This year, first-year CreaTe students from VU Amsterdam and UT joined forces for a collaborative creative journey. Their final project, ‘Art [&&] Impact’, invited them to merge technology and art and create something that was more than the sum of its parts. ‘Art [&&] Impact’ is more than just a course; it is, above all, an ongoing experiment in creativity and collaboration. For ten weeks, students crawled into the shoes of modern media artists. Their mission? To create conceptual media art installations that not only challenge their technical skills, but also provoke thoughts and emotions in their audiences.
The students were divided into groups of six with students from VU Amsterdam as UT in each group. The journey began with the soul searching phase. During this phase, students developed artistic statements full of imagination and associations, free from practical constraints. After the soul searching, the trying out phase commenced. During this phase, ideas were tested, stretched and occasionally abandoned and redeveloped. Finally, they entered the refinement phase, preparing for the unveiling.
Broad spectrum
The Design Lab at UT became the stage where the artists showed their work. The exhibition was received with enthusiasm and admiration by friends, family and colleagues. The projects on display covered a broad spectrum, from explorations of the disturbing but fascinating feeling of ‘cringe’ to a personal reflection on feelings of loneliness. Each installation showed a unique blend of technical skills and the artistic vision of the student groups.
Unexpected magic
What made this course really special was not only the art itself, but also the way in which it was created. Despite being spread all over the Netherlands, our students managed to work together effectively and turn the challenge of collaboration at a distance into a source of inspiration. In the end, ‘Art [&&] Impact’ was more than just a collection of art installations. It was a testament to the power of collaboration and the unexpected magic that can happen when technology and art collide.
