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Merz Akademie, University of Applied Art, Design and Media in Stuttgart, Germany announces that Professor Kevin B. Lee will begin co-directing the Master’s program Research in Art, Design and Media with Professor David Quigley in the fall of 2020. With his addition to the team, the program sets off in a more international direction with emphasis on crossmedia forms of artistic production. Master’s students will engage in a wide range of contemporary media practices including: critical media such as video essays and podcasts; journalism, social media and community networking; web design and VR; film and video; and digital art and design.
The Master’s program includes Professors Olia Lialina, Joost Bottema, Mario Doulis and Peter Ott and covers a range of design areas, from new media to film. It looks to support artistic and design projects that foster interdisciplinary experimentation and intellectual rigor. The program is aimed at graduates with degrees in film, art or design, as well as students and scholars from a humanities background.
Kevin B. Lee recently described his idea about how the program should further develop: “In my three years at Merz Akademie I have encouraged students to devise a truly 21st century creative culture, seeking critical engagement with media, technology and society, embracing curiosity and initiative, and building communities through innovative approaches to communication and design. I’m excited to apply this methodology to the Master’s program to develop its distinctive approach towards artistic research to its fullest potential.”
Merz Akademie Acting Rector Maren Schmohl welcomes the change: “Prof. Lee is an artist with a renowned international practice. Students will benefit from his energetic teaching style and his approach to engage students individually to stimulate their artistic development. His addition to the Master’s program will enhance what is already a high level of student-teacher contact, critical debate and an inclusive approach to creative expression.”
The deadline for application for winter semester 2020 is September 12, 2020.
Kevin B. Lee is Professor and Head of Crossmedia Publishing at Merz Akademie since 2017. He is one of the most prolific and best-known producers of video essays, with his work featured in the New York Times, the Berlinale Film Festival and many other venues. He is the recipient of the 2018 Sundance Art of Nonfiction Award and 2019 Eurimages Creative Lab Project Award. In 2019 he organized with Professor Christoph Dreher the symposium “Creating Insights: Research and Aesthetic Discovery in the Video Essay” at Merz Akademie.
David Quigley is Professor for Cultural Theory and Head of the Master Department at the Merz Akademie. After finishing his studies in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and philosophy in Paris and at the University of Vienna, he went on to teach at the University of Vienna and was a research fellow at the Reina Sofia in Madrid. He wrote Carl Einstein: A Defense of the Real about a German Jewish communist and later anarchist art historian and poet and is currently doing research on the founder of Fluxus George Maciunas and the filmmaker Jonas Mekas. He also works extensively with graphic design, video and audio formats.
More about Professors Olia Lialina, Joost Bottema, Mario Doulis and Peter Ott here.
Merz Akademie is a nationally accredited, non-profit University of Applied Art, Design and Media was founded in 1918. With a strong interest in the disciplines of the humanities, social and cultural studies, design, art, and technology, Merz Akademie positions itself as a unique place of learning, combining elements of a classical art academy, a technical college, and a department of humanities. It aims to facilitate the professional and academic education of design-authors who are prepared not only to fulfil but to define the requirements of an ever changing professional field.
