During the 2023 Winter Semester and as part of the TRANSFORM courses, the Art x Science School for Transformation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and at the Johannes Kepler University Linz gave students enrolled in various majors an opportunity to take part in a four-day workshop focusing on “rivers” as a potential generator and driving force towards socio-ecological change. The course invited students to devise hypothetical scenarios of future urban natural and river landscapes.

Using arts-based and scientific methods, participants explored how to transcend a conventional understanding of re-naturalization. The goal was to design realistic representations in which the river is perceived as an active medium and a creator in terms of regenerating spaces. Under the direction of the renowned research collective, Times Up, and Herwig Turk (senior artist and project manager for the transdisciplinary research project, Donau), participants explored the Linz harbor and a section of the Danube located in the greater Linz area. They then shifted into a gap zone, developing strategies and formats together to critically question industry, transportation, and tourism's influence on the river and reveal the Danube's untapped potential.

Held as a blocked session, a limited number of external students were also able to take the course and have the credits count toward fulfilling elective requirements (2 ECTS credits). The students were responsible for their own expenses, such as accommodations, materials, and travel expenses.