Carolina Pinto

1) Why are you studying at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar?

I’m currently doing my Master in the program of Media Art and Design, at the Faculty of Art and Design. The last project I was involved I was the teaching assistant for the the Project Module “Beyond the Screens”. 

"Beyond the Screens" is an urban media art project co-curated by Public Art Lab that explores the potential of large-scale urban screens and media facades to visualize ecological phenomena and make climate change tangible in public spaces.

Works done by Media Architecture and Media Art students throughout the semester include one-minute video art aiming to highlight beyond-human ecologies and foster public consciousness at the intersection of art, science, and technology. 

These videos were showcased at the City Digital Skin Art Festival (CDSA) in October 2024, part of the Connecting Cities infrastructure, including cities such as Singapore, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Hamburg, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan and London. It provided an excellent platform to raise public consciousness about ecological issues.

Mentors: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Reinhard König, Susa Pop (Public Art Lab), Carolina Garcia (Media Art and Design)

2) What is special about your project? Why is it relevant?

The project was interesting in different point of views. For the students, it was a unique opportunity to show their works and opinions in a big platform and medium in different countries and cultures. During the semester, they could investigate how to develop impactful narratives for the ecological urgencies and explore AI generated art tools, data and sensing applications which contribute to visualise and craft videos for large site-specific screens. How to transform everyday spaces by using LED screens as dynamic moving paintings and living screens which open new perspectives for the relevant nature-cultures debates.

It was also interesting to be part of the “Connecting Classes” with international professors, scholars, curators from the field of public art, design, urban media arts, computer science and media architecture. Every week we had an online guest sharing their knowledge and artistic practices to investigate different positions and possibilities of nature-data-narratives. In this one-hour online lectures we could support the seminar and create a network of experts in the field of urban digital art and design.

For me, it was a big surprise to be in class in a different role, in the other side. “How to support the students to reach their best production? How to keep them motivated? How to inspire?” were my main thoughts. I believe this experience could confirm my believes of how important it is to have a sense of community in classes.