Bauhaus Summer School 2022
Experience Design & Design Thinking Course
A two weeks hybrid course for international participants with Experience Design and Visual Artist Rasmus Stride. Additional collaboration with Andy Sontag from Kaospilot and art consultant Betty Briceno.
Hybrid everything!
We flipped the classroom into a workshop, and then into an atelier, and then into an exhibition.
We experimented with the different modes how designer and artists scope out and solve problems. We used the diverse space settings we found ourselves in — at home in front of the computer, with our friends, in the city, on planes, on trains, in our workshop space, on campus, in the iconic ateliers of the Van-de-Velde main building — to flow between these different approaches and mindsets of thinking/collaborating. These deliberate changes in space and with that teaching, coaching, instructing, facilitating style from our side helped the students to navigate through the learning journey.
Rethinking virtual learning experiences
It’s not just about using Miro instead of post-its
We met digitally for 5 days before coming all together in Weimar to put the learnings from the digital learning path into action in the real world. What we didn’t want, was for our participants to sit infront of the computer and push post-its around all the time. We didn’t want to merely translate the physical learning setting into the virtuality by using digital tools. We took advantage of the specific environment and circumstances to create a diverse and engaging learning experience.
That’s why the digital part of the course was centered around individual assignment and creative adventures in the participants local environment — strolling out the neighbourhood, staging an experience for a friend — and then coming together virtually to share and reflect as a group. The physical part of the course was then centered around collaboration and experimentation with their peers.
Learning by experimenting
Creating a safe learning environment for trying out new new things
We carefully included activities from artistic and scientific practices to give students the possibility to explore and reflect their process together. We designed methods to gain data with all of their senses and make sense with bodies. Our aim was to show the broad range of communication and sensemaking that is available to us human beings, apart from speaking to each other and writing text.
Our focus was to create an atmosphere where trying and learning from that is a desired option. We achieved this by creating a warm, open and trusted exchange between participants and coaching team, encouraging and guiding constructive feedback as well as an optimistic mindset.