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Performing Arts, Creative Arts and Design

Improbable Blossom

When:

04 August - 08 August 2025

School:

Berlin Summer University of the Arts

Institution:

Berlin University of the Arts

City:

Berlin

Country:

Germany

Language:

English

Credits:

1 EC

Fee:

580 EUR

Interested?
Improbable Blossom

About

Improbable Blossom is a five day screen printing workshop exploring screen printed organic visual language on found materials through drawing experiments, paper cuts and stencil printing.

The production of art and rubbish are two sides of the same coin: defining an edition means separating prints of artistic value from imperfect waste paper. Design practice means sorting essential information from superfluous detail; waste is superfluous and must be removed from sight. These two poles are inextricably linked - particularly when we think about the mountains of refuse we produce - and design.

Our premise for Improbable Blossom is: How can we approach printmaking in a more sustainable way? Which boundaries can we set ourselves? What can we reuse? How do we deal with mistakes?

Course leader

Charlotte Hornung and Jo Rüßmann

Target group

Workshop for beginners and students with a little printmaking experience.
Participants with an interest in graphic design, drawing and printmaking.

Course aim

Our starting point will be a visit to the botanical gardens in Berlin, where we would like to explore the rhythms and textures of organic forms through drawing, thinking about the incredible diversity and multiplicity of organic lifeforms that have evolved within limited and extreme environments. Flora, fauna and fungi have each developed a plethora of strategies to survive in their specific habitats - whether they are symbiotic, cyclical, antagonistic or parasitic. One creature’s waste is another’s basis for existence, and every natural limitation leads to new pathways - more creativity, and more complexity. These samples will be translated into papercuts and then, into stencils. We will be using an alternative screen-printing process working only with paper stencils to print onto found materials - newspaper, waste paper, packaging materials - to create surprising combinations and compositions that generate strange and unforeseen corridors of meaning. Each participant will make a series of about 20-30 unique small format prints working with one to four colours.

Fee info

Fee

580 EUR

Interested?

When:

04 August - 08 August 2025

School:

Berlin Summer University of the Arts

Institution:

Berlin University of the Arts

Language:

English

Credits:

1 EC

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