This research involves intensive collaboration with ten recently graduated visual artists from St. Joost School of Art & Design. The Young Artist Feed Forward (YAFF)
collective is working on research aimed at the increasing value of an autonomous position in relation to issues within the Creative Industry. Instead of ‘artists bringing innovation to the economy’, research is being conducted into how you can bring the skills and know-how that you acquire as a visual arts student to the market. The research is carried out by organising collective work sessions. The aim of these sessions is to give meaning to concepts that play a central role in the research, such as conflict (‘Don’t avoid it, deal with it’).
In the first year of work, assignments were carried out in the public space (in the municipalities of Rotterdam and Almelo) and investments were made in the formation and (autonomous) positioning of the collective. In the following research year, a switch was made to the creative industry. This switch was based on the experience that the creative industry often continues to view autonomous artists from a preconceived and limited perspective.
This research contributed to the renewed curriculum of the Visual Arts study programme at St. Joost School of Art & Design. The collective final exam in Breda, the musical C-section, won the St. Joost Medal in 2018 for the best graduation project. In this musical, in various acts, the graduates guided the audience through their questions, critique and possible outcomes.
The YAFF community regularly convenes during YAFF camp. The members of the collective then collaborate on experiments for a weekend.
Completed research, started in September 2017.
Principle investigator
Rob Leijdekkers
Other researchers involved
Eke Rebergen
Bart Stuart
Professor
Sebastian Olma
Collaborators
YAFF (Young etc), Breda
Institute
Avans University of Applied Sciences
‘As a result of my current research, I ask the students the questions “what is your work” and “what works for you.’
Rob Leijdekkers is a researcher at the Cultural and Creative Industries research group and a tutor at the Art & Research programme at St. Joost School of Art & Design.
The research group Cultural and Creative Industries investigates the role of artists and designers as creative innovators and drivers of social and economic change. Affiliated researchers analyse the cultural and creative industries from a critical point of view and examine the conditions under which timely forms of aesthetic expression and social connectedness can actually take place within the precarious reality of this field. What economic models are required by artists and designers to create a meaningful practice within the aesthetic, social, and economic intentions of the cultural and creative industries? What skills sets are required for those artists and designers who don’t just want to follow movements, but actually shape novel social and economic models of the future?
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