At the Interface of Art and Engineering

Engineers tackle current problems in areas such as energy, the environment, nutrition and medicine. Getting to grips with these issues often requires interaction with others and critical reflection on one’s own behavior in a broader social context. What’s more, almost every job advert for engineers expects creativity, but this is rarely taught at universities. At TU Dortmund University, this happens in a unique way in the seminar “Engineering meets Art”. Together with peers from art and music, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, and educational and rehabilitation sciences, students from the Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering produce artworks at the interface of art and engineering. In a creative and interactive process, they identify thematic overlaps and sound out esthetic approaches.

Bridges from the university into society

Thematically, the works of art originating from the seminar concentrate on both the very small and the very large. Among other things, they allow us to experience what often remains hidden from us, either because we cannot perceive it with our own senses or because it escapes our attention. In this way, scientific and artistic work, which normally takes place behind closed laboratory and studio doors, becomes accessible. The students want to impart knowledge and food for thought as well as build bridges from the university into society with their artworks, some of which were developed specifically to introduce elementary school children to scientific phenomena in a playful way and inspire them toward science.

“The interdisciplinary dialog in our seminar can serve as a blueprint for productive interaction outside one’s own discipline, for example in the university or urban community, in companies, and in society in general,” says Dr. Maik Hester, who launched the “Engineering meets Art” seminar in 2017 and has continued to lead it since then. What is meanwhile the sixth exhibition is now on display on the university’s City Campus at the Dortmunder U Center for Arts and Creativity until 12 October. During this time, the work “The Unrepeatability Of The Moment”, which was also produced in the frame of the seminar, will be shown several times as part of the Fliegende Bilder video display at the center.

City Campus

TU Dortmund University, as a partner of the Dortmunder U Center for Arts and Creativity, provides regular insights into its research and teaching on City Campus. Presentations and the exhibition space as a forum for dialog offer the urban community an opportunity to learn about and discuss questions and findings from scientific disciplines through various event formats.

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