Common artistic courses

Artistic courses which “support” the departmental options are mostly practical classes, multi disciplinary, applicable to all departments. They are among the compulsory courses for all students in their first cycle and are also optional at the Master’s level. They are labeled with the acronym CASO.

CASO, first cycle

The students work together and examine a number of fundamental questions, dealing primarily with how to set up and implement any artistic project. In general the classes focus on the practices and understanding of these various forms of expression as well as on the link between cognition, vision and invention.

• Digital arts (B1, B2 and B3) Digital arts classes are organized into modules lasting for a quarter: generalized for the first year, and more specialized depending on the requirements of each discipline. Several modules are offered as options during the third year.

Pedagogical coordination: Serge Hoffman, digital artist

• Color (B1, B2, B3) This class deals with four subjects: production, perception, reproduction and the codification of colors. Beginning in the second year there is an option to master the theory of computer color management. In the third year, the class is offered to those seeking to do their own research, linked – or not – to their artistic practice and/or the theory of color. It is organized as a theoretical/practical seminar.

Pedagogical coordination: Christophe Lepot, art historian, artist

• Drawing: the architecture of drawing (B1) This class is offered to students in the Interior Architecture, Industrial Design, Urban Space and Scenography/ Set design departments and offers specialized training in the representation of space (urban, architectural, stage) and of the object.

Pedagogical coordination: Valérie Gevers, architect and illustrator

• Drawing: life drawing (B1, B2, B3) The class begins with the practice of observation and sketching live models in the first year, and then offers other approaches to drawing including project drawing and intentional drawing, among others.

Pedagogical coordination: Anne Desobry and Dominique Vandenbergh, artists

• Drawing: perspective and expression (B2, B3) This class offers students the opportunity to discover perspective and space in its broadest sense, with historical, practical and experimental applications.

Pedagogical coordination: Valérie Gevers, architect and illustrator

CASO, second cycle

These “supporting” classes are not compulsory in the second cycle but may be included in the programs students build for themselves. They are organized in the first quarter, in an intensive six to seven week study module.

• Book arts This class is for students exploring books as part of their artistic practice. Here the book is treated as a medium, a vehicle for art, ideas and meanings, autonomous or as a prolongation of existing work. Activities in this class involve reproducible books: editions, artists’ books, magazines and other periodicals, portfolios, catalogues, etc. http://casodulivre.tumblr.com/

Pedagogical coordination: Alexia de Visscher, graphic designer and typographer

• Networking the arts
  This class offers a work and research environment which allows the students to imagine, develop, produce, set up and distribute a personal artistic digital project. Several high level modules are offered in partnership with other structures concerned with current conditions in digital creation. A sensors workshop is offered at the M1 level.

Pedagogical coordination: Valérie Cordy, digital artist

• Illustration
  In this class the idea of “illustration" means the accompaniment or transposition of a text or a story using each student’s skills and powers of observation. They begin with their drawing practice, learning to express themselves in spite of constraints involving materials, rhythms and backgrounds.
  http://illustrationlacambre.wordpress.com/

Pedagogical coordination: Pascal Lemaître, illustrator

• Performance and the art of the body
  This class involves using the body of each individual as material for work, for performing. The workshop is offered to any student looking to further develop his or her performative skills inside his or her artistic practice, whether it be “live,” or destined to be transcribed visually, acoustically, spatially or as part of the creative process.

Pedagogical coordination: Antoine Pickels, writer, curator and performer

• Audi-visual space
  This class helps participants develop audio-visual projects as part of a theoretical and practical research module. It is an advanced workshop for students who have already experienced or created projects involving image/ sound, exploring the medium, the body, the setting of the work in space, performance, installation and the technologies involved.

Pedagogical coordination: Geoffroy De Volder, artist and videographer

Cross-disciplinary modules

Beyond compulsory courses in the first cycle and the CASO, cross-disciplinarity is encouraged at the school, at the individual and group levels, in short workshops, “exceptional” weeks, cross-disciplinary modules.

At the Master’s level, each department offers one or more cross-disciplinary modules organized over a six to seven week period: modules coorganized by several departments, department modules open to students from other departments, modules coorganized with partner institutions.

Students not enrolled in a second cycle CASO are required to participate in one of these cross disciplinary modules.

General courses

The school’s general courses offer content which is artistic, philosophical, literary, semiological and historical, analysis of the contemporary world as well as an intellectual toolbox which students will use to structure their knowledge and organize their way of thinking. They contribute to the intellectual training of the student and help him or her articulate these skills in a coherent, critical and autonomous manner in his or her artistic practice.

General courses are compulsory for students in their first cycle; optional and compulsory classes, as well as classes taught in English and seminars are available to students in the second cycle (Master’s level).

Seminars

Seminars are available only to students in the second cycle. The program of seminars, the teaching staff and guest lecturers are available on our website www.lacambre.be, under the Cursus tab.

• Research methodology This seminar focuses on research work outside the artistic practices taught in each option. It is a multi-disciplinary exchange point, dealing with targeted questions about material culture. Its focus is not on the creation of pieces, instead it seeks to formulate “sensitive documents,” texts and tools needed for a third cycle project

Seminar direction: Giampiero Pitisci, philosopher, designer

• After school This seminar deals with the creative professions and looks at a series of questions relevant to professional practices and the economy of art: statuses, institutions, the market, avenues of distribution and entrepreneurial activities. It has a practical component with several collective modules (shooting film or video, communication) and an individual component linked directly to “after school”. The seminar is organized in two distinct yet complementary modules.

Seminar direction: Céline Gillain, artist and Eric Van Essche, art historian