What is Transcultural Collaboration?
Today, artists, performers, musicians, curators and designers need a multi-perspective mindset, as well as a genuine commitment and willingness to communicate, exchange, and debate ideas and opinions within a global framework, critically reflecting on manifold interconnected issues and questions.
Creative practitioners act as facilitators between different political, social, economic, and cultural contexts. Not only professional expertise is required, but also the ability to understand and negotiate the diversity of global cultures and societies. Artists and designers can take the role of agents who constantly observe, reflect, distinguish, and position themselves in dynamic environments, withstanding frictions, and demanding to make things visible, to mediate, to produce, and to act precisely.
According skills are fostered in this international semester programme with a focus on collaborative creative practice. It takes place in various locations in Europe (4 weeks) and Asia (11 weeks) – in 2021 exceptionally only in Europe (Athens), due to Covid. Together with participants from other art universities (in the framework of «Shared Campus») they explore practical collaboration in changing cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary teams. This allows them an intense period of self-exploration and reflection – not only in terms of their creative practice and artistic toolkit, but also in terms of cultural imprints, conflicting value systems, socially learned aesthetics, and their understanding of the world and its future development. Participants develop a transcultural mindset, figure out and test methods of collaboration, and reflect on their art or design practice in a dynamic international environment. The results of the programme are presented to the public in a professional setting.
What competences do you learn?
Participants expand transcultural skills through theory, practice and (self-)experience. Critical reflection on creative practices and enrichment of perspectives and tools from different disciplines are encouraged. Participants deepen their awareness of contemporary social and cultural diversity and its complex interplay with manifold political, economic, and environmental phenomena. Through the program, methods are shared to discover transcultural collaboration as a working method for contemporary art and design practice.
What prerequisites are requested?
Participants…
- proficient in English and are committed to the semester programme full-time.
- have a genuine interest in identifying and analysing transcultural questions.
- bring a strong willingness and ability to work in teams whose members come from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds.
- are open to critically reflect on their work and thinking, engage with unfamiliar perspectives, experiment and take artistic risks.
Partners
City University of Hong Kong, School of Creative Media
Hong Kong Baptist University, Academy of Visual Arts
LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore
Kyoto Seika University
Taipei National University of the Arts
University of the Arts London
Zurich University of the Arts
Part of Shared Campus
The Transcultural Collaboration programme is part of Shared Campus and one if its most comprehensive programmes. Shared Campus is a cooperation platform for international education formats and research networks launched by seven higher arts education institutions from Asia and Europe. It establishes connections that generate value for students, academics and professionals, and enables participants to share knowledge and competencies. The platform is designed around themes of international relevance with a distinct focus on transcultural issues and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Additional Project Partners
Nanjing University, Department of Theatre, Film and Television