This semester we will consider both how our built environment tells stories and how we read them. The seminar builds on takeaways from last semester, which established an understanding of the (so-called post)colonial city, which is formed by design of centrality, and invested in validating the idea of the centrality of power, capital, knowledge, and culture. However, on our ventures into small pockets of the city, we will seek out sites of memory, and places that we recognize, even if we have not been there before. We will consider the city as an archive, but also as a place for good walks- one that can feel like home, and thus, becomes a site of resistance (Bell Hooks, 1990).

Our starting point is Mehringplatz, and we will return here repeatedly in order to connect our reflections and responses to the site of the Berlin Bleibt festival. This will be the core of the semester’s coursework, for which we will draw on our strengths as a group with varying experiences and expertises to develop a zine to accompany Raumstrategien’s contribution to the HAU festival.

We will build up to this with the aforementioned field trips as well as collective readings, screenings, discussions, and reflection exercises, using reading, writing, mapping and other methods.