The highly reputed Jan Van Eyck Acad­e­mie in Maas­tricht, Nether­lands (Map) has sent out it’s call for appli­ca­tions (click on “Applications” on top), to be received by the 15 April, 2009. The research pro­gram mainly reaches out to Artists, The­o­reti­cians and Design­ers, but their open­ness always for diver­sity of stu­dents. If you are one of the unfor­tu­nate former employ­ees of a Dutch office, and want to stick around the Nether­lands, here is a great chance. You can bet that the com­pe­ti­tion to get in will be stiff.

The Jan van Eyck Acad­e­mie is an insti­tute for research and pro­duc­tion in the fields of fine art, design and theory. Every year, 48 inter­na­tional researchers realise their indi­vid­ual or col­lec­tive projects in the artis­tic and crit­i­cal envi­ron­ment that is the Jan van Eyck. In doing so, they are advised by a team of artists, design­ers and the­o­reti­cians who have won their spurs glob­ally. All in all, the Jan van Eyck offers artists, design­ers and the­o­reti­cians time and space to do research and realise pro­duc­tions, either about topics of their own choos­ing or as part of a project for­mu­lated by the insti­tute itself.

Multi-​Disciplinary Research
Artists, design­ers and the­o­reti­cians at the Jan van Eyck Acad­e­mie work along­side each other and estab­lish cross-​disciplinary exchange. The acad­emy is not led by pre­de­ter­mined leit­mo­tivs. Artists, design­ers and the­o­reti­cians can submit inde­pen­dently for­mu­lated pro­pos­als for research and/or pro­duc­tion in the depart­ments of Fine Art, Design and Theory. They can also par­tic­i­pate in research projects for­mu­lated by the depart­ments: After 1968. What is the polit­i­cal?; Circle for Lacan­ian ide­ol­ogy Cri­tique; Design Nega­tion; ExtraState­Craft; Imag­i­nary Prop­erty; The Cross-​Cultural and the Counter-​Modern. The result is a very het­ero­ge­neous pro­gramme of research topics. The mis­cel­la­neous nature of its research projects and pro­duc­tions make the Jan van Eyck a multi-​disciplinary insti­tute. The crosslinks which can exist between indi­vid­ual and/or col­lec­tive projects and the exchange between researchers with dif­fer­ent cul­tural and intel­lec­tual inter­ests result in a cre­ative and challe nging work­ing environment.

Pro­gramme
The multi-​disciplinary research projects are the basis for the Jan van Eyck pro­gramme. Researchers, depart­ments and the insti­tute organ­ise var­i­ous weekly activ­i­ties, to which spe­cial speak­ers are invited: lec­tures, sem­i­nars, work­shops, screen­ings, exhi­bi­tions, dis­cus­sions, … These activ­i­ties are announced on the web­site and via email.

Since the Jan van Eyck also aims to ini­ti­ate the debate on art, design and theory and make it public, some activ­i­ties are reg­u­larly organ­ised with part­ners on regional, national and inter­na­tional venues, such as gal­leries, muse­ums, acad­e­mies, uni­ver­si­ties, …

Depart­ments

Fine Art
The Fine Art depart­ment offers a unique space for exper­i­men­ta­tion, pro­duc­tion, reflec­tion and debate. Fine Art researchers con­duct high-​quality research in an envi­ron­ment that encour­ages the ques­tion­ing of the assump­tions, forms, mean­ings and con­texts that are tied in with the prac­tice of making art today. The fine arts depart­ment wel­comes artists, indi­vid­u­als and groups, with­out stip­u­lat­ing con­di­tions regard­ing form, con­tent and media.

Advis­ing researchers:
Orla Barry, Hans-​Christian Dany, Hin­rich Sachs, Imogen Stid­wor­thy, Nasrin Tabatabai & Babak Afrassiabi

Design
The Design depart­ment focuses on design as research, dis­course and pub­lish­ing. It ini­ti­ates and sup­ports research projects in the areas of cul­tural and cor­po­rate iden­tity, map­ping, print and new media pub­lish­ing, urban and regional iden­tity, and book design.

The depart­ment expressly solic­its indi­vid­ual design­ers to pro­pose and carry out their own research in exchange with the institute’s array of events and pre­sen­ta­tions. While, for­merly, the depart­ment used to focus on graphic and com­mu­ni­ca­tion design, it has since widened its scope to include spa­tial, prod­uct and ser­vice design.

Advis­ing researchers:
Keller East­er­ling, Flo­rian Schnei­der, Daniel van der Velden

Theory
The Theory depart­ment is an inter­na­tional plat­form for reflec­tion and research. Its mis­sion is to create the oppor­tu­nity for out­stand­ing researchers to explore alter­na­tive ways of shap­ing their intel­lec­tual hori­zons by pro­vid­ing a stim­u­lat­ing envi­ron­ment for crit­i­cal inquiry and intense debate. The Theory depart­ment wel­comes appli­ca­tions from researchers of unusual promise who pursue their artis­tic and/or intel­lec­tual view of the inter­face of crit­i­cal theory, phi­los­o­phy, aes­thet­ics and psy­cho­analy­sis with the visual arts.

Advis­ing researchers:
Katja Diefen­bach, Dominiek Hoens, Kobena Mercer