
Weimar, Germany
Crash Course: Creative Skills and Creative Play
When:
25 August - 27 August 2025
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Performing Arts, Creative Arts and Design
When:
15 September - 18 September 2025
School:
Berlin Summer University of the Arts
Institution:
Berlin University of the Arts
City:
Country:
Language:
English
Credits:
1 EC
Fee:
490 EUR
In a both discursive and practical exploration, we aim to create a positive and engaged fashion utopia, using upcycling techniques to decouple the joys of engaging with fashion from the exploitation of material resources.
Fashion and dressing can be joyful and empowering but one look at media reports on Chileās trash desert, the replacement of traditional dressmaking and craftsmanship with industrial production or the pressure to adhere to colonial beauty standards makes clear that the Western fashion system lacks a positive, constructive utopia. Conversations around sustainability and climate change are dominated by notions of scarcity and abstinence and often lack the joy and empowerment that we know fashion and dress practices are capable of.
In this summer course we aim to explore the potential of decoupling the joys of engaging with fashion from the exploitation of material resources.
While upcycling has been trending on tiktok in recent years, it is a century old cultural practice.
Throughout most of our history, fabrics and textiles were too precious and reusing them was not only a necessity but common sense. Using various research and design techniques we find inspiration in existing garments, discover their origins and inherent narratives. Which narratives and dogmas are implicitly carried in the clothes we wear? Which do we want to carry along into the future and which do we want to let go?
The course emphasizes both a discursive and practical exploration of how we can shape a positive and engaged fashion utopia. Participants will learn upcycling techniques empowering them to redesign clothes to make them relevant for their own or someone elseās wardrobe.
Nina Birri and Teresa Fagbohoun
Basic sewing skills or other fibre art skills are an advantage but not a requirement
Fee
490 EUR
When:
15 September - 18 September 2025
School:
Berlin Summer University of the Arts
Institution:
Berlin University of the Arts
Language:
English
Credits:
1 EC
Weimar, Germany
When:
25 August - 27 August 2025
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Budapest, Hungary
When:
20 July - 03 August 2025
Credits:
5 EC
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Edinburgh, United Kingdom
When:
07 July - 02 August 2025
Credits:
10 EC
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