August 30–September 2, 2018
Berlin 10965
Germany
After the preliminary course “From Bauhaus to Silicon Valley” last year, this summer projekt bauhaus revives the Bauhaus’s workshop structure in order to explore the emancipatory potential of technology, to question the idea of progress, and to formulate a critique of the present through design.
The classical avant-garde believed in progress, a better future, and in improvement through innovation. The new has lost its innocence. These days, “utopias” increasingly pursue ambitions of deceleration (slow food, urban gardening, etc.) and preservation (climate goals and conservation of the environment and culture). Whereas ever-accelerating capitalist processes are often experienced as problematic, a (largely conservative) critique aims to negate or reject them. Is progress still emancipatory and preservation reactionary, or are things in fact fundamentally very different? Accelerationism’s plea for a renewal of the alliance between emancipatory aspirations and technological and scientific advances has given rise to the debate whether this liaison can deliver on its promise, or whether emancipation should rather use the means of criticism and deviance. Moreover, technology and financialization create new geopolitical orders, shift ideological narratives, and transform societal systems. But scientific and technological advancements only lead to limited social improvements within society. Thus, the question must be asked: does the current backward-looking political and ideological trends are taking place in spite of—or due to—advances in information technology? What are the current models of a cultural practice that consider technology and knowledge production in terms of the progress of society as a global whole? How can such a practice be shaped and communicated? And how can it be disseminated to the public?
projekt bauhaus invites international teams of practitioners and theoricians from different disciplines in order to explore the emancipatory potential of technology, the decolonisation of progress and the critique of the present through design. Over four days, the guests and the participants will exchange on the current state of research through workshops, lectures, exhibitions and performances. projekt bauhaus Werkstatt features also artistic interventions specially developed for the occasion by Morehshin Allahyari, Olaf Nicolai and Brave New Alps and that will be performed onsite. projekt bauhaus Werkstatt takes place in the sculptural and performative Floating University, designed and initiated by raumlaborberlin as an experimental and interdisciplinary laboratory for knowledge production.
Public Program
2–10pm
Limited number of seating
Tickets online
Thursday, August 30
Welcome and Introduction
11am
Main Hall
Schering Stiftung: Christina Landbrecht
Volkswagen Stiftung: Cora Schaffert-Ziegenbalg
projekt bauhaus Werkstatt: Anh Linh Ngo, Christian Hiller, Joanne Pouzenc, Armen Avanessian, Victoria Ivanova
Datatopia Summer School: Georg Vrachliotis
Floating University: Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius
Undoing the Bauhaus: Perversions and Performances
3pm
Main Hall
Public Time
Beatriz Colomina / Mark Wigley with performative interventions by students from Princeton University and Columbia University
Dialog
7pm
Main Hall
Armin Linke in conversation with Georg Vrachliotis
Friday, August 31
Bauhaus Trends
3pm
Main Hall
Public Time / Lecture
T'ai Smith
Medium Design
5pm
Main Hall
Public Time / Lecture
Keller Easterling
Forensic Architecture
7pm
Main Hall
Public Time / Lecture
Eyal Weizman
Saturday, September 1
Parading for Commoning
3pm
Main Hall
Public Time / Presentation and Workshop
Brigade: Brave New Alps & Öffentliche Gestaltungsberatung with students of the HfbK
Parading for Commoning
5pm
Tempelhofer Feld
Public Time / Parade
Brigade: Brave New Alps & Öffentliche Gestaltungsberatung with students of the HfbK
"The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what’s going on": An Update on The Stack
7pm
Main Hall
Public Time / Lecture
Benjamin H. Bratton
The Bauhaus Files. Silent Partners
8:30pm
Main Hall
Performance
Olaf Nicolai
Sunday, September 2
Conclusion of the Datatopia Summer School
3pm
Main Hall
Talk / Debate
with the participants and Georg Vrachliotis
Hot Terms!
5pm
Main Hall
Developing the floating university lexicon
with Gilly Karjevsky
Breaching towards Other Futures
7pm
Platform
Performance
Morehshin Allahyari with Shirin Fahimi
Permanent installations
Urban Forest
Installation / Video and Reading Room
Breaching towards Other Futures
Morehshin Allahyari
Reader and Documentation
Reading Unfinished Processes
Brigade: Brave New Alps & Öffentliche Gestaltungsberatung with students of the HfbK
Daily
Datatopia Summer School
10am–1pm
Around the Floating University
Quick Talks
2pm
Main Hall
Bauhaus on Waves
2–3pm
Around the Floating University
Ivan L. Munuera & Paula Vilaplana
Photo Booth
10am–10pm
Students from Princeton University and Columbia University
Drop Bar
Students from Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin
projekt bauhaus Werkstatt / Datatopia is a project by ARCH+ Verein zur Förderung des Architektur- und Stadtdiskurses e.V.
