New Assignments in Visual Media
The expansion of the professional fields of designers, photographers, videographers and visual media makers due to ever growing interlinked networks of media has led to an increased complexity of their assignments.
Where the professional focus was previously on practical and medium-specific craftsmanship, in the context of today’s digital, interconnected and globalized knowledge society, creative proficiency is understood as a combination of humanistic, analytical, conceptual and practical creative and entrepreneurial skills.
The current questions of society call for conceptually as well as practically flexible creatives, who can contribute their talents and expertise in proposing alternative narratives or a variety of connected viewpoints and skillfully implement their ideas or those of others.
As a future-oriented study program that explores technical and conceptual boundaries – while incorporating learnings from the past – Camera Arts embraces a challenging educational agenda by offering students a well-informed curriculum that focuses on personal and professional proficiencies required in the 21st century.
CA Competence Fields
The curriculum is built around five interlinked competence fields:
Contexts – Concepts
Images acquire their meaning from the contexts in which they are created, presented and perceived.
The competence field ‘Contexts’ embodies the necessary sensitivity to analyze situations, actions, expressions and connections from the vantage point of specific relevant contexts. Semiotics (the study of images, signs and symbols and linguistics) is key to the analysis and coherent description of the production of meaningful communication. Engagement and involvement are essential for developing a deeper understanding of contexts and their mutual dependencies.
The competencies represented by ‘Concepts’ include the ability to imagine and conceive ideas beyond existing contexts. Based on imagination, new views, progressive thoughts, fictitious scenarios or unforeseen iterations are conceived and visualized. Thus, abstract ideas become presentable and communicable as concepts with a structured form.
Create
The competencies included in ‘Create’ embrace all knowledge and practices necessary for creative production in the design of (visual) media. Central to creation is the principle of the project: the organization of skills, methods and technologies applied to achieve a concrete goal. Nurturing open-ended, and iterative processes are important capabilities to improve from the first idea to the final result.
Technology
This competence field comprises all practical knowledge about design techniques and material media. The techniques taught relate to photographic and imaging techniques, communication design and digital media. Different production methods and the results that can be achieved by them are examined, so that the dependence of the results on the corresponding technical possibilities and constraints becomes apparent. The creative objectives of the project remain the starting point for the choice of suitable performing and processing methods, media and techniques.
Theory and Reflection
Theory means "looking, observing, becoming aware" and is also understood as "scientific consideration". Theory is essential for creative production. Various areas of knowledge associated with (post)photographic media, design, art and other media disciplines are addressed in this field of competence. This knowledge feeds into the development of the student’s one's own visual strategies and practical production methods as well as into their reflection on projects. Language, dialogue and writing are key tools for analyzing one's own actions; conversely, theory can give impulses to one's own creation.
Transfer
This field of competence represents the skill of social interaction and communication. Rhetoric knowledge supports the understanding and handling of complex topics, which are also developed in groups. Management knowledge for the implementation of projects is also imparted. Business and legal bases for independent and employed professional activities in the various areas of visual, photographic and digital media round off this field of competence.
Degree
Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Communication with Specialization in Camera Arts of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Art and Design.
The bachelor's degree also qualifies for a further Master of Arts in Design, Master of Arts in Film or Master of Arts in Fine Arts.
Professional outlook
With the Camera Arts study and its transdisciplinary focus on post-photography and transmedia storytelling, the graduates qualify for a contextual, narrative, relational practice in photography, visual media and media design.
Students acquire a wide range of knowledge and skills, which they can apply in fields such as editorial photography, visual journalism and transmedia storytelling, for print and online media projects in a broad range of problem areas. After their studies, they work independently, in collectives or in communication departments of companies and public institutions.
See graduation projects
See alumni portraits
