Wieselgrensplatsen 17
Documentation from the course Social Transformation, spring term 2025.
For the duration of an academic term, first year MFA Design students situated themselves and their practices in an empty old bank space on Wieselgrensplatsen in Gothenburg. During the term students developed methods for situated design practices that could engage with people, spaces and other stakeholders in issues concerning social transformation. Projects concerned themselves with issues and challenges such as intergenerational meetings, the economy and resilience of cultural spaces, rapidly changing urban landscapes and how citizens are to understand and engage with processes concering development, social potentials of urban gardening, nostalgia, co-crafting of public space, and more.
The course focuses on the development and application of design methods for social transformation through relational and situated design practice, emphasising the role of the designer as an actor within an extended field of knowledge, dependent on various organisations, institutions and municipalities. It includes involvement and contribution to identified real-life contexts by exploring and utilising relevant transdisciplinary research and discourses in tandem with practice led knowledge systems.
In the course, students are asked to connect local complex and challanging contexts of social, political and ecological concern to global issues, phneomena and occurences. Additionally, the course aims to foster artistic exploration of propositional design processes while simulataneously engageing and communicating with relevant publics. Students learn to articulate, discuss and justify their results within specific social, cultural and political contexts, and engage in critical discussions through peer assessments.