Uta Reichardt is a transdisciplinary researcher, facilitator and teacher with a background in geography, risk analysis and visual arts. She will present her open lecture named DisasterArtist on Wedesday April 19th at 12:15 in lecture hall A, Þverholt 11.
In this lecture Uta would like to introduce her work around synergies that emerge from the dialogue between arts and science, with an emphasis on disaster risk research and sustainability science.
What makes a disaster? Referred to as acts of God, 'natural' disasters shake a community's world to the core. With god-like force, they pull the physical and social rug from under their feet and test their ability to cope. The arts have played a crucial part in coping and meaning making of tragedy for as long as the existence of such - the relatively young yet fast growing discipline of disaster risk management, however, has been following a rather rational, techno-centred approach. In the face of disaster and tragedy, how can creative practices help individuals and communities to reduce risk, mitigate impact and cope in the aftermath of disastrous events?
Her educational and research practice is heavily led by the impressions she gained from her first journey to Japan In 2015. Uta attended a disaster management course in the North_East of Japan, which was so severely hit by a megathrust earthquake and tsunami in 2011. During the trip, she was intrigued by the ubiquitous rich visual language and the way design and art were interwoven with the communication of risk in the public space. Since then she returned twice for longer research stays at Kyoto University and Kyoto University of Art and Design to learn more about the way in which artistic practice and design can inform disaster risk management and coping with crisis and tragedy. And more generally how we benefit from reopening the silos of knowledge and reconnecting artistic and scientific methodologies in education.
Uta has been teaching at IUA in BA and MA courses since 2019 and is currently working on the new MA Design and New Environments. She has developed and taught the interdisciplinary courses around Coping with Disasters and a number of art-science courses, classes and workshops at the University of Iceland, Iceland University of the Arts, University of the Westfjords and was a visiting scholar at Kyoto University, Kyoto University of Art and Design and Central Saint Martins College, University of the Arts, London.
