Clandestine Publics

This project course explores, with ethnography, art analysis, theory and adventurous methods, how you can make things public without certain people noticing! It is based on the idea that making things public is based not only on disclosing, but also on concealing. Clandestine Publics emerge in the mutual entanglement and disturbance of two seemingly contradictory practices and/or goals: making things public and keeping things secret, or clandestine. 


By looking at artworks, reading ethnographies and doing your own ethnographic mini-projects, creating new adventurous methods and reading theory – often queer theory –, we will develop a grasp on this tricky problem. Our interest is in the methods of clandestine publics: be it lying, gossiping, coded communication, safer spaces and anonymity.


In the first part of the course, we read extracts from theory and ethnography, discuss artworks and conduct small adventurous method experiments to introduce you to the topic of Clandestine Publics. We want to develop an understanding of publics in general, clandestine publics more particularly and a clandestine publics of your own choice most particularly, while discussing the ethical and political questions of engaging with secrets and publics in the context of studying up and studying down. 


After this first phase you will develop your own project on (a) specific Clandestine Public(s) of your own choice. During this phase, you will present your initial results and we will structure further teaching around the specific Clandestine Publics you have chosen for your own research, with Simon Farid and Götz Bachmann providing ongoing feedback on your progress in these projects. We will also explore, in what (clandestine?) publics your research can be placed and presented. 


Through this project course you will learn how to place your own research in an emerging field, how to mix theory, ethnography, as well as, optionally, artistic research and adventurous methods, and to develop new forms of public media studies by addressing more-than-academic publics - this can prepare you for your Master thesis.