Peter Sonderen

Peter Sonderen has been professor of Theory in the Arts since 2008 and head of the Honours Lab (formerly the Honours Programme), which he set up, since 2010. In 2000 he obtained his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam with the thesis Het sculpturale denken (The Sculptural Thinking), in which the origin of the modern understanding of art is examined and in which the relationship between philosophy and art practice plays a central role. In 2003, he was appointed director of the AKI in Enschede. There he introduced an interdisciplinary education-free Wednesday aimed at theory and deepening in which students from all departments could come together with lectures and discussions. In 2008, he was appointed lecturer in Theory in the Arts. From 2003 to 2015 he was also chairman of the AIAS (International Association of Independent Art and Design Schools).

His goal with the Theory in the Arts professorship is to systematically pay attention to the relationship between theory and practice in the arts and art education. The Honours Lab was developed and implemented in cooperation with the directors of the Art & Design programmes. In the course of time, Peter and the professorship focused more on the relationship of research to theory and practice; also, more research was done on the connection of the arts to ecological changes in the world. Although theory as a concept suggests a contradiction with practice, Peter's focus with the professorship is on the connection between theory and practice. Besides stimulating and publishing research into the current relationship between theory and practice in the arts (with attention to 'new materialisms', performativity, ecology and the 'city and the rural'), Peter also pays attention to the significance of the actuality of the past. Peter is also responsible for the introduction of the professional doctorate in 2022 at ArtEZ, in cooperation with the professorship.