Master in Performing Arts Practices and Visual Culture.

The aim of this Master program is to open up new spaces for research by artists, theorists and professionals in the field of performing arts pedagogy, creating work areas and methodologies suited to the specific features of the performing arts. The Master takes as its point of departure the concept that creative practices should be a form of research in which artistic production is approached from the perspective of knowledge production.

Length: 60 credits ECTS over one academic year
Directed by: José Antonio Sánchez, Victoria Pérez Royo and Fernando Quesada
Organised by: Universidad de Alcalá in collaboration with Museo Reina Sofía, La Casa Encendida and Matadero Madrid
Coordinated by: Universidad de Alcalá
Professors in 2011-2012 academic year: Juan Domínguez, Los Torreznos, Cuqui Jerez, María Jerez, Emilio Tomé, Amalia Fernández, Carlos Marquerie, Ingrid Wildi Merino, Marlon Barrios Solano, José A. Sánchez, Victoria Pérez Royo, Óscar Cornago, Fernando Quesada, Isabel de Naverán, Amparo Écija, Isis Saz, Andrea Isasi, Pablo Palacio, Marta Oliveres, Pablo Berastegui, Bojana Cvejic, Susan Foster, Mårten Spångberg, Myriam Van Imschoot, Ramsay Burt
Registration: 1-9 September 2011 at Universidad de Alcalá
Academic year: from 15 October 2011 to 15 July 2012.

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The program is structured into three modules:

• 1. Methodologies in research-creation
• 2. Tools for research-creation
• 3. Collaboration projects

The three modules take place at the same time, with Module 2 having greater weight in the first semester than in the second and Modules 1 and 3 being equally distributed between the first and the second semester. All modules are highly participatory.

This working method is considered especially vital for Module 1, in which the students engage in an ongoing process of self-evaluation and must respond to various methodological proposals put forward by academics and artists. The ideas and issues identified during the first seminar and the early sessions of the respective laboratories will be used to determine the contents of subsequent sessions and the second seminar, in dialogue with the interests and issues addressed and those that arise in relation to individual creative pursuits.

Module 2 includes both theoretical-historical and practical subjects. The former will use mainly a methodology based on participation and problem-solving; viewing sessions, analysis of audiovisual material and texts, debates, etc. The idea is to offer a broad vision of the theory and historiography of the performing arts, as well as an introduction to current pedagogical concerns, arts for the community, cultural studies, visual culture studies. The purpose of the practical subjects is to lay common foundations upon which to carry out collaborative research-creation projects in two phases: corporeal-performance work, and network and audiovisual work.

The third module is conceived as a space for group research-creation projects in the laboratories directed by international creators that will take place over the course of the year, with three periods of intense activity each semester.