The faster-paced and what might almost be termed invasive dissemination of emergent artistic trends and their immediate reception and transformation is manifested – as a result of our increasingly networked information society – not only in the worlds of art, music and film. Omnipresent advertising acting as a catalyst, cultural, social and economic tendencies are mixed in a complex fashion and are mutually dependent.
Analysing these phenomena and uncovering their roots is of key importance to arrive at our own considered and structured aesthetic evaluations. Towards this end, within the framework of study, historical, philosophical and sociotheoretical principles are imparted so that the recurrent structures of human endeavour can be identified in time and space in order to draw conclusions. Systematic analysis is also applied to the strategy employed to effectively position different artistic questions.
And because aesthetic activity always involves, besides analysis and theoretical positioning, the visualisation of individual ideas, not least an understanding of perception and how it works is of a significance that should not be underestimated. This is important to the artist not only in a passive sense, but even more so when applied within their own artistic creativity, as a communicative interface between Self and World.
A study focus is the exploration of the possibilities for expression offered by new media. Incorporating them without prejudice in artistic processes as creative media, exploring their potential and limits and not clinging to an unreflected 'user' mentality is the indispensable aspiration. Not only technically based forms, but also installation, performance or social research are current art fields of action and interaction in which an emancipated artistic personality must adopt a stance.
Through the many different research approaches of the individual class members, whose findings are examined in the group, students can readjust their own insights and positions in weekly critical and dialogue-based examinations. Avowedly, when speaking about art, translating the complexity and density of aesthetic associations inherent in an artwork into logical formulations is not the easiest of tasks.
Study at an art academy is largely a study of self. The individual is prompted, almost philosophically, to achieve a take on the world and visualise it. At the same time artistic work is increasingly characterised by discourse.
Learning in and through different groups and constellations, tackling a wide variety of roles, places and aesthetical questions (competitions, exhibitions, projects, commissions) are challenges during study that every student must master in his/her own personal way. It is no coincidence that the class principle is one of the learning and research structures most worthy of preservation at art academies. In a group, which throughout the entire degree course offers the possibility of integration, debate and a safe area – contrary to a questionable focus on efficiency in other educational institutions, which is linked to an increasingly hectic pace of teaching sequences – the quality of the content remains the benchmark of the debate.
Group visits to exhibitions confront the individual and his/her work with other approaches and solutions.
Curating the work of artist colleagues, devising exhibition projects extends the repertoire of artistic communication possibilities.
Artists as curators, authors, critics and speakers need not fear a weakening of their role, but enhance their personal level of reflection by communicating their own and other artists' works. Familiarisation with different communication methods as experimental constructs to be tackled in real time is a genuine preparation, especially for art education students. The ability of artists and art communicators to find reference points in 'chaotic systems' is not only envied by business and economic disciplines. The ambition of artistic concepts to influence social and political spheres increasingly demands interdisciplinary cooperation with experts from areas other than art.
Ultimately, it hinges on the student's creative will to incorporate both what they have learned and personally experienced into their own artistic work, define their own priorities and deepen their pursuit independently.
