The Art & Design Practice track, part of the Arts & Humanities department, University College Roosevelt, Middelburg (Zeeland, NL) is a practice-based bachelor program in the spirit of Liberal Arts & Sciences (LAS) that was founded in 2015. The track was discontinued in Fall 2020. This archive is a sample of what happened throughout the short lived existence of the track thanks to all who took part.
Mapping change, Kim Bergen, Masterclass City as Stage, Marinus Boezem & co Manifestatie, Vleeshal, 2015.
The LAS philosophy can be understood as conducting “education in a circle” and “teaching your discipline through other disciplines” (Prof. David Aiken in conversation with artist-in-residence Sophie Krier, 2015).
In this spirit, Art & Design in Practice is set up as a relational track and is intrinsically linked to other fields of knowledge within and outside UCR, following the disciplinary interests of the students. These include art history, art restauration, curation, philosophy, art therapy, decolonial pedagogies, archaeology, earth science, human geography, mathematics, interface design, evolutionary biology. Art & Design Practice is a unique track within Dutch Liberal Arts & Sciences education as it allows students to combine vocational with theoretical learning, and relate their academic interests with an initiation into artistic practice through undergraduate research. The track builds on the pre-disciplinary tradition of connecting imagination and artistic representation to scientific methods and knowledge. Art produces knowledge, albeit of a different kind than scientific knowledge. The track explores how these two forms of knowledge can enrich each other.
The track is question-driven; in other words, the content of the courses is not fixed: by nature, it is exploratory. The courses are rooted in learning by doing: testing ideas in practice and reflecting on the making process interact in constant dialogue. The assignments and level of difficulty build on each other: at the introductory level, students work on building a visual grammar in three-weeks skill-based assignments; at the intermediate level, two action research projects are conducted around a shared theme in relation to a pressing socio-ecological issue; at the advanced level, students take on semester long self-defined research projects – generating idiosyncratic visual essays.
Spring 2020 Activating Old Maps
Spring 2020 Introduction to Art & design practice
Spring 2020 Sensing Systems for Sustainability
Spring 2019 Introduction to Art & design practice
Fall 2019 Interweaving Biographies
Zeeuws Genootschap 250 year Anniversary Gift
Spring 2018 Introduction to Art & design practice
Fall 2018 The Playful City: Yellow House
Spring 2017 Introduction to Art & design practice
Fall 2016 Shaping Resilient Societies