Visual Arts, Media and Architecture (Research)

The programme in a nutshell

The VAMA research Master's offers a two-year programme and consists of 120 ec (according to the European Community Course Credit Transfer System). While a fixed set of courses are mandatory, there is also plenty of opportunity for students to define an individual trajectory, on the basis of supervised personal research (tutorials) and the Master’s thesis. 

The compulsory package consists of two general courses:  

• Imagining the Image - In this course diverse definitions of  ‘image and imagination’ are traced in close connection with historical and contemporary developments in visual culture. Reference books on the history of art – certainly where stylistic divisions are concerned – often assume that it is possible to characterize a particular period on the basis of various visual manifestations (visual culture). In (cultural-) historical studies too, a common and dominant mentality or a socio-cultural view is often presumed or constructed.
  In this course key texts by modern and contemporary authors on visual culture are critically read and discussed, followed by in-depth analyses of the principles and methods of historiography.
   
• Critical Issues in the Cultural Industries - This course focuses on the face, role and influence of present-day popular culture, or what in the mid-20th century the philosophers Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer referred to as the ‘culture industry’. At the dawn of the 21st century, does the culture of the masses still present a threat to High Art, as Adorno and Horkheimer then feared? Or have the arts today completely lost out in the battle against standardization, leveling, commercialization and popularization? Has art finally become a lucrative business in the modern economy, a mere component of the entertainment sector, or can it still operate autonomously and critically? And if so, what are the visual and discursive, material and conceptual strategies at hand? Armed with such questions and queries, students approach, examine and question controversial and critical issues in culture industries. 

and three research seminars of 9 ec each.
(Students choose two out of three seminars, the third is elective.)

• Reading Concepts of Intermediality 
• CreativeCity 
• Focus Seminar (yearly changing topic, drawn from ongoing research projects of staff members or topical opportunities [exhibition, conference, study trip, etc])

All Research Master's students of the Faculty of Arts follow the module Research Design, where the focus is on research methodology. 

Within the research programme, a total of 42 ec can be attributed to courses, electives, research seminars and tutorials of the student's choice. These courses are subject to the staff's approval, but allow the student to co-build his own curriculum and to purport research projects within one (or several) of the research areas of faculty members. These areas include: 

• The synergy between the old and new media, commonly known as ‘intermediality’ 
• The creative industries 
• Concepts, design processes and style variations in architecture, urban planning and landscape. 
• The sites and institutions of the visual arts.

The Master’s thesis (30 ec) that concludes the programme is a substantial study based on independent academic research, in relation to topical research areas and projects of staff members. 

 

Schedule

* both subjects yearly alternate, for both 1st and 2nd year students (Critical Issues in 2011-2012)

**Students choose 2 out of 3 Specialisation Modules for a total of 18 ec. Bijzondere vraagstukken (MA) consists of yearly alternating Master research seminars, some of which are taught in Dutch and others in English, depending on the subject.