Transversing all! A new research-oriented, transdisciplinary master's programme launches in 2024 at HGK Basel

6.6.2024 – Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel, Institut Experimentelles Design und Medienkulturen

Die Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel FHNW bietet ab dem kommenden Semester am Institute Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM) den neuen forschungsorientierten und transdisziplinären Master-Studiengang Transversal Design an.

Dr. Kit Braybrooke ab dem 1. August 2024 Professor:in und Studiengangsleiter:in des MA Transversal Design am IXDM und Dr. Helen V. Pritchard, Professor:in und Leiter:in Forschung am IXDM, stellen den neuen Studiengang vor.

We need to believe in the world’s ability to change, and I am so excited to see the launch of our new research led MA programme Transversal Design – a place where we can learn together for the design futures-we-need.

Dr Helen V. Pritchard, professor and head of research, IXDM, HGK Basel

As our civilisation faces the immense challenges of polycrisis alongside the six million other species who dwell beside us, it is clearer than ever that business-as-usual is not enough. Unlike previous traditions which have tended to assimilate heterogeneous realities into monocultural solutions, transversal design embraces complexity – inviting futures-oriented approaches which are critically-informed, and deeply collaborative. Drawing from the legacies of decolonial, ancestral, feminist and more-than-human ways of knowing, the Transversal Design MA presents a bold vision for community-engaged learning that flows out of the classroom, and into the field. Taking a deep look into systems (and their limits) at the intersection of technological, ecological and social landscapes, it explores how design can not only build, but also rethink. Together, our creative experimenters will assemble new shapes and forms for living-with – beckoning a rich pluriverse of possible worlds into being.

Dr. Kit Braybrooke, professor and designated programme head MA Transversal Design, IXDM, HGK Basel

Transversal Design is a new research-oriented, transdisciplinary master’s programme starting in 2024 at the HGK Basel in the Institute Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM). On this forward facing programme students focus on social and environmental issues for worlds in transition. Developing practices that include alternative media, speculative models, practices of care, tools for solidarity and radical proposals for worlds in transition. The design focus of Transversal Design is on processes, documenting, publishing, questions of environmental-social justice, and the critical infrastructures on which we collectively depend. Informed by the transnational leading research agenda of IXDM.

During the 120 ect programme students will work on research-led projects mentored and supported in the Critical Media Lab and HyperWerk at IXDM. Guided by an expert team and internationally recognized visiting lecturers and researchers they can design, film, draw, program, publish, code, play, build, research, organize, or write. Shaping practices around the important questions of why, how, and for whom in theory and practice, in organizing the futures-we-need.

The course will contribute to the new and emerging field of Transversal Design! Shaping creative practices for designing exemplary scenarios, speculative experiences, radical proposals, guided by collaborative togetherness and experimentally guided work.

Transversing all! A new research-oriented, transdisciplinary master's programme launches in 2024 at HGK Basel, Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel

Transversing all! A new research-oriented, transdisciplinary master's programme launches in 2024 at HGK Basel