,« explains Luise Wolter from PORT Magazine, which will also be published for the summaery this year and provide an overview of projects by students of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar from all faculties and semesters. The latest challenge the team is facing is how to generate the necessary funding: »So as to not merely be carried by the funding, we decided to become active ourselves and are counting on the support of PORT fans. We plan to sell merchandise and use the proceeds to produce the magazine.«

Bauhaus.fm now airs on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays

Bauhaus.fm radio station, which is operated by students in cooperation with the Professorship for Experimental Radio, has expanded its programme significantly and now airs several days a week. Michael Wilde sees radio as a medium that can help bring people in isolation together at this time: »As an audio-based medium, radio gets through to listeners like no other. As an experimental radio initiative, we understand radio as a force that successfully brings people in isolation together. And it is precisely this sense of togetherness that a lot of people are missing at the moment.« The initiative also devotes airtime to discussing the pandemic: several radio team members are currently outside of Germany – these personal perspectives on the crisis from different continents are to be included in the programme.

s140 and Kontor&Stift are waiting for M18 to reopen

»We visit the shop regularly even though it is closed at the moment – similar to during the semester break,« say Anna Leidenfrost, Johanna Bänsch and Olaf Kammler from Kontor&Stift. »We check that none of the products have gone out of date.« The team is gladly taking urgent orders via email; orders can then be picked up (in compliance with the social distancing and hygiene regulations). Payments are currently by invoice. In future, contactless payments will also be possible when the shop can reopen. To prepare for the reopening, face masks are currently being sought for the volunteer staff. Ideally, these should be made from washable cotton. Anyone able to help with this should please email the initiative: kontor.stift[at]gmail.com. Café s140 is also closed, of course, and has donated its food supplies with a limited shelf life. It is waiting to be allowed to reopen: »The café is key to student life and M18 is a meeting place for everyone. There is a gaping emptiness in the house and garden – the social exchange is slumbering like Sleeping Beauty,« observe the initiative representatives.

A virtual M18 has been providing an alternative new meeting place for students on a Discord server. Initiators Anna-Lena Öhmann and Beatrice Girth encourage all students to use this opportunity: »You can party, cook, work together or simply chat.« Tim Model, who is the chairman of the student council at the Liszt School of Music Weimar, also emphasises the social aspect of the involvement in such initiatives: »Many of the initiatives survive on personal interaction. I don’t think that everything can be translated to a digital or online format – but I am confident that students will remain in contact. This has already a huge help for many people at this time.«

»Depending on the student initiative, adapting to the current circumstances is sometimes easy and at other times more complicated,« says Julien Breunig from the StuKo’s initiative coordination department of the state of student involvement during the summer semester. »Many events cannot take place in their usual form. No initiative has been dissolved though – they are all just waiting for their chance to start up again or have already found ways to remain active.«