This module is grounded in anthropological approaches to studying material cultures. Understanding how we engage with the material world is fundamental to understanding human cultures across time and space - for example, how we make meaning through making with the material, and how we construct our social worlds through living with things. Whether focusing on historical, cross-cultural, contemporary or speculative material cultures, these approaches develop holistic, contextual and nuanced views of the dynamic relationship between the material and the social in human life.The study of material cultures allows for a deeper appreciation of the complexity and diversity of lived human experience in different time periods and different geographical places.

The module introduces key theories in material culture studies through examples that highlight how processes of growing, shaping, extracting, making, adapting, buying, exchanging and disposing of material things in different cultures enable cultural meaning to be both embedded in, and (re)generated through, the material. Various research methods are introduced through course materials, through which students can begin to understand how to research and identify the common values, diverse beliefs, and messy realities of how we live together in material environments, and how understanding these matter for the practice of design as a future-orientated activity.

Courses will be held in a combination of English and German.

Qualifikationsziele

Basic understanding of the key theoretical approaches in material culture studies and the range of research methods used in the field. Develop competencies in understanding and summarizing course materials, synthesizing ideas, developing own research projects, and giving short, structured presentations.