The Institute for Applied Heterotopia is an independent project team consisting of experts from the fields of architecture, sociology, media and cultural studies, design, and journalism. Together, we explore the transitional space between the present and the future using artistic methods, with scientific reflection of historical contexts.
_ perspectives
ThThe space around us becomes reality through our perception. In this space we move and interact with each other, and all spaces are culturally shaped and have meanings that are interpreted by us. In today’s world, there are no more unknown areas, as everything is culturally interconnected. However, there are places that are particularly dense and complex, where discourses and fictions converge. Michel Foucault called these places heterotopias because they have specific rules and meanings that reflect social orders. They can also be understand as utopias, which have been realized or concretized. We are interested in observing and identifying these places in order to understand their meaning and production.
_ concepts
What we perceive around us shapes our reality. The Institute for Applied Heterotopia (IFAH) uses the concept of heterotopia as an artistic principle. This means that IFAH deals with places and spaces that are significant in a special way, which we reflect upon and analyze. The goal is to develop new ideas for the future from them and to realize these utopias, to make heterotopias out of them. These places can be understood as manifestations of futures that have already happened. In this way, the IFAH would like to contribute to the fact that we together become actors of a future that has become space, inspired by wishes, hopes and longings. Ideal are especially the moments when actors and recipients become one, in the midst of a present revolution of personal and social classifications and self-descriptions.
_ methods
How? The means with which we work on and produce heterotopias are based on cultural techniques of contemporary reality construction linked to direct perception. You can find more on this under the header theory and publications.
With what? Common cultural techniques such as images, writing and numbers should be mentioned here, but also language and techniques of perception, especially in their accelerated conflation. See the previous projects under practice and map.
In concrete terms? The applied techniques and methods are tailored to the competencies of the members of IFAH, who act as experts in individual modules of workshops and can put them together depending on the specificities of the location and the aim of attention, reflection or construction.