Elective courses for our programme students

Optional BFA level course, mandatory for BFA2

Credits: 5
Teacher: Katarina Renman Claesson
Dates: 2-4, 9-11, 16-18 September
Exceptions: 2 September at 13.00-16.00, 9 September at 13.00-16.00 ONLINE, 16.September at 13.00-16.00 ONLINE
Time: 10-16, lunch 12.00-13.00
Form: Seminar
Language: Swedish/English
Number of students: unlimited and mandatory for BFA2 students

Course description

The aim of the course is to provide theoretical knowledge and practical skills in economy and law that are important for students in the artistic process and the practice of art as well as in the role as small business owners.

The purpose is to prepare students for questions about economy and law that they may encounter after their studies. Not least, students should get insight into when it may be necessary to consult legal and / or financial expertise.

After completing the course, the students are to

 -        Have a basic understanding of economic and legal issues. They are to understand fundamental concepts and understand the impact economic and legal issues may have on their future activities.

• Understand the impact that intellectual property rights may have both on their own protection and their possibilities to be inspired by others.
• Have an understanding for the effect of different types of agreements, including how agreements can be a part of the creative process.
• Understand the difference between different kinds of associations and different basics regarding economy (budget, VAT etc.) in a small firm.

Module 1 and 2 (Details below)

Week 36 

2/9       kl. 13 -16 Lecture room, Mazetti, Bergsgatan 29, 3rd floor (TBC)

3/9       kl. 10 -16 Lecture room, Mazetti, Bergsgatan 29, 3rd floor (TBC)

4/9       kl. 10 -16 Lecture room, Mazetti, Bergsgatan 29, 3rd floor (TBC)

Week 37

9/9     kl. 13 -16 (online)

10/9     kl. 10 -16 Location TBC

11/9     kl. 10 -16  Location 

Module 3 (Details below)

Week 38

16/9     kl. 13- 16 (on-line) Lecture room, Mazetti, Bergsgatan 29, 3rd floor

17/9     kl. 10 -16 Examination seminar (obligatory attendance) Lecture room, Mazetti, Bergsgatan 29, 3rd floor
18/9     kl. 10 -16 Lecture room, Mazetti, Bergsgatan 29, 3rd floor

Optional BFA level course

Credits: 5
Teacher: Sophia Belasco and Erik Pold
Dates and times: 7 – 11 September, 28 September – 2 October, presentations week 42 (TBC)
Form: Workshop
Language: English
Number of students: 14 (7 from Malmö Art Academy and 7 from Malmö Theatre Academy)

Course description

How can we share performance research through the format of the performance lecture? How does it differ or offer alternative narratives to the more normative modes of address? How do we address and invite audiences to participate in performance projects? What kind of care and attention does it need? And how do we plan for the unexpected? 

These questions are the driving force to explore how artistic processes can be shared and disseminated through these performative formats.. 

There will be 2 intensive workshops, followed by independent time to develop the work and then showings / sharings of the formats as short try outs.

In week 37: Erik Pold will conduct a performance lab investigating how we work with audiences, both the target audience for a performance i.e. spectators at a theatre or in a gallery setting, and random passersby in the public space. Erik will draw upon his own work in his group Public Performance (www.publicperformance.dk) and his collaborations with Gob Squad (www.gobsquad.com), whom he worked with as a guest performer for a number of years. Most of this work has incorporated different kinds of audience-participation, in

interactive and immersive formats, as well as interaction with the public space in the city, where passersby may become part of a performance, or simply “pass by” a performance that they didn’t expect to see nor know what is. How do we incorporate and plan for the unforeseen? How do we approach audiences in different ways? How do we want to engage with audiences or the public in general? 

In week 40: Sophia New will share examples of contemporary performance makers who use the format of the lecture from; Andrea Fraser, Robin Deacon, Raimund Hoghe, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, John Walters, Paul Granjon, Richard Dedomenici, Sara Van Hee, Lone Twin, Goat Island and Forced Entertainment. She will encourage the participants to use their past or current research to see how they might incorporate performative elements or conceptualise the format of the lecture as an inherently performative perspective. Collaborations on shared themes and topics are encouraged and there will be short experimental try outs that can be further developed for later showings. Sophia New is a performance maker, educator and co-founder of the performance company plan b https://planbperformance.net/ she has shared her long term everyday practice in the form of a performance lecture in festivals in the UK, Germany and Belgium.

Intended Learning Outcomes

• implement performance tools in relation to your own artistic practice
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the field of critical practices within performing and fine arts 
• demonstrate knowledge and the ability to explore the relationship to audiences within performance work

These 2 intensive workshops are a collaboration between Malmö Theatre Academy and Malmö Art Academy and intended as frames within which to interrogate your own practice through modes of participation and performative lectures, both addressing audiences through performative methodologies. You will be trying out new ways of articulating your practice through playful and explorative methods. There will be both individual and group tasks and it will culminate in showings which can also either be individual or in small groups. 

Forms of teaching

• Task based exercises
• Contextualising the field by sharing of referencing of other artists
• Collaborative exercises 
• Showings and feedback

Optional MFA level course

Credits: 5
Teacher: Kirsty Bell
Dates: 14-18 September & 26-30 October
Time: 10.00 -16.00
Form: Seminar
Language: English
Number of students: 25

Course Description

This seminar aims to think through and around the ungraspable subject of the ‘unseen’. There are many possible ways to consider this subject. As a mysterious fourth dimension. As an invisible form of felt knowledge. As mystical belief, memory or dream space. As immaterial practice or historical erasure. Examining these aspects, it will provide the flipside to my last seminar ‘What is Material’, held in Spring 2024.

The two-part course will approach the notion of the unseen through reading texts together, analysis of contemporary artworks, discussion, fieldwork and individual artistic practice.

In the first part we will consider four aspects: felt knowledge, dematerialization, bewilderment and unrecorded histories. Within these rubrics, we will read excerpts of texts by William James, Simone Weil, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Lucy Lippard, Fanny Howe, and Saidiya Hartmann, amongst others. We will look at how various artists prod the borderlines between the visible and the invisible, including Trisha Donnelley, Lawrence Weiner, Robert Smithson, Klara Lidèn, James Richards, Cathy Wilkes, Moyra Davey, AndreasEriksson and others.

A set project will form the basis of the second part of the seminar. In this we will examine how taking account of the unseen, or operating in a state of bewilderment, can influence our own written or visual art practices. This will take place through individual presentations, interspersed with an overarching discussionabout the interrelation of light and dust, focusing on photography.

Part One:

1. intros, power point, introduction of elements: immersion in state of unknowing
2. am: Fanny Howe Bewilderment close-reading / pm: presentation of Trisha Donnelley
3. am: Fieldwork in groups (situationist texts?) / pm: group presentations
4. set task & discussion

Part Two:

1. am: regroup discussion / pm: Dust, Moyra Davey, On Photography
2. individual presentations: am x 5 / pm x 5
3. individual presentations: am x 5 / pm x 5
4. group evaluation

Optional MFA level course

Credits: 15
Teacher: Joachim Koester & Sophie Ljungblom
Dates: 21, 25.September, 1, 16, 23, 30 October, first week of November: full week in photo-studio for individual work with actors, 4,18 December, January/February presentation finished projects at Panora
Time: 10.00 – 16.00
Form: Lecture & workshop
Language: Svenska och engelska/Swedish and English
Number of students: 15

Course description

Video and film course with Joachim Koester and Sophie Ljungblom 

The course “The Composite Image” is meant to inspire the participants to develop new ways of interacting with and utilizing images when working with moving images. 

The course promotes a collage-like-approach to video and film making. In other words, different media layered on top of each other, or crammed together, in images or scenes, or at the very least in the same video. Our method will be one of relentlessly experimenting. 

To take the material that make up our images and transform this into multi layered sites and scenes.

The first day will be an introduction to the course. We will discuss the premise and watch various examples of artists working with composite Images. Lastly, Joachim will present an exercise meant to instigate a more layered approach to image making. The students will have a week to complete the exercise and will present their response.

After this first week, the course will take the form of regular group sessions where each student present their work/thoughts/process and receive feedback. There will also be chance to arrange individual studio visits.

Additionally, it will be possible to apply for a small budget and work with actors. We will arrange for the actors to be at the school at a designated time. The students will book the actors individually and a time slot will be set up. Working with actors will also be discussed at the group sessions. As for the budget, please note it is by no means guaranteed. You’ll be asked to pitch your idea and specify exactly what you need the money for related to your film at a specific date. After this it will decided whether the budget will be granted or not.

At the end of the semester - after experimenting, testing and trying out previously uncharted ways of working and making images - all student films will be screened at as part of an event at Panora.

Please note: In order to pass the course, the student must finish the all the individual exercises, participate in all group sessions and finish an individual film to be screened at Panora.

Schedule 

21.9: introduction to course, presentation of exercises

25.9: student presentation exercise #1, Lecture room, Mazetti

110: Student presentation exercise #2, Lecture room, Mazetti

16.10: Half day 10-12: information about budget and booking actors

23.10: individual deadline for budget (each student will meet with Joachim)

30.10: individual deadline for working with actors, each will present their idea and proposal for logistics

First week of November: full week in photo-studio for individual work with actors

4.12: student presentation of individual (unfinished projects)

18.12: deadline for handing in films to Sophie 

January or beginning February: presentation of finished projects in Panora

Optional BFA level course

Credits: 10
Teacher: Fredrik Vaerslev
Dates: 22 Sepember, 17 October, November, 2 additional dates to be added
Time: 10.00-16.00
Form: Seminar
Language: Scandinavian and English
Number of students: 8

Course description

Where are the boundaries of what can be a painting and what cannot? 

Through close readings, images and video-interviews, we will look at artistic practises whom deliberately - or not - are dealing with this. With a point of departure evolving around the topic of the “non-conventional painting", we will discuss and look at examples of: painting as sculpture, painting as text, painting as film, painting as performance and painting as a strategy from post war until today. Whether the many of these examples can even possess a term such a painting, the course aims to open up, as well a problematise this mediums endless possibilities and limitations. 

We will look at a broad selection of artists including Wade Guyton, Rosemarie Trockel, Josh Smith, Jana Euler, Morgan Fisher, Alex Hubbard, Allison Katz, Jeff Koons, Jutta Koether, Cosima von Bonin, Merlin Carpenter, Padraig Timoney, Mike Cloud, Lawrence Weiner, Tauba Auerbach, Sam Gilliam and more, and categorically discuss three variations of painting in the expanded field : The non-painted painting, the non-conventional painting and the chameleon in painting. The non-painted part will look at various practises making paintings (or insisting on being painting) simply without using any paint at all. The non-conventional part will similarly evaluate painting dressed up as three-dimensional, that being a sculpture, a boat or a curtain. Lastly, the chameleon in painting will look at a selection of painters constantly changing their style and methods, either by adapting to what comes next, or deliberately leaving whatever was made last.

Examination

At the end of the course each student will be asked to hand in a one-page reflexion and conclusion from our discussions.

Literature

Yves-Alain Bois, Isabelle Grew, John Kelsey

Optional BFA level course

Credits: 5
Teacher: Marwa Arsanios
Dates: 5-9 October & extensive reading in advance
Time: 10.00-16.00
Form: Seminar
Language: English
Number of students: unlimited

Course description

In this seminar we will try to understand through several texts, film examples and organisational practices what forms the possibilities of another relation to land, that is one of usership rather than ownership, have taken in the past decades.

In a system that has naturalised and sacralized private property as the only relation to land and consequentlyto the earth and planet, we will learn from practitioners, writers and filmmakers who have been challenging the private property regime, with their various methods, strategies and tools of resistance.

How can we rethink the images of land as a counter property project? What is an image of non-property? This will be answered through specific historical and more contemporary examples. Thinking through different artistic devices and means in order to understand better how non-property can live and take form in these different mediums. We will look at films by Marta Rodrigez and Jorge Silva, Michel Khleifi and others, as well as texts from Peter Linebaugh, Brenna Bhandar, Irene Watson, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Yvonne Philis and more.

Biography Marwa Arsanios

Marwa Arsanios’ practice tackles structural questions using different devices, forms, and strategies. From the transformation and adaptability of architectural spaces throughout conflict to artist-run spaces and temporary conventions between feminist communes and cooperatives, Arsanios’ practice tends to makespace within and parallel to existing art structures, allowing for experimentation with different kinds of politics. For the artist, film—in the way that images refer to one another—becomes another form and space for connecting struggles.

Arsanios’ recent solo shows include: BAK Utrecht (2024), Kunsthalle Bratislava (2023), Heidelberger Kunstverein (2023), Mosaic Rooms, London (2022), Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2021); Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana (2018); Beirut Art Center (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2016); Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2015); and Art in General, New York (2015). Her work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions, recently including: Documenta 15 (2022), Mardin Biennial (2022), Sydney Biennial film program (2022), 3rd Autostrada Biennale, Pristina (2021); 11th BerlinBiennale (2020); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2020).

Optional BFA level course

Credits: 10
Teacher: Maria Hedlund
Dates: 19-23 October & 16-20 November
Time: 10.00 -16.00
Form: Tutorials, group-discussions, presentations and individual work
Location: Photo-studio and b/w-lab
Language: Swedish & English
Number of students: 6

Course description

A creative course with an emphasis on analog photography, exploring the relationship between photography and film.

Since the early days of the medium, photography and film have been closely intertwined. For example, Muybridge’s famous experiment, sparked by a bet about whether a galloping horse ever had all four hooves off the ground, used multiple still cameras to create a photographic

sequence of motion. Another example is the development of the compact camera, originally designed to test exposure times for film productions, using the 35 mm film format.

During the course, we will examine what defines a series and what defines a sequence, identifying both similarities and differences.

At some point in between, I will also present the work of Jean Painlevé, a biologist, nature filmmaker, and photographer, among others.

The course aims to enhance analog photographic skills and deepen an understanding of your own work and creative process. 

At the same time, you will explore how photography can interact with another medium, in this case, film.

Preparation

Before the course begins, choose an artist whose photographic work you want to explore in depth, and whose practice in some way connects to film. During the course, you will prepare and present your findings to the group.

First week

We will meet in the photo studio at 10.00. You will give a brief presentation on the project you plan to develop during and the artist whose work you wish to research.

We will also plan and schedule technical tutorials, including:

• Using medium- and large-format cameras
• Film developing
• Printing techniques
• Light setting

Then you will have two weeks to work independently.

Last week

Again, we meet in the photo studio at 10.00.

You will present you project’s progress to the group.

We will also make a schedule for your presentation for the artist you have researched.

Friday we will have a final presentation.

Before the course begins, I will contact all participants to see which cameras you are interested in using, as well as the types of film and paper you prefer to work with. 

The school provide materials within reasonable limits.

Examination 

A group-discussion, going through visual results and gained technical knowledge.

Optional BFA level course

Credits: 5
Teacher: Gertrud Sandqvist & Gabriel Karlsson
Dates: Wednesdays; 4/11, 11/11, 18/11, 25/11, 2/12
Time: 13.00 – 15.00
Location: Project room, Mazetti
Form: Lectures and Seminars
Language: Swedish and English
Number of students: 6

Course description

The aim is to provide the students with deepened knowledge and insight in both the artistic field which their work will be a part of and the history of how that field has developed. To integrate analytical knowledge into their own artistic work, both in the spoken and the written language, will be given special attention. 

The course aim is to enhance the students’ ability to formulate and show a well-motivated artistic wholeness. The goal is that the students shall develop a deepened understanding of artistic work.

The course offers a model for analyzing your own work and training in analyzing images. Students analyze works by other students, and listen when their own work is analyzed by the others. The course serves as an introduction to the analytical component of the MFA exam.

The course offers close analysis of the students’ own work in group seminars. The method is simple. It aims at giving students tools for thorough analysis of individual works and an understanding of how viewers understand their work. If it is relevant and if the participants wish, we will also read image theory that might be applicable to the students’ work.

Optional BFA level course

Credits: 10
Teacher: Stephan Møller
Dates: 4, 11, 18, 25 November, 2, 9, 16 December
Time: 10.00 – 12.00
Location: Lecture room, Mazetti
Form: Seminars
Language: English
Number of students: 25

Course description

Power does not affect everyone equally. According to Michel Foucault, one of the defining characteristics of modern society is how few individuals fall outside the system, and how power intensifies around those who live at its margins. Through genealogical analyses, Foucault shows how power is a complex and productiveconcept that co-produces the very categories through which inclusion and exclusion emerge.

We will, among other things, engage with the notion of power, which can be seen as central to Foucault’s work, and which is also one of the most complex, even diffuse, concepts in his authorship.

As he writes in the introduction to The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: “Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with: it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society.”

We will also engage with Judith Butler, who radicalizes this understanding by conceiving the subject itself asconstituted through normative power relations. Butler’s concept of performativity is central, in which gender is not understood as a stable essence, but as something produced through repeated social acts.

From this perspective, Butler’s notion of precarious lives further suggests that this process of constitution isunevenly distributed: some lives are structurally more exposed because they are not fully recognized as legitimate or grievable within dominant norms.

Building on this, Paul B. Preciado develops an analysis of the contemporary biopolitical regime, in which the subject is shaped through an entanglement of chemistry, technology, and desire. To a large extent, it isFoucault’s characterization of modern society and Butler’s account of the subject as non-essential and constituted that are reflected in Preciado’s further development of Foucault’s analysis of power in his description of the so-called pharmacopornographic era.

The selection of texts is based on an attempt to trace one of the many threads within queer theory and queer perspectives, primarily concerned with power, politics, and vulnerability. Under the overarching theme that has guided the selection, there exists a network of additional threads, in which each text builds on ways of thinking about identity and gender, but also, and perhaps especially, about how these categories are produced, regulated, and potentially destabilized.

Based on the thinkers mentioned above, and others, we will explore how queer perspectives may constitute,or at least contribute to, some of the most active, dynamic, and influential analyses and critiques of power in contemporary theory. Furthermore, one could argue that this field offers precise and elegant formulations notonly of what power is and how it operates, but also of gender and sexuality, as well as hierarchies and social inequalities. Among other things, we will engage with texts by Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Paul B. Preciado, and Sara Ahmed.

Optional BFA level course

Credits: 5
Teacher: Gabriel Karlsson & Ariel Alaniz
Dates: 16-20 November & 23 – 27November
Time: 10.00 – 16.00
Form: Practical course/Workshop
Language: Swedish/English  
Number of students: 6-8

Course description

The course consists of two parts. The first part is practical and takes place in the metal workshop. Here, you learn the basics of various welding techniques, such as gas welding and MIG welding, as well as other methods of working with metal. You will also recieve an introduction to the workshop’s safety regulations and have the opportunity for hands-on practice. Upon completion of this part, you will receive a ”license” granting you permission to work independently with the school’s welding equipment.

The second part of the course is based on an individual project. Before the course begins, you will participate in a mandatory studio visit where you present a project idea and a plan for how you intend to develop it. During the course, you will continue working on your project with practical and artistic guidance.

Throughout the course, you will present your idea and process in discussions with the other participants. At the end of the course, you will give an oral presentation of your individual project together with your project plan. 

Intended learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Identify and apply safety regulations and techniques for working with metal, including gas and MIG welding.
• Initiate and carry out an individual artistic project based on a project plan.
• Use practical craftmanship skills to develop their own artistic expression in the metal workshop.
• Present and justify their artistic project and its technical execution.

Course content

The course consists of two integrated parts. The first part focuses on basic metalworking, with particular emphasis on different welding techniques and workshop safety regulations. The second part is dedicated to the development and execution of an individually designes artistic project, where the student spplies their technical knowledge in their own artistic practice.

Forms of teaching

Teaching is conducted through practical introductions in a workshop environment, lectures on safety, and individually tailored supervision focusing on both technical skills and artistic context. The course begins with a mandatory studio visit.

Examination

Assessment is based on active participation in workshop sessions, documented attendence, and an oral presentation of the individual project at the end of the course.

Grading scale and Assessment criteria

Grading scale: Fail/pass

Requirements foor Pass: To achieve the grade Pass, the student must fulfill all learning outcomes, complete the practical components in accordance with safety regulations, and present their individual project in accordance with the project plan. Upon successful completion of the course, the student receives a ”license” to use the school’s welding equipment independently.