The ‘Rights Moves - Embodied Legal Learning’ project focused on learning about the law through movement and sound. The course's objective sought to convey legal awareness beyond conventional classroom-style lectures. During the four-day workshop at the Sonnenstein Loft, students in various majors at the Johannes Kepler University Linz (JKU Linz) learned more about the right to privacy (Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights), particularly with regard to the right of one's (personal) image. In this context, the students and project team created gestures, moves, and routines to illustrate everyday human rights, the different human rights systems on an international, regional, and national scale, and the states' and people's individual rights and responsibilities.The participants held lively discussions about the conflict between different human rights, such as freedom of expression and data privacy. A key part of the workshop focused on situations in which people have had their image unwantedly published on the internet and what the legal recourse involves. Students also examined the various obstacles and barriers to pursuing legal action, both online and offline.

This interactive course concluded with a performance, opens an external URL in a new window. The legal and physical movement exercises from the course are available here, opens an external URL in a new window as a collection of exercises. In addition, a podcast series titled ‘Gender and Law’, opens an external URL in a new window focuses on the physical learning method and its potential in education. The project team is also working on a practice note to discuss the opportunities and obstacles involved in taking an interdisciplinary approach of this kind.

‘Rights Moves’ took place at the Sonnenstein Loft, opens an external URL in a new window and was organized by members at the Institute for Legal Gender Studies (JKU Linz), the Institute for Media Studies (University of Applied Arts Vienna), and a dancer and choreographer (VisAbility Lanka) from Sri Lanka.