Roosmarijn Hompe: What role does research play in your teaching?

I have been teaching in the MA Non Linear Narrative for two years now, and that is really something I think I owe to this Research Group. Because as well as changing my practice, it also changed my way of teaching. I was able to set up a whole course called “Post Photography” which stems from the research I did in the group.

RH: What does the course look like?

KK: Students are exposed to different techniques and methodologies of what photography means or could mean at a time when the number of images that are in circulation is increasing enormously, and because of how photographic imagery is processed and networked, the entire medium and the profession is in transition.

What we do is look at how photography is used for purposes other than purely visual art, for example in science, documentation or registration, and examine how you can allow that to flow back into design and art. What I do is I look for themes that I find interesting or where I think it’s important to investigate them further, then I look for the experts in that field, invite them in to deliver workshops. Yes, and then students get to work after that.

RH: Do you notice that what happens in your teaching starts to influence your studio practice?

KK: Definitely. First, I learn an awful lot myself too, through these experts I bring in and the work the students do. But also, since being in the Research Group, I am doing research in a completely different way. It’s really about thinking much more theoretically about how and what I make, and reading and writing about the topic alongside the making and allowing that to conceptually fall into place with the creation of the art.

RH: And you teach the “Image” course together with a theory teacher?

KK:

When I was in the Research Group I was there with a colleague from our department, Hannes Bernard, and because our research connects quite well, we designed an assignment together. It was about visual digital waste and how you can use it creatively.

We made an exhibition at the end of the year. That’s all not so easy because it was all still during COVID, but we were able to do it. The students also made a website out of it, which is also still online.

RH: What is the name of the exhibition?

KK: “You Shall Be Spam”. In BA Graphic Design we have a new way of teaching graphic design in block systems. So I’m now doing the second year of collaboration with Maarten Cornel, a theory teacher, where we really bring theory and practice together in one assignment, also resulting in an exhibition and a website.

We spend two days on image and one day on philosophy, and it’s actually because of the Research Group that I have much better tools to set up a collaboration with philosophy, for example. Or now, for instance, for this exhibition they all have to write a text about their work, and we start with keywords. What I’ve noticed is that I now know a lot more about how to find and work with theoretical sources.

RH: How did you share the research you did in the Research Group?

KK: Well, we are in the process of making a publication [titled Fray of Messays] to document our research. Alice found a publisher and a designer. We just need the funding, I think.

I mean, we have already shared our research in the Fault Lines Research Forum. The first year, during COVID, we did it online with Zoom studio visits. I did a performance-presentation at my studio with a live camera, which is weird of course. But it was also exciting to do something different for once. And for the second year we did it at West in The Hague.

At the last moment, a change in COVID restrictions meant we ended up not being able to host an audience anymore, so we had a small group in West with some guests and students to respond to our research, and it was streamed online. We had no audience, but that worked really well. Because it was so intimate, there was a whole different atmosphere. I really liked that symposium.

RH: What was your original research question?

KK: When I started in the Research Group, I was photographing waste treatment plants. And then the research question was about how the processes used in those plants relate to my own processing of imagery. When I do a shoot, I go to a location and photograph a whole series of images of the location and I make collages, so ultimately only one image comes out. A collage, a composition. But a lot of images remain unused, and I don’t dare throw them away. And of course, I have to maintain them, because they are on my server, they cost data. This is my image waste.

In the second Research Group I decided to focus on the image waste I had created in the first project. And that was very interesting for me, that second research project, because I tend to be very focused on images and the aesthetics of images. Now, I had to let go of that completely. I invented a set of experiments that played with various attempts to translate or reduce or delete my leftover images.

RH: Can you see how what you did in the Research Group feeds into your teaching?

KK: Yes, definitely. All those experiments I did; I’m using those in my lessons now. And it’s also about the kind of knowledge that I have built up. What is also very valuable is all this knowledge about the different experiments I have done, which are also sometimes really not obvious, but also perhaps a creative way of dealing with certain methodologies. I noticed that after a few months of being out of the Research Group how much I missed that framework. When Alice offered to chair a PhD Preparation and Study Group, I was the first to sign up!

RH: So, you are preparing a PhD proposal?

KK: Yes. I used the PhD Incentive Scheme to help in preparing it. And I am now in the process of applying for the second one.

RH: What improvements can be made to research at the KABK?

KK: I think it’s important for the KABK to take a position and have a direction in relation to research. If I look at the KABK now, I think it’s incredibly valuable that this Research Group exists. But of course, that’s also why this kind of initiative needs to be maintained in a sustainable way. I was lucky to be able to do that for 2.5 years. But most only do it for one year. And I personally find that, for me, that would have been much too short. I notice how what I learned in the Research Group is bearing fruit in my teaching and in the quality of my teaching. And I think it’s very important that the KABK should invest more in research for teachers, as a way to benefit the students.

So I think the executive board just really needs to make a clear choice. Does it think research is important? And if so, what is the strategy? And what are we going to invest? Because yes, right now, I do see an impetus there with what Alice does, but how many teachers are there in that group? Four or five? Out of how many teachers at the KABK? And, how can you also maintain your research in a sustainable way afterwards? What is the afterlife of such a research group?

If you say that you take research seriously, you have to prioritise it. And not only by giving some employees one extra day for it. If we took research seriously it would send a positive signal from this institution. I see this with the students, especially with the international students, which are about 90% or so of the students in the year I’m teaching now. A lot of these students have the ambition to go deeper in theory and content. When it comes to looking to the future, I hope there will be more of a focus on supporting research at KABK.