
metaLAB Basel
The metaLAB@Basel is in its initialization phase in 2023 and is hosted by the Academy of Art and Design, University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Basel, Switzerland. This new platform plans to support research, teaching, and science-to-public formats that foster more-than-human transdisciplinary collaborations, integrating urban and sensory ethnography, expanded scenography, and feminist spatial practices.
metaLAB@Basel will act complementary to the metaLAB@Harvard and metaLAB@FU Berlin. The expansion of a collaborative network will allow us to foster exchanges within a growing community across peer levels, regions, and disciplines. More information regarding the metaLAB community and specifics on contributing can be found here.
Fields of the metaLAB@Basel
- Design and Urban Anthropology
- New Materialism Design
- Intersectional Design Studies
- Performance Studies
Research strands and explorative approaches
- urban and sensory ethnography
- expanded (urban) scenography
- feminist spatial research
- design-led research prototyping
Spaces
- Workshops (wood, metal, 3D print)
- Sewing shop
- Food Culture Lab
- Black box (performance design)
Research strands and explorative approaches
- urban matters
- queer ecologies
- multi-species city
- posthuman collaboration
- nature-design collaboration
- radical aesthetics
- playing cultures
- culinary encounters
- physical-virtual assemblages
- urban and sensory ethnography
- expanded (urban) scenography
- feminist spatial research
- design-led research prototyping
The metaLAB@Basel will also integrate ongoing lab formats:
soul kitchen
the soul kitchen is a feminist, transdisciplinary format of exchange that questions the boundaries between institutionalized and other forms of knowledge, practices, and aesthetics. soul kitchen’s multimodal approach consists of various textual genres, storytelling, oral histories, culinary communication, collectively created artifacts, critical debates, and deep mapping.
urban ethnography
urban and sensory ethnography brings together the experience of researchers and practitioners from many fields and has developed into a methodology that addresses the complex demands of contemporary urban settings. This format integrates the development of workshops and walkshops in the city and sets a focus on feminist spatial practices and research.
Research/ Working Groups
Those staying already in Basel and are interested in participation and collaboration in the metaLAB@Basel, have different options:
- contribute to theoretical and methodological explorations in one of the research/working groups
- collaborate on workshops in the urban ethnography or soul kitchen track
- if you are interested in a lab stay and can cover it with your (postdoctoral) funding, please reach out to us. We have limited options to offer a residency (apartment only) for those pursuing art- and design-led research and will place calls on our news site and social media channels.
For lab-related questions, please email: metalab.hgk@fhnw.ch

Partner 1
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Partner 2
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Partner 3
Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.