The Future of Gestaltung

Symposium of Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe

Author: Tessa Breuer

To mark the end of its 30th anniversary year, the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe will be hosting The Future of Gestaltung (The Future of Design) symposium on February 9th and 10th, 2023. Designed as an open discussion format, in addition to the members and guests of the HfG, the city’s public should also actively participate and enrich the numerous offerings in the form of roundtables, presentations, debates or pop-up events with their contributions and thought experiments.

In keeping with the title, the focus will be on the future of the university and its contribution to society. The aim is to question today’s artistic and design practice and to sketch out scenarios of collaboration and coexistence. The focus will be on the term Gestaltung (Design), which was used a good 100 years ago at German-speaking art colleges to emphasize the holistic claim of their own work. Today, under political slogans such as Die Zukunft gestalten (Shaping the Future), it is once again in vogue, since it affects all areas of society, from education and the economy to administration, health care, and the environment. What usually remains unclear, however, is who is actually in a position to shape this future.

Society is confronted with a variety of social, political, ecological, and economic challenges. The symposium will focus on the role of the pioneering possibilities of art and design in this context, the special role of a university in this context and how the HfG can make use of its unique combination of art, theory, and design in this situation.

These and other questions are addressed in contributions such as The Death of Shopping Malls. The Future of Social Meeting Places in Public Space, The Future of Urban Design, The Value of Making and the Making of Values, or Gender, Design, and Their Influence on Teaching.

The Future of Gestaltung

When?
February 9th, 2023, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
February 10th, 2023, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., panel discussions from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Where?
Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
Lorenzstr. 15
76135 Karlsruhe

More information and the full program schedule can be found here!