Studio of Photography and Critical Practice
#photography #critical practice #society #technology #politics #research #Anthropocene #interdisciplinary
To grasp the meaning of the term critical practice in the context of the photographic medium we in the studio will analyse the impact of contemporary photography on the society, on the current discourse in relation to the act of seeing and the seen, on its investigative position and on ethics of photography. Photography today plays a key role in the everyday social production as well as reproduction of individuality and life around us, photography is not only used as a visual language, but is becoming a kind of visual currency of the present. (term adopted from the current exhibition called ´Currency´, Triennale der Photographie Hamburg, 2022 – curator: Koyo Kouoh).
As producers and consumers of photographic images we realize, that this border in the current digitalized society is hardly recognizable in everyday life. Our perception of the society is therefore directly influenced by image and visual codes, which we receive or produce through a photographic medium. The term ´critical practice´ actively and passively connects a creative role of photography with its investigative and ethical function. Critical practice interconnects in itself a photographic image with activism, analysis and discussion regarding the socio-political situation around us and thus opens up new space for perceiving photography, which is not only pictorial, but it also interconnects the creative with the political /image with word/ photograph with message/opinion/slogan… . Critical practice in the context of the photographic medium is an indispensable part of the current development of photography within the visual arts.
In the present a photographic medium cannot be perceived without technology. The concept of the studio will not directly analyse technological possibilities of a photographic medium, but it will actively employ them in its methodological approach of teaching. It the studio we will analyse new horizons of photography, critical practice, interdisciplinarity in artistic research. What conventions shall we leave behind to push the photographic practice and medium beyond the set limits? We will be interested, which role the current political, historic or societal situation plays on the analysis of the photographic medium. The core of the studio concept is to use photography, discussions, seminars and visual research for active discussions and for arousing interest in the political and social role of the photography. The emphasis will be placed on the photographic medium but at the same time projects and their extension will be supported to achieve further artistic and creative features. Students will be guided to leave the photographic medium to push its limits and thus to become a part of the global discourse on photography and new photographic strategies. The emphasis will be put on comprehensive education and understanding of photography to make students develop themselves independently and implement a research and artistic strategy within their artistic photographic work in the context of the relation between photography and critical practice. They will be guided to critically discuss their work, work of their colleagues and be able of critical self-reflection. Lectures will cover discussions bound to the political, history, sociology, anthropology, psychology, aesthetics etc. which will introduce to students a new view and perspective on their projects, as well as on photography itself.
The study of photography in The Studio of Photography and Critical Practice means that students form their own opinions on the world through the photographic medium and are not afraid to experiment in the content, technological level of the image and are open and study topics which they relate to. The study of photography in The Studio of Photography and Critical Practice will guide students in their systematic study through the visual research, work with text, engagement in social discussions and experimentation with technological image. The study of photography is to encourage students to create their own artistic style, and help them embrace the ´fluid´ multifacetedness of the photographic medium.
The Studio of Photography and Critical Practice is open space, a platform for exploration and discussion- for developing artistic strategies and inner (individual and creative) motivation of students. Within the program structure of the studio, we will collaborate with other schools and institutions at home and abroad.
The Studio of Photography and Critical Practice will actively participate in grants available. The studio´s projects will help develop and introduce complex studies of themes, external specialists and public presentations of the studio (exhibitions).
The Studio of Photography and Critical Practice in its program will open topics regarding relations with ethics and photography, imperialism and photography, capitalism and ecology, Anthropocene ...., post-traumatic society, questions of the post- memory, de-colonialization, new history, communities and minorities, gender/gendering … we will visually analyse current algorithms and data in connection with a photographic medium. Together we will discuss these topics and also introduce socially important topics, which students are interested in. Mutual dialogue is one of the pillars of the studio.
Methodology and teaching approaches stem from the current description of the study program at the bachelor´s degree level of Photography and New Media and at the master´s degree level of Visual Media.
Simultaneously in order to implement the concept of the Studio Photography and Critical Practice and to open discussion on the current state of the photographic medium, on reflection to photography, students of the Studio will participate in the creation of a podcast program within the AFAD podcast studio.
In this unconventional way, the podcast program of the studio aims to bring students closer to the study program of the Studio and make them implement it into their artistic approach. The students will collaborate on creating the program for the bachelor´s and master´s degree programs and thus actively co-create the program of the Studio thus raise the public awareness about their artistic projects and themes they are working on. Public presentations of the Studio Photography and Critical Practice in Slovakia and abroad (pop-up exhibitions, discussions, engagement in the public life) make an important part of the teaching methodology of the Studio. Each semester will introduce a new platform with a new theme or content. Themes will stem from the basic concept of the Studio as well as from discussions with students.
Third-year and fourth-year students of the bachelor´s degree programs will be guided so that they can grasp the meaning of artistic research and their projects in the context of contemporary photography and in relation with critical practice. Studio consultations will be conducted as discussions on a particular topic. In order to evolve in their artistic work during individual semesters, the students of bachelor´s degree programs will be asked to actively present their ideas and do research in a creative form, which suits them most at that particular moment, with the primary focus on creativity. During their studies, the students of the Studio Photography and Critical Practise will learn how to think and apply several levels of photography via the current technological scale of photographic medium, its aesthetic/non-aesthetic aspect, ethical and representative ones. The fourth-year students will continuously work on their bachelor´s thesis during their last year. It the summer semester they will present a content of themes, they are interested in, and the plan they want to follow to complete their bachelor´s photographic project (content, technology, and final form – installation).
Students of master´s degree programs join the studio with their own theme, whose content follows the areas of topics and concept of the Studio Photography and Critical Practice. The students are expected to be independent in drafting their semestral work, which can be one-semester in the first year of their studies, however, their artistic research can continue in the next term. The emphasis will be placed in such a way that the extension of study in the master´s degree programs will be more visible and different from the bachelor´degree programs. Students will actively co-create on studio discussions. The final outcome of their effort is a diploma work which will be primarily focused on in consultations, final elaboration, public presentation as well as in mutual consultation with a tutor of the written part of the diploma work.
Each semester of the bachelor´s and master´s degree programs will cover the following methodological features:
- individual consultations
- discussions with invited guests
- mutual consultations
- discussions and consultations with students of the bachelor´s degree programs
- presentation of photographic semestral works for the students of the Studio and for freshmen
- visits to institutions (archives, museums, science centres, galleries, festival of the contemporary art and photography)
are active, curious, open to cooperation, willing to work on their artistic projects, open to unexpected inputs and innovations in the photographic image. Together we will believe and work on shifting the perception of the photographic image and photographic medium in the Slovak but also in the international context. We will not be afraid of great challenges, on contrary we will participate in them.
Studio of Photography and Critical Practice
Head of studio
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