THE MINOR
How can we learn to approach the complex issues of the 21st century (such as the waste problem, climate crisis, global poverty, etc.)? These issues are of such a different size, complexity and scale, that dealing with them has to contend with methods, attitudes and expertise that transcend disciplinary confinements. Alternative futures have to be imagined and visualized, and this can only be achieved through the combination and validation of different knowledges (societal, artistic, academic), through which we can find new ways of researching, thinking and making. In the RASL minor “Re-Imagining Tomorrow through Arts and Sciences”, we depart from the notion of transdisciplinarity as a means to identify, question and disrupt existing boundaries and binaries, among which, but not restricted to, the boundaries that separate artistic and scientific disciplines. We do not teach one specific way of doing collaborative, transdisciplinary research. Instead, we give students the space, examples, insights and tools to develop their own specific approach to collaborating in a transdisciplinary setting, while continuously reflecting on the process.
During the minor, students work in a team consisting of students from Codarts, WdkA and Erasmus University on a self-selected matter of concern in the framework of “re-imagining tomorrow through arts and sciences”. Participating students come from a wide variety of studies such as audiovisual design, composition, jazz vocals, fashion design, arts and culture studies, political science, psychology, industrial design engineering, history and philosophy. Through engagement with practices of re-imagining tomorrow (in the form of examples, exercises and their own project), we situate the minor in a broader societal context of ecological devastation and historically shaped injustices, which demand the imagining of alternative futures. The artistic and scholarly practices of our guest teachers work reflect this context, with guests from previous years including architect Ronald Rael, sound artist Jana Winderen, director Nadine Valcin and dendrochronologist Valerie Trouet – all of whom work in the interstices between disciplines. During classes as well as in their own projects, students engage with a range of different activities, such as field research, practice-led workshops, screenings, close-listening and close-reading sessions.
Practices of re-imagining tomorrow make us aware that traditional, disciplinary practices of knowing and doing are always already imaginative, as they create and reinforce specific ways of experiencing and knowing the world. By addressing and experiencing these worldmaking capabilities of current and future practices, we can start to work towards futures that are more socially and ecologically just. In their projects, students are given the opportunity and space to consider what these futures might look like and how we can start enacting them in the present.
During the minor, students work in a team consisting of students from Codarts, WdkA and Erasmus University on a self-selected matter of concern in the framework of “re-imagining tomorrow through arts and sciences”. Participating students come from a wide variety of studies such as audiovisual design, composition, jazz vocals, fashion design, arts and culture studies, political science, psychology, industrial design engineering, history and philosophy. Through engagement with practices of re-imagining tomorrow (in the form of examples, exercises and their own project), we situate the minor in a broader societal context of ecological devastation and historically shaped injustices, which demand the imagining of alternative futures. The artistic and scholarly practices of our guest teachers work reflect this context, with guests from previous years including architect Ronald Rael, sound artist Jana Winderen, director Nadine Valcin and dendrochronologist Valerie Trouet – all of whom work in the interstices between disciplines. During classes as well as in their own projects, students engage with a range of different activities, such as field research, practice-led workshops, screenings, close-listening and close-reading sessions.
Practices of re-imagining tomorrow make us aware that traditional, disciplinary practices of knowing and doing are always already imaginative, as they create and reinforce specific ways of experiencing and knowing the world. By addressing and experiencing these worldmaking capabilities of current and future practices, we can start to work towards futures that are more socially and ecologically just. In their projects, students are given the opportunity and space to consider what these futures might look like and how we can start enacting them in the present.