Course

Our students are very resilient to change in the future because they have learned how to teach themselves new things. As a result, they have the capacity to anticipate new developments in art and technology. This high degree of independence serves them well when starting an autonomous practice or working in a creative team.

On the course, there is an ongoing focus on:

• The autonomous: are you open to completely losing yourself in a personal fascination, regardless of where that search takes you?
• The applied: are able to reflect on your own work? Do you have the methodologies to translate a concept into a design? Can you plan your process within the time available?

Alongside critical thinking, there is an important place for designing and making. The work you design will range from print media to experimental software programs. Fixed elements in every creative assignment and all artistic research are:

• technology
• concept
• design

We will teach you all the necessary skills, such as programming, image and sound editing, digital design and realising your designs in the physical world.

Students of Design Art Technology are enormously self-initiating and come up with very original work. 

NXP SEMICONDUCTORS, CLIENT 

Strong theoretical grounding

Only once you understand the underlying principles of interaction and digital media and have sufficient historical awareness of your discipline you will recognise opportunities to play with what you have learned during the assignments. For this reason, we also provide a strong theoretical grounding on the course through subjects such as media archaeology, media theory, art and cultural history, network culture and digital aesthetics.

Independent, but plenty of space for collaboration

The Design Art Technology course at ArtEZ in Arnhem exists in the context of many other arts courses ranging from Art & Design and Theatre & Dance to music. That offers great opportunities for collaboration and enrichment. For instance, in the third year there is a project in partnership with the Product Design course and you can easily work with students of Fashion Design in the field of wearables. In addition, you will also work with all kinds of other disciplines on external projects with leading companies and during your internship in the fourth year. 

At the same time, the international lecture team, projects with external partners, collaboration with students on other courses and an internship abroad ensure that your gaze is focused on your future reality. You will be given plenty of space to develop your own profile and style based on your own interests and skills. 

Course supervision

Throughout the course, you will receive individual supervision from a mentor and a study career advisor. This supervision is focused on your learning process and on discovering which direction you want to develop in.

Practical matters around the course are discussed in monthly meetings between the class representatives of years 1 to 4 and the course coordinator.   

Projects, internships and study trips

Projects 

• Hackathon 
  Every year we organise a two-day Hackathon. After an introduction to working with microelectronics, you repurpose a recycled electronic device in this project. The project is based on the principle “if you can’t open it, you don’t own it”. The Hackathon is overseen by artists such as experimental designer Frank Kolkman, creative coder/tech artist Rob Bothof and Ralf Becker of BECKER CREATIVE. 

• Transition
  Transition is a collaborative project in the first semester of the third year with Product Design students. In the project our students learn to work better with physical media, while the Product Design students are challenged to think more experimentally and not shy away from the exotic.  
• Solidarity 
  In the Solidarity course you investigate the social effects of technology under the leadership of Juha van ‘t Zelfde. How can the internet be used and seen as a political and creative space? Cooperation and the development of solidarity and collectivism are central to this. In this project you work together on a topical theme, such as loneliness.  
   
• Behind The Net 
  The underlying culture and principles of the internet are central to the Behind The Net project month. Together we go to places where that is apparent; places that show you how people store data, stories and culture, and how they used to do this in the past.  
   
• External projects  
  In the second part of the study you participate in projects with external partners, such as study trips, Philips Design and NXP (producer of microchips). Here you learn to convey your ideas and test them against reality.   

Internships 

The field of digital design and media art is an international discipline. As such, you will spend three months abroad as an intern at a design agency, artist or an institute such as Glithero, United Visual Artists or Clever°Franke. This is part of the fourth year. This internship abroad is not only valuable from a professional point of view, but also forms you and is a first step in the network you want to enter. Prior to the internship you compile a portfolio and write a motivation letter.  
Afterwards you share your experiences during a return afternoon with the students from the entire course. On this afternoon alumni also talk about their professional practice.  

Study trips 

We organise several study trips, as part of the project Behind The Net but also otherwise. For example, in 2019 our students attended a workshop week at the Kyoto Design Lab in Japan, together with Product Design students, and went on study trips to places including Berlin, London, Helsinki, Tallin and New York – places where art and technology are both fundamentally rooted.  

Designer or autonomous artist 

In the third and fourth year, you work actively on developing an entrepreneurial attitude – partly by following various courses about it, partly in practice. For example, during a collaborative project in the third year you become acquainted with a design agency or commercial company. And in the fourth year, during your internship and a practical assignment for an external party, you immerse yourself in everything a business entails.  

Course supervision 

Throughout your studies, you receive individual guidance from a mentor and an academic career advisor. This guidance is focused on your learning process and on discovering in which direction you want to develop.  

Practical matters concerning the study are discussed in monthly meetings between the class representatives of years 1 to 4 and the course administrator.   

Facilities 

Our course has its own software and hardware lab, which is unique in the Netherlands. In this workshop you work with microelectronics under supervision.   

Studying in Arnhem 

• You can find more information about studying in Arnhem here.