Vienna, 08.04.1963. “Atome am friedlichen Werk”. Trucks transporting exhibits, garden side Neue Burg, Vienna. oai:baa.onb.at:688666, ÖNB. Image fabrication: Philipp Sattler.
The course Atoms at Work will explore art-based research methodologies and take students through a structured series of approaches and exercises to conceive their research approach. Departing from a prompt that explores several US exhibitions which promoted Nuclear Energy in the 1950s and 1960s in Austria and elsewhere, students will position their questions from the prompt and develop a piece of work in a media of their choosing. This course is conceptualised as an introduction to research practices that work transdisciplinary, thus extending into multiple fields such as art, architecture, history, technology, law, ecology and politics.
Students will learn to formulate research questions, position them within the fields related to those, and learn about methodologies and tools to develop their research. They will explore practices of writing, filmmaking, performance, exhibiting, and the expanded field of architecture to manifest their research, as well as how to document their work.