[artinfo] Agents in the Anthropocene:

[Art&Education]

Agents in the Anthropocene: Trans/disciplinary Practices in Art and 
Design Education Today symposium-call for presentations

January 26-28, 2017

Proposal deadline: December 16, 2016

Piet Zwart Institute, Master of Education in Arts 
Willem de Kooning Academy
Rotterdam University / The Netherlands
P.O. Box 1272
3000 BG Rotterdam
The Netherlands

<http://www.pzwart.nl/master-education-in-arts/>www.pzwart.nl

The Master of Education in Arts, Piet Zwart Institute is pleased to 
announce an open call for presentations for the two-day symposium 
Agents in the Anthropocene: Trans/disciplinary Practices in Art and 
Design Education Today.

There seems to be an urge for a new kind of aesthetics-whether 
measured by a scientist or framed by an artist, or collaboratively 
developed by both of them-for narrating the contemporary global 
reality. This collaborative narration transforms separate creative 
disciplines into a new multi-disciplinary field, whose future 
appearance remains speculative.

The Anthropocene is both a widely acknowledged and fiercely debated 
term for a new geological era caused by humankind's destructive 
influence on the planet. A growing number of exhibitions and 
publications are studying the intersection of the so-called 
Anthropocene with artistic and cultural practices. Often they 
advocate for modes of trans-disciplinary research that incorporate 
visual, cultural, artistic, technological, architectural, ecological 
and political categories. 

Is there an urge for "new mental equipment" that will allow us to 
imagine the human-nature partnership differently? There is certainly 
growing engagement and activism among artists and designers-a 
motivation to work together as collectives within cooperative 
projects, laboratory research settings and the like. What can we 
learn from these new modes of operation and trans-disciplinary 
research?  How are artists and designers able to act? How do we 
educate them in the face of the "Anthropocene"? What repercussions 
might these kinds of discussions even have for secondary art 
education? Or, how do we imagine ourselves as environmental 
humanities?

In addition to keynote presentations, the symposium is open to 
presentations of exemplary practices and research from students, 
tutors, artists, designers, scientists, collectives and et cetera. 
The format of the symposium is structured around keynote 
presentations (confirmed speakers: T.J. Demos, Alastair Fuad-Luke, 
amongst others) open call presentations and collectively held 
brainstorming sessions. 

Main themes:
Trans-disciplinary research and co-operations 
Exemplary practices, forms of collaborations, vocabularies and mediums.
Specialism in the context of trans-disciplinary knowledge (students 
as interdisciplinary colleagues or specialists? Exemplary practices 
of experimental pedagogies, curriculum building and interdisciplinary 
practices in secondary art education).

Trans-disciplinary activism 
Artistic or design contributions to activist practices and 
manifestations of addressing environmental problems-also in relation 
to alternative structures of living, new commons, and locality in 
production and consumption.

Media production, informational control (research into the 
circulation of media, information, and images that frame the visual 
culture of environmentalism and its related aesthetics).

We gladly invite anyone interested in the topic of the symposium to 
participate and to submit a project or paper proposal before the 
December 16 (this can be theoretical research, journalistic 
investigation, an artistic or design experiment, or an educational 
programme). The presentation of the selected projects will take place 
during the Open Call presentations and will be a maximum of 20 
minutes long.

The proposal should be written in English and should contain a 
maximum of 450 words, including: title and authors of the 
presentation; summary of aim and content; format of presentation; 
relation to the theme of the symposium; specifications or 
requirements. The proposal should be submitted online via email 
<mailto:info at anthropoceneagents.nl>info at anthropoceneagents.nl 
(attachments up to 10MB). The submitted proposals will be reviewed 
and the selected applicants will be informed about the selection 
before December 24, 2016. For further information please do not 
hesitate to contact us.

The Master Education in Arts accepts student applications from 
December 1, 2016 onwards.
Please visit the application section of our 
<http://www.pzwart.nl/application/>website. Applicants are requested 
to submit a motivation letter (with initial idea for a graduation 
research question and/or project), CV and portfolio with selected 
projects (focused on professional experience in art or design 
education), in English.