LISA VELEMA

What made you choose the Dual Degree? 

Four years ago, I studied Product Design at WdKA. I missed being challenged in my writing and my research. In that period, I felt a strong need to write and do more research, and for my work to be evaluated more critically as well. For that reason, I switched to Fine Art and started the Dual Degree.

How would you say the arts and sciences reinforce each other?

I think the experimentation and openness of art research can be very valuable to the sciences. Scientific research within certain paradigms has many concrete barriers to it. There are so many criteria that scientists need to meet before something can be peer reviewed and published, that a lot of valuable information and interesting stories will never actually reach the public sphere. And I think art can provide a space in which research that cannot be published in that strictly scientific sense can actually be made public. On the other hand, I think scientific techniques can be used in art research to gain additional depth and complexity.

And how do you see the combination of the arts and sciences in your own practice?

I do use a lot of scientific sources in my art practice, but it’s all freely combined. I mix scientific research with, for example, concepts from philosophy and the medium of opera. The result may not be entirely correct from a purely scientific perspective, but I feel that this method of working is much more interesting to me. It tickles the mind, it’s more intuitive, and the connections are more free and creative.  

As a Dual Degree student, what makes you different from other students at your institutions?

I feel like RASL students are slightly more critical in interpreting the texts we are given at art school because we want to understand them on a different level. As an art student, I see the value of having a very solid background in, for example, sociology or philosophy. At EUR we learn the basics before taking a critical stance. And at WdKA, teachers tend to expect that critical attitude without establishing the basics first. The Dual Degree gives me that theoretical basis to understand what the theories we discuss are about and where they came from. This also makes my artistic writing a lot more informed. But it also has its downside. I notice that in art school, I can hold myself back because I really need to have a thorough understanding of something before moving on. In that sense, I have always felt like a bit of an outsider at WdKA.

Does the Dual Degree enable you to build an informal network across the disciplines? And how?

Yes, especially fellow RASL students are very nice contacts to have. We help each other with our studies, of course, but it's also really great to see how other people are combining their academic skills with their art practice. I sometimes try to invite people I know from university to events at WdKA. And also, the other way around, by trying to sneak people into lectures at EUR. Admittedly, it has never worked. But I really like seeing how I benefit from this form of education and I definitely try to drag other people into it as well!

How has RASL changed your vision of education?

It sure has! I often think about how the two different ways of teaching can benefit from each other. Students at WdKA are extremely diverse, with very different backgrounds and skills—some are more technical and others more academic. However, at university, the range of students is not that diverse, and the way in which knowledge is transferred doesn't work for everyone. There are a lot of people that just don't pass their courses, not because they're incapable, but because the system doesn't work for them. There’s much more freedom in shaping your own education in art schools. Universities could also be a more diverse place if their educational structures weren’t so incredibly rigid.

How has this form of education influenced your perspective of your future practice?

Over the past year, I've learned about artists who are really in between academia and art practice. And this has truly inspired me because I think the research part of art is what drives me the most, and I've often felt stuck in how I should materialise my research into an art project. To me, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, in Utrecht, is an inspiring example of a context in which art and science collide. What places like BAK show is that there really is a space between academia and art, something that’s a world on its own. It’s an in-between world full of colour, and where lots of really interesting things can happen. 

What could be the next step for the Dual Degree or RASL? 

The minor seems like a great step forward. It allows students to gain multidisciplinary experience and to work together with people from universities and art schools without having to commit to a full five-year programme. Also, I think EUR should be more open to art students. As I said before, I believe that art students would benefit from understanding theory on a deeper level before diving into the critical stuff. It would be interesting if EUR teachers could work together with art school teachers to provide a common theoretical framework. Again, this would be great for the people that are interested but aren't fully committed to a five-year programme. I sometimes think that WdKA, in their desire to turn students into critical thinkers, are pushing too much theory onto students without giving them the fundamentals. But it’s too fast.You need to understand the topic you are working on before you can be critical about it.