About C : Art

• The C : Art programme is situated in the city of Göteborg, Sweden, and is administrated by the Valand School of Fine Arts.
• The programme is intended for students from different backgrounds who are interested in developing their practises in a collaborative environment. Current students come from art, scientific or design backgrounds.
• The C : Art programme can result in either a Master of Arts in Fine Arts or a Master of Applied IT, depending on the student’s choice and exam work.
• C : Art as part of the Swedish University system is tuition free for students from the EU, Switzerland, and Norway.
• The main emphasis of the C : Art programme is development of the student’s own projects -- more than half of the credits consists of project courses. Care is taken to provide individual tutoring and assistance for each student.
• Students works with diverse media of their choice, including contemporary digital technologies as well as traditional methods.
• All teaching is conducted in English, and proficiency in both oral and written English is required.
• C : Art is connected to PhD level studies through its collaboration with the practice-based research conducted at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Göteborg University. It is a distinct aim for the C : Art programme to provide a recruiting base for postgraduate studies.

C : Art is an international two-year master’s programme aimed at students committed to a contemporary art practice using a variety of media and inter-disciplinary practices in the realization of their work. It is a response to the need for contemporary artists and students working with technology to be both critical, conceptual thinkers as well as skilled, creative producers. The programme supports the exploration of cross-media and interdisciplinary approaches, as well as different arts traditions.

The strength of C : Art lies in the ambition to take the relation between art and technology to its fullest potential, as well as having a expanded view of the relation between new media and artistic practice. The C : Art programme is multidisciplinary in the sense that we look for students from a variety of knowledge-fields. Whether our students have a background from fine art or technology, the centre of our attention will always be to develop their creative process.

The C : Art student will examine digital technologies’ contribution within society and explore how artists can critically engage in this process. A primary aim is to assist each individual student to identify a methodology and means to express their ideas and to locate their work within a wider context. The collaborative aspect of new media and inter-disciplinary art is sustained by encouraging students to work in groups whenever a collaborative strategy is relevant for their development.

An important aspect of this is to develop a strong awareness of how the context can inform that process as well as affect the reading and understanding of contemporary art. The programme pursues an integration of practice and theory as a fundamental principle and a holistic approach to research underpins all aspects of the programme. We encourage students to identify the variety of audiences that exist within society and to focus on those audiences that their work addresses.

Digital media offers a range of spectacular, ever-changing possibilities for artists. It is vital for artists to keep a critical approach to the use of digital media in their work, so as to strengthen their conceptual framework in the meeting with the spectacle of the machine. C : Art responds to the hype of digital media by establishing a “post-utopic” position – one where the student’s conceptual framework comes first. We incorporate the development of open-source hardware and software by actively using open-source platforms, and we are continuously evaluating new open-source solutions to include in our curriculum.
 
The programme structure of combining the conceptual with the practical educates students to be flexible in their approach to working with technology. The dynamics between the languages of the arts and sciences encourages debate, discussion and critical thinking. This informs the direction of the programme, creating unique, experimental and exciting learning environments, for collaborative and individual work.