Action 5 – SMUS Science Communication Hub

Establishing innovative (audio-visual) science communication methods

The SMUS Science Communication Hub advances science communication through innovative audio and visual methods. In collaboration with K LAB, a communication and visualisation unit at TU Berlin, the hub facilitates transdisciplinary knowledge exchange and works on the implementation of two tracks: science communication projects and art-based research residencies. The first track aims at transdisciplinary learning and increasing citizen engagement in envisioning WUP in urban spaces. To stimulate societal engagement, the second track supports art-based explorations of the WUP around which the SMUS Regional Campuses are organised.

The Hub will showcase the results at the 5th International SMUS Conference in Berlin (2029) through a public exhibition, an open-access publication, and art-based research workshops.

Action 5 – Enhance (2020 -2024)

During Phase I (2020–2024) and induced by the COVID pandemic, 15 teams from SMUS partner institutions each produced a Massive Open Online Course – MOOC, bringing research and practice on urban sustainability into a digital global auditorium. Driven by local context and each in collaboration with one or more extramural partners, the SMUS-MOOCs answer to the need to produce, teach and exchange contextualised spatial practice and knowledge.

In addition, Action 5 experimented with several workshop formats on which we are building in the second funding phase. These ranged from 2-day Mobile Workshops with SMUS partners visiting and discussing on-site projects adjacent to the SMUS Bangkok conference, to a regional workshop in Indonesia exchanging knowledge and experience on Urban Resilience, and a 6-month workshop and action research series out of site / sight: contagious tactics for wicked urban problems, in which three teams from Kolkata (India), Xalapa (Mexico), and Lima (Peru) co-designed KITCHENING (verb) as a collective, transversal, and intimate methodology of action-research to embark on parallel journeys through the complexities within each context, guided by their non(human) allies.