Studio of New Aesthetics 1

Display Schedule

Subject guarantor

Hynek ALT

Name of lecturer(s)

Hynek ALT, Jen Kratochvil

Department

The subject provides Department of Photography

Contents

The Studio of New Aesthetics is an environment for sharing, discussing, searching, experimenting and

developing thinking. The studio focuses on the confrontation of photography and new media, which means

still and digital image, sound, installation in the context of contemporary art, with an emphasis on the full

range of possibilities for the distribution of photography and art and the broadest social context. Students are

encouraged to explore their own themes and refine their own artistic language using appropriate processes

and technologies, but always with an emphasis on the contemporary, new issues and possibilities.

Main themes:

1 - 4/Each semester is defined by a theme, from which the composition of guests, workshops, and the

content of discussions is determined. The theme helps to kick-start the semester, maintain focus, and

motivate dialogue.

Man and technology, production, utopia, filter bubbles, educational turn, participatory practice, field trips,

future of work

Assignments are consistently self-selected by each student. Defining one's own interests, authentic

concerns, and unique sensibilities is the foundation of the artist's work; the art student is supported in this

endeavor by the studio collective. A key moment in each semester is the awareness of a vacuum, the

absence of an assignment, the necessity to trace one's own problem in one's experience or interest, which

through further exploration becomes an assignment.

5-8/

Students are guided to artistic research as a source of topics and depth of understanding of a particular

problem. Artistic research is based on finding sources of information and inspiration, tracing precise details

and general connections. At the same time, artistic research is a working process based on continuous self-

education; in a studio environment, this education is naturally applicable to the entire collective.

9 - 12/ Realization, adaptation and preparation of the presentation format for the clause

General studio principles:

The studio defines its composition. The arrival of each freshman or departure of each graduate transforms it.

The essence of teaching is dialogue, sharing information, insights, feedback. Between teacher and students,

between guests and students, between students themselves. The studio is a small social unit in which it is

possible to look for analogies to social, political, economic events.

Student:

Participates in meetings and events in the studio.

He/she carefully searches for his/her own motivation.Takes an interest in what interests him/her.

Is aware of his/her own responsibility.

Tries to name new things.

Educator:

Learns to teach others to learn.

Initiates dialogue.

Is critical, is able to face criticism.

Enables sharing, collaboration.

Encourages exploration.

Tries to name new things.

Guests:

social situation.

Invited guests bring new impulses to the studio, while opening the studio towards artistic practice or a real

Learning outcomes

Each semester is defined by a theme, which determines the composition of guests, workshops and the

content of discussions. The theme helps to kick-start the semester, maintain focus and motivate dialogue.

Man and technology, production, utopia, filter bubbles, educational turn, participatory practice, field trips, the

future of work

Assignments are consistently self-selected by each student. Defining one's own interests, authentic

concerns, and unique sensibilities is the foundation of the artist's work; the art student is supported in this

endeavor by the studio collective. A key moment in each semester is the awareness of a vacuum, the

absence of an assignment, the necessity to trace one's own problem in one's experience or interest, which

through further exploration becomes the assignment.

Research, work and the cloud

Students are guided to artistic research as a source of both topics and depth of understanding of a particular

problem. Artistic research is based on finding sources of information and inspiration, tracking down precise

details and general context. At the same time, artistic research is a working process based on continuous

self-education; in the studio environment, this education is naturally applicable to the whole collective.

In the studio we seek ways of becoming aware of and grasping the present. The process is more important in

education than the partial result. The goal of studio debate is to teach students to talk about projects in

progress, to allow themselves the opportunity to change parts of their work based on feedback, to not focus

on a particular idea of the outcome.

Work is understood as active engagement with the current project. Work can take many forms: reading,

writing, observing, thinking, collecting (textual, visual, physical) material, taking photographs, filming, working

with a series of photographs, editing video, working in a 3d program, making phone calls, installing...

The cloud is the memory of the studio. Resources, literature, ideas, references that are heard in the studio

meeting are recorded in the cloud where they remain accessible.

In the first semester, it is extremely important for students to get involved in the studio community and and exploiting opportunities for inspiration, critical delineation, and collaboration.

Prerequisites and other requirements

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Literature

Required:

David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, Penguin Books, 2021

Keller Easterling, Medium Design: Knowing How to Work on the World, Verso, 2021

Timothy Morton, Hyperobjects, Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World, University of Minnesota

Press, 2013

Recommended:

Laurent de Sutter, Narcocapitalism: Life in the Age of Anaesthesia (Theory Redux), Polity, 2018

Timothy Synder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Crown, 2017

Aaron Benanav, Automation and the future of work, Verso, 2020

Legacy Russell, Glitch Feminism, Veso, 2020

Adrianne Maree Brown, Pleasure Activism, AK Press, 2019

McKenzie Wark, Sensoria, Thinkers for the Twenty-first Century, Verso, 2020

Paul B. Preciado, Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era, The Feminist

Press at CUNY, 2013

Evaluation methods and criteria

Realization of the exhibition project

Attendance at meetings (max 2 absences) 70%

Completion of partial assignments 20%

Participation in excursions and trips 10%

Note

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Schedule for winter semester 2025/2026:

• Week view
• List

Schedule for summer semester 2025/2026:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans

• Photography EN - Bachelor - 2022 (Required elective subjects)