Without wanting to in any way detract from the work undertaken by Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee students in the past year, a highlight of our visit to the 2017 Rundgang summer exhibition was the thunderstorm which broke while we there. Calling it biblical would be to trivialise the ferocity with which it smit the day asunder, turning in its fury the Bühringstraße in front of the school into a Bühring Straits. And the first of three storms which broke over Berlin in quick succession, almost
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Visiting the 2017 end of year Werkschau exhibition at the Peter Behrens School of Arts, Düsseldorf we were greatly reminded of the school's eponym's own time in Düsseldorf. If not for the reasons one might assume....... Peter Behrens School of Arts Düsseldorf Peter Behrens School of Arts Düsseldorf Among the many interesting and important buildings which didn't make an appearance in our Tour de l’architecture de Düsseldorf, one of the more interesting and important is arguably the former
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In 2018 the Hochschule München Design Department will move a few hundred metres round the corner from its current home, a home it has occupied for over forty years, to a new purpose built facility opposite the main college building; consequently, the 2017 Jahresausstellung was one of the last chances to experience the Design Department in its original location. But was it a presentation worthy of the moment, a fitting au revoir to an old friend..........? Hochschule München Design Department
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Established in 1992 the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe was conceived from the off as a design school for coming realities, for a world we don't yet know. But is that a world of smart, autonomous apps? A world of intelligent and considered applications of evolving technology? Of the craft of yore? The 2017 Rundgang durch die Lichthöfe summer exhibition was a chance to glean some clues...... Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe Keen readers of our
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While it's certainly true that without having been introduced to the work of Akademie für Gestaltung der Handwerkskammer Münster alumni Florian Kallus and Sebastian Schneider a.k.a design studio kaschkasch, we probably wouldn't pay that much attention to the Akademie, that introduction was pre-kaschkasch: a project from Florian at DMY Berlin 2010 and one from Sebastian at IMM Cologne 2011. And yes we are blowing ever so gently on our own trumpet. If at the same time terrifying ourselves by the
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Owing to the unique nature of Berlin's history and geopolitical relevance, the (hi)stories of all the city's cultural institutions are invariably complex. And the number of such institutions greater than in most comparable metropoli*. Few other cities can boast, for example, two public zoos, three public operas or four public universities. And while three of Berlin's universities offer individual courses in subjects such as architecture, theatre studies or music, there is only one which offers
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The Hochschule Wismar is an institution we have wanted to visit for a long time; and no, not just because it means a trip to the Baltic Coast and the historic Hanseatic port, but much more for despite being in no respect the largest design school in Germany, it is one of the most present: from Milan to Berlin to Cologne hardly a design week passes without Wismar. And so we wanted to understand the school a little better. Which is of course one of the stated aims of our 2017 #campustour,
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As an institution London’s Royal Albert Hall teaches us that regardless how illustrious and prestigious your history may be, you can never rest on your laurels, you are only ever as relevant and interesting as your next programme, as your next soloist.. With the 2017 Graduate Show the Royal Albert Hall’s next door neighbour, the equally illustrious and prestigious, Royal College of Art unveiled its 2017 programme and 2017 soloists. But would there be a standing ovation… Royal College of
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Although older than Bauhaus Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle has arguably never achieved the same popular acclaim as its fêted near neighbour. Is however still in existence, and thus need not live on its laurels, but rather can continually develop its legacy through the efforts and ideas of its staff and students. The 2017 annual summer exhibition provided insights into the contribution made, and being made, by the current crop........ Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle: The
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Somewhat disappointingly the authorities in the southern German town of Schwäbisch Gmünd have succumbed to the current unicorn lunacy and placed one in the town's coat of arms. But could the design students at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd be relied upon to resist such short term fads? The 2017 Rundgang summer exhibition provided the answers....... Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd @ Rektor-Klaus-Straße Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd The old adage that
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The donkey, dog, cat and cockerel featured in the Brothers Grimm's retelling of the traditional folktale Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten never made to it to Bremen, never worked as musicians, and thus never enriched the cultural heritage of the Hansa port. But would any of the Hochschule für Künste Bremen's 2017 Integrated Design graduates augment the city's long history? Would any rise to the post of Bremer Stadtkreativen......? Hochschule für Künste Bremen (Photo Hochschule für Künste Bremen)
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Sited in the gentile calm of Pimlico, Chelsea College of Arts sits between the independent free-thinking of the Tate Britain, the original Tate with its collection of British and international art from 1500 until today, and the state control and surveillance of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, in their unobtrusive bunker on the opposite bank of the Thames But where would the conformity/rebellion equilibrium be found amongst the current crop of Chelsea students....... Chelsea
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The 18th century forebearer of the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart was established as a location "where the youth can be cultivated, likes plants in a nursery" While nurseries can produce strong and noble trees, flowers with the most exquisite blossoms and hardy perennials that keep on contributing to their environment, they are also often home to unstable experimental hybrids and provide the perfect breeding ground for parasites and disease. How well the current Akademie der
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Once upon a time there lived in Cassel two brothers by the name of Grimm. Legend has it that one day Jacob and Wilhelm, for that was their names, travelled to Marburg to become wealthy lawyers; however, instead of learning the basics of Roman law, jurisprudence and how to write huge invoices, they spent their days with the witches, kings, queens and elves of northern European folktales. The people of Cassel were angry when the heard of the brothers' activities, and a large crowd gathered to
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Jokes about revolting students are as old as the noble art of the student protest itself. And neither has lost any of their charm. The 2017 Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig Rundgang was held against the backdrop of a student protest over new regulations concerning, amongst other aspects, how and when the school buildings and workshops could be used. But would there also be protest from our side over the way the students had used the buildings and workshops........? Hochschule
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The Cass is situated in London's Whitechapel, not far from the East London Mosque and in an area long a centre of London's Muslim community. The day we visited the Cass Summer Show it was Eid al-Fitr, a festival of family, feasts and finery. The narrow streets of Whitechapel awash with smartly attired, good humoured locals, or possibly just smartly attired locals high on sugar, for Eid al-Fitr is also a festival of sweetness at the end of Ramadan. Cakes and sweets as far as the eye could see.
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In our recent interview with the Danish designer and author Thomas Dickson, he discussed the relevance of 1968 as a year of revolution in Danish design. Founded in 1967 Design School Kolding grew up against the background of that revolution. An indication as to if that spirit lives on as the institution celebrates its 50th could be found at the 2017 Design School Kolding graduation exhibition. Koldinghus Kolding. Location for the Design School Kolding Graduate Exhibition 2017 Established
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She came from Greece, had a thirst for knowledge, studied sculpture at St Martins College and, according to Jarvis Cocker, had no understanding of the brutal realities of late 1980s British society. Thirsty to know if the 2017 Central St Martins design graduates were more grounded in their contemporary reality, our 2017 #campustour headed to North London.... Central St Martins,London. The Granary Central St Martins, London Tracing its origins back to the late 19th century, Central St
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The Swedish town of Lund is famous as the birthplace of the Tetra Pak packaging system, and thus of a global revolution in food and drink distribution systems and consumption patterns. If the new crop of Lund University School of Industrial Design graduation projects reached conclusions as simple, logical and resource efficient, if arguably, and ideally, without the associated post-use recycling problems, could be assessed at the institution's 2017 Degree Exhibition. Lund University School
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Throughout June and July well be touring Europe in context for our 2017 #campustour. By way of an accompaniment, we thought it would be an opportune moment for a game of bingo. For who doesn't love bingo? Welcome to smow Blog #campustour Bingo (photo by vcheregati, via https://commons.wikimedia.org) As regular, more loyal, readers will be aware, we have a very limited vocabulary, and thus the few words we do use provide the perfect base for smow blog Bingo. The rules are very simple,
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Very much like Willie Nelson, we're on the road again, and like a band of gypsies goin' down the highway, we'll be goin' places that we've never been, seein' things that we may never see again, and all the time insistin' that the world keep turnin' our way. It's smow blog #campustour 2017 On, and on, and on, and....... the smow blog #campustour 2017 Every June and July smow blog takes to the road and visits design school end of semester and graduation exhibitions; yet whereas in the past
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August in Edinburgh is Festival, Fringe & Edinburgh College of Art Masters Degree Show. We enjoyed one of the three…… Edinburgh College of Art Occasionally, very, very occasionally, we genuinely think it might be us. Genuinely think there might be nothing wrong with the number of events during Milan Design Week. Genuinely think there is nothing wrong with the number of stages at the Glastonbury Festival. Genuinely think there is nothing wrong with the number of ice cream flavours on offer.
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If a central component of the Bauhaus philosophy was, in essence, to make art useful for industrial production and thus give art a contemporary relevance and function, what to do in a post-industrial world?* The answer from the German art historian and architecture theorist Heinrich Klotz was to unify art with digital technology, and thus give art a contemporary relevance and function. Or the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, to give it its formal name; and an institution
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As East Berlin's Art and Design College the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee was in many ways symbolic of East Germany's difficult relationship with Bauhaus and the legacy of inter-war functionalism. On the one hand the DDR needed the reduced, cost effective, mass-market, industrial objects striven for during the period. On the other a need to define a new, socialist, tradition for the new, socialist, state meant an almost dogmatic rejection of everything associated with the pre-war "Germany",
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