Prof. Daniel Belasco Rogers
Sensing the City
Online block seminar, English/Deutsch, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Thursday to Saturday 17.-19.6.2021 & Saturday, 26.6.2021, each 10-17 h

Sensing the City is a practical and reflective workshop exploring sense perception in an urban environment. Over four intensive days, we will extract methods to address and investigate senses from the work of contemporary artists and apply these ourselves. In practical, outdoor sessions, we will experiment with our own sensory faculties, returning us to our bodies and our experiences in relation to the environment.

We will investigate body-based practices from dance, movement and performance, including a session with a guest, the choreographer Arantxa Martinez, as well as experiment with technological devices that allow us to 'sense' aspects of the environment, such as electromagnetic radiation, that are usually out of human perceptive range. After 3 consecutive days, there is a week break before the final session to develop a small intervention such as a short performance, situation, device, audio instruction piece or similar. Working in small groups for this is also possible.

The lesson plan will adapt itself to a hybrid of online and small-group outdoor sessions, if hygiene regulations are still in place or take place in presence with group sessions. The teaching will take place predominantly in English but participation in German is also welcome.

Requirements for the ungraded Studium Generale credits: Regular, active participation in the seminar series; script/documentation of an intervention.

The British artists Sophia New and Daniel Belasco Rogers have been based in Berlin since 2001 and working together under the name plan b since 2002. They start a guest professorship at the Studium Generale in the Autumn 2020. “Our work crosses the boundaries between visual art, new media, performance, installation and socially engaged practice. It has been shown in festivals, exhibitions, theatres and on the streets of many different cities. We consider what we do to be site specific and relationship specific. Alongside participatory and performative projects we also have developed strategies to share our practice in educational contexts on a number of different courses in Germany and abroad.” More information on https://planbperformance.net.