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Creative Concepts: An online workshop on Concepting across Academia and the Arts
Date: February 17, 2022, 2-5:15pm CET
Concepts are theoretical tools. They “do work” as they carve out phenomena or objects, and propose a perspective on the phenomenon or object thus established. As such, concepts are inherently creative and potentially critical: they provide meaning, establish connections, and generate reflection and perhaps debate. The world today invites us to dwell on the role and use of concepts as we try to grasp the phenomena that we are also part of. A growing number of publications and projects across academia and the arts are accompanied by glossaries, dictionaries, or lexicons. What in contemporary academic and artistic contexts or in the world at large necessitates the curation of, and with, new or modernized vocabularies? What can be done with concepts and what are the limits of concepting?
The above observations and questions form the starting point for the Creative Concepts workshop. It starts off practically by inviting all participants to partake in a collective concept-building exercise according to a pre-set script. After the exercise, the following discussants will provide reflections on concepting across academia and the arts:
After the reflections, participants are invited to partake in another round of the collective concept-building exercise, now inspired by the reflections on concepting.
Creative Concepts is organized on the occasion of the publication of Critical Concepts for the Creative Humanities by Iris van der Tuin and Nanna Verhoeff (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022).
This workshop is mainly meant for academics, postdocs and PhD/MA students, artistic researchers, and artists interested in concepts and concepting.
RSVP: creativeconcepts@nwo.nl
Creative Concepts is a spin-off of the successful The Postresearch Condition (EARN/NWO Smart Culture) conference (January 2021; organized by Henk Slager with Odile Heynders, Janneke van Kersen, Iris van der Tuin and Kitty Zijlmans).
Creative Concepts was made possible by the MA of Fine Art, HKU University of the Arts Utrecht; the Creative Humanities Academy of Utrecht University; the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Release Critical Concepts for the Creative Humanities
November 2021
New book on the emergence of creative concepts "indispensable" for professionals in the cultural sector
"We benefit from an open and inspiring relationship with the field we are researching." So say Prof. Iris van der Tuin and Prof. Nanna Verhoeff on the occasion of the launch of the Creative Humanities Academy, a new platform and network within the Faculty of Humanities that encourages and enables collaborations between researchers and makers. The platform has been in existence for a year now and offers various programmes for professionals, including the successful course Leiderschap in Cultuur Artistiek.
A new book by the two researchers will be published this month: Critical Concepts for the Creative Humanities. More of a dictionary really, which is closely intertwined with the activities of the Creative Humanities Academy and Continuing Education.
Media Architecture Biennale 2021
Interview with Prof. Nanna Verhoeff (CRUM member) and Dr. Michiel de Langeabout the Media Architecture Biennale 2021. Read more about smart cities and creative methods here.
Podcast: LinC A
December 2020
In this podcast: Marjolein Verhallen and Paul Adriaanse from the School of Governance, Nanna Verhoeff from Media and Iris van der Tuin from Philosophy, and artistic leaders Lars Ebert and Jente Hoogeveen the definition of leadership and how to learn it. The program, which consists of six "labs" or masterclasses.
Interview: meet team CHA
November 2020
Despite all the tense shoulders, stiff necks and square eyes, there are also benefits to online college life. Free book tips in the background, beautiful prints on the wall and not to forget: pets. Today I speak in total: three cats, a dog, Prof. Nanna Verhoeff Prof. dr. Iris van der Tuin. Together we form the core team of the Creative Humanities Academy (CHA). A new platform and network within the Faculty of Humanities that stimulates and enables collaborations between researchers and makers.
"A global crisis like this puts a lot of strain in the way we shape our contact."
April 2020
At Residences in Utrecht, Nanna Verhoeff, co-founder of the Creative Humanities Academy, reflects on the importance of new forms of collaboration, now and in the future:
"New forms of collaboration and the development of new methods of both research and creatorship are in line with broader social developments in which domains of science and art influence each other and also regularly overlap. It is therefore not only temporary, but also urgent in a time when one crisis follows the other. Sustainability, resilience and social justice require creativity and critical reflection, in the multiple meanings of these words. "