The Honours Programme Art and Research is a collaboration between the University of Amsterdam and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in The Netherlands. This presentation provides an overview of the structure of the programme during the years I was involved, 2008-2011, given in Paris at the Art Science festival of Paris-Sud University

1. Honours Programme
Art and Research
2007 (apr 2008- dec 2011)
Jennifer Kanary
Gerrit Rietveld Academie
artistic researcher part-time PhD Candidate
Plymouth University Planetary Collegium, M-Node
(2006-...)

2. The Honours Programme
Art and Research
- 18 – 20 students
- every discipline is welcome
- half artists half scientists
- students have to have a certain grade average or
recommendation from their teachers
- students write a motivation letter
- final selection via interviews
- programme is taught in English
- lasts 12 – 14 months
- meet 1x week (Friday afternoons) from 13.00 – 16.30
- students work 1,5 days a week average
- 30 ects points (do not count towards their studies)

3. Website:
“ Students are primarily taught to discover and develop new,
unorthodox ways of collaborating and new ways of
conducting artistic and scientific research.”
http://www.gerritrietveldacademie.nl/en/honours-programme1?chln=1

4. Send them to Spain!

5. Send them to Spain!
1 week at EuroLab
(Humberto Schwab)
- Socratic Dialogue
- workshop imagined futures
Catalyzing a group of people to be
social thinking 'systems'

6. - shared central theme
- divide sub themes
together
main research topic
Spain
sub-research topic
sub-research topic
sub-research topic
allows students to shift with out loss of research

7. deciding subthemes

8. forming research groups

9. Sub-themes:
- Around Absorption
- War and Symbolism
Research group questions:
- What happened to the BIG questions?
- Can you Kill Language?

10. research updates

11. research updates
are performative

12. research updates –
Around Absorption

14. Teachers
- are guiding mentors
- give limited amount of presentations and workshops
how to write a research proposal?
what is artistic research?
what is scientific research?
- feedback
- sparring partner
- provides challenges
- design educational experiments (there is room for
education as an artform)
Be fexible and reactive to the needs of the students
research projects

15. Knowledge Injections
topic specific
guest teachers
main research topic
Spain
sub-research topic
sub-research topic
sub-research topic
allows students to shift with out loss of research

16. Budget
- +/- 8 guest teachers (knowledge injection)
Of which
- 1 or 2 guest workshop teachers (collaboration or sound)

17. workshops

18. visiting exhibitions

19. visiting exhibitions

20. Designing their own educational setting,
(based on the research topic)

21. workshops

22. The Rules!

23. Theory: discussing texts related to topics

24. Structure
1 Coordinator (Founder Cato Cramer)
Finance
Network
Selections
evaluations – behind the scenes
2 Main Tutors
- 1x Artistic Research Tutor (4 days per month or 2-3)
- 1x Theory Tutor (1 day a month, or 2)
Meetings 1-2 x a month
Coordinator, Theory Tutor and Artistic Research tutor
Senior Theory Tutor Jeroen Boomgaard
(comes +/- 4 times)
Coordinator + advisor team

25. Budget
- one public presentation (half way)
- exhibition (production budget for each group)
- publication

26. presenting in public
the half year presentation
- NIMk (Montevideo)
- Waag Society

27. Exhibitions

28. Students form new sub groups
- Finance
- PR and Communication
- Publication (editing)
- Production
- Catering

29. War and Symbolism

30. What happened to the Big Questions? What is Time?

31. What happened to the Big Questions? What is Time?

32. What happened to the Big Questions? What is Time?

33. Publications- student and teacher refections
Final exam project of graphic designer

34. general skills
- presentation skills
- collaboration skills
- organization skills
- management and production skills
- communication skills
- writing skills
A deeper understanding of artistic and
academic processes

35. research skills (academic methods)
- formulating a research question
- writing a research rationale, aims
objectives
- positioning yourself in a field
- source references
- refection, analysis

36. Artistic methods
Multi-media...No limits...

37. Types of artistic research students (personal view)
5 Types of Participatory Students
1. A university student interested to get closer to art with the interest of
gaining depth and new perspective in relation to their own discipline.
Participating observer.
2. A university student who is interested in the integration of artistic
methods without aspiration of making art. Integrating artistic methods
as an enrichment of academic methodologies. Art with out the artist.
Methods of re-enactment.
3. A hybrid student. One who seeks new forms of knowledge production
combining artistic and academic methods aiming for the highest
achievements in both methodologies.
4. An art student who wants to get closer to the theories that are related
to his work. Aims for high artistic achievement. Knowledge development
is Secondary.
5. An art student who wants to get inspired by academic theories. To
get closer to science. Theories are applied to suit the artist and are not
tested or analyzed for truth.

38. Why is this important?
Think about Sir Alexander Flemming...
serendipitous discovery of penicillin...
Did you know: 'Alexander Fleming grew different coloured bacteria in Petri
dishes to make designs. He then used these to create 'germ paintings'.
The paintings were invisible while he painted, but made bright colours
once the cultures grew.'
http://digital.nls.uk/scientists/biographies/alexander-feming/index.html
It was his masterpiece, his “rising sun,” the painting
that would save more lives than any other discovery.
www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Painting-With-Penicillin-Alexander-Flemings-Germ-Art.html#ixzz1vjWuzP5A

39. There is need for play before scientific rigor...but our
educational systems seem to have taken informed 'play'
out of the curricula. This can be found again when
artists and scientists 'play' together in a guided way. - collaborations and in hybrids
As Louis Pasteur described: ‘in the fields of observation,
chance only favours the mind which is prepared...’
In other words, artistic research is about combining
academic rigor with Joseph Beuys’ ‘thinking with your knee’.

40. small beginnings
Can you take the top of(f) a mountain?

41. Big results:
Documentary Mountains and Molehills
and many side events

42. THANKS!
2008-2011 all research
projects have been
Amazing, I wish I could
show them all to you in
these 10 mins
For more information about
Art and Research Honours
Programme please contact
Coordinator
j.c.cramer@uva.nl
Cato Cramer
Me:
jenniferkanary@yahoo.com