[A]FA Integration

[A]FA Integration provides pre-diploma students a framework that incorporates an experimental, transcultural, and transdisciplinary approach. The expertise of [A]FA feeds the specific thesis interests on a methodological, thematic (socio-cultural, human-geographical, environmental), and artistic level. The outcome of the course is an individual collection of knowledge fragments that form a conceptual backbone for the students’ individual thesis projects. Beyond a mere collection of elements, the aim is to arrive at an original, synthetic thought. One often arrives at a situation with preconceptions and crystallized notions. The fragmentary approach is as much about viewing the field of (applied) research from as open a perspective as possible as it is about a process of unlearning what is often expected, customary, or dictated by habit.

The work develops a physical ‚deck of cards‘ with one knowledge-fragment per card. The sources are academic and non-academic, found and produced, generated through desk research and/or applied research. Each card can include text, photography, diagrams, or drawings. The fragments inevitably go through a process of translation and shift according to new adjacencies and connections. As the fragments are shuffled, re-ordered, and edited, the ideas arrive at a crucial moment of reflection, culminating in a question, an aphorism, a statement, or any other form of visual expression such as a diagram or drawing. The process and the outcome are understood as open-ended, personal knowledge production.