together – communication and design for intercultural understanding

cooperation partners: Academy of Arts in Osijek, University of Pécs

published on: together.hfkg.university

together is a research project proposed by the University of Applied Sciences for Communication and Design (in German: Hochschule für Kommunikation und Gestaltung, HfK+G) funded for 3 years by the Ministry of Science Research and Art in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

The project is based on an innovative teaching concept for intercultural understanding especially with the Danube region. The interdisciplinary approach of HfK+G’s two study programs Communication Design (B. A.) and Advertisement and Market Communication (B. A.) lays the foundation for the 4 workshops carried out throughout the scope of the project continuing these workshop contents during the semester thus embedding them in the curricula of the study programs. 

Students from both, the HfK+G in Germany as well as the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek (Croatia) and the University of Pécs (Hungary) get the chance to participate in the 4 workshops, two of which are taking place in Germany (Stuttgart and Ulm), one in Hungary and one in Croatia. 

During the workshops, students jointly do research in an international environment with a special focus on local cultural, social and urban needs (e. g. democratic values, social participation and responsibility, diversity, discrimination, intolerance and integration, etc.). In order to find solution approaches, active participation and dialogue-promoting methods such as Design Thinking, Citizen Design, science platforms, the World Café method as well as Open Space formats will be used with the contribution of experts in the field and the involvement of the local society. Analogue, digital and interactive focused design and communication concepts as well as interdisciplinary solution approaches will be deduced by the students in the frame of the workshops. In the end, they exhibit their results thus making them available for the public dialogue. During the semester, the students continue working on the topics at their home universities.