Ten years of the Visual Society Program: A celebration of creative research in Berlin!

Ten years of the Visual Society Program: A celebration of creative research in Berlin!

A significant anniversary is coming up in June 2025: The Visual Society Program (VISOP) of the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and the Berlin Science Center for Social Research (WZB) is celebrating its tenth anniversary. This initiative aims to develop innovative visual formats that make social structures visible and understandable. The collaboration was initiated by Jutta Allmendinger, the former president of the WZB, and David Skopec, professor of visual communication at the UdK. The successes of this cooperation have been presented in numerous exhibitions, publications and other visual formats. In order to properly celebrate the anniversary, a publication will be published by UdK-Verlag that documents the projects of the last ten years udk-berlin.de reported.

An important part of the celebrations is an anniversary event planned for June 4, 2025 at 4 p.m. in the WZB. The event will reflect on the collaboration between social research and design, as well as promote the exchange of experiences and perspectives on the mutual enrichment of the disciplines. The speakers include Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, the current president of the WZB, and David Skopec. Top-class keynote speakers such as Birgit Schneider from the University of Potsdam and Günther Sandner from the Vienna Circle Society are also expected. The panel discussion will be moderated by Sebastian Jarzebski, who works for the agency aktuell. The event requires accreditations by June 3, 2025, the information said wzb.eu.

Topics and formats of the event

The topics of the anniversary event are diverse. The focus is on collaboration between social research and design, as well as exchanges about the mutual enrichment of the disciplines. A central concern of the Visual Society Program, which is also receiving international attention, is to make social structures visible and to address the role of visual communication in an increasingly polarized society. The event will therefore also raise the question of how critical data images can be designed and what role historical approaches such as Isotype play in the present tu-chemnitz.de points out.

Over the past decade, the Visual Society Program has not only promoted academic exchange, but also brought together practitioners from both disciplines. It has established itself as a platform that makes it possible to effectively convey social science findings through visual means. The results of these efforts will continue to have far-reaching effects on the way social issues are visualized and communicated after the anniversary.

With this anniversary, the UdK Berlin, which offers over 70 degree programs in all artistic disciplines and has around 4,000 students, including many international talents, also reflects its own historical significance, which goes back to the founding of the Academy of Arts in 1696. The President of the UdK, Prof. Dr. Markus Hilgert, who has been in office since April 1, 2025, will also give speeches during the event and provide perspectives on the future of visual communication and its social relevance.