Space

Established at the Bauhaus University in Weimar in 2013, the Space for Visual Research serves as a workspace and laboratory for exploratory image production. Combining the investigative approach of a think tank with hands-on experimentation, it supports the necessity to discover new aesthetics and develop innovative design vocabularies.

Responding to the rapid change in the culture of communication worldwide, the Space for Visual Research has long extended reach as a traveling workshop series. Implemented in cooperation with numerous universities around the globe, it invites participants from diverse backgrounds, programs and perspectives for a first-hand experience in the art of innovational form making.

Concept

Images are the center of contemporary communication. Hardly any message, design or research can do without them. The Space for Visual Research focuses on abstract imagery that functions well beyond familiar forms and reference systems. Addressing design students and other individuals willing to expand their creative repertoire, it proposes experimental
procedures and interdisciplinary research techniques that give
rise to original forms and visual communication solutions.

In the course of the workshop, the process is often completely redirected and reorganized, opening up unconventional paths and directions. Ongoing documentation allows for critical retrospect and reconfigurations.

Mission

Novel forms of expression and communication call for alternative modes of thinking. Consequently, the workshop is not geared towards the creation of a specific work or purpose but focuses on the cultivation of the
mind. Following a process-oriented approach, it fosters experimentation, establishes an organic learning environment and creates experiences that can be applied to various contexts. The main goal is to encourage participants to expand on what they have learned and enrich their own design practice over the long term.

Context

We find ourselves in an era of rapid and radical technical change. Parameters and requirements of the creative industry have altered fundamentally,calling on those who work in the field. On that note, designers have to adapt their methodologies, mindsets,tools, resources, and terminologies to communicate effectively – with clients,colleagues, as well as increasingly global audiences.

While conventional images are created incessantly, truly innovative approaches are rare. More than that, it often seems unclear what exactly innovation means in the context of visual communication– let alone how it can be achieved. There is a dire need for ideas to fill that gap –and for modes of design education that nurture them in the first place.

Curriculum

The workshop’s step-by-step structure is based on sets of individual assignments and thus flexible enough to work for nearly every semester, creative discipline, and even for career changers and entrepreneurs striving to expand their perspective and professional horizon. While all workshop tasks are solidly rooted in the once trailblazing theories of the historical Bauhaus, they also incorporate a high degree of contemporary thinking to translate the modernist spirit of design discovery into the now. The learning experience is playful, practical and progressive. Cultivating creative production beyond disciplinary boarders, it broadens minds for the benefit of future projects in diverse fields of application.

Previous Workshops:

Bauhaus University, Weimar, 2014 –House of the Artists, Teheran, Iran, 2017
Taiwan Tech, Taiwan, 2017
DesignSummer Hangzhou, China, 2018
Paju Typography Institute PaTI, Korea 2019
UCB La Paz, Bolivia, 2019
Y Design Festival, Macao, China, 2019
Gwangju Biennale, Korea, 2019
AGI Rotterdam, 2019
Quito, Humboldt Institute, Ecuador, 2019

Workshop Team

Prof. Markus Weisbeck
Dipl. Des. Vera Kunz

Contact us: hey@littlespin.studio

Since its inception in 2013, the Weimar-based research lab Space for Visual Research has gradually enlarged its operations to inspire a lively exchange with students and like-minded practitioners. A fundamental part of this endeavor is an ongoing series of exhibitions, lectures, and workshops, which have been hosted by universities and cultural institutions across the globe.
During the “Bauhaus Year” 2019, a team around SfVR founder Markus Weisbeck was invited to the Paju Typography Institute (PaTI). After a first visit in 2018, the alternative design school near Seoul hosted the visual researchers from Weimar a second time. And once again, the latter revived the Bauhaus spirit with one of their practice-oriented workshops. The result: a series of experimental graphics, made with unconventional tools and techniques.

Manifest of Practice

Manifest of Practice – La Paz, Bolivia
Universidad Católica Boliviana "San Pablo", 2019

Throughout 2019, the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus was celebrated across the world with exhibitions, lectures, performances, and workshops. While most events focused on the history of the Bauhaus movement, a team around Professor Markus Weisbeck at the Faculty of Art and Design of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar took a more practice-based approach to bring the spirit of the acclaimed avant-garde school back to life within the field of contemporary graphic design.
Following the exhibition “Manifest of Practice” that presented current positions and projects from their Weimar campus to a Berlin audience, Weisbeck and his colleagues conceptualized a series of workshops to tour universities and festivals worldwide over the course of the “Bauhaus Year”. Aside from destinations in South Korea, Iran and China, the third iteration led them to Bolivia, where the event was hosted by Universidad Católica Boliviana “San Pablo” in La Paz.