Susanne Stauch

social.transformation.system.design.research

The Love School Project, BA design project, UdK, Berlin

Besides the financial support of the school in Nairobi, the goal of the project is diverse: it’s an experiment in co-creation as a new and empowering way to work together internationally, it will sensitize the students to see their work as a creative service in a client relationship and it offers the kids from the Love School Center the opportunity to participate in the purchase of the the grounds and thus support their feeling of self-efficacy. For all participants this project will be an inspiring, mind expanding experience.

With a focus on craft, material understanding and form development the project is dedicated to the number Pi = 3,14… The work will be mostly in porcelain and fine metals, wood and fabric are possible as well. Besides the design process the question of value of those materials, the necessity of new products and the relation to a global social context will be reflected. There is a cooperation with the „Love School Center“ in the Slum Kangemi in Nairobi, Kenya. Through the NGO „NYENDO“ we have the artist and a coordinator Anthony Karori on-site, who will work with the children around the topic of pi and will create drawings, collages, photographs etc. together. In exchange with the students from UdK these first interpretations will be taken up and developed further aesthetically, functionally and formally. The students will be in touch with the kids on a regular basis through skype and the finished design objects will be sold in an auction at the end of the semester. The revenue serves the purchase of land on which the Love School Center stands which is in danger of being cleared out due to speculation.

Concept & Supervision: GastProf. Susanne Stauch, IPP, ID2, UdK
Partner: Irmgard Wutte/ Nyendo NGO
Financial Support: Martin Bisicky & Dominik Becker

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Guest Professor at UdK Berlin

Starting in October I will hold a guest professorship at the University of Arts, Berlin. I am very much looking forward to this great opportunity and I am currently preparing the curriculum. This winter semester we will work at the PORCELAIN EVOLUTION LAB. For the summer semester 2016 I am  preparing a project in the area of social transformation. It is a huge coop. The students will work in interdisciplinary teams of product designers and social- and business communicaters, we work with StartNext, my friend Nadia El-Imam from Edgeryders who runs a research project on OpenCare and Ezio Manzini. The project will be accompanied by exhibitions and talks at Designtransfer. Check out the growing website around it here: HACKING UTOPIA.

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The Politics of the Makers – Conference by DGTF at HFBK Hamburg

With my colleague Prof. Katja Thoring and some of the students of her “scientific publishing” class at the MAID program in Dessau we attended the conference at HBK Hamburg. One of my favourite talks was by Florian A. Schmidt, a former fellow student and co-contributor in our publication from 2010 “critical mass”. Not only because we are friends but because he was able to take the auditorium along in his narrative about the maker culture and the crowds, his talk left me with lively images and ideas. Equally rich was the journey by Florian Walzer through the development of the greek term “banaus” to the current understanding of a maker or crafts person. The greatest discovery for my own interest was Prof. Heidrun Allert from Kiel who was talking about pedagogy and design from a perspective of philosophy. She explained the definition of “double loop learning” and stuck in my mind with the sentence: to find oneself useful through making. There were plenty more talks from especially social science specialists that for my taste were a bit too abstract in the context of the theme, yet they all delivered very important statements and insights. Great conference with lots of learnings!

>> program Politik der Maker

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Making Futures – Crafts and Design Conference in Plymouth

With a ferry the participants of the conference were brought to an estate outside town to attend the talks of designers and craftsmen from all over Europe at Mt. Edgcumbe House. They had several tracks so of course I couldn’t hear all of the talks, thus focused on the pedagogy track. I learned a lot about the current discourse in the field and realized, that not so much had happened since I was into the topic back in 2008/09. Happy to have met Tomas Diez who runs the FabLab in Barcelona and Camille Bosqué who works on her PhD about Hackerspaces. Amazing keynotes by Gareth Neil about his attempt to build non-carbon footprint furniture  and by  Jaideep Prabhu introducing the indian design approach “jugaad”.

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SHARiNG the CiTY – Social Community Building, Neukölln Berlin

As I was going to move to Schillerkiez in Neukölln, which is a hot spot of gentrification right next to the Tempelhof air field I very soon realized the intense atmosphere in the neighborhood. Being inspired by the meetings with the EdgeRyder’s community I decided to start a local initiative to find out what the neighborhood needs and wants. The first events we did were some meetings with people from a community building background where the major problem already became obvious. Nobody from the neighborhood turned up although I had spend several hours to walk around cafés, markets, the church, supermarket – you name it – to spread the word and invite people to come. As a local action we then spread the poster campaign by Litekultur around the neighborhood hoping to get in touch with curious people. Dead loss. I did apply for funding via Projekt Neue Nachbarschaft with the idea to make a book which presents the people and their initiatives especially through one of the things that connects us all: food. So it was supposed to become a Schillerkiez cooking book with personal stories and background information of the neighbors and their  effort to support the neighborhood. Unfortunately the project wasn’t selected for funding and I really hope to find other ways to support the approach of giving something back to the Kiez.

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