Experimental Publishing (XPUB) is a new study path of the Piet Zwart Institute's Media Design Master programme.
XPUB's interests in publishing are twofold:
XPUB is a two-year Media Design Master course that prepares students to critically engage with societal issues within the fast changing field of art, design and cultural production.
XPUB approaches publishing from the perspective of multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practices, in order to explore a broad range of methods and workflows, as well as inventing new ones.
first, publishing as the inquiry and participation into the technological frameworks, political context and cultural processes through which things are made public;
XPUB understands reading, writing, prototyping, documenting and making public as core principles for a critical design and artistic research.
XPUB strives to balance self-directed research with self-organisation to allow empowerment and to support collective thinking and action.
and second, publishing as the desire to expand the means of discourse circulation beyond print media and its direct digital translation.
Studying at XPUB
During Year 1, you will participate in the making of 3 special issues. Each special issue addresses a specific "issue" coordinated with outside events and collaborations, and culminates in a public release. The form and production of each special issue varies as a means of critically engaging with the diverse media, scales, and historical specificity of a particular topic. This multiplicity of form rejects the conception of "cross-platform", "hybrid" and "multi-media" as seamless, uniform, and ever improving. The object that is published is therefore not limited to print media, digital file or website. It could be a vinyl, a software, a repurposed networked appliance, and ideally a combination of different things.
During Year 2, you will still be able to follow the special issues, but the priority will be given to the writing of your Master thesis and the making of an experimental publication, as part of an individual or collaborative effort. This final graduation work can revisit a past special issue theme or explore an entirely new topic.
Click here for an archive of past special issues...
...or click here to apply
You could also click here and visit our wiki.