Creative Strategies for a Society in Change

The minor Creative Strategies for a Society in Change (CSSC) makes a connection between gaining insight into creative processes and exploring social issues that characterize our time.

The perspective is that of the visual arts disciplines, including film and design. The thematic emphasis is on broad social developments and urgencies that involve a multitude of topics, such as migration, climate change, decolonial and anti-racist struggles, or gender and feminist politics, to name a few. CSSC considers these developments from the perspective of filmmakers, artists and designers and takes their work as a starting point for reflection. Two ways of working are central: the film essay on the one hand, and social justice activism in the visual arts on the other. Typical for the CSSC minor is the active involvement of artists; lectures will be given by both theorists and artists.

The courses of CSSC involve theory and practice and offer both introductory and in-depth engagements. It is about acquiring theoretical insights into creative practices, but also about gaining understanding of those practices themselves, with opportunities for students to use creative processes in the preparation of the final work of the study components.

General questions are: how do artists and designers approach social problems? What visual, spatial, sonic, and performative strategies do they employ? What is the artistic and social value of that engagement, and what insights do they yield? Can these tactics be used in other contexts, and how? As a student, how can I expand my arsenal of working methods with these strategies and how can they be used in my future field of work?

The minor is a collaboration with Filmhuis Den Haag. All lectures on the essay film and corresponding film screenings will take place in the main auditorium of the Filmhuis.

ACPA's electives in fine arts and design have proven to be a valuable part of university offerings. With this new minor we are taking an innovative, new step. The starting point is that students from all disciplines constantly use images in their daily lives, but hardly in their studies. Many don't just want to be passive image users; they want to better understand the effect of images and the impact of creative processes in order to explore how they can use these in their studies and work.

The programme of this minor allows for taking a partial minor of 15 EC, consisting of the two courses:

• Exploring the Essay Film from theory and practice – film lecture series (10 EC)
• Strategies of essay film making (5 EC) In order to opt for 15 EC, register for this minor and contact the minor coordinator.

https://studiegids.universiteitleiden.nl/studies/10049