What and who is "the" body? And how does our design practice align with "this" body? Current discourses around gender, racialization, handicap or age allow the question: How can a design practice be justified that clings to a (!) normative body? Especially in architecture this is still frequently practiced and since the early 20th century scholars of history and theory of architecture include "the body" as a general reference in their theories (e.g. art historian Heinrich Wölfflin) – but don't we urgently need an update of this general reference?
The Projektmodul Encasing bodies – Critical Perspectives on the Body in Architecture gathers students from different fields to actively research those questions. We are aiming for an adapted design practice, that includes data bodies, choreographed and composed bodies, deals with the encased bodies of architecture.
The course combines different forms of teaching and learning (workshops, group teaching, individual consultations, presentations, talks, design classes), with scholars and artists from various disciplines (architecture, art, dance, design theory). This course is explicitly for students who want to build a broad knowledge in the discourse around the "body". As we think that the topic has great social relevance, we aim at a formative practice that is aware of and includes the diversity of bodies. In terms of self-reliance, we want to encourage participating students to play an active role in developing the courses' program and thus once more be able to think critically about existing structures.
The project is accompanied by a Seminar and a Übung (field trip). Both courses provide participating students with further knowledge, in terms of inputs from experts in specific fields and intense examination of the body in design discourses. Also from a content-related point of view we therefore recommend to sign up for the three courses.
We kindly ask interested students to apply by email until October 10, 2022. Please send a short notice with the course’s name, your name, student number, field of study and a very short sentence why you are interested in the course to Louis Oehler and Ulrike Kuch (louis.oehler@uni-weimar.de and ulrike.kuch@uni-weimar.de). To ensure equal chances for all students only applications via email can be considered (not via Bison!).
We will have our first meeting October 13, 2022, 9.15 am. |