[urban interfaces] seminar 2022-2023: Creative Urban Methods
Creative Urban Methods: A Critical Exploration
THE SEMINAR IS FULLY BOOKED, please send an e-mail to rmes@rug.nl with your name, university and research school. We will put you on our waiting list.
In this seminar we will discuss ways to expand conventional ways of doing theory in, for and with cities and urban contexts. The growing catalog of creative methods for various disciplinary and interdisciplinary urban inquiries demonstrates a wide array of research techniques ranging from data walking to performative mapping or critical making, from experimental ethnography and co-creation to dramaturgical or interface analysis, and curatorial or action-based research to uncover and engage alternative ways of data collection, production, and analysis. Such creative urban methods are embodied and explorative, as well as experimental and interventionist. They share a phenomenological emphasis on embodied experiences of the (citizen/academic) researcher.
In the context of the multifarious global crises on planetary, societal, and political levels we find ourselves in today, it seems relevant to explore creative methods that can reshape ways of knowing about the city. We are keen to stimulate debate on the use and application of creative methods in academic and practice-based contexts, critically examining and addressing questions related to their merit and limitations as problem-solving research tools. What is the specific value of creative methods for understanding urban lives, situations, and spaces? How are urban creative methods different from more traditional and established methods for research on the city? What (new) urban knowledges can we produce with such methods? Who/what are privileged in and through such approaches and what kind of power relations are produced?
The seminar consists of three 2-hour sessions, each focusing on and discussing a different method/approach: critical making, co-creation and performative methods. Additionally, there is an optional workshop day during which participants can actively engage with different creative urban methods. For this, participants can receive extra credits.
URL
The seminar is organized by the [urban interfaces] research group at Utrecht University.
For more information, see website: https://urbaninterfaces.sites.uu.nl
On this website we will post the updated program and seminar syllabus.
Where/when
Seminar session 2- May 25, 2023 15:00 – 17:00. Location: MCW Lab, Kromme Nieuwegracht 20 (theater space downstairs), Utrecht.
Seminar session 3 – June 8, 2023 15:00 – 17:00. Location tba
Workshop day – 4 – 5 July, 2023 in Amsterdam and Utrecht. Up to date information on program, times and venues + separate registration: https://
ECTS
Research Master students can acquire 3 ECTS for the seminar, if they write an illustrated blogpost of about 1000 words for each seminar session (3 in total). The best blogposts are selected for publication on the [urban interfaces] website. Research Master students can acquire an additional 2 ECTS if they participate in the workshop day and write a (creative) reflection (1000-1500 words).
