Discover the famous and hidden hotspots of culture and subculture in past and present Berlin.

Download the timetable (PDF, 44 KB)

Course Content

We will follow the trails of historical paths and encounter artists and their places. The workshop will introduce you to classical and contemporary art as well as to the digital culture of the city.

Objectives

You will look for the traces of urban street art, beginning with the 1980ies and meet international street artists active in Berlin. In painter's studios you will be introduced to the modern history of art of Germany. You will design and execute games in urban space and visit the museum of computer games, with outstanding historical artifacts of digital games. You will go on trips to forgotten spots of Cold War places and discover the remains of Eastern Germany in contemporary Berlin.

Who is this course addressed to?

Students with interests in art, cultural history, design and games.

Methodology

Learning by doing: A mix of theoretical lessons, field trips and practical workshops. The field trips take place after a theoretical and historical session and close with individual projects.

Course Coordinator

Prof. Dr. Stephan Günzel, Professor for Media Theory at btk. Research in virtual and real spaces, images, and digital games.

Team

Dr. Tilmann Wesolowski, Historian and Curator

Achim Bahr, 3D Modelling

Carla Farrugia (Malta), Urban StreetArt in Berlin

Hans Hendrik Grimmling: Recent Art History of Germany

Detailed Course Description

Week 1

Visit of the Bauhaus Archive Museum of Design. We will discuss the collection art pieces, items, documents and literature that are related to the Bauhaus School (1919 - 1933), one of the most influential schools of architecture, design, and art of the 20th century. (Prof. S Günzel)

Visit of four artists in their studios in Berlin Kreuzberg and Wedding (Painting and Sculpture). (Prof. H. H. Grimmling)

Trip to the international gallery scene in the surroundings of Potsdamer Street. We will visit six galleries and meet with the management of an important art institution. (Prof. H. H. Grimmling)

Urban Games: We will participate in an event by “Invisible Playground”. They create site-specific games with a view onto the outside world better than games that you can escape to. You will be part of the playful system that remixes the connections between people, the environment they inhabit, and the technology they use. We love it when games are fun and make us happy together, in this world. But we’re also interested in things like loneliness, boredom, greed and betrayal. invisibleplayground.com

Week 2

Museums are more than collections and exhibitions. They are also an institution of culture and cultural politics, as well as a source to study the history of cultural politics.

In the museums we will track down the remains of the cultural politics from the German Kaiserreich until this day. On top of that, we will take a look at different presentation forms of exhibitions throughout history. We will focus on the remains of the imperial cultural politics and its criticism in the museums of the Museumsinsel.

In the Museum der Dinge and the Museum Neukölln we will get to know a cultural representation which positions itself in quite another social and politico-cultural context.

Finally, in the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin we will take a comparative look at different ways exhibitions were designed in the course of time. On the way you will be free to collect objects, draw or take pictures of them. At the end of the workshop this will enable you to create your own exhibition concept in context to a social or political statement.

Week 3

Street communication and subversive creativity

Most major cities in the world are a constantly changing canvas of street art, which makes a running commentary on the social, cultural and political situation of that society. In Berlin, the city streets are an open air gallery of urban art, giving us a glimpse of different subcultures and several modes of subversive expression happening within.

We will look into the various types, styles and techniques of urban art like graffiti and stencilling, as well as flash mobs and art interventions. We will trace the graffiti phenomenon in the history of art - from rock paintings to Picasso to contemporary works of urban art. A common discussion around this topic is - Does street art embellish or destroy the urban environment? We will investigate this argument and look into how creativity and subversiveness work together in this area.

We will also explore street art in context, taking Berlin as our case study. How does Berlin itself influence the artists working within it and in turn, how do these street artists help to shape the city? Urban art is also a means of political expression and we will discuss and look at examples from the Berlin Wall, and more recent examples like Libya and Palestine.

We will investigate graffiti and urban art from the perspective of the media and the relationships they have with photography, the internet, film and music. Finally we will meet street artists active in Berlin and work ourselves on an urban art project.

Studio Visits and Excursions

A.MAZE: Computer Games Museum and Game Art

Invisible Playground: Urban Games in Berlin

The Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial (Ministry of State Security Prison)

Wasserturm-Katakomben