RaKun

Cycling and Art - Seminar on Artistic and Social Transformation in Mobility

Student Projects:

1. 1."Perspectives"

   

   "Perspectives" - a zine for changing perspectives on mobility. Many people are familiar with it: drivers park in bike lanes to get a quick roll, cyclists roll across the sidewalk to avoid having to wait at a red light, and pedestrians run onto the roadway, lost in thought. No matter how we get around, everyone makes a mistake and everyone gets annoyed with other road users - every mode of transport has its advantages and disadvantages, which must be used, endured or avoided. As a team consisting of Filipa, Lukas, Jonathan and Helen with backgrounds in urban and regional planning, political science and history, mechanical engineering and architecture, we want to bring people closer to the fact that traffic can only work together and how important it is to take the perspective of the other traffic participants from time to time, not least in order to be able to look at and evaluate problem areas and dangerous situations from different angles. With a small booklet, which should ideally appear as an insert in a (daily) newspaper, we want to reach as many very different people as possible with their individual mobility. The zine "Perspectives" should interactively show how important understanding for each other is in road traffic and playfully draw attention to both needs and grievances of different means of transport and thus strengthen the change of perspective in traffic in all directions.

   Project developers: Filipa Saramago Thiel, Helen Neuwirth, Lukas Martin, Jonathan Sacht

2. 2."Street Battle"

   

   Starting point:

   You walk out of your front door and automatically, inevitably, you are a member of road traffic, meeting other participants and being part of a large, never-resting dynamic. As part of this dynamic, where everyone pursues a different destination, has different needs and uses a different means of transportation, it is inevitable to come into contact with another means of transportation and its owner.

   Overview:

   We want to bring together two parties from the spectrum of pedestrians, cyclists and car drivers and give them the opportunity to share their experiences and needs. We have put together a list of questions with the aim of listening to each other, responding to each other's perspectives and jointly developing visions of what road traffic could look like where all participants have equal rights with their individual means of transport and are given the space they need. In order to bring the road users into a situation that is largely unknown to them, i.e. one that does not involve the use of a bicycle or a car, we considered choosing a hybrid of these two modes of transport as a space for exchanging ideas about participation in traffic. We used a "Veload", a cargo bike with two seats at the front like a car, which can promote communication between the riders. An installation is to be set up on the rear part of the "Veload", the loading area, which is intended to draw attention to the different perspectives of cycling or driving a car with the help of drawings, pictures or sayings.

   Distribution:

   In order to generate further reach in addition to the "Veload" tour through Kassel, the recorded video will be exhibited during a tour at the Kunstuniversität Kassel and made available for a further exhibition. In addition, we have created an Instagram account[@strassenschlacht], where we want to document the journey and development of our project and also recruit interview partners in advance.

   Result:
   The finished video can be viewed at the following link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ckWHkTCkqAA&feature=youtu.be .

   Project developers: Anja Schmidt-Bäumler, Emilia Michaelis, Hannah Glatzel, Tobias Lob.