Feminism and Digital Cultures in Architecture

The Focus Group of Anna Boyksen Fellow Prof. Nathalie Bredella (Leibniz University Hannover) and her host Prof. Dietrich Erben (TUM School of Engineering and Design, Department of Architecture) will introduce a focus on feminist practices and the history of the digital in architecture at TUM.

In order to encourage a critical engagement with the history of the digital in architecture, the Focus Group wants to explore methods of feminist practices in research and teaching. This Focus Group will bring together the chairs of Theory and History of Architecture, Art and Design, of Architectural Informatics, Urban Design, Building Technology and Climate Responsive Design, Digital Fabrication, as well as the Chair of History of Architecture and Curatorial Practice, in order to explore methods of writing history in the context of digital cultures. Who have been the protagonists in the development of digital practices and how are they situated within local knowledge structures and their social, economic and political contexts? What roles do activism, oral history, and reenactment play in understanding digital cultures? These are among the questions that the Focus Group will address as it explores methodologies and events which have not previously been included in architectural history. By focusing on the history of technology together with an international network of scholars, we will engage with situated precedents of digital practices and how they relate to contemporary discourse.