WS 21/22, Interim for Prof. Tania Prill,  Seminar, HfK Bremen
Point Of No Return*

Let’s make design decisions, choose directions and buy one-way tickets to the Land of the Unknown!

Most decisions are made unconsciously (from the gut). A decision is always shaped by the subjective foundations of the decision-maker, by their preferences, feelings, likes, dislikes, values, experiences and willingness to take risks. So let’s meet and talk about it.The Point of no return implies continuous movement, we will focus on making design decisions within individual projects. We will build on the decisions made during the seminar meetings and will develop them further, speak about predictions, expectations and consequences along the way. We want to try out and experiment what happens if we design but can’t take any steps backwards. How can we use this method to produce a multitude of results in increasingly large formats and complexity? How can we reason our moves in front of ourselves and an audience? How can we trust our intuition, jump between different media, go with the flow and deal with regret? 

*Point of no return: the point in time within a process or process from which a return to the starting point or starting point is no longer possible. 

Design practice is usually not a simple one-way road. It involves detours, driving in circles, bumpy roads and dead ends. What if we embrace the unexpected instead of heading towards the expected destination? The shortcut that miraculously takes us authors back to the origin whenever we regret where we ended up in the process is COMMAND+Z. In this seminar we will turn off the car’s navigation mode and commit to experimentation, gut feelings and personal interests.We will be critical towards the comfortable and will remove the safety net a.k.a. the undo button. There is no going back–we have to keep moving forward. We will embrace this as a method and expand individual projects from session to session. All students will bring a favorite item with them to the first session, which will be their starting point for the seminar. Any medium is allowed. Analog und digital Cross-over episodes will be our best friend for the seminar meetings.