The photo collection is the source for inspiration, treated as an investigative media into a wide range of topics. Students are guest curators of the collection and use it for their individual projects. The goal is to "upgrade", interpret, transform the stories discovered in the archive of still images to new, contemporary forms of artistic expression, either digital and/or analog, with an emphasis on exploring different creative tools in this artistic trajectory.

R.I.P. Humanity (as we knew it)

Following inspiration coming from the writings of the feminist philosopher Rosi Braidotti on "The Posthuman" and "Posthuman Knowledge" the last edition of the research lab and the exhibition of its final results examines the recent history (20th century) of human thought, mentality and condition through a direct interaction with the fascinating, unique collection of photographic prints accessible for the students physically on location at the Spaarnestad Photo / National Archives, and advocates for an artistic interpretation of these materials loosely (so not necessarily mandatory) from the perspective of critical posthumanities.

The goal is to individually and collectively conduct a critical, yet respectful autopsy of the human as we knew it in the past, and to conceptually commemorate and creatively mourn over its decaying corpse today. The students will be encouraged to work individually on a topic of their personal preference and contribute to a collective final presentation/exhibition in form of an artistic funeral, addressing the death of both the bad as the good of what the humanity was/is until now. The farewell to the humanity is - of course - not meant literally as its physical extinction, but rather ironically as a reflection on the transformation that the society and culture has been going through in the last a couple of decades.

The aim is to question and comment on the historic artefacts, phenomena and narratives found in the archive and to imagine and visualize where we are now or where we are heading to in the nearest future. Such imagined futures could be described as a turn to post-anthropocene or, alternatively, a birth of the "new" (post)human. It's about the ability to compare the past with the present and with the anticipated.