LimesArtline
Julia-Kristina Bauer (UWS)
Martina Eckert (HdM)
Anna-Marie Janssen (AHS)
Lisa Olsson (LiU)
Kyle Weir (UWS)
During the Designcamp 2013 the Bodensee group worked with the Brief "Rhaetian Limes - Connecting or separating cultures?". The brief asked whether the Rhaetian Limes was a border that was connecting or separating.
On the basis of the brief, the group developed a concept for a series of art installations which could hypothetically be installed during the Landesgartenschau in Schwäbisch Gmünd starting in April 2014.
At first, the group discussed the historic Rhaetian Limes as a border between the Roman empire in the South and the Germanic tribes in the North between 83AD and 260AD.
We discovered that the border was not merely about protection. Much rather, its 900 watchtowers and 60 castles situated functioned as border posts that would be controlling trade as well as tax.
The group then investigated the question about the connecting and separating aspect of borders and came up with a variety of ideas in which to take the project forward.
One of them included the consideration of man-made and natural borders.
This theme was implemented further after a trip to the Limes made us realize that nothing was actually there. Apart from walkers, joggers or people interested in archaeology it also seemed that people would have little incentive to actually go there.
Rather thank focussing on the historic aspect of the theme and placing more info plates our goal was to create interactive artistic installations that would generate interest into the area and subtly deal with the theme of borders that separate or connect, historically, naturally and artificially.
