BERLIN PERSPECTIVES

BERLIN GLOSSARY:SITE RESEARCH METHODOLOGIESImage Credit: Anna Huix

In this immersive spatial course, stu-dents will learn to read and create the city – to communicate about urban themes across disciplines and media. We will analyze maps, watch films and make site visits, collecting materials and observations for follow-up research. We will use a sort of forensic method-ology: collecting clues and patterns in order to put together the story of the city. Through this participatory process we will pinpoint the appearance of au-thorship, history, digitization, behavior, diversity, war, legislation, and political controversy.

Instructors:Anna Kostreva

mail@annakostreva.org & Rubén Jódar

stiftung.freizeit@gmail.comConsultation by appointment

Humboldt Universität Summer Semester 2017

Wednesdays 16.00-19.00 WeeklyLocation: Hausvogteiplatz 5-7, Room 0323-26

SITE RESEARCH METHODOLOGIESImage Credit: Three Pathways to Get Anywhere, Anna Kostreva + Yukiko Studio

APPROACHIn our lectures and workshop sessions, we will keep in mind a diverse student group and use various media to communicate. Methodologically, we plan to introduce, teach and work at three different scales with the city: 1.The Urban Lens: a method that can tell the entire history of a city through a specific perspective. 2. The Case Study: a place or site that acts as a paradigm for explaining other sites, behaviors, or social relations in the city. 3. The Artifact: a physical object or trace that appears as a recurring pattern in the city.

Each of the scales form feedback loops with each other. Students will choose sites from a given list and work individually or in groups, depending on the total number of students. They will engage in their own case studies and col-lection of artifacts, from which an urban glossary of Berlin will be formed. In order to do this, students will be pushed to go beyond their knowledge of English and German into the semiotic analysis and semiotic development of their sites. Perhaps, through this process, one or many urban lenses will reveal themselves.

OBJECTIVESYou can not seperate what you know from what you do to know it. We propose that understanding a city requires intellectual skills as well as the perceptual skills of all the senses. Academic and empirical research will be combined in a series of exercises that help students form a subjective and theoretical lens with which to analyze sites in order to write history from a perspective that does not yet exist. Any media will be accepted for the assignments during the course; however, an A4 documentation page must be submitted for each task for assessment, including the final presentation. Additionally, parallel activities like films and readings will be assigned to support the lecture material and will be discussed as part of the lecture session. In this way, students will be guided to use a breadth of materials and methodologies in their own work.

Goals: 1.To encourage students to become sensitive like detectives for the traces of all kinds of history, especially those histories that are currently unwritten.2.To develop academic and empirical research which allows for speculation, the development of hypotheses, and critical research to prove or disprove hy-pothesis and theories.3.To develop research methods and perspectives which produce more ques-tions for further investigation.4.To think across language and across different types of media (e.g. text, visu-al, sound, food, video, etc).

REQUIREMENTSRegular Attendance: No more than 2 excused absences, communicated in advance. You will be required to make up missed classwork.

Grading: Class participation (ability to discuss assigned readings, etc): 30% Weekly assignments: 40% Final project: 30%

Language: Minimum English B2. The course will be taught in English and texts for discus-sion will be provided in English with a few texts optionally in German. However, assignments can be completed in German and especially in alternative media (visual, sound, performance, etc.).

Plagiarism in any form will result in failure of the course.

Note: This class requires off-campus activities outside and/or during regular class times. Locations for workshops and final presentations to be announced.

URBAN GLOSSARY:LENS, CASE STUDY, ARTIFACTImage Credit: Tempo 1, Stiftung Freizeit

SESSIONS(Preliminary summary. The final syllabus will be available at the start of the course.)

1. URBAN LENS: DEEP HISTORY, VIBRANT MATTERIn the first class, we will introduce the students to two lenses of the city of Berlin. In the first lens, the landscape of Berlin will be explained through geo-logical strata as well as the woman-made “Trummerberge”. The second lens will analyse how city walls have - and continue to - influence the city. For this purpose, Anna Kostreva will present her research project and book, Berlin: A Morphology of Walls.

Research assignment: Choose urban site from list, document assumptions, collect maps of site.Film assignment (intro clip shown and discussed in class): Germany Year Zero. Directed by Roberto Rosselini.

G.D.B. Film, 1948.

2. URBAN LENS: LEGISLATING DEVELOPMENTIn this session, we will present the diverse planning intentions and visions of the ruling governments over history. The lecture will include zoning in the 19th C. with the Tax Wall, Germania, Development of East and West Berlin through global ideologies, (Karl Marx Allee vs. Hansa Platz), and IBA developments including “Planwerk Innenstadt” and Critical Reconstruction.

Research assignment: Visit site and create documentation in any media.Reading assignment : Simmel, Georg. The Metropolis and Mental Life. New York: Free Press, 1976.Film assignment: Das Leben der Anderen. Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Buena Vista International, 2006.

3. URBAN LENS: BERLIN SAMPLERThe history of Berlin can be traced in many ways, including the music pro-duced about the city and in the city. This session will follow social develop-ments and relations throughout the last century in music. Sites to discuss in-clude: Schauspielhaus Berlin ( Schinkel) 1821, Haus des Rundfunks,( Poelzig) 1929, Berliner Philarmonie 1960, Tempodrom, Berghain, So36....

Research assignment: Research articles about the site, provide summary.Listening assignment: Interview with Theo Lassour on the Berlin Sampler

https://soundcloud.com/tschitschilism/theo-lessour-berlin-samplerFilm assignment: Bar25: Tage Außerhalb der Zeit. Directed by Britta Mischer and Nana Yuriko.

Andro Steinborn and Ben Schneider, 2012.

4. URBAN LENS: TECHNOLOGYWe will do a close reading of Walter Benjamin’s pivotal essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” and discuss the artistic, social, politi-cial and spatial ramifications of technology. We will bring Benjamin’s assess-ments into the contemporary by drawing parallels to the digital as our current age. Through a discussion of media, we will be able to trace the various “lens-es”, “case studies” and “artifacts” as different types of influences on the so-cial and built environment.

Research assignment: Choose a non-academic piece (artistic,journalistic...) related to the site and provide a summary.Reading Assignment: Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”Film Assignment: Good Bye, Lenin! Directed by Wolfgang Becker. X Verleih AG, 2003.

5. SUPER TOOLS WORKSHOP:ARCHIVING, RESEARCH AND CONTENT PRODUCTIONRather than a lecture, the fifth session will be a workshop. We will set up dif-ferent types of media, representations, analysis, and documentation as spac-es of collection, reflection and action. Students will take the research they have done so far on their sites and make large-scale sketches for new methods of representation. Through this collective exercise, students will confront and focus on a specific aspect of their research.

Research assignment: Speculative Historical Hypothesis Statement 1Reading assignment (Excerpt): Barthes, Roland. Mythologies: Roland Barthes. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972.Film assignment: Run Lola Run. Directed by Tom Tykwer. Prokino Filmverleih, 1998.

6. CASE STUDY: SITES OF MEMORYMemorials may emerge out of a society, displaying a common cultural atti-tude. On the other hand, they are also produced with the semiotics of symbols in order to put across state-sanctioned messages to the public. In Berlin, there are many ambigous and contested examples of memorials to critically explore including the Topography of Terror, the Neue Wache, the Memorial to the Mur-dered Jews of Europe, Rosa Luxembourg Platz, etc.

Research assignment: Begin glossary.Reading assignment (excerpt): Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Oxford, OX, UK: Blackwell, 1991.Film assignment: Life is Beautiful. Directed by Roberto Benigni. Miramax Films, 1997.

7. CASE STUDY: ANARCHYBerlin’s history of alternative and people-powered development deserves at-tention. The rich discourse on use, ownership, and belonging overflows into punk scenes, wastelands, and squats. Sites to discuss include: Tacheles, Bethanien, Köpi, Holzmarkt, the temporary BMW-Guggenheim-Lab, Raw Ge-lande, Prinzessinnengarten, Thaiwiese...

Research assignment: Continue glossary.Reading assignment: (Excerpt) Harvey, David. Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to Urban Revolution.

London: Verso, 2012.Film assignment: B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin, 1979-1989.

Directed by Jörg A. Hoppe, Klaus Maeck, and Heiko Lange., 2015.

8. CASE STUDY: MONUMENTSWhile memorials often comunicate in symbols to the public, monuments and buildings work spatially and representationally. These places may be reappro-priated and assigned new meanings over time - eventually re-programming and transforming the urban spaces around them. Two key examples for Berlin include the Site of the Schloss and Tempelhof Flughafen.

Research assignment: Continue glossary.Reading assignment (excerpt): Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Oxford, OX, UK: Blackwell, 1991.Film assignment: Der Himmel über Berlin. Directed by Wim Wenders. Basis Film Verleih, 1987.

Die Sinfonie der Großstadt. Directed by Walter Ruttman. Fox Europa, 1927.

9. SUPER TOOLS WORKSHOP: ON-SITE DISCUSSIONS ABOUT EMBODIMENT AND GRAMMAR Rather than a lecture, the ninth session will take place as a collaborative site visit. We will meet with students on their sites and make another round of reflection and action. Students will take the research they have done so far and find a way to make a specific pattern or aspect of their site take form as something visible. In this way, the “grammar” of the site will be developed and these semiotic methods will be traceable in other parts of the city.

Research assignment: Speculative Hypothesis Statement 2Reading assignment: Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg. “Making Visible. Visualizations in the Sciences - and in

Exhibitons?”, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte: Preprint 399, 2010.Film assignment: Achterbahn. Directed by Peter Dörfler. Rohfilmverleih, 2009.

10. ARTIFACTS: STONES AND FIREWALLSThe artifact is a key component of the glossary. These discrete pieces of the city can be delved into, like using a microscope for a closer look. Their intri-cacies and patterns end up giving the city a material texture. In this class, we will focus on the stones used in the pavement and the fire walls that seperate buildings. We will present the pavement’s geology, the sidewalk’s zoned areas and their importance to the absorption of rainwater, the workers who place the stones, as well as the artistic reinterpretation of the cobblestones in the form of “stolpersteine”. We will present the firewall’s legal and material re-quirements, the graffiti on them and stories of gentrification (e.g. BLU’s mural in Kreuzberg), as well as the architect Brandlhuber’s recognition of the Plat-tenbauten’s artifice to cover up firewalls.

Research assignment: Continue GlossaryCity assignment: Museum Der Dinge

11. ARTIFACTS: LIGHT AND WATERThe last lecture session will take the artifact and look at it’s relationship with city-wide networks. In this way, the “artifact” and the “lens” feed into each oth-er’s relationship with the city. We will focus on streetlights (in their relationship to energy infrastructure, progress, and nostalgia) as well as pubic toilets (in their relationship to water infrastructure, social relations, gender, sexuality and technology).

Research assignment: Continue GlossaryCity assignment: Open Air Gas Lantern Museum, Tiergarten

12. FINAL PRESENTATIONSIn the final session, students will make presentations of their work to the en-tire class in any media. The class glossary will be collected for publication in a format TBA (e.g. print, digital or web-based).