Transcultural Collaboration 2021: Contamination – Affection
Dates
20 September – 17 December, 2021
Location
Athens
Short description
Transcultural Collaboration is a unique international MA semester programme in the arts and design, and a cooperation between Shared Campus partner institutions in Asia and Europe.
30 participants from all arts and design disciplines have the chance to explore Athens, collaborating on experiments with open outcomes.
The programme is divided in two parts:
- 1-week online: 20 September – 24 September 2021
- 12-week stay in Athens: 27 September – 17 December 2021
The programme is dedicated to practice-based collaboration and teamwork between the participants in changing constellations. An annual semester topic and related lectures serve to focus debates and provide a framework for practical experimentation. The programme is complemented with additional inputs by guests, excursions, and workshops. Participants receive close support from selected faculty from all partner institutions, as well as from independent artists and experts from various arts and design disciplines. The semester includes a public presentation in Taipei.
You can find the general programme description here.
Call for applications
Here you can find the call for applications.
In the event that the pandemic situation does not permit travel, we reserve the right to propose an alternative implementation or to cancel if necessary.
Semester topic
Contamination, commonly framed as a negative dynamic, is perceived as invading, infecting and corrupting life forms and other matter. Nevertheless, there are doubtless also positive forms of contamination, ones propelled by affection, empathy, enthusiasm, eros, resistance and fascination. Contamination as collaboration instigates forms of transformation through encounter.
Some of these dynamics occur intentionally, others unintentionally. In either case, they create tensions between attempting to gain control and, at least sometimes, the impossibility of having it.
We always find ourselves in the midst of contamination and thus are inevitably affected by it. This explains why contamination is a particularly compelling concept to unravel the complexity of encounters between cultures and creative practices. As such, it plays a critical role in questioning our cultural perceptions.
This topic addresses the varied perceptions of and tensions between the concept of contamination and affection, as well as its ambivalences and paradoxes in society and culture. How do we understand the concept of contamination today and how does it affect our sociocultural and creative practices? How does thinking with contamination reconfigure how we relate to each other? How do we deal with newly forged relations of solidarity?