Throughout this course participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the intersection of technology, art, and posthuman concepts. Whilst understanding the ability to critically evaluate the effects of AR might have on our future. After the course, and practically speaking, participants will have learnt how to build and produce artistic augmented works on Spark AR, with hands-on workshops. They will have acknowledged how to guide their individual viewpoints and the theoretical influences, that their works can raise critical questions and opinions on where and how our History is shaping our post-human future, and radically/ethically changing our technological understanding of the past.
Augmented Pasts: Hacking history with digital tools from the future.
Augmented Pasts: Hacking history with digital tools from the future.
This course welcomes students who are interested in our technological era and the concerns surrounding re-engaging with the past, with a specific focus on Augmented Reality (AR). As critical discourse about the speed and advancement of our digital lives questions how society envisions the future, there are also big debates surrounding how the past is affected. As the history of reality is evenmore today documented, manipulated, challenged and corrected, we can easily see how our digital devices become personal time machines, forming and disfigurement archives and narratives of former times. Online lectures shall give the theoretical and philosophical ground for students to build their digital inspirations and concepts. In Weimar, students will practically learn and develop site-specific Augmented Reality artworks that shall be showcased in groups at the Bauhaus Spring Exhibition.
In addressing the theoretical concerns surrounding how History is perceived through a digital gaze, and the illusional aspect the past generates, particularly when media is part of its narrative. We shall consider how our digital selves leave cyber footprints, documenting our joyful and shameful memories, how Historical narratives of the past can become misinterpreted and displayed beyond context, and how digitally re-imaging bygone days, can shed new insights and understanding for the future. In Weimar, our multidisciplinary practical lessons shall offer students the opportunity to be taught particular programming skills. In which they shall learn how to experiment with Augmented Reality. Students will acquire the knowledge needed for developing AR applications in Spark AR software, through different workshops dedicated to various AR capabilities such as Vuforia’s Image Target, Face Filters, and ARFoundation’s Environment tracking. Students shall work on site-specific AR projects, with historically significant locations determined by the teaching staff.
NOTE:
This course includes an attendance phase in Weimar from February 27 to March 08, 2025.
This course is designed for those interested in critically exploring the past and future of technology, art, and design, and the concerns related to how understanding History impacts our post-human future. We welcome Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D, who might be interested in subjects of media, digital, hyperreality, cyberspace, posthumanism, virtual/augmented reality and artificial intelligence. If participants are keen on learning new programming skills related to AR, and are open-minded to engage in discussion about the relationship between human and machine, then this course shall be for them.
Matthew Lloyd
https://www.matthewjohnlloyd.com/
Education
BA (HONS) Graphic Arts: Illustration/Graphic Design, Liverpool John Moores Art and Design Academy, UK, 2008 - 2010.
M.F.A Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Public Art and New Artistic Strategies, Weimar, Germany, 2016-2018.
Professional Experience
Lecturer of Artistic and Theoretical Writing - Media Architecture Department, Bauhaus Universität Weimar, 2019 - Present.
Invited guest lecturer of Artistic Perspectives on Critical Writing, Media Art & Design Department, Bauhaus Universität Weimar, 2021.
Invited guest lecturer of The Art of Being Critical, Electronic Arts Department of Visual Arts, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia, 2021.
Invited guest Lecturer of Speak Now, or Forever Hold Your… (The Voice in Public Spheres), Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Performing Public Space programme, Tilburg, Netherlands, 2022-23
Skills and Focus Area:
Specific focus on theoretical and philosophical concepts of contemporary art, as well as a deep understanding of public and social art.
Particular skills in academic and critical writing for artists, architects, and media-artists.
Your application should be submitted until November 3rd, 2024.
Required application documents:
- Letter of Nomination (applicants financed by the BIP scholarship from the partner universities)
- CV
- Letter of motivation or a short motivation video (max. 1min)
- Portfolio (Optional)
- English language certificate (test certificate or a letter from your university stating your English language knowledge)
The course fee is 300 EURO and includes:
- Orientation & Support
- Programme according to description
- Teaching materials
- Bauhaus Spring School ID card
- Certificate
- Free use of library
The course fee does not include:
- Travel costs
- Accommodation
- Insurance
Participants, coming from the partner universites in the framework of Erasmus BIP scholarship and BUW students don't pay the course fee.
In addition to the Spring School courses, we offer a comprehensive "Service Package", which includes participation in the excursions and social programme, free entrance to the museums, travel by public transport and lunch in the student cafeteria. The booking of the Service Package for €70 is optional.
Students who do not take up the Service Package are automatically required to pay a course deposit of €100. This is to protect us against costs incurred by non-participation. Since in this case, the universities will not receive any funding from the European Commission. The deposit will be refunded as soon as the participants start the course in Weimar.
3 ECTS
Please note our terms and conditions (admission conditions, cancellation conditions etc.)
Understanding the past through digital devices not only makes forgone days accessible and available, but also turns it into a pursuit of new knowledge. But also an obscure space where History becomes challenged, manipulated and intentionally deleted. This course asks how we can reengage with the past, as a means to better accept our posthuman futures.