Proverbs, fables and legends all tell us something about our culture - about our past, our values and our dreams. Nowadays, however, a completely different narrative has taken over the function of these somewhat dusty storytellers, namely pop culture. This modern narrative medium also reflects national and local characteristics. Its focus, however, is on mass appeal, fun, and levity.

The workshop "Pop vs. Folk" was about comparing Indonesian and German pop culture. In the process, pop music and current films were culturally juxtaposed as a media comparison. The students formed groups and decided to examine one work from each of the two countries or from only one of the two. The prerequisite was that they could identify with the piece of music or film. The intention was to familiarize each other with pop cultures that are nationally and locally different, and to learn from each other through the different approaches towards concept and design.

The apparent disadvantage of a purely virtual course turned into an advantage. International guest lecturers from New York, Berlin, Vilnius and Sharjah brought an inspirational input on many layers. What is more, the virtual workshop was not limited to only 2 weeks, as the workshops abroad usually are, but went on for a whole semester.

During their project work, the 16 students received continuous and interdisciplinary support from the lecturers Susanne P. Radtke (D), Irfan Ismail (ID) and Frank Wettstädt (D).

In addition, external lecturers provided valuable expert input, for example, as presentations by international designers, expert information on AI-based eye-tracking, expert contributions on music analysis, information on empirical survey methods and much more. They included: Dr. Anni Peller (D), Kamile Jokubaité from Attention Insight, (LT), Yimeng Wu, (D), Henricus Kusbiantoro, (US) and Nada Abdallah, (AE).

The workshop results including the research and concepts are documented and can be viewed here.