Library W*rks

Design theory seminar,
B.A., Transformation Design, University of the Arts (HBK) Braunschweig
Winter 2024/2025

Seminar description/ Seminarbeschreibung:

EN
„Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity. When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.“
(Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of the single story. TED Global, Juli 2009)

The LIBRARY W*RKS seminar invites students to work together to examine, challenge and rethink the current collection of the Design Department in the Mainz University of Applied Sciences library. Who is on the shelves and who isn’t? Whose stories are told and whose aren’t? Which design practices are represented and which aren’t? Through a collaborative research process, we will trace the gaps and develop concrete proposals for alternative, more diverse, fairer and multi-perspective approaches to and within design. The focus will be on your individual research interests.

This seminar will, amongst other things, provide an accessible introduction to the fundamentals of academic work. The emphasis will be on research and the synthesis of findings in a collaborative research document. We will also read and discuss texts in German and English. The seminar is aimed in particular at students who have no prior experience of academic work, are curious, and wish to overcome their fear of theoretical texts.

DE
„Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity. When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.“
(Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of the single story. TED Global, Juli 2009)

Das Seminar LIBRARY W*RKS lädt Studierende dazu ein gemeinsam den aktuellen Bestand des Fachbereich Design in der Bibliothek der HS Mainz zu untersuchen, in Frage zu stellen und neu zu denken. Wer steht im Regal und wer nicht? Wessen Geschichten werden erzählt und welche nicht? Welche Designpraktiken sind repräsentiert und welche nicht? Mittels eines kollaborativen Forschungsprozesses spüren wir den Leerstellen nach und entwickeln konkrete Vorschläge für alternative, diversere, gerechtere und multiperspektivischere Perspektiven auf und im Design. Im Fokus stehen dabei eure individuellen Forschungsinteressen.

In diese Seminar werden u.a. die Grundlagen wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens zugänglich vermittelt. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf der Recherche und der Aufarbeitung der Erkenntnisse in einem kollaborativen Research Document. Wir werden außerdem Texte auf Deutsch und auf Englisch lesen und diskutieren. Das Seminar richtet sich insbesondere an Studierende, die noch keine Erfahrung mit wissenschaftlichem Arbeiten haben, neugierig sind und ihre Angst vor theoretischen Texten überwinden möchten.

The university librabries entrance.


Students visit the library for browsing and a Q&A with the librarian.


Final presentation of collective publication.


Collective reading of favorite passages from the publication.


Proud, happy (and relieved) students.

Selected literature:

Achille Mbembe – The Power of the Archive and its Limits

Martha Scotford – Messy History vs. Neat History

Lisa Baumgarten, Anja Neidhardt-Mokoena und Mara Recklies – Doing knowledge in Design. Eine feministische Auseinandersetzung mit Geschichtsschreibung und -vermittlung

Megan Shaw Prelinger und Rick Prelinger in conversation with Erin Kissane – The Library as Map