What is Nida Doctoral Summer School?

Nida Doctoral Summer School is a course designed for doctoral students in the field of art, design and architecture or in related fields (e.g. humanities, social sciences). In Nida we explore unorthodox approaches to research. We test—through making, performing, writing, discussing—the possibilities for generating knowledge outside of the conventional models of academic research.

Nida Doctoral Summer School is a free doctoral course for the participants. All accepted students are currently fully funded including travel grant and accommodation. In this course, doctoral students will be able to position their own research and practice within a broader field of research approaches. This course aims to open up the horizons for experimental development through intersecting with a diversity of fields. The goal of this summer course is to provide time, space and a conceptual framework for participants to gain insight into the expanded role of the artist as researcher, entrepreneur and social agent.

There is no course fee, and free accommodation and catering are provided for the selected applicants. In addition, Aalto students are also provided with a travel grant. All students will earn study points that can be included in their doctoral degree program. Nida Doctoral Summer School is organized by the Vilnius Academy of Arts and Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

“CO-ACTION” in  22-28 August, 2016

The idea of the “CO-ACTION” 2016 summer course is to examine the value of artists’ placements in non-arts organisations, such as business, political and science bodies. This idea rests on the assumption that representatives of creative professions (such as artists, curators, architects, designers) are no longer romantic lonely creators. In order to design a viable way to organise such placements where artists would work in non-arts fields, this course aims to discuss and research various contemporary art practices that have been engaged in similar activity. “CO-ACTION” is mainly inspired by the British artists’ collective Artist Placement Group (APG), founded by Barbara Steveni and John Latham. APG claimed that the role of the artists in 1970’s society was limited to aesthetic problems, and APG’s purpose was to expand this role.

We are planning to ask the following questions in the upcoming course: what might follow if we as artists and researchers take up the role of the ‘social visionary’, as suggested by Olinde Rodrigues in 1825[1]. Such roles are often used in financial and management consultancy services to perform creatively and successfully, so might it also be a way for the arts to adapt themselves to the current system of production? What are the dangers and motives of resistance within such systems? What are the methods used by social visionaries and how do they overlap with the modes of production in creative industries?

The students are expected to respond to the aforementioned themes and questions, as well as to exchange ideas, present their artistic research and practice, participate in lectures and workshops, and prepare for the courses by studying the reading list (provided by the 1st July 2016).
In addition to the discussions around the overall theme of the Summer School, students are asked to present their own research for all the participants. In these sessions students will receive feedback about the work from their peers in other doctoral programs and well as from the speakers of the School.

About the speakers:

Dr. Teemu Leinonen (Aalto) is an Associate Professor of New Media Design and Learning at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland. In 2014 – 2019 Teemu serves as the Vice Dean for Research. In addition to the work at the academia Teemu has founded two companies and helped educational institutions and ICT and media companies.

Dr. Nina Möntmann, (Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden), Professor of Art Theory and the History of Ideas, is an art historian, curator and writer. One focal point of her researches is the changing role of art institutions in response to global (economic) changes, a context in which she has focused on institutional critique, new institutionalism, network cultures, critical management and curatorial practice; publications in that field include Art and its Institutions, 2006, her PhD Kunst als Sozialer Raum /Art as Social Space, 2002, and several essays on ‘New Institutionalism’, such as The Rise and Fall of New Institutionalism. Perspectives on a Possible Future. 2007, New Institutionalism Revisited, 2013. More recently she expanded this topic to analyzing alternative models of education at the BlackMountain Research Platform and Freie Universität Berlin.

Dr. Sofia Pantouvaki (Aalto) is a scenographer (PhD) and Professor of Costume Design at Aalto University, Finland. Her background includes over 75 designs for theatre, film, opera and dance productions in Europe as well as numerous curatorial and exhibition design projects. Co-author, History of Dress – The Western World and Greece (2010); editor, Yannis Metsis – Athens Experimental Ballet (2011); co-editor, Presence and Absence: The Performing Body (2014). She is Project Leader of Performance: Visual Aspects of Performance Practice and Co-Editor, Studies in Costume and Performance (Intellect, 2016). Vice-Head for Research, OISTAT Costume Design Group; Costume Curator for World Stage Design 2013; Associate Curator, Costume in Action (WSD 2013). At Aalto University, Sofia founded Costume in Focus, the first research group on performance costume, Academy of Finland project on Costume Methodologies (Principal Investigator, 2014-2018). Sofia has taught, lectured and published internationally. Her recent research focuses on insights and processes in performance costume, fashion and costume curating, the potential of new materials and embodied technologies in costume practice, and clothing in the concentration camps of the Second World War.

Barbara Steveni has formed the APG in London by in collaboration with John Latham; they were joined by Jeffrey Shaw, Barry Flanagan, Stuart Brisley, David Hall, Anna Ridley and Maurice Agis, as well as Ian McDonald Munro. In the period from 1966 untill 1980 APG has organised 15 artists placements, in such companies as British Steel, Department of Environmental Security, and the Council of Scotland. (Only skype participation.)

Dr. Skaidra Trilupaityte, (Culture, Philosophy and Art Research Institute in Vilnius) is a member of AICA (The International Association of Art Critics) and ISA (The International Sociological Association) and a Lecturer at Vilnius Academy of Arts. Skaidra Trilupaityte publishes on a variety of subjects relating to post-Soviet cultural policies. Her academic interests include: artistic and institutional changes during the post-Soviet transition, relations between post-Soviet and expatriate cultures, intellectual exchanges after the Cold War, and new artistic identities, such as artist as entrepreneur and vice-versa.

Download and fill out an application form. Please send your applications and for any queries contact Juste Kostikovaite, curator of Nida Doctoral School  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Practical information regarding accommodation, travel arrangements and all other issues will be sent to you in a separate file in case of successful application. You can check out the facilities of the expanded Nida Art Colony building with the new reading and workshop space here.

Supporters

The programme is supported by the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania, and Aalto Univesity, School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

Partners

ArcInTex network.

ArcInTex European Training Network (ETN) is a network for early stage researchers to explore the expressions of sustainable forms of future living in the intersection of Architecture, Fashion Design and Interaction Design. With EU funding through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action European Training Network, the Vilnius Academy of Arts is now one of a consortium of academic institutions and companies able to offer funded studentships to early stage researchers. Together, the researchers will belong to a new generation of designers, who build their work practice on new ideas of material and design thinking with an emphasis on sensitive design for reflective living.

About Nida Art Colony

NIDA ART COLONY (NAC) is a subdivision of the Vilnius Academy of Arts opened in March 2011. Its overall objective is to create favourable conditions for creative contemporary art practices as well as for the implementation of innovations in art education by promoting international cooperation.  NAC is based in a small resort Nida between the Baltic Sea coast and Curonian Lagoon. Nida is located 49 km from the 3rd biggest Lithuanian city and sea-port Klaipeda and 357 km from capital city Vilnius. Nida has only 1.400 inhabitants during off-season but it becomes more than 10 times bigger during summer season. NAC building houses five artistic residencies, student dormitory, three multifunctional rooms used for artistic and educational activities, and a digital image, sound and print laboratory. It has just opened a new building, planned inauguration date is spring 2016.