Fundamentals - Kim Haagen, Sondi Rumohr, Toni Brell

In the learning line Production, we first introduce the students to a diversity of materials and the techniques that accompany them. We challenge them to start making, to really adapt a hands-on approach. In Production, we introduce experimentation with materials, doing research through experimentation, designing from making, and guide them through the design process from this perspective in the second year. 

The assignments are focused on getting the students acquainted with materials. They start by making a teapot with Pier Luigi, with David they build a seating object, with Lottie they experiment with different textile techniques. In the second year, it’s more about designing through making, where the starting point is the material. Here, the outcome is open, and students end up with different results.  

Throughout the programme, we guide students to find their own visual language. In one of the classes, we guide them to set up their own small production lines and challenge them to think about mold making, being innovative in the workshop, and translating their ideas into convincing products. This approach brings them to a more professional level. In the third year, external designers come in, and students present their outcomes to them. 

There are some overlaps between the Production and Design learning line. The Design stream of Fundamentals includes narrative and time-based media. In the first year, the classes are about helping students understand how to translate an idea into something visual—the outcome is a video. We ask them to turn an idea or problem into a narrative, and we discuss how this narrative works, and speak about different concepts of narrative. Behind that stands the question: how do I present a problem to someone else, and how do I talk about something in an artistic way? It’s special that Design Academy brings in the medium of video next to more classic media like drawing and painting—opening up a broad range of skills for students, who choose their own focus points. 
 
The third learning line is Contextual. Here, the students also speak about narratives and are encouraged to write. Writing is not a must, but it’s helpful. Students tend to be very outcome-oriented, but we’re more interested in processes. We try to focus on how to develop an idea. In the first year, we also deal with time based media: sound and performance, which is quite rare for design schools. This openness to various media encapsulates what design is today. 

In the first semester, we feed them a lot of information. One assignment is the “dictionary of empowerment.” Students define big concepts and reference them with design practices. In the second semester, we apply theory to practice and focus on formulating research questions, conducting research, and connecting it to their design practices. They also interview someone in the design field related to their interests. 

The second year of the Contextual learning line is about gaining insights from the design field and the world. It’s about theory and research, broadening the students’ knowledge of design by looking at theoretical, social, and historical contexts. 

The Contextual course feels very relevant and current because it positions design within the contemporary field including the current political landscape, which is quite unusual compared to other national art academies. We also include teaching that brings in decolonial perspectives, together with voices of non-white, female, queer designers.  

In the third year, all three study lines—Design, Production, and Contextual—come together, and students start thinking about who they want to become as designers. Fundamentals is always evolving. The tutors are professionals in their fields, who bring so much from their practices into the Fundamentals, and this ensures that the studies align with contemporary practice. We teach in a collective, and every semester we discuss what worked, what didn’t work, what should change. It’s a continuous conversation about what’s important. That flexibility to shape the programme is great. We shape the studies through our understanding and evolving knowledge.