Implementation of Teaching Innovations and Enhancement of Teaching Quality
1.TaipeiArts Doctoral Research Lab(TAD Lab)
Contemporary Philosophers Guide with Advanced Critical Thinking to Build Schoolwide Interdisciplinary Knowledge Base
To develop contemporary artistic ideology and interdisciplinary knowledge, and to incubate future critical thinking and implement abilities of doctoral students, TAD Lab combines the Ph.D. Programs of Music, Fine Arts, Theatre Arts, Dance, and Culture Resources to establish a schoolwide interdisciplinary area for scholarly exchange. Every semester, students from different programs arrange a series of symposiums. The symposiums include Radical Threshold: Aesthetic Survival of Junior Scholars, La Méthode de Dramatization (The Dramatization Method), Time-Shift and Culture Preservation and Towards the Imperceptible Zone. The academic vision and research quality of TNUA have been enhanced through profound academic exchanges on research experiences, insight, and observations with noted scholars worldwide.
In 2019, the TAD Lab invited the noted French contemporary philosopher, Professor Bernard Stiegler, also the former director of Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges-Pompidou and distinguished professor of the School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art, and Dr. Yuk Hui, lecturer of the Faculty of Media of Bauhaus Universität Weimar to speak in four joint lectures of the seminar What Art Can Do in the XXIst Century at TNUA, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and the Institute of Social Research and Culture Studies, National Chiao Tung University. The lectures were dedicated to the relationships of ideology, art, and technology, which were linked with the topics of the lectures: Anthropocene and Neganthropocene, Technology and Art, Circumstances of AI. Moreover, Professor Kai-Huang Chen, President of TNUA, Professor Chien-Hung Huang, Chairman of Graduate Institute of Trans-disciplinary Arts, Professor Kai-Lin Yang and Professor Hong John Lin, professors of Graduate Institute of Trans-disciplinary Arts, Professor Jun-Jieh Wang, Chairman of the Department of New Media Art, Professor Kuang-Chi Hung of the Department of Geography, National Taiwan University, Professor Ho-Wan Lai, spokesperson of the Manifesto of Autogenous Aerial Kinetic Energy, Professor Alex Taek-Gwang Lee of Kyung Hee University, Professor Joff Bradley of the Faculty of Language Studies, Teikyo University, were invited to have communications of ideas with the two maestros. The students could see the initiatives and approaches of these experts, researchers, and artists about the present (from cybernetics to the Anthropocene) at a specific time and space (for instance, Europe, the Caribbean Sea, China, Taiwan, etc.)
參考連結 | 北藝大博班實驗室 www.tad-lab.net
參考連結 | 徐明瀚，朝向感知學的共工與會通：斯蒂格勒與許煜訪臺講座側記，典藏藝術視野，2019.12.09，https://artouch.com/view/content11943.html
pictuer：Professors and speakers at the What Art Can Do in the XXIst Century Seminar
2. Arts & Humanities Writing Centre Removes Writing Obstacles for Students and Broadens the Width of Trans-Disciplinary Arts Writing
TNUA officially formed Arts & Humanities Writing Centre during May, of 2018 to build a steady foundation of humanities writing and high learning quality. The Centre invites faculty-approved doctoral students as instructors to provide one-on-one counseling to students with writing confusion, and give solutions for their difficulties. Students should prepare, an explanation, and pose questions about their work five minutes before their 50 minute counseling sessions. The work of forms includes: no restriction on word count, forms could be in words, presentation, video, artwork, or recording file. Students highly appreciate this flexible method of advice and comment on it as a productive guide and answer to clear the hardships of writing.
The following is the feedback of the students,
“The instructor provided clear and practical advice, writing directions and plans of the next level to clarify my writing problems.”
“I have obtained much instruction and guidance from instructors of various fields during the counseling. Also, my confusion on the papers and writing methods has been solved by useful and specific advice.”
“During the conversations with instructors, my blind spots of writing had started to emerge and the solutions to fix them had been provided to me.”
During 2018, 77 people visited the writing Centre, more than the expected number of 60. Also, the attendants’ satisfaction reached 94.96%. The number of attendants increased to 126 people, and the appreciation grew to 95.91% in 2019. It was shown that long-term counseling is evident in high demand in the advanced analysis that students who reserved more than once accounted for 40.43%. It is also noticeable that writing counseling is beneficial for art students as graduate students accounted for 66% in academic writing counseling , which accounted for 55% in all kinds of writing counseling. Furthermore, the Centre helps and encourages students to express their ideas actively to the media by writing (not including academic papers of scholarly journals) and to drive society’s concern of writing by hosting lectures and workshops of writers-in-residence and starting Yao Yen Regulations Governing Incentive Rewards for students. The number of publications to the media has now reached 38 pieces.
3. Orchestral Internship Program
Faculty of Music and National Symphony Orchestra Cooperate to Train Students Capabilities to Work in Orchestra
TNUA has cooperated with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), one of the best philharmonic orchestras in Taiwan, to carry out the collaboration between academia and industry, continue the equipping system of NSO, and train professional orchestra musicians and administration staff through the Orchestral Internship Program since 2018. With NSO as the influence, the Program offers students solid training of capabilities to work in an orchestra with the Music Faculty’s courses, such as performance, knowledge, technical skills, and professional work experience, at the critical time before graduation. “The Program is the result of the hard work of professors and students of the School of Music. Being able to collaborate with NSO is the best approval students of TNUA could acquire from the elite in the industry.” Stated Professor Shien-Ta Su, Dean of the Faculty of Music.
The Orchestral Internship Program recruits graduate students and is divided into two concentration tracks, Orchestral Internship and Music Administration, with the minimum credit number of 20. Undergraduate students can take some of the courses of the Program. Beside the Topics on Orchestra Administration, the concert masters of NSO give the students of Orchestral Internship the lectures on the Majors and the Professional Orchestra Internship, which is to work as an intern at the rehearsals of NSO and be assessed and graded by NSO during their internship. For the students of Music Administration, their comprehensive capabilities as professional orchestra performers will expand through the participation in Practical Studies on Music Production and the Music Marketing Practices.
4.Alumni Homecoming
TNUA School of Dance Establishes Asia-Pacific Contemporary Dance Lab to Connect with the Globe
TNUA turns the TNUA’s alumnus and their achievements in the field of art around the world into an inspiration for Taiwan’s education of art by inviting outstanding alumnus home to share their recent global accomplishments and the strengths they accumulated through experiences.
With the subsidy from the Higher Education Sprout Project of the Ministry of Education, TNUA establishes the project of Alumnus Homecoming to invite outstanding alumnus from world’s top dance companies to give lectures, and sharing the knowledge of dancing, experiences of multinational collaboration to young dancers through courses of four months, summer workshops, or visiting choreographing. The project was expanded into Asia-Pacific Contemporary Dance Lab in 2019, after receiving praises of summer workshops from students in 2018.
With the subsidy from the Higher Education Sprout Project of the Ministry of Education, TNUA establishes the project of Alumnus Homecoming to invite outstanding alumnus from world’s top dance companies to give lectures, and sharing the knowledge of dancing, experiences of multinational collaboration to young dancers through courses of four months, summer workshops, or visiting choreographing. The project was expanded into Asia-Pacific Contemporary Dance Lab in 2019, after receiving praises of summer workshops from students in 2018.
In the past two years, the Project invited alumnus such as Tsai-Wei Tien, dancer of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Tsung-Hsien Chen, dancer of Konzert Theater Bern, Fang-Yi Liu, dancer of Leipzig Oper Ballett Germany, Mia Li, dancer of Metropolitan Opera House, Chen-Wei Lee, former dancer of Batsheva Dance Company and instructor of Gaga Workshop, Yen-Ching Lin, former dancer of Akram Khan Company and Hofesh Shechter Company, solo dancer of London Olympics Opening Ceremony and now freelance dancer, Kai-Wen Chuang, former dancer of Jasmin Vardimon Company and instructor of dance workshops, Chien-Hung Yu, former solo dancer of Cloud Gate Dance Theater and Authorized Teacher of Awareness Through Movement of the Feldenkrais Center, and Xiang-Yu Zhan, dancer of Noism Company and vice president of Maple Dance.
During 2019, the Project also invited Francesco D’Astici, artistic director of ITFD (I.T Fused Dance) and co-founder of Dance World Culture Association, to collaborate with TNUA alumnus and to train 77 attendants, including 64 students from the Seven-Year Dance Program, 8 from undergraduate and graduate programs, and two from outside TNUA, to dig deeper into various dance styles in a two-week intensive workshop of ballet, modern dance, and other forms.
Development of School Features
1.Kuandu Light Art Festival
Develop Possibilities of Atypical Artistic Inter-disciplinary Performance
Kuandu Light Art Festival, a large-scale and subversive transmedia theatre experimental project of interdisciplinary art has been run and directed by the Faculty of New Media Art for two years. Every year, New Media Art collaborates with an individual faculty, for example, the School of Music in 2018 and Focus Dance Company of the School of Dance in 2019, to introduce resources and professional instructors from the industries and hold workshops that raise students’ abilities and build connections with the industry.
High Swimming, the innovative new media performative artwork of the Kuandu Light Art Festival in 2018, took place in the swimming pool of TNUA and made a breakthrough by using spaces cleverly rather than using immovable installations. The swimming pool was compared to life and was turned into a substantial surreal dream, reflecting real life with performances of lights, installations, lasers, sounds, audiovisuals, and bodily performances.
Moving Me Badly, the Festival’s surrealistic immersive environmental theatre in 2019, took place in the damaged swimming pool of TNUA that is under construction and presented the dark side of history and the rebirth of life through kinetic art, modern dance, outdoor and indoor exhibitions, and performances.
picture：The Exhibition and Performance Moving Me Badly, Kuandu Light Art Festival, 2019
2. Technology and Music Transdisciplinary Project
International Collaboration to Improve Transdisciplinary Teaching and Implementation
TNUA School of Music and Faculty of New Media Art collaborated with GRAME Centre National de Création Musicale on Energy Transfigured after the two faculties worked together on the transdisciplinary concert Looking Sounds in 2018. In the collaboration, medium transportation and energy production of the digital age were presented experimentally and innovatively through homemade musical instruments, interactive technology, and contemporary composition.
Jean Geoffrey and Christophe Lebreton of GRAME guided students of Music and New Media Art to develop, create, and combine music, sounds, lights, and interactive design to display Energy Transfigured by an information-overwhelmed generation.
Since February, professors of Music and New Media Art have been working with the team of GRAME on Workshop of International New Media Art Faculty Community, for composers and engineers to exchange ideas with the aim of building a teaching system of art and technology in TNUA, and Workshop of Subject Collaboration was held in May to help students research a complete project. 70 students were picked to receive additional professional instruction, correction, advice, and guidance on their creative productions and experimental performances after taking the courses and workshops.
During the presentation, students’ creation displayed Energy Transfigured through composition, improvisation, experimental performances with homemade interactive devices such as visual presentation of physical kinetics by connecting mobiles to Wi-Fi and coordinate system locating.
Increase Higher Education Universality
1. Special Admission for Disadvantaged Students with Distinctive Artistic Talents
(1)Diverse Admission Approach and Admission Priority
In recent years, TNUA has admitted several outstanding students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The admissions accounted for 7.18% in 2018 and 9.21% in 2019 ; the percentage is still rising because of promotions that have increased the number of applications.TNUA provides reduced fees, subsidies for transportation and lodging, and other aids for disadvantage students during examinations .
(2)Admission of distinctively talented students with disadvantaged backgrounds or limited resources
The Special Admission for Distinctive Students offers opportunities, counseling, and resources for outstanding students with enthusiasm for learning but with disadvantaged or special educational backgrounds, such as overseas Taiwanese students, children of immigrants, students of experimental education, and students with scores of ACT or SAT.
In 2018, 33 of the 123 students who applied for the Special Admission for DIstinctive Students were financially disadvantaged (compared to only 25 people in 2017); 14 students from families of immigrants, indigenous, or in other positions of hardship; and 24 students had experimental education background.
The Review Committee will verify students’ distinctiveness and capacity carefully to enroll suitable students for each faculty. In addition, the Special Admission for Distinctive Students cooperates with faculties of TNUA to hold sessions in talented classes of high schools to share information and resources. For instance, the School of Music offers students of talented classes of art in four high schools opportunities to attend lectures, individual direction sessions, and workshops are provided with information of regarding admission for disadvantaged students, which are discussed thoroughly with teachers of high schools. Moreover, during 2019 TNUA held 51 visits and was visited by 43 high schools. TNUA displayed distinctive features of the school through environmental and artistic experiences.
Fulfillment of Social Responsibility
1. TNUA USR Hub,University Social Responsibility Plans of Subversive Art and Placemaking
To develop university social responsibility programs productively, the president of TNUA organized TNUA USR Hub for the integration and operation guidance of social-responsibility-related programs. The Hub’s roles include unification of resources from inside and outside the school, discussion of the performance of motivation systems, consultation for school’s potential plans to become notable or international projects, connection to resources and international empowerment for long-term operation, and the force to push the projects to the globe.
2. Drama Creation Project for Guanshan Old Story Art Festival in Taitung Narrative and Legacy of Traditional Artistry
TNUA Centre for Arts Resources and Educational Outreach collaborates with faculties and local artists to establish transdisciplinary implementation courses and workshops of traditional artistry for students to reach out to communities, understand the approaches of placemaking through research of data, oral interview, and off-site creating featuring real events and people. Through workshops and courses, residents develop energy to empower the placemaking and sustain the development of their home.
The project is focused on cultural sustainability, such as culture and traditional artistry of indigenous people in Taitung. Therefore, after several discussions and cultural programs, Kaadaadaan Village in Guanshan, Taitung, an independently developed community, was chosen to be the location of A Traditional Story of the Battle at Thunderbolt, an annual theatre project since 2013, and Director Sun Wei-Jhen visited Guanshan to work with elders and residents in the Kaadaadaan tribe to create the performance of 2019.
The engagement of elders in plot and playwriting, stage properties making, scene design, and Kaadaadaan folk songs was the original goal of the program. However, to empower children and young people to know their own culture, artistry, and music, the program helped the next generation to learn performance management, music, cloth dyeing artwork, bark artwork, and wooden knife making through workshops dedicated to the annual theater show in 2019.
To save the Pangcah traditional bark clothes craft of Kaadaadaan from being forgotten in history, attendees of the Bark Clothes Workshop went to the tribe of Etolan to learn the bark skills cutting and sewing from the elders of the tribe to make unique bags for the theatre show of 2019. Most importantly, they took the skills back to Kaadaadaan and shared the craft with the village, establishing a deeper significance of the project.
3. TNUA Collaborates with National Human Rights Museum for Collaborative Project of Human Rights and Arts and Culture Education
Artistic Representation of Political Memories
(1)establishment of alliance
TNUA and the National Human Rights Museum officially formed an alliance of MOU on Promotion of Arts and Culture Education on May 2 to promote human rights education with art and innovation and fulfill the duties of museums and universities. The two sides will work together on integrating resources of teachers, planning featured programs, and collaborating performances of human rights issues to improve the power and visibility of human rights.
(2)Transdisciplinary Courses
TNUA offers transdisciplinary courses, Contemporary Issues in Political Philosophy and Politics of Memory and Socially Engaged Arts since 2019, to discuss the formation of collective memory, a reflection of the power and perspectives of the governors, and the involvement of art.
Professors from the faculties of Music, Fine Arts, Theatre Arts, Humanities, Film and New Media, Dance, and Culture Resources were invited to speak in the courses, comb through hidden memories, share the limitations and advantages of different of artistic expressions of political issues, and develop new plans about the issues.
(3)Artistic Works of the Students
After the dynamic lectures of professors and diverse expressions through arts from different faculties, the students developed plans and ideas to reply to the issues and express their concerns. For example, one project started from Green Island Human Rights Culture Park. It used immersive theatre to present memories of 30 years ago and the relationships between political victims and the land. Another project tried to put together the interaction between the victims and the Green Island residents through field research and visual memory collecting. Some other students showed the audience the harsh circumstances of the victims through escape room activities. Another group of students displayed victims’ notes before death to make their thoughts known to the world.
The students’ projects are being exhibited as five artworks with the name Remembrance & Marginalization - TNUA Special Exhibition at 2020 Green Island Human Rights Art Festival, Green Island White Terror Memorial Park from May 15 to September 15, 2020.
連結 | 記憶．邊緣—北藝大特https://www.2020greenislandartfest.info/tnua