Once again, the MA Design & Computation between University of the Arts Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin is exhibiting at Ars Electronica Campus. This year, the exhibition "Breaking Patterns" showcases a diverse array of installations and research projects that playfully engage with emerging technologies and their implications for society.
As the year closes we are excited to announce the application period for winter semester 2023/24 to study in our interdisciplinary research-based master programme Design & Computation between University of the Arts and Technical University Berlin.
The application guideline is now online:
https://www.udk-berlin.de/en/application/applicationguide/design-and-computation-master/
APPLICATION
When is the application period?
Application for the winter semester 2023/24 is open from 1. April to 15. Mai 2023. The application requirements and procedure will be available at https://www.udk-berlin.de/bewerbung/bewerbungsguide/design-and-computation-master/ in January.
What application info events are planned for 2023?
In the beginning of 2023 we will continue offering online info events for applicants, where you can ask questions to head of the programme Prof. Albert Lang. We will also organize an online event where you can meet current students. There will also be a chance to discuss your portfolios with Prof. Lang before the application. You are also warmly invited to our series of public lectures and workshops starting at the end of January and continuing throughout the year.
What do I need to submit as a “Portfolio”?
The work samples can take the form of any or multiple media, including but not limited to essays, scientific writing in all disciplines, documentation of artistic and design works, audio, film, or interactive websites. The portfolio / selected works should demonstrate your specific and individual approach, interests and skills in relation to the interdisciplinary, research-based masters. The format which you choose to display your work samples is open, you can submit either a PDF or a website. There will also be portfolio meet-ups before the application deadline where you can discuss this in more detail with us. They will be announced over Instagram and on our website.
What language skills are required to study the Programme?
During enrolment, a certificate in German level C1 is required, submission of which can be postponed until the summer semester 2024. Applicants do not need to submit a certificate with their application.
What happens after my application?
After the application, all applications will be processed and a selection will be made according to the degree of qualification for the programme. Selected applicants will be invited for an interview, for which they will be sent an invitation from the TU Berlin. The application interviews will take place in presence from mid July to Mid August. If taking place in an interview in presence is not possible, other methods will be discussed individually. If you are selected in the interviews, you will be informed of your acceptance to the programme, after which you can officially enroll at University of Arts Berlin and register at TU.
THE PROGRAMME
How does teaching take place?
All modules in 2023/24 will be offered in presence, in our Studio on Campus Charlottenburg as well as the buildings of TU Berlin and UdK Berlin. Attendance is required.
What are the semester times?
The summer semester officially begins on 1. April, while the lecture period runs from Mid April to Mid Juli. The winter semester begins on 1.October, with a lecture period from mid October to mid February.
Are there any costs for the programme?
The inter-university study programme between UdK and TU Berlin has no tuition fees. However, students at Universities in Berlin have to pay a one time fee per semester of around 315 Euros, which consists of the social contribution to the studierendenWERK Berlin, to student representation (AStA), administrative fees and a semester ticket which allows free travel on public transportation services in Berlin during the semester and the semester breaks.
Where can I keep up to date on events and activities of the study programme?
We are active on Instagram and Twitter and our website as well as on the pages of UdK and TU Berlin.
STUDYING IN BERLIN
How do I get around in Berlin as a student?
With the semester fee (315 Euro), students in Berlin pay for a ticket that allows them to freely travel in Berlin on public transportation services when carrying their student ID.
Where can I find resources on living in Berlin?
The housing market in Berlin is extremely competitive and it is advised to begin to organize your stay well before your arrival. The following websites are popular platforms that advertise flat shares: studierendenWERK Berlin, WG-Gesucht.de, WGcompany.de .
Please read the FAQs carefully. They will be extended over the coming weeks. If you have any questions, contact our Study Advisory Service under apply@design-computation.berlin
For the first time, the interdisciplinary masters programme Design & Computation between UdK and TU Berlin opens the doors to its new studio space to the public for a peek at semester projects and works in progress from both the Perspectives modules and the Studio year. Throughout both days, a programme of performances and lectures will take place, featuring students, guests and frequent collaborators.
With lectures and performances from: Dr. Jorge Orozco, Alex The Fairy, Jonny-Bix Bongers, Pablo Torres, Max Molitor, Christian Schmidts, Andreas Greiler-Basaldua.
Times:
Thursday: 13:00-19:00
Friday: 11:00-21:00
Are you interested in studying with us this winter semester? On the 13.02. at 5pm students from the programme will join you online and introduce you to the programme from their perspective and answer your questions!
The link will be sent out on the day of the event.
Are you interested in studying in the masters programme Design&Computation between University of the Arts Berlin and Technical University Berlin in the winter semester 2023? On the 10th of December at 12pm (midday) Berlin time, Prof. Albert Lang (Programme Coordinator) will answer your questions and introduce you to the programme. The event will be held over Zoom. Please register via: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfXAaADzNMuMy52z403EsVF-x59mx9Bgh0VWCDYEQkDFZUJIg/viewform
Save the date: From 6th to 11th of September Design and Computation will be exhibiting within Ars Electronica in Linz this year! We will be presenting exciting installations, projects and performances together with the New Media Class and GenComp of UdK Berlin.
Tune in to the live-streams of our program or come by in person at Splace, the official gallery of the Kunstuni Linz . 🚀🖖👽
for live-streams and more info visit https://ars.design-computation.berlin/
Sympoietic Sites refers to collaborative, transdisciplinary spaces - physical, virtual and metaphorical -, from which the exhibited works emerge, as well as the works themselves, which present discursive openings and apertures towards new understandings of the virtual. Exploring the annual topic of Virtualities and Worldbuilding, students engaged with topics ranging from digital compression, queering virtualities, pre-enacting future scenarios and algorithmic prediction and divination, to more-than-human entanglements and agencies.
Given the wide spectrum of academic backgrounds, all projects are of an interdisciplinary and explorative nature. The objective of the projects is for the students to jointly embark on scientific and artistic journeys around the annual theme and its various manifestations.
Friday February 25th, 6pm-10:30pm
Saturday February 26th, 10am-9pm
Galerie im Medienhaus der UdK / Grunewaldstraße 2-5, 10823 Berlin
The number of people in the gallery is limited, to provide a safe environment for all of us. Please follow the hygiene rules, keep a safe distance and bring your mask.
The event is 2G+.
Students, researchers, teachers and representatives from industry will work together over the next five years.
The Meisterkreis and the new Master’s program in Design & Computation at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Technical University of Berlin are starting a long-term cooperation on contemporary issues from the fields of design, digitization and society this winter semester.
The expertise and experience of the companies in the Meisterkreis are combined with young artistic and creative positions, the generation gap between established industrial innovation and emerging positions in university teaching and research comes together on an equal footing and in productive exchange.
Over the span of five years and five topics, 10-25 leading companies and around 100 students will collaborate. The results of this cooperation are to be made available to a broad public and discussed over this period of time, among other things in a variety of formats, such as exhibitions, symposia or publications.
Kick-off event on November 19, 2021
Design & Computation @ UdK Rundgang 2021
Short video showing some of the students work exhibited at the UdK Rundgang 2021 at Hardenbergstr 33.
The UdK Rundgang is a firmly established event in Berlin's cultural summer. At the end of the academic year, Germany's largest art university opens the workshops, studios and rehearsal rooms of its four colleges of Fine Arts, Design, Music and Performing Arts, the Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT), the Jazz Institute Berlin and the Berlin Career College for three days and gives the interested public the opportunity to get to know the academy's artists and their work.
The UdK Rundgang took place from October 29th to 31st, 2021.
Including work by:
Anastasia Almosova
Kinan Sarakbi & Pablo Torres
Julia Ziener
Felix Ansmann & Maurice Wald
Open Studio “VIRTUALITIES” at the Design & Computation studio
Date: July 18th | Time: 4pm | Location: Hybrid Lab, Marchstraße 8, 10587 Berlin
The Design and Computation Studio serves as a space for open collaboration, where students draw on their varied backgrounds – which range from anthropology and design to engineering and medicine – to build prototypes and explore novel avenues of research.
During the Open Studio the students' work -- some completed, some in-progress -- will be on display to create a space for discourse around the annual theme "Virtualities". The works and research questions developed go beyond purely functional and utilitarian notions of virtuality, and critically examine digital media for its inherent potential.
Given the wide spectrum of academic backgrounds, all projects are of an interdisciplinary and explorative nature. The objective of the projects is for the students to jointly embark on scientific and artistic journeys around the annual theme and its various manifestations.
The works presented span across artistic examinations of algorithmic bias, AR/VR experiments in critical cartography, and data-driven models for social & community empowerment. The presentation formats cover video, sound, performance, interactive media and AR/VR installations, among others.
The number of people in the yard and the studio is limited, to provide a safe environment for all of us. Please follow the hygiene rules, keep a safe distance and bring your mask.
Design & Computation – a new inter-university, interdisciplinary, research-based Master’s program between Berlin University of the Arts and Technical University Berlin
“In Order to understand the phenomena surrounding a new technology, we must open the question of design – the interaction between understanding and creation. In speaking here of design, we are not restricting our concern to the methodology of conscious design. We address the broader question of how a society engenders inventions whose existence in turn alters that society.” (Winograd, T., & Flores, F., 1988, Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design)
Since the turn of the last century, industrialized societies have been witnessing an ever-increasing penetration of far-reaching areas of public and private life by new technological applications that often stem from decades of basic research. This process has been taking place on a global scale and in accelerated innovation cycles, and it equally affects the social, economic, ecological and cultural conditions of societies: from the algorithmizing of everyday life and the digitalization of production and labor to public participation in decision-making processes to guaranteeing food security and overcoming the climate crisis.
Beyond the positive or negative confirmation of this trend, given its scale and infiltrating nature, fundamental questions are being asked in the humanities and social sciences, in design and in the arts as well as in public discourse – about represented political interests and the distribution of costs and benefits associated with technological progress, but also about the basic relationship between the individual, technology and society.
The “metatrend” of accelerated, digitally coordinated technologization also affects large areas of human productivity, including the engineering sciences (e.g. mechanical engineering, mechatronics, materials research, civil engineering), classical design disciplines (e.g. product and fashion design, visual communication, architecture, media design) and the arts. For the engineering sciences, the increasing impact on society as a whole raises entirely new questions about the social dimension of their innovations. At the same time, the classical design disciplines are faced with the challenge of incorporating new technologies and methods into existing practices at an increasing pace while subjecting them to critical review.
In addition, the question of the social function in engineering and the growing importance of technical expertise in design are bringing the two disciplines ever closer together, creating overlaps and intersections and giving rise to hybrid (“emergent”) fields of study.
Against this backdrop – i.e. in view of the current rapid technological and social change as well as an increasingly dynamic academic landscape – the new Master’s program “Design & Computation”, which was established in a cooperation of the Berlin University of the Arts and the Technical University Berlin, is aimed at Bachelor graduates from the fields of design, art, engineering, natural sciences, humanities and social sciences. The program offers them the opportunity to contribute to pressing questions of our time in an interdisciplinary context and by drawing on the extensive expertise of both universities from diverse disciplines, each corresponding to the “cutting edge” of their respective fields.
The four-semester Master’s program, whose students come from different disciplines, begins with a customizable introductory semester that serves to develop a common thematic, discursive and methodological foundation.
The introductory semester is followed by two semesters of work in the studio “Design as Medial Practice”, which forms the center of the program. In the studio, students dedicate themselves to the exploring and exploiting of new technologies, media, materials and methods, their critical reflection and problem-oriented application in the frame of project-based teamwork and along an annually changing set of topics. The studio work takes place within the context of free drafts, visualizations on varying scales, literature work, concrete scientific experiments and other formats. The studio is supervised by lecturers from both universities, who provide expertise from the fields of design, engineering, the humanities, natural sciences and the arts. Parallel to the studio work, students take one of two elective modules, “Modelling and Simulation” or “Structures and Systems”, and thus deepen their respective fields of study. In addition, an extensive portfolio of elective subjects from both universities offers second- and third-semester students the opportunity to precisely adapt their studies to their own preference and interests.
The last semester of the Master’s program “Design & Computation” consists of the writing of a final thesis, optionally comprising a practical part. Students strive to obtain a Master of Arts (M.A.) with mention of their respective field of study and including the seals of both the Berlin University of the Arts and the Technical University Berlin.
Graduates of the Master’s program have specific competences in targeted research and self-information about current and future developments in various technical disciplines. They are trained in the application of new technologies in the design process and are able to critically examine central problems of an increasingly globalized and technologized world. Furthermore, they possess a flexible mindset that transcends disciplinary boundaries, enabling them to move confidently in transdisciplinary research contexts and to act as initiators and pioneers of public and private enterprises.
Universität der Künste Berlin
Fakultät Gestaltung UdK
Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Gestaltung
Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte
Institut für Produkt- und Prozessgestaltung
Designforschung
Institut für Experimentelles Bekleidungs- und Textildesign
Entwerfen Bekleidungs- und Textildesign
Institut für Architektur und Städtebau
Konstruktives Entwerfen und Tragwerksplanung
Digitales und Experimentelles Entwerfen
Institut für zeitbasierte Medien
Entwerfen von interaktiven Systemen
Experimenteller Film/ Medienkunst
Entwerfen, digitale Medien
Gestaltung des bewegten Bildes
Einstein Zentrum Digital Future
Technische Universität Berlin
Fakultät für Geistes- und Bildungswissenschaften
Institut für Philosophie, Literatur-, Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte
Literaturwissenschaft mit dem Schwerpunkt Literatur und Wissenschaft
Institut für Sprache und Kommunikation
Audiokommunikation
Technologische Systeme im Design
Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Gender in MINT und Planung / Feminist STS
Fakultät Elektrotechnik und Informatik
Institut für Technische Informatik und Mikroelektronik
Robotics and Biology Laboratory
Institut für Softwaretechnik und Theoretische Informatik
Machine Learning
Neuronale Informationsverarbeitung
Software and Embedded Systems Engineering
Institut für Energie- und Automatisierungstechnik
Lichttechnik
Fakultät Verkehrs- und Maschinensysteme
Institut für Maschinenkonstruktion und Systemtechnik
Konstruktion von Maschinensystemen
Agromechatronik
Institut für Werkzeugmaschinen und Fabrikbetrieb
Wissensdynamik und Nachhaltigkeit in den Technikwissenschaften
Campus El Gouna
Department of Urban Development
Fakultät für Bauen Planen Umwelt
Institut für Architektur
Digitale Architektur und Nachhaltigkeit
Architekturtheorie
o Admission to the Master’s program is restricted. 20 students will be admitted to the winter semester 2023/24.
The application deadline for winter semester 2023/24 will be announced soon.
A first university degree that qualifies for professional work and has been acquired in one of the following disciplines: humanities, educational sciences, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, computer science, engineering, artistic design, economic sciences, legal sciences, medical science or in a closely related course of study.
Please see the Bewerbungs Guide for detailed information about the application:
https://www.udk-berlin.de/bewerbung/bewerbungsguide/design-and-computation-master/
For questions about the application or to arrange a consultation (also possible online), please contact: apply@design-computation.berlin
Universität der Künste Berlin
M.A. Design & Computation
c/o Präsident der UdK
Einsteinufer 43
10587 Berlin
Studiengangsbeauftragter
Prof. Albert Lang
consultation hours by arrangement
(also available online)
al@design-computation.berlin
Info
Student consultant
Aaron Lang
Office hours:
Mon 10am-1pm
Thu 10 am - 1 pm
(also possible online)
apply@design-computation.berlin
For questions about the application or to arrange a consultation (also possible online), please contact: apply@design-computation.berlin
Text: Albert Lang
Design & Development: Björn Giesecke, Lucas Liccini, Hans-Jakob Gohr
Typeface: based on various instances from the Letter Spirit project by Douglas Hofstadter and Gary McGraw
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this website, please contact info@design-computation.berlin
