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space&designstrategies

space&designSTRATEGIES is a transdisciplinary field of study that is unusual in this form. It is positioned between art, social and critical design and architecture and mediates between the disciplines. The focus is on exploring artistic strategies in the context of public and institutional spaces. The Bachelor's and Master's programs are strongly practice-oriented. Teaching is based on projects for concrete urban, suburban or institutional spaces, often in collaboration with the actors and always in discussion with the users of these spaces. Unused urban spaces are reprogrammed and reinterpreted through interventions. Institutional art spaces are given new strategic contexts, for example in connection with festivals.

space&designSTRATEGIES takes a look at local and global questions concerning space in all its dimensions, from artistic, theoretical and experimental-research perspectives. Artistic strategies can act as a critical moment in planning processes, are used to activate empty urban spaces or to shape social, political, ecological and economic negotiation processes. The department space&designSTRATEGIES is based on the collaboration between two professors, assistants, external artists and students. Students work in an experimental environment consisting of studios, a (kitchen-) laboratory, workshops and spacious presentation and intervention rooms in and around the University of Art.

 

Annual project

At the heart of the program is the central artistic subject, which changes thematically each year. Within the framework of the annual project, different approaches are taught in workshops with artists and tested out by students. Workshops are offered in the fields of conceptual art, performance, critical design, artistic research, project-related theory, urbanism, dance and storytelling. Individual artistic strategies and projects are developed in an intensive exchange between students and teachers and are complemented by collective projects (exhibitions, festivals, district projects). 

Graduates of space&designSTRATEGIES work in all those areas where transdisciplinary work, strategic thinking and an innovative approach to public or institutional space are in demand, such as in interdisciplinary planning and development teams for rural and urban developments, in art institutions, in art education, at the interface between theater, film and (sub-)urban spaces, for festivals etc. Students receive a basic knowledge of urban and suburban spaces, artistic possibilities of intervention and interpretation, strategies of participation and mediation between actors and users, and much more. For this purpose, basic tools are taught, from drawing, graphic and handicraft means to cinematic and performative methods to the planning and construction of interventions and spaces on a scale of 1:1.

 

Bachelor‘s program

The bachelor's program teaches fundamental theories and practices of artistic strategies. In numerous workshops, students learn analog and digital drawing techniques as well as cinematic, textual and performative strategies. Students learn how to work with metal, wood and other materials in their own workshops. Each year, a major theme is addressed in the context of current issues. Students work research-based in teams in studios at the art university and conduct fieldwork at sites related to the theme. At the end of each academic year, students realize projects together in a public or institutional space.


Master's program

The internationally oriented master's program in space&designSTRATEGIES is designed for international students from a variety of backgrounds, including fine and applied arts, architecture and spatial planning, scenography, and similar fields of study. The master's program enables students to develop a personal approach to the conception, execution and realization of projects in public and institutional spaces. Projects in the master's program are usually linked to cultural institutions, urban development offices or initiatives, thus preparing students for cooperative practice in transdisciplinary teams. The master's program space&designSTRATEGIES is organized in platforms. Platforms help students to find their personal focus, be it in space&postdigital narratives, performative space, queer&feminist Space, space&politics or in space&ecology. The topic and form of the master's thesis can be chosen freely. Master's theses are periodically supervised and presented in small groups, should in any case include a written part, and otherwise correspond to the open character of the program. The language of instruction in the master's program is English and German. 

© raum&designstrategien

Head

Univ. Prof. Dr. DI Sabine Pollak together with Kollektiv Biennale Urbana Giulia Mazzorin PhD, Lorenzo Romito MA und Andrea Curtoni PhD

 

Contact

Gertraud Kliment
Mon-Thu: 8 a.m. to noon
strategies.office@kunstuni-linz.at 
T: +43 732 7898 3393
F: +43 732 7898 83393

Unversity of Art and Design Linz
Department of space&designstrategies
Hauptplatz 6
4020 Linz | Austria