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Dear readers
“It affects us all!”
The year is drawing to a close and we look back, grateful and enriched, at the many events and exhibitions that we were able to put on this year in collaboration with our cultural partners in Berlin. And yet we are shocked that the arts scene in Berlin, from which we benefit in the course of our collaborations and which influences our students and alumni in so many different ways, is now facing an existential threat due to cuts of more than 10%. If Berlin's cultural landscape is cut, the future of artistic higher education will also be in danger!
Even after they have completed their studies, our alumni continue to draw on the unique interconnectedness of university arts studies, research and practical arts experience. Indeed, that they succeed again and again with the approaches they developed during their studies in acting as initiators between research, business and society is something that you can experience in December in the GRASSI Museum in Leipzig, for example. In the exhibition “ZUKÜNFTE. Materialien und Design von morgen” ” (FUTURES: Materials and design of tomorrow), seven alumni and artistic research assistants present pioneering solutions to global challenges.
In addition to this and other exhibitions, we present five prize-winners to you in this newsletter. We are particularly proud of Ella Einhell. She has been named by the daily newspaper Tagesspiegel as one of the “100 most important people in science and research in Berlin in 2024”.
Science and culture represent the potential of Berlin. But academic research too is under huge threat from cuts. Berlin’s universities are supposed to receive 100 million euros less in direct subsidies, a total of 280 million euros in cuts are planned for 2025 in the science and health departments. What is there left for us to say?
We hope that Berlin might still review its position here and rethink the cuts that are planned in these essential and yet fragile areas. Insofar as this is possible in view of this acute crisis and also the situation in global politics, we wish you a relaxing festive period and strength and vigour for the new year in 2025.
Your weissensee school of art and design berlin
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Rinaldo
In the context of the musical theatre workshop – a cooperative venture between the Hanns Eissler School of Music and the weissensee school of art and design berlin –, students from the Departments of Stage and Costume Design, Stage Direction, Voice and Production Dramaturgy have adapted selected scenes from Georg Friedrich Handel’s “Rinaldo” for the stage. The premiere is on 7 and 8 December 2024 in the studio of the Hanns Eisler School of Music. In 1711, Georg Friedrich Handel celebrated his triumphant debut in London with his opera “Rinaldo”. Based on Giacomo Rossi's libretto by Torquato Tasso, the opera deals with a subject from the time of the Crusades - and is now one of the milestones of the Baroque opera repertoire.
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Feminist Foyer
With their exhibition “Feminist Foyer: Desire – Identity – Sexuality – Body”, 22 students from all departments want to analyse and reflect upon unequal gender relations and body politics and to move these issues into the centre of discourse at the university. Using various media – painting, print, textiles, video, comics, sculpture – they explore topics like body (images) and societal norms. An important approach is to work autoethnographically, i.e. to embark on an exploration of self in which the point of departure is one’s own experiences. The exhibition can be seen from 5 to 19 December 2024 in the foyer of the weissensee school of art and design berlin.
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Notes of a design researcher
In the series of public lectures “see – ander(e)s sehen” (“Look at things differently and see something new”), newly appointed professors present their work and their research. Prof. Dr Judith Dobler is a visiting professor for Performative Design Research in the Department of Theory and History as well as being a member of the excellence cluster “Matters of Activity”. She will be opening the series this semester with her lecture “Notes of a design researcher” at 5 pm on Wednesday, 11 December 2024 in the main assembly hall of the university. Her research interests cover collaborative drawing as a medium of communication, design as empirical knowledge and design methods in post-disciplinary research.
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FUTURES – Materials and design of tomorrow
In a new special exhibition, which runs until 24 August 2025, the GRASSI Museum for Applied Art in Leipzig is taking a look at the future and showing how design influences the world of tomorrow. The exhibits range from post-apocalyptic visions to products of the circular economy that are already on the market today. In times of global challenges like the climate crisis, shortages of resources and social inequality, designers and artists show us new ways forward and act as pioneers and networkers, operating between research, industry and society. The exhibition includes work from renowned designers as well as from alumni and artistic research assistants at our university.
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Christa Petroff-Bohne is one of the most influential German designers of the post-war period, especially of the 1950s and 1960s. She had a defining influence on everyday culture with her cutlery and stainless steel crockery. The designs were modern, open, durable and always with a clear focus on their practical use. As a professor at the weissensee school of art and design berlin, she was a significant personality for decades and influenced generations of students. She was presented with the Federal Cross of Merit by the Senator for Higher Education and Research Dr Ina Czyborra for her outstanding life’s work. We offer her our warmest congratulations.
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Allistair Walter, who completed his studies in painting in the summer, has been nominated for the new international art prize “Young Generation Art Award”. His pictures will be shown, together with those of five other shortlisted artists, in the Degussa branch office at Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin from 28 November 2024 to 20 February 2025. The award will be made on 20 February 2025, the closing date of the exhibition. The Young Generation Art Award was created by the precious metals dealer Degussa together with Monopol – Magazine for Art and Life and comes with a prize of 10,000 euros and a travelling exhibition.
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Ella Einhell studied product design at the weissensee school of art and design berlin and has now been named by the daily newspaper Tagesspiegel as one of the 100 most important people in science and research in Berlin in 2024. With her studio, she works on the transformation of wasted resources into innovative raw materials. She conducts research, for example, into which raw materials can be replaced by bone ash and bone meal and has developed out of this research materials like modern bone glass, bone china and bone terracotta. She then uses industrial processes and traditional handicraft to turn these materials into aesthetically novel and yet resource-efficient products like vases.
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With her project Mono Wool, Michelle Müller has won a 2024 Mia Seegers Award. In the course of her master’s thesis in the Department of Product Design, Michelle Müller looked for alternatives to upholstery fillings made of oil-based foam. The use of raw wool creates the option of producing filling with just a single material. The cover is knitted with cavities, filled and formed into a seat shell using a folding mechanism. 3D knitting technology allows the upholstery to be produced entirely on the machine, eliminating the need for manual work. The wool cushions that are produced in this way are made of 100% wool; their production is local, circular and socially responsible.
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Marc-Roman Page, a graduate from the Department of Product Design, has won the main prize at the 2024 Awards of the SYN-Foundation for his end-of-course assignment “Recasting Aesthetics” on the future of the material plaster. The award supports the continuation of his work on this topic together with the company Knauf as his industry partner. “Recasting Aesthetics” explores the potential of plaster in the context of design and emphasises its aesthetic qualities with a view to improving people’s appreciation of this material and its recyclability. When cellulose fibres are added, this creates expressive surfaces with a high degree of stability.
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