“general intellect ? – it’s not about you, stupid !”

postgraduate program, workshop

Pierre Rubio / Elke van campenhout “general intellect ? – it’s not about you, stupid !”

3-7 March 2014

‘General Intellect? – it’s not about you, stupid !’ will explore and question a basic parameter of the apass environment : the relation between the individual and the collective. What is this relation, how does it function? Is it the individual that creates the collective? Or is the collective the base structure on which individuals can work and organize themselves? Specifically within an artistic research environment where the institution is constantly reformulating itself out of a multitude of individual inputs and where the individuals, in a state of crisis, are constantly self-constructing, confronted and challenged by a collective project.

Can there be a mutual constitutive relation? A relational machine we can call ‘General Intellect’ or ‘Transindividual Space’ operating between and through the individuals, creating an ‘ensemble’ through their practice?

From reading sessions to diverse practice formats, we will come up possibly with refreshed perspectives on what collective working and thinking can do.

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Content of the Research Proposal

A description of your project, including a research plan addressing the central question and a proposed research trajectory and methodology. Please address the potential of your research to contribute to experimental performative or spatial modes of knowledge production.

Proposal(s) on the modes of communication and sharing of your research within the a.pass environment and to a wider public (which formats would you like to explore to communicate, document and archive your research?)

A portfolio of your past projects : excerpts from videos, films, photos, texts, reviews, drawings, paintings, etc.

A curriculum vitae including information on your master’s diploma (or the highest diploma you obtained) and your professional experience.

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Selection

The PhD program is organized on a tailor-made basis with each individual researcher. The program is organized within the a.pass research center, that facilitates the research of the research coordinator, the associate researchers, and the independent researchers (see below), but also communicates closely with the post-master program. Concretely this means that a PhD researcher applies to develop (part of) her trajectory within the a.pass environment. This can happen in the pre-PhD phase, or at any time during the PhD trajectory. Since a.pass can only support PhD trajectories, but not grant or evaluate the PhD certificate, the researcher has to find, or be already associated with a university and a university supervisor. When starting a PhD project in a.pass, the researcher and the research coordinator together make up a work contract that stipulates the temporal structure (how long will the researcher be working in a.pass? how many times does she plan to come back?), the foreseen research steps that will be developed within the a.pass environment and the public outcome of the research within that period of time.

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post-graduate program

a.pass offers a one-year program for the development of artistic research projects on a post-graduate level in a critical and collaborative environment.

The program invites artists, performers, researchers, writers, curators, theoreticians to challenge the limits of their practice through developing and applying research methodologies which bring to the forefront its performative, spatial and collaborative aspects.

The program opens a space for speculative and experimental modes of practice and critical thinking. Researchers are invited to follow their research as a trajectory within an environment of self-organisation, collaboration and transdiciplinarity. They engage in presentation and feedback, collective workshops, individual and group mentoring, and modular interactions with the curators and the other researchers. The content and the practical apparatus of the program are shaped by the a.pass curators and the collaborative and public aspects of the participant’s research.

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COLLABORATION

Participants develop the project they submitted, not only by working on their own projects but also by actively investing in the group, in the sharing of research results with other participants and at times with a broader audience. Another part of the research culture that a.pass wants to bring about, is the sharing of ‘tools’ in the artistic practice – in all possible forms, including …read more

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SELF-ORGANIZATION / COLLABORATION / PARTICIPATION

Researchers following the a.pass program develop a practice-based research, take an investigative look at their artistic trajectories and engage in a particular discursive approach.

Focusing on individual work, researchers are working in a largely self-organized and collaborative environment where they take up an active role in the development of the a.pass research environment and act as responsive agents in (re)thinking artistic research methodologies, collective feedback strategies and practical organization.

In order to create this context of self-organization, collaboration and participation a.pass is established as a full time program requiring following minimum presence and participation.

For each block of 4 months researchers:

attend three collective moments (Opening Week, Half-Way-Days Week, and End Week)

and follow at least three weeks of curated program per block

attend four mentoring sessions with two dedicated mentors

attend one meetings with the artistic coordinator per block

To successfully conclude the a.pass program researchers are required to communicate their research in the frame of a public event.

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Location(s)

a.pass is currently situated at the former industrial site ‘de Bottelarij – Brussels Event Brewery in Molenbeek (Brussels). The former brewery is now occupied by a variety of cultural organizations.

a.pass works mostly in two different spaces:

The 650 square meters collective studio, situated on the 4th floor of the building, where the program takes place and researchers can develop their work.

The second space on the 3dr floor is dedicated to the administrative office, collective library and meeting space.

We provide a storage space for technical equipment and a workshop for small scenography undertakings.

The a.pass program regularly collaborates with Zsenne ArtLab (Brussels), Nadine (Brussels) and PAF (Performing Arts Forum) where some of our activities take place.

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Selection criteria

The selection of research proposals will be made based on the following criteria:

value of the proposal for the researcher’s trajectory
problematisation of content and methodologies that underline the practice
development of experimental and critical forms of performance and spatial practice
contribution to the a.pass collective research environment
relation to the current international development of artistic research

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Duration

A.pass is a self-organised full time programme and takes up 13 months in total, which means participants follow three blocks of 4 month consecutively.

12 month in the study program and a 13th month for the final presentation of your research case.

Exceptionally – when participants want to interrupt their studies for professional activities, or to intensifie their personal studies beyond the collaborative framework – we allow for an extension of the working period to a maximum duration of 17 months. Such a decision can only be made by the a.pass staff on explicit request beforehand and needs official approval. A 4-month block can never be attended partially.

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Entering the post-graduate program

Every block (in January, May and September) new researchers join the program. This system allows the researchers to exchange experience during the different phases of their research processes and brings about a constant flow of new perspectives and ideas.

The a.pass program is a one-year program consisting of three blocks of four months. The first three months of each block take place within the organized collective research environment. The fourth month of each block is open for the individual development of the research project.

A.pass is an intensive program relying on the researchers presence and contributions, nevertheless it is possible to combine the program with some external projects. The participation of the researcher in the block is planned in dialogue with the coordinator and the program curator.

Artistic creation ourside of a.pass research can be integrated into the individual research trajectory: participants can work on their own creations during their studies at a.pass, insofar as these creations are part of the participant’s research project.

A.pass accepts proposals three times per year: in February, June and October (application deadlines are always 6 -7 month before a possible program start).

Apply here

Or check out: the associated researcher program

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Requirements

To apply for the position of a researcher at the post-graduate program you are asked to submit an artistic research proposal. Your application should provide a clear insight in what you aim to achieve in the one-year working period at a.pass and the relevance of your proposal in a collective research environment.

The application dossier should include:

-your research proposal, including your larger research trajectory, the specific project or part of it you would like to engage in at a.pass, possible public formats of presentation, possible interactions with the a.pass the post-graduate and the kind of support that these proposals would need at a.pass.

-Portfolio (relevant works in relation to the research proposal)

-CV

-Diploma or equivalent proof of a master-level qualification.

Candidates should be holders of a master’s diploma (artistic or theoretical) and deliver a copy of it upon registration. In certain cases application without a master’s diploma can be considered, if the practice-based experience of the applicant is equivalent to the masters level.

Please upload your dossier as a PDF file via the online form.

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Hand in

Your application has to be handed it by midnight of the deadline date! Please use the application form on this page (green ‘apply’ button) or a large file delivery can be sent by post to:

a.pass – applications

Delaunoystraat 58-64, B17

1080 Brussels (Molenbeek) / Belgium

Applicants will receive confirmation of their application upon receipt of their proposals.

Candidates may be asked to give more information or to specify certain elements of their research proposals. To this purpose they may be invited for an interview.

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Tuition fee

The tuition fee for the a.pass programs is fixed at 1.200,00 EUR.

250,00 EUR should be paid within the first four weeks after the start of the program. The remaining 950,00 EUR of the enrollment fee should be paid before the end of your first block.

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Curriculum

During its one-year course the program is sequenced into three blocks of four months, each block organised by a different curator towards a specific mode of research and collaboration. In general the blocks assemble in different proportions the following elements:

Development of artistic research practices, theoretical studies, workshops with guest practicioners, dispositives of feedback and exchange, modes of research presentation, attendance to public events related with current concerns (conferences, seminars, performances, festivals, etc), series of individual and collective mentoring sessions with invited mentors.

Within this curated framework the researchers are encouraged to contribute to the conceptualisation, organisation and performance of self-organized activities and practices.

Timing & Organisation of the PROGRAM

The one-year program is organised in three ‘blocks’ of four months, each of them divided in three months of curated curiculum in group and one month focused on self-organised individual work.

After the twelve months program an extra month is fully dedicated to the preparation and performance of a form of communication of the individual research.projects within a collective public event.

Exceptionally – when participants want to interrupt their studies for professional activities or to intensifie their personal studies – it is possible to skip one block and to extend the duration of the program to a maximum of 17 months.

Timing & Organisation of the BLOCKS

A block is structured by three collective moments: Opening Week (first week of the block), Half-Way-Days (middle of the block) and End Week (last week of the block).

These three mandatory collective moments are dedicated to the individual research presentations. Each of them has a particular objective and question towards the research: Opening week focuses on information (what?), Half-Way-Days on method (how?) and End-Week on contextualisation (why?)

In addition to these three weeks the researchers (in dialogue with the curator and coordinator) design their trajectory with a minimum of three weeks of presence and engagement in the block program.

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what do we do?

The a.pass research center works on different levels. On a first level the centre brings together long-time researchers in a context of collaboration and sharing. On this level currently we have in the research center three kinds of workers: the PhD researchers, the associate researcher, the research coordinator and the independent researchers.
Read more..

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PhD – organization

The Research Centre which is hosting (pre)PhD level researchers is organized on a tailor-made basis with each individual researcher. The program is organized within the a.pass research center, that facilitates the research of the research curator, the associate researchers, and the independent researchers (see below), but also communicates closely with the post-master program. Concretely this means that a PhD researcher applies to develop (part of) her trajectory within the a.pass environment. This can happen in the pre-PhD phase, or at any time during the PhD trajectory. Since a.pass can only support PhD trajectories, but not grant or evaluate the PhD certificate, the researcher has to find, or be already associated with a university and a university supervisor. When starting a PhD project in a.pass, the researcher and the research curator together make up a work contract that stipulates the temporal structure (how long will the researcher be working in a.pass? how many times does she plan to come back?), the foreseen research steps that will be developed within the a.pass environment and the public outcome of the research within that period of time.

This contract then will be signed by the researcher, the a.pass research coordinator, the supervisor at the university, and the head of the department of the university.

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researcher’s profile

In the selection of PhD candidates a.pass uses largely the same criteria as for the post-master researchers. In the PhD environment however more emphasis is put on the willingness to open up the research, both to fellow researchers and to a wider audience outside of the limits of the a.pass environment. If we deal with researchers with an academic background we strongly encourage them to develop a practice-based artistic research during their participation in a.pass and to profit as much as possible from the opportunities to commonly share and exchange knowledge practices.

We also expect from the PhD researchers a solid grip on both the theoretical and artistic frameworks and discourses they relate to, and a thorough self-critical and sector-critical attitude in developing their research boldly and radically within the framework of their university setting, and in relation to a larger societal reality.

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goals of the PhD program

a.pass wants to offer a critical and collective practice-based environment for the development of the understanding of the Phd in the Arts.
a.pass wants to develop tools for the evaluation and assessment of the knowledge that is not developed on the basis of academic or scientific criteria, but that takes seriously the qualities and values of knowledge as developed throughout artistic methodologies, attitudes and frameworks of research.
since often the end result in this case is not necessarily the most eloquent part of the research, a.pass wants to stimulate the exchange of methodologies, practices and work sessions in-between researchers and with a larger group of interested ‘outsiders’ as a fundamental part of the PhD communication and assessment process.
a.pass wants to support radical and experimental PhD-trajectories that critically challenge the status quo of the knowledge production within other environments, and value the transindividual richness of a shared knowledge processing environment.
a.pass wants to develop PhD trajectories that are self-critical and relating the research to larger economic, political, academic, social, or other realities. a.pass wants to stimulate researchers to step out of their self-referential framework of discourse, professional ambitions and specialization and take on a more challenging position towards the construction of the PhD as a tool in a greater societal reality.
a.pass wants to support researchers in their ambition to become engaged mentors in the development of tools for sharing of knowledge, and the facilitation of critical research for others, out of a spirit of generosity, interest, experimentality, criticality and artistic sensitivity.

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PhD environment

The Research Centre aims to support researchers on a pre(PhD) level to become emancipated independent researchers in the fields of performance and scenography, or beyond.

We support our researchers to think and work ‘out of the box’, or forget about the box altogether, and to become innovative practitioners and thinkers, that develop their work out of a (self-)critical ability to assess and relate their urgencies to a wider environment (the artistic and educational sector, society, the world). We encourage our researchers to think beyond the current value definitions of knowledge and to reappraise their own practices as precious contributions to society. We help our researchers to connect to the world, by supporting them to network, collaborate with external partners, and communicate their work to an outside audience of artists, public and professionals.

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research center

AAA

The Research Center at a.pass is a platform for advanced research practices in the arts. It invites five to six associated researchers per one year cycle to develop their artistic research practice in a environment of mutual criticality and institutional support. In agreement with the individual research trajectory of the associate researchers the apass Research Center supports and facilitates forms of performative publishing (publications, presentations, exhibitions etc) experimental research set ups and collaborations. The Center cohabits with the self-educational processes of the a.pass post-master program and functions as a resource for reflection on methodologies of collaborative research.

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organization

The a.pass research centre works on different levels. On a first level the centre brings together long-time researchers in a context of collaboration and sharing. On this level currently we have in the research center three kinds of workers: the PhD researchers, the associate researcher, the research coordinator and the independent researchers.

On a second level, the research centre also documents, archives and opens up research results and methodologies on a larger scale. Through the creation of a larger context for the end communications of the participants, through the publications, conferences, workshops and lectures, experimental collaborations etcetera. A lot of these activities will be mentioned again throughout the development of this report, but a full list of activities of the research centre, and its collaborations can also be consulted in the overview pages in the Appendix.

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test a.pass programs

a.pass organizes two programs (the post-master and PhD program) with slightly different goals and end qualifications, which are both sustained, fed and communicated through the efforts of the a.pass research center. In this point we will clarify the organization of the different cells and their aims, and define their specific research goals that are addressed on all these levels.

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a.pass in context

Position of a.pass in the educational and artistic field

conditions for something to happen

The a.pass program and research centre are positioned within a larger context of the arts and education, and develops its working out of a questioning of the current organization of artistic and educational (institutional) practices. In its trajectory, a.pass has on all levels of its organization critically reflected upon the economy of knowledge as it is being employed today in higher education and the media, the logics of the arts market, the recuperation of institutional critique by the institutions themselves, the capitalist drive for the new, the seductive and the quickly consumable, and the role and responsibility of the artist researcher in all of this.

In a.pass the relevance of the research is measured by the degree in which researchers, out of their different backgrounds and knowledge horizons, manage to formulate innovative perspectives on potential knowledge production, as well as on the development of tools to share and experiment this knowledge on the public scene. It is clear that this kind of research environment also resonates with other institutions for art education on an (inter)national scale. Artistic research in a.pass can be seen as a third way, wedged in between the artistic practice as such and the more academic understanding of knowledge production. Different from the artistic practice the research is not limited to the individual trajectory, the personal questioning and aesthetics of the artist. But at the same time the artistic practice does take on a central role in the development of new perspectives and methodologies, a way of working that relates to, but doesn’t coincide with, and even explicitly questions an academic AND an artistic framework. Artistic research in a.pass is not limited to the development of arts-practice-related knowledge, but also involves the creation and testing of formats, methodologies, communication strategies and shared practices, ‘tools for collaboration and communication’, that broaden up the understanding of artistic research from an art work with paper validation form to a more critical investigation into the statute, the circulation and the valuation of divergent forms of knowledge.

This means that a.pass is an environment that reflects and practices knowledge and artistic strategies with the windows open to an outside reality. In that sense a.pass is not so much a preparation for the ‘professional life’, as it is a putting-into-question of what these professional sectors (both the artistic and educational organizations of institutes, values and work) are symptoms of. Throughout the years, a.pass has used its own institutional status – and the opportunities offered by being an artistic educational program embedded in a larger network of schools, art centres, research places, workspaces, etc… – to seriously reconsider its role, and the role of the artist researchers within the current ethical, political, economic and social context of knowledge production and sharing.

On the level of ethics this means that we consider both the institute as the institute’s participants to be part of a larger network of relations, that give them their value and meaning. In a.pass the relation between the ‘I’ of the researcher and the provisional construction of the ‘We’ of the research practice within the institute, is a recurring, and politically charged, topic. The institute here is considered as an experimental playground to try out strategies for the now and the future within a larger society. a.pass gives a lot of attention to the transindividual character of practice and knowledge, and how the collective environment can be both a source of frustration and feedback, as of nourishment and challenge to the individual researcher’s trajectory. Also, a.pass in that sense always takes the ‘ethical’ concreteness, the situational reality of research seriously: artistic research is always already embedded in the relations that produce it, and these relations encompass elements of discourse, social and economic factors and spatial settings, as well as institutional givens, societal demands and resources at hand. Therefore an artistic research strategy or outcome is not transparently reproducible without changing in the process. The ethical (here understood as relational and situational) character of the research, makes it resistant to commodification on a larger scale. But this doesn’t mean that the research can not be communicated or shared, using strategies that differ from the promise of serial reproduction.

This interest in the transindividual character of learning and research, however, does not exclude a strong focus and interest in the development of the individual’s trajectories. Since the institute can not function without the invested interest and contributions to the common environment of the researchers, a.pass strives towards creating an environment in which the aesthetic and artistic idiosyncratic qualities of each practice can be challenged into being. a.pass considers the artist researcher in the year of participation not so much as an artist-producer of work, but as an artist-researcher, reflecting self-critically on the trajectory already accomplished, and reconsidering the notions of work, value, the market, responsiveness and responsibility through the practicing of the research. a.pass encourages the exploration of ‘risky’ practices that do not directly correspond to the current demands of the arts market or academic understandings of research, in order to create an experimental environment in which certainties can be subverted, undermined, or simply reappraised from another point of view.

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Feedback , Exchange & Co-Learning

In the apass co-learning environment and within most of the program activities some space is systematically dedicated to discussing, sharing and feed-backing formats. These formats are being created and revisited as part of the a.pass self-educating trajectory and they continuously inform the program development. Feedback, critique and discussion within a.pass are living tools of research that organically emerge out of the practices of the researchers, curators and mentors.

The a.pass institute aims to build a culture of discussion in which we ‘agree to disagree, rather than one of argumentative oppositions or of convenient politeness. Resisting the reproduction of established research culture, the feedback and exchange sessions develop a space for ‘agonistic debate’: an open field for supporting, complementing, challenging and even re-routing each others’ positions.

The collective co-learning environment of a.pass opens a platform for the development of stronger, more grounded and more critical positions for artistic researchers, which in turn contribute to the common practices and knowledge processings. Discussion and feedback formats simultaneously strengthen, sharpen and delineate what can be said. . Experimental formats for communication and sharing create hospitable conditions for the emergence of different logics, procedures and discourses.

A.pass often borrows techniques from different environments (critical theory, therapy, activism, political organization, technology, and so on…) to create critical discursive dispositives as such as ritual practices, object constellations, tarot cards readings, concept mapping, walking discussions, silent communication, speed dating, cooking sessions, family constellation discussions, mind-mapping, dragon dreaming, score writing, fanzine-ing, radio programing, etc….

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ABOUT MENTORING(S)

In a.pass researchers are individually supported by different mentors.

1. Dedicated Mentors are mentors proposed by a.pass. Researchers can choose two mentors out of four and are expected to attend four sessions of +/- two hours per block.

2. Researchers meet once a block the coordinator to evaluate their research plan and trajectory.

3. Personal mentors are chosen by the researchers themselves in discussion with the coordinator.

(Researchers have an individual research budget for external engagements with the personal mentors.)

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Publications Overview

I feel like leaving the room
/ 2021

End Presentations by Chloe Chignell, Christina Stadlbauer, Flavio Rodrigo, Muslin Brothers
/ 2020

Dismantle Space
/ 2020

Zones of disobedience
/ 2020

Precious indirection*
/ 2020

PEACH BASKETS - THREE ANGLES ON BALANCING
/ 2019

Peach Baskets
/ 2019

RRadio Triton
/ 2019

Body Virtual Institution
/ 2019

UNSETTLED STUDY AT PERFORMATIK '19
/ 2019

Subtracted Seduction
/ 2019

Broadcasting RRadio Triton
broadcast / 2019

PIECE ME BACK TOGETHER (AGAIN)
/ 2018

RRadio Triton Data Retrieval Interface
/ 2018

Writing Scores - 1000 liters of Fuel
/ 2018

This is 1000 liter fuel. So - & Tectonic Friendship book launch
/ 2018

Conditions for the work
/ 2018

A dialogue on Active Archives
/ 2018

If a question could lie
/ 2018

If a question could lie it'd be somewhere else
/ 2018

A conversation-on-exhibition
/ 2018

Close Encounters Series
/ 2017

Semiotics of the Uncanny
/ 2017

No Communication without Noise
End presentation publication / 2017

HEARSAY
/ 2017

Book club #7bis An Animal Escape Case
/ 2017

Landings
/ 2017

LANDINGS
/ 2017

ScoreScapes
/ 2016

Between what is no longer and what is not yet
/ 2016

UNDER )o( MINING
/ 2016

Under)0(Mining
/ 2016

Generously forceful / The doubtful wild
/ 2016

WARRIORS
/ 2016

research publication
/ 2016

FIRE SALE TOUR
/ 2015

don't eat the microphone / televizinho / mommy, daddy, me
/ 2015

SELF-INTERVIEW Elke - Elle
/ 2015

MAGIC NIGHT
/ 2015

VOLVER
/ 2015

volver program
/ 2015

Back to the order
/ 2015

Volver
/ 2015

Pharmakon
in production / 2014

Therapy Sessions
/ 2014

Writing Scores / Lilia Mestre
/ 2014

THRESHOLDS
/ 2014

it's not me, is it?
/ 2014

Tarot of Hope
tarot cards and book contained in a bag / 2013

Displacement
/ 2013

the tender institute
/ 2013

Curating as Environmentalism
/ 2012

It, Thingly Variations in Space
/ 2011

On Some Things
comic strip / 2011

What is it that I have done?
research publication / 2010

Song Mountain Area, The Centre Direction
booklet + DVD; research publication / 2010

Môwn (movies on my own)
DVD and booklet; research publication / 2009

56 Ways (not) to
research publication / 2009

THE LAUGHING BODY
research publication / 2009

DEMOCRATIC FOREST
/ 2009

ROT
/

Perform Back Score / Lilia Mestre
/

BUBBLE SCORE / Lilia Mestre
/

archiving artistic anxieties
/

a.pass lexicon in process
/

kitchen
/

a.pass time-lapse 2008 - 2020
/

BEAUTY KIT – AN ECO-EROGENOUS ART
/

NEOCORTEX
/

ZOOLOGICAL VANDALISM
/

Forms of life of forms
/

DIRTY ROOM
/

- HEARSAY
/

Parallel Parasite Timeline Repository - Web Publication
/

Medium scores - Tectonic Friendship / Lilia Mestre
/

Calendar Project
research publication /

PUBLISHING ARTISTIC RESEARCH
/

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Team

Artistic Coordinator:

Lilia Mestre
lilia@apass.be

Administrator:

Michèle Meesen

office@apass.be

Responsible for contracts,visa & attestation issues, payments and reimbursements. On a more global level she deals with all legal matters such as the ministry, the board, the building, the insurance.

Production Coordinator:

Joke Liberge

production@apass.be

She is the production manager and responsible for the general co-ordination between the artistic & the practical.

Scenographic and Technical support:

Steven Jouwersma

support@apass.be

Technician and practical advisor of scenographic, digital, infrastructural and material questions.

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How to find a.pass

a.pass
advanced performance and scenography studies
Posthogeschool voor Podiumkunsten vzw
Delaunoystraat 58/17
1080 Brussels (Sint-Jans-Molenbeek)
Belgium

email us: office@apass.be

talk to us: +32 (0) 2 411 49 16

Our office is situated on the 3rd floor of the main building of the Bottelarij – Brussels Event Brewery.

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Program

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Library

Please choose an item and send an email to Joke Liberge with your request.

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application
procedures and requirements!

testing for Leave Page Bug

fixed!

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apply

here!

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HOW TO BECOME ASSOCIATED AS A RESEARCHER

Associated researchers can apply three times per year for the upcoming cycle, ideally after an initial conversation with one of the a.pass curators. The next cycle begins in May 2021.

The research center invites associated researchers who:

– are involved in ongoing advanced artistic research

– have a practice-based understanding of artistic research

– are associated to multiple platforms of support

– have the ability to formulate and follow their own study trajectory

– are able to self-organise and contribute to collective processes

– have experience with making their research public, and are interested in contributing it to the public program of a.pass

An associated researcher involved in a PhD program can propose to develop their PhD research as a part of their trajectory within the a.pass environment. This can happen at any time during the PhD trajectory. Since a.pass can not formally grant or evaluate PhD certificates, the researcher has to be already associated with a university and a university supervisor.

apply here

or have a look at the post-graduate program

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Researching in Association

a.pass offers a collaborative environment for the development of artistic research. Five to six researchers join the Research Center for a one year cycle. They are accompanied by three Research Curators that consecutively take care of the center. The activities of the research center are organised around performative publishing, engagement with external research situations and peer reviewing/collective mentoring. Research is developed, shared and performed in public lectures, workshops, conferences, publications, performances and other experimental set-ups. The Research Center meets on a bi-weekly basis to self-organise and share processes. In addition, research curators are available for individual meetings.

Associated researchers are seen as partners of a.pass. They have access to the collective activities of the post-master program. a.pass provides technical support, workspace and supports performative publishing. Associated researchers do not pay a fee. a.pass can act as an institutional partner in applications for funding or academic research. The specific terms of the association will be formulated in an individual contract between the researcher and a.pass, delineating the research steps that will be developed within the a.pass environment and their possible public outcomes.

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Goals of the a.pass PhD program

a.pass wants to offer a critical and collective practice-based environment for the development of the understanding of the Phd in the Arts.
a.pass wants to develop tools for the evaluation and assessment of the knowledge that is not developed on the basis of academic or scientific criteria, but that takes seriously the qualities and values of knowledge as developed throughout artistic methodologies, attitudes and frameworks of research.
Since often the end result in this case is not necessarily the most eloquent part of the research, a.pass wants to stimulate the exchange of methodologies, practices and work sessions in-between researchers and with a larger group of interested ‘outsiders’ as a fundamental part of the PhD communication and assessment process.
a.pass wants to support radical and experimental PhD-trajectories that critically challenge the status quo of the knowledge production within other environments, and value the transindividual richness of a shared knowledge processing environment.
a.pass wants to develop PhD trajectories that are self-critical and relating the research to larger economic, political, academic, social, or other realities. a.pass wants to stimulate researchers to step out of their self-referential framework of discourse, professional ambitions and specialization and take on a more challenging position towards the construction of the PhD as a tool in a greater societal reality.
a.pass wants to support researchers in their ambition to become engaged mentors in the development of tools for sharing of knowledge, and the facilitation of critical research for others, out of a spirit of generosity, interest, experimentality, criticality and artistic sensitivity.

information

End Qualifications and Competences of the PhD researchers

Also on this level, we assume the same kinds of qualifications and competences in the PhD researchers as in the post-master researchers, but with some added qualities.

The PhD program aims to support researchers to become emancipated independent researchers in the fields of performance and scenography, or beyond. We support our researchers to think and work ‘out of the box’, or forget about the box altogether, and to become innovative practitioners and thinkers, that develop their work out of a (self-)critical ability to assess and relate their urgencies to a wider environment (the artistic and educational sector, society, the world). We encourage our researchers to think beyond the current value definitions of knowledge and to reappraise their own practices as precious contributions to society. We help our researchers to connect to the world, by supporting them to network, collaborate with external partners, and communicate their work to an outside audience of artists, public and professionals.

We expect our PhD researchers to have developed a thorough knowledge of the theoretical as well as artistic practice fields they address in their research, and to be capable of sharing the knowledge that has been developed throughout the research within the public realm throughout lectures, conferences, publications, performances or other experimental set-ups.

a.pass also expects its PhD researchers to have developed the social skills, broad societal interests, and pedagogical capacities to pass on the experimental spirit of research to upcoming researchers and interested groups, and to offer the research a public context in which to nourish itself and the world around it. As such, we count it among the end qualifications of the PhD students, that they will be capable to use their research competences later on in their professional life as a lever for change and reappraisal of the status quo of shared knowledge in any given circumstances.

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a.pass space

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a.pass calendars

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Welcome Package

This Welcome Package informs you about all practical details, structure, ways and tools for communication and use of resources at a.pass.

It also contains quite some information about Brussels, about finding accommodation, and about the cultural field.

WELCOME PACK

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scenography workshop

public workshops

a.pass regularly opens it doors to outsiders that are interested in the topic or in the workings of a.pass. To subscribe you just look in the menu: “public workshops“) and sign up to the event of your choice.

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call

for artistic research PROPOSALS

post Graduate PROGRAM

DEADLINE: 27/06/2021
TO START IN Jan or May 2022

SELECTION TALKS : 14,15,16/07/2021
(PLEASE KEEP THESE DAYS FREE!)

call for Associate Researchers

Date to be announced in the fall 2021

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CONTACT LIST

Find here the contact list of all participants, mentors and team members of the current and past blocks.

Please keep it updated with the personal information you want to share.

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Documentation Handpad

2004-2010

Bildschirmfoto 2017-02-06 um 10.52.19

Featuring collective works with GASTSTUBE°performance and Berlin n@work as well as solo practices.
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Artistic research at a.pass

Embracing the fact that artistic research is an emerging category of production in the cultural field, a.pass does not claim it as it’s goal or premise to be able delineate the borders of this particular methodology. a.pass affirms this apparent lack of definition as a chance. Operating without a predefined notion of what „artistic research“ is, it creates and brings together a pluralistic overview of the existing notions of this practice.

An affirmative survey towards the question „what is artist research?“ has therefore become one of a.pass’ defining methodologies: a.pass strives to host a multitude of practices in the arts which self-define themselves as research. Their definitions of what a research praxis in the arts is are at times complementing and at times contradicting each other. This dis/agreement creates a polivocal platform of definitions and is a statement towards a different conception of institutions: away from essentialist claims and towards a more politicised platform of engagement with a certain discipline.

Some of the methods of this survey methodology are:
-a.pass frequently invites research practitioners in the arts to work with the participants of the institute.
-a.pass invests in creating occasions for public discussions of what artistic research is and in presenting the researches work to the general public.
-a.pass is producing a library of research methodologies by publishing the individual research cases.
-a.pass is presenting itself as a platform for the exchange, implementations and experimentation of research methodologies.

Beyond its defined curriculum and methods a.pass has in general become an informal meeting point of professionals in the arts on many levels of professionalization Many contacts and collaborations that have been initiated at a.pass continue well beyond the one-year timeframe. It is a productive hub for the Brussels art scene.

a.pass is a platform which educates and sets an agenda of learning for its participants. It is building its curriculum by inviting advanced practitioners in the arts to actively engage the participants into their research within a framework of a workshop. This work is not framed as a teaching as such, but as a process of collective
exploration. Experimental formats of collective and collaborative research are frequently proposed and developed in such a framework. The traditional professor- student relationship is put into question here and has to be re-negotiated as a dialogue while a diverse group of practices is admitted as „teaching“.
a.pass develops teaching practices which engage with the question of how the process of knowledge production and transfer can be framed outside the persistent hierarchies within the processes of learning and education.

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what does a.pass do?

a research platform questioning artistic research... & an educational environment questioning teaching... & a meeting point within an experimental institute
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Agenda

postgraduate program, seminar

15-15 May 2021

Location a.pass

Amy Pickles, Chloé Janssens, Túlio Rosa
Cracks and Containers

end presentation, postgraduate program

11-12 June 2021

Location De Markten

Dragon Love (?)

http://piratepad.net/7JwaVANvHl

Materials

Material

Materialisation of a continuous flow of artistic researches in collaboration with various partners amongst others a.pass, Sinfoniette Basel, Flutgraben Berlin,Verlegt Verlag, Nadine Brussels, Frans Masareel Zentrum, Zsenne ArtLab, Substitut Berlin, Theater an der Parkaue, Kunstenpunt Brussel.
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end presentation, project

Substracted Seduction

On Friday 1 and Saturday 2 February 2019, from 18:00 to 22:00 Adrijana Gvozdenović, Pia Louwerens and Eleanor Ivory Weber present their artistic researches at the former swingers club, La Porte des Senses, today an art space called Hectolitre, to mark the end of their participation in the a.pass program.

With Subtracted Seduction, their individual researches are framed through shared concepts such as anxiety, non-consensual collaboration, authorship and institutional critique. In each of the three approaches, narratives created through these symptoms of the contemporary artist are investigated. The romantic artist is negated and the multi-faceted artist materialises as both instigator and instigated, made up of multiple voices. The three researchers engage with the complexity of being both unnameable and contained in the knowledge-network immanent to the institution. There appears Subtracted Seduction.

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a.past