ARC300H0 S L0102/ ARC2016H S L0101
Instructor: Peter Sealy
Summer 2023
Introduction: July 4 - 11, 2023
Travel Dates: July 17 - August 4, 2023

Overview

Berlin's reputation as a locus for the production of modernity is inextricably linked with its history as a site for film production. Through films, Berlin has projected a multivalent series of urban images to global audiences, creating its own "analogous city" (to borrow Aldo Rossi's phrase), no less real than the actual material artefact to which they are indexically linked. Across the decades of the 20th century and now in the 21st, the architectural history, urban forms, and spatial conflicts latent within this paradigmatic GroBstadt (metropolis) have been laid bare in the massive number of films set and/or produced in Berlin. While offering valuable representations, these films also serve as generators of an urbanity which is then re-inscribed into the city by new architectural and urban projects.

Building upon seminars taught in winter of 2019 and summers '20 and '21, this iteration of the Daniels Faculty's Summer Studio Abroad will explore Berlin and its filmic representations. This will be done through an intensive schedule of walking yours and building visits, paired with a series of nightly film screenings. To further their understanding of film as a medium for exploring and making architecture, and in the spirit of Berlin as a centre for filmmaking, students' main assignment in this course will be the production of a short film. Throughout, the group will engage in discussions with local architects, filmmakers, and scholars.

Application

This course is available to HBA AS and HBA VS students in year 2 or higher who completed ARC200H1 and ARC201H1, or VS equivalent. Also open to MARC and MVS students.

Students wishing to apply should watch Wim Wenders's 1987 film Wings of Desire, which is available on the Criterion Channel. To watch this film, students can sign up for a free two-trial of the Criterion Channel.

Students should then prepare three postcards, with an image on one side and text on the other. The first postcard should introduce yourself; in the second, please share your thoughts on the film, and in the third explain why you'd like to go to Berlin.

Postcards should be submitted online. Additionally, printed copies should be left at the Daniels Reception.

Undergraduate applications are to be submitted here (Please note the form is limited to 1 submission).

Graduate applications are to be submitted here (Please note the form is limited to 1 submission).

Information sessions for this course will be held on Wednesday, March 8, 2023 from 12:30pm – 2:00pm (please see email for more details).

The deadline to apply is Monday, March 20, 2023 at 11:59pm EST.