Symposium in Rome on interdisciplinarity

Janneke Wesseling will give a lecture entitled ‘Interdisciplinarity and artistic research: where is the “inter” located?’ as part of the international symposium ‘Practicing Interdisciplinarity? States of the Art’ on 10-11 October 2016 at the Swiss Institute in Rome.

The principal aim of the symposium is to take stock of recent developments in art-science collaborations, make explicit some of their intriguing paradoxes, and identify some of the key challenges for future work.

The symposium is public and free of charge. Language will be English and Italian, simultaneous translation will be provided. Here you can download the full programme.

Inaugural lecture Janneke Wesseling

As of 1 February 2016, Janneke Wesseling has been appointed Professor at Leiden University’s Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA), Faculty of Humanities, where she holds the chair in Practice and Theory of Research in the Visual Arts. On 19 September 2016, she will deliver her inaugural lecture, entitled 'Of sponge, stone and the intertwinement with the here and now. A methodology of artistic research.'

19 September 2016
16:00 hrs
Academy Building
Large Auditorium
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden

The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) is a collaboration between Leiden University and the University of the Arts The Hague. This partnership has created the possibility for visual artists, designers and musicians to obtain the doctoral degree at Leiden University, through the PhDArts (visual art and design) and docARTES (music) doctoral programmes.

The ceremony begins at 16:00 hrs sharp.
More information will follow in late August.

KIEM grant 'Critical Making'

Janneke Wesseling heads a research consortium consisting of Leiden University (Academy of Creative and Performing Arts), Hogeschool Rotterdam (Creating010), Het Nieuwe Instituut and Waag Society. On 7 July, the consortium received a KIEM grant of € 15.000 for their project 'Critical Making as a model for art practice in the digital age'. The Creative Industry - KIEM programme of NWO (Dutch research council) aims to encourage and facilitate public-private partnerships in the domain of the Creative Industries. Senior researchers can apply for funding via KIEM on behalf of consortia of companies and researchers. 

Project description

Currently, we are witnessing a major shift from art and culture to creative industries, implying a shift from a traditional paradigm of aesthetics (literally: perception) to a technology-oriented paradigm of making. New products are often developed out of a logic of makeability, with limited attention for critical reflection on their social consequences. We therefore need a new creative practice that combines the critical reflection that is central to artistic research with the technology-driven culture of making.

To this end, we propose to appropriate the concept of Critical Making. Coined by Canadian designer Matt Ratto in 2008 and laid out in a series of MIT Press books, this concept has so far been closely tied to FabLabs and artists' media labs, while articulating a more critical position within the overall Maker movement. In our project, Critical Making will be researched and developed further in the context of critical theory and the discourse of artistic research in order to address creative practices in which art, design and technology fundamentally and practically intersect.

Publication: Veranderend Kunstonderwijs II

Veranderend Kunstonderwijs II. Het samengaan van theorie en praktijk in het onderwijs.

- Ed. Onno Schilstra and Janneke Wesseling.
- A publication by the Lectorate Art Theory & Practice,
University of the Arts, The Hague, 2016.
- With texts by Annette Krauss, Marie van Leeuwen, Laura van Grinsven, Pawel Pokutycki, Onno Schilstra, Bart Verschaffel and Janneke Wesseling.
- Design Tomas Celizna i.c.w. Sebastian Ly Serena.
- ISBN 978-90-72600-39-4.

On 21 November 2014 the Tweede Landelijke Dag van de Theorie, an expert meeting for teachers in art education, took place at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague. First of all, the meeting focused on finding ways to further integrate the previously separated theory and practical education in the Bachelor-phase. On top of that, more general questions as to how to advance the connections between art education and recent developments within the field of art and design practice, how to deal with a changing student population and, last but not least, how to respond to neoliberal tendencies in modern education reforms were subject of discussion.

Following the publication ‘Veranderend kunstonderwijs. De plaats van theorie aan de kunstacademie’ (KABK, 2013) that was published on the occasion of the Eerste Landelijke Dag van de Theorie, now also the most significant contributions to the Tweede Landelijke Dag van de Theorie have been collected. The publication, titled ‘Veranderend kunstonderwijs II. Het samengaan van theorie en praktijk in het onderwijs’ (KABK, 2016), includes texts by keynote speakers Bart Verschaffel, Marie van Leeuwen & Laura van Grinsven, Pawel Pokutycki and Annette Krauss. Moreover, Onno Schilstra, theory tutor at the KABK, and Janneke Wesseling, professor in Art in Research at the KABK, wrote two new essays in which developments are further analyzed and placed in international context.

For the amount of 3,00 euro plus shipping costs we will gladly send you the publication. To order, please send an email to: lectoraatktp@kabk.nl including your name and contact information.

PhDArts Symposium: Arts in the Eyes of National Identities

23 June 2016, 10.30-18.30: Small Auditorium, Academiegebouw Rapenburg 73, Leiden
24 June 2016, 11.30-18.30: Spectrumzaal, Studentencentrum Plexus, Kaiserstraat 25, Leiden

Arts in the Eyes of National Identities is a two day symposium that inquires into the relationship between nations and artistic practices, their connections and boundaries. The gap between, on the one hand, certain conceptual assertions and claims of contemporary art practice, and on the other, practical boundaries and limits will be debated through posing the following questions:

‘How can art and artists today actually cross borders and be part of public space? What are the limits and what are the different ways to deal with these restrictions? How do the different roles of embodied national identities influence artistic practices in the city’s public sites?’

The symposium is organized by PhDArts researcher Thalia Hoffman and performing artist and activist Eliesh. Two case studies related to their respective practices will be part of the programme, namely the figure of the refugee artist in Europe and Guava, a platform created by Thalia Hoffman.

Janneke Wesseling appointed professor at Leiden University

Dr. Janneke Wesseling has been appointed Professor at Leiden University's Faculty of Humanities as of February 1, 2016. Wesseling holds the chair in Practice and Theory of Research in the Visual Arts. The chair is situated at the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA).

For more information, see http://hum.leiden.edu/news-staff/three-new-professors-academy-of-creative-and-performing-arts.html.

Course Listening and Looking

On Wednesday 10 February 2016, the course Listening and Looking will take off. This course, taught by Janneke Wesseling and Marcel Cobussen, is intended for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year Bachelor students of the Royal Academy of Art, Royal Conservatoire and Leiden University.

Our first encounters with art works or art events usually happen through our eyes and/or ears. However, there are many different ways in which to look at art or listen to music. Not only are we always already culturally situated and determined, individual circumstances also influence the way we experience art/music. What is attentive looking/listening and is this how we always (should) approach art/music? Is there a difference between looking and seeing, between hearing and listening? And, given the fact that our relation to art and the world is usually multi-sensorial, can we also look at music and listen to visual arts?

Although mainly theoretical, the course will also comprise visits to (sounding) arts exhibitions and/or performances in order to be able to relate theoretical knowledge to ''auto-ethnographic'' experiences.

For more information about the course see: Listening and Looking.

The course is organized by the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) of Leiden University in collaboration with the Lectorate Art Theory & Practice.