Elective courses

Elective courses spring semester 2025

Optional BFA/MFA level course

What is Practice

Credits: 3
Teacher: Joakim Koester
Dates: 20.1, 21.1, 22.1 (23.1 own work), 24.1
Time: 13-15
Language: English
Course description: 
What is Practice - what we need to know, and what to do. Most often, artists make a living by multiple means: exhibition fees, commissions, public works, grants, sales, teaching or odd jobs. It’s a marginal economy, and complicated, since it involves many types of interactions and business-like relationships.

Over the years I’ve been approached by many students, asking the same questions again and again: What happens when you sell an artwork, and what if it’s a video, an instructional price, a performance or an immaterial artwork? What is an edition, how should it be priced, and how do you make a certificate? How do you work with galleries, and is it at all important to work with galleries or not? (there are lot of myths and misconceptions about this). How do work with institutions, and other art venues and what to expect when it comes to the exhibition fee? And what about the VAT, is it better not to bother? What are the advantages of starting your own company, or does it make more sense to join an organization like KKART? Is it a problem if someone infringes your copyright? And why do artists deliberately break the law, by infringing on somebody else’s copyright? And should one choose to go on a residency - and which one - or not bother at all?

Over four sessions of two hours and an individual assignment, we will address these questions. There will be exercises, discussions and games, and hopefully we will come out with a better understanding, and also a more hopeful attitude toward the precarious time that follows art school when you try to make a living as an artist.

• Lesson 1/Monday 10-12: Introductions to editions, certificates and instructions as well as working with galleries and institutions
• Lesson 2/Tuesday 10-12: What is VAT, what are the rules and why is it important to know about this. Advantages and disadvantages of having a company, and alternatives to this.
• Lesson 3 /Wednesday 10-12: Why artists break copyright and why isn’t it necessary a problem if somebody infringes on your copyright.
• Lesson 4/individual assignment
• Lesson 5/ Friday 10-12: Residencies, which one to choose and what do they offer.

Optional MFA-level course

The Cabinets: Building, Collecting, and Showcasing Your Curiosities 

Credits: 7,5
Teacher: Youngjae Lih
Dates: 27.1-31.1 and 10.2-14.2
Time: 10-16
Language: English
Number of students: 7
Course description: 
The course consists of three components: Part one: Literature seminar in which the participants start to build a digital archive, learn curatorial decision-making, design their own exhibition space on different platforms and design a digital narrative in a systematic way. We also explore different technical tools, legal and ethical considerations and funding strategies and (2D/3D/collective workspaces/open source archives/wiki data structures/digital twins)

Part two: Reading and independent project.

Part three: The focus is on the launch and marketing of the participant's own digital cabinet project. The participants identify and apply the resources, learn to measure the results of their own project and the future of the digital curated cabinet.  The course culminates in the participants' presentation of their own digital curio cabinet.

The course is designed to promote active learning working methods in which theoretical studies and the student's own research and artistic work are integrated. The teaching mainly consists of seminars, lectures, workshops and supervision.In addition to this, the student is expected to undertake independent study.

Optional BFA level course

The Saddest Thing Is That I Have Had To Use Words 

Credits: 6
Teachers: Ingrid Furre and Kah Bee Chow
Dates: 3.2-7.2 + 17-18.2 (own work in between the two parts)
Form: Workshop, Oral presentation
Language: English
Number of students: 15-20
Course description: 
After the course the student shall be able to dwell on materiality and the attention we build and give to their sensate qualities, their place, history and form. The student shall be able to present workshop that will include presentations of artworks, architecture and ideas, site visit, group readings and discussions. The participants will continue their ongoing studio work during the course.The course concludes with group discussions based on students' works/works-in-progress. A detailed overview can be found below.

The course consists of the following lessons:

Bodily awareness:
Presentation of the architects/artists/writers Arakawa and Gins’ work which aimed to increase mental and bodily awareness. Their buildings were designed to train the occupant to ‘not die’ through built features including uneven and undulating floors, unusual shifts in scale, and vibrant colour combinations, intended to make the occupant confront their body and senses. 

Task first day: 
Choose an item of clothing to wear to the class for its texture, for how it feels against your skin, hair, scalp, feet etc. This can be something particularly uncomfortable or pleasurable, up to you. Where we are Writing exercises to help train our attention on being present: we ask the students to write about how they made their way to this classroom this morning within a set time of 7 minutes, we follow with another prompt: how do you perceive this room for seven minutes and so on. After the writing exercise, we ask the students what their chosen item of clothing was and why they chose it (task from first day). From this discussion, we expand to considerations of materials which are produced in Malmö, Skåne and the region. What does our immediate landscape look and feel like? What is the kind of architecture we are housed in right now? Presentation of artists who work with their “home” as a studio, Kurt Schwitters, Andrea Zittel, Jewyo Rhiis, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Jan Mattson etc. Discussions in smaller groups on how the spaces you live and work affect your practice.

Task second day:
 Provide a link, image, artist or artwork that is evocative of touch for you, or relates to our discussions, exercises thus far for you. You can email them to us in advance of the next class to include in the morning slideshow.

Day 3:Site visit to exhibition 

A site visit to a relevant exhibition in Malmö. After viewing the exhibition, we task the students with recalling specificities of the exhibition, sketching the layout of the exhibition on paper (floor plan printed on an A4), writing a list of materials, processes and observations. After sharing these sketches and observations, we will go through the exhibition together to ‘see’ what we missed and also read it together.

Day 4: Presentation of students links etc. Morning: Presentations of students’ links, images etc. and discussions Afternoon: Presentation of artists who actively worked with limitations; Takako Saito, Ana Mendieta, Iza Tarasewicz, Francis Alys etc. Discussions of concerns we have about size, weight, fragility and further sustainability, budget, storing etc. Task for the next day: We ask students to bring two materials they deem good and bad to the class tomorrow - we ask them to explain what determines these categories. 

Day 5: Material as Categorically Evil From Linné to the minimalist maxim ‘truth to material’ to the proliferations of moss-as-material as art enters its ‘ecological’ turn, we unpack the contemporary reading-of material alongside the making-with material. 
What is extractive? What is ‘good’? What are desires? What are demands? What is ‘purity’? What is ‘natural’? What nourishes? What harms? If there is no ‘ethical consumption under capitalism’, should one do anything at all? Sometimes it appears the only ‘right’ thing to do is to do nothing at all. Every possible action risks complicity, mistakes, waste of time, energy and resources. With this session, we wish to stay with the complications and complexities of working with physical materials in our current times and also to practice and emphasize multiple ways of looking at a material, a process and our engagement with it.

Day 6, 7 and 8. studio work. Each student works in their studio and prepares for a presentation. Day 9. and 10. Group discussions Each student presents their work/work-in-progress. The rest of the group discuss their response to the material and forms of the work. The artist who is presenting does not speak until later. 

Optional BFA level course

The Autonomy of Art, Examining Art’s Role in a Democratic Society 

Credits: 15
Teacher: Joakim Sandqvist 
Dates: 19.2, 24.2, 5.3 and 12.3 at 13 – 16, hrs, 21.3,  26.3 and 16.4 at 10 – 16 hrs

Language: Swedish/Nordic languages and English
Number of students: 20
Course description: 
In 2021 the Swedish Agency for Cultural Policy Analysis (Kulturanalys) published a study on artistic freedom and the arm’s length principle criticizing concluding that parts of state grant-allocation is governed and implemented with detrimental effect on artistic freedom as well as that there is lack of understanding and application of the arm's length principle at regional and municipal levels. The report sparked a resent discussion in Sweden about artistic freedom and autonomy both within media and in academic circles most notably the “counter report” written by three researchers at Södertörns Högskola.

The concept of the autonomy of art has been debated ever since it was formulated by Immanuel Kant in “Critique of the Power of Judgment” (1790) and elaborated by the romantic philosopher Friedrich Schiller in the “Kallias Letters”(1793).The debate surrounding the autonomy of art has significantly evolved since the 18th century. Thinkers such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels critiqued the idea, emphasizing that art cannot be detached from the material and social conditions in which it is created. In contrast, the l’art pour l’art (“art for art’s sake”) movement, championed by figures like Oscar Wilde, asserted the independence of art from moral, political, or utilitarian functions. Later, the Frankfurt School, with thinkers like Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, offered critical reflections on art's autonomy, highlighting its complex relationship with culture and capitalism. More recently, the concept has been further scrutinized through feminist, post-colonial, and institutional critiques, each challenging art’s supposed independence in favor of examining its embeddedness in power structures and societal dynamics.

In the course we will read texts to trace this history from the 18th century until today and explore limitations and possibilities to see if there is something that is not exhausted through these critiques of the once, and maybe still, radical concept of an autonomous art, and how it could be redefined today. We will also discuss the report and difference between artists and arts autonomy as well as the history of public funding for art.

We will meet in seminars to engage in close readings and discussions of the texts. Each text should be read individually before the meeting. Additionally, students are expected to prepare by highlighting or marking paragraphs they wish to discuss and/or formulating questions to pose to the group

Learning outcomes

• Understand the core arguments for and against the autonomy of art, as presented by
• 18th-century philosophers and later critiques.
  Explore how the concept of the autonomy of art informs and limits your own artistic practice. 
• Compare how different historical critiques align or conflict with the decisions you make as an artist.
• Develop a personal stance on the relevance of the autonomy of art in your own practice. 
  Reflect on how this concept influences your approach to artistic production, in what ways you support or critique it, and how you relate to societal, political, institutional or economic factors in your art making.

Optional MFA level course

Analysing your own work

Credits: 7,5
Teacher: Gertrud Sandqvist
Datum/Dates: 20.2, 27.2, 6.3, 13.3, 20.3, 27.3 
Time:  10-12
Form: Lectures and Seminars
Language: Swedish and English
Number of students: 6
Course description:
The aim is to provide the students with deepened knowledge and insight in both the artistic field which their work will be a part of and the history of how that field has developed. To integrate analytical knowledge into their own artistic work, both in the spoken and the written language, will be given special attention. The course aim is to enhance the students’ ability to formulate and show a well-motivated artistic wholeness. The goal is that the students shall develop a deepened understanding of artistic work.

Optional BFA level course

Form a form that forms a form: Experimental casting course 

Credits: 9
Teacher: Gabriel Karlsson
Dates: 24.3-28.3 (v 13) + 7.4-11.4 (v. 15) with Gabriel (v. 14) 31.3-4.4 is for own work
Form: seminars and written text
Language: Swedish and English 
Number of students: 6-8
Course description: The craft of mouldmaking and casting can be traced far back in time and has been used in many ways; from shaping ceramic vessels to the production of industrial components, from the meticulous systematization of animals/plants to the mapping of archaeological sites, from the manufacturing of church bells to the endless reproduction of everyday objects. Casting has also had an important function in art history as a tool for creating, reproducing and transferring information from one material to another. 

I see mouldmaking as a kind of meditation that gives the opportunity to approach something from a new perspective, via a material process. By giving something time and attention, a relationship arises where material and object begin to dictate their own will. The process of working with a material thus generates new ways of thinking and seeing; material and object, form and content seem to be concepts closely connected to each other. 

The purpose of the course is to individually explore one or some specifically selected materials and, via practical and theoretical research, get an understanding of the inner logic of the material/s and how this can be used as a conceptual framework. In addition to basic materials such as clay, gypsum, silicone and wax, the course provides, among other things, jesmonite, pigment, paraffin, latex, porcelain casting slip, molding sand.

Optional BFA/MFA level course

Documenting your own work 

Mandatory for BFA2/MFA1 those who have not had the course.

Credits: 7,5
Teachers: Youngjae Lih/Maria Hedlund/Johan Österholm
Dates: 31.3 - 4.4 and 22.4-25.4
Language: English
Course description:
Teaching takes place primarily in laboratory form with ongoing supervision. After an initial technical review, the students may carry out their own projects. The course can end with a presentation of these projects.

Photo studio: We will go through “general” camera settings, how to use a gray card, light settings on flat and three-dimension objects, discuss common obstacles and how to overcome them. As a preparation for photographing installation views, we will discuss natural light vs portable studio light and look at examples from both. We will also document work in motion and reflective works. 

Computer room: We will look into how to get a good digital workflow: Calibrating screen. Photoshop editing and RAW-file processing. Correcting exposure, white one's work balance and lens distortion. Merging images with different exposures and removing unwanted objects like dirt from the floor and walls, emergency signs etc.

Straightening lines. Creating a seamless sequence of images. The purpose of the 3D rendering class in the second week is to prepare students to use rendering tools (SketchUP/Maya) for model building to flesh out ideas and present their works in a timely manner, use v-ray for SketchUP or arnold for Maya to create renderings with proper lighting and photo realism, also learning to use rendering tool layouts to create presentations including the renders, floor plans, sections and elevations in an organized manner. Students are expected to take notes, review the videos, and practice the instructions given in class. It is the students’ responsibility to further look into subjects that will be touched upon in class. These include but are not limited to documentation, lighting and digital space design.

Optional BFA level course

Manufacturing the Imaginary. Cinema and the End of Work

Credits: 3
Teacher: Marie Muracciole/Amin Zouiten
Dates: v.18 (TBC )28-30 april, 2.5 + 5.5  TBC
Form: Seminars
Language: English 
Number of students: Unlimited
Course description:
Upon completion of the course, the student shall be able to explain the first film screening in Sweden (which happened in Malmö) and its connection to the industrial fair where it was shown and Malmö's status as an industrial city, linking this to the early history of film.

The aim of the course is to get an understanding of the first film subjected to a commercial screening the 28th of December, 1895, Workers Leaving the Factory by the Lumière Brothers, workers were seen walking out a large door before it closed. On the screen, with their boss as film-directors, it looked like a one-shot captation. In real life, they had to repeat it three times for the camera. They were workers and representations, or samples, or actors... At the time of the industrial revolution, workers were needed to the point their entire lives were designed for productivity. It drew a clear line between a whole night sleep and a long day-work. Sleep became half of life, a distinct regime to serve work, productivity and consumerism. The Lumière staff would ideally soon end their day work to go to see movies. Movies that would aim to “entertain” them: from latin etymology, it means to hold them together.

With time, workers have become outdated commodities workers have become outdated commodities. Profit comes more massively from financial flux. Lots of factories closed (and were sometimes transformed into museums). The actual production was often displaced into faraway countries with more conciliant laws – where nobody could see how workers were treated. The invisibility of work, its different level of automatism, have nowadays been largely questioned. In their making movies, artists like Chris Marker, Allan Sekula, Wang Bing, Sharon Lockhaert, Marie Voignier... are dealing with different ecologies of work. Records of human relationship to time, to domination and exploitation, are challenging our capacity to think and relate to the way we share life - with different species, with this planet.