This course focuses on techniques and methods for an open and systematic compilation of images. Forms of visual information are major manifestations of a culture and will be explored in respect to their symbolic, intellectual or emotional power. All these documents ask for a proper frame and knowledge for their deciphering. And they will remain open for further interpretations, as does a work of art (see Umberto Eco, Opera Aperta,1969). While the exploration of instruments from diverse fields of expertise will help us to better analyse and understand given questions and problems, the output of these instruments bears new potential for knowledgeable associations. A holistic vision of a given problem may relocate it at the outset and new questions may have to be asked, not necessarily evolving directly out of a specialised and specific focus, but rather appearing in the `situatedness' of a given problem and its complex interdependencies.