Number of participants: 14

Participant group: Students and PhD candidates

The Study Tour is an innovative study and research program offered by an interdisciplinary research team belonging to the faculty of Leuphana University and coordinated by Prof. Dr. Massimiliano Nuccio and Prof. Dr. Beate Söntgen. The group self-organized the examined content in research-units on the base of everyone’s specific interest and was coordinated by a tutor from Leuphana University. It was offered as a course within the framework of “Independent Studies”.

The aim of the Study Tour program was to conduct applied research on the artistic and creative scenes in fast-growing urban settings, which are crossed by dramatic changes and powerful economic and social flows. The analysis of these scenes targets and documents the double-sided relationship between processes of innovation in the artistic fields and urban settings.

The course was divided into three phases:

1. Preparatory phase
The preparatory phase consisted of six meetings with the interdisciplinary research team. Required reading material was available in a DropBox and participants were invited to active participation and open discussion in the meetings. Informal exchange during lunchtime was encouraged. Please find attached the detailed description of the preparatory meetings and the didactical methods used.

2. Field research
The group self-organized the content of the Study Tour in research units on the base of everyone’s specific interest and was coordinated by a tutor from the Leuphana.
The Units worked together and they were interchangeable: All participants had to participate in different activities:
- visits to museums, art organizations and cultural institutions
- visits to laboratories, schools, studios and other places for artistic production and distribution
- interviews and meetings with artists, managers of cultural organizations, practitioners and cultural policy makers

3. Evaluation
Each research group prepared reports about the different meetings during the study tour (see “examination” for further details). In addition, the students publically presented different posters which set a first approach in the research, across three main themes:
- Indian Art, and whether this definition could be appropriate;
- Conditions and Context of Artistic and Film Production in Mumbai;
- Strategies and Tactics in the Cultural Scenes of Mumbai.

The posters were presented in “Foyer der Bibliothek” on January 31th, and the exhibition will be open to the public until February 25th.

Different forms of output can be defined consistently with the type of research and the expected outcome. An archive gathers the audio and visual documentation as well as the reports of the field research by each research group/by each participant (see “examination for further details about the reports).

In addition, the students worked on some posters to sum-up the main critical aspects and questions that emerged from the many encounters with the artists, architects, curators, urban planners and film-makers they met in Mumbai.
These posters set a first approach in the research, across three main themes:
- Indian Art, and whether this definition could be appropriate
- Conditions and Context of Artistic and Film Production in Mumbai,
-Strategies and Tactics in the Cultural Scenes of Mumbai.