Metafaktische Gestaltung / Meta-truth Design

About wigs, maps and carbon-look

This time my course is based within the Architectural Theory department. Once again the course “Meta-truth Design” focuses on the phenomena of semantics, fake and imitation. Compared to the more practical approach of the “Post-truth design” project one semester ago, I decided for a more theoretical approach this time and a refined discourse about the prefixes “Post-” and “Meta-“ and others.

Due to the nature of theory courses, the students did not create a design project, but instead a presentation with a written paper to one of the following topics:
• Nudging – manipulation in every day life
• Dummies – From decoy birds to scarecrows
• Illusions in design – Birch and vintage look
• Car mobility and reality – how the combustion engine succeeded
• Damien Hirst: Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable – legends and fakes
• Conspiracy theories and their artifacts
• Augmented and virtual reality in art, architecture and design
• The semantic turn
• Living in a staged setting – Between listed buildings and amusements park
• Robots and cyborgs
• Phantom islands and other fantastical geography
• Parallel universe Mallorca (Ballermann)
• Souvenirs – Semantics as function
• Framing
• Abstraction as metafacticity – Abridging, simplification, distortion
• Plagiarism and bootlegging
• Mimicry/Mimeses in art and design