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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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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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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.
Laureate
After concluding the postgraduate program with a public End Presentation, the participant will receive the title of Laureate of the higher institute for fine arts Posthogeschool voor Podiumkunsten (the program equals 60 credits).
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Location(s)
a.pass is currently in a period of reevaluation, reimagination, and ultimately reorganisation. As part of this transition process, the organization will use some temporary spaces. At the moment you can find the office, library and meeting space at GC Nekkersdal in Laken.
At Bottelarij in Molenbeek we still provide a storage space for technical equipment and a workshop for small scenography undertakings.
a.pass regularly collaborates with Zsenne ArtLab (Brussels), Nadine (Brussels) and PAF (Performing Arts Forum) where some of our activities take place.
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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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post-graduate program
Due to the decision by the Ministry of Education to stop their financial support of a.pass, both programs (the Postgraduate as well as the Research Center) came to an end in 2023.
Until the end of 2023 a.pass offered 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.
