How does inspiration come about? How do we find ideas? How can we create work together having various disciplinary backgrounds and working with different media and techniques?
In this workshop, we will focus on the idea-generating processes by experimenting with the cross-disciplinary creative practice of Aesthetic Transformation. The course is aimed at artists of all disciplines, designers, architects, and people who work in the creative sector and would like to experiment in an interdisciplinary environment and connect to the Berlin art and design scene.
The participant’s locations all over the world will serve us as a starting point for an inspirational journey. Sound, performance, dance, visual or conceptual artists, writers, poets, sculptors, designers, architects, and other creative practitioners will respond to a chosen site and develop their theme(s), followed by sequential works that act upon multiple interpretative statements of the participants. Individual work will connect to others, unfolding a collective, multi-perspective artistic investigation on the chosen sites, and developing topics.
The Aesthetic Transformation process will provide participants with a bounty of ideas and concepts, which can prove to be useful for their creative practice. Online studio visits with artists and designers of the Berlin independent art scene will offer the opportunity for conversations, contact, and networking. Theory readings and in-class discussions will allow for a critical inquiry of contemporary art practices as well as the participant’s creative practice.
SCHEDULE
Monday
Aesthetic Transformations: Inspiration Across Disciplinary Boundaries
Video Conference: Welcome, Introduction
Elvira & Margit and Seminar Participants
Formulating goals of the seminar: leading thought/transformation fabric
Module 1
Video Lecture: Introduction into Aesthetic Transformation Processes
Exercise: Generating a first inkling/online field trips
Dialogical response and
Aesthetic Transformation step1
Theory Reading 1
Tuesday
Submit first response to online platform
Module 2
Video Lecture: Improvisation and Creativity
Video Conference: Discussion forum 1
Reflection of inklings, conversation about first responses
Online studio visit Berlin Artist/Designer
Individual Work Session:
Limiting factors in creative processes
Dialogical Response and Aesthetic Transformation step 2
Submit second response to online platform
Theory Reading 2
Wednesday
Module 3
Video Lecture: Creativity as Category Shifting
Video Conference: Discussion forum 2
Reflection and feedback conversation
Online studio visit Berlin Artist/Designer
Individual Work Session: Aesthetic Transformation game – Chance operations
Dialogical Response and Aesthetic Transformation Step 3
Submit third response to online platform
Theory Reading 3
Thursday
Module 4
Video Lecture: Interdisciplinarity — Inspiration Across Boundaries
Video Conference: Discussion forum 3
Reflection and feedback conversation
Developing final work
Work session: Condensation of ideas
Dialogical Response and Aesthetic Transformation Step 4
Final Work: Submit fourth response to online platform
Friday
Module 5
Final Presentations online
Video Conference: Discussion forum 4
Reflection and feedback conversation
Final review and closing contributions
Public online exhibition
Syllabus may be subject to change.
Elvira Hufschmid is a multi-media artist, curator, and author in the field of processes of aesthetic transformation and temporary art spaces. She collaborates with Dr. Margit Schild as a fellow/affiliated researcher at the Berlin Centre for Advanced Studies in Arts & Sciences (BAS) at the Berlin University of the Arts, with the research project Leaning Out of Windows – Art & Physics Collaborations through Aesthetic Transformations. Associated to Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada, the project brings international scholars and researchers from major particle physics laboratories (TRIUMF Vancouver, Fermilab Chicago) into a conversation with an international team of contemporary artists in order to explore how knowledge can be translated across (disciplinary) communities. Elvira received her MA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute, US, and is currently a first-year Ph.D. candidate in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University, Canada.
elvira-hufschmid.de
leaningoutofwindows.org
Dr.-Ing. Margit Schild is a filmmaker, artist, and curator. She received a doctorate at the University of Hanover and studied Landscape and Open Space Planning, and worked as a lecturer and guest professor at various universities, including the Berlin University of the Arts and Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada. She collaborates with Elvira Hufschmid as a fellow/affiliated researcher at the Berlin Centre for Advanced Studies in Arts & Sciences (BAS) at the Berlin University of the Arts, with the research project Leaning Out of Windows – Art & Physics Collaborations through aesthetic transformations. In 2015, she directed her first documentary film Drifting on flight and migration. The documentary Orten is her first full-length film. In addition to her work as a director, she is a co-founder of the School of the Provisional. In Autumn 2020, Margit was curating a symposium on Improvisation at the HKW House of World Cultures. She lives and works in Berlin as well as in Canada.