Rietveld Sandberg Research

Critical Inquiry

The research group Critical Inquiry provides a space for experimental thought and analysis concerned with the transformation of social and political life
about

The research group Critical Inquiry provides a space for experimental thought and analysis concerned with the transformation of social and political life. Complementing the thematically oriented research groups in the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Critical Inquiry combines an ongoing research programme on alternating topics with a broader methodological reflection on contemporary forms of critique and radical imagination.
The research group aims to set up new collaborations and exchanges with universities, exploring modes of study and investigation beyond the conventional academic limits, while strengthening the link between research and education. To do so, Critical Inquiry hosts a range of events and discussions open to students, scholars and practitioners within the academy and beyond, including a monthly seminar in philosophical and critical thought taught by Tom Vandeputte.
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ppl.5.tomvandeputte.webp
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Critical Inquiry – Tom Vandeputte will reflect on the concept of critique and its relation to the idea of an exit from an untenable situation, followed by a discussion with Marija Cetinić.

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Critical Inquiry – Research Café This year's research seminar with Tom Vandeputte returns to the question how critique may be understood today. We consider the history of the concept, tracing its key transformations and reinterpretations over the course of the twentieth century, and discuss what it might mean to think of critique as a ‘theoretical practice’. Special attention will be paid to the negativity at stake in critical inquiry, as well as the question how we might understand its inventive and imaginative elements.

Critical Inquiry – "Fiction sets a broken bone in the hope that it will mend straight. It is a plea, a prayer… Fiction recreates what never happened. By recreating that potential, it addresses both past and future. It does not seek forgiveness, it seeks to understand." — Anne Michaels

Green Screens explores how ecological concepts—from climate change to extraterrestrial life—are dealt with in cinema, and what it means to engage with these ideas in this format. Green Screens’ programming primarily focuses on Science Fiction and seeks to understand how the genre has been used to—directly and indirectly—address ideas and anxieties around ecology thinking. It is through these twin lenses of Cinema and SF that we watch the material and discuss its political and cultural implications. Open to students, staff, graduates and friends.

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Critical Inquiry – The Philosophy Seminars of the spring-summer semester will focus on George Bataille’s writings on animals and animality.

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23
feb '24
A series of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema

Critical Inquiry – Green Screens This three-part program aims to explore anxieties surrounding human-animal relations, as depicted in 20th-century genre-fiction movies. We will watch and discuss three films together, each selected to represent specific anxieties expressed through cinema, either directly or metaphorically. Each session is open to all students, staff, graduates and friends of Sandberg and Rietveld.

Critical Inquiry – Rietveld Sandberg Research is offering a small stipend to support alumni as well as tutors and researchers affiliated with the Sandberg Instituut and Rietveld Academie in the preparation of a research proposal for a practice-oriented PhD or other type of doctoral degree at another university or academy. As in previous years, the stipends is meant to facilitate the preparation of research proposals concerned with ecological crisis, environmental justice and planetary futures.

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Critical Inquiry – Green Screens The research group Critical Inquiry hosts 'Green Screens: Xenoecologies', a series of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema, taking a closer look at imaginaries of ecologies from beyond Earth’s ecosystems.

Critical Inquiry – We continue scouting the peripheries of ecological imaginaries with a series of seminars conducted by the filmmaker and Critical Studies research fellow Olya Korsun. This time we delineate the field where crises of ecology, human imagination and mental health meet.

Critical Inquiry – This year, Critical Studies research fellow Olya Korsun organises a series of seminars to collectively map out and question the contours and layers of ecological imaginaries through the study of eco-critical theory and experimental/queer/world cinema.

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09
nov '22
Time observing, hopping and freezing

Critical Inquiry – This year, Critical Studies research fellow Olya Korsun organises a series of seminars to collectively map out and question the contours and layers of ecological imaginaries through the study of eco-critical theory and experimental/queer/world cinema.

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Critical Inquiry – Please join us on Thursday, April 28, from 17.00-18.30, for brief presentations by the recipients of the "Ecological Imagination” stipends.

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Critical Inquiry – Green Screens Join us for an evening of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema. Open to students, staff, graduates and friends.

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Critical Inquiry – Green Screens Join us for the first in a series of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema. Open to students, staff and graduates.