Issue 43 / December 2019
eds. Dorothee Richter, Ronald Kolb

Revisiting Black Mountain
Cross-Disciplinary Experiments and Their Potential for Democratization

The cross-disciplinary experiments and self-empowering strategies imagined in the Black Mountain College just might be urgently needed in times of so-called Post-Democracy and Post-Facts, which imply a reformulation of the public sphere. Is there a potential in the cultural sphere that might offer a space for democratization? Does the impact of new working methods linked to digital technology drive further interconnections and resources that create other public spheres? Might this be a catalyst for new patterns of a communal exchange? And what does this mean for the teaching and learning of arts and design, for the structures, formats, and content of learning/teaching, for an institution?
This issue asked these questions in relation to anti-democratic tendencies in many countries worldwide. How can education still hold up democratic values, while at the same time presumably measuring its success by careers in the market?

Table of Contents Issue 43