Re-imagining Tomorrow through Arts & Sciences

Welcome to the RASL minor! Developed by artists, scholars, and educators within the RASL consortium, this minor provides you with the opportunity to collaboratively engage with societal concerns, experience and explore more-than-disciplinary education and research approaches.

Our current predicament, the ‘clusterfuck of world-historical proportions’, underlines the necessity of imagining alternative tomorrows. We need to come together in diverse ensembles to rethink how we can live and work in better, more just ways. The minor invites you to create and mobilize such ensembles. Participating students come from a wide variety of studies such as audiovisual design, composition, jazz vocals, arts and culture studies, political science, psychology, industrial design engineering, history and philosophy. Practices of re-imagining tomorrow make us aware that traditional, disciplinary practices of knowing and doing are always already imaginative, as they create and reinforce specific ways of experiencing and knowing the world. By addressing and experiencing these worldmaking capabilities of current and future practices, we can start to work towards futures that are more socially and ecologically just. In your collaborative project, you have the opportunity to research a situated societal concern and explore diverse ways of addressing the issue at hand. During classes, you will participate in a range of different activities such as practice-led workshops, field research, close-listening exercises, screenings, and close-reading sessions. The minor is particularly suited for engaged and critical students who feel an urgency to work beyond disciplinary boundaries and are keen to partake in shaping and reflecting on their learning process.

1. You are able to formulate a relevant societal concern and engage with it in a collaborative, more-than-disciplinary manner

2. You are able to collaboratively develop a more-than-disciplinary research approach for your project;

3. You are able to situate your research project in relation to existing academic, artistic, and/or societal practices;

4. You are able to reflect on how you engage with and position yourself in relation to your fellow students, the research topic, the relevant audiences, and the context in which you work;

5. You are able to justify and take responsibility for the choices you make throughout the learning and research process

The minor takes place at the RASL spaces at Hillevliet 90 in Rotterdam. The location is accessible by public transport.

The minor is divided into two parts (15 EC + 15 EC). Students can either participate in Part I or in both parts. It is not possible to only participate in Part II.

Teaching methods
The composition of the minor generally revolves around (a) thematic sessions, (b) skills workshops, and (c) tutor meetings. In previous editions, these different sessions have taken the form of workshops, (guest) lectures, feedback sessions, (student-led) presentations or activities, and field trips. The student teams are guided in developing their modality of working together that suits their research project.

Teaching materials:
The teaching materials cover a wide range of disciplines, genres and forms: ranging from academic and artistic texts, works of art, case studies/best practices from any related field, and so on. Because the specific topic of the collaborative project is selected by the students, many of the materials are decided upon throughout the process, and recommended by tutors, guest lecturers and students alike.

Method of examination
The method of examinations used in this minor adhere to the definition of “large or small assignments” as described in article 4.1.2 of the EUC Assessment Policy 2023-25. More specifically, we use a (research) presentation, a research paper, and a reflective essay.

Composition of final grade
In both parts of the minor program we follow “Assessment format B” (EUC, ARR article 4.4.1). Both parts consist of two small assignments of 20%, a large academic assignment of 50%, and the weight of the professional conduct amounts to 10% (see also, ARR article 4.6.2).