FAST45 - The Art School in a Posthuman Era [ASSOC] (B-LUCA-K34991)
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Aims
This course unit can also be taken by other students of the Association KU Leuven.
Students of other higher education institutions will have to register as a LUCA Interuniversity Student. More information.
NOTE: this course unit might have restrictions on the number of participants!
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At the end of this course, the student should be able to:
- correctly understand, explain and use the concepts of posthuman condition, ontological turn, and critical zone;
- apply speculative methods to explore art school practices across a posthuman perspective (i.e., new materialism and postdigital);
- identify artistic and design methods that can complement these speculative methods;
- present formats and scenarios to (re)constitute the art school in a posthuman era;
- reflect on the (own) artistic and professional practice using a posthuman perspective (i.e., new materialism and post-digital).
Previous knowledge
For this course the student will need:
- an interest for posthumanism (posthuman perspectives);
- an open attitude towards the (artistic) work in a multidisciplinary context;
- an open attitude towards the work in a speculative context (e.g., to reveal the unknown);
- an interest for abstract-philosophical work and practice-oriented work;
- upper-intermediate English speaking, writing and reading skills (level B2).
Is included in these courses of study
- Master in de beeldende kunsten (Gent) 60 ects.
- Master in de audiovisuele kunsten (Brussel) 60 ects.
- Master in de beeldende kunsten (Brussel) 60 ects.
- Master in de audiovisuele kunsten (Genk) 60 ects.
- Master in de beeldende kunsten (Genk) 60 ects.
- Master in het productdesign (Genk) 120 ects.
- Master in het drama (Leuven) 60 ects.
- Courses for exchange students Visual Arts (Ghent)
- Master in Audiovisual Arts (Brussels) 60 ects.
- Master in Visual Arts (Brussels) 60 ects.
- Master in de muziek (Leuven) 120 ects.
- Educatieve master in de muziek en podiumkunsten (Leuven) 120 ects.
- Educatieve master in de audiovisuele en beeldende kunsten (Gent) 120 ects.
- Educatieve master in de audiovisuele en beeldende kunsten (Brussel) 120 ects.
- Educatieve master in de audiovisuele en beeldende kunsten (Genk) 120 ects.
- Master in Music (Leuven) 120 ects.
- Master in de muziek: muziektherapie (Leuven) 120 ects.
- Master in de muziek: compositie, directie I/Z, jazz (Leuven) 120 ects.
- Master in het drama (Leuven) 60 ects.
Activities
3 ects. FAST45 - The Art School in a Posthuman Era [ASSOC] (B-LUCA-K51606)
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Content
FAST45 – The art school in a posthuman era consists of three lectures, one workshop, a laboratory (i.e., walking the ontological turn), and a team assignment. It introduces speculative adventures to explore the art school from a posthuman perspective.
FAST45 – The art school in a posthuman era centres around speculative work. A deep dive into the concept of posthumanism will serve as a lead-up to a workshop, a laboratory and a team assignment. The lectures introduce food for thought (e.g., visions, theories, methods, skills, stories, and examples). The workshop, the laboratory, and the team assignment aim to cross the culture-nature divide. Students will explore ways of posthuman thinking to constitute a more sustainable art school. The course digs into biomimicry (i.e., the practice of making (educational) designs copying natural processes). It reveals conjectural knowledge to rethink practices which are not (or no longer) sustainable in the art school. The output of the lectures, workshop and laboratory will bring input for a team assignment (see section study materials).
In this course, students will develop their posthuman literacy. More specifically, the course will zoom in on the following topics, themes and methodologies:
- What is the posthuman condition?
- What if the ontological turn becomes a transformative tool for art schools?
- What constitutes the critical zone of the art school?
- A hands-on overview of speculative methods and tools
- Reflection on an (own) artistic or design practice from a posthuman perspective
Course material
- Text materials, online tutorials and audio-visual materials
- A brief to introduce and document the team assignment
- A brief to introduce and document the reflective paper assignment
Format: more information
The course consists of a mix of complementary learning activities (students will receive the dates and exact brief for all learning activities at the start of the course).
- Lectures (0,6 ECTS): Two inspirational talks developing more profound insight into the posthuman condition, ontological turn, and the concept of critical zone (study load on campus: 9 hours/ study load preparatory reading task: 6 hours).
- Workshop (0,2 ECTS): A workshop to develop speculative cartographies of the art school across a posthuman perspective (study load on campus: 6 hours).
- Laboratory (0,2 ECTS). A speculative performance (walking the ontological turn) in which students explore the art school’s critical zone (study load on campus: 6 hours).
- Team Assignment (1,8 ECTS): Taking inspiration from the lectures, the workshop, and the laboratory, students will inventory formats for the role of the arts (artists) and design (designers) in a posthuman era. Students will work in teams of 3 to 5 students. Each team will create three scenarios (one plausible scenario, one desired scenario, and one extremely imaginary scenario) to present a reconstitution of the art school beyond the nature-culture divide. The students will present the scenarios in an artistic form that they can choose freely (e.g., a comic book, a theatre play, a paper, a song, a trailer for a new tv series, a podcast, a game world) (study load teamwork per student: 45 hours).
- Personal Reflection Paper (0,2 ECTS): An individual writing task to reflect on what insights you will take from the course in your future career as a student, designer, or artist. (800-1000 words) (study load: 8 hours).
Evaluation
FAST45 - The Art School in a Posthuman Era [ASSOC] (B-LUCA-K74991)
Explanation
Assessment | Grading scale |
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TOTAL | 1-20/20 scale |
The 3 ECTS for this course are validated with a 'Pass' when the student:
- has participated in the lectures, the workshop and the laboratoy;
- has uploaded two deliverables (team assignment and reflection paper) on the learning platform respecting the assignment (task description) and the deadlines (timing) as is formulated in the brief;
- has achieved the quality criteria for the team assignment and reflection paper (students receive a written document in which the criteria and procedure for the peer-to-peer assessment and self assessment are formulated).
Information about retaking exams
Participation in two lectures, one workshop and one laboratory is obligatory and can't be evaluated in a second examination.
The deliverables (team assignment and reflective paper) can be assessed in a second examination.