Art-Embedded Learning in Technical Higher Education
What do the arts offer the TU Delft students? Scientists and engineers have a marked impact on society and the TU Delft encourages students to increase self-awareness and consciousness of their potential impact on society at various levels. One of the ways to do this is via art-embedded learning.
Art is not the first association people make when they think of a university of technology. At TU Delft, the honours programme specialization, “Awareness & Culture”, is an innovative art-embedded learning initiative. This program, created by Applied Science Associate Professor Eduardo Mendes, answers why experience with art is one of the best vehicles for developing empathy and critical reflection on ethical issues associated with technologies.
Mendes explains: ‘Art-embedded learning incorporates key moments of what is called Transformative Learning and has the benefit of providing the foundation for a stronger connection between the students with themselves, others and society as a whole. They discover and learn how to incorporate their internal feelings and thoughts into formulating concrete, relevant questions. These questions have a personal, emotional origin to help turn it into a societal ethical question.’
Image by Sarah Duister
Exhibition: Beyond Comfort
15 September - 14 December 2022
Visit the exhibition Beyond Comfort: Art-Embedded Learning in Technical Higher Education. The exhibition will be live from 15 September until 14 December 2022 at the TU Delft Library main hall. This exhibition curates student work from the past four years of Honors Awareness & Culture courses at the TU Delft.
Lecture and panel discussion with Dr. Eduardo Mendes
10 October 18:30 – 20:30, Library main hall
Featuring invitees and Vice Rector Rob Mudde
Are you looking for the most creative courses on campus? Meet Dr. Mendes, winner of the Henk Dekker prize 2021, and hear his views on how Art and transformative learning methodologies can play an important role in engineering education.
According to Dr. Mendes, most scientists and engineers who create the foundations of technology are not aware enough and connected to the social debate about technologies and their consequences for the world. Liberal Arts might change that. Together with the panel, he will debate the role and possible implementations of Liberal Arts in engineering education. The members of the panel are:
- Professor Rob F. Mudde – Vice Rector Magnificus/Vice President Education, Delft University of Technology
- Professor Dr. Iris van der Tuin – Professor Theory of Cultural Inquiry and Dean for Interdisciplinary Education, Utrecht University
- Dr. Heleen A. Th. Miedema – Dean University College of Twente/Director of Education, University of Twente
- Yannick Servais – General Manager Honours College, Utrecht University
- Pragya Verma – BSc. Nanobiology/member Student Honours Board, Delft University of Technology
Unveiling and Panel discussion about Oracle
22 September 16:00 - 17:30
with artists from RNDR Studio & TU Delft Library collaborators
Oracle is a custom-made, interactive data art prototype for the visual navigation of theses and dissertations in the TU Delft Library. With Oracle you can experience the TU Delft Repository in a whole new way. Because Oracle is still in development you can interact with the Oracle yourself and submit your feedback. Oracle will be on display until the end of the program.
Join us for the unveiling reception, preceded by a panel discussion with RNDR Studio and Library collaborators: Edwin Jakobs (RNDR), Alice Bodanzky (Lib), Vincent Cellucci, (Lib).
RNDR is a design studio for interactive media founded in 2017 in The Hague (NL). The members have years of experience as partners, computer scientists, designers, art directors, and developers. The basis for most of their projects, OPENRNDR, is an open source framework for creative coding - written in Kotlin for the JVM - that simplifies the writing of real-time audiovisual interactive software. OPENRNDR has been awarded the Dutch Design Award 2019.
Walking Tour of Art on Campus with Kornelis Fragakis, University Arts Curator
17 November, 16:00 – 18:30
Do you want to appreciate art and get a feel for the larger mission of Art on the TU Delft campus? During this tour, Kornelis Fragakis will take you through an impressive selection of this technical university's art collection, housed at the Aula, EEMCS, CEG, and outside TNO. You will visit the sites for past and current Art Challenges, where artists are paired with scientists and students. The tour starts with a brief introduction from Kornelis at the Library. We end the tour with a small reception where stakeholders in art on campus can informally discuss the art collection and art plan on campus.
Kornelis Fragakis is the curator of the TU Delft art collection. With a background as an artist and art historian, he is on a mission to bring the campus and its users together with 'Living Campus, Living Art.
Open Hardware Stereodrome (AV VR) Workshop with guest artist and developer Bas van Koolwijk
9 December, 13:30 – 16:30 | Bouwcampus TU Delft
Build your own audio-visual (AV) VR headset for neuro-media arts concert performances. Bas van Koolwijk’s Stereodrome is a minimalist VR device/system that produces fantastic color perceptions due to optical brainwave entrainment by a stereo audio signal. These color fields become pulsating immersive environments similar to the work of James Turrell. By presenting each eye with a colourfield interpretation of the corresponding left or right channel of the soundtrack, it offers a minimalist experience of binocular vision that can be perceived as hallucinations.
Video and audio artist Bas van Koolwijk uses both sound and image, be it analogue or in numerical code, as interchangeable data. He produces visual and acoustic compositions in which both manifestations powerfully interact. To perform these interactions Van Koolwijk develops his own hardware and software applications. The results of which are presented in variable projects such as live performances, installations and single screen videos.
Programme:
13.30: Art Science Introduction by Dmitry Gelfland & lecture by Bas van Koolwijk
14.00: Build your own headsets
15.30: Presentation / Performance
15.45: Open Hardware Intervention
16.00: Drinks