Thinking Tools | AP School Of Arts
Programmes
Research
Cultural work
Enrol
Contact
  • Home
  • Researchgroup
  • Thinking Tools

Thinking Tools

→ More information: thinkingtools.art

 

Thinking Tools focuses on the concept of the technological apparatus. Through this notion, it investigates how some specific characteristics of photography, the first technical apparatus used in the context of art production, seeped into the wider field of visual art. Through the organisation of several symposia, publications, residencies and individual research trajectories of photographers and visual artists, the impact of ‘the photographic’ on the visual arts is intellectually and artistically examined.

For the definition of what constitutes a technical device, Thinking Tools leans heavily on the insights of the media philosopher Vilèm Flusser. Following his definition of the apparatus as a ‘black box’, we do not consider it as a simple transmission device that faithfully translates the maker’s intentions into a concrete artistic object, but as an autonomously operating partner that intervenes decisively in the production process. Another characteristic of the technical apparatus is that it works according to strict rules and procedures. Therefore, within the broad field of art, the influence of the technical apparatus manifests itself both in conceptual practices where artists are willingly submitting themselves to self-designed rules and in artistic practices that employ a mix of analogue and digital apparatuses. In summary, the experimental, artistic practices that the research group wishes to support are determined by the friction (or collision) between control and surrender, between the digital and the analogue, between old and new media.

In other words, the researchers within Thinking Tools operate in the field of tension between the (relative) autonomy of a technical apparatus, the unruliness of the material they work with, and the idiosyncrasy of an independent artistic position. The result of this multifaceted interaction, of this multiple authorship, is a polyphonic artistic object where different actors meet on an equal footing. The works these artist-researchers create are hybrid objects, determined by the friction between human and non-human (technical, algorithmic, chemical, operational) actors. By encouraging researchers to allow these non-human forces to actively and poetically intervene in the production process, we invite them to produce work in which new relationships to (and imaginings of) the world can take form.

Residencies@thinkingtools: Each academic year, the research group Thinking Tools invites two artist-researchers for an intense, short-term residency of three months.

Contact: Steven Humblet - steven.humblet@ap.be

More information: thinkingtools.art

 

(image Berit Schneidereit at the Tempel of the Academy)

Research projects
View the projects here
event
Thu 23 Oct
>
Fri 24 Oct

Beyond Binary – Non-Dual Perspectives on Art and Technology

This seminar brings together artists, thinkers, and researchers to reflect on how emerging technologies challenge binary paradigms – digital/analogue, material/immaterial, real/virtual – and how such opposites may instead be seen as deeply intertwined.

read on
research

Residencies@thinkingtools

Each academic year, the research group Thinking Tools invites two artist-researchers for an intense, short-term residency of three months.

read on
event
Fri 14 Mar
>
Fri 14 Mar

Léonard Pongo & Marta Djourina: artist talks and film screening

By invitation of the Photography Department and the research group Thinking Tools at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, two internationally renowned photographers will provide insight into their artistic practices and research.

read on
event
Thu 17 Oct
>
Thu 17 Oct

Techno/seen: on the technological apparatus and its images

Symposium with Franziska Kunze, Michael Reisch, Spiros Hadjidjanos, Emmanuel Van Der Auwera, Susan Morris, Jeff Weber, Mona Hedayati

read on
event
Fri 18 Oct
>
Sun 27 Oct

Moving the Photogram

ARTICULATE. Exhibition with work by Francesco Del Conte, Marta Djourina, Sascha Herrmann, Berit Schneidereit, Dries Segers, Sophie Thun, Sine Van Menxel, Marianne Vierø and Jeff Weber

read on
event
Tue 05 Dec
>
Tue 05 Dec

Soup Session: Sophie Thun

During the Soup Sessions, researchers, students and teachers gather around soup to discuss artistic research.

read on
event
Sat 21 Oct
>
Thu 09 Nov

Exhibition 'Ecosystems'

With the exhibition ‘Ecosystems’ we bring historical and contemporary eco-art into the school walls, not only as a source of inspiration, but also as food for critical thought, and as a stimulus for future artistic practices.

read on
event
Fri 22 Sep
>
Sat 07 Oct

Exhibition - Hydromedia. Seeing with water

Group show at Stormkop, taking the aquatic ecosystem of the Scheldt Estuary as a starting point. With works by Mirja Busch, Jarek Lustych, Sascha Herrmann and Tim Theo Deceuninck.

read on
event
Sat 23 Sep
>
Sat 23 Sep

Workshops - Hydromedia

Within the framework of the 'Hydromedia' exhibition at Stormkop, three of the participating artists invite you to participate in a workshop: try out experimental photographic processes, go puddle watching, or learn to record the sound of water.

read on
article

HYDROMEDIA: Seeing with Water

Some impressions of ‘HYDROMEDIA: Seeing with Water’, a two-day programme on the development of new, experimental and easy-to-use artistic protocols to visualise and narrate the climate crisis.

read on
event
Mon 03 Apr
>
Tue 04 Apr

Hydromedia: Seeing with Water - public programme

On visualising and narrating the climate crisis - - - Two-day programme with an open studio by Dries Segers, lectures by Boaz Levin, Arjen Mulder and Laure Winants, and an Ecological Safari at Stormkop.

read on
research

Hydromedia

To address the climate crisis, we desperately need new methods for imagining the relationship between human and nature. 'Hydromedia' invites artists to develop easy-to-use protocols based on the photographic principle of direct tracing through physical contact.

read on
event
Wed 01 Mar
>
Thu 02 Mar

Little Fables of Practice: two-day writing-workshop by Sina Seifee

Two-day workshop for 3BA and MA students of the Academy, especially for those who are interested in writing and storytelling!

read on
event
Thu 09 Mar
>
Thu 09 Mar

One-day exhibition trip to Bonn and Düsseldorf

For all students and researchers of the Academy!

read on
event
Tue 29 Nov
>
Tue 29 Nov

Soup Session: Dries Segers and Sanne Vaassen

During the Soup Sessions, researchers, students and teachers gather around soup to discuss artistic research. On Tuesday 29 November, research group Thinking Tools presents a talk between Dries Segers and Sanne Vaassen.

read on
event
Tue 06 Dec
>
Tue 06 Dec

Sina Seifee - Lecture-performance and studio visit

For master students who are developing an artistic research practice and are interested in writing and storytelling.

read on
event
Thu 26 May
>
Sun 29 May

like, now - Berit Schneidereit

This solo presentation marks the first step in Berit Schneidereit´s research project ‘continuous space / flying minds’ at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.

read on
event
Thu 13 May
>
Fri 21 May

Photo/Space. Pieter Huybrechts

In his research project 'Photo/Space', Pieter Huybrechts challenges the conventional exhibition logic of photographic images by revealing and exploring new possibilities.

read on
event
Fri 16 Oct
>
Sat 31 Oct

The Unruly Apparatus

Exhibition with works by Thomas Ruff, Sine Van Menxel, Ine Kools, Filip Vervaet, Bram Rinkel, Spiros Hadjadjanos, Anton Cotteleer, Elias Asselbergh, Walead Beshty, Fabien Silvestre Suzor, Athar Jaber, Liesbet Grupping, Bernard Voïta, Aglaia Konrad, Kaat Somers, Azuli Peeters, Geert Goiris, Alix Manon, Seth Price, Bernadette Zdrazil, Miguel Cipriano en Wade Guyton, among others.

read on
page

Soup Sessions

Get to know our researchers over a bowl of soup!

read on
page

Follow Art & Research

INSTAGRAM / FACEBOOK / NEWSLETTER → Art & Research

read on

Publications