Read an interview on the University of the Underground between Nelly Ben Hayoun and Arjun Appadurai on WePresent
How can we democratise access and experiences of public institutions, bringing generations together to trigger change and critical reflection through the use of creative and experiential practices?
How can we provide students with the tools and means to learn to understand their professions as the increasingly multi-faceted and malleable roles they assume in today’s world (which is ever changing and disorienting) – where designers enter the realm of authors, directors, politicians, planners, dreamers, activists, mythologists and musicians?
This is a most urgent mission as it is advocating for transnationalism and plurality in education and beyond in the reminiscence of totalitarianism temptations and ideological policies with Trump, Le Pen and now Bolsonaro in Brazil. In this context, it is important to address plurality in thinking, now more than ever, since the temptation for ideological regimes are making a fierce revival in society.
The University of the Underground is a free, pluralistic and transnational university based in the basement of nightclubs – with headquarters in Amsterdam and London – and actively working with both institutions and nightlife to modify power structures through events, engineering situations and experiences from within, whilst supporting and empowering countercultures long term.
For the University of the Underground, it is essential to rethink education beyond national borders, but also to build a federation of cooperative schools globally to support the development, identification and empowerment of countercultures in institutions. The University of the Underground Charity supports students from around the world by granting them scholarships while it co-hosts a master’s programme, the Masters Design of Experiences, with an accredited academic partner, as well as running public events, radio programmes, and workshops.
The Masters Design of Experiences exists at the nexus between critical design, experiential, theatrical, operatic, filmic, semiotic, political and musical practices. It aims to teach students how to engineer situations, to design experiences and events to best support social dreaming, social actions and power shifts within institutions, companies and governments.
Read an interview with Nelly at Riposted Magazine on the University of the Underground's curriculum here
Since 2017, at the University of the Underground, we have:
