Meetings
24 September 2025
Introduction
Getting to know each other and introduction to the theme. We will then discuss the interdisciplinary nature of the studio and how you look at this studio from the perspective of your own background. For the introductory session, we ask you to bring along an art object (song, book, image, reference to a film, etc.) that inspires you.
1 October 2025
Contested comics (Casper Kirkels, historian and political scientist)
In this meeting, we will explore in what ways comics and cartoons can be “wrong”. Is it the images? The themes? The language used? And can comics and cartoons as a genre ever escape stereotyping and exaggeration? And does the fact that many comics are aimed at a young audience raise additional questions? We will explore these themes using the work of Hergé, one of the most famous comic artists of the 20th century, and the comic or cartoon examples that you bring along.
8 October 2025
Contested music (Casper Kirkels, historian and political scientist)
When becomes music controversial? You may immediately think of cheesy pop songs or disco hits, but this meeting is mainly about music that is politically/culturally/socially controversial. Can you still enjoy Richard Wagner's operas if you know that he was anti-Semitic and that the Nazis often used his music at mass rallies? Or think of Rammstein or gangster rappers.
And who are the stakeholders, the people, institutions and organisations involved in a specific artistic expression? Is it primarily the composer or creator? Or should producers, record companies, radio stations and performing musicians also make a moral choice in the case of controversial music? We discuss these questions using a number of examples from music: from classical music to contemporary music styles.
15 October 2025
Contested architecture (Dr. Harm Kaal, professor Applied History RU)
Architecture and, more generally, objects in public spaces are not necessarily neutral. In this session, we will explore the ideological significance of buildings and other objects. The emphasis will be on what is sometimes referred to as “problematic” architecture and “controversial heritage”. We will explore this moral connotation, using examples from fascism, National Socialism and communism, among others. The meaning of colonial heritage will also be discussed.
5 November 2025
Contested images (Dr. Wilco Versteeg, teacher Cultural studies RU and professional photographer)
Our attitude towards visual culture seems paradoxical: we often feel overwhelmed by the enormous number of images that come our way; at the same time, we need images to relate to the world and ourselves. Without exaggerating, it can be said that the vast majority of images are nonsensical, stupid, or downright wrong: they reduce human beings to products, expose our physical vulnerability for the viewer's pleasure (think of pornography, but also images of war), and often impose a worldview that does not contribute to a better world.
In this meeting, we will not resort to cheap moralising, but will ask ourselves what constitutes wrong images and how we can elevate iconoclasm, the destruction of wrong images, to an art of living. We will do this on the basis of the work of, among others, filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, photographer Christophe Bangert, and documentary maker Claude Lanzmann.
12 November 2025
Workshop on interdisciplinarity
19 November 2025
Pitches of the group proposals
26 November 2025
Working session on projects
3 December 2025
Working session on projects
10 December 2025
Final presentations of group projects
