Credit Points (ECTS points) are assigned two times a year, at the end of each semester and before the presentations. Each credit point represents 28 hours of ‘study load’. Students (both Bachelors and Masters) should earn a total of 60 credit points per year. Part of the courses are obligatory, other courses can be chosen regarding certain rules and besides that there are a number of credit points for elective courses or alternative study related activities (this is called the individual study trajectory (IST) or portfolio).
Credit points for participation in courses, labs, research projects, KABK introductory courses, Media Technology courses and other KABK and KC courses are assigned on the basis of the evaluations given by the teachers of those courses.
The credit points for the individual study trajectory are assigned on the basis of written reports or other forms of project documentation. The student is expected to compile a portfolio containing the documentation of individual projects and documentation of the activities in research projects, labs and other courses.
The points for extracurricular activities are assigned during the evaluation of the portfolio at the end of May.
ArtScience B1 Curriculum
ArtScience B2 Curriculum
ArtScience B3 Curriculum
ArtScience B4 Curriculum
ArtScience M1 Curriculum
ArtScience M2 Curriculum
| ArtScience B1 Curriculum | ECTS: |
| Ars Electronica | 1 |
| Introduction to ArtScience (theory course) | 3 |
| MetaMedia (workshop style course) | 3 |
| Sketching Methods (workshop style course) | 3 |
| The Other Senses (theory course) | 3 |
| SoundWorlds (workshop style course) | 3 |
| Introduction to Programming (workshop style course) | 3 |
| Introduction to Electronics | 1 |
| Research Project or Lab | 8 |
| Lab | 8 |
| New Art and Music Theory (KC: ArtScience – Composition – Sonology) | 3 |
| Presentation Individual Work (end of 1st semester) | 10 |
| Presentation Individual Work (end of 2nd semester) | 11 |
| Total | 60 |
| ArtScience B2 Curriculum | ECTS: |
| Theory course – choice 1 | 3 |
| Thinking Three Cultures (theory course) | 3 |
| 2 Workshop Style Courses (3 ECTS each) or 3 Exchange Courses (KC) (2 ECTS each) or a combination for at least 6 ECTS | 6 |
| Research Project or Lab | 8 |
| Lab | 8 |
| Studium Generale (KABK) | 1 |
| Electives / IST | 7 |
| Presentation Individual Work (end of 1st semester) | 12 |
| Presentation Individual Work (end of 2nd semester) | 12 |
| Total | 60 |
| ArtScience B3 Curriculum | ECTS: |
| Theory course – choice 1 | 3 |
| Public Toolkit (theory course) | 3 |
| 2 Workshop Style Courses (3 ECTS each) or 3 Exchange Courses (KC) (2 ECTS each) or a combination for at least 6 ECTS | 6 |
| Research Project or Lab | 8 |
| Lab | 8 |
| Entrepeneurship (KABK: ArtScience – Fine Arts) | 3 |
| Electives / IST | 5 |
| Presentation Individual Work (end of 1st semester) | 12 |
| Presentation Individual Work (end of 2nd semester) | 12 |
| Total | 60 |
| ArtScience B4 Curriculum | ECTS: |
| Research Project or Lab | 8 |
| Lab | 8 |
| Electives / IST | 10 |
| Thesis | 8 |
| Preview Expo (Professional Preparation) | 2 |
| Presentation Individual Work (end of 1st semester) | 12 |
| Final Exam (end of 2nd semester) | 12 |
| Total | 60 |
| ArtScience M1 Curriculum | ECTS: |
| Ars Electronica | 1 |
| Theory Course | 3 |
| 1 Workshop Style Course (3 ECTS) or 2 Exchange Courses (KC) (2 ECTS each) or a combination for at least 3 ECTS | 3 |
| Research Project | 8 |
| Lab | 8 |
| Master Meetings | 4 |
| Review Paper | 3 |
| Electives / IST | 6 |
| Individual Research Project (end of 1st semester) | 12 |
| Individual Research Project (end of 2nd semester) | 12 |
| Total | 60 |
| ArtScience M2 Curriculum | ECTS: |
| Lab | 8 |
| Master Meetings | 4 |
| Preview Expo (Professional Preparation) | 2 |
| Electives / IST | 8 |
| Thesis | 8 |
| Individual Research Project (end of 1st semester) | 15 |
| Final Exam (end of 2nd semester) | 15 |
| Total | 60
|
Overview Courses 2015-2016
The ArtScience Interfaculty offers both a four-year bachelor’s, and a two-year master’s programme embedded in an interdisciplinary learning environment.
At the Interfaculty there are five forms of tuition:
labs
theoretical courses
practical workshops
research projects
individual coaching, electives and portfolio
With the exception of the first year courses and theory courses, students can choose between several options offered as part of the ‘open curriculum’. Within the given constraints, the students select their individual track of offered modules within the Interfaculty and related departments and institutions.
For more information and the complete schedule, please refer to the study guide.
Exchange Workshops
Twice a year the Creative Departments of the Royal Conservatoire (Composition, Sonology and ArtScience) organise Exchange Weeks. The different departments offer one week workshops that are open to each others students of Bachelor 2 and higher (including Masters). Each workshop is an intense course of five full days in one week. There are two exchange weeks after the Autumn Break, and two after the Spring Break. The courses listed here are the Exchange Workshops organised by the ArtScience Interfaculty. The Exchange Workshops offered by the Composition Department and the Institute of Sonology can be found in the ArtScience schedule.
Possibilities of a Material, or How to Tame the Beast
Time and Presence
Representing Violence
Net.Art
Possibilities of a Material, or How to Tame the Beast
Teacher : Zoro Feigl
The week starts with a short lecture by Zoro Feigl about his art, and how material and machine interact to create the things he makes. He will talk about the ‘will’ of materials and how material properties shape the world around them. You will try to use materials and their properties to talk about how ‘play’ and ‘research’ is used to test the specific qualities and possibilities of these materials. You might also say it is all about ‘how to tame the beast.‘
Assignment: Pick one material that interests you and create a work based on what this material can or can’t do. Let the materials properties define or decide what shape the work should become. This art work can be everything: a sound-piece, an installation, a painting, a sculpture, a kinetic work, an online work, a research report, documentation, a video, performance or intervention. Just surprise yourself and the audience. The assignment is an open commission; everybody is free to interpret the assignment in a way that fits his or her own interest and work. At the end of the week, on Friday, there will be a small exhibition of all the student works. During drinks, the process of each of you will be discussed.
The installations of Zoro Feigl (1983) seem to be alive. His materials dance and twist. Placed together in a space, the separate works become one: large and ponderous in places, nervous or gracious elsewhere. Feigl’s forms are constantly changing, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. The exhibition space becomes an enlarged microscope: single-cell creatures, primitive organisms are twisting, groaning and convulsing. Without beginning or end the objects seem to be locked into themselves. As a viewer you become entangled in their movements: they embrace and amaze, but sometimes also frighten you. Zoro Feigl lives and works in Amsterdam.
Reading: TBA
Location: KABK PB301
No. of classes: 5 classes of 6 hours
Examination: presenting an individual project
Credits: 2 ECTS
Teacher : Boukje Schweigman
In this workshop we will explore the notion of time. ‘Clock time’ suggests time is objective, but it can be very subjective how we experience time. How can we play with the notion of time and escape from the dominance of ‘clock time’? In what state of being could that bring us?
Boukje Schweigman has a background in physical theatre and her performances are always a collision of image, sound, space and movement. The presentation of her work always stresses the physical presence of the performer as well as the audience. In this workshop the exploration of time froms the point of departure to scrutinise the artistic process. How do you get to your work and how do you present it? You are asked to produce small individual works and turn them into total experiences by presenting them to each other.
Reading: TBA
Location: KABK PB301
No. of classes: 5 classes of 6 hours
Examination: presenting an individual project
Credits: 2 ECTS
icons of war and violence in media art
Teacher: Dani Ploeger
There is a notable difference between the recent Islamist terror attacks in Belgium (Jewish Museum), France (Charlie Hebdo, Bataclan) and the US (San Bernardino), and previous instances of religiously motivated terrorism in Europe and North-America since 2001: Whereas previous incidents have almost exclusively been associated with Improvised Explosive Devices (i.e. self-made bombs), the recent attacks have been characterized by the (re)introduction of the icon of the battlefield warrior (operating assault weaponry) in media contents and everyday life in the Global North.
This practical and theoretical course explores this paradigm shift in representations and experiences of violence through both analogue and digital media (blank guns, blood FX and computer games) in the context of cultural critical reflection and technology-based art practices.
The course consists of four main components:
1. Frameworks of violence: A cinema visit (violent Hollywood blockbuster), is followed by two seminars on the representations of violence in cinema, art, computer games, and news media. Theorizations of violence by thinkers including Hannah Arendt and Slavoj Žižek are explored in the context of the work of media artists who have engaged with violence and representation, such as Lenie Riefenstahl, Trevor Paglan, Simon Denny, Aernout Mik, and Valie Export.
2. Analogue technologies of representation: In two practical seminars, students are trained in blank gun firing* and analogue blood effects with synthetic blood.
3. Digital technologies of representation: An introduction to machinima development in violent computer game environments. Looking at games such as Black Ops and Medal of Honor, students will take part in hands-on tutorials in the development of custom game environments as well as machinima (animation videos made in game environments).
4. Lab sessions: Students experiment with different elements of the materials and techniques introduced under 2 and 3. E.g. video and blank gun firing, synthetic blood and robotic prosthetics, combining violent gaming environments with analogue techniques. Staff for guidance of blank gun operation (see * below) will be present for at least one of these sessions.
* The blank gun handling part of the course will be offered with assistance from ANTA uniformen- en wapenverhuur (www.anta.nl). This is a certified company for the use of theatrical weapons. They will take care of all health and safety, and legal concerns associated with the use of blank gun handling. The company will also provide the weapons and ammunition for the sessions.
Course contents
1 Cinema visit (see 1 above)
2 Seminars (see 1)
2 Workshops on analogue techniques of violence (see 2)
2 Workshop-seminars on first person shooting games and machinima development (see 3)
3 Lab sessions (see 4)
Indicative reading list
Arendt, Hannah, 1970. On Violence. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Žižek, Slavoj, 2008. Violence. London: Profile Books.
More about Daniël Ploeger: http://www.daniploeger.org/
Location: KC CAM10/20/30
No. of classes: 5 classes of 6 hours
Credits: 2 ECTS
Teacher: Jan Robert Leegte
The Internet is not only the central media for art discourse, art (re)presentation and artistic research, most of all the Internet is a progressively dominant influence on art itself. Although the web and the accompanying tradition of art is 25 years old, working with the Internet is still uncommon at art programmes, yet offer a powerful and relevant playing field to add to the aspiring artist’s praxis.
During the workshop we will explore the rich history of Internet(-related) art. Working in short practical sessions dealing with Internet specific skills we will deal with the browser as canvas, the browser as installation / sculptural space, the browser as performance platform, the browser as curatorial space and the browser as phenomenological space. Also we will look into the browser AFK, augmenting it in the physical space by means of projection, as Internet of Things and by emanation into the real AKA the post-Internet method.
The workshop will be a condense ride, and you will have to succumb to programming, but not to worry, the Internet is there for everyone.
More about Jan Robert Leegte: http://www.leegte.org/
Reading: TBA
Location: KC CAM10/20/30
No. of classes: 5 classes of 6 hours
Credits: 2 ECTS
Labs
Labs are support structures and groupings of people who are involved in creating similar output. A lab is a platform to offer coaching and space for projects by individual students, and a channel for the accumulation, documentation and dissemination of their research results and artworks. Certain labs function more theme driven while other labs are fully open to the students own questions and topics.
c0d3l4b
StageLab
Performative Instruments Lab
RecPlay Lab
The Elements Lab
Spatial Interaction Lab
Marcus Graf
A “computer” was originally the name of a profession, consisting of performing repetitive calculations on a piece of paper. Computers were humans, and the calculations were mostly necessary for running simulations for science and the military. American scientist Lewis Fry Richardson devised a ‘Forecast Factory’ – a huge spherical building consisting of 64000 mathematicians, each of them doing his or her bit of calculation for simulating weather, just a bit faster than reality could.
While scientists were very interested in simulating the existent universe, artists became interested in possibilities of creating nonexistent universes; Universes perceivable through sound, light or other common media. But is there a way to peek into these worlds directly, or to at least minimize the layers of translation? Can code be used as a medium? Is there a medium that inherently contains and runs the code? Apart from this, c0d3l4b is also interested in possibilities of alternative computing architectures, such as bio/ chemical computers and software running on humans and physics. Also we are interested in the computer as an artist.
These are some of the basic questions proposed by the c0d3l4b. Practically, the time of the lab sessions is divided in three parts:
* a free coding part during which each student working on code of
his or her own choosing, with a focus on sharing ideas and mutual problem solving. Some of the software environments commonly used in the lab are Max/MSP/Jitter, Processing, and OpenFrameworks. Arduinos and Ipsons with various sensors often visit the lab.
* a second part is dedicated to a longer-term research project, for which the entire c0d3l4b team works on one project that should be presented outside the lab. During the year, c0d3lab will offer two global research projects, divided into smaller segments that will be evaluated regularly.
* the third part will consist of monthly discussion/theoretical/evaluation sessions. Students are always more than welcome to offer their own ideas about the ongoing projects, on the smaller as well as long term scale.
For more info and previous research topics please refer to http://codelab.interfaculty.nl/
Credits: 4 + 4 EC
Objective: To research, develop, realize and present software art
No. of classes: Appr 22 sess / 2.5 hrs, presentations
Examination: Presentations, written research report, attendance
Michiel Pijpe
This lab deals with the various parameters of the stage in the context of performance art and experimental theatre, and aims to explore the relation between human bodies and technologies by developing and presenting theatrical scenes and performances. Its research goal is to investigate the esthetic and technical qualities of materials and instruments when combining these with the body. A second goal is to familiarize the participants with the performative qualities of the body and its potential in relation to space. This lab is not body centered, but uses the body occasionally to produce ideas and initiate processes. To be able to use the body as an instrument or as an object or shape, several sessions will be dedicated to practical exercises and assignments. To become aware of the relation between the body and performative parameters like time/ timing, tension, light, space and sound, these exercises are planned in such a way that they will the basis of the development of scenes.
Credits: 4 + 4 EC
Objective: To research, develop, realize and present theatrical installations and performances
Kasper van der Horst, Robert Pravda
This lab is focused on the development of media performance tools, interfaces and performative installations. The lab will zoom in on a number of subjects that used to be part of RecPlay and the Audiovisual Composition lab, but are of more central importance. The methodology used in the lab will be based on alternating three stages of the creative process of developing these tools. These three stages will be strongly connected, ongoing, and equal in the attention and time required. Research: Collecting and discussing material from academic to DIY resources so that every student builds up a personal reference library that relates to the individual research project in the lab. Reflecting on the compositional possibilities of the instrument under development, investigate related conceptual, esthetic and compositional approaches. Development: From sketching through prototyping to realization. Choices such as the technique and media used, software or hardware, electric, electronic, mechanic or hybrid, constructed from scratch or hacked, will all be project-dependent. The focus of this stage will be on hands-on experimentation with real materials and further development of the instrument and (live)composition methods from these experiences. Weekly meetings and feedback sessions within the group on every stage of development. Exploration and composition: Learning how to grow material through exploring all the dimensions of the audiovisual instrument. Coming up with new techniques and strategies for a media performer and creating compositions or performative installations for individual performers or small groups. Working towards public presentation outside of the interfaculty, for instance in connection with other ArtScience labs.
Part of every stage is the documentation of results for communication, reference and future use. Together with the personal reference libraries, the lab will in this way gradually build up a collective library of practices and ideas.
Credits: 4 + 4 EC
Objective: To research, develop, realize and present media performance tools and interfaces
No. of classes: Appr 22 sess / 2.5 hrs, presentations
Examination: Presentations, written research report, attendance
Robert Pravda, Kasper van der Horst
Some of the research topics that are adressed in the RecPlay Lab are multi-player interfaces, improvisation structures, noise art, feedback in image and sound, realtime composition systems, spatial compositions and interaction with architectural elements. Its practical focus will be on developing improvisations and compositions and on developing ensemble playing using unconventionall instruments.
This studiolab is an extension of the RecPLay group that has existed since 2001. For a number of years, students have participated in this live electronica and mechanica improvisation group initiated by Robert Pravda. It has had regular performances in various well- known as well as obscure venues, for instance in places like Vooruit, Gent, Zeebelt, Den Haag, Worm, Rotterdam, TodaysArt festival and EXIS, Den Haag, RADIO West, STRP festival Eindhoven, Korzo and many more.
Credits: 4 + 4 EC
Objective: To research, develop, realize and present audiovisual performances
No. of classes: Appr 22 sess / 2.5 hrs, presentations
Examination: Presentations, written research report, attendance
Cocky Eek
The Elements is an outside coastal lab situated along the North Sea at the Zandmotor Kijkduin. What does it mean to work in a dynamic intertidal environment, where the tides are dictating time and seasons are close to our skin. The lab has a phenomenologist approach, stimulates you to play, wander, explore and focus on elements in your own way, where also your own sensorial body in relation to this dynamic landscape can be considered as an element.
Element
1. A component or constituent of a whole or one of the parts into which a whole may be resolved by analysis
2. Chemistry. One of a class of substances that cannot be separated into simpler substances by chemical means.
3. A natural habitat, sphere of activity, environment, etc.: to be in one’s element
4. Elements.
a. Atmospheric agencies or forces; weather
b. The rudimentary principles of an art, science, etc.
5. Any group of people singled out within a larger group by identifiable behavior patterns, common interests, etc.
6. One of the substances, usually earth, water, air, and fire, formerly regarded as constituting the material universe.
The blog of The Elements can be followed here.
Sunset Schedule
14, 21, 28 September and 5, 12 October: 15:00 -17:30 hour
9 November: 14:00 -16 :30 hour
16, 23, 30 November and 7 December: 13:30-16:00
1, 8, 15 February: 14:00 -16:30 hour
14,21 March and 4,11,18,25 April and 9 May: 15:00 -17:30 hour
Objective: To research, develop, realize and present site specific work
Examination: Presentations, written research report, attendance
Credits: 4 + 4 EC
Edwin van der Heide
The Spatial Interaction lab is an artistic research and development laboratory focusing on interaction in physical space. In many institutes and companies research is taking place in the field of Human Computer Interaction. The Spatial Interaction Lab has a different focus that is more oriented on interaction in or with a space; interactive art that interacts with the participant in space.
The lab is both a place for the development of concepts and interaction models and a place for the practical development of interfaces and interfacing techniques.
Credits: 4 + 4 EC
Objective: To research, develop, realize and present spatial, interactive works
No. of classes: Appr 20 sess / 2.5 hrs, presentations
Examination: Presentations, written research report, attendance
Research Projects
The field covered by the ArtScience programme is very broad and dynamic. In order to avoid repeating our current courses and topics in a fixed curriculum, we intentionally choose to focus on unknown territories in the research projects. Every year the ArtScience team chooses a number of topics that are explored in research projects and run over a period of (3 + 3 =) six weeks. Some research projects are collective projects with the emphasis on the production of artworks and lead to a public presentation, outside the school walls. Other research projects focus less on the final result and more on the process of artistic investigation of the topic in question.
Tension Machines
European Affairs: Budapest Interventions
Michiel Pijpe
Common usage suggests we speak of the machine as a subset of technology. We could – however – consider the technological as dependent on machines and not the inverse. This is especially interesting if we look at how various technologies are applied in theatre:
Technology has a significant presence in the theatre space and it’s role is crucial in the historical development of theatre, performance and dance. Ranging from a single light-bulb to more complicated electro-mechanical installations, the presence of any electronic or mechanic devices assists or, to a greater or lesser extend, influences the play. However, apart from a few exceptions, the aim of these technologies remains to establish a space for concentration on the actions of human performers and musicians, to solve complicated situations that are created by choreographic processes or to create some kind of illusion of immersion.
Considering technology as dependent on machines, the machine is not simply a technical device but a bundle of forces. Felix Guattari eloquently described this notion of machinic as a “heterogeneous assemblage of components”. This notion allows us to introduce the performer as part of the machinery. Not only by developing tools or interfaces for it but also criss-crossing the mechanic and electronic with the living human form.
A focus on the structural relation between bodies and materials and devices in a machinic assemblage creates particular forms, it articulates forces. Bringing performers face to face (or body to body) with material surfaces and technological devices, the assemblage becomes a powerful tool to materialize into a ‘pressure scene’.
They can become physical or conceptual Tension Machines.
Production
Depending on the participants choice of concept or objective an array of machines (materials and energies) is created to articulate various forces. i.e. expand / fill / grow / lengthen / open / pull / reach / run / span / spread / strain / swell / unfold / widen / inflate / etcetera
In an effort to achieve a scene that is not just a scene but a demonstration of forces, each type of machine will be examined – not for it’s autonomy or function – but for what force it wants to articulate. The human presence is subject to the assemblage, creating a choreography co-produced through the outcome of the chosen system and the performer’s own body. The experiments consist of spatial, temporal and corporeal acts applied to shorter movement phrases or longer, durational sequences. This allows us to explore anticipation and play around with unexpected outcomes.
Reading: TBA
Location: KABK pb301 and ZAAL3 (the final week includes 2 performance nights)
No. of classes: 15 classes / 6 hours + full time week
Examination: research, making and presenting (ZAAL3)
Credits: 8 EC
European Affairs: Budapest Interventions
Teachers : Kasper van der Horst, Robert Pravda, Taconis Stolk
European Affairs is a series of research projects that focus on the relations between artistic development and specific locations in a changing Europe. The last two weeks of the research project always takes place in a different European city. Earlier episodes of European Affairs visited Belgrade (Serbia) and Krakow (Poland).
The episode of this year will focus on Budapest, capital of Hungary. In February, we will visit the city and work on location. Before that, in November, we will prepare at home: the Conservatoire and Academy in Den Haag. The objective of the research project is the development of different concepts and strategies for spatial interventions and transformations, with an emphasis on mobility, modularity and adaptation.
In the first half of the research time we will focus in developing ideas and experiment with different ‘modi operandi’ for spatial interventions and reactions. Every participant will be asked to choose a way to develop a strategy. This can be sound,image, light, text, smell, etcetera). All these individual approaches will form a base of ‘sensory modules’ that can be interconnected (patched) in various formations, depending on context and location.
In the second semester we will travel to Budapest. During these two weeks, our aim is to execute different interventions on different spaces (from living room to public space) and document them. All these actions together will form an artistic log book of our journey.
During our stay in Budapest we will develop a strong collaborative bond with various artistic scenes residing in the city, including groups working with electronic and improvisational music, artistic mappings and interventions, and experimental site-specific theatre. We will provide opportunities to work and perform with people and locations that are currently at the top of Budapest’s artistic scene.
Some of the topics that we will discuss and reflect on:
— What are the minimal means that have the maximum impact.
— Logistics of an intervention.
— Observation and immediate reaction.
— Specialised and universal at the same time.
— Exploring (inter) connections and disconnections for creating new meanings.
— No sync performance.
— How to document with precision a one off action.
— Choice of a medium.
Please note: for this research project you will have to count on extra costs: roughly expect some eur 300 for travel plus hostel (excluding living costs and material expenses).
Reading: TBA
Location: KC CAM10/20/30 (Nov/Dec 2015) and on location in Budapest, Hungary
No. of classes: 9 classes / 6 hours (Nov/Dec) + two weeks full time in Budapest (Feb)
Examination: research, making, intervening, documenting
Credits: 8 EC
Theoretical Courses
The theoretical courses and seminars aim to give a theoretical and historical context to the research activities that take place in the Interfaculty. Through them, students also learn to do theoretical research, to articulate their thoughts in writing and to give verbal presentations about their work in connection with the work of others.
Each theoretical course runs for six whole days, often over a period of six weeks, and consists of lectures, the reading of texts, group discussion and the preparation of written and verbal presentations by the students. At the end of each semester there will be a seminar of two days for all students and teachers of the Interfaculty, zooming in on current topics that emerge from the discussions in the individual courses.
Introduction to ArtScience
The ‘Other’ Senses
Thinking Three Cultures: Art, Science and Society
Systems and Models
The Biometric Body II
Public Toolkit
Introduction to ArtScience
Edwin van der Heide, Taconis Stolk
This course is an introduction to important developments through the history of the arts that are important to the ArtScience domain. Five approaches to interrelate selected art works will be presented in class. The presented works range from realized and unrealized artworks to concepts. The five approaches are chosen in such a way as to trigger discussion and reflection both on existing works and your own work.
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: An introduction to the main theoretical themes linked to the ArtScience domain
No. of classes: 5 classes / 6 hrs
Examination: Attendance, participation and short presentations
The ‘Other’ Senses
Smell, touch, taste and proprioception in art, education and science
Caro Verbeek
The senses of smell, taste, touch and proprioception are powerful tools for engaging an audience in an intimate and often interactive way. They require little knowledge and they are strong inducers of vivid memories.
Whereas sound and vision always gained a lot of academic attention, the so called ‘lower’ senses only recently (re-)entered the artistic debate. The ArtScience Interfaculty, formerly known as the Institute for Image and Sound, underlines the importance of those other senses that go beyond our traditional occularcentric approach.
This course is about creating awareness and understanding of the role of the ‘other’ senses – smell, touch and taste – in (history of) art, education and science.
For they are not as divided as we assume, the correlation between the senses will also be addressed (synaesthesia).
Due to their animalistic nature important thinkers like Plato, and later on Kant and Hegel excluded the lower senses from the aesthetic debate. As a counter-reaction famous artists like Marinetti and Duchamp and composers such as Scriabin incorporated olfactory and tactile dimensions to their work. Unfortunately this quite volatile heritage was partially lost due to its fleeting nature and the impossibility of registering and preserving smells, tastes and tactile experiences. Museums and other institutes that address vision, have always been primed to collect and conserve. That is why many tactile and olfactory works of art never made it into written history. Anthropologists, art historians and other academics are now working on a reconstruction.
During classes students will encounter sensory art historical reconstructions to stimulate debate on the senses and as an inspiration to create small olfactory and tactile compositions. A colour-smell synaesthesia test will be executed on the first and the last day of the course.
Furthermore there will be a linguistic translation of a Futurist tactile poem, and an olfactory-musical recital composed by Scriabin.
Topics
– Synaesthesia of the lower senses.
– Touch: the Deepest Sense. On the role of touch in history of art and culture.
– The Gesamtkunstwerk. The merging of the senses.
– Kinaesthesia and Proprioception.
– Sensory Memories
– Gustation in (history) of art and Wine Tasting.
– Surrealist Exhibition Design: a matter of deranging the senses
– On the Taboo: Body Odours and Forbidden Touch in Installations and performances
– Olfactory Communication in science and marketing
– Inhaling History of Art: on the Role of Olfaction in History of Art
– Scent Diffusing Techniques
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: Awareness and knowledge of the role of the ‘other’ senses in art, education and science. Training of the senses and developing a sensory vocabulary.
Examination: reading and discussing of articles, small written assignments and presentations (like creating a non-visual narrative), active participation in debates
Excursion: International Flavours & Fragrances, Hilversum
Thinking Three Cultures: Art, Science and Society
Frank Theys
The course is a study of a number of parallels between the philosophy of art and the philosophy of science and technology throughout modern history. The former has been influenced by the latter, which is not strange when art and science philosophers were often part of the same ideological school and in some cases united within one and the same person. Tracing back some of these influences will give us a better understanding of these art theories.
Our modern society is based on the split between the natural and the social sciences, which goes back to the time of Descartes and Francis Bacon. For the natural sciences to claim objectivity on its search for the laws of nature, they had to take distance from all political, ethical and religious involvements. For the study of these other, social matters a second academic bloc was created: the social sciences. This segregation between the two scientific blocs has increased in the science philosophy of the 20th century and has been subject for debate, known as the discussion about ‘the two cultures’. However, this ‘split-thinking’ is now put under pressure: modern technology is increasingly becoming the center of ethical debates, often triggered by the convergence of biotechnology, information science and nanotechnology. The natural sciences are pushed to make a stand on their social relevance and social responsibility.
It is the premise of this course that the segregation discourse within science philosophy has influenced art theories in their own claims for independence and artistic essence. In other words the debate on ‘the two cultures’ has forced the creation of ‘a third culture’ – the one of art (“art is about art”). But, just as the natural sciences, art is now confronted with a similar question of social relevance/responsibility in populist, neoliberal, as well as in critical thinking on art. In this course we try to trace this parallel between the pressure on the natural sciences and the pressure on art to find answers on the position of art today.
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: Reflection on the philosophy of the natural sciences, social sciences and art
No. of classes: 6 clss / 6 hrs
Examination: Assignments, attendance
Systems and Models
Research Seminar Towards Models for Interactive and Generative Art
Edwin van der Heide
When we are walking on the street and meet someone walking in the opposite direction, we try to avoid a collision by moving to the left or to the right. It can however happen that the other person is making the same decision and moves in the same direction. In order to correct for this situation we move in the opposite direction but it often happens that the other person is simultaneously making that same correction. The collision approaches until we consciously break the pattern. The above is an example of an oscillating system, a principle often used in interactive and generative art. This research seminar will focus on the underlying models used in interactive and generative art. We will start from the history of systems theory, cybernetics in order to gain a larger conceptual background to fundamental principles like transformation, translation and feedback. We will study more recent theories about interaction to develop our thinking about the dialogue between work and user. On the other hand we will study existing artworks and analyze the principles used in them, with the goal to structure and model what we come across.
There will be a lot of space to study and debate related topics brought in
by the participants, like structure and randomness, biological versus artificial systems, the art world as a system.
This course will be a seminar, which means that the course will be driven
by the research of the participants. Presentations will mainly be held by the students themselves, students will bring in texts and interpret them, and there will be a lot of plenary discussion and interaction between the participants.
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: Introduction to system theory, interaction theory and reflection on the underlying models of the student’s art practice
No. of classes: 6 clss / 6 hrs
Examination: Assignments, attendance
The Biometric Body II
The Biometric Body and the Metric Society
Eric Kluitenberg
This course is a continuation of the short course ‘The Biometric Body in Hybrid Space” (March, 2015). The Biometric Body ‘series’ investigates the intensified inclusion and capture of the biological body by technological systems (body sensors, health and fitness trackers, sensing wearables, smart watches and more) and the quantification of bodily functions in metric systems and online databases (cloud storage of bio/body data).
If this trend was a rather fringe and specialised phenomenon in the past, it has now gone entirely mainstream with a new generation of consumer health and fitness trackers, smart watches and wearable devices that come with extensive body tracking and sensor technology. Ironically, when we did the first course in March the final presentations happened exactly one day before the Apple Watch was officially presented to the public (unplanned!). We can see the introduction of this technologically most capable wearable device and the extensive software suites attached to it (Health Kit / Research Kit) combined with Apple’s massive cloud-server infrastructures as the definite moment when this type of biometric technology went mainstream.
However this capture of the body and its biological functions and processes ‘in the cloud’ cannot be seen as an isolated phenomenon. It is part of a wider (technological / political) trend to capture more and more aspects of human life (individual, social, collective) in metric systems, in ever increasing detail. What’s more, this trend goes far beyond the surveillance and intelligence complex (NSA and related agencies) because it includes data from all sorts of activities that are irrelevant to security agencies, such as work performance metrics, publication metrics (in academia), gaming-performance metrics, sexual metrics (as included in Health Kit for instance), cyclical body function metrics, banking metrics, financial transaction metrics, market speculation metrics, traffic metrics, shopping metrics, bonus card metrics, public transport metrics, education performance metrics, nutrition metrics, fitness metrics, walking metrics, sitting metrics, phone use metrics, data use metrics, gps metrics, web surfing metrics, online advertisement metrics, social networking metrics, travel metrics, loyalty card metrics, health care metrics…
In short what we see emerging is a new type of society that attempts to capture all human and inter-human activity in quantified measurement, stored in databases and made instantly accessible / searchable online. This new type of society is what I will call ‘The Metric Society’.
The aim of this course is to extend our investigation how the biological body is integrated into these metric systems to this general context that we see emerging, but that has extended historical roots as well. To be able to critique, play with, and possibly subvert such authoritarian technological systems, we must first understand them – that is what we will attempt to do.
As part of this course we also plan a working visit to the Holst Centre in Eindhoven to see applied research that involves these biometric systems and the online processing of the data this generates. This will happen in the third of fourth week of the course – we will set the exact date during the first course meeting.
Credits: 3 EC
Public Toolkit
Taconis Stolk
Public Toolkit is a third year bachelor course, focusing on professional preparation. An important part of this course will be a reflection on the position of the student in the field. A discussion that is especially important for students ArtScience, since there work can often be presented in very different contexts. Curators and organizers from different artistic realms will be invited to elucidate practical and organizational aspects specific to their field. Practical aspects like the writing of project proposals and a business plan, publicity, and documentation will be discussed. The students will be encouraged to develop an artistic view on their public image in the media and their body of work as a whole: to compose them in relation to the individual artworks that make up their practice.
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: To reflect on conceptual and practical aspects of the student’s artistic practice and position in the field
No. of classes: 6 clss / 6 hrs
Examination: Assignments, attendance
Workshops
A large number of short, practical workshops are offered in four periods of three weeks, two for each semester. Each of these consists of two full days a week over a period of three weeks. Some of these short and intensive courses focus on specific techniques, skills and practical awareness, such as light, sound, editing, electronics, programming and form studies.
MetaMedia
Sketching Methods
SoundWorlds
Introduction to Programming
Projection
Sensors, Microcontrollers and Actuators
How to Confuse Your Senses? – the artistic use of the smell medium
Research in Motion
Live Life – Life Live
Lighting Design for / as Performance
Bread & Butter
IoT WtF
MetaMedia
Taconis Stolk
A work of art does not confine itself to an object, a picture or a sound composition. Especially not in the 21st century, where all kinds of communication technologies and strategies can be used to compose the context of art, or even to create works in disciplines and using methods that were never explored by artists before. In this course, students are given a theoretical and practical framework on how to compose concepts and context. Approaching contemporary art as a conceptual communication model opens possibilities for unusual works of art and a critical attitude towards traditional artistic paradigms, but it also creates a framework for students to develop new and effective strategies for a professional creative position in a media world. Students will create their own metamedial works during the course.
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: To develop skills in composing context and create artworks for unusual media
Literature: To be announced in class
No. of classes: 6 classes / 6 hrs
Examination: Small assignments, attendance
Sketching Methods
Cocky Eek, Michiel Pijpe
A work of art does not often come to its maker mysteriously like a visionary dream or out of nowhere and already worked out. And even when this happens it remains a question how to continue from there? In normal circumstances, the best ideas come while fiddling around, but how do you fiddle constructively?
An important aspect of the craft of artists working in any medium is sketching; how to generate ideas and how to draw consequences from them. Sketching can be a method of recording or prototyping an idea but it is also a powerful tool for discovery. The process of sketching enables you to deepen a thought, explore a fascination or playfully engage with elements that open up new directions in a work. It is a method to find things that you would never have found otherwise.
The creative process is often divided into a number of steps and can be characterized by a cycle: imagining – reflecting – making – reflecting – perceiving – reflecting – imagining. This process involves observation as much as mental-projection and decision-making.
In this hands-on course you will be introduced to sketch on a individual base as well in a group process. Finally you will be engaged in finding your own sketching method in your own medium.
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: Learning the basics of sketching as a generative method
Location: KABK / Schevingen Hellingweg 127 (De Vloek)
No. of classes: 6 classes of 6 hrs
Examination: Small assignments, attendance
SoundWorlds
Robert Pravda
The goal of this course is to introduce the theory and practice of working with sound and to teach the handling of basic recording and studio equipment. Also a short introduction will be given to the history of electro-acoustic music and basic concepts of composition. The theoretical part will cover basic parameters of sound, such as the concepts of sound as change of pressure through the air, waveform and harmonic spectrum of the sound, wavelength, amplitude, frequency and perception of pitch and loudness. Also we will discuss the basics of analog sound, digital sound, synthesis basics (additive, subtractive synthesis, Frequency modulation) and MIDI.
On the practical side an introduction will be given to basic studio hardware and software, such as the mixing desk, amplifiers, speakers, cables and types of microphones and their uses use: XY, AB, MS, Binaural. We will talk about recording, sampling, editing, sound effects and various software and plugins.
During the course we will listen to pieces from important composers and discuss them. We will discuss examples of noise music, musique concrète, soundscapes, electronic music, sound- plays and field-recordings. Common concepts of how to organize sounds will be introduced.
All the students attending the course are expected to finish a number of exercises in listening, recording and editing. At the end of the course each student is asked to produce a CD with all the short pieces done during these classes.
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: Introducing the most important techniques and concepts of handling sound
Literature: To be announced in class
No. of classes: 6 classes / 6 hrs
Examination: Small assignments, attendance
Introduction to Programming
Marcus Graf
This is an introductory course into programming in which the Processing language is used as an example. In nine sessions, the following topics will be discussed and tested: the mental landscape, the processing environment, data types and functions, in- and output, blocks, loops and branches and black boxes: subroutines and objects. These sessions contain both theory and practice, and aim at giving the students confidence in ‘speaking’ this newly learned language. Students are given assignments that will be presented and discussed in class.
After following this course, students will have a basic insight into computer programming and will know where to start creating digital prototypes for future projects that involve interaction, image, sound, video, networks and electronics.
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: An introduction to Processing and to key concepts in computer programming
Literature: To be announced in class
No. of classes: 6 classes / 6 hrs
Examination: Small assignments, attendance
Projection
Kasper van der Horst
The intention of this course is to experiment in a playful way with projection in relation to your work. Besides displaying computer- and video images, projection is often used to define a space or, for example, to enhance the meaning of an object in a space. Also shadow and coloured light can be interpreted as projection.
As an assignment, you will be asked to make a projection design that connects with your own work and/or ideas.
keywords:•projecting on objects •surfaces •live playing •how to use audio signals •no-source •feedback video •minimal projection •ganzfeld projection •we’ll also briefly look into how tv’s, videorecorders and analog video mixers work.
For students who followed an earlier projection course, there will be some new topics to look into, such as video mapping, high quality projection and the use of the more advanced digital video mixers that combine analog and digital image sources.
Due to the available amount of equipment, there’s a limited number of students that can enroll.
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: Developing approaches to projection and related key concepts
No. of classes: 6 classes / 6 hrs
Examination: Assignments, attendance
Sensors, Microcontrollers and Actuators
Lex van den Broek, Edwin van der Heide
This course is a continuation of the Introduction to Electronics that is given in the first year. It is open to other students who have at least some familiarity with the most basic concepts of electronics. In this course students learn how to understand and build simple setups consisting of a sensor, a controller and an actuator. The concepts behind controllers like the ipsonlab and the Arduino or Wiring board are introduced. The most common types of sensors are introduced and how to connect them and interpret the data they produce. Also the most common actuators will be introduced.
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: Learning to understand and build simple sensor-controller-actuator setups
No. of classes: 6 clss / 6 hrs
Examination: assignments, attendance
How to Confuse Your Senses?
an introduction to the artistic use of the smell medium
Maki Ueda
Often in olfactory art, the focus is on smell itself. It is used for evoking memories and feelings, for emphasizing manifestations or making statements. We will take a different approach that focuses more on our perception of smell and less on the meaning of smell.
I think that smell is in itself neutral. It’s the audience that attributes meanings such as “this is the smell of apple” or “this is a bad odour” based on their personal experiences and history. My memories and history are different from yours, so how can I assume that what is a “sweet smell” to me will have the same meaning to you?
In the course we will depart from the above perspective and regard smell as something neutral. In the first half of the course we discuss the question “what do we know, and what can we find out, about smelling?” By doing a lot of original and spontaneous researches and experiments you will quickly learn more about your sense of smell. In the second half of the course we will focus on creating a ‘simple’ artwork, interface, or game all focusing on confusing the senses.
Blog of the previous years: http://smellart.blogspot.com
Website of Maki Ueda: http://www.ueda.nl
Credits: 3 EC
No. of classes: 6 classes / 6 hrs
Examination: assignments, attendance
More Research in Motion
Gideon Kiers, Lucas van der Velden
An introduction into artistic use of (historical) research
This course is a continuation of last year’s Research in Motion workshop and is open to all students.
Our history is full of great but lost research, inventions, idea’s, experiments and prototypes. This is especially true in the field of expanded cinema and performative audiovisual art. The leads to these lost treasures are omnipresent, but often scattered, coded or simply locked up and forgotten. Artifacts can nevertheless be found online, in books, archives, and often in the living memory of those who witnessed them first hand a long time ago.
In this course we will look at some case studies on historical, technical and artistic research. Also, we will examine how to utilise (historical) research and focus on the odd sized projects and idea’s of our past, and how we can use these ideas and examples, reconstruct, reinvent and place these often powerful historical ideas in the present time. During the course all students will work on their own outline/trial within this framework.
Credits: 3 EC
No. of classes: 6 classes / 6 hrs
Examination: assignments, attendance
Live Life – Life Live #2
Pieter van Boheemen, Lucas Evers and guests
This course is organized in collaboration with the Open Wetlab of Waag Society
The rapidly developing and expanding world of biotechnology is pushing into our kitchens, our hospitals, our cars, our politics, our economy and no doubt our bedrooms! It is not only changing our lives but also that of other living species. Life prolonging treatments and care raises questions about what to do with your extra time. Xeno biology tries to make life of other than the classic amino acids and introduce other letters next to G, T, A and C to form base pairs. And what do we know about the compounds that can be found in our diets, such as citric acid, does that still come from lemon trees? Genetically modified orchids are grown by the industry, but is this aesthetic only a terrain for enterprise? How do those insights into life impact our relations to other living organisms? Life sciences have an impact on agriculture, medical, military and industrial technology. Can it also impact the wider domain of aesthetics such as art and design? And, reversely, can art and design influence the life sciences and life and the living itself?
As this new space for aesthetics and interpretations is still much unexplored, artists are starting to wonder, wander in the biotech cupboards, texts, protocols hard-, soft- and wetware. Bio Art cooks up unexpected and controversial new materials often very different in its goals and intentions than the work done by scientists or engineers.
In this course you will work with living organisms and (semi-)living materials of plant and animal origin, in order to investigate the living and the making of life and how we relate to it. This means growing organisms in the laboratory or elsewhere, influencing the growing and making sense of everything that comes with it.
Alternating on Tuesdays you will follow theoretical lessons on biotech and bio art and on Thursdays you will get practicum in the Open Wetlab.
The course will finish with writing a proposal and a presentation of the proposal during a public event at the Waag building.
After the course you are offered the possibility to continue and produce a project using the facilities of the Open Wetlab and mentoring by Lucas Evers and Pieter van Boheemen.
Syllabus with articles of a.o. will be provided before the start of the course:
– Tactical Biopolitics, Beatriz da Costa, Kavita Philip
– Fingerprints, Jens Hauser, Paul’s Vanouse
– Trust me I’m an artist, Anna Dumitriu, Bobbie Farsides
– Garage Biotech, Rob Carlson
– Evolution haute couture – art and science in the post-biological age, Dmitri Bulatov (ed.)
– Art in the age of technoscience, Ingeborg Reichle
– Home made bio electronic arts, Landwehr, Kuni (ed.)
– Vivo Art readers, Adam Zaretsky
– Meta Life, Annick Bureaud, Roger Malina, Louise Whiteley
Objective: practical and theoretical introduction into biology and art
Credits: 3 EC
No. of classes: 6 classes / 6 hrs
Examination: assignments, attendance
* Keep in mind that this workshop will partly take place in the Open Wetlab at the Waag in Amsterdam and that these travel expenses are for your own costs.
Lighting Design for / as Performance
Katinka Marac
The goal of this year’s course is to give an introduction to the theory and practice of lighting design and handling basic stage equipment. We will explore how meaning can be created using the exceptional possibilities of the medium light and how lighting design can be deployed in / as performance.
During the course we’ll trace back the origins of lighting design in contemporary performance, by looking into the work and compositional methods of renowned American artists from the sixties and seventies and some of their contemporary predecessors as Xavier le Roi. In the seventies artists as Robert Rauschenberg and members of the New York based Judson group shared a keen interest in working at the intersection of (dance) performance, visual art and art & technology. They drastically changed (theatrical) performance, and the role of set and lighting design, freeing it from its former supportive role and incorporating them as equal elements in, or as starting points for performances.
The course is set up as a creative lab. We’ll start with a short introduction in the various elements of a lighting design, including types of light, angles and colour and an introduction to technical aspects such as patch board, dimmers and the lighting board. We’ll research how lighting design can be used to create, structure and alter content, space and time and will work on lighting design as performance. During the course we will also collectively visit a theatre and review a lighting design of a theatre performance. (date & time still to be announced)
Objective: learning the basics of stage technology and lighting design.
Credits: 3 EC
Examination: group lighting design assignments , performance review, attendance
Bread & Butter
Joost Nieuwenburg
The relationship between food and art is longstanding, be it through modes of representation culminating in either objects or less tangible works, or in the socio-economical realm of the art world where it shows up in the guise of fundraisers, VIP dinners or openings.
In this course we are going to look into the role that food and meals could play to conceive, curate and present artworks. Starting with a brief survey of historical and contemporary examples of works and practices from artists and curators that include food or the performative space that surrounds it, we will continue with a hands-on, minds-on practicum. This could range from the outside picnic to the inside dinner party to artist-run restaurants, illegal bootlegging, norms associated with eating, parlour games and we’ll be going to toast on hunter-gathering and reading menus alike.
We will work towards a situation in which we’ll share our kitchen skills and articulations with one other, its shape to be decided on together.
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: Learning to play with and make use of formal settings, create artworks out of a situation and curate or frame these works and gestures both individually and collectively.
Literature: To be announced in class
Location: Various locations inside and outside the school, t.b.a.
No. of classes: 6 classes of 6 hrs
Examination: small assignments, attendance
IoT WtF
Arthur Elsenaar, Dani Ploeger (guest)
IoT
The IoT WtF hacklab is built on the theoretical foundation as put forward in Eric Kluitenberg’s course The Biometric Body II. While the human body is quickly becoming part of the ever expanding realm of objects connected to the Internet, this workshop is not exclusively focused on the body and its metrics, but on any object than be networked; e.g. the fridge.
WtF
This hacklab is a practical get together of students interested in the What’s that Feature of the Internet of Things. Students will learn the power of the command line, as it is your ticket into the world of open source software. We then venture out into the world of Git and Github, the current dominant versioning system.
When this is covered, we will get the hardware out and attach sensors, actuators and hook this all up to the Internet. Students are encouraged to bring in their own hard- and software ‘problems’, so we can work on it together.
Beware: there is no artistic output expected from this hackshop besides an engagement to learn and to advance skills of one another. But on the last day, students will be expected to briefly make a presentation about what they have learned and why it is important for their own research.
Hardware
– RaspberryPi
– Sensortag
– Bean
– 3D printing of Fitbit bracelet
Software
– Python
– NodeRed
– JavaScript
– Git
Reading material: http://ipj.dreamhosters.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ipj-v18n4.pdf
Credits: 3 ECTS
Individual Coaching, Electives and Portfolio
An important part of the education in Interfaculty consists of self-study: time to make personal work and to pursue personal research.
Starting with the second year of the Bachelors study (and continuing throughout the Masters program) each student has two teachers who coach this personal work, reflect on it together with the student, offer a context for it, suggest literature and other sources of information and often assist in solving practical problems. As the study advances we expect from our students that they start showing their personal work outside of the school walls and start building up a network. Instead of making work specifically for the presentations twice a year, the student in this way evolves towards a situation where the work has been shown and developed outside the school before being shown at the presentations.
This personal work and research is evaluated twice a year during the collective presentations at the end of each semester. At the end of the first semester, the students are asked to give a presentation of their research, explaining their topic, progress and methodology and illustrating this with (documentation of) experiments or finished works. At the end of the second semester, the students are asked to present a finished work, together with a short, verbal explanation.
Teachers 2015-2016
Cocky Eek
Arthur Elsenaar
Edwin van der Heide
Kasper van der Horst
Michiel Pijpe
Robert Pravda
Taconis Stolk
studied Fashion Design at the Utrecht School of the Arts and graduated in 1993 with a final collection ‘Fashion is so ugly you have to change it every half year’. She did her Master degree European Fashion and Textiles Design in 1994 (FR/IT). After her studies she realized several experimental ‘wearable’ collections presented amongst Le Salon des Jeunes Stylistes in Hyeres (FR). Meanwhile she worked as a guest teacher (HKU, Rietveld Academy and Konstfack -Stockholm).
From 1999 – 2002 she collaborated with designer Maria Blaisse, investigating form and material in relation to the moving body, resulting in the Kuma Guna series (nominated by the Dutch Design Award). Together they gave a number of master-classes (MA European Fashion & Textile Design, the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg, and the Curtin University of Technology in Perth).
Since 2001, Cocky Eek has been an active member of FoAM [Brussels]. In close collaboration with scientists, and media-designers she did the spatial designs for responsive environments as Tgarden, TxOom and TRG (presentations include V2 and Ars Electronica 2001). Since the millennium her work has been mainly revolving around lightweight spatial compositions and her favorite media have become wind and air. This resulted in floating or flying experiments or large, voluminous forms. Her Human-Kite performances with Patrick de Koning were shown along various coastal lines, such as the Oerol Festival (NL) and the International Kite Festival in Weifang in China. She is co-founder of FoAM [Amsterdam 2005] whose main focus is the topic of human-plant inter-relations. One of their sprouts Boskoi, a project on urban foraging received an honorary mention Prix Ars Electronica 2011, was presented at ISEA and implemented in many local community’s. In 2012 she created Sphaerae, an inflatable multi-dome pavilion for immersive and synaesthetic experiences (presented at Ars Elctronica, TodaysArt festival 2013). With Schweigman& she develloped two contemporary theater pieces; Frame (presented in Shanghai 2012) and Blaas (Oerol, Torino, Boulevard, Utrecht 2013).
http://cockyeek.com/
http://f0.am/
Arthur Elsenaar is an artist, electrical engineer and facial hacker. Since 1993, Elsenaar has investigated the computer-controlled human face as a site for artistic expression. He holds a Ph.D. in Art and Design from Nottingham Trent University in the UK for his thesis entitled “Facial Hacking: The Twisted Logic of Electro-Facial Choreography.” Elsenaar’s work has been shown at many internationally renowned conferences, festivals and institutes such as Ars Electronica, ISEA, DEAF, SIGGRAPH and MIT Media Lab. In 2008, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam acquired the algorithmic facial choreography work “Face Shift” for their permanent collection. He has been a core member of the Institute of Artificial Art in Amsterdam whose work received several awards; a Prix Ars Electronica honorary mention (1997), the Leonardo Award for Excellence (2003) for a paper on the history of electric performance art. For his most recent work, Elsenaar received the Technarte Best Speaker Award (2012) in Bilbao, Spain.
http://artifacial.org/
Edwin van der Heide studied Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire, graduating in 1992. Since then he has been working as an artist and researcher in the field of sound, space and interaction. He extends the terms composition and musical language into spatial, interactive and interdisciplinary directions. His work comprises installations, performances and environments and has been shown worldwide. The audience is placed in the middle of the work and challenged to actively explore, interact and relate themselves to the work. Specialisations include models for perceptualisation and the creation of extra sensory environments. In 1995 he was invited to teach at the Interfaculty Image & Sound and since 2003 he also lectures at the MediaTechnology MSc programme. In 2007 he became a part-time researcher at Leiden University and member of the MediaTechnology programme board. In the summer of 2009 he was selected to be the Edgard Varese guest professor at the TU Berlin. In 2010 he won the ‘Witteveen and Bos’ Art and Technology award for all of his work.
http://www.evdh.net/
Kasper van der Horst studied photography at the School of Photography in The Hague. During his studies he developed an interest in video, computer animation and computer graphics and started his own studio, Sparks.
In 1988 he was invited to teach video at CAM, and a year later to become a teacher at the Interfaculty Image & Sound, where he first taught analogue video and, since 1993, digital imagery. During his classes at the Interfaculty students started to develop moving digital graphics, resulting in some of the earliest VJs and visual musicians who created visuals and moving images that accompanied DJ acts, shown during the Sonic Acts Festival in 1994. During the collective research projects he often works with a small group of students on special visual effects that relate in delicate ways to the general theme of the project. In 1998 his research on dynamic video projections resulted in an astounding contribution to the closing night of the Holland Festival in Paradiso. For the ArtScience curriculum he developed many introductory courses on the subjects: Freestyle Video, Image & Sound (with Robert Pravda) and MetaMedia (with Taco Stolk). Next to these courses van der Horst organised many video workshops and collaborated on almost all of the large-scale projects at the Interfaculty. The resarch project “Structet : Building Music” in 2006 was one of the most successful performances in the Todaysart festival that year and it is the only project in the festival ́s history that was invited again, in 2011.
Since 2010 van der Horst has been directing multi screen installations for Rockheim, the museum for Norwegian pop music in Trondheim. He also designed 3d avatars for the interactive part of the museum. His work engagements range from established art institutes to broadcast and commercial media production. He directs and produces audiovisual projects. As a multidisciplinary art and technology advisor Kasper works with students, art-collectives and media-companies.
Michiel Pijpe graduated with distinction in 2005 at the Interfaculty Image and Sound, and studied narrative techniques and style procedures for film at the University of Leiden (2002-2004). Afterwards, he briefly studied at the Dutch Art Institute (MA) in Enschede. Within the context of the curriculum of the former interfaculty his athletic background led to his development as a performance artist in 2001, specializing in visual art performances in various productions and coproductions. The correlation between play and technology is an ongoing experiment and is generally applied in the theatrical works of Pijpe: the results are minimalist but visually rich solo performances that can be characterized as both formal as well as expressive.
In recent years his work within performance and theatre has come to include the development of ideas for scenography and lighting setups for theatre and opera productions.
Apart from his stage work, Michiel Pijpe has been working on an ongoing project involving liquid experiments for film wich he started in 2003. After many years of experimentation and research he is now working with methods and techniques for a higher and more detailed control of chemicals, light and optics. He is continuously refining these techniques which resemble the traditional methods of 18th century painting combined with current technologies translated into innovative printing techniques.
http://www.michielpijpe.eu/
Robert Pravda studied engineering from 1987 through 1991 at the Technical University of Novi Sad (former Yugoslavia), after which he dedicated himself to making music in experimental underground circles. His interest in the interdisciplinary arts brought him to the Interfaculty Image & Sound, where he earned his degree in 2002. In 2001 he started WEIM, a workshop for his fellow students on electro-instrumental music. When he became a teacher at the Interfaculty, this workshop was transformed into the electronica improvisation ensemble RecPlay. During his studies he concentrated on building instruments for multimedia performances and making algorithmic compositions for spatial sound and light installations. His examination project, the sound-light installation 5x5x5, was awarded with the visitor’s prize of Shell’s Young Artist Award.
Recently he has been developing new musical and light instruments, performing in many formations and contexts, and he worked as composer and sound designer for several theatre productions.
Taconis Stolk is a conceptualist and metamodernist. He is the initiator of WLFR, studio for conceptualism in Amsterdam. Since the mid-nineties WLFR has been developing metamedia projects and theory concerning the aesthetics of concepts and contextual technology, often at the intersection of art and science.
WLFR projects have been exhibited, performed and published in Europe, the Americas and Asia. They deploy a wide range of media and disciplines. Examples through the years are P.I.A (interactive audio performance for magnetic card readers, 1994), fZone (website generating audio compositions based on weather conditions in the world’s time zones, 1995) PARR (research project on nano-aesthetics resulting in computer generated books and animations, 2000), BuBL Space (pocket device to disable mobile phones, 2002, with Arthur Elsenaar), Gradually Zero (experimental theatre on the beauty of numbers, 2003, with Sanne van Rijn), Genetic Design (media project on art education in genetic modification, 2004), o—o—o—o (project on intention hacking the game of chess, 2010, with ConceptsAssociated), Wf–– (nanotechnology project on creating magnetic fragrances, 2011, with Radboud University Nijmegen) and WLFRGB (video series exploring ‘impossible colours’ by hacking stereoscopic technologies, 2013).
Stolk earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the ArtScience Interfaculty. He lectures at the Interfaculty since 1998. Current other lecturing and consulting activities include MediaTechnology MSc programme of Leiden University (since 2001), STEIM Amsterdam and the Dutch Arts Council. He is a regular speaker and writer on topics related to his practice.
http://www.wlfr.nl/
Guest Teachers 2015-2016
Pieter van Boheemen & Lucas Evers
Lex van den Broek
Zoro Feigl
Marcus Graf
Michael van Hoogenhuyze
Gideon Kiers & Lucas van der Velden
Eric Kluitenberg
Jan Robert Leegte
Katinka Marac
Joost Nieuwenburg
Frank Theys
Maki Ueda
Caro Verbeek
Pieter van Boheemen & Lucas Evers
Pieter van Boheemen works as a project developer for Waag Society’s Open Wetlab. Pieter is a Life Science Technologist. In his work he mixes his Genomics degree with lots of experience in IT. He gets his every day inspiration from working with great people, then do cool stuff to maximize everyone’s motivation and performance.
Lucas Evers is currently leading Waag Society’s Open Wetlab. In This role, he is actively involved in several projects at the crossroads of locativity and narrativity, like ViVo Arts, Creative Commons Netherlands and the Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award. Besides his job at Waag Society, Lucas is also an advisor at DasArts, second phase theater and performance education.
Lucas Evers has an education as an artist and teacher in the creative arts and studied politics at the University of Amsterdam. He worked at the cultural centers De Balie and De Melkweg in Amsterdam, programming cinema, new media and politics. He organized an extensive program around the French cinematographer Chris Marker at De Balie and was closely involved at programs such as ‘net.congestion – international festival of streaming media’, Next 5 Minutes, e-culture fair, Archeology of Imaginary Media and a number of programs in the field of the so-called ‘life sciences’.
Lex van den Broek finished his studies Electronic Engineering and Information Technology at the Hogeschool Rotterdam in 1993. After a couple of years designing sound amplifiers for active speaker systems, he started working as the head of the Electronics Workshop at the Royal Conservatoire in 1997. He gives courses to students of Sonology, The Art of Sound and ArtScience departments. He also guides students in realising their own projects involving electronics. In its long history, the Electronics Workshop at the KC has collaborated on many impressive interfaces and installations and is a center for developing musical interfaces and computer installations. Lex has been developing various interfaces and controllers that are available for students to assemble, such as the IpSonLab, Microlab and MTVlab.
http://www.koncon.nl/lex/
Marcus Graf studied Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire in 1993, Information Technology at the TU Delft in 1994 and Music Technology at the Utrecht School of Arts (1996-2002), where he received his BA in Applied Composition. He graduated from the master ArtScience in 2012. He has worked as a composer for television, film, web and theatre. As a composer he has been part of the collectives Tsah Dzil and Normally Invisible, which have played at events such as the Sonic Acts Festival 1995, Het Bal at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam 1998 and Noorderslag 2000.
Since the beginning of the new millennium his focus has shifted towards the areas of new media and computer sciences. Starting with small interactive investigations created in Director in the mid-1990s, his work has evolved to more complex generative and interactive pieces written in Flash and Processing. His installations have been exhibited on occasions like the unDEAF/DEAF06 festival 2006 and TodaysArt 2008. Since 2008 he has been active in the contemporary dance world as performer of audiovisual work. He has also worked as VJ, interaction designer and multimedia specialist for the European Space Agency.
http://www.marcusgraf.com/
The installations of Zoro Feigl (1983) seem to be alive. His materials dance and twist. Placed together in a space, the separate works become one: large and ponderous in places, nervous or gracious elsewhere. Feigl’s forms are constantly changing, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. The exhibition space becomes an enlarged microscope: single-cell creatures, primitive organisms are twisting, groaning and convulsing. Without beginning or end the objects seem to be locked into themselves. As a viewer you become entangled in their movements: they embrace and amaze, but sometimes also frighten you. Zoro Feigl lives and works in Amsterdam.
http://www.zorofeigl.nl/
Michael van Hoogenhuyze studied History of Art at Leiden University. Since his graduation in 1975 he has worked as an art historian and art history teacher, contributing to many curricula and working as school manager for many years. Next to his work as a teacher he is active in areas where art criticism and the reflection on art are transformed intoactual contributions to the creative process. He participated in many projects of artists as a collaborator, researcher or dramaturge. In these projects he further his ideas about music, theatre and the geography of art. As part of his lectorate at the KABK, for several years he researched and wrote about his views on the creative process of the artist. As a result he published “Het Muzisch Denken”, “Thinking of the Muses” in 2007. Also he wrote many articles about artists and their work. Beside this field of interest he is a specialist in theories about space, the relation between visual art and music and the history and theory of teaching in the arts.
Gideon Kiers & Lucas van der Velden
Gideon Kiers (1975) studied Interaction Design at the Utrecht School of the Arts, receiving his European Masters Degree in Interactive Multimedia from the University of Portsmouth in 1997. He then went on to study Art and Music at the Interfaculty Image and Sound in The Hague.
Lucas van der Velden (1976) studied Art and Music at the Interfaculty Image and Sound in The Hague. In 2001 they founded the audiovisual art collective Telcosystems. In 2007 they co-founded Baltan Laboratories in Eindhoven and served as members of Baltan’s Artistic Board from 2007 until 2010. Since 2003 they have also been part of the curatorial team of Sonic Acts, with which they have made numerous festivals, exhibitions and special projects both in Amsterdam and abroad, such as the Kontraste festival in Krems, the internationally touring Vertical Cinema project and the Dark Ecology project in Norway.
http://www.telcosystems.net
http://www.sonicacts.com
Eric Kluitenberg is an independent theorist, writer, curator, and researcher on culture, media, and technology based in Amsterdam. He has been head of the media and technology program of De Balie, Centre for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam since 1999. He taught theory of interactive media and technological culture for a variety of academic institutions, including the University of Amsterdam, the University of Professional Education of Amsterdam, Academy Minerva Postgraduate Studies in Groningen, and he was a scientific staff member of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Recent publications include The Book of Imaginary Media (2006), Delusive Spaces (2008) and the theme issues of Open, Journal for Art and the Public Domain, “Hybrid Space” (2006), and “(Im)Mobility” (2011).
Next to an extensive series of festivals and public events he was project leader for the practice based research trajectory “The Living Archive” at De Balie (2004 – 2010) and currently is Editor in Chief of the Tactical Media Files, an on-line documentation resource for Tactical Media practices worldwide.
Katinka Marac studied theatre design at the Utrecht School for the Arts. Since 1997 she has worked both as a scenographer and lighting designer for contemporary dance performances and installations in the experimental circuit. Among others she has collaborated with Golden Palace, Sara Wookey, Lidy Six, Martin Nachbar, Sanja Mitrovic, Seon-Ja Seo, Daniel AlmgrenRecen en Roser Lopez Espinosa.
Katinka writes regularly on lighting design and scenography in Zichtlijnen, the Dutch technical journal for stage technology. She also advises students at the School for New Dance Development and at the master Choreography at the AHK Amsterdam. Katinka’s preference for experimental works is based on the significant role played by space and spatial experiences, and as co-maker in multi-disciplinary productions in which space and light exist as partners. Her lighting designs possess a particularly physical quality and encourage and generate movement. In addition to her work as a designer, she has made short video films, so-called audio- visual choreographies, which bring together her fascinations for the body, movement, space and rhythm.
http://www.katinkamarac.com/
In my work, whilst playing with fiction and truth, I search for ambiguity. Using reconstruction and deconstruction I transform objects and situations. Shared experiences and the meeting of the other play a role and physics, chemistry, cooking and sound are elements that reoccur in my actions.
http://www.joostnieuwenburg.nl/
Boukje Schweigman has a background in physical theatre and her performances are always a collision of image, sound, space and movement. The presentation of her work always stresses the physical presence of the performer as well as the audience.
http://www.schweigman.org/
Frank Theys is a filmmaker, writer and visual artist who lives and works in Brussels and Amsterdam. His experimental films have been shown at most major international venues and acquired for the collections of among others, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York, the Museum for Contemporary Art (SMAK) Ghent, the Museum for the Moving Image, New York and the Centre National de la Cinématographie, Paris. In 1992 he became director at Victoria Theatre in Ghent, Belgium, where he wrote and directed several award winning plays. In 1994 he received the honourable title of Cultural Ambassador of Flanders.
He started his own film production company in 1997. His recent documentary series Technocalyps, about the notion of transhumanism, was broadcasted in many countries and has generated several scientific and philosophical congresses on the subject, it has been the central work in several art exhibitions and cultural events worldwide. Frank Theys has lectured on the subject in numerous universities, art colleges and congresses in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Frank Theys has taught at St-Lukas Film School (Brussels) and at DasArts, multidisciplinary Master’s course in the Performing Arts at the Amsterdam School for the Arts (AHK) and was a visiting teacher and lecturer at universities, film and art schools worldwide. He currently is a researcher at the KUL (Louvain, Belgium) and also teaches at the St-Lukas Art Academy in Ghent (Belgium).
Born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1974. Based in Japan and The Netherlands. Maki Ueda is an artist who incorporates the olfactory sense in art. She considers smell to be “new media”. Believing that “fewer visuals = stronger olfactory experiences”, she puts the emphasis on olfaction over the visual aspect in her work. She often uses scents to spark the imagination or to create perceptual confusion.
She has developed a unique combination of chemical and kitchen skills in order to extract the scents of daily life, including foods, ambient aromas, and bodily scents. She creates scents that capture childhood, identity, a mood, or a historical event. The results of her experiments take the form of olfactory installations and workshops.
Maki Ueda studied media art under Masaki Fujihata at The Environmental Information Department (B.A. 1997, M.A. 1999), Keio University, Japan. She received a grant from the Japanese government in 2000 and from the POLA Art Foundation in 2007. She has been based in The Netherlands since 2002. Nominated for The World Technology Awards Category: Art (NY, USA) in 2009, she occasionally teaches and gives workshops on olfactory art at ArtScience Interfaculty of The Royal Academy of Art and Royal Conservatory The Hague (NL), and at Willem de Kooning Art Academy (NL).
http://www.ueda.nl/
Caro Verbeek (1980) is an art historian specialized in art and the senses. She graduated at the University of Amsterdam on the topics of olfactory (MA) and tactile (MA) art. She writes and lectures on olfactory and tactile art accompanied and designs multi-sensory tours for museums. She is currently working on a PhD on the role of olfaction during the avant-garde, which consists both of theory and actual olfactory (re)constructions that will enable us to literally inhale history of art.
http://www.caroverbeek.nl/
