The texts of the workshop experiences were taken from the students' descriptions in their Skills reports.
"During Friesland workshop we were assigned to create something out of the inspiration of our perception of the Friesland experience. In order to do that we had a first meeting to propose and listen to everyone else’s inspiration and after that a moment to gather with others with similar or complementary interests of yours to make teams and work together. That’s how we made a beautiful group together with Vanessa, Giseok, Rennan and Amber. We discussed and merged all of our concepts and ideas into one. Break the Line was a small pavilion project for an individual retreat place in the camping area to be able to isolate a little from the daily group activities, reflect on the landscape and watch the stars."
"I participated in the introductions to both the metal and wood workshops. At the metal workshop, I had the opportunity to learn the most fundamental equipment usage and to make a metal tray. Although I didn't get to create anything during the wood workshop, I was able to hear detailed explanations about the use of almost all the machinery."
"The introduction to the ceramics workshop was complete and very straight forward. It discussed the strict cleaning rules of the workshop as basic rules of coexistence and their importance. Then they explained the different types of techniques by showing us the different states of the material and work already done. They talked about manual modeling techniques, molds, casts, tools involved and where each activity is physically carried out and why."
"In the Printing lab they explained to us the different machines they have and how they work through very beautiful examples of previous work that were arranged on the central table. Special emphasis was then placed on the risography machine, how it works, how the cartridges are changed, and what it is used for."
"Daan’s “self evaluation workshop” The workshop was structured in two stages: a first playful stage in which each person will answer a series of personal questions generally related to architecture whose answers will be mixed and distributed randomly. Then we played a game that consisted of guessing who that answer belonged to. It took us a while and as the answers found their owner I felt like I had a clearer idea of who my companions were. I really liked this exercise and I thank Daan for that, I think it brought us a little closer without ever moving us away from the common point that unites us, which is design."
"The next workshop organized by Angie, Luka and Ina, consisted of an intense sensory experience of two instances: First we were led throughout the university blindfolded, holding hands. This part was intense and quite scary since even though I was still getting used to the lack of vision, I was also faced with the challenge of having to interact and coordinate with my companions on both sides, pulling and pushing. But it was fun and there were no mishaps. The second instance was a personal experience walking, again blindly, a space prepared as a route mined with various stimuli, textures, smells, sounds, routes. It was an interesting exercise, with less fear than the first, with more confidence and space to play and feel."
"The workshop commenced with a captivating narrative centered around a picture, a pen, and a chair. I particularly enjoyed the girls' storytelling and their playful approach. It seemed that the workshop's objective was to infuse this sense of playfulness into our own creativity. Our task involved wandering through the academy building to discover an intriguing, overlooked object with the potential for a story related to a historical event within the premises. We shared our chosen objects and crafted imaginative tales around them. The culmination of our efforts resulted in the creation of a pop-up exhibition. The workshop significantly influenced our perspective on spatial elements, encouraging us to view ordinary objects with a fresh lens, recognizing their potential for meaning."
"Working on the characteristic of the spaces we already know we had to use those ideas to create a model of the house. What we did: First we discussed the characteristic and then started to build. I paired up with Olivier and our model was very chaotic (but our characterstics were all mixed up) but it was very fun! My impressions: I liked the idea of working with some impressions from the past and putting them in a new project."
"This workshop led by Guy, started of by having a introduction to each other and then having a silent walk through The Hague. The city felt immediately rather noisy, listing to its sounds. It was a good exercise listen to the differences in neighbourhoods, their qualities and short comings. It became clear that the higher the value of neighbourhood the less noise it got. With these observations we took along this journey we were asked to make a sound object. I made a listening architecture to listen to other people in long distances. On the second day I was building a listening device for deaf people, that they could experience the beauty of sound. By biting on a wooden stick, the listener bones transferred the sound into the ear and one was able to hear very clear the tiniest sound."
"The days spent in Vincent’s studio were maybe my favorite days of the whole semester. I had never before worked with resin and I was very curious to try it out and learn. Nasim was also there and I enjoyed that we could use this workshop as a starting point for our phobia houses. I was working with the fear of snakes, so I made some scale pattern textures from soil, that I previously collected and plaster. After that, I did the same but with Vincent’s technique and from resin. I made a several blocks with textures and one block in the shape of a snake. I learned how to mix the resin myself, how to work with the coloring and how to use the oven to speed up the process."
"The furniture design workshop was intense and fun. The task was to create a chair in 6 hours with found material. In my case it was an interesting learning experience since I arrived at the class having studied a lot about chairs and I brought purchased material (I had not understood the instructions of what I found) and once there Sebastiaan motivated me to leave all that aside and start again by searching and thinking about the design while making."
"Ola’s workshop was for me a kind of zoom-in of sensitivity. It was structured through a series of games and exercises that allowed us to progressively let go and act in an impulsive and natural way. I especially highlight his analysis of “what type of artist/designers we are” based on how we behave, it is a reflection that left me thinking a lot about how I act in general and how that also translates to my work."
"The workshop kicked off with calming exercises aimed at preparing us for the impending presentation rehearsals. These exercises served as tools to ready both our body and mind for the task at hand. Following this, we engaged in exercises focused on voice control. The emphasis was on mastering the tone, pronunciation, and flow of speech— essentially, understanding how to leverage these aspects to bolster our ideas. The subsequent discussion revolved around each other's upcoming presentations, focusing on the question of how to effectively structure our presentations. In the process, I gained valuable insights into effective techniques and the significance of incorporating them into our presentations."
"The workshop started with an introduction in the studio. We saw examples of the video essay format, listened to Mauricio's personal view of the film and individually brainstormed to identify a guiding theme for the next day. On the second day, we visited Moerwijk with an observation assignment, which was to be more participatory and not to objectify the people there. For this reason, when I went there for observation, I chatted with people and asked questions I had prepared beforehand. I took videos and audio recordings in accordance with this content."
"Jan's workshop developed in an improvised way. We started by defining our projects. For this, we chose some keywords and discussed them in the group. Then we wrote a definition based on these words and thought about the words we used in the definition. In the second part of workshop, we wrote these words on a large piece of paper and made quick sketches of our projects. We grouped these sketches with evocative categories on the paper where the words were written."
"During the beginning of the semester we made our own workshop, which was guided by Hera to find similarities and connections between our ideas. There we were still thinking if we should make a group project or not, thats why we decided to do the workshop. And as you can see, we actually had a lot of similarities."
"The KABK Library needed new display for new ins and research paper. The assessment consisted of a design for a new-in books and research papers display. However, after investigating the library space a bit more carefully, we also noticed other situations, that could possibly be improved. We approached the project from three perspectives: 1. What we were asked for - display design 2. Radical change - display design + partial rearrangement of library space 3. The optimal one - predicting which design proposals could be rejected or accepted and coming up with the best of both worlds."
"Erik was helping us how to materialize our projects and make sense out of it. We had one on one talks. I really like the fact, that Erik doesn’t overcomplicate ideas and just helps us to build. I find all this “thinking” workshops slowing down a bit, yet simple workshop about building gave me more energy and ideas how to follow with my initial topic."
"The graphic design workshop with Esther was really nice. She showed us a lot of variations of books and booklets regarding size, format, paper, design, colors and so on. It was a great inspiration for our own booklets. She also helped to decide how we can design our graphics and the layout and gave individual feedback on our work."
"Lotti and Juli’s Workshop made us think of an object or how we. Want to represent our works in the physical appearance. By starting from small scale or details of our core design the workshop made us zoom out to in three stages detail (materialities etc.) function and space in which it is presented. After sketching these stages we started by modelling the object or presentation set-ups. In my instance an oven for Ethlyn of the Kleine Chefs. It was nice to zoom in and out, I should do that more often."
