Electives Others

CAMERA, LIGHT, PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO FOR ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS II

Seminar Elective Damjan Minovski Zoom / Media Lab Wed bi-weekly 10.30–13.30

We will create and work with 3D scans, analyze and apply techniques borrowed from the film, vfx and game industry. Furthermore we will establish a solid foundation on the topics of image synthesis, pointcloud/image/ video capture and physics of lights and materials.

WOMEN AND OTHER ANOMALIES: AN EXPLORATION OF GENDER BIAS IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Seminar Elective Michelle Howard Luciano Parodi guest: Aristide Antonas Zoom / AU_1.16 Tue bi-weekly 9.30–11.30

Imagine a world where the door handle is too big and too difficult to operate, your heart attack is misdiagnosed, you are 73% more likely to be seriously injured in a car accident. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you’re not a white western male.

Inspired by the book, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, by Caroline Criado Perez, we will investigate the staircase and the windowsill, warming and ventilating, and ask how people of other backgrounds and genders would have gone about designing them. On the basis of these explorations we will make proposals for permanent changes to the Academy’s main building at Schillerplatz in the first district.

One may expect these changes to feel uncanny at first, they could alternatively expose the peculiarity of the built environment that we currently inhabit. Perhaps this workshop addresses and challenges standardisation itself. Our built environment can and should accommodate more of us, whatever our gender or abilities. Moreover, new advances in technology will allow customisation to become cheaper and far more common if we insist that they do.

This seminar is open to all students and faculty in the Academy.

THESIS DOCUMENTATION

Seminar MArch4 Lisa Schmidt-Colinet Zoom / AU_1.15 Mon 14.15–15.45

The course focuses on the representation and documentation of the thesis project. It challenges the students to develop their theses through a continuous process of oral articulation, writing, drawing and documenting, and enables them to formulate and structure their proposals. As the final synthesis of the graduation project, students submit their thesis documentation in the form of a book putting forward their thesis. It presents their hypotheses and methodology, includes research materials, the process of production and documentation of the final thesis project.

HOW ARE OUR CITIES SEXIST?*

Envisioning the city from the perspective of the flâneuse Christina Ehrmann Christopher Gruber Mona Steinmetzer Time and place to be announced

In a series of guided tours – Stadtspaziergänge – we will explore our city from a feminist perspective, taking on the role of flâneuse1. This will help us extend our understanding of the urban domain, and of the tension between city-as-barrier and city-as-possibility2. The programme explores themes ranging from mobility, security and public space to housing, work and consumption. We will be accompanied by experts on these walks through the city and engage in discussions with the participants – the flâneuses.

1 flâneuse: from the French verb flâner, the flâneur is “one who wanders aimlessly’”(Wiktionary), “not doing anything in particular but watching people and society” (Cambridge Dictionary); used as a gendered noun. 2 Kern, Leslie. Feminist City. London: Verso Books, 2019.

*This series of events takes place within the framework of the 100th anniversary of the admission of women to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. The participation is open to the public.