Course syllabus

Welcome to the course Visualising Complexity!

It can seem like the world is growing – more networks, connections, information. The way we make sense of it all relies on our ability to decipher and process information. One way to grasp the flows, streams of entangled and rhizomatic information is to make it tangible and visible. 

We need to learn how to pull relevant bits out of the data streams and place them where we can see them, dissect them and talk about them. Practice how to visualise complexity. The aim of the course is to enhance your ability to analyse and to communicate the circumstances and potentialities in society that are characterised by obscurity, uncertainty and complexity.

Within the 10-week course your design work will derive from the book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants written by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The book is our common anchor, the thematic connection between each of your individual design projects. 

Braiding Sweetgrass “shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid /.../ toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.”

You will develop knowledge around complicated, complex and wicked situations. Alongside poetry and the value of artistic work, you will work with visualising, materialising, displaying and essaying. You will research through making and take on the thematic of the course by doing.

Literature: Kimmerer, Robin Wall. (2020) Braiding Sweetgrass : Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

Course starts: 7th of November 
Course ends: 13th of January
End of year/Christmas holiday: Last day on site before the holidays is 20th of December and first date on site after the holidays is 4th of January. You will still continue to work on your own during that time.

All information and content for the course will be presented during the course introduction.

In this course you will meet teachers: Eva Erwander, Markus Bergström, Karin Linderoth, Annelies Vaneycken, Thomas Laurien, Erling Björgvinsson, Pascal Prosek.

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Course lead is Eva Erwander. If you have questions before the course start, email: eva.erwander@gu.se

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Schedule

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Also listed as Course summary, below. 

Course Syllabus

Find the course syllabus and literature list by searching on the course name or course code in the syllabus database via the Student Portal.

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