The professorship

Theory is an activity, a verb, making. Practice and theory are inseparable and constantly presuppose each other, especially in artistic practice.

The intensity is different but they are always connected. The arts are therefore not isolated and are implicitly or explicitly linked to other fields of knowledge and experience. This special symbiosis and intertwining of theory and practice forms the DNA of the arts. Making this visible, insightful and usable is the aim pursued in the Theory in the Arts professorship.

As such, the professorship also seeks to give theory a proper place in art education, which means that the roles of so-called theory and practice lecturers need to be reassessed. They can work together on the ecology of the creation process. Important in this regard is the awareness of one's own position and role in relation to current art practice.

The research of the professorship has an impact on professional practice because, in addition to research for art education, it also researches current issues such as ecology and the climate crisis. Central to this is addressing the dominant dualism in many views of the world. The professorship examines current theory and its repercussions on art practice and vice versa. It thus also tries to develop alternatives for contemporary artistry in the various arts, in which research into the meaning and function of artistic research also plays an important role.

Background

The Theory in the Arts professorship started in 2008 as the successor to the Art and Reflection professorship of Dr Albert van der Schoot. This professorship chiefly conducted research on reflection and meaning in relation to the arts. The Theory in the Arts Professorship has shifted its focus to the role, nature and meaning of theory and theorising in the arts and in all art disciplines offered by ArtEZ. The diverse backgrounds, traditions, customs and starting points in these disciplines together form a conglomeration that is unique in the Netherlands. The special character of the university of applied sciences, which is exclusively devoted to the arts, forms a source of new theory formation and for new conceptual and content-related connections
The research of the professorship is increasingly focused on social issues and more specific concepts that, as theoretical concepts, affect all the arts, such as artistic research, ecology and climate crisis. It is also works on the further development of the so-called 'theoros', the figure derived from pre-Socratic philosophy who, as an acting and practice-oriented theorist, explored the world and reported on it in his 'theoria’. This theoros can be the future model for the inquiring artist. Not an academic, but a seeker.

'Theory acts as oxygen for art practice and is inseparable from all the arts.