Fall 2016

Digital Vienna 1900
English 76-403; ML 82-420; History 79-437; CAS 64-420

TR 1:30pm - 2:50pm | CFA Room 206A | Francesca Torello

This class explores Vienna before the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. We will be looking at a huge and at times confusing canvas, which by necessity includes almost every aspect of culture. From history and politics we will move on through art, architecture, psychoanalysis, literature, music, and philosophy. We will be looking at art nouveau buildings and furniture, reading literature, viewing films, and listening to recordings. Using an enhanced historical map of the city as a digital interface and an interactive learning tool, we will add a crucial visual component to the course and research the connections between urban and architectural space and the intellectual activity that took place in it.

You will work in teams with students from other disciplines. You will research networks of intellectual and artistic activities and create 3D models of the spaces, from public squares to café interiors, in which this intellectual activity took place. You will create and expand a growing collection of records, photos, archival materials, as well as artwork, music and other media, in an effort to reconstruct the dialogue among the arts and the cultural debate of this key moment in the passage to Modernism.