Cultural Professor CP@TUD

For ten years, TU Delft has invited a Dutch writer to work together with students from Delft on an assignment - a writing assignment, a construction assignment, a film assignment - the guest writer had the choice.

In 2010, the field was expanded from writers to practitioners of other arts, such as music, visual arts, film & photography, and performing arts. This broadening offers the possibility of drawing on a broader arsenal of special guest lecturers. We no longer speak of "guest writer" but of "Cultural Professor" at TU Delft, in short: CP@TUD.

Source: Verstegen & Stiger

Cultural professors:

Cultural Professors in collaboration with the Library

Vincent Mentzel (photojournalist)

From November 29 to December 12, 2011, photos of Cultural Professor 2011 Vincent Mentzel and 25 students could be admired at TU Delft Library.

These photos are their answers to questions such as "How do you relate to your physical environment (the built space)?", "What is the place of the individual in the world" and "What are the relationships between people (the emotional space)? ".

The questions were part of the self-selected theme 'The human dimension' during Vincent Mentzel's appointment as CP@TUD. Over the past few months, he has conducted research into these questions together with 25 students, using photography as a medium.

In a master class he supervised the participating students in making photos in which they visualized how they see the human dimension, also with regard to their field of study.

On Flickr you can find photos of the exhibition and movie night held at the Library.

Delta articles:

Youp van 't Hek (comedian)

The theme that Youp van 't Hek chose at his inaugural public reading as Cultural Professor was "Free of everything". Twenty students participated in his master class.

At the request of Youp van 't Hek, the film "Lost in Translation" by director Sofia Coppola was shown and discussed at the Library, in the presence of rector Luyben.

The end result was presented to TU Delft on 11 May 2012 during the Youp van ’t Hek exit speech in the auditorium, afterwards it was shown at the Library. The students said that everyone would experience it differently and would "go away from it all" in his / her own way.

Photos: Flickr

Delta articles:

Floris Visser (opera director)

In 2012 the Opera Carmen, a French Opera from the 19th Century by Georges Bizet, was performed on the occasion of the 170th anniversary celebrations of TU Delft and the 9th anniversary of the Krashna Musika, the student orchestra group of TU Delft.

As cultural professor and opera director Floris Visser introduced the world of theatre to the engineers at the TU Delft.

While the main tenors and mezzo-sopranos were professionals, many of the other singers where students of TU Delft and from the Academy of Vocal Arts. The orchestra, composed of students from Krashna Musika, was led by Daan Admiraal.

At the Library Floris Visser and Rector Luyben had dinner in the Treasury Room. After that the movie 'Deus ex Machina' was shown and discussed. See more photos on Flickr

Delta articles:

TEDxDelft 2012:

 

 

Entreerede 14 September CP@TUD 2012 Floris Visser

Spinvis (singer songwriter)

Singer-songwriter Spinvis (Erik de Jong) was appointed Cultural Professor 2013 at Delft University of Technology. During a series of master classes he inspired his 24 students to come up with practical solutions to poetical questions, such as 'think up a gift for gravity'.

The theme is 'Out of nowhere'. Spinvis was inspired by the story of the French postman Ferdinand Cheval. Under his hands, a structure was created in seventy years that is now known as the Palais Idéal: a collage of stones that Cheval found every day along the side of the road.

Spinvis about Cheval: "His work covers an entire life. He went on frantically, compulsively. People like that are always a part of how you are, but without a brake. You learn about yourself. That the process of making, regardless of the result, is a blissful moment. Whether you are successful with it or not. Many scientists know that of course, but I want to teach the students that."

The science fiction film Sunshine was shown at the library, Spinvis was present to discuss about the movie.

Photos of the end product 'Mécanique Érotique' shown at the Library, exhibition in the Treasury Room and movie night: Flickr

Delta articles:

TU Delft - The working of the Mécanique Érotique

Paulien Cornelisse (writer & comedian)

In 2014 TU Delft cultural professor Paulien Cornelisse led a Master Class: De wonderkamer (the wonder room). The completed installations on display in the wonder room reflect not only the diverse disciplines from which the twenty-six students in the master class come but also the different elements of life they decided to focus on.

Paulien: "I am fascinated by curiosities in museums in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I long for the time when people came to a museum to wonder, for example about a new animal they did not know yet. Now so much is known. New species are being added, but these are usually variations on what we already know."

The wonder room could be admired at the Library, there was also a curiosity exhibition in the Treasury Room. The film Microcosmos was shown at the Library, followed by a conversation between Paulien Cornelisse and biologist Tijs Goldschmidt. See photos on Flickr.

Delta articles:

Thom Hofmann (actor, photographer and documentary maker)

On September 11 2015, Thom Hoffman gave his Cultural Promotion, the opening lecture with which his commitment as a Cultural Professor at TU Delft started.

For two and a half months Hoffman worked with twenty students on a prototype image bank for photography about the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia)

See: TU Delft website

Delta article: ‘Zo mooi was het niet in Indië’

Abdelkader Benali (writer)

'Het Verhalenplein' (The story square)

The theme of Benali’s Cultural Professorship was "The Story Square". With 19 students, Benali went on an excursion to the squares of Brussels and Maastricht, and dived into the Trésor, the treasury of the TU Delft Library. Age-old square prints have been selected from the Trésor for an exhibition that were display in the "Benali Square" in the Library. During his public valedictory speech, the students showed ideas to improve the "worst square in the country", gave them a peek behind the facades of the Market in Delft and discussed the dynamics of the schoolyard. An image was also presented that organically connected Delft neighborhoods and people and a flexible system to temporarily adjust squares.

See Flickr for photos of the exhibition opening

Source: https://www.events.nl/nieuws/uittreerede-abdelkader-benali-aan-de-tu-delft

Delta articles:

Algemeen Dagblad: Professor Benali maakt veel indruk

Canvas: ABDELKADER BENALI OVER PLEINEN

Trouw: Met Abdelkader Benali op zoek naar het ideale plein

Cultural professor 2017 NEW 2

Lecture Abdelkader Benali: Let (Your) Cultural Heritage Inspire You

Abdelkader Benali over pleinen