The Major Critical Image & Situated Practices (CRISP) focuses on free, socially engaged artistic practice as a professional perspective. Students acquire skills as artists and cultural producers to work individually and/or collaboratively, contextually, in project contexts, with institutions and/or communities.
In recent years, the relevant venues for public education have expanded significantly into digital spaces and shifted into the realm of social media. Like public space before it, this realm is increasingly permeated by private economic interests. The diverse interconnections between digital media, social phenomena, economic power relations, diverse identity formation and physical spaces suggest that situated artistic practice must relate to all these levels simultaneously. Where and how social debate can take place now and in the future, and how new commons can be created and cultivated, are central questions addressed in this major.
The Major Critical Image & Situated Practices (CRISP) addresses both critical image practices and situated, context- and location-specific approaches, enabling critically engaged artistic practice in social, political and cultural contexts and thus distinguishing itself from traditional academic art education. During the course of their studies, students research and explore specific issues, reflect on social practices in dealing with images and information, engage with transcultural and postcolonial perspectives, learn methods of performative intervention, develop context-specific approaches, experiment with formats of artistic research, mediation and archiving, and develop artistic projects in collaborative exchange within the framework of StudioLabs.
The Major Critical Image & Situated Practices (CRISP) programme offers an attractive environment in which to reflect on and further develop your own artistic practice.
The programme enables students to engage in individual and collective artistic practice. Their artistic work takes the form of projects in the field of art or collaborations with partners from civil society. The programme lays the foundations for a PhD in Practice.
The two-year Master's programme with a major in CRISP focuses on artistic projects that address current social issues in relation to specific locations, media and contexts. Students deepen their artistic skills and develop approaches and formats for critical and engaged intervention at the interfaces between visual media and social spaces. They engage with spatial strategies and visual cultures of our time and the power structures associated with them. The teaching of the following methods, theories and discourses is fundamental to this:
- Postcolonial perspectives
- Visual analysis and media criticism
- Situated practices
- Queer/feminist theories
- Experimental exhibiting
- Documentation
In addition to their chosen major, students deepen their work in a StudioLab: they choose the StudioLab post? to engage with posthuman debates. They choose the StudioLab eco! to develop radically ecological and socially engaged art. They choose the StudioLab ¿Wo? to engage with experimental personal dispositifs and collaborative practices of social elegance.
In the StudioLabs, students work together on their projects, try out artistic working methods and contextualise their practice in the discourse field of their chosen StudioLab. The StudioLabs cover all phases of artistic project work – individually and in teams: from research and conception to theoretical (self-)reflection and realisation. The StudioLabs develop over three semesters. In the fourth semester, they serve to develop and present the practical and reflective Master's thesis.
Students consolidate their specialist knowledge in discourse modules. In these, they engage with current positions and discourses in the field of their major.
In modules on professional practice, students engage with the fields of critical contemporary art and network with actors and institutions. In addition to guest speakers, internships play an important role in this regard: for example, at biennials and festivals, at art production venues or in socio-cultural projects.
The programme is rounded off by transfer modules. In these, students learn methods from other disciplines and combine them with their individual areas of expertise. They attend the department-wide +network and +research modules together with students from the Master's programmes in Design and Film; these modules focus on networking and current research at the department.
The Master of Arts programme emphasises collaboration between students, lecturers and international guest lecturers, a shared culture of care, and exchange beyond its majors.
The major is aimed at students who want to critically engage with current social issues and deepen their skills in critical image practices and situated practices. They are interested in artistic strategies and publics in the intertwining of social, political and media contexts. They are expected to enjoy critical discourse and be willing to reflect on and further develop their own artistic practice collaboratively in the joint StudioLabs of all majors. CRISP students usually have a BA in Fine Arts or in another field relevant to the programme, such as education, camera arts, photography, visual anthropology, architecture, urban studies, performance art or design.
On the new premises of the MA in Fine Arts, students find generous group and single studio spaces as well as venues to hold workshops and conferences. The library of the MA in Fine Arts as well as a kitchen are situated in the studio spaces. The Lucerne School of Art Film and Design boasts extensive and state-of-the-art infrastructure with numerous workshops, labs and studios.
The infrastructure is accessible to students 24/7.
