LOOKING BACK AT ARTSEMESTER WINTER 2023/2024
This year's Artsemester, the culmination of intensive month-long assignments known as final projects, showcases the final projects of all UMPRUM students under one roof. All 26 studios and modules were presented on the grounds of the historic school building on Jan Palach Square, inhabiting unconventional spaces that are normally used for other purposes.
The opportunity to contribute a symbolic admission fee of any amount to our "neighbours" thus invites an expression of solidarity and cohesion - a theme whose importance UMPRUM has been highlighting in various forms for a long time. Visitors were redirected directly to a fundraiser to help those affected by the tragedy at the Charles University Faculty of Arts.
The leadership of the Architecture Studio I assigned students the task of designing a garden and the rest of the entire plot near the town library in Úvaly. This assignment was a continuation of a longer-term project centered around the town library, which was the focus of the entire winter semester.
Students from the Studio of Architecture II - Future Architectures Platform tackled the theme of "ritual" as an assignment that many in the Department of Architecture would hardly expect. Given the multi-disciplinary approach of both teachers and students and the fact that both of the aforementioned groups have long been concerned with the social overlaps of architecture, the result was a multimedia showcase featuring existing and reworked rituals that form the specific backdrop of the Academy's campus.
This semester the students of Studio of Architecture III worked on a relatively realistic assignment for a futuristically oriented studio, which was based on their term paper. The subject of the assignment was a physical model of the design of the transformation of the large building Invalidovna in Prague's Karlín district.
The Studio of Architecture IV was preparing presentations for the project Okraje Olomouce (Olomouc Edges) for the upcoming exhibition Momenty SEFO 2024 Triennial of Contemporary Central European Culture and Art, which will be held at the Museum of Art in the aforementioned city.
The assignment Porcelain Room from the Studio of Ceramics and Porcelain worked with the historical reference of the so-called porcelain room as a conceptual framework for the reflection of historical technologies and their use in real objects. Thus, after revising the techniques of one particular object, the students created their own applied object using techniques from the object under investigation.
Exploring the history of fine art in the field of glassmaking, particularly its historical context, served as a starting point for the Glass Studio. In response to a critical text by the theoretician Lenka Lindaurová, students were tasked with introspectively examining themselves and the broader realm of glass fine art worldwide. Their objective was to construct an object that mirrors the essential themes and challenges inherent in this field.
Students from the Studio of K.O.V worked on an assignment on Greeting Rituals, greetings, and their manifestations in society in the context of interpersonal relationships, but also social hierarchy. The final results were various physical but also intangible outputs in the form of videos and insights into the background of the subcultures that students are part of.
As part of faculty changes, the newly arrived management of the Textile Studio prepared an open-ended topic, Other Space, through which they tried to establish a dialogue with the students about their possible direction, but also about thinking in the textile medium. The result was objects and images using all kinds of textile techniques and conceptual or utilitarian approaches.
Dresscode, as an important aspect of contemporary design, its role in society, and its emphasis according to its status were explored throughout the semester by students of the Studio of Fashion and Footwear Design. The metaphorical subtitle Red Carpet, as an approach requiring a high degree of formality in clothing, was developed by students through their approach. The result was a range of outfits with different approaches also presented at the Bunka Fashion College Fashion Show in Tokyo, Japan.
The fashion design studio focused on the theme of timelessness as an increasingly important aspect of the fashion industry and its practices. The result was a small collection containing up to three models, depending on the advanced level of the students reflecting on this theme.
Students from Studios I to IV, including this year's Studio with a guest theorist, worked for the second time with open themes reflecting the focus and needs of each individual. Thus, the students have mostly continued along their ideological lines, which they continuously build upon through the various mediums that the Department of Fine Arts deals with. The multimedia approach thus offers students the opportunity to try a wide range of approaches without the media constraints of individual studios. The results are thus not only objects or paintings, but also performative installations, and collections of photographs.
Close cooperation was established between the Studio of Photography 2 and Studio DECHEM, which designs and manufactures glass products. The final result of the ONE assignment was a single photograph depicting the most famous product of the aforementioned studio - the Bandaska vase.
Students of the studio were partly involved in the creation of arcade games, on which they collaborated with colleagues from the Animation and Film Studio. These were then presented in physical form, embedded in objects that often materialize their content. Another topic was working with MoCap technology, recording the movement of a real object and converting it into a digital model.
Students from the Studio of Animation and Film, in addition to collaborating with the Studio of Design and Digital Technologies, also joined forces with the Anifilm animated film festival held in Liberec and presented about two dozen half-minute jingles for the upcoming year.
The brief from the Graphic Design and Visual Communication Studio, entitled Enjoy the Silence, included the design of the visual style of one of the four selected music festivals. The students created (mainly) posters for the festivals Prague Spring, Creepy Teepee in Kutná Hora, Lunchmeat, and Prague Sounds.
The students of the Illustration and Graphic Design Studio had the assignment to visually materialize an adaptation of a song text. Folk and popular songs were thus given a face using the methods of screen printing, relief printing, and offset printing.
The pamphlet, as a shorter literary message addressed to the public or a wider group of people, was studied by the students of the Studio of Type Design and Typography. They could use any medium in the form of print, projection, web, or even an object. They could also transform messages with mostly negative, even derogatory connotations into their opposite, i.e. positive dimensions.
Students of the Planet B module dealing with sustainability and civilizational issues addressed the topic of water as a major driver of climate change, but also responsible water management. The Aquatic Alliances assignment thus produced four group projects exploring themes such as water polluted by e-waste or the fictional story of an eco-terrorist group of the future. One thing they have in common, however, is that they seek to highlight globally overlooked topics whose seriousness is often underestimated.
Students of the Industrial Design Studio addressed different topics depending on their progress each year. Apart from the traditional stylization of nature, the exhibition featured models of cars of the future or a presentation of a robotic bar in collaboration with the ČVUT.
The product design studio also relied on cooperation with the application sphere as practice for functioning after graduation. The subject was the design of a beer pint glass for a specific client, to be produced in the future using pressed glass technology. The final outcome was a realistic prototype of the appropriate size made using the 3D printing method.
The students of the Furniture and Interior Design Studio worked on this year’s final project in close cooperation with their colleagues from the Fashion and Footwear Design Studio. This resulted in a collection of clothing racks and hanging systems for garments, tailored to the student's virtual showroom inspired by the visual aspects of their work.