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). Obtaining IST points is not mandatory in B1, but allowed and encouraged.
Credit points for participation in courses,MediaTechnology courses,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 check beforehand with his/her coach whether the activity is applicable for IST. Afterwards, the IST report is evaluated by the coach and the head of department.
* The ‘ArtScience Courses of Choice’ in the curriculum can be chosen from all the courses offered by the department (or in collaboration with KC/KABK) that are mentioned in the Course Descriptions (including those in the Exchange Weeks with Sonology and Composition). The student is required to follow enough courses to obtain the amount of ECTS as mentioned in the Curriculum of his/her year of study. Eventually, other courses within KC/KABK and MediaTechnology (Leiden University) can alternatively be taken, but only after prior approval by coach or head of department and to a maximum of 6 ECTS. Courses part of the CASS Exchange Weeks count as normal ArtScience courses.
ArtScience B1 Curriculum
ArtScience B2 Curriculum
ArtScience B3 Curriculum
ArtScience B4 Curriculum
ArtScience M1 Curriculum
ArtScience M2 Curriculum
Curriculum Handbook Bachelor (in preparation)
Curriculum Handbook Master (download PDF)
| ArtScience B1 Curriculum | ECTS |
| ArtScience Courses of Choice* | 2 |
| Collecting Observations | 2 |
| Introduction | 1 |
| Introduction to ArtScience | 1 |
| Introduction to Electronics | 1 |
| Introduction to Programming | 4 |
| Introduction to Studio Techniques | 1 |
| Int(r)o Projection | 2 |
| Lighting as/for Performance | 2 |
| Light – Space – Perception | 2 |
| MetaMedia | 2 |
| New Arts & Music Theory (Semester 1+2) | 3 |
| The ‘Other’ Senses | 2 |
| Quick & Dirty | 2 |
| SoundWorlds | 4 |
| IST | 2 |
| B1-Meetings (Semester 1+2) | 2 |
| Manic Mondays | 2 |
| Semester 1 Presentation | 8 |
| Semester 2 Presentation (Propaedeutic Exam) | 15 |
| Total | 60 |
| ArtScience B2 Curriculum | ECTS |
| ArtScience Courses of Choice* | 22 |
| Studium Generale (Semester 1+2) | 2 |
| IST | 9 |
| B2-Meetings (Semester 1+2) | 2 |
| Manic Mondays | 2 |
| Semester 1 Presentation | 8 |
| Semester 2 Presentation | 15 |
| Total | 60 |
| ArtScience B3 Curriculum | ECTS |
| ArtScience Courses of Choice* | 18 |
| Professional Practice Preparation | 2 |
| IST | 13 |
| B3-Meetings (Semester 1+2) | 2 |
| Manic Mondays | 2 |
| Semester 1 Presentation | 8 |
| Semester 2 Presentation | 15 |
| Total | 60 |
| ArtScience B4 Curriculum | ECTS |
| ArtScience Courses of Choice* | 10 |
| IST | 13 |
| B4-Meetings (Semester 1+2) | 2 |
| Manic Mondays | 2 |
| Bachelor Thesis | 8 |
| Semester 1 Presentation | 8 |
| Preview Exam | 2 |
| Semester 2 Presentation (Bachelor Final Presentation) | 15 |
| Total | 60 |
| ArtScience M1 Curriculum | ECTS |
| ArtScience Courses of Choice* | 18 |
| Introduction | 1 |
| Introduction to ArtScience | 1 |
| Introduction to Studio Techniques | 1 |
| IST | 10 |
| M1/M2-Meetings (Semester 1+2) | 4 |
| Manic Mondays | 2 |
| Semester 1 Presentation | 8 |
| Semester 2 Presentation | 15 |
| Total | 60 |
| ArtScience M2 Curriculum | ECTS |
| ArtScience Courses of Choice* | 8 |
| IST | 13 |
| M1/M2-Meetings (Semester 1+2) | 4 |
| Manic Mondays | 2 |
| Master Thesis | 8 |
| Semester 1 Presentation | 8 |
| Preview Exam | 2 |
| Semester 2 Presentation (Master Final Presentation) | 15 |
| Total | 60 |
Archive
* Curriculum 2020-2021
* Curriculum 2019-2020
* Curriculum 2018-2019
* Curriculum 2017-2018
* Curriculum 2016-2017
* Curriculum 2015-2016
* Curriculum 2014-2015
* Curriculum 2013-2014
Courses 2021-2022
This is an overview of ArtScience courses given this Academic Year, subject to the ‘ArtScience Courses of Choice’ stated in the curriculum. Some courses are mandatory for students of certain years, which is mentioned with the course description. All courses are open for all students of the Bachelor as well as the Master programme, unless the course is full.
CASS Exchange Workshops are part of the exchange weeks (two weeks after the Autumn Break and two weeks after the Spring Break) between the Creative Departments of the Royal Conservatoire (Composition, Sonology and ArtScience), where all departments offer courses accessible to all of their students.
MasterPrimers are courses on a higher theoretical level. They are focused on our Master students. Bachelor students can attend, though they should realise the level. In cases of a limited allowed number of students to a Master Primer course, Masters will have priority over Bachelors.
KABK IST Courses mentioned here are those courses of the KABK IST programme that are organised by ArtScience.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the current Covid-19 pandemia, this schedule can be subject to changes over the year. We hope for your understanding.
This list is not 100% complete yet. More course descriptions will be added here in the very near future.
AIOTMLWTF 0.3a — Arthur Elsenaar
Art <> Science Methods — Valery Vermeulen
Body, Movement, Creativity and Space — Hilt De Vos
Bootstrapping Computational Arts — Arthur Elsenaar, Carl Rethmann
Coding Max for Creative Output — Johan van Kreij
Cognitive Dissonance — Arthur Elsenaar
Collecting Observations — Marion Tränkle & guests
Composing for Vision — Leandros Ntolas
Creative Practice Research: How Art can be Science — Renske Maria van Dam
Data <> Art Methods — Valery Vermeulen
Disobedient Devices — Dani Ploeger
Disrupting Colonial Futures — Milton Almonacid, Darko Lagunas
Exploring Production — Marisa Manck
Hacking (Art)worlds – Stories from the other side — Anastasia Loginova
Introduction to ArtScience — Taconis Stolk
Introduction to Electronics — Lex van den Broek
Introduction to Programming — Jeroen Meijer
Introduction to Studio Techniques — Robert Pravda
Int(r)o Projection — Kasper van der Horst
Light – Space – Perception — Leandros Ntolas
Lighting Design for/as Performance — Katinka Marač
Math <> Art Methods — Valery Vermeulen
Matter of Art — Eduardo Mendes, Eric Kluitenberg, Arthur Elsenaar
MetaMedia — Taconis Stolk
New Arts & Music Theory — David Dramm, Gabriel Paiuk, Eric Kluitenberg
Organisation of Knowledge — Katarina Petrović
Panorama — Alexander Johannes Heil
’Pataphysics — Matthijs van Boxsel
Patterns of Ebb and Flow — Cocky Eek
Practical Perfumery for Olfactory Art — Renske van Vroonhoven, Lauren Jetty
Presentation as Performance — Hilt De Vos
Professional Practice Preparation — Eric Kluitenberg
Pro Projection — Kasper van der Horst
Quick and Dirty — Cocky Eek
RecPlay (Semester 1, Semester 2) — Kasper van der Horst, Robert Pravda
Redeconstruct Media — Kasper van der Horst, Nenad Popov
RE~SEARCH ~SHAPE ~STORE — Sébastien Robert
Sensors, Actuators & Microcontrollers — Lex van den Broek, Johan van Kreij
Sounding Haunted Desires — Willem van Weelden
SoundWorlds 1 — Robert Pravda, Milica Ilić
SoundWorlds 2 — Robert Pravda
Spacious — Renske Maria van Dam
Studium Generale — Erica Sprey & guests
The Negative — Eric Kluitenberg
The ‘Other’ Senses — Caro Verbeek
The Synaesthetic Universe — Robert Pravda, Kasper van der Horst
Two Legged Research — Cocky Eek, guests
Why Look at Animals? — Cocky Eek, guests
Writing as/in Research — Maya Rasker
Zaal 3 course (pending title) — TBA
AIOTMLWTF 0.3A – Computation in Art
Arthur Elsenaar
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Weekly Course, online/physical
Course Content:
A year long research group aiming to explore – from a historic perspective – a variety of topics that relate to generative/process art, computation, AI/ML, complexity, cybernetics, emergence, chaos vs randomness, etc.
In seminar style, the group will pick a topic (paper) for the next session that will then be presented by one of the participants and discussed in the group.
Next to theory, we will work on practical code examples and collectively work on individual programming problems.
A previous iteration of this course can be found here: https://aiotmlwtf.xyz
Requirements:
Students need to have experience with programming (Python).
Objectives:
– you will have a better understanding of named topics and how these relate on one another
– you’ve gained some practical skills in implementing these topics in your own art endeavours
– you became wise enough not to go under in a sea of complexity
Work form:
Seminar style with hands-on exercises and problem solving.
Assessment:
Attendance (min 80%) and proven understanding of the topics by showing working code (whatever that is).
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 2 semesters
Art <> Science Methods
Dr. Valery Vermeulen
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, online
Course Content:
Main focus of this course is how creativity and creative processes can be used and understood from an artistic, a scientific as well as an intersectional point of view.
When working as a creative mind it is often unfortunately still preassumed that there is an inherent choice between an analytic and more intuitive approach. The analytic being more associated with a “scientific” approach and the “intuitive” being with a more artistic approach. Recent new developments in the field of artscience try to dissolve and put this dichotomization in a new perspective. Despite this evolution the missing link between the method and world of the artist and that of the archetypal scientist still persists. This course is aimed at guiding the students to find this missing link in their own work and practice. In doing so we’ll seek to provide guidelines for an intersectional approach to working in the artscience domain.
We’ll start the course by diving into the methods, strategies and techniques that are the driving force of new discoveries in various scientific domains. Domains hereby include mathematics, physics, econometrics, chemistry, biology, psychology, sociology and data science. By studying various examples you’ll learn how to dissect and discover the parallels between “scientific” analytic creative processes and similar processes typically associated with artistic creation. The examples cover a diverse range both on an historical as well as cultural side.
Subsequently you’ll learn how to hack scientific creative processes and ideas and put them into practice in your own work. This is done under the form of a personal project for which you’ll be creating a blueprint and production plan throughout this course. This project can be related to your own work or can be build around a new topic you’re interested in.
As a first step you’ll learn how to find and incorporate the best fitting knowledge resources (literature and online recourses) related to your project. A key element hereby is to develop the skill to find recourses you can work with using personal background and knowledge that have the necessary scientific relevance. Moreover in doing so it will also give you an insight into the knowledge and expertise that is out of your personal scope and would require collaborations with external (academic) partners.
In the next step you’ll learn to design an analytic framework around the central question(s) and/or paradigm(s) in your project. You’ll be thought the basic principles of quantitative inference as used in various scientific domains such as data science, statistics, mathematics and information science. This will on the one hand learn you how to transform concepts and questions into a quantitive framework. On the other hand this will also provide you with the necessary knowledge to understand and use the limitations and pitfalls of quantitative methods and inference strategies. Hereby you’ll also learn how to connect the different quantitative methods to an artistic practice and/or point of view.
Subsequently we’ll zoom in on the use of various intermediate disciplines and knowledge fields and their tools in artscience context and your own project in particular. We’ll not only be creating an overview of the different domains from a knowledge point of view but we’ll also focus on the different soft and/or hardware tools and devices that are typically used. As we want to use such tools in an artscience context we’ll be also investigate how these can be hacked for artistic purposes. Examples of such tools include R (https://www.r-project.org/), Octave (https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/), Python (https://www.python.org/) or Paraview (https://www.paraview.org/).
Towards the end of the course you’ll have build an overview of the scientific knowledge, tools and/or techniques you’ll have need external input. You’ll then learn in a next step how to look for possible scientific partners and the strategies to setup up viable collaborations.
To end the course we’ll incorporate the concept of recursiveness in developing a project. This will guide you how to set realizible milestones in your personal project and how to create under various constraints such as time and/or resource limits.
Requirements:
There is no prior knowledge required for this course. Key qualifications of the students are both an analytic as
well as creative attitude.
Objectives:
– you will have a thorough understanding of the practical similarities and differences between creative process
employed by scientists and artists
– you will have a working knowledge on the different creative processes and analytic strategies used by
scientists
– you will acquire the skill how to transform analytic strategies and methods used by scientists for artistic
purposes and your own practice in particular
– you will have a thorough knowledge how to create and design a production plan for an artscience project.
This includes:
– thorough understanding how to look for knowledge domains and resources, soft and/or hardware tools for
the realization of an artscience project
– skill to how and where to find the relevant scientific disciplines, how to hack the knowledge in seach
discipline for use in artistic context
– skill to work and set up collaborations with external scientific partners
– gaining deeper understanding and build a practical experience to incorporate an intersectional approach in
artscience context
– you will have the skill to balance between the scientific integrity and artistic interpretation and incorporation
of scientific domains in artscience projects
Work form:
Presentation of final project.
Final project as written document.
Literature and knowledde recourses review.
Group discussion.
Assessment:
Presentation of final project.
Presentation will be held on 19/02.
Project proposal and description under the form of a written document.
Due date is 26/02.
Weighting for final quotation:
Presentation of final project: 30%.
Project proposal and description: 50%.
Attendance: 20%.
Grading System: Numeric
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
Body, Movement, Creativity and Space
Hilt de Vos
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
To be creative it is beneficial when your mind is in balance with your body. In this workshop you will learn to listen to your body and its movements in space. When you become aware what your body does, you can discover experiences that you cannot consciously explain. In the West only recently we start to realise that the classic body mind split is not how we function. The brain is connected throughout the body through its nervous system. In other words, the body is the mind and the mind becomes the body. When we learn to connect both, we can function much better and perhaps can become more fully creative. A happy mind lives in a happy body.
Work form:
In four days we will go on to a field research journey into the body. The emphasis will be on experiencing your own body, not as a sports workout or dance performance but as a tool for creativity.
In the mornings we practise three different movement techniques that are designed to experience the body in different dynamics:
– muscle exercises
– relaxation and breathing
– somatic movements
Each exercise block of 40 minutes will be followed by a relaxation and Q&A period.
Assessment:
At the end of the week you will present the following:
– A 5 minute authentic movement pattern that you will create yourself. I will work with each of you individually to find your unique movements.
– Then you will show your individual movement piece to the group and share what it has done to you. This can be live or presented in a video.
Optionally you can also share your reflection of the week.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
Bootstrapping Computational Arts
Arthur Elsenaar, Carl Rethmann
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical/online
Course Content:
In this super practical workshop we will get you going with programming simple computational artworks. The focus is on learning the basics. Topics might include: recursion, randomness, generative algorithms, rule sets, data processing, text generation, chaotic systems, and perhaps some machine learning. We will use the online Colab environment with Python and Javascript, so some experience with programming is required! In the morning we will read some theory, and study examples from history. This will take about 1 hour, and will be followed by coding examples and hands-on help.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
Coding Max for Creative Output
Johan van Kreij
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course
Course Content:
The visual programming environment Max has many potential uses: audio processing, interaction design, image manipulation, online data usage, and more. This brief course won’t be able to deal with all of this in depth but will help building a general understanding of using Max for generating creative output. Based on student’s projects and interests, the content of the course can be adjusted. Overall it will cover subjects such as basic programming strategies, dealing with simple and complex data, making use of different types of input and output (audio, visuals, sensors and actuators) and various approaches to simple (or more complex) interaction. Since the application Puredata has many similarities it will be introduces as well.
Requirements:
In order to participate you will need access to a computer with Max or Puredata installed on it. Having some prior knowledge about Max is fine but not at all a requirement.
Objectives:
At the end of this course, you:
— Have acquired basic Max programming skills
— Know how to step by step work towards solutions to complex problems
— Understand how creative output has its representation in abstract data
— Have a better understanding of various digital protocols
Work form:
The course consists of morning sessions on four days in which a topic is introduced after which the student works on a personal project. This personal work is guided by sharing results and receiving feedback. It is advisable to have an idea for a project at the beginning of the course. The course will take place completely online.
Assessment:
At the end of the course the project of each student will be assessed based on a small presentation. This can be done live or handed in as a pdf document. The presentation shares the initial ideas, documents the process of defining problems and finding solutions and shows the final stage of the project. Furthermore, it expresses what was successful and what was not (yet) achieved. Since the range of possible projects can be very diverse, and the course is relatively brief, the assessment will not include an absolute level of skills but instead focus on the progress that was made while realizing the project.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: Four Thursdays in March (18, 25) and April (1, 8) from 10:00 to 16:00 through video conferencing
Cognitive Dissonance – Theory in Practice
Arthur Elsenaar
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, performs an action that is contradictory to one or more beliefs, ideas, or values, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.
This two week practice-based course is exploring Leon Festinger’s classic cognitive dissonance theory. We learn what this theory is about and how to effectively deploy it in artistic practice with the aim to maximize the impact of the artwork on the recipient.
Be(come) psyched!?
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
– you have learned about cognitive dissonance as a powerful human ‘feature’
– you have become a master in designing the ultimate brainfuck
Work form:
Seminar style with hands-on exercises and problem solving.
Assessment:
Attendance (min 80%). Presented project evaluated on concept and practical implementation.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
Collecting Observations
Marion Tränkle
Mandatory for: B1
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
Experimentation – observation – documentation. In this workshop we will cycle through a process of making work, starting from fiddling and free-flow experimentation to razor sharp selection and decision making. Taking the medium of light as our field of experimentation, we will discover how ideas can take shape and how observation and documentation can inform further actions and the sharpening of those ideas.
The workshop claims fiddling as an important tool for art making, and looks for ways to draw constructive consequences from it. Therefore, documentation and recording of this process will be an important aspect of the workshop. Please bring your cameras and sketchbooks.
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
– gain basic skills concerning the creative process of art-making
– get to know each other and discover ways of stepping into the process together
– learn to identify and switch between modes of experimentation, observation and documentation
– develop a personal vocabulary to capture observations in a diary format
Work form:
You will work in group processes to get to know each other and to generate diverse input. Furthermore, each of you is required to keep an individual record of those processes.
Assessment:
Attendance, active participation in group processes, individual report (work diary) at the end of the workshop.
70% attendance, participation.
30% self-reflection, individual report.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
Composing for Vision
Leandros Ntolas
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Exchange course, physical
Course Content:
During this course we will take an in-depth look at composing for the sense of vision and cross-modal perception. Taking as a point of departure the study of vision and philosophy of perception, we will then look at relevant examples from the history of art and science (ie. graphical scores, visual music, synaesthesia). After that we will use this knowledge to experiment with visual tools and start composing for the sense of vision, on its own and in relation to the other senses.
A specific emphasis will be put in the cross-modality of perception, and how one can start taking it into consideration when creating a work for one or more senses. We will also look at how compositional tools for one sense can be translated and used for another.
Requirements:
interest for visual and cross-modal composition
Objectives:
-gain a better understanding of visual and cross-modal perception
-make the first steps towards composing for vision, on its own and in relation to the other senses
-experiment and build a palette of visual compositional tools
-gain an understanding of working with visual means so you can start implementing visual elements in your own practice
Work form:
Lectures, hands-on experimentation, personal assignement
Assignment:
As an assignment, you will be asked to work on a project or experiment related to visual composition, that connects with your own work and/or ideas.
80% attendance required
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 5 classes of 6 hours
Creative Practice Research: How Art can be Science
Renske Maria van Dam
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
In this course we focus on creative practice research. You will learn how to contribute to science form within your art and design practice. As ‘scientists of the sensible’, artists and designers can offer a ‘material thinking: the articulation of non-propositional knowledge and experience, embodied in artworks and creative processes’ (Borgdorff, 2012: 124). From this ‘craft-aspect’ or ‘making-aspect’ artist and designers can contribute to what we know and understand (Nilsson & Dunin-Woyseth, 2008: 139). This form of creative practice research differs from research on art or design that is driven by discursive methods (for example art theory). It also differs from professional art or design practices, in which the primary goal is to create an artwork or design, as well as from the material or conceptual research an artist or designer conducts in order to develop the creative work. Instead—in this course—creative practice research is understood as the whole field of academic research that is primarily driven by practice in the arts and design disciplines (i.e. practice based research).
In the first part of the course, we will collectively discuss the potentials and pitfalls of creative practice research. One could argue that the institutionalization of the creative practices is implicated in a larger context, where the dominant tendencies are towards capitalizing creative activity. It is our collective responsibility to support the opening-up of academia to worlds other than those of ‘pure reason’ while simultaneously ‘step on the brake if we near the point where institutionalization of creative practices leads to curtailment or dilution of the practice itself, or to an erosion of academic values and conventions’ (Borgdorff, 2012: 6). Where and how to find the balance?
Creative practice research presents multifaceted research paradigms using a range of different practices, methods and concepts. In the second part of the course you will learn to position yourself within this ‘field in action’. You will sharpen (personal) techniques for creative practice research; you learn to organize and structure your research process; contextualize your research techniques and mirror, match and mesh them with research methodologies from other disciplines; and learn how to capture, reflect and disseminate traditional and non-traditional research outcomes (NTRO) in an academic context. At the end of the first week we will make a start with the final assignment, which you can develop during the course of the semester.
!! This means you have to take into account time to work on this assignment between September and February!!
Literature
Borgdorff, H. (2012) The conflict of the faculties: Perspectives on artistic research and academia. Leiden, NL: Leiden University Press.
Objectives:
At the end of this course, you:
Understand how art can contribute to what we know and understand.
Know how to set up your own creative practice research, from initial research question to method to final publication.
Have familiarized with terms such as ‘creative practice research’, ‘research-creation’, ‘practice based research’, ‘practice led research’, ‘artistic research’, ‘Non Traditional Research Output’, ‘tacit knowledge’, etc.
Pre-requisites:
You have a research oriented practice
Interest, or ambition, to work with/in academia
Assesment:
Option 1:
Document and write an essay of 2500-3500 words that elaborates on (your own) techniques for creative practice research.
Option 2:
Prepare an exposition for the research catalogue (https://www.researchcatalogue.net/), based on a traditional paper/presentation or non-traditional research output.
To keep track of upcoming open calls it is recommended to subscribe to the announcement service of SARA: Society of Artistic Research: https://www.sar-announcements.com/
Grading System:
Pass/Fail
50% attendance and participation
50% results of the assessment
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours + 1 whole semester working on assignment
Data <> Art Methods
Valery Vermeulen
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, online/physical
Course Content:
In this course we focus on the practical use of data analytics and data science techniques and methodologies for art science practices.
Due to the latest technological and often ideological evolutions, data, with all its faces, has become pivotal in our everyday lives. As never before we see an ever increasing demand for data scientists, data engineers and data analysts worldwide. The impact of this evolution can not be underestimated. It is an evolution that does not occur without serious risks. It imposes
new challenges and problems that need to be addressed if we want data to be used as a tool to improve our society. Because without critical counterweight it risks becoming a new industry that imposes new or reinforces old power structures or could lead to new oppressive structures or mechanisms.
43
With this in mind this course will be using two viewpoints. One the one hand we’ll dive into the methodological and technical aspect of the subject. And on the other hand in doing so we’ll also focus on what this potentially means in a context of building a sustainable environment and human society.
To start the course we’ll give an introduction into the building blocks of data analytics and data science. We’ll be guided by the historical evolutions which led to the emergence of these recent new fields. Main focus will be set on foundations of both information, communication theory and probability theory.
A subsequent section covers an in depth discovery of the general mechanisms underlying data handling. Topics that will be covered include a critical exploration of data capturing, data storage, data types and formats and data access.
As a next step we’ll handle the technique of data interference, data mining and predictive modeling. This section will be divided into two sub sections.
● The first subsection covers the general framework that is at the heart of data inference, namely that of the general scientific research model. More precisely we’ll cover research models consisting of a data and inference model. The inference model is hereby composed of a knowledge acquisition model based on falsification, the formulation of a quantitative hypothesis, hypothesis testing, and subsequent error and risk handling in decision making. In elaborating this subsection we’ll also zoom in on a critical point of view towards procedures and techniques. In this context we’ll also be talking about data misuse and manipulation, manipulation of decision making and the design of strategies for inclusive data management, processing and inference.
● The second subsection focuses towards predictive modeling strategies in data science. As predictive modeling is a broad and at often cross disciplinary domain we’ll cover some basic rules, principles and techniques. These include the concept and use of big data, predictive modeling based on machine learning and predictive modeling based on A.I. Just as in the first subsection we’ll also discuss the possible implications, limitations and boundaries of predictive modeling in a broader social and environmental context.
By now you’ll already have acquired a thorough background in data analytics and data science ready to be applied in various artistic or artscience contexts. This is exactly what we’ll do in the next session. In this session you’ll learn to design and plan various strategies to use and/or hack methods and techniques from data science in an artistic and/or art science practice. The main strategies that will be considered are data sonification, data visualisation and methods to link data methods to other forms of media. To end this session we’ll focus on how you can use the learned techniques and methods in your own practice.
In the next session we’ll put all knowledge into practice. This means you’ll be given an overview and practical introduction into the most commonly used free software packages to build crossovers between data analytics, data science and art science practice. Tools which will be handled includes include Pure Data (https://puredata.info/downloads/purr-data), R (https://www.r-project.org/), Processing (https://processing.org/) and Python (https://www.python.org/), Purr Data. Upon the interests of the participants of the course we’ll highlight particular tools and or techniques.
To end the course we’ll elaborate a practical example on how to use data in the sonic domain for art science purposes using data sonification.
(Maximum number of students : 10)
Requirements:
There is no prior knowledge required for this course. Key qualifications of the students are both an analytic as well as creative attitude.
Objectives:
At the end of this course, you’ll:
Have a broad understanding and overview of data analytics, data science and related domains such as probability theory, statistics and machine learning
Have an insight into the connections, importance and practical usage of data analytics and data science in a broad scientific context
Have a deeper and critical understanding of the potential social and environmental impact, influence en risks of data analytics and data science
Have a deeper understanding of the interplay between data analytics, data science and the fields art and arts <> science
Develop a strategy how to hack data science techniques and methodologies to use then in various art <> science contexts
Acquired the skill to plan how to use techniques and methods from
data analytics and data science in your own practice as an
art/scientist
Work form:
Elaboration of personal project Final project as written document Group discussion
Assessment:
Elaboration of personal project
Presentation of personal project
Project proposal and description under the form of a written
document
Weight:
Presentation of final project: 30%
Project proposal and description : 50%
Attendance: 20%
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
Disobedient Devices: practice-based media archaeology of disruptive technologies
Dani Ploeger
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Master Primer, physical
Course Content:
Most consumer technologies are designed and marketed with the organized and clean consumer spaces that are prevalent in the Global North in mind. However, devices are also used outside these contexts, for example in situations of environmental hardship or violent conflict, where they are oftentimes appropriated by users in reponse to local circumstances. Wifi routers are hacked to connect storage media and serve as information resources in areas without Internet connection; cooling fans from obsolete computers are repurposed in DIY vacuum cleaners; mobile phones are used as remote triggers for Improvised Explosive Devices. Studying these appropriation practices can offer new perspectives on the ideologies of high-tech consumerism and inform approaches to everyday resistance and activism.
In this course, we will draw from methods in media archaeology to examine the appropriation of everyday consumer technologies since the 1980s and develop artwork in response to this. Media archaeology concerns the theoretical and practice-based study of the histories of media technology to trace the ways obsolete, neglected or forgotten technologies and their imaginaries frequently resurface in subsequent innovations. Based on such analyses, critiques of contemporary media technologies are developed.
The course will combine theoretical and practice-based inquiry to create artistic artefacts that explore possible, but unrealized alternatives to the historical development of contemporary devices and use these to reflect on the politics of production and marketing in everyday consumer technology. We will read theory in media studies and cultural studies of technology, browse the web for museum archives and informal user accounts, dig through our own memories and closets of everyday technologies, and make new devices through appropriation of existing ideas and stuff.
Objectives:
At the end of this course, you:
-will be familiar with a range of critical perspectives on appropriation of everyday technologies
-will have gained knowledge of various ways in which consumer technologies have been appropriated since the digital revolution
-will have explored theoretical and practice-based methods in media archaeology
-will have gained experience in making or adapting a digital device in response to critical reflection on everyday technologies
On Dani Ploeger:
Dani Ploeger combines performance, video, computer programming and electronics hacking to investigate and subvert the spectacles of techno-consumer culture. Re-purposing, misusing, and at times destroying everyday devices, his work exposes the beauty, dirt and power of seemingly banal and taken-for-granted aspects of digital culture.
Among others, he has worked with traditional metal workers in the old city of Cairo to encase tablet computers in plate steel, attended firearms training in Poland to shoot an iPad with an AK-47, made a VR installation while embedded with frontline troops in East-Ukraine, and travelled to dump sites in Nigeria to collect electronic waste originating from Europe. His work is exhibited at museums, galleries and festivals, such as Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig, Venice Architecture Biennale, Nairobi National Museum, Het Nieuwe Instituut, ZKM Karlsruhe, WRO Biennale and transmediale.
Dani holds a PhD from the School of Media, Film and Music at the University of Sussex and has been a lecturer in digital arts and performance at De Montfort University Leicester and Brunel University London. Until 2016, he was Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for Performance Arts at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, where he is currently a Research Fellow. He is also an artist-researcher at Leiden University and Associate Research Fellow at De Montfort University Leicester. From autumn 2020, he will be leading an artistic research project on Improvised Explosive Devices and hacked consumer technology as part of a Fellowship at V2_Lab for the unstable media in Rotterdam.
Work Form:
The course will combine critical inquiry based on theoretical texts and archival research with practice-based explorations of consumer electronics. The latter may include hands-on hacking and modification of existing or newly developed devices, but prior knowledge of electronics is not necessary.
Assessment:
The course will be assessed on the basis of attendance and a final presentation in which participants will present an artefact they found or made, accompanied by a critical reflection that draws from the course contents.
50% attendance (assessed throughout the course)
50% final presentation (assessed on the last day of the course)
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
Disrupting Colonial Futures
Milton Almonacid, Darko Lagunas
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Master Primer, online
Course Content:
What does the future look like under the rationality of ecological collapse?
How can we imagine/design disrupting futures without reproducing our current colonial beliefs system?
To explore these questions, we will design a speculative “global strategie to confront current ecological collapse” as a transition design exercise.
…design led societal transition to a more sustainable future. It applies an understanding of the interconnectedness of social, economic, political and natural systems to address problems that exist at all levels of scale in ways that improve quality of life. Such problems can include economic inequality, biodiversity loss, decline of community, resource depletion, pollution and climate change. (Scupelli,2:2015).
Under this perspective, we will look at our emotions and colonial beliefs systems within the current context of global ecological (societal) collapse.
Objectives:
At the end of this course, you:
-Will be aware how colonial thinking colonize futures.
-Will be able to critically reflect on your thinking concerning futures.
-Will have a (maybe) first prototype of a decolonial transition paradigm.
Pre-requisites:
Prior to the workshop the students are asked to read a few texts that will be sent as preparation:
Calbucura, J. and Almonacid, M. (2019) Territoriality and ancestral governance: the case of the Puel Nahuelbuta Mapuche Indigenous Development Area of Chile, Critical and Radical Social Work, Volume 7, number 3, Online ISSN 2049-8675 https://doi.org/10.1332/204986019X15701980643070
Escobar, A. (2018) Designs for the Pluriverse. Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Duke University Press.
Scupelli, P. (2015), Designed transition and what kind of design is transition design? Desing Philosophy Papers. DOI:10.1080/14487136.2015.1085682
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
Exploring Production
Marisa Manck
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
In this course we will focus on your role in production processes in the arts. You will practice giving and receiving feedback in order to keep good communication with the production team. Doing so will enable you to meet the timelines and – very importantly – do this in good communication and in a good atmosphere.
At the end of the course you will:
— Be able to make a realistic production sheet with timelines;
— Have knowledge on how to communicate within a product organisation;
—Be more aware of your own position within the organisation and responsibilities you can take/have.
Requirements:
None.
Objectives:
— Have knowledge on how production processes in arts works.
— Have knowledge of giving and receiving feedback.
— Have knowledge of making and production sheets, time tables etc
Work form:
Theory: we will explore the theory of project organization and communication by lectures and discussion.
Assessment:
Individual assignment: presentation of your production proposal
Individual assignment: make a production sheet
Groups assignments: practice new learned communication skills
Weight:
— 60% attendance
— 20% presentation and assignments
— 20% self-reflection
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
Hacking (Art)worlds – Stories from the other side
Anastasia Loginova & guests
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
Weekly lecture series in the form of storytelling by Anastasia Loginova and invited guests.
Each session is two hours. Hour one is reserved for the narration of the invited or host storyteller. They tell a story about their profession – a particular experience within the different artworlds out there for example an experience they had with a big project, festival or installation or an organisation they work for.
Hour two is reserved for free discussion, asking questions and exchange.
Serious element: The narrator or invited guests are professionals in their field willing to share their experiences of how things really are.
Playful element: the invite guest or narrator can choose to tell their story or a story about someone else.
The lectures take place Studium Generale style where the narrator is either physically in the space or online via Zoom. The option of Zoom gives possibility of inviting more people from around the world.
Objectives:
– Narrative of personal experience and insider view, detailing elements of the art world & how things work from first person
– tapping into new networks and networking – invite curators, professional artists, professionals in the field from other networks
– Giving the students an overview / professionalisation and allowing them to interact and exchange with professionals, possibility of contact making
– learning how to speak to and interact with professionals
– learning by listening to another’s experience
– new inspirations from new networks
– confidence building
Work form:
Attendance, active listening, participation in discussion
Assessment:
Attendance 80%, participation in discussion
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: Semester 2, Fridays, 2 hour sessions over 12 weeks, Feb – June
Introduction to ArtScience
Taconis Stolk
Mandatory for: B1, M1
Type: Introductory Course, physical
Course Content:
This course is an introduction to historical and contemporary works from and around the ArtScience domain. It presents works in five narratives, each representing a different strategy for producing artistic works. The presented works range from realised and unrealised 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.
Requirements:
None.
Objectives:
— To gain insight in the artistic realm of ArtScience.
— To distinguish different creation methodologies.
Work form:
Lectures with interdisciplinary examples.
Assessment:
Attendance, participation in discussion.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 1 ECTS
Duration: 2 classes of 6 hours
Introduction to Electronics
Lex van den Broek
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Weekly Course, physical
Course Content:
This is a general introduction to working with electronics. It consists of three introductory classes. After those you are expected to finish your first electronic patch in individual appointments with Lex van den Broek.
Requirements:
None.
Objectives:
To gain fundamental skills in how to build electronic circuits for artistic purposes.
Assessment:
Attendance, assignment.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 1 ECTS
Duration: 3 classes of 2.5 hours plus individual appointments.
Introduction to Programming
Jeroen Meijer
Mandatory for: B1
Type: Standard Course, online/physical
Course Content:
This is an introductory course into computer programming, using the Python language. 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.
Requirements:
None.
Objectives:
To learn the basics of computer coding for artistic use.
Assessment:
Attendance, assignments.
Grading System: Pass/fail.
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours.
Introduction to Studio Techniques
Robert Pravda
Mandatory for: B1 and M1
Type: Introductory Course, physical
Course Content:
Practicum in usage of the ArtScience studios. The aim of this practicum is that all participants get familiar with the studio environment.
An introduction to basic use of the studios hardware and software such as:
– booking the studios
-mixing desk
– amplifiers, speakers, necessary cables
– recording
– microphone sorts and use: XY, AB, MS, Binaural
– audio interfaces and editing software
– studio ethics
All the students attending the course are expected to accomplish the exercise and be able to use and operate the studio facilities and techniques.
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
Learning how to use ArtScience studio facilities.
Work form:
Meetings in the new ArtScience studio at the new KonCon building ‘Amare’.
Assessment:
All the students attending the course are expected to accomplish the exercises and be able to use and operate studio facilities and technique and have attendance of 100%.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 1 ECTS
Duration: 2 classes of 1.5 hours (for 4 different groups)
Introprojection
Kasper van der Horst
Mandatory for: B1
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
The intention of this course is to experiment in a playful way with projection of image, light and sound in relation to your work.
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
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
– think about how to define a space using projection
– have insight in the analog technique of video
– learn how to combine analog and digital video
– use sound in a spatial way in combination with image
– set up a video projection
– play in a live video setup
– look into complex video feedback systems
Work form:
The course consists of 4 workdays. Every day we set up a practicum with a different focus.
Assessment:
As an assignment, you will be asked to make a projection design or sketch that connects with your own work and/or ideas.
Due to the limited number of days, a 80% attendance is required.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
Light – Space – Perception
Leandros Ntolas
Mandatory for: B1
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
This course is a follow up to the course ‘Lighting Design for/as Performance’. Facilitating the tools and techniques you learned in the lighting design course, we will focus on the perceptual and phenomenological properties of light and its interellatedness with space. The course will combine lectures on light and perception (covering a broad range of perspectives, from physics to philosophy) with hands on experimentation on the things we discuss. By creating and composing together light setups in space, we will experiment with perceptual phenomena and attempt to create interesting perceptual experiences that can act as research or be communicated to an audience.
Objectives:
– to gain an insight into the basics of light and perception
– to sharpen your visual and embodied perception
– to start using light as your medium for creating installations
– to start thinking and composing in a spatial way, going against the screen-based two-dimensionality that our culture imposes on us
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
Lighting Design for/as Performance
Katinka Marač
Mandatory for: B1
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
The goal of this 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. 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. 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 contemporary predecessors such as Xavier le Roi, Meg Stuart and Martin Spangberg.
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.
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
To master theory and practice of basic lighting design for artistic purposes.
Work form:
TBA
Assessment:
Attendance, assignments, evaluation.
Grading System: TBA
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
Math <> Art Methods
Valery Vermeulen
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, online/physical
Course Content:
Main focus of this course is how to realize practical interconnections between mathematics, art and artscience and how these can be used to implement true intersectionality in projects and creative environments.
Throughout history and human culture mathematics has always been at the forefront of shaping the fundamentals of scientific evolution and progress. In this process it’s development was not only motivated to understand and solve real world challenges such as e.g. agricultural planning, sea travel, time keeping or measurements. Besides these practical applications math was and has always been also developed out of sheer fascination for understanding abstract structures, systems and forms. This human curiosity, translated into math, gave rise to the theoretical side of the field. It is a field which inhibits lots of wonderful ideas and concepts that often find very powerful practical applications years after they are first introduced or discovered.
One of the most fascinating areas where mathematics is being developed in every perpetual motion is the field of the arts. Historically the intertwined connection between both creative activities has a long history. In the context of this course we’ll use math to serve as one of the levers to create new possibilities and opportunities in an artscience practice. More specifically, since the rise of digital techniques and tools, mathematics is again at the forefront of numerous new artistic (r)evolutions and developments.
In all of its applications and through all the approaches, mathematics can be seen as a hugely creative activity. Just like any other approach to reality the field of math has its own unique language that is often mis or not well understood. As a result mathematics has gained a often quoted reputation of being complex, difficult to grasp and being far away from reality. One of the goals of this course is to deconstruct this stigma and teach some basic mathematical principles and techniques in a hands on and creative approach with focus towards artscience.
We’ll start the course with a historical overview of the development of mathematics and its connection with the artistic field. Hereby we aim to present a cross cultural and emerging overview of this immensely wide field. During this session you’ll also be introduced into the different subdomains in the mathematical community, and how they are tied together thematically as well as historically.
Subsequently we’ll draw our focus onto various subfields in mathematics which are inherently linked or have efficient applications into the domain of artscience and art. We’ll cover their basic principles and techniques and cover some examples of their various applications. Fields that will be considered include trigonometry, geometry, complex analysis, DSP (Digital Signal Processing), topology, calculus, group theory, machine learning, information theory, probability theory, statistics, machine learning, A.I. and mathematical logic.
In a next section you’ll be presented with some real world artistic problems/ techniques and strategies that involve the use of mathematics. You’ll learn basic problem solving techniques. In this process you’ll also be taught how to elaborate basic calculations by hand as well as digitally with the appropriate software.
By this time you’ll have gained thorough and practical working knowledge into the different links between math, arts and artscience. As a next step you’ll learn how to apply the acquired knowledge to your own artistic practice. Part of this process will mean gaining an overview and insight into the mathematical techniques and theories relevant for your own creative practice.
To end the course you’ll be given an overview as well as practical introduction into the most commonly used free software packages for mathematical modeling and computation. Examples of such tools include R (https://www.r- project.org/), Octave (https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/), Python (https://www.python.org/), Purr Data (https://puredata.info/downloads/purr- data). Upon the interests of the participants of the course we’ll put focus on particular such software tools.
Requirements:
There is no prior knowledge required for this course. Key qualifications of the students are both an analytic as well as creative attitude.
Objectives:
At the end of this course, you’ll:
Have a broad understanding and overview of the different subdomains in mathematics, how they are linked together historically, thematically
and culturally
Have an overview and deeper insight into the fundamental analytic
techniques and methods used in mathematics
Have a introduction and basic understanding of the language and
formula notations used in mathematics
Have a broad knowledge of the relevant subdomains in mathematics
with respect to art and artscience
Have a deeper understanding the interplay between several
subdomains in mathematics and the fields art and artscience
Acquired the skill to choose the appropriate mathematical techniques and models for your own artistic and creative process
Acquired the skill to design a practical plan to start using the most
appropriate mathematical models, techniques and software in your
own practice as an artscientist
Work form:
Elaboration of personal project. Final project as written document. Group discussion
Assessment:
Elaboration of personal project
Presentation of personal project
The presentation of the projects will be held on
Project proposal and description under the form of a written document
Weight:
Presentation of final project: 30%
Project proposal and description : 50%
Attendance: 20%
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
Matter of Art
Eduardo Mendes, Eric Kluitenberg, Arthur Elsenaar
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: second semester weekly course, physical
Course Content:
Matter of Art is a course that is carried out in cooperation between the Delft University honours programme “Awareness & Culture”, and the ArtScience Interfaculty, University of the Arts, The Hague. The course brings to the class the interactions experienced between scientists and resident artists in top laboratories.
The interaction between highly specialised scientists and super creative artists is becoming very popular among prestigious laboratories who can afford it. The exchange is, however, not always obvious since both communities (artists and scientists) are at first glance “orthogonal” professionals with methodologies and focus that are apparently, but only apparently, opposed.
Matter of Art fills the gap in our education by bringing together these two communities at a very young age. Working on mixed classes, half of the students from KABK and half from TUD, the group will work on acquiring knowledge and characterisation methods for the development of new (soft) materials. While engineers tend to think at new materials as a function of their new useful properties for a given application, artists tend to use materials as canvasses either for aesthetic or meaningful / social / personal messages. Since these two communities have different drives, their requests of new material properties or how they could use a new material property are very different. This course gives both student communities the opportunity to learn with each other on their approach to problem solving and creativity in relation to the development and characterisation of new soft materials.
The field of materials chosen is Soft Matter (plastics, gels, resins, composites, liquid crystals …) as they are easy to process at low energy and offer large amount of freedom in properties and composition. Students will work with new materials, their development, processing and characterisation in the laboratory. Organised in small mixed groups of 4 people (KABK-TUD) they will teach each other how their community (historically) uses a given material either for an application or for a piece of art, how they would like to improve it for a given application and due to these interactions, exchange their approach to creation, questioning, interpretation and property requests for enhancement or modification of new materials.
In order to foster interaction between the two very distinct groups of students, during class sections, each group will give short presentations followed by a discussion: engineering students give short presentations explaining how a material functions from molecule to macroscopic properties while art students give short presentations explaining the use or choice of such material for a given (contemporary) art piece.
NOTE: Covid-19 regulations and limited campus resources will have an impact on availability of lab work and lab visits as well as have influence on materials / technology studied and media used in the course.
Requirements:
You need to have experience with programming (Python).
Objectives:
At the end of the course you should be able to:
reflect on the nature of hybrid art / science / ArtScience project teams;
work in cooperation with scientific and engineering professionals;
understand the relation between molecular structure and properties of
soft materials;
characterise properties of soft materials with common techniques;
define a route to create your own soft material;
have the skills to anticipate, foreseen other uses for materials that are
not directly related to their engineering usefulness;
communicate technical and artistic knowledge to a non-expert
audience.
Work form:
Weekly interactive sessions (debate and seminars) in class and laboratory work
Assesment:
1. Active participation during the group sessions, lab experimentation,
brainstorming, etc. (70%)
2. Final assignment (30%)
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 2 hours
MetaMedia
Taconis Stolk
Mandatory for: B1
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
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.
Requirements:
None.
Objectives:
— To develop a more abstract view on possibilities of artistic expression using media that are not normally used in an artistic manner.
— To investigate and understand the parameters for creative manipulation in any potential medium.
Work form:
General introduction, working groups, individual coaching.
Assessment:
Attendance, developing and presenting a metamedial project.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
New Arts & Music Theory
David Dramm, Gabriel Payuk, Eric Kluitenberg & guests
Mandatory for: B1
Type: Creative Departments Weekly Course, online
Course Content:
This course is offered to all first-year bachelor’s students of ArtScience, Composition and Sonology. It is aimed to nurture an awareness of the possibilities of reciprocal expansion that exist between the domains of theory and artistic practice. The course tackles areas of enquiry that traverse both the substrate of artistic practice and theoretical research, articulated in thematic segments throughout the year. These segments comprise questions on the nature of: Language, Materiality, Media and Technology, Sensation and Affect, Ecology, Culture and the Collective.
These thematic axes promote the familiarisation of the students with recent as well as historical theoretical tools, through an exposure to texts and artistic practices sourced in different traditions and knowledge disciplines. The course includes the participation of a substantial number of guest teachers coming from diverse areas and institutions across the Netherlands (and beyond) including Musicology, Art History, Media Theory, Performance Studies, Cultural Critique as well as art practitioners.
The course aims to foster the receptiveness of students for open-ended and transdisciplinary explorations in which the role of histories and models of thought become inherent in the artistic process.
Requirements:
None.
Objectives:
At the end of this course, you have knowledge and the ability to discuss a wide range of approaches that inform contemporary thought within and in relation to artistic practice.
Nurture an awareness of the possibilities of reciprocal expansion that exist between the domains of theory and artistic practice.
Work form:
Online Group lesson.
Assessment:
The student has to produce a brief essay (ca. 1200 words) on a topic of choice, showing the intention to develop an investigative, critical stance. Attendance.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 3 ECTS
Duration: 120 minutes per week during two semesters, 30 weeks
Organisation of Knowledge
Katarina Petrović
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Exchange Course, physical
Course Content:
This course study provides an encompassing trajectory to understanding interdisciplinary and systems thinking through history, theory and practice of organizing knowledge. We will explore several classification systems by visiting three gardens in The Hague and learning about the history of garden design, cabinets of curiosities and encyclopedias. Further, we will learn how the knowledge and organization of the natural world paved the way to the systems theory, cybernetics and systems art of the 20th century, leading to present day internet structures, complexity theory and system designs. In addition, reading literary works will help us unravel the imaginative and representational capacity of text, an intrinsic element of any taxonomy.
Elaborate garden designs, encyclopedias and cabinets of curiosities (wunderkammers) of the Early Modern Europe, are objects that relate discoveries in the natural world with the constructs (and inventions) made by architects, artists, poets and engineers. The culture of that period did not make a clear distinction between the practice of art and the practice of science, and the objects and knowledge produced were seen as one, or simultaneously both, thus allowing for reflections on morals, spirituality and man’s position in the world.
One of the main paradigms of art-science division (that followed right after) is the dichotomy between the world imagined, invented, composed, constructed, that is: made-up and the world discovered or revealed. Things are brought into the world with the former and are already existing in the later. Science presupposes that the object that was discovered existed prior to the discovery, but we don’t believe the same for art. That’s the basis upon which we can call science objective (relating to the object (existing) and the arts subjective, relating to the irreplaceable subject imaging (an object, a space, an action).
The Hague has a rich history in garden designs that are emblematic examples of spatial organization of knowledge and materializations of world-views. From human centered design of Hoofwijk to the romantic garden of Zorgvliet and the sensorial landscape of the Japanese garden at Clingendael, we can explore different approaches by literally walking through them.
During the course, we will also learn about the origins of the systems theory that integrates the analytic and the synthetic method, encompassing both holism and reductionism. Then we will move to the application of such conceptualizations, namely through cybernetics and the system arts of the 1960s. We will discuss the differences between systems art and aesthetics from the 60s to today, and we will introduce the concept of system architecture and design that is, a conceptual model that defines the structure of the internet and digital technologies today.
Finally, we will take a brief look into different structures of organizing information and modes of data visualizations, types of networks and indexing practices of the early internet and present day digital technologies.
Objectives:
Learn about different historical types of organization and representation of knowledge
▪ Gain basic skills in interdisciplinary and artistic research
▪ Develop the ability to grasp advances in different fields, large amounts of
information; converting them into objects and systems
▪ Observing systems around us and reflecting on systems found in your own
work or practice
Work form:
We will work in both theoretical (lectures & conversations) and practical for- mats (garden visits & reading). Furthermore, you are invited to reflect on your own practice and apply the systems approach.
Weight:
Attendance, active participation in group processes, assignments (reading) and individual reflection at the end of the workshop.
70% attendance, participation & reading
30% self-reflection, individual presentation
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 5 classes of 6 hours
Panorama
Alexander Johannes Heil
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Exchange Course, physical
Course Content:
In this class we will explore the panorama as an art form and medium, as well as a concept that can be translated from the original vision-based approach into other sensual approaches eg. sound, smell, touch, etc.
We will experience and discuss the panorama, as well as making our own approaches to create our own interpretations.
We will go on an excursion to the Panorama Mesdag and to the beach to explore our gaze as a panorama by itself (Merleau-Ponty) and to collect inspiration in the landscapes of the dunes and the shore. During this day we will also have the time and space to get to know each other better, talk about the panorama, landscape, and experience in a more informal environment.
With this class we want to playfully explore this comparatively young art form* and find out about its potential to be translated into media with approaches to senses other then seeing. We will ask and discuss questions like: Where did the panorama go, where is it today? What is a panorama and what is not a panorama and why?
The topic offers to dive into a history of artworks in which the viewer, with his bodily presence, is involved in the emergence of the perceptual phenomena of the work.
Objectives:
Introduction to the art medium panorama
Finding translations from one art medium to another
Critical discussion and reflection of an art-form/medium
Thinking in a synaesthetic way
convince others of the choices you made in your artistic process
Work form:
individual, or in groups
Weight:
individual, or in groups
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 5 classes of 6 hours
‘Pataphysics
Matthijs van Boxsel R/OCS
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
Pataphysics is the Science of Imaginary Solutions. ’Pataphysics moves in the quadrant of science, religion, humour and art, four attempts to get a grip on the idiocy of existence.
’Pataphysics was at the root of futurism, dadaïsm and surrealism, but has since developped in the Oupeinpo (Ouvroir de peinture potentielle): with selfimposed constraints pataphysicians develop new forms of potential art.
On the other hand, they search for the pataphysical dimension of everday life by means of simple interventions: ’Pataphysics being the science of the exception. Inspired by everything imaginary (islands, languages, calenders, artists!) we try to figure out the pataphysical planet we are living on.
As a source of inspiration, we are studying the morosophers (‘foolosophers’), people with an evidently absurd theory about existence. Unlike the mediocre theories of New Age gurus, astrologers, ufologists and so on, morosophical studies are so queer that they cannot help acquiring a literary quality. Are atoms spaceships? Can the floor plan of the pyramid of Cheops be found in the street plan of ‘s-Hertogenbosch? Is the world entering the Lilac phase? Did abstract thought commence when the clitoris evolved from the inside to the outside?
As a rule, a morosopher is somebody whose world has been destroyed by a shocking event. With the help of his theory he constructs a new universe from the wreckage, for the sake not of a higher truth, but of an endurable existence. Unimpeded by any scientific knowledge, their imagination enables them to force their way through to the world of science and technology. From there they design a parallel universe in which the limits of the possible are sought out and transgressed; they enter the area of the wondrous and the monstrous, and discover a world that, like the world of the comic and the fairy-tale, is out of the reach of the physicists. Morosophy is science in wonderland.
Requirements:
A thirst for imaginary knowledge.
Objectives:
– you acquire a conscious pataphysical mindset (everyone being a pataphysicien by birth)
– you will be able to recognise the laws of the exception, the aberration
– you will see art from a different, pataphysical angle
– you will embrace the homo ludens in yourselves
– you will hate me
Work form:
Lectures on ’Pataphysics, stupidity, imaginary topography, Powerpoint-presentations, movies: but always interacting with the students, torturing them with questions to get to the core of ’Pataphysics inside of them.
Assessment:
Every day, each student will have to make notes and drawings or pataphysical schemes in a small booklet, which will be judged after the course. (A personal Handbook ’Pataphysics.) And everyone has to present a personal pataphysical answer (in text and image) to an impossible question during the course. I expect a full-time presentation, and 100% selfreflection, ha. In case of absence due to illness, dentistry and the like, the student has to make an additional contribution on paper.
Grading System: Numeric
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
Patterns of Ebb and Flow
Cocky Eek, guest teacher: Rachel Schuit
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
This week is an opportunity to experience working with the natural elements, while being part of the process and be challenged by their continual movement and change.
We’ll reside on the relatively young sandy strip of Almere Beach, along the IJ-Lake where we will specifically zoom in on – movements of sand –
Sand mediates in the liminal space between sea and land. It combines qualities of solid and liquid. Sand is both ancient and renewing. A simple storm across the beach clears all of yesterday’s traces, but a grain of sand may take eons to travel from rockformations to coastal sediment before ending up in your swimsuit and sandwich.
The interventions look for an immediacy of relating action to their environmental sources, which encourages diligent observation and accidental discovery. We will start working from a phenomenological approach to explore this specific landscape. We will do daily exercises to activate our listening body and to to open your ‘physical presence’. Test setups and prototypes are based on hands-on means of enquiry in the field and fully exposure to the elements. There will be 2 public lectures by archaeologist Dick Jager who will zoom in on the dynamics of geological/archeological layers of this place and one by Kees Hoogendam who will lead us in to the sound of soils (ceramics). The closing Friday afternoon our observations will be shared with a small audience. Documentation is an important part during the whole week.
This course is a collaboration with StrandLAB Almere; a set-up as a project, initiated by the city of Almere and the province of Flevoland, to accelerate cultural activity in the area around the ‘Almeerderstrand’ or Almere Beach. Important consideration is to always work with the intrinsic values of the area and to contribute to the place as an area for excitement and renewal. Through working with artists and researchers StrandLAB relates to the bigger questions of Almere as a new town and the region on new ‘polderland’: how do you build an Almere identity? how do you extend the cultural facilities and how do we make use of water and land in a sustainable way?
This one-week course is a 24/7 residence on site in Almere Beach, and needs your full-dedicated participation. We are there all the time, including sleeping, eating, working, and strolling around.
Requirements:
It’s mandatory to write a motivation, as the course is available for a limited amount of students.
Your own costs will include: your meals (we try to cook ourselves so we can keep the costs low), your travel costs: basically a two-way travel from The Hague to Almere, and the material costs you want to invest in this project. (StrandLAB Almere will arrange your lodging)
If you enrol for this course it is mandatory to come to the preparatory meeting (time & location TBA).
In this meeting we will provide more details about the location, the facilitations, the context of the project and how to prepare for the artistic work and documentation for this week.
Objectives:
To create artistic projects in the context of tidal movements in nature.
Work form:
Physical/sensory exercises, field-explorations and hands on prototyping, conversations with locals, documentation
Assessment:
Working without preconceived ideas. Presentation to a small audience, documentation during the process, writing a reflection.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: Preparatory meeting + 5 days working and sleeping on location
Practical Perfumery for Olfactory Art
Renske van Vroonhoven, Lauren Jetty
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
Practical Perfumery for Olfactory Art is a practically oriented class that aims to teach students about the making of scent, mainly focussing on artistic practice.
Although some fine fragrance methods will be covered, the aim of the class is to learn to apply scent in a more diverse context. As part of the course the students will be hosted at a perfumery lab in Arnhem for a few days during this course, where they can experiment with a vast array of materials to create a
final work.
Requirements:
It is not required but recommended that students have already taken the course The Other Senses.
Objectives:
– you will get to know the materials used in perfumery, both synthetic
and natural, and how these are extracted or created.
– you will have a knowledge of and experience with basic materials used in perfumery
and their application.
– you will understand the relationship between a smell and its context and be able to
avoid mistakes applying scent to contextual work.
– you will understand the basic principles of perfumery and lab safety.
– you will be able to write and read a fragrance formula and compound a fragrance
correctly.
– you will know which types of extraction methods a perfumer can use and what the
limitations of these methods are.
– you will start to form a mental olfactory library of scents.
– you will develop an olfactory project.
There will also be a small theoretical part of this class focusing on application of scent in art, to give some
context, but since “The Other Senses” covers this theory as well, we will assume a prior knowledge.
Work form:
Practica, projects, excursions, lectures, assignment
Assessment:
60% presentations.
20% attendance, assignments.
20% self-reflection.
Grading System: TBA
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
Presentation as Performance
Hilt De Vos
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
In this Course you will learn how to use your body-voice-mind as communications tools for presentation and performance.
How does an audience perceive you as an human being on stage.
What role does your body play in communication.
What tone of voice will work best in a given context and …how to overcome anixiety and a possible nervous breakdown.
Requirements:
Being open-minded.
Objectives:
At the end of this course, you:
— get the tools to effectively use your body-voice-mind, while remaining yourself on stage.
— learn to reflect better on yourself as a communications medium.
— use humor to help in the process of creation.
Work form:
Experimental learning.
Assessment:
A final presentation.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours.
Professional Practice Preparation
Eric Kluitenberg
Mandatory for: B3
Type: Standard Course, physical/online (TBA)
Course Content:
As the Professional Practice Preparation course of ArtScience, this week offers specific training in writing, focusing on how to write clearly about your work for grant applications, catalogues and to sponsors and press.
Requirements:
None.
Objectives:
To learn practical professional writing skills.
Work form:
TBA.
Assessment:
Attendance, assignments.
Grading System: TBA
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours.
Pro Projection
Kasper van der Horst
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
The Pro Projection course is aimed at students who are planning to use some form of projection in their 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. In this very hands-on and practical course we’ll explore these aspects considering the projects or ideas that the students bring in individually.
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
– you will explore how different technical resources are best put to use and what impact that could have on the experience of the work. This might result in some radical alternatives to the original plan!
– you will try out and test a lot so that a high level of precision can be reached.
Hopefully in this way we’ll put the original ideas into an enriched perspective.
Work form:
There will be a daily group-evaluation of the work’s progress, get feedback on a daily basis and test in practice.
The first week we’ll work in the CAM rooms in the conservatory, second week we can build bigger sets in PB301 in the academy.
Assessment:
At the end of the second week we’ll present an overview of the works in PB301.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
Quick and Dirty
Cocky Eek
Mandatory for: B1
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
In this course you will be dipped in a method of the making process. The making process by its own nature, offers many surprising, irrational, accidental possibilities that the mind simply cannot predict or imagine.
The class will explore this creative process as a dialogue between maker and matter in diverse mediated forms, in which matter can be interpreted broadly. We’ll do quick hands-on experiments and dirty prototyping, with the aim to train our skills of perception, to trust the process not-knowing, to learn to recognize when/where things get interesting, and to tap in the enormous potential that comes by working open-ended.
You will work on an individual base as well in duo’s and groups. Documentation will be helpful tool in the making process.
No Matter – Try Again – Fail Again – Fail Better, Samuel Beckett
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
Learning how to master quick artistic sketching methodologies.
Work form:
Hands-on (no-head)
Assessment:
Presentations, active participation.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
RecPlay
Robert Pravda, Kasper van der Horst
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Weekly Course, online
Course Content:
Since 2001, RecPlay is the ArtScience improvisation ensemble. Some od the research topics that are addressed in RecPlay are multi-layer interfaces, improvisation structures, noise art, feedback in image and sound, realtime composition systems, spatiall compositions and interaction with architectural elements. Its practical focus wll be on developing improvisations and on developing ensemble playing by using conventional and unconventional instruments.
It is possible to join RecPlay in the first and/or in the second semester.
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
To learn how to work in an audiovisualiomprovisation ensemble
Work form:
Weekly meetings and jam sessions.
Assessment:
Attendance and participation.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS (per semester)
Duration: DURATION
Redeconstruct Media
Kasper van der Horst, Nenad Popov
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
In a number of steps, we aim to look a bit into the phenomena of fragmented media. We will look into ways of deconstructing ideas into smaller fragments, or constructing larger structures out of smaller pieces all the while trying to keep the original knowledge(idea) present as long as possible. “Ecological thinking” – we look at the artwork as an ecosystem of ideas: we try to think and find out in which way the fragments interact with each other. During the course, we like to look at media in the broadest (metamedia) sense – for example text, literature, data, music scores, dna, wikipedia articles, pixels, artworks, social interaction, audio and video can all be your point of interest.
A positive artifact of this method is that it helps in cases when we are stuck: it helps find interesting points in an unfinished work, partial idea, and have them mutate into a new work.
The course itself consists of many small self-contained exercises focused on simple outcomes, which can be applied to personal projects that are stuck or moving too slow.
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
You will be able to find interesting points in an unfinished work, partial idea, and have them mutate into a new work
Work form:
The course consists of a series of simple exercises, starting with the art of abbreviation, gently crossing the media boundaries and then getting into more or less speculative reconstruction methods of media (veracious or manupilative: redeconstruct). We also look into how the meaning mutates when the artwork passes through multiple minds.
Our objective is to design individual systems, and because we can also design these systems in an artistic way, that is where we will focus on.
Assessment:
At the end of this two week’s course we ‘ll ask you to present your system in the format of a work or to present a conclusion of how your system works.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
RE~SEARCH ~SHAPE ~STORE
Sébastien Robert
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Exchange Course, physical
Course Content:
Documenting a piece is often a tricky task, but what about the research that led to its creation? Whether tangible (f.e sketches, notes, photographs) or intangible (f.e rehearsals, feelings, memories), a valuable amount of work is too often neglected. Besides offering unique insights on one’s methods in his/her process, these hidden layers can be trans~coded ~posed ~muted into other sonic, visual, sensorial realms, which in return can unlock new creative perspectives.
Requirements:
The students are asked to come with some personal research material that they are willing to share with the rest of the group, as well as their own instrument.
Objectives:
Open-up and deconstruct our working processes and research methodologies (Re~search)
• Collectively develop and present alternative forms of documentation (Re~shape)
• Learn from and enhance each other field of interest and practice within a transdisciplinary context (Re~store)
In this interdisciplinary workshop, we will collectively approach different ways to document both theoretical and practical research through audio, visual and scientific instruments; and explore the new narratives that emerge when blurring the lines between artworks, scores and records.
Work form:
Re~search (~1 day)
After a short introduction to the workshop’s objectives, its development and some academic references, the students will, in an introspective way, draw from their own archives fragments of research linked to unfinished, ongoing or future projects that they would like to open up. At the end of the day, each student will exchange his/her findings with another one without explaining the context surrounding them and form pairs (ideally from different departments).
Re~shape (~3 days)
Each pair will work on each other’s material with the audio, visual and scientific instruments of their choice. Options include to document it, reinterpret it or deconstruct it. Its new shape will be presented to the rest of the group at the end of each day and then exchanged with another student. This process will be repeated everyday so that students encounter as much as possible other working processes and research methodologies. This will result in an archipelago of collective projects in which each student will have put his/her grain of sand.
Re~store (~1 day)
As a final challenge, students will have to find a collective way to document their week of research and experimentation, reflecting and enhancing each other’s field of interest and practice, which could be passed on to next year’s student.
Weight:
Attendance, active participation in the workshop and final group presentation
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 5 classes of 6 hours
Sensors, Actuators & Microcontrollers
Lex van den Broek, Johan van Kreij
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
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.
Requirements:
None.
Objectives:
– To gain more advanced insight in the creation of electronic circuits for artistic purposes
Work form:
Practical classes, assignments
Assessment:
Attendance, assignment
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
Sounding Haunted Desires
Willem van Weelden
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Master Primer, physical
Course Content:
“Sounding Haunted Desires : the Libidinal Economy in the Ecologies of Affect’
For Jean-Francois Lyotard (1924-1998) the biggest challenge that a musician or composer faces is to emancipate sound from the tyranny of grand narratives. How to apply this radical tactics with ‘musical or sound acts’ that perform a decomposition of subjectivity in the realm of libidinality and desire? How is desire and longing enscribed in the sonic economization and enslavement of libidinal energy? And how to live with this hauntology? Can we outplay this affective loop?
The seminar and workshop will be based on the aesthetic theory of Jean-Francois Lyotard especially concerning music/sound and the sublime. His notion of the sublime and his sparse texts on music/sound will be set against his abberant work : ‘The Libidinal Economy’ (1974), speculating how the conceptual differences might be reconciled in an fresh understanding of his critical ideas on libidinality and subjectivation.
The notion of Hauntology (Mark Fisher in his references to the dark music of the 80ies) features as a challenge to renegotiate this ‘failure of the future’ (punk) with an emancipatory view on the ecologies of affect.
The delivered input (8 lectures) and study and analysis will be the basis for an assignment to develop an interactive sound work, that will be presented at the close of the seminar.
Requirements:
Prior to these weeks the students are asked to read a few texts that will be send as preparation to the seminar weeks; and it also comprises some listening assignments. (E.g. ‘Art before the Sublime, The Libidinal Economy up against the Pacific Wall’ by Joseph Tanke, 2013, ‘Say Rawr!, Lyotard, Deleuze/Guattari, and the refrains of Wesley Willis’, Mickey Vallee, 2013)
Objectives:
Learn how to use philosophical approaches to develop an artistic concept : creation of an aesthetic answer (interactive sonic installation) to a philosophical problem
Understanding of the philosophy of subjectivation and desire (Lyotard, Deleuze/Guattari)
Understanding of the philosophy of unrepresentability (inaudibility)
Rendering the input of the course into a concept (working demo) for an interactive work
Analyse and contextualize Lyotard’s work in our current media landscape and practice / culture
Work form:
The Students work individually on a project, that will be presented at the end of the 2 weeks
Self-study & lectures complement the program.
The course is acccompanied by a vast collection of publications and relevant material that is offered as a dedicated reservoir to be scavaged by the students. It will be send in a few batches during the course.
Weight:
Attendance, active participation in group process, and individual contribution to the production and online documentation of the work.
60% attendance, participation in group process
20% participation and performance during the Open Day
20% individual contribution
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
SoundWorlds 1
Robert Pravda, Milica Ilić
Mandatory for: B1
Type: Standard Course, physical/online
Course Content:
The goal of this course is to introduce the theory and practice of working with sound.
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 te sound, wavelenght, aplitude, frequency and perception of pitch and loudness. Also we eill discuss the basics of analog sound, digital sound, sythesis basics (additive, substractive sythesis, Frequency modulation) and MIDI
– An introduction to the basics of musical dramaturgy, or “how to organize sound” – historical overview, explaining & exploring different musical tools and their practical use with the goal of expanding the palette of means that can be used in artistic work which includes music/sound
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
Gaining fundamental insight in the workings of music and sound.
Work form:
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 but lso oter types of music in order to see how musical systems work.
Assessment:
Attendance 88%, assignment 100%
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
SoundWorlds 2
Robert Pravda
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
SoundWorlds 2 is a hands-on course. During the course te focus will be on developping individual performative or instalation pieces. All participants are required to have a basic knowledge of working with sound and starting idea of a project or direction that they want to work on.
As much as we experience our environment visually, we also have an ability to sense our environment through listening. We sense the spatial attributes through hearing as something parallel to our visual perception. What we hear is a complex mixture of the surrounding sound with its reflections, dispersion, refaction and absobtion, all determined by the specific (unique) acoustic character of the space. While listening we react both to the sources and to spatial acoustics.
Requirements:
Rounded up SoundWorlds 1 introduction course.
Objectives:
You will gain more advance knowledge in the workings of sound in its environment.
Work form:
In the two weeks of the course, we will build upon individual ideas, with emphasis on research in materials and techniques for development and hands-on experiments in; how to approach sound organisatioan for a multichannel sound reproduction, a live performance setup, or a sound installatioan based on individual artistic ideas of the participants.
Assessment:
Attendance 86%, assignment 100%
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
Spacious
Renske Maria van Dam
Mandatory for: Elective (motivation letter needed)
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
Current developments in contemporary sciences sparks a general willingness to re-entertain questions on perception, experience and even consciousness. In this course we explore what this means for the creation of spatial experiences. The main goal is to explore a meadow of knowing in/as/about sited awareness. Departing from the hypothesis of the embodied, enactive, extended, embedded and affective approach to cognition (4EA), we study the realm of subtle realities that emerges from the reciprocity between organism and (built) environment.
Rather than a course, Spacious is a creative practice research community that gathers around sited experiments. Working with/in Spacious enables you to develop alternative rhythms for your spatial practice at the crossroads of architecture and art, academia and life. To experiment is not to know in advance and –more often than not–to forget after the event. Therefore we start without a predefined plan to let curiosity-driven and pro-active experimentation emerge in correspondence with the site.
We work by the principle of give-and-take, you are asked to contribute what you can and take what you need. The course is set up as an open research-atelier. The main focus is to proceed with your personal, spatial practice and research. Over the course of two weeks, collectively we will organize reading sessions and experiments that are open for participation. This year we will read (parts of) the classic book The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience by Francisco J. Varela, Evan Thompson and Eleanor Rosch.
For more information and previous projects see:
https://www.spacious-creativepracticeresearch.com/
NOTE FOR PREVIOUS PARTICIPANTS: This course will combine the knowledge developed in previous courses such as ‘Tiny perceptions’, ‘Architectural body’ and ‘Movement matters’. You are more than welcome to further your previous research within this course.
Objectives:
At the end of this course, you:
Understand the basic modes of spatiotemporal perception.
Have improved to think and work spatially (extended spatial awareness).
Are introduced to a diversity of creative tactics to attune with, vitalize, become aware and extend the spatial experience.
Are introduced to the wider field/network of creative practice researchers with a focus on the spatial experience.
Work form:
We will shift focus between:
Close reading
Movement practice and experimentation in different environments (beach, city, school etc.)
Working on a personal project (see assessment)
Assessment:
Set up and execute a practice based research that questions a spatiotemporal phenomenon is presented by throughout the week as an (sited) experiment is, at the end of the course, documented in such a way that it can be shared without you being present (i.e. curated documentation, written statement, reflection etc.) ”
Grading System: Pass/Fail
50% attendance and participation
50% results of the assessment
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
Studium Generale
Erica Sprey & guests
Mandatory for: B2
Type: KABK Weekly Lecture Series, online
Course Content:
For over ten years the Studium Generale at the KABK has been organized as an interdisciplinary lecture series that ´hovers, as it were, over the departments, addressing themes that may not have an immediate practical use, but are potentially relevant to each and every student.’ This year the Studium Generale is making its own educational turn, from an active-passive lecture-theatre to a self-directed learning place to be owned up by students who may use it as a testing-ground and amplifier for their issues of concern.
Requirements:
None.
Objectives:
To gain general contextual insight.
Work form:
Online lectures.
Assessment:
Attendance, assignments.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS (Semester 1: 1 ECTS, Semester 2: 1 ECTS)
Duration: Approximately 12 lectures of 1.5 hours per Semester (approx. 24 in total).
The Negative
Eric Kluitenberg
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: weekly course, physical
Course Content:
[start of discussion]
The Positive is all that can be articulated – everything that can be quantified or expressed in clear and definite terms.
The Negative is the negation of the positive.
The Negative is that which cannot be articulated, quantified, or expressed in clear and definite terms.
[end of discussion] ?
–
In the tradition of Modernity everything possible and conceivable is articulated by means of language and turned into a program for the human subject to become, in the famous words of René Descartes, ‘master and proprietor of nature’. The aim of this modern program can be clearly and concisely stated: Seeing all. Knowing all. Realising all. The horizon of Modernity is the possible, all that is possible, including that which at any given point is still inconceivable but potentially realisable, both known and unknown. As this human subject moves forward towards the horizon of the possible, the horizon recedes, into infinity..
The philosopher and aesthetician Jean François Lyotard observed that the techno-sciences, the avantgardes, and advanced capitalism share this affinity with infinity: the infinite capacity to see, to know, and to realise – also that which is still inconceivable, but that can ultimately be articulated in a program guided by clear and definite terms. From this perspective that which cannot be articulated (yet) might simply be that which is still hidden behind the horizon of the contemporary. Lost in insufficient resolution, missed or distorted by a deficient sampling or capture rate. Capture, then, of that which is negated by these deficiencies, is simply a matter of increasing resolution.
Currently the large particle collidors are drilling down ever deeper into the most fundamental building blocks of our physical reality. Simultaneously complex algorithmic machines, coupled with massive storage devices, are creating digital analogues of human cognitive functions and quickly outpace them (that is ‘us’). Meanwhile the ‘human population bomb’ is driving Gaia into the abyss of a disequilibrium singularity. The new semi-stable state that will emerge out of this singularity shift remains principally unknowable (hence a ‘singularity’), but in all likelihood would not involve human life in its present form.
Where does this leave (human) judgement?
Is it possible to mount a viable critique from within the system (of clear and definite articulations)?
Probably not.
How then would it be conceivable to mount a viable critique?
From where? – an outside?
Is such an ‘outside’ conceivable?
How can we understand / experience a thing that exists only outside of articulation, quantification, language, metricisation, capture?
Even if such a potentially nihilistic account of current conditions is valid / accurate, does this not lead us into a dead-end street? Is this ‘failure by design’?
Perhaps not.
We might begin by asking what it is that ‘by definition’ falls principally outside of articulation in clear and definite terms? (particularly the latter) This can be alluded to by a set of incomplete, but perhaps surprisingly quotidian (everyday) terms: Ethics, Autonomy, Sovereignty, the Secret, the Sacred, and yes even ‘Value’ as soon as this term is decoupled from its capture by economic theories and market-driven monetisations.
Where then can we ‘locate’ the outside to the Positive?
Here is a list of terms as a first attempt towards a ‘glossary’ for the Negative: (incomplete and in no particular order)
• The Incommensurable
• Transgression
• Terror
• The Unimaginable
• Erasure
• Infinity
• Rupture
• The Secret
• The Sacred
• Silence
But how are we to interrogate that which cannot be articulated by language, measured or quantified, nor expressed in clear and definite terms?
This seemingly impossible task illuminates precisely why the ‘outside’ is the negation of the Positive, because the outside to the Positive can only be expressed negatively. Hence its proper name is the Negative. The Negative is exactly that which escapes capture but can never be presented ‘positively’. Thereby it constitutes, at least theoretically, the ‘outside’.
The Negative cannot be contained within a static concept. It should rather be understood as a temporal phenomenon, a transient state. The outside therefore should not be thought to exist as some kind of permanent external sphere, but much rather as a ‘moment’. It can best be thought ‘inversely’.
The Negative is the moment of rupture of that which can be positively demonstrated or made present – it constitutes the outside for an instant, which is then extinguished by a positive ‘form’ (a synthesis into a unique form in space and time that fills the void opened up by the rupture).
Once understood in its temporal dimension the Negative can be identified / shown to exist in a variety of places and situations, an unending plurality of ‘moments of rupture’. These ‘moments of rupture’ and their conditions of existence are what lies at the heart of the study of the Negative.
Themes:
• The Positive: A critique of quantification
• Material / Digital / Immaterial: Assessing the limits of the digital.
• 20 years of The Emperor’s New Mind – Revisiting Roger Penrose’s critique of algorithmic intelligence.
• Privation, Terror and Delight – Edmund Burke’s theory of the Existential Sublime
• Jean François Lyotard: The Sublime and the Avantgarde – questioning the limits of representation
• Aesthetics of the Secret: The unspeakable (disaster) – Maurice Blanchot
• Silence and the Sacred (transcendence without spirit)
• The sacred object of Sovereignty (experience)
Reading List – To be added –
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 15 classes of 3 hours
The Other Senses
Caro Verbeek, several guest teachers
Mandatory for: B1
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
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.
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
– you will have general knowledge and understanding of the role of the other senses in history of art
– you will have an increased sensory vocabulary
– you will be able to use other senses more analytically and discern between them better (even become of aware of previously unknown senses)
– you will be well equipped to start using more senses in your art practice and daily life in a meaningful way/ you will be able to engage an audience by triggering their senses
Work form:
– lectures with an interactive character (in which you sense sensory replicas)
– small assignments such as creating smell maps and tactile poems
– a smell-color synaesthesia test
– small sensory experiments in which you analytically study your own perception, guided by a set of questions by the teacher
– reading assignments and discussing articles
– socratic discussions among yourselves and with the teacher
– a joint multi-sensory performance in the end and an evaluation of the course and your own progress
Assessment:
– overall engagement and participations in discussions, reading of articles and presence (4 out of 4) (20%)
– execution of smell maps and tactile poem and presentation thereof (technically, by means of content, and effect, verbalization of what he/ she did and why (first 2 days, 20%)
– their role in the multi-sensory performance (did the student step out of his/ her comfort zone?/ how was his or her sensory input related to the whole?)/ can he or she verbalize his or her intentions afterwards? (final day, 30 %)
– self-reflection/ the student’s own insight in his or her improvement/ development. Did the student learn new things? Can he or she reflect on what he or she learned (oral examination after the performance) (final day, 20%).
Grading System: Numeric
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 4 classes of 6 hours
The Synaesthetic Universe
Robert Pravda, Kasper van der Horst
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
The aim of this course is to investigate the theoretical and practical approaches to synaesthetic and cross-sensory art. In order to develop a unique approach we will set some guidelines as starting sources for further investigation.
As an important point of departure we are taking the book written by Frans Evers, The Academy of the Senses.
A study of the scientific approaches to synaesthesia, related to the psycho- physical research conducted by Evers during his studies at the university; an alternative art history of the twentieth century based on the double paradigm of Castel’s clavecin oculaire and Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk; and a full account of the genesis of the Interfaculty Image & Sound.
To encompass this entire range of subject, Evers coined a new term, “synaesthetics,” to denote the experience, creative force, and study of synaesthesia. As the author states; “The Academy of the Senses is a “source book,” a work of inspiration, rather than a rigid account of historical facts. It provides anyone with an interest in the wondrous realm of multimedia arts and synaesthesia as a creative force, whether student or professional, an introduction into the foundations and extensions of seeing sound and hearing colours throughout the centuries.”
Objectives:
At the end of the course, you:
have looked into the archive of the Interfaculty and examined some of
the projects that dealt with the unity and interference of the senses.
Work form:
We will execute small and fast exercises.
As for the final goal we aim to create a multi-sensory (cross-sensory) environment.
There will be a daily group-evaluation of the work’s progress, get feedback on a daily basis and test in practice.
The first week we’ll work in the artscience studio in the conservatoire,
doing small exercises and experiments.
In the second week we aim to develop an environment in which perceptual experiences in one modality can give rise to an experience in a different sensory modality.
Assessment:
At the end of the second week we’ll evaluate the experiments and the engagement of the students.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
Two-legged Research
Cocky Eek
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Exchange course, physical
Note: this course has a maximum of 12 students
This is a course for true wanderers into an exploration of experimental walking.
A walk can be considered as a transitory experience where our deep human rhytms coincide with their environment.
We will explore different ways of multi-sensory walking methods with a particular focus on duration, instruction, navigation, rhythm, rest and movement.
This course is inspired by diverse walking practices, from the ancient Songlines of the Australian continent, to the Drunken Dragon walks from China, from the migrations of animals and plants, to the tourist hike and audio tours, from the wandering philosophers and psycho-geographers, to the marching band and carnival parade.
Which unexpected perceptions, questions, and revelations can walking lead us into? And how to compose a walk that can set us in an awe of wander (or wonder)?
Walking – ‘Move at a regular pace by lifting and setting down each foot in turn, never having both feet off the ground at once’
Objectives:
We will explore some theoretical and practice-based walking methods.
Work form:
General introduction, practice-based explorations, co-creation in small groups. Reflection moments in the form of discussions and possible small writing /notation assignments.
Assessment:
Attendance (80%), developing and presenting a multi-sensory experiential walk.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 2 ECTS
Duration: 5 classes of 6 hours
Why Look at Animals?
Cocky Eek, guest teachers: Thijs de Zeeuw and Kenzo Kusuda
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
Animals differ from man. They are both like and unlike. In this course we will work in Artis zoo in Amsterdam. Animals can offer a key in opening a gate. Until the 19th century, anthropomorphism was integral to the relation between man and animal. In the last centuries, animals have gradually disappeared. Today we live separated from many of them. Yet our customary sensory order is not solitude; it coexists with other orders. We think and operate differently in the presence of animals. How can we extend our sensitive and cognitive capacities by means of synthesizing and sharing perspectives with Artis’ inhabitants?
In this course you will be guided by one of Artis’ non-human inhabitants, to explore different ways of knowing and sharing. Through an unfolding creative process we will work towards the creation of a polyphonic performative work. This work will be shared with a wider audience and hosted by FoAM Amsterdam and Zone2 Source in the context of the Machine Wilderness program: artistic research in Artis.
The title of his course has been appropriated from John Berger’s little book “Why look at Animals? “
Important your own costs for this course include;
4 days travel to Artis Zoo in Amsterdam plus one performative-presentation day in Amsterdam for the audience.
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
– you have widened your sensory and cognitive perception
– you are able to take your stand in the midst of a polyphonic rhytm
– you have opened a new question
Work form:
Hands-on prototyping, physical/sensory exercises, building, performing.
Assessment:
Presentation in the form of a collective performative work for an audience, documentation during the process and small written reflection.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS
Duration: 8 classes of 6 hours
Writing as/in Research
Maya Rasker
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Master Primer Course, physical
Course Content:
To write means to allow ideas to come into being, which is why so many fear the act of writing: once written, your thoughts become a reality of their own. During the workshop Writing as / in Research we will investigate what writing means as an act of discovering and unravelling, rather than to fix embryonal thinking.
Point of departure is you: a creative creature that oscillates between who you are, what you do, and where you are heading. Through a systematic analysis of the creative research process you will discover how different writing techniques support and enhance your personal search for artistic growth, independent of you medium or main artistic interest.
Language is our material, which means you will do a lot of hand writing, reading out, listening and taking notes. We will work with prose, poetry, letter writing, essayism and other genres. The use of pen or pencil and paper (notebook) is obligatory. No laptops allowed in the classroom.
Requirements:
none
Objectives:
– you know how to overcome the fear of ‘beginning’ and to start writing
– you have an idea how to use verious writing techniques, depending on your creative process
– you understand what tools to use for text analysis – either your own or someone elses
– you have written in different genres, registers, and styles
Work form:
Classroom lectures and in-class (writing) assignments; take home writing assignments.
Assessment:
In-class writing assignments.
Take-home writing assignments.
Texts (by writers and theorists) to be read, analysed and reflected upon.
An end text, to be presented in class.
80% Class attendence is obligatory. All writing assignments are to be gathered in a portfolio. End text and presentation is obligatory.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 4 ECTS (per semester)
Duration: 8 casses of 6 hours
Zaal 3 course (title pending)
Eilit Marom, Leandros Ntolas
Mandatory for: Elective
Type: Standard Course, physical
Course Content:
…make something which experiences, reacts to its environment, changes, is nonstable…
…make something indeterminate, that always looks different, the shape of which cannot be predicted precisely…
…make something that cannot “perform” without the assistance of its environment…
…make something sensitive to light and temperature changes, that is subject to air currents and depends, in its functioning, on the forces of gravity…
…make something the spectator handles, an object to be played with and thus animated…
…make something that lives in time and makes the “spectator” experience time…
…articulate something natural…
Hans Haacke, 1965
A workshop co-hosted by artist/choreographer Eilit Marom and interdisciplinary artist Leandros Ntolas, leading to two public presentations at Zaal 3 theater. By sharing their unique approaches and interests on performative spaces, some initial working methods, methodologies and rules will be set. These will then interact with the elements and interests that the students will bring in, leading to a collaborative investigation and collective mutation. With attention to the theatrical setting and performer/spectator relationship, Leandros and Eilit will guide the participants in re-thinking these aspects.
keywords: movement, body, human/nonhuman agents, action/interaction, serendipity, contingency, witness, encounter, perception, senses, environment, ecosystems, embodied/enactive/embedded/extended perception, staged reality, uncanny
Eilit Marom (1986 Haifa, Israel) is an Israeli artist and choreographer based in The Hague. She works between Israel and the Netherlands in the field of dance and visual art. As an independent artist she created projects that expose performance practices as valuable experiences which connect people with their physical self-expression and their environments. In the form of performances, immersive spaces and curating events Eilit consciously positions her public in settings that facilitate serendipity, intending for a real encounter between them and the work. Her themes are inspired by non-verbal communication and biophysics, both fields which study the interaction, function and movement of systems on cellular level, in live organisms and ecosystems. This reflects in her work which often involves interaction before, during or after presentation and by translating theory into experiences either embodied in the performers bodies or created as choreographic structures in the performance site.
Leandros Ntolas (1992, Athens, Greece) is an artist, currently based in the Hague. His practice can be defined as multidisciplinary and pluralistic, in the sense that it doesn’t limit itself to one medium, direction or approach. Rather, it embraces the freedom to run around freely following its curiosity, intuition and mood of the day. The common thread of this free-roaming practice is a phenomenological and experimental approach combined with in-depth research into diverse fields aside from art, ranging from optics, perceptual studies or archaeology and astronomy, to philosophy, cybernetics, architecture, history of religion, sci-fi literature and metaphysics.
Objectives/ Open questions:
-How to make a score, a scenario, a strategy, a set of rules that will allow for reality to occur (staged reality versus fiction)?
-Attempting to see the presentation location as an environment where everything is an actor, an agent. What interactions can be facilitated within this environment? How can we create the conditions where interactions between human-human, human-nonhuman, nonhuman-nonhuman actors/agents can perform/take place.
-Performing: who is performing and for who? Is there an urgency? Are (un)excited bodies present on site? And what about the space in between? The inherited “fourth wall”: are we letting it be? Or are we breaking it, climbing it and interacting with the elements/agents on the other side, dragging them in with us?
Prerequisites:
experimental attitude, commitment to be involved in the project, interest in performance & movement and/or in working in a theater environment (ie working with stage elements, lighting, sound etc), willingness to collaborate.
Grading System: Pass/Fail
Credits: 6 ECTS
Duration: 2 preliminary one-day meetings, 1 workshop week in December, 1 interim meeting, 1 week on location in February, 2 public events
